The Pay It Forward TR-Concierge on Disney Fantasy Eastern Jan. 26, 2013–Complete!

[Ensusieasm]

Hi cblack, Thanks for your TR so far. I was wondering if you had a DCL Beach excursion in San Juan?

 

[jilljill]

I found my husband in your pics from the lounge on embarkation day. Too funny.

 

[jilljill]

Love Julia and Alice (have not met Kemisha)! They really are so great and so sweet, aren't they?!

All 3 ladies were the best! Kemisha used to be Guest Services manager on the Magic, she did the Baltic and Med cruises in 2010.

 

[cblack]

Hi Cassie!
Enjoying reliving our trip through your trip report. We were on the same cruise, had the same dining rotation and sat at table 77 each night...cool, huh? Had a fabulous time...loved the Fantasy! Your pics are excellent.
Jen

That is funny! I'm surprised we didn't see you (or maybe we did and the memories from the cruise are already seeping out of my brain).

Hi cblack, Thanks for your TR so far. I was wondering if you had a DCL Beach excursion in San Juan?

We did the Isla Verde excursion with Disney, which included a beach day. I will try to get to that part as soon as I can! Thanks for reading along!

I found my husband in your pics from the lounge on embarkation day. Too funny.

That is funny! I was bummed that I never ran into you. Did you enjoy the cruise?

 

[cblack]

Exciting news! We booked a dummy date while we were on this cruise expecting that we wouldn't sail until 2015 sometime...however, I told Jeremy that if a southern caribbean came out, he should expect some nagging and whining until we book it. HA! Thanks, Disney! I suppose it isn't offically booked, but the email went to the TA about 5 minutes ago to book the September 27 Southern Caribbean. We decided to not travel concierge this time because we will be in ports everyday, and honestly, there isn't much we want to book ahead of time (both said nah to Palo, maybe a massage, but nothing too fancy, and no CC, so no cabanas). Yay! Another trip to plan!

Ok, back to the trip report. Sorry I have been slacking a bit - work is crazy right now! When I last left you, we were getting to bed WAY too late for a 4 year old. The next day was a sea day, so we were hoping we could keep things positive and still have fun even though we would all be wiped. We started the morning with a whole host of characters. We saw Buzz Lightyear, Stitch, Pluto, and Woody and Jessie. Jayden's fear of characters came out in full force this morning. I think it was because 1) she had no sleep and 2) they were back to back to back. You can see she is a bit stressed, and the fact that we are in the photos, too should tell you that she had a death-grip on us and wouldn't let go:

OK, now that that torture is over! I know Disney is trying to ensure that there are plenty of characters for all, but it was one line to the next for most of the morning. Buzz, Woody and Jessie came out 2 times during the cruise. Phineas and Ferb also came out this morning, but we never did go see them. After the character fun , it was time for us to go to Palo brunch and drop her at the kid's club. So, crabby kid, not happy because she was shoved in pictures with big characters with big heads and open mouths, and we want to drop her off to play alone. Ha -- good luck Mom and Dad! Luckily, the CM there was AMAZING! She noticed that Jayden was a bit anxious and grabbed her hand and skipped off to play dress up. YAY!

Jeremy and I went to Palo brunch to celebrate our anniversary:

Brunch was great. Our server was Fernando and he did a great job learning what kinds of things we liked/didn't like and made great recommendations. I don't remember everything I ate (LOL - it was a lot, though), but I do remember the Chicken Parmigian....WOW! I was so full by the time it came, but it was SO good. After we stuffed ourselved to the gills, we waddled back to get Jayden. We discovered this door along the way:

There was a man standing near the door, and as he was getting ready to knock on it, he was saying, "surely Disney wouldn't put someone in this room." Didn't you hear, buddy, that is a secret discounted room! Before he knocked, I shared that I thought that door was indeed the side of the room around the corner, so he didn't knock. Whoever was in that room...you are VERY welcome!

We arrived at the club and Jayden was sitting down where they serve lunch, but had declined any food. She was so excited, she could hardly slow down to tell me why. Apparently, Tinkerbell came into the kid's club while she was there and gave her a little bag and she got to color with her. Score for the kid's club! We stopped by the quick-food places (sorry, can't remember the name and getting too tired to look it up) to get her pizza and fries and headed back to the room.

