just back from Fantasy 7-nt Western Caribbean -- random observations

[kymom79]

After having finished a spectacular week on the Fantasy, I thought I'd post a few musings in case it could help anyone else planning.

Negative things I expected to encounter based on many Disboards posts that were actually NOT a problem for us at all:
1) People coming late to shows and being disruptive in their arrival
2) Lots of extreme swimwear
3) No umbrella chairs available at Castaway Cay
4) Obnoxious behavior from children on board

We were happy not to have those above issues -- but then again, we weren't looking for them. If you go into it planning to notice those things you might see more.

The only thing I'd say was less than perfect was our main server. Our drink server was attentive and unobtrusive, but the main server was completely tone deaf when it came to interrupting conversations in mid-word (he did this every night!) to ask something trivial or give a long, rehearsed spiel about some aspect of the cruise.

The food was excellent given the banquet-style setting. We went into it with the realization that it would be difficult to pull off a fine dining experience for 4000 people at roughly the same time every night, and we weren't too disappointed. The quality varied quite a bit -- some things were just so-so, some were as good as anything at the best restaurants on land.

The pools weren't as crowded as we expected, and we never experienced AquaDuck lines longer than 20 minutes. Most of the time only 5-10 (although we weren't usually swimming at peak times).

The family game shows and karaoke were tons of fun, although at some point someone should sing something not from Frozen. We did the last animation class and wished we had gotten in on those at the beginning of the week to take all 4 sessions. The other thing we have a regret about is not doing all of the "Art of the Theme Show" tour at the beginning of the week. We caught the tail end of the tour on the penultimate day and it was fascinating -- wish we had done the whole thing earlier so we could be enjoying those bits of insight into the beautiful ship throughout the cruise. There were so many things to do that it's hard to choose sometimes.

The shows were just as good as you'd expect from Disney! Everything on board was spotlessly clean all the time, and events ran punctually. Those are my 2 bugaboos on land -- the yuckiness of public places, and stuff I take the trouble to show up for not starting on time -- and they simply weren't concerns on the Fantasy. Applause to the staff for a beautiful, gleaming ship that couldn't be improved upon.

 

[dwfanatic]

Great to hear all of the positives! We hopefully will be sailing on the Fantasy next August!!

 

[MC0810]

Thank you for sharing.We are doing a western next year on the fantasy ..what excursions did you do, if you don't mind sharing.

 

[muse7mom]

Do they have a big catalogue for the karaoke or is it only Disney music?

 

[kymom79]

In response to your question, we did the Ocean Explorer excursion in Cozumel. It was an interesting and (I thought) safer alternative to the submarine excursion. Our children enjoyed it, but due to the logistics involved -- waiting for your group to gather at the pier, then waiting for the group to gather and be split into taxis at the transportation point, then waiting at the dock, and all of that in reverse on the way home -- the kids expressed a preference not to do further excursions. We had waited to book excursions for Grand Cayman and Jamaica and became reluctant to drop hundreds of $$$ on things the kids didn't want to do.

Sorry I can't be more help with all that. I would say that the Ocean Explorer tour does give you a lot of time in the semi-sub for your money. We were underwater about 1 hour 40 minutes and the whole tour process took about 3 hours.

Concerning Falmouth, I did have a desire to see the city's historic architecture. The port itself is new and beautiful, and I set off on my own to explore the city -- and stopped when I reached the gates from the port into the city. The transition from the port to Falmouth proper is like entering another world and I got cold feet about the whole idea. It would have been nice to do the carriage tour of the city; had I a chance to do it over again I think I would have booked it for myself and not been dissuaded by feeling the need to drag along husband and kids at $49/person. I would NOT explore Falmouth without being part of a group -- but that's just me. Probably too easily paranoid.

 

[kymom79]

Muse7Mom, the karaoke catalogue is quite large and not at all limited to Disney music. By the way, I was surprised at a couple of Disney tunes they didn't have -- we wanted to do "At last I see the light" from Tangled or "I've Got a Dream" as a family but they didn't have it.

 

[VS85]

Did you experience any of the strange "vibrations" that many others on this board have recently reported? It's one of the things that is making me somewhat nervous for our upcoming October cruise. If you don't mind me asking, what room were you in (or general location if you don't want to give a specific stateroom)?

So glad that you enjoyed yourselves! It seems like you went in with the attitude. Thanks for answering all our questions!

 

[kymom79]

No, we didn't experience much in the way of vibrations. Every now and then there might be a bit, but it seems one would have to be fairly sensitive to be very bothered by the small amount on our sailing. This was true wherever we went on the ship, but since you're interested, our stateroom was in the starboard aft area, deck 7.

The only time we felt noticeable ship movement (not vibrations, but actual up-and-down movement) was leaving Jamaica and through that night. It wasn't unpleasant though.

 

[TKNstl]

We're headed on the same itinerary this Saturday. Thanks for the review. We will defiantly to the animation classes and tours now.

