Just off the Fantasy (5/11-5/18)

[Arianabtd]

Just wanted to jot down some things from this cruise! Some background info: This was my 5th cruise, my party was 4 adults, and this was all of our first time on the Fantasy (never been on the Dream either).

They were still on sickness prevention rules from the precious two Fantasy cruises, like handing you drinks on the pool deck. This didn't really affect me... Except the no pin trading . They didn't have any books out, or the officer pin trading night. I was so sad, but whaddya gonna do .

THE AQUADUCK!!!
I became obsessed with it. It is so much fun. The best time I found was right at 1pm when it opened on our Castaway Cay day. There was no line at all, so we would just walk up ride then repeat.

We had requested one of our favorite servers (Daniel from Romania) from last May (who was on the Magic at the time) and a private table (we had second seating). We got him + a private table!
He remembered us immediately! We had a hoot all week long.

I always do tons of character meets, and I had a good time with them on this ship. They had a lot more variety compared to the Magic. Day 1 of the cruise the photographer took room numbers like I was used to, but day 2 they started taking kttw cards to scan. It was a little tedious having to give them the card every time but it wasn't anything crazy.
Another thing to note is the Princess Gathering only has 4 princesses on the Fantasy. On the Magic there is 5 (with Rapunzel).
ALSO I didn't see Minnie in her captain outfit at all! I have no idea if she wore it at all during this week but I sure didn't see it.

Weather was great at all our ports, and sea weather was great except for one night when the ship was totally bouncing around. Nothing major.

We only went to see two shows: Believe, and Buckets n Boards.
Believe we really liked. Buckets n Boards we had no idea what to expect but were pleasantly surprised. They were a lot of fun.
Was kinda bummed Aladdin wasn't being performed as we had never seen it before, but we were so busy with other things it really didn't affect us as much as I thought it would.

The navigators not being delivered also didn't affect us as I thought it would. I ended up just using the app most of the time, and it was really easy.

The Midship Detective Agency game was so fun. I wish there were more cases as we did all three in one day


I think that's everything
I like the coziness of the Magic class ships. But the Aquaduck is hard to beat...


Here are some random pictures under the cut

Spoiler: ~Pictures~

If anyone has questions I'll try my best to answer!

 

[Dug720]

Just as a note, even repeating the general theme for Midship Detective will not necessarily yield the same results. I have done each multiple times and the culprit was different most of the time.

 

[BCV23]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like you had a great cruise. We were on the cruise right before you and I don't think there was a lot of illness on that cruise. Jut the one before us from what I heard.

 

[littledebbie335]

I have a kind of stupid question, sine you mentioned Midship Detective Agency. Is there a way to "finish" the game? We played once and had figured out the culprit prior to finding all the clues, and we weren't sure what to do next. Or are you just playing for the satisfaction of solving the case? Either way, we had a lot of fun with that on our last cruise!

Glad you had a great trip!

 

[Arianabtd]

I have a kind of stupid question, sine you mentioned Midship Detective Agency. Is there a way to "finish" the game? We played once and had figured out the culprit prior to finding all the clues, and we weren't sure what to do next. Or are you just playing for the satisfaction of solving the case? Either way, we had a lot of fun with that on our last cruise!

Glad you had a great trip!

Spoiler: I guess this is kind of a game spoiler so under the cut...

Even if you know the culprit, you have to visit enough paintings to collect everything. Like with the puppies mission you have to find all the clues AND all the puppies. Once all that is done the next painting you visit will be where you pick who you think did it, and it continues from there!

 

[littledebbie335]

Thank you @Arianabtd !!! I feel like I have closure (and now I know what to do for next time)!

 

[FastPasser.]

The navigators not being delivered also didn't affect us as I thought it would.

Was on the Fantasy a couple of months ago and they will deliver Navigators but you have to make a request. We got one every night.

 

[Arianabtd]

Was on the Fantasy a couple of months ago and they will deliver Navigators but you have to make a request. We got one every night.

I had no idea, thank you for the info!

 

[DIS_MIKE]

Was on the Fantasy a couple of months ago and they will deliver Navigators but you have to make a request. We got one every night.

I just went down to the desk after dinner each night and requested one. There was never any issue obtaining one, but that's nice that you can request one in your room.

