Well it's time for another trip report... from Disney Cruise Lines
Where? Disney Fantasy sailing the Eastern Carribean for 7 days
When? Nov 2-9
Who? Me, my wife, and the offspring
I didn't take a ton of photos this time, and the photos I did get I'm not too happy with, so you won't find an overload of photos in this TR.
Prep and Launch
This cruise we booked after our first cruise on the Dream back in Oct 2011. That cruise was a suprise for the family, and while I tried to keep this one a slight suprise, ms flynn caught me at the rebooking desk so that didn't last long
We moved the date to the first week of Nov to make it a bit more kid friendly (end of marking quarter) so I was a little worried about it being cooler.. but we'll get to that.
With a family of five.. flying adds up quickly. We drove last time, and actually had a breakdown on the ride down that was kind of a downer.. and I had upgraded ms flynn's vehicle to a Suburban since.. which gets even worse gas milage, so I was tempted to rent a van for the better MPG and to save the wear on the truck. But after running the numbers.. the MPG difference wasn't enough to pay for the rental.. so we stuck to driving our own truck.
We are in the DC suburbs.. so its a 13+ hr drive for us. The plan was to drive down the day before (Friday) stay overnight in a hotel, and then head to the port after some Ron Jon shopping (required stop for all!).
Plan was to get on the road by 6:30 to get past DC before most of the morning rush hour. This means packing the night before. Well I've been slammed at work, and so had ms flynn, so we were running behind getting ready. Of course with a 7 night cruise comes 'formal' night, in addition to your semi-formal you have on the shorter cruises. So getting 4 women dressed up for dinner every night takes some NEW shopping of course, and a lot more luggage Luckily they had gotten most of the shopping out of the way the week before.. but packing still eluded us. So plan was to do laundry/pack starting Wednesday. Well.. Wednesday night is upon us.. I'm 10 minutes late to run the taxi service to pick up gymnastics car pool, ms flynn is still at work, and my middle one comes running up the stairs 'Dad.. the basement is flooding!!'
Me: Err.. WHAT?!
Child: The water heater is spraying all over!
So I run downstairs, and there is a water spray shooting off the side of the water heater and a huge puddle already. Our basement is unfinished, but is used for storage on that side, and has all my tools and toys down there. So I quickly scramble, shut off the water, send the kids in to start moving stuff out of the flood zone while I go pickup car pool. I get back about an hour later, and find all our christmas stuff had been soaked as well as some other storage stuff. I try to get a plumber out, but can't get one until the morning. So we spend the rest of the night throwing stuff out, lying things out to dry, and sucking up water. So much for packing and laundry!
So next morning, plumber shows up, $400 to replace the expansion tank that failed, and then we can start doing laundry. So ms flynn starts her laundry cycle and gets to packing. I think by 1am we were done packing (all 8+ suitcases) and went to bed.. for our 4am wakeup.
Next morning, Friday, we pack the truck.. thank god we got the bigger truck as it all just fit We are a little late getting out of town, due to the mandatory Dunkin Donuts stop so everyone has some breakfast.. but we hit escape velocity and we’re outta there!
The drive
Once we got on the road.. all was well. The forecast called for the massive storms that hit the midwest to hit the 95 corridor.. but we actually had just a little rain as we left DC and then had a dry run the rest of the way! We stop for gas, and bio-breaks/food, but beyond that we drive straight through. I think Arby’s was the lunch for the day, along with gas station snacks to hold us over.
Last time we stayed at the Hampton Inn in Cocoa Beach. Realize with 5 in a room, your options are a bit more restricted.. but the Hampton was pretty good to us last time, but even tho it was on the ocean block, we never got a chance to take advantage of it due to getting there at night, and the early start. So this time I skipped the beach front to save a few dollars and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Cocoa. It’s right off I-95 in Cocoa, so about 15-20mins to the port. The hotel had been renovated and was decent. Had the typical Florida musty smell it seems all hotels have to some degree.. but met the needs, was clean, and was decently priced $104 total.
We got in town about 8:00.. checked in and got a room literaly right next to the lobby. Not too many cars in the lot We had to find some dinner.. so the kids opt’d for Steak N Shake because they are all milkshake fiends It worked out well, and we headed to bed after a long day.
Day 1!
