kiapepito
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2014
- Messages
- 637
I'm going through withdrawals... not going to lie... wish I was back on the boat!
First impression after only sailed on the Fantasy, I first thought, "wow.." what a small lobby and atrium..." I must admit that I was not too fond of the smaller sized versions of many things, like the Bippity Boppity Boutique, Eye scream station, etc... again, half the size of the Fantasy... but as the days went by, I began to really appreciate and love the size of the ship as we quickly found our way around the boat and often ran into the same people on a daily basis.
To be honest with you, the high cost of the trip did not even daunt us as it is the only week that we are able to get off as a family because my husband and I both teach, so the prices seemed almost the same as during the summer, so, it was not a big deal.
Our servers were amazing: Ida and Gerda and Vesko. Wonderful people that kept our children entertained and were just so on top of everything! Our stateroom host was not amazing, but not bad... it was quite annoying how he never refilled our soaps and lotions... every other day I had to hunt him to down for some more....
Frozen was AMAZING! Better than the one at California Adventures. Get a front row seat as you see such beautiful details in the costumes and props. Did not care much for the dog/comedian. I thought he would be a lot funnier.
Midnight Mass was beautiful. It was a wonderful experience that was a highlight to our trip as attending Midnight Mass each year is a family tradition.
We received milk and cookies on Christmas Eve for Santa. Santa lines were SUPER short on Christmas morning as so many people were asleep! After taking pictures with Santa, in our family matching pj's (our Christmas pictures for next year) our girls received a DCL calendar.
Tiana's Place is AMAZING... this was my husband's favorite place to eat and for the ambiance. The music is perfect, the dishware is beautiful and the interaction that Tiana and Louis have with the children was a picture perfect memory for us!
Nassau: Most of the stores were closed as they were observing their Christmas parade and celebration as Christmas fell on a Sunday this year and as college teacher that teaches all about culture, I was a kid in a candy store watching the beautiful floats and costumes that went down the main street. After watching the parade, we walked over to the British Colonial Hilton hotel where I had prepaid a day pass that included a voucher for $100 in food and drinks. ( $40 per adult, and $20 for children ages 5 and up) We used all of our voucher on drinks as the food was over $15 a plate. We walked over to McDonalds directly across the street for lunch.
Castaway is beautiful as always. Running the 5k in December versus July is a treat and one I will gladly take any day! It was still a bit humid, but we had plenty of shade to run in!
Key West was not so impressive to me personally as you could tell that it is mostly a drinking city.... nothing was really open when we arrived and we had to be on the boat by 1:15 pm. so we mostly walked around.
For Christmas Eve, we received a beautiful lithograph, box of chocolates, a peppermint loofah and a little santa hat.
Kevin, "yo-yo-yo guy" (Disney Vacation Club Representative) left such a wonderful lasting impression not only to my girls but to my husband and me as well. He always took the time to show our girls yo-yo tricks and is such a kind and caring person. We always loved passing by the DVC desk!
The only two things that I would say that we did not like was that the pools were TINY!!! I never even attempted to go in them as it just screamed to me "pee pool...." I have no idea why the pools are so tiny when they have so much deck space....
The other thing that started the trip off on a bad note was when we went through security to get on the boat and was told that we would have to take out our alcohol to be inspected. We brought two bottles of Port and two bottles of Sherry.... both wines... the inspector managed to pop open the bottle of Sherry, sniffed it and told us that it smelled like alcohol... "umm... duh... it's wine..." long story short, she took it over to another person that informed that sherry is wine and so we got to keep the other bottle.. HOWEVER... the bottle she opened, she tossed it in the trash telling us that it was an open container and she would have to throw it out.. my husband was LIVID.... to say the least... I was told to talk to Guest Services and was told that they were having many complaints regarding Port of Galveston inspections and that they would speak to their supervisors again. Two days later, we had a nice gift basket in our room with popcorn, soda, and Mickey rice crispy bars.
Would we go again over Christmas again? Yes, we would. We are hoping to make it an every other year tradition, as my mother was not a happy camper that we would be gone this year. (we always traveled back to our hometown for Christmas each year) so to wake up as a family on Christmas morning, was quite a beautiful experience.
It was a magical experience with the decorations, the activities, the many smiles and giggles on everyone's faces the entire week. You could definitely feel the holiday spirit all around us.
We came back to rainy cold weather with sunburns and tans.... in DECEMBER... how neat is that?!?!
If you have the opportunity to go over Christmas, I would highly recommend it because the memories that we made as a family last week, are memories that as corny as it may sound, will be memories that we will cherish forever. I'm truly thankful and blessed that we are able to take such wonderful trips with our kids and can not wait for our next adventure together!
