Rock the Boat, Don't Tip the Boat Over! Fantasy 10/20-10/27 Completed Post #277!!

[oybolshoi]

Loved your report, Brenda! We were on the same cruise, and we are looking forward to our next cruise in 2014!

Thanks very much - I hope you enjoyed your time on the Fantasy as much as we did! When are you cruising in 2014 if you don't mind my asking? We booked a 7night Western in May 2014 with that hurricane discount - thought a different time of year might be nice for a change.

 

[hubbloveswdw]

Your trip report one of best. I really enjoyed reading about your trip.

 

[tony64]

Thanks for finishing, I loved your report.

 

[okwminnie]

Thanks very much - I hope you enjoyed your time on the Fantasy as much as we did! When are you cruising in 2014 if you don't mind my asking? We booked a 7night Western in May 2014 with that hurricane discount - thought a different time of year might be nice for a change.

Right now, we are booked for a 4-night in April 2014, but still thinking about changing to a 7 night - the hurricane discount makes it very appealing!

 

[oybolshoi]

Your trip report one of best. I really enjoyed reading about your trip.

Thanks for taking the time to real along with us!

Thanks for finishing, I loved your report.

Thank you for coming back to see if I finished! Glad you enjoyed reading along with us!

Right now, we are booked for a 4-night in April 2014, but still thinking about changing to a 7 night - the hurricane discount makes it very appealing!

We thought the discount was best used on a 7-night - quite happy with the final bill for our Cat 5 on a May sailing.

 

[teruterubouzu]

It's been ages since I've been on the Dis. So happy to sign on and find a trip report from you. Sounds like you had an amazing time, despite the weather drama.

But what is this about not liking prosecco?

 

[SeaSpray]

Great trip report, thanks for the pics (and drink recipes!). I've read most of your food review threads and love them! Our next cruise will be our first on the Fantasy, so it's great to read these reports!





Edited to add: I think we may be on the same cruise next year. We're on the 5-10-14 western sailing

 

[oybolshoi]

It's been ages since I've been on the Dis. So happy to sign on and find a trip report from you. Sounds like you had an amazing time, despite the weather drama.

But what is this about not liking prosecco?

Hello there! Thanks very much for reading - we had a great trip and can't wait to get on another ship (we have three cruises coming up in the next 24 months)

As for the prosecco ... I like it just fine. I just don't want it used in a kir royale!

Great trip report, thanks for the pics (and drink recipes!). I've read most of your food review threads and love them! Our next cruise will be our first on the Fantasy, so it's great to read these reports!

Edited to add: I think we may be on the same cruise next year. We're on the 5-10-14 western sailing

Hey there! Thanks for reading - glad you enjoyed it! The Fantasy is really a lovely ship and for all that we spent so much time on it in October there are still areas that we need to explore.

And yes ... we are booked on 5/10/14! Sailing with some friends ... hope we get a chance to meet you!

 

[moet7]

Loved your report.
Hope you do another one for your May Western, as I'm doing an August Western that year.
If you don't mind saying.......How much was your bar bill????

 

[llnolte]

Brenda, thanks for such a great trip report. It was so engaging and informative. I obviously got on this kinda late but your in depth detail of the food and DRINKS was awesome. I have been telling my husband about it all morning long. He says that I have to make a list of all the different drinks you tried for our Fantasy cruise in June. You have set "the bar" for him . For me, well I would be flat on the floor after two drinks for the day. I'm such a wuss!!! We used to be from the St. Louis area-Illinois side, O'Fallon. We live out in Colorado now. Lisa

 

[pillow]

Loved your report! Can you tell me exactly what you order from room service on day 1? Your fruit/cheese plate looks much better than the one we received on the Dream in January.

Jodie

 

[Floridagram]

This post will be devoted entirely to our dinner at Remy the evening we departed St. Maarten (Pirate Night for anyone keeping track). I must apologize at the outset, however; we don't have a copy of the menu and the DCL website menu isn't an exact match for the items we ordered. I've got good pictures but poor descriptions, so please bear with me. If you have any questions about anything feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.

Jay and I were fortunate enough to dine at Remy last year on the Dream and it was an incredible evening with amazing food and service. While this dinner on the Fantasy provided equally amazing service and food, there were some subtle but noticeable differences that led me to declare our Dream Remy experience the gold standard of the two. I will delve into those differences at the end of this post, but wanted to set the table early.

