Jedi Jason

I agree with Kathy’s plan and assessment of a back to back option including excursions. the 14 night cruise is also a great option. I did a 14 night on Brilliance in 2007 round trip from Barcelona and I had overnights in Rome and Venice. We made it as far as Croatia. Both options are good.

I would love to know your thoughts on this resort. I am booked to go in July for a milestone anniversary. My travel agent highly recommended it based on her personal experience. We have an ocean view club level room.

The daily navigator for day one. I didn’t bother to pick up the other days papers because the app had everything in it. The app also gave you the ability to favorite activities and then you would get a reminder notification about 15 minutes prior to the event.

I was going through a few things that hadn’t been put away from our trip and found the Navigator that gives the cruise overview or preview. I also found the first day’s activity schedule. They do not place the daily planner in your room anymore. They may be available if you request them and they are always available at guest relations. The app has all the same information and the number of daily activities can exceed 200 especially on a sea day. I could really enjoy one more Mickey ice cream bar from room service right about now.

So in summary, it was a great experience to be able to enjoy a new cruise line and ship. As a Disney annual pass holder I appreciated the characters and the entertainment and theming and attention to detail. i thought the food in the main dining room was excellent and was well above the average of other cruise lines. The kids club was outstanding and the kids appreciated the activities plus the ability to just go to any themed area whenever they wanted. Entertainment put on by the crew was amazing especially the full production shows and the guest entertainers were above average too. My biggest missed opportunities were not having enough time in the adult areas. I was nearly always trying to do as much as possible with the kids and trying to experience as much as possible so I missed out on some adult areas of the ship and island and some relaxation time. I also missed out on having enough time on Castaway Cay. Trying to do the 5K followed by the early afternoon bad weather limited my time there and the opportunity to experience more of the island. So, would I go on another Disney Cruise despite the price premium? Probably, but it might need to be a good price or only on rare occasion and would not be a regular cruise option. It was an amazing experience and I was glad I did it. I hope everyone enjoyed my cruise recap even if it took me some time to get it all out. When I returned from the cruise I worked two days Then was at Disney World at Hollywood Studios for a day and then became quarantined for the remaining 14 days post cruise due to the newly enacted CDC pandemic guidelines. Since then, I have returned to working full time as a CT scan technologist at an Orlando area hospital and have become a home school teacher and cook three meals a day on my days off. So, this explains a little bit as to why it took me an extended amount of time to complete my recap. Anyway, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them.

Our veranda room like many rooms has separate toilet and shower rooms. Sorry for the messy room photos as I realized I didn’t have any as we were about to leave the ship. The Ghirardelli chocolates each night at turn down was a way above average chocolate.

I included some more of the Disney theming. You can see the Mickey statue in the atrium, the captain’s photo but we all know that Mickey is the real Captain, a Cinderella mosaic in the atrium near Guest Services, the ship’s Godmother at the dedication ceremony and a mirror in a public restroom.

Disney’s theming doubles as direction aides. The door critters seahorse and a fish are on opposite sides with one on the port side and the starboard side. Stars on the carpeting help direct you towards the forward or the aft of the ship. The top point of the Star always face forward towards the front of the ship. The map with the four stars indicate where each of the ships primary home port is located.

Midship Detective Agency is a fun game that also helps you explore the ship. There are two possible starting points. At the desk pictured you pick up your detective badge and your clue book and a pencil to be able to jot down clues. There are three different adventures to choose from. You could play the same adventure again and find a different culprit each time. The game takes you to these interactive photos. Sometimes it directs you to a specific location but most of the time you are free to visit any of the locations found in your clue book. It requires visits to about 10 different locations to complete the mysteries. They are a lot of fun and we tried them all. Two of them are general Disney themed but one is Muppet themed.

Kids club is so intriguing that I wanted to go spend some time there. Fortunately, you can do just that. There is a daily open house for about an hour in which the non kids can come check out some of the cool activities. The Small World nursery Is for the ages 6 months old through up to 3 years old. The Oceaneers Club and Lab are two separate entrances that are an adjoining space. They welcome 3 year olds through age 12. Older ages go to a teen or youth area. I am only able to discuss the Oceaneers area since that is the age of my kids. When you register them initially they place a Magic Band arm band onto your child’s wrist like they use in the parks. There is a $12.95 fee for the armband but If it is returned by the end of the last night the money is credited back to your account. They have entrance points like a Disney World park or attraction Fast Pass entrance. The band allows you to be checked in or out and also be located in the expansive kids club space. My kids 8 & 10 were allowed to check themselves in and out if I allowed it. I also got notifications from the app when they checked in or out. Unlike some cruise lines you must go retrieve your child instead of them being sent out but the bands help them locate where they are at so they can tell you where to find them. The kids club has several different areas with different activities. The kids may choose to do any of these at any time or there is normally one or more staff led activities happening at any given time. Activities or themed rooms include Toy Story which is toddler oriented and shows movies, Star Wars flight simulators, Marvel super hero area featuring Doctor Strange, crafts, drawing, video games, interactive video floor board and more. The kids and adults entering are required to clean their hands. They offer either a hand wipe or the super cool washing stations pictured which automatically spray your hands with soap and water for about 20 seconds when you insert your hands into the illuminated holes. This made my kids want to wash their hands. The hours started anywhere from before port time to as late as mid morning and were continuous until midnight.

