Guest Trip Report: December 14, 2019 Eastern Caribbean on the Disney Fantasy – Getting There

I am so excited to be writing a trip report for the Disney Cruise Mom Blog! My name is Jamee and I am married, with three awesome kiddos – one daughter and two sons. This is my second personal Disney Cruise Line vacation and I also plan them for my clients. My family and I planned our Eastern Caribbean Very Merrytime Cruise on the Disney Fantasy for over 1-1/2 years! We booked the day after the fall 2019 cruises were released in May 2018, using the placeholder discount from our first cruise. And, it wasn’t just my immediate family that went on the cruise, we traveled with extended family – 15 of us in total!

Planning a cruise for a group this large takes a lot of organization. Here is the schedule I put together for our trip, so everyone would know where they needed to be. It was handy that our cruise took place in mid-December, so I was able to give everyone their information on Thanksgiving.

Our cruise was set to depart on Saturday, December 14, but we planned to fly into Orlando the evening of Thursday, December 12 to attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party the following night. That Monday, I picked my kids up from school (they all attend the same K-8 school) and found out that about 1/4 of the students were out with various illnesses. I knew that our chances of getting through the short week without one of my kids contracting something was slim to none. And unfortunately, I was right. The first illness occurred the day prior to our departure. My daughter woke up that morning not feeling well. Thinking it was a bad cold, and knowing we were about to go on vacation, she went to school with some Tylenol and Ibuprofen in her system. It happened to be a ½ day due to parent/teacher conferences and when I picked her up at noon, we both knew that it was definitely not a cold. Quite a few of the middle schoolers were out with Influenza B and I had a feeling that’s what she had. Her doctor was booked for the day, so I made an appointment with the urgent care facility in town, where our suspicions were unfortunately confirmed.

I got her a prescription for TamiFlu, quarantined her to her room and instructed her to text me if she needed anything, in hopes that the rest of us would not get this. After talking to some other parents, it looked like she would be in very bad shape for three days, but by Saturday would at least be able to fly and get to the cruise. My husband and I stayed up most of the night trying to figure out what to do. We finally decided to change the flights for my husband and daughter to Saturday morning (the morning of our cruise) to give her as much time as possible to recover. I never recommend flying in the day of a cruise, especially out of Wisconsin in December, since flights can be delayed due to inclement weather. But the weather report was good for Saturday and we decided this was our best option. We booked a flight that would land in Orlando at 10:50 am. Disney Cruise Line recommends flights land no later than 1:45 pm on cruise days, as the official all-aboard time is 3:45 pm. We said some prayers that their flight wouldn’t be delayed, there would be no traffic problems and that none of the rest of us would get this! Since booking a last minute flight like this was going to quadruple their flight costs, we decided to move forward with the boys and I going out as planned on Thursday. 

Aside from missing half of our family, our flight to Orlando went smoothly. My mom flew down with us, so it was nice to have an extra adult there to help.

We landed on time at 9:45 pm and took Disney’s Magical Express to Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. Although we landed just prior to the 10:00 pm cut-off of not needing to retrieve our luggage from baggage claim, I knew from past clients that it was better to get our own and have it with us, so that it would not be delivered to us in the middle of the night. This was a little cumbersome as the baggage claim and the Disney’s Magical Express check-in desk are on opposite sides of the airport, but we managed. Because it was pretty late at this point, the line for Disney’s Magical Express was very short, so we boarded right away. The bus ride to the resort was quick and pleasant and we were fortunately the first stop.

Once we were dropped off at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort and gathered our luggage, we had to find our room. I had used the online pre-check, so we didn’t need to go to the front desk, but we did need help with our luggage and navigating our way through the large resort. Fortunately, the resort has an outside window with bellmen, ready to assist with new arrivals. We took advantage of this complimentary service (we did tip) and they drove us to our Pirate-themed room in the Trinidad area (and took my mom to her room in the Jamaica section of the resort).

Once we walked into our room, my 7-year old son was in heaven! He was running around the room, showing us all of the pirate items. Even my 11-year old son thought the room was cool, but I probably wouldn’t book the pirate room specifically for a child that age.

The rooms are nice and as an adult, I could also appreciate the pirate theming. Our room was located on the ground level, but I heard very little outside noise. The room contained a small table with chairs, dresser with T.V. and two double beds, with a nightstand in between. The double beds were extremely small – I can’t imagine my husband and I being able to share one had he been there. The bathroom area was separated by a pirate curtain and included a rod for hanging clothes, a double sink vanity and a separate toilet/shower room.

At that point, it was pretty late, so even though the boys were excited and did not want to sleep – I made everyone get some rest. I wanted everyone fresh for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party the next day!