faline
11-09-2014, 02:15 PM
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Backstory for this Trip can be found here. (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=207224)
Phase One - Day One is here. (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=207224)
Phase One Day Two is here. (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=207239)
Before turning in last evening, we put it an order for room service for breakfast the morning. We asked for an 8 a.m. delivery.
Once we are up, we begin to pack up those things we had unpacked for the duration of our stay here. Our breakfast of omelettes with hash brown potatoes, coffee, and orange juice is timely delivered and hits the spot.
We finish packing and label our bags with the cruise line tags. I use the down time to catch up on my trip notes.
We spend some time just watching monorails, cars,and people going by. Our car pickup is for 11 so we gather our things and head downstairs about quarter of. By time we arrive downstairs, we find our driver is waiting for us. Traffic in the area around Orlando is heavy but, once we get outside this area, we move right along. We run into heavy traffic again trying to get into the cruise terminal where there are four ships in port including the Fantasy which is our destination.
After our driver leaves us off, we quickly turn over our bags (which we have already tagged with our stateroom information) to a porter who promises we will find them outside our stateroom no later than 5:30 pm. Next up, we pass through the security area which requires that our carry-on bags go through a machine while we walk through a detector - just like at the airport. We are then stopped for the obligatory boarding picture. Once inside, we find a long line to get through the checkin process which leaves unexplained why I had made an appointment for checking in of between 12:30 and 12:45. When I asked, I was told I would still need to wait in line. Ok then. The line took us about 15 minutes or so.
A few days earlier, I had received a voice mail from Disney Vacation Club to say representatives would be available in the checkin lobby but they were nowhere to be found. I was told they had been there earlier.
As we board the ship, we are duly announced and welcomed aboard. It is about 12:30 and cabins can't be accessed for another hour. We check at guest services and learn the location of the DVC event. Until cabins are ready for access, we are directed to Cabanas on deck 11. This is the main buffet dining area on the ship. The forward elevators have a long line so we are directed to elevators mid ship though the line here is only marginally better. Once at the buffet restaurant, we are handed antibacterial wipes to use prior to eating. This occurs prior to entering any eating establishment on the ship. It is Disney's attempt to keep viruses from spreading onboard.
As expected, Cabanas is somewhat of a madhouse. Gene tells me to select my food while he finds a place to sit. It is difficult to really get a good sense of the offerings but I find small portions of several things I can eat. Now to find Gene. I can't text him as my phone is in the bag he has which he discovers when he tries to text me to let me know where he is. I do spot him outside at a table against the railing. The wind is quite active so it is close to chilly. He leaves me while he searches or some food for himself. We both get to eat though it Is not a relaxing or particularly enjoyable meal.
By time our lunch is completed, it is time to go check out our cabin. Our cabin key had been provided to us during the checkin process. We find our cabin and hold our key up to the lock but it shows up as red. Same results with Gene's key. Our cabin is on deck 9 in the stern of the ship. Guest services is on deck 3 midship. Of course, the elevators and hallways are jammed with other passengers trying to make their way to their rooms. We take the stairs down. I am not a happy camper. Keys are reprinted and I'm told that should resolve the problem. We now make our way back to our cabin and, fortunately, we are able to enter.
We are pleased with our cabin and our verandah. Still, we don't get much opportunity to do more than put a few things in the room safe and drop our carryons before we are off to locate the vacation club gathering. This is quite well attended. We are given hats, lanyards (and who knew how these would really come in handy before the trip was completed), and a draw string bag. There are adult beverages available. There is a rousing trivia game to be played
And,,,,ample opportunity to act silly. Stitch is available for picture taking at the start. It is, of course a sales pitch in the hopes we will all be encouraged to buy more points. Other than the swag we've been given, we do not win any of the prizes.
I want to get back to our room to see if our luggage has been delivered. I want to at least drag it into the room before we need to report for our mandatory muster. Our luggage is there. We no sooner get into the room when we hear the announcement indicating the mandatory drill Is about to start. We make our way to our assigned station "O" which is indoors in an area called the Tube (which is one of the adult nightclubs - something we learn a bit later). This is the first time I've reported to an indoor area for muster. We are told that if we were to need to leave the ship, we would meet in this indoor area and, from here we would be led to our life boats in small groups with care being taken to be sure families were not separated in the process. Not sure I like the idea of sitting indoors waiting to be led to an unseen lifeboat! Hopefully, it is not an occurrence I will need to spend any time thinking about.
