sayuracodfish
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2013
So wonderful to be able to experience it all over again!!! Thanks Rachelle - something to look forward to with each new post 
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A Fantasy Holiday - our first Disney Cruise, WDW, UOR, New York and DLR - COMPLETED 4/9
- Thread starter RachelleBeaney
- Start date
sayuracodfish
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2013
Thank you for posting Rachelle!!! So happy to be able to experience it again! Looking forward to each and every post
Uggg...sorry to post twice - still figuring this out
Uggg...sorry to post twice - still figuring this out
Last edited:
Hi Rachelle - welcome home. Am glad that all went well and you enjoyed your cruise. We luved The Fantasy when we did the Western Carribean trip last year. We have started building our new home so we will be looking about October/November to book for April 2016. If we cant do April 2016 we will definitely be going April 2017 - just depends how our builder goes with getting our home completed. Fingers crossed it goes to plan and we will be in our new home by February 2016. We cant wait to do the Eastern Carribean trip and my girls ask all the time when are we going back on the Fantasy. We are doing a Carnival Cruise in May from Sydney but it wont be anything like the Fantasy. Am luving your report and will def have to get your advise with planning the next one.
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Great to have you reading along! I'd be really interested to check our your trip report too - do you have a link to it? I wonder, did we bump into each other in the halls at some point! If you find yourself in the back of any of my pictures let me know - that would be awesome!
That's exactly why I like to write these reports, because I know how horrible it can be waiting and waiting for your next Disney trip without a little infusion of Disney! Glad you are enjoying it! The pictures are great aren't they - my husband is so talented!
Thanks Sharon, so nice to know I have a loyal reader! I enjoy writing the reports so much and am glad that others enjoy them! What part of Australia are you from? Will this be your first trip on the Fantasy? If so, let me just tell you it's going to be amazing - it was so wonderful! No we didn't check out the kids club on our first day. I remember now that it was the only day adults got to visit it but honestly we were just so excited to look all around the ship and we didn't think about the kids club given that we don't have kids
. If you are worried about sea sickness my advice to you would be to go to the doctor and get some proper strength anti-nausea medication and start taking it the day you get on the ship. I only had a slight touch of sea-sickness so I only took a few tablets when needed but I have been told by people who suffer it badly that they don't really help unless you take them from the onset so if you suffer from bad motion sickness just start taking them the day you board and you should be fine (one of my table mates did that and didn't have any troubles while on the ship)
Thank you for posting Rachelle!!! So happy to be able to experience it again! Looking forward to each and every post
Uggg...sorry to post twice - still figuring this out
Ah miss you lovely friend! Don't worry about the double post - it took me a while to get used to the boards to - am glad you are reading along - doesn't it make you wish we were back there right now!
Thank you - I'm glad you are reading along
That sounds really exciting Rosa, I really hope you do get to go in April. Of course I am around anytime you'd like advice and these boards are generally awesome for that kind of thing as well! I'm sure the Carnival Cruise will still be fun, any cruise would be I reckon. Glad to have you reading along
LivingforDisney
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2014
I am in Sydney Rachelle, we visited WDW and Universal and NY in 2013, we are actually leaving Dec 16th this year, 4 nights Disneyland, 14 nights WDW, 7 nights Fantasy, which is now A Star Wars Day cruise, we are not into Star Wars, but looks like it will be fun. I booked our cabin on opening day and it has since gone up $1900!! Wow I think it's going to be a full ship now.
Before the cruise we are staying at Cabana Bay resort for 5 nights and after the cruise 4 nights back at Disney before flying straight home.
Think we will be all Disneyed out by then.
Looking forward to being there for Xmas e, will def let you know how we coped lol.
Look forward to reading more.
Before the cruise we are staying at Cabana Bay resort for 5 nights and after the cruise 4 nights back at Disney before flying straight home.
Think we will be all Disneyed out by then.
Looking forward to being there for Xmas e, will def let you know how we coped lol.
Look forward to reading more.
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 4 - Part 1 - I'll sing you a song, a song of the sea...
So today was our first official cruise day and it would be a sea day. We were glad to have a cruisy (yes pun intended!) morning planned (massages) as we hadn't slept too well the night before because we were still getting used to the rocking of the boat (there wasn't too much movement and we weren't in rough waters but it is still something that takes some getting used to). We did try to sleep in but despite our best efforts were up at 7am to visit Cabanas for breakfast.
I love the cheeky Aussie seagulls!
More amazing mosaic work!
See I can't get enough of it!
Nemo!
After breakfast we relaxed until our 10:30am Ultimate Indulgence Package. As part of the package we had a foot exfoliation, 100 minute massage, 15 minute spa in a private couples villa (which was a little cold, it was very windy that day) and then we finished up sipping tea and eating chocolate covered strawberries and fruit on a double deck lounge covered with a warm blanket looking at the ocean (again in our private couples villa). It was so romantic and relaxing, a perfect way to get into holiday mode and spend some quality time together. Possibly my favorite part of the experience came at the end of the massage, where they linked our hands together and left us for a few minutes to come out of our relaxed stupor. It was at this point, while relaxing in our villa, that Jared and I remarked that if that was all the holiday was we would have been happy, but it was literally only the first day of the cruise!
Since relaxation was the aim of the morning we decided we should swim next. I had to buy a new jumper (sorry sweater, Kim I don't want to confuse you again!) first as I'd lost one of mine on the plane over from LA, and then we got ready to enjoy some time swimming in the adults pool. Jared loved how easy it was to get a drink from the 'swim up bar' (it wasn't really a complete swim up bar as the water just in front of it was really shallow) as waiters were constantly walking around the pool with a circular wheel like drinks and cocktail menu and asking if anyone wanted anything. They'd then bring the drink right to you sitting in the pool so you didn't even have to get up! I enjoyed a yummy cocktail and I think Jared had a beer and then we just floated around the pool and ran into our table friends, Derrick and Becky. We had a good chat with them about their morning and ours, and a few other things before we decide to check out the Aqua Duck, which Derrick and Becky had already tried and reported was awesome! When we first looked the wait was 60 minutes so we decided to chill for a bit on the main deck.
The Aqua Duck
Chillin' like a Villian (a Veronica Mars quote for any of your Marshmallows out there!)
Finally the Aqua Duck wait had diminished to 20 minutes so we thought we'd give it a go. It was pretty windy up the top and we'd only just got dry but still, it looked so fun we just wanted to try it. We got on in less than the posted wait time and had a blast! It's really amazing going out over the side of the ship in the very first part of the slide, but if you ever do go on it, make sure you are looking to your left and down as soon as you go through the tube to notice it. I really also like the view of the main deck you get while out of the clear straight part - your view of the surrounds is stunning! My only regret is not going it on one of our port days - the view would have been even better.
We had skipped lunch, mainly because we'd had a large breakfast and weren't too hungry, but we started to get a little peckish at about 3pm so we grabbed a few slices of pizza and once again sat out on the main deck. There was some general, and pretty easy, Disney Trivia up on the funnel vision so we enjoyed answering that (we only got 3 wrong and it gave us a rather prestigious view of our Disney knowledge which, by the way, would get completely pummeled in a few nights when we went to one of the Disney movie trivia quiz activities!).
Now tonight we wouldn't be meeting our table mates at dinner as we had booked an evening at Palo. It was also formal night that evening so we didn't feel left out as we had to get all dressed up for Palo too. The first thing we did was take some pictures with formal Minnie! She loved my nails and was oh so pretty herself!
We then headed to the Meridian Bar deck to await our evening at Palo!
Continued in Next Post...
So today was our first official cruise day and it would be a sea day. We were glad to have a cruisy (yes pun intended!) morning planned (massages) as we hadn't slept too well the night before because we were still getting used to the rocking of the boat (there wasn't too much movement and we weren't in rough waters but it is still something that takes some getting used to). We did try to sleep in but despite our best efforts were up at 7am to visit Cabanas for breakfast.
I love the cheeky Aussie seagulls!
More amazing mosaic work!
See I can't get enough of it!
Nemo!
After breakfast we relaxed until our 10:30am Ultimate Indulgence Package. As part of the package we had a foot exfoliation, 100 minute massage, 15 minute spa in a private couples villa (which was a little cold, it was very windy that day) and then we finished up sipping tea and eating chocolate covered strawberries and fruit on a double deck lounge covered with a warm blanket looking at the ocean (again in our private couples villa). It was so romantic and relaxing, a perfect way to get into holiday mode and spend some quality time together. Possibly my favorite part of the experience came at the end of the massage, where they linked our hands together and left us for a few minutes to come out of our relaxed stupor. It was at this point, while relaxing in our villa, that Jared and I remarked that if that was all the holiday was we would have been happy, but it was literally only the first day of the cruise!
Since relaxation was the aim of the morning we decided we should swim next. I had to buy a new jumper (sorry sweater, Kim I don't want to confuse you again!) first as I'd lost one of mine on the plane over from LA, and then we got ready to enjoy some time swimming in the adults pool. Jared loved how easy it was to get a drink from the 'swim up bar' (it wasn't really a complete swim up bar as the water just in front of it was really shallow) as waiters were constantly walking around the pool with a circular wheel like drinks and cocktail menu and asking if anyone wanted anything. They'd then bring the drink right to you sitting in the pool so you didn't even have to get up! I enjoyed a yummy cocktail and I think Jared had a beer and then we just floated around the pool and ran into our table friends, Derrick and Becky. We had a good chat with them about their morning and ours, and a few other things before we decide to check out the Aqua Duck, which Derrick and Becky had already tried and reported was awesome! When we first looked the wait was 60 minutes so we decided to chill for a bit on the main deck.
The Aqua Duck
Chillin' like a Villian (a Veronica Mars quote for any of your Marshmallows out there!)
Finally the Aqua Duck wait had diminished to 20 minutes so we thought we'd give it a go. It was pretty windy up the top and we'd only just got dry but still, it looked so fun we just wanted to try it. We got on in less than the posted wait time and had a blast! It's really amazing going out over the side of the ship in the very first part of the slide, but if you ever do go on it, make sure you are looking to your left and down as soon as you go through the tube to notice it. I really also like the view of the main deck you get while out of the clear straight part - your view of the surrounds is stunning! My only regret is not going it on one of our port days - the view would have been even better.
We had skipped lunch, mainly because we'd had a large breakfast and weren't too hungry, but we started to get a little peckish at about 3pm so we grabbed a few slices of pizza and once again sat out on the main deck. There was some general, and pretty easy, Disney Trivia up on the funnel vision so we enjoyed answering that (we only got 3 wrong and it gave us a rather prestigious view of our Disney knowledge which, by the way, would get completely pummeled in a few nights when we went to one of the Disney movie trivia quiz activities!).
Now tonight we wouldn't be meeting our table mates at dinner as we had booked an evening at Palo. It was also formal night that evening so we didn't feel left out as we had to get all dressed up for Palo too. The first thing we did was take some pictures with formal Minnie! She loved my nails and was oh so pretty herself!
We then headed to the Meridian Bar deck to await our evening at Palo!
Continued in Next Post...
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Sounds like you have got the Disney bug as we have! That sounds like an amazing holiday! My husband and I do like Star Wars and thought a Star Wars cruise would be awesome, but I don't think we will be getting to one for a while now (especially with the exchange rate as bad as it is at the moment, and tipped to get worse, possibly down to about 63 cents!) I hope you enjoy the trip and yes, let me know how it goes...Christmas time at the resorts is awesome! At Walt Disney World I LOVED The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights and the snow on Main Street during the parade at one of the Mickey's Very Merry Xmas Parties we attended.
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 4 - Part 2 - Never have I ever eaten so much in my life
It was time for our wonderful dinner at Palo and as you may have worked out from the title of this chapter we ate a lot. We also took a lot of pictures of it all (except our appetizer, we forgot about that!) so for those of you who enjoy the food porn this is a good chapter for you!
We were met on the Meridian Deck by our wonderful Italian waiter, Marco (who is the reason we became so full!). He led us into the restaurant and wow, was it beautiful. I particularly loved the chandelier in the entrance way, which was apparently designed to invoke pasta and sauce as Palo is an Italian restaurant.
The restaurant is stunning and elegant. It was also really warm and inviting, as fancy as it was. The china was also beautiful!
We started off our meal with a large plate of antipasto, served to us by our wonderful waiter Marco. He even talked us into trying some olives (which we don't usually enjoy) as, in his words, they were real olives from Italy and we would enjoy them. I actually didn't mind a few which says something about their quality! The rest of the antipasto was amazingly delicious too!
Next came our appetizers. I ordered to Mozzarella and Caprese salad which was good but just like most that you get. Jared ordered Calamari and to our surprise, Marco bought us a third dish which he thought we would enjoy. It was a mushroom filled with cream cheese filling and an amazing balsamic based sauce and WOW, he was so right, it was amazing. Unfortunately at this point we forgot to take pictures of any of that but never fear, the entrees were coming and we were good with the camera for the rest of the night! We were glad of a bit of a break between appetizers and entree as we were already pretty full!
For entree I ordered the truffle and mushroom risotto and Jared couldn't decide between the steak and the ravioli, so Marco bought him both! I'd also asked Marco for a good wine to pair with my risotto and that I generally liked fairly sweet whites and he bought me the most amazing Moscato wine, a type of wine i'd never tried but was amazed by and will most definitely try again! And here are our wonderful mains.
Luckily the ravioli serving was fairly small as we both had to share that one when Jared got full!
While I was visited the most amazingly themed bathroom on the planet (seriously check it out) - Marco was making a napkin rose and boot for the table!
Since I was looking pretty Jared decided to take some pictures of me...
Me enjoying the rose...
Jared made a rather risky joke next, and that was that he loved the mushroom appetizer so much he could eat another. Never joke about eating more food in front of an Italian! Just as he said it, and before he could take it back Marco went to the kitchen and bought Jared another of the mushroom appetizer! I should point out that, minus the alcohol we ordered, which was extra, this meal was only costing us $25 per head! Pretty damn good value in my book.
We had heard the chocolate souffles were amazing at Palo so that was definitely what I wanted to order for dessert, and Jared decided that sounded good also. Of course Marco wouldn't have been Marco if he didn't insist on also bringing us some pannacotta and strawberry sorbet!
There was also a lovely birthday surprise for Jared.
Marco was wonderful throughout the entire meal. He knew we wanted to see Aladdin at the Walt Disney Theatre that night and had to be out by 8pm so made sure to keep us to a schedule. He was attentive all evening, even getting my chair when I came back from the bathroom. Our desserts were just as amazing as described, the chocolate souffle especially, and we rolled out of Palo grateful that we simply had to sit for the rest of the evening. I have honestly never been so full in my whole life, but also totally happy and content with a wonderful dining experience. And here is a photo of me and the wonderful Marco, unfortunately it was the only one we got and it turned out blurry but since it was the only one we got you'll have to put up with it!
There was also a professional ship photographer roaming around that evening who took this lovely photo of the two of us
We made it to Aladdin a little later than originally planned but still managed to find an ok seat in the mezzanine part of the theater. I've seen Aladdin A Musical Spectacular plenty of times at Disney California Adventure however I really enjoyed the version on the ship much better. The effects and staging just seemed better done and it was definitely different enough to the DCA version for me to recommend for anyone who has already seen it there to see it again on the Fantasy. My favorite part was, without a doubt, the flying carpet. While the version at DCA is good, (the carpet flies over the audience while dry ice and props float underneath it to create the illusion the actors are floating through clouds. However, the props are made small to create the illusion and in reality just look like small props being carted around a stage), the cruise version had a hydraulically controlled carpet, similar to the car used in the stage version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang if anyone has seen that, which was amazing as you couldn't tell how the carpet was moving! On top of that the cruise version had an large screen on stage that images of different locations around the world were projected onto and it really made you feel like they were flying all over the world and into the stars. The genie was, as always, hilarious and we definitely enjoyed the 'pop culture' jokes he always throws into his performance.
After the show we decided to take a few formal night photos with the professional photographers on the ship (by the way these photographers are everywhere and you will want to buy so many photos - we ended up buying a CD where we could pick 20 pictures but I know Derrick and Becky needed to get the unlimited CD in order to get all the photos they wanted!)
All in all it was a wonderful first day at sea, albeit a relaxing one, and we were so excited for what was still to come...
Continued in Next Post...
It was time for our wonderful dinner at Palo and as you may have worked out from the title of this chapter we ate a lot. We also took a lot of pictures of it all (except our appetizer, we forgot about that!) so for those of you who enjoy the food porn this is a good chapter for you!
We were met on the Meridian Deck by our wonderful Italian waiter, Marco (who is the reason we became so full!). He led us into the restaurant and wow, was it beautiful. I particularly loved the chandelier in the entrance way, which was apparently designed to invoke pasta and sauce as Palo is an Italian restaurant.
The restaurant is stunning and elegant. It was also really warm and inviting, as fancy as it was. The china was also beautiful!
We started off our meal with a large plate of antipasto, served to us by our wonderful waiter Marco. He even talked us into trying some olives (which we don't usually enjoy) as, in his words, they were real olives from Italy and we would enjoy them. I actually didn't mind a few which says something about their quality! The rest of the antipasto was amazingly delicious too!
Next came our appetizers. I ordered to Mozzarella and Caprese salad which was good but just like most that you get. Jared ordered Calamari and to our surprise, Marco bought us a third dish which he thought we would enjoy. It was a mushroom filled with cream cheese filling and an amazing balsamic based sauce and WOW, he was so right, it was amazing. Unfortunately at this point we forgot to take pictures of any of that but never fear, the entrees were coming and we were good with the camera for the rest of the night! We were glad of a bit of a break between appetizers and entree as we were already pretty full!
For entree I ordered the truffle and mushroom risotto and Jared couldn't decide between the steak and the ravioli, so Marco bought him both! I'd also asked Marco for a good wine to pair with my risotto and that I generally liked fairly sweet whites and he bought me the most amazing Moscato wine, a type of wine i'd never tried but was amazed by and will most definitely try again! And here are our wonderful mains.
Luckily the ravioli serving was fairly small as we both had to share that one when Jared got full!
While I was visited the most amazingly themed bathroom on the planet (seriously check it out) - Marco was making a napkin rose and boot for the table!
Since I was looking pretty Jared decided to take some pictures of me...
Me enjoying the rose...
Jared made a rather risky joke next, and that was that he loved the mushroom appetizer so much he could eat another. Never joke about eating more food in front of an Italian! Just as he said it, and before he could take it back Marco went to the kitchen and bought Jared another of the mushroom appetizer! I should point out that, minus the alcohol we ordered, which was extra, this meal was only costing us $25 per head! Pretty damn good value in my book.
We had heard the chocolate souffles were amazing at Palo so that was definitely what I wanted to order for dessert, and Jared decided that sounded good also. Of course Marco wouldn't have been Marco if he didn't insist on also bringing us some pannacotta and strawberry sorbet!
There was also a lovely birthday surprise for Jared.
Marco was wonderful throughout the entire meal. He knew we wanted to see Aladdin at the Walt Disney Theatre that night and had to be out by 8pm so made sure to keep us to a schedule. He was attentive all evening, even getting my chair when I came back from the bathroom. Our desserts were just as amazing as described, the chocolate souffle especially, and we rolled out of Palo grateful that we simply had to sit for the rest of the evening. I have honestly never been so full in my whole life, but also totally happy and content with a wonderful dining experience. And here is a photo of me and the wonderful Marco, unfortunately it was the only one we got and it turned out blurry but since it was the only one we got you'll have to put up with it!
There was also a professional ship photographer roaming around that evening who took this lovely photo of the two of us
We made it to Aladdin a little later than originally planned but still managed to find an ok seat in the mezzanine part of the theater. I've seen Aladdin A Musical Spectacular plenty of times at Disney California Adventure however I really enjoyed the version on the ship much better. The effects and staging just seemed better done and it was definitely different enough to the DCA version for me to recommend for anyone who has already seen it there to see it again on the Fantasy. My favorite part was, without a doubt, the flying carpet. While the version at DCA is good, (the carpet flies over the audience while dry ice and props float underneath it to create the illusion the actors are floating through clouds. However, the props are made small to create the illusion and in reality just look like small props being carted around a stage), the cruise version had a hydraulically controlled carpet, similar to the car used in the stage version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang if anyone has seen that, which was amazing as you couldn't tell how the carpet was moving! On top of that the cruise version had an large screen on stage that images of different locations around the world were projected onto and it really made you feel like they were flying all over the world and into the stars. The genie was, as always, hilarious and we definitely enjoyed the 'pop culture' jokes he always throws into his performance.
After the show we decided to take a few formal night photos with the professional photographers on the ship (by the way these photographers are everywhere and you will want to buy so many photos - we ended up buying a CD where we could pick 20 pictures but I know Derrick and Becky needed to get the unlimited CD in order to get all the photos they wanted!)
All in all it was a wonderful first day at sea, albeit a relaxing one, and we were so excited for what was still to come...
Continued in Next Post...
Last edited:
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 4 - Part 3 - Night-time on the Disney Fantasy
That night Jared decided to roam the decks taking photos of the ship at night. I'm sure he'd like me to preface this part of the report by saying he didn't have his tripod with him that night so the pictures are not as good as they would be if he'd had the tripod (happy Jared?), but even still I think they are pretty great. This is what his camera saw as he wandered around the main deck that night.
Love this great reflection shot - one of the main reasons he wanted to go out is that it had rained briefly and he thought it would be a nice time to take photos, with the decking still a little wet!
At this point, I was back in the room enjoying our latest towel animal...
...courtesy of the wonderful Carl and a well deserved rest!
Continued in Next Post...
That night Jared decided to roam the decks taking photos of the ship at night. I'm sure he'd like me to preface this part of the report by saying he didn't have his tripod with him that night so the pictures are not as good as they would be if he'd had the tripod (happy Jared?), but even still I think they are pretty great. This is what his camera saw as he wandered around the main deck that night.
Love this great reflection shot - one of the main reasons he wanted to go out is that it had rained briefly and he thought it would be a nice time to take photos, with the decking still a little wet!
At this point, I was back in the room enjoying our latest towel animal...
...courtesy of the wonderful Carl and a well deserved rest!
Continued in Next Post...
Last edited:
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 1 - And we ate more!
Today we enjoyed our second sea day of the trip and we actually managed to sleep in this morning (I guess we were getting used to the ships movement). At 11am we made our way back to Palo for our brunch reservation.
Jared enjoying the Meridian Deck during the day
The beautiful blue and endless waters of the Atlantic - it was so strange to look off the ship and simply see water all the way to the horizon!
And we entered and couldn't resist one more picture of that gorgeous chandelier
We met our server Marco again and told him that we were still full from the night before and to please go easy on us today (note to anyone planning to eat both dinner and brunch at Palo, don't do one after the other, even with a sleep in between, you will still be so full!). Of course he said he would and showed us to our table, a booth this time.
Then we made our way to the amazing buffet. Now of course the food choices were amazing (they had everything anyone in a breakfast or lunch mood could desire) but what made it even more amazing was that there were servers at the buffet whose job it was simply to put whatever food you chose from the buffet on your plate, and then to carry it back to your table for you. We didn't nothing! Also look how amazing the buffet was!
Here's me with my selection of food and my morning mimosa (why is it that, generally speaking, people frown on you if you drink before 5pm but it's ok to drink at brunch, or while on holidays!)
After the buffet you were able to order a meal, all of which were displayed as plastic food near the buffet. There were both breakfast and lunch choices and Jared decided to go for eggs benedict while I instead choose to go for a chicken parmigiana and we decided to share the fried mozzarella
I saw some interesting looking pink drinks floating around and asked Marco what they were and if I could get one. Turns out they were Bellini's, which I have never tried but have heard were good (it's basically a peach version of a mimosa) so I proceeded onto my second drink of the morning (I should also point out this was extremely odd for me as I don't usually drink at all, except apparent on holidays!).
And, after all that food, we still had to tackle the dessert buffet...
Here were our selections...
Once again we were sooo full and beginning to see why people talk about how they don't remember anything from their cruise except the eating! After dessert Marco did try to get us to go back for seconds at the main buffet but we managed to politely shake him off this time (I honestly don't think we could have eaten one more bite even if we'd wanted to!). We also saw Captain Marco, the ships captain, dining at Palo that morning and figured it must be the best place to eat on the ship if the captain eats there! Marco took a few lovely pictures of us before we left too (see earlier)!
The brunch had been so amazing at the end of it Jared and I both started singing the start of Almost Like Being in Love, you know "what a day this has been, what a rare mood i'm in..." - and it was only about 12pm! We once again commented that if this had been our whole holiday we'd be happy.
Continued in Next Post...
Today we enjoyed our second sea day of the trip and we actually managed to sleep in this morning (I guess we were getting used to the ships movement). At 11am we made our way back to Palo for our brunch reservation.
Jared enjoying the Meridian Deck during the day
The beautiful blue and endless waters of the Atlantic - it was so strange to look off the ship and simply see water all the way to the horizon!
And we entered and couldn't resist one more picture of that gorgeous chandelier
We met our server Marco again and told him that we were still full from the night before and to please go easy on us today (note to anyone planning to eat both dinner and brunch at Palo, don't do one after the other, even with a sleep in between, you will still be so full!). Of course he said he would and showed us to our table, a booth this time.
Then we made our way to the amazing buffet. Now of course the food choices were amazing (they had everything anyone in a breakfast or lunch mood could desire) but what made it even more amazing was that there were servers at the buffet whose job it was simply to put whatever food you chose from the buffet on your plate, and then to carry it back to your table for you. We didn't nothing! Also look how amazing the buffet was!
Here's me with my selection of food and my morning mimosa (why is it that, generally speaking, people frown on you if you drink before 5pm but it's ok to drink at brunch, or while on holidays!)
After the buffet you were able to order a meal, all of which were displayed as plastic food near the buffet. There were both breakfast and lunch choices and Jared decided to go for eggs benedict while I instead choose to go for a chicken parmigiana and we decided to share the fried mozzarella
I saw some interesting looking pink drinks floating around and asked Marco what they were and if I could get one. Turns out they were Bellini's, which I have never tried but have heard were good (it's basically a peach version of a mimosa) so I proceeded onto my second drink of the morning (I should also point out this was extremely odd for me as I don't usually drink at all, except apparent on holidays!).
