The Not So Fab Four on the Disney Fantasy...Complete

[nearlyfallinstar]

If you don't already have your pirate gear, plan on shopping the day after Halloween - you'll find some good deals.

I have my eye on a few pirate costumes to see if I can get a good deal on them after Halloween! Happy to see I'm not the only one who thinks of things like this!

 

[FlytoMickey]

Following!

 

[JennyK822]

Following! We will be doing the fantasy for Star Wars Day at Sea in March. Until then, I will be obsessed with reading trip reports!

 

[tmarie]

Following!

Thanks so much for following along. I'm hoping to update more this evening.

 

[tmarie]

Following! We will be doing the fantasy for Star Wars Day at Sea in March. Until then, I will be obsessed with reading trip reports!

Thank you for following! Trip reports definitely help pass the time right? I do the same thing.
Your trip will be here before you know it.......you're going to have such a great time!!!

 

[Quellman]

Jim was still in a HAPPY mood after our great day and as you know, timing is everything. I said to him "Do you think we should stop by the future cruise desk?" He said "sure!" YIPEE!!!!!!!!!! I didn't waste one second and before I knew it, we had booked a placeholder.
We probably won't go until 2018 but that's ok....I still have something special to look forward too - even if it is 2 years away!

I love the earlier teaser about how Happy Jim was and how it would play out by the end of the day! Another cruise, even if only a place holder is awesome!

 

[tmarie]

I love the earlier teaser about how Happy Jim was and how it would play out by the end of the day! Another cruise, even if only a place holder is awesome!

LOL! Thank you!! We already have plans for next summer so 2018 it is! I'm already counting down the days!

 

[tmarie]

I apologize it took me SOOOOO long to update!!


Friday August 19, 2016 – Castaway Cay

Everyone’s favorite day! It’s a little bittersweet because we know that being on this beautiful island means our vacation is almost over. Not going to dwell on that now!

I went to deck 4 and only walked 2 miles because DUH……I have an island to get too! This is the heavens shining down on us as we are getting closer to Castaway Cay.


I arrived back in the room in plenty of time to watch us dock from our verandah. But before we docked, I enjoyed this little beauty.


Wishing I were here right now...


We were supposed to have an all clear time of 9:45am but we were actually cleared a little earlier. Let me just tell you that we could not have asked for a more beautiful day….not a cloud in the sky with a high of about 80 degrees. Remember, we are from Vegas – 80 is perfect to us. We departed the ship, took a few pictures and then parked ourselves at the far end of the Castaway family beach.





There were plenty of chairs available here all day long. It was definitely a great spot…..not as crowded as the beach area closest to the ship. We put our chairs in the water and enjoyed the sun, the water, the view and of course a drink of the day. This is heaven on earth……….I LOVE everything about it!


Jim and Austyn went snorkeling and saw the underwater Mickey as well as a turtle and a sting ray. Around 12:00ish we went to lunch at Cookies and then looked around at a few shops. My chair in the water was missing me and we can’t have that, so back to my favorite spot we went. We all swam, relaxed and soaked in every second of this gorgeous island.






Peek A Boo....I Sea You!!

We packed up around 3:00pm and headed back to the ship. While we showered, I did my last two loads of laundry. We finished packing (UGH – I despise this part!) and headed to Royal Court for our last dinner. It’s always so sad saying goodbye to our servers – even though we’ve only known them for a week, they feel like family. We said goodbye to the fun tablemates around us and went to enjoy our last evening on the ship. The girls went with their friends to “A Journey to Remember” in the Walt Disney theater while Jim and I went up to deck 13 to watch our last sunset.



Why does everything have the word “LAST” involved with it??? It just isn’t right!
After the sun went down, we went to Shutters to pick out our pictures and then headed to the theater where we caught the last 10 minutes of the show. Of course this is where they show you everything that made your past week so incredibly special – someone please pass me a Kleenex. The girls spent more time with their friends while Jim and I played a little shuffleboard and then went to Disney Movie Music Trivia where you guessed it – we lost again. NO Disney hardware for the Melson family – that’s ok, it just means we need to practice our skills and come back again! We then caught the end of the “See Ya Real Soon” show in the atrium. We all got very teary eyed that the end of our vacation was becoming a reality. The girls said tearful good byes to their friends and then we did what every girl does when they’re sad – we went shopping! We bought a few last minute souvenirs (which didn’t lift my spirits much) and then headed back to the cabin. Let me just back up a bit and say that throughout the week, we had given little goodie bags that included candy, chocolate and gum to some of our favorite cast members. I had read here on the boards that they enjoy getting treats from home – for all that these amazing people did for our family, this was the least we could do. Back to my report, when we arrived back at our cabin, there was a bag on our door with a nice note from the crew saying we made their sailing extra special. UMmmmm…….they have it totally backwards – they are the ones who made our sailing extra special!! We don’t know why we received this bag, but are so totally grateful that the crew thought of us. Inside the bag was a bag of Mickey balloons, (2) Mickey EOS chapsticks and (4) Mickey rice krispy treat bars. I still can’t believe they did this for us! Even though we received these special treats, we still wanted our cookies and milk. We ordered room service for the last time and called it a night. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day!

