French Quarter to the Fantasy...7 Nights in the Eastern Caribbean, April 2019! Completed June 7, 2020!

buzzrelly

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 20, 2005
Hello friends!

Welcome!

Or, if you're joining me here from the land portion of this TR, Welcome Back!

Thank you for joining me here as I re-live our amazing,
7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy this past April!

If you're just joining me here, this was part of an 11-night trip that included 4 nights
at Port Orleans French Quarter April 2-April 6, 2019,
followed by this cruise April 6-April 13, 2019.

To read about the beginning of our trip, click here:

FRENCH QUARTER TO THE FANTASY WITH AN EPIC CHERRY ON TOP!

If reading about WDW trips isn't your idea of fun, no worries!
We're going to start here on embarkation morning :goodvibes

And now, just for a bit of background so you know what kind of crazy person
...errr...Disney Fan you're dealing with.
I'm Kelly, mother of two teens...we'll get to them in a little bit...wife of Mike,
who chose not to come with us on this trip.
He's not quite the "Disney Person" that I am, although over the years, he has come to enjoy the parks a bit,
especially on our adult-only trips. He does love the fall in WDW and loves the Food & Wine festival at EPCOT,
and he also showed some interest in the Flower & Garden festival
so we'll be doing that together for (his) first time in March.

Back to me...I have been a NICU nurse for almost 18 years and work a lot of extra 12-hour shifts
to help pay for our trips.


Also on this cruise was my mom who I usually just call Grammy in these trip reports...
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She had never been on a vacation, or even on a plane, until 2010 when she came along with us to WDW.
She's been hooked ever since and has 8 trips to WDW and 4 cruises under her belt now.

My teens, Nicholas (18 now) and Allie (16 now)...
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For the most part they get along, although if you read the first part of this report,
you already know that this isn't always the case and they can sometimes be seen
fighting over a free Ziploc bag :sad2:


This cruise on the Fantasy completed my "Grand Slam," and was a dream come true
for both cruising on the Fantasy,
and cruising to the Eastern Caribbean which had been on my bucket list for years.


Some highlights from my DCL history...

My first cruise was in June 2012.
Mike and I got married on the Magic out of NYC on an 8-night sailing to Port Canaveral and the Bahamas.
This was just perfect for us since Mike doesn't fly and also because we wanted to bring along our kids ,
as well as my mom and my sweet niece who passed away 2 1/2 years later from complications from lupus.
So, for so many reasons, the Magic will always hold a special place in my heart :lovestruc :littleangel:

Here are some pics from that cruise...

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Our actual wedding ceremony took place on embarkation day before we left port.
The kids had already been swimming and showed up in their swim suits and it was just perfect :love:

When they used to make napkin hats at the character breakfast in the MDR...
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Do they still do that? We got a kick out of it at the time :-)

And just one more from that trip...the wedding ceremony where they weren't in their swim suits...
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Our next cruise was in April 2016 which was a 4-night on the Dream to the Bahamas.
This time is was just myself, my mom and my two kids.
Since the kids were a little older , they had a little more freedom and ended up LOVING
both the EDGE and the VIBE.
They made some really good friends in there that they still keep in touch with to this day.

This is terrible, but I don't even have a picture of the four of us together on that cruise
because Nicholas (my DS) was NEVER around.
Here's me, my mom, and my DD (Allie) on the Dream...
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Our third cruise was in April 2018 and was actually supposed to be 3-nights at Universal Orlando,
but about a month before we had a last minute change of plans
and ended up switching to a 3-night cruise on the Wonder.
We loved the Wonder, but 3-nights was WAY too short for a cruise (in my opinion),
although if it's all I could do, I would still do it.
We actually had the best servers on that cruise and we loved Tiana's Place.
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And then we come to this cruise on the Fantasy.
I had been dreaming of taking this cruise for so long.
Also, I knew that this would be Nicholas' last time in VIBE
and this would also likely be our last April vacation together
since he graduated high school in June.
I knew that if we were ever going to do this together, now would be the time.
So while we were on the Wonder in 2018, we booked this cruise
and were able to chip away at the payments for a year.

I'll just cut to the chase and say this was our favorite cruise, so far.
I think it was partly because we had 7 nights to relax,
combined with being in the Caribbean as opposed to the Bahamas.
It was just perfect.
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I do have about 10 million more photos from this trip and I can't wait to share them here!

So :welcome: and feel free to read along and comment
since that always makes writing these reports more fun!


I'll be back soon with embarkation morning!


 

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And now, just for a bit of background so you know what kind of crazy person
...errr...Disney Fan you're dealing with.
:lmao:

You forgot your love of "baobab" trees.
And because that's not enough, I have recently become a Travel Planner
::yes::
She had never been on a vacation, or even on a plane, until 2010
What? Really!
For the most part they get along, although if you read the first part of this report,
you already know that this isn't always the case and they can sometimes be seen
fighting over a free Ziploc bag :sad2:
:rolleyes:
Mike and I got married on the Magic
I did not know this!! How cool is that?!?!?!?
I'll just cut to the chase and say this was our favorite cruise, so far.
Good to hear!
Can't wait to hear all about it! :)
 


I'm in! I took a Disney cruise way back in the '80's before Disney had their own ships - I'd love to do it again! I'd also love to cruise the Eastern Caribbean so I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

I love the background on your prior Disney Cruise experiences. How neat to get married on the cruise - I didn't know they did that! (But really, should I be surprised? :laughing: )

Your favorite cruise so far? Well, I can't wait to hear about everything!
 
Got my sea sickness patch and I'm ready to embark :D
 


I'm in! I took a Disney cruise way back in the '80's before Disney had their own ships - I'd love to do it again! I'd also love to cruise the Eastern Caribbean so I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

The Big Red Boat? That's kind of cool that you were on that!