The morning started off well, we slept in till about 9, and then headed to our required Ron Jon surfshop stop. Ron Jon is a landmark in Cocoa Beach, and is great for getting those flip flops you need, shorts, cover-ups, etc. After a unnecessary splurge there (tho I did pickup some early x-mas presents) we hit more Dunkin, and headed to the port.
I had debated about parking.. but after @sweetpea_1993 ‘s report, I figured I’d just stick to the port. On pulling in, they check everyone’s ID (don’t remember that last time) and we unloaded with the porters. Heading to parking, I had to hear the spiel over paying $20 more for the ‘preferred parking’ lot. Normally I don’t pay for those types of things.. but being right across from the terminal seemed nice, so I pulled in, and we unloaded.
Our ‘preferred’ parking spot
Looks a little windy! Ugly clouds approaching...
But you have to do the obligatory ‘boat in the background’ shots!
We went through security and check-in ok. But while the ms had done the online checkin for us, apparently she didn’t finish something right because they didn’t see us as fully checked in. No worries.. we were reconfiguring the charge card anyways. And they must have thought our old photos were good enough.. because they didn’t take any photos. Our boarding time wasn’t till 1:30, but it was basically that time now so we queued up and they had called our boarding group just then.
A bit more of a line to get on the boat this time.. but ms Flynn was intent on filling out one of those photo books this time, so waiting for the boarding picture was mandatory
This time around, we had some special requests for the kids in the clubs, so we were told on the phone we would have to speak to the activities director. So we tried to figure out where to go, we were sent to Guest Services, but then were told to just goto the clubs directly.
My youngest was only 10.5, but she did the oceaneers club last time and pretty much outgrew it, and she’s big for her age.. so we wanted to get her into Edge (cut off is 11). The middle child is only 13, but would turn 14 2 days after we get back.. and she’s already in highschool and was ‘over’ Edge last time.. so we wanted to get her in Vibe, but the cutoff is 14.
When we went to Vibe.. it was no problem at all to get her in, all we had to do was sign a waiver.. and they gave the kids new Vibe specific cards to replace their standard cruise cards. They were red and said Vibe.. and they grant them access to open the Vibe club door.. which is normally locked to ‘regular’ folk. After that success, we went to Edge to try for the little one.. and again, no problem at all, just sign the waiver, and she’s in. Score! Ms Flynn sought out the head servers to get our special diet needs in.. and we were all set.
Now.. a lesson learned from the TRs here.. was about the special tours and things like Mixology classes they have on board. So it was a quick run to Guest Services to figure out how to book those.. no problem you find the schedule and signup for all the activities right there at Guest Services (so do that early before the lines get big!). We signed up for a Mixology class ($15/head), and to treat the ms I signed up for the Wine+Chocolate tasting ($30/head) as well.
By now we went to see if our luggage and room were ready and they were. Checking out the view
Obligatory lobby statue shots..
And yes, to the dismay of the spirit.. the first days after holloween (Nov 2) the ship was already decorated for Christmas
We headed up to the deck for the departure.. but didn’t really check out the deck party.. not my flavor.
A little view of Canaveral on the way out...
I would have waved to the port webcamera.. but I had no idea where it was!
We had a little bit of an escort on the way out of port..
New on this cruise was the app for the Personal Navigator. Disney sent out an email with instructions, and I think they had a paper in the stateroom as well.. but basically they have wifi all over the boat now, and you are free to connect to it and use the app. The wifi is proxied so you don’t get normal internet access for free, but connecting to the wifi itself is free. But you must download the app before you lose internet access!
Getting the app running is easy enough, but you must follow the steps correctly, else the app acts like it is not connected. Just rushing through it, won’t work typically.. so after a few minutes where Dad had to play tech support.. we had everyone’s devices running the app.
Interesting note.. the internet proxy blocks outgoing, but does not block incoming push notifications! So you still get things like facebook notifications, but you can’t open them, follow-up, etc. You can do the usual pay for internet through the shipboard wifi as well.
The app is overall done very well. It offers view of all activities by categories.. and was especially helpful to see the movie listings and character apperances. It was a great way to see ‘when is the next time Mickey is out.. ‘ etc and is leagues ahead of just using the paper navigator. In addition, its far more convenient to have with you all the time vs the paper navigator.
On our cruise, the app did have a few bugs... who can tell me what’s wrong with this photo?
