Trip Report - Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean 3/26-4/2 2016

[karenc15]

This will be my first trip report ever, so please bear with me. I'll try to break each day down.

We had such a wonderful time on this cruise, I want to write everything down so I can savor it again and again until we cruise again with DCL.

The Crew
I'm Karen and we cruised as a small family, just DH (Alex), DD (Isabella 9), DS (Nicholas, 4) and me. I often look at the larger groups with grandparents, cousins, neighbors and friends and wish that we could travel with more people, but schedules are difficult to work out between school and other commitments. Maybe someday. In the meantime, the cruise serves as a good bonding opportunity for the four of us.

Pre-Trip Planning
I truly enjoy trip planning. As I do the research and imagine any upcoming trip, it keeps me going through the humdrum of everyday routine. Disney trips are especially fun to plan because of the great community on these boards.

This is our second DCL sailing. Our first was a 4-day Bahamas trip on the Dream. It was great, but we felt that we needed more days at sea to relax. I booked the trip at the end of 2014, when the Tortola port was announced. There were still many staterooms available, so we had our pick. We were in an oceanview stateroom on the 2nd floor last time, which was great. It was category 9B. The kids loved the porthole, so we decided to get the 8A oceanview stateroom with 2 portholes this time. This was a great room, IMHO, and we all spent lots of time looking out the portholes.

As I learned last time, many of DCL's more adventurous excursions require kids to be 5 years old. Given that DS is only 4, I knew we had to look for outside options. We had gone to Atlantis on our own last time, so I figured we can also get around on our own in Tortola and St. Thomas. I researched some options and decided to go with Patouche in Tortola and Island Marketing in St. Thomas.

Other extras? I wanted to make sure we went to the Rainforest at Senses, so I bought 4 day passes in advance. I also wanted to spoil ourselves so we booked a couples massage on the second at sea day. We enjoyed Palo and Remy on the last cruise, but felt that Remy was the more special experience, so decided on a Remy dinner for pirate night.

Oh the FEs. I love seeing people's creativity come out in the FE gifts, but often struggle with what to give out myself. I finally settled on Disney Tsum Tsum glass dome magnets and some personalized luggage tags. Of course, about 6 months passed by between the time I decided the gifts and when they were actually completed (Tuesday before the cruise).

With that, we were all set. We would fly from San Francisco on 3/24 on the red eye, spend Friday 3/25 catching up on sleep and checking out Orlando, and go to port on 3/26 for our noon check-in time.

Friday
The flight went smoothly and we picked up our one-way rental from Enterprise around 8:30 on 3/25. We got a Rav4 which fit our luggage well. On our way to the Hyatt Orlando on International Drive, we stopped at Waffle House for a meh breakfast. When we arrived at the hotel around 10:30 on Friday, we were surprised that we were able to check in already (HOORAY!). We checked in, shut the curtains and everyone started to take a nap. Except me. I was too excited, so I spent the next few hours playing on the computer and finishing up a few emails.

Around 3:30, everyone woke up hungry. We found a Bonefish Grill for our early dinner and had a great meal. Afterwards, to kill time, we went to the Premium Outlets on International Drive. We didn't really need anything, but picked up some new tennis shoes for DD and some extra shorts for her (not really shorts weather in CA yet). SURPRISE! There's a nice Disney outlet store. They had some nice Dooney bags at a discount (I had to drag myself away) and some other cruise-related merchandise. This is when I realized I forgot our fish extender at home. I quickly purchased a Disney Cruise tote bag for $14 and a nice Mickey sun hat for $15.

For future reference, the Hyatt Orlando has a great pool with some fun kid features. Because it rained pretty heavily on Friday afternoon, and because I didn't want to deal with wet swimsuits, we steered the kids away from the pool.

Saturday
We woke up around 7:30 with the intent of leaving the hotel around 9:00. We left a little ahead of schedule and decided to stop at a Starbucks on the way to Port Canaveral. This way we weren't starving for the drive, but would be able to eat lunch aboard the ship.

The drive to Port Canaveral was uneventful, except that we drove to Enterprise at Cape Canaveral and were told that there is a closer one that runs the shuttles to the ships. We turned around to Port Canaveral, found the Enterprise, and took the shuttle bus over to the ship. The kids were ready to burst with excitement when we saw the ship!

