March 23, 2013 FANTASY - The Final Inaugural Cruise of the Disney Fantasy

[jbuckent]

Welcome aboard Jbuckent. Have you been to any of these island?

We have been to St Thomas 4 times and Castaway Cay 3 times. Yep of my 5 Disney cruises we have only made it to Castaway 3 times! On our Carnival cruise we started in San Juan, so I have sort of been there lol, just the port and airport.

 

[lbgraves]

I have a confession to make. When I saw this cruise price & that it was an eastern I snagged it too fast to actually notice all the ports. It wasn't until I saw jbuckent's post that I looked up the itinerary. Now I am excited to be going to a new port! LOL!

 

[jbuckent]

Thats funny Lisa! You booked this 4 months ago and just figured out it has a different itinerary!

This year spring break is the first week in April, so while onboard we assumed it would be the same and booked first week of April in 2013. We were disappointed to see it was the Western. When I got home I double checked the school calendar and we were very excited to see we had to move to the Eastern with San Juan! Very glad we get a new port! We had done an Eastern before that had a stop in St Croix.

 

[bethann77]

My family of 4 will be on this cruise. Myself and Husband DS will be 8 DD will be 12. It is crazy how the prices of this cruise have sky rocketed in the past month. There are very few room categories still available for this cruise. This will be our 3rd Disney cruise, but have never been at spring break.

 

[jbuckent]

Welcome Bethann! We have never cruised spring break either. The good thing is on a boat it can't get any more crowded than full capacity and Disney usually sails full so it will be 'normal' crowds.

 

[lbgraves]

My family of 4 will be on this cruise. Myself and Husband DS will be 8 DD will be 12. It is crazy how the prices of this cruise have sky rocketed in the past month. There are very few room categories still available for this cruise. This will be our 3rd Disney cruise, but have never been at spring break.

to the crew Beth! Glad to see another 12 yo girl onboard. This is our first cruise not booked with friends so my DD12 will be looking for a buddy. Maybe they can start emailing after we get back from the MV next month!

 

[lbgraves]

You are right about the price!!!! The 5A is over double what I paid for the 5C opening morning. WOW!!!

 

[jbuckent]

Which dining time did everyone select? We chose main since we know its harder to get, but can't decide if we should keep it or switch to second. We have only done main on one trip and felt very rushed to get to dinner and then get out of dinner. Second seating was perfect when the kids were really little and napped in the afternoon, but now they are tired and grouchy. Though this year was better than last, and perhaps next year will be a little better as well. We can't decide what to do. Feel rushed or eat with grouchy and grouchier.

 

[jbuckent]

You are right about the price!!!! The 5A is over double what I paid for the 5C opening morning. WOW!!!

5A went up $600 since we booked it last week!

 

[bethann77]

We have main dining. We like having main dining. 8:30 just seem kind of late to be eating dinner to me. On school nights my kids go to bed at 8:30.

 

[bethann77]

to the crew Beth! Glad to see another 12 yo girl onboard. This is our first cruise not booked with friends so my DD12 will be looking for a buddy. Maybe they can start emailing after we get back from the MV next month!

Does your daughter Facebook?

 

[FLDisneyMom]

Hi everyone! Our family (Me, DH, DS 9 and DD 5 at sailing) will most likely be joining you on this cruise. I've been checking prices as we anticipate booking onboard the Magic the week of 3/17 (Hi DetailGal! ). I just noticed the price jumped since I last checked so now I'm on the fence about booking now and reshopping while onboard vs just waiting until we're on the Magic. We're cruise veterans but the Magic this year is our first DCL cruise and we're still learning how DCL works.

 

[lbgraves]

Which dining time did everyone select?

We have always had early dining. Late just wouldn't work for us. I like to give dinner a chance to settle before I go to sleep.

Does your daughter Facebook?

No, she is 11 now and I honestly don't know if she will get an account at 13. She can use my iTouch for Facetime & messaging, and she has Skyped.

Hi everyone! Our family (Me, DH, DS 9 and DD 5 at sailing) will most likely be joining you on this cruise. I've been checking prices as we anticipate booking onboard the Magic the week of 3/17 (Hi DetailGal! ). I just noticed the price jumped since I last checked so now I'm on the fence about booking now and reshopping while onboard vs just waiting until we're on the Magic. We're cruise veterans but the Magic this year is our first DCL cruise and we're still learning how DCL works.

If this is the cruise you want to take, my suggestion is do not wait any longer. It is close to capacity and not only might the price be higher when you are on the Magic in a couple weeks, but the category you wanted may be gone. It's always better to book early and reshop. At the least you will get the OBC added to your reservation.

 

[DetailGal]

Hi everyone! Our family (Me, DH, DS 9 and DD 5 at sailing) will most likely be joining you on this cruise. I've been checking prices as we anticipate booking onboard the Magic the week of 3/17 (Hi DetailGal! ). I just noticed the price jumped since I last checked so now I'm on the fence about booking now and reshopping while onboard vs just waiting until we're on the Magic. We're cruise veterans but the Magic this year is our first DCL cruise and we're still learning how DCL works.

Well Hi FLDisneyMom! Your spring break must go a week later too next year then, huh? Ours moves a week later b/c Easter happens to fall at the end of that week. Otherwise our school doesn't work around Easter but since it was close to our normal spring break week they just moved it a week later. So I suppose this is chancey but it's what we're doing. We have two rooms already booked for 2013. One has 10% off the other doesn't. When we are onboard we are going to either have them or we'll wait til we get home and just book a dummy reservation and have our travel agent take care of switching things so we can get the 2013 date with the 10% yet. It might be chancey if our old reservation has to be released in order to regrab it with new 10% offer. If it's too chancey we'll have to decide if we're willing to chance losing it over getting the 10% off. If the price has gone way up though, it may not even pay. We'll have to see. I plan to book two dummy reservations (one for each of us) and we'll likely wait and figure it all out when we get home, with our travel agent. Sad to hear though that rates are going up that fast. We were hoping to book a room for my parents to join us next Spring, but they'll need a good price to make it happen. Hmmm, we'll have to consider options.

Kara

 

[Dream_2011]

I have set up a FB page for this cruise and will be able to upload pictures and short reports there pretty easily. I don't post trip reports here, but will probably do a blog/note there. It is listed under "DCL Fantasy Spring Break March 23, 2013". Send me a PM here to let me know that you are a part of the DIS group if you send a request. I've found that a FB group has helped to keep some discussions grouped and easier to keep up with, along with a private group being a bit more secure than an open forum for planning and information.

Hi, we are book on this cruise and will like to participate on FE. Where can I register

 

[lbgraves]

Hi, we are book on this cruise and will like to participate on FE. Where can I register

The email is listed in the first post.

 

[lbgraves]

We are almost to the one-year countdown mark for this cruise as I am scrambling to get ready for the MV. There are some events being planned and I will let you know how they work out, like an Easter egg hunt onboard the second sea day for the kids, and there is also a Geocatch group meeting. I'll have lots of pictures to post soon!!!

 

[lbgraves]

OOPS! Double post.

 

[Wilhelmis4]

Hi everyone! JoLynn here. I will be joining all of you with my DH- Danny and my DD 16 and DS 13, at the time of the cruise. I just joined the DISboards to meet ppl for our June 18th Alaska cruise and thought to check this cruise out and was happy to see how many ppl are here.

Looking forward to meeting as many of you and I can! We love Disney and have decided DCL is the way to go for us with and without our kids.

I will check back soon and would love to meet my kids up with some kids their ages for them to hang with.

See you all in a touch over a year!
JoLynn

 

[lbgraves]

to the crew, JoLynn!