Trip log, day one. Port Canaveral.
7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral
March 16, 2019
Guests Onboard: 3:45 pm
Personal Navigator – Day 1
Our captain for this cruise is Thord Haugen. As for our onboard entertainment, Peter Hofer is our Cruise Director. During this 7-night Western Caribbean cruise we will be visiting the ports of , Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Falmouth, and Castaway Cay.
SPRING BREAK 2019!!! Seems like the perfect week to head to the Western Caribbean as a cold front moves into Florida. This cruise will be our first on the Fantasy since her first dry dock and our first time visiting Jamaica.
We often try to arrive to the port as early as possible to make the most of our embarkation day, but today we decided that we didn’t want to rush to get to Port Canaveral and wait in the terminal. We arrived, dropped our luggage off, and parked just before 11:30 AM and were walking through the Mickey door to board the Fantasy at 11:47 AM. 17 minutes to walk from our car, go through security, check in, and head onto the ship.
We made our way up to Cabanas for a quick lunch and then headed out to see some of the new to us additions to the Fantasy.
Since we were already in Cabanas, we decided that the most logical first stop should be Sweet on You, which is the ice cream/candy shop which took over the space previously occupied by the arcade. The first impression was that it feels similar to Vanellope’s Sweets and Treats on the Disney Dream, yet it stands on its own as a unique version. Em & Izzy liked the cafe-like quaint setting a lot & thought it was adorable.
We walked along the pool deck and eventually made our way past the water area that replaced the hot tubs and the permanent pool bar just past the drink stations.
We stopped in Edge so that Isabelle could get her Edge sticker. It was getting close to 1:30 when the staterooms become available, so we headed over to browse the menus in Europa. In La Piazza, you can see a list of the beverage seminars for the cruise and see if there are any openings. It is highly suggested that you reserve the seminars online when your booking windows open.
We dropped off our bags and discovered the Fantasy is still offering the personal H2O products and has not transferred over to the larger refillable pump bottles.
I was eager to go see the Marvel and Star Wars spaces in the Oceaneer Club. Marvel Super Hero Academy on the Fantasy looks amazing. We spent a lot of time admiring the details in the space.
The Star Wars Command Post did not leave me as impressed. I feel like the Millennium Falcon space on the Disney Dream is lightyears better, As cool as it is to pilot the Millennium Falcon, I think Disney improved the simulator experience on the Fantasy with the interactive Command Post Starfighter Training Simulator.
After our time in the Oceaneer Club, we returned to our stateroom to see our luggage waiting for us at the door! This may seem odd to you, but I do not start enjoying my cruise until my bags are unpacked and we are settled in to our home away from home.
The Castaway Club stateroom gift remains the sling bag and luggage tags.
However, before anyone can continue to enjoy the cruise everyone must attend the mandatory muster drill. It’s really not that bad at all as long as everyone goes to their respective assembly stations in a timely manner.
With the muster drill out of the way, vacation can commence. Up to the pool deck for the sail away party with Mickey and the gang. By the time we walked up to the pool deck from our muster station, we were already pulling away from the terminal and making our way out of Port Canaveral.
If you didn’t have the opportunity to watch the sail away party live, I will embed the video below.
Our dinner this evening was in Animator’s Palate with the regular rotational dinner menu. Overall, the food was surprisingly good tonight and the service was excellent! We could not have asked for a better first night.
It was time to head over to the shops and see what items tickled our fancy. Disney knows we all need Disney Cruise Line reusable shopping bags and instead of just having them behind the checkout, they are literally out on display in the shops.
It was also nice to see some duty free liquor for sale in Sea Treasures. We found a bottle of gin for $10 cheaper than we can get back at home so, score! I will say, it was nice back in the day when they offered a full list of duty free options.
Personally, I was trilled to see the evening entreatment lineup for this cruise. 3 nights with the Disney productions, 2-nights with the Disney productions (Aladdin is dark at the moment), 2 nights of variety acts, and an evening with a Disney on Broadway performer and another with a Captain Marvel screening.
Tonight’s entertainment was ventriloquist, Lynn Trefzger. Lynn is a regular variety act for Disney Cruise Line and her show is kept fresh thanks to audience participation.
