Our Surprise Disney Fantasy Cruise 9/22-9/29/2012

[Msbmommy99]

Here is a little snip-it of our pre-trip report. (Pre trip report was posted in the pre trip thread.) We had booked a 5 day WDW trip for our family. 6 weeks before our trip, we found an AWESOME deal on a 7 day Disney Cruise on the Disney Fantasy. We booked it and cancelled our WDW trip. We booked a GTY Inside Stateroom with dining at the late seating because that was all that was available. We could not book our specific room because of the rate we got. My BFF booked the same thing and we had our reservations linked, in hopes that we would get rooms close to each other. We decided to surprise our kids and not tell them that we were not going to WDW and were going on a Disney cruise instead. We were so excited and were hoping they would be just as excited!!!!

Our trip had so much fairy dust and pixie dust - for the most part this was a dream vacation.

Friday, September 21 - DH got back to Atlanta at 6:30 a.m. after being in San Francisco for the week. I worked that morning so the house would be quiet and hoping that DH could get a few hours of sleep before we left. We checked the kids out of school at 12:30. We loaded the car and were on the road by 2:00. We were traveling with my BFF and her family. The ride to Cape Canaveral seemed to take forever. BFF and I could only talk in code about the trip because we still had not let the kids in on the surprise. (We had decided to tell them after breakfast on Saturday outside the hotel (with the ship behind them when we told them.) We stopped at Chickfila in FL around 6:30 p.m. The older kids (DS – Mitchell and BFF’s daughter Taylor - 12 years old) rode with the husbands and the younger ones (DS –Jackson 7 and BFF’s daughter Addi 6) rode with BFF and I. As we got closer to Cape Canaveral, the older kids were chatting about what all they wanted to do at WDW. The younger ones were watching a movie and focused on that. As we came over the hill (when you can see the cruise port), the older kids said hey that looks like a cruise ship. It was a well lit cruise ship but they were quickly told that it wasn’t a cruise ship that it was a hotel. They didn’t believe it but didn’t make a big deal about it. We were not expecting ships to be in port that night since we thought most would arrive in port while we were sleeping Friday night. We finally got to the Country Inn and Suites around 10:00. As soon as we pulled in the parking lot, we (the adults) quickly started discussing if we should go ahead and tell the kids since they had seen the cruise ship. We decided that we would go ahead and tell them. We called them to the staircase, in the hotel, so that we could get them all together to video their reaction. They were really tired and didn’t really want us to take a picture of them. We started taking pictures and videoing too. We asked them if they were tired, too tired to go to WDW. They said yes. Then we asked them if they were too tired to go on a Disney Cruise. They said no but didn’t catch on to what we said. Then we said what if we told you we were going on a Disney Cruise and not going to WDW. They gave us really puzzled looks and said HUH?!?!?! We told them we were going on a 7 day Disney Cruise on the new Disney Fantasy. They were excited and smiling but were not jumping up and down like we thought they would do. Because we didn’t get the jumping up and down and screaming reaction, BFF and I regretted telling them that night and thought we should have waited. (She and I jumped up and down and screamed and yelled when we found the great deal on the cruise.)

We wanted to show the kids the cruise ship and Aquaduck videos on Youtube and the planning DVD we received from Disney Cruise Line. They started really getting excited once they saw where we were going to spend the next 7 days. Once we got to our room, we had some fairy dust waiting for us. We had been upgraded to a suite instead of a standard room. That was pretty awesome! The kids congregated in our room since we had brought our laptop. They loved watching the videos and checking things out but we told them they had to go to bed. About 11:30, we finally got in the bed. Before we crawled in the bed, we looked out of our window and could see a cruise ship outside our window. About 3:30 a.m., Jackson woke me up and said “Mommy, I can’t sleep or be still because I am so excited about our Disney cruise.” That made my heart smile. I was so happy and had a really hard time going back to sleep. Jackson and I woke up again about 6:30 and looked out our window to see the Disney Fantasy for the first time. I wanted to jump up and down!!!! We wanted to get ready and leave right then. We tried to lay back down but Jackson wanted to watch more videos of the cruise ship and the Aquaduck on Youtube. So he and I shut the door to the bedroom and watched some videos. He had a million questions.

TO BE CONTINUED........

 

[alohabob]

Here is a little snip-it of our pre-trip report. (Pre trip report was posted in the pre trip thread.) We had booked a 5 day WDW trip for our family. 6 weeks before our trip, we found an AWESOME deal on a 7 day Disney Cruise on the Disney Fantasy. We booked it and cancelled our WDW trip. We booked a GTY Inside Stateroom with dining at the late seating because that was all that was available. We could not book our specific room because of the rate we got. My BFF booked the same thing and we had our reservations linked, in hopes that we would get rooms close to each other. We decided to surprise our kids and not tell them that we were not going to WDW and were going on a Disney cruise instead. We were so excited and were hoping they would be just as excited!!!!

Our trip had so much fairy dust and pixie dust - for the most part this was a dream vacation.

