Fantasy, Western Caribbean Oct 12-19: Anniversary Celebration *COMPLETE*

[Sailorgirl32489]

I'm really enjoying your trip report, especially the pictures. I'm not much of a drinker, but that mixology class looks like fun! I hope you come back soon to add more.

Thanks! This was just the kick in the pants I needed to get motivated and write an update. I'll start working on one now!

 

[Sailorgirl32489]

Day 5, Cozumel

I had a hard time sleeping for some reason that night and woke up early. We were just pulling into Cozumel, so I went out on the verandah to watch the sunrise.

DH and I were diving in Cozumel, so once we got into the port area I headed inside and we started to pack up our dive gear. The dive crew met us right on the pier and checked out our dive certs and waiver forms. After that, we climbed down the side of the pier into the waiting dive boat. The ride over to the dive shop was about 20 minutes, but it felt like longer since the diesel fumes were pouring into the back of the boat.

We usually bring our own dive gear (BC, regulator, fins, etc) with us, and after seeing the rental gear available at this shop it underscored why I was glad that we do! One of the girls was using a rental BC and she happened to hook it up to her tank and check it out while we were still at the dock waiting for others to finish up. It was a good thing she did, it ended up having what sounded like a decent sized hole in it. As soon as she opened the valve, the air just start hissing out and she had to run back into the shop and swap it out.

I’d read online before our trip that the current in Cozumel could be pretty strong. I’ve grown up in Florida scuba diving in the Atlantic and am used to the current there, so I thought it couldn’t be too bad in Cozumel…. Boy was I wrong!!!! Do not underestimate just how strong they can be in the area. I spent most of my air trying to fight the current to stay close to DH since he was my dive buddy and then we had a hard time following the guide.

Our first dive of the day was at Paradise Reef. We bottomed out at 61 feet with an average depth of 44 feet. The current at this site was absolutely HORRENDOUS!

Our second dive was at San Francisco. We bottomed out on our dive at 45 feet with an average of 34 feet. The current was a lot slower here and actually made for an enjoyable drift dive where you could actually enjoy the sites and you floated along.

When we came up from the dive, they told us we had drifted nearly a mile and a half. In the time we were under, apparently the Carnival Imagination had arrived into port…. It was a little surprising when we surfaced, lol!

Overall, we weren’t as impressed with the dive shop in Cozumel as we were in Grand Cayman. In Grand Cayman, the dive crew was really good about explaining the dive site and laying out a dive plan that we were to dive as we followed our guides. They even threw a spare regulator over and had it weighted so it hung at 15 feet for an emergency decompression stop if someone had issues with their own gear. In Cozumel though, there was no dive plan laid out and it was more careless. After our second dive, we made it about halfway back to the Fantasy before one of the crew members did a head count of all the divers. He got a worried look on his face, turned to one of his buddies and they both recounted and got the same (I assume correct number) and we kept going. Glad no one got left!

Once we got back to the ship, we changed and got ready for Pirates IN the Caribbean! We went early before dinner to get a picture with Capt’n Jack Sparrow, but apparently in wasn’t early enough! We waited in line until as long as we could, but we didn’t want to make our tablemates wait for us so we had to duck out and got to dinner only about 5 minutes late.

After dinner, I really wanted a picture with Pirate Mickey so we learned our lesson and got there really early.

We watched the fireworks from the Satellite Falls area, which was nice because it was less crowded. The downside though was that we weren’t able to see any of the show portion before the fireworks. Next time I want to try and get there early and scope out a spot to watch the show.

