A long time ago on a Fantasy far far away...Feb 2016 SWDAS TR, 5/17 CRUISE EPILOGUE - The End!

[SixtoMouse]

Hi I enjoyed your last report and looking forward to read more chapters of your current one. Happy belated 40th birthday.

 

[Kari0180]

Can't wait to read more, we were on the January 23rd SWDAS, so can't wait to see how everything went for you guys!

 

[DIS_Ag]

We are staying at the Hyatt next month, do you think the restaurant is suitable for kids?

 

[TestingH2O]

Your last report was great and this one is starting off that way too!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Woohoo, I'm here, I'm following!!! Followed along with your Instagram while you were away, now excited to read all about your adventures!!!!

Yay!! Excited you are here to share this adventure with me!!

joining in. loved reading your first trip report.

Thank you for reading!! I hope this TR lives up to the last one!

I'm here!! Can't wait to hear all about it!!

Hi Kathy! Great seeing you here too!! Thanks for your support and for the comments you made on instagran!! It made me happy!

Can't wait to read, I love your TR's! Belated happy birthday!

Thank you and welcome!!! Thank you!!!

I'm here too!!! Glad you made it home safely, can't wait for the rest!

Thank you!! Yay!! The next one will be out very soon!

Welcome home, Su-Lynn! You made my day by starting your trip report. I've been waiting and waiting - LOL! I've even been killing time adding a few more posts to my trip report from last May. I've been so bad about finishing that one, but I'm going to see what I can accomplish in the next 5 1/2 weeks before we leave for our cruise. 39 Days and Counting Down!!!! Looking forward to reading all about your adventures!

5.5 weeks - wow that is so close. You should be packing by now, based on what I did, LOL. You will have an amazing time. Let me know if you have questions about SWDAS or anything else! BTW, we LOVED Remy and Palo. yum yum. Gonna catch up on your TR as well!

Yay for safe travels. Glad y'all weren't bored out of your mind at the airport for a day.

Thanks! Yeah it reminds me of that movie, The Terminal with Tom Hanks...I was hoping that wouldn't be us, but it was all good, since it was only for a day, and we got to relax a bit too.

Joining in! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!

Thank you for reading!!!

Hi I enjoyed your last report and looking forward to read more chapters of your current one. Happy belated 40th birthday.

Thank you so much! Thanks for reading!

Can't wait to read more, we were on the January 23rd SWDAS, so can't wait to see how everything went for you guys!

Haha I hope you had a good time...spoiler: We had an AWESOME time on SWDAS, but it was also quite a long busy day,There were things we couldn't do. Also the weather on that day was a little wet but we did indeed have the fireworks which were great. Thank you for reading!!

We are staying at the Hyatt next month, do you think the restaurant is suitable for kids?

There are 2 restaurants, the more casual one in the lobby and yes we saw a lot of kids there. It's not like an chilli's or applebees, but I'm sure they have a children's menu or stuff kids could eat. For breakfast we went to the other restaurant in the Hyatt, which a bit more upscale, and there was a breakfast buffet too. We did see many families here, many pre-cruises like ourselves too!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Your last report was great and this one is starting off that way too!

Thank you!! Thanks for reading and I hope this TR will up to your expectations!

 

[Dugette]

I'm here and so happy you've started. Cannot wait to live vicariously through all your pictures and food posts and all.

Wow, a whole day at MCO - seems so odd as we're always trying to get out of there ASAP. Your breakfast looks yummy!

Glad you enjoyed your travel day and got some pre-cruise rest (and exercise).

Cannot wait to hear all about the Fantasy and SWDAS!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Yay, I'm so excited to see this! Glad you all had a lovely time, and I can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip I loved your last report and obviously need to live vicariously through a trip report until I can one day take a Disney cruise

 

[natebenma]

I'm excited that you have started and I can't wait to read along about your vacation that was truly a Fantasy. I am obsessed with food porn, so I know this is going to be a great ride.

Your intro pictures are awesome. CS's Minnie Dress in the first picture is adorable!

The Orlando airport is so interesting. I love all of the Disney and Universal touches and good to see CS getting into practice with the pictures.

But the thing I really need to know... WHERE IS THE DUNKIN DONUTS???

I'm from New England, so Dunks is my coffee stop (I even worked there in my teens), but they are few and far between in Florida.

I loved all the pictures of the hotel and wow, dinner at McCoys looked really good. What a cool appetizer selection.

:

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Joining in! Looking forward to your report, loved the last one!

 

[chunkymonkey]

I'm here and so happy you've started. Cannot wait to live vicariously through all your pictures and food posts and all.

Wow, a whole day at MCO - seems so odd as we're always trying to get out of there ASAP. Your breakfast looks yummy!

Glad you enjoyed your travel day and got some pre-cruise rest (and exercise).

Cannot wait to hear all about the Fantasy and SWDAS!

Hi Dugette! Thank you!!! Haha, yeah I know, usually MCO is just a pitstop before our flight to and from WDW but we found a good deal on flights but it just happened to get in earlier than we'd like. Oh well. I think 1 day there was fine but any longer and I'd probably go crazy.

