* Vacation Video
* Hotel Review: Disney's Polynesian Village Resort
* My Tween's Review of the Edge on the Disney Fantasy
* DCL Port Adventure Review: Tour to Virgin Gorda (TT23)
* DCL Port Adventure Review: The Legendary Kon Tiki Sightseeing and Beach Cruise (ST45) in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
* Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport--Diamond Benefits and Day Use Room
* Disney Fantasy Trip Report Part 1: Getting There, and Pre-Cruise at Disney World
* Disney Fantasy Trip Report Part 2: Saturday on the Disney Fantasy
* Disney Fantasy Trip Report Part 3: Sunday at Sea
* Disney Fantasy Trip Report Part 4: Monday at Sea
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Today, the Disney Fantasy ported in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. My cruise-mate captured this gorgeous rainbow:
Our excursion to the Virgin Gorda Baths did not meet until 12:45 p.m., so we had some time to ourselves on the ship in the morning.
We slept until 8:30 a.m. that morning. Let me repeat that for emphasis: 8:30 a.m. This was a new record for us. We showered and made it to breakfast at Cabanas by 9:30 a.m.
We ate quickly, and around 10 a.m. we dropped the kids off at their clubs. Brian and I wanted to relax at another adults-only area, Satellite Falls. We had a good view of the front of the ship:
This is the Satellite Falls area. It was practically empty that morning.
We grabbed a few loungers and read for a while. Normally, there is a waterfall in the wading pool, but I guess it was too windy for it that day. I sat on the edge for a while.
Around noon, we picked up the kids from the clubs and we all changed into swimsuits and cover-ups. We had a quick bite to eat on the pool deck before heading to the Tube for our excursion meet-up:
I already wrote a detailed review of our excursion here with lots of photos. I will not re-hash it, but here are a few photo reminders of our day at the Virgin Gorda Baths:
The only bad part about our excursion was that we got back to the ship 15 minutes before our dinner time, and we still had to shower and get into our pirate gear because it was pirate night! Arrrrgh!
Normally on pirate night, we like to eat at Palo and skip the main dining rooms. There is free face painting in the kids' clubs and other pirate activities for them there. But since we were short on time, we did not have that option. We all ate together in the main dining room, which this night happened to be at Animator's Palate. The screens turn into pirate scenes in the restaurant. Despite being tired and exhausted, the kids did remarkably well at dinner.
The main show that night was a 3D showing of the new Star Wars movie. I wanted to see it, since I didn't see it on land before the cruise with the boys. We decided that Alyssa probably couldn't last through the whole movie, so I dropped her at the club while the rest of us saw the movie. It was a great movie! We did have to skip the outdoor character pirate party, since it was happening at the same time. And we didn't get any photos with the characters in their pirate costumes since that happened before dinner and during the movie.
After the movie, I picked up Alyssa and we all went to the top deck for the fireworks. This happens at 10:30 p.m., and it's always a struggle for some of my kids to stay awake and stay in a good mood. I will just say that at this point, I was feeling pretty sick with a sore throat, and one of my kids was in a major whining/meltdown mode.
So.....we went back to our cabin after the fireworks show and went to bed.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Today was the day the Fantasy ported in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Unfortunately, I woke up feeling miserably sick. The same thing happened to me on our October 2014 cruise, but I tried to tough it out and remained miserable for half the cruise. Not this time. I was marching myself down to Deck 1 to visit the ship's doctor as soon as the clinic opened at 9:30 a.m.
Brian took the kids to breakfast at Enchanted Garden, which is still a buffet but with an assigned table and drinks from the servers. They were seated in one of the booths in the middle of the restaurant, and our dinner server was there. He showed them his artistic skills by drawing a picture of Alyssa.