 

[PixieDustandEeyore]

great updates

 

[mtchurchmonica]

I can relate to what your saying about diving in Grand Cayman versus Cozumel. We've had some "interesting" experiences in Cozumel. One time, the captain who was going to take us out decided-wisely-that the seas were we were going to dive were too rough. He told dh about a place close to the port where it was safer to dive. The "shop" was actually a bar. The bar had an outdoor extension with lockers and snorkel and scuba equipment, but if we weren't told how to find this place, we would have never known it was a dive shop. Dh approached that part of the bar and asked about diving. The woman at the counter yelled to the bartender who yelled over to someone further inside the bar to ask who wanted to take dh out diving. (I had lost interest in diving at this point). The man who came out of the bar to dive with dh might have been the shop owner, I'm not sure. He asked dh if he knew how to scuba dive. Dh said he did. The woman supervising the snorkeling gear reminded the man to ask dh if he had a PADI card or a dive log. The man said something to the effect of , "I'll know soon enough if he knows what he's doing". Dh paid him, they suited up, and off they went.

 

[Sailorgirl32489]

Day 6, Sea Day

For the most part, we spent the Sea Day being lazy and just relaxed…. So there aren’t many details for this day unfortunately! We wanted to try a sit down lunch at some point during the cruise, so we made our way our to Royal Court. DH ordered the Cajun-spiced mahi mahi sandwich and I ordered the angus chuck burger. Both of them were pretty tasty. The assistant waiter we had for lunch was really nice and kept showing us little riddles and puzzles that were pretty fun, I wish I had remembered his name!

We had started a Midship Detective Agency game earlier in the week and spent the rest of the afternoon working on that and exploring more of the ship. We also used the day to enjoy the hot tub and pool in the Cove.

Our dinner that night was the Captain’s Gala and we were back in Royal Court. I have to admit, I wasn’t a big fan of this menu. I ended up with the fettuccine and parmesan crusted chicken which turned out to not be half bad. While the main menu may have been lackluster with my taste buds…. The dessert more than made up for it! I enjoyed the lava cake immensely and even forgot to take a picture until after I had devoured most of it!

 

[Sailorgirl32489]

The woman supervising the snorkeling gear reminded the man to ask dh if he had a PADI card or a dive log. The man said something to the effect of , "I'll know soon enough if he knows what he's doing". Dh paid him, they suited up, and off they went.

Wow... that's certainly interesting to say the least. Sadly, this is how a lot of diving accidents happen. I'm not sure if we head back to Cozumel again if we'd attempt diving again. I might be more inclined to lay on the beach with my toes in the sand.... DH on the other hand might want something adventurous... so we shall see, lol!

 

[mtchurchmonica]

Wow... that's certainly interesting to say the least. Sadly, this is how a lot of diving accidents happen. I'm not sure if we head back to Cozumel again if we'd attempt diving again. I might be more inclined to lay on the beach with my toes in the sand.... DH on the other hand might want something adventurous... so we shall see, lol!

We've dived with better outfits in Cozumel. Don't throw in the towel yet. One year, we did a dune buggy tour that included snorkeling, lunch and the obligatory stop at the souvenir shop. That was pretty adventurous. Dh did all the dune buggy driving which included downtown, open road and "jungle" driving. I highly recommend it but book it online ahead of time.

 

[DisneYE]

very nice TR ...thanks for taking the time to write it and share pics.
I think it was awesome you guys did a full on dress up for pirate night..very cool of you..

 

[Sailorgirl32489]

We've dived with better outfits in Cozumel. Don't throw in the towel yet. One year, we did a dune buggy tour that included snorkeling, lunch and the obligatory stop at the souvenir shop. That was pretty adventurous. Dh did all the dune buggy driving which included downtown, open road and "jungle" driving. I highly recommend it but book it online ahead of time.

Ok, I won't throw in the towel just yet. The dune buggy one sounds fun! I'm going to have to look into that next time we head back.

very nice TR ...thanks for taking the time to write it and share pics.
I think it was awesome you guys did a full on dress up for pirate night..very cool of you..

Thank you! DH and I were both excited for Pirate night, so he was a good sport and dressed up with me. (We do a lot of the runDisney events and he's been nice enough to dress up for those with me..... think Beast, Hook, etc.... so walking around the ship was nothing compared to running 13.1 miles in some of the gittups I've put together!)