Any favorite meals we should order? Any kids activities your kids loved?

Thanks again.

 

[TKNstl]

We're headed on the same itinerary this Saturday. Thanks for the review. We will defiantly to the animation classes and tours now.

Any favorite meals we should order? Any kids activities your kids loved?

Thanks again.

Lol, can you tell I was up late doing FEs and packing?! Should be
"definitely do the animation classes"

 

[VS85]

No, we didn't experience much in the way of vibrations. Every now and then there might be a bit, but it seems one would have to be fairly sensitive to be very bothered by the small amount on our sailing. This was true wherever we went on the ship, but since you're interested, our stateroom was in the starboard aft area, deck 7. The only time we felt noticeable ship movement (not vibrations, but actual up-and-down movement) was leaving Jamaica and through that night. It wasn't unpleasant though.

Thank you! Definitely puts my mind at ease

 

[CBadger]

We just got off of the Fantasy yesterday and the only strong vibrations we felt was in front of the soft serve ice cream machines near cabanas. We were on the 2nd floor aft and our room had quite a bit of movement especially heading back to Port Canaveral on the last night. Other than that we slept great!

 

[disnerdiest]

My family and I were on this past Fantasy sailing and I was worried after reading the infamous vibration thread. Overall nothing seemed abnormal to me at all. There were some mild rough wave patches here and there but I think that's expected on a cruise ship. We've been on the Dream twice and now the Fantasy as well and it seemed to be the same experience vibration-wise. We stayed on deck 8 midship. We had a blast on this trip.

 

[JulieODC]

No, we didn't experience much in the way of vibrations. Every now and then there might be a bit, but it seems one would have to be fairly sensitive to be very bothered by the small amount on our sailing. This was true wherever we went on the ship, but since you're interested, our stateroom was in the starboard aft area, deck 7.

The only time we felt noticeable ship movement (not vibrations, but actual up-and-down movement) was leaving Jamaica and through that night. It wasn't unpleasant though.

Thanks for the review! We leave on the same cruise on Saturday!

What stateroom did you have? We're booked in 7186. Would love your review of your location?

 

[bobdcl]

we are taking the same cruise in august.. i believe you were the first on " itinerary c"? do you have copies of the navigators that you can upload?? thx

 

[AllThatJazz]

If you were itinerary C, what did you do in Jamaica?

Happy to hear you had a great trip!

 

[kymom79]

JulieODC, we had no problems with our stateroom location at 7640. We were reasonably close to the aft stairs, so easy access to the kids' clubs on deck 5 aft and Europa (the grown-ups' area) on deck 4 aft. We had no particular druthers about stateroom location and had not requested a given area. As far as the room goes, the verandah made a big difference in our enjoyment of the room. We had to go with the the family verandah stateroom because of the size of our party, and although I groused a bit at first about the extra expense, it was actually well worth it. I'd do a verandah room next time even if traveling with fewer people.

TKNstl, unfortunately we ate so much that much of it is now a blur. I do remember the Chilean sea bass with fava bean risotto on our Enchanted Garden night as being probably the best thing I had the entire cruise. The venison medallions the night of the Captain's Gala were also excellent and worth skipping the lobster on the menu that night for. My husband is a steak nut and found the beef dishes on the menu -- particularly the beef wellington on the last night -- to be generally further below the quality of a land-based fine dining establishment than the other dishes. FWIW. (He still kept ordering them though!)

I think someone posted the Navigators on another thread; I can't scan those now.

 

[natmom]

We just got off the ship yesterday as well. I was sooooo worried about the 'vibrations' that so many speak of and I worried for no reason. We were cabin 9630 fairly close to the aft elevators. I loved the location! Two floors up to cabanas and the pool and the aft elevators are rarely busy if you need an elevator. There was the tiniest bit of vibration in our room, I would just attribute it to being on a ship that moves through the ocean. In palo on the last night it was pretty shaky, but the waters were a little rough as well.

 

[kymom79]

Sorry I forgot to answer the question regarding favorite kids activities -- ours were hard pressed to say what they most liked in the Oceaneer Club and Lab. I think our boys mainly enjoyed being around the kids and trying out all of the Disney-themed computer games. My older son did say that he tried Super Sloppy Science and enjoyed it (with a mischievous grin and waggle of the eyebrows, he said it was "highly inappropriate" but refused to elaborate). Our littlest one got a kick out of the Journey to Neverland when Peter Pan showed up to take them on a flight through the Magic PlayFloor. However, I got the impression that our children mainly just enjoyed being in the kids' club environment. We had a haaaard time getting them to come do other things with us!

 

[CBadger]

If you were itinerary C, what did you do in Jamaica? Happy to hear you had a great trip!

We did the Chukka Beach excursion. It was a 15-20 min ride through Jamaica and then we were dropped off at Chukka Beach for about 3 hours. Beautiful beach and very nice people!