Disney cruise review (Fantasy/Eastern Caribbean)

[krystee]

We just got off the seven-day Eastern Caribbbean/Pixar Day at Sea itinerary on the Fantasy, and it was the best week ever.

We did Disney transportation from MCO to Port Canaveral (and saw dolphins from the bus in the Banana River!), which was super smooth. We had heart embarkation could be long, but we barely waited at all.

We did the Jost Van Dyke half day excursion from Tortola and loved it. It was a little disorganized (we went to the wrong part of the beach and didn’t know what time to leave), but really nice, and the Soggy Dollar bar was fun to visit!

On the St. Thomas stop, we did Trunk Bay and it was pure paradise. The water color was incredible. Snorkeling is great, but I made the mistake of not wearing a life vest and going out farther than I realized. I absolutely panicked and thought I was going to drown, but H saw me frantically waving and came out to help me in. There are not chairs at this beach unless you rent them.

Leaving the ship at Castaway Cay was kind of a nightmare with lines backed up to the fifth floor, but I’m told this never happens, and the forward gangway (the furthest one away) was clear, but we didn’t know that until it was almost our turn. It felt very busy here, but was still really fun.

The lines for character meet and greets were pretty long, so we decided to just do a couple. We ended up running into five spontaneously in the hallways, the kids saw one at Kids Club, and we waited in line for three. There was also interactions with them at a couple dance parties. Some people saw them all and spent so, so much time in line, and I just wasn’t willing to spend our vacation time that way.

We got a verandah, and it was so worth it. We love to relax and have some downtime on vacation, and we spent quite a bit of time out there. I ordered a cheese plate almost every day and brought prosecco on board, so I enjoyed many mimosa and cheese plate during the week, depending on time of day!

The waves were super rough and even the crew seemed kind of shocked by it. But even with super high waves (we got soaked when we walked on deck four one night!), we never got sick. I did have trouble sleeping from it, but I took a Dramamine drowsy, and it knocked me right out, so I decided to take one every night.

We did not do Fish Extenders, but we joined our cruise Facebook group and signed up for the pixie dust list, where you can put your room # down and everyone agrees to pixie dust a few rooms (nothing is organized, you can do however much or little you want). We got Toy Story keychains and Mickey slap bracelets from Amazon for a total of about $18 and pixie dusted about 20 rooms. We got about 20 things ourselves too!

The shows were really enjoyable, but get there early! We got there 15 minutrs early and had to sit separately.

Check your folio carefully at the end! We got charged for an extra photo package, but they were very helpful in removing it.

O'Neal and Junior were our dinner servers, and they felt like family at the end. My son got their autographs in his autograph book and cried when he highed them goodbye. O'Neal taught them magic tricks and kept them laughing all week. Consider requesting them if you go!

I learned on the ship from another passenger that Disney does not pay its cruise servers at all. They work seven days a week, 14 hours a day, and they only get tips, even though their breakfast and lunch jobs are not tippable (they work buffet or quick service in addition to dining rooms). I confirmed with another server that this is true, and I am so disgusted by it. We tipped a lot extra above the required amount.

A few other things: they serve Mickey churro waffles one day (for us, day 6). You MUST get them. The Aqua Duck is amazing!! If you get late dinner, go to
the pool/Aqua Duck from 5-6 pm. It is practically empty! If you are on the starboard side and have a balcony, you may have a better view of fireworks from there than from the actual show.

I found the cruise to be so much more enjoyable than the parks, especially when I prioritized our activities and we made more time for swimming and shows and balcony time, and less racing from one character line to another.

[dcrunnergirl52]

So glad you had a such a great time! I totally agree on the churro waffles. My absolute favorite. And, doing the aquaduck during early dinner makes a huge difference.

How was the Pixar Day at Sea? Did they do anything special for it? We did the Star Wars Day at Sea last year, and it was awesome.

[zarapipe]

Thank you for this! We are looking into doing a Disney cruise next spring break.

Also how can they not pay the servers?! At all?!

Did the kids like the kids club?

[krystee]

Pixar Day at Sea was fun! We did a Toy Story breakfast (characters danced in the aisles, no table visits) and an Incredibles meet and greet. There was a cute show on the pool deck with nearly all the characters and later that night there was an Incredibles show (pretty cheesy) and fireworks. Tons of Pixar characters throughout the ship! We also all got a Pixar Day at Sea big window cling that day. There was also a Sarge Says boot camp with three green army men from Toy Story that was adorable.

Kids club was really cool, but my kids are fairly shy. My older one wanted to go during open houses when we could go too, and only went one other time briefly. My little one learned he could get out of boring (and late!) dinner if he went to the kids club, so he went twice during our dinner hour and loved it. They did a pinewood derby with Lightning McQueen one night and met a character another time.

[krystee]

….And my mom who came with us just called to say she tested positive for Covid and about 30 other people in our cruise Facebook group have said they did too, so maybe avoid winter if you go. Sigh.