Trip Report - Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean 3/26-4/2 2016

[DIS_Ag]

We are doing the Patouche Charter in 3 weeks with a 5 and 3 year old, so I can't wait to hear about your experience.

 

[karenc15]

Tuesday, March 29 - Tortola

This was going to be an exciting, but very long (as Tiago cautioned) day. Not only did we have a long excursion scheduled, it was also Pirate Night and we had Remy reservations at 6:00PM. We had our wake-up call, but I woke up around around 5:30. I guess I was too excited. I sat in a porthold and looked out at Tortola. It was beautiful and definitely looked less developed than other ports we've sailed into. Everyone was pretty much up by 6:30 and we went to Cabanas at opening at 7:00 with our bathing suits on and our day packs ready to go with sunscreen, towels and a life vest we had brought along for Nicholas.

As soon as I booked this cruise, I knew that we wanted to visit Virgin Gorda. The Port Adventure was for ages 5+, so I needed to figure out another way to get there. Our self-managed excursion to Atlantis on the last cruise gave me the confidence to look for something outside of DCL. Many people on this board have had great experiences with Patouche, so I thought that was a good way to go. I originally looked for people from my cruise meet to book a charter, but because there wasn't that much interest, I ended up just getting spots for the four of us. I emailed a few times with Captain Joe but my deposit didn't go through. I finally called him in January to confirm and to give my credit card number. Because I paid offline, he didn't end up having my contact information. When I called a week before, he confirmed everything and gave me instructions for meeting up with the boat. He said that he had about 80 people coming off the Fantasy for today and so he had to find extra boat captains to help out. We needed to get off the ship, find the person with a "Tortola Cruise Excursions" sign, and get on Capt. Kinky's boat. (He apologized for the nickname )

I think all ashore time was around 7:30, but we took our time and got off around 8:10 or so. We quickly found the sign and person told us to wait on the dock for Captain Kinky to come. The captain helped us onto the boat and told us the day's schedule. Everyone was from the Fantasy so that made the schedule easier. We were going to go to one snorkeling stop with some caves, then have lunch at Norman Island, then go near Cooper Island for some more snorkeling before we head to the Baths.

Capt. Kinky wasn't incredibly talkative and some of the people toward the front of the boat did have a bit of a conversation with him, but there wasn't a lot of explaining or guiding on his part. We stopped at our first snorkeling spot and after going back and forth a few times, Isabella decided that she would get into the water. She and I went around a bit, but she was very nervous. Nicholas took one dip into the water and decided it wasn't for him. He chose to sit on the side of the boat and kick water around instead. Alex and I then switched places and he mastered a technique with Isabella. She would rather use her swim goggles to look down. Alex would push her head into the water and she would lift her arm when she was ready to put her head up. We all saw a few fish, but nothing terribly spectacular.

After everyone came onto the boat, we headed to Norman Island. The captain said that the restaurant opens at 11, so we could hang out out on the beach and he would save us some seats. The kids were delighted to be able to play on the beach. One of the handy FEs that we had received so far was mini sand buckets, rakes and shovels. The kids had a great time walking and playing on the sand. As you look down through the clear water, you could see lots of fish right there. We saw some families from our group sitting down, but figured the captain would come get us when it was time to eat.

Eventually, Alex said that many of the families were already eating, so we should probably go find a seat. Turns out the captain didn't save us a table, but no matter. The lady sat us down fairly quickly and we looked at the menu. At that point, I was glad that I brought a couple hundred dollars cash with me. The entrees were all $20+. After we sat, the restaurant got more and more crowded with other tours. It took us a very long time to get the waitress to take our order. Then a very long time for our food to come. Capt. Kinky even had to intervene a few times to ask them to please hurry along (not sure if it really had an effect). In any case, lunch took a big chunk of time (maybe 1 hour and 30 minutes?) and we had to get back on the boat as soon as we were done.

After lunch, we went to a spot off of Cooper Island to snorkel some more. The captain said that there were many turtle sightings in the area, but we didn't get to see any. It was very pretty with a lot of fish though. The current was pretty strong, so it was very easy to get away from the boat, so we weren't in the water that long.

Next up was the highlight - The Baths at Virgin Gorda. We pulled up near the beach and the captain told us that we should swim to shore. We all put on our fins and lifejackets. Alex took Nicholas ashore and I took Isabella. Alex is much better at sidestroking so he made it up to the side beach fairly quickly. I pushed Isabella along bit by bit, but it took us a while. When we got to shore, Isabella and I got banged up a bit by the waves hitting the rocks. We should have gone off to the left more, where there was more of an opening. Oh well.

