Trip Report A Fantasy Trip To Disney

I’m finally getting around to sharing last November’s trip to Disney. This was another mother/daughter trip but this time with a different daughter, Sophie, the oldest of the four. She’s six years older than number two so we had a few trips with her as an only child before the others came along, but she was missing from a few family trips when she was a teenager because she went through a too cool for Disney stage. Luckily she’s outgrown that now though.

I’ll try to include some throwback photos, I’ll need to go through some boxes because most of the early ones were before digital cameras.

The earliest digital one I can find. She’s a huge Stitch fan, Lilo and Stitch was her first ever trip to the cinema aged three.

And the last time she was in Disney World in 2018

The plan for this trip was:

November 3rd: Depart Southampton on the Disney Fantasy sailing across the Atlantic Ocean
November 4th: A day at sea, crossing the Bay of Biscay
November 5th: A Coruña, Spain
November 6th: Vigo, Spain
November 7th: A day at sea
November 8th: Funchal, Madeira
November 9th-15th: Seven days at sea
November 16th: Arrive at Port Canaveral

And then the parks portion of the trip was five nights at All Star Movies with the UK park tickets and Christmas party tickets on November 20th, then flying home on November 21st.

But not everything quite went to plan

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

I just wanted to say that I really appreciate you and your great TR style. Your TR's are always chocked full of great info and pics. I am glad you and Sophie could make this trip. The rest of your family is wonderful also. You will look back years down the road and be thankful for all the time and love you put into these TR's. Thank you for sharing them with us.

Thank you so much, I’m so glad you enjoy them. I think I’ve surprised myself by how much I’ve enjoyed writing these reports, it definitely makes the memories last longer. It took a long time for me to join in on these forums, I lurked for ages before I even created an account, and I really appreciate everyone following along.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 4th November (cont)

After breakfast I tried to go for my morning walk around deck 4 but it was closed because of the rough seas so I wandered around the inside spaces for a while. I did notice a few familiar faces during my wanderings, a lot of people are repeat sailors on transatlantic cruises.

One of those faces was this gorgeous girl (photo from the Dream last year)

The outside spaces that day felt like a ghost ship. Besides the rocking of the ship making people feel ill, it was pretty chilly outside.

The main pool deck after lunch

I bundled up with blankets and sat in a very quiet Quiet Cove

Sophie spent most of the day in the room feeling pretty rough. I went back to take some snacks and drinks but mostly gave her some space. She did start feeling better by late afternoon and luckily this was the only day she was ill.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 4th November (cont)

Before dinner I went to listen to some piano music in Ooh La La champagne bar, my favourite bar on a Disney ship. I love the champagne cocktails there

Sophie hadn’t felt up to joining me for a drink but did meet me for dinner in Enchanted Garden

Ahi tuna and avocado tower to start

Followed by the scallops

Understandably Sophie didn’t want to eat anything too rich so opted for one of the ‘Lighter Notes’ that are always available on the menus, plain baked salmon and steamed white rice. She also skipped dessert

I did not skip dessert, I had one of my favourites the lemon mousse

We both smiled at our table mates when they arrived at the table and once again they completely blanked us. The place settings had already been set up so there was an empty space between us and they at least ate quickly and left. After they left we chatted about how uncomfortable it felt and decided that the next day we would go to guest services and see if we could move tables, we still had 11 more dinners and didn’t want to spend them feeling so awkward

On the way back to the room Sophie found a duck. Lots of cruisers like to hide ducks around the ship

Our towel/bedspread creation

Stitch was having a well deserved rest, he’d worked overtime keeping Sophie company while she was ill

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 5th November: A Coruña, Spain

This was my second time visiting this port and the first time for Sophie. Our plan for the day was to walk to the Tower of Hercules, the oldest working lighthouse in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I’d only visited the grounds last time with Alice and Lexi but they hadn’t wanted to go inside, so this time I really wanted to go in. I’d bought tickets online a week in advance, as soon as they were available, but had only been able to get a time slot of 10am even though I’d tried for later in the morning. Visitor numbers are very restricted because it’s a small space and I wondered if the later slots were block booked for tour groups from the ship.

Last time a Royal Caribbean ship had been in the main parking spot so I hadn’t been greeted by the statues at the cruise terminal that @Baron Von Capybara later told me about.

This time, please enjoy my edited version

I have no idea why naked people greet the cruise ships. There are a few ‘clothing optional’ beaches in the area so maybe they’re encouraging people to go there

The weather forecast was chilly and rainy so we’d layered up. It was just drizzling a bit when we first set out

There is a lot of artwork around the port

It started raining a bit more as we walked through the town square, Plaza de Maria Pita

Maria Pita, who helped defend the city from an English attack in 1589

 

[Baron Von Capybara]

Glad you finally got to see those statues.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 5th November (cont)

Continuing our walk to the lighthouse, it’s about 2km, the rain was getting heavier. It didn’t bother us too much though. I don’t mind some rain, it had rained on all my port days in Norway and I still had a great time

Onto the Paseo Marítimo, one of the longest seafront promenades in Europe

The promenade is a lovely wide path with lanes for walkers, runners and cyclists. On a nice day there would be lots of people using it