And, after all that food, we still had to tackle the dessert buffet...
Here were our selections...
Once again we were sooo full and beginning to see why people talk about how they don't remember anything from their cruise except the eating! After dessert Marco did try to get us to go back for seconds at the main buffet but we managed to politely shake him off this time (I honestly don't think we could have eaten one more bite even if we'd wanted to!). We also saw Captain Marco, the ships captain, dining at Palo that morning and figured it must be the best place to eat on the ship if the captain eats there! Marco took a few lovely pictures of us before we left too (see earlier)!
The brunch had been so amazing at the end of it Jared and I both started singing the start of Almost Like Being in Love, you know "what a day this has been, what a rare mood i'm in..." - and it was only about 12pm! We once again commented that if this had been our whole holiday we'd be happy.
Continued in Next Post...
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 2 - Into the Rainforest
Next we enjoyed some time on our private veranda as we listed to 'He's A Pirate' from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie (yes it was super nerdy of us but how often can you say you listened to Pirates of the Caribbean while in the Caribbean!). I was also writing in my lovely trip report book so I could tell all of you about what we'd done that morning
After our rest we wandered down to shutters to check out the photos taken of us to date and decided we would purchase the 20 photo photo CD (it was about $250 from memory) and then we went back down to the Spa. The day before we had somehow been talked into purchasing passes to the Rainforest at Senses Spa, which was an area with a number of heated relaxation beds, hot tubs and weird showers that created different type of 'rain' to cleanse you. We thought we should use it as we paid for it so we headed down, iPads in tow, ready to read and relax and perhaps enjoy the hot tub for a bit. We were in the hot tub for about 10 minutes but had to leave as it was quiet humid and hot and not really hot tub weather. Next we relaxed on the heated beds for a while, reading some books we had on kindle on the iPads. Finally we decided to try the Rainforest showers. I have to say I was not the hugest fan of them. They were really interesting, and meant to recreate Atlantic storms, tropical rainforest showers, dewey mists and more, but most of them were really cold and though it was a hot day there was something weird about getting in a shower and being pelted with cold water! Also that part was definitely not relaxing (the cold part). Some of the showers were warm and they were nice, and some of the names made it obvious that the water would be warm (looking for the shower type button labelled humid or warm or tropical was usually a good indication) but others you were never sure of until you pressed the button! There were 4 showers in total each with out 3 or 4 different shower settings. The one thing I really did enjoy in the showers was the scent that accompanied each different shower type. It really transported you somewhere tropical or beachy or to the ocean depending on the shower type you picked.
After the Rainforest it was time for another go on the AquaDuck (since we were already in our bathers) and then we decided to walk back through Cabanas for more photos. I was determined to find the second mural with Bruce the shark and take pictures of it. Check out the fun statue we found around the elevators as we headed up to Cabanas.
And finally we discovered the second mural with good old Bruce!
Oh look another of those cheeky seagulls!
In addition to the Bruce mural we also found these amazing sand paintings, I guess you would call them, of all the different Disney castle theme parks around the world!
As Disneyland is my favourite I decided to show my love for it...
We had missed so much sleep to this point I decided I needed a nap that afternoon, so that's what we did (copious amounts of food in my stomach didn't help with the sleepiness either). On our way we found the cutest door magnet!
And that was it until dinner. I hadn't really expected to be relaxing so much on the ship (I am more of a go go go person on holidays) but was finding the relaxing part enjoyable, especially as we were still a little jet lagged and, as it turned out, I would be getting sick in a few days time!
Continued in Next Post...
Next we enjoyed some time on our private veranda as we listed to 'He's A Pirate' from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie (yes it was super nerdy of us but how often can you say you listened to Pirates of the Caribbean while in the Caribbean!). I was also writing in my lovely trip report book so I could tell all of you about what we'd done that morning
After our rest we wandered down to shutters to check out the photos taken of us to date and decided we would purchase the 20 photo photo CD (it was about $250 from memory) and then we went back down to the Spa. The day before we had somehow been talked into purchasing passes to the Rainforest at Senses Spa, which was an area with a number of heated relaxation beds, hot tubs and weird showers that created different type of 'rain' to cleanse you. We thought we should use it as we paid for it so we headed down, iPads in tow, ready to read and relax and perhaps enjoy the hot tub for a bit. We were in the hot tub for about 10 minutes but had to leave as it was quiet humid and hot and not really hot tub weather. Next we relaxed on the heated beds for a while, reading some books we had on kindle on the iPads. Finally we decided to try the Rainforest showers. I have to say I was not the hugest fan of them. They were really interesting, and meant to recreate Atlantic storms, tropical rainforest showers, dewey mists and more, but most of them were really cold and though it was a hot day there was something weird about getting in a shower and being pelted with cold water! Also that part was definitely not relaxing (the cold part). Some of the showers were warm and they were nice, and some of the names made it obvious that the water would be warm (looking for the shower type button labelled humid or warm or tropical was usually a good indication) but others you were never sure of until you pressed the button! There were 4 showers in total each with out 3 or 4 different shower settings. The one thing I really did enjoy in the showers was the scent that accompanied each different shower type. It really transported you somewhere tropical or beachy or to the ocean depending on the shower type you picked.
After the Rainforest it was time for another go on the AquaDuck (since we were already in our bathers) and then we decided to walk back through Cabanas for more photos. I was determined to find the second mural with Bruce the shark and take pictures of it. Check out the fun statue we found around the elevators as we headed up to Cabanas.
And finally we discovered the second mural with good old Bruce!
Oh look another of those cheeky seagulls!
In addition to the Bruce mural we also found these amazing sand paintings, I guess you would call them, of all the different Disney castle theme parks around the world!
As Disneyland is my favourite I decided to show my love for it...
We had missed so much sleep to this point I decided I needed a nap that afternoon, so that's what we did (copious amounts of food in my stomach didn't help with the sleepiness either). On our way we found the cutest door magnet!
And that was it until dinner. I hadn't really expected to be relaxing so much on the ship (I am more of a go go go person on holidays) but was finding the relaxing part enjoyable, especially as we were still a little jet lagged and, as it turned out, I would be getting sick in a few days time!
Continued in Next Post...
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 3 - An Enchanting Evening
Dinner tonight, as you may have guessed if you know anything about the Disney Fantasy and read that title, was at Enchanted Garden. We were excited to see all our table family again and meet the two we hadn't yet met (Shaun and Kayla - they missed the first night we missed the second).
