Disney Cruise tips?

elaine usually takes Disney cruises, I think. Maybe she will see the tag and check in.

I've done 10 Disney cruises (with #11 booked for next May), the most recent in late April/early May on the Magic. We did a 7 night Southern Caribbean out of San Juan, followed by the repositioning cruise from San Juan to Fort Lauderdale. Our first time on the Magic was in 2014 so I'm not sure what was different between then and 2010, but I can tell you a few things that are different from 2014 to 2024.

Dining-wise, the main dining room formerly known as Cariocas is now Rapunzel's Royal Table. The theming is based on Tangled and there is a show during dinner and it does get very loud in the dining room. If the noise might bother you, request to be sat at a quieter table away from the stage. Animator's Palate and Lumiere's are still the same.

I believe the after hours adult areas were changed during the 2013 refurbishment of the ship but I'm not sure exactly how other than renaming and redecorating.

Room service is still free (except for gratuities for the cast member delivering the food) but I find the menu to be much smaller than it used to be.

You should still have Pirate Night with fireworks at sea. Many people dress up for pirate night but a lot don't so whichever you choose to do will fit right in.

Since you mentioned it's a Bahamas cruise, I'm guessing you're going to Nassau. They've totally redone the port area and I find it to be much nicer than it used to be. We usually do a snorkel excursion when we are there but this year we did the Greycliff Chocolatiers excursion through Disney. We took a minibus to Greycliff and then had a short tour and chocolate tasting before we made our own chocolate bars. It was a fun way to spend a few hours doing something different than we usually do. A lot of people opt to stay onboard in Nassau though, so if you choose to do that there are plenty of activities on the ship.

If you're going to Castaway Cay, it's essentially the same. If your party will be all adults I suggest going to the adult beach (Serenity Bay) and having lunch there. It has a few more choices than Cookies and Cookies Too, like steak and ribs. If you want to spend time on the beach itself at Serenity Bay, the water is really shallow when the tide is out so you may want to check the tide tables to see when low tide is expected. The family beach usually has deep enough water for swimming no mater what the tide level.

If your cruise stops at Disney's new island, Lighthouse Point, I've heard that the pier from the ship to shore is very, very long. We haven't been to Lighthouse Point yet but I believe there are shuttles that will take you from the ship down the pier to the shore so you won't have to walk so far.

In the staterooms, they used to have steamer trunks for storing clothes. They've now gone to a more dresser-like form of clothes storage. The beds no longer have the DCL bolster pillow (too hard to clean so they went away after Covid) which I miss but I understand why they're no longer in use.

I think that's all off the top of my head (and clearly in no apparent order!) If you have any questions I'll be happy to try to answer them!