Twin Sisters on the Fantasy - Eastern Caribbean

[amityisland]

Hi, my twin sister and I just got off a 7 night Eastern Caribbean Fantasy Cruise that went from June 17th to June 22nd.

The participants:
Me - 37 (+8 minutes) year old teacher
My Dear Sister- also 37 years old

Arriving

We got up and were on the road at a little before 8:30. Since we live in Tampa, we got a ride down there. Got on I-4, got off....and then the toll roads began So many toll roads....

Got to the terminal around 10:30 and they started letting us in shortly after that. The terminal was pretty empty, so we were able to find some seats. Then who should arrive, but Captain Mickey!



That's me on the left with the dark rim glasses and cars shirt and my DS on the right. We then took some pictures around the terminal.




The boarding ears!


We were boarding group number twelve so we still had some time. We got a water and some snacks from the vending machine, then took a look outside at the ship.



Got a copy of the navigator and while at our seat, my DS diligently started planning


Soon our number was called and it was time to board! First stop...lunch, of course.

tbc...

 

[wiigirl]

Can't wait to see your pics!

 

[amityisland]

Boarding

So we walked through those magical ears and got out first professional photo.


First order of business was finding a map of the ship. By the end of the week, we had it down, but at first I didn't know my aft from my port. We quickly circled our room, 2517, on the map and saw that Enchanted Garden was open for buffet lunch! Win! We didn't want to mess with too many crowds right away as everything was sort of overwhelming, so we went to the inside buffet and not Cabanas. We were quickly taken to our seats (hey, we got one of those cool booths) and took turns going up to get our food while the other sister guarded out purses and bags.


a pretty chandelier










While we were at lunch, we noticed the other cruise ship in Port Canaveral

This look says, "Glad we're here and not there!"



It still wasn't 1:30 yet, so we went up top to take some pictures. It was nice to look around, but it was very hot before we started moving.







While up top, we saw a fire in the distance. Not sure if it was a wildfire or a controlled burn somewhere. You can also see a very hazy NASA building to the far right.

It was almost 1:30, so we waited in the halls for a bit for them to drop the rope. Yeah, inside out room at last. We had an inside cabin with a magical porthole. Throughout the cruise, whenever one of us saw the porthole was beginning to show a Disney animation, cries of "Pixiedust!" were uttered and the other one would drop whatever we were doing to see which animation the window showed this time.







All in all, I was very happy with the room. It was fine for just the two of us. We rotated who got to sleep in the bed and who got the couch bed. I'm 5 ft. 3 and the couch bed just fit me though. And until you get used to it, there's a step down from the bathroom door that got us a few times.

After cooling off for a bit, we went down to Guest Services to sign up for the Art of the Theme Tour for the following day.

Next up: touring the kids club areas for fun and keeping cool while sailing away...

 

[Luv2Diz]

Fun TR so far! Looking forward to more...and hopefully lots of pics of the Fantasy. We are hoping to sail the Fantasy for our next cruise!

 

[jsbgeo]

Looks great! We're sailing on the Fantasy in August - can't wait!

 

[PizzieDuster]

I'm enjoying your trip report. I especially love all the pictures!

Is that a virtual porthole?

 

[amityisland]

Yep, we got a virtual porthole.

 

[amityisland]

It wasn't quite time for the lifeboat drill yet, so we decided to take advantage of the open houses for the kids clubs and look around.
First, we looked in at the It's a Small World Nursery:

 

[amityisland]

Then we went into the Oceanears lab for kids. There was an interactive floor game going on and we decided to join in.





I was very pleased with myself that I placed second in the "catch the bugs" floor game from the Princess and the Frog


We then went to Andy's Room. Heck yes we climbed on Rex!






"I don't know, DS...I don't think they'll fit you."





Then we checked out the teen area. I love the tunnel because it reminds me of the old rainbow tunnel they used to have at the Journey Into Imagination upstairs area at Epcot back before they changed the ride:



Then it was time to go to our muster station. I was so happy ours was inside at the Walt Disney theatre.

 

[amityisland]

After that it was getting close to the sail away time. Now while I like Disney shows, I do not like heat, crowds and loud music when I feel a headache coming on...so I decided watching the Sail Away party was not for me (besides, I saw the whole thing on Youtube before we left anyway lol).
But we did want to watch the ship leave port. So first DS and I got iced teas at The Cove Cafe and then found some nice lounge chairs outside (but under some shade) to watch us leave port. It was great...the breeze was nice and we could relax and just watch us sail away







We even saw some dolphins before we left

 

[SigalTchelet]

Great trip report so far! I love that you checked out all the keids areas. I am a retired pre school teacher-I will do that on my cruise on he Fantasy on November 30th! Looking forward to following along!

