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

[chunkymonkey]

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!

LOL, yes it does require some planning but mostly it is when your window for activities opens (90 days out for us). So you can book Palo and Remy, port excursions and do your online check in when required. It's a little easier than booking ADRs and FP+ but I guess all Disney vacations require a bit of work in order to make it great!

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!

Thank you!!! I appreciate the comments! You will love the Fantasy, but I am warning you, you will be spoiled and will never want to go on any other cruise line! I certainly don't care for cruising, but when it comes to DCL, sign me up!

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

Thank you!! Yes stay tuned for lots of food and eating!

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.

I hope they make the change to Magic Bands. Carrying the KTTWC wasn't the most convenient as I'd always misplace it. The landyards were convenient (you get one as a silver CC member!) but they weren't always the most stylish accessory...LOL. Although they would then have to supply a card to put into the slot in the room to keep your lights on.

You don't normally pick your rotation. I just felt like I had to make a request since I was trying to figure out our Remy dinner. Pirate night was the only night I didn't need to watch the show as it's usually a variety/magic show and I didn't want to miss any of the other productions. Enchanted Garden was the one MDR that I would be ok missing, so I had to request that Pirate night be Enchanted Garden so that we could go to Remy. You just call up DCL, and anyone can do it. however it is not "guaranteed" and obviously they screwed up my request. LOL

 

[bcwife76]

Oh wow is that lobby/atrium ever gorgeous!!! And your outfits (and sis), as others have stated, are just adorable!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

Great update!! Do the lanyards have a distinction now between the CC Silver, Gold, Platinum? I haven't sailed since last March and mine still said "silver." I thought I heard at one point that they were changing it to a standard lanyard and people were ticked about that!

I'm glad you made it safely! Did you get your dining rotation changed?! I didn't know you could have it changed once you were on. That would have solved my problem with the pirate night/optional dress-up issue I had! I had grew table mates though so it ended up being okay and I got to buy my cute black DCL skirt!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Wow, everything is gorgeous! A Disney cruise is on our "in a few years" list, and I am getting jealous from all this awesomeness

Love the character pictures and everyone's cute outfits. I don't know how you get all your selfies to look awesome, because mine always come out weird looking

Also, glad you got to the ship safely - seems like the driver was definitely a little on the odd side...

Can't wait to read more!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Oh wow is that lobby/atrium ever gorgeous!!! And your outfits (and sis), as others have stated, are just adorable!

Thank you so much!! I really miss that beautiful atrium - the colors, the lights, the carpet, it was all so pretty!

Great update!! Do the lanyards have a distinction now between the CC Silver, Gold, Platinum? I haven't sailed since last March and mine still said "silver." I thought I heard at one point that they were changing it to a standard lanyard and people were ticked about that!

Yes I believe they did have distinction as I saw some people with gold landyards. I'm not sure what the platinum landyards look like though...since silver and platinum are the same to me, LOL

I'm glad you made it safely! Did you get your dining rotation changed?! I didn't know you could have it changed once you were on. That would have solved my problem with the pirate night/optional dress-up issue I had! I had grew table mates though so it ended up being okay and I got to buy my cute black DCL skirt!

Yup we did get it changed. They have it in the navigator where you need to go to change it. Ours was Royal Court starting at 1pm. It was actually quite easy and didn't take up much time. Whew!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Wow, everything is gorgeous! A Disney cruise is on our "in a few years" list, and I am getting jealous from all this awesomeness

Love the character pictures and everyone's cute outfits. I don't know how you get all your selfies to look awesome, because mine always come out weird looking

Also, glad you got to the ship safely - seems like the driver was definitely a little on the odd side...

Can't wait to read more!

Thank you! Yes, the cruise was definitely a bucket list item last year and when we finally went, it was just amazing so now we love DCL too.
Our next cruise probably won't be for a while...but we did put in a placeholder booking for something 2 years out.

The selfie trick is to make sure you are in good lighting! you want the light to be facing you, not behind you, but you don't want it to be blasting you in the face since otherwise you'd squint. Also avoid lighting that goes straight down because you get weird shadows on your face. It's hard to sometimes avoid that though. These are tricks I learned as a photographer

Yes, whew our driver was weird but I think he meant well, he wasn't officially crazy.

 

[Dentam]

Wow, beautiful ship! I've only been on one cruise and it was Royal Caribbean - this ship looks much nicer! Not that ours wasn't nice, but I guess the Disney touches do make a big difference.

I love your outfits - so cute! Your driver sounded a little off the wall, lol. Glad he got you there in one piece and didn't ditch you at the grocery store!

