BenbowInn
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2013
- Messages
- 214
~Stateroom- 6180 (verhanda room, aft)~
*Spacious compared to Carnival room.
*Hubbie liked that toilet and tub were in separate rooms, large tub/shower (I did not like the split bathroom setup. I was constantly going from bathroom to bathroom looking for things such as toothpase, hair stuff, deodorant, etc.). It took over halfway through the cruise before I would walk into the correct bathroom during the night.
*So narrow! There was no walking room by the bed to the bathrooms. We were always in each others way. Difficult to get the room service tray out the door, the tray was nearly as wide as the walkway into the room.
*Raised beds-awesome! Provided plenty of storage space for our two large suitecases. Plenty of storage space throughout the room.
*Verhanda door- I was worried about our 6 year old opening the door, but it really is difficult to open, even as an adult. No need to worry about your children sneaking out the the verhanda during the night, because they are not going to get that door open by themselves!
*On demand movies- we loved all the movie options!
*Balcony chairs were very uncomfortable, so we stood when we were out there.
*The phone was too big for the little desk beside the bed. Kept knocking it with the pillow during the night. It was just a terrible location for the phone and should have been across the room on the big desk.
~Oceaneers Club/Lab~
Favorites- everything! (according to our 6 year old)
*Our DS spent a lot of time in there. He really enjoyed it. I like that they served lunch to the kids-fresh fruit, carrot sticks and celery, and cheese sandwhiches. He ate luch there a few times and both times they said he ate a ton. I like that they opted for a healthier lunch in the club versus the junk ype food I was expecting them to serve.
*DS especially loved Andy Room. He hasnt watched Toy Story in years, but really fell in love with it again. Every night he would want to watch one of the Toy Story movies before bed.
~Dining~
*Carnival wins this round hands down. The sit down dinners were very good, but food options were very limited compared to Carnival.
*Salad bars were very limited, hardly any selection. (We love salads, so was very disappointed about that.)
*Hours for eating meals were terrible, with no real options (other than heavy, unhealthy type food mostly) outside the very narrow meal times. Room service didnt have very many options. Outside of meals you have room service, tow maters grill, pizza, or Filmores Favorites which closes really early (around 6pm).
*The rotational dining was okay. The restaurants were all beautiful, servers were wonderful (we had I Wayan and Hazel), but meals took up so much time and there was always things we had to miss for our meal. Like one day they had a Santa meet and Greet at 7:15pm, so it was imposible to get there without rushing through dinner. I mean really, that was the only time that day Santa was avaliable to meet. He came out a few days later around 2pm on a port day. I found some of their scheduling for characters were terrible, and really found it puzzling at why they scheduled things when they knew most people wouldnt be able to make it, or when half the people were at dinner.
*Sit down dining very limited. The last night (Animators palate) I just got a salad since nothing else sounded good. Menus in general were too seafood heavy (husband is allergic to shrimp, and other than fish, we jut dont care for seafood). We are not at all picky eaters, but when your not a fan of seafood, there isnt much to choose from most nights. Seafood and mushrooms are two things I just dont care for, which the menu was heavy in both.
*Favorite meals: One night my husband got a seabass meal that was delicious.
*During mealtimes, there was plenty of healthy options for kids. Fresh fruits and vegetables, which is what our son eats at home, so all was good there. A few nights the server brought him a bowl of mixed berries, which he enjoyed. He also loved the watermelon at Filmors favorite. So if youre worried about your kids only having junk food during a cruise, dont be, there are plenty of fruits and veggies.
*Room service was prompt. Small selection, but at least we could get fresh fruit, coffee, salad and water. The rest of the options were basics like burgers, hotdogs, pizza, etc. Nothing too exciting. Hubbie did enjoy the buffalo wings.
