Jan 14-21st/2017- Star Wars Eastern cruise for the non Star Wars crowd! COMPLETED!!!

[lovingeire]

Your TR has made my night! Seriously hilarious! That anchor FE signature thingy is the bomb diggity. I can't wait to read the rest of your report!

 

[bcwife76]

Your TR has made my night! Seriously hilarious! That anchor FE signature thingy is the bomb diggity. I can't wait to read the rest of your report!

Thank you!

 

[ukintheus]

Love the photos of Tortola, especially the sunset one. I think this is the tour that we were signed up for on the ill-fated cruise, it's definitely one that would work for my crowd so interesting to see where it went. We have played bingo once, it was fun but all I could think about was a bottle of Moet Ice cost the same price as one bingo game, so no contest!

 

[jenseib]

Joining in!

Too bad you didn't like Epcot so well. I agree with Cass, you probably should have gone to MK. It's so magical!

Now, this is the first time we have cruised since they introduced the whole 'let's have someone follow you around with a plate and you tell them what you want' dealio. I have to say - we didn't much care for that. I felt......awkward? Like, this isn't Downtown Abbey. I don't need a servant Because of this dh and I probably got much less than we would have

I hated this too! I really felt self conscious about it.

Why didn't they have the pirate menu that night? We did have it that night and I love the menu.
On the night we had the drawing show they had the set appetizer but I read later some others were able to tell their server the night before to get them something different. I may try it next time.

 

[bcwife76]

Joining in!

Too bad you didn't like Epcot so well. I agree with Cass, you probably should have gone to MK. It's so magical!



I hated this too! I really felt self conscious about it.

Why didn't they have the pirate menu that night? We did have it that night and I love the menu.
On the night we had the drawing show they had the set appetizer but I read later some others were able to tell their server the night before to get them something different. I may try it next time.

Hmmmm that's a good idea! Next cruise I will definitely ask my servers if it's possible to get the pursettes both times!

The more I think about it the more I regret NOT doing Magic Kingdom DH says he is done with WDW but it's not really fair since we've only been once and to one park! So I really hope down the road we can take an 'actual' trip to WDW and spend some time there.

I've been wanting to update this TR this week but my kids are in the middle of Spring break (we get two weeks here) so I haven't had much free time Plus I kind of over scheduled us this first week. This second week coming up I only have two days of plans so hopefully I can get them set up doing their own thing so I can bang out the rest of this trippie!

 

[bcwife76]

Wednesday January 18th - St Thomas!

Our excursion that day was meeting in the Walt Disney Theatre at 7:45am so we had the alarm set for 6:45am. I'm sure again I was the first one up - just wanted to see the beauty of the USVI's! We got dressed, got our beach bag together and went up to Cabana's for breakfast. It was a bit quieter (earlier I suppose?) so we found a table easily, loaded up some plates and scoffed it down lol Made it down to the theatre right at 7:45am and we were only sat down for less than 10 minutes before it was time to head out.

We chose the Catamaran Sail, Snorkel and Private Beach Club excursion through Disney (ST56). Once we got off the ship, our guide was waiting for us and a short walk down the pier led us to the Dancing Dolphin, an open air catamaran. Simply stunning!! We had three guides, two men and one woman and they were fantastic!! Helpful, friendly, outgoing. They made the journey very fun and memorable!

It was only a 20 minute journey to the private island, where we then descended into the chilly (but still swimable) water either by climbing down a ladder and making your way to the beach or just jumping off the side of the boat and swimming. We all chose to go down the ladder

Here's some views as we sailed to the beach:

Land-ho! Our beach!

Stunning water

Hard to tell but I think this might be a paddle boarder who was just falling in

Avast me hearties!

Once at the beach they gave out snorkel gear to those who wanted it (only dh took it, the girls and I don't snorkel lol) as well as handing out a ton of beach toys, etc for all the kids.

Dh went to snorkel for a while after we set up camp on our chairs but I think we were only in the chairs a total of 15 minutes or less the entire 2 hours we were on the beach. DD6 made a friend from the boat so those two littles were inseparable on the beach while DD8 and I spent most of the time in the water. It was just so lovely and serene. There was also a store there where you could rent paddle boards (we did not) and a bar (which we also did not purchase from) and a short walk from the beach were washrooms which of course DD8 and I both used

About an hour or more into our beach time another excursion came to join us - boo, there went our serenity They were also with Disney but had arrived by bus.

Neener Neener. Our catamaran was cooler

When our time was up we all (I mean everyone on our excursion, not just my family) grudgingly came back to the catamaran. No one wanted to leave! We were waved off by the other DCL'ers left on the beach, pretty sure some of them were jealous of our sweet ride!

Our crew took the 'scenic' way back about 45 minutes this time so they could serve drinks (pop, water and lovely, lovely rum punch ) and cranked up the music. The wind, the sun....oh it was heavenly!

Also, any child (if they so wished) got a turn to drive the boat!

Why do I have two pairs of sunglasses?

DD8 took this of DH and I

And of her sister

The family next to us took a family photo for us (my bum looks huge )

Scenery on the way back

Hello gorgeous

Ok THAT'S where I left my yacht.

Once we docked again our lovely guides left us with one more drink for the road (that would be cup #3 for me!) so mama was feeling no pain!

We walked over to some shops, the girls got to play life size versions of Connect 4, chess and bean bag toss. In my less-than-sober state my husband thought it would not be a good idea for me to visit Louis Vuitton. Spoil sport. He did find a store to to buy his rum though.

Back on board we went to our cabin to drop off our stuff and found our Star Wars day tickets had arrived. Out of the 5 choices we were granted jedi training for the girls and a meet and greet with Capt Phasma.

Only the times were 8:15am on deck one for Phasma and 8:45am in the Walt Disney theatre for jedi training. And you had to arrive at least 20 minutes early for jedi training. Grrr we were not impressed with the times as we had hoped to sleep in just a tad. Dang it.

I suggested to DH that he go to Capt Phasma and then just meet us at Jedi training but he said he wasn't that bothered about it and that jedi training should be a priority.

We decided on a sit down lunch at Royal Court that afternoon despite the fact that the girls and I had the Royal tea at 3pm. Big mistake. Despite there being hardly anyone in the dining room, the service was beyond SLOW.

It was painful. And dh was annoyed because he was off to see Dr Strange that started at 2pm. So he gulped down his food and then bolted while the girls and I ate slower and ordered dessert. Again - why??? We had dessert coming soon. WHAT THE HECK was I thinking? Dessert was not the best, either.

We never seem to have good luck at lunch with the sit down restaurants. On the Wonder we had lunch once at Tritons and again it was painfully slow. For future cruises we will skip sit down lunches all together.

Anyway, the girls and I went back up to the room and they both changed into princess dresses and we chilled for a bit before it was time for our royal appearance!

Next up: Royal Tea and an extravagant Palo dinner.

 

[ukintheus]

What a lovely day. We did a similar excursion on our first cruise on the Fantasy and I also enjoyed the rum punch drinks. Ha ha. It's still the talking point for @mandymouse as we continued to drink and enjoy the sunset that night. Ahhh, fun times!

The sit down lunches seem to be OK if you hit them fairly early, but we've found both later for breakfast and later for lunch they seem to get reallllllllllyyyyyy slow. Looking forward to hearing about your Royal Tea.

 

[bcwife76]

Soon it was time for the Royal Court Royal Tea.

Back to Royal Court At least the service was swifter than it had been 90 minutes previous.

We met my friend P and her daughter L (who is also 8, 12 days younger than my eldest DD). The three girls had a blast.

First you are greeted by Lady Chamomile and then each princess is announced.

Lady Chamomile and Chef Brule then go on to have a little 'show' and they also sing before the princesses are introduced. Looking through my photos, turns out I didn't get a photo of Chef Brule! He was quite funny though!

