Back from Western Caribbean on Fantasy 10/29-11/5 - if you have Q's I have A's

[adcatalano]

I woke up sick morning of debarkation so I don't have the energy to do a full trip report. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them.

A few notes:
Full navigators all cruise
Halloween on the High Seas cruise
We were diverted to key west on day 2 for a sick passenger. Coast guard picked him up
We ate remy brunch, palo brunch, and palo dinner
We did the Halloween in Mexico port adventure, walked around the port in grand cayman, and spent most of the time in Jamaica at margaritaville
Christmas decorations up at castaway cay
Dr Stange had a special premier event on Thursday night
We booked a placeholder

 

[Dug720]

I hope you feel better!!

Do you know if the Halloween in Mexico is only offered on Halloween cruises?

 

[CathyCU03]

did you go to the princess gathering? which princesses were there?

 

[adcatalano]

our tour guide on the Halloween in Mexico (or something like that) port adventure said it was only the second time they offered the excursion. I'm guessing they'll only be doing it around Halloween. It was interesting but it definately showed it was new - has room to grow and be more refined.

I did not go to the princess gathering but I believe I walked past it and from what I recall there was Cinderella, Ariel, tianna, belle... I think those were the main princesses in rotation throughout the cruise, but I could be off

 

[tee11]

Hope you feel better!

-Of your specialty meals - which did you enjoy the most - and why?

-The diversion to Key West - was this not the Sea Day? How could you manage to get to Cozumel on time??

 

[adcatalano]

First time at Remy, was pretty hesitant going. Brunch was amazing, told them I didn't eat sea food and they made adjustments for me. Our waiter Luis was very good. Atmosphere was a bit too formal in my opinion, I don't like that the waitstaff has to act like they are on pins and needles.

Palo brunch and dinner both fantastic. We had dinner first with Luca and he was perfect, we requested him for brunch. He made great recommendations and he really went above and beyond for us.

Your preference between remy and palo will depend purely on you - food and service are both top notch. I like palo atmosphere more. I also think there is more value in palo.

The diversion took us about 2 hours off course on our first sea day. The ship hauled butt and we were pretty much on time to Mexico, maybe a half hour or so late - we were just waking up so not entirely sure. Our all aboard time was pushed back a half hour to compensate. I think we were on schedule for grand cayman but we were late in Jamaica (maybe an hour?). Overall nothing that affected us

 

[northshoremama]

What ports did you guys stop at? Cozumel, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman?
If yes, what did you do at each port?

Deciding on a fantasy itinerary with those ports in April 2018...or...Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Grand Cayman on the Wonder in Feb 2018 (of course both with a stop at CC)

 

[adcatalano]

We stopped at Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.

Only port adventure we did was in Cozumel and it included a stop at the Mayan Cacao Company and Playa Mia beach. The cacao company had excellent chocolate margaritas and provided an interesting history of chocolate. Playa Mia was fine, but a very obvious tourist beach. We walked around the shopping area around the port. We would do the Chichen Itza excursion next time.

We spent the least amount of time in Grand Cayman. We walked around the shopping district near the port. The water looked amazing and we would venture off to a beach next time. Grand Cayman looked more well developed and cleaner than Cozumel.

We stayed in the secure port area in Jamaica. I really loved this area - built 5 years ago and extremely clean and well maintained. Nice craft market with hand made items - didn't find too much quality hand made nicnacs at the other ports. We spent about 3 hours at the Margaritaville. Wonderful open air style restaurant, nice pool with waterfall (but cold!), unique margarita glass hot tub, nice vegetation, quality free wifi. We would go to Dunn's River Falls next time.

Overall we really liked this itinerary, much better than eastern. We would have something different to do again in every port which speaks volume of interesting stuff to do in port. While Mediterranean, Alaska, Hawaii, and southern Caribbean are all high on our to do list, I'd be happy doing this itinerary again sometime.

 

[adcatalano]

A couple notes on entertainment(sorry if I've forgotten names):

First night show wasn't very good, basically "Disney cruise the musical". We are on the cruise, you don't have to sell it to us in a show

Aladdin the musical was amazing top to bottom. A real highlight of the trip. I would pay serious money to see a full length version of this production

Wishes was solid, the love story was awkwardly entertaining

Believe did nothing for me, my wife liked it

Did not see the last show and it didn't air on the in room tv which was disappointing

Trevor mason was the best variety act, his adult only show was non stop hilarious, a true comedian

Adam ace was bad

The heath show was good except for the Elvis bit which dragged down the show

Matt baker (I think) wasn't that good. Bronkar Lee does a much better show (both are juggling comedians)

 

[Dug720]

Aladdin the musical was amazing top to bottom. A real highlight of the trip. I would pay serious money to see a full length version of this production

You can! Just come to NYC.

