Just off an awesome 7 night Western Caribbean on the Fantasy

[greensombrero]

We just got off the Fantasy. I’ll do a full TR but if anyone has any questions I’m happy to answer. Just a couple comments based on threads I’ve seen recently.

1. Food quality to me was great, I really enjoyed it and felt it was on par and maybe it was even a bit better than some of our prior cruises. Food temperatures for us were good, hot soup, warm entrees etc. We had second seating.

2. We had a fairly new to DCL serving team. The first night was a bit rough but we saw they really cared and were working hard. They took feedback and night 2 on just got better and better. We really enjoyed them and felt the service we got was excellent.

Obviously newer crew members are not going to be able to do it all and make it look easy like the more experienced staff. I was a bit worried after our first night but we really found being friendly, giving encouragement along with feedback and recognizing when they went out of their way went a long way. In the end they made our cruise magical and we enjoyed them as much if not more than our other serving teams.

3. Ship was about 70% full, just barely under 3000 people according to the officers I spoke with. It felt perfect to me, lots of energy but not overcrowded at all. I think the lower capacity on our last few cruises has me spoiled.

Any questions feel free to ask!

 

[Girl of the South]

Oh, that's great! I am on the Dec 3 Merrytime cruise coming up really fast now. I'm sure i will have more questions in the morning but briefly:

1. Lanyards still handed out?
2. Did you see anyone with a paper menu?
3. Much variety at Cabanas?
4. Did you by any chance take DCL transport from MCO?
5. Did you by any chance have any experience with communicating via iMessage?
6. No excursions planned - did you get off at any of the ports?
7. Did you notice any cooking classes? They are my favorite.

So glad you had a positive experience. Thanks for sharing.

 

[MichelleCanada]

Oh, that's great! I am on the Dec 3 Merrytime cruise coming up really fast now. I'm sure i will have more questions in the morning but briefly:

1. Lanyards still handed out?
2. Did you see anyone with a paper menu?
3. Much variety at Cabanas?
4. Did you by any chance take DCL transport from MCO?
5. Did you by any chance have any experience with communicating via iMessage?
6. No excursions planned - did you get off at any of the ports?
7. Did you notice any cooking classes? They are my favorite.

So glad you had a positive experience. Thanks for sharing.

We cruised the Fantasy in July…
1. Yes
2. Every day
3. Same as what we had before covid
4. We took an Uber
5. We used iMesaage the whole time. Worked great between those of us on the ship and to home. (Just cannot send pictures).

 

[greensombrero]

1. Yes, ours were a bit delayed getting to our room (weren't there when rooms opened but arrived a bit after)

2. We got paper menus at Palo and I believe I saw them at the MDRs though we didn't ask for one. They were not the disposable kind but the nicer I presume reusable ones.

3. Breakfast had something different every day from a Mexican roll up thing that was really good just not sure what to call it, to different flavored pancakes and my favorite Mickey churro waffles (wish they had those more than once). Only ate lunch at Cabanas twice but both times they had different things and definitely more variety than during our "pandemic sailings". I actually liked lunch at Cabanas on our Grand Cayman day better than on boarding day.

4. We did and it was super smooth going a bit more problematic coming back. Big warning security at MCO was insane. We flew to Orlando 3 times this year and each time I remember thinking this is the worse security of any airport I've flown from but this time we got there at 11:30 for a 1:50 flight and missed our flight due to the security lines. It was insanely bad, maybe we just picked the wrong line but yes we sat in security for like 90 minutes and then the had closed the door for the plane by the time we got to the gate. That wasn't really Disney transports fault but we did have to wait 20-30 minutes after we cleared customs to get our bus to the airport. I wasn't worried but apparently I should have been, 2 hours and 20 minutes wasn't enough time when we hit the airport. Fortunately Delta did the best they could and got us home the same day it was just about midnight.

5. Yes we generally used iMessage. My kids had some issues with their phones logging out of iMessage at one point, not seen that before so we switched to the Disney app with them. Once we had cell service in one of the ports we fixed it for them. My wife and I though never had issues with iMessage and used it.

6. We got off at all ports. Did an epic adventurous excursion (Ultimate Snorkeling by Yacht in Cozumel). It was incredible what we saw but a lot more physically intense than we anticipated it. Fortunately we are all pretty comfortable in the water. Did Grand Cayman on our own, shopped and took the public bus to 7 mile beach. Had an awesome experience with the bus, super friendly and met people from all over (there was an MSC ship in port with a very diverse set of passenger nationalities).

