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View Full Version : Our Disney Fantasy trip :)



egoldber
07-15-2013, 08:21 PM
We got back Saturday from our cruise. :) We were on the Disney Fantasy, Western Caribbean itinerary B. We were in a connecting cabins with my ILs.

Overall, we had a great time. The Fantasy was amazing and the kids had an absolute blast. I was not really prepared for both of them to be up so late. Younger DD was up until at least 11 every night. She was generally too wired to eat dinner and we ended up ordering room service for her almost every night. Older DD was out until midnight or later most nights! The tween club, Edge, is open until 1 am and they had full programming up until 1! As an aside for ADHD kids, we had to play with younger DD's meds to make them last long enough because dinner was a total disaster the first couple nights. She also did not love the kid club as much as I had hoped.

Loved the Wave phones. Because older DD had the run of the ship, we really needed 3, and we actually permanently borrowed one of the phones from our ILs room. You can pay extra for a 3rd or 4th and we would absolutely do that if we did not have the use of our ILs phone. Older DD did misplace it the first day, but we found it very quickly and she never did that again. She did however, lose her bag with her personal iPhone once but thankfully she had left it at Edge and it was there with all it’s contents.

We stayed in room 9667 and ILs were in connecting room 9669. The room was in the very aft of the boat, sort of behind the aft elevators. We were extremely convenient to Cabanas, the pool, the Oceaneer’s Lab, Animator’s Palate, Palo and Remy, and the bars on deck 4. It was a haul to get to midship, but not so bad. It was also very quiet back where we were, no real foot traffic. I am glad we had a connecting room because we often used their space/bathroom if we all had to get ready at once.

We had dining rotation ERAERRA, which is too bad because Royal Court was our least fav and AP was our most fav. Next time we will request RAERAAE. DH hated dressing up and next time I will probably let him wear whatever he wants because people really did wear anything. And I will also try to schedule Palo and/or Remy for formal and/or semiformal nights.

Loved Palo for brunch and dinner. Amazing and well worth it. Our server was Ivan from Croatia both times and he was great. We had a Remy brunch scheduled, but I ended up cancelling it because DH was too sick to enjoy it, so not worth the extra money.

We didn’t do any excursions and didn’t miss it. In fact, we preferred being on the boat on excursion days to enjoy the pools and ride the Aquaduck with no line.

Our biggest disappointments. DH and FIL both got pretty severe colds. DH was laid up in bed for a day and a half, and his father lagged behind him by about a day. Older DD had a cold the week before we left and I am not sure if that is what DH had or something different. The only place we went in Cozumel was down the street to the Mega, which is like a Mexican Walmart, to get cold meds. :rofl Also it poured rain on and off on our Castaway Cay day. Both kids were really disappointed (and I was too). We had promised younger DD she could snorkel and she couldn’t. It also rained on Pirate Night. They moved the pirate show to the atrium and it was a madhouse. They were able get far enough out of the storm to be able to do the fireworks later and the kids both loved that.

Friday: We flew up in the late afternoon (so I wouldn’t miss another whole day of work) and met up with DH's parents. We were all staying at the Hyatt at the Orlando airport.

Saturday: The next morning we got the rental car at 8:30 and were on the road at 9. We dropped the car off at National in Port Canaveral and took the shuttle to the boat. That was really easy as well. I had been nervous because I had read that the National shuttle could take a long time, but it was no problem at all. Check in at the port was easy.

We had a port arrival time of 11:30 and by 12 we were on the boat. Before the trip, I had hooked up with a group on Disboards that then moved to Facebook. There were 2 other girls older DD's age in the group and they had exchanged e-mails and photos before the trip. One family was doing a back to back cruise and this was the second leg of their trip. They were actually waiting for us as we walked onto the boat. So the girls got to meet and then planned to get together later.

We changed by the pool and swam and rode the Aquaduck. We got food from Cabanas (the buffet restaurant near the pool) and ate on the pool deck. Soooo glad we did that first because by 2 it was so packed by the pool you couldn’t even walk. We went to our rooms and changed and explored the boat a little.

At 3, our Dis/Facebook group had a meet up. We went to that, although it was primarily to finalize cabins for the FE because some people had wanted upgrades. Our cruise was actually oversold, so no one had any upgrades. We did not do the FE but went to the meet anyway. Older DD got to meet the other girl she had emailed with and they all 3 planned to meet up at the Open House at Edge (the tween club) at 9:30.