 

[adcatalano]

I previously cruised on the magic and I was curious to see how the bigger ship would feel differently. I could definitely notice it took longer to get end to end, but still wasn't a bad hike.

The only issue I had with having more guests is when it came to dinner. I found dinner to be very loud and I do think it had a negative effect on our experience. Serenity bay on castaway cay was noticeably more dense in passengers... on the magic it felt nearly empty while on the fantasy it was near max capacity. I wish there were stricter policies about leaving towels on the hammocks - took forever for me to snag one

 

[YohoAPiratesLife4Me]

Was the ocean pretty calm or was it really rough this time of year? Thanks!!

 

[5Texans]

A couple notes on entertainment(sorry if I've forgotten names):

First night show wasn't very good, basically "Disney cruise the musical". We are on the cruise, you don't have to sell it to us in a show

Aladdin the musical was amazing top to bottom. A real highlight of the trip. I would pay serious money to see a full length version of this production

Wishes was solid, the love story was awkwardly entertaining

Believe did nothing for me, my wife liked it

Did not see the last show and it didn't air on the in room tv which was disappointing

Trevor mason was the best variety act, his adult only show was non stop hilarious, a true comedian

Adam ace was bad

The heath show was good except for the Elvis bit which dragged down the show

Matt baker (I think) wasn't that good. Bronkar Lee does a much better show (both are juggling comedians)

You didn't miss anything the last show. It was hard to watch. My kids kept asking when the show was going to start. It was a lot of Natalie talking about what happened the last week and then Heath came out- I was not a fan. Really disappointing after the rest of the shows were so good

 

[scootch]

Who is the cruise director and any chance a blonde gentleman, named Corey maybe mid 20's worked bingo, things in the D Lounge, ect??? We loved him last Fantasy cruise in 2016 and girls are hoping he is there this time.

 

[adcatalano]

Natalie was the cruise director. I did not do any bingo (only trivia), and the only male name I recall was Gus - sorry!

We had two rougher days at sea, everything else seemed pretty normal (only been on one other cruise, don't have much to compare to)

 

[tlprice]

our tour guide on the Halloween in Mexico (or something like that) port adventure said it was only the second time they offered the excursion. I'm guessing they'll only be doing it around Halloween. It was interesting but it definately showed it was new - has room to grow and be more refined.

I did not go to the princess gathering but I believe I walked past it and from what I recall there was Cinderella, Ariel, tianna, belle... I think those were the main princesses in rotation throughout the cruise, but I could be off

Those are the correct princesses that were there. My DD9 and I went. No Olaf at Frozen meet.

 

[tlprice]

Hope you feel better!

-Of your specialty meals - which did you enjoy the most - and why?

-The diversion to Key West - was this not the Sea Day? How could you manage to get to Cozumel on time??

We were an hour late to Cozumel. We were originally supposed to meet for our excursion at 8:15, but it was switched to 9:15. New tickets were issued to those affected. We stayed in Cozumel until 5:15 instead of the scheduled 4:45. This was all communicated to us after the Key West evacuation so we were prepared.

 

[tlprice]

Was the ocean pretty calm or was it really rough this time of year? Thanks!!

The first night was really rough. There were a LOT of seasick people. Thankfully I brought sea bands which worked amazing. We docked an hour and half late in Jamaica because it was so windy it was hard for Captain Fabian to dock safely. We met in the theater at 7:15 for our excursion, but did not get off the ship until 8:45. Nobody complained because we knew it wasn't anybody's fault. We were just all tired from getting up early when we could have slept in. Once on land the weather was great though. It was pretty windy in Falmouth, but we went almost to Ocho Rios and it was perfect there.

 

[tlprice]

What ports did you guys stop at? Cozumel, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman?
If yes, what did you do at each port?

Deciding on a fantasy itinerary with those ports in April 2018...or...Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Grand Cayman on the Wonder in Feb 2018 (of course both with a stop at CC)

We did Cozumel Highlights, Ruins and Discover Mexico Cultural Park (which included the Mayan Cacao company and Dia de los Muertos since we were there on Halloween.) We really enjoyed it and had a great tour guide. I teach about the Maya so found it very interesting. It may not be for everyone though.
In Grand Cayman we did the Turtle Farm through Discount Excursions. I really enjoyed doing it on our own and not being stuck in a tour group for this particular excursion. Discount Excursions provides the tickets and the transportation. They just drop you off and pick you up. It worked out cheaper than taking the public bus that we had planned to take.
In Jamaica we were supposed to do the Tranopy Adventure, but it was cancelled while we were on the ship due to not enough people signed up for it. We switched to the skyride, bob sled and Dunn's River Falls which was basically the same except we did the falls instead of zip lining. I think my daughter loved the falls more than anything, so the switch turned out okay.