12-day Fantasy and parks vacation-ganza! (Part 3 - the cruise)
Man, this was everything I’d hoped it would be – just an incredible time. Where do I start?
Character interactions – so many opportunities, and the wait times are pretty short and you’re almost always in AC while waiting. And you get pictures with the characters in a variety of outfits… regular Mickey; Captain Mickey; Pirate Mickey; Angry, Smoking, Tourist Dad Mickey, etc. And the CMs in the character outfits were five times better than those in the parks. I didn’t realize how…lackadaisical some of the characters in the parks were until we saw the ones on the boat.
Snow White and Aurora in particular were great…they both got down and held my son’s hands in theirs…then they stared intently into his eyes and had what seemed like a very serious conversation with him for about 30 seconds, during which he’d grin goofily and nod his head and say “yes” every once in awhile (I couldn’t hear what was being said, but I’d like to think he was scoring some digits). Then he’d pose for pictures with the biggest grin on his face. A-dor-a-ble.
The dinner rotation was nice and our servers were incredible. After the first night I told one of our servers that my son likes chocolate milk and seltzer water and every single night after that both beverages were waiting for my son when we sat down. The first night I was lamenting that I could get pretty much everything I wanted on the boat except a Dole Whip float and I asked our server if they had pineapple juice. He said, “Of course,” and so I asked for half a glass of that with some vanilla ice cream on top. It reeaaaallly hit the spot. And every night after that when we sat down he would say, “Do you want your pineapple drink now or later” and every night I said, of course, “I’ll take it now, thanks!”
Enchanted Garden is supposed to change from morning to night during your meal. I think they forgot to flip the switch on this – the effect did not seem to occur at all, and we were looking. Animator’s Palate was great, both nights – unfortunately we weren’t very close to Crush, but we really enjoyed it. Royal Court is gorgeous.
The dinner food is probably a 7 on a 10 scale. The menu options were often intriguing and ambitious, but the execution sometimes simply missed. I guess when each restaurant is sending out 600 (or whatever) entrees almost all at once it’s hard to make wonderful food. I had some really good fish and some really bad fish and some really good lamb and some really bad lamb. I think if you live in an urban area with good restaurants and go out once every month or so for a good meal, you’ll find the food to be okay, but not great. If seafood stirfry at Applebee’s is as exotic as it gets for a person, that person will be wowed by the dinners. So it’s all relative. The appetizer and soup/salad courses are small, which is just fine given the amount of food you’ll be eating. I thought the kids’ options were fantastic for their variety.
Cabanas at breakfast was good, but it’s hard to screw up breakfast. The pastries weren’t fantastic, but I think I ate $1000 worth of smoked salmon alone, so I made my money back there. Lunch at Cabanas was just fine. We did go into Royal Court for sit-down lunch one day and saw yet another four-course marathon on the menu! We just went for dessert that day, however, having had a late breakfast. I can’t imagine doing sit-down for both lunch and dinner…it’s just too much food!
The daycare is awesome and the dance parties and other activities they have for the under-three set are pretty great. Nearly ever CM was eager and happy to interact with kids and did so in a great way. My son (and all of us, really) loved that you’d leave your room in the morning and hear the ever-present soft background music of songs we know and love from movies. “Know that song!” he’d pipe up. And we had to stop (on every floor…we nearly always took the steps) to watch the changing pictures, a great touch. He loved the big, open areas to run free, and the water splash areas, of course. The detective agency activity, while too old for my child, seemed like a great activity. Overall it is just an incredible place if you’re under like, 13.
Excursions: we went to Stingray City (not through Disney) for one excursion and it may have been the highlight of the trip. We also saw Mayan ruins and did the Cozumel Beach Break, which was great for our son, located at a fun kid-focused water park.
Castaway Cay was cool, but I was disappointed because I was really looking forward to snorkeling and for some reason thought there were coral reefs here. But no, only some fake shipwrecks and grasses. Fish viewing was just average. The water was colder than I was expecting, but pleasant on a hot day, and the beach in general, despite being crowded, is very nice. Lunch was great…I thought the ribs were fantastic!!
The ship is incredibly clean and sparkling and people are always, always working (no labor laws, being based in the Bahamas, of course) to keep it looking nice. Our stateroom host worked like, 17 hours a day but was always super friendly and polite…and was great with towel art!! We tipped him well. The embarking and debarking and ports were all handled very efficiently.
Here’s a note on just how good the service is – one night I put a load of clothes in the dryer and went to sleep, having forgotten about them. The next day I went to retrieve them and saw they were in the same dryer where I had left them….when I opened the door, I realized they’d been folded and stacked neatly in the dryer. !! Laundry elves roam the Fantasy!
Couple small complaints:
No soda water available at the soda station. ?? I asked a guy at the coffee shop if he could give me some and he said yes but apologetically told me he’d have to charge me $2. If Taco Bell can have a lever that dispenses carbonated water without the syrup at its soda stations, the Fantasy can.
The mini golf closes at 10. Why can’t they leave the equipment out all night?
The pools are generally super crowded, but we didn’t have a huge issue with it.
But in general, I really can’t say enough good things about it. Worth every penny.
