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It’s time I finally did a post on our Disney Cruise! Since nothing is more entertaining than other people’s vacations, I will try to include more information about the boat and less about us ;). And much like I did for our last cruise (we did a 3 Day Disney Dream Cruise a few years back), I will separate this into the ship review and the individual port reviews. Let’s begin with a little background:
Background:
The Ship: We went on the Disney Fantasy. It’s very similar to the Disney Dream, but newer and it leaves from Port Canaveral, which is what we wanted. It’s got 1,250 staterooms and can house 4,000 passengers and 1,500 crew members. And I would guess the ship was 99% full? I mean you could tell it was full, but you also could certainly find quite space / empty spaces without too much hunting. It’s a HUGE ship. HUGE.
The Itinerary: We did Itinerary B, which was the following:
Day 1: Port Canaveral (Leave 3:45pm)
Day 2: At Sea
Day 3: Grand Cayman (10:45am – 4:45pm)
Day 4: Costa Maya, Mexico (1:00pm – 5:30pm)
Day 5: Cozumel, Mexico (8:00am – 5:30pm)
Day 6: At Sea
Day 7: Castaway Cay (9:45am – 4:30pm)
Day 8: Port Canaveral (7:30am)
I picked this because it had 4 ports and only 2 days at sea. My parents came on the cruise with us and I wanted to make sure that my Dad had a chance to escape the boat. He’d never been on a cruise before and none of us were sure how he’d like being trapped on a boat for two days straight. Turned out it was fine!
The Room:
We booked a Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah (Cabin #10100), which was a category 04A room. It was plenty “roomy” and fit the 4 of us, our luggage and a pack n play (provided by Disney) for WB. I’ll get to more on that later.
The Price:
For the 4 of us it was $5,092.08. My parents had the same catagory room (they were in Cabin #10618 which they upgraded to at the last possible second because they decided at the last second they wanted a balcony after all) and theirs was less (around $3,800) because there were only two of them! I figured I’d just include that since everyone asks and it’s basically common knowledge. I did a comparison to a similar Disney cruise (only the itinerary was slightly different) in May 2014 and it was $5,482.28. It appears we got a “deal” as prices are on the increase!
What it Includes:
The price of the cruise includes your cabin, all cruise services (childcare, shows, workout facilities, etc.), all meals and beverages, with the exception of alcohol (beer, wine, mixed drinks, etc.). It also does not include speciality coffee drinks and smoothies. It does not include airfare or transportation to and from the port.
OnBoard Activities:
Water Activities
The Pools: The ship has three main pools: Mickey’s Pool (2ft. depth), Donald’s Pool (5ft. depth) and the Quiet Cove Pool (Adults Only ~ 4ft. depth). There are some smaller wading pools and splash pools too. For L, Donald’s Pool was where it was at because he could jump in and go underwater. WB couldn’t enjoy any of the pools since he’s still in diapers and Disney doesn’t allow anyone in diapers in the pool. The Mickey’s Pool was jam packed with kids during the day, while Donald’s pool was less crowded. I never made it to the Quiet Cove Pool, but every time I walked by, it looked amazing. In general, the pool deck was most crowded during the day, but emptied out quite nicely right before dinner and after dinner? It was a DREAM. Nice and empty.
Nemo’s Reef: WB enjoyed Nemo’s Reef, however, since he wasn’t walking yet I don’t think he enjoyed it was much as he would like today. Nemo’s Reef is crazy and loud and you run the risk of being squirted by random children anytime you enter. When we went on the Dream when L turned 3, he was obsessed with Nemo’s Reef, but now that he’s older it didn’t interest him as much. He still enjoyed it, but not like he did before.
AquaLab: The AquaLab is like a bigger kids version of Nemo’s Reef. It was never overly crowded and was kind of hidden away on the ship (it’s behind the AquaDuck). We didn’t play here much, but L enjoyed it when we did.
Aqua Duck: Luckily L was tall enough for the Aqua Duck (you have to be 42 inches tall) this time because I think he would have been totally disappointed if he couldn’t go on it. He totally loved it and probably went on it a few times a day? Lines for the Aqua Duck ranged from 2 minutes all the way up to 45 minutes, depending on the time of day. Again, early am and dinner time are the least crowded. I think there was one night after dinner that the boys went on it like 5 times in a row since there were no lines. I believe the AquaDuck closed at 10pm or 11pm at night?
Other Activities:
~Goofy Sport’s Deck: Goofy’s Sports Deck has basketball courts, mini golf and sports simulators. L was all over the mini golfing and I think probably did this at least once a day. It was never overly crowded and sometimes Goofy even makes appearances up there in his golf outfit ;).