Next: Arriving at the terminal. I'll add some pics later on.

 

[JoAnnPan]

Yay!! A new Fantasy trip report!!!
My sister and I will be going on our first cruise ever in November; we are doing the Eastern/Fantasy also
Looking forward to your review of Tortola and St Thomas.
Can I ask? - We would love to get a 2 day pass for the Rainforest but thought you could only order a 1 day or 7 day - very happy to see you were able to get a 4 day in advance - can you tell me at what point you can book these & how?
Thank you so much for sharing your trip!

 

[karenc15]

Yay!! A new Fantasy trip report!!!
My sister and I will be going on our first cruise ever in November; we are doing the Eastern/Fantasy also
Looking forward to your review of Tortola and St Thomas.
Can I ask? - We would love to get a 2 day pass for the Rainforest but thought you could only order a 1 day or 7 day - very happy to see you were able to get a 4 day in advance - can you tell me at what point you can book these & how?
Thank you so much for sharing your trip!

Hi! Thanks for reading my report! I'm happy to share any tips I can with you.

You can order the daily Rainforest passes in advance:
http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/gifts-and-amenities/

My understanding is that you can also buy daily passes on the ship, but availability may be limited depending on how many people sign up. It's $16 per day on the website but it may be a bit more on the ship as it comes with a scrub each day.

 

[southern reader]

Hi all,

Can any of you help me with timing info???? I am looking for the Disney Fantasy St John Trunk Bay & Snorkel excursion's departure time from the ship AND return time to the ship.

We really want to go see St, John, but we also want to see either the Old synagogue on St Thomas or take the tram ride to the top of the mountain overlook. The Disney Cruise line says the excursion is 4 to 4.5 hours long. The ship docks at 6:45 am and it says we can disembark at 7:45 am. The ship leaves port at 4 pm. That is 8 hours in port with only 4 1/2 hours max for the excursion so our plans all depend on its departure and return time.

I am trying to find out what time we take the excursion to see if we have time before the excursion, or after it, to do the 1 or 2 other other things we want to do. SURELY someone out there reading this has taken a recent Disney Fantasy cruise ( and this excursion) who can tell me.???????? Pretty Please???
Thank You

 

[cheermom2four]

Yeah!!! Cant wait to read your TR! We board the Fantasy September 3rd and have only been on the Magic so I cant wait to read all about your experience from embarking to debarking this beautiful (but LARGE) ship. I will have a DD that will be turning 5 on our cruise and also noticed that DCL excursions dont accommodate 5 year olds much.

 

[SonyaShay]

I'm here to follow along!

 

[karenc15]

Saturday, March 26 - Embarkation Day (Finally)

Note: I'm sorry this is so long. I'm hoping the other days of my TR won't be as long. I tried to break it up into sections so you don't have to slog through the whole thing. Tip for the day: try to sign up for the meet & greets if you're interested as soon as you get onboard.

Getting to the Terminal

We left our rental car at Enterprise and took the next Disney shuttle. There were several cruise ships leaving port that day, so it took about 5-10 minutes of waiting to get onto one headed to the Fantasy. Once, we got on, there was only the four of us and another father & daughter who had dropped off the rest of the family already.

While on the bus, we waited for the drawbridge open to let a sailboat go by. That was a highlight for my transportation-obsessed 4yo. Then he quickly panicked to ask whether we would be late for the ship. We assured him that we still have about 4 hours to board before the ship leaves.

We arrived at the terminal and the shuttle driver unloaded our luggage onto the curb. I forgot what a delight it was to see a Disney bellhop! After schlepping our four suitcases, 2 backpacks, a tote bag and a car seat across the country, he was quite the sight for our sore eyes. We kept one backpack with our boarding documents and one rollerboard suitcase as our carry-on with our bathing suits and sandals with us, but he quickly whisked the rest away, lightening our load. YAY! I can feel myself relaxing already.

