June 15 - June 22 2013 Eastern Fantasy

[TIGGER/POOH4]

Good morning fellow cruisers. Another week has gone by.
We now have only

weeks to go to the Fantasy.

 

[KSDisneyDad]

We were on the June 2 Eastern Fantasy cruise last week and absolutely LOVED it!!!

So much so that we booked this cruise for next June. This will be our seventh Disney cruise.

It will be me, my DW (Junesgoofy), our three boys (18, 15 and 11) and my parents.

We will participate in the FE again and I will try to sign up for the FB page too.

If anyone has any questions about the ship or our experience, please let me know. We can't wait to be back on the ship again.

 

[thepops]

Only 1 year to go !! Whoo Hoo!
Looks like all the inside and ocean view rooms are taken (until folks back out as the "pay up" date approaches).

 

[TIGGER/POOH4]

Good morning fellow cruisers. Another month has gone by.
We now have only

year to go to the Fantasy.

 

[TIGGER/POOH4]

We were on the June 2 Eastern Fantasy cruise last week and absolutely LOVED it!!!

So much so that we booked this cruise for next June. This will be our seventh Disney cruise.

It will be me, my DW (Junesgoofy), our three boys (18, 15 and 11) and my parents.

We will participate in the FE again and I will try to sign up for the FB page too.

If anyone has any questions about the ship or our experience, please let me know. We can't wait to be back on the ship again.

aboard the Father's Day Eastern Fantasy Glad to hear you loved the Fantasy. We will be boarding her in just 8 days for a Western. I will PM you regarding the FB/FE.

 

[TIGGER/POOH4]

Good morning fellow cruisers. Another week has gone by.
We now have only

weeks to go to the Fantasy.

 

[4newtocruise]

Sorry I was slow . You have been added to the first post.

We upgraded too! My daughter might want to bring a friend and we needed a room that holds 5.

Our new room is a Cat 4D, room 6596.

 

[TIGGER/POOH4]

We upgraded too! My daughter might want to bring a friend and we needed a room that holds 5.

Our new room is a Cat 4D, room 6596.

Congrats on your upgrade. Enjoy the extra space in a Cat 4.

 

[bobbi565]

We were on the June 2 Eastern Fantasy cruise last week and absolutely LOVED it!!!

So much so that we booked this cruise for next June. This will be our seventh Disney cruise.

It will be me, my DW (Junesgoofy), our three boys (18, 15 and 11) and my parents.

We will participate in the FE again and I will try to sign up for the FB page too.

If anyone has any questions about the ship or our experience, please let me know. We can't wait to be back on the ship again.

Welcome aboard! We just got back from WDW and now have only the cruise to look forward to. So glad to hear you enjoyed it so much! Hope you're writing a trippie!

 

[Texas Disney Fan]

Good morning fellow cruisers. Another week has gone by.
We now have only

weeks to go to the Fantasy.

I am sure this year will fly by. Just got back from Aulani, now I can focus on planning this cruise. Very excited about it.

 

[4newtocruise]

We were on the June 2 Eastern Fantasy cruise last week and absolutely LOVED it!!!

So much so that we booked this cruise for next June. This will be our seventh Disney cruise.

It will be me, my DW (Junesgoofy), our three boys (18, 15 and 11) and my parents.

We will participate in the FE again and I will try to sign up for the FB page too.

If anyone has any questions about the ship or our experience, please let me know. We can't wait to be back on the ship again.

Welcome! My son is going to be thrilled about all the boys on this cruise! He will be 11 at the time of the cruise also. Now my daughter on the other hand needs to find someone her age. She will be 13.

Did you like the Fantasy better than the Dream? We loved the dream but it was our first 5 night and we just didn't feel it was long enough. Was your cruise full? Did it feel crowded?

 

[Texas Disney Fan]

Happy Fathers Day to all!!!!!

 

[TIGGER/POOH4]

Happy Father's Day to all the Disney Dads. Next year we will celebrating on the Fantasy.

 

[KSDisneyDad]

aboard the Father's Day Eastern Fantasy Glad to hear you loved the Fantasy. We will be boarding her in just 8 days for a Western. I will PM you regarding the FB/FE.

You will enjoy the Fantasy. You will be cruising with a lot of our Pirate friends from the 2008 Panama Canal cruise.

I highly recommend Remy Lunch if they have it on the Western.

 

[KSDisneyDad]

Welcome aboard! We just got back from WDW and now have only the cruise to look forward to. So glad to hear you enjoyed it so much! Hope you're writing a trippie!

We were at WDW last week too. We did Star Wars Weekend on the 10th and Magic Kingdom on the 11th. Being from Denver, the heat and humidity took us off guard. I also felt that it was more crowded than we are used to. What did you think of the crowds? Despite the crowds, we still did everything we wanted (sometimes multiple times) and had time to spare.

I've never done a Trip Report, but I will post some pictures of our recent cruise day-by-day.

We had a great time on the Eastern. Our favorite port was St. Thomas/St. John.

We have done two Western's in the past and were unsure how we'd like the Eastern. As you can see, we loved it so much we booked another one for next year!