~Shuffleboard: Shuffleboard is on Deck 4, which houses the walking / running track and is also host to a bunch of bars. It’s like an underground city down there! The deck is super cool and has wood lounge chairs with fancy cushions and is generally fairly empty. If you don’t have a balcony cabin, but want to spend time enjoying the water away from the hustle and bustle of the pool, this is the place to do it.
~Kid’s Club (Disney Oceaneer Club): L wanted to test out the Kid’s Club (it’s for ages 3-12) and see what it was all about, so we dropped him off for a few hours one afternoon. I’ll spare you the check-in details, but security is tight! He had a good time in there, but wasn’t thrilled that Peter Pan came in there to visit. LOL! He’d totally go back there next time, but I think he’d prefer if WB had been old enough to go with him so he’d have a buddy.
~Bingo: I love me some Bingo! I love casinos more, but Disney doesn’t have casinos on their ships, so Bingo is the next best thing. My mom and I went one night and then we all (well minus my Dad) went to the final round of jackpot Bingo. I think the pot was well over $5K? We didn’t win (obviously or you would have heard about it by now), but it was very fun!
~The Gym: B went to the gym almost every day (it was connected to the spa) and said it was top notch. I walked on the track a few times and took the stairs everywhere for my exercise. I prefer to do C25K in the privacy of my basement anyway.
The Restaurants:
We had the main seating at dinner (Main Seating is 5:45pm and Second Seating is 8:15pm) and made it a point to eat in all of the restaurants. I feel like the Main Seating is where it’s at for kids. There is NO WAY WB could have stayed up late enough for dinner. No way.
Dress Code: Disney’s dress code calls for no shorts or flip-flops or tank tops in the dining rooms. This totally wasn’t enforced. It’s seriously a suggestion, NOT a dress code. Your servers, the dining room staff, everyone on the ship just wants to you ENJOY your cruise and not worry about what you are wearing. This is a Disney cruise and it was jam packed with little kids, so you can decide if you think fine dining is happening in the dining rooms. If you want a romantic fine dining experience, head to one of the adult only restaurants (Remy and Palo), because while the restaurants are very nice, they are also loud (in a good way though)! The amount of food WB “dropped” on the floor during meals could have fed a small army.
The Dining Rooms: Disney does a restaurant rotation on their cruises so you get to eat in each of the dining rooms a few times. Your head waiter, their assistant, the dinning room “man”, etc. all follow along so they are with you the entire cruise. It’s awesome because they know your name, your needs, etc. They have your drink of choice waiting for you at your table each night! Your table number is also the same, so if you were table 18 in one dining room, you are table 18 in the next. If you are a family of four, your table is for four people. You aren’t seated with any strangers and forced to make small talk, sit with other peoples kids, etc.
Night #1 (Enchanted Garden): The first night we were in the Enchanted Garden and the theme was “Continental Market”. Clearly I was all into the first night because I took a TON of pictures. It went downhill from there.
Night #2 (Royal Court): We were scheduled to have dinner in the Royal Court for “French Cuisine”, however, we skipped it since it was formal night and ate at Flo’s Cafe. We didn’t really bring any formal clothes (I’m kind of crazy, but I was not about to pack suits and ties for the boys who I knew would hate that) and didn’t know it was totally just a dress code suggestion. Our servers told us the next night to basically get real and get our butts to dinner dressed however we wanted to dress! I have no pictures of our dinner from this night, but imagine hamburgers, fried, wraps, fruit and cookies on plates ;).
Night #3 (Animator’s Palate): Night 3 was Animator’s Palate (which is my favorite dining room of the three) and was “Pacific Rim Cuisine” and also happened to be L’s birthday! The servers sang Happy Birthday to him which I believe was the highlight of his trip! This was also the “underwater” dinner. The lights and video screens in the room made it seem like you were eating underwater. It’s hard to explain, but it worked.
Night #4 (Enchanted Garden): Night 4 was the “Prince and Princess Menu” and I think had my favorite kid’s dessert of the trip – the fruits / treats with chocolate sauce. Totally perfect.
Night #5 (Royal Court): Night 4 was the “Pirate Menu” which is a huge deal on Disney Cruises. They encourage you to dress up like a pirate and to wear your bandanas to dinner! The boys all did, but my mom and I are lame and opted out!
Night #6 (Royal Court): Night 6 was the “Captain’s Gala” and we were once again in the Royal Court restaurant. I have zero clue why we were there two nights in a row, but I also didn’t ask. When you get to your cabin, you have meal tickets in there which tell you what dining room to go to each night.
Night #7 (Animator’s Palate): Our final (and favorite) dinner was the Sea Ya’ Real Soon dinner in the Animator’s Palate. It was the coolest meal of the trip for sure. When you sat down you were given a piece of paper and are told your draw your “character” and write your name and table number down. They collected them about 10 minutes after we sat down and told us they’d be on the screens in the room later. We were thinking they’d just appear on the screens like they were scanned in. WRONG. Disney is better than that and had our characters on screen dancing, moving around and basically performing to music. Everyone’s characters ands names were shown on the screens closet to your tables. It was genius and we all loved it. Do NOT skip any meals in the Animator’s Palate. SO COOL.
