Disney Fantasy – Page 2 – Bless Your Heart

fun, travel

Disney Wish Bahamas- Day 6

September 30, 2022October 11, 2022 Shanny

This morning we woke up early to beat the crowds at Marceline Market buffet for breakfast.

Cool wood wall on the way in and out of Marceline Market

Click on the pics to enlarge!

We saw Lizard Man again this morning! You know how on a cruise or at an amusement park you tend to run into the same people over and over? Well for us on this cruise it was Lizard Man and Mrs. Lizard Man! LM has a tiny plushie toy Pascal the chameleon (Rapunzel’s sidekick from Tangled) on his shoulder. And Pascal has QUITE the wardrobe! I’ve seen it sporting mini Minnie ears, and a top hat and today’s princess hat! I have so many questions for LM like “How does Pascal stay up there? Does Pascal have his own suitcase?” and many more! I just love this guy!!!

After breakfast we went back to our room to get ready for the day.

Then it was time for the Hyperspace Lounge!!! This is the Star Wars bar on the ship and I swear we walked past the unassuming entrance more than once before I realized what it was!

Before our cruise you had to have reservations to get in to the Hyperspace Lounge. On our sailing we were limited to 45 minutes in the lounge as it’s small with limited seating.

The light up box on the left is where you wave your hand to open the door.

The screen behind the bar changes scenes periodically. You go into “hyperdrive” (complete with sound effects) then boom you’re in a new galaxy!

Quick tour of the Hyperspace Lounge

We ordered drinks. I ordered the Mustafar Berken’s Flow and CSP ordered the Tatooine Freetown Reserve. The server said it would taste like an Old Fashioned but a bit sweeter.

There’s a $200 drink and a $5000 (!!!) drink!!! Way out of our budget!!!

The server brought our drinks out to much fanfare! She finished making CSP’s drink at our table.

She put smoke filled bubbles on the surface of both of the drinks! I loved the smoke bubbles! We noticed a bartender creating them and floating them in the air.

We both enjoyed our cocktails very much! CSP’s even had a blue striped spherical ice cube- v cool!!!

I don’t drink very often at all so when we were finished we went up to Decl 11 to get some food on my belly!

Then we visited Joyful Sweets – the sweets shoppe themed after the movie Inside Out! It’s SO cute!!!

They sell gelato and macarons and these chocolate spheres and themed cupcakes! There’s also a section with prepackaged sweets including flavored popcorn and candies. I chose a couple of macarons and CSP picked a Hocus Pocus cupcake. We dropped the sweets off back at our room to enjoy later.

On the way back to our room we ran into Tiana! I WISH I’d had my phone out because she was gone in a flash, but I love that you can encounter characters all over the ship! We got some drink refills on Deck 11 then went to the Luna lounge for a new game show called Villains Game Night. We’d gotten there early (look at us learning!) and we (along with all the other early birds) promptly got kicked out and told to come back in 20 minutes because they needed to set up for the show. There went our front row seats!

Meanwhile, Captain Andy announced that we’d be passing by Castaway Cay in a few and the Fantasy was there. It’s extremely rare to spot another Disney ship at sea while you’re on a Disney ship since there are only 5! CSP got v excited because this 2 ships passing thing meant a horn battle would ensue! The Fantasy was leaving CC so while I waited in line to snag us some seats for the game show, CSP ran up to deck 12 to get a good spot to see the Fantasy.

The let me back into Luna

and I found seats next to this sweet couple who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary! We chatted while we waited for the show to start. We were told to put our phones away because no photography was allowed for this show since it’s new. But I did manage to snag this pic:

You can JUST make out Villain’s Game Night on the curtain

Of course as soon as I put my phone away Chip & Dale came through the lounge in their Halloween costumes looking so cute! But you’ll just have to take my word for it! Ha! Then I noticed some commotion out in the hall behind me (I was seated in front of a window). It was Goofy in his Egyptian get up!

He did a little dance.