 

[Sailorgirl32489]

Day 7, Castaway Cay

Since the ship backs into Castaway, we had the perfect vantage point from the aft facing balcony. Before they let any of the guests off the ship, there was this organized chaos on the dock. Busy work bees appeared en mass and started unloading food, goods, and other items we’d need for the day. Trucks they had stashed away out of sight on the island came rolling in, were loaded up in the blink of an eye, and were on their way to make their deliveries. Cast members started pouring out of the ship and were catching the tram or golf cart rides out to their post on the island. It seemed like it was no longer than 10 minutes before everything disappeared again and that they started unfolding the tents and setting out the towels, etc to prepare for guest to disembark. When we saw that they were close to letting passengers off, we ran up to Cabanas to grab a quick bite to eat before heading off for a relaxing day in Paradise.

We skipped the first tram stop as one had just left and we didn’t want to wait. Instead, we planned to walk to the second stop near She Sells and catch the one out to Serenity Bay. Along the way we spotted Pelican Plunge and took a quick detour to take a ride down the slide. We hopped in the water to swim out and it was still early and the water was COLD! I braved it out, but DH turned back to shore and waited for me. After that, we caught the second tram over to Serenity Bay and found two nice lounge chairs under an umbrella.

Ahh, this is the life! Konk Kooler in a beautiful setting and a non-crowded beach. We laid around on the beach for a little bit until we got warm and decided to grab our masks, snorkels, and fins and do a little snorkeling.

We headed back to shore for lunch and shortly after, Capt’n Jack was kind enough to pay us a visit!

One of the couples we were lucky enough to be paired with at dinner had joined us at Serenity Bay. We were all getting a little toasty on the beach and decided we wanted to check out the observation tower. We took the tram back to She Sells, and then walked out to the tower. It seemed like a good idea when we started, lol. But there isn’t a lot of shade on the runway or the path they cut through the woods out to the tower. It was really, really hot and the loop to the tower seemed like it went on forever! We were passed by a lot of bicyclists which definitely seems like the way to go next time! The views were really nice and ended up being worth it – plus we were able to enjoy some nice conversations with our tablemates.

After that, we all decided we’d had enough sun and headed back to the ship and stopped for a few pictures along the way. Once we got back, we decided to ride the aquaduck a few times and relax in the hot tub in the Cove before getting ready for dinner.

We were back in Animator’s Palate again for our last dinner. Going back the second time, I noticed a lot more of the attention to detail that Disney puts into everything.

We were sad to head back to the room and start packing up our bags – we had such an amazing time, we didn’t want it to end. When we got to the room, we noticed something on our fish hook, and opened it up to find the staff from the art gallery had given us a Magical Moment! Coming back to that took a little bit of the sadness away from packing up. Plus, we heard from of the CMs in the shop that the Magic was going to be in Port in the morning when we arrived so we had that to look forward to!

 

[Sailorgirl32489]

Day 8, Debarkation

I couldn’t sleep at all that night since the CM had told us we would be passing the newly reimagined Magic on the way to the main Disney terminal. The rumor had been that they were going to move it up to one of the terminals near Victory casino and jetty park, so I wanted to make sure I caught a glimpse on the way in. I hopped out of bed around the same time I heard the thrusters kick in as we waited to pick up our pilot and I quietly slipped out to the balcony as to not wake DH who was still sleeping.

As we came into port, I was getting a bit disappointed as I didn’t see the Magic were she was rumored to be. As it turns out, they instead had moved her only one slip away from DCL’s and she was tied up at the RCl spot.

As we passed her in the night, there were a lot of flashes coming from her decks. I guess the crew on the Magic was just as excited to see us, as the CMs on board as well as the contractors working on finishing the changes had filled in the decks and were taking pictures of us as we passed. You could tell they were really pushing to finish up – half of the decks were lit up like a Christmas tree around 4 in the morning and you could hear sounds of them working.

After we docked, I went back inside and laid down for a bit until it was time to disembark. I flipped the TV on to the channel that shows the bow cam as we gathered the last our of luggage…. Definitely a nice view. As we headed off the ship, I think it’s safe to say that our future was sealed…. We LOVED DCL and it’s going to be hard to get us on one of the other lines now.