Erica1016
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2012
- Messages
- 719
Welcome to our fourth trip report. It’ll be a long one, so we had to start early!
If you’re new to our trip reports, we’re Erica and Todd. We’re a child-free couple in our mid-40s that love Disney and DCL!
Here we are! The Sassagoula Steamboat Company (at Old Key West Resort)
had to stand in for DCL during our most recent Disney trip – Marathon Weekend at Disney World in January.
We’ve written trip reports for our last few DCL trips and we’ve come to enjoy the time looking back and sharing with friends and family. It is also something to keep us busy between sailings! If you’d like to go back and read the others, here are the links:
How did this come about?
Planning tentative trips has become a pastime for us and often gets us into trouble…that’s because tentative trips somehow lead to real trips! I’m sure some people can relate. First came booking a sailing on the “new” Destiny during what has become a regular travel time for us (May). We booked this on opening day in September 2024. Eventually, we got to thinking we’d miss the Fantasy (our favorite!) because this would be a second straight sailing on a Wish class ship. So, of course, we looked and found a 5-night on the Fantasy that was just after our Destiny sailing and we booked it in March 2025. Eventually, after making sure we’d contributed to our IRAs and other savings, we had some budget to play with. At that point, in June 2025, we were able to book the Magic but also booked a second cruise on the Fantasy to check back-to-back cruising off our list!
There you have the birth of the DCL Tripleheader, a two-week extravaganza. We’ll be sailing on the Destiny for 5 nights followed by a back-to-back on the Fantasy for a total of nine more nights! This will be cruises 13, 14 and 15 for us.
Our Travel Plans…
As some of you may have noted, the Destiny sails out of Port Everglades (PE) and the Fantasy is in Port Canaveral (PC). We have family in Fort Lauderdale, so it works out well for us! We’ll fly into FLL and stay with them the night before our cruise and will also stay with them on the night we disembark the Destiny before heading up to PC. Our current plan is to do a one-way car rental from their house up to PC ($83). That being said, there’s a high chance my uncle will insist on driving us instead, even though it’s a 6-hour round trip for him. He is just that kind of guy - and he LOVES driving. It’s nice to have a place to stay and transportation to/from the port, but they’re also really fun to visit!!
An interesting addition to the adventure is that we are renting a car to drive back to Pennsylvania after the last cruise. We ended up securing a one-way rental for $135, which was a MUCH better price than flying. We’ll be driving straight through, which is about 16 hours. In the past few years, we’ve done lots of driving to/from Florida, so we are getting pretty used to the long drive and we have a pretty good system.
We came across the Destiny at Disney Springs in January. It was exciting to know we’d be on the ship in four months!
What are we most looking forward to?
As of the writing of this, we’re 41 days out. As Platinum Castaway Club members, our check-in day for cruise #1 is fast approaching and we’ll be up at midnight on Tuesday night into Wednesday!
Emmett’s helping us count down (even though he’ll miss us and we’ll miss him while we’re gone)
Table of Contents
Travel Day
Destiny Embarkation Day
Day at Sea #1
Cozumel
Day at Sea #2
Castaway #1
Disembarking the Destiny
Fantasy Embarkation Day
Nassau #1
Lookout #1
Castaway #2
Day at Sea #3
Fantasy Disembarkation/Embarkation Day
Nassau #2
Lookout #2
Day at Sea #4
Saddest Day of the Trip
If you’re new to our trip reports, we’re Erica and Todd. We’re a child-free couple in our mid-40s that love Disney and DCL!
Here we are! The Sassagoula Steamboat Company (at Old Key West Resort)
had to stand in for DCL during our most recent Disney trip – Marathon Weekend at Disney World in January.
We’ve written trip reports for our last few DCL trips and we’ve come to enjoy the time looking back and sharing with friends and family. It is also something to keep us busy between sailings! If you’d like to go back and read the others, here are the links:
How did this come about?
Planning tentative trips has become a pastime for us and often gets us into trouble…that’s because tentative trips somehow lead to real trips! I’m sure some people can relate. First came booking a sailing on the “new” Destiny during what has become a regular travel time for us (May). We booked this on opening day in September 2024. Eventually, we got to thinking we’d miss the Fantasy (our favorite!) because this would be a second straight sailing on a Wish class ship. So, of course, we looked and found a 5-night on the Fantasy that was just after our Destiny sailing and we booked it in March 2025. Eventually, after making sure we’d contributed to our IRAs and other savings, we had some budget to play with. At that point, in June 2025, we were able to book the Magic but also booked a second cruise on the Fantasy to check back-to-back cruising off our list!
There you have the birth of the DCL Tripleheader, a two-week extravaganza. We’ll be sailing on the Destiny for 5 nights followed by a back-to-back on the Fantasy for a total of nine more nights! This will be cruises 13, 14 and 15 for us.
Our Travel Plans…
As some of you may have noted, the Destiny sails out of Port Everglades (PE) and the Fantasy is in Port Canaveral (PC). We have family in Fort Lauderdale, so it works out well for us! We’ll fly into FLL and stay with them the night before our cruise and will also stay with them on the night we disembark the Destiny before heading up to PC. Our current plan is to do a one-way car rental from their house up to PC ($83). That being said, there’s a high chance my uncle will insist on driving us instead, even though it’s a 6-hour round trip for him. He is just that kind of guy - and he LOVES driving. It’s nice to have a place to stay and transportation to/from the port, but they’re also really fun to visit!!
An interesting addition to the adventure is that we are renting a car to drive back to Pennsylvania after the last cruise. We ended up securing a one-way rental for $135, which was a MUCH better price than flying. We’ll be driving straight through, which is about 16 hours. In the past few years, we’ve done lots of driving to/from Florida, so we are getting pretty used to the long drive and we have a pretty good system.
We came across the Destiny at Disney Springs in January. It was exciting to know we’d be on the ship in four months!
What are we most looking forward to?
- Exploring a new ship and working towards checking them all off our list.
- Our cruise friends, Robert and Marrianne, are also sailing on the Destiny with us. They’re concierge this time! It’ll be fun to be concierge adjacent.
- For our first Fantasy cruise, we have room 2007. We’ve stayed in this room before and loved it. It’s a former HA room, so lots of space and a large bathroom. But it is still in the same category as a regular inside room. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available when we booked the second Fantasy. We have put in a request to change, so our fingers are crossed.
- Experiencing our first back-to-back.
- Being on vacation for 2+ weeks!
As of the writing of this, we’re 41 days out. As Platinum Castaway Club members, our check-in day for cruise #1 is fast approaching and we’ll be up at midnight on Tuesday night into Wednesday!
Emmett’s helping us count down (even though he’ll miss us and we’ll miss him while we’re gone)
Table of Contents
Travel Day
Destiny Embarkation Day
Day at Sea #1
Cozumel
Day at Sea #2
Castaway #1
Disembarking the Destiny
Fantasy Embarkation Day
Nassau #1
Lookout #1
Castaway #2
Day at Sea #3
Fantasy Disembarkation/Embarkation Day
Nassau #2
Lookout #2
Day at Sea #4
Saddest Day of the Trip
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