MickeyD
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2005
I tried to post this before and it went off into lala land, along with pictures, so i typed this up in Word and will try and cut and paste. Sorry no pictures though...apparently that killed my thread. LOL
Random thoughts from our Fantasy cruise Feb 7th-14th, 2015
Dh and I sailed on the Fantasy to celebrate a major milestone…my birthday…but I am not saying which one, let’s just say it is a milestone. J
This is our 7th Disney cruise, but our first time on the Fantasy/Dream class.
We arrived in Orlando the night before, rented from Budget and drove to port. We stayed at the Residence Inn at the port. Considering the sunshine in Orlando is the first we had seen in over a month, everything looked rosy and nice at this point in the trip.
We had a 10:30 Port arrival time, so decided to drop car off and catch shuttle at Budget about 10. Yeah right…you know what they say about the best laid plans…Budget was a MESS! With four ships in port, there were mass amounts of people getting off and trying to get to the ships. Coupled with the fact that the shuttles don’t begin until 10:30 on the dot, we waited over an hour just to get to port. Once at the port though we were through the security line, checked in and walked right on (group #2). We were sitting on deck, eating at Cabana’s by 12:15.
Instead of breaking this by day, I will just group it by the items most people want to know about.
Food/Drink:
Main dining rooms: we had table #35 a table for four. We were seated with one other couple. Our server started the night with the “excellent” speech, which became super annoying by night 4. There was nothing out of the way extraordinary that he ever did, other than get us molten chocolate cake two nights in a row. They were good and fairly efficient, but not as excellent and engaging as I have come to expect on Disney.
Palo: we did dinner and cancelled our brunch because of our dinner experience. I know everyone is Palo enthralled, so I am sure this opinion will not go over well, but remember, it is just my opinion. We had Ali as our server and he was nice, but very patronizing. Made us feel like backwoods hillbillies because I didn’t want to drink red wine with my beef. (gasp!) I live in wine country so I know a little about wine, but I know more about what I like and don’t like. I do not like red wine. Period. At $11.50 a glass, that server better bring me what I want and not make me feel like an idiot because I ordered the wrong type. The food was great, no complaints there, but we sat there for THREE and a half hours and most of that time sat with dirty plates in front of us; not exactly an elegant experience. At one point the maitre de had to remove our dirty plates. We just could not imagine doing brunch after that experience so we cancelled it on the way out. I don’t want to spend precious vacation time sitting in a restaurant being ignored by the waiter. We have done both brunch and dinner on the Magic and thoroughly enjoyed both, this experience…not so much.
Cabanas: we ate here most lunches and it was fine. Same food, chaotic and noisy, but for the most part it worked best for us.
Deck side fast food: food was ok. Lines went quickly. We grabbed something mid day here and either ate on deck or took it back to our veranda.
Entertainment:
We saw Aladdin in the Walt theatre and it was very well done. We liked the nod to pop culture that Genie did, and the sets were great. What we did not like were the uncomfortable seats and the noisy people. My husband was still recovering a bit from his hip replacement in October, so to squish down in those narrow seats, was pretty uncomfortable for him. Most people around us were more interested in talking and playing on their cell phones than watching the show. I mean, really people, you are on vacation put the phones away! We walked by a couple in Palo and both were typing away on their phones. I think Facebook, twitter and instagram can wait, but that is just me, I guess.
We did the Art of Entertainment series and learned how to cook several dishes. The chef for two of the series was from Remy and he was British, so his use of certain words had the audience in stitches. I forget her name, but the cruise activity director was up there and encouraged the crowd to heckle him on his pronunciation of “basil.” We all said “baysil” he said “baa-sel.” Poor guy, didn’t have a chance. It was fun. The dessert chef was the head chef from the pastry kitchen and he was entertaining as well.
Ports:
We did the Eastern Caribbean this time as we have only ever done the Western. I will say that my personal preference is the Western. I did not like any of these ports.
