Shaking Down the Fantasy and Three Encounters with a Dream!

When: March 21-26

Where: Coronado Springs for two nights and then a three night cruise on the Disney Fantasy

Why: This was a special cruise for agents from Disney Earmarked agencies. A shake down cruise if you will. It was preceded by a day of conference activities at WDW.

Here’s my cruise docs!

Who: My family came this time! If you've read any of my trip reports you know that m family can't always come. Ds is in high school, dd is in middle school and dh is in the Air Force. Not that people in the Air Force can't go on vacation, but he tends to be in really busy jobs that don't work well with the - "Hey, there's an awesome travel agent special in two weeks", or "I haven't been to Disneyland in 9 months and need to go this month to get caught back up" kind of trips.

But this one was too good to pass up! A preview cruise on the brand spanking new Disney Fantasy! Disney doesn't have any new ships in the works so this opportunity wasn't coming along again any time soon. We decided it was even worth taking the kids out of school this time.

It was. Really. No matter what their report cards say next week. :lookaroun

Even better, we had a room for 5 so ds brought a friend. You may recognize friend from my Alaska trip report this summer.

Here’s ds and friend in the Mr. and Mrs. Potato hats in Oceaneers Club:

Dd in the Oceaneer’s Club:

Dh and I heading to the beach. Check out what’s in the background!

You'll also see Pam - owner extraordinaire of Kingdom Konsultants and her family. Here’s Pam and her dh:

Here’s Pam’s dd on the right and her friend on the left:

And Missy (polymissy) who brought her hubby! They’re showing off the butter knives I was coveting:

Disclaimer – I took a lot of pictures of the Fantasy when I toured it in New York City back in February. I didn’t duplicate much, so here’s that report if you’re interested in more pictures of the ship:

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=833556

 

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If you’re looking for a quiet time in the family pools, this is it!

 

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The much talked about family pool:

 

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Satellite Falls:

We’re pulling in!

 

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Shoot, I’ve got to go!

Here are all the travel agents settling in to the Walt Disney Theater:

Missy never fails to make me laugh when I’m taking pictures!!

Here’s Christian, our cruise director, welcoming us:

 

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Ed Fouche:

Carl Holz:

Randy Garfield:

And guest speaker Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank, who was excellent:

 

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We had a quick break and then it was time for our surprise guest. All of these conferences seem to end with a surprise guest. Last year it was Jody Benson who sang for us and it was great. This year was – Cubby and Sherry! Original Mouseketeers!! Cubby came out first to talk to us and then Sherry joined him.

Sherry was rocking Mickey and sequins:

 

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The highlight was Cubby playing the drums for us as he did on The Mickey Mouse Club so many years ago:

It was definitely cool. A little frustrating because we went 20 minutes late and I knew both the island and dh were waiting. But still cool.

Our district managers and trainers came out:

They were joined by Cubby and Sherry. Oh yes and our favorite mouse on the far side:

I bolted for the room as soon as we were done! I was ready to get off this ship I love so much!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Here's a quick Chandler comment:

I showed him the pics & pointed out Carl Holz. His response? "Hey! It's Carl from Up!"

:lol:

 

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Here's a quick Chandler comment:

I showed him the pics & pointed out Carl Holz. His response? "Hey! It's Carl from Up!"

:lol:

That is sooo funny!! :lol:

 

[ChuckElias]

I love that they put pictures of the beach up on the big screen (Ariel View?) by the family pool. I guess you can feel like you're at the beach, even if you don't want to leave the ship.

And I love nearly all things DCL, BUT. . .

the only mandatory time together onboard was the morning of Castaway Cay. Who planned that?

Come ON! That's just ridiculous. Is there any real point in doing it that way? Seems like you'd have a very impatient audience for the whole presentation.

Having said that, it looks like it was pretty fun, especially with Sherry and Cubby.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I love that they put pictures of the beach up on the big screen (Ariel View?) by the family pool. I guess you can feel like you're at the beach, even if you don't want to leave the ship.

That is cool.

And I love nearly all things DCL, BUT. . .Come ON! That's just ridiculous. Is there any real point in doing it that way? Seems like you'd have a very impatient audience for the whole presentation.

Having said that, it looks like it was pretty fun, especially with Sherry and Cubby.

I know, right! Crazy!! I think the only point was that they wanted to have one last hurrah on the last day! But it didn't make a lot of sense to me.

It was as good of a session as it could have been though.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Wow, Tammy! Those early pics onboard the ship are so amazing. I so wanna be there. I'd even get in a family pool at that hour. The island on the approach looks like paradise (not that it's ever not paradise). The times I've always like the beach most are in the early mornings and late evenings. So reminds me of a trip to Mexico Beach (Florida/Gulf side) when I was 15 or 16. Sunday morning we had to get up before the sun to get ready to go to church. While all the bathrooms were full I walked myself out onto the beach alone just after the sun had come up. The breeze, the sand, the cool water on my toes, being there completely alone was a moment that has stuck with me crystal clear just like it happened yesterday. It stands out to me. I guess being a teenager with all the angst and confusion that one moment out on that beach alone contrasts as a moment of utter clarity & peace within myself. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to recapture that moment on a beach since. Lots. But I never can. Seeing the island pics as the ship approached reminded me of that. Thank you!

