robbalvey Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 (edited) As most of you guys know, when we aren't traveling for roller coasters and theme parks, we love to go on cruises! We've posted quite a few cruise trip reports, with the most notable being on the Allure of the Seas (the worlds largest cruise ship), and most recently the TPR Klassy Kruise (the worlds trashiest cruise ship), but this time, we're doing something a little different... DISNEY CRUISE LINES!!! This was my first ever Disney Cruise (Elissa did one about 12 years ago), and this was the first time we did any of the "newer" Disney ships. The Disney Dream was released in 2011, and we considered doing that ship, but we knew that a sister ship was in production, and the Disney Fantasy launched earlier in 2012. While the two ships don't differ *that* much, just like between Oasis and Allure, whenever two similar ships are being built back-to-back, the second one always gets whatever issues are found on the first one, fixed before it set sails. That was the main reason for waiting to sail the Fantasy, and the fact that we like longer cruises, and the Dream only alternates between 3/4 night cruises. Anyway, we had an excellent time...onto the photos and some video! The first part of this report will be our arrival at the cruise terminal, and the first day hanging around the ship... Lets see... There's a Disney ship and a Carnival ship... I wonder which one we're heading to? Getting ready to board the Disney Fantasy! Awww...thanks Mickey! Let's go check out some of the ship... One of the many kids club areas on the Disney Fantasy! Not even on the ship an hour and already have character photos! Disney Fantasy is like a floating WDW deluxe resort! The kids clubs on the Disney Fantasy are just insane. AquaDuck is the "water coaster" on the ship, and here is the exact moment where it goes off the side of the ship and over the water! Each of the interior staterooms has a magic porthole which shows you what's going on outside as if you had an actual window (along with some neat Disney magic.) We get in our stateroom and KidTums asks "Why is the Klassy Kruise on our porthole? How do we turn it off???" (She actually said this!) lol Mini-Golf on the Disney Fantasy! Entrance area of the Disney Fantasy. This is "Classy!" KidTums playing with many of the interactive screens and "enchanted art" all over the ship! "Enchanted Art" are these amazing high-def retina screens all over the ship that when you walk past them, they look just like paintings...but, if you walk up to them and stand in front of them...something magical happens... watch this video: Loving all the little Disney touches! Frozone serves up the "adult" treats! Sail away party! (note that this is the pool deck, and they can quickly convert the pool deck into a show area when they need to!) Finding Nemo kids water play area! (This ended up being one of KidTums' favourite places on the ship!) Mickey & Friends at the sail away party! Our cruise has "officially" begun! The way dining works on the Disney ships is very different from other ships. You have three different restaurants, and depending on your itinerary and your "rotation" will depend on how many times you end up at different dining rooms. I'll explain more as the report continues. Our first dinner location is in the Animator's Palate. The dining room is VERY different than anything you'll see on any other cruise line! No typical "round tables", no windows to see outside, the focus on this dining room is the "experience" you're about to have. Everything starts off mostly in Black and White or muted colours when you first arrive in the dining room. The theming inside the restaurant is absolutely amazing! I'm told this is not as "Black and White" as on the older Disney ships, but this room will start to transform and change colour soon enough! Let's take a look at the menu for Animator's Palate! The menu items are very high end! It's much like a Disney fine dining restaurant with "fun" atmosphere. The one thing I will say is that the food on this ship was exceptional! But be prepared for it to be a bit "exotic" - if you're a picky eater, or like really basic food, you might find yourself eating from the kids menu! lol More detail in Animator's Palate. These are actually very high definition screens that will eventually turn into the Animator's Palate version of Turtle Talk. These screens also stay in theme for what night you're at this dining room. On the second night, when they do a different show, the screens display different artwork reflecting the theme for that evening. It's touches like these that just make the ship that much more "magical." Here's what the table looks like before people wreck it! Our server in his cool costume! Animator's Palate's first colour change! It reflects being underwater, because look who's about to appear... Crush comes out and gives us all an intro to Animator's Palate. The pasta purse was amazing! Bruce reminds us all that fish are friends, not food... which is funny because many of us are eating fish! lol Animator's Palate changes colour again! Random underwater stuff appears on the screen from time to time...Here the fish playing ball with the pufferfish. The cheddar cheese soup is VERY similar to the one at Epcot! KidTums very colourful meal! Steak was amazing! Could cut