Are You Ever Coming Home?...No! I am playing with Wizards, Farkles and Sparkling Friends

[jenseib]

Hello once again. For those that don’t know me, I am Jen. For those that do…..thanks for following again.


The Intro


I am not going to go into a long introduction this time around. I have those in some of my older reports, but I will give you the basics.

I am a Mom of 3, 2 who are now adults and working on their own families (I have granddaughter number 2 due is Oct!) and my youngest is Claire, who is now 12. If you have read most of my other reports you have seen Claire or at least know who she is.

My husband is Skip, who is a Dairy Farmer and very busy year round.

So now you know who I am in a nutshell!


The What, When and Where


The Disney Fantasy and Walt Disney World.

We did 4 days at the parks (2 before the cruise and 2 after), staying at Port Orleans Riverside and All Star Music. Both of those resorts were new ones for us to try.

The Fantasy was a special sailing of 10 nights, leaving from Port Canaveral, visiting Aruba, Curacao (for the first time!), St, Kitts, Tortola and Castaway Cay. 3 of those ports were new for me!

Our vacation dates were June 26 – July 10, 2017, though we technically left home on June 25 for a pre-night with my sister before flying out at Butt Crack of Dawn on the 26th.


The Who

This list really could be long, as I knew a lot of people on this sailing. I am going to make it much shorter though and just list who I mainly interacted with while I was gone. I also met new people and saw some people I knew from online forums.


Claire and I! Of course it would be us. LOL. Skip did not come as this was during some very busy farming time and I didn’t even really ask him to come because I knew his answer. I did ask if he wanted to join us at the end to do some park time and I got a big fat no for that as well.


The rest I am listing are co-workers, but I also consider them friends. I have traveled or met up with them all in the past and I always have enjoyed their company. Now I was going to be able to meet some of their family too.


Jeanne and her kids, Kelsey, Emily and Nick

Cass and her husband Rob and their daughter Kira

Patty and her husband Fred and their sons Zach and Caleb

Brook and her husband Joe and their son Henry. (I have actually met Joe and Henry a few times already).


How this trip came to be

As many of you probably know and have read my trip report….Claire and I had sailed the Fantasy this past Oct. We went with my extended family and we had such a fun time. Of course, when you get off a cruise you are always hoping to be back on a ship soon, but circumstances don’t always allow it.

Our plans for this summer were to go to Walt Disney World and take my oldest daughter Paige and her daughter Gracie. Gracie will be turning 3 this Oct and we thought now was the time to get her there before we had to pay for a ticket for her.

Paige and I talked about dates, though she did not want to go nearly as long as Claire and I did, we came to a happy medium and I booked a suite at All Star Music for the 4 of us. I had been saving up gift cards and put a very large deposit down.


Almost as soon as I booked this trip, Paige told me her and her husband were trying for another baby and she pretty much got pregnant immediately. At this point I wasn’t sure if she still wanted to go, and she wasn’t committing either way at that point.

Not long after, I had Gracie for the day and we went to Chuck E Cheese’s and I put her on one of those small rides and she cried. Uh OH….this will not work well at Disney. She was terrified of anything we tried and I started thinking this Disney trip may not be the best idea yet.


Then one day, my friend Brook noticed that the Fantasy was offering some special rates for some of their sailings this summer. We all started drooling over the 2 longer cruises. Before I knew it several girls were booked or had something on hold. This cruise ended up going special rate because it was not selling out….because the cost was laughable. It was so incredibly high, it was unreal. It ended up going Cast Member Rate, Cast Member friends and family rate, Travel Agent Rate, Florida Resident Rate, Military Rate, and also Guarantee Rates, among other things. They really needed to fill this ship up.


My friends kept messaging me and telling me I really need to book it and join them. Yes, I really wanted to, but I had a lot of money already deposited on this Disney World trip. I told them I would cancel it and if the money returned to my gift card in a timely fashion and if the rate was still available I would book it. This cruise had to be paid in full at the time I booked it as well, so I really didn’t want to put any extra money out if I didn’t have to.


I then asked Claire what her opinion was. She complained last year that no one asked her where she wanted to go and she would have rather done Disney World than a cruise and I assured her we would be going this summer. I couldn’t believe my ears when she said she would rather do a long cruise. I have trained her right after all!


I cancelled the Disney trip and then I knew I just had to wait. On a whim….(or maybe pressure from my friends), I check the next morning to see if the card had been refunded. Mind you, this was a Saturday morning and we all know that that is not a business day, so the chances were slim to none…..but I was wrong. The money was on the card. HOLY CRUD!!!!!


I quickly called and the special rate was still available. I was going to just do an inside room. This was an extra trip and I just knew I wanted to be on the ship. I really didn’t care where. So I asked the price of an inside and I was given it. I then said, just for fun, give me the ocean view price as well. It was only $200 more….What? Really? OK, I am a sucker, give me the ocean view!


I couldn’t believe it. I had just booked a 10 night Southern Caribbean Cruise on the Fantasy! Someone slap me!