Once we got into the terminal it was smooth sailing (pun intended). I'm always impressed on how quickly Disney can move people around in large numbers and make the entire experience so easy. I had gotten a check-in time of 12:00 when I checked in online. We arrived to Enterprise around 11:00 and got to the terminal around 11:40 or so. There was no line for the check-in counter, so we walked up, gave the service rep our passports and signed some paperwork. I had a gift card to use for our account so we decided on the cash settlement option. She told us that once we're onboard, we can give our gift card to the front desk and also provide a credit card to charge any remaining balance to. She gave us a boarding card for group 15 and they were already calling group 13 to board.

While we were waiting, the kids discovered the TV in the corner showing some Disney shows and I looked through the Navigator quickly to see if there was anything to note. Hey there's a Disney Jr. event, a Frozen meet & greet and a princess gathering that we can get tickets for at Port Adventures on the ship! I figured I could stand in line for the youth activities registration while we waited to board, but 5 people in and our group was called to board. Hooray! Guess I'll register the kids on the ship.

Time to Board

After the boarding picture and the family announcement, we were finally onboard. If you're keeping track of the time, we pretty much boarded right at noon. The kids literally leaped from the ramp to the ship! A quick look around and we felt at home. Locations were very similar to the Dream that we had been on.

From the Navigator, I decided our first stop should be to Port Adventures to get the meet & greet tickets. I figured Nicholas was be interested in the Disney Jr. event, but Isabella can be hit or miss on the princesses. She decided she only wanted to do Frozen. As I waited in the surprisingly short line for the meet & greets, Alex took the kids over to get registered for the Oceaneer Club/Lab. That went pretty quickly and they were back in line with me with their bands on when I got to the counter.

The Disney Jr. character breakfast was the following day at Animator's Palate at 8:30AM. The Frozen Meet & Greet slot that we got was also at Animator's Palate the same day at 1:15PM. While in line, I chatted with the CM. The family in front of us said to her that she looked like Belle and she thanked them graciously. I mention this because I'll recognize her again on the cruise - stay tuned.

Once we got our logistics figured out, we headed to Cabanas for our lunch. Isabella loves buffets because she feels like she has the freedom to pick out her food. I forget how much variety there is at Cabanas and we all enjoyed our selections. After lunch, we headed to our stateroom since it was close to 1:30. We found a line at the hallway with everyone anxious to to see their staterooms. It was like the rope drop at the resorts. A few minute later, we all spread to our rooms.

We got to our stateroom - 6012 in the forward part of the ship. It was just as we had pictured. We had two large portholes which the kids had to try out immediately. We had large combined bathroom (not the split shower/toilet that we had on the Dream). And one thing I had forgotten about that the kids loved - magnetic ceilings!

At 2:00 we had a Disboards/FB meetup at The Tube. Isabella decided to attend with me while Nicholas and Alex stayed in the room to rest up. We said we would meet up before the 4:00 muster. It was fun to see The Tube and to meet some new folks. I found one person from the FE exchange who had a 14yo daughter. Isabella enjoyed chatting with her, since they shared some of the same interests. Then she met another 9yo girl who she would see several times during the cruise. I recognized a few more names from the FE exchange. We were given rubber bracelets at the meetup so we could identify other people from social media sites, which I thought was a great idea. The organizers even raffled off some gifts. I'm always so impressed with the amount of time and energy nice people dedicate to Disney events.



After the meetup, we went back to our room. The kids tried on the life jackets, just in case and participated in the muster. Our assembly was rather strange, since CMs steered us away from green assembly route for our letter A. Eventually we ended up on the second floor of the Walt Disney Theater, a strange place in gather in case of emergency, IMHO, but the talk was short and I met another FE family, so it wasn't so bad.

After the muster we went to the Sailing Away party. Isabella was excited to see the characters and catch the streamers that were released at the end, but Nicholas wanted to see the ship move away from port instead. We found a good spot on deck 12 which allowed us to accommodate both of them.

We changed quickly after the party to go our our early dinner seating. We were at table 45 and met our waiter Tiago and assistant waiter Allan. Immediately I liked Tiago because he was able to convince Isabella to eat some broccoli with her dinner. One of the goals we secretly had for the cruise was to not give the kids the typical kid food for dinner - hamburgers, chicken nuggets and mac & cheese and we were mostly successful. We had them order the steak or fish from the kids menu, or if those weren't being offered, they would have smaller portions of the adult versions.