 

[Cheryl726]

What a great way to enjoy sail away! We're always on the top deck but I may have to try your way!

 

[Goldeelox9]

Great trip report! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[Dixielady908]

Enjoying your report so far....thanks for sharing

 

[Nanny2004]

Enjoying your trip report. I love that you tried out the Rex in Andy's room. My daughter (who will be 31) and I (who will be turning 55 when we sail next year on the Fantasy) will definitely have to "ride on Rex"!

 

[gigi1313]

Off to a great start... looking forward to your day by day play by play!

 

[Majordis]

I am really enjoying your report. Love your idea of sailing away

 

[amityisland]

Thanks to everyone who is reading along!

Our luggage had been arriving piece by piece throughout the afternoon (so don't panic if all your bags don't arrive together all at one time). We unpacked as each arrived and then went to see the welcome aboard show in the Walt Disney Theatre. The show was ok, but it was our first time seeing our cruise director, Clayton ("Whose on Vacaaaation!" "We're on Vacation!) and his "vacation dance"!

We then went back to our room to get dressed for our first dinner at Enchanted Garden (we had late seating at 8:15). We saw our first towel animal!

We were seated at table six with four other people - two sister (one of whom was also a teacher) who were only 14 months apart and a mother and daughter (who used to be a teacher and principal)...so Disney did a good job in seating us with people with whom we had similarities and were very nice. We also met our head server Liam, our beverage server Maureen and our server....I can't remember his name! I'm sorry...I know it started with an L

Thyme and Garlic Brioche


Spinach and Raspberry Salad


Cream of Green Asparagus soup


Prime Rib


Some type of lemon pudding I think

After dinner, we headed back to our cabin for bed. The great thing about being in 2517 is that we never had a far walk from any of the rotational dinners or the theatre.

 

[RonningFamilyCrusin]

Love all the pictures! That is what is missing in most trip reports. Keep up the good work and I eagerly look forward to the remainder of your pictures/report!

 

[amityisland]

Some quick notes about things I may forget later on before we start into our first full sea day:

Confusion over Rainforest Day Passes: My DS had faxed in our requests for Rainforest Day Passes in the Senses Spa about a week before we left. When we got our ticket bundle in our room the first day (excursions, dining, etc.) they weren't there, so we went up to the Spa. They said they hadn't gotten the list for passes yet. Ok. The following day we still had not received them. This time we went to Guest Services. They wrote down our problem and said they would contact the Spa. Sometime that night, we got a note outside our door that we had to actually go up to the spa. So we did that the next day and instead of a ticket, they put little stickers on the back of our Key cards. They also asked what day we were specifically coming. We were like, "I don't know..sometime...it's a day pass, do we really have to pick a specific time and day?" So they just wrote down "anyday" on the stickers. It wasn't that big a deal, but kind of annoying. They acted like we had to have appointments set up to use the day passes and I had never read about that before.

Seasickness (or lack thereof):
We never experienced sea sickness...the movement of the boat took a little getting used to (you could really tell the first night...we were watching the curtain sway in the theatre before the show but it never really bothered us. Of course, like the good little planner she is, my DS had read about taking Bonine before you get on the boat...so we each had a chewable Bonine each morning of the cruise (and the Friday before we left).

"I didn't buy that, you did":
We had a little confusion over one purchase. Now I know we look alike and our names are very similar, but my DS purchased the photo CD with her Keycard and not me. Well, when we went to pick it up on our last morning, the new receipt suddenly had my name on it. The lady at Shutters assured us that is was charged to DS's card, but we decided to go to Guest Services to check it out. Sure enough, it was on my bill and not hers. Now it really wasn't a big deal since I was going to give her money for half of it later....but I was using a debit card on my account and what if I hadn't had enough money in my account? As those of you who bought the CD know, it's quite a charge and it was a little worrying that this happened. It took a little bit of explaining to the woman at Guest Services what we wanted fixed ("No, take it off mine, put in on hers, and reverse the charge on mine), but we got a printout with the correct information. It was a relief when the money was put back on my card this Monday. PS. I'll write you the check this weekend, DS