Trip Report 2016 Disney Cruise To Western Caribbean and F&W Festival

Hello Friends!

It feels like it has been ages since I post a complete trip report on this forum. My last one was an abbreviated report on the Wanyama Safari that we took during one of our trips. And before that, my last complete trip report was on the Trade City, USA pin trading event back in 2010! That was 6 years ago! Whoa!

So I thought it is about time I do another report. This will be ongoing that will include a visit to the Kennedy Space Center, a 7-night cruise on the Disney Fantasy, and finally, a few days at WDW. We leave for FL tomorrow heading off to Orlando. Then, after a quick stop at Disney Springs to renew our annual passes, we'll make a quick hop to Epcot, and then we'll pick up a couple of our friends who will be arriving mid afternoon at MCO before heading to Cocoa Beach.

We will visit the Kennedy Space Center on Friday, and then our cruise will commence on Saturday. We will get back to Port Canaveral the following Saturday. Our port-of-calls will be Cozumel, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and of course, Castaway Cay. I have been on a few Disney Cruises before (all of them on the Disney Dream). This will be my first time on the Disney Fantasy, and it will also be my first Halloween Cruise!

And yes, I am very looking forward to it. I have my costume ready!

We will do a number of planned excursion at the various port-of-calls. I'm planning to tour the ruins at Cozumel, and we will do the zip-line plus the bob-sled run in Jamaica. Yeah!

When we get to WDW, we have tickets for the Star Wars dessert party and MNSSHP. And of course, we will be doing F&W festival.

So this will be a packed and exciting trip! I will try to post my reports whenever I can during the trip, but as you can guess, not much during the cruise since I won't have an internet connection (maybe at the port-of-calls since we have international roaming on T-mobile). I hope no one will mind if I also include a report on the Kennedy Space Center on here.

Still have a few more things to pack before our early morning flight tomorrow. I just know that I won't be able to sleep much tonight!

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

We attended our first Star Wars Dessert Party at DHS on this trip. We picked this because a couple of our friends who attended it during their trip earlier in the year highly recommended it. They were also on this trip, and were able to compare what has changed and what hasn't for both the dessert and the show.

The dessert party was located in the Star Wars Launch Bay. It was rather crowded, because we occupied part of the Star Wars display/exhibition area. But it made it convenient for people to see these displays or to get in line for meet-and-greet.

And there were no complaints about the dessert. There were more than enough of them, including nice cheese platter and naan with hummus dips.

Here are the cheese skewers.

And if you prefer the sweet stuff, there were plenty of them. Cupcakes? You want cupcakes?

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Star Wars Dessert Party (cont).

More sweet stuff from the dessert party.

Of course, there has to be fruits, something a bit healthier!

Loved these cookies!

Now this was fun. It was a chocolate ice cream that has been flash frozen in liquid nitrogen.

Zz,

 

[ZapperZ]

Star Wars Dessert Party (cont).

A few more photos of the delightful desserts.

Oh yeah. I ate waaaay too much, which seemed to be the common theme running throughout the entire trip here.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Star Wars Dessert Party (cont).

Soon it was time for the Star Wars show. We were escorted to our reserved viewing area by storm troopers.

And here they were guarding our viewing area and making sure no rebels were able to enter!

Waiting for the show to start, I thought we had the perfect viewing area, but I was wrong.

Soon the show started, and I had a bit of a disappointment with what I was seeing. See if you can pick up why from these pictures.

Having not seen this show earlier, I can only judge what I saw. It was very unfocused, both in the storyline, and in where the guests are supposed to look. There was just way to much overemphasize on the images projected on the building, and not enough fireworks. In fact, I wasn't sure where to look because there were images being projected on several different buildings. What you saw in these photos were only a fraction on what we had to look at.

If they wish to continue doing this, they need to figure out what to do with all those trees! They are definitely in the way. Remember those trees that used to be at the Hub in MK? They were all cut down many years ago so that people could get a better view of the fireworks. If DHS is going to continue with this, then they need to consider what the guests are able and not able to see. After all, supposedly, we in the dessert party were in the prime viewing location. Yet, as you can see, we have quite a bit of an obstructed view of the show, especially the projection.

