PTR: Disney Fantasy Concierge – December 2014!

[Campbem]

I'm enjoying reading your PTR!! We went on Fantasy last November and we will be on the Magic this November (30th). We will be passing out in the ocean sometime (we get back on Dec 7th). Anyways, I was going to tell you ur FE is awesome!! We used gradysmommy too for ours last year and she did an excellent job!! She also did a pillowcase for the characters to sign and it was great too!!!

The magic, How fun! I know, I need to plan another cruise after this one... I think I'm going to wait for 2016 dates come out and see what those prices look like

I am still deciding what we want to bring to have signed, probably a photo mat and one other item.

 

[JaKyNyNe]

Just got out fish extender in the mail, woohoo! She did a wonderful job, I love it!

It took about 8 weeks to receive it but I ordered it far ahead and I let her know that I wasn't in a rush and my cruise date is still a ways out. Very happy with the quality and colors. I would highly recommend this one: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Gradysmommy

Thank you for sharing this image! I was wondering about Gradysmommy and now we're gonna get one for our Oct Fantasy cruise.

 

[Ndsmorrison]

The magic, How fun! I know, I need to plan another cruise after this one... I think I'm going to wait for 2016 dates come out and see what those prices look like

I am still deciding what we want to bring to have signed, probably a photo mat and one other item.

Well I thought I had a picture of the signed pillow case but I don't I haven't decided what we will have signed this year!! Its so much fun to plan the cruises!!

 

[msk368]

Hi there!

We will be on this trip too. We should be fairly close to you guys, WilliamsPawPaw, we are on Deck 11.

Mike, thanks so much for all this information. We didn't start the planning process until later and this is has been so helpful. We will be in the FE too.

Look forward to meeting you and yours onboard!

Morrie K.

 

[DisneyRunner74]

Thanks, Mike, for all this info. We'll be sailing on the same cruise with you, though not at the Con level. I'll be celebrating my 40th birthday (on 12/10) and plan to run my 40th race at the Castaway Cay 5k. Traveling with DH (age 40), DS x2 (ages 10, 9) and DD (age 5). Can't wait!

 

[DisneyRunner74]

Hi! My family of 5 (plus some assorted other relatives and friends) will be on this cruise, too. Just started researching things (paid in full yesterday!!!). Can we be added to the FB group? How do we do that? Thanks!

 

[williamspawpaw]

Hi! My family of 5 (plus some assorted other relatives and friends) will be on this cruise, too. Just started researching things (paid in full yesterday!!!). Can we be added to the FB group? How do we do that? Thanks!

Hi there,

Go to the Disney meets section and look up the 12/6 cruise. There is the info for joining the FB group.

 

[Campbem]

Only 86 Days left says the Disney Cruise Navigator app! It's hard to believe we're under the 3 month mark!!

We've reserved a few excursions and activities. Here's our itinerary of activities booked so far:

Day 1 Boarding Happy dancing, Remy Dinner
Day 2 (Sea Day) Nothing booked
Day 3 (Sea Day) Palo Brunch
Day 4 (St. Maarten) Randomwind sailboat non-DCL activity in St Maarten, Palo Dinner, Pirate Deck Party!
Day 5 (San Juan) Old and New City Tour (adult only)
Day 6 (Sea Day) Remy Brunch
Day 7 (Castaway Cay) Cabana, yay!
Day 8 (Disembark) Cry, go into mild depression

We booked a dinner and brunch at both Palo and Remy. I was considering moving the Remy brunch up to maybe day 2. I've heard some people don't like the brunch as much as Palo's. I was thinking if we had both brunches early on if we 'really' liked one we would be able add and extra one later on. I was also a little on the fence about Remy day 1. A lot of people recommended this. The food is the freshest, the main dining rooms tend to be chaotic and Remy itself typically isn't as busy. Of course you miss out on getting introduced to your servers the first night. I'm also working out how to make sure I keep a suit ready to wear or be able to have it quickly pressed before dinner (jacket required) if needed.

