Disney Fantasy 7 day Eastern Caribbean Cruise: Day 1

Day 1: Embarkation Day
Saturday: Sept 10, 2016
Evening Attire: Cruise Casual
Restaurant: Royal Palace
Stage Show: A Fantasy Come True

I realized that since I have only recently begun to be more active on my blog that I never recap'd the Disney Cruise my family and I went on last September. This may take awhile because it was a 7 day cruise, and so it doesn't become a crazy long post I will dedicate a different post to each day of the cruise.

This was mine and my sons first cruise ever and my husbands second. So of course we decided to go with a Disney Cruise! We were lucky enough to share this vacation with our good friends who have 3 sons and their youngest is my son's age. 

(on our way!)

Disney has several Ports of departure, fortunately we live about an hour from Port Canaveral, so we didn't have to factor in flights and transportation to the cruise terminal. We chose the 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise that included stops at Tortola, St Thomas, Castaway Cay, and 3 days at Sea (4 including Embarkation day). This was also a special themed cruise, Halloween on the High Seas.

Before you arrive you can check in online and select a port arrival time. We selected the earliest time we could (I believe the earliest time is 11am) so we could have more time onboard. The earlier times do present you with a more congested terminal, but they did seem to have the massive herds pretty much under control! Once you get on board there are several housekeeping tasks you can do like changing your dining rotation if available, make reservations for Remy or Palo if you could not get any before, sign up for character meet and greets (certain characters require tickets), and register your kids for the kids club and check it out. Then you can eat lunch, swim, relax or wander the ship! (Tip: bring a day bag with important papers, bathing suits, medications you may need. Your bags may not be delivered until later that day to your room.)

(waiting at the terminal)

You will also have your picture taken before boarding the ship

When you check in at the terminal you will receive the days personal navigator. Each night a new one for the next day will be delivered to your room. It highlights that days activities and what not to miss. They also now have a mobile version that has a lot more than the paper navigators include, like menus for the various restaurants. You can also text other people onboard the ship through this app. The app connects to the ships WIFI and doesn't cost you anything. We loved the apps features, but the texting sometimes didn't work right away. 

Once onboard you can eat lunch at 1 of 2 locations. On the Fantasy you could choose the usually quieter inside buffet at Enchanted Gardens or the buffet at Cabanas by the pool that has some outside seating but tends to be more loud. We chose Enchanted Garden.

Also on embarkation day is a mandatory drill before the ships sails. Everyone must attend, and they will not start until everyone is there! This was a 20-30 minute safety drill. After the drill the sailing away party on deck (with Mickey and Minnie of course) starts and then we are off!

(You don't need to bring your life jacket to the drill, but they suggest you try them on)

(Sailing away!)

We were on Deck 7 in a Deluxe Stateroom with a Navigators Verandah. This means we had a balcony but the view would have a partial obstruction from part of the ship (this also made it a little less expensive but we still had a balcony, and the obstruction in our room was not bad at all.)  Our room was located in the aft of the ship by the elevator, which is the back of the ship. Some people complain about bad vibrations in the aft. We did notice it pretty badly the first night, but it seemed once we got further out into the ocean and sped up it settled down. 

(Apparently door decorating is very popular on Disney Cruises. This was our contribution)

(The couch folds out into a single bed with a bunk bed option- which they will do for you every night)

After lunch we headed over to the kids clubs to check them out. Disney has several kids clubs for different ages. The Oceaneers Club and Lab (Ages 3-12), Edge (Ages 11-14), and Vibe (Ages 14-17). They also have a nursery as well that requires advanced reservations and there is an hourly fee. The other clubs are included in the price of the cruise and the kids can stay as long as they want. During your cruise you will be given a wave phone. If there are any issues or if your kid wants to be picked up the staff will call you on the wave phone. All the kids are given magic bands that they keep on for the duration of the cruise these are what they use to access the kids club, also once they scan it it will show who is allowed to pick up your kid from the club and a password is required to pick them up. The wristbands also give the ability for counselors to pull up the location of each kid in the club. 

The clubs have activities that are held throughout the day that will be listed in the navigator. The kids can chose to participate in those or just roam around and explore the club and partake in everything it has to offer. Arts & crafts, computer games, story telling, toys, and ongoing Disney movies are just a few of the activities they can participate in. There are also themed playrooms. At the time of our cruise on the Fantasy the themes were Andy's Room, Monsters Academy, Pixie Hollow, and Explorer Pod. The Fantasy has recently been renovated and Monsters Academy and Explorer Pod have been replaced with Star Wars Command Post and Marvel Super Hero Academy. My son so would have been in his glory!

For dinner you will be on a rotational dining schedule. You will rotate between 3 different restaurants each night. On the Fantasy the restaurants are Animators Palate, Enchanted Garden, and Royal Palace. You will also choose between 2 dinner times 5:45 and 8pm. Your wait staff will be the same each night and rotates through the restaurants with you. You can also choose to make reservations at the adult only restaurants Palo (Northern Italian) and Remy (French inspired menu). These do cost extra and have a dress code, but the experience (in my opinion) is worth it! We chose to try Remy, more about that on the day 2 review. Also dinner has a suggested attire theme each night. There are casual nights, semi formal and formal nights (and pirate night). You are not required to participate though, even though a lot of people do. Our first night was casual attire at Royal Palace. This is a royally themed restaurant and takes its design from movies like Cinderella, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast.

(Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pictures of the restaurant, but here we are enjoying dinner!)

After dinner we dropped the kids off at the kids club and went exploring the ship and checked out the stage show. Each night at the Walt Disney Theatre, a special show is offered that will be listed on the navigator. This nights show was called A Fantasy Come True. This is basically a welcome aboard show where a family is shown all the different things they can experience while on the cruise. 

And at the end of the night when you return to your room you beds will be turned down and there will be a new towel/blanket animal/creation for you to enjoy along with the next days Navigator.