Well, it appears to be totally official that we WILL be on the ship. Penalty day is tomorrow, and we didn't cancel today. The problem--I booked the cruise based on last year's summer college schedule when there was a full week off between spring and summer. OF COURSE, they changed it so DD will only have Monday off. And they eliminated the "first summer session" and "second summer session" thing and replaced it with 3 4 week sessions, 2 6 week sessions, and 2 8 week sessions all running in an overlapping fashion. Bottom line--there is only one class that she needs to pick up during the first few weeks. It meets MWF, so she will miss W and F--I've told her to talk to the prof and see if she can make up the work in advance. There is another class that she could have chosen to take, but not if we go on the cruise. She sent me a message today --DO NOT cancel the cruise.
OH, and the schedule of classes was posted at 5 pm yesterday--actually earlier than we were told to expect it.
SO....now I'm on getting flights, etc. This college stuff is majorly interfering with my vacationing. I really did not want to cancel. We have a day 1 reservation, and the price has increased a lot since we booked. It would cost at least $1000 more for anything I could move this to. WHY can't the university have finalized dates 18-24 months ahead? They do have a "tentative" 9 year calendar, but they changed it!
Enough ranting. I'm just happy to be cruising, seeing the new ship and many old friends. MANY of our CM friends from last summer are on the Fantasy now or will be when we get there. Captain Marco will be on, Nelson is food and beverage manager, Cedomir is dining room manager. I'm totally lost on which servers were moving--many of them didn't know yet. Our favorite Palo server will stay on the Magic. There is a new Palo manager on the Magic, so we are hoping PJ moved to the Fantasy (didn't confirm this with him though!) And we will get the new return cruiser gift. Looking good!!!!
Editing to add answers to questions as I read thru back posts.
To make dining requests (rotation, sitting "just us" or request a specific server) you call your TA if you used one,
DCL directly if you didn't use a TA. They are just requests, cannot be guaranteed. After boarding, go to "dining changes" at the location indicated on the Welcome Aboard Navigator that you'll get at check in and ask if you got your request. If not, ask if they can grant it at that time. Location of dining changes is likely to be the D lounge, but this is not a "for sure."
The small refunds usually reflect a change in port charges or government taxes from the time you booked. Since we didn't pay a fuel surcharge, we won't be getting one refunded!
As to scheduling activities around formal night, pirate night, etc....the schedule for the nights has been posted a couple pages back and agrees with what DCL told me. Pirate night is St. Maarten. Formal night is always a sea day, so not too much to worry about there unless you want a spa/hair appointment. I highly recommend Bernard's tours at St. Maarten. There is also a water taxi that will take you to downtown, or that is a totally do-able walk for adults (a bit far for kids). There are some interesting shops. If you are into Star Wars, check out "That Yoda Guy." I understand he has expanded to a sort of museum as well, but it was just his store when we were there.
There is really NO reason to worry about which dining rotation you have. By the end of the week, everyone will have had the same menus and sat in the same restaurants. Some people do like to be in the fanciest restaurant on Formal night or the most tropically themed on pirate night. It's nice when that works out, but I'd much rather have my preferred server or head server than worry about a rotation.. Personal opinion, not meaning to offend anyone.
I'm not doing FE this time, so am only sharing past experiences. About 15 cabins is a perfect group. It is enough to have fun but not so much that you are overwhelmed. If it gets to be more than 20, definitely split into 2 groups of 10-15 each. I've been in FE where we had only 5 cabins--not enough to be fun--and one where we had over 100 cabins on the ship doing FE. Needless to say, we split that. I find more than 15 cabins to be more than I want to take on in terms of cost, delivery time, etc. Sorry to be a non-participant this time. We will be just 2 adults and I have too much else to deal with at this point.
Still responding to older posts. We prefer Eastern--additional sea day is lovely, nicer ports, more adult programming, sometimes special speakers. We prefer doing WDW before the cruise if we have to choose before or after. Advantages of before--lost luggage can catch up with you before cruising, if plane is delayed or whatever, you may miss some WDW time but will not miss the cruise. When DD was young, it was easier to re-enter the "real world" by going home rather than going to WDW where she still expected to be waited on. That said, any time at WDW is better than no time at WDW.
Welcome! 
You will have a wonderful time regardless. 
Lots of good advice for them on these boards though. 
Can't wait to hear what the differences are to them from the Dream.