Our Jamaica excursion was cancelled at the last moment due to issues with the road or something. Falmouth has a great port complex though, like an outdoor shopping mall/complex in the states with lots of shops, an arts market, live music, Margaritaville, patties stand (Jamaican fast food highly highly recommend). It became my oldest daughter's favorite day just exploring the port complex and trying some of the food.

7. I was disappointed they only did 1 cooking class and it conflicted with our Palo brunch reservation. My kids went through and enjoyed it. They learned how to make a spider cake for halloween and then we knew it was a "secret" menu item for dessert that night in the main dining room.

 

[StalCA]

Following along. Booked in February and really appreciate the info.

 

[Flying Fish]

This sounds like things are getting back to the DCL and Fantasy we all knew. This is great news! We're booked in January, and it can't come soon enough.

 

[alexturner74]

6. We got off at all ports. Did an epic adventurous excursion (Ultimate Snorkeling by Yacht in Cozumel). It was incredible what we saw but a lot more physically intense than we anticipated it. Fortunately we are all pretty comfortable in the water.

Would like to hear more about this. Were you by yourselves? If not, how many people on the excursion with you? How long and how many different stops?

 

[Scooterboot]

We were on the same cruise, and I second the opinion of the great food quality and friendliness of all the crew on board.

The road in Jamaica was closed due to locals protesting poor road conditions and blocking the roads in an effort to convince the government to fix them. Our excursion was able to go, but it was delayed a bit, as people were finding alternate routes to get to work.

The only surprise for us was the cancellation of the pirate buffet. Not that we needed more food! It was just something fun we were looking forward to, and was a little let down when we were informed that night at dinner.

Overall, an amazing trip with perfect weather!

 

[Disneygirlxo91]

We were on the same cruise, and I second the opinion of the great food quality and friendliness of all the crew on board.

The road in Jamaica was closed due to locals protesting poor road conditions and blocking the roads in an effort to convince the government to fix them. Our excursion was able to go, but it was delayed a bit, as people were finding alternate routes to get to work.

The only surprise for us was the cancellation of the pirate buffet. Not that we needed more food! It was just something fun we were looking forward to, and was a little let down when we were informed that night at dinner.

Overall, an amazing trip with perfect weather!

Seems they cancelled that on the 10/15 sailing - our head server was even under the impression they were still going to offer some of the food items just on deck but turned out that wasn’t true.

 

[Chipmunkmaniac]

I was on that cruise as well and my dining experience was completely the opposite... My servers were horrible as in not asking/bringing drinks, trying to do the small talk thing but not listening and asking the same questions again , not caring to learn who was who (party of two), not listening to the order we asked, rushing us for a 5 course meal out in 45min.. and still most of the dishes we had were cold or just barely warm (may be they brought it all at once from the kitchen and had it sit there so they could rush us?)

Cabanas was less variety than this Summer on the Magic, but still enough to find nice things every day. Quality of that food was hit or miss 'hardly cooked sweet potatoe cubes, undercooked chicken etc) but I feel like that has always been the case, even back in the Topsider days..

No more pirate buffet.

e had indeed 2968 passengers, which was often ok but fell mostly crowded at adult pool and at certain character meet and greets. Surprisingly Sanderson sisters and the VIPs in their Halloween gear were very easy to get but there were others that are normally easy to get that had waits of over half an hour such as formal Chip and Dale.

We also had transportation from and to MCO through Disney. Smooth BUT at the terminal we were allowed in but they told us they couldnt change boarding groups so even if you are on Disney transportation you do need to stay up to do that online check-in if you arrive early at the airport!!

 

[Girl of the South]

My takeaway from the "Tale of Two Cruises" . . .

Hard to say why some food arrives cold . . . could be what you order, could be the servers picking from the 'wrong' end of the "wrong" assembly line, or picking up a huge amount of food and you just lucked out being the last one delivered (and I mean the generic "you").

So, IF I get cold food, I will IMMEDIATELY find my server or the head guy and send it back.

Cabanas - it is what it is and not what it was. But I am sure I will find something worth my time or I'll have meals in one of the dining rooms.

I don't care about the Pirate Buffet. Or the characters. So, I am OK there.

Interesting about the DCL bus PAT times . . I wonder if that's the norm moving forward? Could make for a crowded terminal. I will report back.

THANK YOU greensombrero for the heads up on the Security lines! I have TSA Pre, but my friend who would be on an international flight, does not. So we'll make sure to keep that in mind and not dawdle pre-Security.

 

[sethschroeder]

Ship was about 70% full, just barely under 3000 people according to the officers I spoke with. It felt perfect to me, lots of energy but not overcrowded at all. I think the lower capacity on our last few cruises has me spoiled.

