Trip Log Day 2: 7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Disney Fantasy – Sea

Trip log, day two. Father’s Day At Sea.
7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral
June 19, 2016
Day 2 – Personal Navigator

Disney Fantasy Day 1 2016 06 19 Map

Today began with Emily off to the gym. She got there a few minutes after 6am, just after it opened. She said that there was just a few people in the gym when she got there, but when she left at 6:50am, there wasn’t a treadmill nor an elliptical open. On a sea day, she recommends if you are interested in cardio equipment, go early. She came back, showered, got dressed & headed up to Cabanas for a quick, light breakfast while Isabelle & I were still fast asleep. When she returned, it was time for Isabelle & I to have breakfast, so up we all went to Cabanas.

Cabanas Mickey Waffle

We had a lot to do on this sea day, so this one was not going to be one of those hang out by the pool days, so Isabelle decided that she wanted to start a game of Midship Detective Agency. After she got through a few of the clues, Emily noticed a dark sky with a storm rolling in, so we stepped outside on deck 4 to check it out.

Deck 4 Storm Clouds Bad Pano

When we did, we noticed that shuffleboard was open, so Isabelle decided to pause her game and we headed out to play. The weather was awesome – we could hear the thunder & see the lightning and feel the breeze! There were a fair amount of people using the running track (which is something Emily typically does on port days since she needs to start her workout before the gym opens). Emily went to hang out on the lovely comfortable deck 4 chairs to read while we played some Father’s Day shuffleboard.

Shuffleboarding On Father's Day

One of the things I noticed was the lack of hand sanitizing wipes near the shuffleboard equipment – my hands felt gross, so off to wash our hands once we finished. I can only surmise this is due to the likelihood of the wipes not being placed in trashcans thus blowing into the water.

Next up at 10:30am was the Castaway Club Reception in the Tube for the Gold & Platinum guests. Although Captain Mickey took the morning off, but it was nice to meet first mate Minnie during her time in the Tube.

Castaway Club Reception Minnie Mouse

Cruise Director Natalie and Captain Fabian addressed the crowd before turning the reception over to video from Karl Holz talking about 2017 itineraries, the changes coming to the Disney Wonder, her new Broadway caliber show and the new builds coming in 2021 and 2023. During the reception, Natalie recognized a couple sailing on their 89th Disney Cruise.

Following the reception we returned to the stateroom to get ready for Palo brunch while Isabelle went to go get some lunch to eat in the stateroom. Our reservation was for 12:30, however we were ready about 11:40. So, I went up to see if they could accommodate us a bit early and we were happy to be seated around noon! We’ve been saying recently we much prefer Palo Brunch to the dinner and we were pleasantly surprised to see a few new items from the made to order selection. Of note, any of the pizzas can now be made into a calzone and there is now a small serving of lasagna.

Palo Brunch Buffet Pizzas Palo Brunch Buffet Made To Order Cart Palo Brunch Buffet Made To Order Cart Palo Brunch Buffet Breads & Fruits Palo Brunch Buffet Breads Palo Brunch Buffet Seafood 2 Palo Brunch Buffet Seafood 1 Palo Brunch Buffet Meats & Cheeses 1 Palo Brunch Buffet Cheese Palo Brunch Buffet Meats & Cheese 2

Emily and I both had plates from the buffet before ordering a few of the made to order options.

Palo Brunch Sampling Palo Brunch Scott

We started by sharing a gorgonzola and grape pizza which was pretty amazing. Compared to recent orders on the Disney Magic, they did not hold back on the toppings.

Palo Brunch Gorgonzola And Grape Pizza

In a stark contrast to last nights dinner I opted to skip my usual favorite, the Chicken Parmesan, in favor of the the more blogable lasagna and Emily ordered another new item – the fried Mozzarella. The lasagna was well seasoned and had a fantastic overall flavor. It is definitely a sleeper hit and will be a tough decision between that and the chicken parmesan.

Palo Brunch Lasagna

The fried mozzarella on the other hand was meh. The mozzarella itself was wonderful, but the unseasoned panko breading really brought the dish down.

