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On our last night we sent the kids to the kids club to give us some room to get all of us packed. They wanted the bags out by 10:30 so we didn’t have time for all of us to see the evening show. We did manage to get to the last character meet and greet in the atrium to get any desired photos and autographs. We found out that our last dinner would not be our last chance to thank our dining room service team. They have an optional disembarkation day breakfast. Main seating for dinner is served first and late dinner service is served later. The buffet restaurant is open for those that don’t want this option. Enchanted Garden was the venue for our final meal onboard the Fantasy. There was a fairly limited menu and some things that had been available for breakfast weren’t an option this last morning. Overall, it was a great option if you aren’t rushing off the ship. I appreciated not having to find a table in the over crowded buffet or being served by different wait staff. We were at our usual table with our normal servers. By the time we finished the breakfast and gathered our things we were able to leave the ship. There was a line getting off the ship that I think we unknowingly cut in line because we came off the elevators right at the disembarkation point. This lead to another line after leaving the ship but before reaching the luggage area. The luggage claim area is organized by Disney characters naturally instead of by number. We took advantage of a porter to help with all our luggage. He got the majority of our traveling group’s luggage on his cart. Using a porter allowed us to go to a separate line to get to the Border agent who checked our passports. It seemed to save us some time. The porter took the luggage all the way to our car in the parking garage and after a few minutes we were on the way home. I have some random observations including food and kids club information yet to come.

Unfortunately the weather started to decline in the early afternoon. There was a large wave of dark clouds headed towards us so we realized that our time on the island was limited. We started prepping to leave. It became obvious that a good rain shower was headed towards us. Avoiding the worst of the rain we managed to find cover about the time the strongest rainfall came through. About 20 minutes later it slowed down considerably and we resumed our trek back to the ship. Giving up on the rest of the day on the island seemed like the right thing to do since everything was quite wet now and it was still very windy. Around 2:00 we had made it back onboard. It was disappointing to have a shortened and non ideal time on the island since we didn’t get to explore very much or fully take advantage of our first time here. The remaining time in port was spent cleaning up and spending some time around the ship. The wind was so bad that playing shuffle board on deck 4 became a water sport since ocean spray and waves were splashing us as we attempted a game. There were two more opportunities to get a chance to meet those Disney characters one before dinner and one late at night as a farewell and a see you soon so the kids got their remaining desired autographs and photos. Our final dinner was in Enchanted Garden. It was sad that our cruise was ending and so was the reality that we would soon be home shopping, cooking and cleaning instead of just showing up to the dining room. We really enjoyed our wait staff as they worked really hard. They were easy to talk to and always made sure we were content. We did ask for a few things during our cruise for my son that wasn’t on the menu and it was accommodated either that same night or the next night. Before the end of the week they were very attuned to our preferences and it really enhanced our experience.

Castaway Cay was our last port of call. My brother in law and I decided to participate in the 5K race. We picked up our race bibs and signed our waivers the day before but there is an opportunity to sign up at the event. The term race is used loosely. It is timed but all finishers are given medals and there aren’t any other awards given. Unlike previous Castaway Cay 5Ks you are now asked to meet at the starting line on the island about a half hour after the ship is cleared. We just missed the start of the race since it is a stretch to make it there on time especially if you have to wait for a tram or walk. We walked at a steady quick pace for the entire race which takes you around the bike path twice and down the airstrip towards the adult beach and back to the starting line near the second tram stop and towards the end of the family beach. We managed to finish in less than an hour. By the time we made it back to the ship the rest of our group was getting to The breakfast buffet. We changed while they finished eating and joined them to find a spot on the beach. At this point it was after 11:00. We found a spot towards the middle but far away from the water. Due to windy conditions they were not allowing you to put up the provided umbrellas. Some of our group had purchased or brought snorkeling equipment so that was the main activity. They reported finding a good number of sea life including near the submerged submarine from the 20,000 leagues under the sea ride that was previously an attraction at Walt Disney World. Other entertainment included an area that had shuffle board, foosball, ping pong and more. Lunch on the island is typical BBQ and picnic type food. There were some cold salads, burgers, hot dogs, chicken, ribs and some fruit, cake and cookies. There were also the drink machines similar to what was on the pool deck on the ship as well as the soft serve ice cream. I am not a big fan of this type of food and thought it was just OK. It was enough to keep me from being hungry until getting back on the ship but not especially enjoyable.

