UK Staycation Cruise from Tilbury London UK
Oh, my goodness we finally get to board the Disney Magic. After this morning’s horrendous traffic on leaving the hotel, to the Lateral Flow Tests at the port. We can finally relax and get on board and get totally immersed in the Disney Magic.
If you follow my blogs, you will know that this is our first ever cruise, so a little 2-night tester to see if we are comfortable sleeping on the cruise and if we like cruise life in general.
It was originally just myself and my husband, but then our daughter was able to join us, so we added her to the booking. But then my husband had the fabulous idea of upgrading to Concierge (there was no way I was going to say no to this). So, we ended up upgrading to a One-bedroom Concierge Suite!!! I am so excited!
Welcome to the Ship
Oh, my goodness our first experience when boarding the ship is that we were introduced by our family name, then a short welcome from some of the Disney Magic Crew and a little show by Minnie and Mickey Mouse.
It was so cute and the perfect start to a full and awesome 2 nights on the ship.
On leaving the Atrium on our way to Fathoms, a Cast Member in a grey suit noticed our gold stickers meaning that we were Concierge guests and informed us of a welcome lunch in Rapunzel’s Royal Table Restaurant after we had been to our Muster Station.
The Disney Navigator App
After our warm welcome onto the Disney Magic, we were guided into the Fathoms Bar.
During our short time in Fathoms bar the Cast Members ensured we were all able to access the Disney Magic Wi-Fi so that we were able to use the Disney Navigator App.
The app is essential for the next stage of boarding at the Muster Station and to access all of the day’s activities, the menus and also your account.
Muster Station
Once the Cast Members in Fathoms are happy you are connected to the Wi-Fi and therefore have full access to the app, you are then asked to go to Deck 4, to find your Muster Station.
Your Muster Station is where you go in case of emergency on the ship, where you are likely to have to leave the ship.
Our Muster Station was the letter I, this was detailed on the app and also on our Key To The World Card (although we didn’t have this yet).
Once at our Muster Station, we then scanned the “I” Muster Station notice. Then we were good to carry on with our day. The full emergency briefing would be later on in the day.
Concierge Welcome Lunch
Rapunzel’s Royal Table was open for all guests on embarkation day, but as we were Concierge Guests we were seated in an area away from the regular guests.
The reason Concierge guests were seated separately is that we were entitled to alcoholic drinks with our meal and the Concierge Hosts would visit each of our tables, to say hello and introduce some of their services to us.
We enjoyed a lovely 3 course lunch at Rapunzel’s, if you click on the link below, you can see what we ate in the video.
My daughter requested a red wine, my husband a prosecco and I chose a rum cocktail (which I said for our server to surprise me). It was my fault, but he brought me a cocktail which also had Amaretto in! One smell/flavour I really don’t like. I was of course too British and didn’t like to complain!! So, I initially drank it, but then it got so much stronger, so I gave it to my daughter and ordered a red wine, which was fine. She also had a Pina Colada, so there didn’t seem to be a limit!
We had some fabulous servers here for lunch, Roberto in particular. But he wasn’t to be our regular server, which was a shame, as he was based in Palo, a restaurant you pay extra for, that we didn’t plan to visit on our short cruise.
Once we had finished our lunch, we checked with the Concierge Hosts to see if our staterooms were likely to be ready for us yet. And happily, the answer was yes. Another perk for Concierge is getting into your room early.
In addition, on embarkation day, there is also available a buffet in Cabanas or the takeaway places like Pinocchio’s Pizza for example. Its always worth checking your app, to see what is open.
Staterooms
As well as the perk of getting access to our rooms earlier than the regular guests, we found that rather than our luggage being left in the corridor, it was ready and waiting in our stateroom.
On arrival at our stateroom door, there was an envelope waiting for us in the fish beside the door. This envelope contained our golden Key To The World cards.
Well, our stateroom was fabulous. It was room 8545 which is a one-bedroom suite. You can see some of the room in the video below. But I do plan to do a separate blog and video in the coming weeks just covering our wonderful suite.
But basically, we had a separate bedroom with a super comfortable king sized bed (US Queen), this room had a seating area with a Murphy bed (drop down bed), access to the double length veranda. It also had a walk-in wardrobe, dressing table, double sinks, spa bath, shower and toilet. It was fabulous.
Then we also had the lounge area, this had a sofa bed, access to the veranda, a dining table, sink, built in wardrobes, shower, sink and toilet it was an awesome extra space for the 3 of us to have.
In our rooms was a lovely fresh fruit gift from the Concierge team.
While we were exploring our stateroom, our lovely Stateroom Host Ria came and introduced herself and took time to find out a little about us, like what we liked to be called and which beds we would like made up. She was amazing, after that first meeting, she would always greet us by name in the corridors.