We weren't sure about San Juan but decided to do an adult only Old and New City Tour. We will leave the kids in the kids club for a few hours while we do the tour. It's probably the only time we would feel comfortable in a foreign place to actually leave the kids somewhere so we can enjoy an adult activity (off the ship).

My wife and I weren't that impressed with the DCL St. Maarten excursion selections, at least not much really cried out to us. After a lot of back and forth I just put down our deposit for the randomwind (randomwind.com)! It's a private 54 foot sailboat. It has excellent reviews all over the forums here as well as tripadvisor and looks like a great day. I'll be sure to post reviews afterwards but it includes drinks, food, sailing around to several spots through the day. Something that both the kids and us parents will enjoy. Also, they cap it at 22 ppl max, usually less which should make it a nice, not so crowded event.

Undecided on a few other things. We were considering whether or not we wanted to have the kids do the Pirate League for pirate night. We are doing the randomwind at St Maarten during the day but expect to be back on the ship by 4PM-ish. But then we have Palo reservations at 6PM. So feeling like adding in taking the kids to BBB to get piratized might be really rushing it. We could move the Palo reservation back I suppose. We wanted to make it early enough to enjoy some of the later pirate night events with the kids. If anyone has done this before, let me know your thoughts!! We picked this night for Palo because it was pretty universally recommended due to pirate night having the least favorite meal for others.

I'm also probably going to do a BBB (bibbity bobbity boutique) appointment for my daughter. I'm thinking day 2 (formal night) would be the best time to do it so she's all dolled up. Probably not much you can do but it seems with all the pool activites, etc I don't know how long the styling is going to last. It's a lot of $$ to spend if her hair gets jacked up after a few hours, lol.

Even with all the scheduled activities booked I'm also very much looking forward to just relaxing and getting to explore the ship on our own. Hanging out by the pool with the kids and checking out the adult areas with my DW. I can't wait to just explore the ship and walk around to get the lay of the land. The deck plans and maps are all great but not the same as getting your bearings on board. I workout regularly and fitness is pretty important to me so while I intend on being completely indulgent and enjoy as much delicious food as I can I do plan on working out at least a few times. So I'm hoping they have some good weight lifting equipment to balance out the soufflés!

Counting the days... tick tock tick tick

 

[Lizzards]

Thank you for all of the information! I am a first time DCL cruiser traveling concierge in June 2015. Have enjoyed reading this thread! Where can I find the email and phone numbers you used to contact shoreside for your reservations and requests? Thanks!

 

[princessnpirate]

You will love concierge. After doing it one time we were hooked! First time we did the Magic and the Dream and Fantasy is sooo much better since there is a lounge.

I am hooked!

I hope you do a trip report.

 

[Campbem]

Thank you for all of the information! I am a first time DCL cruiser traveling concierge in June 2015. Have enjoyed reading this thread! Where can I find the email and phone numbers you used to contact shoreside for your reservations and requests? Thanks!

The email for shoreside concierge is: dcl.concierge.services@disneycruise.com

They've been super helpful!

 

[Campbem]

5 Weeks from today my family and I will be gearing up for the start of our Disney Cruise vacation!

Our adventure officially starts the Thursday afternoon prior to the cruise. As soon as I'm done work that Thursday afternoon we will be loading up and departing our house for the 2-3 hour drive towards Los Angeles. We'll be staying overnight near LAX as our flight leaves early Friday morning and we will need to be at the airport around 6:45AM. That time of year there can be problems with the mountain pass going to Los Angeles (like they can close it down due to snow or adverse weather). We technically 'could' get up early Friday and drive at like 4:30AM but with even a chance the road could close or last minute issues it's just not worth the risk to me.

I've got us booked at a decent Sheraton close to LAX with a stay and park package. The rates were pretty decent considering we'll need 9 days of parking. Shuttle service is also included to and from the airport.