Please let me know if you have any specific questions regarding the trip!
First impression after only sailed on the Fantasy, I first thought, "wow.." what a small lobby and atrium..." I must admit that I was not too fond of the smaller sized versions of many things, like the Bippity Boppity Boutique, Eye scream station, etc... again, half the size of the Fantasy... but as the days went by, I began to really appreciate and love the size of the ship as we quickly found our way around the boat and often ran into the same people on a daily basis.
To be honest with you, the high cost of the trip did not even daunt us as it is the only week that we are able to get off as a family because my husband and I both teach, so the prices seemed almost the same as during the summer, so, it was not a big deal.
Our servers were amazing: Ida and Gerda and Vesko. Wonderful people that kept our children entertained and were just so on top of everything! Our stateroom host was not amazing, but not bad... it was quite annoying how he never refilled our soaps and lotions... every other day I had to hunt him to down for some more....
Frozen was AMAZING! Better than the one at California Adventures. Get a front row seat as you see such beautiful details in the costumes and props. Did not care much for the dog/comedian. I thought he would be a lot funnier.
Midnight Mass was beautiful. It was a wonderful experience that was a highlight to our trip as attending Midnight Mass each year is a family tradition.
We received milk and cookies on Christmas Eve for Santa. Santa lines were SUPER short on Christmas morning as so many people were asleep! After taking pictures with Santa, in our family matching pj's (our Christmas pictures for next year) our girls received a DCL calendar.
Tiana's Place is AMAZING... this was my husband's favorite place to eat and for the ambiance. The music is perfect, the dishware is beautiful and the interaction that Tiana and Louis have with the children was a picture perfect memory for us!
Nassau: Most of the stores were closed as they were observing their Christmas parade and celebration as Christmas fell on a Sunday this year and as college teacher that teaches all about culture, I was a kid in a candy store watching the beautiful floats and costumes that went down the main street. After watching the parade, we walked over to the British Colonial Hilton hotel where I had prepaid a day pass that included a voucher for $100 in food and drinks. ( $40 per adult, and $20 for children ages 5 and up) We used all of our voucher on drinks as the food was over $15 a plate. We walked over to McDonalds directly across the street for lunch.
Castaway is beautiful as always. Running the 5k in December versus July is a treat and one I will gladly take any day! It was still a bit humid, but we had plenty of shade to run in!
Key West was not so impressive to me personally as you could tell that it is mostly a drinking city.... nothing was really open when we arrived and we had to be on the boat by 1:15 pm. so we mostly walked around.
For Christmas Eve, we received a beautiful lithograph, box of chocolates, a peppermint loofah and a little santa hat.
Kevin, "yo-yo-yo guy" (Disney Vacation Club Representative) left such a wonderful lasting impression not only to my girls but to my husband and me as well. He always took the time to show our girls yo-yo tricks and is such a kind and caring person. We always loved passing by the DVC desk!
The only two things that I would say that we did not like was that the pools were TINY!!! I never even attempted to go in them as it just screamed to me "pee pool...." I have no idea why the pools are so tiny when they have so much deck space....
The other thing that started the trip off on a bad note was when we went through security to get on the boat and was told that we would have to take out our alcohol to be inspected. We brought two bottles of Port and two bottles of Sherry.... both wines... the inspector managed to pop open the bottle of Sherry, sniffed it and told us that it smelled like alcohol... "umm... duh... it's wine..." long story short, she took it over to another person that informed that sherry is wine and so we got to keep the other bottle.. HOWEVER... the bottle she opened, she tossed it in the trash telling us that it was an open container and she would have to throw it out.. my husband was LIVID.... to say the least... I was told to talk to Guest Services and was told that they were having many complaints regarding Port of Galveston inspections and that they would speak to their supervisors again. Two days later, we had a nice gift basket in our room with popcorn, soda, and Mickey rice crispy bars.
Would we go again over Christmas again? Yes, we would. We are hoping to make it an every other year tradition, as my mother was not a happy camper that we would be gone this year. (we always traveled back to our hometown for Christmas each year) so to wake up as a family on Christmas morning, was quite a beautiful experience.
It was a magical experience with the decorations, the activities, the many smiles and giggles on everyone's faces the entire week. You could definitely feel the holiday spirit all around us.
We came back to rainy cold weather with sunburns and tans.... in DECEMBER... how neat is that?!?!
If you have the opportunity to go over Christmas, I would highly recommend it because the memories that we made as a family last week, are memories that as corny as it may sound, will be memories that we will cherish forever. I'm truly thankful and blessed that we are able to take such wonderful trips with our kids and can not wait for our next adventure together!
Please let me know if you have any specific questions regarding the trip!
