“Witty Trip Report Title 3--The Trilogy is Complete”: Disney Fantasy May 2-9 2015

[lulucornbread]

Nice Tshirt #gopats

 

[MrRay]

We got back to the ship and saw that they were chipping and repainting the logo.





It’s nice to see them taking care of the ship.


We cleaned up and set out to walk around San Juan.


The area immediately around the port is much nicer than many other ports. It’s clean and pretty. There is a lot of Spanish style architecture and colorful buildings.












We started out walking aimlessly but eventually ended up at the fort just up the hill

Castillo de San Cristóbal. $5 each gained us admission. There was a lot to see.











It felt like we could walk all over it.





There was a great view of the ships and the port area as well.





But it was hot and we were tired so we went back to the ship.

 

[MrRay]

To get to dinner we require a snack somewhere around 3-4. Today we opted for room service on the balcony.




From our balcony we had a great view of the pier and the port area…plus the sun was beating down on the Port side of the ship so we were happy in the shade.


We also had a view of the fort we had just walked back from.




While we were sitting there we saw an ambulance pull up.




That’s never a good sign. Other people had started coming out on their balconies to see what was going on and people were relaying what they thought they knew to each other. Sadly after a while we watched a stretcher come off and a woman with all of their bags.




You could almost hear everyone sigh at the same time. All in all the folks seemed in good spirits and this seemed like the nicest port to get left at frankly.



Before we knew it they were pulling in the ropes and we were pulling away from the pier.








Tonight was pirate night…and pirates were starting to take over.










Dinner was kind of a mixed bag; some is good, some is vile. The pot stickers were our favorite things. I think we each had two plates of those. Our servers were really good at figuring out what we actually liked and bringing us more of it.




We had no interest in watching the Pirate show so we got a couple of drinks and then went up to deck 13 just as the fireworks were starting.



It was very pleasant, the show looked great, and we had an absolutely perfect night for it.






A little walk around the party and then much like the these pirates, we were off to bed…

 

[Benchley]

Love the Pirates. I think our son will have a fab time interacting with them

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I'm a little late joining in but there's still a couple of days left. I'm in the planning stage for an Eastern cruise on the Fantasy so I'm really enjoying seeing the ports. A belated Happy Anniversary to you.

 

[MrRay]

I’m not one for sleeping in so I found myself wandering around the ship before 7 a.m. again. Truthfully this morning is one of my favorite times of this itinerary. Most of the families stayed up later than usual with the pirate party and late night buffet and have already had a few days in the sun so the ship is very quiet in the morning.


There is also brilliant light…














Since I had gotten in a habit of wandering around before Jenna got up we had gotten a chance to try out the new to us messenger part of the DCL app. It worked flawlessly for us the whole cruise for the few times we weren’t together and were looking to meet up.




Our servers were always excited to see us whenever we showed up where they were working during the day.





We spent most of the morning in the pool and riding the aquaduck a couple of times and decided once everyone finally awoke from their slumber we would take it easy in the afternoon and go see the Avengers in the Walt Disney Theatre. This was a great break in the day.


Refreshed from the afternoon off we were excited to go back to the pool as people were getting ready for first dinner and pretty much had free run of the place including another ride down the aquaduck.


Dinner was in Royal Court for the Captain’s Gala. As usual our servers were great and went out of their way to bring us extra of things we liked.



We were ready to get a good night’s sleep so we would be refreshed for our last day… Castaway Cay.

 

[MrRay]

As usual I woke up earlier and wandered around the ship for a while.


After a leisurely breakfast in Royal Court we went up on Deck to watch us close in on Castaway Cay.









We also noticed that they were setting up a big lift to do some work on the Aquaduck during the day.






We started taking the turn to back into Castaway… In the distance is a carnival ship that I am just going to assume is the same one that we saw the whole week.






We went back to our room to get ready for the day and enjoy the great view from our verandah.








We packed up our stuff and as soon as they cleared the ship we took the forward stairs down to the gangway and were off the ship in no time. I think they had all 3 gangways open but hardly anyone was leaving through the forward so it was great.


They had a lifeboat in… there is always work to be done.




It was warm and sunny and we were feeling good about the day ahead…

 

[MrRay]

We walked toward the trams but ended up just missing one. Our plan was to go to Serenity Bay so we opted to just walk to the place where we would have had to transfer anyway.





And of course it was a beautiful walk…





In previous trips I’ve done the Castaway Cay 5K and while fun I felt like it was getting too big and taking too much time for my liking. We wandered by as they were getting ready to start and it was a pretty big turnout.





We were one of the first groups to get to Serenity Bay so we wandered down the beach a little bit in search of the perfect spot.








The weather was absolutely perfect. We couldn’t wait to get ourselves in the water. It felt a little chilly when we first put our feet in but once we dropped in it felt amazing. The water was amazingly clear.


From near the shore we could see a couple of dark shadows moving about, as we swam out towards the sand bar we got a closer look and sure enough there were 3 manta rays swimming around.






They hung around all day never causing any trouble. I grabbed my mask so I could get a good look at them swimming around kicking up sand. We also spotted a few starfish.









We were off to a great start to the day.

 

[moremouse]

Enjoying your TR.

 

[MrRay]

We got in line for lunch right as it opened at 11:30, from past trips we remembered that the line can get very long because the buffet is so short. We had some chicken, steak, hamburger, and sides. It was all pretty ok but not great. As we were leaving Jenna grabbed 2 chocolate chip cookies and filled them with Ice cream. As we walked past the line to leave we could hear everyone talking about it, it was delicious.


Back at our base camp we relaxed a bit more.




It was getting nice and hot though so it was back in the water. I grabbed my mask and set out…





A little ways out there is some wreckage that fish like to hang out near.





If you want to go looking for it there is a white buoy tied to it.




As the day went on the water just kept getting better and better…







We took another break from the water and decided it was time for drinks…





Shortly after this we wandered over to the bar and got 2 for 1 beers, a great deal.


Eventually the tide was getting low and we were realizing that the sun had worn us out. It was about 3:30 and decided to start heading back to the ship.





We said our goodbyes, it was an absolutely amazing day at the beach.






Quick Side note on the all-star of the day, our KYSS bag.





We would lock it to our chairs and umbrella and felt very comfortable leaving our stuff while we were in the water.


Back on board we got our last looks of the island, and our first looks at our new sunburns… the shallow water fooled us into thinking we were protected from the sun.

 

[Benchley]

Ouch, hope it wasn't too painful. I loved the look of your drinks

 

[MrRay]

After doing some much needed washing up we went down to deck 4 to watch us sailing along. The setting sun was beautiful and I was hoping to catch a character walking by because the light was so perfect but it was not to be.





So we settled for the Bon Voyage bar.





Our final dinner was in Animator’s Palette.





Since we skipped our first night here to go to Palo this was our only night in Animator’s. The animation show is really amazing and a highlight of all of the dinners but it also brings a limited menu. This is the only appetizer that you can order.





As the show began ours were the first 2 characters to come to life.





All in all it was a pretty relaxing meal. They play a Montague of scenes dealing with food from Disney movies and play great music, mostly stuff from Ratatouille. It was nice.


After dinner we wandered around the ship, it was a beautiful night and we wanted to get in our last looks.









With heavy hearts and full tummies we headed back to our room for our last night of sleep on the ship.

 

[grantclaire]

It has been a great trip report!

 

[Zarina]

Great vacation! Did you use a waterproof camera for snorkeling shots or a housing? The colors are very vibrant, I am guessing the light was good and great visibility!

 

[MrRay]

Great vacation! Did you use a waterproof camera for snorkeling shots or a housing? The colors are very vibrant, I am guessing the light was good and great visibility!

It was a GoPro 3+. And yes the water at Castaway Cay was so clear that there was tremendous visability.

 

[LinnyNad]

I have been reading along and even went back to read you other TR's. LOVED them all and thanks so much for the helpful info and photos. I'm a retired dancer/showgirl and owned my own Ent. Company in NJ before moving to TX, so I connected to this TR very much. Can't wait to hear of your next adventures. Thanks for sharing this trip.

 

[JJsmama]

Great trip report! Amazing CC photos! Yall are the king and queen of mirror photos too. It made me laugh to see you in all the bathroom mirrors.