I haven't made a reservation for the return trip 'yet'. If anyone else has a thought, please share! We'll be getting off the cruise Saturday morning, staying in a day room at the Hyatt MCO before flying that evening back to Los Angeles. Part of me knows we'll be so exhausted after that day but I haven't made a reservation yet because we'll also probably be ready to go home and will have spent enough money! Anyway, it's like a 2-3 hour drive so we'll probably suck it up. If we absolutely have to we can book a room last minute I suppose.

Another win for the week is we received our cruise docs!! I only have 1 pic of the cover right now. I'll post more later. It was a real treat to get it in the mail. It just makes it that much more REAL that it's almost here! It's a little thing but so far everything has been online and it's cool to get something tangible you can actually hold!

Can I vent for a minute about being depressed about future trips though?? Holy moly, I've been keeping my eyes open for future dates. I've been thinking how great it would be to do a cruise for my 40th in early 2016. Well early 2016 dates were just released and my jaw dropped to the floor. For the same room anytime around Jan-Feb the same category (T) is close to or more then double what we paid this year! It makes me think out chances of cruising again, at least in the same category on the Fantasy are slim to none I am keeping myself open to some other options. Maybe looking at one of the classic ships and do a 7 day wonder or back to back cruise. Or book a VGT room last minute on the dream/fantasy and hope for an upgrade at port.

Anyhow, back to my pre-cruise planning... We're going to participate in some fun activities with the Facebook group for our cruise.

A Mixology Class!
A meet and greet with a white elephant gift exchange
An ornament exchange.

I've got to hand it to the people that stepped up to lead all the social activities. It's been a lot of work for them and a lot of us are going to benefit. So thanks to all of you! I've also got most of the items for our Fish Extender gifts ready!

As far as the FE gifts, I was really stressing about it. But decided for better or worse I'm just going to do the same thing for everyone. I had gone back and forth if we should do something for different ages, boys vs girls, cabins with adults only. My OCD was stressing me out so I said forget it, I'm going to put in some fun things into each Fish Extender and hopefully most of the people like them It's supposed to be a fun activity, not stress you out right?

That's all for now. See ya real soon!

 

[tmarie]

YAY!!! We are getting closer.

I am SO happy to hear that you did the same FE gift for everyone. I did the same exact thing. I guess great minds think alike!! LOL

 

[PhillyCruiser]

Great Trip Reporting, Mike! Very informative & helpful! We're booked Concierge stateroom (Cat. V) on the Dream in April (11004). It'll be our first DCL cruise and we're super excited! Since Fantasy & Dream are "sister" ships, your report provided me with lots of useful info! Like you, I was thinking of town car service to the Port. But I love the idea of leaving our bags in our room at the Hyatt and being "reunited" with them in our stateroom! Plus, DCL transfers will add to the fun of the whole trip! Thanks, too, for the tipping info. I'll take Thank You cards along to make the "giving" more discreet & personal. Will definitely participate in the FE exchange! Question: is there a reason you requested Cabana #7 on CC? Best location?

Keep the updates coming!

 

[Renysmom]

This is our 1st Disney cruise but we've been on 1 family cruise a few years ago (NCL). We are in cabin 12520 and can hardly wait! I know we are all going to love it but getting to watch the kids enjoy this is a lot of the fun too!

We were in this cabin this time last month. I miss it

Location is fabulous, just a few doors down from both the front and side entrance to the lounge. You can see the fireworks perfectly on Pirate night, great view of Castaway. I have lots of pictures of the cabin. I will get some resized and share with you.

 

[m3gg3m]

I'm enjoying your PTR. We are cruising for the first time I February on the Fantasy. We are going with friends who are traveling concierge, so we'll get to experience many of the perks you speak about. We have our CC Cabana, Remy and Palo reservations already! You're PTR has been very informative. I hope you do a TR!

 

[Campbem]

We were in this cabin this time last month. I miss it Location is fabulous, just a few doors down from both the front and side entrance to the lounge. You can see the fireworks perfectly on Pirate night, great view of Castaway. I have lots of pictures of the cabin. I will get some resized and share with you.

