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

[bcwife76]

Were the FE Mickey heads made of wood? They are so cute!

Yes they are wooden. We were so blown away by the gifts we received during FE, some people just went ALL out!!

 

[lizzyb]

Mixology looks awesome. We have never done it but definitely will do it on our next cruise.

 

[cmph]

I wanted to chime in that I'm enjoying your trip report! Your girls are adorable! So far I have cracked up at the bastard part (especially that the disboards allows that through but ***'d over my abbreviation of assistant a while back haha) and your desire for your husband to choke on a strawberry, nodded my head at the kids getting bored in the World Showcase (which is actually one of my favorite things about WDW - except withOUT my kids), and also agree that WOC is way better than Illuminations (it's not just you, that's actually my least favorite of all the WDW and DL nighttime shows I've seen). Oh, and my whole family would definitely agree that RSR is way better than Test Track!!

I don't blame you for not allowing check-in/out privileges. I did allow DS8 on the Wonder, but that was b/c he was with his 11yo sister and they were required to stay together (by me! not the CMs).

Awesome FE is right!!

I loved that Animator's Palate knife too, which was in the store on the Wonder. I picked it up, looked at the price tag, and put it right back on the shelf. Don't be too sad you didn't see it. I did the same thing with the throw pillow like they have on the beds. Sheesh.

Looking forward to more!

 

[bcwife76]

I wanted to chime in that I'm enjoying your trip report! Your girls are adorable! So far I have cracked up at the bastard part (especially that the disboards allows that through but ***'d over my abbreviation of assistant a while back haha) and your desire for your husband to choke on a strawberry, nodded my head at the kids getting bored in the World Showcase (which is actually one of my favorite things about WDW - except withOUT my kids), and also agree that WOC is way better than Illuminations (it's not just you, that's actually my least favorite of all the WDW and DL nighttime shows I've seen). Oh, and my whole family would definitely agree that RSR is way better than Test Track!!

I don't blame you for not allowing check-in/out privileges. I did allow DS8 on the Wonder, but that was b/c he was with his 11yo sister and they were required to stay together (by me! not the CMs).

Awesome FE is right!!

I loved that Animator's Palate knife too, which was in the store on the Wonder. I picked it up, looked at the price tag, and put it right back on the shelf. Don't be too sad you didn't see it. I did the same thing with the throw pillow like they have on the beds. Sheesh.

Looking forward to more!

Thanks for following along!

At first I thought maybe we were hasty in our Epcot decisions but now I've got back up

We'll be on the Wonder again later this year, guess I won't hunt down that elusive butter knife after all!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

I'm late to the party but just got caught up! Love your report! I had to laugh right out loud when you mentioned the "double chin" in your pic because I swear every picture my husband takes of me I have like 6 chins lol! I always tell him I have "veto" power over any pic of me he might be thinking of putting on social media

 

[ukintheus]

Mixology on the Dream class ships is much more hands on than the Classics - I wish they would switch it up a bit. I arranged Mixology for our cruise too and it wasn't very hard at all. The CM made a big deal about it during our session and I was quite embarrassed as it wasn't as big a deal as they made it out to be. You've done a ton of stuff considering you have only just finished up Day 2 of the cruise!

 

[Lita]

How was the noise in your room? Was there a lot of traffic being near the kids clubs and being near the elevators? I am looking into this room in the future. Thanks!

 

[bcwife76]

How was the noise in your room? Was there a lot of traffic being near the kids clubs and being near the elevators? I am looking into this room in the future. Thanks!

We were the last room in a dead end hallway so there was barely any foot traffic. While we shared a wall with the kids club (a) the entrance was the other side of the ship (we were starboard, the entrance is port side) and (b) we heard just a tiny, tiny bit of noise from the clubs maybe twice. I would absolutely book this room again!

 

[egesicki]

Great report so far! I too make lots of little adjustments to my plans from the day the planning starts until the day of.

 

[bcwife76]

Great report so far! I too make lots of little adjustments to my plans from the day the planning starts until the day of.

Thank you!

