My 2nd tale... Fantasy Rd 2, TR Rd 2: NO sea sickness! [Apr '16-East Car.] (Upd Apr19: COMPLETED)

[franandaj]

The Last night already! It's been fun following along!

 

[palenskec]

Is the "See you real soon" menu different depending on what restaurant you are in? We were in AP for our last night and def. didn't have those delicious things! Especially those desserts!!!

 

[bcwife76]

Looks like the last night is a good one...can't believe it's the end now

 

[jesterrific]

Is the "See you real soon" menu different depending on what restaurant you are in? We were in AP for our last night and def. didn't have those delicious things! Especially those desserts!!!

I asked Glendon and he said it's the same, but the items might vary depending on the cruise?? I'm actually not too sure, sorry haha

 

[jesterrific]

The Last night already! It's been fun following along!

Thanks for following along this whole time!

 

[jesterrific]

Looks like the last night is a good one...can't believe it's the end now

I can't believe it either! I especially can't believe this was a YEAR ago now!!! Thanks for following along for a while year haha

 

[jesterrific]

For those who were interested, I have started my Trip Report on my trip to Asia! Here is the link in case you wanted to follow along on this adventure~

 

[TestingH2O]

For those who were interested, I have started my Trip Report on my trip to Asia! Here is the link in case you wanted to follow along on this adventure~

Oooh! Yes I want to read this for sure.

 

[bcwife76]

Yes!! Going to head over to your new report now!

 

[jesterrific]

Cruise Day 7 [part 4]: Last night… Farewell Show, Characters! Shopping​

It’s always a sad time when it has finally come and it’s your last night. Nothing makes it feel more final than to go down to Guest Services to pay off our charges… We chose to go down to Guest Services mostly because mom had brought a lot of American money, and we figured we might as well use a lot of that to pay off our charges and then put the rest onto our credit cards. Loads of other people wanted to do the same thing, and we ended up having to wait a little bit longer than we were expecting.

So of course.. while we’re waiting.. we played some more with SnapChat’s face swap…

(Okay this is actually very creepy looking)​

We finished just in time to catch the Farewell Show in the main atrium! We texted Michelle to come down, but she wasn’t feeling the greatest still and just wanted to sleep.

Cruise Director Darren! (Also I love that chandelier so I needed it in my photo)

And here’s Pluto!

Mom and I got super lucky, right after the show Daisy came straight to where we were standing!

Then when we started to head to the shops, we ran into Chip and Dale!

Michelle was really sad that she missed out on Chip and Dale. She’s not huge on characters but when she found out we got photos with Chip and Dale, she was so disappointed she missed out!

I’m not a pin collector, but I still like to see if there are any I haven’t seen yet. And since we weren’t in a park, I had a feeling there would be special cruise line ones!!

Here are some of the cute ones I saw:

Soooo many!

On our way out of the shops, we ran into Goofy!

By now, the atrium was slowly starting to empty out, so mom and I thought we should get our photo with the lovely Minnie Mouse in front of the staircase

We then decided to wander the ship a bit… mostly to head towards the Europa area because we read that there was a late night buffet haha. We really didn’t NEED to eat more food… but we were curious as to what kind of food they were offering! Mmmmm

After just a small plate between Mom, Glendon, and I, mom decided she wanted to head back to the room. Glendon and I wanted to walk the ship once more, get in our last late night shots of the ship. Maybe there were things we missed or didn’t get a chance to see.

Can’t get over how gorgeous the ship looks at night

Look what’s playing on Funnel Vision!

Sorry the screen is blown out, but I like the funnel and lit up AquaDuck next to the screen

Photos continued!

 

[jesterrific]

Cruise Day 7 [part 5]: Last night on board, last photos around the ship (continued)​

The Cabanas sign

I had my Itty Bitty Rey with me… so we went and took photos with her in them around the ship, haha

This one made us laugh really hard

In front of the tiled mural

Back on deck

Tucked into Minnie

Me on the stairwell!

