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

[Scouter]

Originally Posted by cntkg1

I love being fought over.

B, great update! I loved the pics of you "captaining" the boat. There's just never a dull moment with you guys.

Love you both!

[mrkyyyle]

We did the couples treatment also and similar to you we enjoyed but weren't sure if we would do it again. We just told them when they kept trying to sell stuff to just write it all down on a piece of paper and we would think about it and buy it later if we wanted and that got them to quiet down haha

Oh and regarding the Remy menu, not a problem, I should be able to get a few pictures tonight!

[Couchy]

omg... finally found people who enjoy drinking on vaca as much as we do. it makes the trip.... can't wait to try some of these drinks you mention


the rest of the report is great too... its not all about the drinks

[disney1990]

Originally Posted by mrkyyyle

We did the couples treatment also and similar to you we enjoyed but weren't sure if we would do it again. We just told them when they kept trying to sell stuff to just write it all down on a piece of paper and we would think about it and buy it later if we wanted and that got them to quiet down haha

Oh and regarding the Remy menu, not a problem, I should be able to get a few pictures tonight!

To avoid this, you need to have them mark ahead of time that "you do not want any sales pitches".

[oybolshoi]

Originally Posted by wendym

Thank you for another great instalment! We were disappointed you didn't make dinner as we were forced to drink the bottle of Rosa Regale we took ourselves!

Thanks for reading along Wendy! I am so so sorry you and your mum had to drink that bottle without us ... I bet it was a hardship! Wish we'd been there because I know it would have been a good evening!

Originally Posted by Scouter

Never even met you yet, but I just love you!

Keep up the great work!

Thanks Rose! The feeling is mutual, btw, fellow Pepsi girl!

Originally Posted by Dixielady908

Great updates....you have me really thinking about doing Remy...it looked really good. Have to give it some serious thought.

Thanks very much! Remy is wonderful - I hope you decide to try it some day!

Originally Posted by Jennifer48

DH & I did the Couples Villa on our honeymoon and I have to agree, although it was a great experience, we wouldn't do it again, too pricey.

So smart!

Seems to be the general consensus on the couples villa. Definitely worth trying once but probably not a do-over. Thanks for reading along with us!

Originally Posted by cntkg1

I love being fought over.

B, great update! I loved the pics of you "captaining" the boat. There's just never a dull moment with you guys.

Thanks Nancy - glad you're enjoying since I really am doing this for you.

Originally Posted by ukintheus

Subbing to follow along.... How I missed a TR that has all the vital ingredients of food, booze, booze, booze...and naps is beyond me....but I'm here now. Loving it so far.

Welcome to the madness - thanks for joining! Sounds like we have the same cruising mindset!

Originally Posted by Amy7979

We had the same crew (or at least this guy) on this excursion while sailing on Carnival Miracle (I know, I know, we were onboard for a wedding) this past June. He was awesome!

I wish I could remember his name because he was a hoot. I especially enjoyed his t-shirt sales pitch / striptease ... it was good enough that we bought two shirts!

Originally Posted by Scouter

Love you both!

DITTO!

Originally Posted by mrkyyyle

We did the couples treatment also and similar to you we enjoyed but weren't sure if we would do it again. We just told them when they kept trying to sell stuff to just write it all down on a piece of paper and we would think about it and buy it later if we wanted and that got them to quiet down haha

Oh and regarding the Remy menu, not a problem, I should be able to get a few pictures tonight!

Thanks very much on the remy menu - really appreciate it. Those girls in the spa just don't know when to quit .... I wonder if someone holds their dinners back if they fail to sell a certain amount of product?

Originally Posted by Couchy

omg... finally found people who enjoy drinking on vaca as much as we do. it makes the trip.... can't wait to try some of these drinks you mention

the rest of the report is great too... its not all about the drinks

Hello and welcome to the madness! The drinks on the Fantasy were amazing ... so many great things to try and such variety. If you like to drink on vacation like we do then I think you will be very happy on your next cruise!

Originally Posted by disney1990

To avoid this, you need to have them mark ahead of time that "you do not want any sales pitches".

I know that I marked my sheet in advance but don't know if I reminded Jay to do so. But it still annoys me that anyone even needs to do that. I've been to a lot of spas over the years and have never been on the receiving end of a hard sell like the Steiner folks give on DCL. It's uncomfortable and annoying and unprofessional. All they have to do at the end is ask a guest if he / she is interested in any products and if the guest responds in the negative that should be the end of it. I actually love Elemis spa products but I'm on their mailing list and purchase at home with member discounts. The spa attendants in the villa still were pushing even after I told them that.

