Aleksza Family Blog: October 2014

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Disney Cruise Line - Disney Fantasy - Trip Report - Part 3 - Ports and Shore Excursions

This is a guest blog series by Stephen Aleksza about our Disney Cruise Line (DCL) cruise on the Disney Fantasy in September/October of 2014. Our Halloween on the High Seas cruise had a western Caribbean itinerary that included: Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Jamaica, and Castaway Cay. This was our first Disney cruise, but somewhere around our 13^th cruise overall. Our previous cruises have been on Princess (Platinum), Celebrity, and Norwegian. We enjoy Disney stuff, but I would not say that we are Disney fanatics. Our last trip to the Magic Kingdom was over ten years ago. I am big pre-trip researcher so I figured that I would share some of my research and contribute my own information through this series.

Part 3 -

This post is about our shore excursions. These were our ports-of-call.

Cozumel

We have been to Cozumel several times. We selected a Disney Port Adventure to

Destination Website - Playa Mia

Disney Cruise Port Adventure - Cozumel Beach Break

We did research on going direct to Playa Mia instead of going through Disney Port Adventures. The pricing direct and the pricing via Disney was within a couple dollars. The only key difference by purchasing direct was that it would have allowed for a full day vs the excursion times. However, the excursion time was pretty much the whole time our ship was in port and we wanted to do a bit of shopping. So in reality, we would not have been staying any longer than the excursion times so we booked with Disney for the convenience.

We RECOMMEND this excursion. We had a great time. The facilities are very nice (Not as great as the photo shopped photos, but no place is). We enjoyed the beach, the pools, the slides, the bars, and the lunch (The lunch was a little weak, but OK). Our six-year old daughter had a blast.

There were two departure times and we chose the earliest. We recommend that time. We arrived right around opening time. We had our choice of seats and were able to enjoy the slides, pools, etc without any crowd or any wait.

General Tips:

Go-Pros are not allowed on the slides
Bring your phone, there is free WiFi
Drinks are standard resort open bar strength
The ocean trampolines/play area is a pretty decent swim from the shore. Our daughter does not swim and it was a long and tiring tow. (She refers to this as “our worst idea of the day”.)
The shuttle returns you right at the dock mall so you can cross off your shopping on the way back to the boat

Grand Cayman

We have been there before several times too. We also knew that it would be a tender service. Nothing really jumped out for our daughter to do, so we stayed on the ship. We picked up this habit of staying on the ship for a port day several cruises ago. It paid off again. We had a great day. You are able to enjoy everything on the ship without the crowds or the waits of a sea day. We rode the Aqua Duck with no wait, the pools with no crowds, etc. I would encourage everyone to pick a port day to enjoy on the ship.

Falmouth

This is a relatively new port and we had not been there before. We picked the Green Grotto excursion via Disney Port Excursions. We choose this because most of the activities are a bit far from the port (30+ minutes) and Jamaica is not known for its safety and security.

Destination Website - Green Grotto Caves

Disney Cruise Port Adventure - Disney Cruise Port Adventure

Unless you have a 8-12 year old boy, I would not recommend this excursion. On the up side, all the guides from the tour company, cave, and lunch were very nice and really tried to make it a good day. Also, at the cave the tour guide did a great job with the kids. Giving them adventures and opportunities to explore dark areas of the caves. Every young boy LOVED the trip. However, the cons are a bit longer:

The bus A/C barely cooled the bus
The bus had no power, as you went over a hill it had to slow to about 15 mph. Bicycles could pass beside us going up the hill we were going so slow. :D
The cave is exactly like the pictures and not at all. All the pictures are super well lit. Not the reality. The caves are just plain limestone caves with a couple lights here and there. I was expecting a show cave, this was not that. (We were thinking this would be similar to the Luray Caverns in the US. So not that.)
The caves were hot. That surprised us. We were worried about being cold in the caves (many are). Not here. It was hot and stuffy. It was so hot at some points were were anticipating the cold with glee!!! Never happened.
The lunch was a piece of chicken and rice in what looked like an old house on the beach. Interesting, but definitely not up to the Disney experience. However, the view from the beach is pretty

The port itself is new and built for cruise ships. Very touristy, but a very clean, secure, and easy to access port to get off and stretch your legs. Next time, we’d consider this for a “day on the ship” day.

Castaway Cay

We have been to Norwegian Cruises and Princess Cruises private islands. Castaway Cay beats them all. The island is heavily themed with great infrastructure. The BBQ is much better and the free ice cream and soda continues on the island. There is also a lot of beach activities. Another key point is the the water is within and artificial harbor. So you get to enjoy the water with no waves. We recommend that you get off the boat here and enjoy the island.

Post 1 - Embarkation
Post 2 - Cabin
Post 3 - Ports
Post 4 - Fish Extender
Post 5 - Ship and Cruise

Monday, October 6, 2014

Disney Cruise Line - Disney Fantasy - Trip Report - Part 2 - The Cabin

Part 2 – The Cabin

We stayed in cabin 7552. This was a Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah (Cat 5C) room. We loved the location of the room.