After dinner, we followed our routine from the last cruise. Walk to the shops onboard to see what they had to offer and wait for the doors to the theater to open. The shops pretty much carry the same merchandise throughout the entire cruise, but they shift it around, so you may see something on day 3 that you didn't notice on day 1. We looked around but didn't buy anything, knowing full well that by the end of the cruise, we would have bought way more than we should have.

Day 1 Show - A Fantasy Come True and Max Winfrey
This show was just OK in my opinion. It was sort of an orientation show, highlighting all the available activities on the ship in a story about a family. Max Winfrey is a very entertaining juggler, who juggles just about anything - which is made even more impressive when you think about him juggling on a rocking ship. Isabella was hooked on his act. They announced that he would have a family show on Monday afternoon and she wanted to make sure we were there to watch it.

After the show, we pretty much headed to bed. It was a long day getting to port and the next day was Easter. We saw on the Navigator that Easter mass was at 8:30, the same time as the Disney Jr. Meet & Greet. I tried to call to reschedule the Meet & Greet but was told that there was no other time for it. I'm not sure if there was another one scheduled for the following day, but given that Isabella has pretty much outgrown Disney Jr., we decided I would just take Nicholas and Isabella would go to mass with Alex.

 

[heaven2dc]

Fun start to your cruise! Loved the Meet & Greet pic - great way to break the ice Can't wait to see more pics!

 

[PraisingHim]

This will be my first trip report ever, so please bear with me. I'll try to break each day down.

We had such a wonderful time on this cruise, I want to write everything down so I can savor it again and again until we cruise again with DCL.

The Crew
I'm Karen and we cruised as a small family, just DH (Alex), DD (Isabella 9), DS (Nicholas, 4) and me. I often look at the larger groups with grandparents, cousins, neighbors and friends and wish that we could travel with more people, but schedules are difficult to work out between school and other commitments. Maybe someday. In the meantime, the cruise serves as a good bonding opportunity for the four of us.

Pre-Trip Planning
I truly enjoy trip planning. As I do the research and imagine any upcoming trip, it keeps me going through the humdrum of everyday routine. Disney trips are especially fun to plan because of the great community on these boards.

This is our second DCL sailing. Our first was a 4-day Bahamas trip on the Dream. It was great, but we felt that we needed more days at sea to relax. I booked the trip at the end of 2014, when the Tortola port was announced. There were still many staterooms available, so we had our pick. We were in an oceanview stateroom on the 2nd floor last time, which was great. It was category 9B. The kids loved the porthole, so we decided to get the 8A oceanview stateroom with 2 portholes this time. This was a great room, IMHO, and we all spent lots of time looking out the portholes.

As I learned last time, many of DCL's more adventurous excursions require kids to be 5 years old. Given that DS is only 4, I knew we had to look for outside options. We had gone to Atlantis on our own last time, so I figured we can also get around on our own in Tortola and St. Thomas. I researched some options and decided to go with Patouche in Tortola and Island Marketing in St. Thomas.

Other extras? I wanted to make sure we went to the Rainforest at Senses, so I bought 4 day passes in advance. I also wanted to spoil ourselves so we booked a couples massage on the second at sea day. We enjoyed Palo and Remy on the last cruise, but felt that Remy was the more special experience, so decided on a Remy dinner for pirate night.

Oh the FEs. I love seeing people's creativity come out in the FE gifts, but often struggle with what to give out myself. I finally settled on Disney Tsum Tsum glass dome magnets and some personalized luggage tags. Of course, about 6 months passed by between the time I decided the gifts and when they were actually completed (Tuesday before the cruise).

With that, we were all set. We would fly from San Francisco on 3/24 on the red eye, spend Friday 3/25 catching up on sleep and checking out Orlando, and go to port on 3/26 for our noon check-in time.

Friday
The flight went smoothly and we picked up our one-way rental from Enterprise around 8:30 on 3/25. We got a Rav4 which fit our luggage well. On our way to the Hyatt Orlando on International Drive, we stopped at Waffle House for a meh breakfast. When we arrived at the hotel around 10:30 on Friday, we were surprised that we were able to check in already (HOORAY!). We checked in, shut the curtains and everyone started to take a nap. Except me. I was too excited, so I spent the next few hours playing on the computer and finishing up a few emails.

