Fantasy Mar 14 2015 Eastern Caribbean (St Maarten, San Juan)

[Mogsdad]

This is the DisBoard Cruise Meet thread for the...

7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Disney Fantasy - Itinerary C
March 14 to March 21, 2015

Meet & Greet details:

Vista Cove on deck 4 around 3:00 (just before the boat drill) on the first day

Fish Extender details:

The FE list is being organized by Karen, "Pixie Dust for Me!". For details about signing up via DisBoards, see post 41.

 

[IrishCowboy]

I have added your thread to the cruise meet list
Have a great cruise!

 

[ptisme]

I am here! We are booked for this cruise. We are a family of three: me, my DH Patrick, and my DS (13 - will be 14 on the cruise) Tyler. Can't wait for this cruise. We went last year on the Dream and now are looking forward to a longer time on the Fantasy.

I totally want to do FE again but am not very tech savvy! Usually lurk on the boards.

 

[Ileyfam]

Hi all

We're very excited that we are booked into this trip! I'm actually more excited about this March Break trip than I am about the one we are about to go on in a couple of weeks.

This is our 3rd cruise and we will be myself, my DH, my DS (age 6 at time of cruise), my twin DD (age 4 at time of cruise) and my parents. The other 2 cruises have been 5 nights so we are looking forward to a longer cruise this time!

We will definitely participate in the Fish Extender and I don't mind organizing it once more people sign up.

Looking forward to sailing with you!

 

[Mogsdad]

Welcome, ptisme & Ileyfam! Hopefully we'll start seeing more people here as spring arrives - I guess it's still a little early. Still, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one excited this far in advance!

 

[wdwluvin]

Hi all Fantasy cruisers...

We will be joining you.
Just moved our dummy booking to this date. It will be myself, DH and DS14 (who will be 15 next March). We just cruised on RCCL's "Enchantment of the Seas" and while it was nice it is NOT DCL. Can't wait to get back on a Disney ship!!!
We did the Fish Extender thing last year on the Wonder and had fun. Would like to do that again - as long as the group doesn't get too big!

 

[GadgetGod]

Hi all,
Just booked this cruise for myself, DW, and DD (who will be 5 when we cruise.) This will be our first Disney cruise (DW and I have been on several other cruise lines) and we are excited to try a Disney cruise. We leave for Disney World in a week, so it is nice to have next years vacation already planned.

 

[ShelleyLynn]

Subbing this thread! We will be joining you! Just got off the Fantasy last Saturday from awesome eastern cruise and rebooked for this cruise next spring break. Would love to join the FE once organized. My family is myself, DH, DD13 and DD11 (at the time of cruise). Looking forward to getting to know you all!

 

[Mogsdad]

Welcome wdwluvin, GadgetGod & ShelleyLynn!

We just returned from our spring break at Aulani - fantastic Disney resort, but it's not the Fantasy!

 

[DMMom]

We just booked and I can't wait. We just got back from Beaches Turks & Caicos, but it just doesn't compare to a Disney cruise. The kids missed the kids club.
It will be our 4th Disney cruise, but first Eastern. Myself (Teresa), DH Kevin, DD 14 Sydney, and DS 11 Ethan.

 

[Romandel]

I had a booking for March 7 that I just moved to this date as the school March Break is a week later this year.

This will be our 4th Disney cruise and the first on one of the new ships. Cruising will be me (age 51 by the cruise date), DH (50), DS1 (18 at time of cruise), DS2 (12 at time of cruise). This is planned as an early grad gift to DS1 and no one other than me (not even DH) knows that I have booked this. I am hoping to keep it a secret until Xmas but boy is that going to be hard!

We have done FE's in the past and if one is started, count us in.

 

[cheesemouse]

Hi - We sailed the Dream a couple of weeks ago and booked this Fantasy cruise while on board. It's me, DH, and our 3 boys (ages 9,6,3 next year). While we have this cruise booked we are not for sure sold on it yet. Has anyone done San Juan or St. Maarten? Also, my kids did not spend as much time in the clubs on the Dream as they did on the Wonder. My feeling is that it's because most of the space in the clubs is just video games. So we'll have to decided in the coming months. Glad to see there is a cruise meet already going!

 

[Mogsdad]

Welcome DMMom, Romandel and cheesemouse!

Has anyone done San Juan or St. Maarten?

We've been to San Juan twice, most recently on the Fantasy in 2012. It's a great port of call, with lots of options. The Port of San Juan is adjacent to the Old Town, so rather than take any excursion, we went on our own walking tour around the south & western walls to the old City Gates, up the the Cathedral, then through town to the highlight of El Morro. This guide helped with planning. We enjoyed some local shopping and food, of course! (This was what my wife & I had done on our first visit, so it was a bit of memory lane for us.) It's a fair bit of walking, and can be very hot, but unforgettable.

While preparing for the trip, our family watched the then-new Wizards of Waverly Place Movie, which is set in Puerto Rico, and includes the cruise ship port and El Morro as locations. A fun way to get the kids interested... in fact, it might be a fun way to introduce the cruise as a surprise. "Hey, what if we went there? Would you like that? Surprise!"

Other families we'd met enjoyed excursions. El Yunque rainforest seemed popular, while others just took cabs to nearby resort beaches. Not sure what we'll do this time around, so I would love to hear from others.

 

[danielmorgan03]

Hello! we are a family of 4 going on the Fantasy cruise. This is our first on DCL, but we are veteran cruisers. My son is 11 and daughter is 10; we are looking forward to meeting everybody! I have seen were folks have done a beer exchange or a white elephant gift exchange...what do y'all think?

 

[danielmorgan03]

What is an FE?

 

[DMMom]

FE stands for fish extender. There are many posts on the cruise thread, but essentially you hang something outside your door that has pockets for each family member and then the people in the group leave little gifts in the pockets throughout the cruise. It really varies from leaving things like candy for each kid, to a family gift, to something for each person in the family. People choose to leave 1 gift a day or 1 gift for the week. The coordinator gathers the names and the room numbers. I have seen on several cruises that groups are broken up into about 10-20 families so the cost doesn't get too high. Also the gifts range from store bought to hand made.

 

[danielmorgan03]

We plan on going to El Yunque this time around. Since my son was about 5 he has wanted to go to Puerto Rico and now that he is 11 all he wants to do is visit the rain forest.

 

[VallejosPartyof4]

Hello all! My family of 4 plus 2 of the grandparents will be joining you on this sailing! This will be our second Disney cruise and we are SOOO excited (counting down the days already)! We had an awesome experience participating in the FE on our last cruise and would like to join with this group as well. Our twins will be turning 6 during the cruise!

 

[danielmorgan03]

So has anyone stayed at the Country Inn and Suites precruise? I am curious about their shuttle service...

Helpful link:
http://www.parkingstay.com/p/port-canaveral-area-hotels-view-port.html

 

[DMMom]

We stayed at the Country Inn & Suites. It was fine but you need to beware of the number of cruise lines in port and how many others are also taking the shuttle. It is close to the dock, so the round trip is fairly quick. If too many other people are faster planners, it will fill up quickly. My recommendation is to get on the list for the first shuttle possible if you are wanting to be in one of the early groups to board and you get one of the early boarding times. If it doesn't matter to you, then enjoy a leisurely breakfast and take one over around noon after they have started letting some groups in.