The issues I had were nominal and didn’t keep me from enjoying the app. It’s a huge benefit. The setup for wifi tho did cause some confusion. I saw more than one family struggling with it at the start of the cruise, including one guy asking me directly for help. His daughter thought she should be getting internet access.. (which she didn’t get for free). Saw him later in the cruise.. he sprung for the paid internet later
Before you know it.. it’s time for dinner! Originally my sister in law with her little kids were going to come with us, so we had the early dinner seating.
Which is better?? I think the early seating is a bit early and always ate into our day plans – but the booking agent actually said main dinning is the preferred one that fills up first. Dunno which I prefer.. what’s your input?
Off to dinner (casual night)
We started in the enchanted garden.. which means we would be there THREE times on this cruise. Lower end of the draw IMO, but was ok.
Surprising (or not) on the Fantasy, not all the light fixtures work in their opening flower mode.. I knew they were problematic on the Dream, but I guess so here as well!
Our servers were Stephenous from Greece, and Mahdai was our assistant server. Now.. I won’t say they were bad, but they were not nearly as on top of their game as our staff was on our last cruise on the Dream. Drinks were slow, not often refilled, and the language barrier was pretty tough. By the third night, I had to say something, and things got better.. but wasn’t the knock out service we had last cruise. However, our Head Server this cruise, was far more engaging and helpful on this cruise, than our last. We had Alberto, and he was great. We saw him every meal, and he helped with our special meals (even sending one to Castaway Cay for me!) and even helped with some drinks when he came by and saw them low
After dinner.. the teenagers were off. We gave them an ambitious 3am curfew this trip.. so we will see how that went.
I can’t recall what we did after dinner.. we weren’t really impressed with the theatre shows last time so in general we didn’t bother with them.
They had a variety show, Wishes, Golden Mickeys, and Aladin, which is a reworked version of the DCA show.
The movie list tho was quite good. We had Planes, Iron Man 3, Monsters University, Thorark World premier, and more. Many of these were offered in 3D as well. I’m pretty sure we watched Monsters University on the first night and then headed for bed.
Remember that 3am curfew? Yeah… offspring #2 blew it on the first night! She rolled in just shy of 3:30.. and I was about 2mins away from going out to find her. Lame excuse offered.. BS detector pegged. She was warned that was her only grace and any more misses would lead to lock down
Where? Disney Fantasy sailing the Eastern Carribean for 7 days
When? Nov 2-9
Who? Me, my wife, and the offspring
I didn't take a ton of photos this time, and the photos I did get I'm not too happy with, so you won't find an overload of photos in this TR.
Prep and Launch
This cruise we booked after our first cruise on the Dream back in Oct 2011. That cruise was a suprise for the family, and while I tried to keep this one a slight suprise, ms flynn caught me at the rebooking desk so that didn't last long
We moved the date to the first week of Nov to make it a bit more kid friendly (end of marking quarter) so I was a little worried about it being cooler.. but we'll get to that.With a family of five.. flying adds up quickly. We drove last time, and actually had a breakdown on the ride down that was kind of a downer.. and I had upgraded ms flynn's vehicle to a Suburban since.. which gets even worse gas milage, so I was tempted to rent a van for the better MPG and to save the wear on the truck. But after running the numbers.. the MPG difference wasn't enough to pay for the rental.. so we stuck to driving our own truck.
We are in the DC suburbs.. so its a 13+ hr drive for us. The plan was to drive down the day before (Friday) stay overnight in a hotel, and then head to the port after some Ron Jon shopping (required stop for all!).
Plan was to get on the road by 6:30 to get past DC before most of the morning rush hour. This means packing the night before. Well I've been slammed at work, and so had ms flynn, so we were running behind getting ready. Of course with a 7 night cruise comes 'formal' night, in addition to your semi-formal you have on the shorter cruises. So getting 4 women dressed up for dinner every night takes some NEW shopping of course, and a lot more luggage
Luckily they had gotten most of the shopping out of the way the week before.. but packing still eluded us. So plan was to do laundry/pack starting Wednesday. Well.. Wednesday night is upon us.. I'm 10 minutes late to run the taxi service to pick up gymnastics car pool, ms flynn is still at work, and my middle one comes running up the stairs 'Dad.. the basement is flooding!!'Me: Err.. WHAT?!
Child: The water heater is spraying all over!