Love that Cubby & Sherry came to visit the group. That's cool! They weren't my Mickey Mouse Club generation (I was more into the later 80s version...have I ever mentioned my step-sis used to go with her friend to sit in the audience during taping?!) but I still find a complete geek-factor in having 2 original Mouseketeers there. I love Sherry's sequin jacket. That's so stinkin' cool. Why can't we have some oober-awesome stuff like this to buy???? More Disney stuff to make, I guess.... LOL!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Wow, Tammy! Those early pics onboard the ship are so amazing. I so wanna be there. I'd even get in a family pool at that hour. The island on the approach looks like paradise (not that it's ever not paradise). The times I've always like the beach most are in the early mornings and late evenings. So reminds me of a trip to Mexico Beach (Florida/Gulf side) when I was 15 or 16. Sunday morning we had to get up before the sun to get ready to go to church. While all the bathrooms were full I walked myself out onto the beach alone just after the sun had come up. The breeze, the sand, the cool water on my toes, being there completely alone was a moment that has stuck with me crystal clear just like it happened yesterday. It stands out to me. I guess being a teenager with all the angst and confusion that one moment out on that beach alone contrasts as a moment of utter clarity & peace within myself. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to recapture that moment on a beach since. Lots. But I never can. Seeing the island pics as the ship approached reminded me of that. Thank you!

Love that Cubby & Sherry came to visit the group. That's cool! They weren't my Mickey Mouse Club generation (I was more into the later 80s version...have I ever mentioned my step-sis used to go with her friend to sit in the audience during taping?!) but I still find a complete geek-factor in having 2 original Mouseketeers there. I love Sherry's sequin jacket. That's so stinkin' cool. Why can't we have some oober-awesome stuff like this to buy???? More Disney stuff to make, I guess.... LOL!

That is a really neat memory, Kelly! I'm glad I could help you remember it a little bit!

Whenever I have to get up early on a cruise for a meeting, an excursion, I'm always so glad I did. Some places, like Cabanas, were already hopping, but most of the top deck was so quiet and peaceful.

Isn't that cool? They weren't my generation either, but I definitely thought it was neat that they were there.

Her jacket was hilarious!! Only a former Mousekeeer could pull that off!

 

[joanna71985]

Thanks, Joanna!

I hate the photography thing too. I really wish they would let those of us with our flash and screens turned off, keep doing it.

You will have to try the Fantasy! It's so cool!

And yes, that's a very good thing!

I have my fingers crossed to go on the Fantasy in the fall. Hopefully it works out!

Maybe someday they'll go back to photography/no flash?

This cruise was also a who’s who of plugged in Disney fans. We saw Lou Mongello, Dave Marx, Deb Wills, Len Testa, and the list goes on. It was cool seeing them enjoying themselves too.

Oh man! I wish I could have been there just to see all of them

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I have my fingers crossed to go on the Fantasy in the fall. Hopefully it works out!

Maybe someday they'll go back to photography/no flash?



Oh man! I wish I could have been there just to see all of them

Ooh, I hope you get to go!!

I'm afraid not that it's gone, it's gone forever.

It was cool to see them all!

 

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Dh was in the room waiting and showed me his super cool medal. He wasn’t the winner, I believe he said he was fourth. But we’re all winners at Disney right?

We stopped at Guest Services to make sure we weren’t being charged for our suitcases since we were using the onboard check in program. We were so we just had to show them our frequent flyer card and our credit card that gets us free bags.

Finally, we could get off!

While we were in line to get off, Christian, the cruise director, came on to make an announcement. The Dream was swinging by again!! What? How exciting!

As soon as we rounded the ship we could see her coming.

 

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We stopped here and I took about 200 pictures. No lie. It was a little insane. The Dream approached and then did a little turn and went back on her way. The entire time there was an epic horn battle going on between the two ships.

 

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We were starving by this time so we finally started walking.

Hey! Here comes Donald!

We decided to go to the adult beach for lunch but we stopped for an ice cream snack to tide us over.

We took the tram over and found a very very long line waiting for us. Serenity Bay has one line as opposed to the family beach where there’s more than one restaurant and several lines at each!

But Serenity Bay does have steak which was quite yummy.

Here are our plates:

 

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The adult beach was pretty crowded. The Dream was just a little dot sailing away:

We decided to go back to the family beach.

When we got off the tram we saw our kids playing volleyball and stopped to see if they were having fun. Never one to pass up a little volleyball, dh joined them:

Here’s the teen hangout: