Honeymooning on the Fantasy SWDAS *COMPLETED 3/7*

[cadien]

Up next, we skipped pirate night to go to Palo...​

I'm having my first Palo dinner next week so I'm looking forward to this part!

 

[DLo]

Hopping over from your other TR. looking forward to reading more

 

[pezgirlroy]

I loved Ashley.

 

[FSU Girl]

I'm having my first Palo dinner next week so I'm looking forward to this part!

You're going to love it! It is really good.

Hopping over from your other TR. looking forward to reading more

Hi

I loved Ashley.

He was really great I liked all of them.

 

[FSU Girl]

January 7th - Palo Dinner



Before dinner I was out on the balcony relaxing and watching us sail away. I thought the Bridge floor looked like two trapped doors so I had to take a picture.



As we were leaving the ship was turning a lot so we saw different parts of Cozumel that weren't visible before.

Palo is located on deck 12 in the back of the ship, our room was located on deck 12 in the front of the ship, should be an easy walk there, right? Nope. There is no straight path across deck 12, we would either have to walk outside and then go down a floor to then go inside to go back up a floor, or go to deck 10 and walk inside across the ship and then go up two flights at the aft stairs. We chose the later since it was really wet on deck and we were dressed up for dinner. Walking the entire length of a ship inside one of those tiny corridors is a little bit out of the Shining, it just goes on and on.



I wanted to wash my hands before dinner so I popped into the bathroom that is located near the elevators between Palo and Remy. I think everyone should visit this bathroom at least once, even if they aren't going to these restaurants. It's just a gorgeous bathroom and should be seen.



After we checked in at the front podium they told us to wait in Meridian and someone would come get us.





We had stopped at the Concierge Lounge for some free drinks before heading over. I was drinking a Seabreeze and DH was having his usual Jack and Coke.



The sun was starting to set. Our reservation was for 6pm, the earliest that they have. I was hoping we would be finished in time to go to the pirate show that night, but when we got on board I found out they moved the fireworks from 10:30pm to 7:30pm, so I figured we were going to miss the show.



We had an awesome waiter, his name is escaping my mind at the moment (I am absolutely horrible with remembering names). He was our waiter again later in the cruise when we came here for brunch.



Our lovely view.



A bread bowl was brought out. I tried to not have any so I didn't get full too quickly, but these were really delicious and hard to resist.

Continued next post..

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[FSU Girl]

January 7th - Palo Dinner Continued



Our waiter was preparing our tableside antipasta plate.



The finished product. There are artichoke hearts, prosciutto, an assortment of olives, peppers, aged Parmesan cheese, aged beef (I forget what this was called exactly, maybe cured beef? it was good) and a balsamic drizzle all over it that was beyond delicious.



So up first I had the fried calamari, but when I went back to look at the picture I took, it was a streak of colors, I must have moved the phone too much or something. It looked like your standard calamari and was really good.



I did get a picture of the dipping sauces. The lighter colored one is a lemon aoli and the red one was more of a cocktail sauce. I liked the aoli one best.



DH got the gnocci for his appetizer. I tried a bite, it was very good.



We each had two main courses. I had the mushroom risotto. This was very good, but I think the one I make is better. I make a pretty amazing mushroom risotto so it's hard for anyone else's to live up to mine. I shared some of this with DH, but I wanted to keep most for myself.



DH got the lobster pasta. The pasta is hand made and the sauce was very good, but it's not my favorite dish and I could definitely skip it next time and not feel like I was missing out.



They provided a palate cleanser before our main dishes, which I thought was a little odd. I thought this would make more sense after the main course before dessert?

Whenever I eat a palate cleanser I think of the movie Princess Diaries when Mia doesn't realize it's frozen and takes a huge spoonful into her mouth at the fancy dinner.



I was still trying to avoid eating too much red meat so I ordered the sea scallops. These were cooked to perfection and beyond delicious. I highly recommend these. The little baby vegetables were a little odd, they didn't seem cooked or anything and were really hard, but they were cute looking on the plate.



Action shot adding the sauce!

Continued next post...



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[FSU Girl]

January 7th - Palo Dinner Continued



DH got the steak and I hate a bite, it was really, really good!



It comes with two different sauces that they will ask ahead of time if you want both, one or neither. DH decided to try both.



Action shots for both sauces! This picture is a little dark, the second sauce was a red color, I believe it was a red wine reduction and the white sauce was a Gorgonzola sauce, but I don't really remember and I forgot to take a picture of the menu here.



For dessert we both ordered souffles. I went with the newly added item, the amaretto souffle. This was so good, I'm drooling just thinking about it. It was cooked to perfection and had such a good taste. It comes with a little sauce and a ball of gelato ice cream.



