Guest Trip Report: December 14, 2019 Eastern Caribbean on the Disney Fantasy – Day 2

You can see the daily navigators for this cruise by clicking here.

After our whirlwind few days leading up to the cruise, Keith and I had been in need of a good night’s sleep and didn’t wake up until 10 am. Since we were traveling with so many family members, they were able to keep track of our kids that morning. I was told that our party split up between Cabanas and Royal Court for breakfast.

When we did wake up, we were informed that Ryan (my 11-year old son) and my 10-year old niece were busy in the AquaDuck. Their goal was to ride it 100 times throughout the cruise. I don’t think they quite met their goal, but they sure tried! In between AquaDuck runs, Ryan would go up to Goofy’s Sports Deck to play pick-up games of basketball. I did check on him and was able to snap this picture of him with his first ice cream cone of the trip!

He informed me that the flavors that day were banana, strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, vanilla/chocolate mixed and banana/strawberry mixed. These were by far the most common flavors throughout the cruise. He also informed me that during his time on Decks 11 and 12, that Monsters, Inc. and then Ratatouille played on the funnel vision. I also stopped at the drink station and got this picture of the cute Very Merrytime drink cups.

My brother-in-law took Matthew (my 7-year old son) and my 7-year old nephew up to Deck 11 for a little bit of swimming. They then played in the room for a little bit and had lunch at Cabanas.

I started my day by putting away laundry and beginning my notes from the trip. Once Kate, my daughter, woke up, she and I did a little bit of shopping and took care of some business at Guest Services.

Once lunch opened up at Cabanas, she and I headed up there, since neither of us had eaten yet that day and were pretty hungry. We found my niece on the deck en route to lunch, so she joined us and my husband came along shortly after that.

After lunch, the three older kids left to explore the ship a little more (we were comfortable letting them do this as a group). I laid in one of the lounge chairs on Deck 11, relaxing and catching up on trip notes. During this time the little boys played in our rooms.

Mid-afternoon, Keith and my brother-in-law headed to O’Gills Pub to watch some games. They both purchased a refillable beer mug for $25. By doing this, they were able to get a reduced price on beer throughout the trip (or at least that’s what they told me).

My mom took all of the kids to play shuffleboard and it was time for my sister-in-law and I to get our massages!

My mother-in-law had given us both massages for our birthdays this fall, so we were excited to use them! I chose the Swedish massage, which was so relaxing! This time I was in an interior room, but on my last cruise I had been in a spa room overlooking the ocean. I enjoyed both, but the room overlooking the ocean was very unique (although not as dark as the interior room). Since I didn’t want to look like a creep, I did not take any pictures in the spa! But, you can see photos from the spa on the Dream here and they are very similar.

During our massage, my cousin’s 7-year old daughter and his wife went to the Princess Gathering and the Royal Court Royal Tea. I had signed them up for both activities using the Disney Cruise Line app, when our booking window opened up at 90 days prior to our sailing date. The Princess Gathering is a free activity that fills up very quickly, but the Royal Court Royal Tea has a charge. I did the Princess Gathering with my daughter and niece on our last cruise and it is very cute for little girls (they were a little too old for it this time). The girls get to meet four princesses and get their photos taken with them. My niece informed me that she very much enjoyed the Royal Court Royal Tea. This day also happened to be her birthday, so it was extra special for her!

Later that afternoon, the older kids headed to Deck 11 for more swimming and the AquaDuck, while my mom and I went shopping.

This was formal night, so we all headed back to the room somewhat early to get ready. We headed down to the lobby a little bit early that evening to get some professional photos taken. We got there approximately 45 minutes prior to our dining time and it was already packed! Here are a couple of the professional photos we were able to get:

We always choose the late dining option at 8:15 pm, as it just gives us a little more time to relax and get ready after our day. Plus, it is only 7:15 our time and our kids are old enough to hold out a little prior to eating (and if they can’t, they can just head to Flo’s Café and pick-up a pre-dinner snack or order room service). 

My immediate family are not big theatre fans, so we only did two of the shows throughout the week. Our kids would prefer to swim while the pool is not as crowded during first dining. The show this first night was Aladdin, which we’d seen last time and loved, but opted not to see again! My cousin and his family went and really enjoyed it as well. The Genie is phenomenal!

Our dinner that night was at Animator’s Palate, which I think is everyone’s favorite restaurant (definitely the kids!). For the first Animator’s Palate night, the entertainment is Crush. During dinner, Crush comes on the screen and begins talking to all his “dudes” in the dining room. And when I say talk to his dudes, he literally talks to individual kids at the table, addressing them by what they’re wearing or doing. The little kids especially love this!

We learned that night that the cast member that voices Crush on the cruise is actually located behind the Captain chairs, all the way on the other side of the ship, and uses a camera to personalize his message to the kiddos. I thought that was pretty interesting.

The bread service was garlic and herb focaccia with roasted garlic dip – we both thought it was excellent!

The appetizer choices that night were smoked salmon tartar, sliced serrano ham, black truffle pasta purseittes and tomato tarte.

I chose the smoked salmon tartar and Keith chose the sliced serrano ham – both were fantastic!

 

The soup and salad choices were creamy butternut squash soup, baked potato and cheddar cheese soup, arugula leaves and chicken and walnut salad. I skipped this course, while Keith enjoyed the baked potato soup and arugula leaves.

He said they were both excellent. As you’ll see throughout the cruise, Keith many times orders multiple items from a course. He apparently thought it was his duty to try as much food as possible to comment on for the readers! He’s very thoughtful like that.

The main course options were pennette bolognese, grilled tuna steak, lemon-thyme marinated all-natural chicken breast, herb-crusted pork chop and ginger-teriyaki dusted angus beef tenderloin.

I had the beef tenderloin, which was very good and Keith had the tuna steak, which he said was excellent.

The dessert options were crunch walnut cake, chocolate fudge cheesecake, cookies ‘n cream sundae, apple crumble rice pudding and lemon icebox pie. I had the cookies and cream sundae and Keith had the lemon icebox pie – both were excellent.

Since it was my niece’s birthday, her parents had ordered her a special cupcake for dessert that night and we all sang to her. It was so cute to see how excited she was for her special day!

Because we do late dining, dinner is not normally finished until about 10 pm, so we usually just head to the room after that and start getting ready for bed. Christopher did the cutest towel animal this night, using my sunglasses that I’d left out!

My kids were worn out from a day of fun in the sun. Even though my daughter was technically staying in the room next door with her grandmas, she fell asleep in our bed with our boys that night watching a movie (and yes, this meant that my husband and I had to squeeze ourselves onto the couch and upper berth).