Just the two of us! (Need I say anything more?) Our Fantasy & Dream trip~many photos

[shadowryter]

December 5th…so this is Grand Turks!

We slept in this morning since nothing was really planned until 5 pm for another meet to reveal our Secret Mickey’s. Dan and I just took our time but then a message came over the speakers in the hallway looking for a gentlemen to join the rest of his family. This message started in the common areas, then in the hallways, finally repeating in the staterooms, each message the same and the tone sounding more urgent. When we left our room we heard that we were stopping at Grand Turks for yet another emergency. We went up to deck 12 and watched as we slowly pulled in to the same island as we previously did just a couple of days ago.
View from our porthole

To think we could have been closer to this had I not agreed to switch rooms when DCL asked. Hey...we got a $25 OBC. whoop!
Grand Turks

I don’t know what kind of emergency it was but a family of seven disembarked via lifeboat to the island where the ill person would be airlifted to the nearest hospital. Dan ordered us a drink as I took some shots of this different port of call I had to wonder. What exactly is there to see at Grand Turks? Just my opinion. Oh well and some others. Soon we were headed back on course to Castaway Cay, leaving the Fantasy shy one family. So sad.
Dan surprised me so I don't know what it was...but it was good!

I think it was a Captains MaiTai and a Banana something. Lol!
Someone was there

Life boat returning

Since we were on deck 12 we decided to travel one deck down and try out Cabanas for lunch. They had the usual smorgasbord buffet with lots of things to choose from. Dan and I had similar plates so I just snapped a quick photo of my own.
Lots to choose from

Freshly carved corned beef…with horseradish and Parsnip puree soup…very good

A few desserts…shared by two

Sticky toffee bread pudding…Not a pretty looking dish but I could have easily gone back for seconds!

With lunch out of the way we decided to try our luck at the Future Sailing desk. We waited barely two minutes and were soon booking our next cruise. We chose another Western Caribbean but this time on the Magic and booked around the same time as this one and in a dreaded forward room. The itinerary was a bit different because instead of Cozumel we would we headed to Falmouth Jamaica. Something different and now we can say we have sailed all four Disney ships.

Continued Next Post...

 

[shadowryter]

We returned to our room to find more Fe goodies so I arranged them on the bed and took a shot. At this point I began packing a few more things that I knew we wouldn’t be using while Dan watched some TV. Later we took a walk and ended up at the Cove Café and another amazing latte! We hung around for a while and then returned to our room. We asked our stateroom hostess to refill our ice bucket so we could chill our ignored bottle of Asti and slowly enjoyed it while watching Pirates on the tube and getting ready for dinner at Animator’s Palate.
FE goodies

Latte and snack

Dressed in our semi-formal attire we saw Kris and Larry as soon as we approached out table. They were busy crating their works of art for the Animation Magic Show and soon we were right behind them with crayon in hand. With our art projects collected it was time to have another enjoyable meal and wait for the show.
Sour Dough bread with Roasted Red Pepper Dip


AP Menu

Tuxedo…Sparkling wine, Ketel One Vodka and Chambord

Appetizer Trio…This was a new combination and I’m not sure what the first one was. I want to say Duck breast, prosciutto and cranberries, mini buffalo salad and shrimp with Aioli sauce. This was very good. Also the Popcorn soup is no longer on the menu.

Wild Forest Mushroom soup…now on the kids menu. Ask and you shall receive.

Oven-baked Lobster Tail…served in the shell with lemon butter, bean casserole, and saffron rice

Larry took a picture of me taking a picture of my food I did the same
Larry and his camera

While we were finishing up our entrees the Animation Magic Show began. The show is always cute and it was fun to see our drawings come to life on the screens around us.
Our drawings come to life!

Created by:

The perfect finish…dessert!
Banana Crème Brulee…with caramelized bananas. I missed out on this on our Remy night. So I asked for it.

Our night ended with a celebration and a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday to Dan along with a special dessert and pin for the occasion. Dan took his dessert to go and we were greeted by this big fellow.

Throw snake

Dessert for breakfast

Our stateroom hostess put my rose in a vase


Next…Castaway Cay but a lazy day onboard for us!

 

[Tinkermom3]

Awesome trip report! We hit 90 days tonight at midnight (11pm for us here in the central time zone) for our first Fantasy cruise. It will be just DH and I for our 25th wedding anniversary. Hoping to book Remy tonight. Soooo excited and your trip report and amazing photos are getting me even more excited!

 

[tokyodisneydad]

Great update about Remys. The information and pictures are tempting me to try it next time. But as u will see in my TR when I get to that point... Palos made me a nervous wreck. I don't know if I could handle Remys.