We are released from muster just as the SailAway party is beginning. The process of transitioning directly from Muster to the Sailaway party does not seem to be a smooth one. There are people everywhere. Since everyone on ship is required to be at Muster, none of us are where we want to be and most of us have never been on this ship before and have no idea of the best way to get from where we are to where we want to be. It's a bit like being in the Magic Kingdom at the moment the fireworks have ended and everyone wants to head to the gates. We make our way to deck 12, feeling a bit like spawning fish swimming upstream, buy, when we finally arrive, we are where we can look down on the happenings below. There is a lot of energy there which include appearances by Mickey and friends. We are moving! We make our way to a lofty lounge in the adults only area and watch the landscape slide by.
After a bit we return to our cabin where we can watch our progress from our balcony or on our television. We wander through the ship for a bit checking out the stores, the locations of the theaters etc.
Following a quick shower, we change and dress for dinner. Tonight we are assigned to Animator's Palette. Unlike other cruise ships, Disney never asked if we had any seating preferences. One drawback to the Disney cruise is that is that it does not offer any tables for two in its regular dining rooms - at least that I could see and we never inquired. We are assigned to a table for eight with three other couples, one of whom is from Argentina and only speaks limited English. Still, it appears that the husband's command of English is better than any of the rest of us can muster in their language. We are introduced to our dining team, Ignacio and Rex. Dinner is excellent. During the meal, we are entertained by the antics of Crush and other characters from Finding Nemo. Since our table is right by one of Crush's windows into the human world, he even talks to folks from our table. We are even called clownfish after dutifully repeating "I, state your name" without inserting names!
For dinner, Gene and I each ordered a Golden Breeze (vodka, amaretto, galliano, orange juice, and pineapple juice.). Our bread was garlic and herb focaccia with rosemary virgin olive oil. We both had sliced Serrano ham with tomato bread and Spanish olives as our appetizer. I had the baked potato with cheddar cheese soup but am not sure what Gene had for this course. I had the herb crusted veal chop for my entree while Gene had the ginger-teriyaki dusted beef tenderloin. I believe I had the crunchy walnut cake while Gene had the white chocolate fudge cheesecake. It was 10 by time dinner was completed. We headed to our room and found that it must have rained while we were at dinner as our balcony was quite wet. Still we watched the ocean and looked at the stars before heading off to bed.
Backstory for this Trip can be found here. (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=207224)
Phase One - Day One is here. (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=207224)
Phase One Day Two is here. (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=207239)
Before turning in last evening, we put it an order for room service for breakfast the morning. We asked for an 8 a.m. delivery.
Once we are up, we begin to pack up those things we had unpacked for the duration of our stay here. Our breakfast of omelettes with hash brown potatoes, coffee, and orange juice is timely delivered and hits the spot.
We finish packing and label our bags with the cruise line tags. I use the down time to catch up on my trip notes.
We spend some time just watching monorails, cars,and people going by. Our car pickup is for 11 so we gather our things and head downstairs about quarter of. By time we arrive downstairs, we find our driver is waiting for us. Traffic in the area around Orlando is heavy but, once we get outside this area, we move right along. We run into heavy traffic again trying to get into the cruise terminal where there are four ships in port including the Fantasy which is our destination.
After our driver leaves us off, we quickly turn over our bags (which we have already tagged with our stateroom information) to a porter who promises we will find them outside our stateroom no later than 5:30 pm. Next up, we pass through the security area which requires that our carry-on bags go through a machine while we walk through a detector - just like at the airport. We are then stopped for the obligatory boarding picture. Once inside, we find a long line to get through the checkin process which leaves unexplained why I had made an appointment for checking in of between 12:30 and 12:45. When I asked, I was told I would still need to wait in line. Ok then. The line took us about 15 minutes or so.
A few days earlier, I had received a voice mail from Disney Vacation Club to say representatives would be available in the checkin lobby but they were nowhere to be found. I was told they had been there earlier.
As we board the ship, we are duly announced and welcomed aboard. It is about 12:30 and cabins can't be accessed for another hour. We check at guest services and learn the location of the DVC event. Until cabins are ready for access, we are directed to Cabanas on deck 11. This is the main buffet dining area on the ship. The forward elevators have a long line so we are directed to elevators mid ship though the line here is only marginally better. Once at the buffet restaurant, we are handed antibacterial wipes to use prior to eating. This occurs prior to entering any eating establishment on the ship. It is Disney's attempt to keep viruses from spreading onboard.