 

[dizneeat]

A new Jen TR .............. I am in. And now leisurely going back to read.

 

[Woth2982]

I am here! Cannot wait to hear about this cruise!

 

[mom2rtk]

 

[tink1957]

Sounds like fun...I'm onboard

 

[jedijill]

I'm in!

Jill in CO

 

[wdwfan]

I'm in too! I hope to one day do a Southern Caribbean cruise.

 

[lucas]

Looking forward to your report! As I mentioned on Cass' report, we were on the 11-nighter right before you guys so I can't wait to read about your cruise.

 

[condorthb]

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yay another Jen report! I can't wait to hear all about your travels!

 

[ukintheus]

Count me in. Looking forward to hearing about the adventures!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I love reading your trip reports. Ten days on the ship must be heaven.

 

[dnllmz]

Following along! I really enjoyed your last trip report that I found last week. I like how you have a big group going. We're going at the end of 2018 with a couple of families but are trying to get a bigger group to go. It just seems like a lot of fun for a cruise if you go with a group. Hopefully I'm right.

 

[TestingH2O]

Hooray!

 

[MickeyD]

I am in! Just know that slow won't cut it. Once we start reading a Cass or Jen report, we want a daily dose.

 

[bcwife76]

I'm in!! Have been enjoying @Timon trip report very much so I'm excited to see your perspective on it, too

 

[jenseib]

A new Jen TR .............. I am in. And now leisurely going back to read.

Hi Karin!!! Glad you could make it!

I am here! Cannot wait to hear about this cruise!

it was so much fun. I hope I can update fast...but I got a lot on my plate right now.

Woooohooo!!!

Sounds like fun...I'm onboard

Thanks for joining!

I'm in!

Jill in CO

Yay!!

I'm in too! I hope to one day do a Southern Caribbean cruise.

It was a great itinerary

Looking forward to your report! As I mentioned on Cass' report, we were on the 11-nighter right before you guys so I can't wait to read about your cruise.

I know some people did both of them. I think it would be wonderful to have 21 days on that ship. Unfortunately my bank account doesn't agree.

Welcome!

Yay another Jen report! I can't wait to hear all about your travels!

Hi Lisa! Glad you made it!

Count me in. Looking forward to hearing about the adventures!

Welcome!!! It was a lot of fun.

I love reading your trip reports. Ten days on the ship must be heaven.

Thanks. It was heaven

Following along! I really enjoyed your last trip report that I found last week. I like how you have a big group going. We're going at the end of 2018 with a couple of families but are trying to get a bigger group to go. It just seems like a lot of fun for a cruise if you go with a group. Hopefully I'm right.

Glad you enjoyed it. Going with a group really is fun.

Hooray!

Thanks for joining!!

I am in! Just know that slow won't cut it. Once we start reading a Cass or Jen report, we want a daily dose.

LOL. I have to edit pictures...so that takes some time. I will try to at least post a segment each day.

I'm in!! Have been enjoying @Timon trip report very much so I'm excited to see your perspective on it, too

I am enjoying Cass' report too. She is such a wonderful person.

 

[jenseib]

The planning

Now let me make this clear from the start….This was NOT a work event. I know many of you have read some of my trip reports that involve traveling for work. This is not one of them. I just happened to be taking a vacation with my daughter at the same time many of my work friends were.

Because of this, I wanted to be careful not to intrude on people’s family time. We enjoy doing group things, but not everyone does.

I approached 2 of my closest friends, Jeanne and Cass, and asked if they wanted to link up for dinner. I let them know that if they said no I would not be offended in the least. But if they did want to, that would be great too. They both said yes, and we decided to not link with anyone else. Not because we are mean. LOL….but as Cass pointed out, many times when you have large groups at a table the service isn’t as good. I totally agreed with her. I have been on 3 big group sailings now. 1 we had a waiter who could not really handle it, but 2 of them we had excellent waiters. Cass has had issues with groups in the past as well.


So we called and linked up. I asked if any of them had a favorite waiter from the Fantasy and neither did. I asked if they minded if I requested Ferdi, who was our waiter in Oct. I thought he had done a fine job with our large group and he was very nice….a little hard to understand at times, but still super nice, and he took care of my sisters allergies as well. We can be a bit of a pain in the butt at times, so when a waiter can handle that I am usually impressed.

They agreed to Ferdi so we noted him as a request as well.


At some point Patty asked me for a server to request, and I told her to ask for Ferdi too. That way we would still be in the same seating area. I told Brook the same when she asked me for a name.


Another thing we decided to do was a private Fish Extender Exchange. This was something I had done in Oct with my family and we just bought nicer things for the kids. It worked out so nicely.

Some were also joining the public exchange as well, but for Claire and I, we were happy with just the private one.


With the discounted rate we booked with, we didn’t have a choice of room selection. With this rate you are guaranteed a level of room, for instance I booked an ocean view, and I was guaranteed to have at least the lowest level category of ocean view, but you may be “upgraded” for free to a higher category. I was going to be perfectly happy with whatever room I was given, but I will admit that since I was linked with both Cass and Jeanne, who booked verandah rooms, I hoped that I would get an upgrade and be semi close to them.