 

[Linda67]

Lovely update from Remy's and AP
Shame that the sommelier in Remy wasn't very helpful

 

[shadowryter]

Awesome trip report! We hit 90 days tonight at midnight (11pm for us here in the central time zone) for our first Fantasy cruise. It will be just DH and I for our 25th wedding anniversary. Hoping to book Remy tonight. Soooo excited and your trip report and amazing photos are getting me even more excited!

Remy is such a wonderful experience and so special for an anniversary celebration. I hope you got your ressies. It's a litttle pricey but so well worth it.

Great update about Remys. The information and pictures are tempting me to try it next time. But as u will see in my TR when I get to that point... Palos made me a nervous wreck. I don't know if I could handle Remys.

I will have to check out your TR. I was nervous too but my fears were rested as we dined.

Lovely update from Remy's and AP
Shame that the sommelier in Remy wasn't very helpful

Thank you. Maybe I should have said something. If the occasion ever arises again I will.

 

[shadowryter]

December 6th…our last whole day!

By the time Dan and I woke we were nearing Castaway Cay. We had made up our minds earlier that since we were taking two cruises almost back to back that we would choose one of them to stay onboard when we docked at CC and this was the day. We got ready and headed on down to breakfast at the Royal Court. Me of course stopping at every photo op I happened upon so you will see a lot of photo’s on this portion of my TR.
Here we go…Shots before breakfast
Side entrance of Walt Disney theater

Sitting Area

Fantasy Christmas Tree

Breakfast
Coffee, juice and a pastry to start the morning

Dan had an Omelet which was packed with yummy things and came with sausage, bacon and hash brown and I had the Whipped Tres Leches Stuffed French toast…so rich. I guess the slice of watermelon made it more diet friendly. Lol! Extra bacon, compliments of Dan.

Shots after breakfast

Pulling into Castaway Cay

We went back to our room to already fine our luggage tags and customs form. Our 7 days were coming to an end. I grabbed a few more pictures and then gasp… put on my swimsuit and headed to the Quiet Cove Pool. I must say that it was indeed quiet. It felt like we were the only ones on the ship until we ran into maybe a ½ dozen or so people. Everyone was leaving for Castaway Cay and who could blame them. It was a picture perfect day but for us…well we wanted some alone time. Who knew we would get it. Dan and I spent the morning at the pool and the hot tub. We were all alone, ordered a drink and just plain relaxed. It was great. Sorry though, no pictures. I chose to leave my camera in our stateroom and just enjoy!

I think our stomachs called to us eventually so we went back to our room to freshen up and then back down to Flo’s for something to eat. What I forgot to mention though was that at the very beginning of our sailing on the second night we ran into Andrea, our server from last year’s cruise. Imagine my surprise when she ran up to us and gave us a big hug and kissed Dan on the cheek. How nice that she remembered us after all the people she must see throughout the year. Maybe we were memorable. Either way we ran into her day after day and Flo’s was no exception.

Continued next post...

 

[shadowryter]

More shots before lunch

Lunch at Flo’s
Yep…Andrea serving up some Chili and Corn Bread. She really piled it on too, lots of extra sour cream…Lol! Special of the day!

Sweet Cream Cheese Pretzels…so good with melted butter and cinnamon.
Yes…just like WDW!

Nice quiet place to sit

After lunch it was time to take pictures of a really empty ship! This may take a few posts. Let me know if there’s too many. Lol!
I mean how many pictures of the Atrium can one really take???


To be continued...

 

[Linda67]

It must have been lovely to virtually have the ship to yourselves, especially as you knew you were soon heading back to CC

I did not know that you could get cream cheese pretzels on board - I love those things

The more photos the better in my opinion

 

[ginnenern]

Hi! Joining in and enjoying your trip report.! I actually found this because I was searching for "shadowryter". Why? you ask? You created our magnets for our last two cruises. Thanks again! Are you still creating your designs?

 

[ibouncetoo]

Loving your trip report! Don't you love the Cat 8 cabins? Between the DREAM and the FANTASY, I've stayed in them three times....LOVE the round tub with the seat. I've always stayed aft in those, mostly because aft is closer to the adult beverage distribution center...LOL!

As an original member I was tickled PINK to see another Champagne Girls meet up! (Did you know the first one was on the westbound Panama Canal cruise in 2008 on the Wonder?)

Looking forward to reading about your adventure on the DREAM.

 

[bellenbuzz]

Loving all the magical pix !!

 

[nittanyliongirl02]

Subscribing! Hoping to talk DH into a cruise this fall!

Oh, and btw…I make my DH "guard" me when taking pictures so that no one runs me over!