Here are the three girls, wearing the tiara's they were all given upon arrival (notice my DD8 is not looking at the camera, girls girls girls!!!)

But she was more than happy to show off her new doll

A sneaky pic of the princesses

Tasty food

A couple of days before the tea you are to call down to Guest Services and let them know which princess each girl would like on their cupcake. My DD8 chose Tiana (her fave) but before I could get a pic of DD6 and her cupcake, it disappeared into her gob!

There is a LOT of princess interaction with each child; for some reason DD6 was a grump when they first came around

Semi-smile since she still had some cupcake left

DD8 with her fave

And finally more smiles!

Despite the rather substantial price tag - $489USD - for this, I am very glad that I had it booked. The girls both had a blast, they received some awesome gifts and it was a fun time to socialize for P and I with our girls.

We were the last ones to leave the tea (chatting away!) and in the atrium we stumbled right into a Minnie Mouse meet and greet!

Here she is signing the autograph books the girls received at the tea (these books are HUGE!) Forget the anchor FE gift for now, they have more autographs in those books at the moment

When we got back to the cabin DH was back from Dr Strange and the girls animatedly told their dad all about the tea. DH had been quite skeptical about the 'worth' of this tea before we went but seeing how excited they were (and how much loot they received!) he figured it was worth it in the end.

We figured the girls would just want to chill in the room for a while after such a busy day (plus they were going to the club later since DH and I had Palo dinner) but nope, they wanted to go to the clubs NOW! We told them they could go for a bit but that we would pull them out for dinner since we knew they both needed to eat something and DD6 cannot be relied on to always eat food in the clubs

I jumped in the shower and when I got out, we were already pulling out of St. Thomas. Darn. I missed the horns! DH had taken a couple of short videos of us pulling out (since we were in the middle of two ships and he thought it was cool how they pushed out of the middle berth) so I'll post those and any other videos we might have at the end of my TR.

Bye bye St Thomas

And a bit later, how's that for a sunset?

The show that night was some sort of physical comedian. Meh. Not my bag.

We picked the girls up and got them something to eat on the top deck and watched some of The Incredibles on funnel vision

Time was marching on and we had an 8pm reservation at Palo so we dropped the girls off back to the clubs (letting the staff know we had a Palo dinner reserved) and went back to the cabin to change.

Didn't get any photos of us in our fancy duds

We got there right at 8pm but our table was not ready so we went into Meridian and had a glass of wine each. That's how they get ya

Half way through our bevvies our table was ready and we were escorted into Palo where we were warmly greeted by the lovely Carl again!

This was our first time doing Palo for dinner; I'd looked over the menu online and didn't find it to be that expansive but dh really wanted to try it this time so I relented.

I stand by my earlier statement. While the service was impeccable and the food quality was excellent, I still think (for myself) the menu could be a bit larger.

Beggars and choosers eh? First World Problems

My husband, of course, decided on the $59 wine tasting menu, Esperienza del Vino

Get a load of Mr Money bags

I didn't partake because again, I wasn't fond of many of the choices. And I swear, I'm not normally a picky eater.

I chose one appetizer and one entree but Carl suggested I get a second appetizer, that way I would only be 'without food' two of the five times my husband was served.

But first up was the Antipasti, Insalantine & Zuppa which I think we both agreed was a fantastic start to the meal. And a good in between. And a good ending. LOL

Carl kept asking throughout the meal if we were 'done' with it but nope....we were taking our time!

One of my appetizers was the tomato and mozarella salad but for the life of me I can't remember what the second one was. I had the Osso Bucco for my entree and that was perfection!

See, I'm not *that* picky!

I think my husband's favourite part of the meal was every course he had, his wine came out with a Sommelier to describe each drink. We felt very posh

And now, some photos (a whole TWO )

Hubs dessert, rhubarb marscapone

I ordered the chocolate souffle as everyone raves about it and Carl brought that along with the almond souffle because, as he said, two are better than one!

