C&E Disney Fantasy, take 2! 9/10/16 Eastern Caribbean

WDWChloe

life's better at sea
Joined
Oct 10, 2012
Hi, hello and welcome!
^_^

I've read countless trip reports to fill my DCL void between cruises. I'm happy to share our experience to hopefully return the favor to some, and get the rest of you excited for your future cruise!!

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We just returned from the beautiful Disney Fantasy, completing the EC itinerary:

Day 1- Port Canaveral
Days 2 & 3- At Sea
Day 4- Tortola
Day 5- St Thomas
Day 6- At Sea
Day 7- Castaway Cay
Day 8- Port Canaveral :(

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First things first... Intros!

My first mate, fellow Disney adventurer, best friend and husband; Ernest
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And me; Chloe
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We are WDW AP's with an infinite love for the parks, but cruising is the true definition of vacation for us.

Our first Disney cruise together was aboard the Dream for our honeymoon in 2011. I've also sailed on the Wonder with my family when I was younger.

This was our second time aboard the Fantasy - last September we sailed the Western Caribbean with stops in Falmouth, Jamaica; Cozumel, Mexico and Grand Cayman. This time, we enjoyed the Eastern Caribbean so much more, we prebooked the same itinerary for next year!
 
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Looking forward to reading more about your cruise! How great that you enjoyed it so much! :thumbsup2
 


Day 1: Bon Voyage!

Our countdown felt like an eternity. A whopping three-hundred-sixty-something days, booked on our last voyage.
But the day was finally here, September 10th!

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I woke up 20 minutes before my alarm, rubbed my eyes and excitedly popped out of bed to get ready for the day ahead... EMBARKATION! YAY! Ernest was already awake, we both barely slept the night before - too excited!
Though we live 90 minutes away from PC, we stayed with Ernest's parents who live even closer. Plus, they are kind enough to drop us off so we can save on parking. :cutie:

With a 10:30am PAT - we arrived a little earlier than planned... 9:45am, with the port opening promptly at 10:00am.

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It's always a smooth transition through security, checking in and waiting to board. We were assigned boarding group number 2, given our KTTW cards, lanyards and navigator for our exciting day ahead.
To take up some time, we met Captain Mickey (lucked out by being second in queue!), took a few photos outside by the ship, and finally looked over our navigator to see what we should do first when we board!

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Around 11:15am, group number 1 was boarding. Shortly after, at 11:30am, Group number 2 was called! Here we go!!

Side note/Small rant:
When your group is called, walk around the hundreds of fellow cruisers congregating near the entrance waiting for their group to be called - this looks like a boarding queue but it actually isn't. We fell for this last year, waiting behind them for 15 minutes when we figured out our group was called forever ago, and these guests were waiting for a group that wasn't even called yet :teleport:


Within moments, the crew asked our family name and we were formally re-introduced to the beautiful Disney Fantasy. *cue the tears*

Once onboard, we had 30 minutes to burn before lunch at 12pm. Dining reservations/requests wasn't until 1pm at Royal Court to secure our second Palo Brunch. We decided to go up to the top deck to take some more photos.
From there, we were reminded that the Wonder was in port! She was scheduled to leave for Spain the very next day, for her extensive dry-dock. We got some great shots of her, along with some empty upper deck areas.

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Finally, "starved" from no breakfast, it was 12pm! We prefer Enchanted Garden for that first lunch, as it's more of a laid-back and quieter experience. Down to deck 2, we were seated right away. We quickly filled our plates with yummy DCL food. The prosciutto-wrapped salmon is our favorite!

We finished lunch and walked out of EG at 12:45pm - the perfect time to secure a second Palo Brunch at Royal Court, which starts at 1pm. We walked up the atrium staircase from deck 2 to 3, and entered the side entrance to RC. It looks like they opened the doors early, since there was already a line of 2 couples in front of us. After 20 minutes of waiting (not sure what took 2 previous guests so long...), the Palo manager, Luca, reserved us for the last slot on Day 6, at 11am! We loved the Brunch so much last sailing, we decided to indulge with two this time

We had 10+ minutes to wait for our room, so we boarded the aft elevators up to deck 8. There was a bit of a crowd waiting to get into the rooms, we set down our things and -impatiently- waited along with the others! :)

The doors (finally) opened up at 1:45, and we finally located and opened our room for the first time!

#8672, Deluxe Family Oceanview

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We love this room! We had it on the Dream previously and I fell in love with the large porthole.

We perused our cabin and unpacked the carry-ons... no sign of our checked luggage yet, so we decided to check out the Oceaneer Club and IASW nursery open houses:

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I'm sure the kids have so much fun here! With all the little details, each area is so immersive.