The Baths were very neat. The kids had a great time exploring among the boulders and grottos were like nothing I have ever seen before.

We had fun trying different route and climbing and getting pictures in the nooks. It was pretty hard to climb around though, and we all got nicks and scratches from the rocks. Even though the Baths are supposed to be less crowded in the afternoons, there was still quite a lot of people. When we had to go up and down the wooden steps, we had to wait for all the people to come down first, so it took a bit of time. We headed down the path as much as we could and turned back when we decided the kids couldn't make it past more boulders. When we reached the beach, the captain was looking for us. "We've been waiting for you - the whole boat!" he said. I said, we're coming as fast as we can. After quickly trying to get our fins and jackets on, the four us swam back to the boat. We tried to get there as quickly as we could, but with the current against us, it felt physically exhausting. When we got back to the boat, I looked at my watch and it was 4:00. We had a late all aboard time at 5:45, so I was glad we weren't holding the others in our group up, but was still feeling bad that we were causing people to wait.

When I thought about it afterwards, I wished that he had told us a time to be back at the boat. We could have measured our time better at the Baths. At the same time, I wish we didn't spend so much time at Norman Island. We definitely could have spent all afternoon at The Baths. Everyone raves about Capt. Joe from Patouche and I wish we could have been on his personal boat. Because it was spring break, I'm sure he was overwhelmed with requests, but I wish we had learned more about Tortola's history, culture, etc. during our tour. In any case, I'm glad that we did get to make it to The Baths at the end, which we couldn't have done through Port Adventures.

We walked through the port area at Tortola. Many shops are still in the process of opening up since I guess the port only reopened this year. There were a few T-shirt and souvenir shops, but given how tired we were, we didn't really look at much.

We quickly went back to our stateroom, washed up, and got ready for dinner. I put on a dress and Alex put on a jacket and pants (no tie) for Remy. We dropped the kids off at Oceaneer Club and asked them to feed the kids. They said that they were just finishing up dinner so they could join in and asked us if we were going to dinner. We told them we were headed to Remy and she noted it down. I guess they could locate us if they needed to. Nicholas was asking about Pirate Night because he was getting nervous and we assured him we would get him in time for the party at 10:30.

We got to Remy right at 6:00 for our reservation and waited outside of Meridian to be sat. We took a quick selfie and the host came to get us. We asked him to take a photo of us:

Turns out 6:00 was the perfect time for us to have dinner. We sat down just in time to see the ship pull away from the Tortola port. As the sun set, the backdrop turned from land to water.

Dinner at Remy was fabulous. Some highlights were a crusted ball with tomato soup on the inside, a three layer soup(?) with macadamia nut, burnt caramel, and a foie gras foam. It was unlike anything I've tasted before. Alex ordered the wine pairing and we shared a veal with black truffle course. It was great to see and smell the black truffle, but I don't think it was worth the $75 upcharge. After dessert, they sent us with bribes for the kids, including lollipops, chocolate and other sweets. We probably ate dinner for a good 2.5 hours!

We got the kids and went back to the room to change. Poor Nicholas was falling apart. He was super excited to put on his ARRGGG shirt and play with his sword and hook, but he was practically falling asleep standing up. After getting in trouble a few times, he went to lie on his bed and I wasn't sure if he would wake up.

At 10:15, I said we needed to get going to get a spot for the fireworks. Isabella and I went up on deck and were able to get some spots right next to the stage. I texted Alex to hurry and he said that they were on their way. They joined us around 10:25 and we watched the show and fireworks. As a lesson from the last cruise, Nicholas watched them with noise reduction headphones on.

Then the dance music started for the pirate party. Isabella wanted to keep dancing, but Nicholas was on the verge of collapsing right there. We decided to go to bed. It had been a very fun and memorable day.

 

[karenc15]

Wednesday, March 30 - St. Thomas

What to do with 4yo in St. Thomas?
I have to admit, I had pretty low expectations for St. Thomas. I had looked through the DCL excursions and didn't feel like there were that many unique experiences to be had. The Champagne Catamaran sail seemed pretty relaxing and low key. The problem was that pesky minimum age 5 rule. I called around to a few excursion companies to figure out how to get my 4 yo onto an excursion. I even found the exact company that DCL was using, I think. The person said that they had no problem having a 4 yo; they just didn't have the right size vest. He encouraged me to ask DCL if I could take a life vest off the ship so that Nicholas could join. When I called DCL, I heard an earful about the limits on liability, etc. OK, that wasn't going to work.