The show began with no sign of CSP! It was a cute show- think Hollywood Squares but with Disney Villains! Finally CSP joined me all hot and sweaty from being all the way up on Deck 12 in the sun watching the horn battle with the Fantasy. He got some good pictures of the ship and in the video (it’s about 5 minutes long, you’ve been warned) you can hear the horns. Disney ship horns are different. They don’t honk, they play tunes! It’s awesome!!!

Skip to 2:13 for the horn battle!

We went back to our room to change into our swim suits. We’d decided that we didn’t want to go to dinner at the Marvel restaurant again tonight since we weren’t crazy about it the first night and we’d just wing dinner.

A room near ours with amazing decorations!

We went up to the Quiet Cove adults only area and got in this little bench thingy. The water is about a foot deep and you sit on this tile bench (it’s comfy I promise) while water cascades down the bench and into the little pool at your feet. It was really nice.

The water bench thing. There’s one on each side of the adult pool.

More of the Quiet Cove area ^^^. We read and I found these awesome oversized, padded rockers that were SO comfy cozy!!!

CSP decided he wanted to try the AquaMouse while everyone was at dinner so I parked myself under one of the final stretches and had my phone at the ready to shoot a video.

He went twice and pro tip- it’s really hard to see people at night when they are flying past you on a water raft!!! I took 11 videos of strangers to finally get this one of CSP!!!

CSP (I think!) on the AquaMouse!

We went back to the room and ordered room service for dinner then went to bed! Our towel animal tonight:

CSP noticed the “pattern” we were sailing in trying to avoid Hurricane Ian. Basically we just drove in circles in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean!

Goodnight! Tomorrow is Castaway Cay day!!!

fun, travel

Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Day 9

February 6, 2016February 19, 2016 Shanny

Today we woke up extra early to get ready, pack last minute items and disembark. There are 2 ways you can disembark on Disney Cruise Line. You can meet early in the lobby, tote your own luggage, and leave the ship on your own. That’s Express Walk Off. Or you can go to breakfast at an assigned time and have the ship handle your luggage. Then you’d pick up your luggage in the terminal on your way out. We chose to do the Express Walk Off because we like to hit the road early so we can get home at a reasonable time. Because we have late dinner we would have late breakfast so we wouldn’t even sit down to eat until 8 am. Because of the mechanical troubles, we were still moving when we woke up! We weren’t able to leave the ship, even with express walk off, until 8 am because of being late to the port. Even still, there were NO lines in customs so we breezed right through and were out to our car within 20 minutes of leaving our room! Love how organized Disney is!

I forgot to tell you something! When your ship is sailing away, your loved ones at home can watch via the Port Canaveral web cam! Mom of CSP watched us sail away and took some screen shots of the Fantasy.

Back to our last day of vacation… the drive home was uneventful except for Blanca (my trusty RAV 4) turned 100,000 miles!

Now the Fantasy was scheduled to leave today for a Western Caribbean cruise at 5 pm. But because of the mechanical troubles she had on our cruise she didn’t leave until 7:15 pm!!!

Even with mechanical troubles we still had a magical vacation and we can’t wait for next time!!!

fun, travel

Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Day 8

February 5, 2016February 19, 2016 Shanny

Today was our last sea day. We were bummed we weren’t going to be able to go to Castaway Cay, but we decided to make the most of it! First we went to breakfast at Cabanas. Then we went to the spa to use our Rainforest Room day pass. The Rainforest Room is really lots of rooms and awesome amenities available for use. There are aromatherapy showers, saunas, hot tubs with views of the sea, and heated tile loungers. Ahhh the heated tile loungers! The best place on the ship to read your book. We made great use of the Rainforest Room all morning until we had grumblings for lunch.

We dried off as best we could then went to Royal Court for lunch. Afterward we decided to put our free $200 to good use and stopped by the gift shops. All week we’d been eyeing BB8. And now we could get him guilt free! Plus we were able to use our 10% discount for being Gold Castaway Club members! We dropped BB8 off in our room and CSP went to play another round of the golf simulator with Kevin. I took a nap while they golfed then got up and started organizing and packing since today was our last day on the ship. CSP came back to the room and we went up to Satellite Falls. It was closed due to extremely high winds so we went back down to the Quiet Cove adult pool for a while. We hung out in the pool until I got too cold then we went back to the Rainforest Room for a couple hours until it was time to get dressed for dinner.

