Our FANTASY of a trip together! May 18th-May 25th, 2013

[DenyingReality]

Disney Trip Report: Fantasy May 18th-25th, 2013

Hello! Welcome to my humble little trip report from the Disney cruise trip we took in May! I wanted to write this report a very long time ago, but unfortunately, work and school got in the way. However, I did jot down notes from everything, and I hope to make this as accurate as possible!

I remember while highly anticipating our trip, I searched for reports from the point of view of young adults on the Fantasy, and I couldn't find very many! I don't want to sound like I'm discounting the point of view of the older (but still young at heart!) people on these boards, but when you're travelling as a young person without kids, you see things a little differently. Hence, why I'm writing this report! To give back to the wonderful community who taught me a thing or two (or twenty) about Disney cruising!

This is us! The two people you'll get to know from this trip report very well by the end of it, I imagine!

So! I guess I'll introduce myself first. I'm Chelsea, the writer of this report! I'm nineteen (although I was eighteen for part of the trip, more on that later!) and a current university student. I'm a huge Disney fan, but prior to this cruise, I had never done or experienced anything Disney-related except for seeing the movies in the theatre

My travelling partner, my boyfriend Warren, is a bigger Disney geek than I am. He is also a university student, and was twenty at the time of the trip. This trip was his grand slam (he's been on all four DCL ships!!!) His family has been to Disney World many times as well.

Ever since we had started going out Warren had been saying he wanted to experience everything Disney again, but with me. When we realized there was a Fantasy cruise going out in May with a perfect Eastern itinerary during our time off Uni, AS WELL AS during my birthday AND the two year mark of us being together, it was a total pipe dream for us. It sounded cool sure, but travelling as a student can be expensive, ESPECIALLY on such a luxurious trip as a Disney cruise.

However, as luck would have it, he had some money saved up plus a visa that works similarly to an Air Miles card, so he was able to get his flights for “free”, and I obtained a scholarship that allowed me to save a significant amount of money that would have gone towards tuition. When we worked out the logistics, we realized that if we saved like crazy for almost a year, we could have enough to travel at the off-season time, leaving the cruise we had been looking at for so long as a perfect option!

So I guess that's our introduction! My next post will detail our first day getting to Orlando, as well as the day we spent there in Orlando! During this report I will also discuss some of the things we did, as well as what we would do differently the next time we go (it's just a matter of when, considering our personal and financial situations have changed since this trip, as things do. But people gotta dream big, right?!)

P.S: If there are any students out there looking at doing the same sort of trip that we did, or any trip for that matter, please ask me any questions you may have! I can only speak as one person (well, maybe two if you want Warren's perspective too!) but I'm totally open to any questions you might have, about the ship, travelling, or otherwise

 

[Susan121302]

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[Princess Michelle]

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip!

 

[DenyingReality]

Day 1: Heading to Orlando!

My family is lovely and dropped Warren and I off at the airport bright and early. Whereas we live in Canada and this was an international flight, it was recommended that we get there two hours early. The airport in our province is tiny, and has basically nothing to do, so this was a very boring two hours. However, we suffered through, knowing what lay ahead of us later in the day!

I have a terrible phobia of planes, and generalized anxiety to boot, so unfortunately I can't recall much about the flights to Orlando. I mostly slept, and Warren watched movies. This was my first flight on a United plane, and despite the fact I was on a plane and quietly freaking out, I was impressed with the service! Very nice people and surroundings.

We had a layover in Newark, and we landed early, thank goodness. I don't think we would have made our second plane without that extra bit of time; customs and security took so long! The people running everything were lovely and friendly, but man oh man, did it take a long time. I was anxious and hungry, so I was very glad when we were through and able to dash to our gate, sit for five minutes, and eat some McDonalds (YES! I was thankful for McDonalds! I admit it!)

We also made friends with a pigeon in the terminal.

We then booted it over to our gate, climbed on the plane, and were off to Orlando!

When we landed, the first thing I noticed was the HEAT! We chatted with the people at Mears' to figure out our transport situation for getting to Port Canavaral in two days, as well as to the hotel. Warren took care of all of this, because I'm useless at figuring out travel logistics! All I know is that we got there safely But they seemed very easy to deal with and we were in a cab and to the hotel in no time.

We had flown down two days early for two reasons: so we would have the least chance of missing the boat as possible, and so we could hit up the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. If there's one thing I love more than Disney, it's Harry Potter!

We stayed at the Hampton Inn closest to Universal Studios, and was that ever a good choice! The rooms were clean, the staff were SO friendly, and it was in a convenient spot to everything we wanted to see in our day and a half in Orlando. Best of all... It was right next door to an IHOP! I had never been to an IHOP before, and being the huge connoisseur of breakfast food that I am, I wanted to try it on this trip. So we brought our bags to our hotel room, bid adieu to our friends at the front counter, and headed over to the resturant.

Waitin' on our food!

Warren tried the chocolate chocolate chip pancakes, while I tried out the rooty tooty fresh and fruity (how cute of a name is that?!) I ended up sharing a lot with Warren however, because holy freakin' moly the portions in America are huge! I've been to the States once before, but didn't eat any meals out and about in resturants per se, so this was a bit of a shock to me. I also tried out a tropical island twist, which I did NOT share with Warren It was so delicious! Our waitress was also super nice, and chatted with us a lot. The restaurant was dead almost the whole time we were there, so it was super nice of her to talk to us instead of whatever other duties she might have had that night! I appreciated it a lot.

Look at all that food! Flawless.

After our meal, we made our way over to the bus stop to get the bus to the International Drive Premium Outlet Mall. The one complaint I have about International Drive is how infrequent some of their buses are. I'm pretty sure we were waiting almost an hour for some of them! However, it was cheap, and the weather was nice, so we didn't mind the wait too much. It's good to keep in mind if you're on a tight schedule and must rely on public transport, though.

As someone who loves shopping a lot, the outlet mall was a dream. We went on a Thursday night, so I feel as though we avoided a lot of the crowds I read about before going there. A few stores (namely Victoria's Secret) were packed, but that didn't phase me much. Bless Warren's heart, he stuck out for over two hours while I shopped, but eventually our exhaustion got the better of us so we headed back to the hotel for a well-deserved rest.

Next time we are in Orlando, I'll definitely make a clearer shopping route planned so we aren't wandering around wasting time and energy. We'll also bring drinks and maybe a snack, because it got warm carrying around so many bags and we're pretty much always hungry (as you'll see later on in my trip report!). I will also research the prices of things in my province better, because although there were some places that had cheap clothes/shoes/perfume/etc, I wasn't sure if it was a good enough deal to take up space in my suitcase/risk things breaking on the long haul. However, I did end up with some lovely things from Victoria's Secret, Hurley, and Champion to name a few, and Warren snagged some nice clothing too, so it definitely wasn't a waste of a trip!

Next up: Islands of Adventure and... MORE shopping!

 

[DenyingReality]

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip!

Looking forward to reading more!

Thanks for joining in!

 

[time4somemagic]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[msrlest8]

Just out of curiosity I searched for the Fantasy cruise we had gone on in May of 2013.... and look what I found!
And to add sugar to the top of that --- a fellow Canadian!!!!