So, I found a catamaran sail through a St. Thomas excursion company - Island Marketing. It was fairly easy to book. They had a full day sail from 9:15-4 and a half day from 9-12. Since the all ashore time was at 4, the reservation agent said that we would have to do the half day. A few weeks later, I was told they were only going to do a brunch cruise from 10-2 on 3/30. Then in February, I got an email that this was now rescheduled for 12-4. I got very anxious because of the return time, even though the agent assured me that we would be back by 3:45. It was just cutting it too close. So finally a week before, I was able to make a switch over to a yacht excursion that was available. It was a half day sail & snorkel from 9-1. Given how tired we were from the day before, I was almost thinking about cancelling....

So, we got off the ship around 8:15 and asked about getting a taxi to the Yacht Harbor. For $10 per person, they took us and another family that was headed to the marina. We stopped at the Compass Point Marina first and went over to the Yacht Harbor where we met Capt. Pat. She said that the other two people that had booked the excursion had cancelled so we had a sailboat all to ourselves! At that point, you couldn't wipe the smile off of my face.

It was luxury all the way from that point on. She led us to a motorized raft that we took to get to the sailboat. Her name was Independence and she was beautiful!!!

Beautiful Day for Sailing
With Capt. Pat at the helm and Will assisting, we were treated to their stories about St. Thomas & St. John as well as their personal sailing stories. Capt. Pat had sailed with her parents from British Columbia as a teenager and Will sailed down from Nova Scotia with his friend. After explaining that we were snorkeled-out from the day before, Capt. Pat decided to take us to Honeymoon Beach at St. John. Once she moored, she sent us with Will in the raft with a set of snorkels (should any of us still wanted to try) and a mesh bag for anything we wanted to take. We got a ride straight to the beach! Will tied up the raft and then came to join us on the beach. He even assisted the kids with building a sand castle!

After about 45 minutes or so, Will got the raft for us and picked us up to go back to the sailboat. When we got on, Pat was ready for us with a portable shower to wash off the sand. We dried up on the front of the boat and Will brought us some cold drinks and rum punch. Pat then set up a snack spread for us which included homemade banana bread, deviled eggs, cheese, crackers, and hummus. It was very yummy.

We headed back to the harbor because Capt. Pat had an afternoon half day sail to pick up. Will showed the kids how to make disappearing knots and they had fun making and then pulling them out. We all spent some time at the front of the boat just relaxing, feeling the wind in our faces, and getting some sun. Time had gone by much too fast. Right before arriving back at the yacht harbor, Capt. Pat called our taxi driver for us. He would meet us at the dock to take us back to the cruise port. We got back right around 1:00 to the Yacht Harbor and paid another $10 pp to go back to port.

We walked around the shops a bit, but didn't really find anything we needed to have. Alex really wanted a T-shirt, but we weren't able to find one of quality. Now I'm still scrounging the internet for a St. Thomas shirt....

Finally AquaDuck
We got back on the ship around 2:30 and Isabella was ready to check out the AquaDuck. We went on it two times as there really wasn't a line at all. I then took the kids up to deck 11 for some pizza at Luigi's and sent them back down for a bit of rest.

Isabella was ready to go at 4:30 for some photos with Stitch and Minnie Mouse. This was our second Animator's Palate night, so Tiago had told us to arrive at 5:30 so we could draw our pictures for the animation show.

Animator's Palate v. 2.0
We lined up at 5:30 and were shown to our tables where there were papers for us to draw on. We had to make a figure on the paper and sign our names. Once we were done, they collected our drawings and we were served our dinner. During dinner clips from various Disney movies played on the screens. When it was just about dessert time, the show began to show the audience's figures animated. We saw my figure first and I started recording the show. Then Nicholas' figure appeared. When the show ended we saw my name, Nicholas' name and Isabella's name in the credits. No Alex was in the credits. Isabella was super distraught that her figure wasn't in the show and started to tear up. We told Tiago that Isabella and Alex's figures were missing from the show. He apologized and went to see what may have happened to the drawings. In the meantime, I rewound my video and found Isabella's figure in it. Not Alex's though.

Tiago returned and said that none of the papers were rejected, but he didn't know what happened. Our head server was also very apologetic but offered for us to return to the 8:15 seating so we could redo the drawings. We decided to pass on that but Alex was still disappointed.

Tonight's show was a magic act - Shawn Farquhar. To be honest, I can't remember many specifics from the show. I do remember that it was rather entertaining.

After the show, we got some pictures with Pluto and went back to the room. I wanted to check out the 80's Music Challenge. I headed to the Tube and it was fun to watch and participate. Then came the revelation - there are some late night snacks in Europa!!! If you are hungry after 11:00 and you don't want pizza or room service, head over to La Piazza and grab some finger foods.