*Ice cream on deck 11 was nice, but hubbie wished there were toppings and more flavors. Me? I was satisified, Im not a huge ice cream fan and dont care at all for toppings. Carnival had it avaliable 24 hours, hubbie said he went up there a few times late at night on the Disney Fantasy and it was closed. I could have sworn I heard it was 24 hours as well, but he went up there a few nights for ice cream and it was shut down. I will take his word for it.
~Entertainment~
*Shows-Loved Aladdin, strongly disliked Wishes, didnt see Believe.
*Saw Big Hero 6 at the Beuna Vista theater which was very nice. We all loved the movie.
*Live music was nice, we really enjoyed Dream Duo. Hubbie really loves live music and only wishes they had a full band instead of just a few people playing with audio tracks. Clara Oman played the piano, hubbie enjoyed but I just didnt care for her voice although she played the piano beautifully. She did say one night that singing was not her forte, and she preferred playing piano while others sang. The lady from Dream Duo has an amazing voice on the other hand. The Fine Wines played some jazz, and they were very talented as well.
*Trivia- we did quite a bit of the trivia. Once again, Carnival wins at trivia as they have much more going on. We both wish Disney had more going on in that department.
*D Lounge had quite a bit going on. We never made it to anything, but always saw fun things listed and was lively everytime we walked by.
*There was many awesome sounding things on the Navigator, but many times it would turn out that they were for teens in the teen clubs. So if you have a teenager, they will have a great time. We were a bit jealous we couldnt get in on the action. Seriously, they always had really fun things listed for the teens.
*As far as nightlife, Disney is disappointing. There just isnt much late at night going on, which is fine for me as Im not into late night outings, but my husband loves roaming the ship at night, listening to live music, and its just dead at night on the Fantasy. So to him, that was a major negative.
~Rainforest Room~
*Amazing! We got 5 day passes, so we went two days as a couple and I went once alone. The last night of the cruise I was in there alone for the last two hours before it closed. I think each time we spent over 2 hours there. So relaxing! Even my husband really enjoyed it. I especailly loved the Caribbean Storm shower.
~Pools~
*Aquaduck was fun, especially at night. Line moves slow, so your best bet is at night or on port days. It would be nice if more than 2 people can ride at a time.
*The pools were nice, packed during the day. Less busy at night. Nothing too exciting. Our son loved the yellow water slide.
*Aqualab was fun, son didnt play too much in it though. I dont think we ever checked out Nemos Reef. Looked cute though. I think its for kids under age 8.
~Sports Deck~
*Goofys Putt Putt golf was fun, our son really enjoyed that.
*Basketball court was nice. Closed early, like 6pm. After that they take the balls away.
*Ping pong tables (should have been enclosed though).
All in all, its a nice place to check out and spend a few hours.
~Shutters Photos~
We prepurched the CD package plus prints for $395. Well worth it, we got 203 pictures. So I feel we got our moneys worth. I am missing the prints for two photos, both aquaduck. They are on the CD, but not printed out. Not a big deal though. I recommend pre purchasing as it was $449 on board for the package.
*Photographers were great, especially for formal pictures. They really took their time posing and taking tons of pictures of each family. Lines move kinda slow, so show up early.
*We went to tons of Character meets, plus did formal pictures every night. They walked around on Castaway Cay taking pictures. Basically there are numerous photo ops. If you buy the package, its easy to get your moneys worth of photos.
You can pick up your photos the last night of your cruise, but the CD isnt avaliable until 7am the next morning. So that was kinda annoying as we would have liked to get off the boat earlier, but had to wait around to pick up the photo CD.
~Debarkation~
*I highly recommend doing express walk off. The line for exiting around 7:30am was very long for those who left their luggage out the night before. We got to bypass the line and walk right off and out to the car. The people who had to pick up their luggage had to wait in a long line to leave the boat, and then wait again to get their luggage. We bypassed all of them and went right off, quickly through customs, and into the car. Was in our car in less than 10 mins from the time we picked up our pictures from shutters.
~Ports~
We did not do any excursions, as we prefer to do our own sightseeing.
*San Juan- Lovely city. We especially loved the old fortress. I would love to spend a few days in San Juan some day.