Around 3:30, everyone woke up hungry. We found a Bonefish Grill for our early dinner and had a great meal. Afterwards, to kill time, we went to the Premium Outlets on International Drive. We didn't really need anything, but picked up some new tennis shoes for DD and some extra shorts for her (not really shorts weather in CA yet). SURPRISE! There's a nice Disney outlet store. They had some nice Dooney bags at a discount (I had to drag myself away) and some other cruise-related merchandise. This is when I realized I forgot our fish extender at home. I quickly purchased a Disney Cruise tote bag for $14 and a nice Mickey sun hat for $15.

For future reference, the Hyatt Orlando has a great pool with some fun kid features. Because it rained pretty heavily on Friday afternoon, and because I didn't want to deal with wet swimsuits, we steered the kids away from the pool.

Saturday
We woke up around 7:30 with the intent of leaving the hotel around 9:00. We left a little ahead of schedule and decided to stop at a Starbucks on the way to Port Canaveral. This way we weren't starving for the drive, but would be able to eat lunch aboard the ship.

The drive to Port Canaveral was uneventful, except that we drove to Enterprise at Cape Canaveral and were told that there is a closer one that runs the shuttles to the ships. We turned around to Port Canaveral, found the Enterprise, and took the shuttle bus over to the ship. The kids were ready to burst with excitement when we saw the ship!

Next: Arriving at the terminal. I'll add some pics later on.

 

[PraisingHim]

How did you book Rainforest?

 

[karenc15]

How did you book Rainforest?

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/gifts-and-amenities/

 

[PraisingHim]

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/gifts-and-amenities/

Thanks!!

 

[PraisingHim]

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/gifts-and-amenities/

Thanks!

 

[kddlm]

We were on this sailing as well. Unfortunately I could not attend the Disboards/FB meet and greet as we were coming from a resort and got to the port pretty late. Enjoying your report!

 

[karenc15]

Sunday, March 27 - Day at Sea - Easter Sunday

Easter on the Fantasy
We weren't sure what Easter would be like on the ship, but there were a few nice surprises. There are a few Easter masses - sunrise at 6:30AM, Catholic service at 8:30AM and interdenominational at 8:30AM. After all the excitement the day before to embark, it was hard to get up, but we managed to get up to our 7:30 wake-up call. Alex and Isabella tried to put on something dressy casual for Easter service and Nicholas and I were off to the Disney character breakfast at Animator's Palate.

The character breakfast was cute. Nicholas picked some chocolate chip pancakes and I ordered a corned beef hash with an egg and bacon on it. As soon as we walked in, we saw Pluto wandering around and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was playing on the screens. At that moment, Nicholas decided he really didn't need to eat breakfast and just waited for the characters to come around. After Pluto came Jake, Doc McStuffins, and Goofy.

Breakfast was over very quickly and we joined Alex and Isabella at the Easter mass in Walt Disney Theater around 9:15. It was already time for communion. It was funny to see the heads bobbing about with the rocking of the ship. It was neat to see Easter on the ship. There were lots of CMs at the mass, so I was glad that they got time to practice their faith. In terms of special things for Easter, the White Rabbit made several appearances. Several of the main characters had on their Easter outfits. (I'm sad I didn't take any pics). Mickey, Minnie and Daisy were the ones that I saw. There were also Easter chocolate displays in each of the ship's dining areas. They stayed for the length of the cruise, if I remember.

Ship Exploration
All four of us went to Cabanas together afterwards, where I ate a second breakfast that was fairly similar to my first breakfast (c'mon it's vacation, so don't judge). Afterwards, Isabella really wanted to go to AquaDuck but the line was already fairly long. She and Nicholas decided it was time to go check out Oceaneer Club, and Alex and I were left to our own devices.

We quickly went to the Shutters raffle which we did not win and checked out Europa. It was nice to sit in Skyline Lounge. Nobody was there, so we just sat and looked at the changing skylines and tried to guess which city was up. At this point, Minnie walked through with her chaperone. I guess it was time for a cheese break.