Dinner at Remy costs $75 per person, and wine pairings are an additional $99 per person. Neither Jay nor I profess to be all that knowledgeable about wine - we know what we like and that's about it - but $200 for wine pairings is ridiculous. In our opinion guests are much better served by ordering a good bottle of wine with dinner; for example, last year on the Dream we ordered a fabulous bottle of Montrachet that only cost $130 and we were much happier with that than we would have been with the pairings.

This year we selected a bottle of champagne to enjoy with dinner; the previous day while finishing lunch the sommelier Florian helped us find a really nice bottle of bubbles: Bollinger La Grane Annee, 2000. This stuff was exceptional - so very drinkable and it paired amazingly well with everything we tried, which is the mark of a really fine champagne ... or so we've been told.

The price of dinner includes one complimentary champagne cocktail per guest - they call it the Colette, it includes Taittinger Champagne, Pear Vodka and alcoholic bits of fruit, and your server prepares it tableside. We were lucky enough to have Yannick as our server again and he was such fun and took lovely care of us. He even tried to help me with my atrocious Midwest French and I can now tell my dearest friends that I no longer pronounce foie gras as faaaaaaah graaaaaah but as fwahhhh grrrahhh. I hope they're proud of me.

Yannick prepares to make us a Colette

Champagne Cocktail? Don't mind if I do!

Dinner started with a wee gift from the chef: a breaded cube of tomato soup. I don't know how the soup ends up inside this flash-fried cube, but the taste is amazing. And I adore any pre-dinner treat that is delivered with the following warning from the wait staff: Please chew with your mouth closed or you will besquirt your dining partner.

Tomato soup embedded in a bread cube

We both received the same amuse bouche: Ratatouille with Olive Oil Ice Cream. I give this full marks for creativity but I'm not sure even now if I actually liked it. The ice cream was the best part of this offering - incredibly creamy with a hint of olive oil - but I didn't really think it added anything to the ratatouille.

Interesting

My first course was a scallop on some kind of vegetable puree. The scallop was lightly seared and so tender that I barely needed a fork to cut through it.

Scallop

And I'm pretty sure that Jay's first course was buffalo. And I think he liked it quite a bit.

Buffalo

My second course ... it looks like sailboat shrimp in slime. Whatever it's official name, it was tasty and I ate it all.

Shrimp ... I think

Jay's second course was obviously some kind of fish. The burning question that needs to be answered is this: was it turbot or loup de mer? Let's just call it excellent and move on.

Fish ... definitely fish

This next course was a reprise of something we were served at the champagne lunch on Monday: Sea Bass with Gnocchi Chili. It was delicious then and it was delicious Tuesday night; consistency thou art a jewel.

Sea Bass and Exquisite Gnocchi ... again

This next dish is something of a mystery ... I think it may be quail or pigeon. Your guess, as they say, is as good as mine!

I cry Fowl!

OK ... these next two are a complete mystery.

This is just confusing ... and a little menacing

Most likely more seafood

Whew! Now we return to something I can identify easily, me being from the Midwest. This is meat! Australian Wagyu, to be specific. While this was good, I prefer the way it's served at Victoria & Albert's where it's thinly sliced and so rare you can still smell its breath.

Beef ... it's what's for dinner

It was served with this garlic puree that had a fabulous quail egg nestled in the center - so so yummy! I love quail eggs, and if that doesn't brand me a food snob I don't know what will!

Garlic Puree and Quail Egg

What did Jay have? Pork tenderloin ... I think that's what this is. He loved it, and even tried eating the wee corn like corn on the cob. It was really quite funny.

Pork ... the other meat that's for dinner

Glazed Carrots

One of the best things about Remy, in my opinion, is the cheese cart. I love cheese. I actually would choose cheese over dessert any day of the week. Throw in some port with that cheese and I will be the happiest person you've never met. You may choose as few or as many cheeses from the cart as your heart desires - Jay and I asked that they make us a cheese plate to share so that we could try them all.

Cheese me!

Cheese plate!

Jay's dessert was the best of the night ... for one thing his came in two parts and for another, it just tasted a lot better. It included a dark chocolate mousse with a golf ball and really cool looking infused dessert caviar. And it came with a chocolate shooter in elderflower liqueur! Guess who had to ask to have one of her own to try? It was one of the best things I've never chewed in my whole life!

Chocolate Mousse and stuff

Dessert Shooter in Elderflower Liqueur ... six dozen to go, please!