Friday, September 21 - DH got back to Atlanta at 6:30 a.m. after being in San Francisco for the week. I worked that morning so the house would be quiet and hoping that DH could get a few hours of sleep before we left. We checked the kids out of school at 12:30. We loaded the car and were on the road by 2:00. We were traveling with my BFF and her family. The ride to Cape Canaveral seemed to take forever. BFF and I could only talk in code about the trip because we still had not let the kids in on the surprise. (We had decided to tell them after breakfast on Saturday outside the hotel (with the ship behind them when we told them.) We stopped at Chickfila in FL around 6:30 p.m. The older kids (DS – Mitchell and BFF’s daughter Taylor - 12 years old) rode with the husbands and the younger ones (DS –Jackson 7 and BFF’s daughter Addi 6) rode with BFF and I. As we got closer to Cape Canaveral, the older kids were chatting about what all they wanted to do at WDW. The younger ones were watching a movie and focused on that. As we came over the hill (when you can see the cruise port), the older kids said hey that looks like a cruise ship. It was a well lit cruise ship but they were quickly told that it wasn’t a cruise ship that it was a hotel. They didn’t believe it but didn’t make a big deal about it. We were not expecting ships to be in port that night since we thought most would arrive in port while we were sleeping Friday night. We finally got to the Country Inn and Suites around 10:00. As soon as we pulled in the parking lot, we (the adults) quickly started discussing if we should go ahead and tell the kids since they had seen the cruise ship. We decided that we would go ahead and tell them. We called them to the staircase, in the hotel, so that we could get them all together to video their reaction. They were really tired and didn’t really want us to take a picture of them. We started taking pictures and videoing too. We asked them if they were tired, too tired to go to WDW. They said yes. Then we asked them if they were too tired to go on a Disney Cruise. They said no but didn’t catch on to what we said. Then we said what if we told you we were going on a Disney Cruise and not going to WDW. They gave us really puzzled looks and said HUH?!?!?! We told them we were going on a 7 day Disney Cruise on the new Disney Fantasy. They were excited and smiling but were not jumping up and down like we thought they would do. Because we didn’t get the jumping up and down and screaming reaction, BFF and I regretted telling them that night and thought we should have waited. (She and I jumped up and down and screamed and yelled when we found the great deal on the cruise.)

We wanted to show the kids the cruise ship and Aquaduck videos on Youtube and the planning DVD we received from Disney Cruise Line. They started really getting excited once they saw where we were going to spend the next 7 days. Once we got to our room, we had some fairy dust waiting for us. We had been upgraded to a suite instead of a standard room. That was pretty awesome! The kids congregated in our room since we had brought our laptop. They loved watching the videos and checking things out but we told them they had to go to bed. About 11:30, we finally got in the bed. Before we crawled in the bed, we looked out of our window and could see a cruise ship outside our window. About 3:30 a.m., Jackson woke me up and said “Mommy, I can’t sleep or be still because I am so excited about our Disney cruise.” That made my heart smile. I was so happy and had a really hard time going back to sleep. Jackson and I woke up again about 6:30 and looked out our window to see the Disney Fantasy for the first time. I wanted to jump up and down!!!! We wanted to get ready and leave right then. We tried to lay back down but Jackson wanted to watch more videos of the cruise ship and the Aquaduck on Youtube. So he and I shut the door to the bedroom and watched some videos. He had a million questions.

TO BE CONTINUED........

Wow you are good at keeping secrets! sorry to here the kids didn't have the reaction that you were looking for.....them must have been really tired.
Can't wait to here more....thanks for posting.

 

[testtrack]

Looking forward to hearing more! We were on this cruise, too, and we love to relive it through everyone's trip reports.

 

[Msbmommy99]

Finally, DH and DS12 got up and got ready. We headed downstairs for breakfast. It was crowded but went smoothly. We had arranged for the first shuttle at 10:15. We sat in the Celebration Room and listened to the shuttle driver for a little while and then headed to the shuttle. We got to the port around 10:45 and checked in. We were given the boarding number 21. We weren’t sure how long that would take but we were ok with whatever time that was. We were in awe of the terminal. We got in line to have our picture made with Mickey Mouse in front of the ship’s model. We were talking and laughing with the photographer. He asked us what our boarding number was and we said 21. He couldn’t believe we were given that number. He gave us a pass that said boarding number 2. MORE FAIRY/PIXIE DUST for us!!! (One thing we saw, while we were waiting to get our picture made with Mickey, was one of our fellow passengers proposed to his girlfriend in front of the Mickey Ears. She said yes!!!! That was pretty cool.)