I need to get back into updating this, been nearly a week I had some momentum going and then I lost it! The weather here lately has been miserable, writing about our lovely trip will at least bring back memories of warmer weather

 

[TestingH2O]

Thank you!

I need to get back into updating this, been nearly a week I had some momentum going and then I lost it! The weather here lately has been miserable, writing about our lovely trip will at least bring back memories of warmer weather

Yes please! I fly out in 8 days and change and I need a distraction! Dis posters aren't going a good job of making this time fly.

 

[bcwife76]

Yes please! I fly out in 8 days and change and I need a distraction! Dis posters aren't going a good job of making this time fly.

haha I promise over the next couple of days I will bang out a lot more of this trip report. Friday is the last day of school for my kids before they go on Spring break for 2 weeks I need to keep them busy (since we aren't going away lol) in order for me to write more of this during that time, too!

 

[ukintheus]

haha I promise over the next couple of days I will bang out a lot more of this trip report. Friday is the last day of school for my kids before they go on Spring break for 2 weeks I need to keep them busy (since we aren't going away lol) in order for me to write more of this during that time, too!

Life has rudely interrupted mine as well. I'm going to try and get back into it too.

 

[bcwife76]

Monday January 16th - sea day #2

Today DH and I had Palo brunch booked for 10am. YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY!

We ordered the girls room service for breakfast; we put the door hanger out the night before with a request to arrive between 8:30 and 9am. I set the alarm for 8:30 and of course, he showed up at 8:25! So I jumped out of bed lol, must've looked a right state!
Had also ordered coffee for husband and I and had planned to enjoy it on the balcony but the sea spray had covered all the chairs in a sea water film so I didn't feel much like sitting out there at the moment. Funny how I guess it just dries off as later on we definitely sat out there and it was fine.

Anyway, we got all glammed up, dropped the girls off at the club and went up to Palo.

Our server was Carl from South Africa and he was so lovely. Very friendly, personable, professional. Loved him. It was his second week back to work after having been off for the holidays to spend it back in South Africa with his wife and daughter. You could tell he missed them terribly, as he asked about our children and when he talked about his daughter his eyes just lit up, but you could tell there was a sadness there. It's easy for us to forget that everyone who works on one of these amazing ships has a family, loved ones, friends - that are left behind for weeks or months on end.

Sorry, didn't mean to get sad there!

We both ordered mimosas and DH took his obligatory "my wife dressed up, better get a shot of her boobs" photo

Actually I think that was after we ate as I see some crumbs on the table

Dh ordered the artichoke ravioli and I had pennette pasta, although I had intended to order the chicken parm. Not quite sure what happened there

Soon it was time to go up to the buffet. 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. Note to self: for next cruise, go up 2 or 3 times if you want. They don't care. You are paying for it after all!!!

The lady helping me actually gave me two plates as she didn't want my hot food touching my cold food I quite liked that. DH's plate was just heaped on

For dessert we ended up sharing a plate (!!!!) so again as to not look like big piggies. Again, dude I'm getting my own plate next time!

Just as we were finishing dessert Carl came out with two more plates.

And wished us happy birthday and happy anniversary.

Ok....WHAT was going ON?!!

So then of course Carl is asking us how long we've been married etc. We answered 13 years because *technically* we will be celebrating our 13th later this year.

Anyway he wished us well and we sat there and then it DAWNED on me.

This cruise was originally booked as an Alaskan cruise for August 2016 before we cancelled it, changed it to the Bahama's on the Wonder and then ultimately changed THAT cruise to this Fantasy Star Wars cruise.

On the original Alaska booking I had put in a special requests section that we were sailing over our anniversary (which we would have been in August 2016, as the cruise went from the 15th to the 22nd and our anniversary is the 21st). As well, both DH and I turned 40 in 2016 so we had booked Alaska as a birthday present to ourselves but ultimately we did something else. So obviously these requests carried over to the new cruise bookings!!

I felt quite cheeky now, as we clearly were not celebrating anything but I couldn't tell them that!