Looking forward to reading more - and to seeing your stateroom!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Wow, beautiful ship! I've only been on one cruise and it was Royal Caribbean - this ship looks much nicer! Not that ours wasn't nice, but I guess the Disney touches do make a big difference.

I love your outfits - so cute! Your driver sounded a little off the wall, lol. Glad he got you there in one piece and didn't ditch you at the grocery store!

Looking forward to reading more - and to seeing your stateroom!

Thank you! I've only sailed once before, on Royal Caribbean too, it was nice but I didn't think cruising was for me...until I stepped onto a DCL ship!! Now it's DCL or nothing! It's amazing, the service, the decor, the activities, oh and especially the characters, just so much fun!

Thank you for reading! Yeah our driver was a little weird, but luckily we all survived and made it to the ship with our luggage!

 

[soniam]

Is Happy Limo well priced? We stayed in Coco Beach and visited Kennedy Space Center before our last cruise, so we had a rental car. I think we will probably have one next time too on the way to the port, but the limo might be nice for the return.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Is Happy Limo well priced? We stayed in Coco Beach and visited Kennedy Space Center before our last cruise, so we had a rental car. I think we will probably have one next time too on the way to the port, but the limo might be nice for the return.

Yes it is actually pretty decent for a private car in Orlando. They also have a 5 dollar off code from Mousesavers each way. It's a bit more expensive than if we took Disney transportation for 3 people, but it's worth it to get there ahead of the masses and for the grocery stop. Definitely for 4 people or more it is a much better value than Disney transportation. We haven't looked into renting a car yet but we may do that next time. Is there rental car agency near port that you can return the car to?

 

[soniam]

Yes it is actually pretty decent for a private car in Orlando. They also have a 5 dollar off code from Mousesavers each way. It's a bit more expensive than if we took Disney transportation for 3 people, but it's worth it to get there ahead of the masses and for the grocery stop. Definitely for 4 people or more it is a much better value than Disney transportation. We haven't looked into renting a car yet but we may do that next time. Is there rental car agency near port that you can return the car to?

We dropped off our rental car on the main drag in Coco Beach (I think). It was Enterprise. They had a shuttle to the port. It looks like there's a Hertz nearer the port, but I still think you would need to get the shuttle. DH thinks he picked up the car at the Hyatt at WDW on our last day, and then we drove to Coco Beach, where we stayed the night. That rental location looks like it closed now though. There are others in the same area. He took a cab over there from GF after breakfast. We usually rent a car at MCO for our trips now, since we go to Universal. So, I don't know if we would need a ride, except back to MCO or WDW after the cruise. We took DCL transportation back to MCO for that last time.

 

[Dugette]

Glad you all made it there in one piece and with all your stuff!

Yay, finally onboard the beautiful ship! Can't wait for more! I love DCL TRs.

On the rental car note above, we rented through Enterprise in the B Resort, which is near Downtown Disney. They offer free pick-up (they actually just paid for a cab for me, though, as their shuttle was over scheduled). No complaints, they were great. It also allowed us to drive right through the express lanes for tolls and just incur a very small charge (a few dollars each way, I believe). We dropped off at the Enterprise near the port and shuttled back. It was a slow process on that end, so I'd try to show up even earlier next time. Then, we did the reverse on the way back and I actually took the B Resort's shuttle directly to a park (for free) after dropping it off. I'm sure there are plenty of other options, but that worked well enough for us (and was cheaper than the Disney transfers and allowed us to stop off at Trader Joe's for wine).

 

[soniam]

Glad you all made it there in one piece and with all your stuff!

Yay, finally onboard the beautiful ship! Can't wait for more! I love DCL TRs.

On the rental car note above, we rented through Enterprise in the B Resort, which is near Downtown Disney. They offer free pick-up (they actually just paid for a cab for me, though, as their shuttle was over scheduled). No complaints, they were great. It also allowed us to drive right through the express lanes for tolls and just incur a very small charge (a few dollars each way, I believe). We dropped off at the Enterprise near the port and shuttled back. It was a slow process on that end, so I'd try to show up even earlier next time. Then, we did the reverse on the way back and I actually took the B Resort's shuttle directly to a park (for free) after dropping it off. I'm sure there are plenty of other options, but that worked well enough for us (and was cheaper than the Disney transfers and allowed us to stop off at Trader Joe's for wine).

