My delayed report from 4 nights in the Disney fantasy for a merry time cruise! It was myself, my husband, and my at the time 13 month old son.
This was our second Disney cruise, the first one being the wish in November 2022 before my son was born.
Overall it was amazing! I was nervous because before the cruise I started seeing some negative feedback of the fantasy. But we loved it!
Overall ship theme- my husband preferred the fantasy over the wish hands down. Honestly I don’t know which one I preferred, I liked both
Quick service dining - we both liked the wish pool deck food options more, but the fantasy’s weren’t bad. We just missed Donald’s cantina and the bbq.
Table service- we both preferred the fantasy’s over the wish’s. However, I did miss a dinner show like the wish had with the frozen restaurant. I will add, we aren’t really foodies. We are basic eaters and like decently plain food. On the wish we had second seating and it was very slow. We were seated with others and our server didn’t take our orders until everyone was seated, which I found annoying. Fantasy we had first dining and we had a private table (yay! Escorting because my son was not great at meals). The dining was much quicker
Adult only section- we both preferred the fantasy’s over the wish. It was large and spacious in the pool
Overall service- both was great but I think the fantasy’s was better. Our server on the wish was not that great and it made us question why people say the servers go above and beyond. However, our fantasy server was definitely better. My only gripe was my husband a few times wanted something from a previous nights menu and was told he needed to stick to the current night menu. One of the times it was only the bread. I see people post about how their server would bring them off the menu things but this wasn’t the case for us. We were told “you need to stick to the menu of the night” by our server. Our head server was really good in the fantasy. He immediately noticed if we didn’t like something and insisted on bringing something else.
The night before we boarded- we flew into mco and stayed at the Hyatt regency and used DCL transportation. I would absolutely do this again. The convenience of it was amazing. We had a great PAT and I didn’t need to worry about being on at midnight to try for a good time. Our luggage was taken from the hotel and ended up in our room, which was so nice with having a 13 month old and stroller to worry about carrying, we didn’t need our luggage too.
Splash pad- Nemo’s reef was good for my son and he loved the little slide, however I do wish they would police it better for older kids. Fantasy has a second splash play area for older kids that was almost always empty. I understand if older kids want to be with siblings, but if they’re in Nemo’s reef it should be controlled play. The littlest cruisers are very limited on where they can be for water play (this is the only area) so I think older kids should be discouraged from entering especially if not playing appropriately. My son shouldn’t get run over by big kids who can go to the pool or the other splash area.
Buffet- it was good. No complaints. I would say the same as the wish. But the service in the buffet was amazing. Workers saw me with my hands full with my little one while my husband was at the buffet and offered to go get me a drink, quickly helped me get a high chair, and were so nice entertaining my son
Room- we booked a guaranteed verandah with restrictions to save money. Definitely always risky but it worked out for us! We ended up with deluxe family verandah midship on deck 6! Yes, I’d you looked down you could see lifeboats, but who cares? Still great views of the sea. I do like the rooms on the wish more but they are newer, so that’s no surprise. We did find with our little we didn’t use the verandah nearly as much as when it was two adults. So for that reason we would skip the verandah to save money next time (booked summer 2025 on the magic!)
Kids clubs- my son was nursery aged. We went to open house and he loved it then and the workers were so great and kind. However, my Mamas boy didn’t love being there without me, which is no fault to the workers. He did LOVE toddler time in Andy’s room, which we did daily.
Shows- honestly I can’t really say because my son couldn’t stay up that late so we missed them. We tried but he made it through 15 minutes of frozen before he had to go.
Island- we were supposed to go to lighthouse point, but due to rough waters we ended up going to castaway. It was a little bit of a bummer since we had been there before and wanted to see lookout cay, however I was thankful we got a stop and didn’t just get it canceled. It ended up being amazing. I forgot how much we loved castaway and had a great day. But now I definitely want to see lighthouse point!
Cruise with a young toddler- I always see people posting about waiting until your kids are older. I disagree. We go to Disney world around 5 times per year (we are DVC and AP holders). I just went to Disney world with my son 2 weeks ago. It made me miss the cruise! It is so nice having everything conveniently on the ship and always an abundance of food available. My son doesn’t stay in the stroller very long so I was stuck carrying him around the parks. Taking Disney busses to get to places is annoying. Don’t get me wrong, we will still be doing the parks, but I’m ready to cut the park trips back a bit and add cruising. Cruising is more convenient and with the little one I love the convenience. Plus, cast members and service are way better on the ship than the parks (my opinion)
Number of nights- our wish was only 3 and our fantasy was 4. Definitely loved the extra night and we won’t do any more 3 night sailings. I think the longer the better (but with our dog back home we can’t be away too long). I would have preferred another night but 4 was ok!
merry time cruise- both cruises I did were Christmas merry time. I thought both had the same amount of Christmas too them. It was nice, we didn’t book specifically for that, it just worked out that way. It was a nice start to kick off the Christmas season. I won’t plan a trip around a Christmas theme though.
I think I covered a decent amount. Let me know if you have any questions or if missed anything!