 

[KSDisneyDad]

Welcome! My son is going to be thrilled about all the boys on this cruise! He will be 11 at the time of the cruise also. Now my daughter on the other hand needs to find someone her age. She will be 13.

Did you like the Fantasy better than the Dream? We loved the dream but it was our first 5 night and we just didn't feel it was long enough. Was your cruise full? Did it feel crowded?

Our three boys loved the cruise. Unfortunately, the found Eye Scream too soon.

My 10 year old is hoping for the Vibe next year as the clubs seemed a little juvenile for him. He still had a blast though especially with the mid-ship detective game, Aquaduck, pools, minigolf, ping pong and a movie or two. He seemed to make friends easy.

Our two teens really liked the Teen area. They participated in Zombified, lots of games and other activities including the slushie hours, etc.

I agree with you about 5 days being too short. We have not cruised on the Dream, so I cannot compare it to that. We had originally booked the Dream for Memorial Day 2011, but decided to reschedule it for the Fantasy in June 2012. We are so glad we did. Prior to this cruise, we had done two seven night cruises, two four nights and one fifteen night cruise. We think the shorter cruises are not nearly as fun as the longer ones as they seem to be more hectic, the Sea Day seems busier and the ship doesn't seem to really travel that far. I think part of the fun of a cruise is travelling 1,200 nautical miles from Florida, not just a short hop over to the Bahamas. Finally, we like the special meals and entertainment on the longer cruises.

We did not feel the ship was that crowded. Even on Sea Days, we never found the pools as crowded as on the Classic ships. It seemed that we could always find a peaceful place on the ship or go be with the crowds. The AquaDuck line was rarely more than 20 minutes (it was posted at 30 on Sea Days, but it took less than that). Even when we showed up at the pool at 2:00 pm after Remy lunch, we found chairs by the family pools. Satellite Falls was very quiet for us. We thought the MDRs seemed about the same as the Classic ships. You could tell they were larger, but our dining experience was similar. Even though the ship is bigger, we felt at home on it just like on the classic ships. I think Disney did a great job with space planning.

There were just a few things we missed from the Classic Ships:

1. No trays at Cabanas. This makes it had to take a breakfast tray back to the room before an excursion. We ordered room service the morning we had to meet at 7:30 am and they messed up our orders. I would have rather gone up to Cabanas for some protein rather than the continental breakfast through room service. Plus, without trays, it seemed you had to sit down before you got your drink.

2. I missed the Disney music throughout the ship. They played non-Disney music such as Jimmy Buffet, etc. I'm a big JB fan, but when on a Disney cruise, I like to hear that whimsical music.

3. No character breakfast (honestly, we often skip this, but it's still nice to have the option).

4. We didn't care for the having to insert your room key into the slot to operate the lights. We got used to it after a day or so, but it was inconvenient.

However, the positives were there too! I thought they made much better use of the pool decks and upper deck. There was the Aqualab, second wading pool, Satellite falls, great movie viewing from Deck 12, minigolf and of course, the Aquaduck. As with all of our cruises, there were so many things we wanted to do, but never did. We already have a list for next year!

 

[KSDisneyDad]

I am sure this year will fly by. Just got back from Aulani, now I can focus on planning this cruise. Very excited about it.

How was Aulani? At the DVC member event on the ship, they were really pushing Aulani hard (as well as AKL). I was really hoping to hear more about the new Grand Floridian Villas, but they were silent on that property and BLT. I am glad we purchased BLT on the cruise two years ago. It has made our vacations so much more enjoyable.

Back to Aulani. There was only one person in our group that had been to Aulani and although he had a great vacation, he commented about how expensive it was. It does sound like an awesome DVC property and it's definetely on our wish list for a future vacation, but we may have to do it sans kids to save some money!

 

[KSDisneyDad]

Last post tonight.

Is anyone visiting DLR before the cruise next year? We are planning a trip at te tail end of our Christmas break to visit Cars Land. We are really looking forward to revisiting the Original again!

 

[bobbi565]

We were at WDW last week too. We did Star Wars Weekend on the 10th and Magic Kingdom on the 11th. Being from Denver, the heat and humidity took us off guard. I also felt that it was more crowded than we are used to. What did you think of the crowds? Despite the crowds, we still did everything we wanted (sometimes multiple times) and had time to spare.

I've never done a Trip Report, but I will post some pictures of our recent cruise day-by-day.

We had a great time on the Eastern. Our favorite port was St. Thomas/St. John.

We have done two Western's in the past and were unsure how we'd like the Eastern. As you can see, we loved it so much we booked another one for next year!

We arrived on the 10th and checked out on the 14th. The crowds were pretty intimidating but managable in all but Magic Kingdom. We did MK on Tuesday morning, and it was unbelievable! I was a bit taken aback by the sheer volume of people. Still, a great time was had by all.

Looking forward to seeing your pics!

 

[KSDisneyDad]

Thought I'd post a few pictures from our first day on the Fantasy.

Approaching the ship:

Boarding the ship:

The atrium:

Up for a quick ride on the Aquaduck:

And then to Cabanas for lunch:

More Day 1 to come