So I run downstairs, and there is a water spray shooting off the side of the water heater and a huge puddle already. Our basement is unfinished, but is used for storage on that side, and has all my tools and toys down there. So I quickly scramble, shut off the water, send the kids in to start moving stuff out of the flood zone while I go pickup car pool. I get back about an hour later, and find all our christmas stuff had been soaked as well as some other storage stuff. I try to get a plumber out, but can't get one until the morning. So we spend the rest of the night throwing stuff out, lying things out to dry, and sucking up water. So much for packing and laundry!
So next morning, plumber shows up, $400 to replace the expansion tank that failed, and then we can start doing laundry. So ms flynn starts her laundry cycle and gets to packing. I think by 1am we were done packing (all 8+ suitcases) and went to bed.. for our 4am wakeup.
Next morning, Friday, we pack the truck.. thank god we got the bigger truck as it all just fit
We are a little late getting out of town, due to the mandatory Dunkin Donuts stop so everyone has some breakfast.. but we hit escape velocity and we’re outta there!The drive
Once we got on the road.. all was well. The forecast called for the massive storms that hit the midwest to hit the 95 corridor.. but we actually had just a little rain as we left DC and then had a dry run the rest of the way! We stop for gas, and bio-breaks/food, but beyond that we drive straight through. I think Arby’s was the lunch for the day, along with gas station snacks to hold us over.
Last time we stayed at the Hampton Inn in Cocoa Beach. Realize with 5 in a room, your options are a bit more restricted.. but the Hampton was pretty good to us last time, but even tho it was on the ocean block, we never got a chance to take advantage of it due to getting there at night, and the early start. So this time I skipped the beach front to save a few dollars and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Cocoa. It’s right off I-95 in Cocoa, so about 15-20mins to the port. The hotel had been renovated and was decent. Had the typical Florida musty smell it seems all hotels have to some degree.. but met the needs, was clean, and was decently priced $104 total.
We got in town about 8:00.. checked in and got a room literaly right next to the lobby. Not too many cars in the lot
We had to find some dinner.. so the kids opt’d for Steak N Shake because they are all milkshake fiends It worked out well, and we headed to bed after a long day.Day 1!
The morning started off well, we slept in till about 9, and then headed to our required Ron Jon surfshop stop. Ron Jon is a landmark in Cocoa Beach, and is great for getting those flip flops you need, shorts, cover-ups, etc. After a unnecessary splurge there (tho I did pickup some early x-mas presents) we hit more Dunkin, and headed to the port.
I had debated about parking.. but after @sweetpea_1993 ‘s report, I figured I’d just stick to the port. On pulling in, they check everyone’s ID (don’t remember that last time) and we unloaded with the porters. Heading to parking, I had to hear the spiel over paying $20 more for the ‘preferred parking’ lot. Normally I don’t pay for those types of things.. but being right across from the terminal seemed nice, so I pulled in, and we unloaded.
Our ‘preferred’ parking spot
Looks a little windy! Ugly clouds approaching...
But you have to do the obligatory ‘boat in the background’ shots!
We went through security and check-in ok. But while the ms had done the online checkin for us, apparently she didn’t finish something right because they didn’t see us as fully checked in. No worries.. we were reconfiguring the charge card anyways. And they must have thought our old photos were good enough.. because they didn’t take any photos. Our boarding time wasn’t till 1:30, but it was basically that time now so we queued up and they had called our boarding group just then.
A bit more of a line to get on the boat this time.. but ms Flynn was intent on filling out one of those photo books this time, so waiting for the boarding picture was mandatory
This time around, we had some special requests for the kids in the clubs, so we were told on the phone we would have to speak to the activities director. So we tried to figure out where to go, we were sent to Guest Services, but then were told to just goto the clubs directly.
My youngest was only 10.5, but she did the oceaneers club last time and pretty much outgrew it, and she’s big for her age.. so we wanted to get her into Edge (cut off is 11). The middle child is only 13, but would turn 14 2 days after we get back.. and she’s already in highschool and was ‘over’ Edge last time.. so we wanted to get her in Vibe, but the cutoff is 14.
When we went to Vibe.. it was no problem at all to get her in, all we had to do was sign a waiver.. and they gave the kids new Vibe specific cards to replace their standard cruise cards. They were red and said Vibe.. and they grant them access to open the Vibe club door.. which is normally locked to ‘regular’ folk. After that success, we went to Edge to try for the little one.. and again, no problem at all, just sign the waiver, and she’s in. Score! Ms Flynn sought out the head servers to get our special diet needs in.. and we were all set.
