The Disneymooners...My Fantasy-tastic Disney Honeymoon!

Well friends, it's been about a month since my new wife and I disembarked from our 8 day honeymoon adventure to WDW and on the DCL Fantasy so I figured it was a perfect time to re-live it all for your reading enjoyment! With 500 pictures, three bags full of goodies, and countless memories, my wife and I had the time of our lives. I must say that this was the greatest way to kick off our lives together and I encourage everyone to try it...

Here are a few photos from our big day, September 14th... A lot of your wedding planning involved a Disney theme. Our showers, our wedding rehersal night as well as the wedding itself.

The wedding was fantastic and I couldn't have had a better experience if I tried. I married the love of my life and she shares the same passion for many of my interests and the biggest is an obvious one, Disney!

The planning for our wedding and honeymoon had a great assist from our(WDWMagic) fearless WDW/DCL guru, Tammy. She was instrumental in helping us plan for the honeymoon, but also helping our guests, friends and family contribute to our honeymoon, and for that Heather and I are greatly appreciative... Take a bow!!

After the wedding, we had to wait a long week for our honeymoon to begin. We counted the hours, minutes, and seconds to the day we were leaving, September 21st...We decided to wait a week after to get things in order for our time away and not have to leave the day after. It also allowed us to book our trip on the Fantasy and begin our "cruise career"(thanks sweetpee and hubs ) on the newest ship.

Many people encouraged us to fly down a night prior to the cruise in case of any misshaps and things, so we booked a night at All-Star Sports, where we stayed on our first WDW trip together, and then begin our cruise adventure the next day, Sept 22...

Sept 21st-4am was the "get up time" we decided on to get us to the airport for our 7am flight. Packing was finished the night before, so it was just a quick shower and jump in the car for the 45 minute ride to Midway Airport. We actually live 15 minutes from Chicago O'hare but Southwest flies there to Orlando and the fares were great for this time of year and no bag fees! We brought an extra garment bag for our suits and dresses so not paying an extra fee for the 3rd bag was good. Heather's dad got us there in no time(lead foot!). Check in and security was a breeze however the gate was at the other end of the terminal so we had to hoof it, thank God for moving walk ways...Got a bite to eat from our vacation staple food source, McDonalds and bought some water for the plane ride. He had about 25 minutes before boarding so we grabbed a seat and
relaxed...

Boarding was quick and painless buuuuut the departure was not! Details next!

 

[Billy6]

We were early again tonight... So Pete and Ian got rolling on your drinks and let us know that it was "Crush night" and he would be handling the entertainment tonight! I wasn't sure if tonight would be the Mickey animation show or what, but when he told us it made us rethink some of our dinner plans later in the week. Our dining rotation was Royal Court, then AP and the Enchanted Garden and we planned Palo on Wedneday night. By the rotation, we would be at Palo the day we returned to Animator's Palate for the Mickey show. I asked our host, Fitz (whom I didn't introduce last night and is from Jamaica) if we could change around our rotation and he said yes but instead the next day we called Palo and changed our reservation to Tuesday night. They were able to get us in at 7 which was perfect, and we could also see the Mickey show...

Ian delivered our drinks and Pete came over with his recommendations. While Heather had the Tomato salad and potato and cheddar cheese soup, I went with Pete's favorite dish, the Black Truffle Pasta, and boy was it good! I almost ordered another dish...Heather and I kinda split the soup so that was enough for me..I had the Beef Tenderloin and Heather had the Marinated Chicken Breast for our entrees... Both very good! Tonight we split a dish between the two of us, the White Shrimp Pennette pasta...it was awesome and we fought over the shrimp
Tonight we didnt hold back on the food and took full advantage of the menu. For dessert, I had the Brownie Cheesecake and Heather had the Sweet Temptations, which was a trio of smaller portions of the dessert menu...

 

[Billy6]

In between courses of dinner, Crush would come on and do his Nemo schtik with the tables and the Mirror fish would play picture games while he went from table to table...Crush did come over to our table before dessert and had a great conversation with me and Heather.

Our ship!

It was during the dinner that I started feeling the affects of the sea on the boat. I had been taking the Bonine that Dr. Sweetpee had recommended taking since the first night at sea. It only seemed to help occasionally and didnt help my head at all. I didnt have any stomach issues but my head was really bad and it wasnt going away. We had some time before the adult activities started so we made a stop at White Caps sundries and bought some Sea Bands and I gave them a try... Good call! It didnt relieve the symptoms right away but it made the rest of the night bareable and the next few days a lot better.

We headed up to the stateroom to change out of our get up and found this on the bed!!!

"Oh Mickey! You are the best! Heather thought I made that happen so I ran with it "Youre welcome babe!"

