Just got off the Fantasy, any questions?

[taishartrueblood]

Had a great time, first time at Palo (and will definitely go back!). The Baths at Virgin Gorda were great as well.

Any questions?

 

[scgustafson]

Who were your Cruise Staff Team members, Cruise Director, and Captain?

 

[poohs4me]

Not sure where you are from but did you go in the water at Castaway Cay or other stops? If so was it cold.

Was the Baths hike hard? Did you go into the water there? What shoes did you wear?

Also did you sign up for the princess meet and greet and if so what day and times were you offered?

Thank you

 

[JJsmama]

My question is: will you write about it? Many of us are eagerly awaiting Eastern trip reports. If you dont want to do a whole TR, please let us know about Tortola. There is almost NO info on the Tortola excursions and getting around there.

We were booked for the Baths, but after lots of reading and taking into account my arthritis, I switched it to a snorkel trip (which i am also doing in st Thomas.) What I really want is a beach day which lasts longer than 1 hour ( DCL excursions ) thus, I am thinking of trying to go to Cane Garden Bay on our own. Did you meet anyone who did this?

I hope your trip was fabulous.

 

[JJsmama]

Also, how were the air and water temperatures? (Generally speaking-- nice,too cold, etc)

How were the seas/ rocking and rolling? Wondering what level of sea sickness meds to use. TIA

 

[bwvBound]

Not sure where you are from but did you go in the water at Castaway Cay or other stops? If so was it cold.

Was the Baths hike hard? Did you go into the water there? What shoes did you wear?

Also did you sign up for the princess meet and greet and if so what day and times were you offered?

Thank you

Not the OP, but we were at Castaway Cay on 2/28. We snorkeled for about 90 minutes ... and ran through many very cool currents. The water would quickly alternate between comfortable and BRRR! It was the coolish temp that eventually drove us back to the beach.

 

[lolainkent]

My question is: will you write about it? Many of us are eagerly awaiting Eastern trip reports. If you dont want to do a whole TR, please let us know about Tortola. There is almost NO info on the Tortola excursions and getting around there.

We were booked for the Baths, but after lots of reading and taking into account my arthritis, I switched it to a snorkel trip (which i am also doing in st Thomas.) What I really want is a beach day which lasts longer than 1 hour ( DCL excursions ) thus, I am thinking of trying to go to Cane Garden Bay on our own. Did you meet anyone who did this?

I hope your trip was fabulous.

Not the OP but I went to Cane Garden Bay on Feb 16 when on the Fantasy. We got off the ship and followed signs to the taxis. Different open air taxis were going different places so we just told the men there that we wanted Cane Garden Bay. 5 people sit per bench, 5 rows, so they want to fill it. It cost $8pp each way (you pay before the taxi departs). Our driver came over the PA with info about the island, stopped twice en route for photo ops and made sure we knew his name in case we wanted to head back with him later in the day. My husband went back around 1pm to get DD from the lab, I went back with my DS, nephew, sister and her friend around 2:30pm and my SIL, brother, other DS and niece left around 4pm...none of us had trouble getting a taxi back when we wanted.

Water was lovely, though it was windy that day so the waves did occasionally crash and knock us over. The public washrooms left a bit to be desired but they were there and free. Drinks at the restaurants cost about $3-7. 2 sun chairs and umbrella cost us $15 for the day and was enough room for one of us to lay out and watch all the bags. We brought our own sand toys for the kids and a couple others joined in. I'd recommend it if you're after a nice, simple beach day. Let me know if I can answer any other questions!

 

[LLB430]

I would love info on The Baths..specifically if bringing a 3.5 year old is a good idea. We are leaning toward Cane Garden Bay, but would love to see The Baths. Thanks!

 

[taishartrueblood]

We had the Commadore Tom Forberg as the captain, he did a great job.

Tortula was lovely but strange. It is a completely new port, a completely undeveloped one... not really commercialized at all. The island and waters itself are lovely and the temperature was about 80 and HOT. The reason that the cruise ships stop going to Tortula after March is that it gets too hot to be comfortable.

I will post a picture of the Tortula port (don't want to bother uploading mine, sorry).. the group of buildings you see with the red roofs are the ENTIRE commercial section of Tortula. They were mostly diamond shops or shops that havnt been stocked/rented yet. If you are looking to shop, this isn't the place... we looked at all the shops... ALL the shops... in 15 minutes.

[GALLERY=]http://disneycruiselineblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Tortola-Pier-Park-Rendering-Downing.jpg [/GALLERY]

The Baths were beautiful, definitely worth an excursion! The beaches were beautiful and the caves were awesome. The hike itself is moderate.. if you can hike a mountain trail (at your own pace) then you can do the hike. The very first section requires that you crouch over but we didn't see anyone having to crawl through it (and I am a big guy who was carrying a backpack and a camerabag). The excursion starts you off by walking you down to the beach, then going through the caves to another beach, then you can go up to the restaurant or you can go back through the caves and then up to the restaurant. We decided to go back through the caves and enjoyed it immensely both times. The restaurant itself "Top of the Baths" is beautiful with a couple of small shops/spa there. The food was great and the drinks were good with plenty of alcohol (none of the watered drinks you get on the ship!). The restaurant also had a fresh water pool that that kids loved! I wore water shoes, my brother wore sandals, but next time we would both go barefoot (but then I love to go barefoot). The rocks are all smooth and shouldn't hurt the feet. The water itself was cool but not cold, pretty much perfect. There was shade on the beaches for those who wanted it and all the views were awesome.............................. sorry for the stream of consciousness post there, I havnt had my coffee yet OH, make sure you bring bottled water with you! There is a small place at the first beach where you can buy water and sandwiches and such, but the prices were quite high and you will definitely need some water.