Yay, I'm so excited to see this! Glad you all had a lovely time, and I can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip I loved your last report and obviously need to live vicariously through a trip report until I can one day take a Disney cruise

Thank you so much! Great to see you here!!

I'm excited that you have started and I can't wait to read along about your vacation that was truly a Fantasy. I am obsessed with food porn, so I know this is going to be a great ride.

Hi Dee!! Thank you! Haha you know I love my food!!

Your intro pictures are awesome. CS's Minnie Dress in the first picture is adorable!

The Orlando airport is so interesting. I love all of the Disney and Universal touches and good to see CS getting into practice with the pictures.

Haha thanks! She had her outfits planned out. Each of her dresses was themed. It's funny because she saw a lot of other women on the cruise with the SAME dresses. She took a picture with one of them too, LOL.

But the thing I really need to know... WHERE IS THE DUNKIN DONUTS???

I'm from New England, so Dunks is my coffee stop (I even worked there in my teens), but they are few and far between in Florida.

I loved all the pictures of the hotel and wow, dinner at McCoys looked really good. What a cool appetizer selection.

:

DD is in the West Hall of the airport. It's basically the opposite end of where the Hyatt hotel is. I think the gate numbers on the West Side are 1-59. The DD is before the security check in.
We have a lot of DD here too! It's like the original Starbucks.

Joining in! Looking forward to your report, loved the last one!

 

[deedee2177]

I'm here, I'm here....late but here!!!!

 

[DisneyCoasters]

Following along and excited to watch your cruise unfold! Must have been nice to have the extra day to be down in FL and get ready for your big birthday trip. I have always wondered about the MCO hotel so fun to see pics!

 

[Magnolia85]

Following along as well!! So excited to see your trip play out

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 1 Part 1: We arrive at Port Canaveral and board the Fantasy!

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Today was the day we set sail! We awoke nice and early after getting a good night’s rest. The weather today was going to be overcast but breezy. We did not care, we were going on a cruise! Our car pick-up time was at 9:30am and our port arrival time was between 10:45 and 11:15. That leaves us a good chunk of time to get in a stop at a liquor store for a few bottles of wine. But first, breakfast!

Here was my embarkation outfit! Could I have made my love for Star Wars any clearer?

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We got ready and decided to have breakfast at the other restaurant in the hotel, the one with the view of the airplane runways. I think it was called Hemispheres. They had a breakfast buffet which we initially weren’t going to partake in, since we knew we would be eating a lot on the cruise, but it turns out that the buffet is not that expensive and only a few bucks more than ordering a breakfast entrée, and we’d get more variety, so we all got the buffet. Turns out that it was a nice variety of foods, including your regular eggs, bacon, sausage, toasts, oatmeal, yogurts, fruit, and a selection of pastries. They had a very nice mini veggie egg white fritatta too.

After we settled the bill we went back to our room (which was conveniently on the same floor as the restaurant), got everything packed up, luggage tags on, and headed downstairs. I had gotten a call that our driver from Happy Limo was there already. He told us to take our time since he was early. DH went to check out of the hotel, while we went to the loading area to meet our driver.
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While waiting for DH, we took some pictures of our embarkation oufits. Here's CS's outfit. It was a baseball t dress!

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When DH came down we all got into the car and headed on out! We were finally on our way to Port Canaveral! Yay!!

Our Happy Limo driver was very interesting. I've used Happy Limo about 3 times before, and never had an issue with them. Their drivers have always been pleasant and friendly. This guy though had a dry sense of humor. Sometimes I wasn't sure if he was joking or just being wry. He said that he's a little tired because last night he drove a party bus. I just hope he wasn't part of the "party" and hungover. I mean, I don't think he was, but he was joking about it. I think he could sense that we found this conversation odd so he said "well, I guess you'll not be using Happy Limo again!" but in a light-hearted fashion. I was just wondering when we would get to our first stop...and hopefully intact. Anyways, we stopped at the Publix supermarket where we stopped at last time to pick up some wine. We got 2 bottles of red wine. My sister does not drink wine, and 2 bottles were enough for us during the week since we had planned a massive mixology session and I also wanted to try out some other drinks on the ship. I had a small wine bottle opener with me but we also purchased these little rubber stoppers for the wine bottles since the cork does not always fit back into the bottle properly and we didn't want the wine to slosh around once opened. If you drink white wine, then getting wines with the screw-top bottles would be good then you don't have to worry about the corks. There are few red wines without corks I realize.

After we made our purchase and step back outside, we realized our driver was not there. Slight panic ensues. DH goes walking around thinking that we have the wrong parking lot lane, and I pull out my phone ready to call the driver. But to our relief, he comes around, driving from the opposite end of the parking lot. Said he went to look for something to eat. OMG I did have fleeting thoughts about our driver stealing our luggage and we'd have to take a cab to port, but not have anything to wear. I had thoughts about how I'd have to buy clothes on the ship - but luckily we did not. We got back into the car and our driver was very apologetic - didn't seem to think we would be so quick in the supermarket. We continued our drive about 15 minutes to port.

Here's the first sights of the Fantasy! She's a beautiful, majestic ship. We were beyond excited at this point.