Tips for the Day
If I had it to do over again (and I really wish I could), I would definitely book the Independence for the full day. I'd also buy out the other two spots and guarantee the family sail for ourselves. Capt. Pat is very flexible and I'm sure she would be able to make it work with the ship's all ashore and all aboard times. It was a great experience I'll remember for a lifetime. Other tip - go try the late night snacks!

Coming up next - Kids really want to see Zootopia and I really want to get to the Rainforest Room!

 

[sukiee]

Reading along too. Going in Sept. 2017. Great tips so far and can't wait to read more.

 

[karenc15]

Thursday, March 31 - Day at Sea

After two whirlwind days in the VI, we were looking forward to a low key day. The kids went to bed insistent that they wanted to see Zootopia (even though we just saw it a few weeks ago for Isabella's birthday). So DS and DD and I all woke up by 8:30 to get to the 8:45 show. DH just wanted to sleep, so I told him to text me later when he was ready. I forgot what a nice experience it is to sit in the theater onboard. The kids were engrossed in the movie and I snoozed for a big next to them. After the credits rolled, Alex showed up. We went to Cabanas for lunch and then changed into our bathing suits. The AquaDuck line was surprisingly short; the line was still contained within the stairway inside.

Nicholas is exactly 42", so we were happy that he got a wristband to go on the AquaDuck. After much coaxing by his sister about only getting a chance to go while on the cruise, etc. etc, he agreed reluctantly to try it. Isabella and I went first so he could see what it was like. We waited at the end to see his face and boy, was he unhappy. He proclaimed that he did not want to do that ever again. Isabella, though, was over the moon. She continued to ride it with Alex three more times while N and I went to the pool. At the pool, he splashed around while I got a few pictures and videos of A & I in the tube in the AquaDuck. Afterwards, we checked out Nemo's Reef (the slide in there is surprisingly fast) and splashed around a bit more. There was a character dance party at 12:30, so the kids enjoyed some dancing with Goofy, Mickey and Stitch. I got some fun videos.

Rainforest Room, At Last!
After another while in the pool, Alex and I were anxious to get to the Rainforest Room. We dropped the kids off at Oceaneer and went up to Senses. Since Rainforest is co-ed, it worked out well that we already had our bathing suits on. At Senses, they held our KTTW card and put a Thursday sticker on it. That way we can enter and re-enter as many times during the day as we'd like. They gave us the bracelets that would allow us to swipe into the Rainforest Room. We got robes from the front desk and went into the locker room to put our stuff away. I got some slippers from the locker room as well. While waiting for Alex I tried a couple of the sensory showers. The rainforest one I tried was either too cold or too hot. Then there was one where both of them came on and I just felt hot on one side and freezing on the other. LOL. I know there are lots of people who like extreme temperatures and they are invigorated by being hot and then cold. These shower experiences would be right up their alley. I am not one of them, so I just stuck to the other amenities.

Alex loves the smell of wood in a sauna, so we sat in the sauna for a while. The nice thing about this sauna is that it has a window which allows you to look out. This removed some of the claustrophobic feeling I usually have in a sauna. We mostly had the sauna to ourselves and chatted for a while about the cruise and the kids, etc. Eventually, I got too hot (no surprise there) and we went to rinse ourselves quickly in the showers.

We then sat in the heated tile loungers that people have raved about. I can honestly say that are great. I wish I could bring one back home! From the instant I laid on it, I could feel myself melting into the seat. After sitting for a little bit, we decided to check out the hot tub. The hot tub is nice, but the best part about the hot tub area is that you can look out to the ocean. We spent a lot of time looking at the navigational deck and looking at the officer peering out into the distance with his bincoluars. This somewhat behind-the-scenes look was fascinating to us.

After the hot tub, we went back to the tile loungers where many people had left. We sat on the loungers a bit and both dozed off for a while. It was VERY nice. When we woke up, we decided it was time to collect the kids. We both showered in the locker room and got dressed. After picking up the kids, we went back to change for semi-formal night and the officer pin trading.

The Disney Customer Service
Our dinner that evening was at the Enchanted Garden. For this evening, there was lobster and and it was quite good. Our head server came over and Alex and he stepped out to talk for a bit. Turns out he was still feeling badly about the mix-up at AP and Alex's drawing never making it onto the screen, so he gave the kids some plushes from the store. Nicholas got Perry the Platypus and Isabella got an Anna/Elsa doll. You see Anna and then when you flip her and her dress upside down, she becomes Elsa. Isabella (and the rest of us) were pretty impressed with this and we even picked up another one later for one of the girls in Nicholas' class who had a birthday party we missed during the cruise. That was very very nice.