We sat and chatted quietly and after about 15-20 minutes, Minnie & chaperone re-appeared. We followed her out on deck to get a photo. Afterwards, the kids looked at the picture on the camera with some considerable envy .

At this point, Alex just really wanted to catch up on sleep and I was preoccupied getting my 11-mile training run in. I'm running my first Disney half for Tink and I'm following the Galloway beginner plan, so I was really nervous about getting this long run done on the ship. We decided we would pick the kids up, then go to the Frozen M&G at 1:00.

I took I & N to the M&G at Animator's Palate. Since they staggered the times, the line wasn't too long - only about 10-15 minutes to get to the front. Isabella was disappointed that Olaf and Sven weren't there, but was incredibly thrilled to see Anna & Elsa - probably the only two princesses she can currently tolerate. When I looked at Anna up close, I realized it was the same CM who helped work the line the day before! The people in front of me were absolutely correct, she did look like a princess! For some reason, I love spotting CMs in their different personas on the cruise. It fascinates me how each job is very multi-faceted.

After the M&G, I took the kids back to the room for their much-needed nap. Isabella complained about not being able to go to the pool & AquaDuck yet. I told her that we could potentially skip the Aladdin show and go to the pool instead, but caught between two activities that she would love, she decided to choose Aladdin. This is the first of many schedule conflicts that caused her some angst. She wanted to do it ALL!

The Run
Quickly the kids fell asleep and I went up to Senses to start my 11-mile run on the treadmill. I had considered running on the jogging track on deck, but it was hot and I didn't think I can keep track of my laps very well (2.5 laps = 1 mile). The gym is fairly small, but has all the equipment that you could need. Plus, the view is very motivating.


I have to say, as pretty as the view was, I had to be careful not to stare at the ocean for too long. Since the ship is moving side ways to the treadmill, my brain was a bit confused if I stared for too long.

After 9 miles on the treadmill, I got bored and went down to the jogging track to run out the remaining miles. It was nice to have a change of scenery! Yay! Now I feel that I deserve our couples massage the next day.

When I finished, it was time to wash up and get ready for formal night. I have to admit, since we're from the Bay Area, our family doesn't really do formal. We did our best for cruise formal, which consisted of dresses for Isabella and me, a jacket & tie for Alex, and Nicholas' dress pants and shirt from his ring bearer gig last summer. I kind of forgot that kids grow from year to year, so his dress pants were a bit like high waters and with suspenders, he had an Urkel air about him. Poor guy!

Dinner & Show
We had an OK dinner at Animator's Palate. Since we had gone through the Crush show at the last cruise, there wasn't much new. I did look forward to the truffle pursettes for appetizer again through. Tonight was also the captain's reception. We took a picture with Commodore Tom, who is the highest ranking officer of the DCL fleet. I wondered how a person gets a job as a Commodore...will have to google that later.

Tonight's show was Aladdin. It was pretty good. It was reminiscent of the Aladdin show at DCA that recently closed. The set was amazing and even though they were more limited with special effects on a ship, they did a very good job with acrobatics and illusions. Isabella especially liked the Prince Ali song, since they threw out fake money bills to the audience. We were sitting on the side so she wasn't able to grab anything, but after we went out to the restroom and came back, she happily picked up two unclaimed bills from the floor which quickly became a treasured souvenir.

We wandered up to deck 11 to get a quick snack before bed. We grabbed some pizza and soda. Then we looked up and saw the cast from Aladdin grabbing a bite to eat as well. Isabella was starstruck and went to take a few pictures with them. She could have chatted with them all night, but we wanted to make sure they got some R&R after two great shows and pulled her back.

I did a quick load load of laundry and we went to bed. Isabella wanted to make sure we got up early the next day to experience the pools and AquaDuck!

 

[JoAnnPan]

Awesome Minnie encounter - I love the surprise meet/greets way more than the ones where you wait in line.
Much more exciting when they just show up somewhere unexpected - especially in a bar!!
Way to go at the gym! I vow to go there at least twice on our cruise.
Urkel -

 

[karenc15]

Monday, March 28 - Day at Sea

Finally, some pool time
After a fairly low-key day the day before, we were ready to enjoy the ship's amenities. Isabella practically went to bed in her bathing suit in anticipation of going to the pool on this day. We had a late-ish start, but wanted to make sure we got to deck 12 for AquaDuck opening time of 9:00AM.