And this may be a personal preference, but I find it disconcerting to see the fireworks rather off-center from the Chinese theater. There were fireworks from behind other buildings, but the main ones were rather asymmetrical. It just didn't look right.

My friends, who saw the earlier version of this show, wrote a review of it, and from what I gathered, the show was different, and BETTER, back then.

I enjoyed the desserts, but was a bit disappointed with the show. Too much projection, too busy, and too few fireworks.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

On this trip, I had my first chance to see the new Soarin' Over The World. We had a chance to see it 3 times before the morning was over, with wildly different seating each time.

First of all, let's get this out of the way. The images are spectacular and technically superior than the old film. Certainly, there is doubt that the footage they got were astounding. The image and movie quality were jaw-dropping. It is undoubtedly way better than the old film. The clarity and resolution of the images is one of the best that I've seen, especially considering that in this attraction, the audience is still quite close to the screen.

But in the end, it is the content that dictates how successful it is. Is it better than the old Soarin' Over California? In my opinion, NO.

There are a few problems with this. Let's start first of all with the technical aspect.

When we saw Soarin' on our trip last week, we saw it three times on the same day (in fact, twice within half hour, and a total of 3 times by lunch time). We sat at three very different locations. The first one was the prime location, center aisle, center seat, Row 1. The second time, far left in Row 2. Final time, far right in Row 1. We notice SEVERE DISTORTION in both the the far right and far left seats, due to the curvature of the screen. Both the Taj Mahal's towers, and the Eiffel Tower, had an unnatural bent to them that were quite disconcerting and distracting. There were other instances where this distortion became distracting.

I'm sure this type of distortion were there in the old Soarin' movie because they used the same screen, but they were less noticeable then. The new movie had a lot of recognizable "straight, vertical structures", and when these are seen to curve, they become quite noticeable. I think that I was a bit disappointed at how bad the distortion was. I didn't realize it was this severe for someone in those seats. My guess is that this distortion will probably be less obvious for those in the middle area, and for anyone beyond the center seat on the left and right seating section. If you are unlucky enough to get these extreme seats, you might just see some familiar landmarks doing some unnatural bending.

I am extremely disappointed by the digital enhancement and addition they added to the movie. I'm not talking about superimposing or creating those fireworks and stuff at the end. Those we all know are "not real". I'm talking about the digital enhancement that you can't tell, but suspected. I mean, the whale just happened to be jumping out of the water at that exact moment? Really? And the elephant throwing dirt right over as we flew by?

The problem with this is that, it made me suspect and questioned everything that I saw in the movie, and made me wondered if these are real. Are those people walking along the Great Wall of China real, or were they added digitally? Are those ships and boats in Sydney Harbor real? etc.. etc.

Again, I know that these were done in the old film (eg. the golf ball coming at you), but in the old film, this were done judiciously, and also, they were not that obvious. In this new film, they were done enough that it made you questioned on the authenticity of the scenery that you are seeing. This takes away from the "awe" of what you are seeing, because in the back of your mind, you wondered if it is real, or is it Memorex? I certainly did.

The "get in your face" transition from one scene to the next got very tiring after the 2nd one. I don't know if the Imagineers got too enamored by the audience reaction to the "golf ball coming at you" in the old film, but they are overdoing it in this new film. The transition from one scene to the next is just not as smooth and seamless as the old film.

But in the end, the overall effect for me is quite obvious. I had goosebumps the first time I saw Soarin' Over California. The images and music worked very well together. After seeing Soarin' Over The World, I was left with a bit of a disappointment. No goosebumps, no "Wow!". Maybe I was expecting way too much, but I found that I was being distracted by things that I shouldn't be paying attention to in the first place.

It affected the overall experience, and the disappointment at what has happened to one of my most favorite attraction just couldn't be ignored.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

OK, so we love, LOVE the Nutella fruit waffles from Sleepy Hollow at MK. We get this on almost every visit. It also means that we know exactly what this should look like and how it should taste.