I realize that DH must have taken the shuttle too, since it was Enterprise. The shuttle to the port was a bit slow

 

[chunkymonkey]

We dropped off our rental car on the main drag in Coco Beach (I think). It was Enterprise. They had a shuttle to the port. It looks like there's a Hertz nearer the port, but I still think you would need to get the shuttle. DH thinks he picked up the car at the Hyatt at WDW on our last day, and then we drove to Coco Beach, where we stayed the night. That rental location looks like it closed now though. There are others in the same area. He took a cab over there from GF after breakfast. We usually rent a car at MCO for our trips now, since we go to Universal. So, I don't know if we would need a ride, except back to MCO or WDW after the cruise. We took DCL transportation back to MCO for that last time.

Ah I see. I guess that is another option we know now. BTW, there is a Hyatt on WDW property? I have not looked at other hotels except WDW hotels in a long time, but I have lots of Hyatt points and that may be an option for a cheap trip in the future!

Glad you all made it there in one piece and with all your stuff!

Yay, finally onboard the beautiful ship! Can't wait for more! I love DCL TRs.

Thank you!! Yes I love DCL reports too! Something so special about being on a DCL ship...

On the rental car note above, we rented through Enterprise in the B Resort, which is near Downtown Disney. They offer free pick-up (they actually just paid for a cab for me, though, as their shuttle was over scheduled). No complaints, they were great. It also allowed us to drive right through the express lanes for tolls and just incur a very small charge (a few dollars each way, I believe). We dropped off at the Enterprise near the port and shuttled back. It was a slow process on that end, so I'd try to show up even earlier next time. Then, we did the reverse on the way back and I actually took the B Resort's shuttle directly to a park (for free) after dropping it off. I'm sure there are plenty of other options, but that worked well enough for us (and was cheaper than the Disney transfers and allowed us to stop off at Trader Joe's for wine).

Thanks for the info! I will look into renting a car next time as maybe we can visit some other places too, and it sounds convenient. I also will remember to allocate some extra time to get to port. This is very helpful!

I realize that DH must have taken the shuttle too, since it was Enterprise. The shuttle to the port was a bit slow

Thanks for the info! I'll be sure to allocate extra time for that if we do go the rental car route!

 

[cinderkelly]

Checking in! Haven't started reading yet, so I'm off to do that now! I'm so excited you've started your cruise TR already!

 

[cheermom2four]

Enjoyed your last TR and definitely already enjoying this one!!! I've only been on the Magic (once). We go on the Fantasy in Sept. Is it overwhelmingly busy when boarding and when on the ship? The terminal seemed packed when we were waiting to board the Magic so obviously I'm in for a BIG surprise when we wait to board the Fantasy LOL

 

[chunkymonkey]

Checking in! Haven't started reading yet, so I'm off to do that now! I'm so excited you've started your cruise TR already!

Hi!! So great to see you here! Thanks for reading!!

Enjoyed your last TR and definitely already enjoying this one!!! I've only been on the Magic (once). We go on the Fantasy in Sept. Is it overwhelmingly busy when boarding and when on the ship? The terminal seemed packed when we were waiting to board the Magic so obviously I'm in for a BIG surprise when we wait to board the Fantasy LOL

Hiii!! Thank you!!! The terminal wasn't too bad because we arrived pretty early...around 10:45am. We started boarding at around 11:30am. Any time later and it will be more crowded especially when the Disney buses arrive which is I think around 1pm-ish? It was actually more crowded when we were on the Magic because our Port Arrival time was 1pm. But, it wasn't too bad, considering the Magic is a smaller ship. Hopefully you can get an early port arrival time, so I'd do the online check in as soon as your window opens up!

 

[cheermom2four]

The terminal wasn't too bad because we arrived pretty early...around 10:45am. We started boarding at around 11:30am. Any time later and it will be more crowded especially when the Disney buses arrive which is I think around 1pm-ish? It was actually more crowded when we were on the Magic because our Port Arrival time was 1pm. But, it wasn't too bad, considering the Magic is a smaller ship. Hopefully you can get an early port arrival time, so I'd do the online check in as soon as your window opens up!

I'll keep that in mind. When we logged in to pick our PAT for the Magic, the first one available (but greyed out) was 11-11:30 (first one available to choose was 11:30-12:00pm which we took). Is it earlier on the larger ships?

 

[soniam]

Ah I see. I guess that is another option we know now. BTW, there is a Hyatt on WDW property? I have not looked at other hotels except WDW hotels in a long time, but I have lots of Hyatt points and that may be an option for a cheap trip in the future!

I don't know, but probably. We have always stayed onsite too.

 

[dmlovullo]

Made it over! I have been a Dis - slacker lately! The Fantasy looks beautiful! Can't wait to hear more about it! We totally should have stayed in the MCO Hyatt for our night before cruise. Looks like it was much easier!