My dessert was lame and boring in comparison ... and I don't really like hazelnut all that much either. The profiteroles were dried out and no amount of cream was going to make up for that.

Hazelnut Profiteroles ... meh

Once again, we were presented with sweets and such to finish off the evening; we asked for these to be packaged up so we could enjoy them later during the cruise.

Homemade Marshmallows and wee cakes

Candies ... yum!

Jay and I were the last two people to leave the restaurant that night ... along with Wendy and her mum who also were dining there. I begin to understand why we were so well suited to be dining partners this week!

Remy ... emptied out

All in all, a very nice evening but when comparing our dinner on the Dream to this one on the Fantasy we gave the nod to the Dream for a couple of reasons. First, we both liked the menu choices from the Dream a little more than those on the Fantasy. Secondly, and this will definitely seem stupid to some of you but it matters to me, the cheese selection on the Dream was more extensive than on the Fantasy. Most people don't care but I adore cheese and want as much artisan milk by-product that I can get my greedy hands on.

In addition, there were some extra special touches from dinner last year on the Dream that didn't manifest this year on the Fantasy. We didn't expect those things, but because they happened last year and colored our experience, it only stands to reason that evening stands out a bit more than this one.

Finally, the lack of a souvenir menu, which was provided last year at Remy on the Dream as well as this year at lunch, was a sad omission. But to be fair, neither one of us even thought about it until we were home trying to remember what the heck we'd eaten in the first place!

Remy remains a great deal for the price - you'd be hard pressed to find an experience like this one on land for less than $150 per person. The food is well prepared and beautifully plated and the service is exceptional. If it's in your travel budget and you enjoy fine dining I strongly urge you to give it a try - I don't think you will be disappointed!

We preferred Palo on the Magic to Palo on the Fantasy. We are going to try it again this year but the experience was so much more magical on the Magic.

Remy is not in our budget but you sure helped us feel the experience!

Great TR, I just found it today and I am so glad it is written so I don't have to wait for updates.

While I am posting I also wanted to tell you to do a search for traveltalkonline. Is is another forum with a lot of people who love st maarten. You can get so much information there to visit the island for a week. It is sort of like the DIS for the island.

We stayed there for a week and hope to go back again some day.

 

[camarks1234]

For my early afternoon drinking pleasure I ordered the Le Grand Bleu: Grey Goose Vodka, Grand Marnier; Blue Curacao; Taittinger Champagne, and freshly squeezed lime juice. AMAZING! This was my favorite Meridian drink of the week - great flavor and a real smack upside the head!

Love the TR! and I want this drink!

 

[oybolshoi]

Loved your report.
Hope you do another one for your May Western, as I'm doing an August Western that year.
If you don't mind saying.......How much was your bar bill????

Thanks for reading and happy to hear you enjoyed it! I may or may not write a report for that sailing ... depends on how busy I am with work and whether or not it feels like a trip worth writing about. Sometimes a cruise is just a cruise, ya know?

The bar bill ... that's a tough one to answer at this point. We each bought a skyline passport, so that would have been about $140 right there. If I had to guess (and that's all it is) if you rolled in the wine and champagne from dining at Remy and Palo plus the other drinks we actually paid for on the fly ... at least $500 for the week. Keep in mind there were a few freebies along the way. Always make friends with the bartender!

Brenda, thanks for such a great trip report. It was so engaging and informative. I obviously got on this kinda late but your in depth detail of the food and DRINKS was awesome. I have been telling my husband about it all morning long. He says that I have to make a list of all the different drinks you tried for our Fantasy cruise in June. You have set "the bar" for him . For me, well I would be flat on the floor after two drinks for the day. I'm such a wuss!!! We used to be from the St. Louis area-Illinois side, O'Fallon. We live out in Colorado now. Lisa

Hello there former metro-Stinktown residents! Thanks very much for reading and I'm happy you enjoyed it. Set the bar ... ... brilliant! I hope the information helps you plan your drink strategy for your cruise and I really hope you have a wonderful time. The Fantasy is a lovely ship and they offer a terrific alcoholic variety to choose from. My advice is to pace yourself, drink good quality alcohol, and keep sucking down the water.

Loved your report! Can you tell me exactly what you order from room service on day 1? Your fruit/cheese plate looks much better than the one we received on the Dream in January.

Jodie

Hi there! Thanks for reading along. The fruit and cheese platter is offered by DCL as one of their pre-ordered stateroom gifts. It's $38 and every time we have ordered it it's waiting in our cabin once the staterooms are open to guests on the day they board the ship. I usually call DCL about 1 month in advance to order it and that's it. We love it ... it's really become a tradition for us and it's way better than the one you get from room service.

