This guest trip report was written by Cynthia, who sailed the Disney Fantasy on July 27, 2019, on the 11 night Southern Caribbean itinerary. You may remember her as the guest blogger who shared her previous experience with the medical center on the Disney Fantasy, which you can read about here. She has now graciously offered to share her adventures with us! This is a unique itinerary not often offered on the Fantasy so I am very excited to get to share this with you!
Day 9: St. Thomas
You can start this trip report from the beginning by clicking here.
You can see the daily navigators for this sailing here.
Good morning from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands!
Today was an early morning because of our 8:00 a.m. excursion meeting time. We were able to tour St. Thomas on a previous cruise, so we decided to book the St. John Island Tour (Port Excursion ST02) so we could see something new. This excursion was described as a 4 to 4.5 hour excursion to St. John Island and Cruz Bay, including a 45 minute ferry ride from St. Thomas to Cruz Bay, an open-air safari bus ride and tour of St. John’s beaches and scenic overlooks, and views of the British Virgins Islands. Sounds like a great adventure!
The morning weather in port was sunny and warm with a nice breeze, however rain clouds were building in the distance. Our verandah view of the port was very nice.
We met up with our excursion group in the Walt Disney Theatre and then headed out for a short walk from the ship to the St. John ferry. Once we boarded the ferry, we headed out of port away from the Fantasy and towards St. John. By the time the ferry left, the rain was coming down and the seas were a bit rough.
The rain stopped shortly after boarding the ferry, but the seas remained choppy. Our ferry captain provided great narration on the trip over to St. John and was able to point out the many areas of St. Thomas that were damaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017. He also told us that power was not completely restored to this Island until March 2019 and that one power line repair team from New Hampshire is still on the island over 2 years after the hurricane.
We arrived at St. John Island in exactly 45 minutes and were met by a fleet of open air safari taxis – each held about 20 passengers – which chauffeured us around the island.
Our driver gave us a brief history lesson of the island as we gathered in the harbor area at the Virgin Islands National Park building where we started our 1.5 hour driving tour of St. John.
Most of the tour took place in the National Park territory. Over half of St. John is national park land. We were able to see a lot of evidence of the 2017 hurricane destruction as we made our way around the island.
During our tour, we stopped at several observation overlooks and beaches including Salmon Bay, Turtle Bay, Trunk Bay, and Hawksnest Bay. The views were spectacular.
Our favorite stop and views were of Hawksnest Bay.
We toured St. John for almost 2 hours before returning to Cruz Bay. The excursion description noted that once the safari taxi tour was over, we would have free time in Cruz Bay before boarding the ferry for the return trip to St. Thomas. However, once we returned to dock area we were told we had 15 minutes before the ferry left the dock. I think our tour guide was very informative, so our tour went about 30 minutes longer than the other buses. Being that we only had a few minutes before the ferry left, we just stayed in the general vicinity of the ferry dock. There was a small shopping area across the street that we decided to explore very quickly.
We did find Irie Pops – a great ice cream store right across from the National Park office. Laura was a gracious hostess. The chocolate salted caramel ice pop was really, really good. If you ever find yourself in Cruz Bay, give this place a try.
After our ice cream adventure, we headed back to the ferry for our journey back to St. Thomas.
It was pouring rain when we arrived back at the St. Thomas ferry dock. Luckily the Fantasy was at the same dock, so the run to the ship was not so bad. If you take this tour, you will need your Key to the World Card and picture identification to show to the immigration officer as you get off the ferry. Because it was raining, the immigration officer did not pay much attention to anyone’s identification.
We arrived back on board just in time for lunch at Cabanas.
Following lunch was Mickey & Minnie’s Surprise Party on Deck 11.
There were a lot of people on deck watching the party and enjoying the free Mickey pretzels and Mickey Bars. However, this was not the most entertaining deck show DCL has offered. It opened with a jump rope act that went on and on for 15 minutes. Not a very exciting opening. My overall observation is that this show is best for the younger audience, but their attention will only be held for a very short time. I will probably skip it next time.
All aboard time was early today – 3:30 p.m. – and we left the dock shortly after.
The evening entertainment today was very special. Often on longer Disney cruises (over 7 days), there will be a Broadway star onboard for various performances. This cruise was no exception. Terry Leung was the featured Broadway actor during the cruise.
Terry is known for his role on Glee as a member of the Dalton Academy Warblers. He is also known to Disney Broadway fans for his performance as Aladdin on Broadway from June 2017 – February 2019. His show tonight – Go the Distance – was a musical journey of his life and career. It was a very nice evening and a very good show. We look forward to his other performances scheduled over the next few days.
Next up was Bingo. I won!!!! First time ever onboard a cruise that I actually won something. I had to share the pot with one other winner, but the my winnings were enough to pay for many of our activities and on-board purchase. It was nice to see a “credit” on my ship account. So in case you have never won Bingo on board, here is how it works: when you are one number away from bingo, you stand up. If your number hits, you yell bingo as loud as possible (my daughter said I did this very well). A bingo runner comes to you (Ivan was standing right next to me), and they verify your winning numbers with the bingo caller. Once your win is verified, you give the bingo staff member your Key to the World Card and they simply credit your ship account with the amount of your winnings. You are given a receipt when they return your KTTW card to you, so you have a record of your winning (I admit that I went to guest services later in the evening and verified the credit was on my account). What a fun and exciting time!
On a side note, the sunset was beautiful tonight.
After my exciting Bingo win, it was off to dinner at Enchanted Garden. Dinner attire was cruise casual. I started with the Enchanted Garden Platter – a selection of Charcuterie with bread – very good and the Slow-Cooked Green Lentil Soup with Chorizo Sausage – also very good. For my main course I selected the Slow Roasted Breast of Chicken from the “Light Note Offerings” – good. The recommended dessert was the White Chocolate Bread Pudding with Praline Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream – outstanding.
After dinner we headed out for more character pictures. We found Mickey and Minnie in their festive outfits.
After walking around a bit, we headed back to the cabin for a late night High School Musical viewing party complete with room service chicken tenders and pizza.
It was the end of another full day on board the Disney Fantasy.
Up Next: Day 10 – At Sea
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