The room was forward on the starboard side.

It was between elevators. That made it easy to go forward or mid-ship. It also helped cut down on foot traffic. We also liked the 7^th floor. Three floors up or down and you reached a main floor.

The stock photos are very accurate, albeit photo shopped to smooth out.

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships-activities/ships/staterooms/dream-fantasy/deluxe-oceanview-stateroom-with-verandah/

Here are some of our pictures.

We would compare this room to a mini-suite on a Princess ship. The bed has no obstructions under it so it makes for plenty of space to store your luggage. Our bed, unlike other cruise ships, didn’t seem like it was two twins pushed together. There was no dent or grove in the middle of the bed creating a divider. We didn’t need the normal egg crate to try to decrease the “divide”. The bed for our daughter was more of a futon. It was actually very comfortable.

There is table that is by the sofa/futon that is actually a chest that you can use for storage. This was great for our daughter’s toys and assorted “stuff” that we didn’t want lying around the room (in addition to a place to put fish extender presents!).

There were two cons about the room. One is that the verandah had a partial obstruction. About a foot on the right side was blocked by a support structure. It does not seem like a lot, but it did make it feel much smaller. The other was that for being about two years old, the room was showing a bit of wear and tear. The scratched furniture and worn areas caught us a bit by surprise. A minor annoyance is that all the paper instructions, for things like the wave phone, were torn and super worn out.

The net was that we would stay on the 7^th floor again, but probably not that room because of the small verandah obstruction.

Post 1 - Embarkation
Post 2 - Cabin
Post 3 - Ports
Post 4 - Fish Extender
Post 5 - Ship and Cruise

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Disney Cruise Line - Disney Fantasy - Trip Report - Part 1 - Arrival through Embarkation

Introduction

Part I – Arrival through Embarkation

General Information

I found this site as one of the best for general DCL prep information. http://disneycruiselineblog.com/.

Another site was the DIS boards. This site was a bit overwhelming with information. However, it was critical to find information on the fish extender group.

http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9.

Arrival

We drove to the terminal. Before we embark, we like to stop at a local store and pick up some fresh flowers for the room, soda, water, and other forgotten or last minute essentials. We stopped at the Publix Super Market at Merritt Island (Store #893, 1850 N Courtenay Pkwy Merritt Island, FL 32953). The store was before the bridge to the terminal but very close. It was an easy on and off from A1A. It had everything we needed and gave us a place to situate our stuff prior to arriving at the terminal.

We had an 11:00 to 11:15 port arrival slot and we arrived around 11:15. We had a bit of a wait to drop off our luggage. I would say that it took around 15 minutes to get to the luggage drop off. In looking at the line as we waited to check in, I would plan to arrive at 12:00 next time. From 12:00 to 12:30 there was no line.

Luggage drop off was super easy and similar to other cruises. A luggage porter meets you and helps with the luggage. I dropped off my wife and child and went to park. I decided to park right at the terminal. I did a lot of research on where to park. For speed and convenience we followed the advice from this blog post and parked at the terminal (http://disneycruiselineblog.com/2012/06/parking-at-port-canaveral-and-the-cheaper-alternatives/). While the most expensive option by 40% or more, we would choose it again. It was SUPER EASY and covered from the blazing Florida sun. I prepaid for the week ($120) and drove up to the 3^rd floor of the parking deck and parked. I was then able to walk across the sky bridge into the terminal. This took about 5-10 minutes vs. driving off site, parking, shuttle, etc.

Check-in and Embarkation

Check in was the not the Disney experience I was expecting. It was crazy. There were people and lines everywhere. It took forever to check in and get on to the boat. I estimate that it took 1 to 1.5 hours to get from luggage drop off to being on the boat. This was not waiting for our boarding group to be called. This was just getting through the lines.

I would also encourage you to check your party in all as one group. My wife and daughter checked in and then I went to check in. They had been told this wouldn’t be a problem, but it was. Our plan was for them to check in while I parked the car and then head to the Children’s Registration area to get our daughter’s wristband. Wrong idea. It messed everything up and my daughter and wife had to check in again.

Just as we were about to get on the boat we heard a cast member say they were sorry for the delay and that it was because they were having computer issues. It would have really helped our perception of the check-in process if they were making frequent announcements communicating the problem. I can understand when a mess happens and you are doing your best. Up to that point, I just figured the check-in process was a mess.

We made it through the line and about to get on the ship!

Most of the people you see are in a circular line wrapped around itself waiting to get on the ship.

When you get on the ship, you enter right into the main atrium where they ask your family name and then announce your arrival with the cast members clapping. That was a really nice touch. With the cabin not ready until 1:30. We still had a couple minutes so we went to Cabana’s for lunch.

Post 1 - Embarkation
Post 2 - Cabin
Post 3 - Ports
Post 4 - Fish Extender
Post 5 - Ship and Cruise