Magical memories for a lifetime

Our last cruise on the Disney Fantasy was one of our best Disney Cruise - checking almost all the boxes - and we have done Alaska, Iceland, Panama and other wonderful cruises with Disney. When on the Dream or Fantasy, I like having access to an extended AFT Verandah. We don't always make the best use of the verandah, but on this specific itinerary, this was a game changer as the views from each of the ports that we were departing were just amazing. Now, there was only one small negative on this cruise and this is a known issue with the Disney Fantasy, at high speed or in more unsettled seas, the AFT portion of the ship does vibrate quite a bit and there were a few nights where we felt those vibrations - not enough to bother us, but it was the most noticeable we ever had. Other than that, plenty of storage for clothes and toiletries, and a lot of space to store the empty suitcases under the bed. Comfortable beds and enough space to move around in the room. The split bathroom concept worked its magic, as usual, with enough space in each ones. Food wise, yes, there are some differences with the food products that would be offered out of Port Caneveral or Port Everglades, but generally found the food to be of better quality than when sailing out of these two ports. There were some exceptions with some of the fish dishes being a little... fishy and dishes with fresh tomatoes a little disappointing (which was surprising sailing out of Italy) - but then again, those were the exceptions. Service in the dining room, and housekeeping was excellent throughout the stay. Service at Palo was also excellent. On the entertainment side, there were quite a few late all aboard times, but there was still something on most of the nights in the Walt Disney Theater, including the 3 Broadway quality shows and a number of variety acts. Yes, the top deck (pool and adult areas) were quite busy one our 3 days at sea as we had nice, hot weather throughout. The flipside is that the lines to take pictures for characters, magic shots and select backgrounds tended to be fairly reasonable during daytime, up until main dining. Having the Disney Photographs on select port adventures was also a nice touch which ultimately convinced us to get the unlimited picture package for this cruise. We really enjoyed out stops in Chania, Athens, Rhodes, Santorini and Naples. We would definitely do a slightly different variation of this itinerary. We also love when Disney offer cruises longer than 7 nights because you will have the more unique menus being made available at the main dining rooms on select nights

Amazing !

I had always been curious about going on a cruise, but up until I sailed aboard the Fantasy, I had only ever been to All Inclusives. Boy was I missing out! The food is fantastic. The service impeccable. Both island destinations are fantastic and very unique. Castaway Cay is a great way to introduce young children to the ocean. Disney has effectively created a lagoon here with a large rock wall so the water is calm and easy for young children to navigate. Lighthouse Cay is a very different experience. The beach faces east and the open ocean. I really enjoyed this beach as there are a ton of reefs to snorkel and explore. A quick stop in Massau on day two rounds out the 5 night cruise. We stayed in an interior state room and I thought it was lovely. Others in our party had balcony rooms so there was an opportunity to enjoy that as well. We travelled with a party of 16 and this was the trip of a lifetime. Highly recommend!

Cruising and Disney fan tries 1st Disney Cruise

Family of 7 (grandparents, adults, and a 5 year old) has been on many cruises with both mainstream and premium level cruise lines and much of the Disney parks. This was our family's FIRST DISNEY CRUISE. Despite fairly high expectations and a hefty price tag, Disney Cruise line/Fantasy impressed us: POSITIVE SURPRISES: 1. The sheer investment and design quality of the ship made me feel like I was walking through a AAA ride like Beauty and the Beast at Tokyo Disney or a AAA restaurant like the Be Our Guest Restaurant at Magic Kingdom. Royal Court restaurant made me think I was waiting in line to see the princesses at the Castle. 2. The food in the 3 main dining rooms and buffets were excellent - Better than MDR on Royal Caribbean, Princess and Celebrity. My mother, who is uppity about her food, is ready to abandon other cruise lines and just go exclusive with Disney. 3. The entertainment was diverse, exciting, and made use of some costumes, props, and environments with high production quality. You won’t find Broadway-level shows like this on other cruise lines.The violinist was great. The magician was impressive. Most of the Broadway actors were great singers and danced with the right energy. The 5YO played Midship Detective 3 times. 4. On other cruise lines, you might have 50 activities a day, but Disney has 250. Disney is super efficient with utilizing their space and employees to max out the entertainment 5. To that point, I was surprised at the raw density of Meet N Greets. My biggest complaint about the Disney Parks is their stinginess with character meetings. The cruise got it right, and there were multiple after-dinner events where the 5-year old had a blast dancing with many costumed characters. The attention from the costumed characters alone is almost enough to fork over money for another cruise. 6. Strong phone app to help organize activities, preview dining menus, and chat with family members for free 7. High customer service everywhere. On a crappy cruise line, a waiter might deal with 32-38 passengers. On this cruise line, he’s focusing on providing good service to 16-18 passengers. 8. I have never seen such an amazing/large cabin - footrest for the shower, curtain to divide the room, huge sofa bed, a separate bathroom/sink for the toilet. NEGATIVE SURPRISES: 1. The percussion show was a good idea to add variety, but we found their act incredibly boring. Disney, you can do better than that. 2. I was raised to believe in tipping people for their work, so my family never scoffed at the prepaid gratuities, but we were always under the assumption this was enough. I was mortified to learn how much the staff was relying on us to tip beyond the prepaid. NOBODY PRESSURED US TO TIP MORE. But I think Disney needs to find a gentle way to educate its customers that these servers are doing twice the work for half the number of customers, so it makes sense for customers to pick up the financial slack. 3. 90% of the entertainment and entertainers were great, but the Jasmine actress (Broadway, not Meet N Greet) looked overweight and totally out of place. 4. Just warning you that you have a slim window to give feedback, so push pause on your photo-organizations and do the official Disney survey before it expires. CONCLUSION: I originally thought the Disney cruises were going to be good quality but horrendously overpriced. Now I think they are great quality and only teeny bit overpriced. Yeah, we paid a premium, but we got great food, great interior design, Broadway shows, lots of attention from costumed characters, and an amazing cabin. Bottomline is my nephew didn't want to leave the ship and my mother is pestering me to look into booking our 2nd Disney cruise.