January 19, 2013 - FANTASY 7 Night Western Cruise

[Jeisur]

It's a weeeee bit breezy here in cocoa. Too cold for the beach but a great morning at animal kingdom. Less than a day!! Yeah!!!

 

[SleepyDeb]

At the airport ready to leave for MCO. Wheeeeeeeee.

 

[peabean30]

Finally settled in our hotel at the port...carry on bags officially packed. So very excited for tomorrow

 

[Jeisur]

Kids woke up at 6:30.... I woke to screams of "Mickey ship!!!" Nice view of the ship through the foggy morning. All aboard!!!

 

[Jeisur]

Hope everyone had a magical cruise. A few small wrinkles but everything worked out fantastic for our group! It was nice meeting several of you around the ship. The kids loved the trinkets and surprises!

We are home, unpacked and the laundry is going. Tomorrow we have emmersons birthday party so I better get moving in that!

Vacation is apparently over for us!

 

[hosburg]

Did anyone find out what the medical emergency was? And anyone else book another cruise?

 

[SleepyDeb]

Yes, and yes.

According to a relative that posted, a man had a heart attack and was in rough shape and needed surgery. As of the last post I saw, he was doing ok.

We booked a placeholder cruise and plan to take an Alaskan cruise in 2015. This was our first DCL cruise and we are hooked.

 

[hosburg]

Oh wow! Hope he is doing okay! We booked a may 2014 western Caribbean cruise

 

[Jeisur]

Did anyone find out what the medical emergency was? And anyone else book another cruise?

yes indeed it was someone that had a heart attack. We found out last night he is doing well, had surgery and was in recovery at a hospital in the US someplace.

Disney had a rough few weeks. The cruise that came in the day we left caused our initial delay. Disney made up the lost time and most people didnt even realize what happened. A guest passed away on castaway cay shortly after he came up from snorkeling. Poor family. the man was 54 and had just given a speech for his sons graduation. they had 40 people onboard all in concierge. The concierge staff was still shaken and then the next guy with the heart attack.

We didnt mind the delay or the port change. We had all been to costa maya before and it wasnt a big loss. we loved our other excursions and were amply exhausted and stuffed.

 

[eemaxx]

Wow, Disney did have a rough couple of weeks. How sad for the man who passed away the week prior. I didn't even realize there was a delay of any kind. I'm very glad the heart attack victim is okay. It was interesting to see the sharp turn that we took on the map if you turned on channel 4 in your stateroom. I assumed there was an emergency after hearing the in-room announcement....bright star, zone something, medical center, deck 1. My family and I were already in bed!

Overall, I think our change in itinerary was a good thing! An extra day at sea with nice weather! Thank you everyone for all of the fabulous fish extender gifts! We are looking forward to looking through them all again as we unpack.

Booked another cruise for July 2014. Hoping to switch to an Alaskan itinerary!

I still feel like I'm on the ship.....!!!

 

[Jeisur]

Just finished dinner, one course, and stopped by the bedroom. I can't believe there was no turn down service or chocolates on my pillow!

And I too feel like i am still on the ship. I have horrible sea legs and am slightly dizzy with land sickness!

 

[hosburg]

Will someone please bring these kids to the kids club please so I can sleep!!!!!!!

 

[WDW Princess 71]

I was so sad to have to leave Florida on such a warm sunny day yesterday to come back to nasty cold NJ! My flight wasn't until 5pm so I spent the day poolside at the Swan/Dolphin resort. I love cruising in winter to get away from bad weather at home but the definite downside is having to go back. Oh well, at least I can reflect on a wonderful trip. The Fantasy was just so beautiful, and I loved the additions to the adult area at the front of the ship. I was sad to skip Costa Maya because I had a nice beach day planned there at Maya Chan which was supposed to be really good, but I was happy that we at least got a full day in Grand Cayman which I loved. I could easily spend a week there. Expensive, but like the saying goes- you get what you pay for. Reminded me of Aruba. More expensive for food, drinks, shopping but the beaches were super clean, safe and easy to travel by taxi or bus, and no annoying vendors haggling on the beach or having to worry about leaving stuff on your chair while you swam. I got off at 8:30 AM and stayed until one of the last tenders at 3:50 since I loved it so much.

