The other day, I received an email from Tim who shared his thoughts following a recent Disney Magic at Sea UK Staycation cruise from Liverpool. The following are Tim’s thoughts on the sailing.

Yes the Disney Magic is still magical and worth the extra money compared to a regular cruise with another cruise line. For first time cruisers the experience should have been overwhelmingly positive with quality food, many craft & drawing activities for children, character appearances, quiz times, Disney films and one Broadway show (Disney Dreams) in the main theatre as well as repeated freezing the night away shows on deck.

For those who have cruised with Disney before you will notice many suitable differences. For example just one showing of Disney Dreams, even on a four night staycation cruise. Families with children needed to book the appropriate kids clubs via the app for slotted times meaning less time for children in the clubs. It’s a small world nursery was closed for babies and toddlers on this cruise.

The nephews’ splash zone and Goofy’s family pool area had limited 15 minute slots which resulted in guest waiting on the side to ensure that numbers in the water was limited for health & safety reasons. The quiet cove adult pool on the other hand was always available.

The Disney App replaced the Personal Navigators as well as the menus in the restaurants. Rotational Dining remained the same although with slightly less table time spent by the waiters. We did notice that the normal magic tricks and crayons puzzles did not take place. In Cabanas the buffet still took place however it was divided into about 6 sections rather than the two sides. As you entered a cast member greeted and allocated you an area of the buffet area to go to each time you wanted food. This was served by a cast member. As a result of this new approach there appeared to be less choice than normal although the food was still of a high quality. You could still sit anywhere you wanted in Cabanas, even outside on the deck.

The complimentary drinks station on deck 9 are no longer is self-serve. Instead a cast member will get the drink for you. This however, resulted in a long line of people waiting to be served throughout the whole of the cruise.

The gym and fitness area was in use although they suggested booking a slot through the App. However the changing rooms, showers and sauna were not in use. Gym users had to go back and shower in their own staterooms. The shuffleboard equipment was removed and therefore not in use and the table tennis tables and football tables were also removed. These were replaced by seating. The World Wide sport area was also not in use with the basketball nets removed.

Guest services requested that bookings and reservations were made via the App although we did see that walk up visits could still take place. However this mainly only ever had one cast member at a time working and they were behind a Perspex screen as well as wearing a face covering. The future vacation planning desk was closed for the whole cruise and only placeholder bookings could be made but this was through the App.

Nightly turn down service still took place each night however they did not leave a chocolate for the passengers.

Sadly during this cruise there was no Sail Away deck party (Strange as they managed several freezing the night away shows), Fireworks at sea were also missing on this cruise as was the See Ya Real Soon show at the end of the cruise. However the meet & greet character slots were replaced by appear and wave slots. This meant that you got to see a lot more characters in the atrium and walking around the deck. Socially distanced selfies could still take place and in my opinion the characters’ interactions were much better this way allowing many more passengers to see characters without the need to line up.

Finally, Tim shared a video highlighting the character appearances around the ship on the Jaunt with US YouTube channel. I was told there would be more videos on the way.

I would like to thank Tim for taking the time to share his thoughts on his UK Staycation cruise aboard the Disney Magic.