We were at Enchanted Garden the first night. Younger DD had a very hard time at dinner this night and the next night. After that we adjusted her meds and it was better. The MDRs are very loud and crowded. She skipped dessert and we ended up taking her to the Oceaneer’s Club. She was so awful it made it hard to even talk to or connect with the servers, so I think it got us off to a bad start with them. Our serving team was good, but not the outstanding experience I had been hoping for. The assistant server (Omar from Jamaica) was very quiet and reserved. He seemed a little put out by things like younger DD does not like ice in her apple juice, that sort of thing. (Although he always brought it the right way after the first night). The main waiter (Nestor from Honduras) and head server (Alberto from the Phillipines) were fine and as the cruise went on Nestor was great with younger DD.

Sunday: This was a sea day. The 4 adults had a Palo brunch reservation at 12:30. We took the kids to Cabanas for lunch and then younger DD went to the club. Palo brunch was INCREDIBLE. Our server was Ivan from Croatia, and he was great. There was so much food and it was all amazing. He then made us a dessert plate to go for the kids to take back to the room. They nibbled on that all week. :)

After lunch we thought about the pool, but it was wretchedly crowded. We picked up DD and did the Midship Detective Agency. I’m really glad we did that because it made you learn the boat. :) That day we went to a matinee show of Aladdin, the stage show. It was so amazingly good. It was my fav show of the trip. The writing and choreography of their shows is really incredible.

We had dinner at Royal Court that night and did not really enjoy it and again younger DD was wild. Took her to the club mid meal it was so bad. It was also formal night.

Because we saw the matinee show, we were free after dinner. We went to the pool and watched movies on the Funnelvision (huge screen on one of the ship funnels) and rode the Aquaduck at night. It was pleasant and relaxing. Younger DD really *loved* lazing in the pool while watching the Funnelvision.

Monday: This was our first port day in Grand Cayman. We decided to change younger DD's ADHD med schedule. At home she gets a long acting and short acting in the morning and another long acting in the afternoon. On the cruise, we ended up doing a LA at breakfast, a short acting around 12 and another short acting at 3:30 or 4. That seemed to get her through dinner pretty well and we were all happier after that.

After ignoring the characters on the previous days, younger DD decided she wanted an autograph book and to meet characters. We did not get off at GC. We did characters, then went to the pool and rode the Aquaduck about 10 times. It was nice being on the boat when no one else is there. That night was our first night in AP, so it had the Crush show. The kids loved it, but younger DD was bitterly disappointed we were not at a table close enough to talk to Crush. That night the show was a magic show. I thought it was pretty lame, but both kids really liked it.

Tuesday: This was our Costa Maya port day. After breakfast younger DD went to the Oceaneer’s club, so DH and I watched the boat dock from the adult pool area on 13 forward. It was very pleasant and the water was incredibly blue. Younger DD did not want to go ashore, so we had the club give her lunch while the rest of us went ashore. We shopped a little and then went back on. DH was not feeling well by now so he slept until dinner.

We had a dinner reservation at Palo for 8:30. We fed younger DD room service and took her to the club. Older DD didn’t want room service, so she went to Cabanas and had full table service by herself. She said it was fun but kind of weird. Unfortunately, her new friends all had the late dinner seating. Palo dinner was amazing. I liked it better than brunch. The sommelier helped us pick a terrific bottle of wine. Although just MIL and I drank it, so Ivan had the rest corked and sent it on to follow us to dinner the next night in the main dining room. Before Palo, We went to the 6:30 show of Wishes and it was really good also.

Wednesday: Cozumel day. By now, FIL was sick too, so DH, MIL and I walked into Cozumel to go to the drugstore. Really, the area by the port is so not attractive and full of vendors being very aggressive. Not as aggressive as I have seen in some places in the Caribbean, but not fun either.

Again we spent most of the day by the pool. Originally the girls had Pirate League appointments (basically pirate makeovers) at the Bibidi Bobidi Boutique at 12:45, but I realized that morning that this was a bad plan since they wouldn’t be able to swim and ride the Aquaduck afterwards. I tried to change it, but there was nothing available. But as I walked in the cabin from being in Cozumel that morning, the BBB was calling our room to see if we still wanted later appointments because they had just had a cancellation for 3:45. I was thrilled! The girls actually loved this and I wish I had made younger DD an appointment for a princess appointment at some point too. Ah well, next time. That was Pirate Night, and the girls both had costumes and looked great with their makeovers. We had Royal Court again that night which was better than before. Finally it seemed like our servers were getting us and getting our kids.