Dinner tonight was at the Enchanted Garden. We had a great dinner and said our goodbyes to our serving team of Diartha and Yami. Then back to our room to pack where we found a rhino! We watched Lilo and Stitch (Stitch is my favorite) while we packed and filled out our comment card. It was time for bed. We have to get up early tomorrow!

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Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Day 7

February 4, 2016February 17, 2016 Shanny

Today was another sea day! I like sea days because they give you time to enjoy the ship. Today we woke up and showered and got ready for brunch at Palo. Palo is on the back end of the ship with gorgeous views of the sea. We went up to Palo and Luca, our server, met us in the Meridian Lounge. The chandelier at the entrance of Palo. There is a big debate amongst Disney Cruisers as to which is better at Palo- brunch or dinner? I love them both! Brunch is amazing. First your server gets your drink order then walks you through the brunch buffet,explaining each section and giving recommendations. Then you are on your own to explore the buffet. Your server will check in on you from time to time and will place orders for the larger entrees and pizzas. Today CSP got the orecchiette with salmon, salmon and risotto (he loves seafood!), and lasagne. Luca brought us both lasagnes even though I said I didn’t want one. He told me trust me, you want this lasagne. The portions are on the smaller side compared to dinner so you can try many things. Luca said he wanted us to try everything! I ordered a goat cheese and sun dried tomato pizza, chicken parmesan, strawberry soup, and of course, the lasagne. CSP picked the sun dried tomatoes off the pizza and tried some of it too. I don’t order chicken parmesan anywhere else- it’s incredible! And Luca was right about the lasagne. It melted in your mouth. It was made with a béchamel sauce instead of cheese and the meat sauce had carrots in it, so it was quite different from the lasagne I make at home! I wish I could make lasagne like that! One of the touches that makes Palo special is how they present their iced tea. Instead of frozen water ice cubes they use frozen tea! So your tea never gets diluted. Arguably the best part of brunch though, is the dessert. They offer an array of tiny little sweet masterpieces and they always remind you that on vacation calories don’t count! They even give you the tiniest of spoons to taste everything with. Love.

After brunch we waddled back to our room to relax for a bit until it was time to meet up with Amy and Kevin. On the way we heard bits and pieces of an announcement from the captain, but we didn’t know the full story. We found out more about that later.

Kevin and CSP went up to the sports deck to play in the golf simulator while Amy, Ellen and I went to the Royal Court Royal Tea Party. We were seated at a table with Ruby (age 4), Ruby’s mom, and Ruby’s Godmother, all from Dublin, Ireland. They were fun to talk to. The event was too cute. Each girl was deemed a Princess and was announced to the room upon entering. At the table there were gifts waiting for each princess. They received a Cinderella doll, a jewelry box with a charm bracelet and necklace inside, a gorgeous autograph/memory book, a fancy pen for getting autographs, and a cookie with their name on it. Once we were all seated Lady Chamomile came out and welcomed us. Then Chef Brule (pronounced like creme brule) came out and the two of them sang songs and worked the room. Next it was time for the princesses to arrive. First came Belle, then Tiana, then Cinderella. Each princess stopped by the table twice. The first time to chat with each girl, then the second time to sign autographs and take pictures and chat a little more. They were all so beautiful and sweet to the girls. And each princess brought the girls a gift- a charm for their charm bracelets. We were served teas of our choosing (the girls received apple juice), and they brought out a serving platter full of tiny finger sandwiches and sweets. Then the adults were brought warm scones with clotted cream and jam while the little girls each got a cupcake in a tea cup. It was all just lovely and I’m sure any little girl’s dream!