 

[tmarie]

OOPs....I forgot to post the Navigators for yesterday's update.





And I love this picture of the cast members photobombing us!

 

[JoAnnPan]

Wow you got some beautiful sunset/rainbow pictures!! Can i ask how was the temp on deck 4 was in the morning? - will i need a jacket if doing a walk say around 7-8am? (going in early Nov). Once again thanks for sharing - your report has made me even more excited for my upcoming cruise!

 

[tmarie]

 

[tmarie]

Wow you got some beautiful sunset/rainbow pictures!! Can i ask how was the temp on deck 4 was in the morning? - will i need a jacket if doing a walk say around 7-8am? (going in early Nov). Once again thanks for sharing - your report has made me even more excited for my upcoming cruise!

Hi and thanks so much! The shaded side of deck 4 was very comfortable and the side that was in the sun felt like a sauna!
I never needed a jacket but maybe bring a hoodie just in case? I wore a hoodie inside a few times, but never outside. Hopefully you'll have the same gorgeous weather that we had. I bet you are getting SO excited........you are going to have a GREAT time!!!

 

[SS_Mama]

Ok! Why do I feel sad at the thought of your last day?! I guess it's that Disney magic that you don't want to end for yourself or anyone else! Thanks again for a great trip report!!

 

[tmarie]

Ok! Why do I feel sad at the thought of your last day?! I guess it's that Disney magic that you don't want to end for yourself or anyone else! Thanks again for a great trip report!!

Thanks for sharing the sadness with me! I guess we all know it's coming at the end of our wonderful week, but it sure is tough! Thanks for reading along as well.

 

[tmarie]

Saturday August 20, 2016

How can this day be here already? My dream vacation was just that……..a gorgeous, delightful dream that came to an end way too fast.

It was a typical morning……..shower, pack and get ready to go. Our Caribbean colds were still going strong so I packed lots of Kleenex for the flight home. We skipped breakfast and headed to the atrium around 8:00ish where people were already disembarking. The girls ran into their friends and that turned into another tearful goodbye. I’m the one who should by crying – I’m going home without Novlette, Elvin, & Satya and I still don't have a laundry fairy!

We sadly excited the ship and made our way thru the port. We tipped our porter up front and he was absolutely wonderful in getting our bags, getting us thru customs and onto the Tragical Express. We arrived at the airport about 9:45am and were greeted by another wonderful porter to help us with our bags. Again, we are from Vegas and we believe in tipping generously as we know how hard these folks work. This porter went above and beyond. We followed him thru the airport (past all of the kind folks heading to the magical express – take care of my ship for me!) past a HUGE Southwest line and back outside where we were immediately taken care of. I know this porter saved us at least an hour wait in the Southwest line – thank you kind sir! The line for security looked long but I don’t think it took us more than 10 minutes. We had Starbuck’s for breakfast and bought more Kleenex in the gift shop for the flight home.

The flights were on time and uneventful and we were back in the Vegas desert at 3:30PM. Although I was protested doing laundry on vacation, it sure was nice that I only had one load to do when we got home. Clean clothes were put away and I think we were totally unpacked in one hour. It was nice knowing we had everything done so we could relax on Sunday before getting back to reality on Monday.

Thanks so much to all of you that followed along. And to those of you that are cruising soon, have a magical vacation!
We love you DCL and we'll see you in 2018!!

 

[CampbellzSoup]

you guys look GREAT on formal night...ugh the new ugly mickey is now on cruiseline too.

 

[tmarie]

you guys look GREAT on formal night...ugh the new ugly mickey is now on cruiseline too.

Thank you! And yep - he's on board.

 

[EllieBride]

Loved your report. Sounds like an amazing trip.

Thanks for the tip about post-Halloween pirate sales. May I ask where you found the pirate costumes at? I'll be happy if I can get my husband to wear a pirate t-shirt!

 

[tmarie]

Loved your report. Sounds like an amazing trip.

Thanks for the tip about post-Halloween pirate sales. May I ask where you found the pirate costumes at? I'll be happy if I can get my husband to wear a pirate t-shirt!

Thanks so much! I believe we got the costumes at Spirit Halloween. I totally understand about your husband. The first time we cruised my husband didn't participate..........I'm glad he did this time as he really had a lot of fun. (His costume was mostly accessories - jacket & hat. He already had the t-shirt and sweatpants)

 

[klug_bug2010]

You have a beautiful family! I really enjoyed your trip report and pics. I do have one question.... Did your girls complain of their hair braiding hurting? I would love to have our 9 yr old's hair braided, but I'm afraid it's going to hurt. Also, where did you have it done?