jfahome
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2009
Hello, I've never written a trip report, but having been on 6 DCL sailings..I figure it's time!
Family: DW, DH, DMIL, DD (8), DS (2). 2 connecting rooms
This makes our third Fantasy sailing and was just as nice as ever. We drove in Friday and picked up my MIL (Grandma) at MCO airport. Stayed at the Embassy near the airport..LOVE that hotel.
Day 1:
Saturday morning we woke early to drive to port. We had boarding time of 11:00-11:30. We arrived about 10:45 after dropping off our luggage, DH took the van to park at Park n Cruise. We've used them several times before and had great experiences (more on this later though). It took quite a long time for DH to get back to the port, again something we were not used to. Never the less, he arrived before our boarding number was called, we had boarding #4! They didn't start boarding till 11:30 I believe, Anyways it was a quick process. Saw characters in the terminal and time passed quickly.
We boarded the ship with the infamous family name announcement..love that of course! The first thing we wanted to do was check on our dining table mates and our server. We had met a family on our Dis Meet group and had requested to be seated with them and also we had requested our favorite server. Turns out you can't do this till early afternoon, so we decided to let the kids see the nursery/club/lab. We didn't get the wrist band for my DD until we boarded the ship. The lines for that in the terminal are WAY too long and it's not necessary. So the kids played for a short time and then we went to eat at Cabanas. Enjoyed that lunch and then it was time to check on dining details. I went to Royal Court which is where they handle changes and my DH went to Palo/Remy to see about moving a reservation. As usual, Disney had granted all our requests and it was all set in place accurately. We were very excited that it was completed and lots of moving around wasn't necessary.
We got into the rooms right at about 1:30 but when we got to our rooms we were very surprised! We had booked these rooms, but really didn't know exactly what to expect. We booked an 8A room (which I call a sideways room). We had rooms 6512 & 6514. 6512 was built as a handicap room, however, was never classified as one. It has a wide door as well as a shower with no tub. You could roll into it via a wheelchair if needed. It was oversized as well. Both of these rooms were HUGE! Much bigger than any of the rooms we've stayed previously. They both have 2 large portholes, couch, pull down couch and a large chair in corner. 6514 has 2 full-size closets and 6512 had 1 full and 1 half size closet. The only slight downfall on these rooms were they only had 3 draws in the whole room. There is plenty of space throughout the room to make up for that though. We had a pack n play up for my son and it was never taken down didn't need to be there was more than enough room for it! Our welcome backpack was waiting for us and later our Gold member gift arrived later in the day (if not the next day).
We unpacked a little and then it was time for life board drill and Sail Away party. Quick and easy drill and then we headed to Deck 12 port side to watch the sail away. We always watch from this point because we like to wave to the webcam at Fish Lips restaurant once we start moving. We all waved to the camera but our families didn't see us, however, it was determined later (after watching the archive video) that you COULD see us pretty cool!
After this we finished unpacking and then went to the early show. I know many people do not like the first night show, but I always enjoy it. I enjoy all the shows for that matter.
Dinner was at Royal Court and we were happy to meet up with our favorite server, Sergio from Montenegro. He's always so great with the kids and so informative about the best things to do and eat. We've had him now for 3 sailings. We also were excited to sit with our new friends that we met over the Dis Meet group. We saw them all over the ship, sat with them at shows and the girls had the best time together doing lots of fun things.
Now throughout the day we of course had many character greetings which is a favorite thing for us. We made it to as many greetings as possible throughout the cruise. This leading to the fact that we had already decided we wanted to buy the photo CD from Shutters. Fast forwarding to the end we bought the CD and left the ship with 315 prints. One of the photographers said it was the most she had seen for one family. I'm sure there have been more, but we felt we got our money's worth anyways.
We went to bed, excited for the princess gathering and the BBB tomorrow morning.
Family: DW, DH, DMIL, DD (8), DS (2). 2 connecting rooms
This makes our third Fantasy sailing and was just as nice as ever. We drove in Friday and picked up my MIL (Grandma) at MCO airport. Stayed at the Embassy near the airport..LOVE that hotel.
Day 1:
Saturday morning we woke early to drive to port. We had boarding time of 11:00-11:30. We arrived about 10:45 after dropping off our luggage, DH took the van to park at Park n Cruise. We've used them several times before and had great experiences (more on this later though). It took quite a long time for DH to get back to the port, again something we were not used to. Never the less, he arrived before our boarding number was called, we had boarding #4! They didn't start boarding till 11:30 I believe, Anyways it was a quick process. Saw characters in the terminal and time passed quickly.
We boarded the ship with the infamous family name announcement..love that of course! The first thing we wanted to do was check on our dining table mates and our server. We had met a family on our Dis Meet group and had requested to be seated with them and also we had requested our favorite server. Turns out you can't do this till early afternoon, so we decided to let the kids see the nursery/club/lab. We didn't get the wrist band for my DD until we boarded the ship. The lines for that in the terminal are WAY too long and it's not necessary. So the kids played for a short time and then we went to eat at Cabanas. Enjoyed that lunch and then it was time to check on dining details. I went to Royal Court which is where they handle changes and my DH went to Palo/Remy to see about moving a reservation. As usual, Disney had granted all our requests and it was all set in place accurately. We were very excited that it was completed and lots of moving around wasn't necessary.
We got into the rooms right at about 1:30 but when we got to our rooms we were very surprised! We had booked these rooms, but really didn't know exactly what to expect. We booked an 8A room (which I call a sideways room). We had rooms 6512 & 6514. 6512 was built as a handicap room, however, was never classified as one. It has a wide door as well as a shower with no tub. You could roll into it via a wheelchair if needed. It was oversized as well. Both of these rooms were HUGE! Much bigger than any of the rooms we've stayed previously. They both have 2 large portholes, couch, pull down couch and a large chair in corner. 6514 has 2 full-size closets and 6512 had 1 full and 1 half size closet. The only slight downfall on these rooms were they only had 3 draws in the whole room. There is plenty of space throughout the room to make up for that though. We had a pack n play up for my son and it was never taken down didn't need to be there was more than enough room for it! Our welcome backpack was waiting for us and later our Gold member gift arrived later in the day (if not the next day).
We unpacked a little and then it was time for life board drill and Sail Away party. Quick and easy drill and then we headed to Deck 12 port side to watch the sail away. We always watch from this point because we like to wave to the webcam at Fish Lips restaurant once we start moving. We all waved to the camera but our families didn't see us, however, it was determined later (after watching the archive video) that you COULD see us pretty cool!
After this we finished unpacking and then went to the early show. I know many people do not like the first night show, but I always enjoy it. I enjoy all the shows for that matter.
Dinner was at Royal Court and we were happy to meet up with our favorite server, Sergio from Montenegro. He's always so great with the kids and so informative about the best things to do and eat. We've had him now for 3 sailings. We also were excited to sit with our new friends that we met over the Dis Meet group. We saw them all over the ship, sat with them at shows and the girls had the best time together doing lots of fun things.
Now throughout the day we of course had many character greetings which is a favorite thing for us. We made it to as many greetings as possible throughout the cruise. This leading to the fact that we had already decided we wanted to buy the photo CD from Shutters. Fast forwarding to the end we bought the CD and left the ship with 315 prints. One of the photographers said it was the most she had seen for one family. I'm sure there have been more, but we felt we got our money's worth anyways.
We went to bed, excited for the princess gathering and the BBB tomorrow morning.