After the tea I went down to O’Gills Pub to meet up with the boys. I visited with them for a while then went to the Future Cruise Desk. By this time Amy had filled me in on that captain’s announcement. One of the ship’s motors was out and it meant we would not be able to stop at Castaway Cay tomorrow! Boo! This is the second cruise in a row where we’ve missed Castaway Cay! In October it was because of Hurricane Joaquin, and now this. Because of missing Castaway Cay and it was technically Disney Cruise Line’s fault, they offered us compensation. Each stateroom received a $200 onboard credit and 20% off a future cruise. Normally when you book a future cruise on board you get a 10% discount. So you can imagine the line was pretty long. I found Amy in line ahead of me, and got in line behind a couple we’d met during the cruise. Chatting with them made the wait more bearable. I booked our cruise and went back to the room to meet up with CSP and get ready for dinner.

Dinner tonight was back at Animator’s Palate. Tonight everyone drew a cartoon person on a paper we were given. They were collected by the waitstaff and animated on the big screens around the room. It’s really cute how they do it.

After dinner it was back to the room for bed, where we were greeted by a towel frog!

Tomorrow… ~~Castaway Cay!~~ Nope, another sea day!

fun, travel

Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Day 6

February 3, 2016February 17, 2016 Shanny

This morning we are in St. Thomas US Virgin Islands! We woke up early again today as we had another excursion. We ate a quick breakfast in Cabanas then met up with our group in The Tube. My foot had been hurting and when I sat down at the Tube I inspected it to find out why. Well yesterday we did a lot of walking and I was wearing new flip flops. I rubbed a HUGE blister in between my big and 2nd toe that stretched all down the ball of my foot by a good 2 inches! HUGE I tell ya! So I was not thrilled when we had to walk another eleventy hundred miles to the boat for today’s excursion! We were on the Caribbean Sea Snorkel and Beach Tour. Our boat took us out to this spot where lots of other boats went for snorkeling where we were supposed to be able to see lots of cool fish and turtles. Our group snorkeled there for a good hour then back on the boat and off to Honeymoon Beach for another hour.

On the way back to the ship we passed by the Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, one of the largest cruise ships in the world! I’ve seen it on tv and the internet but it is a sight to behold in real life! ENORMOUS! It dwarfed the Carnival cruise ship docked next to it! CSP said he’d like to go on it, but I think I’ll stick with Disney. The Allure is just too big for me. Too many people. We docked back at the pier, which was quite busy. They said there were 10 cruise ships at St. Thomas today! Even if each ship only held 2,000 people that’s an additional 20,000 people on this tiny island in one day! We saw more yachts too.
We had to pass by a Princess ship to get to the Fantasy (see Dumbo painting the ship?) on our walk back. Security checks you for your ship’s card (Key to the World Card) and your photo ID if you’re over 18. Disney Cruise Line tells you this a million times. Maybe it’s different on Princess, I don’t know. But there was a couple fighting quite loudly with the security guard because she didn’t have her ID and “no one has asked for it before”. Some swear words were exchanged and the security guard said “If you want to give me attitude you can just wait out here in the hot sun!”. I wish we could have seen how that ended up! But back to the ship for us at about noon.

We took a nap then grabbed a quick bite at Flo’s then headed up to Satellite Falls– our favorite feature on the Fantasy. We read and hung out up there for a good while until it was time to go back to our room to get ready for dinner. CSP watched The Incredibles on demand while I primped.
Dinner tonight was at Royal Court. Colin and Ellen fell asleep at dinner again. Poor things. Dinner is at 8:15 so they can barely keep their eyes open long enough to eat then it’s lights out right at the table!

We came back to our room to find a cool gorilla wearing my ‘Ohana sunglasses! Every night they also leave on your bed a copy of the next day’s Navigator (the daily newsletter with all the ship’s activities) and any other information they need to communicate with you.

Time for bed. Tomorrow is a sea day filled with activities!!!

fun, travel

Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Day 5

February 2, 2016February 16, 2016 Shanny

We woke up super early today and got up to Cabana’s right as they opened for breakfast. We even beat the sun up! I haven’t seen a sunrise in a long time! Our breakfast view: Breakfast in Cabana’s is my favorite meal there. I love how themed it all is. Like the seagulls at the drink station. So cute.

