Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude Western Fantasy!! Day 1 Complete

[Joanna71985]

Following along! Loving the TR so far. I can't wait to sail on the Fantasy in Oct

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Great family shots! DId you request your dining rotation?

 

[verygfy]

Great family shots! DId you request your dining rotation?

I did request our rotation prior to cruising. I had primarily done so so that I could book Palo and since our sailing was the 8th one I wanted to make sure I knew when I would have Enchanted a 2nd time. When the gentleman told me I could request rotation with being in Royal Court on Formal and Semi Formal I said sold!!!

 

[verygfy]

Following along! Loving the TR so far. I can't wait to sail on the Fantasy in Oct

Thank you for following along!! It is such a beautiful ship.. We did a lot and left a lot to be done on our 2014 cruise

 

[Joanna71985]

Thank you for following along!! It is such a beautiful ship.. We did a lot and left a lot to be done on our 2014 cruise

What cruise will you be doing in 2014?

 

[jenpink]

Enjoying your report

 

[verygfy]

What cruise will you be doing in 2014?

Currently we are planning on doing an Eastern for 2014!

 

[verygfy]

Originally when booking opened we had scheduled the Submarine and Snorkel excursion for our day in Grand Cayman, but cancelled it before we left because we had excursions in Cozumel and Costa Maya and wanted one day to roam the ports and just spend some extra time on the ships and since everyone raved about how wonderful Grand Cayman was we decided this would be the best “ship day”.

Grand Cayman is a tender port which means you have to disembark the Fantasy and then embark on a small boat that takes you the mainland. Our All Ashore time was 10:45am and first priority with the tenders is for those that have excursions booked through DCL, so we decided that this would be our take it easy morning and we would get there whenever we got there.

Since we turned the clocks back an hour DH and I woke up pretty early and immediately DH was not feeling well. He felt nauseous again. I gave him some Bonine and then he thought maybe he would feel better if he went to the Gym (not sure where that correlation worked in his head) either way DH headed up to the gym while I went and passed out FE. We left DS and DD in the room to continue their beauty sleep since both of them were pretty wiped out from yesterday with a note saying to call me on the wave phone the moment they woke up.

Passing out the FE is such a great way to see the ship (however it would not be the only time I walked ALL of the Fantasy on this cruise) and see how creative so many of our fellow DISer’s are. We also got some pretty amazing FE gifts from everyone. By the time I arrived back in the room DH was not back from the gym and both of the kids were still sleeping!

I decided to take the moment of silence as an opportunity to start cleaning up the cabin. Now one tip with the Inside Cabins, I personally think they are great, but they are on the small side leaving no room for errors in the room. With FE coming in, kids plopping arts and crafts from the club, cameras, batteries, wave phones and such it gets pretty crowded, pretty fast. I did purchase the over the door shoe organizer, but never did use it. The rooms do have enough storage room, you just have to a bit creative.

As I was finishing up my cleaning the kids started stirring and asking for food. DH called the room and said he was done with the Gym and did we want to meet him for breakfast at Cabanas.

Cabanas has everything you can imagine for breakfast, including Mickey Waffles!! No Disney vacation is complete without a Mickey Waffle, IMHO!! One of the big shockers for all of us was that there was Cream of Wheat. I know it doesn’t sound to exciting, but when do you ever see Cream of Wheat as an option anywhere. As we were enjoying our breakfast watching the tender boats start, our waiter from Dinner Boran was working the buffet this morning. We enjoyed talking with him in a more relaxed environment then when he is crazy busy at Dinner Service. He really is such a sweet man and a wonderful waiter.

(Yum, Yum, love Mickey Waffles)

(The pirate ship)


After breakfast it was time to start on DD list of Things to Do this cruise. Her list you might ask, well if Disney promoted it over the last year with the Dream and the Fantasy she wanted to do it. Including the Mid Ship Detective Agency and please note, not just 1 crime she wanted to do all 3 crimes. So there was no better time than the present to knock one of these off the list. I mean how hard can it be, right??