*St. Marteen- Very beautiful. We would have loved to do more, but didnt get the chance to do much sightseeing there. The scenery is amazing though.
~Castaway Cay-
We were one of the first off the boat in the morning and got a good hour and half of swimming in before it started getting busy. Our son woke up that morning (our last full day on board) with a fever, so he wasnt feeling well. We went back on the boat and spent the rest of the day sleeping.
~Laundry~
*$2 a load
*Washers and dryers are both tiny
*Dryer was only about half full and clothes were still damp.
*Be careful not to open the dryer mid cycle to check on the clothes, a lady in the laundry room did that and had to repay to start it again. It wouldnt let her restart without paying again after opening the door.
Overall we had a wonderful cruise. It was our first Disney cruise and something Ive been wanting to do for years. We did an onboard booking for the Magic next December for a surprise trip for my mother in law. I probably wouldnt pay as much as we did for another cruise on the Fantasy though. Dont get me wrong, it was a wonderful vacation, but we had just as much fun on a Carnival cruise. To us, the price difference just isnt worth it.
The 5 night Disney Magic cruise we booked is a great price in our opinion. Im glad we went on the Fantasy, I love all things Disney, but really there is no huge difference between a Disney cruise and any other line (minus the characters of course). There is plenty of fun to be had on any cruise line. So while we loved our Disney cruise, none of us feel that it has to be Disney or nothing. Id take another Carnival or RCL cruise just as happily as I would another Disney cruise.
Im glad we went, it was one of those vacations I wanted to do while our son was still young enough to fully enjoy the kids club. He loved it, of course he loved our France trip earlier this year, and our offsite Disney trips as much as our onsite ones. Kids are easy to please. If you are debating whether to save up for a big Disney cruise, or take a cheaper cruise sooner go for the cheaper one. Disney is wonderful, but its not the only worthwhile cruise line. (Sorry Disers, just want to let those who dream of a Disney cruise that they cant afford know that their children can have a wonderful time on another cruise line.)
[/URL][/IMG]
*Spacious compared to Carnival room.
*Hubbie liked that toilet and tub were in separate rooms, large tub/shower (I did not like the split bathroom setup. I was constantly going from bathroom to bathroom looking for things such as toothpase, hair stuff, deodorant, etc.). It took over halfway through the cruise before I would walk into the correct bathroom during the night.
*So narrow! There was no walking room by the bed to the bathrooms. We were always in each others way. Difficult to get the room service tray out the door, the tray was nearly as wide as the walkway into the room.
*Raised beds-awesome! Provided plenty of storage space for our two large suitecases. Plenty of storage space throughout the room.
*Verhanda door- I was worried about our 6 year old opening the door, but it really is difficult to open, even as an adult. No need to worry about your children sneaking out the the verhanda during the night, because they are not going to get that door open by themselves!
*On demand movies- we loved all the movie options!
*Balcony chairs were very uncomfortable, so we stood when we were out there.
*The phone was too big for the little desk beside the bed. Kept knocking it with the pillow during the night. It was just a terrible location for the phone and should have been across the room on the big desk.
~Oceaneers Club/Lab~
Favorites- everything! (according to our 6 year old)
*Our DS spent a lot of time in there. He really enjoyed it. I like that they served lunch to the kids-fresh fruit, carrot sticks and celery, and cheese sandwhiches. He ate luch there a few times and both times they said he ate a ton. I like that they opted for a healthier lunch in the club versus the junk ype food I was expecting them to serve.
*DS especially loved Andy Room. He hasnt watched Toy Story in years, but really fell in love with it again. Every night he would want to watch one of the Toy Story movies before bed.
~Dining~
*Carnival wins this round hands down. The sit down dinners were very good, but food options were very limited compared to Carnival.
*Salad bars were very limited, hardly any selection. (We love salads, so was very disappointed about that.)
