67 - Disney Fantasy - Halloween, History, & Eastern Caribbean!

Join us as we set sail on Embarkation Day on our first Halloween on the High Seas onboard the Disney Fantasy! 

Transcript

Hey there, travel adventurers, and welcome back to "Travel Time"! I’m your host, Jennifer, and today, we’re setting sail for pure magic – Disney style! We’re diving into our recent 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise aboard the Disney Cruise Line’s Fantasy.

This wasn't our first rodeo on the Fantasy for an Eastern Caribbean itinerary; in fact, it was our second time on this magnificent ship for this route, and our 11th cruise overall! And for the first time ever, we were cruising as Platinum Castaway Club members, which comes with some nice perks and bragging rights!

Halloween on the High Seas: A Spooktacular First!

One of the biggest firsts for us on this particular sailing was experiencing a Halloween on the High Seas Cruise. And let me tell you, we absolutely loved it! The ship was decked out, with the iconic Halloween tree in the Atrium being a definite highlight, along with all the other fantastic decorations around the ship.

For the Halloween Trick-or-Treat day, we really got into the spirit! I embraced my inner Geena Davis and dressed up as a Peaches Baseball Player. It was so much fun because everywhere we went on the ship, I was greeted with "There's no crying in baseball!" My son, always the sport, dressed up as a tennis player, and he kept getting hailed as Roger Federer – it was hilarious! It’s incredible how much fun everyone has with the costumes, from little ones to adults.

A Family Affair (Mostly!)

This cruise was also a bit different because it was our first time cruising without all four of us. Our oldest son is away at college now, so he wasn’t able to join us this time. While we missed him, it allowed for some slightly different experiences. We enjoyed a wonderful brunch at Palo, the adult-exclusive Italian restaurant while our youngest was hanging out with friends from Vibe

Ports of Call: Island Hopping & Private Paradise

Our Eastern Caribbean itinerary took us to some beautiful spots. Our port stops included:

• Tortola, British Virgin Islands: A beautiful, lush island.
• St. Thomas, USVI: And from there, I also made it over to St. John’s, for an even more serene island experience.
• And, of course, the ultimate Disney private island experience: Castaway Cay! We'll definitely do a whole episode on Castaway Cay sometime, but suffice it to say, it's absolute paradise.

Thrills & Trivia: Winning Big at Sea

The fun kicked off right from the start! On the very first sea day, we participated in General Knowledge Trivia and won a Trivia medal! It’s always a great feeling to kick off a cruise with a victory. And then, we doubled down on our trivia prowess by winning Movie Quotes Trivia later in the cruise and snagging a cool Goofy medal! There’s nothing quite like the competitive, yet friendly, spirit of Disney trivia at sea.

Our Room: The Extended Balcony Dream!

Now, let's talk about our room – stateroom 6990. This was our first time in an extended balcony room, and it was absolutely fantastic! I can’t recommend it enough if you value outdoor space. We loved having the full-length lounge chairs and all that extra room to spread out.

Stateroom 6990 is located at the very back of the ship, just above the Dumbo on the stern. It features two full-size loungers, plus two chairs, and a little side table. I spent a significant amount of time out there, enjoying the ocean breeze, reading, and just watching the world go by.

It’s worth noting that this particular room only sleeps three, as it just has the convertible couch and no pull-down bunk. For us, with our oldest away at college, it was absolutely perfect.

Pre-Cruise Prep: Cocoa Beach & Manatee Sanctuary Park

To make embarkation day smooth, we always fly in the day before. Our go-to spot is the Homewood Suites in Cocoa Beach. It’s probably our favorite place to stay for Port Canaveral cruises! They offer a convenient cruise shuttle, so we typically hire a car or get an Uber from the airport to the hotel the night before, and then it’s super easy to get to the port the next morning.

One of my favorite pre-cruise rituals is to walk over to Manatee Sanctuary Park in the morning after a quick breakfast. You can get a good view of the ship from there, which is always exciting, and it’s a nice morning exercise break. And, honestly, I also go to do some birding before we leave! I almost always get to see some fun birds there. This trip was a little light on sightings as the weather was super windy and about to rain, but I still managed to spot a Loggerhead Shrike, a Mottled Duck, a Yellow Warbler, an Osprey, and some Boat-Tailed Grackles, to name a few that I don’t see as often at home. The park is just about a half-mile walk away from the hotel and is a nice, easy stroll with beautiful views.

Embarkation Day: Tips for a Smooth Start!

We had an 11:15 AM check-in time, so we headed over soon after I got back from my walk. Check-in was incredibly smooth, and we were assigned boarding group 5, so we found a comfortable spot to wait.