Cabanas: We had breakfast every day and most lunches at Cabanas and were never disappointed. It’s a great buffet and had everything you could ever want for breakfast. Eggs, bacon, cooked to order omlettes, eggs benedict, toast, bagels, assorted muffins and pastries, yogurt (in cartons and made from scratch), mini boxes of cereal, fruit, cheeses and deli meats, pancakes, just everything you could think of for breakfast. Lunch is also a buffet and has basically whatever you want. Chicken, Fish, Pizza, Chinese, Mexican, Veggies, Fruits, 10 different desserts. Again, they have everything. It was crowded at times, but were always able to find a highchair and spots to eat.
Other Food / Beverage Related Items:
~Bars: There are bars all over the place (indoor, outdoor, themed, etc.), but B and I only went to a few. Went to some outdoor bar late one night (my parents had the kids) so B could smoke a Cuban and we had drinks. It was nice and not too crowded.
~Eye-Scream Treats: Self-service ice-cream. Yeah we ate a lot of ice cream. It’s all soft serve and flavors were vanilla, chocolate, banana, strawberry, etc.
~Flo’s Café (Tow-Maters Grill, Luigi’s Pizza and Fillmore’s Favorites): Sometimes, when eating breakfast, lunch and dinner just weren’t enough, we also had to get snacks. Flo’s Cafe is open late (it’s on the pool deck), so if you wanted a snack, this was the place for sure.
~Self-Serve Beverage Station: Deck 11 (aka the pool deck) has two self-serve beverage stations with soda, milk, coffee, hot water, lemonade, water, tea, etc. I love this idea and wish they had this on other cruises I went on. All of it was free too, which was great. It was always well stocked and clean. The cups are on the smaller side though, so if you want to grab a water or soda to take back to the room, just know you might drink it before you get there.
~Room Service: If you haven’t gotten enough to eat from all the other options or just don’t feel like walking ALL the way up to the pool deck (which umm, was one flight of stairs for us), there’s always room service. It’s totally free and well, we felt like we HAD to order. The menu is fairly limited, but we enjoyed what we tried (wraps and cheese / fruit plates come to mind) and let’s face it, room service is fun.
The Cabin:
Location: Our cabin (#10100) was on Deck 10 (duh) and was in a fabulous location. Deck 11 was the pool area, Cabanas, the snack bar, etc. and since that’s where we spent most of our time, it worked out perfect. I thought our room on Deck 9 on the Dream was perfect, but Deck 10 was even better.
The Room: The room itself which a nice size. For a cruise ship room anyways.
My favorite parts of the room were:
–The separate bathroom areas: Instead of just one bathroom with the toilet, sink and shower / tub, there were two separate spaces. One had a toilet and sink and the other was a sink and shower / tub combo. They weren’t roomy by any means, but separating them is genius. And having a tub on a cruise ship is a luxury. It was a circle tub and again it wasn’t huge, but it fit both kids nicely.
–The cabin service: I totally believe you can find the nicest people on earth working on Disney cruises. And the nicest of the nice are the room stewards. Ours was JR and he was amazing. I once accused him of never sleeping and he giggled and replied he sleeps “a few hours”. I don’t buy it. He was always there if we needed something and knew our names right away. If L was with my parents and needed to in our room because we weren’t around, JR would happily let them in because he knew L and knew what room was ours. My parents cabin steward was equally fabulous and if he saw me at my parents room (i.e. looking for L), he’d tell me where they went off to. And they both could make some mean towel art.
–Storage: Between the closets and the big dresser unit there are plenty of space to unpack and hang clothes. Our suitcases fit nicely under the bed (WB also liked it under there) and we didn’t have any issues fitting the stroller or the sit n’ stroll in there either. We do NOT pack lightly at all. But it was all fine.
–The balcony: Now that I have had a room with a balcony, it would be hard to go back to one without. If you are worried about kids being able to open the sliding door, don’t be. There is a lock on the top, far too high for little kids to reach.
The Transportation:
Air: I booked our airfare separate from the cruise which may or may not have been a mistake. I don’t really know. We flew AirTran, which wasn’t my first choice, but it was the cheapest for sure.
Car Service to the Ship: Instead of taking the Disney shuttles from the airport to the boat (which is $70/person round-trip and would have cost $420 for all 6 of us), I booked Florida Magical Tours to pick us up from the airport and take us to the port and vice versa, which was $290. Yeah, it was seriously a savings of almost $200 to hire a car service. They had car seats installed for the kids and even stopped at the grocery store for us on the way to the boat. I’d use them again in a second.