Oh and if you're quite observant you'll now know what our names are

Another photo of the plates, artsy if you will

After brunch we took a wander around a little bit before collecting the girls from the clubs. We had a princess meet and greet to get to!

Only DD6 AGAIN did not want to go. Fine. Whatever kid.

So I took DD8 and off we went to the Atrium. And as we were standing in the first line we realized we had forgotten the anchor for the princesses to sign oh my DD was NOT happy with me. She wanted me to get out of line but since it's a ticketed event I explained I had already handed in our tickets and I wasn't sure they would be happy to give them back to me to get out of line. So she suggested I call DH as he was back at the room with DD6 and they had the other two tickets. But my cell was locked away in the safe and I hadn't brought the wave phone with me.

Mommy fail! I promised her that we would bring the anchor with us to Alaska so that it would get filled up with more signatures.

Anyway, princess time!

I though this was cute, DD trying to mimic Belle

Darn, you'd think with a digital camera I would notice her eyes were closed

Back to the room where DD changed and we went up to the pool deck in search of some food for the girls and a round of mini golf!

Snapped these on the way to the elevators

It was rather breezy up top

Isn't this just a slice of heaven?

Panoramic shot dh took which of course makes me look like a hippo

The rest of the afternoon was spent by the pool. Lovely

The show that night was Wishes which no one really wanted to see (except me!) so anyways, I think we put the girls back in the clubs for a bit and then went up to Cove Cafe.

Dinner that night was in Royal Court for French Cuisine.

We missed the club CM's coming around to get the kids for the late seating so after we finished we took the girls up to the clubs and checked out Europa and settled on La Piazza for a cocktail each. I had a prosecco of some kind, very lovely. Can't remember what DH ordered but I remember it being very strong!!! So it even took him a while to drink it haha

We picked the girls up about 10:30/10:45 as we had a busy day ahead of us. Tortola!! And our excursion was meeting at 8:15am. Next entry will be very photo heavy!!

 

[ukintheus]

Lovely picture of you at Palo. We've done brunch on the Fantasy where they did the whole plate thingy...it's is weird, but our guy put a ton of food on my plate, it was more than I would have served myself so it wasn't an issue. I get how weird it feels though. Looking forward to Tortola seeing as that's the port we had to medivac from with my Mum. LOL I hope you got to see more of it than we did!

 

[bcwife76]

Tuesday January 17th - welcome to Tortola!!

Since our excursion had a meet time of 8:15am we set the alarm for 7am. I could feel some movement so I got up and looked outside the curtains, looks like we had just finished docking. I tore the curtains open in the hopes of waking up the rest of my sleepy crew! But they continued to snore. So I hopped in the shower for a quick spritz. When I came out, dressed in a towel only, DH was awake and playing on his phone and MSC had pulled up RIGHT beside us!

Not only did our beautiful view vanish but if I went close to the window someone was gonna have a show So I closed those curtains quickly!

Got everyone else up, got our day bag together with all the essentials and eventhough I had made a list of things to take I forgot to throw in the seabands. Dang it.

Up to Cabana's about 7:45 and grabbed some chow.

Then it was down to D Lounge to meet our group for the excursion. Our excursions were all booked through Disney. For Tortola, we had booked TT03, Tortola by Land and Sea. Technically though it went the other way around Our guide led us off the ship and we snapped some photos along the way to the dock.

We boarded our boat, a catamaran of sorts, and you could choose to sit inside or outside. Most of the outside seats were already claimed so we found 4 inside together. This probably proved to be a good thing as further into our journey people got WET WET WET!

Pulling out, the seas were calm enough.

But then it got a little rougher

And soon enough some little people were not feeling well. Usually DD8 does quite well with motion and DD6 has a history of getting sick (horrible boat ride we had in Cabo in 2012, oy). A couple other kids on board did not look too well either. And of course, I had forgotten those dang seabands! One of the crew members came by and started rolling up the plastic windows so people could get a dose of fresh air if they didn't want to go sit up front outside. They also passed out water and this all seemed to help tremendously.

