Disney Cruise

We loved Disney Fantasy 7 day cruise to St Marteen, St Thomas, and Disney's Castaway Cay! The crew is amazing and you can pretty much get whatever you want to make you happy. The dinner crew was awesome with the kids and even with us on a date night. The waiter played with the kids, got the food expedited so they could go to the kids club while we finished our meals. On date night, they made us a candle out of a napkin because they aren't aloud to have real candles on the ship. They gave us little brainteasers too while we ate. I guess they thought we'd be bored with each other after all these years and Disney won't have any boredom! They seated us at the dinner table with amazing people from New Jersey who will be lifelong friends now. They had two boys, AJ (age 7) and Tyler (age 5).  Tyler thought Gavin's name was Kevin so it was so funny he kept calling him Kevin the whole cruise and said, "it's ok, Gavin said I could call him Kevin for short!"  Hilarious! Our favorite restaurant was the Animators Palate where they had an interactive tv screen where the turtle from Nemo talked to the kids, another night they had cartoons on the screen and animations, and the third night we all created our own characters and they animated them on the screen like we were all artists. It was so neat! The food was pretty tasty overall and they made sure to bring us out tasters of everything. They certainly wanted us all to be pleased! I turned 33 on the ship and the dining crew brought me a special cake and sang to me. It was sweet! 

We had a blast at the pirate night with the fireworks on the ship. Mickey and all his crew were there for a great performance and everyone on the ship was dressed up. Best night of the cruise! There were characters all over the ship at different times, but thankfully Gavin didn't care to wait in long lines to see them. In fact, we were in line one night to see Captain Hook. It was a long line and he was bored with waiting for two seconds. He yells really loud, "You know they aren't real right, they are people in costumes!"  The dad with his young kids behind us replies, "What! No they aren't, they are real!"  Oh poor kids, Gavin had to ruin it for everyone. 

They had these fun animated paintings all throughout the ship where you could become a detective and make the paintings interactive to give you clues and figure out the mystery. It was super fun and got you plenty of exercise.  

I was surprised with how small the pools were, but they had 2 awesome splash pads that made up for it. On the days at sea, the pools were so full it was like a big bowl of people soup. Yuck! Then you have those people who stake out the chairs at like 7 am and bake in the sun all day. Whatever floats your boat I guess. This cruise ship had the huge tube slide that swings out over the water and travels the length of the ship. We rode it in the daylight and at night and it was super fun! Also the pool area had an outdoor movie theater screen with Disney cartoons day and night so that was a neat bonus as you baked in the sun. 

I was also surprised with how small the gym was. Smallest gym I've seen on a ship, but we didn't use it so who cares right?  Maybe that's how most people feel! We did however buy a spa package in order to use their fancy showers, steam rooms, saunas, and private hot tubs. It was worth it, dropping him off at the kids club once a day to go to a quiet place and read and relax. And this is the only ship I've been on where the sauna/steam rooms were always in "working condition". Most of the time on past ships they were out of order! 

The kids club was great and practically consumed one whole floor with tons of activities. Gavin of course never wanted to leave! The staff made it fairly easy to pick him up and drop him off. Also they have these awesome hand washing stations where you stick your hands in these holes and it spins a brush around with cleaner that washes their hands. Heck it made me want to wash my hands! 

The shows for entertainment were really superb. The genie from Aladdin was funny and in several of the shows. He was an obvious favorite character. Gavin loved the magic show too. It was great entertainment. He even cried at one of the shows! It was a great mix of all the Disney favorites! 

Great adult only area for a break from the kids. Pool with swim up bar, the lounge chairs had nice soft cushions, plenty of adult only bars and cafes as well.  No casino's but we didn't miss them at all. Also you can bring as much alcohol on the ship as you can carry in your carry on's so we didn't have a huge bar tab either. 

The movie theaters on the ship were great for watching FREE fairly new releases plus new releases for free in the room. The rooms were a great size and I loved the separate shower area from the toilet for getting ready. There was a huge curtain to separate the couch and balcony from the bed which made it nice for nap times when Gavin was resting.  We had an extended balcony which was awesome for doing yoga, but everyone can look down on you from the above balcony's.  

Disney makes everything easy on the ship. And the price for military was the best priced cruise we've taken. The only thing I would say is the gratuities were not included in the original sale price so the "suggested" gratuities to all your main crew on the ship added another $300 or so to the price in the end. 

And the ports of call were very nice. We did have to take a taxi to get to the good beaches on St Marteen (Orient Beach) and St Thomas (Lindsberg Beach). So that was an additional $100 total on the trip. Then renting the umbrellas and chairs on the beach. We did not pay for excursions on this cruise. We just beached it. So I would say our extra costs were about $600 for 3 of us. Since we got to bring our own alcohol we only bought a few drinks on this trip. Oh then there was that $250 per night hotel charge that we had to pay in Tallahassee, FL on our way to Port Canaveral because there was a football game in town and all the rooms were booked and WAY price gouged to get you coming and going. How much is a room in a bed versus sleeping in your car worth... $250 bucks people! 

So that's my review of the Disney Cruise. As you saw from my previous post Gavin was very disappointed to be home and ready to leave for the next cruise. As for me, I can stand to wait awhile. This was the first cruise I had to pop a Dramamine. The boat was a rocking on the way out of the Caribbean back home and I could not equalize it. I will try to remember for next time though that you are supposed to eat green apples if you feel nauseas. 
M*I*C*K*E*Y*M*O*U*S*E