Fantasy Surf & Turf Pre Trip Report *Update 14/1/12*

[wickesy]

Cast:
Me: David – 40
Dad: Ray – 60

Back in 2007 when we first returned to WDW I started reading about Disney cruises and really wanted to do one but 4 things put me off: it was a long flight, the cruises were short, the Caribbean didn’t really appeal to us and they were expensive. Then in 2008 I read that the Disney Magic was going to be doing cruises out of Dover to the Baltic and they were 12 nights, which immediately crossed three of those ‘problems’ off the list (unfortunately the fourth one remained). We sailed on the inaugural Baltic cruise last year (boy was that a long wait between booking and sailing!) and had such a great time that we both said we would almost prefer to do another cruise than go back to WDW. I briefly looked at the Alaska cruises on the Wonder but then decided on plan B – the Dream was almost complete and the Fantasy was about to begin being built so how about we do the maiden voyage of the Fantasy?

Fast forward to October last year and it was announced that the maiden voyage of the Fantasy would be on the 7th April 2012 and it would be doing a Western Caribbean itinerary. As I’ve said the Caribbean doesn’t really appeal to us but I really liked the idea of doing a maiden voyage so I spoke to Dad, we crunched some numbers and decided that we could afford it so I contacted Dreams Unlimited and they were able to secure our first choice of cabin – 7082, a category 5C on deck 7. After that there was nothing to do but sit back for a while and watch the ship being built thanks to the webcam at the shipbuilders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el0-kolAaD4

Then in December it was announced that the ship was going to be complete a week earlier than expected and the maiden voyage had been moved forward a week to 31st March 2012. Luckily enough that didn’t cause any problems for us so we got our reservation moved.

We’ve joined the meet up thread for the cruise and also put our names down on the fish extender list so I need to start thinking about getting gifts for that – we are up to 53 cabins on the list now so I think I might have to just do a section of the list otherwise it might end up getting expensive!!

I was looking at the different excursions recently but Dad and I have decided to make the ship ‘the destination’ this time and will probably just get off briefly at each port, have a wander around and then get back on again – Castaway Cay being the only exception probably – which should make it a nice relaxing week.

I didn’t want to get off the ship and come straight home so I saved just enough DVC points for 4 nights in a value studio at Animal Kingdom Villas and we will be there from the 7th to the 11th of April.

The next thing to do was to organise flights. The prices were coming up as an absolute fortune – partially I think because we will be away over Easter and most definitely because we will only fly Premium Economy these days. I resigned myself to the fact that we would have to fly indirect (which we also like to avoid if we can) and after a few days of searching I came up with a deal at lastminute.com that would see us flying direct with BA from Gatwick to Orlando but fly home via Chicago into Heathrow and saved us about £1,000 on any other options.

The itinerary for the ‘surf’ portion of the holiday looks like this:
Saturday 31st March 2012 – Board the Fantasy at Port Canaveral (hopefully as early as possible depending on what port arrival times are available when I do the online check-in)
Sunday 1st April – At Sea
Monday 2nd April – Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Tuesday 3rd April – Cozumel, Mexico
Wednesday 4th April – Costa Maya, Mexico
Thursday 5th April -At Sea
Friday 6th April – Castaway Cay
Saturday 7th April – Disembark (hopefully as late as possible to savour every last moment onboard I can)

The ‘turf’ portion looks like this:
Saturday 7th April – Check-in at AKV then go over to EPCOT. Evening meal will be at Sweet Tomatoes, as per tradition.
Sunday 8th April – Animal Kingdom. Evening meal at Steak ‘n Shake
Monday 9th April – Magic Kingdom. Evening meal at Tony’s Town Square. It’s not normally recommended to go to MK on a Monday but TourGuide Mike assures us that as it is the day after Easter Sunday, when most people will have been there, we will be fine.
Tuesday 10th April – DHS. Evening meal at Sanaa before going over to EPCOT to see Illuminations, as is becoming tradition.
Wednesday 11th April – A traditional round of mini golf somewhere and lunch at Earl of Sandwich before driving to the airport for the flight home.

Added to those itineraries will be an overnight stay at the Sofitel Gatwick on the 29th March, flight out on the 30th April and an overnight stay somewhere at Port Canaveral on the 30th – at the moment I’m thinking the Radisson Resort. Having looked at various options for getting from the airport to the port I’m going to go with a hire car, which is only about £22 with Budget and we will also hire a car from them for after the cruise.

So the cruise is booked, AKV is booked, ADRs are booked and the only thing left to do is book the overnight hotels and the car hire, which I’ll probably be doing next weekend to get it out of the way.