So when we visited WDW in Dec. of 2015, we were terribly disappointed with the fruit waffles that we ordered. While they used fresh bananas and blueberries, instead of using fresh strawberries, they used what appeared to be frozen strawberries that had been defrosted. I can tell that because the strawberries were soft, and there was quite a bit of liquid leaching out of it. See picture.

We were terribly disappointed because this wasn't what we were used to, and the lack of fresh strawberries and the watery frozen ones just ruined the whole thing. But we were more disappointed that they've changed our favorite snack to something worse. I remember mentioning to the rest of the group that I was hoping that this was just a temporary thing, that maybe their supplier didn't have fresh strawberries.

Fast-forward to this trip (Oct. 2016), and I am please, PLEASED to report that my old Nutella fruit waffles are back! Fresh strawberries, bananas, and blueberries on top of a thick Belgian waffle smothered in Nutella spread. YUM!

So, you see, it doesn't take much to make me happy here. Just don't mess with the things that I obsessed over, and we will all be fine!


Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

On this trip, we made use of several NEW DVC perks that were just instituted this year, and a few just recently.

On the ship itself, we used the 10% DVC discount for merchandise purchases above $50 (yeah, right, as if getting to $50 will be a struggle). At the parks, it was even more generous. It started about 1 or 2 months before we got there, but we received 20% discounts on purchases at the parks and resorts! Even at Starbucks, we got 20% off on the Starbucks merchandise (no, not on the drinks, though). Of course, there had always been discounts at dinning establishments all though WDW, but I think they've expanded this even more to include several counter service restaurants at the parks, including Flame Tree BBQ.

But of course, the perks that we got this year (and won't last, by all indication) is the DVC lounge at the Imagination Pavilion. This is such a nice place to relax, and having the ability to charge your electronics, free fountain drinks, and the occasional snack cart are nice touches. As I've said before, I wish they'd make this permanent, because all the members I've spoken too loved this perk.

I've posted photos of the lounge, but you can't get the full sense of it from the photos. So here are a couple of panoramic shots that I took.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Here are a few photos of HalloWishes from this trip.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

HalloWishes (cont).

I only have a point-and-shoot camera, so please excuse the quality.

Zz.

 

[DimpledDevil18]

Your report is REALLY making me want to go on a cruise. I've never been!

 

[ZapperZ]

These two videos are the Disney's PhotoPass videos of us riding the Dwarfs Mine Train and Tower of Terror.





Videos that we took ourselves during this trip will have to wait till I have time to do the editing.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Two more photos from the cruise that I should have included earlier.

When the ship made an unscheduled detour to Miami to medvac a sick passenger, there was a rainbow over Miami when viewed from the ship. I was alert enough to snap a panorama shot of it.

If you've followed my cruise report, there were a lot of food and a lot of eating and snacking. I was trying to be good, though, in the sense that I did spent 4 mornings in the fitness center inside the Senses Spa on the ship. I did some weight training and then 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. It meant that I could eat some more!

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Here's the first of our own videos, and I'm starting at the end. This is the "See Ya Real Soon" farewell presentation on the Disney Fantasy on the final full day of our cruise.



Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Up next is the video that we took of the fireworks from the Disney Fantasy during Pirate Night.



Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Thought I should pick this back up where I left off....

Here's another video from the cruise. This time it was the Halloween Party on the Disney Fantasy, which was called Mickey's Mouse-Querade Party.



Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Another video. This one is the compilation of the videos that we took during our shore excursions on Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.

Enjoy!



Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

If you've been following this report, I mentioned here while we were touring the San Gervasio ruins on Cozumel about the rather narrow steps that can be seen there. I wrote that they climbed the steps sideways so as not to show their back to the Gods and to the "mortals".

Here, in this video, our tour guide Luis explained and demonstrated this.



Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

There's already plenty of this video being uploaded on here, I'm sure, but here's our version of the Festival of Fantasy Parade that we recorded during this trip.



Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

I made a quick live post during the trip on DHS being invaded by the Storm Troopers. This is the full video of that "invasion".



Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

You saw earlier the PhotoPass version of our ride on the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train attraction. This is our video of that ride.



Zz.