As expected, Cabanas is somewhat of a madhouse. Gene tells me to select my food while he finds a place to sit. It is difficult to really get a good sense of the offerings but I find small portions of several things I can eat. Now to find Gene. I can't text him as my phone is in the bag he has which he discovers when he tries to text me to let me know where he is. I do spot him outside at a table against the railing. The wind is quite active so it is close to chilly. He leaves me while he searches or some food for himself. We both get to eat though it Is not a relaxing or particularly enjoyable meal.
By time our lunch is completed, it is time to go check out our cabin. Our cabin key had been provided to us during the checkin process. We find our cabin and hold our key up to the lock but it shows up as red. Same results with Gene's key. Our cabin is on deck 9 in the stern of the ship. Guest services is on deck 3 midship. Of course, the elevators and hallways are jammed with other passengers trying to make their way to their rooms. We take the stairs down. I am not a happy camper. Keys are reprinted and I'm told that should resolve the problem. We now make our way back to our cabin and, fortunately, we are able to enter.
We are pleased with our cabin and our verandah. Still, we don't get much opportunity to do more than put a few things in the room safe and drop our carryons before we are off to locate the vacation club gathering. This is quite well attended. We are given hats, lanyards (and who knew how these would really come in handy before the trip was completed), and a draw string bag. There are adult beverages available. There is a rousing trivia game to be played
And,,,,ample opportunity to act silly. Stitch is available for picture taking at the start. It is, of course a sales pitch in the hopes we will all be encouraged to buy more points. Other than the swag we've been given, we do not win any of the prizes.
I want to get back to our room to see if our luggage has been delivered. I want to at least drag it into the room before we need to report for our mandatory muster. Our luggage is there. We no sooner get into the room when we hear the announcement indicating the mandatory drill Is about to start. We make our way to our assigned station "O" which is indoors in an area called the Tube (which is one of the adult nightclubs - something we learn a bit later). This is the first time I've reported to an indoor area for muster. We are told that if we were to need to leave the ship, we would meet in this indoor area and, from here we would be led to our life boats in small groups with care being taken to be sure families were not separated in the process. Not sure I like the idea of sitting indoors waiting to be led to an unseen lifeboat! Hopefully, it is not an occurrence I will need to spend any time thinking about.
We are released from muster just as the SailAway party is beginning. The process of transitioning directly from Muster to the Sailaway party does not seem to be a smooth one. There are people everywhere. Since everyone on ship is required to be at Muster, none of us are where we want to be and most of us have never been on this ship before and have no idea of the best way to get from where we are to where we want to be. It's a bit like being in the Magic Kingdom at the moment the fireworks have ended and everyone wants to head to the gates. We make our way to deck 12, feeling a bit like spawning fish swimming upstream, buy, when we finally arrive, we are where we can look down on the happenings below. There is a lot of energy there which include appearances by Mickey and friends. We are moving! We make our way to a lofty lounge in the adults only area and watch the landscape slide by.
After a bit we return to our cabin where we can watch our progress from our balcony or on our television. We wander through the ship for a bit checking out the stores, the locations of the theaters etc.
Following a quick shower, we change and dress for dinner. Tonight we are assigned to Animator's Palette. Unlike other cruise ships, Disney never asked if we had any seating preferences. One drawback to the Disney cruise is that is that it does not offer any tables for two in its regular dining rooms - at least that I could see and we never inquired. We are assigned to a table for eight with three other couples, one of whom is from Argentina and only speaks limited English. Still, it appears that the husband's command of English is better than any of the rest of us can muster in their language. We are introduced to our dining team, Ignacio and Rex. Dinner is excellent. During the meal, we are entertained by the antics of Crush and other characters from Finding Nemo. Since our table is right by one of Crush's windows into the human world, he even talks to folks from our table. We are even called clownfish after dutifully repeating "I, state your name" without inserting names!
For dinner, Gene and I each ordered a Golden Breeze (vodka, amaretto, galliano, orange juice, and pineapple juice.). Our bread was garlic and herb focaccia with rosemary virgin olive oil. We both had sliced Serrano ham with tomato bread and Spanish olives as our appetizer. I had the baked potato with cheddar cheese soup but am not sure what Gene had for this course. I had the herb crusted veal chop for my entree while Gene had the ginger-teriyaki dusted beef tenderloin. I believe I had the crunchy walnut cake while Gene had the white chocolate fudge cheesecake. It was 10 by time dinner was completed. We headed to our room and found that it must have rained while we were at dinner as our balcony was quite wet. Still we watched the ocean and looked at the stars before heading off to bed.