These doors. THESE DOORS! We don’t want to go through them tomorrow morning

The cute map behind the Guest Service desk showing the foreign parks.

No Shanghai castle yet!​

I forgot to take a photo of the map on the North American side which also shows where all the Disney ships are currently

Empty Atrium

Elevators

Waiting for the elevator

Eeee! Here in the carpet are the ships in the ocean on the map haha

Finally… we got back to our room. (We bought for Michelle the Disney Cruise Line beer mug earlier, and mom brought it back with her when we went to wander some more.) We come back to the room, and looks like Michelle got her mug, but didn’t want to get up to put it away.

We found her like this

Hahaha, we laughed so hard.​

Michelle eventually woke up to our laughing and when she realized what we were laughing about, she laughed along as well. At this time, Glendon and Michelle realized they never got a chance to order a Mickey bar off of the room service menu… this was one of the things that prior to the cruise, they were SUPER excited to do haha. SO last night, they decided they just had to do it. Even though neither of their stomachs were really up to having an ice cream bar.

The arrival of this Mickey bar signalled the end of our night. And alas, this our sad realization that it was just one sleep away from home time.





Up Next… our last morning.

 

[krrrristen]

Cute pics of little Rey And your nighttime photos of the ship are beautiful! Looks like a lovely time.

 

[TestingH2O]

We found her like this

That is so funny! Does she know you put this online?

 

[bcwife76]

Wow, look how empty the ship looked on that last night! Guess everyone was in their cabin crying like we were Love that Rey got some good photos in

Oh my gosh......Michelle falling asleep clutching that mug......holy heck that was funny!!! What in the world?!

Woohoo, one last mickey bar for the road (or the ocean or the sky or what have you )

 

[jesterrific]

That is so funny! Does she know you put this online?

Ahahaha this isn't the first time it's been posted haha

 

[jesterrific]

Cruise Disembarkation Day: Our last walk throughs on the ship. Final Goodbyes!​

Alas. We have finally come to that sad sad time. Our last moments on this glorious trip. That moment when you are back at Port Canaveral. And your luggage was taken away the night before,

View from our verandah…

We did our last deck walk throughs before heading down to have breakfast. Nice thing about late seating for dinner means that you don’t have the super early 6am breakfast seating for this day haha. Your breakfast is at the same restaurant as last night’s dinner. If you didn’t want to eat at the designated time, you can always go up to Cabanas and have breakfast buffet. Luckily, our time was around 8am so we were fine with eating in Royal Court

Deck photos…

Hello Donald’s butt

View of Quiet Cove Pool (closed). NO people around though

(Looking to be a sad day, weather wise too)​

A look over the edge… everyone’s luggages…

Okay breakfast time!

Our view from our table

Small breakfast

Breakfast was rather uneventful. Truthfully, we were all pretty tired and even though it was our last day of vacation and we were sad to go, we were also getting pretty excited to head home. We did our VERY last walk by the Walt Disney Theatre wall on our way out.

So of course… here is Michelle’s face swap with Walt

And then mom’s nice photo

Leaving the ship was seamless. Finding our luggage was just as seamless. Customs was very simple. No troubles at all for us. SO then we headed over to catch a shuttle to the car rental place.

Tons of people heading to car rentals!

Mom insisted on taking a photo of the Cruise Line bus, even though we weren’t taking it.

Goodbye Fantasy! It was so much fun

We chose to rent a car for the day, because our flight out was later on in the evening. Which meant we had a good half day to do whatever we wanted. Originally, we were looking into going to Kennedy Space Center for the day, but turns out everything we wanted to do was going to be an up charge. Plus even just the admission, with our dollar conversion, it kind of ended up being a lot more expensive than we were willing to spend for a half day. Then we thought we could probably go to the outlet mall to shop around… but the weather turned a little bit ugly. Started to rain and it was soooo windy! So… we just decided to head to The Florida Mall, since it was on the way to the airport. (Truthfully, Glendon and I wanted to do a quick couple of hours at Hollywood Studios since we still had our annual passes… but that didn’t seem fair to my family so we didn’t do that haha)

We requested a larger vehicle so that we would be comfortable and fit ALL our luggage. We got a giant Suburban HAHA. This guy is HUGE!