It was raining after dinner though, so they moved the Pirate show into the atrium, which was a mess. And there was some sort of technical difficulty as well for a few minutes. Fortunately, we were able to get into clear weather for the fireworks. I do wonder if they moved the boat off course a little to do that.

Thursday: This was our last sea day. I took younger DD to the Princess Gathering which is a HUGE hour long time to meet the princesses in one fell swoop. But she was chipper and happy the whole time. She wanted to wear her pirate costume again, so we did and the characters all got a kick out of her. We saw some of them again later after she took off the costume and they remembered she had been wearing the costume earlier. We were supposed to have Remy brunch, but I cancelled it because even though DH was feeling better, he was still not well. It was a champagne brunch and that seemed silly when he couldn’t drink. But it actually was a very pleasant, low key day. I would have felt rushed trying to squeeze a 2 hour brunch in there somewhere. They were showing Tinkerbell (the movie) on the Funnelvision, which younger DD was very excited about, and we had to plan our whole day around that. :)

Dinner was our last night in Royal Court. And it was OK. We saw Believe that night, which was my least fav of the 3 major shows, but still fun.

Friday: This was to be our Castaway Cay day, but it was a monsoon on and off all day. They weren’t letting kids on the play structures and they weren’t really even letting people in the water (I guess because of lightning). It was not fun, so we went back to the boat and road the Aquaduck and younger DD swam for awhile before they closed the pools (again I guess because of lightning). Older DD was with us for awhile, but after lunch she went off to hang with the Edge crowd.

We saw the Farewell show, which was really very lame, but OMG the magician/comedian who came on after was so funny. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. Then we flew to the room and frantically packed up 3 of our 4 suitcases for them to haul out for us. The kids had a last round of room service before we left. :)

Saturday: Off the boat and home. Because we had the early dinner seating, we had a 6:45 breakfast. But getting off was easy peasy. Our flight was not until 2:45 and we could have easily caught a noon flight. Next time I’ll know.

And now I need a vacation. :rotflmao:

ged
07-16-2013, 10:32 AM
Great review! Glad you had a nice time. I've never been on a Disney cruise before, but it sounds fun!

Dream
07-16-2013, 10:51 AM
Enjoyed your review. We're never done a cruise but recently been thinking about it often as it keeps coming up on the boards. Just waiting for DD's to be a bit older, they're only 2 and 5 still.

egoldber
07-16-2013, 11:44 AM
Definitely wait until your little one is old enough to go to the Oceaneer's Club/Lab.

boolady
07-16-2013, 12:00 PM
Great review, Beth. Thanks for posting. DH and I have been fantasizing, no pun intended, about a Disney cruise for a while now. If you don't mind me asking, other than your FIL being sick, what did your ILs think of the cruise? If we went, we would likely invite my dad, who is 62, to come with us.

egoldber
07-16-2013, 01:02 PM
This was our first cruise and my ILs have been on a few cruises with their friends over the years.

My ILs are much older than yours. FIL is 82 and MIL is 79. They are in good health and active, but not as spry as they used to be IYKWIM. FIL also has a low level cancer that they are mainly watching vs. treating.

They did like it. They said the food was pretty superior to other cruises they had been on (a Princess and a Celebrity cruise). They liked the shows and the amenities. I do think they got a little tired with all the walking sometimes. The boat truly is huge. Our very active younger DD is also too much for them to handle.

They did zero research, so did not really understand things like the dining room rotation schedule (which is clearly printed on your key card) and how to use things like the Wave phone, a wireless internet phone that is in every stateroom and operates like a basic non-smart cellphone.

My ILs *hate* cruise organized excursions, which is one reason why we didn't really do any. No one cared to do any research on non-Disney organized outings, hence we didn't do any of those either.

My MIL insisted on dressing up for formal and semi-formal nights, so they brought a lot of luggage.

Has he been on a cruise before?

There are MANY MANY older people on the cruise. Many people use wheelchairs or other mobility devices, so I think it is a very accessible cruise if that is a concern.