St. Thomas: we had no excursions booked. We were going to head off the ship and ride the tram and get back on the ship. We got waylaid on the way to the tram by a gentleman by the name of Ali (no, not our Palo server…LOL) and he talked us into an island tour for only $4 more pp than the tram ride. We were a bit hesitant to go off on a tour with some strange guy, but when we got to his truck there were 8 other people, so we all joked that he would have a much harder time making us all disappear. Ali is from the island and he gave us a fantastic tour of “his” island. He took us to Mountain Top, Magen’s Bay, we saw Blackbeards Castle and he took us through Charlotte Amalie. This tour was definitely worth the price. He will either drop you off in town to shop, or at the ship. His tour company is called Alii and sons and he was fabulous.
San Juan: we had booked, cancelled, and rebooked the Bacardi tour. There were so many bad reviews that we were afraid to go on it, but then we heard that Disney had changed tour companies etc, so we rebooked. Wish we hadn’t. Not Disney’s fault, but the Bacardi tour is a joke. We paid $79pp for this tour, which included Old Town SJ and the San Cristobel fort. Those were the only parts of this trip that were worth it. Bacardi shows you pictures of the process, gives you one free drink and then drops you in the gift shop. We learned nothing about the plant, only the family. It was highly disappointing. Our tablemates thought so too, and we both issued a complaint to Disney and were told that they were glad we did because they can do nothing about the tours unless they hear enough complaints. Wish they would have offered us partial compensation for this tour, but it is what it is.
Castaway cay: went straight to Serenity Bay. Wasn’t too crowded, but there was seaweed and rocks and shells everywhere. Really disappointed with how bad the beach looked. In 10 times of going there (we did a couple double dips), I have never seen the beach look that bad. That said, we had gorgeous weather and we really enjoyed relaxing at the beach. The bar b que at the adult beach was really good too and plenty of food.
Miscellaneous:
Our stateroom was aft port side, 7162. We had a partial obstruction but it was minimal. We loved being on our veranda when the people next door were not in their cabin. They had a young boy that felt it his purpose in life to be extremely loud and yell all the time while on the veranda. Not pleasant.
That leads me to another note I made. I understand this is Disney and we expect to see kids, but honestly…kids running up and down the hall at all hours, stomping and banging on doors, flopping around on the atrium floor, dancing out of control while people are trying to walk to dinner, yelling and being out of control nearly everywhere, it was overwhelming. So for adults that do not wish to be around kids, I urge you to pick another line. Although I have to say, we did not experience this on the Magic, so maybe it is just on the Dream class vessels? I so appreciated the adult only venues because it was the only place to go to get peace and quiet. Most of the MDR’s were extremely noisy as well….although not just from kids, it is just the makeup of the rooms.
There are two items we noted on the Fantasy that are not on the Magic that caused us some irritation…the light switch set up and the aft elevator dumping you at Cabanas. In order to have lights or electricity you have to have a key card in the light switch. We brought an old hotel one and used it, but to have to insert and withdraw it each time was a pain. Minor pain, but a pain nonetheless. Also since we were aft we always took the aft elevator. The 11th floor dumps you out at cabanas so you had to walk through that mess to get to the pool areas. Kind of a weird set up.
Service: service was good overall and we never met an unfriendly castmember. I think with the size of this ship the personal aspect of Disney service goes out the door. From guest services to our stateroom host, they were pleasant and did their job, but there was no “wow” factor that we always experienced on the Magic and Wonder.
Final thoughts on cruising adult only on Disney:
We did not rebook on board and I think we will stick to land based vacations for a while. We had a great time and the Fantasy is absolutely beautiful. The details on this ship are phenomenal, but I think our method of relaxation and vacationing has changed over the years and cruising just doesn’t match it anymore.
As adult only, we did not see the need to stand in line for characters, so avoided that headache. We were able to retreat when it got too chaotic in the atrium, dining rooms, pool area, etc. Enjoyed the freedom to walk off and on the ship at will in port, felt free to look sympathetically at all the poor parents lugging their over stimulated, over indulged, but super exhausted children off the ship on Saturday, while we sauntered off and headed in the other direction.