I forgot to give a brief recap of the main dining rooms. I also noticed a typo at the my last post Palo is the correct spelling. Royal Court was the most formal dining room in both the food and decor and theming which featured some French cuisine. Enchanted Garden was beautiful without being especially formal or casual. Finally, Animator’s Palate was the most casual venue but also the most diverse. The theming could be totally changed with the lighting and the video screens. I loved those Mickey themed chairs. Food overall was excellent. I especially enjoyed their steak and fish offerings. They did a great job with any raw or undercooked fish like the ahi tuna tower was quite memorable. I had to get a second one it was so delicious. I typically ordered a soup and or salad option for starters. Sometimes I couldn’t decide between entrees and would order both. Desserts were pretty good with some variety of a sundae available each night in addition to the other options. Kids menus did change once or twice during the cruise or maybe it was dependent upon the restaurant but typical kid friendly items were available nightly as well as some more sophisticated food. Kids could order off the adult menu and vice versa. Premium Mickey ice cream bars just like the ones in the theme parks were a nightly dessert option on the kids menu. Room service which is complimentary also offers the ice cream bars. Breakfast is limited on the room service menu to mostly cold items. Room service is available around the clock though. I spent so much time trying to experience it all which is impossible by the way that I did not get to relax and enjoy the adult areas. There are not any drink packages offered with the slight exception of a beer package that gives you a keepsake mug and slightly larger pour each time. Wine bottle packages are also available. The drink prices were more affordable than on ships that offer drink packages. The featured cocktails on the dinner menu and the drink of the day were around $8 or less. Gratuities on beverages were 15%. Your are allowed to bring two bottles of wine or 6 pack of beer per room onboard in each port of call including embarkation. Corkage fee is $25 if you bring your own wine to a restaurant. I did not test it to see if they normally charge it but I believe they do normally charge it.

Food is always one of my favorite topics regarding cruising so I’ll attempt to give an overview of the food and restaurants onboard. Cabanas is the buffet restaurant and it has hours for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner but it is closed between meals. For breakfast Cabanas has your typical American breakfast fare with some ethnic offerings too. There is a made to order egg and omelette station as well as those famous Mickey waffles and doughnuts which happen to be provided by Krispy Kreme. I thought it was above average for the food being warm and fresh since it is prepared Beijing the serving stations. The serving areas are a series of stations which form a mostly continuous line along the inside of the restaurant on both sides of the ship. It helps for food freshness but creates more of those famous Disney lines. One of their most notable mistakes is a lack of hand washing stations at some of the entrances. They also have the plates past the first food section which are the kid friendly items further causing a logjam near the entrance. We visited for lunch a few times and they had a nice variety with some regular items and some that changed each day. Pizza, Mac n cheese, chicken fingers and fries were always available for the kids or the kids at heart. There was also a shrimp and crab legs station available each day. Carving stations, salad bar, some ethnic selections and desserts and more were always available. I even found some really good lamb chops on embarkation day with a rotating meat selection daily. I understand that it becomes table service for dinner. Complimentary drink options included typical cruise fare offerings as well as Coke products. The Coke products were also available on the nearby pool deck. Flo’s Cafe (Cars theming) has multiple themed adjacent food stations and is located near the pool deck as well. Offerings include pizza, burgers, and deli type sandwiches and sides. Nothing here was remarkable but it filled the need for a late lunch after an excursion, food you could easily eat on the pool deck or a for a quick snack. The hours were pretty good starting around lunch time with late night hours until 10:00 or 11:00 and pizza until midnight. Lastly but not to be excluded was the Monsters Inc. themed soft serve ice cream on the pool deck Eye Scream. There were chocolate and vanilla options plus swirl of course. Strawberry and banana were also available. I did not make it to Pali which is Italian themed and a specialty restaurant. They are a popular option for dinner and sea day brunch. The cost is around $40. I previously did the review on the Remy dinner. There are a few other specialty options like a dessert presentation in Remy or formal tea with the princesses.

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.

i agree the Disney cruise price is hard to get past but if you enjoy the parks then I think it’s worth doing at least once. I have been writing about my Disney Fantasy trip from February 29 on the trip review section of the message boards here. Check it out if you are Disney curious. I still have a few things to add but the day by day recap is nearly finished. It was my first time on DCL after sailing with Royal a lot and more recently Celebrity. Hit me up with any questions if you want.

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.