After breakfast we met in the D Lounge at 7:45. Disney Cruise Line is VERY organized when it comes to port adventures. I checked us in and we waited for the next step. Our tour was Tortola by Land and Sea! Our ship and another ship in port at Tortola’s new pier. This was our first time in Tortola and we wanted to see as much of it as we could. Well we picked the right tour for that! We walked down the pier and boarded a boat that took us out all around the island and to nearby islands. The tour guide was great- full of info! We went to Treasure Island (Norman Island), where pirates would hide their booty in caves. And we saw tons of yachts. Who knew there were so many giant yachts cruising around the Caribbean?!? That’s how the other half lives! We were on the boat for about 2 hours. Then the boat let us off at Pusser’s Landing– a small shopping/dining/marina area. We had about 30 minutes to relax and shop. Then a man came into the area where we were all gathered and herded us onto these bizarre open air taxi bus thingies. They were like safari jeeps on a truck chassis. Next started the terrifying part of the tour. The shocks on these bus/jeeps had seen better days. We were bouncing all over the place, barreling up and down these windy, mountain roads, chickens and goats running for their lives trying to get out of our way! We would come to these turns in the road and our driver would just lay on the horn and go. Never mind that you couldn’t see around the corner if there was traffic coming. The roads were BARELY wide enough for one car, so passing traffic was interesting! Our tour guide’s name was Lyndon and he drove us around for about an hour and a half telling us all about the island. Tortola is the capital of the British Virgin Islands. Road Town is their main town and that’s where our ship was docked. Lyndon stopped periodically to let us off the bus to take pictures. There were some really stunning views. Our ship, the Disney Fantasy from atop the mountain: It was a really fun and interesting way to see the island! We made our way back down to the pier and Lyndon dropped us off where we had to walk through a shopping area (smart) to get to the ship. We were back on board by about 12 noon.

We needed lunch so we headed back up to Cabanas so CSP could get some shrimp. I had a hard time finding anything appetizing. I’m just not a buffet girl unless it’s a breakfast buffet. So we stopped at Eye Scream for ice cream on our way back to our room. We took a nap then got ready to see Star Wars The Force Awakens at 5 in the Walt Disney Theatre in 3D! CSP had been looking forward to this almost more than any other part of the cruise! We met up with the Family and caught up before the movie started. It was a great movie. Afterward we raced back to our room to get ready for dinner at Palo at 8. On the way to Palo we passed Pepe the Prawn’s room. SO cute, I always have to snap a picture.
Palo is the adults only Italian inspired restaurant on the ship. Oh man is it good. We look forward to our meal there all year! CSP gets the same thing each time- cippino (a seafood stew) for his appetizer and osso bucco for his entree. And each time he is amazed by how good it is! I mix it up and try something different each time. We met up with Amy & Kevin in the Meridian lounge and waited a moment until they took us to our table. Our server was Luca from Italy. So classically Italian too, with the accent and everything. He was great! I had the butternut squash ravioli for my appetizer. My entree was the rosemary chicken. CSP and I also shared the pan seared sea scallops. We all had the incredible chocolate souffle for dessert as well as a couple other desserts Luca insisted on bringing out. He wanted us to try a little of everything!

We finished dinner just in time to see the pirate party fireworks. Photos don’t do them justice. Then it was back to our room for bed. Discovered a cool Aztec looking sun god on our bed! Another early morning tomorrow…in St. Thomas!!!

fun, travel

Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Day 4

February 1, 2016February 16, 2016 Shanny

Another sea day! We slept in a bit- right through breakfast! So we got up and got dressed and went to Royal Court for lunch. After lunch we went to the Walt Disney Theatre to see The Good Dinosaur. It was so sweet! Too sweet for CSP. It was funny, but didn’t have enough funny parts for CSP, and I sobbed through the whole thing!
After the movie I checked my face (thank goodness for waterproof eyeliner!) and we made our way back to the Skyline Lounge for Mixology part 2! Today Ashley showed us how to make a Brazilian mojito, Pomegranate Passion, the Chocolate Martini again (which I didn’t mind at all because it is delicious!), a RumChata and Fireball Whiskey shot called Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and a classic Midori Sour.