Jedi Jason, if it helps any, here in Dallas, we miss going to the Disney parks, too! ? We did decide to cancel our Baltic this summer. With work-from-home being extended until the end of April at the earliest now I would be more comfortable putting a bit more time between this and travelling to Europe. We're working with our travel agent to look at which options make the most sense for us. Hopefully a cash refund (since we're just barely before PIF date) that we can apply to a Disney cruise in December (we haven't been able to stomach the prices, but this may be just the excuse we need), or if it's FCC, we had booked an Anthem cruise in Oct '21 that we'd apply it towards.

Evening entertainment has been pretty good but I’ve failed to mention it for some of the days. There was a Frozen Broadway style show that is based on the original movie. We saw most of it as we were in a later and longer dinner that night at Remy. Aladdin has a similar high quality show based on the movie and the genie with jokes that have modern references really steals the show. The genie also appears in the last night‘s show entitled Believe which is a compilation featuring scenes from several Disney movies. There was another outside entertainment duo that I don’t recall their names in part because I skipped it because I was trying to take in everything on Star Wars Day. There are two shows each night with the first one during main dinner for the late dinner guests and the second show for the main dinner guests. There have been various Disney movies shown throughout the week at three different venues. There is a poolside screen, the main theater (Walt Disney Theater) and a dedicated movie theater (Lake Buena Vista Theater). If any movies are currently in theaters you will be able to see them onboard complimentary. Onward debuted at 11:15 PM on Thursday on our ship and didn’t hit theaters until the next day.

We had some other photos scheduled with characters. For all meet and greets I recommend that you arrive a few minutes early as a line will start to form and the wait could be a while on popular characters that don’t have another scheduled appearance regardless of whether it is one with a reservation or not. We got a chance to meet Chewbacca and Darth Vader and a bonus of Ray and Chewbacca because we completed a Porg scavenger hunt. Another nighttime production on the pool deck capped off our evening. Similar to Pirate night there were Star Wars characters putting on a brief show of the dark versus the light side. Fireworks once again capped an amazing Star Wars day at Sea. I wish I could’ve done and seen more but it was amazing regardless.

Star Wars day started out early with a trip to the main theater for a reserved activity for the kids, Jedi Training. They were trained to use the force and practice with a light saber. They later got to use their skills against either Darth Vader or Kylo Ren. I decided we should take advantage of the sea day and have the experience of eating in the dining room for breakfast so we went to the Enchanted Garden which served mostly buffet options. It was a little disappointing since I could’ve had a similar experience in the buffet restaurant with the exception of a dedicated server to bring drinks. After breakfast I wandered around the pool deck and atrium to encounter some of the Star Wars characters. Unlike the other characters they did not have specific times and locations to meet them. Some of them would pose for photos but not all of them every time. Star Wars music could be heard throughout the ship and there would be occasional announcements from the First Order. Jawas would potentially make trades with you if you had something that interested them. There were quite a few themed events today but the random character encounters were just as enjoyable.

Day five brought us to Falmouth, Jamaica which we had a fun excursion planned that we purchased through the cruise line. I was also realizing that we were more than half way through our cruise and I was trying to make sure I tried as many things as possible before the end of our cruise. Anyway, we purchased a rafting trip on the Martha Brae River which also included a brief tour of some local sights and a stop at a beautiful church that has some history. I have struggled selecting an excursion when traveling to Jamaica because Falmouth is not very close to the most attractions and I have climbed the Dunn’s River falls a few times. I definitely recommend both excursions. We had a very modern motor coach bus with good A/C. It took us towards our rafting stop. If you haven’t experienced Jamaican roads then you might not want to sit too close to the front. There are a lot of curves and the roads aren’t typically very wide especially in more remote areas. Drivers frequently honk the horn to alert other drivers that I’m coming around the corner in the middle of the road and there isn’t room for both of us. As we got close to the rafting spot we had a time or two when the road was too narrow for both our bus and an oncoming vehicle so since our bus was bigger we waited for the other vehicle to back up to a straighter or wider spot where it was safe to pass. Once we arrived we were offered a fruit punch which was very tasty and given the option to purchase other beverages. We were given life jackets and walked down towards the river. Each raft is made of bamboo and is about 36 feet in length and several feet wide. There is a bench seat for two towards the rear and the guide stands towards the front third of the raft and uses a bamboo pole to guide the raft. The rafting portion of the tour takes about an hour. Our guides allowed our children to have a try at guiding the raft down the river. It is a fairly slow moving trip down the river. This was a perfect excursion since it was relaxing, unique, fairly close to the port and something we really enjoyed. This morning excursion that was only four hours or less allowed us to get back to the ship for lunch.