TwinFoxes
07-16-2013, 01:36 PM
Thanks for posting. We really want to do a Disney cruise in the next couple of years.

boolady
07-16-2013, 01:58 PM
Has he been on a cruise before?


No, he has never been on a cruise. He and my mom had always talked about taking one, and he has still expressed an interest recently, so I thought it might be nice if we invited him to join us if we go on one. Mobility is not an issue for him-- he still works, fishes, does a lot of his own yardwork, and is quite active. I didn't know if, being a Disney cruise, it was almost entirely families with young kids, or if there would still be activities that he might be interested in if he didn't want to spend the entire time glued to us. Thanks for the information.

egoldber
07-16-2013, 03:20 PM
There are many older people and grandparents, but most are with their families. He would definitely fit in. :)

Before we went, I found this site very helpful. It has copies of the the Personal Navigators from various itineraries, which is the daily list of ship activities.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/cruise-new/cr-stateroom-navigator.htm

Looking at a few of these will give you a good sense of what there is to do each day.

boolady
07-16-2013, 08:32 PM
Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it. :)

MMMommy
07-17-2013, 12:50 AM
Thanks for sharing. I always enjoy hearing details about Disney cruises because I have always wanted to go on one. I can live vicariously through others! Sounds like a good time.

Dream
07-17-2013, 11:26 AM
Definitely wait until your little one is old enough to go to the Oceaneer's Club/Lab.

How old does she have to be?

egoldber
07-17-2013, 11:46 AM
The Oceaneer's Club and Lab (they are connected) are for kids 3-12.

Dream
07-17-2013, 12:17 PM
The Oceaneer's Club and Lab (they are connected) are for kids 3-12.

Thank you. if you don't mind me asking what did it cost for the cruise for your family and ILWs combined?

egoldber
07-17-2013, 12:21 PM
More than I thought I would ever spend. :p

I think our cabin was $5Kish and their cabin was $2Kish.

Don't forget tips and money you spend on the boat. We did not go on any excursions, but those add up fast.

Dream
07-17-2013, 12:55 PM
Thanks, when we do it'll definitely include my parents and maybe my ILWs too. So I guess we'll be looking at a minimum of 10K :dizzy:

I should definitely wait for another couple of years so that DD2 can get the max out of it too.

AnnieW625
07-17-2013, 05:41 PM
Thanks for posting Beth, awesome review. So did Disney give you any kind of discount for missing Castaway Cay, that seems like a big thing because everyone always says it is soo popular. DH still wants to do a Disney cruise sometime, but he isn't sold on the whole Mexico thing so it is nice to be able to stay on the boat without lines.

Did you think that your girls ages were good for this trip? I can't see us doing either a Disney Cruise or even WDW until our girls are 10 and 6, so another 3 yrs. away.

Did you prefer one to the other?

egoldber
07-17-2013, 06:55 PM
Well, technically we did not miss Castaway Cay. We were there, we got off, we had lunch. It just wasn't a lot of fun. A lot of people went back early and you could tell that DCL was scrambling to shuttle staff from CC back to the boat to accommodate more people on the boat than they would normally anticipate. And older DD hung out on CC with the Edge crowd much longer than we did.

This was not our first choice itinerary, but it was the only one we could do this summer that was not already sold out for 2 connecting cabins. I would have preferred the Eastern Caribbean.

My girls are 6 and 11 and it was really pretty perfect. A 10 year old will be in the Oceaneer's Club/Lab with the 6 year old. 11 is the minimum age for Edge, the tween club. In our case, separating the girls was the better idea, but if you want them to be in the club together then 6/10 is perfect.

Also, an 11+ year old in Edge cannot be "confined" to the clubs. In the Oceaneer Club/Lab, you can choose to let your kid check in and out or not. If they are in Edge, it is totally self check in/out. Something to consider if you are OK with that or not. I was OK with it, but others might not be.

WDW is a very different experience from DCL. In many ways DCL was more relaxing. There was also less to do, although we did not be any means do all there was to do on the boat. But we all agreed that by the end of the week we were done and ready to come home.

One issue we had with excursions was that many of the ones we would have liked to do, were ages 10+. And there was no way I was signing older DD up to go zip-lining or kayaking or something else really fun without younger DD.