 

[shadowryter]

It must have been lovely to virtually have the ship to yourselves, especially as you knew you were soon heading back to CC

I did not know that you could get cream cheese pretzels on board - I love those things

The more photos the better in my opinion

Thank you. I loved being on a nearly empty ship. So many photo ops. Those pretzels were amazing!!! Glad you like my photos, I have so many more.

Hi! Joining in and enjoying your trip report.! I actually found this because I was searching for "shadowryter". Why? you ask? You created our magnets for our last two cruises. Thanks again! Are you still creating your designs?

Thanks for reading. I'm still designing but only through pm and email.

Loving your trip report! Don't you love the Cat 8 cabins? Between the DREAM and the FANTASY, I've stayed in them three times....LOVE the round tub with the seat. I've always stayed aft in those, mostly because aft is closer to the adult beverage distribution center...LOL!

As an original member I was tickled PINK to see another Champagne Girls meet up! (Did you know the first one was on the westbound Panama Canal cruise in 2008 on the Wonder?)

Looking forward to reading about your adventure on the DREAM.

I really did love our cabin. The round tub and the rain forest shower head was unbelievable. Not so sure about forward though. I really enjoyed our PINK meet. I think it is a cool tradition that needs to be carried on. I'm hoping to convince the ladies on my next cruise to try this. Wish me luck.

Loving all the magical pix !!

Subscribing! Hoping to talk DH into a cruise this fall!

Oh, and btw…I make my DH "guard" me when taking pictures so that no one runs me over!

 

[shadowryter]

Ok...now where was I?

Moving to Animator’s Palate

Closed Enchanted Garden

D Lounge

Europa

La Piazza

O’Gills

Skyline

 

[shadowryter]

Evolution

Ooh La La

Back to D Lounge

We found a chair for two over by the hot tub, ordered a drink and relaxed. I’m not sure how long we were there but soon we felt the ship move and we were leaving Castaway Cay. We never budged and just stayed there enjoying the light sea breeze until the sun actually started to set. Then we went for a walk around the now darkened ship and you guessed it, more pictures before going down to our stateroom to get ready for our last dinner on the Fantasy at the Enchanted Garden.
Sunset on the ocean

Fantasy by night

We met up with Kris and Larry at the Enchanted Garden and enjoyed another great meal with our table mates and new friends. It was hard to believe that this was it. Our Fantasy cruise was coming to an end.
Six-Grain Country Bread…caramelized onions and sun-dried tomato dip...oops...forgot the bread???

Dungeness Crab Meat Stuffed Tomato…filled with crabmeat salad, shredded red onion, topped with Fontina cheese and garlic-herb drizzle

Grilled Potato and Goat Cheese Napoleon…with Balsamic-basil vinaigrette

Lobster and Crawfish Bisque

Seafood Linguini Pasta…lobster, scallops, shrimp, clams and asparagus with a white wine sauce

Roasted Filet of Beef Wellington…covered with mushroom stuffing wrapped in puff pastry served with Fingerling potatoes, baby vegetables and a Cabernet black truffle jus

Cappuccino Mousse…coffee infused light chocolate mousse with a dash of cinnamon (no-added sugar dessert)

Deep Dish Apple-Cranberry Crumble…served warm with vanilla ice cream

 

[shadowryter]

When dinner was over I requested that we all have our picture taken together. We all stood by the Mickey fountain and had a great group shot taken. We said our goodbyes to Kris and Larry because they were going to Cabanas for a quick breakfast before disembarkation and we were skipping breakfast because we were headed back to Disney World and wanted to get in as much time as possible in that one day.
New Friends

When we returned to our room we found a large towel flower laying across our bed and I decided to get the whole gang together sans the throw lobster due the fact that it was now a snake. Our luggage was taken as we were leaving for dinner and I packed smart this time saving out travel products not to mention the toiletries that were in our stateroom. Our carry-ons were packed to the limit and I just needed to squeeze a few articles of clothing and pj’s into the bag before leaving.

How cool are these!

One last shot of my beautiful rose…I guess I could have taken it…


Coming up…Off to Disney World again and an unexpected surprise

 

[ShellB8585]

Loving the TR and your photos look fantastic!! Can I ask what camera you use please? I need a new one and i love the pics you have taken.

thanks so much for taking the time to write this TR

 

[shadowryter]

Loving the TR and your photos look fantastic!! Can I ask what camera you use please? I need a new one and i love the pics you have taken.

thanks so much for taking the time to write this TR

Thank you. My camera is not anything special but I've been using it for the past two years and you've seen the results. Some are great...some not so much. I use a Fuji Finepx HS20. Handles like a DSLR but is far from it. Lot's of bells and whistles which I am still learning but I've been pretty happy with it. I hope to upgrade to a Canon or Nikon in the future but for now this will do.

 

[KarrieBeth]

We are on cruising on the Fantasy in April and are enjoying your trip report!