Fantasy 3/15-22/2014 -Random musings

[DisneYE]

So just got back from an amazing cruise, our 4th, 2nd with the Fantasy to the Caribbean including Cayman Islands, Costa Maya, Cozumel and CC..

Instead of doing a detailed TR I thought I'd share random thoughts about our experience and some pictures here and there.

Intro

So it's DW, DD8 and myself.
We spent 8 days pre cruise in MCO, Tampa and Clearwater
Went to the latter to catch a spring training game and watch my beloved BlueJays. They play in Dunedin (in or by clearwater) and loved the place.
Clearwater is beautiful and would like to move here when I'm retired. It's pretty but too quiet and far from the action.

Embarcation

We arrived VERY late on 3/15 mainly due to insanity at the car rental return in which we spent close to 2 hours in between lineups and snafus of all kinds.
We arrived at the terminal with a group of about 10 other people and it was completely empty, which was nice, at around 2.30.
Best thing was we took many pics at the miniature ship and got the DCL app on our devices.

The APP

What a thing of beauty. It worked really well for us most of the time. My kid loved it as she could see the activities down the road on the cruise.
Disney really did a good job with this. We hardly ever used the paper navigators at all.

Stateroom

We were on 8022.
An 'obstructed' veranda room. I really didn't feel the obstruction at all.
It's located on the forward port side and it was really nice.
Our hostess was Kamal from Jamaica. Not the best hostess we ever had, a bit surly at times, but she was efficient and did the job well.
Veranda had the ashtray removed and marks of its demise..I confess I like the new no smoking in the balcony policy even tho I am a casual smoker (pipes and cigar) because it prompted me to discover my new favorite location on the ship (Meridian) and socialize. And because I respect that most people dislike the neighboring smoke from potential getting in the way of their enjoyment.

Next... Food, new friends, MDR...and other random musings..

 

[mrsoc]

Hi,


We are booked in this cabin for Sept. do you have any pics of the balcony?

Thank you,
Gena

 

[DisneYE]

Hi,


We are booked in this cabin for Sept. do you have any pics of the balcony?

Thank you,
Gena

yes.. i will post one on here soon...
room is about the same as the rest of this cat.. unless you are super fussy about things the obstruction is unnoticeable...
and IMO it's even better than others as you only have one neighbor and not 2 as opposed with other rooms.. (room next to this has a porthole window)

 

[mrsoc]

Great. Thank you. On the balcony is it a single bench seat or chair(s)?

 

[HookedonMagic]

We were just down the hall on the same cruise. I chuckled when you mentioned your "surely" stateroom hostess! We noticed her scowl and her grumpy demeanor several times as we walked past her during the week.

 

[DisneYE]

We were just down the hall on the same cruise. I chuckled when you mentioned your "surely" stateroom hostess! We noticed her scowl and her grumpy demeanor several times as we walked past her during the week.

Really, you were down the hall? so cool...we DISers should put a magnet on the door and say hi to each other...i love people on here...i woulda bought ya a beer..
Yeah, that hostess was surly as heck... did you also get the new host, one philipino guy? when she got sick? we gave him an extra tip he was so nice..kamal was very grumpy and growled a forced 'good morning' when we greeted her... for the record, we left her the regular tip plus a big chocolate bar from Canada.. we usually leave extra tip if hosts are good...she was just ok bordering on bad...

 

[DisneYE]

Our MDR was the highlight of our cruise.. but not because of the servers...

We had Pamel (Bulgaria) as HS who was very attentive all the time...Richard (SouthAfrica) was MS who was nice and Leonie (Jamaica) AS- was also nice but nothing to write home about.
There were 4 kids and 3 adults on our table and the servers hardly did anything to entertain the kids like tell jokes or do tricks, like we've been used to in the past cruises...they were like regular employees doing the bare minimum to please and not get complaints..and they barely passed.. very un-DCL like..
Except for Pamel, who always brought us extra goodies (we eat spicy food and he always brought us a plate of fried mexican chiles - so good).. and always came to say hi and chat a bit..we left him extra tip...the AS and MS, just regular.

I say this was the highlight of the trip because of our table mates.

They were so amazing, in the end we were almost like family and cried when we went our way... they had 3 kids and one of them was of my DD8 same age...they were inseparable the entire trip..they went to the clubs, the pool and hanged together..