When we got closer to the smaller islands they cut the engines and we just drifted for a bit, floating by the gorgeous scenery on the gorgeous water.

The crew were narrating about the various islands, talking about the history of the area. But to be honest I was just lost in the beauty of it all.

And of course they started handing out more water, fruit punch and rum punch

Oh THAT'S where I left my yacht!

Postcard worthy?

DD6 enjoying the breeze

Quite the popular spot to drop anchor

Hello fishy!

We were now on the other side of the island and about to dock in Pussers Landing (unfortunate name if you ask me!)

Once we disembarked we were given 30 minutes to shop/grab a bite/take a loo break before having to meet for our bus tour.

DH was in search of rum so the first store we went into was a grocery store. The prices and selection were ok but I told him he should wait, that we'd find something better. Then DD8 started complaining that her sandals were pinching her (this had been a complaint for the past couple of days) so we went into a couple other stores and she found a pair of flip flops (not Old Navy quality, much better) so she was happy. We weren't really hungry but two of us had to pee so DD8 and I found the facilities and soon it was time to board our open air bus for part 2!

 

[bcwife76]

Tortola part 2.

It was now time to board our open air bus (calling it a bus is a bit much, let's call it an open air van that probably sat about 15 people max). Our tour group consisted of 4 buses I believe.

The streets were quite narrow and winding. We went up up up and enjoyed some spectacular views as our driver spoke about the history of the island and the people that call it home.

Hello my Fantasy!!

Soon we came across the Fahie Hill Murals.

Taken from the Frommers website: "A series of colorful murals done by different local artists follows the narrow, sinuous curves of mountainous Ridge Road. Each mural is a vignette of an old way of island life, from “banking” (terracing) crops on the island’s steep hills to cutting sugarcane to telling ghost stories by lantern light. "

About half way through the bus tour, near one of the highest points, we pulled over for a 15 minute pit stop which consisted of a bathroom an open air bar with spectacular views!! DH and I shared a Red Stripe and the girls had a water. DD8 used the facilities again (poor kid has mommy's bladder!) and then back on our safari bus to finish the tour.

Coming down the other side we got another shot of this beauty

I could stare at this water all day

Back down and closer to the port. Why did the chicken (rooster?) cross the road? To get to the Disney Fantasy of course!

Posers!

Instead of poking around the shops we decided to get back on the ship and have lunch at Cabana's before enjoying some more pool time.

MSC seemed to leave quite early (considering they arrived after us as well)

View from our verandah looking back at the dock

Poser husband

After lunch and plenty of pool time we put the girls into the clubs and went for another wander around the ship. We also went to the future sales desk as we wanted to 'reshop' our Alaskan cruise. Unfortunately the room category we had booked (oceanview, 9C I believe) was sold out. So the CM suggested we book a placeholder and when we got home, call DCL, have them cancel the original booking, releasing our room and then rebook the same room right away so that we could get our room back with all the discounts. Sounded like a bit of a hassle but worth it to get the discounts.

Then we pulled the girls from the clubs as we were all going to play BINGO!! When we played on the Wonder it was held in one of the night clubs but on the Fantasy it was held in the Buena Vista Theatre. I didn't like this as much, no tables to put our drinks and cards down onto! So basically we didn't have refreshments, not a huge deal.
It was quite busy and we came in near the starting time (it started at 4pm and we got there about 3:50). We bought the family package ($80!!!) which included two machines and two sets of papers. Some of us had issues with our machines starting properly so by the time bingo started it was well after 4pm so it felt quite rushed.

In the meantime, however, they drew random names for some prizes and darn it if my husbands' name didn't flash!! He was a DCL bag filled with goodies - a rain jacket, leather bound journal, water bottle, and a flashlight. Pretty sure it was probably worth about $80!

Dh sat next to DD6 and helped her with the game. DD8 was a beast, she was faster than I was!!! lol Sadly we didn't win any money. When it came time for the black out game we got within 3 spaces on a couple of the cards. The couple next to me ended up winning the pot (it went over the alloted number so they split a pot worth about $800 I think with another man seated across the theatre).

Anyway, we might not have won big but at least we won something!

We skipped the show that night (or performer I think) and went back to the room to chill, watch a movie and hang out. Got a nice sunset view as we were pulling out of Tortola.

It was pirate night (which isn't really a big deal to us) but not a pirate menu for dinner. We put on our bandana's along with ones we had brought from our previous cruise and a couple DH already owned and went down to Animators for the SHOW!

And no, we have no photos of our drawings

Or our characters dancing on the walls. We were just so fascinated by the whole show I guess

I was disappointed that truffle pursettes were NOT on the menu that night. I figured they offered them at every Animators dinner? Then I heard conflicting reports when I got home that perhaps I could have ordered them anyway? Can someone verify if this is true nor not?

After dessert and the show we let our servers know that we would not be at dinner the following evening as DH and I had a Palo reservation. They suggested we drop the girls off for dinner so that they could have a 'nicer dinner than one offered in the clubs' and that they would be fine. Honestly I was not comfortable with this. DD8 didn't even have check out priviledges in the kids club and our room was only around the corner from it. So I certainly was not comfortable with our kids having dinner alone in a restaurant two floors down from our room! I know they meant well but it just was not going to happen!

We ended up skipping pirate night festivities and fireworks (yes, we had two nights of fireworks! Pirate night and SW night!!) because DH and DD6 were exhausted. DD8 and I were a little bummed and yes, we could have just gone up top deck the two of us. But we had an even earlier start the next day (7:45am) and we'd had a busy day so we listened to the fireworks going off and took a sneaky peek on our balcony (which you are not supposed to do and I only stayed out there about 8 seconds!!) before retiring for the night.

Next up: St Thomas day! Royal Court Tea!! Palo dinner!!!

 

[Timon]

Smug bastard. I secretly hoped he'd choke on a strawberry.

BAHAHAHAHA!!!

I would suggest a bit of a change. Ie. SEATS. Chairs would be nice lol After 12 hours in the park it would have been nice to be able to sit. Plus I don't like standing when I eat.

No seats? Really! I only did it once back in 2011 and there were tables with chairs thankfully! That would suck, sorry

Fireworks in the headboards

Love that headboard!

Nice looooong line waiting for the shuttle back to the port. And the shuttles were small. So we waited for 3 shuttles before we got on. Think it was around 12:30/12:45 when we arrived at the port. Oh well. Nice and empty!

This is why I always get hubby to drop us off at the port with our luggage and then take the car back himself and then he usually finds another dad to split a cab with back to port

Also, after the cruise, we always just grab a taxi to the rental place, I loathe waiting for that shuttle

We met our lovely serving team for the first time Ashang was our server - his catch phrase to the girls before saying hello or serving their plates was "Hola Minnie!!!" He was exhuberant and fun and the girls loved him! I thought he was a riot

A great set of servers can make or break your cruise, glad you got a good one

Isn't that anchor cool?!! We received it that morning as an FE gift!!! Including the Sharpie (which I can't find at the moment)

Wow! That's huge! How did they fit in in your FE???

We both ordered mimosas and DH took his obligatory "my wife dressed up, better get a shot of her boobs" photo

BAHAHAHAHA! Yup, my husband does the same thing

It was quite busy and we came in near the starting time (it started at 4pm and we got there about 3:50). We bought the family package ($80!!!)

That seems like a great deal! I paid $72 for the small package on the Wonder and it was $120 for the family package

In the meantime, however, they drew random names for some prizes and darn it if my husbands' name didn't flash!! He was a DCL bag filled with goodies - a rain jacket, leather bound journal, water bottle, and a flashlight. Pretty sure it was probably worth about $80!

NICE! At least you got something

The Star Wars shirt I wanted is in the back right hand side of your pic above. I hunted for it everywhere in WDW in February 2016 but they didn't have bigger sizes above XL and the XL didn't look very big

 

[TestingH2O]

Soon we came across the Fahie Hill Murals

Those murals are spectacular!

Great updates. I'm getting so excited!

 

[lizzyb]

Great shots of Tortola!