Just got off the fantasy

[luvdisney24]

Just got off the same cruise. I found the weather was perfect all week except Friday, Castaway Cay day. I have the tAn to prove it. . Very appreciative that the Captain gave it a second shot to get to CC in the afternoon. Over all a great cruise. Just sad for that little boy.

 

[MND]

Western. And sitting at the airport to go home.

Great time. Weather wasn't beautiful
Everyday. Didn't get to castaway until 2:30 and had to leave at 5:30.

Any questions?

I was on the cruise as well. Weather was only an issue on Friday morning. Otherwise, I thought the weather was great. Not too hot, but there was plenty of sunshine.

Crew did a great job setting up Castway Cay for such a short stop.

More to follow.

Mike

 

[Scillycruisers]

I booked an 11B GTY on the Fantasy for this October. I am a little apprehensive going to a bigger ship as our only experience was the Magic which seemed to be the perfect size for our family.

How was the magical porthole? Do you have children? Did they really get into it? What do you see at night through the magic porthole?

If you close the privacy curtain can you swing the TV behind the curtain so you can watch from bed? Our kids will go to be before us (sleeping on sofa and pull down) so I'm hoping to be able to watch tv.

How full was your sailing? Our TA just told me our ship is almost at capacity. Did you have a hard time getting seats at the pool? What about the shows at night? I've read here that you need to be there about an hour in advance if you want to sit with your family.

Thank you for your insight.

We have been on both and loved both.

Our sailing must have been close to full.

Fantasy is bigger and there are more people, but there are also more things to do. DS particularly loved the Goofy Golf (and we never had to queue to play) and he did the detective agency game 5 times! We rode the aquaduck before going ashore on a port day so no wait at all, and he loved the Aqua Lab which was also not busy, so not bothered that the pools were busy. And yes, the pools were busy, that said when DS went in there was always space on the side for one of us to sit and watch and at least a couple of chairs available for the rest of us to share.

Turned up at the theatre usually about 25 mins before show and always got seats together - there were 5 of us. Did have to ignore a couple of people who were trying to reserve whole rows to do this!!! So if you need a whole row, you will need to get their earlier!

Found the bars with the family shows on very busy, they had to put on a video feed to another bar for some of these. But these bars are quite small so if you want to see any of these earlier is best.

Don't know re magical porthole as we had a veranda.

Yes, the TV swings out so can put outside the curtain when it is closed.

 

[luvdisney24]

We would walk into the show a few minutes before show time and never had trouble finding seats together.

Don't plan on watching too much TV unless you're into the sports and/or news: CNBC, BBC, FOX News, ESPN etc. They did also have ABC but it hardly ever worked.

 

[srauchbauer]

wondering if they did anything special for Easter: easter dinner, characters in different customes, etc

 

[luvdisney24]

wondering if they did anything special for Easter: easter dinner, characters in different customes, etc

They delivered small bags of Easter candy to the kids and small display outside of the dining room with candy to take. That was all that I saw.

They did have services. Catholic mass everyday including Easter Sunday and two other services on Sunday too.

 

[Susiesark]

I was on the cruise as well. Weather was only an issue on Friday morning. Otherwise, I thought the weather was great. Not too hot, but there was plenty of sunshine.

Crew did a great job setting up Castway Cay for such a short stop.

More to follow.

Mike

Did they have the big BBQ waiting for you? The food is so good!!

 

[I❤MICKEY]

We would walk into the show a few minutes before show time and never had trouble finding seats together.

Don't plan on watching too much TV unless you're into the sports and/or news: CNBC, BBC, FOX News, ESPN etc. They did also have ABC but it hardly ever worked.

We primarily watched the movie channels last time (Pixar Movie, Classic Disney Movie, Disney Movies and new releases). Are these channels available on the Fantasy? If they are we will be all set.

 

[Itinkso]

We primarily watched the movie channels last time (Pixar Movie, Classic Disney Movie, Disney Movies and new releases). Are these channels available on the Fantasy? If they are we will be all set.

Yes they are! And the movie channel functions as a DVR. We were able to pause the movies and then watch them later when we returned to our stateroom!

 

[wwwosie]

We are on the Fantasy Eastern, sailing June 1st. Our DIS group is looking for a place to have a meet and greet just before the muster drill. Can you recommend a place that we could hang out for about 30 minutes?
Were thinking perhaps D Lounge....

My family is on this sailor too!

 

[lbgraves]

We are on the Fantasy Eastern, sailing June 1st. Our DIS group is looking for a place to have a meet and greet just before the muster drill. Can you recommend a place that we could hang out for about 30 minutes?
Were thinking perhaps D Lounge....