it with a fork! Colour seemed to be a VERY important role in the dishes served in this dinning room. The plates were mostly black and white, but the food provided the colour. Same thing with the chicken! Crush coming out to talk to everyone. Now Crush comes out to talk to our table. At this point it's pretty much *exactly* like Turtle Talk...which is insanely cool! Mickey pops dessert are amazing! (Also note our plates are now green thanks to the lighting!) Because you can't just have one dessert! Crush waves goodbye! Whatever the last character was on the screen near you in 3D animated form, it changes into a sketch of them! To give you an idea of how the dining room changes colour: Animator's Palate before.... Animator's Palate after! They do the "world time" by what time it is at each Disney park... Awww... This is our favourite world clock! KidTums will LOVE this store! Pretty sure KidTums gets this dress on her pirate night at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique! Some old dude trying to hit on Snow White! Clearly Walt does NOT approve! lol Fun places for the "adults" while the kids play! More themes bars on the ship. So lets take a night time tour around the Disney Fantasy... Cabana's is the breakfast and lunch buffet restaurant on one of the upper decks of the ship. It's open for "casual dining" most nights of the cruise as a table service restaurant. It's pretty well themed! Some cool stuff inside this restaurant. Checking out the pool area at night... (remember, this was covered up earlier for the sail away party!) "Funnel Vision" movies and AquaDuck! I'll probably ride this tomorrow or the next day... Another look at the Nemo water play area... Mickey holds up the other water slide! Love that soft drinks are "included" on the Disney ships! Aha! So that's where Cinderella has been hanging out! The main atrium area of the ship. Very "classy" with a"C"! This is where movies and stuff play. It's a totally legit theater! I could do without "The Help", but I'd totally go and see Muppets! Frankenweenie plays in here later this week! This is where all the "big shows" are performed. Yo, Walt....How's it going? Mickey statue just outside the theater. More of the "enchanted art" (watch the video above...I even included this one!) Random Muppet stuff! Even the hallways are awesome! Tons of Disney Cruise stuff for tons of money! There was something going on in here... But I avoided it! Oh, it was "family karaoke!" No thank you! lol This is not the entrance to Europa Park, but the entrance to the "adult" area. Random band that played some musical stuff. European themed area of the adult deck. Some sort of scary game show was about to happen in the Jolly Jolly Jolly UK themed bar. It's called "The Tube" and I assume that means the London Underground, not the things you get tied. Yup, London. The skyline lounge is themed to... You guessed it! City skylines! Another use of these high def retina displays that change the city skyline every few minutes. VERY cool! Another pub... Walking by Animator's Palate again. Here's a better look at the menu, and the graphic design of it. Everything had so much detail it was insane! Page two of the menu! Another suitcase in another hall... Royal Court is the second of the three themed restaurants on the ship. This one is a bit more of a traditional cruise ship dining room themed to the princesses, royalty and things. Royal Court's first night menu. You never get the same menu twice, so each time to go to one of your dining rooms, even on multiple visits, you get totally different menu items. Another look at the entrance area. Note that the ship is NOT empty, Disney just does a very, VERY good job at trafficking and scheduling so that people are right now all in a show, at dinner, etc. There will be times where this atrium is PACKED with people...then ten minutes later it's totally empty. It was actually very impressive to watch this machine work. Hooray! Chandelier! Don't fall on us! Here is where I sat when I originally uploaded these photos to our Facebook page! The ship's wifi, while expensive, was by far the best service I've had on any cruise ship. For one...it worked! lol Checking out the shopping district...I'm SURE we'll be back here! I kinda feel its a bit cheating having the "inaugural sailings" span two years, but I'm sure a lot of people buy the merch and feel special. Continue to Part 2 of this report... Anyway, that's plenty of photos for the first update, and I think it gives you an idea of what the ship is like. I'll post more photos and videos soon! Now... POST YOUR COMMENTS!!! Edited January 21, 2013 by robbalvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simaticable Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Awesome trip report Robb! I hope that you all enjoyed the trip! Now, Disney just needs Coke Freestyle machines on their ships, and they'll be perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted October 22, 2012 Author Share Posted October 22, 2012 (edited) ^ I will say that one minor complaint I had about the soda was that it was *only* free if you were at one of the beverage stations (and there weren't many). If you wanted a soda anywhere else on the ship, you had to pay for it. I can understand from the perspective of they don't want all the bartenders busy handing out free soda all the