And finally, we are on our way and officially LEAVING Cape Canaveral. Here are our very last photos looking back at the Disney Fantasy…

It was kind of depressing! And the sky just made it look so much more dreary

Then in the background I spotted a nuclear power plant. We don’t have these in our parts where we live, so I’ve never seen any before.

(I took a photo because I found it amusing that it basically looks exactly like in The Simpsons…)​

The drive to the mall was pretty simple. Glendon had fun driving the big Suburban. Except we made a bit of a boo-boo… We didn’t save any change so…. When we came up to the Toll booth we had a bit of a problem!

We tried to throw in some Canadian quarters because technically we had just enough if we counted our Canadian coins.. Just an FIY: Canadian quarters don’t work hahahahaha. In the end, Glendon got out of the car and approached the car behind us for help and they were kind enough to share some of their coin with us! (I’m sure we probably could have just driven through and gotten charged onto our card later… but we weren’t too sure exactly what the rules are regarding tolls!)


Funny story. Turns out we missed a turn and ended up at the airport hahahaha. Glendon and I had a small laugh to ourselves (everyone else was fast asleep in the back) and basically said out loud “Not just yet, airport! We will be back later!” And finally when we got to the mall, Michelle told us she dreamt we drove straight to the airport instead of going to the mall. Haha, oh Michelle… that wasn’t a dream it actually happened.


Nice thing about The Florida Mall is that they have free wifi that you can access, so we were okay separating. Glendon LOVES visiting stores that we don’t carry in Canada, and I love visiting the department stores for some reason. Michelle tagged along because she wanted to look at shoes, while mom and dad hung out in the food court.

Michelle eating Taco Bell

And then… our very last photo… We walked past this not-yet-opened candy bar called Yuyu

We actually had no idea if it was human candy or like, dog treats or something since the logo is a dog. But we loved it because our dog at home’s name is Lulu but a lot of times we call her Yuyu. This just kind of seemed like a sign that it was time for us to go home.


So that concludes my very lovely trip on the Disney Fantasy.



Up Next… Conclusion!

 

[jesterrific]

Fantasy Round 2: Conclusion!​

It ended up being a fantastic trip. Growing up, my parents worked really hard and we got to do quite a few memorable trips. I’m really glad I got a chance to do a big trip with my parents as an adult, and I’m extra glad that they wanted to experience Disney since it was a thing Glendon and I love so much. Then, unfortunately, something bad happened before our trip that mom and dad nearly cancelled. Just under two months before we were scheduled to leave, my grandmother got very very ill, and mom and dad were spending all their time taking care of her, seeing different doctors and visiting the hospital. Eventually, though, things turned and we had to put grandma into palliative care in the hospital when all her organs started failing. It all happened so quickly that my parents didn’t even get a chance into looking into cancelling the trip before grandma passed. In our culture, it’s taboo to go and do something celebratory when there’s a passing in the family so soon. But since she passed at about a month and a half before our trip, my mom decided that grandma would’ve wanted her to go and enjoy herself. My aunt insisted my mom go and enjoy herself, since grandma’s passing hit mom so hard. Which made this trip so much more special. It was fantastic to see my mom enjoy herself.


So here are some of my favourites from this trip!