We met on Deck 11 starboard side by the Donald pool on the 3/23/13 cruise. This worked for our group.

 

[Itinkso]

We are on the Fantasy Eastern, sailing June 1st. Our DIS group is looking for a place to have a meet and greet just before the muster drill. Can you recommend a place that we could hang out for about 30 minutes?
Were thinking perhaps D Lounge....

On our cruise in September, all of the lounges were open and empty on embarkation day. I think the only one with a bartender was O'Gill's. Skyline or the British lounge - can't recall the name - would be nice, quiet places to meet.
DD and I saw the DIS cruise meet taking place in the Atrium at the Grand staircase.

 

[MND]

Did they have the big BBQ waiting for you? The food is so good!!

No. Clayton the cruise director announced that because of the short amount of time at Castway Cay, there would be no food service. However, they did have snacks set up at Cookies (chips, fruit, cookies, sandwiches). Crew members ran off the ship to get things set up.

Cabanas did serve bbq ribs for lunch that day.

With just a short amount of time at Castway Cay, I would have been content with a day at sea; however, my wife loves Castway Cay, so even 2.5 hours on the island, made her happy.

Mike

 

[btjhayes]

Someone on our meet thread called Disney and they reserved D Lounge for our meet and greet. I was shocked they would do this but I highly recommend it! It was nice since we had a lot of families!

 

[axfather]

the cruise as a meeting place.

 

[hilarys]

Someone on our meet thread called Disney and they reserved D Lounge for our meet and greet. I was shocked they would do this but I highly recommend it! It was nice since we had a lot of families!

Was also on this sailing and D lounge was great - kids were able to play on the stage and started some great friendships that lasted all week.

Weather was great all week except for CC day. We did Nachi Coccum in Cozumel and would highly recommend it. Also did ruins tour in Costa Maya and liked that as well. We were with Dis friends so the kids were well occupied. DS 10 said it was his favorite excursion which is saying a lot as he loved Nachi.

We have previously sailed on the magic and wonder and the Fantasy blew us away. Only negative we saw were smaller pools and a few weird traffic flow issues. Th adult entertainment area was incredible (especially skyline lounge) as was Remy. Our service team and state room attendants were by far the best we have had on any cruise. My children were sobbing Friday night and Saturday morning when it came to an end.

The week started off with all of us very rattled and praying for the little boy, but in the end the wonderful Disney team did their best all week. We really appreciated that Captain Tom turned the ship around so we could get a few hours at Castaway.

 

[love280mickey]

My family was also on this cruise and had a great time, who could complain about anything at all after a boy almost drowns before the ship even leave the port? We prayed for him all week and thought of him and his family often.

We went to Royal Palms in Grand Cayman, food service at tables was incredibly slow and pricey, would not do again.

Loved Tropicante and you can't beat a one hour massage for 25 bucks- that day was definitely a keeper. Call Steve to reserve, he was awesome.

Also appreciated Captain Tom going back for the 3rd try and finding success on Castaway Cay, my favorite port of all.

12 turning 13 on cruise Daughter absolutely loved the Edge and can't wait to go to Vibe when she's old enough. Really would not recommend going "up" in age to the other levels. We heard a couple of 13-14 year olds were getting the cold shoulder from the kids in Vibe and came back to Edge and had a great time.

Definitely get a day pass for $16 for Rainforest, totally worth it and SO enjoyable.

Also, participate in your Dis cruise meet and FE, it was all a lot of fun.

 

[west&east]

My family was also on this cruise and we all absolutely loved it. The meet and greet on the first day was so great for both kids to meet in person the friends that they had begun to connect with online. It made a huge difference for my son and daughter each to meet those kids and make plans to meet up later in the kids club later. After that, they were off to the races for the best cruise ever.

I also was so impressed with our captain for getting us to CC. After making the announcement, sending out letters explaining the situation, and issuing new Navigators, I don't think anybody expected that we would actually go to CC for 3 hours. I think even the crew was surprised. It must have been a lot of work for them as well.

I plan on writing a full review over the next week. We upgraded the week prior to sailing to a cat V/ concierge level. We were totally spoiled with that experience. The ship overall did not disappoint and we cannot wait to return!

I'm happy to answer questions as well...

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

Someone on our meet thread called Disney and they reserved D Lounge for our meet and greet. I was shocked they would do this but I highly recommend it! It was nice since we had a lot of families!

We even had a cast member at the door for the first 10 or 15 minutes too. I honestly didn't even notice when she disappeared.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

My family is on this sailor too!

Are you in our group?