Cruising is always fun because all your food, entertainment and a room to sleep is all packaged together.  Even though Disney Cruise Lines are more expensive than most other cruise line, I had such a great experience on the Disney Wonder in 2023, I wanted to make it an annual trip to do.

I wanted to try a different Disney ship and found a great Canadian residents offer that gave 25% off the cruise cost.  It was a 4 night Western Caribbean cruise from New Orleans Louisiana to Progreso Mexico with 2 sea days.  The Disney Magic cruise was from February 26 to March 1 2024.

The Ship

Disney Magic had its maiden voyage in 1998 and was the first ship owned and operated by Disney Cruise Lines.  It is the sister ship to the Disney Wonder and also has 875 staterooms that can accommodate 2700 passengers on 11 public decks.  Even though the ship was over 25 years old, it still looked very clean and is in great shape.

Getting There

Getting to Port of New Orleans from our Wyndham Garden Baronne Plaza hotel was about a 12 minute taxi ride.  We were right on time for our 12:15 PM port of arrival time.  We dropped our checked luggage with Disney staff and were ready to enter the Port terminal to check in and get our Key to the World ID cards.

While we were going through security, my friend realized he forgot something in the taxi and had to make some calls to get the taxi to come back.  After an hour later, we were finally boarding the ship.  After we were greeted in with an announcement on the intercom, we were able to go to our stateroom to drop off our carry on luggage.

Cabin Rooms

We got interior room 6147 on the 6th deck.  There was a really nice soft and plush Queen bed for myself while my friend took the comfortable sofa bed.  There was enough space under my bed for a portable lift to roll under too. The room was quite spacious which was great for my wheelchair to move around.

The bathroom was great too.  It was big and had the roll under sink, a toilet with a few grab bars, and a roll in shower with a portable hand held shower head.  I did not use the flip up shower bench as I bring my own commode every trip.  My commode did have a bit of trouble wheeling back enough to fit over the toilet though.

Since I am a repeat cruiser, I did get a Disney cruise tote bag and a silver member lanyard to put my Key to the World card.  The room did have emergency buttons and pull cords located throughout the room and bathroom.  Both the cabin door and bathroom door has a push button to automatically open the door.

Accessibility

As with the Disney Wonder and almost any ship from a major cruise line, accessibility on the ship was great.  There are elevators everywhere, but they can be slow during peak times.  The hallways, deck and pool areas were pretty good too.  A staff member did inform me about a wheelchair pool lift being available if I wanted to use the pool.

Accessibility for The Walt Disney Theatre required us to get a staff member to guide us to the front row where there are empty spots for wheelchair guests.  This is where the Broadway shows takes place.  Deck parties has a section at the front for wheelchair guests too.

All the restaurants in the dining rooms plus the ones on the top deck had tables that I could wheel under.  There were also public wheelchair accessible bathrooms located throughout the ship so we didn’t have to go back to our cabins just to use the bathroom.

Port Stops

Our 4 night cruise on the Disney Magic had only 1 stop: Progreso, Mexico with 2 sea days.  We used our sea days to explore the ship, rest on deck, shop for souvenirs and to eat.  Our stop at Progreso was docked which meant we could just use the gangway ramp to get on/off the ship right on land.  I wrote about it separately here.

Food and Drink

Just like all Disney ships, the Magic has 3 main dining rooms that is included with your cruise fare: Animator’s Palate, Rapunzel’s Royal Table, and Lumiere’s.  Disney uses rotational dining which means we get to eat at a different restaurant each night with the same wait staff following you each night to better serve us.

There are no drink or alcohol packages to buy as all sodas, juices, and basic coffees and teas are included in our cruise fare.  Alcoholic drinks are purchased each on its own.  There are 2 dining times: 5:45pm and 8:15pm.  We got the earlier and more popular time by picking online in advance.

Our first night’s dinner was at Animator’s Palate.  The experience this time excluded having guests draw pictures of themselves and having it come to life on a screen.  There was still a history of animation show complete with Apprentice Mickey Mouse at the end.

I had the smoked salmon tartar, cup of baked potato & cheese soup, grilled tuna, and Mickey’s premium ice cream bar.  Almost exactly what I ate last year at Animator’s Palate on the Disney Wonder.  Still very tasty.