The medical clinic was a sad and depressing place. There was a man waiting in the hallway before I got there who could barely breathe and was holding himself up by leaning against the wall. There were at least 4 kids who came in puking. Ugh. I was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection and given antibiotics and a steroid. My bill was $159, and fortunately I had purchased travel insurance with Travelguard AIG through insuremytrip.com (our policy cost around $110). I submitted my bill when I returned home and I've already been reimbursed for my medical bills on the ship. We have purchased travel insurance for every cruise we have taken. It covers a lot of unforeseen events--illness or death in the family, travel delays due to weather, lost luggage and medical expenses. It's totally worth the peace of mind, and this time it paid for itself.
So that morning it was questionable whether I would even make our excursion in St. Thomas. However, after getting the antibiotic and steroid in me, I felt like I could make the trip. I didn't want to miss this beach trip, since the island is so beautiful and we didn't go to a beach the last time we were here.
You can read about our St. Thomas excursion here.
We arrived back at the ship around 4:00 p.m. We showered and ordered the kids some room service for dinner. Before dropping them at the clubs, Alyssa met up with Ariel again:
Brian and I had another dinner date by ourselves at Enchanted Garden. Ahhh...a relaxing, quiet dinner. However, we had to get our desserts to-go because Alyssa was invited to a special Prince and Princess Procession tonight! This was the event she was invited to at the end of her Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointment. It was explained to us that Cinderella and some of the girls would walk down the staircase together and then dance with their dads.
I had dressed Alyssa in her Rapunzel dress before dropping her at the club. I picked her up after dinner and went to the designated meeting place.
Although this event was not publicized in the daily navigator, it was a much bigger thing than we anticipated. There were like 60 girls there (and a few boys). We were asked to drop off our girls and wait for them downstairs. I decided to take photos from above, while Brian was at the bottom of the stairs.
It was a really neat event. First Cinderella made her grand entrance:
Then, each girl was escorted one by one down the stairs by a prince. They were supposed to practice their princess waves and a princess curtsy with Cinderella.
While each girl made her grand entrance, Clara Oman was playing Disney songs on the piano and singing. She is so talented and put on quite a show!
I think that more kids joined the processional as families were walking by the atrium. It took a really long time to get all the kids down the stairs. Finally, the processional ended and there was a little dance for the girls in the atrium. Brian got to have Alyssa's first dance. So cute!
After the dance, Brian picked up Joshua, and they went to see a comedy show. I took Alyssa back to the room to eat the dessert we got from the main dining room--a flourless chocolate cake. This was my favorite dessert of the week! Alyssa asked to watch Tangled in the room, so we did.
Our nightly towel animal:
Up next: Thursday at sea
* Disney Fantasy Trip Report Part 1: Getting There, and Pre-Cruise at Disney World
* Disney Fantasy Trip Report Part 2: Saturday on the Disney Fantasy
* Disney Fantasy Trip Report Part 3: Sunday at Sea
* Disney Fantasy Trip Report Part 4: Monday at Sea
Disney Fantasy Trip Report Part 5: Two Days in the Virgin Islands
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Today, the Disney Fantasy ported in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. My cruise-mate captured this gorgeous rainbow:
Our excursion to the Virgin Gorda Baths did not meet until 12:45 p.m., so we had some time to ourselves on the ship in the morning.
We slept until 8:30 a.m. that morning. Let me repeat that for emphasis: 8:30 a.m. This was a new record for us. We showered and made it to breakfast at Cabanas by 9:30 a.m.
We ate quickly, and around 10 a.m. we dropped the kids off at their clubs. Brian and I wanted to relax at another adults-only area, Satellite Falls. We had a good view of the front of the ship:
This is the Satellite Falls area. It was practically empty that morning.
We grabbed a few loungers and read for a while. Normally, there is a waterfall in the wading pool, but I guess it was too windy for it that day. I sat on the edge for a while.
I already wrote a detailed review of our excursion here with lots of photos. I will not re-hash it, but here are a few photo reminders of our day at the Virgin Gorda Baths:
The only bad part about our excursion was that we got back to the ship 15 minutes before our dinner time, and we still had to shower and get into our pirate gear because it was pirate night! Arrrrgh!