How neat to get married on the cruise - I didn't know they did that! (But really, should I be surprised? :laughing: )

They do everything...you just have to be willing to pay for it! :rotfl:


Got my sea sickness patch and I'm ready to embark :D

Welcome Aboard!


I'm here! Looking forward to hearing about your cruise!

Welcome! Thanks for reading!


Following! Can't wait to read about it!

Welcome! :goodvibes
 
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Following along! Wow, what an absolutely GORGEOUS picture!!! :goodvibes
 
The Big Red Boat? That's kind of cool that you were on that!

I'd have to look at the pictures at my parents' house to confirm... but yes, I believe it was red! It was a great experience and I know my six-year-old self had a great time in the kids' club. Similar to your kids, I never wanted to leave!
 
I knew you had gotten married on DCL, but don't think I'd seen pics. LOVE the one with your kids in their bathing suits--what a terrific memory! The one of you all dressed up is pretty special, too. Can't wait to hear all about this trip!
 
Joining in! We are taking our first DCL cruise in Nov 2020 and it's a 7 day eastern out of PC so I look forward to reading about your experience!
 
Following along! Wow, what an absolutely GORGEOUS picture!!! :goodvibes

Thanks, Tracy! So glad you're here!

Popping over from the land portion. Looking forward to reading more

Welcome, and thanks for popping!


I'd have to look at the pictures at my parents' house to confirm... but yes, I believe it was red!

That's awesome! I'd love to see pictures!

LOVE the one with your kids in their bathing suits--what a terrific memory!

Thanks, Jackie! It's so funny that it truly is one of my favorite memories now :lovestruc


Joining in! We are taking our first DCL cruise in Nov 2020 and it's a 7 day eastern out of PC so I look forward to reading about your experience!

Welcome!! You're going to love it!
 
Joining in!
What a great wedding. I didn't even realize you could get married on the ship, but now that I think of it, I did know that ship captains can perform weddings, so it makes perfect sense.
Nice seeing your pictures of cruises past. I have never done a cruise and maybe never will. DW feels the same about boats and being on the water as your Mike does about planes. I keep thinking maybe one day I could convince her to do one.
 
Joining in!

:welcome:


What a great wedding. I didn't even realize you could get married on the ship, but now that I think of it, I did know that ship captains can perform weddings, so it makes perfect sense.

Thank you! Oddly enough, the Chaplain who performed our ceremony was Captain Arnold, from New York City. DCL set it up, but he literally came onto the ship right after us, performed the ceremony, and then left.

At our "fake" ceremony a couple days later, one of the ship's officers performed the ceremony right on deck...
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Nice seeing your pictures of cruises past. I have never done a cruise and maybe never will. DW feels the same about boats and being on the water as your Mike does about planes. I keep thinking maybe one day I could convince her to do one.

That's too bad, but you work with what you have, right?! I'm just happy Mike and I found a compromise, even if it does take mean that he has to take extra vacation days.

At least you can go to Disneyland or Aulani or just fly to a Caribbean Island if you wanted to. With Mike having to take a train everywhere, we are kind of limited.
 
APRIL 6, 2019
YOUR VOYAGE BEGINS TODAY!


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It's so fun to finally see this after almost 365 days of counting down!

We had FL Tours scheduled to pick us up around 10 am, so we just got some coffee and finished packing up.

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So long, big purple locker!
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Our plan was to grab some beignets because we had been at POFQ for 4-nights
and had yet to try them.
I think there's some sort of law against that and we needed to rectify the situation
so as not to be thrown in Disney Jail.

Of course, by the time we got back over there, the line was kind of crazy long
so we ended up getting them to go and sat out front to eat them while waiting for our van to come.

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They were good, but got a little steamy and wet in the bag,
so I'm sure they are much better when you just eat them there.

Our van arrived right on time and we were on our way!
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Nicholas sat up front with the driver which I was grateful for. The last time I sat up front with a driver (from a different company), he didn't shut up the whole drive and actually talked so much that he forgot we wanted to stop at the grocery store and had to circle back. The whole thing was so annoying. I figured Nicholas would probably sit there with his headphones on and tune him out if that was the case this time :rotfl:
which, thankfully, it wasn't!

After a quick stop for a couple bottles of wine, we had a stress free ride to Port Canaveral
and arrived around 11:30 am to see this gorgeous ship just waiting for us :love: 🚢⚓

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I forgot what Boarding Number we got, but we started boarding at 11:55...
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And were walking on the ship at 12:06...

On our first couple of cruises, we were always a little confused about what to say when they asked our last name, because we all have different last names.
Now we just make something up, even though it sounds a little goofy.

Once on the ship, where did we head first??

If you've been on DCL, where do you head first?







 
APRIL 6, 2019
CABANAS


We headed to where we always head to on any DCL ship, Cabanas!
I didn't bother taking buffet pictures this day, but I hit the salad bar and the shrimp bar...
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Allie got her first of many chicken nugget & french fries meals...
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And I have no idea what Nicholas got (besides coffee)
because he must've finished before I even came back to the table.
As for Grammy...she takes three times as long as anyone at a buffet so I don't have pictures of her food either. I know that by the time she came back, we were all done and getting antsy to get up and go.
To kill time, I ended up going back up to check out the desserts...
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And getting a cute little piece of carrot cake...
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By the time Grammy was finally done, the kids had long deserted us to go check out VIBE,
so she and I went and did a little exploring on our own.

We walked through Sweet On You which was adorable,
but we ultimately never ended up buying anything from here all week
since there was always so much other food around.

My mom and I walked around a little bit and then sat on deck to relax and soak in the sun...
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Around 1:45, we headed down to deck 9 to check out our stateroom.

That's up next!
 

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