Mandymouse's Fantastic Fantasy Cruise .. and then another one (COMPLETE)

[mandymouse]

...

During the night, Paul had a wander around a quiet Disney Fantasy









































Unfortunately with the weather being so bad he wasn't able to take many photos on the top deck like he'd planned

[mandymouse]

Friday 3rd May

I'd had a bad nights sleep. Around 3am Paul got up to take a wander around a quiet ship and to take some photos, then at 4am I woke up again

Around 7 I checked out the 'BridgeView' on the TV, but I couldn't see land, then around 7.30 the ship started making a noise and our cabin began to shudder. To be honest I really didn't think we'd make it onto Castaway Cay today after the awful weather the night before, but Paul went off to investigate the noise while I showered and when he came back he said that Captain Tom was inching us very slowly onto the island (hurrah!)

We went up to Cabanas for breakfast, then I grabbed a latte just as Brent announced that the ship was cleared and we could get off. As we walked down to the beaches we felt spots of rain, but thankfully nothing came of it and we took the shuttle to Serenity Bay. The adult beach was a lot quieter this week. We had noticed that last week there was a lot less children, and this week (I guess with the GTY rooms available) there was a lot more kids about, which was great for us on Serenity Bay





















We found some loungers and took a few photos, and after a short while a bar tender came round and told us the specials, so we ordered a couple of Stingrays and some water too



We chilled on our loungers till lunchtime, then went to get something to eat at the Serenity Beach BBQ

We couldn't believe what a lovely day it was after the downpours of the day before, we were so lucky

After lunch we had a couple of drinks at the Castaway Air Bar then returned to our loungers



Unfortunately we now had a few people sat next to us who liked sharing their conversation with the whole beach, and who were smoking too. I'd had enough by now anyway, so we took the tram back to the family beach and had a cocktail at the Conched Out Bar and sat in the sun one last time on the island. We then walked back to ship, taking photos along the way

Cont'd ...

[mandymouse]

...





































Cont'd ...

[mandymouse]

...

We watched as the ship pulled away from Castaway Cay, and started the sad task of packing













Tonight we had a reservation at Palo for dinner again. We got ready and once checked in at the Palo desk we had a drink at the Meridian Lounge, I had a Rosa Regale and Paul had a Cosmopolitan made by Christina who had hosted the Martini tasting the day before

Dinner was once again lovely. Olivera was our server and she brought out the antipasti and breads, then for our starters I had a smaller version of their risotto main and Paul had the smaller version of their ravioli









For our mains I had the chicken and Paul had the sea bass

For dessert I had Tiramisu (of course) and Paul had his usual Panna cotta, and Olivera also brought out some gelato

As ever it was a fantastic meal, and it was nice to have a quick chat with Juan who runs Palo (and who we have met on some of the other ships)



After our lovely dinner we popped down to the Enchanted Garden to give our dining team their tips and to say goodbye to everyone



We then got changed and headed up to Deck 13 for one final drink at the Cove Bar with Jerry and some of the friends we had made during the week, then had one last wander around the top deck before heading to bed















Tomorrow ~ Port Canaveral and going home

[mandymouse]

Saturday 4th May

I had a terrible nights sleep, I must've seen every hour in, and I finally got up just before 6am. We had decided to do 'Express Debarkation' which meant from 7am for a short time we could take our own luggage off the ship and leave a little early

There was quite a crowd doing this service and at 7am we were allowed to disembark



We made our way to the rental car shuttles, and after a 20 minute wait a mini bus arrived and took us to the Enterprise Rental company. By 7.45am we were on our way back to Orlando, and an hour later we pulled into the Virgin check-in desk at DownTown Disney. We were surprised to see that there wasn't a line, and 15 minutes later all luggage had been weighed, taken away and we were walking away with our boarding cards

The weather this morning had been very cloudy, and as we neared Disney it had been drizzling on and off. This didn't put us off, so we headed to Epcot. We paid the $14 for the car park, bought our one day pass and went straight to Test Track to get a Fastpass













The line was only 10 minutes long, so we joined it. I was so looking forward to trying this out as this was our first time since it's refurbishment, but I was so disappointed, in fact we didn't even bother using our FP's (bring back Bill McKim and Sherry ! - lol). Next we rode Mission:Space, but only the less intense side as we'd both woken up not feeling too well





We went over to The Land and got FP's for Soarin', then had a little breakfast of fruit cups and we shared a cheesecake



We wandered over to World Showcase, stopping off to take photos of the Flower & Garden topiaries along the way, we took shelter from a shower in Italy under an umbrella and decided to have a Rosa Regale and Moretti while we were there















We continued round World Showcase, then went back to Soarin' to use our FP. We then went back to the UK pavilion to get some fish and chips







Cont'd ...

[mandymouse]

...

We did one last bit of shopping at MouseGear, then left WDW after a very brief stop at World of Disney (Paul was after a Star Wars phone case but he couldn't find the Jedi Mickey one anywhere)







At 3.30 we headed for the airport, we had a quick look in both the Disney shops there and luckily the phone case Paul was after was in the last shop before security

We decided to go through security early as there was a huge line and in no time we were sitting at gate 81 chatting to our girls on-line

Boarding began around 6 and ... that's where my notes finish

I know the flight went well, and there wasn't much turbulence (thank goodness), we ate onboard, though I've no idea what we had and we landed on time

Thoughts

Well what can I say ? doing a back to back cruise on the Fantasy was A-MAZ-ING ! , and we would definitely do it again, though whether we'll do it next year I'm not sure as we did miss WDW and those couple of days there at the beginning were just too manic as we tried to fit so much in

So the saving has started, and roll on next April, May or June

Thanks for reading along and for leaving your lovely comments too

[mandymouse]

Originally Posted by Kellea

Fab , can't wait for more

See more...

Originally Posted by Cutiepie

Fab start, looking forward to reading more

See more...

Originally Posted by highland lass

Looking forward to more

See more...

Thank you

Originally Posted by Bats

yay, another report!

Theme of the report seems to be alcohol and shopping!

Looking forward to more!

See more...

LOL, seems like you've got the gist of this report

[Bats]

Great report!
Was there a drink that you didn't try incidentally?

Such a shame about not getting to the Bacardi factory (factory or museum?). We were hoping to go there after the Tranny next year, but I'm not sure flight times will allow as we need to hurry up to WDW for 5 packed days (bit like yours! )

As an aside, would you like me to remove all of the comments mid report that I and others did?! Sorry

[mandymouse]

Originally Posted by Bats

Great report!
Was there a drink that you didn't try incidentally?

Such a shame about not getting to the Bacardi factory (factory or museum?). We were hoping to go there after the Tranny next year, but I'm not sure flight times will allow as we need to hurry up to WDW for 5 packed days (bit like yours! )

As an aside, would you like me to remove all of the comments mid report that I and others did?! Sorry

See more...

Thanks

LOL, we gave most drinks a go

Yeah I was gutted about missing the Bacardi tour, maybe next time the Fantasy is there we will get the chance to try it

No, there's no problem with the comments mid report, I was only going to post a few days, then got carried away (lol)

[highland lass]

Thank you for the report getting me excited about my up coming trip on the magic 13th July