We also went to Magen's Bay in St. Thomas and the beach was great and the water was great.

Castaway Cay was very nice, it started a little overcast but by 11am the sun was out and it was ~75 degrees. The water was cool but after 10 seconds in the water you were fine. My old complaint about CC this year was that Serenity Bay didn't have a lot of marine life in it (conch, coral, sea anemone, ect) like it did last year.

We have been told that the water is always smooth sailing in March and we have found that to be true. There was very little rocking, even though we were going at high speed (so no stabilizers deployed).

Joe was the club hostess and she is awesome! We have been on a cruise with her as a club host before and she makes it so much fun!

I was travelling with my sister, brother in law, nephews, and brother and my sister scheduled a character breakfast (not a princess one) and it took place on Monday morning in AP. There were a ton of characters out and the lines were not too long.


Oh, one thing I will mention, the lines for the late seating dinner seemed to be extraordinarily long. Maybe that is normal, not sure.

 

[taishartrueblood]

LLB, bringing a 3.5 year old would be doable, but there are sections that you would have to carry him/her. There are stairs that go straight up and down that are covered with sand that would not be safe for them alone (even adults had to take their time on them). Most of the caves they could do fine in I think. Keep in mind that the hike to and from the caves is moderately strenuous as well... not too steep, but long enough that a small child might get tired.

 

[c todd]

taishartrueblood, did you do the DCL excursion to Magen's Bay? We are booked on that one but I've read a lot of negative posts about being like cattle and chairs on top of each other. I've also read that it was a beautiful beach and great for kids which is why we haven't changed. Any comments about it?

 

[cruisehopeful]

If you've been on other Disney ships, how was Fantasy compared to others as far as sea days/on board activities?

 

[Muskegon78]

I would love info on The Baths..specifically if bringing a 3.5 year old is a good idea. We are leaning toward Cane Garden Bay, but would love to see The Baths. Thanks!

We had our 4 year old with us and she probably had the easiest times at the baths out of any of us. The hand rope areas on the rocks were the most difficult for her but she easily walked through tight areas and the water was never too deep

 

[Muskegon78]

Also, how were the air and water temperatures? (Generally speaking-- nice,too cold, etc)

How were the seas/ rocking and rolling? Wondering what level of sea sickness meds to use. TIA

The seas on the first 2 sea days were rough, especially aft. It was smooth after that except for a little bit of motion between CC and PC. Water in Tortola was warm, and Tortola and St Thomas air temps were in the 80's

 

[taishartrueblood]

C Todd, I did the Disney excursion to Magen's bay, yes. The seating was perfectly fine, 3 rows of lounge chairs and they were not too close together. Furthermore, you could move them around if you liked, some people did. The chairs were near the bar/restaurant but not in front of it. They were near the bathrooms but not in front of them. They had a lifeguard station on either side. The beach itself isn't very long or wide so the ~300 Disney guests that were there took up maybe 5% of the beach. They also had umbrellas and a good system for taxiing to the beach and for getting back. The beach itself is lovely. It is in a bay (obviously) and the water there is crystal clear and very flat, very little waves at all. This is definitely a very kid-friendly beach but I must say that the bar drinks were good too... the rum punch is heavy on the rum, great flavor, and will put you on your butt after 2 or 3 ($6 each too).

You certainly do not NEED to book the excursion, but by the time you hired a taxi, got a chair for each member of the party, got umbrellas for every 2 party members, paid the entrance fees... I doubt you would have saved more then $5 a person.

Cruisehopeful, there was always a ton of stuff to do. I am not really into sitting and sunning too much (some but not all day) and there were constant trivia challenges, shows, ect. to keep me interested. Also (for sports fans) the Fantasy class of ship has satellite so you get ESPNs (3 of them I think) so you don't miss any big games.

 

[taishartrueblood]

Musk, you found the seas rough? I was on the ship with you and I slept in the aft and I didn't think it was rough at all. Rougher then when the stabilizers are down, sure, but there was no stumbling about or any items moving... you could barely see any tilt in the drinks. I have only been on 3 cruises so I am not THAT experienced, but it might have been more noticeable if this was your first cruise?

 

[erdoc38]

We were on the ship too, and didn't think it was rough at all. Sailed last year at the same time and it was definitely rougher than last week. We did the Tour to Virgin Gorda as well, and it was definitely easier for the kids!

 

[tracylkj]

taishartrueblood, did you do the DCL excursion to Magen's Bay? We are booked on that one but I've read a lot of negative posts about being like cattle and chairs on top of each other. I've also read that it was a beautiful beach and great for kids which is why we haven't changed. Any comments about it?

We did the Megan's Bay excursion in 2014. Check to see how many cruise ships are in port. If there's 5 and up, I don't know, I think I'd do something else depending on your tolerance for the "madding crowd". The beach is lovely, there's a restaurant, lots of stuff to do, beautiful water but I was jam packed in with chairs in front of me (so no view). If it's a slow day, however, I'd hit it for sure. There was absolutely no where to move our chairs, we were like sardines lol. I did a lot of walking so I could take in the view, it's beautiful!

 

[taishartrueblood]

We generally go at the end of Feb. / beginning of March so there is always a lot less crowd.

 

[Muskegon78]

Musk, you found the seas rough? I was on the ship with you and I slept in the aft and I didn't think it was rough at all. Rougher then when the stabilizers are down, sure, but there was no stumbling about or any items moving... you could barely see any tilt in the drinks. I have only been on 3 cruises so I am not THAT experienced, but it might have been more noticeable if this was your first cruise?

That was my 2nd disney cruise and my 5th overall. No stumbling, but things were shifting in the bathroom and some noticeable tilts in the hallways. The captain mentioned it twice and that it would be better near tortola. Watching from the veranda the waves were pretty big, it wasn't uncomfortable though