[cbg1027]

Just letting you know I've been quietly reading. Loving it as always!

[gopherlawyer]

Just read your TR. This is the perfect cruise. Thank you for sharing

[oybolshoi]

Originally Posted by cbg1027

Just letting you know I've been quietly reading. Loving it as always!

Hiya Abby! Thanks for reading along with us - I'm glad you've enjoyed it thus far!

Originally Posted by gopherlawyer

Just read your TR. This is the perfect cruise. Thank you for sharing

Hello and welcome! It was certainly the perfect cruise for us ... I'm sure there are some who wouldn't enjoy it but we had a blast! Thank you for reading and BTW ... I love your user name!

[Tink rules]

Just to one up Abby.. (she knows I love her...) I'm quietly stalking you too...

[oybolshoi]

Originally Posted by Tink rules

Just to one up Abby.. (she knows I love her...) I'm quietly stalking you too...

since when do you do anything quietly?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

[Tink rules]

& to think.. people used to say I was quiet and shy...

[oybolshoi]

After our initial disappointment about the Fantasy not being able to dock at Castaway Cay on Friday, Jay and I decided to be quite happy about two more full days at sea. As I may have mentioned previously, we love sea days for their lazy, directionless, candy-wrapper-floating-aimlessly-on-an-updraft kind of feel. We've been fortunate enough to visit Castaway Cay on three other cruises and while it is a lovely island, neither one of us are the kind of people who can spend an entire day hanging out on the beach. Eventually we get restless and start looking for alternate sources of entertainment ... bars get visited ... drinks are drunk ... balloons are popped ... sand castles crumble mysteriously ... hammocks are untied ... someone yells, "SHARK!!!"

Where was I?

Ahhh, that's right - two more days at sea!

As usual, we were up early that morning and pulled the curtains back to reveal this scene from our verandah:

I think I'm going back to bed


It was dark and stormy, and I do not mean the spicy rum-filled drink we enjoy so much. Jay and I decided to snuggle back into bed and catch up on some reading, which was a real treat for us both. When we awake to craptacular weather at home, going back to bed is not an option; instead tactical discussions ensue over coffee about morning traffic and the length of time it will take for us to reach work. It's never a good morning in Stinktown when the nasty side of weather shows its face.

But this .... oh, this was bliss! It was warm and cozy and quiet - and all we had to do was wait for a knock on the door announcing that breakfast had arrived. We placed a room service order the previous night and it showed up right on time brimming with fresh coffee, orange juice, breakfast pastries, and fruit.

While enjoying breakfast, Jay and I broke our cardinal cruise rule in an effort to get a better sense of the weather - we turned the television to a news station, settling on MSNBC due to their affiliation with The Weather Channel. I really wish that DCL included the weather channel in its broadcast lineup - it's a good way for guests who want to be informed about weather conditions to have a sense about what's happening without waiting for bridge announcements. And to be frank, the information provided by the senior staff about the weather situation was pretty scarce, both Thursday and Friday. I can understand why people were taken aback by the deteriorating weather conditions Thursday night into Friday and Friday night because there was precious little concrete information being shared. Unless they went looking for it, most cruisers probably had no clue that Sandy had morphed overnight on Thursday into a monster storm that DCL couldn't have done much to avoid.

Now, before anyone reading decides to set their hair on fire with a flaming condemnation of that last sentence, please bear with me for a moment. I am no Disney apologist and I certainly don't fart pixie dust and I am no romantic when it comes to the Walt Disney Company - they exist to make money. But they don't make money for long without maintaining their reputation for stellar customer service; maintenance of said reputation does not include purposefully sailing a cruise ship full of thousands of guests and crew into a mega-storm.

Counted among our many geeky interests is a fascination with the weather; no doubt this stems in part from living in tornado country - you don't spend the better part of your life living in an area that is prone to violent and changeable weather without learning to monitor atmospheric conditions. Thursday morning's hurricane update included the following information for anyone paying attention:

*Sandy was a strong Category 2 Hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph; tropical force winds extended out 140 miles from the eye.

*Sandy was NOT forecast to rapidly intensify in the 125 miles of ocean between Jamaica and Cuba.

*And yet, Sandy not only intensified in the 12-16 hours after DCL made its decision to sail north back to Port Canaveral, it expanded to enormous size with a circulation of about 1,500 miles. To put it another way, locations more than 700 miles away from the center of the storm were measuring Sandy-related atmospheric pressure drops and feeling Sandy-related winds.