After Mixology we went back to our room for a nap and to get ready for dinner. Tonight’s dinner was special because it was Ellen’s 9th birthday! Family even decorated their door for the occasion! You can decorate your stateroom doors with magnets. Even the walls and ceilings in the room are magnetic! On the way to dinner we spotted Chip and Dale! Dinner tonight was in Animator’s Palate. Crush the sea turtle from Finding Nemo came out onto the big video screens around the room and interacted with diners. It was really cute.
Here are a couple of pics of CSP and his little buddy Colin. Colin just LOVES CSP! Colin follows him around, always wants to sit by him, defends him if we pick on CSP- Hey! He’s my friend!, and even snuck in a kiss on the cheek one night at dinner. SO CUTE!
Amy ordered a gorgeous and DELICIOUS cake for Ellen’s birthday. I swear I could have eaten half that thing on my own! The waitstaff came around and everyone sang for Ellen. I think she had a pretty magical birthday! Oh, and she loved the shirt we got her.

After dinner…back to the room for bed and found a jackalope! Maybe it’s just a regular rabbit but we like to think it’s a magical Disney jackalope! We have to get up extra early tomorrow because we’ll be in Tortola!!!

fun, travel

Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Day 3

January 31, 2016February 15, 2016 Shanny

Today was a sea day so CSP & I slept in a bit. We had breakfast at Royal Court then went to the Tube for the Castaway Club Gold & Platinum reception. This was our first time attending the reception.They said they sent out about 400 invitations, and about 100 or so people attended. Darren, the cruise director spoke and then came around and spent some time with each table. Captain Thor spoke as well. You could have your picture taken with each of them. No, Captain Thor did not carry a hammer, much to CSP’s disappointment. Wait staff passed around drinks, hors d’oeuvres, fruit and cookies. CSP downed 4 mimosas! He said next year we’re getting there early for the drinks! Mind you this was 10:30 in the morning! Ha! There was a special guest at the reception- Minnie Mouse! Do you know how special it is to be able to walk right up to a character for a photo without a long line?? It was awesome! And she was too cute too- I’m so used to giving hugs with a kiss on the cheek and she “kissed” me back, complete with smoochy noises!

After the reception CSP & I did a little shopping at the gifts shops on board. We drooled over BB8 then picked up our magnet (we get a dated Disney Cruise Line magnet each year), a Stitch pin for my lanyard, a sparkly Ariel shirt for Ellen’s birthday tomorrow, and a cute anchor shirt for MOM of CSP for taking care of the pugs and the house while we’re gone.

We went back to the room to drop off our goodies and met up with the Family (Amy, Kevin, Ellen & Colin). They needed lunch too so we all went off to Royal Court for lunch. We went back to the room afterward to find the stateroom host had opened and linked our balconies together to make one huge balcony! CSP started watching Thor 2 for a little while on demand (so cool, you can start and stop movies by bookmarking them).

Next it was time for our first Mixology class! We went to the Skyline Lounge and for the next hour or so we learned about making fun drinks from Ashley the bartender. Kevin even got in on the action! We had 5 drinks: a champagne drink, a mojito, a rum drink, a chocolate martini, and a shot called the Big Elephant. Forgive me for not knowing all the drink names. They can’t print off recipes for us anymore and I had both mine and CSP’s chocolate martinis and shots! I was lucky I remembered how to get back to our room!

After Mixology CSP wanted a coffee so we went to the Cove Cafe in the adults only section on the pool deck. CSP asked for a 4 shot cafe latte. The barista could not believe CSP actually wanted 4 shots of espresso in his latte! We were walking around and realized that all of deck 11 ( the pool deck) was deserted because of early dinner (our dinner is at 8:15). I mean, NO ONE around. Perfect time to ride the AquaDuck! So we ran down to the room and CSP got changed, then we ran back up to the entrance of the AquaDuck. They wouldn’t let him ride!!! They said he needed a partner and there was no one around to ride with him. I couldn’t do it because of my vertigo + mixology = I was already dizzy! So we went back to the room to get ready for Formal Night and dinner.