Random thoughts from our Fantasy cruise Feb 7th-14th, 2015
Dh and I sailed on the Fantasy to celebrate a major milestone…my birthday…but I am not saying which one, let’s just say it is a milestone. J
This is our 7th Disney cruise, but our first time on the Fantasy/Dream class.
We arrived in Orlando the night before, rented from Budget and drove to port. We stayed at the Residence Inn at the port. Considering the sunshine in Orlando is the first we had seen in over a month, everything looked rosy and nice at this point in the trip.
We had a 10:30 Port arrival time, so decided to drop car off and catch shuttle at Budget about 10. Yeah right…you know what they say about the best laid plans…Budget was a MESS! With four ships in port, there were mass amounts of people getting off and trying to get to the ships. Coupled with the fact that the shuttles don’t begin until 10:30 on the dot, we waited over an hour just to get to port. Once at the port though we were through the security line, checked in and walked right on (group #2). We were sitting on deck, eating at Cabana’s by 12:15.
Instead of breaking this by day, I will just group it by the items most people want to know about.
Food/Drink:
Main dining rooms: we had table #35 a table for four. We were seated with one other couple. Our server started the night with the “excellent” speech, which became super annoying by night 4. There was nothing out of the way extraordinary that he ever did, other than get us molten chocolate cake two nights in a row. They were good and fairly efficient, but not as excellent and engaging as I have come to expect on Disney.
Palo: we did dinner and cancelled our brunch because of our dinner experience. I know everyone is Palo enthralled, so I am sure this opinion will not go over well, but remember, it is just my opinion. We had Ali as our server and he was nice, but very patronizing. Made us feel like backwoods hillbillies because I didn’t want to drink red wine with my beef. (gasp!) I live in wine country so I know a little about wine, but I know more about what I like and don’t like. I do not like red wine. Period. At $11.50 a glass, that server better bring me what I want and not make me feel like an idiot because I ordered the wrong type. The food was great, no complaints there, but we sat there for THREE and a half hours and most of that time sat with dirty plates in front of us; not exactly an elegant experience. At one point the maitre de had to remove our dirty plates. We just could not imagine doing brunch after that experience so we cancelled it on the way out. I don’t want to spend precious vacation time sitting in a restaurant being ignored by the waiter. We have done both brunch and dinner on the Magic and thoroughly enjoyed both, this experience…not so much.
Cabanas: we ate here most lunches and it was fine. Same food, chaotic and noisy, but for the most part it worked best for us.
Deck side fast food: food was ok. Lines went quickly. We grabbed something mid day here and either ate on deck or took it back to our veranda.
Entertainment:
We saw Aladdin in the Walt theatre and it was very well done. We liked the nod to pop culture that Genie did, and the sets were great. What we did not like were the uncomfortable seats and the noisy people. My husband was still recovering a bit from his hip replacement in October, so to squish down in those narrow seats, was pretty uncomfortable for him. Most people around us were more interested in talking and playing on their cell phones than watching the show. I mean, really people, you are on vacation put the phones away! We walked by a couple in Palo and both were typing away on their phones. I think Facebook, twitter and instagram can wait, but that is just me, I guess.
We did the Art of Entertainment series and learned how to cook several dishes. The chef for two of the series was from Remy and he was British, so his use of certain words had the audience in stitches. I forget her name, but the cruise activity director was up there and encouraged the crowd to heckle him on his pronunciation of “basil.” We all said “baysil” he said “baa-sel.” Poor guy, didn’t have a chance. It was fun. The dessert chef was the head chef from the pastry kitchen and he was entertaining as well.
Ports:
We did the Eastern Caribbean this time as we have only ever done the Western. I will say that my personal preference is the Western. I did not like any of these ports.
