Disney Fantasy Jan 23rd Review

Myself, my Fiance, and our 5 (13, 11, 10, 8, 7) kids along with grampa booked this cruise in November 2014.

This was my 11th cruise but first time on Disney

We got a good price (relatively speaking) on two balcony cabins before the cruise was announced as #2 of 8 for Star Wars Day at Sea.

Rooms

The rooms were great and we loved the curtains that separated the kids from the adults. They were very spacious and had plenty of storage. The double bathroom's were also a nice touch. We didn't spend much time on our balcony but it was also very large and spacious.

Room Steward

Our room steward was horrific. She was rude and not efficient in any way. Several times we asked for more blankets and they never arrived even though she reconfirmed they were coming. We would often come back from dinner and our room was not yet turned down. She would then knock on our door and tell us "you'll have to leave if you want your room turned down as I'm off in an hour" This happened on three occasions even though we had been gone for almost 2 hours for dinner. I've had bad room stewards before and she was by far the worst. I've also had amazing ones so I know how they should operate and you want to bring them home with you at the end of the cruise. We ended up removing all of her tips from both our cabins.

Fish Extenders

We signed up before hand and participated in a fish extender group. This was fun and we got lots of cool gifts in return from people. It's a lot of work to prep for but if you have an artsy side you should consider doing this.

Food

We found the food to be good to excellent. Our adult dinner in Palo was fabulous and the service was outstanding. In the dining room we also liked the rotational dining. We found the food there to also be of good quality. However they really liked to over cook their beef. I was asked to cut into my meat each time and when the waitress saw it was not medium rare she (Marvette) took it back immediately and returned with another. Once again it was over cooked. This was a theme on 3 of the 6 nights we ate there. The servers were once again fabulous. Our assistant server was on her 4th sailing and was pretty new and we could tell she was still learning. She did an amazing job thought. Now for the buffet. This I was very disappointed in. The food was not very good. I think I only had one meal that I actually enjoyed and it was pretty much the same food. I have found that other cruise lines did a better job than Disney on providing a variety of "new" dishes each day. My kids said the pancakes were absolutely horrible. I didn't try them. The Mickey waffles were ok but nothing to write home about. There were no make your own pasta / sandwich stations.

Ship

The Fantasy is a beautiful ship and was easy to get around and find things to do. It is impeccably clean. The pools were crazy each day. Often all the kids were ordered out as "floaters" were identified and were closed numerous times to be sanitized. The one thing I found amazing were the lifeguards. They were always around and keeping a watchful eye on all the kids. The aquaduck was also cool although my son got stuck in it as he was just tall enough but not yet heavy enough. It took them about 35 to shut it down get him out and get it back up and running. This is obviously not Disney's fault just an FYI.

Kids Programs

The kids programs were very well nice. However my kids much preferred NCL kids programs (their words not mine) They were not fans of the unstructured play time. My son also hated the fact that there was no "sports" time. He very much loves how NCL takes the kids to the sports court for organized sports. They also said they much preferred the NCL theme's each night and DCL didn't do this well according to them. They did however say they liked how many kids were in the program and how many friends they made.

Meet and Greets.

One of the main draws to a Disney cruise was the meet and greets with the characters. This process was not something I enjoyed. Requiring to book a meeting time and all that stuff is just not my idea of fun. The fact that the princess tickets are gone before all the people even get on the boat is absolute insanity. This upset a lot of people and kids (not mine because they didn't care) The Star Wars character greetings were also a huge issue and I could not be bothered to be so stressed to get in line and wait. From what I understand this is similar to WDW although I don't know that either. I don't know a solution to this other than having way more time for this but this is a huge fail on Disney's part.

Castaway Cay.

The weather was not good windy and cloudy and we had to make three attempts to get into dock at Castaway. We were limited to about 4 hours because of the docking situation. This once again is not Disney's fault as they can't control the weather. However I did over hear many upset people as they were only given a 25% discount on their Cabanas even though they only got 50% of the time. Serenity bay was also closed to swimmers and running on limited staff. This is most definitively a beautiful island and I'm sure it's much more enjoyable in better weather

Castaway 5K

We signed up for this when we boarded the ship and we met in the lounge before arriving in Castaway. However due to the docking situation they postponed the run and eventually ran it on the ship while we were doing our third go round of the island. We did it and received our medals.

Summary

I would definitely not say this was my favorite cruise and it definitely wasn't my worst. It was a very good vacation and we as a family had an amazing time. For me I will not pay a premium to go on a Disney cruise again. While planning this trip we had the opportunity to book an NCL cruise with a much nicer itinerary with two premium suites with butler & concierge & perks for less money than our two balcony cabins. The kids had been asking for a Disney cruise for some time so we decided on the Fantasy instead of NCL as their Christmas gift. For me DCL is on par with NCL - RCI - Celebrity so I'd definitely go for the better value choice next time we cruise. I'm not sure if my opinion would be different if I were a die hard Disney fan as everyone has their own preferences and goals in a vacation.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

How were the other two ports??? We are doing Disney Fantasy in 4/23 and am interested in hearing about your time OFF the boat!!!