time when they could be selling drinks, but on most other cruise lines where you buy a "soda card", you can get a free soda anywhere you wanted on the ship. In Disney's case, there wasn't a "soda card" you could buy because it was essentially included, but you were limited to the beverage stations only on Deck 11. Personally, I would have rather preferred to have bought a soda card so I could have gotten a drink anywhere I wanted, rather than had to always go up to Deck 11. There were many times I would be on Deck 5, for example, working on an update or a video, and someone would come by and ask if I wanted a drink, and a Diet Coke was $2. I sort of felt I shouldn't have had to pay for something on Deck 5 that I could get for free on Deck 11, and that I was under the impression should have been "included." It's a minor complaint, though, and I really didn't have many about the ship. It was about as near perfect as it could get! --Robb Edited October 22, 2012 by robbalvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mratigan Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Sounds like you had fun Now I need to go on the fantasy so I can get a credit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godwyn Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Glad you had a good time. Really making me miss a Disney cruise. Hopefully we will get on another one soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Clinksalot Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Looks totally awesome. Can't wait to see more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrewoplis Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 A Disney cruise seems like something I need to do some day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 I was simply blown away by the quality of the food on the Disney Dream. Looks like it is just as awesome on The Fantasy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterKings908 Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 While I was watching that small video of what the enchanted art does, all I could think of is Max Capricorn. Basically, it scares me. Anyway, all jokes aside, this cruise looks way better than the Klassy Cruise you guys did a few months back, and going on a Disney Cruise is now on my bucket list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 I could see how that soft drink policy would be a pain in the ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hhappy Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Looks like you had a great time. Not sure if it would be something for me, but i might give it a try Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prost Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 I could see how that soft drink policy would be a pain in the A$$. Especially with kids. I mean if you're a family of 5 it's highly likely that people are going to get thirsty at different times. Always having to go to deck 11 would be a major disruption depending on where you are on the ship. I bet you they make a decent amount of money (since its only .02 syrup with water) just based off of parents who are like "alright just get a soda I don't want to goto deck 11". If you have people in your party that drink a lot I could see you having to prioritize your deck 11 schedule or it could get expensive over time. Thanks for the pics..I always enjoy the report threads! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted October 22, 2012 Author Share Posted October 22, 2012 ^ To be fair, there was never a time when we were with KidTums this was a problem. It was only when I, for example, had my laptop open on deck 5, and I didn't want to schlep all my stuff back to deck 11 to get a drink, and come back. It wasn't really an issue when we were with KidTums because it most of the "family" areas, there were drink locations nearby. It was mainly in the adults areas where there weren't any of the beverage stations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 It looks like Disney Fantasy is worth it just for the food alone. I love the extra stuff in the Animator's Palate dining room, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopper39 Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 ^Yeah, the food looks fantastic. I"m really excited to do a Disney Cruise one of these days on one of their newer ships, looks like a really good time. Does anyone happen to know up to what age kids can cruise for free on the Disney ships? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 ^Remember that those deals only come out sometimes, and usually NOT on the bigger ships. I believe in the past year they've only offered the Kids Sail Free deals on the Magic out of Galveston and the Wonder out of LA (and only on select dates and itineraries). If I had to assume it would either be 9 years old (The normal Disney Child cutoff) or 17 (as it's really just a 3rd/4th person in a room deal). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopper39 Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 ^What about for younger kids, like under 2 or 3? Is it free for them? While on that topic, and forgive me if this is the incorrect forum to pose this question, but did you guys ever sail with Kidtums when she was that age and was it a god or bad experience? My daughter is currently a month old, and my wife and I were thinking that in a year or two a cruise might be a decent vacation option with a child that young and were wondering if kids were free up to a certain age? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Arthur Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 We usually take an insulated travel mug with us on DCL and fill up whenever we walk by the drink stations. Also, I do find that the wandering servers on DCL are not as pushy as other lines when it comes to upcharge drinks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted October 22, 2012 Author Share Posted October 22, 2012 I do find that the wandering servers on DCL are not as pushy as other lines when it comes to upcharge drinks. They aren't...which really surprised me. In fact, I didn't feel like I was being "upcharged" at all on this ship. On most cruise lines I'm used to having to say "no" to the drink people, "no" to all the random photographers, etc, and on Disney they really didn't seem to push much of anything. I guess it's because the ship already gets a premium? I was also very surprised that not only did they allow you to use your own camera when taking pictures of the characters along side their photographers, they actually ENCOURAGED it! I know on Allure it was hit or miss. There were times where I was told to put my camera away while the photographers were taking a picture of KidTums and one of the Dreamworks characters, and other times they didn't seem to mind. Mostly I got the vibe that it wasn't "cool" for me to take pics with my own camera on the other ships, but Disney is was more than fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Arthur Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Whenever the ship photographers took a photo of us, they always ask if we want one taken with our personal camera. We have had many random crew members politely offer to take a photo with our camera if they see one of us holding it out at arms length to try and get it ourselves. Regarding servers, on our last DCL cruise I had a drink server in the theatre offer me a comp drink because she felt bad for reaching over me twice to hand drinks to guests down the row. All crew have been nothing but attentive and polite on all of our cruises. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 ^What about for younger kids, like under 2 or 3? Is it free for them? While on that topic, and forgive me if this is the incorrect forum to pose this question, but did you guys ever sail with Kidtums when she was that age and was it a god or bad experience? My daughter is currently a month old, and my wife and I were thinking that in a year or two a cruise might be a decent vacation option with a child that young and were wondering if kids were free up to a certain age? We cruised with Kristen starting when she was 9 months old. It was an EXCELLENT form of vacation and now it's only better as more and more lines offer nursery programs for babies and toddlers too young for the kids program. Seriously, every time I walk by one of those nursery's I get angry that they didn't have that option when we were cruising when she was a baby! Most lines charge for babies. It's a 3rd/4th passenger rate so it's lower, but you do need to be prepared to pay. Some parents won't cruise because of this because they say "well they're not eating as much or anything, they're not using the facilities, etc." Just basically bitching up a storm. In reality, your baby is taking the place of someone who may shop, gamble, drink, etc. There also needs to be space in the lifeboat for them. Plus they create a lot of trash! There are a ton of food options so if you have a new eater you can encourage them to try a ton of things and see what they like without wasting money. You can look for some of the kids sail free promotions, but they're usually on smaller ships or lines or unconventional times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted October 22, 2012 Author Share Posted October 22, 2012 (edited) OK, now that you've gotten a look around the ship, let's continue our report.... Click here if you missed Part 1 of this report. Good morning everyone! We are currently in the Enchanted Garden restaurant. Beautiful! Breakfast on the Disney Fantasy starts with a plate of Mickey Waffles! Yum! (Ok, so maybe these are brown sugar coated, syrup covered Mickey waffles that would kill most diabetics just looking at them...) Those booths in the Enchanted Garden actually spin! Totally "Elissa Friendly!" (NOTE - We never actually saw anyone spinning them, so I wonder if they actually still do this?) Well, that didn't take long for Elissa to find her dudes! I guess we know where she'll be the rest of the cruise! Today we played "Mid-Ship Detective Agency" which is Disney Fantasy's answer to the "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" game you can play at Walt Disney World. There are three different "cases" to play, one based on Disney characters and Villains, one based on 101 Dalmatians, and one based on the Muppets. We chose the Muppets themed case to play. Here's our case booklet... This tells us where we can find the game stations around the ship. Remember those "enchanted art" paintings you saw the video of (you did watch the video, right?) They also double as stations for the Midship Detective game, and via