A long time ago on a Fantasy far far away...Feb 2016 SWDAS TR, 5/17 CRUISE EPILOGUE - The End!

[chunkymonkey]

Chunkymonkey, Chubbyhubby, and Chunkysis's
Western Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Fantasy
with Star Wars Day at Sea!!
Feb 20th-27th 2016

L to R: Chunkysis, Minnie, Chunkymonkey (Me), and Chubbyhubby at Port Canaveral

Hi Everyone!! We're back! OK so this trip didn't happen "a long time ago" in fact, it was a little over just 2 weeks ago on Feb 20th that we set foot on the Fantasy, but it seemed a fitting title! We left on an epic trip that included a week on the Disney Fantasy with Star Wars Day at Sea, and then a week at the Polynesian Village resort at WDW. All of this was to celebrate my 40th birthday!! Here's our trip report on our Disney Cruise from Feb 20th to 27th!! It was my and DH's second cruise and my sister's first cruise on DCL! You can read the PTR for this trip here. I will write the WDW portion of this TR on the regular WDW Trip report forum. We had an AWESOME time (both Star Wars and non Star Wars-related), ate way too much, and I met my new love, the Rainforest Room!

If you've followed a long on my Instagram account, you've probably seen photos of us in our full-blown Star Wars costumes already...but if you want to just read along and be surprised, then stay tuned for the full reveal on Day 5 of the cruise! So sit back, relax and have a Castaway Crush (or two) and May the Force be With You!!

Introductions:

Hi! I'm Su-Lynn, aka Chunkymonkey. I turned 40 years old on this trip (last day of the cruise on the 27th). I work as a business analyst in IT. I'm the resident trip planner, cruise director, and trip report writer! I also write a travel blog on the side (mostly to Hawaii, but some Disney and other more exotic locales!). I love to eat and take pictures, so be prepared for a pretty food-heavy and picture-loving trip report!

This is my DH, Chubbyhubby, aka Steve, he's also 40 years old and works in risk management at a bank. He loves sports, movies, and like me, enjoys eating! He indulges me with all the Disney trips although he secretly enjoys them as well. He had a great time on the Magic last year so now he's a fan of DCL. DH and I are big Star Wars fans, so we were really excited when we heard about these SWDAS cruises last year while on the Magic (trip report here) - we booked it using an on-board discount last year and since the cruise was around my 40th birthday, it just made sense to make it a big birthday celebration and combine it with a week at Walt Disney World!

My sister, Chunkysis, aka Su-Queen! Our resident character-maniac! She will go out of her way and do everything possible to meet and take pictures with all the characters. It was her first cruise ever, and she had a great time exploring the ship and meeting all the characters. I think she managed to get each of the characters on the ship in their different outfits! She's 34 and works in a custom printing/invitation shop. She definitely has the creative gene in the family. She has her own Etsy shop for handmade cards here.

Here was the itinerary for our cruise:

Hope you are on board for our galactic journey to a Fantasy far far away!

May the Force be with you!

​

 

[chunkymonkey]

Table of Contents​

Pre-cruise:

• Introductions
• Day 0: Arriving in Orlando, pre-cruise day!

Embarkation Day 1:

• Day 1 Part 1: Arriving at port and boarding the Fantasy!
• Day 1 Part 2: Exploring the ship, lunch at Cabanas, and a peek inside our stateroom 6592!
• Day 1 Part 3: The worst cruise pic ever, dinner at Royal Court

At Sea Day 2 (Formal Night):

• Day 2 Part 1: Mickey waffles, Rainforest Room, a pre-order disappointment...
• Day 2 Part 2: Remy Champagne Brunch
• Day 2 Part 3: A trip to Arendelle!
• Day 2 Part 4: Mixology and the aftermath...
• Day 2 Part 5: Formal Night at Animator's Palate

Cozumel Day 3: (Pirate Night)

• Day 3 Part 1: Its Cozumel Day and our plan is no plan!
• Day 3 Part 2: Rainforest Room bliss, a mission for Chunkysis on Pirate Night
• Day 3 Part 3: A Remy a Day keeps the blues away! PART I and PART II

Grand Cayman Day 4: (Prince and Princess Night)

• Day 4 Part 1: A Spa-cial morning and Grand Cayman!
• Day 4 Part 2: Royalty on board the Fantasy!
• Day 4 Part 3: Princea nd Princess dinner, Ooh La La!