Shops
The shops don’t open till 6pm on embarkation day. They are busy at this time, with guests that have specific requirements. But we were chilled about merchandise, so we decided to leave it till the next day.
Unfortunately, on these cruises and probably down to a mixture of Covid, Brexit and the fact that the British had been deprived of Disney for so long, the Disney Magic wasn’t able to keep up with demand of merchandise on these cruises, so many people were disappointed.
Concierge Lounge
After doing some basic unpacking in our room, we had a little wander and headed to the Concierge Lounge for a snack and coffee. We took a seat in the outside area, with the sun shining on us, it was bliss, and the coffee was lush.
We also popped back to the Concierge Lounge before heading back to our room to get changed for the evening and grabbed some take away coffees, then later collected a cocktail each to take to dinner with us.
The Concierge Lounge has happy Hour from 5pm till 10pm every evening and the measures are not mean!!!
If I didn’t say it well enough before the coffee in the Concierge Lounge is delicious and the cocktails are made with a smile and the measures are certainly not small! Hence our reason to keep popping back, repeatedly!
Emergency Safety Information
Later in the afternoon the emergency announcement commenced. All events on the ship stopped and you had to stop and watch/listen or watch in your stateroom, we managed to find 3 loungers with a view of Funnel Vision and watch it from there.
The day was flying by, but we had done so much and still had so much to do!
Shows
As we were on a 2-night cruise, our first night was very busy as we had 2 shows to get in before dinner!
- The first show was Tangled, which was brilliant, Mother Gothel was my favourite singer.
- As we were on late dining, we were at the 6pm production of Tangled.
- Since disembarking the ship I’ve found out that the actress sings in the lounge of the Disney Magic in the evenings. I’m sad we missed that, as she was amazing.
- While sitting watching the show, you could feel things were happening on the decks below us, the anchor was being raised and us setting sail.
- Our next show that evening was Freeze the Night Away a cute little show based on the movie Frozen which took place on the deck 9 although we watched from deck 10. It was rather windy but not cold at all. The fabulous Captain Fabian was finding us warm waters yet again on the British coast.
- We had time for a wander and a quick cocktail in the Concierge lounge before the show.
Dining Rotation
There are 3 main dining rooms that are included as part of you cruise on the Disney Magic
- Animators Palate
- This includes a unique little show while you are eating
- Rapunzel’s Royal Table
- This includes a short performance from Rapunzel and some of her friends while you are eating.
- Luminaires
- Often in the evening you get a pianist at Luminaires
As we were on a 2-night cruise, we only got to do 2 of these with one for breakfast on the last morning.
Animators Palate was the one that we wanted to do the most, so I phoned Disney to request this. Also, when we upgraded to Concierge, I also phoned them to reinforce my request.
We were lucky enough to get Animators Palate for our first evening and Rapunzel’s Royal Table for our second evening with Luminaires for breakfast on our last morning. We found out our rotation once the app was up and running for us and it was also on our Key To The World Card.
On booking we were allocated 2nd dining, which we were fine with so left it as it was. We had table 65 and our dining time was 8.25pm.
On the Disney Cruise ships your serving team follow on your main dining rotation, so particularly with longer cruises they really get to know what you like and don’t like.
Our daughter was amazed that the team at lunch in Rapunzel’s must have noticed that she uses her cutlery lefthanded, so at the evening meal in Animator’s Palate once she was seated, they immediately swapped her cutlery around. She is 25 but was still “wow how did they know that!” A nice bit of Disney Magic!
To add to the magic, they used her name to ask what she would like to eat. She was again like “how did they know that” more Disney Magic!
Photography
As we were only on a 2-night cruise, we chose not to buy any of the packages.
However, the photographer came to our table in Animators Palate so we had some photos taken to choose one at the end of our cruise.
Concierge Room Turndown Service
After our lovely meal at Animators and the fabulous show, we headed back to our room.
We were delighted with the sight of all of the little turn down extras.
Firstly, the sofa had been turned into a double bed and made up with bedding. Our daughter didn’t tell me until late in the next day, but the bed wasn’t made up with a duvet, there was just a sheet and thin fleecy blanket. I would have raised it with our Stateroom Host, but as it was just one more night, she didn’t want me to bother.
Our main bed had also been turned down, with chocolates and a towel animal on the bed, which was lovely. The was also a bottle of Concierge mask scent. Either side of the bed was a cute “Good night, Good Morning” mat and a pair of slippers. Again, I was disappointed that this was just in the main bedroom. If the three of us do Concierge in the future, I would raise this as well.
Other nice little touches were the curtains were closed and the lights were dimmed.
Oh and all our cables had been tidied in little black Velcro cable tidies.
We ended our first night sitting on the verandah, watching the waves, the moon, the stars, Venus and the lights in the distance, after what had been the most exhausting, but most perfect first day ever on a Disney Cruise ship.
Ears and Ideas 