Manitoba Mickey (on the DIS) came to visit us in our room for a bit. It was nice to sit down and chit chat! After Jayden polished off her food, she declared that she would be taking a nap. What a wonderful idea! I laid down with her and we snoozed for a couple hours. Jeremy woke us up around 5 so we could get ready for dinner. I don't know what Jeremy did while we were sleeping, but he said, "I wandered around." Well, there you go folks...I think he will do the next trip report.

Dinner tonight was at Royal Palace. I love the theming in this restaurant and the artwork is amazing. Take time to walk around and look at all of it! Of all the food on the cruise, this night was my least favorite. I'm going to blame it on myself for making bad choices, but it was just blah. The good news was that I was still waddling from brunch, so I didn't need more food anyway! After dinner, we had some fun in the atrium and met some of our friends:

I laughed everytime we saw Ariel because she thought that Jayden's name was Georgia - she called her that the whole trip and Jayden never corrected her.

We went to see the show, Disney Wishes. I would say the show was cheesy, but Jayden loved it. After the show, we went swimming (surprise, right?). The water was freezing on this night because of a recent refill of the pool due to a "sanitary reason." Or, as Jayden says, "someone pooped in the pool!"

After swimming and the late night before, we all crashed. Tomorrow would bring dry land - woohoo!!!

Up next: Our first port day! St. Thomas and the Kon Tiki Excursion

 

[MomToPrincePhillip]

DH is a reluctant cruiser (1st one is in May, so we'll see), anyways he saw the Southern itinerary and he is actually interested. But I can't get prices on line yet, do I have to call our TA? Or could you book now because of your past cruises?

 

[cblack]

DH is a reluctant cruiser (1st one is in May, so we'll see), anyways he saw the Southern itinerary and he is actually interested. But I can't get prices on line yet, do I have to call our TA? Or could you book now because of your past cruises?

You can book online now. When you search, just don't select a departure port (select September or October 2014, Caribbean, and number of people) and it will pull up the southern caribbean cruises. Hope that helps!

 

[MomToPrincePhillip]

You can book online now. When you search, just don't select a departure port (select September or October 2014, Caribbean, and number of people) and it will pull up the southern caribbean cruises. Hope that helps!

Thank you, it did help. We found it and the 27th of September departure would be perfect for celebrating my 40th birthday...but DH doesn't want to book until he's been on a cruise.

Oh well, maybe he'll let us book on board in May

 

[jilljill]

That is funny! I was bummed that I never ran into you. Did you enjoy the cruise?

We had a great time and loved the concierge lounge and all associated with it, especially Alice, Julia and Kemisha.
I remember seeing your daughter in lounge since I remember her fancy ankle bracelet. LOL! I probably commented on it to you at some point during the week. I had forgotten who was staying concierge from the meets thread and we didn't get to the meet & greet since DH wasn't feeling well and I totally forgot about it until that night.
We took a tour of your cabin after you left it the last morning. We also took a tour of the Roy.

We're booked on the 9/20/14 Southern Caribbean, we didn't go concierge this time either since there are so many port days.

 

[Conorama]

... we didn't get to the meet & greet since DH wasn't feeling well and I totally forgot about it until that night.

We totally forgot the meet too! Fortunately, I ran into Cassie at Cabanas.

 

[Ensusieasm]

We did the Isla Verde excursion with Disney, which included a beach day. I will try to get to that part as soon as I can! Thanks for reading along!

 

[cblack]

It is at the courtyard Marriott.

 

[Ensusieasm]

Thank you so much for letting me know that the Isla Verde beach excursion is at the Courtyard Marriott. I have been all over the Dis Boards trying to find out for months! I know it was but since I'm cruising in only 21 days I'm glad you let me know. Now I can settle back and enjoy your wonderful Trip Report!
Thank you! Thank you!

 

[maryr1oz]

REALLY enjoying your report!!

Beautiful photos

My sister-in-law works in the Salon on the Fantasy, so i love reading reports to hear what's going on during her time

 

[lizzyb]

Waiting for the next installment!

 

[Linda67]

Loving your TR
You have some wonderful photos of DD with the characters

 

[cblack]

Thank you so much for letting me know that the Isla Verde beach excursion is at the Courtyard Marriott. I have been all over the Dis Boards trying to find out for months! I know it was but since I'm cruising in only 21 days I'm glad you let me know. Now I can settle back and enjoy your wonderful Trip Report!
Thank you! Thank you!

No problem at all!

REALLY enjoying your report!!