SOOOOOOOOO goooooood. I ate about half of each one.

Full full full.


Now by this time the dining room had really emptied out, there were only a handful of tables left.

The last drink that dh received, which was paired with his dessert, was a grappa.

Guys, this drink was STRONG. Like, I could get drunk just from hubby breathing on me It took him a long time to finish it!

In fact, I think some of the waiters had a bet to see if he was actually going to finish it

Every so often Carl would come by to make sure we were still doing well and he chuckled at hubs, saying it was ok if he didn't want to finish it.

Ha - my husband has a no-man-left-behind policy when it comes to finishing an alcoholic drink!

He mentioned to us some of the stories of people pouring their grappa into the roses on the table!!! Carl even picked ours up and smelt them Oh my goodness, who would do that? I mean, if you don't like it then don't finish it. Not as if you are going to offend the Sommelier, he didn't make it!

Finally DH finished it up (I had one tiny sip and nearly passed out!), we thanked Carl profusely for his amazing service for both of our Palo visits and we left. Think it was getting on for 10:30pm so we picked up the girls and all headed to bed. Before retiring we set out the door hanger for room service for 8-8:30am service (thinking they would come early again anyway) for donuts and coffee to sustain us through Jedi training before heading to cabana's afterwards for breakfast.

Next up: Star Wars day starts with a slight hiccup

 

[KarriTigger]

I love your TR's and look forward to updates! Another fellow Canadian here!

 

[ukintheus]

And a bit later, how's that for a sunset?

Beautiful photograph! Makes me wish I was on a cruise right now! It sounds like the Palo meal was good, even though the choices weren't that great for you. Good job to the hubby for persevering with the drinks! Ha ha. The princess tea has an astronomical price tag (IMO) so I am glad that you felt like it was worth it in the end. We couldn't afford our bar tab if we had to shuck out that kind of money on stuff for kids....sheeeshh....those little suckers are expensive. ;-)

 

[lizzyb]

Those souffles look amazing.

 

[lovingeire]

So I'm drinking some not stellar rum punch we bought at the liquor store before the snow storm. It's not he same when not staring in to a beautiful sunset or port! But your excursion looked great, as well as wonderful for the age group which we always take into consideration!

Ha - my husband has a no-man-left-behind policy when it comes to finishing an alcoholic drink!

I'm with your hubby...hence drinking this rum punch instead of pitching it!

 

[jenseib]

What a fun day! I was on one of those pirate ships in Oct. It was a snorkeling adventure and a lot of fun.

My sister did the tea with her youngest and they were impressed too. I did the Grand Floridian version a few years ago and from what my sister described they are very similar, only you get to see a lot more princesses.

Too funny about the drink. I would have left it...but I don't like anything strong anyways

 

[TestingH2O]

I love catching up on your updates! Spoiler alert for my TR: I'm going to have to come read more about your excursions.

 

[bcwife76]

I love catching up on your updates! Spoiler alert for my TR: I'm going to have to come read more about your excursions.

Haha, yes I read your response on Conorama's TR that you booked the Eastern itinerary while onboard this week

Well I'm certainly looking forward to reading your TR because when the rest of the 2018 dates are released I'm hoping to book a November '18 cruise on the Fantasy for the Western itinerary

 

[bcwife76]

So just a couple of 'housekeeping' notes before I move on with SWDay.

The girls did participate in midship detective during the cruise (we took our time and I think they finished after about 3 days) but we didn't take any photos of the game. They both loved it and I'm sure it will be a big hit if we go on the Fantasy again.

You'll notice we haven't ridden the Aquaduck...yet.

DH and I had one day rainforest passes that I had purchased before the cruise. At this point they had yet to be used.....

