My family and I took the dream vacation of a lifetime on Disney's brand new ship (at the time), the Disney Fantasy, in November of 2012. It was our highly anticipated first Disney Cruise and it not only met, but exceeded all of our expectations. The ship was beautiful and elegant, the crew was at our beck and call, the ports of call were exotic, and the week was filled with Disney magic around every corner.
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| My husband, myself, MICKEY, my 2 step kids and my son |
Our first impression of the cruise was warm and welcoming as we walked on board into a grand atrium to a crew member announcing, "Welcome, Burbank family," followed by applause. I felt so important with the applause and the grandness of the ship. The feeling of importance would permeate the entire week and would contribute greatly to our satisfaction. We all strive to feel important and Disney is the master of meeting this need, especially on their cruises.
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| Donald and other characters greeted guests as they boarded the ship. |
The first thing that struck me after boarding the beautiful and classic new ship was my step daughter, Courtney, thanking her dad and I over and over for taking us on such an amazing vacation. Before setting sail, we enjoyed a snack at Flo's Cafe on deck 11 and Courtney asked what she could do to thank us. I told her that all we needed as thanks, was for her and the boys to have fun, which they did! It warmed my heart to see the joy and awe on the kids' faces as we toured the ship that first day.
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| Everybody on board enjoyed the "Adventures Away" sail away party |
It's so fun when a much awaited event arrives, and that first day on the Disney Fantasy was a day we had been anticipating for quite awhile. We were now on the ship, living the dream, and having the time of our lives. A fun sailing away party called "Adventures Away" on the pool deck stage, started our cruise out right. Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy sang and danced while the passengers got excited for our ship to start sailing. A beautiful sunset was the backdrop as we sailed out of Port Canaveral full of excitement for our week long Disney Cruise adventure.
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| The sunset as we sailed away from Port Canaveral |
After our sail away party with Mickey and the gang, we went to our first dinner aboard the Disney Fantasy. It turned out that our first restaurant (out of 3 we would rotate through), the Animator's Palate, would be our favorite restaurant. We walked into a delightful room with larger than life paint brushes and Disney animation adorning the walls. Our table was next to a collection of pictures of Crush, the turtle from Finding Nemo. When our waiter told us we'd be getting a visit from Crush soon, I had no idea that those pictures would come alive and Crush would be talking to us and interacting with us, but they did and he did.
While we waited for our food, Crush came alive before our very eyes, and welcomed everyone. He proceeded to give us games to play and even talked to passengers, including my son, Braden (who was thrilled)! In my opinion, the best part of the Crush entertainment is when he had us stand up and learn some of his dance moves. Every time he said Dude, Awesome, or Cool, Crush gave us a different dance move to do. All of the guests enjoyed getting their groove on before dinner, especially the kids. As a big kid, however, I felt like I was having the most fun. I thought to myself, "This is so Disney, I've never had so much fun at dinner." I could tell the bar had been set high for dinner time on the Disney Fantasy (Oh, and the food was good too)!
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| Everywhere we went on the ship, there were fun spots for kids. |
Our first full day on the ship was a day at sea and it was glorious. We took advantage of the great Disney kids clubs and took the boys to the Oceaneers Lab and left them looking happy and excited. We took Courtney up to the Edge for the tweens, located in the non-functional red funnel. My husband, Mike, and I then went to listen to a behind the scenes talk by ESPN sports analyst Sage Steel, in the classic and lovely Buena Vista Theater. She told the audience her inspirational story of how she got on ESPN and also about how crazy and hectic a day in the life of an ESPN analyst is. If I ever had aspirations of getting into the sports analyst business (which I didn't), I no longer did!
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| You can see the clear tubes of the AquaDuck on both sides of the ship |
We spent the rest of the day enjoying the gorgeous ship and all of her amenities. We went on the much anticipated AquaDuck and although the line was long, it was worth the wait. Not only was it a blast hurdling through a clear waterslide high above the ocean and pool deck, but it was wonderful to see my son having so much fun, (he would later write an essay on it for school)! He said over and over that the AquaDuck was his favorite thing to do on the Disney Fantasy. The unlimited free ice cream at the Eye Scream Treats ice cream station was a close second!
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| Braden swam in the pools every chance he got! |
Our day at sea was leisurely and the weather was warm and perfect. As dinnertime approached, I knew I didn't want to spend an hour and half indoors, especially when our 5:45 pm assigned dinner occurred during sunset (sunsets at sea are sacred to me), despite how much fun we had at dinner the previous night.
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| Enjoying the mini golf course all to ourselves on a lovely evening |
Instead of going inside and getting ready for dinner, we chose to play mini-golf on Goofy's Sport Deck (deck 13 aft), where I got my glorious sunset over the lovely Caribbean Sea. It was a magical moment for me to be with my family in such a beautiful setting, while everyone was having so much fun together. It was a bonus to have the golf course all to ourselves since most of the passengers were inside at the early show or dinner.