BFF and I checked the little ones in the kid’s club and while we were waiting to do that, they called our number to board the ship. We were so excited we could hardly control it. The only not so great part of that was that we did not get a great picture of us in front of the Mickey Ears before you go to the ship. Once inside the gangway, we gave our cards to be scanned and were headed on board. I missed getting them calling our name on video when we boarded because it happened so fast. I started crying when we entered the lobby. The ship was beautiful and this was a dream come true vacation. It was quite emotional for me – some of my friends and family call me “Sniffles” for a reason. I still get teary eyed when I think about it. The kids were so excited and not sure what they wanted to do first. We got ice cream first thing when we got to the pool area. The kids changed into their swim suits and off they went. DH went with them with the water camera (which found out was a NO NO). DS was the first one in the Donald pool. That was pretty cool! They rode the aquaduck and swam for a while and then we decided we should go ahead and eat lunch since we would have early dining that night (right after the Sail Away party). Fairy/Pixie dust # 3, we found out that our dining seating was changed from late to early seating. We were pretty happy about that. After we ate lunch at Cabana’s and running into several friends who we knew would be sailing with us, we decided to see if our room was ready. BFF and I had our Fairy dust #4 waiting to tell our DH’s.

 

[Msbmommy99]

Looking forward to hearing more! We were on this cruise, too, and we love to relive it through everyone's trip reports.

I love reliving it through the trip reports too. I am still feeling a little blue about our trip being over.

 

[Patrickprincess]

Looking forward to hearing more! We were on this cruise, too, and we love to relive it through everyone's trip reports.

I was on this cruise and i had a blast! The first night was a bit ruff

 

[Msbmommy99]

This part of my trip report makes me have butterflies still!!! It was so AWESOME! BFF and I found out our room assignment about 2 weeks before we sailed but decided to keep it a secret from our DH’s. The day we got our room assignments, we received an email telling us the room number - an Inside Stateroom. (We booked Room # GTY, Category IGT, Inside Stateroom with Restrictions – Category 11.) I had already printed the deck plan before we had our room number assigned so I looked at it to find out where our room was located. We were assigned 10648. I kept looking at the deck plan and our room number because according to the email we received it was an inside stateroom. That did not match the deck plan. I decided to call Disney Cruise line to find out. I talked to CM – Missy, who was wonderful and seemed really excited for me. She said well it looks like you have been upgraded and are in room number 10648. That is an Oceanview room with a verandah. - OMG OMG OMG I asked her to repeat what she said. She repeated it to me. I started squealing and jumping up and down at my desk. I asked her about 10 times if she was sure. I explained that this trip was a surprise for our boys and that we were not telling them until we got there that day. She confirmed the room number and category again for me. I asked about my BFF and she said she couldn’t tell me her information but she could tell me that we were very close to each other. We were upgraded from a Category 11 to a 5A. Yes – you read that right 11 to 5A. I called my BFF and told her she needed to check her email and tell me what her room number was. She couldn’t figure out why I was so giddy. Once she read her email, I told her what I had just found out. She didn’t believe me so she called DCL herself. She did a 3 way call so that I could hear what they said. At first, the CM told her that the room was an Inside Stateroom – she was so sad and you could hear it in her voice. She finally asked what kind of room she had been assigned one more time and the CM said Oh wait a minute – it looks like you have been upgraded to an oceanview room with a verandah. The CM said - wow that is a great upgrade. BFF was so excited and started screaming and jumping up and down too. We could not believe it. It took about 10 minutes for us to get it together and calm down.

OK back to the day of embarkation…….we finished lunch and headed down the stairs to deck 10. Little did we know that once we were on deck 10, our room would be right there at the stairs. The door to the room was standing wide open…..the CM was putting his finishing touches on the room. I double checked the room number and gave BFF a HUGE smile. I mouthed that that was our room. DH and kids still don’t know. We stood there for a while, hoping they would remove the band to keep us out of the hallway. We all talked about how wonderful it would be if we had a room like that. It was big and you could see the balcony/verandah from the hallway. They were loving that room and said yes that it would be awesome. Both of our DH’s said, that would be incredible to have a room that size with a view. They talked about it, carried on and on about it for several minutes. The kids even talked about how nice it was. BFF and I couldn’t hold it in any longer. We told them that was our room. The look on their face was priceless. Their mouths dropped open. They couldn’t believe it. They really couldn’t believe that our rooms were connecting rooms. It was awesome.

We got in our room and looked around and took pictures before all of our things arrived. Little by little our luggage began to arrive. We unpacked and organized as each bag arrived. It was wonderful because we took our time getting unpacked. By the time we were done unpacking it was time for the Sail Away party. We walked right up the stairs and went to the pool area for the party.

 

[perfectmatch300]

Wow! Awesome upgrade! I don't think I could have kept it secret as well as you did!

Really enjoying your TR. I have a while to go still until our next cruise. These trip reports sustain me.

 

[MrsKP]

Looking forward to reading the rest of your TR!

 

[davale4]

What an awesome surprise for the kids! I wish I had done that with my kids, but we booked a whole year in advance. I don't think I could have kept the secret that long. We were also on deck 10 and loved being so close to Cabanas and the pools. Can't wait to hear more

 

[Lauralooneyfordisney]

I am anxiously awaiting more.