*Hours for eating meals were terrible, with no real options (other than heavy, unhealthy type food mostly) outside the very narrow meal times. Room service didnt have very many options. Outside of meals you have room service, tow maters grill, pizza, or Filmores Favorites which closes really early (around 6pm).
*The rotational dining was okay. The restaurants were all beautiful, servers were wonderful (we had I Wayan and Hazel), but meals took up so much time and there was always things we had to miss for our meal. Like one day they had a Santa meet and Greet at 7:15pm, so it was imposible to get there without rushing through dinner. I mean really, that was the only time that day Santa was avaliable to meet. He came out a few days later around 2pm on a port day. I found some of their scheduling for characters were terrible, and really found it puzzling at why they scheduled things when they knew most people wouldnt be able to make it, or when half the people were at dinner.
*Sit down dining very limited. The last night (Animators palate) I just got a salad since nothing else sounded good. Menus in general were too seafood heavy (husband is allergic to shrimp, and other than fish, we jut dont care for seafood). We are not at all picky eaters, but when your not a fan of seafood, there isnt much to choose from most nights. Seafood and mushrooms are two things I just dont care for, which the menu was heavy in both.
*Favorite meals: One night my husband got a seabass meal that was delicious.
*During mealtimes, there was plenty of healthy options for kids. Fresh fruits and vegetables, which is what our son eats at home, so all was good there. A few nights the server brought him a bowl of mixed berries, which he enjoyed. He also loved the watermelon at Filmors favorite. So if youre worried about your kids only having junk food during a cruise, dont be, there are plenty of fruits and veggies.
*Room service was prompt. Small selection, but at least we could get fresh fruit, coffee, salad and water. The rest of the options were basics like burgers, hotdogs, pizza, etc. Nothing too exciting. Hubbie did enjoy the buffalo wings.
*Ice cream on deck 11 was nice, but hubbie wished there were toppings and more flavors. Me? I was satisified, Im not a huge ice cream fan and dont care at all for toppings. Carnival had it avaliable 24 hours, hubbie said he went up there a few times late at night on the Disney Fantasy and it was closed. I could have sworn I heard it was 24 hours as well, but he went up there a few nights for ice cream and it was shut down. I will take his word for it.
~Entertainment~
*Shows-Loved Aladdin, strongly disliked Wishes, didnt see Believe.
*Saw Big Hero 6 at the Beuna Vista theater which was very nice. We all loved the movie.
*Live music was nice, we really enjoyed Dream Duo. Hubbie really loves live music and only wishes they had a full band instead of just a few people playing with audio tracks. Clara Oman played the piano, hubbie enjoyed but I just didnt care for her voice although she played the piano beautifully. She did say one night that singing was not her forte, and she preferred playing piano while others sang. The lady from Dream Duo has an amazing voice on the other hand. The Fine Wines played some jazz, and they were very talented as well.
*Trivia- we did quite a bit of the trivia. Once again, Carnival wins at trivia as they have much more going on. We both wish Disney had more going on in that department.
*D Lounge had quite a bit going on. We never made it to anything, but always saw fun things listed and was lively everytime we walked by.
*There was many awesome sounding things on the Navigator, but many times it would turn out that they were for teens in the teen clubs. So if you have a teenager, they will have a great time. We were a bit jealous we couldnt get in on the action. Seriously, they always had really fun things listed for the teens.
*As far as nightlife, Disney is disappointing. There just isnt much late at night going on, which is fine for me as Im not into late night outings, but my husband loves roaming the ship at night, listening to live music, and its just dead at night on the Fantasy. So to him, that was a major negative.
~Rainforest Room~
*Amazing! We got 5 day passes, so we went two days as a couple and I went once alone. The last night of the cruise I was in there alone for the last two hours before it closed. I think each time we spent over 2 hours there. So relaxing! Even my husband really enjoyed it. I especailly loved the Caribbean Storm shower.
~Pools~
*Aquaduck was fun, especially at night. Line moves slow, so your best bet is at night or on port days. It would be nice if more than 2 people can ride at a time.