The restaurant itself is just beautiful! It was hard to see the changes that occured to the restaurant during the night too well because of the location of our table (it was off the edge near one of the port holes) - still the restaurant was really amazingly themed. Of course we didn't get the bulk of these photos until after dinner when everyone had cleared about but I think they work better here.
Lights off for cleaning!
We had a fun time that evening with our table family. We taught Todd and Kim lots of Aussie slang and all our different words for things (like tomato sauce, which is ketchup American readers). We even had another table family photo...
And here's a few photos of Jared and I at Enchanted Garden
On our way out of the restaurant we found some enchanted art that I had heard so much about - adorable!
Our table family had sorted milled around together in the entrance hallway to the Enchanted Garden after dinner and we clearly were having too much fun together to end hanging out at that point so we wandered to the main lobby together. It was then we discovered the professional photographers were out taking family portraits of people against the classic white background and we decided that we were a family of sorts (a table family) so we should have some. I'm so glad we did as these ended up being some of my favorite professional shots of the trip! Look how silly we are!
I think we completely flummoxed the photographers who had been taking photos of actual families all evening!
After that we headed to the Walt Disney Theater for Wishes, the second main musical of the cruise. While the storyline was a little weak (3 teenagers make a wish at Snow Whites Grotto in Disneyland while on their graduation trip and end up transported into different Disney stories) I did really enjoy the staging and all the musical numbers. I also loved the way the story ended with the idea that its ok to remain a kid at heart, even when you have to grow up (I feel like I am still a kid at heart and I don't think there is anything wrong with that at all!).
The musical used a great compilation of my favorite Disney songs too, Hakuna Matata, I wanna be like you, Honor to us all, Reflections, Zero to Hero, I've got no strings on me (dance version - who knew!), I've got a dream, Kiss the Girl, Hawaiian roller coaster and When you wish upon a star. It was also great to see some Mulan and Hercules represented. The Disney movies of the mid to late 90's often get overlooked but I have always really loved them as they were the ones I grew up with. The last of their kind before animation changed to computer animation and musicals stopped being a priority for Disney (well until Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Frozen)!
After the show we decided to try our hand at Disney Trivia. We didn't know what kind of Disney Trivia it would be (I had kind of hoped theme parks) but alas it was Disney movie trivia and it was HARD! The majority of the answers were related to really obscure parts of movies or obscure movies or really old classics, which I haven't watched in a while. As Disney fanatics we thought we'd do really well until we started and we realized we were hardly able to answer any questions. We ended up getting 6.5 out of 33 and that ended up being quiet mid-range in terms of scores (it was really hard guys - don't judge us too much!).
By the time the quiz ended it was late and we were depressed so we headed off to bed excited for our first port day at St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands the next morning.
Continued in Next Post...
Dinner tonight, as you may have guessed if you know anything about the Disney Fantasy and read that title, was at Enchanted Garden. We were excited to see all our table family again and meet the two we hadn't yet met (Shaun and Kayla - they missed the first night we missed the second).
The restaurant itself is just beautiful! It was hard to see the changes that occured to the restaurant during the night too well because of the location of our table (it was off the edge near one of the port holes) - still the restaurant was really amazingly themed. Of course we didn't get the bulk of these photos until after dinner when everyone had cleared about but I think they work better here.
Lights off for cleaning!
We had a fun time that evening with our table family. We taught Todd and Kim lots of Aussie slang and all our different words for things (like tomato sauce, which is ketchup American readers). We even had another table family photo...
And here's a few photos of Jared and I at Enchanted Garden
On our way out of the restaurant we found some enchanted art that I had heard so much about - adorable!
Our table family had sorted milled around together in the entrance hallway to the Enchanted Garden after dinner and we clearly were having too much fun together to end hanging out at that point so we wandered to the main lobby together. It was then we discovered the professional photographers were out taking family portraits of people against the classic white background and we decided that we were a family of sorts (a table family) so we should have some. I'm so glad we did as these ended up being some of my favorite professional shots of the trip! Look how silly we are!
I think we completely flummoxed the photographers who had been taking photos of actual families all evening!
After that we headed to the Walt Disney Theater for Wishes, the second main musical of the cruise. While the storyline was a little weak (3 teenagers make a wish at Snow Whites Grotto in Disneyland while on their graduation trip and end up transported into different Disney stories) I did really enjoy the staging and all the musical numbers. I also loved the way the story ended with the idea that its ok to remain a kid at heart, even when you have to grow up (I feel like I am still a kid at heart and I don't think there is anything wrong with that at all!).
The musical used a great compilation of my favorite Disney songs too, Hakuna Matata, I wanna be like you, Honor to us all, Reflections, Zero to Hero, I've got no strings on me (dance version - who knew!), I've got a dream, Kiss the Girl, Hawaiian roller coaster and When you wish upon a star. It was also great to see some Mulan and Hercules represented. The Disney movies of the mid to late 90's often get overlooked but I have always really loved them as they were the ones I grew up with. The last of their kind before animation changed to computer animation and musicals stopped being a priority for Disney (well until Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Frozen)!
After the show we decided to try our hand at Disney Trivia. We didn't know what kind of Disney Trivia it would be (I had kind of hoped theme parks) but alas it was Disney movie trivia and it was HARD! The majority of the answers were related to really obscure parts of movies or obscure movies or really old classics, which I haven't watched in a while. As Disney fanatics we thought we'd do really well until we started and we realized we were hardly able to answer any questions. We ended up getting 6.5 out of 33 and that ended up being quiet mid-range in terms of scores (it was really hard guys - don't judge us too much!).
By the time the quiz ended it was late and we were depressed so we headed off to bed excited for our first port day at St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands the next morning.
Continued in Next Post...
Last edited:
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 6 - Part 1 - Awaking in the Caribbean
We had finally arrived, officially, at our first port of call in the Caribbean, St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.
Jared decided to awake with the sun to get pictures of the sun rising over the ship and the beautiful island of St Thomas.
St Thomas - we were a little worried by the cloud cover at first but as you can see it cleared in no time...
While Jared was up on the top deck getting those photos I was enjoying the view from our private veranda in my night gown (sorry people of St Thomas who had to see that!)
We met at the Walt Disney Theater at 8:15am after a quick breakfast at Cabanas for our planned St John Champagne and Snorkel Catamaran Tour. Soon we were off to the marina where we would depart from on a very dinky little bus that drove on the left (like in Australia) but still had the driver on the left (like in the US) - weird. The island was beautiful and tropical with plenty of rainforest plantation and rolling hills and houses nested in those hills, but it also looked old and broken down in places, sort of like a small rural town past its prime. This next photo is not great but we thought it was the funniest thing we saw on the island that day - very Caribbean - all that's missing is the word 'mon'.
Soon we were off on our Catamaran trip to St John, the second of three islands that are part of the US Virgin Islands.
