Disney Fantasy Eastern Feb 8th - 15th - Cupids in the Caribbean cruise! Update 5/16

[Cheerio]

What a lovely day in St Thomas

We had beautiful weather that week

 

[WhitGB]

I have to live through you until they finallllly release the fall 2015. Come on Disney, you are killing me. At this rate I will only have about 1 year before my cruise date. Probably is my dummy booking is coming....

 

[Cheerio]

Working on it

 

[Cheerio]

This is the most anticipated day for us, we love spending time on Castaway Cay! We got up around 8am, got dressed and headed to Cabana's. Once we got the kids settled eating, we took off upstairs for Meridian to see the island and take some photos - it was pretty busy out there already with others wanting a peek of the island.

Just as we started to head downstairs they announced that we could head to the beach - so we hustled to get back to the kids. We were smart this time around and brought an extra beach bag just to carry towels in, much easier than trying to juggle them on the way to the beach. We ended up walking over (much to the kids whining!) to where the slide is and set up shop for the day. Just wanted to point out we're family of six, we grabbed two loungers - that's it! No need to have one each for the amount of time the kids will be in them. We ended up sitting right near our friends and also our 'new' cruise group friends too. The kids instantly took off for the slide, the younger two putting on life jackets to be safe. They can swim but I know sometimes they get disoriented coming off the slide, we had told them before the cruise so they had no issue with safety first. I realized I was starving and started the countdown to 11am when cookies too opened for lunch.

Our bartender came around for his first of many visits - we ordered a konk cooler and a tropical depression to start - both were yummy and we were sure to remind him to come back often especially during happy hour. I went over and rented the kids a floatie, they loved being able to switch between that and the inner tube for playing in the ocean. DH went and grabbed snorkel equipment and was gone the rest of the morning.

Just after 11 I grabbed more beverages, myself, the kids and walked over to Cookies Too for lunch, there was no line up and the selection was great. As you can tell with our report, we're not a picky family - so a burger, ribs and salad was perfect island food for us. By the time we got back to our chairs, DH had finished snorkeling and he was starving so I held down the fort while he brought back lunch. Kevin decided to go try out the snorkeling area, while the 3 smaller ones swam and took turns grabbing drinks and ice cream.

By the time Kevin came back, I was ready to get into the water - so off I went over to snorkel for a bit as well. It took a few minutes of swimming before the water became clear but I saw tons of fish, a small stingray (I just swam near a large group of people pointing) and all the fun 'buried treasure' I wish I had brought an underwater camera, we had tons of video from DH's GoPro but no still photos After swimming, I called the kids over to sunscreen them all up again and to take a walk for ice cream. I miss the food so much! Around 2pm, happy hour started and we were the recipients of many drinks - cheers to Castaway Cay. About 3pm we started our long walk back to the ship, more like the sad walk because we knew this was the last time we'd be getting ON the ship.

DH took the kids to the pool to swim, while I began packing up. I had used the bottom of one closet for dirty laundry so it didn't take too much time to get things organized. What I had to keep in mind, was that we had our bonus day at Disney tomorrow and then flying home to snow on Sunday so I had to pack strategically. By the time they came down at 5pm to get cleaned up, I was packed and had their clothes for the evening all laid out. We waited until the kids were all showered (we LOVED having the two showers, such a time saver) and surprised them with the news we would be spending tomorrow at Magic Kingdom - it was their first visit. The three boys were thrilled, DD burst into happy tears which made *some* of us cry too. I wish I had filmed it, she collapsed to the floor with excitement.

Kiddos last dinner

Our last dinner was at Enchanted Garden, of course bittersweet because we had to say goodbye. I can't remember what we had to eat but Kevin had the red snapper - loved it. After dinner we all got changed into our suits and swam for a good long time. The air tonight was a little bit chillier but we ignored it soaking up the last hours of warmth

We crawled into bed just after midnight, probably the earliest we had all week. Up next - day at Magic Kingdom and the Contemporary Hotel

 

[Cheerio]

I have to live through you until they finallllly release the fall 2015. Come on Disney, you are killing me. At this rate I will only have about 1 year before my cruise date. Probably is my dummy booking is coming....

We are waiting to book our cruise too, wanting to go in 2016

 

[m3gg3m]

What a fun read. It's so helpful to hear about other families experiences when preparing for your first cruise (Disney or otherwise)! We'll be on the 2015 version of your cruise!

 

[Cheerio]

Exciting LoveMyTwoPrincesses and I were on the same cruise, in fact I'm in one of her mixology pics, green shirt, jean capris. Always fun to make friends on our travels

 

[Cheerio]

I completely forgot to update our day at Magic Kingdom, but more important our day of travel. We had one day at Magic Kingdom, our flight left MCO at 6:30am on Sunday morning. Hindsight, later flight!

7:00am we woke up, had quick showers and tossed everything into our carry-on. I had packed up one backpack with park necessities the rest I'd sort out that night before we left for the airport. We went up to Cabanas for breakfast, restroom stops and first layer of sunscreen. Debarkation was super easy, grabbed the liquor we purchased in St Thomas and walked off the ship. It must have been between dining times because the line up for customs was SO long. We used a porter which helped so much with four kids, juggling bags. It was about 8:20 that we got through customs, 8:30 we were on the bus pulling away from port. Keep an eye on what time breakfast is served and try to get off before the 2nd one starts if you can,

We made 3 resort stops before arriving at Contemporary, just before 10am. We picked this hotel specifically because of the location - we could walk to MK without worrying about added bus travel on our already packed full day. There was no front desk line, one of our two connecting rooms were ready so we were able to go in, drop our luggage and head out for our day at Magic Kingdom! My plan B was to just leave our luggage at the front desk but taking a gamble on leaving our electronics wasn't one I wanted to take. By 11am we were in the park, grabbed their first time visit buttons and off we went. I'll admit, I got a little teary walking up Main Street, seeing the castle - yay for sunglasses, no one noticed.

Kids had an amazing day, we had the counter service dining plan, so there was plenty to eat. At one point, maybe 3pm we went back to the room for a little break, a few of us had naps (me included) and we were back at the park just after 5pm for our evening fast passes. Because it was president's day weekend, it was SO busy. My kids had little interest in waiting in line, so they missed out on fun things like dumbo, who goes to WDW and doesn't ride DUMBO! Our three fast passes were used on Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain. All of them had a huge lineup so we were thankful for that.

We watched the electrical parade and then decided to head back to the hotel. I was full of energy but everyone else was starting to lose steam about 10pm and we had a 3:30am pickup! Got back to the hotel, looked outside just in time to see Electrical Water Pageant (the kids loved this!) finished up snacks and drinks, showers for everyone and then into bed.


I don't think I slept too well, was worried about missing our wake up call (we had one set with front desk, one on my phone, one on DH's phone... but still) I was wide awake at 3:10, got myself ready and then woke everyone up one by one. We were downstairs waiting for our bus along with one other family who were on our flight back to Toronto. The bus did a few pickups from other hotels and we got to the airport about 4:30am, we grabbed breakfast (including krispy kreme to take home!) and checked in for our flight. We left Orlando on time, kids slept all the way back home and then again once we got into the car at home. We were home by lunchtime, went grocery shopping and had a nap before even thinking about tackling mount laundry or luggage. Thanks for reading, so excited to start planning our 2016 cruise, we found using DCL transfers to the resort super easy and group friendly!