One of our favorite parts of a Disney cruise is having the staff announce your family as you board the ship!  We entered the atrium to this beautiful sight:

 

The large chandeliers of the past on the Disney ships have been replaced to open the space up a bit more.  This is the one on the Magic:

We were really hungry after the trip down, so we immediately headed for Lumiere’s to get some lunch.  Lumiere’s is one of the main dining rooms for the Disney Magic, located just off the atrium.  Lumiere’s has a Beauty and the Beast theme (Lumiere is a candelabra in the movie).

Here is the menu:

Nancy and one of the girls ordered the Sliced Smoked Salmon and I ordered the Beef Empanadas.

As we continued our meal, the dining room slowly started to fill up as more people boarded the ship. We ordered the Salmon Salad and the Pennette Pasta as our entrees. 

We decided to get the Cookies N’ Cream cheesecake to try it out.  We really enjoyed it.

Because we were so late to board the ship (versus when we normally board), by the time we finished lunch the staterooms were available.   I went next door to the Promenade Lounge to switch our dining rotation. We wanted to switch to be with Viand, who was our server on board the Magic during our Christmas cruise.  The restaurant manager said Viand was already on our rotation.  The manager said to speak to him when we showed up to dinner, he would put us at one of Viand’s tables.  I headed to the stateroom to let everyone know.

Nancy and the girls had already headed to the room to look it over.  We were in room 2612, which is an Ocean View Stateroom.  We’ve previously stayed in 2612 on the Disney Wonder, which is exactly like the Magic.  Nancy decided to stay in the room to wait for the luggage and get everything setup for us.  The girls and I decided to go off to explore the changes to the ship since its recent refurbishment.

The first place we headed was to the Oceaneer’s Club.  There was a change to part of the Club to add Disney Club Junior.  This is one of the themed rooms in the Club.

We then went to the Vibe, which is the Disney cruise line club for teenagers 14 through 17.  The club is located in the mid-ship funnel on the Magic.  The area has now been transformed with an urban loft theme.  My older daughter went to register while we took some pictures.  She has talked about the Vibe Club recently on Rope Drop Radio.

Here are some pictures of the main portion of the club:

There is also a back room to the club for watching TV or for smaller groups.

There is a smoothie bar in the front of the club, right near the window.

Near the entrance to Vibe is an activity schedule.  As our daughter said, ice breakers on the first night is definitely the one activity not to miss.  It is the time when friendships are the easiest to make and they will last the length of the cruise and beyond.

After checking out the Vibe, we headed off to see The Crown Jewelry, which is a new store that was opened in part of the space formally occupied by Shutters (the photo shop on the ship).  There were a lot of expensive items, but we managed to refrain from purchasing anything.

We then headed up to Deck 9 to see the changes up there.  We noticed this new hand washing station outside of Cabanas.  You can use this or the standard hand wipes to help stop the spread of germs. 

One of the quick service food stations, Daisy’s De Lites, got the addition of a Build A Bowl Station.  It looks like you can build your own salad or soup.

We found a great crew member that helped explain it to us!

They still have the soups, if that is what you are looking for.

The Build a Bowl portion is setup so you can tell the Crew Member what you would like in your salad and they will assemble it for you.  Here is some of the items you can add.

The Signals Bar in the adult section also received a make over in the form of a covering to help keep the sun off the crew members and the guests.  Nancy and I haven’t spent a lot of time here, but I’m sure the change will help.

While we were in the adult section, we also went into the newly remodeled Cove Cafe.  The Cove Cafe is the coffee cafe onboard the Disney Magic.  The Cafe got a lighter interior. 

As before, there is still a display case that contains snacks.  You will have to ask the crew member working in the cafe to get the items for you.  They are still complementary though.

We decided to look into the Senses Spa as well since it received an update in the recent dry dock.  We decided to do a self-guided tour since the spa employees were busy with other guests.

This is the main hallway to the spa, leading back to the fitness center.

Here is one of the couple’s massage rooms in the spa.

The Rain Forest room, which is a new addition to the Magic, wasn’t quite ready for guests when we checked in on it.

Once we finished up at the Spa, we grabbed Nancy a soda and returned to the room.  It was time to decorate the door with our magnets and lights.  It was also close to time for the muster drill.  The muster drill is a mandatory drill for everyone.  We head to our muster station (locations for which are detailed on your Key to the World card as well as on the back of your door).

As you head to your muster station, there are crew members everywhere that will direct you to the correct location.  We were at muster station M.  Luckily, we were not located in the sun.

The muster station will slowly get more crowded as everyone starts to arrive.  The crew members will line everyone in your cabin up in a single file line and put other cabin occupants next to you.

The muster drill takes about 15 minutes, and then you are done!  We headed up to Deck 10 to watch the sail away party!  The sail away party is usually the same (I haven’t seen it change in a number of years) but it’s a nice way to kick off the cruise.

After a quick party, the ship was on its way out of Miami and headed towards Key West!

We didn’t go to the opening night show that first night.  We have been to quite a few of them and decided to spend our time looking over more of the ship.  We were excited to check out the shops to see if there was anything new.

Dinner tonight for us was in Lumiere’s, the same dining room we’d had lunch in.  Upon going in, we asked for the dining room manager I spoke with earlier.  He assigned us to table 68 and led us there.  We immediately saw Viand and he remembered us from Christmas.  We got seated and looked over the menu.  We noticed another family headed towards our table.  They were intercepted by the dining room manager, who directed them to a nearby table (probably the one we originally had).  This happened to us on our first cruise as well, but I didn’t realize at the time what was going on.

We looked over the menu to order.  This menu is one of my favorites, especially the dessert.

We ordered the Leek and Potato Soup and the French Onion Soup.  I know we ordered the Escargot as well, but don’t have a picture of it from that night.

For entrees, we ordered the Duck, the Steak and the Wild Mushroom Pasta.

The best dessert ever, the Grand Marnier Souffle. 

After dinner, the girls headed off to the Ice Breakers activities for their clubs and Nancy and I decided to call it a night.  We headed back to the room to find this guy:

Up next, we explore Key West!

If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints as well as our cruise trip reports!