Officer Pin Trading
We're not huge pin collectors, but it seems every time we go to a Disney park, we tend to pick up a few pins. Knowing this, I brought one of our lanyards with a bunch of pins on it. Isabella and her friend from the FE meetup were chatting and she learned about the "rare" pins which I had never heard of before. When I asked the person at Mailsail, he told me that the ones with Mickey ears on them cannot be purchased. While they are not rare, they can only be obtained through trading with CMs. Knowing this, Isabella was intent on trading for a whole bunch of these special pins.

We participated in a family FE group during the cruise and ended with some fabulous and highly useful stuff including a first aid kit, tumblers, magnets, pirate gear, etc. One item arrived without any identification information and I am still searching the family that gifted it to us. It was a scavenger hunt and two lanyards full of pins. Most, if not all, were pins with the Mickey ears on them. The kids got super excited when they found out about the officer pin trading. Basically the officers all line up and the kids would freely trade their pins with them. There's also a pin book in the store to trade with. What's funny is that one of the pins that we had was a free AAA Disneyland giveaway pin that came with our vacation package. That one got snagged up almost immediately since i guess it's not usually in circulation. We ended up with some very cool special pins in about 15 minutes.

After the pin trading, we went to see Disney's Believe. We had seen the same show on Dreams. It is another great Disney show which interweaves many different Disney films together. The kids enjoyed it quite a bit.

We got some pictures with Goofy in front of the theater afterwards and headed back to the room. The kids were pretty tired. I started a load of laundry and was left with the dilemma of what to do to keep myself awake. Alex and I took some turns to explore the ship when everything was quiet and I got some nice pictures of the deck and funnel at night. We also went down to grab some late night snacks from Europa. While we were out, we noticed that things were pretty wet. It must have rained while we were indoors.

Change in CC5K Plans
Earlier in the evening, they had announced that it would be a bit choppy going in to Castaway Cay and so we would arrive there later. All ashore wouldn't be until 10:30 or so. I was disappointed as I had signed up Alex and me for the CC5K. The last time we were at CC, we didn't see a whole lot and I was excited that the 5K would be our chance to tour the island. Unfortunately, as we weren't going to get in early, the 5K would be run on deck 4 in the morning.

We finished up the laundry and went to bed since our meeting time was 9:15 for the 5K.

 

[rock43]

Also going Sept 2017. Can't wait to read more. Thank you for doing such a great review.

 

[Hundredacre]

Thanks for the review! Love hearing about the excursions.

 

[moremouse]

Great review. Thanks.

 

[VallCopen]

Great review, thank you!

 

[IndyMouseFan]

Great report. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

 

[SS_Mama]

Thanks for this. My DD will be 4 when we cruise the Fantasy in April 2017 so this is quite helpful!!

 

[lillygator]

thanks for sharing

 

[Sheryl Moroschak]

Thanks for sharing. I love reading these an getting information to use for our cruise coming up. I hope we can get a Rainforest pass.

 

[DisneyEcho]

I sailed on Easter cruises (but on the Wonder) back in 2004 & 2005. Your TR brought back happy memories. Thanks for sharing!

 

[bonnielynn]

Hi! Thanks for reading my report! I'm happy to share any tips I can with you.

You can order the daily Rainforest passes in advance:
http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/gifts-and-amenities/

My understanding is that you can also buy daily passes on the ship, but availability may be limited depending on how many people sign up. It's $16 per day on the website but it may be a bit more on the ship as it comes with a scrub each day.

Is this something you can do with your husband or is it an individual thing?

 

[PraisingHim]

Is this something you can do with your husband or is it an individual thing?

You can enjoy this alone or with your spouse.

 

[CathyCU03]

Glad to see you enjoyed your day on the Independence. We're going on her in December. We also have a 4YO so no Disney excursions for us!

 

[karenc15]

Glad to see you enjoyed your day on the Independence. We're going on her in December. We also have a 4YO so no Disney excursions for us!

I'm so excited for you. Captain Pat is awesome! Have so much fun!

 

[DisneySunPrincess]

Also going Sept 2017. Can't wait to read more. Thank you for doing such a great review.

I am also doing an Eastern Caribbean 7-night Fantasy in Sept 2017. Are you going on the 9th?

 

[PirateFrank]

Saturday, March 26 - Embarkation Day (Finally)

View attachment 160972

OMG! Small world! I'm the guy in the back with my arms outstretched!
That was such a great cruise! Enjoying your report!