Continued in Next Post...
We had finally arrived, officially, at our first port of call in the Caribbean, St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.
Jared decided to awake with the sun to get pictures of the sun rising over the ship and the beautiful island of St Thomas.
St Thomas - we were a little worried by the cloud cover at first but as you can see it cleared in no time...
While Jared was up on the top deck getting those photos I was enjoying the view from our private veranda in my night gown (sorry people of St Thomas who had to see that!)
We met at the Walt Disney Theater at 8:15am after a quick breakfast at Cabanas for our planned St John Champagne and Snorkel Catamaran Tour. Soon we were off to the marina where we would depart from on a very dinky little bus that drove on the left (like in Australia) but still had the driver on the left (like in the US) - weird. The island was beautiful and tropical with plenty of rainforest plantation and rolling hills and houses nested in those hills, but it also looked old and broken down in places, sort of like a small rural town past its prime. This next photo is not great but we thought it was the funniest thing we saw on the island that day - very Caribbean - all that's missing is the word 'mon'.
Soon we were off on our Catamaran trip to St John, the second of three islands that are part of the US Virgin Islands.
Continued in Next Post...
Last edited:
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 6 - Part 2 - Honeymoon Beach and Finding Pirates in the Caribbean
As we sailed onward to our destination in St John, the beautifully and aptly named Honeymoon Beach, one of the first mates aboard the ship told us a little about the US Virgin Islands. There are 3 main islands in the US Virgin Islands, St Thomas, home to around 65000 people, St John, home to about 6500 people and St Croix which is a very sparsely population island. St John has such a small population despite being the biggest island as 3/4 of it is reserved as national parkland. This was a condition set by the Rockerfeller family who owned it, when they sold it to he US Government for $1! Today, the small neighboring island of St James was for sale for $50 million dollars (in other word the US government got a bargain when it purchases St John!). There are other small islands in the US Virgin Islands, including one owned by a billionaire who stripped the top of the island and planted palm trees on it to make it look more tropical (he also has a ceramic cow he gets his staff to move around the island to make it look like it's grazing) and a pirate island called Levongo. The pirate island of Levongo was originally owned by the Danes who decided to allow pirates to use the island for drinking and other raucous activities so they would protect it if the British tried to conquer it! The island gets its name from what the pirates were to do once they were done drinking, Leave and Go!
Another thing we learnt about St Thomas related to its very strange laws. It is illegal to expose your chest in public on the island (except at the beach - and yes i'm talking about men and women) but you are allowed to drive backwards and have beer with you in the car while you do it!
Anyway here are a few more shots of the scenery we passed on our way. It was so beautiful and tropical and everything I'd imagined the Caribbean to be!
When we finally arrived at Honeymoon Beach this is what we found - beautiful isn't it! Look at the water!
True Aqua water!
We snorkeled out through the coral reef to the beach next, the snorkeling wasn't great but it was fun to see the fish. There were apparently turtles somewhere but we didn't see any. Oh I should also clarify that I can't snorkel so I 'goggled' instead! After realising the snorkeling was a bit meh we decided instead to just float in the beautiful aqua/emerald waters close to the beach and that was wonderful and so relaxing. Swimming back to the cat against the current was definitely a work out too! Back on the boat we discovered some really interest more traditional looking ships floating about.
And we were soon on our way back to St Thomas, enjoying our free rum punch and champagne while we relaxed up on the bow of the cat.
We soon spotted some pirates in the caribbean! Can you see the flag?
If you couldn't see it before here's a close up
The ride back got a little choppy when we hit the waters where the Caribbean and the Atlantic meet.
We also saw flying fish and discovered that we would not spot dolphins as they rarely enter the Caribbean waters.
We also had a lovely chat with a couple from Atlanta, Georgia who wanted to know the best places to visit in Australia and what we thought of Adelaide (the capital of South Australia). I told them the places I would visit if I was going for the first time and how they could see more and experience more if they took a road trip (Australia is a great road trip country!).
After arriving back in port Jared bought a beautiful blue diamond ring (the Caribbean is famous for it's blue diamonds). He haggled a little and managed to get something quite affordable
Isn't it pretty! After a quick lunch at a bar just near the port we headed back onto the Fantasy to discover we had gotten badly sun burnt (it turns out I took my moisturizer instead of my sunblock that day, though in my defense they look very similar as my sunblock is one for sensitive skin! Anyway we decided we would rest again until it was time for dinner.
Dinner that evening was at Royal Court again and it was really good that evening. I got a vegetable lasagna and a rocky road sundae for dessert (yum) and Jared had pasta with mushrooms and butternut squash and the sundae.
After dinner we hung out with our table family friends Todd and Kim, Derrick and Becky. It was such a lovely evening, setting up on Deck 13 and lounging in the warm balminess of the Caribbean waters. It was so great to have made friends and to be able to have an evening of just hanging out!
Continued in Next Post....
As we sailed onward to our destination in St John, the beautifully and aptly named Honeymoon Beach, one of the first mates aboard the ship told us a little about the US Virgin Islands. There are 3 main islands in the US Virgin Islands, St Thomas, home to around 65000 people, St John, home to about 6500 people and St Croix which is a very sparsely population island. St John has such a small population despite being the biggest island as 3/4 of it is reserved as national parkland. This was a condition set by the Rockerfeller family who owned it, when they sold it to he US Government for $1! Today, the small neighboring island of St James was for sale for $50 million dollars (in other word the US government got a bargain when it purchases St John!). There are other small islands in the US Virgin Islands, including one owned by a billionaire who stripped the top of the island and planted palm trees on it to make it look more tropical (he also has a ceramic cow he gets his staff to move around the island to make it look like it's grazing) and a pirate island called Levongo. The pirate island of Levongo was originally owned by the Danes who decided to allow pirates to use the island for drinking and other raucous activities so they would protect it if the British tried to conquer it! The island gets its name from what the pirates were to do once they were done drinking, Leave and Go!
Another thing we learnt about St Thomas related to its very strange laws. It is illegal to expose your chest in public on the island (except at the beach - and yes i'm talking about men and women) but you are allowed to drive backwards and have beer with you in the car while you do it!
Anyway here are a few more shots of the scenery we passed on our way. It was so beautiful and tropical and everything I'd imagined the Caribbean to be!
When we finally arrived at Honeymoon Beach this is what we found - beautiful isn't it! Look at the water!
True Aqua water!
We snorkeled out through the coral reef to the beach next, the snorkeling wasn't great but it was fun to see the fish. There were apparently turtles somewhere but we didn't see any. Oh I should also clarify that I can't snorkel so I 'goggled' instead! After realising the snorkeling was a bit meh we decided instead to just float in the beautiful aqua/emerald waters close to the beach and that was wonderful and so relaxing. Swimming back to the cat against the current was definitely a work out too! Back on the boat we discovered some really interest more traditional looking ships floating about.