People who know Jay and me well know that we are cynics of the highest order; we suspect everyone of ulterior motives, including our cat. But we both firmly believe that DCL made the best decisions they could with the most current information at hand in an extremely challenging and volatile situation. No one can predict how and when a "typical" hurricane may change and morph into something monstrous - and that is exactly what happened with Sandy.

"Wow," I said to Jay. "This thing is huge."

Jay turned off the TV. "Well, when the ship flips over in a rogue wave ala the Poseidon Adventure, we're staying with the purser!"



Of note: by Friday, October 26, Sandy's wind-field extended approximately 900 miles from the center of the storm. Think about how massive that is and then tell me where the heck the ship was supposed to go in order to evade Sandy. My understanding is that it's more dangerous to try to turn a ship in the middle of a storm than it is to sail through it; without an unlimited source of food and fuel, the only viable option remaining to the captain may well have been to continue on the original course set on late Wednesday afternoon when we left St. Thomas.

I don't mention these things to minimize anyone else's experiences during the final two days of the cruise - I feel very badly for folks who had to deal with motion sickness or had frightened children to reassure or who were themselves frightened. I am only trying to inject some factual weather information into a situation that, for many people, is highly colored by emotion. Jay and I were extremely fortunate in the location of our cabin and in our apparent indifference to the increasing size and motion of the waves. We were fascinated by the storm and managed to have a lot of fun on our final two cruise days. And I know that we weren't the only two people on the Fantasy having fun during our encounter with Sandy.

9AM from our verandah


It's swell


Once we were finished inhaling breakfast and compiling a list of storm related songs with which to annoy people, Jay and I decided to get a new badge from the Midship Detective Agency and unravel the Muppet's stolen show mystery. It's worth noting that you need a new badge for each mystery you want to solve - we encountered more than one confuzzled person during the morning who didn't realize that the badge used for one mystery game was registered only to that game.

Solving the mystery is not only tremendous fun but it's a great source of exercise because you must wander all over the ship in search of specific pieces of artwork in order to uncover clues. If you avoid using elevators, as we did, you will get an even better cardio workout; then once the mystery has been solved you, too, can justify having a lunch at 11AM that includes two mai tais, four wraps, three deli sandwiches, three paninis, two hotdogs, and a cheeseburger.

Don't ask me what Jay had for lunch; I wasn't paying attention.

I know this game is supposed to be for kids but they're not using it right now!


Beaker!


It just doesn't get old!


The Swedish Chef!


At certain points during the game you will be directed to the Muppet's Call Board outside the Walt Disney Theatre or Pepe's cabin on Deck 5; there are clues hidden within these props and we found it best to take pictures of them to refer back to later in the game.

Seems pretty self explanatory


Pepe's cabin!


We took this picture to provide a little perspective about the size of Pepe's cabin. I wish we'd paid better attention because Pepe left a note on his door with his phone number - we forgot to call him but have been assured by friends that it's worth your while to do so the next time you're on the Fantasy.

Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in a fairy tale?


After our early lunch we wandered up to Deck 13 to gauge the weather conditions and enjoy a little storm drama. Satellite Falls was closed for business and all the furniture was stacked and tied down; while the front section of the ship was still open, we were asked to leave by some safety officers and shortly thereafter the forward section of Deck 13 was closed to guests for the remainder of the cruise.

I would like to visit this area when the sun is out and the seas are calm


Deck 13, Forward; noonish on 10/25


It's a little windy today


From here we decided to play miniature golf on Goofy's Sports Deck - we were not alone in this somewhat questionable but ultimately fun enterprise. In retrospect, playing mini-golf in the middle of storm-force winds on the back-end of the ship presented some interesting and amusing challenges. I would also like to suggest that you don't place your feet in accordance with Goofy's instructions or you will lose ... badly.

It's silly but it's fun


Try not to send that ball over the railing, OK?


Victory!


Goofy Golf only offers seven holes to play, so once we completed the game Jay and I decided more drinks were in order - this time at Meridian. Although both Palo and Remy were offering brunch today, there were not many guests visiting the bar and we had the place to ourselves while Fletcher and his assistant prepared for a martini tasting at 1PM. He was a sweetheart and allowed us both to place an order, and even told us we could stay for the tasting since it was likely there would be some no-shows with the choppy weather. We passed on this invitation only because we had mixology scheduled for 3:30 that afternoon and were in desperate need of a nap before then!

Furniture has been tied up and stowed away here as well


Are we sailing away from the bad weather or back into it? You decide!


It's been a busy, drink-filled day and it's not even one o'clock!


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!

Jason ordered the Limone Bassilico: Absolut Citron; Limoncello; and fresh muddled basil leaves. It was very refreshing and nicely blended so that it was a good balance of sweet and tart.

Looks like I'm going to have to stop here and continue the rest of the the day's adventures in another post. Coming up, more drinking and more lunch followed by another visit to Deck 13 and a four-hour mixology seminar. We also shopped, heard a lot of people complain about not visiting Castaway Cay, had dinner at Palo, and found out that I have a twin in Delaware!

BTW ... here's that tropical storm playlist we came up with on the fly; feel free to add your suggestions if we missed something good!

Stormy Weather
Rock the Boat
Riding the Storm Out
Riders on the Storm
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Rock You Like a Hurricane

[NWOhioAngela]

Originally Posted by oybolshoi

I really wish that DCL included the weather channel in its broadcast lineup - it's a good way for guests who want to be informed about weather conditions to have a sense about what's happening without waiting for bridge announcements. And to be frank, the information provided by the senior staff about the weather situation was pretty scarce, both Thursday and Friday. I can understand why people were taken aback by the deteriorating weather conditions Thursday night into Friday and Friday night because there was precious little concrete information being shared. Unless they went looking for it, most cruisers probably had no clue that Sandy had morphed overnight on Thursday into a monster storm that DCL couldn't have done much to avoid.

Now, before anyone reading decides to set their hair on fire with a flaming condemnation of that last sentence, please bear with me for a moment. I am no Disney apologist and I certainly don't fart pixie dust and I am no romantic when it comes to the Walt Disney Company - they exist to make money. But they don't make money for long without maintaining their reputation for stellar customer service; maintenance of said reputation does not include purposefully sailing a cruise ship full of thousands of guests and crew into a mega-storm.

Counted among our many geeky interests is a fascination with the weather; no doubt this stems in part from living in tornado country - you don't spend the better part of your life living in an area that is prone to violent and changeable weather without learning to pay attention to the atmospheric conditions. Thursday morning's hurricane update included the following information for anyone paying attention:

*Sandy was a strong Category 2 Hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph; tropical force winds extended out 140 miles from the eye.

*Sandy was NOT forecast to rapidly intensify in the 125 miles of ocean between Jamaica and Cuba.

*And yet, Sandy not only intensified in the 12-16 hours after DCL made its decision to sail north back to Port Canaveral, it expanded to enormous size with a circulation of about 1,500 miles. To put it another way, locations more than 700 miles away from the center of the storm were measuring Sandy-related atmospheric pressure drops and feeling Sandy-related winds.

People who know Jay and me well know that we are cynics of the highest order; we suspect everyone of ulterior motives, including our cat. But we both firmly believe that DCL made the best decisions they could with the most current information at hand in an extremely challenging and volatile situation. No one can predict how and when a "typical" hurricane may change and morph into something monstrous - and that is exactly what happened with Sandy.

THIS! We were on this sailing too. Couldn't agree more.

[zweihund]

Awesome update.
Next time I am on the Dream, or sailing the Fantasy, I may be spending all of my waking hours in Meridian!

[cntkg1]

Originally Posted by oybolshoi

Eventually we get restless and start looking for alternate sources of entertainment ... bars get visited ... drinks are drunk ... balloons are popped ... sand castles crumble mysteriously ... hammocks are untied ... someone yells, "SHARK!!!"

I can actually picture this scene.

Now, before anyone reading decides to set their hair on fire with a flaming condemnation of that last sentence, please bear with me for a moment. I am no Disney apologist and I certainly don't fart pixie dust and I am no romantic when it comes to the Walt Disney Company - they exist to make money.

Say what? And all these years I thought you did. Now you just know the eight year old in me is giggling up a storm, right?

BTW ... here's that tropical storm playlist we came up with on the fly; feel free to add your suggestions if we missed something good!

Stormy Weather
Rock the Boat
Riding the Storm Out
Riders on the Storm
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Rock You Like a Hurricane

Well, let's see...since it's a Disney cruise how about Storm at Sea from the Little Mermaid? Otherwise, I think we could switch the words around a bit with "Mac Arthurs Park".

"Someone left the Remy torte out in the rain".........