Beautiful photos

My sister-in-law works in the Salon on the Fantasy, so i love reading reports to hear what's going on during her time

Thanks for reading along! How does she like working on the ship?

Waiting for the next installment!

Hopefully tonight!

Loving your TR
You have some wonderful photos of DD with the characters

Thanks for reading along!

 

[cblack]

Welcome to St. Thomas!

We started off this morning with quick snacks from the concierge lounge for breakfast. Julia, Alice, and Kemisha made sure that we had plenty of sunscreen, water, etc. We met for our excursion a little after 9 am in The Tube. Around 9:30 or so, we all headed down to deck 1 to get off of the ship. Just a little bit about excursions - if you book these ahead of time, you will get tickets in your room that tell you when and where to meet. When you get to the meeting location, they will make sure you have your Key to the World Card and ID (if over 18 ), as you will need these to get back on the ship. They will give you a sticker with a character on it. When you leave the ship, the crew will have a sign with that same character...the idea is, follow the sign with your character and you will make it to the right place.

5 other large ships were in port in St. Thomas on this day...at full capacity, they estimated that around 30,000 people would be stopping at St. Thomas. This definitely influenced our port adventure selection, and our plan was to get away from St. Thomas

We walked 3 ship lengths (I know because there were three ships there) to a small boat that was pulled right up behind the third ship. Immediately upon boarding the Kon Tiki, they offered everyone water and introduced themselves. The crew was great - all very friendly!

We went to the other dock in St. Thomas to pick up passengers from another cruise ship that was in port. They played music on the way, and Jayden entertained us (and a few others) with dancing:

I can't remember the other ship that was on our excursion, but there was definitely an, um, er....age difference They were fun, but did not get into the music atmosphere as much as us Disney folk! As we cruised from St. Thomas to Water Island (where this excursion goes), the crew gave us a bit of history about the island and did some music trivia. Once we got close to Water Island and Honeymoon Beach, the crew put the glass bottoms down so we could see fish (at least, that is what was supposed to happen). When no fish arrived, the crew threw fish food off of the side of the boat and then we saw lots of fish fighting over food:

As we putted up to the beach, we had a chance for a rare family photo:

Let me just say that this beach was beautiful - the sun was out, blue skies, soft sand, not too many waves - definitely a good beach day Unfortunately, and we knew this, we would only get to hang out at the beach for a little over an hour. We decided that we wouldn't get food on the beach (although you can), because we wanted to play the whole time. Here are a few shots from the day:

A couple thoughts - take sand toys if you have kids. Jayden shared hers' with another family, but there is no way to get them once you are there, and this is good sand to play in. Also, the Kon Tiki will honk its horn three times when it is time to go, so you don't have to worry about keeping track of time.

On our way back to the dock, the crew played music, did a conga line, limbo, and had snacks. The snacks were not overpriced and hit the spot (think chips, candy, etc.). This is a crew member and Jayden limboing:

After they dropped us off at the dock, we walked the three ship-lengths back to the Disney ship, although it felt like much longer. Hi, Dumbo!

We got lunch at Flo's Cafe (that's the name of the quick food place I mentioned earlier) and ate lunch in the room. Jayden declared that she was taking a nap. Again, I thought this was a good idea, and I joined her. Tonight, was pirate night:

We had dinner at Animator's Palette and it was great! This was, by far, my favorite main dining room meal. I know that some folks don't like it, but the short ribs were great. I don't have many pictures after this because we decided to just relax. Jayden is not a fan of pirates, anyway, so we just hung out in our room during all of the partying. We did get a few snacks in the concierge lounge right before it closed at 10pm. Jayden took a bath, and I got a few things ready for San Juan the next morning. We all felt much better after having dedicated "chill time" on this night, so I am so happy that we made that a priority. So, another suggestion...if you or your family are stressing, think about what you would do at home to relieve that stress. For us, staying home is a stress reliever because it seems like we are always going, and it did the trick! We walked out on deck 12 right before the fireworks started, we watched those, and then went to bed.

This was our second time visiting St. Thomas, and it didn't disappoint!

Up next: San Juan had quite the welcome for us!

 

[lizzyb]

We are looking at the Kon tiki tour.. what time did you get back? I am wondering if we would have enough time to do that tour and the skyride.

 

[cblack]

We are looking at the Kon tiki tour.. what time did you get back? I am wondering if we would have enough time to do that tour and the skyride.

We got back to the ship around 2. I think that should allow enough time for paradise point.