Now, this is an important tip for first-time cruisers: a lot of people confuse "check-in time" with "boarding time." They are two different things! Check-in is your reserved time to actually show up at the port and present your travel documents, matching those you scanned during online check-in.

When you arrive, you’ll first check any bags you don’t want to carry around with you until you can access your room, which is normally around 1:30 PM or 2:00 PM. Just make sure your boarding documents and check-in code are NOT packed in those checked bags! Also, luggage usually starts arriving at rooms around 2:30 PM, but we’ve had times where we didn't get a bag until around 5:00 PM. So, anything you need before then – swimsuits, medications, a change of clothes – needs to be with your carry-on bags. And a quick note: if you’ve packed items that aren’t allowed on board, your bags will typically arrive even later than 5:00 PM, as they have to go through extra security.

When you show up, they have clearly marked lines for the next four time intervals. We arrived about 11:00 AM, so we joined the 11:15 AM line. People for 11:30 AM, 11:45 AM, 12:00 PM, and 12:15 PM were all being queued up by their time slot. People arriving way too early for later times were politely asked to wait until their time was posted in a line to join, often sitting in the sun off to the sides of the line area. I actually appreciate that they honor the times because the inside of the terminal can get very backed up and crowded if people arrive too early, especially for times before 1:00 PM, because actual boarding usually doesn’t begin until around 12:00 PM.

Once you’ve successfully checked in, you’ll go through security with your carry-on bags and head up the escalator to the main terminal. Grab a seat, because now the wait begins for your boarding group to be called. While you wait, you should be able to access the ship’s Wi-Fi and connect to the Navigator App, which is your best friend on a Disney Cruise! We love to use this time to explore the activities on the ship and “heart” the ones we want to do. Any activities you add a heart to will allow your phone to notify you when it’s about to start – super handy! You can also use the time to try to book any last-minute activities or excursions you didn’t get during your booking window.

First off, dining. Disney usually pre-assigns your main dining rotation and seating time – either the early 5:45 PM or the later 8:15 PM. If you've gotten a specific seating and were hoping to switch to the other session, and you weren't able to do so in the app during your online check-in window, don't fret! Be sure to head to the dining change desk as soon as you board the ship to see if you can switch it - this is typically near Enchanted Garden on the Fantasy and the app will tell you what time the change requests start being taken. The specific time and location for this desk will always be clearly listed in your Navigator app, so check that first thing. It's often outside one of the main dining rooms, but it can vary by ship. We actually didn't need any changes this time, so we didn't visit that particular queue.

Once your boarding group is called and you step onto that magnificent ship, the first thing on our agenda, especially if we have an early boarding time, is usually to head straight up to Cabanas to get a quick bite to eat. This casual, buffet-style restaurant can get pretty crowded later, so grabbing an early lunch lets you enjoy your meal before the rush. That way, you can use the time after to wander around, explore the ship, or even join a trivia game while you wait for your cabin to be ready – which usually happens around 1:30 or 2 PM.

And speaking of cabins, once those doors open up and we get the all-clear, we usually like to get settled in our stateroom right away. This means putting away the bags we carried on board with us and getting the cabin organized. It might sound simple, but it makes such a difference, especially on a week or longer cruise! There’s something incredibly relaxing about having all your bags tucked away and your space set up for the week ahead.

After we're all settled in, my personal embarkation day ritual is to head straight to the Spa Raffle! If you enjoy spa treatments, this is a fantastic opportunity. They hold a raffle where you can win a free gift certificate for a treatment. All you have to do is go by the Senses Spa before your room is ready, sign up for the raffle, and then make sure you're present for the drawing later in the afternoon to win. I make sure to go every single time I cruise, and I've even been lucky enough to win twice over the years! It's definitely worth a few minutes of your time for a chance at some free pampering.

Dining & Entertainment Schedules

Disney usually has two main dining times: early seating, typically at 5:45 PM, and late seating, usually at 8:15 PM. The show times each evening in the Walt Disney Theatre are opposite your dinner time. So, if you have early dinner, you can catch the late show, and if you have late dinner, you can enjoy the early show. Usually, there are quite a few activities scheduled in between the dinner seatings. The Cruise Director often refers to this time as the "golden hour," and it's a great opportunity to explore the ship, hit a bar, or catch some live music.

And that brings us to the end of this episode about our truly magical journey aboard the Disney Fantasy! From Halloween fun to extended balconies and the ultimate private island, it was an unforgettable experience and on our next episode we’ll talk about the port stop in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.

I'm Jennifer, signing off from the high seas. Until next time… Happy Travels!