''Disney Magic'' is the first

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...

owned and operated by

Disney Cruise Line Disney Cruise Line is a cruise line operation that is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The company was incorporated in 1996 as Magical Cruise Company Limited, through the first vessel, ''Disney Magic'' and is domiciled in London, Englan ...

, a subsidiary of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...

. She has 11 public decks, can accommodate 2,700 passengers in 875 staterooms, and has a crew of approximately 950. The interior of ''Disney Magic'' is decorated in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

style. The four other ships are the '' Disney Wonder'', ''

Disney Dream The ''Disney Dream'' is the third cruise ship operated by Disney Cruise Line, part of The Walt Disney Company. She is the first of the ''Dream''-class. She currently sails three-day, four-day, and occasional five-day cruises to the Bahamas. The ...

'', '' Disney Fantasy'', and ''

Disney Wish ''Disney Wish'' is the fifth and newest cruise ship owned and operated by Disney Cruise Line, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. She is the largest ship in the fleet and the first of the ''Triton''-class. She entered service in June 202 ...

''. The ship has 20 bright yellow lifeboats which, along with the black, red, and white colors of the ship itself, match the colors of Mickey Mouse. This change from the standard safety orange took a waiver of international maritime rules. As with other Disney cruise ships, the ship's horn blast plays a snippet of '" When You Wish upon a Star". ''Disney Magic''s Godmother is Patricia Disney, former wife of

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

's nephew, Roy E. Disney.

History

Planning and construction

Disney had cruise ship designs drawn up by February 1994.

in 1995 ordered ''Disney Magic'' and ''Disney Wonder'' from

Fincantieri Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The ship was built in two halves with the bow built at Fincatieri's Ancona shipyard and the stern at their Marghera shipyard. The planned maiden voyage was for March 12, 1998. In January 1997, the first ticket for ''Magic'''s first trip was raffled off on

Lifetime channel Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared towar ...

, while ticket sales would begin in September 1997. Delays on the construction of MS ''Rotterdam'' kept additional workers from the ''Magic''. Thus, by November 1997, the cruise line initially rescheduled the ship's initial voyage to April 30, 1998. However, further delays from suppliers and poor weather conditions at Fincantieri pushed back the maiden voyage even further by a few months. The bow was towed to the Marghera shipyard where the halves were joined.

Itineraries

With livery and design evocative of the RMS ''Queen Mary'', ''Disney Magic'' set sail on her maiden voyage on July 30, 1998, out of Port Canaveral. The ship's initial cruises were to Nassau, Bahamas with a stop at

Castaway Cay Disney's Castaway Cay, or simply Castaway Cay (), is a private island in the Bahamas which serves as an exclusive port for the Disney Cruise Line ships. It is located near Great Abaco Island and was formerly known as Gorda Cay. In 1997, The Walt ...

over three to four nights. Originally, from 2000, ''Disney Magic'' had been undertaking weekly cruises to

and

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...

islands out of its home port in

Port Canaveral Port Canaveral is a cruise, cargo, and naval port in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world with 4.5 million cruise passengers passing through during 2016. Over 5.4 million tonnes of bulk car ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

. In June 2005, ''Disney Magic'' was dispatched to the West Coast as part of

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envisio ...

's 50th Anniversary celebrations and as a test for California expansion. The transfer cruise sold out quicker than expected. Bookings from first time Disney cruisers were up for these cruises by at least 60%. In May 2007, ''Disney Magic'' started her inaugural Mediterranean cruises out of Barcelona, Spain. At the end of the summer, she returned to her home port of Port Canaveral. In the summer of 2008, ''Disney Magic'' was moved to Los Angeles once again. The ship returned to Barcelona in 2010 for another summer of Mediterranean cruises, as well as several northern European cruises before again returning to Port Canaveral in September. In May 2012, ''Disney Magic'' was relocated to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where she sailed 8-night cruises to the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...

, New England, and Canada. In September, she was relocated to

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding G ...

for the remainder of the year and offered 4-night Caribbean cruises, 6, 7, and 8-night Western Caribbean cruises, and 8-night Bahamian cruises. In June 2013, ''Disney Magic'' was re-positioned to

Barcelona, Spain Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

for the summer. ''Disney Magic'' was put in for an overhaul at Navantia shipyard, Cadiz, Spain. In October 2013, Disney Cruise Line completed renovations to ''Disney Magic'' including updates to the ship's cabins, lounges, restaurants and spa and introduced new features including; "Marvel's Avengers Academy", a play area based on Marvel's Avengers characters, the AquaDunk and the AquaLab, consisting of a pool and waterslide. The short lived Carioca's restaurant replaced Parrot Cay, which would later be replaced with Rapunzel's Royal Table in 2018. Club Disney Junior replaced the Mickey Mouse Club and other changes were made. In 2016, the ''Disney Magic'' sailed Disney Cruise Lines' inaugural Northern Europe itineraries, homeported in the port of

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maids ...

, 70 miles from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England. She sailed to Norway, the British Isles, and the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

during her brief three month season. With the October 6, 2017 cruise of ''Disney Magic'' from New York to the Bahamas, the cruise line held its first Marvel Day at Sea. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, ''Disney Magic'' was anchored in Dover on and off from May 2020 and was due to stay until at least August 2021. At that time, she sailed a series of "staycation cruises" (no port visits or excursions, subject to restrictions) exclusively in the United Kingdom. UK cruises concluded on October 4, 2021, when ''Disney Magic'' repositioned to Miami, Florida and commenced cruises to The Bahamas. Then, in the summer of 2022, she returned to Europe for European cruises before returning to the US for the fall.

Recreation

Entertainment

Entertainment on ''Disney Magic'' includes live Broadway-style shows with many Disney characters at the Walt Disney Theater, the Buena Vista movie theater, which features both Disney films and first-run movies, several night clubs and lounges, several pools, and many Disney-themed parties and celebrations, including a Sail-Away Celebration, Pirate Night, and sometimes a Marvel or Star Wars Day at Sea. On the ship's forward funnel, there is a 24-by-14 foot LED screen known as the ''Funnel Vision'', due to its location on the rear of one of the ship's funnels, where guests can watch various movies and shows either from the deck or from inside Goofy's Pool. Shows from the Walt Disney Theatre may include: ''All Aboard'', ''Let The Magic Begin'', ''A Final Farewell Show'', ''Twice Charmed: A Twist on the Cinderella Story'', '' Tangled the Musical'' and ''Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic''. Former shows included 'Villains Tonight!' which was replaced by Tangled.

Dining

Disney Cruise line is known for pioneering the rotational dining setup, in which guests and their wait staff rotate through three differently themed restaurants throughout their cruise. The Disney Magic's restaurants include Lumiere's (serving primarily French Cuisine), Rapunzel's Royal Table (serving German-inspired food), and Animator's Palate (which is present on four of the other Disney cruise ships). Additionally, the up-scale, adults-only restaurant Palo, situated at the rear of the ship, requires a separate reservation and serves high-end

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

cuisine.

References

External links

* {{Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Panamax cruise ships Ships of Disney Cruise Line Ships built by Fincantieri Ships built in Venice 1998 ships