*The pools were nice, packed during the day. Less busy at night. Nothing too exciting. Our son loved the yellow water slide.
*Aqualab was fun, son didnt play too much in it though. I dont think we ever checked out Nemos Reef. Looked cute though. I think its for kids under age 8.
~Sports Deck~
*Goofys Putt Putt golf was fun, our son really enjoyed that.
*Basketball court was nice. Closed early, like 6pm. After that they take the balls away.
*Ping pong tables (should have been enclosed though).
All in all, its a nice place to check out and spend a few hours.
~Shutters Photos~
We prepurched the CD package plus prints for $395. Well worth it, we got 203 pictures. So I feel we got our moneys worth. I am missing the prints for two photos, both aquaduck. They are on the CD, but not printed out. Not a big deal though. I recommend pre purchasing as it was $449 on board for the package.
*Photographers were great, especially for formal pictures. They really took their time posing and taking tons of pictures of each family. Lines move kinda slow, so show up early.
*We went to tons of Character meets, plus did formal pictures every night. They walked around on Castaway Cay taking pictures. Basically there are numerous photo ops. If you buy the package, its easy to get your moneys worth of photos.
You can pick up your photos the last night of your cruise, but the CD isnt avaliable until 7am the next morning. So that was kinda annoying as we would have liked to get off the boat earlier, but had to wait around to pick up the photo CD.
~Debarkation~
*I highly recommend doing express walk off. The line for exiting around 7:30am was very long for those who left their luggage out the night before. We got to bypass the line and walk right off and out to the car. The people who had to pick up their luggage had to wait in a long line to leave the boat, and then wait again to get their luggage. We bypassed all of them and went right off, quickly through customs, and into the car. Was in our car in less than 10 mins from the time we picked up our pictures from shutters.
~Ports~
We did not do any excursions, as we prefer to do our own sightseeing.
*San Juan- Lovely city. We especially loved the old fortress. I would love to spend a few days in San Juan some day.
*St. Marteen- Very beautiful. We would have loved to do more, but didnt get the chance to do much sightseeing there. The scenery is amazing though.
~Castaway Cay-
We were one of the first off the boat in the morning and got a good hour and half of swimming in before it started getting busy. Our son woke up that morning (our last full day on board) with a fever, so he wasnt feeling well. We went back on the boat and spent the rest of the day sleeping.
~Laundry~
*$2 a load
*Washers and dryers are both tiny
*Dryer was only about half full and clothes were still damp.
*Be careful not to open the dryer mid cycle to check on the clothes, a lady in the laundry room did that and had to repay to start it again. It wouldnt let her restart without paying again after opening the door.
Overall we had a wonderful cruise. It was our first Disney cruise and something Ive been wanting to do for years. We did an onboard booking for the Magic next December for a surprise trip for my mother in law. I probably wouldnt pay as much as we did for another cruise on the Fantasy though. Dont get me wrong, it was a wonderful vacation, but we had just as much fun on a Carnival cruise. To us, the price difference just isnt worth it.
The 5 night Disney Magic cruise we booked is a great price in our opinion. Im glad we went on the Fantasy, I love all things Disney, but really there is no huge difference between a Disney cruise and any other line (minus the characters of course). There is plenty of fun to be had on any cruise line. So while we loved our Disney cruise, none of us feel that it has to be Disney or nothing. Id take another Carnival or RCL cruise just as happily as I would another Disney cruise.
Im glad we went, it was one of those vacations I wanted to do while our son was still young enough to fully enjoy the kids club. He loved it, of course he loved our France trip earlier this year, and our offsite Disney trips as much as our onsite ones. Kids are easy to please. If you are debating whether to save up for a big Disney cruise, or take a cheaper cruise sooner go for the cheaper one. Disney is wonderful, but its not the only worthwhile cruise line. (Sorry Disers, just want to let those who dream of a Disney cruise that they cant afford know that their children can have a wonderful time on another cruise line.)