I was disappointed our Cozumel day was crappy weather since I had the beach break booked. However I was very pleased that DCL gave us the option to cancel for a full refund, which I and many others did. It just wasn't worth it for me to spend $80 to sit in the drizzling rain all day on and off. I stayed on the ship (other than a brief stop at Starbucks to use the free wifi to call home/check email and FB), but I have to say I was disappointed that DCL did not offer more "rainy day" activities. I would have thought that they would add more things when a day is that overcast or rainy or cold- I tried to go to Port Adventures and join another excursion that wasn't beach focused, but only dolphin swimming or snuba were left, which didn't interest me. I would have liked for them to secure more spots on some of the other non-weather impacted options for those that had beach/sun plans but had to change. Or, have more things on board like the animation classes, character meets/greats, cooking demos, etc. I am going to email DCL with these suggestions. I did enjoy a nice sit down lunch in Royal Court and spend a good amount of time relaxing and reading in a chair on deck 4 which was nice.

I was relieved that our Castaway day was nice weather--it was so windy on the sea day prior I was afraid we might not be able to dock. That happens several times a year, and did happen on my Panama cruise in January 2011. But, we made it and it was warmer air and water temperature than I was expecting. I was very pleasantly surprised for January. I enjoyed my catamaran snorkeling trip which was something I ended up adding due to missing beach/snorkel time in Cozumel and Costa Maya, and glad that I did. It was so fun, got great underwater pics and great pics of the ship from the catamaran.

Overall I love the new features on the Dream and Fantasy but I have to say I am definitely looking forward to being back on the Magic in July for the 12 night Med cruise. It will have been about 2.5 years since I've been on one of the classic ships by that time, so it will feel almost new to me being back on a smaller ship with different features. On the Magic and Wonder I also feel more relaxed and not stressed that I'm always "missing someting" like on the Dream/Fantasy. There are just so many bars and entertainment venues on the new ships that I always feel like I'm missing something. I also enjoy the pool area much better on the older ships since its way more open and sunnier. But all in all, I truly love all 4 ships and will choose my cruises by itinerary now for sure. Right now I am definitely doing the 12 night in July on the Magic, and most likely keeping a 3 night on the Dream in November that I'm coupling with 5 days pre-cruise at WDW since I haven't done the parks in awhile. It depends on if WDW offers free dining, if they do then I'm keeping it, so fingers crossed! After that, I have a 7 night Eastern booked on the Fantasy for May 2014 with my parents. I also have 2 dummy cruises floating out there, waiting patiently for DCL to announce the rest of 2014. I'm hoping for Baltic, Hawaii, Southern Caribbean, or Alaska. We shall see!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the FE, such wonderful gifts! The FE is such a cool thing to do, I always love coming back to my room for goodies : ) Hope you all had a great cruise as well!

 

[Tinkybell14]

Thanks to everyone who participated in the FE, such wonderful gifts! The FE is such a cool thing to do, I always love coming back to my room for goodies : ) Hope you all had a great cruise as well!

Hi Nicole,

Quick question...you had a magnet on your door that I really liked. It was the one that looked like a big boarding pass. Could you tell me where you got that done or if you made it? I would love to get one just like it. I kept meaning to come back by and leave you a sticky note but I forgot. Thanks!

Sharon

 

[WDW Princess 71]

Hi Nicole,

Quick question...you had a magnet on your door that I really liked. It was the one that looked like a big boarding pass. Could you tell me where you got that done or if you made it? I would love to get one just like it. I kept meaning to come back by and leave you a sticky note but I forgot. Thanks!

