Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Cruise Report - Sept. 12-19, 2015

[mitsguy2001]

My wife and I had a wonderful time on the Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean cruise!! I am 36 and my wife is 37. She and I were on the Disney Wonder back in 2006, and the Disney Dream in 2014 so this my 3rd Disney cruise. My wife was on 2 previous Disney cruises with a friend (Wonder in 2004 and Magic in 2005) so this was her 5th Disney cruise, and she has now been on every Disney ship! My wife and I were also on 4 non-Disney cruises, so this was my 7th cruise overall and her 9th cruise overall.

Our most recent non-Disney cruises were on Carnival Dream-class ships. Because those ships are comparable in size to the Disney Fantasy and are from the same era, this review will contain comparisons between the Disney Fantasy and the Carnival Dream-class ships. I will also have comparisons between the Disney Fantasy and Disney Dream, although the ships are very similar.

Friday, September 11, 2015: Pre-Stay at Disney Caribbean Beach Resort

Last year, we stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort for 4 nights for a trip to Disney World. Since we enjoyed it so much, we decided to stay there this year for our one-night pre-stay before the cruise! Also, we felt that it is a nice preview of the cruise!

Since my wife and I live on Long Island, we usually like to fly out of Long Island / Islip MacArthur Airport. Unfortunately, there were no conveniently-timed flights to Orlando from MacArthur this time, so we instead flew out of LaGuardia (LGA). To get to the airport from home, we used the Carmel service, which was recommended on the website for the airport. We flew on Delta Airlines, and our flight went very well.

When we landed at Orlando airport (MCO), we used Disney's Magical Express service to get from the airport to the resort. This is a very convenient service which allows you to bypass the baggage claim at the airport and have your luggage delivered directly to your room at your Disney resort. This saves the time of waiting at the baggage claim, as well as the hassle of handling your checked baggage. I have been told that Disney's Magical Express is very reliable as far as delivering luggage. The signage at the airport for the Magical Express service was very clear. I've been to MCO airport a few times in the past, and it is one of the nicest airports that I've been to. The bus service seemed to run efficiently and was comfortable. The bus stopped at a few other EPCOT-area resorts before stopping at the Caribbean Beach resort.

I should mention that prior to your trip, you can obtain Magic Bands in the mail. Every member of your party will wear a band around their wrist. The Magic Bands have a Mickey symbol on them, and anywhere that you can use them, there will be a Mickey symbol to touch. You need to touch Mickey to Mickey to use the bands. The first time that you will use the Magic Bands is to board the Magical Express bus. So, be sure to either wear your Magic Band before boarding your plane, or have it in your carryon luggage; do not put it in your checked luggage. Other uses of the Magic Band are to enter your hotel room (you won't get a separate key card), to charge purchases (both at the resort and the parks) to your room, to enter the parks (your tickets will be stored on the Magic Band), and to check into a FastPass reservation. The Magic Bands, however, do not work on the cruise; you will still receive a key card on the cruise.

As I said in my review last year, the Caribbean Beach resort was very beautiful!! The Magical Express bus dropped us off at the Customs House, which is where we checked into the resort. One caveat about the Caribbean Beach resort is that it is huge! The main area of the resort, which contains the main pool, food court, restaurant, gift shop, and concierge desk, is called Old Port Royale. I definitely recommend requesting a room that is close to Old Port Royale, since you will be going there frequently, and it can be a long walk from many parts of the resort to Old Port Royale (you will probably instead opt to take the internal shuttle). Proximity to the Customs House is not important, since you will not be going there again after you check in. Each section of the resort is named after a Caribbean island.

We booked a room with a king bed, and had put in a request for a room with a preferred location. Last year, we were in Trinidad North, which is one of the closest sections to Old Port Royale. This year, however, since they were very crowded, we were not able to get a preferred room, and they put us in Jamaica. Also, the bridge connecting to Caribbean Cay was closed for construction. However, our room was fairly close to the bridge that carries the road across the lake, so the walk to Old Port Royale wasn't that much longer than it would have been from Trinidad North. In addition to the usual internal shuttle, there were also vans carrying passengers from Jamaica and Aruba to Old Port Royale, due to the bridge closure. However, we never used the vans. I was surprised at how booked the resort was, given how it's the beginning of the school year.

After checking in, we took the internal shuttle to Jamaica. We were staying on the 2nd floor of Building 42. Our room appeared to be newly renovated! The room was very nice; it had a king bed, and sort of a split bathroom where the toilet and shower were in a separate room from where there was a double sink. The double sinks had a curtain separating that area from the rest of the room. The room also had a refrigerator, and had an ample amount of storage, including a safe.

We relaxed in the room for a short while, and then we had our dinner reservation at Shutters, which is the sit-down restaurant in the Centertown building at Old Port Royale. This restaurant has a Caribbean theme, and we felt it would be a great way to kick off our trip!! We enjoyed the dinner very much, and we both had a tropical drink with out dinner! Definitely a great way to start. Disney's excellent job of capturing the feel of a Caribbean island was carried over into this building!

After dinner, we went back to our room, and our luggage had arrived. We didn't really unpack since we were only staying there for one night. We then went to the main pool! This is one of the best pools that we've ever been to, and is definitely one of the main attractions at this resort!! The pool was patterned after the El Morro fort in Puerto Rico. We had seen El Moro in a cruise back in 2011, so this brought back a lot of memories! The pool had 2 waterslides. We used the larger slide which went through the El Morro structure, and was a lot of fun. It wasn't overly intense, just a lot of fun. The other waterslide appeared to be more geared toward young kids. There was also a separate water play area for kids, but it was closed for renovations. Not a problem for us since we didn't have any kids, but something to be aware of if you are planning to stay at this resort in the near future and have young children. Interestingly, that same area was closed last year for renovations. I wonder if it's been closed continuously, or if it re-opened at some point, and then closed for another round of renovations.

If you are staying at a Disney resort the night before a Disney cruise, there will be a note in your room the last night giving instructions. In our case, it said that they will pick up our luggage from the room at 8 AM, and that we meet at Shutters at 12:15 PM. That was the same exact time as last year. It is very convenient how Disney picks up your luggage in the morning, and delivers it to your stateroom on the ship, so that you don't have to carry it around yourself. But the catch is that since they pick it up early in the morning, you will want your large bags to be completely packed in the night before you go to bed. Be sure to put your Disney Cruise luggage tags on your luggage, and be sure to remove your Magical Express tag and the tag from your airline. Also, be sure to have a carryon bag that has anything that you will need the next day, since you won't have access to your luggage until it is delivered to your stateroom on the ship during the afternoon. Be sure that your passport (or whatever proof of citizenship you plan to use) and all of your cruise documents are not in your checked bag, since you will need them to board the cruise.

Since it was late and we had gotten up early and were tired, we took our showers and went to bed.

To make this review easier to read, I will post each day in a separate post.

 

[mitsguy2001]

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015: Embarkation at Port Canaveral, and detailed info about the ship

They picked up our luggage at 8 AM today, as they said they would, and then we went back to sleep for a while. We then had breakfast at the food court, including Mickey Waffles!! Check out time at Disney resorts is at 11:00 AM. Since the bus was meeting us at 12:15 PM, we had a little over an hour until we had to check in for our bus. We mostly just sat outside in the Old Port Royale area. At 12:15, we went to Shutters to meet our bus. There were already some people on the bus from other resorts and we were the last stop.

When we arrived at Port Canaveral, we were able to use the Castaway Club check-in line since we were repeat cruisers! But it didn't really matter, since the lines weren't long at all, and it too just a few minutes to check into the cruise! A slight disadvantage to using Disney's transportation to get to the port is that it gets you there fairly late. But that is also an advantage, since your room is ready by the time you board, so it allows you to drop off your carryon luggage. Since it's hard to enjoy the first day when encumbered by carryon luggage, this seems like a reasonable tradeoff.

An exciting moment is always when you first walk onto the ship into the lobby! The lobby on this ship was really beautiful, as was the entire ship, and we knew that this was going to be an excellent cruise!! Since our room was ready, we took the elevators up to Deck 7, where our room was. We were staying in Room 7650, a Category 5C Deluxe Stateroom with Verandah, located on Deck 7 Aft, on the starboard side. The elevators were crowded; it seems that every ship, no matter what cruise line, does not have enough elevators to handle peak times. An advantage on the Disney Fantasy is, from the lobby, you could walk to all 3 elevator lobbies; on the Carnival Dream-class ships, you could only access the forward elevators from the lobby, although Carnival has 10 elevators in the forward elevator lobby compared to the 6 that Disney has.