From there we took a brief walk around Deck 4 (one of my favorite things to do... Better when you're actually sailing though ;)), added some Disney gift cards to our onboard account at gift services, then headed to our stateroom to see if our luggage had arrived and prep for the muster drill.

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They've added the new gorgeous Enchanted Storybook Castle emblem to Shanghai on the map!


Day 1 Continued Below!
 
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Looking forward to more :)
What did you like more about Eastern Caribbean?
We did Eastern last year and loved it, loved the 3 sea days too.
Next month we are doing Western. Can't wait. I would like to do Eastern again but with a St. Maarten.
 
Day 1 Continued...

Back at the room... Some luggage had arrived, so we started to unpack a bit more. Before we knew it, the muster drill had sounded, so we made our way to Station P at the Tube. This was a nice alternative from previous cruises, when we stood outside on deck 4. The cast members were, dare I say, a bit friendlier and livelier being in the tube than how they were outside. Plus we got to sit on the stage! :D

So what is that thing you do after the muster? Oh... The SAIL AWAY PARTY!!! Woooooo!
We went back to the room to change real quick - just adding bathing suits... Then headed up to deck 11! We usually watch Mickey and the gang countdown but we wanted to head towards the forward adult areas to get a better look at the Wonder as we sailed out of the Port!
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Our traditional stack photo for 2016 ❤️

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As our horn blew "When You Wish Upon a Star" the little Wonder rang right back with the same tune. Low and behold, we were finally witnessing our first horn battle! Once we finish editing &post our cruise video, I'll link to it here since we'll include the "battle" :)

Upon sailing out to sea, we headed down to the Quiet Cove pool and whirlpool areas. After a bit of relaxation, we checked out the gift shops since they were now open after sail away. We saw a few generic things we knew we wanted, but decided to wait until tomorrow so not everything was an embarkation-impulse buy... Though I picked up this little baby:

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Serious. Heart. Eyes.

We then returned to our room to get ready for the evening. We usually skip the first show "A Fantasy Come True". So after some primping, we went up a few decks to the Meridian to enjoy the sunset and try out a beverage or two before dinner.

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The Creme Brûlée martini... Get this if you like 'em strong & sweet!!

We had second seating for dinner, 8:15pm. Our dining rotation was ERAERAE (as requested), so we are in Enchanted Garden again tonight!

We headed back down to deck 2, checked in with the EG hosts, to finally find our table #74 was actually one of the booths in the center of the dining room! This was a nice surprise ^_^
We met our AMAZING dining team: server Igor from Croatia, assistant server Bagus from Indonesia - headed by Harry from Jamaica. We were so happy with them the entire trip, we actually requested Igor for our next sailing if he's around.

No food photos this night, but here is what we enjoyed from the signature EG Menu:

Ernest:
Avocado & Ahi Tuna Tower
Romaine Wedge Salad
Prime Rib with double-baked Potato
Mickey Bar

Chloe:
Cream of Green Asparagus Soup with Crabmeat
Spinach & Raspberry Salad
Pan-Seared Sea Bass
Grand Marnier Soufflé (thanks to Igor for ensuring this for me each night of our cruise. I only told him it's my favorite DCL dessert of all time, and he took it from there.)

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Everything was delicious!! This is our second favorite MDR menu.

We finished the night watching A Goofy Movie on-demand in our stateroom while we finished unpacking. I really wanted to attend the Match Your Mate game in the Tube, but *someone* was too tired from traveling *an hour* to the port, all the excitement and whatnot. That someone was not me fyi. It's all good, he just owes me next year.

Stick around for Day 2 - First Day at Sea, including Palo Brunch!
 
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Sounds like a great day! We are on a Feb Eastern cruise so I'm looking forward to hearing about other folks experiences. It will be our first time on the Fantasy.

I think I'm going to request ERAERAE as our dining rotation. That sounds perfect! I've had the Creme Brulee Martini on other ships and it's fantastic!
 
We are going on this same itinerary in 11 days! I am so excited to see that you can order the Soufflé every night! That is going to be very bad for me! lol. I can't wait to read more!
 
This was our second time aboard the Fantasy - last September we sailed the Western Caribbean with stops in Falmouth, Jamaica; Cozumel, Mexico and Grand Cayman. This time, we enjoyed the Eastern Caribbean so much more, we prebooked the same itinerary for next year!

I'm also curious to hear more, and to hear why you prefer the Eastern Car over the Western Car itinerary.
 
I love your TR so far! I hope you get a chance to write more. We're headed on the Fantasy for the first time next February-same itinerary so would love to hear more about your adventures!:)
 
Joining in…I hope you're coming back to post more! DH and I are thinking of booking the Fantasy for November 2018 and I love reading all about it!

Edited to add: I bought that SAME purse on the Dream last April and I LOVE it!
 

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