We made it up there right around 9:00AM and it wasn't open. Oh well, maybe they're a few minutes late in opening. We asked the deck attendant to point us to a chair, and he was able to find one off to the side for us. 90% of the deck chairs were already taken. The kids wanted to immediately jump in the pool, but we thought they might enjoy a ride down the water slide first. We sent Isabella and Nicholas up there, but they were taking a long time. Finally, Nicholas walked back down the stairs because he said he didn't want to go. Isabella came down by herself. Alex went up with Nicholas to coax him to come down and he did, but had the biggest frown in the world when he got to the bottom. Well, at least he tried, right?

I glanced up at AquaDuck and it was still closed, so I asked one of the CMs who told me that it was closed because of the high winds we were having at sea. He wasn't sure when it would open, but we should check and see if water was running through the tube. Alex and the kids went in to the pool while I took my time to put on sunscreen and get the float vest for Nicholas. First they jumped into Donald's Pool. Because Donald's Pool was in the shade and because of the 5' depth, it felt really cold to me. Plus, since I'm only 5'3", I really wouldn't be able to stand up in it. After sitting off to the side for a bit, I decided to move to Mickey's Pool. At this point, Isabella found one of the girls from the Meetup on Sunday. They happily chatted and swam together for the next little while, eventually moving over the hot tub, which is always filled with a bunch of kids.

Nicholas was having a great time splashing and kicking around in Donald's Pool, but I finally convinced him to move over to the warmer Mickey pool. He enjoyed that for a bit, but afterwards we felt hungry, so we dragged Isabella out of the hot tub and grabbed breakfast at Cabanas.

After breakfast, AquaDuck was still closed, so we went down to our room to wash up and change and relax. Isabella thoroughly enjoyed Max Winfrey's juggling act from the first night, so she wanted to make sure we saw the family show at 2:00. Since Alex and I had our couples massage at 3:15, we figured we would see the show then drop the kids off at Oceaneer.

The three of them rested in the room, but I was off to further explore the ship. I wandered around in some shops, went up to deck 11 to get some drinks (Whoa, AquaDuck opened but the line looked ridiculously long. I later found out the line was actually over an hour), looked through our Shutters portfolio for anything new and then decided there wasn't much I wanted to do. The DVC presentation was starting and they were offering a free pin. OK, I thought, I'll satisfy my curiosity and get a pin.

DVC Presentation
I quick went inside the presentation which was already about 20 minutes in. They offered me a nice tropical drink which was yummy. I quickly spotted one of the women from the meetup and sat with her. She told me she was there for the pin and the free bottled water too. I was a bit lost in all the points and how to use them, but that's OK. I found out how much the basic package was and had that as reference. As a side note, I think I would buy into DVC if I lived closer to the resorts. Given that I'm always frustrated with how many non-Disney places would be cool to visit as a family and how little vacation time we have, I don't think it would make sense for us.

I liked the fact that the talk was informative but not too salesy. I've never been to a timeshare presentation before (Alex says I would probably crush under pressure and buy something), but this presentation was definitely low-key without any pressure. At the end of the meeting, f you wanted a 1 on 1 meeting afterwards, you could grab a timeslot with the salespeople. Seems like being on a cruise gets you a lot of incentives if you sign up.

After the talk, I went to get the family and we enjoyed some very high-caliber juggling. There was bowling ball & lipstick juggling, there was ax juggling, there was even knife juggling while on a pogo stick. Anyway, it was pretty entertaining.

The Senses Spa Experience
From there, we dropped the kids off and went up to Senses for our couples massage. I asked about our prepaid Rainforest passes. I wasn't sure if massages came with Rainforest passes, and it turns out they did not. We figured we might go in afterwards. We spent some time in the waiting area and then were led into our treatment room. It was nice to see out into the ocean as we started to lay down for the massage. Unfortunately, during the treament, we were face down or up, so we didn't get to enjoy the view very long. Our therapists introduced themselves and began to upsell us on some add-ons. I decided to go for the hot stones since the room was pretty cool and I thought about how nice it would be to be warm. We proceeded to have some very nice massages. At the end of the massage, they recommended that we get another massage before we got off the cruise (of course) and said that we could also opt for a cabana massage on Castaway. Given that I had already blown extra money into the hot stones, I thought that this was probably it for us.