The room assignments do not have a date they have to be given by…and technically they may not even be given till you check in at port….but we were lucky and got our assignments several weeks beforehand. And I TOTALLY lucked out!!!! I got state room 8020! I was on deck 8! (many of the ocean view rooms are on deck 2). I had a room that was bigger than a standard room, which included a murphy pull down bed, a window seat, and I was only 5/6 doors down from Cass and Jeanne. I was so excited. I really won the stateroom assignment lottery. I got an 8C which was about 4 levels up in an upgrade!

My room was forward though, and I have never been forward on a ship, so this would be a new experience for me.


Originally, I figured we would come in one day before the cruise and leave the day we got off the ship. I priced out flights and coming in on Monday (2 days early) the flight was only $70 one way per person. WOW! Claire had enough Southwest rewards points to cover that flight. I had a $50 voucher from SW that had to be used by Feb. Perfect! We paid basically $20 for the flight (though I did add early bird check in later too)! The down side was that it left at 5:30 AM


As I checked the flights to go home I found another really cheap rate. It was for July 10th though (we disembarked on the 8th). And it was for 7:15 AM. Ugh! Another early flight……But worth it for the price and I had points, so we purchased it with those.


Well now I am going to be there 2 days before the cruise and 2 days after…we might as well go to Disney World too. Hahahaha. So hotels were booked and tickets purchased.

The more I thought about it though, that 7:15 return flight just made me feel sick. If I took Magical Express we would be leaving at 4:15 AM. If we had a rental car then we could leave a little later, and I do have Global Entry now, which means I usually get TSA precheck…but I thought it over and for not many more points I could change my departure time till 2 PM. Yes. I think that might be best.


I made my transfer arrangements to and from port, made my excursions, many with several of my friends, made fastpasses and a few dining reservations and then it was time to sit and wait.


I started gathering things to pack and then a few weeks before the trip, I packed 2 suitcases, one almost completely full of Fish Extender gifts. Both were smaller suitcases, but I had 2 big ones to pack yet. About a week before we left I tackled that task. We were going to have 4 checked suitcases plus carryon bags. EEK! Most of the time I would not have to handle the bags much, but even fitting them in the car to get to the airport was going to be tricky.


People often ask me what camera I use as I tend to take a lot of pictures. I usually bring a big Canon SLR, but this time I only went with my Olympus Tough point and shoot and my iphone. I took a lot of pictures, but not nearly as many as I usually do. Also, you can tell the quality of them is not as nice, especially the night pictures. I just can’t capture those well without the big boy. But I wanted to be more free and save my shoulders from aching so much from carrying that heavy guy.

 

[nh3223]

With the discounted rate we booked with, we didn’t have a choice of room selection. With this rate you are guaranteed a level of room, for instance I booked an ocean view, and I was guaranteed to have at least the lowest level category of ocean view, but you may be “upgraded” for free to a higher category. I was going to be perfectly happy with whatever room I was given, but I will admit that since I was linked with both Cass and Jeanne, who booked verandah rooms, I hoped that I would get an upgrade and be semi close to them.


The room assignments do not have a date they have to be given by…and technically they may not even be given till you check in at port….but we were lucky and got our assignments several weeks beforehand. And I TOTALLY lucked out!!!! I got state room 8020! I was on deck 8! (many of the ocean view rooms are on deck 2). I had a room that was bigger than a standard room, which included a murphy pull down bed, a window seat, and I was only 5/6 doors down from Cass and Jeanne. I was so excited. I really won the stateroom assignment lottery. I got an 8C which was about 4 levels up in an upgrade!

Very nice. Especially since you had friends just down the hall. We were pretty late deciding to go and by the time we booked the OGT rates had come out, so we booked one of them. We waited and waited and got our assignment only 5 days before the cruise. I was fully expecting one of the Deck 2 rooms, but we ended up with 6014, one of the 8A two big porthole handicapped accessible rooms. I'm sure it was being held back in case it was needed for any disabled passenger bookings, but when it got close to departure they released and we totally scored. Only problem is this was our first cruise and now we have been spoiled (or sucked into paying more) for any future ones. Hope being forward worked out well for you (I'll continue to read to find out), we really liked being forward.

 

[Timon]

but as Cass pointed out, many times when you have large groups at a table the service isn’t as good. I totally agreed with her. I have been on 3 big group sailings now. 1 we had a waiter who could not really handle it, but 2 of them we had excellent waiters. Cass has had issues with groups in the past as well.

Honestly, I don't think I will ever get a table bigger than 6 people. There's no point really, it's not like you can have conversations with the whole table anyway. I could only hear the people who were sitting right next to me. The times when Jeanne sat next to you, I couldn't hear a word she said

I really won the stateroom assignment lottery. I got an 8C which was about 4 levels up in an upgrade!

I am so glad you got a great room

My room was forward though, and I have never been forward on a ship, so this would be a new experience for me.

It was our first time too. And it will be our last, if we have a choice