Looking for the perfect family holiday in 2013? Trust me, Mickey's always a winner

Shuffleboard at sea may be seen as passé in an era of mega cruise ships packed to the gunwales with gadgets and gizmos - but, to my surprise, my children loved the sedate nature of the game, pushing pucks across the prom deck to score points in the marked areas.

 

Hot shots: Tilly and Hal meet their shuffleboard match in Mickey and Minnie on board Disney Magic

They found it an absorbing antidote to the wilder activities so often found on family-friendly vessels - in this case the Art Deco-styled Disney Magic, sailing on an eight-night cruise from New York to the Bahamas and Florida and back. But what we didn't expect was for the competitive edge to be notched up several levels with the arrival of Mickey and Minnie to challenge us to a Super Bowl-style shuffleboard championship.
I was facing the somewhat surreal prospect of coaching from the sidelines as team Davies - Tilly, ten, and Hal, seven - took on the mighty mice.
It soon became clear that despite his rather large hands, Captain Mickey was no slouch and was soon racking up points at an alarming pace.

 

We didn't quite make the ten frames required to complete a full game - suffice to say my young players were forced to bow to the obviously dab-handed Mickey and his female cohort.
Gracious in victory, Mickey and Minnie were ushered off by a stern minder to the next in a seemingly endless parade of many public appearances made alongside their shipboard pals Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto and Chip 'n' Dale.
The children were delighted, even in defeat, with a memory to treasure. And this sums up the appeal of stepping aboard a Disney Cruise Line ship - there are regular opportunities to get close to the firm's iconic cartoon characters, collect their autographs and appear in numerous photo calls alongside them (if you don't mind the queues).
Tilly and Hal were just the right age to sample the concept of Disney on the high seas.

Pool with added mouse: One of the main pool decks on the Disney Magic

I had been expecting a ship complete with Mickey Mouse ears - and the 2,700-passenger Disney Magic didn't fall far short. The ears may not have been sticking out on either side of the funnels - one of which is false and is decked out inside as a teenage New York loftstyle hangout - but they were present everywhere else you looked, from the specially shaped children's pool with a water slide, held up by a giant Mickey hand, to the cabin bedspreads.
There was no escaping the fact we were part of Disney at sea, an increasingly popular experience as the company expands its fleet and moves into new territories such as Alaska.
We found Disney Magic to be slightly faded and showing her age in the cabins in particular.
At 14, she's a relative veteran in a sea of giant new ships, but is not lacking in charm. Her design is based on classic liners of the Thirties, complete with giant portholes and an impressive entrance hall, where all passengers are publicly announced as they step aboard.
Many original Disney etchings adorn the public areas to add to the sense of ocean travel from a bygone era.
The ship has a 977-seat theatre, and Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson got her first break on sister ship Disney Wonder. It's easy to see why, given the high standard of the performances.

 

The shows and entertainment are first-class, as is the Pirates Of The Caribbean pool party, complete with fireworks.
There are dinner sittings where the serving staff 'follow' diners each night around the three main restaurants, enabling them to get to know passengers' likes and dislikes.
So whether you are dining in the Caribbean-themed Parrott Cay, the colourful Animator's Palate or the more refined French-styled Lumiere's, you will be sitting at the same numbered table adjoining the same fellow diners and being waited on by identical staff every night.
Rather than feeling stalked, we found the experience helpful in breaking the ice with strangers while getting to know the staff.
The magic seemed to rub off on my two, as Hal is now obsessed with Disney on TV and Tilly loves all the special badges she was able to trade with crew on board.
It's just a shame we couldn't raise our game to match the expertise of our cartoon-character hosts.