Alex and I were going to check out the Rainforest next, but I thought I would stop in the locker room to see if the kids had sent any messages. I took out the wave phone and closed up the locker again. "Isabella would like to be picked up from the Oceaneer Club." OK, I'll go tell Alex we have to go. I poked out and told him to get changed. When I returned to my locker, it wouldn't open. ARGH. I went out to tell the Senses receptionist, who tried to open the locker with the "magic key." That didn't work either. She called Maintenance, told me to wait, and told me that she would tell Alex that I am still in the locker room. I said to send him to the Oceaneer Club and I'll catch up. A few minutes later, the maintenance person came and jammed something to open it. The receptionist was very nice and told me that she would give us an additional 2 day passes to Rainforest to make up for it.

I joined the family at Oceaneer Club (really no real urgency to pick them up) and we went down to Enchanted Garden for dinner. We arrived early so Isabella finished up her first Midship Detective Agency mission and went to pick up another one. I also noticed the Shutters digital kiosk by the entrance to EG. Tip - that seems to be a good location to work on photo books or look up AquaDuck pictures as it is rarely crowded.

At this point, our server Tiago ad Isabella have bonded and become buddies. He was great and even got her to eat broccoli every night. She was excited to see him at the entrance of EG. As Tiago began to describe that evening's menu, I remembered that I left my necklace in the locker at Senses. I quickly excused myself and RAN as fast as I could up to deck 11. The Senses person took me over to the locker and we found it hanging there. PHEW!

We had nice dinner and Tiago warned us that the next night was going to be long so that we should rest up. The next day was a long day in port at Tortola and in the nighttime was the Pirate Party. We told him that we had reservations at Remy the following night so we would miss the pirate dinner at Royal Court the next night.

We stopped by the stores and bought some pirate gear in preparation for the next day. While the ship is in port, the stores are not open, so we wanted to make sure the kids had their outfits ready. I had a hard time gathering pirate stuff for this trip for some reason. I managed to find a shirt that said "ARRRGGGGG" from Gymboree for Nicholas, but that was pretty much it. We bought a couple eye patches, two hooks, two swords and two Mickey ear pirate hats for the kids. Now we're ready.

Wishes was a great show. It's a nice story about lifelong friends and they interweave scenes from Disney rides, shows and movies together very well. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.

After the show, we went back to the room where the kids tried on and played with their pirate gear. Isabella had brought some Magnaforms for some reason and we built a couple supports on the wall with them to hang up the pirate gear.

Our meeting time in Tortola was 8:45 the next morning, so we set a wake up call for 7:00 the next morning so we could eat before we go.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Great report! I really miss the Fantasy. It's such a great ship, so much to do...and that rainforest room...I miss it so much!

 

[DisneyGirlTinkerbell]

Really enjoying your report. Thanks so much for the tip about Rainforest. I was unable to get day passes on my last cruise 2014 WBTA. So many people purchase the ENTIRE 14 days, that no day passes were available. I don't want that to happen this time, so I will pre-purchase. One questions though, did you purchase them for yourself and your husband? The form doesn't indicate where you would put both names, so I guess they don't care who uses them as long as it's the same cabin? Maybe I'm missing something.

Can't wait to ready about what you are doing in Tortola. New port for me. Thinking of doing a non-Disney excursion http://www.bviferries.com/ Looks like fun.

 

[karenc15]

One questions though, did you purchase them for yourself and your husband? The form doesn't indicate where you would put both names, so I guess they don't care who uses them as long as it's the same cabin? Maybe I'm missing something.

The Rainforest is very worth it. The way they work the day passes is by stateroom and it's essentially a virtual voucher system. No names needed. I got a little card in our stateroom saying that we had 4 passes and Senses already had them in the system. Each time we went in, they put a sticker on our key card, held the card and then gave us bands to swipe at the door.