Palo Brunch Mozzarella In Carrozza Palo Brunch Mozzarella In Carrozza Cut Open

Time for dessert. We both picked a few items from the buffet options and found a few delicious choices. I especially enjoyed the item on the right plate at 3 o’clock (sorry, I cannot recall the name), it was rich and flavorful!

Palo Brunch Dessert Sampling

To finish off our Palo Brunch, Emily and I shared the Peach Soufflé, a dish that has become a ‘can’t miss.’

Palo Brunch Peach Almond Souffle

Looking back and comparing our recent Palo Brunches on the Magic to today’s solidifies our love of Palo on the classic ships. I am not sure if it is one of those thing where our minds are fixed on what Palo should be like based on the Magic & Wonder, but on the Dream & Fantasy, Palo seems different; I cannot put my finger on what it is exactly. In contrast, Remy seems fine which makes me think my image of what Palo should be was cemented by our experience on the classic ships.

Overall, excluding the comparisons between ships, we had a lovely Palo Brunch with our server Boris. Kudos for Palo using iced tea ice cubes in the iced tea; not a new technique by a long shot, but one that is underutilized especially at around Walt Disney World.

Palo Brunch Iced Tea

After brunch, we met back up with Isabelle and split time between Midship Detective Agency and deck four lounging while we waited for our next activity to start. Just before 2:30, we made our way to La Piazza for Disney Tune Trivia. In a wonderful twist, Disney Tunes trivial featured Chuck Perry on piano rather than Gus (cruise staff) playing the short clips via a computer. This was much more enjoyable, well at least in my opinion, because I’m a big fan of Disney music played on the piano. It came down to a 3-way tie with the tie breaker guessing Gus’ age. In true Price is Right fashion, Isabelle was one year off winning the family three of the newer DCL prize hats.

Toward the end of trivia as we were scoring each others sheets, Emily and I ordered the drink of the day which was the Volto from the La Piazza menu in honor of National Martini Day. This was an orange flavored gin martini.

La Piazza Volto

We also had the Escalus.

La Piazza Escalus

Both were great drinks from the La Piazza menu, but because it was the featured drink of the day, the Volto was $4.75 instead of $8.50! Finally! A non-syrupy non-sweet drink of the day!

As Gus was cleaning up trivia, he stopped by our table to see which songs we missed and inquired where Isabelle disappeared to. We told her she went into O’Gills to check which board games were out. He informed us that there are more games available and we just needed to ask a member of the cruise staff if we wanted a game that was not currently out on display. The reason for not having them all out is to have backups in the event another game gets lost and to keep a fresh selection throughout the sailing. We enjoy a fun game of Scattergories.

O’Gills was hosting a fantasy baseball draft so it wasn’t really condusive for playing board games and Isabelle really wanted to go back to the kids club. So, she headed off while we returned to the loungers on deck 4! This has long been one of my favorite spots on the ships to relax and for some reason or another this is the first cruise Emily has ever joined me. Needless to say, she is hooked!

Relaxing Deck 4 View

The Captain’s reception was held before dinner tonight and if you’ve followed along in our prior trip logs, this is one of those rare events where Disney offers free drinks to guests. During the reception, servers are walking around the atrium with trays that offer a complementary selection of beer, wine, a featured mixed beverage and a non-alcoholic option. Tonight, the beer was Bud Light, the wine was a no-name Pinot Grigio, the mixed drink was pineapple juice, Bacardi rum & Sprite, and the nonalcoholic option was apple juice and sprite. The Captain’s reception is offered before both dining seatings – the first is at 5:15 and the second at 7:30. We have often gone both before and after dinner. It is another nice way to mingle with officers/crew as well.

Although it is formal night with the Captain’s reception, the dinner tonight is still a rotational menu. Disney is all about synergy so it boggles my mind why the Captains Gala dinner is not served the night of the Captain’s reception. Does it matter? No, but it does seem odd later in the cruise when the servers are dressed in their formal wear on semi-formal night instead of tonight on formal night.

This evening, our rotational restaurant was Royal Court with the French inspired rational menu. Emily and I were not really hungry for dinner following our Palo Brunch, so we started with the salads, the Farmhouse and the Red Wine Bosc Pear.

Royal Court Farmhouse Salad Royal Court Red Wine Bosc Pear Salad

For our main course, I was undecided and almost went with the alternate chicken and baked potato, but opted to go with the salmon on a bed of pureed cauliflower.