STAR WARS Day at Sea Day 5:

• Day 5 Part 1: This will be a day long remembered...
• Day 5 Part 2: This is just like Mos Eisley's Cantina!
• Day 5 Part 3: I can't wait to get out of this thing!
• Day 5 Part 4: Pre-Dinner festivities
• Day 5 Part 5: Voyage Through the Galaxy, a Star Wars themed dinner!
• Day 5 Part 6: Summon the Force Fireworks and late night Star Wars buffet!

At Sea Day 6: (Semi-Formal Captain's Gala Night)

• Day 6 Part 1: From Royalty to the Dark Side
• My new TR Link! and a new Cruise to look forward to!
• Day 6 Part 2: A Decadent Palo Brunch!
• Day 6 Part 3: Animation Dinner at Animator's Palate
• Day 6 Part 4: Animation Magic and After dinner Festivities!

Castaway Cay Day 7: (See Ya Real Soon)

• Day 7 Part 1: Life's a Breeze on Castaway Cay!
• Day 7 Part 2: Too Distracted to Run!
• Day 7 Part 3: See Ya Real Soon...

Back to Port Canaveral Day 8:

• Day 8: Breakfast and leaving the Fantasy behind...on to WDW!!

Post-Cruise Pics and Epilogue:

• Through the Eyes of Chunkysis! Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Cruise Epilogue!

THE END​

 

[tmoor]

Can't wait for the rest! Loved your report on the Magic! Thanks for always taking so many pictures! I've been on all the ships except for the Fantasy and will be going on it in January 2017.

 

[soniam]

Following along, but I might duck out next week for our trip to Universal and WDW

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Welcome Home! Looking forward to hearing how your adventures went!

 

[starousse]

Welcome home! Looking forward to hearing about the trip. I did catch some of your Instagram pics and noticed your room number on the door. How did you enjoy the room? I booked the one right next door.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Can't wait for the rest! Loved your report on the Magic! Thanks for always taking so many pictures! I've been on all the ships except for the Fantasy and will be going on it in January 2017.

Thank you and welcome!! Wow, where is the Fantasy going in Jan 2017? It's an amazing ship. It's really very big. I can't imagine them making bigger ships - there was so much to do and see!

Following along, but I might duck out next week for our trip to Universal and WDW

Woohoo!! So happy for your upcoming trip! Can't wait to see what you think about the dessert party! We LOVED the fireworks. I loved them better than Wishes and Illuminations!

Welcome Home! Looking forward to hearing how your adventures went!

Thank you!! It's gonna be a long journey, but a fun one, I promise!

Welcome home! Looking forward to hearing about the trip. I did catch some of your Instagram pics and noticed your room number on the door. How did you enjoy the room? I booked the one right next door.

Thank you and welcome! Our room was great! It was convenient to midship and aft elevators. Didn't have much noise at all, and the verandah was lovely. We did have a view of the lifeboats when you look down, but it didn't distract us. Deck 6 was also very nice, just a few flights up from where all the action was, so convenient to back to your room after meeting characters in the atrium, or watching a show in the Walt Disney Theater. It's also one flight up from the Buena vista theater which was showing movies so we'd pop in a lot and leave when we felt like it. Great choice!

 

[LizardQueen8]

Following along to see how your cruise compared with mine!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Following along to see how your cruise compared with mine!

I hope it's just as good as yours!

 

[bcwife76]

Woohoo, I'm here, I'm following!!! Followed along with your Instagram while you were away, now excited to read all about your adventures!!!!

 

[SonyaShay]

joining in. loved reading your first trip report.

 

[KathyM2]

I'm here!! Can't wait to hear all about it!!

 

[luvpooh]

Can't wait to read, I love your TR's! Belated happy birthday!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 0: Departure Day!!!​

And it begins...

We left on Friday morning, February 19th. Our flight was at 6am from Newark to Orlando and of course my dad insisted on getting us to the airport 3 hours early. He’s old-fashioned like that. I managed to negotiate him down to 2.5 hours early. Still, it was one of those nights where we just didn’t get that much sleep.

​

At the airport, very few things were open but we weren’t very hungry at that time anyways. Chunkysis (from now on she will be known as CS) had brought along her new selfie stick, so she was busy taking pictures…but guess what, her selfie stick broke only 20 minutes after using it for the first time. Those cheap things!!

​

After some time at the gate, we finally boarded!! Here we are, very sleepy but very excited about our trip!

​

I should have probably gotten some sleep on the plane but I watched movies and played games on my iphone. I guess I was just too excited to sleep, and the plane ride was only about 2 hours and 15 minutes anyways.

When we got to Orlando, we rode the faux monorail to the main terminal and were happy to see the warmth and sun. It actually wasn’t that warm that day, around 60 degrees, but when you’re coming from 30 degree weather, it’s balmy!