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| Braden poses at one of the whimsical holes and goes on to win the game |
It was a fun and whimsical mini golf course starring Goofy and his son, with 9 interactive and "goofy" holes. Braden was on fire with four hole in ones and won the game much to his delight. Of course I did give him 2 mulligans but everyone else got 2 as well so the win was legit. He was ecstatic!
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| The sun getting ready to set as we played mini golf |
I snapped a million pictures, for the lighting this time of night at sea is spectacular, as we played our game. It was a fun time for all of us and the scenery was breathtaking so we were all happy with our decision to skip dinner. We still had to eat, however, so after our game we found Cabanas at the back of deck 11. We had a nice table service dinner and I was impressed that the alternative to our assigned dinner was not a buffet.
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| The inside of the ship is as beautiful as the outside is fun |
Day 3 brought us lots of excitement as it was our first port of call, Grand Cayman, where we booked our only shore excursion of the cruise. This worked out nicely for us since Cayman was our only tender (we would be taken to port on a smaller boat) and those with "Port Adventures" get tender priority. We went to the Tube, an adults only bar by night, to meet our Port Adventure group and were seamlessly taken to our tender.
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| A view of the Fantasy from our tender boat |
I had the usual excitement of visiting a new place for the 1st time bubbling up inside me. My initial impression of Grand Cayman was the amazing color of the water, a beautiful, light aqua blue. Once on land, I was immediately impressed with with the cleanliness of Grand Cayman compared to other Caribbean cities I've been to. The Cayman Islands are a haven for the rich, with no taxes, and this was evident in the pretty buildings and luxurious cars. The cars drove on the "wrong" side of the road, as the kids put it, which they thought was pretty cool.
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| Courtney, Michael and Braden at Grand Cayman |
For our Port Adventure, we were going to visit Stingray City, a unique sand bar out at sea where fisherman stop to empty their scraps. Over time, the stingrays have figured out that this is an easy way to get food and they have learned to associate the sound of a boats motor with food. As a result, when they hear the tourists coming by boat, they come swimming in by the masses.
When we arrived to the sand bar, we got out of the boat after instructions from the captain, which included how not to get stung (yes, the stingrays still have their stingers)! The water felt like a warm bath and looked like a pool of aquamarines.
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| The stingrays are so tame, they can be held |
As soon as the stingrays showed up, all 3 kids completely freaked out which was disappointing since I picked this adventure with them in mind. Courtney and Michael quickly bailed and got back into the boat. I was able to talk Braden into snorkeling a little further away from where the stingrays were being held and fed. He became more at ease and enjoyed seeing other fish but held onto me each time a stingray passed. I, on the other hand, found this place unique and awesome.
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| The beautiful aquamarine water at Stingray City. |
It might have been better for the kids if the water had been calmer. It was unusually rough as a result of a storm from the night before which made it hard to control your footing and this was the important step needed to avoid getting stung. It was still a neat experience even if it didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped. If I was worried about the kids not enjoying themselves in Grand Cayman, all was redeemed when we found Margaritaville for lunch and were seated at a table right next to a pool with a waterslide. When the boys asked me if they could go swimming while we waited for our food, I could see that they were in little boy heaven when I said that they could.
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| The pool right in the middle of Margaritaville |
We would have 3 more ports of call during our exciting Western Caribbean cruise; Cozumel, Mexico, Costa Maya, Mexico, and Disney's private island, Castaway Cay, Bahamas. Unanimously, our favorite stop was Castaway Cay.
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| Mike and I watched us approach Castaway Cay as the kids slept |
There were so many things to love about Castaway Cay, from the Chip n Dale greeting and the picture perfect beaches, to the convenience of walking right off the ship onto a private island paradise. After a brief tour of the island, we settled in at the family beach. Mike and I watched the kids swim and build sand castles while we sipped Bahama Mama's in the Bahamas. It truly was a day to rival any day in heaven.
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| The kids loved playing in the calm and warm water at Castaway Cay. |
After another relaxing day at sea full of swimming and sunning, it was time for our dream vacation to come to an end. It had indeed been a dream come true and we all felt like crying (because we didn't want it to end) that last night on board the Disney Fantasy. There were so many things to love about our first Disney Cruise, from the ships horns playing 4 different Disney tunes and the magical shows in the Walt Disney Theater to the moving pictures on the walls and the Pirate show with fireworks. For me, I knew it was my love of Disney combined with my love of the sea that had me instantly hooked on Disney cruising.
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| The Fantasy debuted in March 2012 |
. Click here for more pictures from our Disney Fantasy cruise.
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