The Mouse Strikes Back: our second Fantasy with SWDAS

[Julie2018]

Thank you for sharing your cruise journey! I enjoyed reading it so much. We will be going with our 4 year old daughter on our first Disney Cruise in early December (Fantasy - Eastern Caribbean). It was very helpful to read your tips/experiences with your daughter.

 

[lklgoodman]

Hi, I just found your report. We went on a SWDAS, also a Western in 2017. We are going on an Eastern one this coming Jan. I also just booked another Western
for Jan. 2020 on the Fantasy, I'm going to assume that it will also be a SWDAS. Funny thing is my dh likes SW, but my dd and I don't really care for it. My dd hasn't even seen any of the movies and I've only seen the first 6 movies. I don't even know who a lot of the newer characters are. But we like to go on 7night cruises in Jan, so the Fantasy with SWDAS cruises it is. I read my dd your report about the Jedi training thing to see if she would like to do it. Last SW cruise my dh went to the movie, but we didn't do anything else that was SW related. I figured we should at least try something, even if we don't know anything about the characters. We did the dolphin excursion at the same place in Cozumel also. We also stayed on the ship in Jamaica, great time to ride the Aquaduck with hardly any line.

 

[hnthomps]

Thank you for sharing your cruise journey! I enjoyed reading it so much. We will be going with our 4 year old daughter on our first Disney Cruise in early December (Fantasy - Eastern Caribbean). It was very helpful to read your tips/experiences with your daughter.

So glad it was helpful! I hope you have a wonderful cruise.

And your bumping this thread reminds me I never did a wrap up! I'll have to see if I still have my notes for that.

 

[hnthomps]

Hi, I just found your report. We went on a SWDAS, also a Western in 2017. We are going on an Eastern one this coming Jan. I also just booked another Western
for Jan. 2020 on the Fantasy, I'm going to assume that it will also be a SWDAS. Funny thing is my dh likes SW, but my dd and I don't really care for it. My dd hasn't even seen any of the movies and I've only seen the first 6 movies. I don't even know who a lot of the newer characters are. But we like to go on 7night cruises in Jan, so the Fantasy with SWDAS cruises it is. I read my dd your report about the Jedi training thing to see if she would like to do it. Last SW cruise my dh went to the movie, but we didn't do anything else that was SW related. I figured we should at least try something, even if we don't know anything about the characters. We did the dolphin excursion at the same place in Cozumel also. We also stayed on the ship in Jamaica, great time to ride the Aquaduck with hardly any line.

I think the Jedi training could be fun -it is obviously VERY star wars themed, but she wouldn't have to know anything about the movies to participate. So if you think the swordplay / being on stage part would be fun, she might like it.

and I agree, staying on the ship on a port day is a great time to enjoy the pool deck with no crowds!

 

[hnthomps]

Day 8: Orlando to Chicago

picking this back up for a few last notes, if I can remember...

We took our time getting off the Fantasy, but we were still back in the terminal ridiculously quickly. We had 8 hours to kill until our flight. We'd gone over a lot of options, asked people on this board, etc, and finally had come up with a plan. It wasn't perfect, but it made sense at the time. I can't remember why we decided the exact combo of car rental and transportation that we did, but probably because of what was available on points.

Anyway, we took Disney transportation back to the airport. Our checked bags had been whisked away the night before, and we wouldn't see them until Chicago. We had two backpacks and one roller board with us as carry-ons. Once at the airport, we picked up a rental car (with appropriate child seats - certainly part of the reason we went with a rental car). We then headed to the Florida Mall. Our plan was to spend time at the Crayola Experience.

We got to the mall around 9:30, again having taken our time getting to the rental car. We spent the half hour until Crayola opened playing outside the entrance and then on the indoor play structures. This was fine for our 4 year old, but a little basic for our 6 year old. Plus, he was sad to be off the boat!

The Crayola experience was totally fine for the day. We left at lunch time to go to Shake Shack, which is on the other side of the enormous mall, so that took up almost an hour. We were able to leave and come back no problem. The kids did almost all the activities, though they spent the longest time in the giant play structure (where it is very hard to see your own kid, and there were some who were way too little to do it safely in there unsupervised, so I found it quite stressful to watch! the kids had a blast, however).

We called it a day about 3 hours before our flight, stopping in the gift shop to get each kid a new activity book and choose a present for a birthday party J would be attending the next morning. We could have stayed longer and still made our flight, but we were pretty much done with Crayola and the mall by then. We also got rear ended on the way back to return the car, so it was good we allowed the extra time (though it was so minor we didn't really need to do anything). We were still at our gate well before we needed to be, but the kids were content to do their activity books and sit still.

Back on the plane and home!

 

[ljcrochet]

Sounds like a fun trip.
I think we are doing a big family trip on Fantasy next christmas time. It will be very interesting cruising with a 1 year old, 2- 3 years, 1 4 year old, 1 5 year old and 2 14 year olds. Plus the 5 adults.

 

[heaven2dc]

Joining in and just starting reading! Took me a little while to figure out was SWDAS meant lol but I finally figured it out when you said your son was a Star Wars fan (and I'm guessing at this point SWDAS means "Star Wars Days at Sea"?). We've never been on a Disney cruise but are are big Star Wars fans as well as Disney fans so sounds like our cup of tea. Now to read more...

 

[hnthomps]

Joining in and just starting reading! Took me a little while to figure out was SWDAS meant lol but I finally figured it out when you said your son was a Star Wars fan (and I'm guessing at this point SWDAS means "Star Wars Days at Sea"?). We've never been on a Disney cruise but are are big Star Wars fans as well as Disney fans so sounds like our cup of tea. Now to read more...

Haha! Sorry, should have explained. Hope you enjoy, and let me know if you have questions about anything I wrote.