Here's a link to the gifts / amenities information on DCL's website:

Order Me!

We preferred Palo on the Magic to Palo on the Fantasy. We are going to try it again this year but the experience was so much more magical on the Magic.

Remy is not in our budget but you sure helped us feel the experience!

Great TR, I just found it today and I am so glad it is written so I don't have to wait for updates.

While I am posting I also wanted to tell you to do a search for traveltalkonline. Is is another forum with a lot of people who love st maarten. You can get so much information there to visit the island for a week. It is sort of like the DIS for the island.

We stayed there for a week and hope to go back again some day.

Thanks very much for reading - glad you enjoyed it! It's funny how an experience in one restaurant on one ship can be so amazing and then the other, while equally good, is just missing a little something. Timing, I guess.

And thanks so much for the info on traveltalk ... we are definitely wanting to spend more than a few hours in St. Maarten and are working out a way to gt it into our plans to have a whole week there.

Love the TR! and I want this drink!

Hello and thanks! And as for that drink ... it was sooooo good!! Try it the next time you're on the Dream or the Fantasy!

 

[rentayenta]

Just read your report and loved it. Boozy, Bendy, awesome as usual. Love your hair (that's how long it's been) and you both look great.

 

[oybolshoi]

Just read your report and loved it. Boozy, Bendy, awesome as usual. Love your hair (that's how long it's been) and you both look great.

Hey stranger! How the heck have you been? It has been a long time ... just couldn't seem to find anything to write about until we sailed with a hurricane!

Thanks for the kind words ... and remind me why we haven't ended up on the same cruise?

 

[JKSWonder]

Love all the drink reviews. You have given me some great ideas of new things to try when we are on the Fantasy again next year!

 

[oybolshoi]

Love all the drink reviews. You have given me some great ideas of new things to try when we are on the Fantasy again next year!

always happy to be of assistance with drink suggestions! Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great time on your next cruise.

 

[podsnel]

Ok- I don't know what happened, but somehow I made it to the House of the Crystal rat and....that was it! Maybe I had enough of Sandy in NJ and I wasn't ready to relive her- even if it was on a Disney cruise! HA!

You both had the right attitude- so sad there were people raggin' on the CMs about CC- HUGE pet peeve of mine- the ENTITLED people. UGH- they are the WORST!!!

All of your meals and drinks looked excellent- I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of Ooh La La I get on my Dream cruise in a couple of weeks, though! I hope they don't still limit the Dream Mixology to 10 people- that is one I am hoping to take, but I will be getting to the port late (on the bus) this time, so hoping they will have room for me to still sign up when I get there.

We are on the Fantasy over NYE this year and definitely plan on Remy- thanks for sharing that luscious meal with us- really am looking forward to it!

Thanks Bendy, for another fabulously entertaining TR! Oh! In STJ, did anyone tell you you were at Honeymoon Beach when you (I mean Jay was) snorkeling? Very beautiful there- we spend lots of time on STJ- I hope you get to go back for longer next time, it is a beautiful island!

Say hi to the Gremlins!

 

[oybolshoi]

Ok- I don't know what happened, but somehow I made it to the House of the Crystal rat and....that was it! Maybe I had enough of Sandy in NJ and I wasn't ready to relive her- even if it was on a Disney cruise! HA!

You both had the right attitude- so sad there were people raggin' on the CMs about CC- HUGE pet peeve of mine- the ENTITLED people. UGH- they are the WORST!!!

All of your meals and drinks looked excellent- I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of Ooh La La I get on my Dream cruise in a couple of weeks, though! I hope they don't still limit the Dream Mixology to 10 people- that is one I am hoping to take, but I will be getting to the port late (on the bus) this time, so hoping they will have room for me to still sign up when I get there.

We are on the Fantasy over NYE this year and definitely plan on Remy- thanks for sharing that luscious meal with us- really am looking forward to it!

Thanks Bendy, for another fabulously entertaining TR! Oh! In STJ, did anyone tell you you were at Honeymoon Beach when you (I mean Jay was) snorkeling? Very beautiful there- we spend lots of time on STJ- I hope you get to go back for longer next time, it is a beautiful island!

Say hi to the Gremlins!

Thanks for coming back to finish it out - glad you enjoyed it! Enjoy Remy and all the other good stuff the ship has to offer!!