Sharon

No problem! It was one of Millipie's designs on the Cruise Design Magnet thread on here. She actually had a blank one that someone else requested, so I just used that one and copied/pasted it into Word, and then added my own text boxes to put my info to match the styles she used. You do have to download the Disney fonts (Waltograph and Newport Classic SG) if you want to do it that way, or you can request Millie to make it for you although make sure you did it well in advance because she gets backed up from so many people's requests. If you want the Word version that I did that you can modify for yours, PM me your email address and I can send it to you.

 

[SleepyDeb]

Confused. Just got on the scale and I didn't gain any weight on the cruise. Just not possible. We didn't exercise, except taking the stairs instead of elevator. Our excursions were just moderate activity. Oh, I know what it was, all those walks up to deck 11 where the ice cream machines were. There must be something magical about those stairs.

When will my house stop rocking?

 

[Jeisur]

Confused. Just got on the scale and I didn't gain any weight on the cruise. Just not possible. We didn't exercise, except taking the stairs instead of elevator. Our excursions were just moderate activity. Oh, I know what it was, all those walks up to deck 11 where the ice cream machines were. There must be something magical about those stairs.

When will my house stop rocking?

I didn't gain weight either but all the other adults with us did! Weird. Maybe it has something to do with the extra exercise my vestibular system is getting with this stinking land sickness. Last cruise it lasted for almost a week. I am really hoping it passes soon.

We took mainly stairs (except when the kids were exhausted). There was a lot of racing from desk 12 to deck 3 or 4!

 

[stacecakes]

Those of you who have stepped on a scale are far braver than I! Maybe in a day or two when my body has readjusted to the real world. Lots of stairs, a few visits to the fitness center, the castaway 5k- will it be enough to balance the fabulous food? Hope so.

thanks to everyone who participated in the FE. Brooke and Zoe especially were delighted wit the treasures in their pockets as we came back to the room- and it often was enough motivation to get Zoe to get there on her own steam rather than the "carry me" attitude that she adopted for much of the trip. While DH and I didn't find the ship overwhelmingly large, to a two year old, things look different

Waking up that morning and finding ourselves off Cozumel was a little unnerving. The Wonder sailed past us and I was sad that it was shy of 7am- so no horn battle! Got a couple of pictures though. glad that reports indicate that the medical emergency worked out OK.

We also kind of enjoyed the way things worked out with the itinerary change- with little kids who need naps, it was nice to have the extra sea day and to have two full days in port. We could get an early start on the fun and then pack it in when they were done. The half day afternoon visits seemed like it might have been rushed to get off the boat, get where we were going, do stuff, and get back in time. We spent the cayman day at the turtle farm and the cozumal day at chankanaab park. Both locations had both some swimming/ beach space, snorkeling, animal activities, and walking paths so wer were able to move on to something new when the little ones got fidgety. We booked independently of DCL for these excursions so I'm glad that those ports still happened. We had booked dolphin swim in Costa Maya through DCL and in hindsight glad we had that security. Wound up seeing dolphins at chankanaab instead.

Laundry done, tomorrow I'll sort through the pile of papers and momentos and decide what to do with it all. I'm not a scrapbooker, so...
any ideas?

Ill attempt to turn the notes I took at mixology into some useful drink recipes tomorrow and post them for the group. That was so fun, and way excited that e only charged us $15 pp. ( we did give him a fat tip, though)

Back to real life...

 

[melanienboys]

Just wanted to Thank everyone who participated in the FE. My boys loved getting to the room with surprises waiting for them. I honestly enjoyed the excitement to. I loved the personalized gifts and all the thoughtful gifts. Thanks for the hard work everyone.

I wish I would have made the time to book another cruise. It was on my list to do, just didn't make it.

 

[xuLauren]

I did not want to come home. I'm still bummed to be home. We had the most incredible time on the ship. Now back to all the chaos... We did book our next cruise while on board. We'll be in 5050 with the extra large verandah, connecting rooms with our same friends, same week - over MLK day.

I also may book another quick cruise to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Was looking at May or August... we'll see.

Loved all the FE gifts. That was a blast and I hope to keep up the tradition in cruises to come.