Thanks!

 

 

 

How were the other two ports??? We are doing Disney Fantasy in 4/23 and am interested in hearing about your time OFF the boat!!!

We went to Mr Sanchos in Cozumel and had an amazing time. Great service and nice beach.

In Grand Cayman we did some shopping and went snorkeling/diving and enjoyed that as well.

Weather was beautiful

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Thank you for your review.

Keith

We were also on the fantasy for this cruise and it was our first Disney cruise as well.

My comments mirror yours in some respects but not in others. Our other cruises were all with RCI for comparison's sake. Our 17yo wanted one last cruise before he turns 18 in March so we decided to look at options.

Disney actually had better pricing than RCI for the week of the 23rd for similar cabins. We normally book junior suites on RCI and it was horrendous on the Allure and Oasis this time. (junior suite was actually higher than the loft suite for some reason...) Regardless we booked Disney and travelled down early to hit the Harry Potter area at Universal in Orlando.

As we normally leave from Ft. Lauderdale, the travel to Port Canaveral was longer and more expensive. Whether you rent a car as we did and pay for parking or use the shuttles its more than the $20 cab ride. (not really a big deal breaker but something to consider if you are coming from Orlando)

The day of embarkation was Cold. 9 degrees Celsius and windy... Not what a person thinks of for fun and sun, but the rest of the trip was much better.

The ship itself was nice. I missed being able to get to the front of the ship at night like we can on RCI. The Vibe club (teen club) takes that space. We loved the detective work and animated pictures. I liked that there were no casino's on ship, and the entertainment was fair to good every night. Our son liked the teen club and counsellors more than RCI which I found amazing. They do allow them to stay our late. 2:00 or later every night lol... He needed a vacation from the vacation. Lots of friends made though. The sea phones and Disney app are great ideas and I hope other cruise lines follow up with their own version of them. I also enjoyed hearing the horns singing. Staff were very very good. I had no problem adding some additional tips to several crew.

The room was nice, but not quite as spacious as a junior in my wifes opinion. The balcony definitely was not as large but was nice to sit out and enjoy sunrises and sunsets. The twin bathrooms was nice, and the beds were comfy.

Our room attendant (tony) was great. He made some wonderful towel art, and did everything that was expected and more. Our head server and assistant were also quite good including bringing something for my wife in Animators palate because she was freezing in there during one supper.

The dining rooms are entertainment in themselves. AP was my favorite by far. The food was done well, but I did find the menu and food selection to be limited. We chose not to go to the royal court both nights as the menu was not appealing to us.

We did not know that Cabana bay serves the same food though and ended up in there one night. We both thought it would be a buffet style supper similar to the Windjammer.

Speaking of buffet... Cabana bay is not close to the windjammer for selection of food, and we were both disappointed that they did not have flavored water like RCI. They did have a tasty pomegranate lemonade though. Breakfast and lunches were the same every day with little choice or selection really.

Pirates day and Star Wars day was great! I think many people pack extra bags of luggage to participate. It was fantastic to see all the people dressed up. The movies were packed, and stores were heavy on Star wars at sea merch. I didn't think it was overdone, but I'm a fan, so others may disagree.

The fireworks and outdoor entertainment were fun. The aquaduck, and minigolf were fun to do on occasion. I did notice that the sports court rarely was busy and no activities really. (except for the teen club using it at 1:15 AM for dodgeball... lol)

The popcorn (which is $4 each) was tasty and the wife needed it a few times. Good thing the fitness center was set up well.

The stops were Cozumel and Cayman islands as well as the 3rd times the charm stop as Castaway.

We had good weather on Cozumel and Caymans but as the OP stated Castaway was difficult to get into and chillier. It seems like it would be a nice beach island and we had a nice walk around.

The one thing that I did not like about the cruise was Disney's expensive and limited internet. As we are business owners, work never stops... even at sea. We had several issues with having to turn off every single notification on tablets/phones, and apple updates ect. Thankfully the IT manager was fantastic and helped us out several times by lowering the usage. However when I've been on RCI, we pay one fee for unlimited use which eliminates having to enter subscreens to turn off anything in the background. Simply just more user friendly. This may not affect most people who don't access the net during vacation.

We also thought parents were a little too lax with their kids. As the OP said, the pools had to be emptied frequently. One day as they were trying to empty the pool, one lifeguard tried to get a boy to leave the pool for 3-4 minutes. He finally had to enter the pool to do so. The boys parents were no-where to be found... Then a boy 2 cabins down from us (deck 10) climbed part way over the balcony until I bellowed at him to get his Arse back inside... His parents were there as they came out a minute later. Yes its vacation and the staff are awesome, but you don't get to stop being parents...

Overall I enjoyed the Disney cruise and time spent with family, and maybe when I have grandkids I will take another.

Thanks for posting your review OP because I likely would not have posted anything if you had not done so first.

We haven't tried NCL yet, maybe we will try that sometime.

Thank you both for your reviews.

I would have a heart attack if I saw a kid climbing the balcony--yikes!