Normally on pirate night, we like to eat at Palo and skip the main dining rooms. There is free face painting in the kids' clubs and other pirate activities for them there. But since we were short on time, we did not have that option. We all ate together in the main dining room, which this night happened to be at Animator's Palate. The screens turn into pirate scenes in the restaurant. Despite being tired and exhausted, the kids did remarkably well at dinner.
The main show that night was a 3D showing of the new Star Wars movie. I wanted to see it, since I didn't see it on land before the cruise with the boys. We decided that Alyssa probably couldn't last through the whole movie, so I dropped her at the club while the rest of us saw the movie. It was a great movie! We did have to skip the outdoor character pirate party, since it was happening at the same time. And we didn't get any photos with the characters in their pirate costumes since that happened before dinner and during the movie.
After the movie, I picked up Alyssa and we all went to the top deck for the fireworks. This happens at 10:30 p.m., and it's always a struggle for some of my kids to stay awake and stay in a good mood. I will just say that at this point, I was feeling pretty sick with a sore throat, and one of my kids was in a major whining/meltdown mode.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Today was the day the Fantasy ported in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Unfortunately, I woke up feeling miserably sick. The same thing happened to me on our October 2014 cruise, but I tried to tough it out and remained miserable for half the cruise. Not this time. I was marching myself down to Deck 1 to visit the ship's doctor as soon as the clinic opened at 9:30 a.m.
Brian took the kids to breakfast at Enchanted Garden, which is still a buffet but with an assigned table and drinks from the servers. They were seated in one of the booths in the middle of the restaurant, and our dinner server was there. He showed them his artistic skills by drawing a picture of Alyssa.
The medical clinic was a sad and depressing place. There was a man waiting in the hallway before I got there who could barely breathe and was holding himself up by leaning against the wall. There were at least 4 kids who came in puking. Ugh. I was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection and given antibiotics and a steroid. My bill was $159, and fortunately I had purchased travel insurance with Travelguard AIG through insuremytrip.com (our policy cost around $110). I submitted my bill when I returned home and I've already been reimbursed for my medical bills on the ship. We have purchased travel insurance for every cruise we have taken. It covers a lot of unforeseen events--illness or death in the family, travel delays due to weather, lost luggage and medical expenses. It's totally worth the peace of mind, and this time it paid for itself.
So that morning it was questionable whether I would even make our excursion in St. Thomas. However, after getting the antibiotic and steroid in me, I felt like I could make the trip. I didn't want to miss this beach trip, since the island is so beautiful and we didn't go to a beach the last time we were here.
You can read about our St. Thomas excursion here.
We arrived back at the ship around 4:00 p.m. We showered and ordered the kids some room service for dinner. Before dropping them at the clubs, Alyssa met up with Ariel again:
Brian and I had another dinner date by ourselves at Enchanted Garden. Ahhh...a relaxing, quiet dinner. However, we had to get our desserts to-go because Alyssa was invited to a special Prince and Princess Procession tonight! This was the event she was invited to at the end of her Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointment. It was explained to us that Cinderella and some of the girls would walk down the staircase together and then dance with their dads.
I had dressed Alyssa in her Rapunzel dress before dropping her at the club. I picked her up after dinner and went to the designated meeting place.
It was a really neat event. First Cinderella made her grand entrance:
Then, each girl was escorted one by one down the stairs by a prince. They were supposed to practice their princess waves and a princess curtsy with Cinderella.
While each girl made her grand entrance, Clara Oman was playing Disney songs on the piano and singing. She is so talented and put on quite a show!
I think that more kids joined the processional as families were walking by the atrium. It took a really long time to get all the kids down the stairs. Finally, the processional ended and there was a little dance for the girls in the atrium. Brian got to have Alyssa's first dance. So cute!
After the dance, Brian picked up Joshua, and they went to see a comedy show. I took Alyssa back to the room to eat the dessert we got from the main dining room--a flourless chocolate cake. This was my favorite dessert of the week! Alyssa asked to watch Tangled in the room, so we did.
Our nightly towel animal:
