A Fantastic Framily Frolic Far Far Away - COMPLETE (6/23)

We also did not like the new logo when we were on the Fantasy a couple of weeks ago. How were your servers at the character breakfast? Of all the meals we have had on DVC, this was the worst service we have had.
 
We also did not like the new logo when we were on the Fantasy a couple of weeks ago. How were your servers at the character breakfast? Of all the meals we have had on DVC, this was the worst service we have had.
They were so-so I guess. The whole experience was so fast that we didn't get much interaction with them. It was a bit annoying that they didn't check on our food or drinks because, for instance, I didn't get any butter or cream cheese with my bagel and lox and we could have all done with more coffee. Our interactions with the characters were so good though that we didn't notice as much until after the fact.

I'm hopeful that the new logo won't sell so DCL will drop it quickly.

How was your trip overall? Which itinerary was it?
 
Day 7

WARNING! This is not going to be a long update due to unexpected meteorological circumstances.

Whew. The cold weather for the Star Wars show was certainly an indication of weather on the way. It was a rough night! The waves were much higher (16 feet they said,) and you could definitely feel motion. I had a hard time sleeping and the situation was exacerbated by the fact that my safe door was open. I woke up to a very persistent banging that took me a while to identify. Luckily dd slept through the whole thing.

I woke up around 8:00 and ordered room service. DD kept sleeping until I woke her up after delivery around 9:00. We really need to find a way to transfer these sleeping skills to home.

There was rain in the area, so they made announcements that the characters were being moved inside. The whole experience was so smooth! The locations transferred cleanly and there were tons of CMs around to help you find the characters you were looking for.

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Yes, she tried to lick his nose. Crazy kid.

After we saw every possible character, we finally convinced DD to go to the beach. It was not warm. And there was some wind. And the water was cold. All excursions were cancelled. However, there were plenty of chairs and umbrellas.

Basically, we were all glad we'd been to CC a couple times before because this day wasn't great. But DD got to swim and mom and I had a couple drinks on the beach. We were also glad we didn't have a Cabana (first time.)

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We decided to head back to the ship for lunch.

Dad and I grabbed quick service while my mom took my daughter back to shower. DD was tired after she was clean and fed so we had her nap. When she woke up, it was really too cold for swimming so we just had some time hanging out and watching a movie in the cabin. What? Relaxing on vacation?

We headed to the atrium for the see ya real soon party and enjoyed seeing DD in the video a couple times. Then it was our final dinner at Enchanted Garden. I really loved this menu. I had the caprese and chicken saytay appetizers, beef Wellington for entree, and baked Alaska for dessert. DD was sad about not getting cherries in her Shirley Temple tonight, but that was quickly rectified.

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I took the girls to the clubs and headed back to finish packing. Then our friends called saying DD wanted to leave with them, go to the show, and have me meet them. Well, that wasn't my plan, but I did it anyway. Wishes was cute and I was glad I did the irresponsible thing.

After we got back to the room, we packed like mad to get the bags out in time and I went to bed around 11:00.
 
Wow, I really dislike that logo! The Mickey is what makes the one now so unique. That could be for any line. Hope they don't keep it. Sounds like you had a great trip so far!
 


Day 8

It was another night of rough waters. You know that saying fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me? Yeah, I had left the safe door open again and woke up to the banging.

This was it. Debarkation morning. :sad:

My alarm went off at 6:30. I got up, got ready and finished packing my odds and ends. Then I woke up DD and did the same for her. We went up to Cabanas for a quiet breakfast that was calm and easy.

We went back downstairs and gathered our stuff and got ready to leave. I went to the safe to grab our passports.

And it wouldn't open.

Nope.

Then I got locked out. ::sigh::

Remember those rough seas? Apparently trying to reset the combination in the dark in the middle of the night is not a good plan.

I called guest services. Again. The same maintenance guy came. Again. I felt like an idiot. Again. I swear I am actually a very intelligent and competent person. That safe just got the best of me!

Debarkation was very smooth and we were on the curb by about 9:00.

My dad had clearly spent too much time thinking about Star Wars though. As we approached this hand sanitizer station, he kept asking me what the robot was for. It took me quite a while to realize he was talking about this.

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Hahaha! He had a good laugh over his mistake.

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See ya Mickey.

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Wait, how about I just turn around? Ok?


Our Happy Limo pickup wasn't until 9:45, so we had to hang out a bit. It was good weather though. We got picked up no problem and headed to the airport.

Updating my Navigator helped ease the pain.

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Once at the airport, we said our goodbyes to our family friends and parted ways. Our flights were on time and we headed home.

When we got picked up by the shuttle to head back to airport parking, I discovered that my car hadn't been detailed even though I had pre-paid for the service. The manager took care of it right away and gave me a voucher for the next time.

Then it was home to unpack and do laundry.

I did get to show off our swag.

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DD picked a SWDAS shirt.

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I got this shirt for DH. He loves it.

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I really liked the personalized leather keychains. I enjoy looking at this every day. And, when I inevitably leave my keys in another room at work, people can return them quickly.

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I love this hoodie. It's cute but not over the top Disney. I also know it will be great for Alaska.

Up next: overall reflections.
 
Oh dear, I'm sorry the weather did no cooperate on your last day. Looks like your dd had some awesome character interactions, though!

Man that safe must haunt you in your dreams :headache: stupid thing. Last thing you wanted to deal with on disembarkation morning I'm sure.

Well like they say the only way to beat the end of cruise blues is to have another one already planned :thumbsup2 And heck look at that, your app was at double digits :dancer:
 


Reflections On the Trip

First, here are the Navigators from my sailing.

Now, this trip had 3 big things that we were evaluating. First, how it felt sailing for 7 days. Second, how it felt not sailing concierge. Third, how it felt sailing with a big group of Framily.

So, how was a longer cruise? Amazing. As my mom and I suspected, it was not too long at all. On the fourth night, we asked my dad if he was ready to get off the ship and he was shocked. He couldn't imagine that he'd ever felt like 4 nights was long enough. Also, we all agreed that sea days are amazing. So much relaxing and fun!

What about not being in concierge? It was great! We spent more time moving around the ship and seeing everything DCL has to offer. We also found guest services to be amazingly helpful and efficient. Now, we made some very strategic choices like arriving after the crush of people on embarkation day. We also didn't head to guest services at any of the crazy busy times. In terms of debarkation, it was super smooth. In line by 8:30 on the curb by 9:00. How could you ask for more? I don't think we went any faster with concierge. Plus, for this trip, concierge would have been an extra $10k. Um, no.

Finally, let's talk about traveling in a big group. It was very fun and DD really liked knowing other kids on board. However, our dinner table was very big making it hard to have conversations. Also, we lost some of our family time since we were hanging out with everyone else. That's not a bad thing, but I did miss that time for just us. I would certainly do a big group trip again, but I would go into it with the understanding that I wouldn't be as relaxed at the end.

Odds & Ends

I was worried about the cabin on day 1, but we made the storage work. I missed the split bath a lot. The magic porthole was so fun though. At one point, DD told my parents she felt sorry for them because they had a verandah instead of a porthole. :P

Speaking of my daughter, I have to say cruising with her at this age (4 almost 5,) was a blast. We got to go to the shows and she really enjoyed the clubs. If a person knew they were only doing one cruise, I might say to wait until this age. She was able to do so many things but was still eager to spend time with us during the day too. We both had a lot of fun doing FE. I think I'll only drop once in Alaska though since we will have so many busy port days.

Room service. We loved room service. Breakfast, cookies, it was great. I still haven't tried the All Hands on Deck. :upsidedow

So, is it a thing that the Assistant Servers are always more personable? Every cruise this has been true for us. Our regular servers have all been good, but the assistants are the ones who really connect with us. It makes me wonder if it's intentional.

What next?

Alaska in just over a week!!! And hey, I managed to finish this before we left. YES. Go me.

ALso, we booked an Eastern on the Fantasy for next July. We have the 7A directly above where we were this year and the regular verandah that connects to it. We all love sea days so much that it made sense to do that itinerary.

If we assume we complete that cruise in addition to Alaska, that would make us gold. We would also have sailed on all the current ships other than the Magic. Can you see where I'm going with this? Yeah, my guess is that we will explore late 2018 while we are on board the Wonder. If nothing else, we will book a placeholder. We've also said a Merry Time cruise would be interesting.

So, there you have it. Thanks for reading along. I really enjoyed reliving my vacation here. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
 
Fantastic report (hah!)

I am super encouraged that your daughter is the same age as mine--I'm thinking they'll love this thing :) I love the pirate night skirt---I have some of that fabric!
 
Really enjoyed this trip report and your previous ones - your daughter is adorable! Really looking forward to hearing about your Alaska cruise, I hope to do Alaska in a few years.
 
Our Port Adventure was CZ87 - Chocolate and Pinata Seaside Workshop Here is the description from the DCL website.

Chocolate, Piñatas and Fun!

What ages would you recommend this for. My boys will be 8 & 10 when we sail. It seems like a fun way to spend a few hours but I don't want them (mostly the 10 yo) to be bored.
 
What ages would you recommend this for. My boys will be 8 & 10 when we sail. It seems like a fun way to spend a few hours but I don't want them (mostly the 10 yo) to be bored.
The chocolate part and the part you break the piñata would be great for both I think. How do they feel about crafts? Do they don’t like that stuff, then they might get a bit restless for the piñata making. That’s a super short bit though.
 
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Hee hee. I like that title.

:welcome:

So here it is, trip report #3! This post will be a run down of the basics and then we can get the good stuff started.

Travelers
Me - 39 years old, live in Missouri, work in education, have a 4 year old daughter and a husband who isn't a big traveler.
DD - the aforementioned 4 year old.
My mom - 70's, lives in Albuquerque and enjoys travel and spending time with family and friends.
My dad - 70's, lives in Albuquerque, used to love travel but less these days. He is a surprised cruise convert. While he loves us all, he's an introvert and too much together time can wear on him.
The framily - that would be a combination of the words friend and family. This was also a 3 generation group. The grandparents and my parents have been friends for 50+ years. All us kids grew up together. They have 2 daughters. Each of their daughters has one daughter of her own. So our framily had 2 grandparents, 3 parents, and 2 girls age 10 and 7.

This brought our travel group to 11. Woah.

Why were we traveling?
Spring break, so my dad could see if 7 nights was "too long," and a chance to get our group all together.

Itinerary - Western
3/18 - Embark at Port Canaveral
3/19 - At sea
3/20 - Cozumel
3/21 - Grand Cayman
3/22 - Falmouth
3/23 - SWDAS
3/24 - Castaway Cay
3/25 - Disembark at Port Canaveral

Rooms
Me - 7521 a standard inside (11b)
My parents- 7520 a navigators verandah (7b)
Framily - 10514, 10516, and 10518 verandas on deck 10

All rooms were forward.

Dining Rotation
RAERAAE

Links to TR Posts (for the future to skip questions and comments)
Day 0
Day 1 Part 1
Day 1 Part 2
Day 1 Part 3
Day 2 Part 1
Day 2 Part 2
Day 2 Part 3
Day 3 Part 1
Day 3 Part 2
Day 3 Part 3
Day 3 Part 4
Day 4 Part 1
Day 4 Part 2
Day 5 Part 1
Day 5 Part 2
Day 5 Part 3
Day 5 Part 4
Day 5 Addendum
Day 6 Part 1
Day 6 Part 2
Day 7
Day 8
Reflections Etc.
Can't wait to finish this trip report! My husband and I will be on the Fantasy for Western Carib. 4/28/18..first vaca for him and I alone in 30 years.
 
thanks for your report. We are currently contemplating our first disney cruise as a 3 night, but I suspect for the increase in price, a 4 night with the day at sea will be better for us to explore the ship. hmmmmm DD loves Star Wars, but I am hesitant to do 7 nights and we can not travel in the spring because of farm obligations.

And forgive me as a cruise newbie, but of the lattes, specialty drinks etc, what do you pay extra for and which are included? I figure all alcohol is extra, but what else. Just trying to get an idea on our onboard expenses.
 
And forgive me as a cruise newbie, but of the lattes, specialty drinks etc, what do you pay extra for and which are included? I figure all alcohol is extra, but what else. Just trying to get an idea on our onboard expenses

Any drink that comes from a bartender is a charge. So lattes, smoothies, sodas at the bar, and alcohol. Sodas and juices at dinner are not a charged. There are soda fountains at the buffet and on deck where you can get sodas without an additional charge.
 
Any drink that comes from a bartender is a charge. So lattes, smoothies, sodas at the bar, and alcohol. Sodas and juices at dinner are not a charged. There are soda fountains at the buffet and on deck where you can get sodas without an additional charge.

Thanks! I am trying to get a budget together and I feel like I have so many dumb questions.
 

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