Everyone looked so lovely for formal night! We saw Daisy Duck on the way to dinner in her sparkly dress! I love her little tail sticking out! Some people really go all out with floor length gowns and tuxedos! Disney sets up backdrops all over the main atrium for professional photographs. So we had some taken before dinner, but we totally forgot about them the rest of the week so we never saw them! Who knows if they even turned out! Doh! We were back in Royal Court for dinner, which is a gorgeous restaurant. Dinner was a French theme tonight so CSP was happy with his escargot!

When we got back to our room after dinner there was a little sign to set our clocks forward an hour upon retiring for the evening. Plus a cool dinosaur!

Next up….Day 4- Sea Day and Ellen’s birthday!!!

fun, travel

Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Day 2

January 30, 2016February 15, 2016 Shanny

We woke up, gathered our things and hit the road for Port Canaveral! It takes about an hour to get from Orlando to the port. Not too bad! We ate a light breakfast on the road. We got to the port, turned our luggage and case of water over to the porters, and went upstairs in the terminal to check in. Check in was quick and painless and we were given our very first set of GOLD lanyards! This is our 6th Disney cruise (my 14th cruise total) and that makes us Gold Castaway Club Members! Fun! We waited in the terminal for a bit then they started letting us board, but first we stopped for our Welcome Aboard photo. Note our custom shirts! We were announced then we went to deck 2 to the Enchanted Garden restaurant for lunch. We were a little early so there was some waiting around for the restaurant to open. We took our time with lunch (CSP loves the shrimp and crab claws so much) and next thing we knew it was time to go to our room to drop off our carry on bags! //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js We have room 5546 on Deck 5 with the extended veranda.//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js Upon entering our room we noticed our Castaway Club gift! //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js A gold (yellow) tote bag and a really nice photo album! We also noticed our Bon Voyage decorations! Amy & family surprised us by decorating our room! //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.jsWe freshened up a bit and dropped off our carry on bags (and unpacked them). Then it was time to head to the Tube for the Facebook group Meet & Greet!//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js Every cruise has a Facebook group. It just so happened that I was an admin for our group, along with Amy, and a third person. Our group was big! Over 150 people. The point of the group is to share advice and answer questions for newbies and just get excited about the cruise! Plus Amy organized Mixology classes (more on that later) and the Fish Extender Gift Exchange. It’s a lot of fun! Now, let me quickly reintroduce Amy & Kevin & family. We all met on the Disney Magic in February 2015 and became fast friends. They came to visit in June 2015 and in October 2015 Amy, Kevin, CSP & I all went on a 4 night cruise. They live in Ohio. Ok, so we’re caught up, back to the story! At the meet and greet lots of our members came for a big group photo and to meet each other. It was a lot of fun. One member, Ray, was so nice- he called us admins up to the front of the room and presented us with Disney pins for our work! //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js How sweet!!! The hour went by quickly then it was time for the lifeboat/muster drill. Praise the Lord our muster station was the Walt Disney Theatre! No standing in the hot sun for a half hour! After the drill we went back to our room where our luggage was waiting for us.//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js So we unpacked and made final phone/facetime calls to our family as we sailed away!//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.jsI switched our phones to Airplane mode and we were all set to text each other via Disney’s Cruise app.//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js CSP quickly discovered the on demand menu and watched Pixels while I got ready for dinner. Dinner tonight was back in Enchanted Garden. I didn’t take pictures of our food this go round but I did take screen shots of the menu for one night so you can see some of the offerings. //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js The menus are varied and all the food is fantastic! At dinner poor Ellen (age almost 9 today) fell asleep with her mouth open. //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js They gave us hummus with our bread tonight so Amy put some in Ellen’s mouth. OMG!- her face when she woke up and tasted something awful (to her) in her mouth! HILARIOUS! Fun with kids! After dinner we went back to our rooms for bed and found the first towel animal.//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js Let me tell you, our room steward totally set the bar for towel animals! //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js He’s a pro! Just wait till you see what he created this week!