St. Thomas: we had no excursions booked. We were going to head off the ship and ride the tram and get back on the ship. We got waylaid on the way to the tram by a gentleman by the name of Ali (no, not our Palo server…LOL) and he talked us into an island tour for only $4 more pp than the tram ride. We were a bit hesitant to go off on a tour with some strange guy, but when we got to his truck there were 8 other people, so we all joked that he would have a much harder time making us all disappear. Ali is from the island and he gave us a fantastic tour of “his” island. He took us to Mountain Top, Magen’s Bay, we saw Blackbeards Castle and he took us through Charlotte Amalie. This tour was definitely worth the price. He will either drop you off in town to shop, or at the ship. His tour company is called Alii and sons and he was fabulous.
San Juan: we had booked, cancelled, and rebooked the Bacardi tour. There were so many bad reviews that we were afraid to go on it, but then we heard that Disney had changed tour companies etc, so we rebooked. Wish we hadn’t. Not Disney’s fault, but the Bacardi tour is a joke. We paid $79pp for this tour, which included Old Town SJ and the San Cristobel fort. Those were the only parts of this trip that were worth it. Bacardi shows you pictures of the process, gives you one free drink and then drops you in the gift shop. We learned nothing about the plant, only the family. It was highly disappointing. Our tablemates thought so too, and we both issued a complaint to Disney and were told that they were glad we did because they can do nothing about the tours unless they hear enough complaints. Wish they would have offered us partial compensation for this tour, but it is what it is.
Castaway cay: went straight to Serenity Bay. Wasn’t too crowded, but there was seaweed and rocks and shells everywhere. Really disappointed with how bad the beach looked. In 10 times of going there (we did a couple double dips), I have never seen the beach look that bad. That said, we had gorgeous weather and we really enjoyed relaxing at the beach. The bar b que at the adult beach was really good too and plenty of food.
Miscellaneous:
Our stateroom was aft port side, 7162. We had a partial obstruction but it was minimal. We loved being on our veranda when the people next door were not in their cabin. They had a young boy that felt it his purpose in life to be extremely loud and yell all the time while on the veranda. Not pleasant.
That leads me to another note I made. I understand this is Disney and we expect to see kids, but honestly…kids running up and down the hall at all hours, stomping and banging on doors, flopping around on the atrium floor, dancing out of control while people are trying to walk to dinner, yelling and being out of control nearly everywhere, it was overwhelming. So for adults that do not wish to be around kids, I urge you to pick another line. Although I have to say, we did not experience this on the Magic, so maybe it is just on the Dream class vessels? I so appreciated the adult only venues because it was the only place to go to get peace and quiet. Most of the MDR’s were extremely noisy as well….although not just from kids, it is just the makeup of the rooms.
There are two items we noted on the Fantasy that are not on the Magic that caused us some irritation…the light switch set up and the aft elevator dumping you at Cabanas. In order to have lights or electricity you have to have a key card in the light switch. We brought an old hotel one and used it, but to have to insert and withdraw it each time was a pain. Minor pain, but a pain nonetheless. Also since we were aft we always took the aft elevator. The 11th floor dumps you out at cabanas so you had to walk through that mess to get to the pool areas. Kind of a weird set up.
Service: service was good overall and we never met an unfriendly castmember. I think with the size of this ship the personal aspect of Disney service goes out the door. From guest services to our stateroom host, they were pleasant and did their job, but there was no “wow” factor that we always experienced on the Magic and Wonder.
Final thoughts on cruising adult only on Disney:
We did not rebook on board and I think we will stick to land based vacations for a while. We had a great time and the Fantasy is absolutely beautiful. The details on this ship are phenomenal, but I think our method of relaxation and vacationing has changed over the years and cruising just doesn’t match it anymore.
As adult only, we did not see the need to stand in line for characters, so avoided that headache. We were able to retreat when it got too chaotic in the atrium, dining rooms, pool area, etc. Enjoyed the freedom to walk off and on the ship at will in port, felt free to look sympathetically at all the poor parents lugging their over stimulated, over indulged, but super exhausted children off the ship on Saturday, while we sauntered off and headed in the other direction.