Another exciting moment on a cruise is entering the stateroom for the first time, and putting my wallet and keys and everything else away in the safe!! That really gives me the feeling of being away from everything. Our stateroom was very nice; a slight upgrade over the staterooms that I've seen on other cruise lines. The room had a king-sized bed and a seperate sitting area with a curtain in between. The room seemed to have more storage space than the rooms I've been in on other cruise lines, which of course is a good thing. A feature unique to Disney which is very useful is the split bathroom. This means the room has 2 seperate bathrooms: one with a toilet and sink, the other with a shower and sink. This is very useful, especially when somebody is taking a shower. The bathrooms themselves were a slight upgrade over the bathrooms on other lines since they had a tub, rather than just an extremely small shower stall.

In order to save energy, in order to operate the lights in your room, you must put your keycard (or any similarly-sized card) in a slot by the door. When you remove the card, the lights stay on for about a minute or so. Definitely a noble idea; just be sure to remember to take your card from the slot before leaving the room (or else you'd be locked out), and remember that if somebody else is in the room when you remove the card, the lights will go out, so you will want to put another card in the slot before you leave. Another unique feature on Disney was the Wave Phone, which we did not use at all, so I can't comment at all.

Unlike Carnival, there was an alarm clock in the room. It didn't have any instructions, although it wasn't too hard to figure out. It also allowed a connection to an iPod, but included only the larger dock connector used on older iPods, iPads, and iPhones. It did not have the smaller lightning connector that newer iPods, iPads, and iPhones use. They probably sell adapter cables if you really want to use that feature.

Our verandah was very nice!! We had one of the rooms that has that skin that causes a slight obstruction on one side of the verandah. However, this obstruction was extremely minimal, and I would have no problem at all booking this room or a similar room again. In fact, we had this exact same roomm last year on the Dream, and we obviously liked it since we booked it for this cruise on the Fantasy! There was plenty of room for my wife and I to arrange the chairs so that we could both see the ocean, so I really would not count that as an obstruction at all. From reading other posts, it seems that most people agree that the obstruction (I hesitate to even use that word) is insignificant.

As I said, we were on Deck 7. Two decks below is Deck 5, and the rooms in this section of the ship on that deck have extended verandahs that extend beyond the verandahs on the upper decks. This did not cause any obstruction at all when sitting; you could see the ocean with no obstruction, and could not even see the Deck 5 verandahs. However if you stood at the edge of the verandah and looked down, you could see the Deck 5 verandahs. Not a problem for me, but if you have a Category 4E extended verandah on Deck 5, you should be aware that it is not exactly private. I have no idea whether or not somebody standing at the edge of a Deck 5 extended verandah looking back could see us or not. Maybe somebody who has been in one of those rooms could comment. It seems unlikely that they would be able to see as high as Deck 7.

As I said, the view from Deck 7 was excellent when sitting! What I don't know is, whether or not the view from Deck 6 would have been as good or not. Has anyone who stayed on that deck know? When booking this cruise, we avoided the room directly below us (6646) since it has a "mystery area" below it. From our room, the mystery area appeared to have an oddly shaped verandah, and would be just forward of Room 5650 (which, by the way, appeared to have a huge verandah). Does anybody know what that mystery area forward of Room 5650 is, and whether or not it is anything noisy? I never saw anybody on the mystery area verandah on either the Fantasy or last year on the Dream.

One negative (if you want to call it that) to this ship is that stateroom selection is tricky. There are very few inside or oceanview staterooms. The vast majority have verandahs, but that increased supply does not reduce their prices, since demand for Disney cruises are so high, and there are only 4 ships. All of the midship verandah rooms are the larger (and more expensive) family sized rooms (Cat. 4x). If you want a regular-sized verandah room (Cat. 5x) you have to go forward or aft. Our room was the forward-most (closest to midship) aft Cat. 5C room. Also, the vast majority of the rooms are connecting rooms. Most of the non-connecting rooms are next to the stairs and elevators. In fact, our room (and its twin on the port side, 7152) are the only Cat. 5C rooms that are not connecting rooms and are not next to an elevator or stairway, making these the most desireable rooms if you just want to book a single room. One slight disadvantage to being near the aft part of the ship is that the midship and aft elevators are very far apart, but the forward and midship elevators are very close together, meaning that you have a longer walk to get to the midship elevators. The aft elevators are hard to get to from the pool area (it requires walking through the buffet, and cannot be accessed at all from Deck 12 above the pool area), but this is a very minor point. A forward 5C room would be more convenient, but again, you're stuck with either a connecting room or a room next to the elevator and stairs. It would have been useful if there was another set of elevators between the mid-ship and aft elevators, but that might not have been physically possible.

Enough about the room! Time for lunch! We took the aft elevators up to Deck 11 to Cabanas, which is where the lunch buffet is. Cabanas was very nice, and had a pleasant tropical feel. We enjoyed our first lunch!! Just so you know, the port side and starboard side both have the same food, so there is no need to check both of them out. Also, if you need to switch between sides for whatever reason, use the aft end of Cabanas. Aft of the elevators is where the desserts are, though we never had any desserts at lunch. There was also an outdoor seating area at the far aft end. There were stairways leading up that were marked as emergency exits. Cabanas is set up like a food court with various stations with different types of food that varies throughout the week. The layout and the food was basically the same as on the Dream. In any case, I enjoyed the food a lot, and there was always a great variety of food! But, to be honest, I though that the lunch buffet on Carnival was even better, since it offered stations such as a burrito station, an Indian tandoori, and a Mongolian barbecue which Disney did not offer. I also remember back in 2006, the Wonder had a taco station one afternoon for lunch. We asked about that, and they said that eliminating it was a shore-side decision, although there will be a late night buffet on pirate night that includes tacos!

After lunch, I always enjoy exploring the ship! The focal point of any warm-weather cruise is the pool deck!! The main pool deck was on Deck 11 midship, just forward of Cabanas. The main pool deck was very fun and festive, with 2 pools (the Mickey pool for children and the Donald pool for families), a water play area for young children (Nemo's Reef), a slide for children (Mickey's slide), the Funnel Vision which showed movies (similar to Carnival's seaside theater), and there was usually music playing! The unique feature here was the Aqua Duck, a watercoaster completely circling this deck (entrance from a stairway on Deck 12). I will talk more in tomorrow's section (Sunday, Sept. 13) about the pools and the Aqua Duck, when I would get to use them!! But it was interesting even seeing the Aqua Duck from below and seeing others sail through it!

On both sides of the forward funnel, there were several quick service food locations. Didn't eat at any of them, with so many food options elsewhere, so I can't really comment on them. Forward of the funnel was the adult-only area, which was a very nice and quiet section of the ship. It included the Quiet Cove pool, which was a very peaceful alternative to the main pools, and featured a few sitting areas, as well as the Cove Bar, which included barstools both in the water and on the deck. There was also the Cove Cafe, and indoor coffee shop. It looked very nice, but I didn't spend much time in there.

The adult-only section of Deck 11 reminded me of the aft pool area on the Carnival ships, since it was a quieter alternative to the very fun and festive main pool deck. Unlike Carnival, it was easier to get to, since it did not require walking through the buffet (with wet swimsuits) or bypassing the buffet on the next deck to get to it, but the forward funnel still provided enough seperation to make it quiet and feel like a distinct area. In fact, for what it's worth, on the Disney Fantasy, you can't use Deck 12 to bypass the buffet area and get to the aft elevators, since you are blocked by Palo and Remy.

Next was Deck 12, which encircles both of the pool areas below and has a lot of seating. People on every cruise line (not just Disney) complain about a lack of deck chairs on the pool deck. But if you are willing to go up a deck (to 12 in this case), there is plenty of seating available for everyone! I just suggest that you wear your flip flops when walking down to the pool area, since the deck can get hot! The most notable feature on Deck 12 is the entrance to the Aqua Duck, which, again, I will talk about in more detail tomorrow! This deck had a few additions compared to the Dream. One was in the forward section, there was a shallow pool for families. I never saw that feature on any deck plan and I don't remember its name, and I'm pretty sure the Dream didn't have it. Didn't look especially exciting, but having it is better than not having it! Also, further aft, the Fantasy had a water play area called the Aqua Lab, which the Dream did not have. It appeared to be for slightly older kids than Nemo's Reef. In order to acomodate the Aqua Lab, the Waves Bar was relocated to a strange area. I don't think it even had any barstools to sit on. I'm honestly not sure why that bar exists at all on this ship. Deck 12 also has a completely seperate aft area, accessible from the aft elevators only, which has Palo and Remy (the two extra-charge restaurants) and Meridian.