Next up…Day 3- at sea!

fun

Disney Fantasy Western Caribbean Day 5- Costa Maya & the Rainforest

February 18, 2013 Shanny

Today was Costa Maya day. CSP still wasn’t feeling well and I was only at about 80% plus we only had 4 hours in port so we decided not to get off the ship. We woke up and had an early (8am!) breakfast at Royal Court. CSP had his usual lox and bagels and a weird omelet with baked beans in it. He wasn’t crazy about that at all. I had a mango yogurt smoothie and a waffle.

Before the trip I bought us both a day pass to the Rainforest in the Senses Spa onboard. Each pass was only $16 each! Since CSP was having a hard time breathing I thought today would be the perfect day to go sit in the steam room and open up his breathing pipes! We went into the spa and I bought the Vanilla Orange scrub for $9. It smells divine. They give you a little loofah to apply the scrub with and the spa lady told me to apply the scrub in the steam room then rinse off in the shower. They gave us wristbands that activate the locked doors to the Rainforest and sent us off the the locker room. We deposited our stuff and met back up. The locker rooms are super nice and provide you with slippers, robes, hairdryers, shampoo, body wash, conditioner, the works! You wear your swimsuit in the rainforest by the way. No nakies allowed. Although I did see nakey ladies in the locker room. They have curtained changing areas but some ladies are free spirits!

We walked in to the rainforest and had a drink of water. You could choose cucumber or lemon water. We grabbed a towel each. Then we picked the dry sauna to start off in. It was hot but not unbearable. There was a wonderful view of the ocean. We stayed in there for about 10 minutes then went and played in the showers. You can “shower” (since you’re in your swimsuit) in all of the 4 showers. They have aromatherapy in each one as well as different colored lights that flash and 3 different shower programs in each one. Like the Cool Mist Experience has the Siberian Rain- BOY is that cold! But so nice after a hot sauna!

We followed that pattern with each sauna. Next came the steam room where I applied my scrub. Turns out there’s a hose in there that gives cold water so CSP hosed my scrub off me. He had a little too much fun squirting me with freezing cold water! We also tried out the Hamam. It’s the 3rd and hottest sauna. Even the seats are super hot. We were the only people in there so there was no one to advise us what to do with the ladles and baskets. CSP took that to mean you just fling water at your wife. We didn’t stay in there long. We tried every single shower combination then went out to the hot tubs.

The hot tubs face the ocean and are made for 2 people. The bottoms are waved so you are forced to lounge in the tub. We were in the hot tub and CSP said to me “I am SO relaxed. I could not get more relaxed.” Plus he could breathe! Once we were finished with the hot tubs we dried off on the heated tile loungers that overlook the hot tubs and the ocean. Each lounger has a little book like. OMG they are so relaxing. I had to keep myself from falling asleep. No one needs to hear me snore while they are on vacation!

By the way, the Rainforest and Spa were open for business when I took these pictures. It was incredible! CSP at one point turned to me and said “I can’t believe we’re on a ship with 4000 other people and there’s NO ONE around!” It was so wonderful! Every now and then there would be other people but it never got busy and we never had to wait for anything. And the entire time you’re in there relaxing there’s this peaceful music playing and it just smells so good. Or maybe that was me because of my scrub! I did smell wonderful! 🙂

We took a break from the spa and went to Royal Court for lunch. CSP had dill marinated salmon and I had shrimp cocktail as our appetizers. Our soups were chilled tangerine for me and chicken consumme for CSP. For our entrees CSP had the burger and fries and I had butternut squash risotto. I LOVE risotto and don’t seem to find it on menus around town where we eat so I get it as much as possible on the ship. CSP skipped dessert because of his big ole burger but I had an apricot tartlet.

After lunch we swung by the room to grab my camera so I could take pictures of the Rainforest then it was back to the spa. It was a day pass after all and we were going to take advantage! We also picked up our books in the room and spent a good amount of time reading on the heated tile loungers. There are 10 loungers, 2 hot tubs, 4 showers and 3 saunas. My skin was still feeling so good and moisturized!

Next up…..dinner at Royal Court and Pop!