Saturday, October 18, 2014

Disney Fantasy Trip Report Part 4: Second Day at Sea

In case you missed the first part of the trip report:

Part 1: Getting There
Part 2: Embarking the Disney Fantasy
Part 3: First Sea Day

Monday, October 6, 2014

Today was our second sea day on the Disney Fantasy. One of our kids woke everyone up at 7:00 a.m. (one of the disadvantages of sleeping in the same cabin). Once the kids were up, they were being very loud this morning. We were worried they would wake up our neighbors. We decided to go to the Enchanted Garden restaurant for breakfast instead of Cabanas. While it was still a buffet, at this restaurant we would have an assigned table with a server bringing drinks to our table. With 3 kids, it's a little easier than doing the full self-service buffet in Cabanas (although I missed the great view at Cabanas).

We asked the kids what they wanted to do this morning, and it was unanimous that they wanted to go to the pools and water slides up on deck. So by 9:00 or so we were at the pools. It wasn't too crowded, even thought it was a sea day. I think everyone but us slept in.(I have no photos of our morning at the pools--I guess I didn't bring my water camera).

A little before 11:00 a.m., I took Alyssa back to the room to change into regular clothes so that she could meet Doc McStuffins.


Then we went back to the pool deck and met the boys for lunch. At 12:15 p.m., there was a character dance party in the atrium. I asked who wanted to go, and my daughter and oldest son (much to my surprise) wanted to join me. My other son wanted to go to the kids' club.

The character dance party was crowded, but fun. I mostly took video of it, which is in our YouTube video.

After the dance party, we went to the gift shops to look around. Then, Brian took all of the kids to the Planes Fire & Rescue movie so that I could have a few hours to myself. I hung out at the Vista Cafe with my book, and then spent some time on a lounger outside on Deck 4. This was the first time during our cruise where I felt like I had slowed down enough to relax.

After the movie, we ordered the kids room service for dinner. On the way to the kids' clubs, Nathan met Phineas and Ferb:

The kids would be spending a few hours in the clubs while Brian and I had dinner at Palo, the adults-only restaurant. We had a 6:00 p.m. reservation and we arrived a few minutes early. The hostess told us we could wait in the Meridian lounge until Palo called us in for our reservation. The lounge had an inside and outside section, and the outside part was wonderful.


We had a great view of the sunset, the only time we saw it all week.


And our view from inside Palo wasn't bad, either.


We have dined at Palo on every cruise, and even though it has a $25 up-charge, it's totally worth it. It's so quiet and romantic in there. And the food and service are both outstanding.

After our Palo dinner, we decided to pick the kids up from the club and surprise them with night-time swimming. We've always heard that the pools are fun and uncrowded at night because most people are at dinner or a show. We had to skip a show, but we're glad we did. Night-time swimming on the Fantasy was a blast! There was no line for the Aqua Duck. The only bummer about night swimming is that some of the wet areas close early at 6:00 (like the Mickey slide and the Nemo's Reef Splash area). But both main pools, the Aqua Duck and the hot tubs were open.

We brought with us a gift we received in our fish extender--a set of Mickey bowls with some ice cream toppings. We set up near the ice cream machine and made some ice cream sundaes.

We headed back to our stateroom around 9:30 p.m. and the kids were asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Tomorrow would be a big day--our first port excursion at St. Maarten.
Towel Rabbit
Next up:  Part 4--St. Maarten

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