Now.. a lesson learned from the TRs here.. was about the special tours and things like Mixology classes they have on board. So it was a quick run to Guest Services to figure out how to book those.. no problem you find the schedule and signup for all the activities right there at Guest Services (so do that early before the lines get big!). We signed up for a Mixology class ($15/head), and to treat the ms I signed up for the Wine+Chocolate tasting ($30/head) as well.
By now we went to see if our luggage and room were ready and they were. Checking out the view
Obligatory lobby statue shots..
And yes, to the dismay of the spirit.. the first days after holloween (Nov 2) the ship was already decorated for Christmas
We headed up to the deck for the departure.. but didn’t really check out the deck party.. not my flavor.
A little view of Canaveral on the way out...
I would have waved to the port webcamera.. but I had no idea where it was!
We had a little bit of an escort on the way out of port..
New on this cruise was the app for the Personal Navigator. Disney sent out an email with instructions, and I think they had a paper in the stateroom as well.. but basically they have wifi all over the boat now, and you are free to connect to it and use the app. The wifi is proxied so you don’t get normal internet access for free, but connecting to the wifi itself is free. But you must download the app before you lose internet access!
Getting the app running is easy enough, but you must follow the steps correctly, else the app acts like it is not connected. Just rushing through it, won’t work typically.. so after a few minutes where Dad had to play tech support.. we had everyone’s devices running the app.
Interesting note.. the internet proxy blocks outgoing, but does not block incoming push notifications! So you still get things like facebook notifications, but you can’t open them, follow-up, etc. You can do the usual pay for internet through the shipboard wifi as well.
The app is overall done very well. It offers view of all activities by categories.. and was especially helpful to see the movie listings and character apperances. It was a great way to see ‘when is the next time Mickey is out.. ‘ etc and is leagues ahead of just using the paper navigator. In addition, its far more convenient to have with you all the time vs the paper navigator.
On our cruise, the app did have a few bugs... who can tell me what’s wrong with this photo?
The issues I had were nominal and didn’t keep me from enjoying the app. It’s a huge benefit. The setup for wifi tho did cause some confusion. I saw more than one family struggling with it at the start of the cruise, including one guy asking me directly for help. His daughter thought she should be getting internet access.. (which she didn’t get for free). Saw him later in the cruise.. he sprung for the paid internet later
Before you know it.. it’s time for dinner! Originally my sister in law with her little kids were going to come with us, so we had the early dinner seating.
Which is better?? I think the early seating is a bit early and always ate into our day plans – but the booking agent actually said main dinning is the preferred one that fills up first. Dunno which I prefer.. what’s your input?
Off to dinner (casual night)
We started in the enchanted garden.. which means we would be there THREE times on this cruise. Lower end of the draw IMO, but was ok.
Surprising (or not) on the Fantasy, not all the light fixtures work in their opening flower mode.. I knew they were problematic on the Dream, but I guess so here as well!
Our servers were Stephenous from Greece, and Mahdai was our assistant server. Now.. I won’t say they were bad, but they were not nearly as on top of their game as our staff was on our last cruise on the Dream. Drinks were slow, not often refilled, and the language barrier was pretty tough. By the third night, I had to say something, and things got better.. but wasn’t the knock out service we had last cruise. However, our Head Server this cruise, was far more engaging and helpful on this cruise, than our last. We had Alberto, and he was great. We saw him every meal, and he helped with our special meals (even sending one to Castaway Cay for me!) and even helped with some drinks when he came by and saw them low
After dinner.. the teenagers were off. We gave them an ambitious 3am curfew this trip.. so we will see how that went.
I can’t recall what we did after dinner.. we weren’t really impressed with the theatre shows last time so in general we didn’t bother with them.
They had a variety show, Wishes, Golden Mickeys, and Aladin, which is a reworked version of the DCA show.
The movie list tho was quite good. We had Planes, Iron Man 3, Monsters University, Thor
ark World premier, and more. Many of these were offered in 3D as well. I’m pretty sure we watched Monsters University on the first night and then headed for bed.Remember that 3am curfew? Yeah… offspring #2 blew it on the first night! She rolled in just shy of 3:30.. and I was about 2mins away from going out to find her. Lame excuse offered.. BS detector pegged. She was warned that was her only grace and any more misses would lead to lock down