• To this day my dad still talks about Test Track to people. He loved it so much haha.
• ALL OUR EATING AT CABANAS! And to this day, mom still talks about her love of Cabanas!
• Visiting the Baths at Virgin Gorda at the port of Tortola and doing the caves walk to Devil’s Bay. It was so reminiscent to me of our outdoor adventures when we were younger with mom and dad. Plus it’s beautiful!
• Coki Beach at St Thomas!!! Though it was a smaller beach, it was easily one of the most beautiful beach experiences I’ve encountered! The water was soooo incredibly clear and the sand is powder soft
• Sandbar fun times at Castaway Cay!
• Watching the sunsets almost every day

Some things I ended up being sad about…

• The biggest regret ever from this trip…. Yes, I had a huge regret. And that was that I didn’t go snorkelling at Castaway Cay. Later when we got home a few people in our Facebook group for the cruise said that they spotted a sea turtle in the snorkelling area!!!!! THIS IS LITERALLY A DREAM OF MINE TO SWIM ALONGSIDE A TURTLE IN THE OCEAN. I nearly cried when I found out. But I guess in the end… it’s not guaranteed that even if I went snorkelling that I would’ve run into the fella. But still, I didn’t even have the chance when I chose to hang out with my family instead. But that’s okay in the end I had a fantastic day at Castaway Cay. But I will always remember that I didn’t get to swim with the turtle that for some reason made its way into the snorkelling area…
• I didn’t get to ride the AquaDuck as much as I would have wanted!!! I really do love the AquaDuck and if it were up to me, I would ride that nonstop haha. But many times the line up was really long. Also I wish I had a chest mount for my GoPro because I love watching the ride through later on. Also… Glendon never ended up riding with me! He wasn’t feeling well the times my family and I went… and he ended up riding alone when he stayed on ship during our day at St Thomas! Rude. (I’m just kidding. Kind of)
• I slept in a lot more than I wanted. In all honesty I wanted to catch all the sunrises with my mom haha.
• I wish that I bought the rainforest pass for the spa. I chose not to buy it in advance, and our ship was rather busy and they weren’t selling day-to-day passes on board. I really wanted to experience this as many people rave about it!
• Michelle and Glendon’s stomachs weren’t liking the movements of the ship. Felt really bad for Michelle that she couldn’t enjoy food as much as mom and I haha.
• Dad caught a cough at some point that hindered his full enjoyment.

Overall, this vacation was the perfect balance of relaxation AND fun. Like the last time we were on the Fantasy, Glendon and I decided NOT to book a placeholder. We honestly didn’t think we would have it in our budget to be able to do another cruise within the two years, since shortly after this trip we had our new home to move into, and our big Asia trip. (Joke’s on us, haha. We’re booking our next cruise for January 2018!)





Thanks everyone for following along as I relived this lovely trip! Hope you all enjoyed, and thank you for all the patience with how long it took me to finish it up!

UNTIL MY NEXT ONE!!! ~​

 

[bcwife76]

Awww last days are always sad

Glad you all had such a wonderful family vacation!!

I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother, but I'm glad that everyone was still able to enjoy themselves, your mom especially

Dang it - ALWAYS book that placeholder, lol!! It's refundable ok well I'll catch up with you on your Asia trip report now

 

[rndmr2]

Sad to see the trip come to an end, i really enjoyed reading all about it, definitely seemed like you all had a great time.

Sorry for the loss of your Grandmother, I understand the feeling of not wanting to travel after such a sad event but also wanting to at the same time. Sometimes its good to get out of town and try to get your mind off of things. We lost my grandmother in 1995, we had a WDW trip planned for months beforehand and while my grandmom was still awake and talking (it was a brainstem stroke) she was adamant that my mom would still go on the trip, anytime my mom mentioned cancelling, she would say no you are not cancelling, you are going on that trip. Well she passed away a couple days before we were due to leave and my mom did postpone it a few days but we did end up going. It overall wasn't the most fun trip we went on but we had my little niece with us (4 years old) so it was fun to see it through her eyes. By that time my mom really was ready to get out of town anyway.

I have been following along on your Asia trip so I'm looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip there.

 

[Kari0180]

Sad to see your report come to an end, but loved reading all about it!