After the show, we retired to our stateroom for the night. To find all the regular handouts on the bed except the Personal Navigator for tomorrow. Good thing we have a kid on the payroll to go get us a couple from Guest Services in the morning. However, this is really inconvenient. We are not fans of using the app or the stateroom tv to view the events. We prefer the simple grid layout were we can see everything on a single page.
Tomorrow is our first really day of the cruise & we have indoor activities planned, plus, it will be St. Patrick’s Day!
I agree, unpacked and magnets on the door, THEN the vacation can begin!
You mentioned having the three nights of Disney shows, but the navigator you posted is missing Aladdin. Are they not showing it this cruise??
Is that maybe why they have a Broadway guest star on a “normal” cruise? Usually they are only for longer/special cruises.
That is an oversight that I am correcting in the Day 2 trip report.
Thanks, Scott! We always enjoy following along on your cruise adventures (next best thing to being there ourselves!). We are on the Fantasy in 3 weeks. Can you tell me if Chris is the Club Host? He is hilarious!
He is the club host. He was a blast during St. Patrick’s Day trivia last night.
Thanks for the update, sailing vicariously through you. Are you staying aft? Will you please do a stateroom review with pics? Enjoy!
We are sailing aft, but not where you might think. The room itself is typical of the stateroom class. Sorry, don’t want to give out any more details on our room location while I am still on the cruise.
Totally understood! LOL, you guys are celebrities in my book! Need stateroom respite & privacy once in a while. Please relax & enjoy your family. Looking forward to your reports, Happy Sailing! FYI same feeling about the Navigator, once on the ship we “UNPLUG” Phones are put away until after debarkation. Peruse my Navigator the evening before (with a yellow highlighter) so as not to miss the activities the next day. The electronic version is not the same!
I am not a fan of The Navigator not being left in your stateroom! I like to read it in bed the night before and think about what we want to do the next day. I wonder if you tell your stateroom host that you would like one if he/she would leave one in your stateroom. I really don’t like using the app on the cruise. I like to turn my phone off while I am at sea!
Agreed. I have more on the topic in the trip log for day 2. We are just like you, love to read it before bed to plan the day and we do not like using the app, but the cast members are pushing the app hard core.
Disappointed about the Navigator..Maybe cut the advertising that just ends up in the recycling bin.
I like the fact they still have the bathroom tubes. But you can tell the Pumps are close going by the use of WDW items in your room.
I am looking forward to going on the Fantasy in October. I will be following this with interest 🙂
That was my thought exactly – can it with all the junk, and print my Navigator! (I will say I don’t mind having to pick up a copy. It’ll become part of the routine, I’m sure. We did this at Aulani each evening.)
After inquiring, ours was delivered each night at turndown. However, Isabelle would go down each morning to pickup her own copy. We are happy we can still get a copy at Guest Services, but I don’t understand why they will not just leave them out on the counter for guest to pickup without standing in line. It may seem trivial, but this is an inconvenience and from my perspective manipulative behavior to force guests to move solely to the app.
The lack of paper navigator in the rooms is irritating. Some of us want to unplug and not be forced to have screen time. Plus, the paper makes it so much easier to see everything all at once. Have other ships switched to pump products? That would also be quite disappointing.
So far, and I am likely wrong, but I’ve only seen photos of the pumps from the Dream.
I had previously booked a sailing on the Magic for 3/23/20 and have been busy doing research for that trip. Only to just find out our spring break has been pushed back a week! So now I have the Fantasy booked for 3/29. I’m looking forward to your trip reports to help with my planning!
We’re on this cruise now and are so sad there’s no Aladdin! Scott, do you know why? That show is the only big production show we haven’t seen yet and was one of the main reasons we booked the Fantasy for this cruise. 🙁 That said, we asked our stateroom host for a paper navigator each day, and he has brought them so far, so that’s a plus!
I recently watched a YouTube video in which a passenger in the Fantasy had been told that Aladdin would be off for ten weeks while the show is revamped. That can’t possibly be correct, can it? Why would it take that long, especially when they have rehearsals in Toronto before they board the ship? Why would Disney want 10 weeks of disappointed cruisers (who have paid a lot of money to be on the ship)? We have small children and the stage shows are one of the highlights of our cruise.
The show is being re-imagined to tie in with the upcoming live action movie release. It is scheduled to return in time for the films release on the 5/18/19 sailing. A casting notice went out for the new cast back in September.
Thank you so much for this! We booked our first cruise next May and this helped me greatly!