I forgot to mention one night (and I can't remember which night, but it was before dinner and the girls were in the clubs) dh and I were on our verandah; it was dark and the outside light was NOT on. We were hoping to catch some really nice views of twilight when all of a sudden we heard "click" and "whoosh". Our stateroom host was in the room during turn down service and had locked us out on the verandah and closed the curtains!!! I was at the door like a SHOT, banging on it and scared him half to death as he was entering one of the bathrooms to clean He ran over and unlocked the door, apologizing profusely. I told him it was ok, that we had purposely left the light off (wonder if he thought we were out there joining the verandah club ). Pretty sure every night after that he checked outside before locking the door!

When we returned home, people in our cruise group were talking about the person that was locked out. I assume they meant us, but they were describing it as someone had been banging very loudly and they had to 'rescue' them. Turns out it wasn't us, another man had been locked out on HIS verandah as well, just 4 doors down from our cabin. I think our room host was new and he was very nice but I think he learned a few lessons that week.....

Anyway, without further adieu....

Thursday January 19th - sea day and Star Wars day!!!

Decal on our mirror placed the night before (turns out we were allowed to take it home and did not )

Navigators!!!!

So we had decided to skip our character meet n greet at 8:15 (told you we suck lol) in favour of grabbing a quick breakfast from room service and taking the girls to Jedi Training for 8:45.

We had hung the menu on the door before we went to bed that night, requesting delivery between 8 and 8:30 (thinking they'd be there right at 8am since they had been so prompt earlier in the week). At 8:15 the food had not arrived so we opened the door and the hanger was still on our door knob

Grrrrr.....

So we gathered the camera and went upstairs to Cabana's to grab some coffees, donuts and a bowl of fruit then hightailed it down to the Walt Disney theatre. There were two lines, the first line was to check in and verify your child was on the list (they were) and the second line was to pick up their Jedi training certificate and get some more instructions.

Then at the entrance to the theatre we split up; the CM's told us (parents) to go down to the very front of the theatre in the first few rows and the children would follow another CM. DD6 looked .....confused? Perhaps a little worried Poor kid wasn't exactly sure what was going on (we had tried to explain Jedi Training but she's not much of a SW fan so it went over her head). As we walked away she gave me this look like 'wait....you're letting these strangers take away your baby girl???? and I have to put on a ROBE????and fight someone??!!!"

We got settled a few rows up from the stage and soon enough caught sight of the girls who were sitting at the back of the theatre, off to the far right (kids were split into two groups, one would end up battling Darth Vadar, the other side would battle ......ummmm.....yeah...I forgot her name Told ya....Star Wars stuff is lost on me!!! Once you see the photos I'm sure someone will figure it out!

Anyway....

Little Jedi's (DD6 is in this photo but if I told you she was the blonde in the brown outfit would you know who I meant? )

Light 'em up! (two kids are staring right at the camera in this one, one of them is mine lol)

This is who my girls ended up battling - WHO is she????

The dark lord himself

DD8 is standing to his left

Lots of kids! And this was just the first group of the day

After Jedi Training the girls came into the audience to find us. Turns out DD6 had an awesome time (despite some confusion and the fact she needed help with her light saber! lol) so we all went up to Cabana's and had a 'real' breakfast.

Back down to the cabin to change and we all hit the pool deck.

The next Star Wars related show would be at 11am.

My silly daughter decided an ice cream cone to the forehead wouldn't be the worst idea in the world....

Or maybe it would be....

At 11am the show started but Dh did not get many good photos (I mostly stayed in my lounger with a cocktail, the girls mostly stayed on the slide lol). Don't worry, the show repeated at 2pm and Dh got a lot of good shots so there is much more to come!

Around 12 or shortly after we were able to wrangle the girls up and we grabbed some lunch in Cabana's before taking them back to the cabin to change. We took them to the clubs and then Dh went off to his rum tasting in Meridian (I'm not a rum fan) and we agreed to meet up at 2pm on deck 12 where I would save us a spot so we could get a better view of the show.

I went onto the verandah and read for a bit....ahhhh....silence.....alone time......