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

Yay! You're on the Fantasy! That stinks that you were feeling sea sick. I also really noticed the movement of the ship during our dinner the first night. Something about sitting down at dinner made my body really notice that we were at sea. We took some Dramamine, went to watch a movie in the Buena Vista Theatre and when we exited the movie we felt fine. I then took a Dramamine each morning and I was fine for the rest of the day. I hope the seabands helped you for the rest of the cruise. Can't wait to read more about the ports!

 

[Billy6]

Yay! You're on the Fantasy! That stinks that you were feeling sea sick. I also really noticed the movement of the ship during our dinner the first night. Something about sitting down at dinner made my body really notice that we were at sea. We took some Dramamine, went to watch a movie in the Buena Vista Theatre and when we exited the movie we felt fine. I then took a Dramamine each morning and I was fine for the rest of the day. I hope the seabands helped you for the rest of the cruise. Can't wait to read more about the ports!

I have vertigo too(I'm a mess) and I think that had a lot to do with it...The seas werent bad, it was windy but it was enough to mess with me...Mostly dizzy spells... The sea bands did help me tremendously. I think I wore them for a day and a half and was better by the time we got to St Maartin.

 

[Billy6]

A quick change into some causal clothes and we headed down to The Tube for a drink. They had a musical/comedy show with a group called Buckets and Boards. They were a "prop" comedian duo that played songs and made music like Blue Man Group. We got down there right at show time so we had to sit towards the back of the club...

We couldn't see very well but was able to hear the music. To be honest, they weren't that great so Heather and I didnt stay long after the show. There were some way better acts to come later in the week. We finished off our drinks, and since I wasnt feeling well, we headed back to the room...

We had one last nightcap on the verandah...awesome night breeze..great finish to the first full day at sea!

 

[Billy6]

Sept 24th- Day at sea! The day started pretty much as the day before did. Heather wanted to get a work out in today so I suggested we grab a quick bite at Cabanas and go for a walk on Deck 3. We headed up there around 830 and grabbed some fruit and yogurt and then headed back down to start our workout walk. 2 1/2 times around Deck 3 is 1 mile. We started at starboard aft and went counter clockwise around the ship. We went 4 times around with about one side of the ship we jogged. Felt really good after plus it was cool to walk around the bowels of the ship. There were quite a few people on the deck either sitting, playing shuffleboard or walk/jogging...Good times!

As we walked back to the room, I mentioned we should see what the other restaurants had to offer for breakfast. We went to Enchanted Garden to check it out because we would be having dinner there and went in and had a buffet breakfast. I was hungry after the walk and since we didnt eat much earlier it was good. Pete, our server was working that morning so we sat in his section. Basic breakfast fare just a little less crowded.

Heather was interested in playing bingo today and since we had a shot at $5,000 I was pretty game! Her appointment for her hair service was at 1:45 so we headed down to D-Lounge and grabbed a seat. Bingo consisted of four different games for cash prizes. The final game could be worth 5K but you had to win the cover-all in less than 46 numbers. It was very game show-esque and was a lot of fun, expensive but fun. We didnt win anything but some guests did win around $250-300 a game...That would have been awesome...

After bingo, we headed back up to change for the pool and Heather was going to her massage appointment. I was going to meet her at our pool spot after she was through. I took a quick 30 minute snooze after she left and then headed up to the pool. I was there for about an hour and a half and grabbed a quick burger from Mater's Grill. Heather was meant to be done around 230 but that came and went and I was getting lonely by the pool, so I went inside Senses and they told me she was still getting her treatment. So I headed back to the room to wait for her...She didnt get back until around 3 or so but she said her treatment was great. We wanted to hit
O'Gills pub for Movie Trivia at 4:30. Cleaned up and headed down to the Atrium before hitting the pub.

We stopped for a picture with Remy!

Jessie and Woody were taking guests too but the line was huge!

 

[sam_disney]

i HAVE to do this! i'm so jealous!!!! x

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Awwww...I'm sorry the motion got to you, Billy. We aren't very sea-sick-ish people so the Bonine tends to be more than enough for us. Maybe next time try getting a prescription for the patch. Our doctor called it in for us before our first cruise and we spent the $$ to fill the prescription that once. They're still in-date so we bring them with us when we cruise but haven't yet needed to bust into them. Generally if anyone feels the least big queasy a Bonine is all that's needed. But that's only happened twice.

Isn't Animator's cool??? I could sit in there staring at the stuff all around me for days! Glad you were able to switch your Palo reservation so you don't miss the big show.

Awwww...how sweet that Heather got her some girl/spa time!

Was there a line for Remy? The day Tracey & I met him onboard the Dream he was all by his lonesome being neglected so we made it a point to fawn over him. How interesting, considering usually the sight of mice or rats will send me running....

I'm still with ya! Can't wait for more!

 

[Billy6]

Awwww...I'm sorry the motion got to you, Billy. We aren't very sea-sick-ish people so the Bonine tends to be more than enough for us. Maybe next time try getting a prescription for the patch. Our doctor called it in for us before our first cruise and we spent the $$ to fill the prescription that once. They're still in-date so we bring them with us when we cruise but haven't yet needed to bust into them. Generally if anyone feels the least big queasy a Bonine is all that's needed. But that's only happened twice.

Isn't Animator's cool??? I could sit in there staring at the stuff all around me for days! Glad you were able to switch your Palo reservation so you don't miss the big show.

Awwww...how sweet that Heather got her some girl/spa time!

Was there a line for Remy? The day Tracey & I met him onboard the Dream he was all by his lonesome being neglected so we made it a point to fawn over him. How interesting, considering usually the sight of mice or rats will send me running....

I'm still with ya! Can't wait for more!

The motion sickness hit me like a ton of bricks. Maybe I was mentally waiting for it to hit me because I knew it would. But it was bad for a bit. No hurling or anything, but messed with my head. I have vertigo too so I'm sure that played a part. The Sea Bands seemed to do the trick as I took them off when we got St Maarten and didn't put them back on at all.

Loved Animator's and did not want to miss the Mickey show. It actually worked out better that we went to Palo when we did because the scenery was awesome. Details in the report to come...

That was Heather's treat to herself for the honeymoon and I bought a sweet watch for mine!

Remy was by himself with no one in line when we came to him too...I like Remy and I wanted a picture with him and would have waited...i know I'm the worlds youngest 36 year old!

 

[joanna71985]

Nothing wrong with waiting to meet the characters! I met a ton during my cruise

 

[Billy6]

Nothing wrong with waiting to meet the characters! I met a ton during my cruise

Not at all! I am used to it with my daughter when we go to WDW!

 

[erstwo]

I was up watching the election, so I would have been able to see your response if you did! Glad you like it so far!
Heather and I live in Schaumburg, and it is definately easier to get to Ohare but Midway isn't too bad for us. But for Park Ridge, would be like walking out your front door right into the terminal... The prices were cheap but by today's standards on Southwest($295 RT) so you could call that fortunate...

Thanks for the compliments on the wedding...It was the best time ever and she did look awesome! That's why I married her!

We got our fill of sun and pool fun the other days, but Satellite Falls was a nice relaxing time even if it was cooler that day...

You're right! It is so close! You said 15 minutes, so I was thinking you were as close as we are, but then I was reminded that my in-laws (who usually take us to/from the airport) are ummmm..... a little older? in age...... and they *might* be fond of taking 'the back way' to Ohare. You know......once you are a certain age, you do anything to avoid the highway - ha! So it takes us about 15 minutes with all the stoplights. I do love Southwest and wish that Ohare was their home in Chicago, especially now that American is falling apart, but I know that's very unlikely to ever happen - sigh.

So sorry you were sea sick. I'm glad to know the Seabands helped. I can't wait to read more - especially the Mickey night at Animators. I've never heard of that before!

 

[Billy6]

You're right! It is so close! You said 15 minutes, so I was thinking you were as close as we are, but then I was reminded that my in-laws (who usually take us to/from the airport) are ummmm..... a little older? in age...... and they *might* be fond of taking 'the back way' to Ohare. You know......once you are a certain age, you do anything to avoid the highway - ha! So it takes us about 15 minutes with all the stoplights. I do love Southwest and wish that Ohare was their home in Chicago, especially now that American is falling apart, but I know that's very unlikely to ever happen - sigh.

So sorry you were sea sick. I'm glad to know the Seabands helped. I can't wait to read more - especially the Mickey night at Animators. I've never heard of that before!

Door to door it's more like 25 minutes, the fact that you have to go all the way around to the east side of the airport stinks.... Midway isn't bad if you look at it... I'll take the ride for cheaper rates and no bag fees any day.

The sea sickness stunk but I sort of knew it would happen. I came prepared with medince but the sea bands were the elixir I needed!

I will be adding some more soon. My weekend was busy and went to the Bears game last night! Thanks for reading along!

 

[Billy6]

Sorry for the delay folks! Had a busy week and weekend but I'm ready for another installment!

After hitting the Atrium for the sights and sounds, we headed to O"Gills for "50 Movie Quotes Trivia". I am pretty knowlegdable in the world of trivia, so I had the chance to show my skills...Matt, from the adult activities team led the game and Heather and I partnered up with an older couple. We thought they might have some knowledge of older movies that I might not have known. Heather did her part too and helped me with some actors names and things. The game consisted of 50 quotes and we had to answer the movie and the actor/actress that said it. Scored one point for each correct answer, two per question...There were some hard ones and some rather simple ones that were asked but we managed to score 83 which was third best! Now I am sure there was some cheating but the winners received a 91 score and got a nice DCL cap... Later in the week, they would have round two of movie quotes...we would be back for another try! We had one more drink and headed up to Walt Disney Theatre for the night's show "Wishes".

Wishes was about 3 high school friends that were about to graduate and they reminisce about their friendships that were built on trips to Disneyland. They are then emersed in the attractions and shows that they enjoyed together. I am not going to give spoilers on the rest of the show, you'll just have to call Tammy and book a cruise and see it yourself! Heather and I thought it was very good and enjoyed very much.

A quick sprint back to the stateroom to change for dinner, tonight was Enchanted Garden.

 

[Billy6]

Tonight was casual night, so no Sunday best but it was definatly Saturday night best!

I was looking forward to Enchanted Garden as it was the restaurant I knew about the least. I hadn't looked in to it that much and really didnt know what to expect. The scenery was very "French garden-esque" and accented by colorful lighting. There is a fountain in the middle with a Mickey cupid on top. Very nice...Over the course of the night the lighting changes and the flower light fixtures open up..a nice touch..

Now to the food...Pete recommended his favorite dish for the appetizer, Lobster ravioli in tomato broth...I said I would have it! Heather had the spinich and raspberry salad and we split the tomato soup...All very good...

We both had our eye on the Prime rib and we both ordered it in our prefered temperature. They were served with veggies and double baked potato. Very good. We both had a few drinks this night as I was getting over the sea sickness so why not get dizzy with some beers

 

[lovenerds2012]

HAHA we did the 50 Movie Quotes thing on the Dream and came in third as well!!! Great TR, I am working on mine simultaneously!

 

[Billy6]

I was really thinking of ordering another Prime rib but the shear amount of food we had since the first day was overwhelming. I thought better of it and just settled for the dessert menu. Heather was getting full too and just wanted to eat the sweets too.

Between dinner and dessert, Pete and Ian were really engaging with all three of their tables and we really started to get to know each other. Ian was challenging some younger guests at the big family table in our area with some riddles and mental quizes. He also came over by us and had us try his riddles, one of which I got pretty easily, to the amazement of the kids. Pete was trying to get the little girl at the other table, Abby to talk as she was not happy for some reason. Her mom, brother and grandmother were trying to but mostly laughing at Pete and his attempts to cheer her up. We found out later in the week that her appointment at BB Boutique didnt go as planned and she didnt get a dress she wanted. Poor Abby... Great times with our dinner friends and servers!

We both ordered the bananas foster sundae for dessert. YUM! Now, earlier in the year I had my first taste of the banana's foster bread pudding at Ohana so I was getting the same cravings for that taste again. The sundae was very good but it paled in comparison to the bread pudding. Maybe I my expectations were too high, but it was very good...I had another Heineken and she had one more Reisling and we called it a night there...

As per usual, we headed down to the Tube for some adult fun and the next act for the week...What happened to my eyes???

 

[Billy6]

quality trip report...

lovin it mucho

Well thank you very mucho! Glad you like it!!!

HAHA we did the 50 Movie Quotes thing on the Dream and came in third as well!!! Great TR, I am working on mine simultaneously!

Awesome! I have been reading your report as well! There was a part two 50 movie quotes later in the week but we didnt do as well...and I know there was a lot of cheating on that one!!!!

 

[Billy6]

Tonight's act was Steve Carte, who was a great prop comedian and juggler. He was very funny and engaging with the audience. He did a knife juggle while eating an apple, a bowling ball juggle and many other great feats... Heather and I had a front row seat and really enjoyed him. He was ten times better than the previous night's show. When he was over, we stuck around and had a few more drinks and danced a bit. The Fantasy has a great adult activities crew that comes on the floor with the guests and gets them to dance or dances along side them....

Tomorrow was going to be a very busy, as we had a lot planned in St Maarten so we headed up to the room and got some things organized before we went to bed...We got our gear and paperwork in order for the port adventures and made sure we set our clocks for the earlier wake up.
Romeo, our room host had this guy waiting for us....

2nd day at sea came to an end but our day in St Maarten would be by far the best day of the cruise...Details coming!

 

[Billy6]

Sept 25th-Port of Call-Sint Maarten/Saint Martin...

We had a huge day planned for our day in the Dutch/French collective...Our first adventure was a bus tour of both countries on the island in the morning, followed by a afternoon of SNUBA diving, dinner was at Palo and it was also Pirate Night!

Our alarms went off around 7:00am, our meeting time for the first adventure was at 8:30 in the Buena Vista theatre, so we needed to be up early to get breakfast and be at the meeting place... I noticed we were still moving so I went out the the balcony, with camera in hand as we were pulling into the port city of Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch country of Sint Maarten...

Land Ho!!