DH got the chocolate souffle and said his was just as delicious as mine.



This cute plate was made since we were celebrating our honeymoon. So sweet!



At the end of our meal our waiter brought out little lemoncello shots and said he made them specially for us. I've been here before so I'm pretty sure everyone gets these at the end of the meal, but it was still very sweet and it tasted delicious.

While we were enjoying our shots I heard fireworks booming and realized we were able to see them through the window of the restaurant. I was really excited, I absolutely love watching fireworks and was a little disappointed we wouldn't be able to make it to the show in time. This was a perfect way to watch them in such a romantic setting.





It was a great way to end our amazing meal at Palo. I love the dinner here. I think the food is far superior to the food served in the MDR and will still continue to book this meal. Luckily this time we booked before the price increase so it only cost us $30 a person, but now it's $40 a person, not too terribly high of an increase. Unlike Remy, that went from $95 a person to I think $125 a person. I liked that restaurant, but in my opinion Victoria and Albert's is far superior to it and now that it's so expensive we will never go back.



We came back to a little pirate monkey.

Up next Grand Cayman (we didn't get off the boat)...​

 

[NAB]

I believe your waiter is Boris , we had him as well.

 

[lklgoodman]

Don't be too disappointed that you missed the pirate show. They changed it and it's not as good as the old one. Glad you could see the fireworks though. I hate when you can't just walk straight to some place. We stayed on deck 5 aft once on the Fantasy. We walked a lot from our cabin to the kids club in midship. There's a couple of turns along the way. Last cruise we were doing the MDA game and had to walk forward to midship (I think it was deck 5, but not 100% sure). It was like walking in a maze. I didn't know it was possible to have so many twists and turns. It was really unbelievable. I would have hated having a cabin there, I would have been lost the whole cruise.

 

[WildGinger]

Following! Palo is so good. I can't wait to go back in April!

 

[lilsonicfan]

Great pics so far!
MSC does do multi-port embarkation on their cruises, in both the Caribbean (well, not their Miami based cruises) and in Europe. It's interesting for sure.

 

[buzzrelly]

Our waiter was preparing our tableside antipasta plate.

The finished product. There are artichoke hearts, prosciutto, an assortment of olives, peppers, aged Parmesan cheese, aged beef (I forget what this was called exactly, maybe cured beef? it was good) and a balsamic drizzle all over it that was beyond delicious.

That looks amazing

Adorable!

This was a perfect way to watch them in such a romantic setting.

So romantic

Palo dinner looks amazing! I have a reservation for both brunch and dinner here in April and I was thinking about cancelling the dinner but now you have me rethinking this It's just my mom and I so no romance happening…would you keep both reservations?

 

[TestingH2O]

Catching up on your report. Congratulations! I'm so glad you are enjoying your trip so far.

Walking the entire length of a ship inside one of those tiny corridors is a little bit out of the Shining, it just goes on and on.

This is what we did on our first trip. I thought we'd never stop walking. It made me not want to sail in a non-concierge room. Of course I now realize that you really never have to walk the whole length of the ship through those hallways.

 

[mep57]

i believe those "trap doors" are glass /windows so they can see straight down from the bride wings

 

[FSU Girl]

I believe your waiter is Boris , we had him as well.

I'm not sure, I think his name started with a D though. I would have remembered Boris it would have reminded me of Boris and Natasha lol.

Don't be too disappointed that you missed the pirate show. They changed it and it's not as good as the old one. Glad you could see the fireworks though. I hate when you can't just walk straight to some place. We stayed on deck 5 aft once on the Fantasy. We walked a lot from our cabin to the kids club in midship. There's a couple of turns along the way. Last cruise we were doing the MDA game and had to walk forward to midship (I think it was deck 5, but not 100% sure). It was like walking in a maze. I didn't know it was possible to have so many twists and turns. It was really unbelievable. I would have hated having a cabin there, I would have been lost the whole cruise.

I hate when they change things and make them worse than the original. It was nice being able to watch the fireworks from Palo, it made them more romantic since we couldn't hear the pirate music or anything. There are definitely some decks that had confusing floor plans. It was confusing when you'd be walking somewhere and the hallway would just end and you'd have to find an alternative route.

Following! Palo is so good. I can't wait to go back in April!

It is! Enjoy you're cruise it's coming up quick

Great pics so far!
MSC does do multi-port embarkation on their cruises, in both the Caribbean (well, not their Miami based cruises) and in Europe. It's interesting for sure.

I know a lot of cruise lines do that in Europe, it never occurred to me it would happen in the Caribbean too. Was definitely interesting to watch.

That looks amazing

It's really good and if you want another plate they'll make one for you. We had so much other food coming we didn't do that, but there were some things I wouldn't have minded more of.

Palo dinner looks amazing! I have a reservation for both brunch and dinner here in April and I was thinking about cancelling the dinner but now you have me rethinking this It's just my mom and I so no romance happening…would you keep both reservations?

We did both brunch and dinner on this cruise. As long as they aren't on the same day I say keep both. It is a lot of food though! We preferred dinner over brunch, but both are really good. There was a mother/daughter table behind us, you definitely don't have to be on a romantic date to eat there.

Catching up on your report. Congratulations! I'm so glad you are enjoying your trip so far.

Thank you!!

This is what we did on our first trip. I thought we'd never stop walking. It made me not want to sail in a non-concierge room. Of course I now realize that you really never have to walk the whole length of the ship through those hallways.

Ya those hallways can make it seem like forever, it's just the easiest way to get to Palo/Remy from Concierge without going outside. If we went by the pools it wouldn't have felt so bad.

i believe those "trap doors" are glass /windows so they can see straight down from the bride wings

I figured they were windows to look down, I just thought they looked a little bit like trapped doors lol.

 

[FSU Girl]

January 8th - Grand Cayman

Our next port of call was Grand Cayman. Originally, I had booked the Sting Ray City excursion for this port, but I got a little nervous about going. Pictures of the place look cool, but they are wild sting rays with their barbs, which is what killed Steve Irwin. I know thousands of people go all the time, but it just takes one angry Sting Ray to get stepped on or something. So I cancelled the excursion and booked the one on Castaway Cay instead where they've clipped their barbs.

Today was a late port arrival day so when I got up we weren't at the island yet. We decided to try something different for breakfast and go to the dining room.



Concierge had mentioned if we wanted to order room service breakfast we could order off of this menu. We never did, but it was a nice option to have.

I was hoping for some stellar food you wouldn't find at the buffet, but I found the food to pretty much taste the same.

They brought around a pastry basket asking if we wanted to have anything. I took a croissant.





DH had a blueberry muffin.

The breakfast was being served in the Royal Court, where the sit down lunches were also served. We were seated under one of those pretty pillars, this MDR is my favorite decoration-wise.





Our waiter brought over mimosas and said they were complimentary. His accent was super thick and I could barely understand a word he was saying to us and didn't really understand why we were getting these drinks, we weren't wearing our wedding ears or anything this morning. Turns out, the table next to us were people in our FB cruise group and recognized us as being the couple on our honeymoon so they bought us the drinks. I thought that was the sweetest thing ever! The guy had mentioned it to us as we were leaving, I'm glad he did because the waiter did not communicate it well at all and I would never have known.



I thought I'd try a yogurt parfait, but didn't really care for it at all, which is disappointing I usually love them.



DH started with oatmeal. I hate oatmeal, but he enjoyed this.



I wanted to eat something DH didn't normally get me from the buffet, so I went with French Toast. I got a side of hash browns, scrambled eggs and bacon. I was disappointed that the hash browns were the exact same ones from the buffet, I was hoping for something a little more upscale. Everything else tasted delicious.



DH had pancakes and hash browns and enjoyed his breakfast.

We went back up to our room to see if we were any closer to getting to the port.



Off in the distance was Grand Cayman and three other ships that were currently tendered. Grand Cayman is one of the rare ports where Disney doesn't dock and they instead use a tender boat to get people to the island. It's the main reason we never got off the boat here, we were told there wasn't much right in port and you'd have to take a taxi to get anywhere and you'd have to take the tender boat to get out there. So we opted for a relaxing day on board.


Continued next post...

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[buzzrelly]

Your breakfast looks good, but I really, really love Cabanas breakfast. I like having so many options and sitting up on deck while enjoying my breakfast.

I went on a Western Caribbean cruise on Carnival in 1996 and we did the Stingray Adventure there then. That was way before poor Steve Irwin was killed by one. I don't think I'd do it again now, but it was pretty cool. And the Grand Cayman water was amazingly clear.

 

[FSU Girl]

January 8th - Grand Cayman



We were a little closer now and could make out that two of the ships were Carnival and one was Disney. The Disney ship was the Magic. I was hoping to hear some horn battles, but we were a bit away from her when we anchored. I'm not sure if a horn battle ever did happen, I never heard any, if anyone else who was there did please let me know For those that don't know what a horn battle is, it's when two Disney ships are in the same port and start playing the Disney songs through their horn back at each other. When I was on the Dream we were in Nassau at the same time as the Wonder and they did this, it went on for like 15 minutes and was awesome to listen to.



We had arrived. I don't have many pictures from the day. We went to the adult pool and swam for a while, the water was a little colder than I would have preferred. We rode the Aquaduck twice, there wasn't much of a line like there had been the day before. I love this ride, it is so much fun. It was freezing standing in line wet though. We spent some time at Satellite Falls, the adult only area on deck 13 in the front of the ship. The little rain falling water wasn't on though, which was a little disappointing. We also went in the hot tub in the Concierge sun deck area and spent some time there. After a few hours of this we went back to the room to relax. I decided to try out room service for the first time.



I grabbed some lobster rolls from the concierge lounge on our way to the room. These were delicious.



When we called room service they had said it would take a half hour to bring us the food. It was there in less than 10 minutes, so I don't know if they exaggerate the wait times or we skipped the line since we were concierge, but the food got there super fast.



These teeny tiny salt and pepper shakers were the cutest!



I got the steak panini. It was really good!



This may or may not have also been mine. I ate a ridiculous amount of food on this cruise, I'm on a diet now lol. This pizza was good, but I liked the pizza by the pool more.



DH had a cup of chicken noodle soup and then took a nap. I watched a bunch of movies on demand.

I missed us sailing away since we were hanging out on the bed and next thing I realized it was time for dinner. We were back in the Royal Court this night.





Tonight I believe was Semi-formal night and was lobster night in the dining room. I'm not sure about the dress code since we didn't dress up again for the rest of the cruise. I love lobster, but I'm not a fan of lobster tail night. They never seem to be able to cook a good piece of lobster tail for the MDR. The last time I had some on the Magic the lobster was disgusting, so I was a little scared to try it again this time.


Continued next post...
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[FSU Girl]

January 8th - Grand Cayman



These shrimp were really good. Both DH and I got them.



I tried the braised oxtail soup, was not a fan.



DH onion soup was good he said.

So our waitress was really excited tonight and I wasn't sure why. But once I finished the appetizers a plate was put down in front of me with one of those metal covers on top. I was a little confused and she told me to open it.





Ta-da! My favorite food on the Disney cruise was before me. She was so excited, had planned it all out to have this dish made for me. I was really impressed. Not only was this dish from a different restaurant, it was served a few nights ago. It was as delicious as it was before.



DH Parmesan crusted chicken.



The lobster tail, my original main course. It was just...okay. Not terrible, but not great.



DH also got the venison medallions. He liked these, I didn't try any. I can't eat poor Bambi.



Dessert time.



I think this looks like the Titanic lol.

Continued next post...​

 

[FSU Girl]

January 8th - Grand Cayman



I wasn't feeling anything on the menu and went with a Mickey bar for dessert. These aren't officially on the menu, they might be on the children's menu? But you can order them whenever you want for dessert. They are awesome.



DH's dessert.



They did a little magic trick with us after dinner. How do you create a square by only moving one crayon. Anyone know how to do it?

This was the best meal ever. I've never been surprised before with my favorite meal and it'll be hard to ever top this. We gave her a special shout out on the comment cards for doing this.



Little froggy towel animal.



Tonight was the Aladdin show, I was really excited for this. We decided to try and get a balcony seat. The side we were on filled up before I could get there, but I noticed the other side had two seats in the front row. DH stood in the front in the middle to hold a seat there while I walked all the way over to the balcony box to see if those two seats were actually available. They were! Hurray. So I called DH over to come sit with me. He said he was going to go to the bathroom and left for a couple minutes.

The family sitting next to me were really friendly and I was talking to them. Then Cruise Director Lee came by to say hello. I guess there is a door into the balcony box to the right of us where show performers go and he was headed that way. He was talking to the family and then noticed me and came by to say hi. I mentioned how I was on my honeymoon. He thought it was funny DH wasn't there and I promised he was real! He did show up a moment later. He asked how the cruise was going and I mentioned we barely got off the ship. I think he assumed something was happening besides a relaxing honeymoon! He asked what room number we were in and then off he went.



I know you aren't supposed to take pictures during the show, I just wanted to get a quick one of the cast while they were taking their bows after the show. I loved the show, thought it was really well done! I found out that they actually have a broadway performer in their acts who played Jafar.

So most nights we've called it an early evening and not gone out. I was determined to stay up late tonight because they were doing Match your Mate, it's like the newly wed game. I wanted to participate.



This is a sign outside of the concierge lounge.



We were walking to the Tube where the game shows were going to be held and bumped into Captain Hook and Mr. Smee! They stopped to take a picture with us was really nice of them.





So I was super disappointed by this show. Every other time I've gone they ask if there are any newly weds on the ship. The lady hosting definitely saw us with our wedding ears on. Well not this time. She asked if there were any couples who had been together for 5 years or less. Practically the whole room fell into the category. The couple they picked had been together 3 years and all the answers seemed to be about a different relationship they were in. It was weird and I was a little bitter the one time I'm actually a honeymooner I had no shot at getting to play.

Up next Jamaica...

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