Meanwhile, dh drank rum with 18 others lol

Around 1:40 I went up to Cove Cafe and got an iced latte then camped out on deck 12 facing the pool area, waiting for dh.

Next up:

more Star Wars day at sea fun!

Rogue One!

Star Wars dinner in Enchanted Garden!

A Galactic deck party!

 

[bcwife76]

Promptly at 2pm this appeared on Funnel Vision

And soon Storm Troopers were wandering the pool deck

Shortly after 2pm DH found me up on deck 12 and I handed the camera to him to take the rest of the photos. Surprisingly he didn't stink of rum, despite drinking about 5 different kinds And soon enough a waiter was at our side trying to sell us the Drink of the day....which we obliged

Boba Fett!

After the show we wandered around the top decks for a bit then went down to deck 4 and lazed in the sun in deck chairs. Storm Troopers were pacing the decks, sneaking up on people (as much as a Storm Trooper can sneak up on one!) and it was pretty funny

It was at this point that we discussed switching our Alaskan cruise stateroom from an oceanview to a verandah

Teehee

So soon enough we found ourselves back at the future sales desk and went for broke, changing our reservation to a verandah

Rogue One was playing that day in the Buena Vista Theatre and instead of a show in the Walt Disney Theatre it was also playing there, in 3D We went down to the clubs to see if either of the girls wanted to join us for the 3D show. DD6 had no interest but DD8 wanted to come and watch so we pulled her out and trooped off to the WDT. It was early (nearly an hour before show time) but dh was eager to get a good seat and before long the masses joined us. We got quite good seats, right in the middle and about 6 or 8 rows from the front. Somehow, of course, DD8 conned us into getting more popcorn but I had left Han Solo in carbonite up in our room...bummer. So we just bought a 'regular' bucket.

The movie ended up being better than I thought it would be and half way through I found myself needing to go to the bathroom but not wanting to leave That's how you know I'm enjoying a movie! But at one point DD leaned over and whispered that she needed to go to the washroom so we both sprinted out and did our business at quickly as humanly possible!!

Once the movie was over we went back to the clubs and collected DD6 as it was now about 7pm or so and she'd been in there since just before 1pm Definitely the longest stretch she had been in there all cruise and let me tell you, she still needed to be dragged out!

We went to the atrium and were finally able to get photos with the Star Wars day at Sea sign!

Dinner for us that night was in Enchanted Garden with the Star Wars menu.

The kids menu were printed on the back of masks

Chewie Dab

I think Enchanted Garden is my favourite restaurant on the Fantasy, I found it so beautiful

After dinner it was time for the Galactic Deck party and fireworks - but our children did NOT want to partake! Instead they insisted on going back to the clubs Whatever. It's their vacation too so sure, go ahead

The pool deck was packed! We were once again up on deck 12.

Sorry, no fireworks photos

After the fireworks they had a dance party on the pool deck which we watched (and may have participated in) for a bit, then we went to Cabana's the check out the buffet. I was still full from dinner so just grabbed a cup of coffee, dh ate a couple of small things. Went down to collect the girls after that and finally took some photos of Pepe's door (which the girls were fascinated with lol)

And that was Star Wars day!

I know.....not jam packed with character meets and dressing up but I did warn you at the beginning of this trip report

Next up: our final full day - Castaway Cay! Will we ever ride the Aqua Duck? Did I waste our money on the rain forest passes?

Stay tuned!

 

[bcwife76]

Tried to upload a video but obviously it didn't work....hang tight lol

 

[bcwife76]

Gah, still can't get the video to post! Tried a download of this meme instead

 

[ukintheus]

I am not a Star Wars fan at all and we are thinking about doing this itinerary next January - methinks we will need to try and see all the movies by then! The day looked like it was a fun one - you did quite a bit but had quite a lot of down time too, perfect combination. What did you think of the menu that night?


And.....good for you on deciding to upgrade to a verandah And why not - it's just money! HA HA!