Royal Court Oven Baked Salmon Royale

Emily ordered the wild mushroom ravioli and Isabelle ordered the lobster pasta which she “loved.” She had that lobster claw eaten in seconds!

Royal Court Wild Mushroom Stuffed Pasta In A Vegetable Broth Royal Court Conchiglie Pasta

For dessert, Isabelle went with the Mickey Bar and at the last minute I ordered the Tahitian Vanilla Creme Brûlée.

Royal Court Tahitian Vanilla Creme Brulee Royal Court MICKEY BAR

After dinner, we took some pictures in the atrium. This was a great time to take pictures as main dining was still going on and the late dinner crowd was still in the Walt Disney Theatre for Aladdin A Musical Spectacular.

Fantastic Formal Family Photo

We then returned to our stateroom and finished Ratatouille, watched Frozen Fever (as Emily had never seen it), and fell asleep watching Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Well, I didn’t. I’ve been waiting my entire life for Cleveland to win a championship and it came on a day while I was sailing on the Disney Fantasy. I need to go double check to make sure this isn’t some Disney magic playing games with my emotions.

Looking forward to the sea day tomorrow, which will be a truly relaxing day at sea, as we have nothing planned at all but pool and deck time 🙂

Complete Trip Log Index

19 Replies to “Trip Log Day 2: 7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Disney Fantasy – Sea”

  1. Pete

    Looks like a great day! Love seeing the Palo brunch selection, we have yet to try the brunch as we always do Palo dinner (on Pirate night). We weren’t impressed with the Palo menu changes so maybe next time we’ll give the brunch a try.

    Reply
  2. Matt Hochberg

    Regarding the business of the gym, in my experience, the gym is most busy early in the cruise and as the cruise goes on, people’s resolve to get up and go there seems to wane.

    Reply
    1. Scott Sanders Post author

      From Em’s experience it seems to be the same crowd each morning. Maybe at other times of the day it wanes, but the rope drop crew stay the course. Short of Castaway Cay where many may be running the 5k instead.

      Reply
      1. RichG

        In my experience on the Fantasy it’s the same crew every morning waiting for the gym to open. For me there is so much to do the rest of the day that this is the only time the gym makes sense.

        Reply
  3. doublenjenn2

    Were you physically allowed to make your plate in the brunch buffet part of Palo, or did you walk through with a server who did the plating for you? We had the latter during our Palo brunch back in 2016 which kind of turned us off on the experience, but I’ve heard that was only being done on the Dream class ships. Just curious!

    Reply
  4. Kim

    What a series huh? I still feel like its a dream!!! We are going crazy here in Cleveland! On another note, the Palo brunch looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it in September.

    Reply
  5. Helen

    Congrats on winning Disney Tunes Trivia! Guess I should brush up if I want to win one of those new hats. Great pics of Palo Brunch which is our favorite.
    Safe travels!

    Reply
  6. RichG

    89 cruises!!!???? That doesn’t seem possible. I can’t do the math in my head to figure out how many cruises a year that is or how much $$$$$$ they have spent on cruises

    Reply
  7. Kathleen Steere

    I am enjoying your trip log. We will be doing this sailing in September and it will be our first time on the Fantasy. We have only done sailings on the Disney Wonder previously.

    Reply
  8. Kelly Keane

    Love your daily trip reports! So interesting to see how differently people plan time on the ship….I do things vastly different it seems but one thing in common-love that Deck 4 and those loungers!

    Reply
  9. Lisa

    I believe the dessert at 3 o’clock on the right plate is the baked yogurt. Seems like a weird thing but it was actually my favourite of all the mini desserts.

    Reply
  10. Constantin

    Scott. For first time Caribbean cruiser do you recommend this cruise or the one going to Cozumel, Cayman Islands and castaway?

    Reply
    1. Scott Sanders Post author

      We prefer the Eastern Caribbean over the Western. However, with the standard Western itinerary gives you 2 sea days and 3 Caribbean ports: Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Falmouth. The standard Eastern itinerary gives you 3 sea days with 2 Caribbean ports: Tortola, and St Thomas.

      There is really no wrong choice, both should result in a great vacation.

      Reply

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