Deck 13 has 2 distinct areas (plus the Edge tween club in the forward funnel). The forward section is an adult only sun deck, which offers great views, and is the only outdoor access to the front of the ship! It reminds me a lot of the adult-only serenity area on Carnival's Dream-class ships. It offers seating with beautiful views of the ocean, and another bar, called Currents. There was also a concierge sundeck, for concierge guests only, which I could not access, since we were not staying in a concierge level room. One major difference between the Fantasy and the Dream is that the Fantasy has an additional feature, Satellite Falls. This is a very shallow adult-only pool with falls that you can sit in. It was a nice and relaxing area, although we didn't use it all that much.

The seperate aft section of Deck 13 is the sports deck. Didn't spend much time here either, but it seemed to have basketball, mini-golf, and a sports simulator. The sports simulator requires an extra fee and a reservation. It looked interesting, but we didn't use it since we had so many other things to do on the cruise! Unlike the Carnival Magic (and Breeze, but not Dream), there was no ropes course on this sports deck. Honestly, that was not a problem for me at all, since I found the ropes course on the Carnival Magic to be scary when I was on it in 2012, so it didn't bother me that this ship didn't have it.

We then went back down to the aft section of Deck 12, which includes the extra-charge restaurants Palo and Remy, as well as the Meridian bar. As I mentioned before, this is completely seperate from the rest of Deck 12, and can be accessed only from the aft elevators and stairs, giving it a feel of being seperate from the rest of the ship. Both restaurants were very beautiful. We did not eat at Palo on this cruise, although on Monday we will have brunch at Remy! I will talk about Remy in more detail when I get to Monday, but I will say in advance that the brunch was excellent and very highly recommended!! The Meridian Bar seems to be primarily a place to wait for reservations at Palo or Remy. It also has an outdoor deck, which I beleive is intended primarily for cigar smoking.

Since Deck 5 mostly has venues for children, we didn't explore that deck at all, and next we explored Deck 4. This is the 2nd deck of the atrium, and offers a nice view of the lobby. The forward section had the balcony of the Walt Disney Theater (will talk more about that later), as well as the Buena Vista movie theater. Near the lobby was the Shutters photo shop, which was set up like a library! I really liked the way the photo shop was set up; you scan your card, and it tell you what section and book number your photos are in. This was a much better setup and made it much easier to find your photos than just about any other ship that I've been on. The Dream has this same setup. Nearby was the art gallery, which we never really explored. Next was the D Lounge, which was a very nice family entertainment area. We weren't in that space that much, since we were just 2 adults travelling without any children, so we mostly spent our evenings in the adult-oriented areas.

The aft section of Deck 4 was the adult entertainment area, known as Europa! This section is probably the biggest difference between the Dream and the Fantasy. Each venue is patterned after a different European nation. This is where we spent most of our time in the evenings, and I will describe specific activities later in the review. Although Europa featured venues similar to The District on the Dream, the theming was very different. You enter into La Piazza, patterned after an Italian piazza. The setup was different from the District Lounge on the dream. La Piazza had a round bar in the center of the room, with seating throughout the room, and a stage with a piano. Depending on the night, there were various music performances there, such as a pianist or a jazz band. The next venue was O'Gills, which is an Irish Pub. Ooh La La was patterned after France, and is a champagne bar. Next, you walk through a hallway which has the restrooms, and is patterned after Spain. The aft elevator lobby has access to the Skyline Lounge, which has various European skylines that change continuously. Finally is The Tube, which is patterned after the London subway, and is the nightclub with the majority of the nighttime adult activities. That was where we spent most of our nights on the ship!

Both Europa on the Fantasy and The District on the Dream reminded me of the adult entertainment section of the Carnival ships that I've been on. Both on the Disney Fantasy and Dream and on the Carnival Conquest Class and Dream Class ships, I like the way that most of the nighttime entertainment venues are clustered together, since it makes it easy to hop from one venue to another, and tends to make the nightlife more lively. In this case, even the D Lounge was nearby. The Disney Wonder also had the adult entertainment venues clustered together (but not the family club), but on the Fantasy and Dream, this area is far bigger and has far more venues than the Wonder has. Of all of the ships that I've been on, the Disney Fantasy probably has the most conherent theming throughout the adult area! There was also food available in Europa at night, and it looked good, but I never had any of it, since any time I was there, I was either saving my appetite for dinner, or I was full from dinner.

The one adult entertainment venue that Disney ships lack is a casino. I'm not a big gambler, so the lack of a casino in itself is not a major loss for me. However, casinos are a good source of revenue for cruise lines, and help reduce the cost of cruises. The one major disadvantage to Disney is the cost, so having a casino to reduce the cost would have been helpful.

We went back to our room, and very briefly began unpacking. When the alarm sounded for the muster drill, around 4 PM, we went to our muster station. Your station is marked on your card. In our case, we followed the directions and took a stairway (normally for crew only) to the outdoor deck on Deck 4. They had a scanner where at least one person from every stateroom had to scan their card to prove that they were at the muster drill. We did not have to bring our lifejacket to the drill. If I remember right, when I was on the Wonder in 2006, we had to bring the lifejacket to the drill. The drill was basically the same as any other cruise I've been on. They said that families will be kept together.

Unfortunately, it began to pour during the muster drill, as it often does in Florida. We were able to position ourselves to avoid getting soaked. However, due to the rain, the sailaway party was moved indoors, to the lobby. I'm not even sure if it was still raining at that point, but I think there would have been concern about people dancing on the wet deck. Disney did a nice job with the indoor sailaway party, and they incorporated a lot of Disney characters into it! I was happy to see that Disney had a Plan B! Our tradition is always to buy the drink of the day in a souvenier glass at the sailaway party; in this case, the drink of the day was a combined pina colada and strawberry daquari, which we both really enjoyed! Luckily, other than the sailaway party, the weather would be great during the rest of the cruise, with very little rain!

We then returned to our room to finally finish unpacking. Since we have late dining (which I highly recommend for adult couples who want to enjoy lunch and want to enjoy the ports), we then went to the welcome aboard show, Fantasy Come True, at 6:15 in the Walt Disney Theater. I like the way that Disney times their shows far better than the way Carnival typically times their shows. On Disney, if you opt for late dining, your show time is before dinner. On Carnival, if you opt for late dining, or have Anytime dining and eat later (as we usually do), the shows are usually (not always) after dinner, and they tend to conflict with nightclub activities. I find that Disney's scheduling allows for more efficient use of time. It would have been helpful if the show was slightly later and ended just before dinner, but I'm guessing that the cast member of the show eat dinner in between the two shows.

The welcome abord show introduced our cruise director, Darren, who seemed very nice! The theater was very beautiful. Outside the theater is a mural of Walt Disney. Understandably, entertainment is a strength of Disney's. This show also introduced some of the variety show acts who will perform on the cruise, and included a brief performance by Magic Dave, a magician / commedian. We enjoyed this show!

After the show, since we had some time before dinner, we went to the lobby, and listened to the Firelites, a singing duo. On all of our cruises, we enjoy listening to the lobby singers! We especially enjoyed this due, since many of the songs that they sang were from the 80s, which is the decade we grew up during and is our favorite decade of music!

The shopping area is in between the theater and the lobby on Deck 3. This area has 3 shops. Two of them, Mickey's Mainsail, and Sea Treasure, mostly sold Disney items. Mickey's Mainsail seemed to include a seperate Disney Princess section. I don't remember what the difference was between the two shops. The third shop, Whitecaps, was the duty free shop selling higher end jewlery and alcohol. We're not big shoppers, so we didn't do much shopping. On every cruise ship I've ever been on, on any cruise line, the shops seem to focus more on souveniers, rather than necessities, and this ship was no exception.

At 8:15, it was time for dinner!! Dinner is always one of the highlights of any cruise!! We really enjoy Disney's rotational dining, since it allows you to rotate to 3 different dining rooms, each with a completely different atmosphere. The rotational dining is completely unique to Disney; I am not aware of any other cruise line that offers anything similar. On Carnival, you can choose either fixed-time dining or anytime dining, but either way, you will be in the same dining room for the entire cruise, which is not as much fun as rotational dining. Anytime dining on Carnival gives you the flexibility to eat whenever you want (depending on your schedule and appetite that day), which you don't get with Disney, but you don't get the same servers every day. I was also on a Norwegian cruise in 2007, which offers freestyle dining, where you an eat whenever you want and can choose from several different dining rooms each night, which I also enjoyed a lot, but again, you don't get the same servers every night. Basically, every cruise line dining system has its pros and cons, but Disney's rotational dining is unique. I am surprised that no other cruise line has tried to copy Disney's rotational dining, given how popular it is!

Our rotation was ERAERAE. My wife requested that rotation so that would would be in Royal Court for the first formal night. Tonight's dinner was at Enchanted Garden, which is on Deck 2 midship! To get there, use the midship elevator (you can also use the forward elevator, but not the aft elevator), or take the stairs down from the lobby. Enchanted Garden is a very beautiful restaurant, one of my favorites!! This is patterned after the garden of Versailles, and is very beautiful, with a fountain near the entrance. It also changes to show a transition from day to night. We were seated in one of the unique round booths near the entrance. Interestingly, my wife and I were seated by ourselves, without any tablemates. I think that is very unusual on Disney. I wonder if we had our own table since we were an adult couple without any children but selected a rotation that seemed to have children.

Our serving team was very nice, and so was the head server. They told us that Enchanted Garden specializes in seafood, so I ordered a seafood dish! I enjoyed the food a lot! Unlike Carnival, Disney's meals have an extra course: appetizer, soup or salad, entree, and dessert. Each night, the servers would tell us which items they recommend. Our dinner tonight was excellent! As I said, dinner is one of the main things I look forward to on a cruise, especially Disney's rotational dining! Also, every night, a different dip was offered with the bread. I could be wrong, but I don't remember the dips from last year on the Dream (only the bread). Not sure if the dips are something that was added recently, or if they are only on the Fantasy, or if I just remembered wrong. But I really enjoyed them!!

After dinner, we went to The Tube, which, as I said, was where we spent most of our time at night. Tonight was ventriloquist / commedian Lynn Trefzger's adult show! We saw her on the Dream last year and really enjoyed her show, so we were excited to see her again on this cruise! We enjoyed this show a lot. On Disney, the adult shows are slightly risque without being very dirty. We enjoyed her and the other adult shows on Disney far more than most of the adult comedy shows on Carnival. Most of the adult shows on Carnival were very dirty and not especially funny. After this show was the Match Your Mate game show. This is always fun to watch and is very funny. But be careful if you attempt to volunteer, since they do ask some embarassing questions. After the show was dancing to the tunes of Club DJ Robert! For the most part, I enjoyed the songs that he played in the club this week, since he played a good diversity of songs. Since I am a non-smoker, and I hate cigarette smoke, I am glad that Disney does not allow smoking in the nightclub. Carnival does allow smoking in the nightclub, though to be honest, I saw very few smokers on Carnival, so it wasn't a huge difference. But the less smoking, the better, especially since smoking on a ship seems dangerous. Tonight, they also introduced Brett, who was the entertainment host for the cruise. He was a lot of fun and had a lot of energy!

We went back to our room, and sat on the verandah for a while to watch the ocean. We always enjoy sitting on our verandah at night to watch the ocean; it is something that we look forward to each night on a cruise.

One other thing I should mention is that you can sign up for a free internet plan on the first day of the cruise. You must sign up before midnight the first night of the cruise in order to qualify for the free plan. It gives a free 50 MB, which doesn't sound like much, but it was enough for the week for checking e-mail and light web browsing. It can be shared among wireless devices. First connect to the DCL-GUEST network. Then, with your browser, go to the website in the instructions given inside the desk in your room. Sign up for the free plan, and enter your e-mail address and password. There will be a meter tracking your usage. Be sure to log out when you are not using it so that you don't use up your data. And be sure to bookmark the sign in page. Before logging in the first time, I recommend turning off any features that use a lot of data, such as backgroup app refresh (except for the Disney Navigator app). I also recommend putting your phone into airplane mode so that you don't accidently use cellular data on the ship.

I should also mention the Disney Navigator app. This allows you to access the Personal Navigator for the entire week from your smartphone or other wireless device. It does not use up your data plan, and it works whenever you are connected to the DCL-GUEST network, even when logged out. It is sometimes more up to date than the paper navigator. It also has other features, such as chat, which I never used and can't comment on. As far as I know, there is no internet cafe onboard, since it is assumed that most passengers have a wireless device by now.

Now that I have described the ship in detail, the rest of the review should move faster.

 

[mitsguy2001]

Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015: Sea Day

I always really enjoy sea days, since they are so relaxing. We slept late today since we were partying late last night! We had breakfast today at the buffet in Cabanas. There are 2 or 3 breakfast options each morning: every morning offers the main buffet in Cabanas, and a sit-down breakfast in Royal Palace. There is also a smaller buffet in Enchanted Garden Tuesday through Friday only. Every morning on this cruise we had our breakfast at Cabanas. The Cabanas breakfast buffet is a typical cruise ship breakfast buffet; they don't seem to vary much from one cruise line to another. Surprisingly, there were no Mickey Waffles at the buffet today or most days. I did sometimes see people with Mickey Waffles, but I'm not sure where they got them from.

After breakfast, we went up to the pool deck, always our favorite sea day activity!! We started in the main pool area, and went in the Donald Pool! The Donald Pool is the main family pool. As I said earlier, although it is hard to get seating next to the pool, if you go up to Deck 12, there is ample seating near the pool, so you should never have a problem finding a seat. Just remember, the deck is hot, so be sure to wear your flip flops or water shoes when going back downstairs, and leave them outside the pool. The pool was a lot of fun! Splashing in the pool is always fun on a cruise! These pools are the typical cruise ship pools, which are small, and not designed for serious swimming, but are still a lot of fun. One other major difference between Disney and other cruise lines is that the pools on Disney have freshwater rather than saltwater. Otherwise, pools don't vary much from one cruise line to another. Although, one thing I noticed was that this pool was deeper than the pools on Carnival or on the Disney Wonder, so it was difficult to stand up in the pool. Most of the people in the middle of the pool seemed to be children with floatation devices. I'm not sure why Disney made these pools deeper. This main pool area is a fun, lively, festive area with the Funnel Vision above showing Disney movies! The main pool area seemed to be exactly the same as on the Dream.

Next, we had an enjoyable lunch at the Cabanas buffet. And next we went on the Aqua Duck!! This is a unique feature to the Disney Fantasy and Dream, and one of the main things I was looking forward to on this cruise. The entrance is on Deck 12, near the aft funnel, above the main pool area. Near the entrance, there is a board telling you how long the wait is, just like at the Disney parks. Surprisingly, the wait wasn't that long today. Also, the wait is typically shorter than the posted time. There was an area with cubbies to leave your belongings when going on the aquaduck. But be careful, the deck is hot! You then go up a stairway that leads above the top of the ship, to where you board your tube for the Aqua Duck! On the Aqua Duck, you sit in a tube, which either one or two people can go in; if you go by yourself, you sit in the back.

Last year, on the Dream, my wife and I only did the Aqua Duck separately. Today, due to high winds, they were only allowing doubles, so my wife and I went on it together. The Aqua Duck takes you through a mostly clear tube, part of which is cantilevered off the side of the ship, and it takes you around the main pool area, including through the fake funnel with the theater screen! It is a lot of fun! Although it is referred to as a "water coaster", it is very mild, and is not a thrill ride by any stretch of the imagination. The only reason it is called a coaster is because it includes a few places where it goes up an incline, rather than just down, like a traditional slide. Even if you don't like roller coasters or intense water slides (which my wife an I don't), I recommend you give this one a try. Don't let the term water coaster scare you off; it has no steep drops at all. It was actually more fun this year doing it as a double with my wife, and the extra weight seemed to allow us to move faster (either that, or the slide on the Fantasy is faster than the Dream, which is possible but unlikely). The final section of the Aqua Duck is peaceful, like a lazy river. It is definitely a unique feature of this ship. If you have been on a Carnival ship with Carnival Waterworks, the Aqua Duck is definitely milder than either the Twister or Drainpipe slides, and gives you a much longer ride. If you are looking for a thrill ride, you will be disappointed. The Aqua Duck ends near the cubbies on Deck 12, so you can retrieve your belongings, and is more convenient than a slide that ends on another deck nowhere near where you started.

Next, we went forward to the adult area, again, finding a chair one deck above, on Deck 12. The Quiet Cove Pool was really nice, and was a quiet alternative to the main pool area. This pool area was very nice aesthetically, and, as I said earlier, featured two seating areas, plus bar stools for the adjacent Cove Bar, plus the main pool area in the middle. This pool was slightly deeper than the Donald Pool, and the sitting areas seemed to be the most popular.

Hopping between different pools and waterslides is always something we look forward to on cruises!! It was hard getting ourselves to leave the pool area, but we did have to get ready for tonight's activities. We returned to our room and took showers, and got dressed for the evening. Tonight was formal night. Disney (and Carnival, and other cruise lines I've been on) doesn't set the bar too high when it comes to formal night attire. I wore my suit and my wife wore a formal dress, although it seemed that a large number of people were dressed casually. I think that perhaps a good compromise for Disney (and Carnival, and other cruise lines) might be to drop the semi-formal night that is later in the cruise, and have just a single formal night with a more formal dress code enforced in the dining rooms; those who don't want to dress can eat at Cabanas. Not surprisingly, formal night seemed most popular with young girls who were wearing Disney princess dresses (in fact, we saw those every night of the cruise). Somewhat surprising is that there seemed to be more adult men than adult women dressed in formal attire. That is the opposite from other cruises that we have been on. A theory that we have is maybe a lot of young girls who wore Disney princess dresses wanted their fathers to dress up to match them, but the mothers wore more casual attire.

Tonight's theater show was Aladdin! My wife and I saw the Broadway show last year, and I remember seeing the movie back in 1994. We really enjoyed this show a lot! The genie was a special crowd favorite!! After the show, we took some pictures in the lobby with the Disney characters in our formal attire. We also met several of the senior officers at the Captain's Welcome Reception! We enjoyed talking with them and learning more about their roles on the ship.

Our dinner tonight was in Royal Court, the formal dining room off of the lobby. This was a very beautiful dining room, and was designed as a palace from a Disney princess movie. The Daily Navigator refers to it as a French restaurant, although its menu was very diverse. My wife chose this rotation since she wanted to eat in Royal Court on the formal night. Royal Court looked very similar to the Royal Palace on the Dream, although my wife said it was slightly different.

After dinner, we took more pictures with characters in the lobby in our formal attire. The lines now were much shorter than they were before dinner. I highly recommend getting pictures with characters after late dinner, since the lines are short, and most of the nighttime activities are later in the night.

After taking pictures, we went back to the room and I switched to more casual attire. On both formal nights, nearly everybody switched into more casual attire for the nighttime activities, including people like myself who dressed for the show and dinner.

Tonight in the theater was Magic Dave's adult show. This was a magic / comedy variety show, and we really enjoyed it a lot! Like the other adult shows on Disney, nothing too risque. Next was the 80s / 90s night at The Tube! As I said, I was born in 1979, so I grew up during the 80s and 90s, and the 80s in particular are my favorite decade of music, so this was an event that I was looking forward to and enjoyed!

After a while, the music transitioned to the usual club music. We stayed for a little while, and then returned to our room to sit on our verandah and enjoy the ocean, as we did every night! This was another wonderful day and night on our cruise!

 

[mitsguy2001]

Monday, Sept. 14, 2015: Sea Day

Today is our brunch at Remy! Got up late again today. Didn't want to fill up on breakfast, but needed something, so we went to Cabanas and had a very small breakfast. They seemed to have an even better selection today, including Mickey Waffles, but I didn't want to fill up on any of that.

Our brunch was at 11:50 AM! Like I said, Remy and Palo are accessed from a completely separate section of Deck 12 aft, accessible only from the aft elevators and stairs, giving it a more private feel. They had everybody wait for brunch in Meridian.

The brunch was excellent!! At the start, they had everybody sit at 2 tables where they explained to us about the brunch and the food that will be served, and served everybody an appetizer and a glass of champagne. After that, we were seated at our individual tables. The brunch featured a fixed menu, with 5 additional courses (including dessert), all of which were excellent! In order to get the full experience, I opted for the full champagne package, which featured 3 more glasses of champagne, paired with each course. I don't remember exactly how much the package cost, but it was less than each glass of champagne would have cost at a bar on the ship. This brunch was a very unique experience, with a lot of excellent gourmet food that I had never experienced on land!

we briefly went to the shops to buy some souvenirs, post cards, and a photo album. And then we relaxed in our room for a short while. We then went to the Quiet Cove pool, and had a drink at the Cove bar (non-alcoholic this time, since I've already had several glasses of champagne). I went in the Quiet Cove pool for a short while, and then it started to rain, like it does most days in the Caribbean. Luckily the rain didn't last long at all!

We went back to our room to shower and get ready for the evening activities. Tonight was Halloween night. We didn't bring costumes (would have been too much to pack) but we did participate in several of the Halloween festivities! I was surprised at how many people dressed for Halloween on this cruise! People seemed to be far more into Halloween tonight than they were into formal night last night. There was a family Halloween party in the lobby, featuring Disney characters, which we enjoyed! Next, we went to La Piazza, to listen to Ed Kelly, the piano man on this cruise! We enjoyed him a lot! He performed several other sets during the week, but we were always doing other activities at the time, so I am glad that we had the opportunity to enjoy him now.

Next we went to the theater for tonight's production show: Disney Wishes. This was a very nice story involving 3 teenagers (a twin brother and sister duo, and a female friend) on a trip to Disney Land at the end of their senior year of high school. This was a very nice story about friendship, and what really matters in life. I was happy to see them have a story starring teenagers, since they are a demographic that might feel that they are too "cool" for Disney and want to distance themselves from their childhood (the welcome aboard show on Saturday even had a bored teenager who was obsessed with his phone), so it was nice to see them enjoying Disney, and for teenagers in the audience to see a show focusing on their age group. I also liked how, although in many ways the three characters were typical teenagers, they all had likeable personalities, and they were relatable to the audience, and they were people that you feel you could have been friends with when you were their age. Overall, a very nice show with a nice message, and I enjoyed it even more than I had expected.

We relaxed in the lobby after the show. Tonight's dinner was in Animator's Palate, located on Deck 3 Aft. To get there from the lobby, the Fantasy (and the Dream) have a long hallway around Royal Court to get to the aft section of Deck 3. This is in contrast to the Carnival ships where you cannot access the aft dining room from the lobby. Not a huge deal, but this does make the Disney ships slightly easier to navigate.

Animator's Palate is a cute dining room, with a more casual atmosphere than the others. On your first visit to Animator's Palate, there is a Finding Nemo show on the walls. It appeared to be basically the same as on the Dream. The Navigator lists this dining room as having a Pacific Rim cuisine, even though it seemed more American. Last year, on the Dream, my wife had the pasta bolognese, which she did not like too much. However, it sounded good from the description, and that was the dish that both my wife and I were in the mood for today, and our server said that it is excellent. So my wife decided to give it another try, and I decided to try it for the first time. We both really enjoyed it! I don't know if Disney improved that dish since last year, or if the chef that cooks it on the Fantasy does a better job than the one on the Dream, or if the Dream was having an off night last year when she ordered it (I didn't have it last year, so I have nothing to compare it to). For dessert, we both had the cookies and cream sundae, which was one of our favorites from last year, and we both enjoyed it again! Another excellent dinner! Although, we weren't as hungry for this dinner as we would have liked to have been, since we had the Remy brunch earlier today.

After dinner, we went back to the lobby to listen again to The Firelites. Like I said, I always enjoy listening to the lobby singers, and this duo was one of our favorites, since they sang so many songs that we like from the 80s!

The big adult event for adults tonight was the Halloween Isn't Just for Kids party at The Tube. Although we were not wearing costumes, it was fun to watch! There was a costume contest where winners were selected for various categories. This was an extremely popular event, and this was by far the most number of people I have ever seen in the nightclub on any cruise ship I have ever been on!!

After the party, we didn't stay at the club for too long, since we have an early excursion tomorrow morning. But we did take some time to sit on our verandah and relax and enjoy the ocean! We had another wonderful day at sea, and one that was especially unique with the Remy brunch! We are looking forward to our first port day tomorrow!!

 

[mitsguy2001]

Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015: St. Maarten

We had to get up early today since we have an early excursion booked. It is always exciting seeing the ship approach an island from our verandah! We are going on the Under Two Flags Island tour today, which is the only excursion that we booked through Disney this year. We had breakfast at Cabanas. As usual, we enjoyed the breakfast, but again, I didn't see any Mickey waffles. We then went to the theater to meet our tour group. On Disney cruises, when you go on a shore excursion booked through Disney, there will be a meeting place on the ship. They will also give you a sticker with a Disney character to help the tour groups stay together. I find this to be slightly more convenient than on other cruise lines where you typically meet your excursion group off the ship.

St. Maarten is unique in that half of the Island is owned by the Dutch, and the other half is owned by the French. This excursion was a bus tour that showed both sides of the island. The bus was comfortable and air conditioned, and the driver was informative, although several seat belts on the bus seemed to be broken. It was interesting on this tour to learn more about the island and its history and culture, and the differences between the two sides. The tour does go through poor areas; it's not all just tourist areas.

The tour made 3 stops. The first and longest stop was at the capital of the French side of the island, Marigot. This was mostly intended as a stop for shopping. My wife and I aren't really into shopping, so we mostly just walked around the town. The second stop was on the Dutch side, at a place that had a carousel and an ice cream shop. The carousel was cute (we didn't really have time to go on it), and the ice cream was excellent! The third stop was at a scenic overlook.

The tour arrived back at the port in time for lunch. We had lunch at Cabanas. After lunch, since a lot of people were still on the island we figured this would be a good opportunity to enjoy the pools and the Aqua Duck when they are less crowded. The Aqua Duck was still restricted to doubles only due to high winds, but that was fine, since, as we discovered on Sunday, it was more fun doing it as a double anyway!! We went on the Aqua Duck several times since the wait was minimal today. In the late afternoon, it was getting cooler and windier, so we went in one of the hot tubs late in the afternoon. It was really nice enjoying the pool deck today without all of the crowds.

Tonight is pirate night!! We went back to our rooms to shower and get ready for pirate night! They give everybody a bandana to wear for pirate night! There is no theater show tonight; instead, there was the really fun pirate deck party at 7:45 PM, in between the two dinner times. While waiting, we saw the movie Ant-Man in the Buena Vista theater, and then we had pictures taken with characters in the lobby. And then we went up to Deck 11 for the pirate deck party. Deck parties are always fun, and there was plenty of room for everybody to see the festivities! I was happy that we had great weather during the deck party, especially since the sailaway party had been rained out. Before the party, Captain Thord had announced that there was a tropical wave in the area, but that since the distance to St. Thomas was so short, we could very easily sail away from it during the deck party.

After the deck party, it was time for dinner. We knew from experience that the midship elevators would be jammed packed after the deck party. Our dinner tonight was at Enchanted Garden, which you cannot get to from the aft elevators (they don't even have a button for Deck 2). So we figured the best way to get there would be to use the forward elevators, and then double back using the stateroom hallway on Deck 2. That seemed to be a good idea. However, when we were walking we passed the hallway that led to Enchanted Garden, and we passed several inside staterooms that had blue doors and were labeled as being for the Disney Vacation Club. Does anybody know what those are? Are they staterooms reserved for DVC members? If so, I'm surprised that they would be inside rooms? (unless there were oceanview and verandah rooms elsewhere on the ship that I didn't see also reserved for DVC members?)

Anyway, tonight everybody has the pirate menu, regardless of dining room. I always really enjoy the pirate menu, and I am surprised that a lot of members on this board don't seem to like it. The quality seems to be the same as the menus on the other nights. On pirate night, I always look forward to the Crunch Sundae, which includes rum raisin ice cream!!

After dinner was the other main event on the night: another pirate deck party followed by fireworks! The fireworks show is at 10:30, but you want to get there early (I recommend going directly from late dining) to be sure to get a good spot to see the fireworks. Our server said that the fireworks are over the starboard side of the ship, so the best view is from the port side of Deck 12. Announcements at the deck party said that you will get a good view from anywhere on Deck 12, or from the port side of Deck 11, but that your view will be blocked if you are on the starboard side of Deck 11. The fireworks show was really nice, and something that I always look forward to!!

One complaint that I have is that there seemed to be a lot of other events that I would have enjoyed that conflicted with the pirate events. Piano man Ed Kelly had 2 shows tonight that we would have enjoyed, and there was adult karaoke tonight. I wish that those events could have been scheduled for other nights, especially karaoke, since they didn't have adult karaoke any other night. Carnival offered karaoke several times on a 7 night cruise, so I was surprised that Disney offered it only this once, and conflicting with pirate night. In any case, we gave priority to the more unique pirate events, so this wasn't a major complaint.

After the fireworks show, they turned the deck into a nightclub! We stayed for a few songs, but we were tired (we got up early and had a very busy day) so we didn't stay for long. Although it is not well-advertised there is a late night pirate buffet in Cabanas after the fireworks. The only hint at the existence of this late night buffet is in the "Dining and Lounges" section of the Navigator. Although we were still fairly full from dinner, we did want to try the tacos that they were offering. So we briefly went to the buffet and we each enjoyed a taco. We then went back down to our room, and as usual, sat on our verandah and enjoyed the ocean. We had another wonderful day today, and we are excited about St. Thomas tomorrow!!

 

[mitsguy2001]

Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015: St. Thomas

St. Thomas is always a port that we look forward to. We never book an excursion at this port, but we instead take a cab to Magen's Bay Beach! Disney does offer an excursion to Magen's Bay Beach. However, taking a cab is less expensive, and it allows you to be on your own schedule, so I'm not really sure what the advantage would be to the excursion.

Since we are on our own schedule today, we were able to sleep a little later than we did yesterday. Again, it was exciting seeing the island from our verandah! We had our usual breakfast at Cabanas; again, I did not see any Mickey Waffles. We didn't hear the announcement as to which gangways were open (we were probably still asleep then) but I asked a cast member in Cabanas, and he said that the midship and forward gangways were open. It would have been useful if that was posted somewhere for people who didn't hear the initial announcement. I'm guessing it's not listed in the Navigator, since at the time they are printed, they probably don't know which gangways will be open.

Also, I bought a bottle of water onboard from the Cove Cafe before leaving the ship. If you want to buy a bottle of water before debarking at a port in the morning, the Cove Cafe is the place to go, since none of the bars are open yet.

We used the Deck 1 midship gangway since it was the one closer to our room (too bad the aft gangway wasn't open, since that was the closest to our room). We then took a cab from the port to Magen's Bay Beach. Be sure to hold on if you get one of the open safari taxis!!

Magen's Bay Beach is a very beautiful beach, and we always look forward to going there. My wife and I went to Hawaii for our honeymoon in 2010, and Magen's Bay Beach always reminds us of some of the beaches in Hawaii! The weather today was partly cloudy, but luckily no real rain. Just the typical showers that last less than a minute, which we've experienced every time we've been to St. Thomas. We had lunch at the concession stand at the beach. It's a fairly typical beach concession stand; not much to really say about it.

We had a wonderful time at Magen's Bay Beach! When it was time to leave, it was very easy to get a cab back to the ship. We took our showers and got ready for the nighttime activities.

The variety show tonight in the theater was the hypnotist Ricky Kalmon! This was an excellent show and we really enjoyed it! Adults from the audience volunteered to go on stage in order to attempt to be hynotized by Ricky Kalmon. At different points in the show, some people who weren't successfully hypnotized returned to the audience, and others joined on stage. This was a very interesting show, especially since it was something different.

After the show, we went to La Piazza to listen to Fine Whines, which was a jazz duo. We heard them several times earlier when passing through La Piazza, but this was the first time that we sat down to hear them. They were really good, and we enjoyed hearing them!

The theme for tonight's dinner was Prince and Princess night. Interestingly, the dress for tonight was casual. I wonder why they don't have Prince and Princess night on one of the formal nights. Not surprisingly, a lot of little girls were dressed as Disney princesses! I am very happy to see that Disney included princes in this menu, and not just princesses. Disney has a lot of princess activities, so it was nice to see boys included in this one even if it's just the menu. Tonight, we were in Royal Court, which is appropriate for Prince and Princess night! Every dining room tonight has the Prince and Princess menu, regardless of where you are eating. This was a nice menu, and most of the items were named after Disney princes and princesses!