And we were soon on our way back to St Thomas, enjoying our free rum punch and champagne while we relaxed up on the bow of the cat.
We soon spotted some pirates in the caribbean! Can you see the flag?
If you couldn't see it before here's a close up
The ride back got a little choppy when we hit the waters where the Caribbean and the Atlantic meet.
We also saw flying fish and discovered that we would not spot dolphins as they rarely enter the Caribbean waters.
We also had a lovely chat with a couple from Atlanta, Georgia who wanted to know the best places to visit in Australia and what we thought of Adelaide (the capital of South Australia). I told them the places I would visit if I was going for the first time and how they could see more and experience more if they took a road trip (Australia is a great road trip country!).
After arriving back in port Jared bought a beautiful blue diamond ring (the Caribbean is famous for it's blue diamonds). He haggled a little and managed to get something quite affordable
Isn't it pretty! After a quick lunch at a bar just near the port we headed back onto the Fantasy to discover we had gotten badly sun burnt (it turns out I took my moisturizer instead of my sunblock that day, though in my defense they look very similar as my sunblock is one for sensitive skin! Anyway we decided we would rest again until it was time for dinner.
Dinner that evening was at Royal Court again and it was really good that evening. I got a vegetable lasagna and a rocky road sundae for dessert (yum) and Jared had pasta with mushrooms and butternut squash and the sundae.
After dinner we hung out with our table family friends Todd and Kim, Derrick and Becky. It was such a lovely evening, setting up on Deck 13 and lounging in the warm balminess of the Caribbean waters. It was so great to have made friends and to be able to have an evening of just hanging out!
Continued in Next Post....
Last edited:
LivingforDisney
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2014
Sounds and looks like it was a fantastic day
sager1969
Mickey Momma
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2012
Palo!!!!!! I love the bresaola and the risotto and the steak and the soufflé and..... As you can tell I can go on and on about their food. Did you try the chilled strawberry soup at the brunch? It is one of my favorite things. Even without the tripod, the pictures are quite beautiful. We go on the Eastern Carribbean cruise in April. We are going to St. Maarten instead of St. John. It looks amazing though. Can't wait for more!
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
The food was definitely amazing! No I didn't try the chilled strawberry soup - I don't remember seeing it. That being said I was so full at brunch still that I wasn't really looking too closely at everything we could eat!
Jared will be happy to here that about the pictures
We have to practice getting good without a tripod for our next trip as you can't have them at Tokyo Disney! We really enjoyed the Eastern Caribbean, but one thing I'd recommend is to book some kind of activity in each port because the area around the where the ships docked at both the islands we visited was not that interesting. I don't know about St Maarten though of course I hope you enjoy your trip!
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 7 - Part 1 - Adventure on an ATV
Let me start this post by saying that I am about to share information that may be a little too much information for people who don't care to hear about others medical issues. If that's you just skip the first two paragraphs! Our 4th cruise day did not start too well for me as I had been up most of the night with a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). I was feeling very tired and sick and actually didn't know if I could go out into San Juan to do our ATV Adventure that we had booked for that day. In the end I decided to just suck it up and do it because who knew if i'd ever get a chance to experience the island again.
The 45 minute bus ride to Caribali, the ranch in the El Yunque Rainforest area where the ATV Adventure took place, was painfully long and I have never needed to go so much in my entire life. The bus also had the WORST suspension and the roads were SO bumpy so I am not sure how I ignored the call of nature for the whole ride. However, there was a plus side to holding it in that, when I got to Caribali, because I'd held it so long, I was able to go fairly well and be ok for most of the ATV Adventure (I did have to go in the bush later on when we stopped at a river but that was ok!)...
Caribali is a horse ranch located, as I mentioned before, in the El Yunque Rainforest area. When we arrived and checked in I realized that in all the confusion and tiredness of the morning I'd forgot my drivers licences! So I wouldn't be driving an ATV, but I was rather nervous about driving anyway so I was happy to simply go on the back of one as Jared's passenger and just enjoy the ride and the view. The area in which we did the ATV Adventure was so beautiful, mountainous and tropical, where rainforest met hillside bush scrub and the views into the valley were absolutely stunning. We don't have too many pictures of the rainforest areas we rode through, as we didn't really stop in them but it was so dense and cool in those parts of the ride I think they may have been my favourite (it was a VERY hot day!). And here are some pictures of our adventure!
As you can tell we really wanted lots of pictures of us on the ATV - evidence you know!
One of our wonderful guides photo bombing my photo!
The views were so stunning!
As was the foliage!
And yes we had to wear dorky hair nets under our helmets!
Continued in Next Post...
Let me start this post by saying that I am about to share information that may be a little too much information for people who don't care to hear about others medical issues. If that's you just skip the first two paragraphs! Our 4th cruise day did not start too well for me as I had been up most of the night with a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). I was feeling very tired and sick and actually didn't know if I could go out into San Juan to do our ATV Adventure that we had booked for that day. In the end I decided to just suck it up and do it because who knew if i'd ever get a chance to experience the island again.
The 45 minute bus ride to Caribali, the ranch in the El Yunque Rainforest area where the ATV Adventure took place, was painfully long and I have never needed to go so much in my entire life. The bus also had the WORST suspension and the roads were SO bumpy so I am not sure how I ignored the call of nature for the whole ride. However, there was a plus side to holding it in that, when I got to Caribali, because I'd held it so long, I was able to go fairly well and be ok for most of the ATV Adventure (I did have to go in the bush later on when we stopped at a river but that was ok!)...
Caribali is a horse ranch located, as I mentioned before, in the El Yunque Rainforest area. When we arrived and checked in I realized that in all the confusion and tiredness of the morning I'd forgot my drivers licences! So I wouldn't be driving an ATV, but I was rather nervous about driving anyway so I was happy to simply go on the back of one as Jared's passenger and just enjoy the ride and the view. The area in which we did the ATV Adventure was so beautiful, mountainous and tropical, where rainforest met hillside bush scrub and the views into the valley were absolutely stunning. We don't have too many pictures of the rainforest areas we rode through, as we didn't really stop in them but it was so dense and cool in those parts of the ride I think they may have been my favourite (it was a VERY hot day!). And here are some pictures of our adventure!
As you can tell we really wanted lots of pictures of us on the ATV - evidence you know!
One of our wonderful guides photo bombing my photo!
The views were so stunning!
As was the foliage!
And yes we had to wear dorky hair nets under our helmets!
Continued in Next Post...
Last edited:
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