RFID, it can sense that you're holding a game card. Here is the front of the Detective Agency card. And the back of the card. I'm not exactly sure how this system works...but it's damn impressive! Hold the card up to these "paintings..." And they come to life with clues or mini-games you need to play. The card acts kind of like a "Wii Remote" in that you use the card to control objects on the screen. You have to turn some pieces, push things in, throw things, etc. I believe this is more advanced than Magic Kingdom's Sorcerers game as I don't think it has this level of interaction. Head? The image quality on these displays is really impressive! Some of the cleanest looking retina screens I've ever seen. Pépe has his own stateroom door on the ship which you have to go find, and it also contains clues! And yes, if you dial this number from your Stateroom phone or does connect you with Pépe! We solved the case! The Muppets thank us for finding their props so the show can go on! As a reward, we got to play a mini-game were we lit off the fireworks! Yay! It was a really fun game to play! Today's lunch was in Royal Court, which is themed to all princesses... It's a bit more like a "traditional" cruise ship dining room, but certainly with a Disney touch! Here is the menu for lunch at Royal Court. And the second part of the menu. Again, the food was just so impressive on this ship! Salad was pretty decent... And their take on a simple item like meatloaf? Wow... It was pretty awesome! We also got involved with a group of people who do these "fish extender" things. In short, it's a Disney Cruise gift exchange! Here's our door filled with goodies from other people that we traded with! I have to be honest, I was a bit skeptical about this at first, but it turned out to be really amazing! So much so that we'll even do something similar on our next TPR group cruise! Some of the people involved do a lot of decoration of their doors and fish extenders. Wow, some people got a LOT of presents! (that bag on top was filled with something called "Churro Nuggets" which were amazing!) Disney cruise people go all out! It's sort of fun to see how enthusiastic people get... Disney cruisers kind of have their own little sub-culture. Some people give gifts every day, some do it once per cruise. Some of the doors you can write notes to people. (I didn't write anything dirty!) Other doors keep things simple, but cute! It was fun going around the ship dropping off everyone's TPR "bag-o-crap!" One of the people involved in the exchange actually made the Mickey for everyone to go on their door! It was a nice touch! Love the bleeding skull! lol Lots of random stuff! Just a fish extender! lol Keeping it simple... It was cool to see people use other people's presents on their doors! Really added a sense of community to the whole thing. I guess Canadians? All of these doors are the people who we gave our gifts to, and in exchange, gave them back to us! Just a Mickey and a fish extender. (Ok, I guess technically a SeaHorse extender for starboard rooms!) Today was time for KidTums' first of three visits to Disney Fantasy's Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is like the ultimate in "dress up" for little girls! Her fairy godmother "Nicki" asks her to choose her nail colours, etc... KidTums has two "fairy godmothers" tend to her and teach her how to become a princess. Fairy godmothers Nicki and Sarah transform her by doing hair and nails... Nicki works on her hair... ...while Sarah dolls her up! (And yes, Sarah, she really does want a bearded dragon!) lol Today she is being transformed into "princess Minnie" (which is also the costume exclusive to the Fantasy.) She gets some pink "diva" hair extensions. (Maybe she can be a Theme Park Diva?) She's almost ready! ...just a few more finishing touches from fairy godmother Nicki... And the big reveal!!! The final "Princess Minnie!" And even the real princess Minnie approves! Click here for Part Three of this report! I'll post more photos and videos soon! Now... POST YOUR COMMENTS!!! Edited October 23, 2012 by robbalvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreativeForce Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Wow, the ship looks spectacular! Glad you had a great time. Rebecca and I sailed on the Wonder about 12 years ago and as much as we really love Royal Caribbean, it still is one of the best cruise experiences we've had. Maybe it's time to do another one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ernierocker Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Really impressed with this ship so far and you are just on the beginning of Day 2! It really seems like if you are Disney fan, you would have a hard time getting off the ship for the ports! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteornotes Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 This is amazing. I have to go on one of these ships. Mainly for the food, as been very impressed with the menus you've posted and the food shots, as everything looks great. But the ship is beautiful, and I love all the art and interactive displays. And the "gift exchange" is an awesome idea! I'm sure people sailing on a ship would love an autographed photo of Ice Bat... dt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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