 

[verygfy]

If you have not heard all about the Mid Ship Detective Agency, where have you been, just kidding. It is a fun interactive game aboard the Dream and Fantasy. There are 3 cases, The Case of the Missing Puppies, and The Case of the Plundered Paintings both of these are with Mickey and the Gang and then there is the new Case of the Stolen Show which is The Muppets case that is only available on the Fantasy.

You start your quest at either Deck 2 or Deck 5 Mid Ship at a Kiosk where you get your Crime Scene Map and your Detective Card. This is where you pick which case you would like to do. We chose the Muppet Adventure first. The object of this game is to solve the Who Done It Mystery by visiting different paintings around the ship and using the clues along the way to solve the crime. Just a tip, the Muppet adventure does take awhile and you will be literally all over the ship while doing this or any of the other cases, but you do not have to complete it at once. Your Detective Card remembers where you have been and where you are at in the mystery. Now you do need to mark on your map where you have been because if you revisit a painting that you have already been to it will repeat the clue that you were given at that painting, hope this makes sense.

Another tip, be prepared to walk when you are planning on doing any of the cases. For instance, with the Muppet Adventure there are 14 paintings and the majority of paintings are either Aft or Forward. Plus it's not as if you start on deck 5 and move to deck 6. You can go from Deck 10 Forward to Deck 2 mid and so forth. It is a lot of fun and it really is neat technology.

It is a great way to the see the ship as well. One of the areas that the game took us was to the Vista Gallery. We would have never gone in there without the game and there were so many cool pieces of artwork.

Right next to Vista Gallery is the online version of Shutters. This is where you can look at your pictures digitally and select images. I never really used this all that much, however the room looks very cool doesn't it.

(Vista Gallery Art Pieces)

(An enchanted art)

(Digital Shutters)

After we solved the crime we decided it was time to head off the ship to visit Grand Cayman.

 

[verygfy]

Have you ever gone to see a movie that everyone raved about so much and you were so amped to see it and then you watch the movie and, well, it just didn’t live up to the hype. That is the best way I can describe Grand Cayman. I am not exactly sure what I was expecting or how I could have made it different, but overall it was just disappointing. Now granted as you can see in the pictures it was a cloudy and overcast day and we were the only ship in port that day.

We headed down to the gangplank, which by the way there are plenty of signs leading you down. Oh that reminds me, let me back up for a moment. In your cabin the night before you are scheduled for Grand Cayman your room host will leave information and instructions on tendering. One of the instructions you will hear is to go to Animator’s Palate and get a tender ticket before you disembark. This is true if you are trying to get off the ship around all ashore time. Once the masses have disembarked your cruise director should come over the loud speaker and announce that if you would like to disembark now you may just head straight to the gangplank. No need for a ticket. HTH


We were kind of nervous about the smaller boat and the tender process, but honestly it was a breeze and we were ashore in Grand Cayman within moments.

(you can see the door that you exit from to get on the boat)

(Aquaduck)


Once we got off we were in a normal port area with Tortuga Rum, Cigar Shops, Souvenir Shops etc. To be fair, we really did not get haggled from anyone to do this tour, or buy this item.

(We were the only ship in port that day)

We kept walking to the right hoping we would find something exciting to see, but not so much. Unless you are dying to jewelry shop, or bank there is not much to see in Grand Cayman, IMHO. We did pick up a Christmas Ornament, a magnet, and some other nick nacks for around $20 total.

We did make it to one of our favorite places though.

Grand Cayman Margaritaville is great. We did a little shopping and then headed up to the roof top to let DD swim a bit and relax. One tip about Grand Cayman is it is not cheap.

After we were nice and relaxed we decided we all wanted to head back to the ship and have lunch. When we arrived at the gates to get back on the ship we were handed water and cool rags. It was a fantastic Disney touch. My tip for Grand Cayman: book an excursion and visit Margaritaville.