Miscellaneous Items:
Internet Service: The internet was expensive and slow, but that’s to be expected since you are in the middle of the ocean. I bought the biggest package (500 minutes for $150) because I had lots of time after WB went to bed and I was still awake. Plus, I can’t stay away from the internet for too long.
Television: I think we turned on the tv like three times? When we were in the room it was becasue WB was there for a nap, which meant silence was necessary! L enjoyed watching some of the old school cartoons in my parents room though.
The Shows: We were so busy doing other things, we didn’t go to any shows. I believe my parents (and L) saw a few and enjoyed them? We went to a few on the Dream and enjoyed them.
The Characters: In the Personal Navigators, there is a special sheet that shows the times the Characters will be appearing, who will be there, how long they will stay, etc. We didn’t seek out characters really, but if we happened upon them and the lines were short, we stopped for pictures. We saw Captain Mickey on L’s birthday and they spent extra time singing happy birthday to him, which he loved.
Deck Parties: We made sure to attend the Sail Away party and the Pirate Deck Parties, both of which were great! We didn’t stay up late enough to see the fireworks show after the 2nd Pirate Show, but my mom said they were good. When the kids are older that will for sure be a must do.
Trouble: It’s possible we are bad luck for cruising because our on first cruise on the Dream, there was a passenger who had to be airlifted from the ship by the Coast Guard. Word was that he had a heart attack. Let me tell you the Coast Guard is amazing. They obviously couldn’t land on the ship, but they hovered over enough to lower the basket and were able to load the passenger who needed help in minutes. We were told it was the first time someone had to be airlifted from the Disney Dream. Well, this time at about 6am on morning, an announcement was made throughout the entire ship (including the staterooms) that the “red party” needed to report to such and such place. I knew right away this was BAD news because they do NOT break into cabins at 6am for nothing. Turns out the “red team” reports in cases of fires. The Captain later came on and said that “smoke” was discovered in one of the laundry rooms because a dryer overheated or something. But really, a small fire broke out. No one was hurt and I think the only thing that came of it was that linen changes were delayed? Something like that.
Baby Stuff: Disney provides pack n plays, diaper genies and I *believe* bottle warmers. You can set it up in advance or ask your cabin steward and they’ll hook you up. Seriously, I wouldn’t have even thought to ask for a Diaper Genie, but when I called about something before the trip, they lady on the phone alerted me they offered them.
Cleanliness: You hear A LOT about people getting sick on cruise ships from all those germs being spread in those small spaces. Disney does not, I mean does NOT want you to get sick. Every time you walked anywhere near food, they had staff handing out antibacterial hand wipes. They were everywhere and you really couldn’t escape them. I feel like Disney doesn’t want you sick because of course they want you to be well and enjoy your cruise, but also because they do not want the bad publicity because people got sick on their ships. They make it a mission for you not to get sick and it works.
Maintenance: We saw crew painting the outside of the boat, the inside railings, repairing carpets, everything. That boat is in tip top condition and they going to do their darndest to keep it that way.
Welcome Gift: Because we cruised with Disney before and are members of their Castaway Club (I think you are automatically enrolled after you cruise), there was a welcome gift of a Disney Cruise Lines backpack and Chip N Dale goldfish type snacks, a keychain and Castaway Club lanyards. I am always interested in the freebies, so I thought I’d share.
~The Gift Shops: We didn’t do much shopping other some Christmas ornaments and some pirate gear for L, but it was standard Disney pricing. Nothing too over the top. Just normal! We got L some swim goggles in a pop-up shop near the pool and I think they were $12? I didn’t think that was over the top.
Embarking and Disembarking:
~Embarking: We arrived at the Port before our scheduled “boarding” time (which I selected on the internet at the last minute when I did our online check-in because it was the earliest time left), but it was no big deal at all. We went to the check-in at the terminal, got our cruise cards and were on our way. My parents didn’t do the online check-in (it closed before I realized I needed to do theirs too), so they were at the desk a little longer than us, but still, not a big deal. I’d guess it took maybe 30 minutes from when we arrived at the terminal to when we sat down and had lunch (which was the first place we went on the ship since the rooms were not open yet). I expected it to be much worse. Oh and when we got dropped off at the terminal, our luggage was passed off to Disney handlers who delivered them to our room a few hours later. You don’t really ever handle your own luggage, which is good because all those people and all that luggage would turn the elevators into a hot mess.
~Disembarking: The night before the boat docks, you leave your luggage out in the hall and you’ll pick it up again in a designated zone in the terminal before you clear customs. They have people there to help you with your luggage if you need it (we totally did) and we were able to clear customs very quickly . There were drug sniffing dogs in the terminal, so don’t be snuggling in any extra “treats”.
Oh my! Did you make it through that post?? Crazy long huh? I’d be back in a few days (weeks) with Port Reviews!
And if you have any questions after all that, ask away! I’d be happy to answer anything that I may have missed.