Tonight was an especially fun night at The Tube! First was a half hour where DJ Robert took requests. My wife and I requested Firework, by Katy Perry! The DJ, to be honest, didn't seem too enthusiastic about that song, although he did play it. Next was a game show called Pop! This was a game show where the club was split into 2 teams on either side of the room, and each team had to answer questions about pop culture. It was sort of a combination memory game and question and answer game, and it was a lot of fun! Next was my favorite event of the night, the 80s Music Challenge! As I said, I grew up during the 80s, and the 80s is my favorite decade of music, so this was a lot of fun. The format was completely different from the format on the Dream from last year. In this game, you had to join a team of 2 to 4 people (my wife and I were a team), and they played a short snippet of an 80s song, and you had to guess the name of song and the name of the artist, and received 1 point for the song and 1 point for the artist. Some of the snippets were quite short, so it wasn't easy. I did quite well in this game, although at last one team got every question correct! Next was a fun show called London Rocks, where Disney's production show dancers did 3 performances to various popular British songs! This show was a lot of fun! After that was the usual club music. Since tomorrow is a sea day and we'll be able to sleep late, we stayed at the club for a while tonight and really enjoyed ourselves! Later, we returned to our room, and relaxed on our verandah and enjoyed the ocean. It was nice having an extended amount of time tonight to enjoy our verandah! Another wonderful day on our cruise!!

 

[mitsguy2001]

Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015: Sea Day

We were able to sleep late today! Had breakfast at Cabanas (again, no Mickey Waffles), and spent most of the day hopping between the Donald Pool, the Quiet Cove Pool, and the Aqua Duck! And of course lunch at Cabanas. Don't have too much to say since we've already reviewed all of those activities. But the lines for the Aqua Duck weren't bad at all. I had expected the lines would be much longer since it's the last sea day, and it's a hot, sunny day where most people would be outside. In the afternoon, we had a drink at the Cove Bar, as we often do on sea days. This was a very enjoyable afternoon!

When we returned to our room, we spent a short amount of time sitting on our verandah during the day, and then we took our showers and got ready for the semi-formal night. I wore my suit again and my wife wore a dress. To be honest, the semi-formal night was a joke, and very few people got dressed. In my opinion, it would make more sense if Disney eliminated semi-formal night, and kept just 1 formal night, but expected people to dress up more for it.

Tonight's theater show was Disney Believe. This is a very nice show where a workaholic father learns an important lesson about family. We saw this same show last year on the Dream. This was the only show that was common to both cruises (not sure what shows the Dream has currently). My only comment about this show is that it appeared that the father was a professor who was working on that project for personal glory, rather than to avoid losing a job that he needs to support a family. Perhaps more people would have been able to relate to his situation if he was working for a corporate employer, and his boss demanded that he work overtime at the last minute on his daughter's birthday. But otherwise a great show.

After the show we had some more picture taken with characters in our formal attire. And then we had the Captain's Gala dinner at Animator's Palate. We were told the night before to arrive 10 minutes early, at 8:05, due to the animation show. However, they didn't let anybody in until close to the usual 8:15.

As I mentioned before, when you are in Animator's Palate for the night of the animation show, you get a "dumbed down" version of the menu for the night, in this case, the Captain's Gala menu. You do not get a choice of appetizer, but you get an appetizer sampler platter with 3 items. You do not get a choice of soup or salad, but you get a potato and mac and cheese soup. Luckily, you still get the full choices of entrees for the night. That is a good thing, since tonight is lobster night!! Your choice of desserts is also much more limited, and you choose your dessert at the same time as your entrée. You get only 1 choice for dessert, or the sweet temptations. One of the main reasons why I agreed with my wife to take the ERAERAE rotation was because the one dessert choice tonight, the warm chocolate lava cake, was the option that both my wife and I would have chosen anyway tonight.

I really think that Disney needs to find a different way to handle this menu. One idea would be to start this dinner earlier, in order to give more time to make selections. Another idea would be to allow you to make your menu selections the night before. Or another idea would be to reverse the animation show with the Finding Nemo show, and give the full menu on Nights 5-7, and have the animation show on Nights 1-3, and have the regular menu for Animator's Palate be the one with fewer choices, so that everybody on the cruise gets exactly the same menu options.

In any case, the animation show was cute. They give you a crayon and a placemat where you can draw a character. At the end of dinner, there is an animation show that shows all of the characters drawn by people in the dining room. During dinner, the screens showed scenes involving food from various Disney movies. That was cute.

In any case, I did enjoy the appetizer sampler. I do not like potatoes at all, but I didn't dislike the potato and mac and cheese soup as much as I had expected. It tasted more cheesey than potatoey. But it didn't appeal to me too much, and I didn't finish it, mostly since I didn't want to fill up on it when lobster and warm chocolate lava cake was still to come! Of course, I enjoyed the lobster, one of the best meals of the cruise!! And I very much enjoyed the warm chocolate lava cake! It is served with vanilla ice cream, and our server said that it is best to eat the cake and the ice cream together. It reminded me a lot of Carnival's signature dessert, the warm chocolate melting cake!! If you have been on Carnival and enjoyed that dessert, you will enjoy this!

After dinner we had a few more pictures taken, and then we went back to our room to put on more casual clothes. Again, virtually nobody remained dressed after dinner. We then went to Ricky Kalmon's adult comedy and hypnosis show! We enjoyed this show a lot! It was similar to the family show that we went to yesterday. Like other Disney adult shows, it wasn't too risqué. After that, we went to the Tube and danced the night away! And then we returned to our room and sat on our verandah and enjoyed the ocean, like we did each night! Another wonderful day on our cruise, and we were exited about Castaway Cay tomorrow, the highlight of the cruise!!

 

[mitsguy2001]

Friday Sept. 18, 2015: Castaway Cay

We were really excited about today, since Castaway Cay is always the highlight of a Disney cruise!! The weather was beautiful today! We got up earlier than we did on the sea days since we wanted to have a decent amount of time on the island, but we weren't on a schedule so it was still a relaxed morning. We never book an excursion at Castaway Cay; we just use it as a day to relax on the beach and go in the water!

We had our usual breakfast at Cabanas. They had Mickey Waffles today!! I wonder where they were the rest of the week. Although last night they said all 3 gangways would be open, the announcement just mentioned the forward and midship gangways, so we used the midship gangway. There did seem to be people using the aft gangway, but it may have been for crew only.

Before going to the beach, we took some pictures with characters. It was a little confusing knowing exactly where to line up for various characters. In at least one case, Chip and Dale, the pictures were with your personal camera rather than by a professional photographer.

We next boarded the tram to get to the main family beach. There are 2 tram stops, and we got off at the first one. The second tram stop allows you to transfer to the tram to Serenity Bay, the adult beach. We took a spot on the family in between the two tram stops and near Cookies Barbecue. The beach is very beautiful and very peaceful! Spent most of the morning in the water. And then we had our lunch at Cookies Barbecue. I always enjoy this lunch; it is simple, but it has a fun atmosphere and has a decent selection of food.

On our past 2 Disney cruises, we spent the afternoon at the adult beach, which is very beautiful and especially peaceful. However, this time, we decided to stay at the family beach area, mostly in order to maximize our time on the beach, rather than spending time waiting for and riding the tram. After lunch we each got a pina colada from the Conched Out bar. The bars on Castaway Cay make the best pina coladas!! After that, we went back to the beach and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in the water. I wish we could have stayed there forever!!

Unfortunately, we can't stay at Castaway Cay forever, and we have to get back on the ship. This was especially sad since it was the last day of the cruise. One drawback to this itinerary is that it doesn't have a sea day at the end. Most other cruises that I have been on (including the Disney Wonder 4 night in 2006 and the Disney Dream 4 night in 2014) had a sea day at the end, which makes leaving the last port less difficult, and it gives time to pack.

On this cruise, we opted for the onboard check-in for our flight tomorrow, since we were using a participating airline, Delta. If you sign up for that service, on the last day of the cruise, in your room, there will be a printed copy of your boarding pass, as well as a luggage tag for your airline. This is a very convenient service, since it allows you to leave your luggage outside your room tonight, and Disney will check your luggage tomorrow at the airport. It saves you from having to retrieve your luggage at the cruise terminal tomorrow, and it saves you from needing to lug it to the airport and check it at the airport. You won't handle your luggage again until your final destination. And since you are checked into your flight and you have a printed copy of your boarding pass, you do not need to check in at the airport, and you can proceed straight to security if you want to. This was all very convenient.

The one negative to the onboard check-in is that since you won't have access to your checked baggage prior to boarding your plane, if you need any items tonight or tomorrow morning that are not allowed in your carryon, you are out of luck. This mostly applies to liquids and gels that are larger than travel size. The best solution is to either have travel sized deodorant and toothpaste to use tonight and tomorrow morning, or have a nearly empty supply that you are willing to discard before leaving the ship.