*there might be typos, I write this as my son naps on me!*
This was our second Disney cruise, the first one being the wish in November 2022 before my son was born.
Overall it was amazing! I was nervous because before the cruise I started seeing some negative feedback of the fantasy. But we loved it!
Overall ship theme- my husband preferred the fantasy over the wish hands down. Honestly I don’t know which one I preferred, I liked both
Quick service dining - we both liked the wish pool deck food options more, but the fantasy’s weren’t bad. We just missed Donald’s cantina and the bbq.
Table service- we both preferred the fantasy’s over the wish’s. However, I did miss a dinner show like the wish had with the frozen restaurant. I will add, we aren’t really foodies. We are basic eaters and like decently plain food. On the wish we had second seating and it was very slow. We were seated with others and our server didn’t take our orders until everyone was seated, which I found annoying. Fantasy we had first dining and we had a private table (yay! Escorting because my son was not great at meals). The dining was much quicker
Adult only section- we both preferred the fantasy’s over the wish. It was large and spacious in the pool
Overall service- both was great but I think the fantasy’s was better. Our server on the wish was not that great and it made us question why people say the servers go above and beyond. However, our fantasy server was definitely better. My only gripe was my husband a few times wanted something from a previous nights menu and was told he needed to stick to the current night menu. One of the times it was only the bread. I see people post about how their server would bring them off the menu things but this wasn’t the case for us. We were told “you need to stick to the menu of the night” by our server. Our head server was really good in the fantasy. He immediately noticed if we didn’t like something and insisted on bringing something else.
The night before we boarded- we flew into mco and stayed at the Hyatt regency and used DCL transportation. I would absolutely do this again. The convenience of it was amazing. We had a great PAT and I didn’t need to worry about being on at midnight to try for a good time. Our luggage was taken from the hotel and ended up in our room, which was so nice with having a 13 month old and stroller to worry about carrying, we didn’t need our luggage too.
Splash pad- Nemo’s reef was good for my son and he loved the little slide, however I do wish they would police it better for older kids. Fantasy has a second splash play area for older kids that was almost always empty. I understand if older kids want to be with siblings, but if they’re in Nemo’s reef it should be controlled play. The littlest cruisers are very limited on where they can be for water play (this is the only area) so I think older kids should be discouraged from entering especially if not playing appropriately. My son shouldn’t get run over by big kids who can go to the pool or the other splash area.
Buffet- it was good. No complaints. I would say the same as the wish. But the service in the buffet was amazing. Workers saw me with my hands full with my little one while my husband was at the buffet and offered to go get me a drink, quickly helped me get a high chair, and were so nice entertaining my son
Room- we booked a guaranteed verandah with restrictions to save money. Definitely always risky but it worked out for us! We ended up with deluxe family verandah midship on deck 6! Yes, I’d you looked down you could see lifeboats, but who cares? Still great views of the sea. I do like the rooms on the wish more but they are newer, so that’s no surprise. We did find with our little we didn’t use the verandah nearly as much as when it was two adults. So for that reason we would skip the verandah to save money next time (booked summer 2025 on the magic!)
Kids clubs- my son was nursery aged. We went to open house and he loved it then and the workers were so great and kind. However, my Mamas boy didn’t love being there without me, which is no fault to the workers. He did LOVE toddler time in Andy’s room, which we did daily.
Shows- honestly I can’t really say because my son couldn’t stay up that late so we missed them. We tried but he made it through 15 minutes of frozen before he had to go.
Island- we were supposed to go to lighthouse point, but due to rough waters we ended up going to castaway. It was a little bit of a bummer since we had been there before and wanted to see lookout cay, however I was thankful we got a stop and didn’t just get it canceled. It ended up being amazing. I forgot how much we loved castaway and had a great day. But now I definitely want to see lighthouse point!
Cruise with a young toddler- I always see people posting about waiting until your kids are older. I disagree. We go to Disney world around 5 times per year (we are DVC and AP holders). I just went to Disney world with my son 2 weeks ago. It made me miss the cruise! It is so nice having everything conveniently on the ship and always an abundance of food available. My son doesn’t stay in the stroller very long so I was stuck carrying him around the parks. Taking Disney busses to get to places is annoying. Don’t get me wrong, we will still be doing the parks, but I’m ready to cut the park trips back a bit and add cruising. Cruising is more convenient and with the little one I love the convenience. Plus, cast members and service are way better on the ship than the parks (my opinion)
Number of nights- our wish was only 3 and our fantasy was 4. Definitely loved the extra night and we won’t do any more 3 night sailings. I think the longer the better (but with our dog back home we can’t be away too long). I would have preferred another night but 4 was ok!
merry time cruise- both cruises I did were Christmas merry time. I thought both had the same amount of Christmas too them. It was nice, we didn’t book specifically for that, it just worked out that way. It was a nice start to kick off the Christmas season. I won’t plan a trip around a Christmas theme though.
I think I covered a decent amount. Let me know if you have any questions or if missed anything!
*there might be typos, I write this as my son naps on me!*