 

[Justin Leas]

I was on the same cruise. We also saw buckets and boards. We caught wishes but missed believe as that was the day we went to Remy. My kids went with their Tio, Tia, and Prima. I did not know you could request a navigator. I had a hard time seeing the kids events on the app on my ipad but the version you can access from the TV worked well. It was, however, rather tedious to scroll through the entire day to see what was happening in the evening. My kids are 4 and 5 and loved the oceaneer club/lab. Drink stations were self serve on Castaway Cay but otherwise drinks and ice cream were passed out by CMs. Cabanas was self serve.
Whoever gave us the Nemo magnet, if you are reading this thank you very much. It was a nice little surprise. We had Dipa and Keygan as our servers. My 5 year old told them on the last day "don't forget us." I think Keygan almost cried. Dipa had magic tricks and origami for the girls almost every night.
As far as excursions go . . . we did the ruins, chocolate, beach break on Cozumel and the sting rays on Castaway. The only parts my kids liked in Cozumel was seeing iguanas and the beach which we only had access to for about an hour and a half. We ended up not eating lunch that day. They were initially excited about the stingrays an the snorkels and then they actually saw the sting rays. They were thereafter terrified of being in the water in the stingray enclosure and wanted nothing to do with snorkeling even outside the stingray area. I wish we had saved all of the money we spent on those excursions. We did the Atlantis semi sub on Grand cayman apart from Disney. Our boat had no other Disney cruise folks but the next one was full of them. My kids enjoyed it for about 30-40 minutes.
My 6 year old loved the aquaduck. My 5 year old was too short but loved the Mickey slide.

 

[starvenger]

Great report!

THE AQUADUCK!!!
I became obsessed with it. It is so much fun. The best time I found was right at 1pm when it opened on our Castaway Cay day. There was no line at all, so we would just walk up ride then repeat.

It's kind of funny, because I found Aquaduck to be one of those things that did not live up to the hype (see also: The Ultimate Abyss). Is it neat to have a water tube ride at sea? Yes, but for whatever reason it never did anything for me and the lines did not help at all.

Weather was great at all our ports, and sea weather was great except for one night when the ship was totally bouncing around. Nothing major.

Always good to hear this.

Believe we really liked. Buckets n Boards we had no idea what to expect but were pleasantly surprised. They were a lot of fun.
Was kinda bummed Aladdin wasn't being performed as we had never seen it before, but we were so busy with other things it really didn't affect us as much as I thought it would.

I feel bad for you. Aladdin, IMO, has been the best Broadway-style musical I've seen on a cruise ship (Mamma Mia on the Allure wasn't bad, but there's only so much ABBA I can take).

The Midship Detective Agency game was so fun. I wish there were more cases as we did all three in one day

The game is pretty fun. We took it as an opportunity to burn calories. I think we solved our games maybe halfway through, but as I tell my kids, it doesn't hurt to verify your answers.

 

[Arianabtd]

As far as excursions go . . . we did the ruins, chocolate, beach break on Cozumel and the sting rays on Castaway. The only parts my kids liked in Cozumel was seeing iguanas and the beach which we only had access to for about an hour and a half. We ended up not eating lunch that day. They were initially excited about the stingrays an the snorkels and then they actually saw the sting rays. They were thereafter terrified of being in the water in the stingray enclosure and wanted nothing to do with snorkeling even outside the stingray area. I wish we had saved all of the money we spent on those excursions. We did the Atlantis semi sub on Grand cayman apart from Disney. Our boat had no other Disney cruise folks but the next one was full of them. My kids enjoyed it for about 30-40 minutes.
My 6 year old loved the aquaduck. My 5 year old was too short but loved the Mickey slide.

We also did the beach break (enjoyed it), and the stingrays. The stingrays have become a castaway cay tradition for me, I always love it.

 

[DIS_MIKE]

The weather was fantastic. It only rained once and it was a light drizzle around 3pm on Castaway Cay.

As for Buckets N Boards....(I like to call them Bedknobs and Broomsticks) I am a drummer but I almost walked out. I found their video intro to be very long and I was wondering what I was getting into. It reminded me of STOMP which was popular in the 90s and 00s. The show did seem to get better though and I'm glad I stayed. A person at dinner mentioned how it was an odd choice to have on the final night of the cruise. I agree with that. Believe or Wishes would've made more sense.

The ship had some slight chop one evening and some people were talking about it but it wasn't too bad. One of my tablemates was feeling a bit under the weather. It was his first cruise so he just didn't get his sea legs yet. The rocking puts me right to sleep.

I enjoyed Grand Cayman (but tendering is UGH!) the most even though I was really looking forward to seeing Mexico but I sure did get hounded by those people in the mall you are forced to walk through. Jamaica was a bust for me as well but the Margaritaville there is awesome.

 

[Livelovedance]

Thank you for sharing some details about your trip! I am so jealous of your photo with Goofy and Max! What a unique photo opportunity!

 

[Arianabtd]

Thank you for sharing some details about your trip! I am so jealous of your photo with Goofy and Max! What a unique photo opportunity!

I was so shocked when I found out
they were coming out together! Probably my favorite meet of the cruise.

 

[sunmoon620]

You missed Aladdin by just a little. We sail on Saturday and the reimagined show will be back!!!