Also, with onboard check-in, do not use the usual debarkation tags with the Disney characters, even though they will still be sent to your room. That was not clear. I called guest services to ask, and they said I should definitely not use the character tags, and use only the airline tag. Be sure to remove your embarkation tag and any other tags that may still be on your bags.

Anyway, we took our showers and started (but did not finish) packing and got ready for our nighttime activities. The theater show tonight was called An Unforgettable Journey. This show was a very nice celebration of our cruise featuring the theater cast and the Disney characters. It also introduced comedian / juggler Michael Holly, who will be the final variety show of the cruise (later tonight). The show ended with a very nice song called Make a Memory, and featured pictures taken of guests throughout the cruise. This show was such a wonderful way to celebrate such a wonderful cruise, one of the best vacations we've ever been on!

Next we returned to our room to continue packing, and almost finished. We then went to Enchanted Garden for our final dinner. The menu tonight was called See Ya Real Soon! My wife and I both ordered the beef wellington which was excellent! This was another standout meal of the cruise!! We also both had the chocolate decadence for dessert, which was another standout!! That was one of the reasons why I agreed with my wife to request the ERAERAE rotation. I didn't want AERAERA since then we wouldn't have been able to order the chocolate decadence. The chocolate decadence was excellent, and reminded me of the chocolate sampler served at the steakhouse on Carnival cruises! Coincidentally, we always ate at the steakhouse on the last night of a Carnival cruise, so having this on the last night was appropriate!

After dinner, we went to Shutters to buy some of the professional photos that were taken throughout the week. As I mentioned, the Disney Fantasy (and Dream) make it very easy to find your pictures. We then went to our room to finish packing. We packed the clothes that we wore tonight, and put on the clothes that we will be wearing tomorrow. You have to leave your luggage outside your stateroom by 10:30 tonight.

In the lobby, there was a show featuring the Disney characters called See Ya Real Soon. We watched that for a while, and then we went to the Tube to see comedian / juggler Michael Holly's adult show, the final variety show of the cruise. We enjoyed this show a lot, just as we enjoyed the rest of the variety shows on this cruise! The rest of the night at the Tube was dancing to the usual club music! We stayed for a while, since even though we had to get up fairly early tomorrow, we really wanted to enjoy our last night on the cruise, since tomorrow is back to the real world.

A tradition my wife always have is on the last night of the cruise, before returning to our room for the last time, we always take a walk around the outside promenade deck, which on this ship was on Deck 4. I haven't mentioned that deck yet since this was the first time we used it! We saw another ship (most likely Carnival) in the distance. It is always interesting to see other ships from this deck. This deck was exactly the same as on the Dream. On the Disney ships, this deck is mostly just for walking, jogging, and shuffleboard (and on some parts of the deck during certain hours, smoking). The Carnival Dream class ships that we were on do a lot more with this deck: they call it the Lanai, and it includes hot tubs, a barbecue, and outdoor seating for some of the venues on that deck. We didn't use that deck very much on Carnival, so this wasn't a huge difference for us, although that deck on Carnival does take some of the pressure off of the facilities on the Lido Deck, especially the hot tubs. The forward port side of this deck also has the stairway to access the Vibe teen club. The starboard equivalent stairway seemed to be for cast members only.

After this, we returned to our room, and sat on our veranda and enjoyed the ocean one last time. I wish we could have stayed on our verandah forever! I did not want to leave, but we did eventually have to go to bed.

 

[mitsguy2001]

Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015: Debarkation Day

It is always sad to leave the ship on the last day of the cruise. I did not want this vacation to end! This, to be honest, is one of the saddest days of the year for me. To make matters worse, I seem to have woken up with a cold today. That made debarkation day especially unpleasant, although I was happy that I didn't get sick during the actual cruise! That would have been lousy!

Your breakfast on debarkation morning is at a fixed time, in the same dining room where you had dinner the previous night (Enchanted Garden, in our case). Late dining gets to have a later breakfast, which was a good thing for us since it let us sleep a little later. This breakfast, obviously, is not one of the highlights of the cruise. Although there was a decent selection, the quality didn't seem to be as good as the breakfasts that you get during the rest of the cruise.

After breakfast, we went back up to the lobby and got in line to debark the ship. Always a sad moment. We were able to bypass the baggage claim since we had the onboard check-in. Since I wasn't feeling well today, I was especially happy we used onboard check-in and didn't have to handle our luggage. We submitted our customs form, and we got on our bus for the Disney transfer to the airport. Not surprisingly, the atmosphere on the bus wasn't as much fun as the bus we took going to the port at the beginning of the cruise.

Our flight was in the afternoon, so we had several hours to wait. Since we used onboard check-in, we did not have to wait in the line to check-in for our flight. We had lunch at Chili's, in the main terminal. If you have sufficient time before your flight, the majority of the sit-down restaurants are in the main terminal, before security. Once you go through security and take the train to one of the airside terminals, there is a limited selection of places to eat. So, if you have time, as we did today, it's best to eat in the main terminal. You also have access to the restaurants in the attached Hyatt Hotel if you want to eat at one of them.

After lunch, we went through security. The airport was not crowded at all today, so there wasn't much of a wait to get through security. Even though it is Saturday, it's near the beginning of the school year. This was quite a contrast to when we were at this airport on a Saturday in the summer of 2013 when it was absolutely packed, and we nearly missed our flight despite having quite a bit of time before the flight. We were glad not to have to deal with that today.

Our flight went well. When we landed at LGA, our luggage arrived quickly; there wasn't much of a wait. We then called the number given to us by Carmel, and they told us where to meet their service, which we had booked. That service worked well, and took us home.

As I said before, this was a wonderful cruise, one of our best ever! It was sad that it was now over. It is now time to unpack, and to recover from my cold! (again, glad I got the cold on debarkation day rather than during the cruise itself).

 

[LivingforDisney]

Thankyou for the wonderful report, it sounded amazing.
We are cruising for the first time on Fantasy in January, Western Caribbean.

 

[mitsguy2001]

Thankyou for the wonderful report, it sounded amazing.
We are cruising for the first time on Fantasy in January, Western Caribbean.

You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed the review. Hope you enjoy your first cruise! Do you have any questions that I'd be able to answer?

 

[hoffman1]

Enjoyed reading your report. We were on the same cruise
I think a lot of people (including me) got off the ship with some kind of cold or sinus infection. It makes the debarkation day that much sadder.

 

[LivingforDisney]

I have a question, at CC should we take the tram to the family beach or walk? And then take tram back to ship.
The reason I ask is that I have read a few reports and people have taken some great photos, not sure if we will miss these photo ops by taking tram?

 

[lillygator]

thanks for sharing

 

[mitsguy2001]

Enjoyed reading your report. We were on the same cruise
I think a lot of people (including me) got off the ship with some kind of cold or sinus infection. It makes the debarkation day that much sadder.

I think part of the problem is that Disney and other cruise lines are overzealous when it comes to quarantining passengers with minor illnesses. That makes people fear getting treated for a minor cold. I know that some will say that is selfish. But I don't think it is selfish to want to enjoy a vacation that you spent a lot of money on!

It reminds me of an article that I read comparing the disciplinary systems of two well known colleges (I will refer to them as College #1 and College #2 to avoid mentioning them by name). The article said that College #1's disciplinary system focused on allowing students to grow and learn from their mistakes. It said that College #2 focused on expelling anybody who was even accused of anything. It then went onto criticism of both colleges. It said that College #1's system was well intentioned but does not prepare students for the real world. It then said that the real problem with College #2 was that it causes most offenses to be completely ignored, since somebody does not want to cause somebody else to be expelled for a minor offense, knowing that he/she won't even get a fair hearing, so people tend to just accept things. I think that cruise ships quarantining passengers works the same way: it causes people to not get treated for an illness, and, ironically, be more likely to spread it.

 

[mitsguy2001]

I have a question, at CC should we take the tram to the family beach or walk? And then take tram back to ship.
The reason I ask is that I have read a few reports and people have taken some great photos, not sure if we will miss these photo ops by taking tram?

I seem to remember walking back in 2006 but taking the tram in 2014 and 2015. So I guess I've gotten lazier in recent years. lol. I honestly don't remember what photo opportunities there were or if you miss them taking the tram.

Definitely take the tram to the adult beach (Serenity Bay) if you plan to go there; that would be a very long walk! The main tram doesn't go there; you have to take the tram for Pelican Point.