Other than that all we can do is sit and wait, and wait, and wait....

 

[Sapper383]

Sounds fab...so jealous

 

[Chilly]

very jealous

 

[jen_uk]

Sounds fab, hope the time flies by!

 

[suzycute]

I'm so jealous! Your trip sounds fantastic!

 

[PJB71]

Your plans look great David, im soooooooo envious of your cruise

 

[wickesy]

I had been waiting for today for a long time – it was the day that I could do online check-in. Disney are now allocating port arrival times for their cruises and, being just a little excited about this cruise, I wanted to snag as early an arrival time as possible so that we can be on board the ship early. I was up at 8:00, managed to log on to the Disney site easily enough and after entering our travel details managed to snag the earliest possible arrival time – 11:00 a.m. I also noticed that they have got a lot of inaugural cruise merchandise available to order from the website – just t-shirts and baseball hats at the moment. All of the speciality dining has gone though but I wasn’t planning on booking any of that as I want to experience all of the rotational restaurants anyway.

Last week I booked our overnight stay at Gatwick. Normally we stay in the Sofitel at the North Terminal and fly Virgin Atlantic from the South but this year it turned out that the Hilton at the South Terminal was cheaper, so we will be staying the night in the South Terminal and flying BA from the North – we never do things easy!

I’ve also booked an overnight stay at the Radisson Resort at Port Canaveral. I’m not sure yet what is happening with preview cruises for the Fantasy but I’m hoping there’s a chance she will be in Port Canaveral overnight so we can go down and see her.

Car hire has also been booked – a one day rental of a group A car with Budget to get us from the airport to the Radisson. It was only £26, which I thought was probably cheaper than getting a taxi or shuttle, plus it gives us the freedom to explore the area a bit if we want to. After the cruise we will pick up a group B car for our days at WDW.

The next big milestone is next Saturday (7th January) when the Fantasy is due to ‘float out’ of the ship yard where she is being built. For now though, it’s back to waiting, sorting out my fish extender gifts and counting down.

 

[stephensmum]

Sounds fab, won't be long now.

 

[mandymouse]

David, you must be so excited about this inaugural cruise I watched the float out of the Fantasy on-line yesterday and I can't wait to see the fuss for this maiden cruise like I did for the Dream. I'm hoping to sail on the Fantasy later on in the year (though nothing is booked), so I look forward to reading your trip report when you get back

Have a fab time

 

[wickesy]

David, you must be so excited about this inaugural cruise

Like you wouldn't believe Mandy. I was glued to the Meyer Werft webcam from 9:30 yesterday morning and was so glad when I found the NDR video stream. I ordered some shirts to be printed for boarding day yesterday as well so I'll be posting pics of those when they arrive.

 

[irongirlof12]

My DD found the NDr link and we watch the new addition sail out as well , bit rude of some folks to obscure my view with umbrellas looking forward to reading all about your trip.

 

[wickesy]

So I arrived home from work today and was excited to see that our boarding day shirts had arrived from the printers. I looked at the fronts:

"Great", I thought. Then I looked at the backs:

"Looks good". Then I looked a bit closer:

"That isn't right!". If you haven't seen the mistakes, here is the original artwork I uploaded

It seems that somehow a few of the 'y's have become 'p's. I have spoken to somebody at the company that printed the shirts, emailed him pictures of the shirts and he has agreed to have a look at them when he is in the office tomorrow. Luckily I have enough time for the shirts to be re-printed and having had my Baltic cruise and MNSSHP shirts printed by them before I'm sure this is a just a one off and the replacement shirts will be great.

Finally a big thank you to millipie and cruisecrasher for providing the DISigns on the shirts.

 

[wickesy]

The polo shirts have now been returned free of charge and I’m hoping to get replacements sometime this week. Also the Random Selection Process for Maiden Voyage merchandise has started and I’ve just put in our requests. Here’s a link to the catalogue:

http://www.disneynow.com/accounts/r...fantasymaiden/DisneyFantasy_RSPCatalog(1).pdf

We’ve gone for the commemorative coin (item 3), pins (11, 12, 13 and 16), bronze Minnie figure (20), framed steel piece (21) and wooden box set of commemorative coins (22). They are all fairly small editions so hopefully we’ll have some luck with at least one of them.

 

[irongirlof12]

I hope the replacement shirts arrive soon, what an odd printing mistake.it was quite clear on your design.

 

[florida sun]

Well here I am late to the party, but as you know David, I like to read a complete trip report in one or two sittings and Im really looking forward to starting yours tonight, great start, Im off to the next one