We got to the unloading area, got our luggage unloaded, tipped our driver (he was an oddball, but he got us there in one piece), and entered the terminal!

I have a picture similar to this from last year, so here we are, full circle again!

We got ready to head into the security area where you enter the terminal building.

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Once you get inside the security area, you're not allowed to take pictures. Trust me, I was told to stop.

But once you're up the escalator into the waiting area, you are allowed to take pictures. I really loved the wave ceiling of the terminal:

We got in line to check-in, the terminal was not completely crowded yet, but it was getting there. The regular check in line was long but the Castaway Club line was shorter so we were told to get in there. Once you have cruised with DCL, you automatically become a Castaway Club member. My sister was not yet a CC member but since she was with us, we could all check in together.

We were assigned boarding group 4. We also got our first Navigator and our KTTW cards! The first thing I realized was that our dining rotation was NOT what I had requested it to be. It said AERAEER when I wanted the RAERAAE rotation. Here's a little key below to find out what dining rooms the letter corresponds to:

R - Royal Court
A - Animator's Palate
E - Enchanted Garden

The reason I wanted RAERAAE was that I had booked DH and I Remy dinner on the 3rd night and Enchanted Garden was the dining room that I was ok with missing out of all three. Since you can't change your rotation until you are on board, we couldn't do anything at check-in. So I made a list of things to do once we got on board:

1) Change dining rotation
2) Go to port adventures desk for tickets to the Princess Gathering and Anna and Elsa
3)Get Rainforest Room pass.

Since we had some time until they called boarding, we got on line to get our picture with a character. When we got on line, it was Mickey, but by the time we got to the front of the line it was Minnie! The line was quite long though, as we waited about 20 minutes, but since we had nothing else to do, we just waited.

Finally we were at Minnie!

As soon as we were done with Minnie, they started calling boarding numbers! It didn't take long before they reached Group 4. Remember to keep your boarding group card that they give you during check in. I had it in some random pocket so I was searching for it when I got up there. It tells them that you are indeed, in Group 4.

When the boarding groups are called a lot of people go to the gate!

It thins out a bit though once the person who checks your boarding number let you though.

Slightly blurry pic of me and DH:

When you enter the Mickey Ears you can take your first "cruise picture" - I didn't really want to stop for this but since there are 3 backdrops and 3 photographers, it moves fairly quickly. so we stopped for a quick picture. Here it is:

Here we are about to step aboard the ship!

Almost there!

Finally it was our turn to be announced into the grand atrium of the Fantasy!
I gave them my maiden name and my married name as one word since I was with my sister and my DH. LOL.

Here's a video of us entering the Atrium. The CM at the end of the welcome line is especially awesome!

The first thing you notice as you walk in is the grand atrium, with the magnificent chandelier:

It's just breathtaking! Much larger and even more majestic than the Magic.

We got our obligatory picture with Art Deco Minnie!

You also notice the Star Wars Day at Sea sign which was right next to the entrance to Royal Court.

You could get your picture there if you want as soon as you board. But we had things to take care of! The dining rotation change window didn't open until 1pm so we went up to Port Adventures to get our tickets. The ship was not crowded at this point and it was just wonderful. Even though your room may not be ready until 1:30pm, it's still fun to board the ship early and explore on your own.

I shot these while at the Port Adventures desk.

Such a beautiful ship!

We were able to get Anna and Elsa for the first sea day and then the Princess Gathering for our last sea day.
That way we can wear different outfits for each photo op.

Coming up...lunch at Cabanas! Our Stateroom, exploring the ship, and much more on our first day on the Fantasy!
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[chunkymonkey]

I'm here, I'm here....late but here!!!!

Yay!! Great to see you here! I have to catch up on your TR too. I have to play a lot of catch up, in fact!

Following along and excited to watch your cruise unfold! Must have been nice to have the extra day to be down in FL and get ready for your big birthday trip. I have always wondered about the MCO hotel so fun to see pics!

Thank you for reading and welcome! It was rather nice to have a relax and recharge day before the cruise. The MCO airport has enough stuff to occupy us for the day. Any longer than that I'd think about renting a car!

Following along as well!! So excited to see your trip play out

Thank you for reading and welcome!!

 

[KathyM2]

Man...even a Disney cruise requires so much planning lol!! I love your outfits and pics of course!!! I know what you mean though - you picked your dining rotation for a reason...I hope you were able to get it changed!

 

[JoAnnPan]

Thanks for sharing your trip - loving the details and pictures!
My sister and I will be going on the Fantasy this November - our first cruise ever!

 

[katt789]

I'm in!!
Love that youre photo & food friendly! Can't wait to read all about your adventures!

 

[soniam]

The Fantasy is beautiful I am excited that we get to use the shorter Castaway Cay Club line next time. I hope they are using magic bands, instead of KTTW, before our in summer 2017. I will definitely get to the port earlier next time. We would have liked more time to hang out on the boat and swim that first day. I don't think I had much choice though, since it was our first DCL cruise. I don't remember getting to pick our rotation. I know I picked early/late seating. Is that new, or just something that CCC members get to choose? I could also have just forgotten.