Thanks, that would be fantastic!! I haven't seen a lot of specifics on this cabin so much appreciated!

 

[Campbem]

It's official (I think) all pre and post cruise reservations have been made! I just finished booking the last hotel room post cruise. My wife and I decided that after disembarking Saturday, spending almost all day waiting at the airport (at the MCO Hyatt) then 5.5 hours on a plane back to California we will probably be not too stoked to spend another 3 hours or so in transit back. So we booked a room at the same hotel we have our vehicle parked at. We can wind down our vacation with a last relaxing night in a hotel, grab some yummy breakfast in the morning then ease our way back to civilian life

I also went ahead and prepurchased a digital print package. The cost was $295. It saves 15% from buying it on the cruise. So we'll take advantage by getting as many photos as we can. We didn't see as much
value for us in getting the print outs (which you can add for $295). With the photo CD we can edit, print out what we want and I'm a little particular about where our photos get developed. Just such a quality difference from other places (like your local drug store, walmart, etc) but I like to use www.mpix.com and typically like a matte finish. Costco does a great job too and we'll use them from time to time, especially if we can't wait a couple days for the mpix.com photos to be mailed. I did the digital package because my wife like to make photo books and I'm sure we'll have a whopper of a book from this cruise!

The DCL link to pre-purchase your photo packages is here:
http://www.mycruisephotos.com/DCL/?utm_source=GiftsPort%2BCanaveral%2B&utm_medium=Disney&utm_campaign=GiftsPort%2BCanaveral%2B

Speaking of photos and digital imaging I just picked up a GoPro camera a couple of weeks ago. yeehaw! I'm still getting familiar with it but it really is the perfect device to document a lot of the trip. It's so tiny, has a waterproof case for water activities. So far the videos coming out have been really amazing quality. I’m totally planning on being an overzealous tacky tourist if needed and recording as much of the terrain as possible. From the start of the trip to any area of the Fantasy I can get to I want to capture if all! We'll also be bringing our small Canon SL1 camera which takes great pictures and does a good job with video as well. I will be bringing a small laptop with me. Not that we’ll be using it much at all but it may come in handy if we need to download our photos or videos to make room. I have extra memory cards but if we need to, we can download to clear off the cards.

And I just realized it’s 4 weeks from today that we’ll be heading out!!

I am going to try to post back today, if I can, some more info on the cruise docs package we received with some photos.

 

[Renysmom]

Thanks, that would be fantastic!! I haven't seen a lot of specifics on this cabin so much appreciated!

I am in the middle of blogging our cruise. Here is the link to the post that has photos and video of the suite

http://www.doodlesandnotes.com/home/our-fantastic-honeymoon-cruise-embarkation-day

It's a great suite!

Also, the video was done with our new GoPro which we bought for the cruise too. We got such great video. Well worth it.

 

[Campbem]

Great Trip Reporting, Mike! Very informative & helpful! We're booked Concierge stateroom (Cat. V) on the Dream in April (11004). It'll be our first DCL cruise and we're super excited! Since Fantasy & Dream are "sister" ships, your report provided me with lots of useful info! Like you, I was thinking of town car service to the Port. But I love the idea of leaving our bags in our room at the Hyatt and being "reunited" with them in our stateroom! Plus, DCL transfers will add to the fun of the whole trip! Thanks, too, for the tipping info. I'll take Thank You cards along to make the "giving" more discreet & personal. Will definitely participate in the FE exchange! Question: is there a reason you requested Cabana #7 on CC? Best location?

Keep the updates coming!

Sorry for not responding to your question earlier! It seemed like there were very few reviews on specific cabanas but #7 came up on a couple of threads. Others reported it was in a good location. When I put in my request I asked for #7 but if it wasn't available then I think I had asked for anything between #2 - #6. Although many people have said there is no bad option when it comes to the cabanas