For the second night, we ate at Rapunzel’s Royal Table.  This restaurant is themed after the movie Tangled and is decorated with lantern lights everywhere.  There is a dinner show with Rapunzel and a lantern festival.  She does walk around to interact with guests.  I had the snuggly duck platter, potato cream soup, roasted prime rib, and Gothel black forest tower cake.

We went back to Rapunzel’s Royal Table for our third night for pirate night and menu.  We were earlier given red bandanas to wear for dinner as some people were dressed in pirate costumes.  There was no Tangled dinner show this time around.  I had the crab cake, lamb shank, Mickey’s premium ice cream bar and the fruit cobbler.

On our last night, we were seated at the third main restaurant: Lumiere’s.  This was themed after the Beauty & the Beast movies.  There was no dinner show at this fancy restaurant.  I had escargot, jumbo shrimp, french onion soup, rack of lamb, and Mickey’s premium ice cream bar.  My favorite meal of the cruise.

We did eat at some of the casual quick restaurants on the upper decks by the pool area.  At Daisy’s De-Lites, I tried the tasty chicken Caesar wrap one day a sandwich on another day.  Pinocchio’s Pizzeria, cheeseburger, chicken tenders and fries from Duck-In Diner were all good too.

Cabana’s buffet had a great selection of food and was amazing.  We even had a sit down breakfast at Lumiere’s where I had the signature Mickey waffles.  We did not eat at the specialty restaurant Palo which requires an extra fee.

Entertainment

The best way to check the entertainment schedule for the entire cruise is to use the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app.  There is no need to buy a wifi package for this app to work.  The first main event was the Sail Away Party on deck 11 to celebrate the start of our vacation.  With music, performers and Disney characters, this is a party not to be missed.

Every night, there is entertainment at the Walt Disney Theater on deck 4.  Accessible seating is either the very front row of the theater or the very back row.  The first night was Tangled: The Musical.  It was about an hour long and was about the classic story of Rapunzel.  The show was really good and was entertaining throughout.

We sat in the front row for all 3 night shows.  There is also no pictures or vides allowed during these shows.  The second night show was Twice Charmed: An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story.  It is an original musical sequel to Cinderella asking what would happen if Lady Tremaine took Cinderella’s happy ending away from her.

Since the third night was Pirate night, there was no Broadway show at the theater.  The animated movie Wish was playing there instead.  Pirate night featured a big party on the top deck with the cast members and the Disney characters in their Pirate costumes dancing.  It ended with a spectacular fireworks show.

The last night show was Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic.  This award winning show has several Disney characters help a little girl realize the power of dreams and her journey to believe in herself.  This show featured segments from multiple Disney movies like Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and more.

There were other activities like trivia and karaoke that we did too.  We didn’t go to bingo, play board games, attend liquor tastings or go to the night club though.

Character Encounters

Character encounters are one of the main reasons to go on a Disney cruise.  The app lists which Disney character is appearing at what spot and time where guests can take pictures with them.  Lines can be up to half an hour.

The Royal Gathering is a meet up with several princesses and this is the only meet up that requires a reservation to attend.  Spots for this is very limited and is full pretty fast.  The more Disney cruises you sail, the higher the Castaway status you are, the sooner you get to book things.

Disembarkation

Our initial breakfast seating at Lumiere’s was at 7 AM before disembarkation.  We wanted to switch to the 8:15 AM seating since our departure flight was 2:30 PM but wasn’t able to.  We decided to just visit the open seating at Cabana’s buffet to get our own breakfast just before it closes at 8:30 AM.

We already had our checked luggage tagged and left in front of our cabin door before bed time the previous night.  By the time we were done breakfast, the line to disembark on the ship was short and went fast.  Our pre purchased and pre booked accessible shuttle was already there waiting to take us to the airport.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed my second ever Disney cruise that I bought a placeholder.  That costs $250 and is a deposit towards my next Disney cruise.  It also gives me 10% off the cost of cruise cost.  It must be used within 2 years or the deposit is refunded.  I’m already wanting to go on another Disney cruise before that so stay tuned.