This is the look of warmth!​

We waited a while for our luggage at baggage claim then went back upstairs to check in at the Hyatt Regency MCO where we would be spending the night before the cruise.

Excited even at baggage claim!

Our room wasn’t ready, as I expected, since it was only about 8:45am at this point, so we left our luggage with bell services and headed to the food court to get something to eat. I was really hungry at this point!

View from the Hyatt Regency MCO lobby

So excited!!​

I ended up with my favorite fast food place, Chik-fil-a. I hadn’t had their breakfast before so I got their chicken biscuit and hash brown bites (like tater tots). DH was not that hungry so he just had coffee and a few bites of my food. CS felt that because of our early morning, it felt more like lunch to her, so she got Chinese food! LOL.

Chunkysis's "breakfast"​

After breakfast we went walking around all the stores in the airport. We all split up and roamed around. I got a giant iced coffee from dunkin donuts. DH got a text an hour later saying that our room was ready! So we went back to the room and got our luggage.

Roaming around the airport.

Our room was pretty standard, with 2 queen beds. I stood outside on the balcony and decided it was indeed too cold to be swimming. It would be fine if it weren’t so windy but it was a breezy day and I didn’t want to be cold.

View from the room​

We finally just ended up napping in the room before waking up a few hours later. It was a much needed nap and I decided that I was hungry AGAIN so it was back out to the food court. This time, it was indeed lunch time and DH and I got Chinese food and split it. CS wasn’t hungry so she went on the hunt for ANOTHER selfie stick.

Lunch!​

After lunch we walked around. We went to all the Disney and Universal stores. I contemplated buying a watch at one of the Disney stores, but I’m glad I waited as I bought a much nicer one later on in the trip at Disney Springs. I didn’t buy anything as I was saving most of my shopping while we were on the actual trip! CS did indeed find another selfie stick so she was happy. It ended up being cheaper than the first one she bought.

DH and I went to work out at the hotel gym. It was nice to work out and burn some calories – especially since the next two weeks will be nothing short of gluttonous, LOL.

The majority of my workout shirts are Star Wars t-shirts!​

After resting up in the room, we decided to have a sit-down dinner since we’re all now tired of the food court. We ate at the restaurant in the Hyatt, called McCoy’s. It’s actually a really nice restaurant. It was packed too! We waited about 15 minutes for a table. They brought us some delicious warm bread. We started with an appetizer trio of calamari, dumplings, and a quesadilla. It was tasty and they brought it to us in a tiered serving tray.

Warm bread, mmmm

Appetizer tier​

I got sushi as my entrée which was good, and quite a large portion. DH got a big bowl of their crawfish chowder, and CS got sushi too. CS doesn’t eat any raw fish but she does eat eel (unagi) which is cooked and it’s one of her favorites! Overall a nice dinner to kick off the first night of the trip!

My sushi dinner

DH's crawfish chowder - it was creamy and good

My sister's sushi roll dinner​

Back in the room, I rearranged some of the stuff in the suitcases a bit so that we’d have a change of clothes and our swimsuits in our carry-on when we board the ship. After a good night’s rest...we were ready for our cruise!!

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Coming up…Day 1: Arrival at the port and we board the Fantasy for the first time!!!
​

 

[seashell82]

Joining in. Can't wait to hear more! We sail on April 26th.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Woohoo, I'm here, I'm following!!! Followed along with your Instagram while you were away, now excited to read all about your adventures!!!!

Thank you!! So great to see you here too!!

joining in. loved reading your first trip report.

Thank you and welcome!!

I'm here!! Can't wait to hear all about it!!

Yay!! Great to see you here too!!

Can't wait to read, I love your TR's! Belated happy birthday!

Thank you and thank you!! Welcome and thanks for reading!!

Joining in. Can't wait to hear more! We sail on April 26th.

Thank you! Woohoo! You're gonna have a blast. If you have a specific question just ask. Are you on a SWDAS sailing?

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I'm here too!!! Glad you made it home safely, can't wait for the rest!

 

[disnygirl55]

Welcome home, Su-Lynn! You made my day by starting your trip report. I've been waiting and waiting - LOL! I've even been killing time adding a few more posts to my trip report from last May. I've been so bad about finishing that one, but I'm going to see what I can accomplish in the next 5 1/2 weeks before we leave for our cruise. 39 Days and Counting Down!!!! Looking forward to reading all about your adventures!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Yay for safe travels. Glad y'all weren't bored out of your mind at the airport for a day.

 

[Dentam]

Joining in! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!