This is the part that has me going back and forth. Got a few cruises in during COVID times where the ships were much lower capacity and it was amazing.

 

[greensombrero]

Would like to hear more about this. Were you by yourselves? If not, how many people on the excursion with you? How long and how many different stops?

It was a small excursion. We were a family of 6 and there was one other family of 6 onboard for a total of 12. I don't think the boat could have handled more than maybe 1 or 2 more. We had 3 stops. The first was a 45 minute or so open water swim with a guide over the coral reef. This was the unexpectedly intense part, didn't realize we'd be swimming that distance and not just circling around the boat. The boat moved to follow us but there wasn't really an option to go back early. We were okay but it left my kids pretty exhausted and one of them would have been done given their choice about half way through.

The next stop was much less swimming and was really cool, it was at a star fish preserve with giant star fish, only about 6-7 feet of very clear water with white sand below. Really cool and unique stop.

Then we went to "el cielo" which is a shallow water area where we could play, float etc. There were giant rays there circling around coming right up to us which was cool. Our boat couldn't come very close in due to how its prop was so we had a short swim to get to the shallows. Other boats got in closer to the shallow area. I think we were supposed to get like an hour there to play in the shallow water but we were pretty tired and hungry. Only a couple members of the other family got in the water and didn't stay long. We didn't last too much longer before my kids were ready to go back onboard. They had food for us once onboard and then we headed back.

The boat ride to and from the area was about an hour. Once you got there the three stops were pretty close together. Total excursion time was probably 5-6 hours, most of the time we had in port. We left right after docking and had maybe 2 hours until all aboard, just long enough to do a bit of shopping at the port.

I don't regret doing it at all, it was really cool but I think the pressure of getting you back to the ship makes it a bit less relaxing and more intense then maybe if you did it while staying on the island. I think my kids were maybe a bit on the young side for it. I have a 14, 12, 10, 7. They all agreed it was cool but those that aren't as big of swimmers were just exhausted and that overrode the cool factor a bit for them. Also be aware if you are prone to motion sickness in a small boat it could be a problem. It wasn't super choppy but there were a lot of boat wakes both while snorkeling and while traveling there so it wasn't exactly smooth either.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

This is the part that has me going back and forth. Got a few cruises in during COVID times where the ships were much lower capacity and it was amazing.

We had one on the Magic in Nov 2021 that was 800 people. Felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. It was amazing. Definitely going to miss that!

 

[sethschroeder]

We had one on the Magic in Nov 2021 that was 800 people. Felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. It was amazing. Definitely going to miss that!

I went to Sandals Royal Plantation and if you have never looked in to it I would highly recommend. It gave me those low capacity vibes and the private beach was amazing.

Also the Ocho Rios area of Jamaica does have lots of excursion areas as well so if you want to get off the resort you easily can as its the same location as a cruise dock (about 5 mins by vehicle from the resort but seemingly a world away).

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

Thanks for the review, we sail soon! We had the pirate buffet in May on the Dream so it's interesting it's not on the Fantasy too.

 

[Disneygirlxo91]

Thanks for the review, we sail soon! We had the pirate buffet in May on the Dream so it's interesting it's not on the Fantasy too.

It was on the fantasy back in May and it ended on the fantasy in October. Our 10/15 sailing was the first one not to have it

 

[greensombrero]

Thanks for the review, we sail soon! We had the pirate buffet in May on the Dream so it's interesting it's not on the Fantasy too.

It was on the fantasy back in May and it ended on the fantasy in October. Our 10/15 sailing was the first one not to have it

I was disappointed not to have the pirate buffet. We had second seating on the Dream in April and thought it looked really good but hadn't planned for it and couldn't enjoy. We planned to skip dinner and do it this time. Honestly I think that is kind of the problem, it is late but too close for late diners. In my opinion I wish they would just do the pirate buffet for dinner on pirate night but I imagine that would probably make cabanas a mess though maybe if it was spread out from 5:45 - 8:15 it would work out? Doesn't really fit in with rotational dining though. I actually like the pirate menu in the MDR okay but I loved seeing the fruit carvings and the food I saw on the Dream at least looked really good too.

 

[sleepybug]

We booked our 7 night western caribbean for Feb! Would you mind sharing what the show schedule was like? Is it consistent for all 7 night western caribbean cruises?

 

[Girl of the South]

Not sure if this link will work but he is doing a more in depth Trip Report on his cruise if you want to read along!

https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...-fantasy-western-caribbean-oct-22-29.3900491/