I was worried my DD8 wouldn't have anyone to play with (she's an only child) and Disney did such a great job in pairing us with kids around her age..

These table mates were from a certain religion that doesn't allow to consume alcohol or drink caffeine so I had to drastically adjust my drinking habits (I like to drink on my holidays - only time i do so freely, though moderately) so as to not offend them..
They were funny, kind, about our age, their kids were amazing... I left feeling I wanted to have them as my family and be around them.. I offered them to move to where we live (they are very appalled and burdened by a certain person's new 'health plan') and we would do anything we can to help them move..I would love to have them around us...

In the end one of their kids and my DD were like best friends...they exchanged information so they could communicate via facetime or text..

Being around them is what all my family remembers to be the fondest memory of this cruise...it was that good..

So, if you're going on a cruise and are 'scared' about who your table mates might be, remember you could have an amazing experience just like we did.

 

[DisneYE]

Great. Thank you. On the balcony is it a single bench seat or chair(s)?

2 chairs with a table..

 

[epfootballcutie04]

Our MDR was the highlight of our cruise.. but not because of the servers...

These table mates were from a certain religion that doesn't allow to consume alcohol or drink caffeine so I had to drastically adjust my drinking habits (I like to drink on my holidays - only time i do so freely, though moderately) so as to not offend them..
They were funny, kind, about our age, their kids were amazing... I left feeling I wanted to have them as my family and be around them.. I offered them to move to where we live (they are very appalled and burdened by a certain person's new 'health plan') and we would do anything we can to help them move..I would love to have them around us...

So, if you're going on a cruise and are 'scared' about who your table mates might be, remember you could have an amazing experience just like we did.

Joining in!

That's really nice of you to not drink so as not to offend your table mates. I try to be as nice as I can, but I don't think I would have thought to do that It would have been more like "oh that's cool you have those beliefs! I'm all for learning new things about different cultures and religion but then my "I'm on vacation and don't care" mode would have kicked in and I would have ordered a martini of some sort

Im looking forward to hearing more about your trip!!!

 

[DisneYE]

Great. Thank you. On the balcony is it a single bench seat or chair(s)?

here's a pic of our verandah in 8022... you can see the bulkhead but to me it's barely noticeable.. and I spent hours on that verandah enjoying the view, sipping drinks and stargazing with my binoculars...

 

[DisneYE]

As always happens when we cruise, the first day is the pinnacle of our trip ...we all are high on excitement.. I've never done hard drugs but what I experience when first arriving at our stateroom is so intense I can somehow imagine what junkies feel.

After being around my child, stepping into the SR the 1st day of a cruise is the second happiest moment I could experience. Yes, that's how much I love the DCL.

Happiness still present at all moments, we were happily put off and even chuckled at the ridiculous castaway club silver "gift" they give out.
As many have said here, the bag is pure junk and really gives a bad name to the DCL. Oh, and there's some crappy magnet board inside with a marker that you can hang on your SR door and record your feelings..

Here's my DD pointing at it..

After checking out the room and dropping our bags, we proceeded to the pool deck for the muster drill...very informative and it was fun to watch many going to it with glasses of wine and beer mugs...
Speaking of beer mugs, there was a very high demand for them... I wanted to get me one right after the drill and had to go to 3 different places until I finally got the last one they had at waves..

It really is a good deal..
I bought my mug+beer for around $20 and after drinking the original beer I drank the beer I had brought from the mainland and kept buying a pack on each of the port of calls... I still ended up spending about $100 on DCL beer but it would have been $300 if I only consumed theirs...
BYOB on the DCL is a major source of savings.

 

[DisneYE]

Joining in!

That's really nice of you to not drink so as not to offend your table mates. I try to be as nice as I can, but I don't think I would have thought to do that It would have been more like "oh that's cool you have those beliefs! I'm all for learning new things about different cultures and religion but then my "I'm on vacation and don't care" mode would have kicked in and I would have ordered a martini of some sort

Im looking forward to hearing more about your trip!!!

Thanks!...I didn't refrain entirely from drinking at our table.. I try to be nice but I'm not THAT nice..
Like you, I enjoy myself during my vacation and drinking is part of the fun for me. I never get hammered or become annoying, I just like to be 'fine tuned' with a few...
So instead of a whole bottle of wine, plus some liqueur at the end I'd just get 1 or 2 glasses of wine, proceed to drink them fast, get the server to take the glasses away and continue with soda...