Photo from previous visit

This was not one of those nice days

By the time we reached the grounds of the lighthouse the rain was torrential. The wind blowing in from the sea was making it fall sideways and it was hitting my face so hard that it hurt. And I realised I’d worn the wrong clothes. Instead of my lighter weight but fully waterproof jacket, I’d worn a warmer but only shower resistant jacket and the rain had soaked through all the layers underneath. Also because Sophie was wearing jeans not walking trousers and I thought she’d be more uncomfortable if they got wet, I’d given her my waterproof over-trousers. My shower resistant trousers were also soaked through, so much so that the rain had then soaked through my socks and inside of my waterproof shoes. I was sploshing along in my own personal puddles. The road next to us was more like a river. It was so bad that it was funny

Sophie was dancing in the rain

We still had to walk up the path to the lighthouse that was very exposed to the wind and rain (last year’s photo)

It took us about 0.0001 seconds to decide that nope, we weren’t doing that

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 5th November (cont)

Rather than walk back to the ship along the promenade we decided to try to find a route through the streets that would be a bit more sheltered

Some of Sophie’s photos along the way, I’m not sure of the order. I was using my phone to navigate

By the time we arrived back at the cruise terminal it had completely stopped raining, if I’d managed to get a later entry time to the lighthouse we probably would have missed the rain

We passed our two favourite people who were leaving the ship as we were getting back. They looked away as soon as they saw us. I was cold, wet and slightly grouchy at this point and while I’m not normally a sweary person there were some words along the lines of “I’m not letting those miserable flippety flipping bleeps spoil our dinners for the rest of the cruise”. As soon as we were back on the ship I went straight to guest services and explained the situation. There had been empty tables in the dining room so I was hoping we would be able to move. I made a point of saying we would like to stay with our servers, I didn’t want the fact that we’d requested to move tables to reflect badly on them at all. Luckily that evening we were at a different table and our dinners were much more pleasant after that.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 5th November (cont)

After we’d dried off we bundled up in blankets in Quiet Cove and warmed up with some coffees

That afternoon we played a few rounds of trivia.

One of our rounds was paused for a ship wide Captain’s announcement. Usually on a ship after the first afternoon, announcements are only in common areas not in the rooms. Only very important ones like this one are still broadcast into the rooms. The sea conditions overnight were expected to be very bad so the Captain believed the safest course of action was to stay where we were, we would not be going to Vigo the next day

The message was sent to the DCL Navigator app as well

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 5th November (cont)

Dinner was in Royal Court and we had our own four seater table. This definitely feels like the fanciest of the three main dining rooms

I had the shrimp followed by the steak . I’d also asked if I could have the Brussel sprouts that came with the lamb

Then my favourite dessert on a Disney ship, the Grand Marnier soufflé. I persuaded Sophie to order it as well and she loved it

Dinner was much more relaxed with just the two of us

As well as the three main Broadway shows that are shown on all the cruises, the longer cruises also have lots of other acts nightly in the Walt Disney Theatre. On this cruise we had two magicians, a juggler, a violinist, some Broadway artists and a crew talent show. The acts often put on an extra show after dinner that was adult only, not because there was anything inappropriate in them but sometimes it’s just nice to have something that’s just for adults. That night we got ourselves some after dinner drinks and went to the adult only magic show which was excellent

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 5th November (cont)

Back in the room

The nighttime view of the port from our verandah

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 6th November: Still in A Coruña, Spain

After yesterday’s walk being a washout we decided we wanted to make another attempt to go to the lighthouse. I’d bought tickets for midday so we had a later start to the morning

Leaving the ship we could see the clouds starting to break up

I hadn’t noticed the Christmas decoration the day before

Back through the town square

These odd tricycles were like big strollers. They had older people wrapped up in blankets in the front, it looked very cosy

Then to the seafront promenade again with some lovely views. The walk was so much more pleasant although the temperature was still a bit on the chilly side and it was very, very windy

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 6th November (cont)

We made it onto the walkway up to the tower

And then

I’m really not meant to go inside that lighthouse

We made the most of it and explored the grounds for a while

The idiot award of the day went to the people climbing the rocks in the crazy winds. People really will do stupid things for a photo

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 6th November (cont)

We continued our walk along the promenade

The beaches weren’t getting any use today

I spy Mickey

Even though we hadn’t been able to go inside the lighthouse we’d still had a lovely walk

We made it back on the ship before Cabanas closed for lunch. Peanut butter cheesecake today

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 6th November (cont)

I’d booked a few drinks seminars for this cruise, this was a first for me. There are lots of these available every day on the ship, at an additional charge, and they include cocktail classes and wine, rum and whiskey tasting. Today we were going to Ooh La La for champagne tasting

The class was taken by a sommelier from Palo and it was very interesting. I’m more of a red wine drinker and didn’t really know much about champagne going into the class. As well as the tasting we learned about how champagne is produced and its history. Particularly interesting to me was learning about sabrage, the ceremonial opening of a bottle of champagne with a sword which dates back to the Napoleonic wars, as there are a group local to me that do this.

The champagnes we tasted from lightest on the left, plus the Moet ice on the right. My favourite was the Veuve Clicqout which the sommelier said was quite often the favourite of red wine drinkers, it was his favourite as well. Least favourite was the Moet ice, champagne over ice just doesn’t seem right

I really enjoyed this class and so did Sophie. It is a bit pricey at $75 each, but you do get good quality champagne and our teacher was excellent. It was also a very small class, only three other people, so it was very easy to ask questions if you wanted to.

I’d noticed that Sophie was only taking a few sips of each drink and checked that she was enjoying it. As we were due to leave port soon she was worried that she would start to feel ill again so didn’t want to drink too much

I took the opportunity to take some photos of the bar in the daylight

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 6th November (cont)

Outside the bar are the fanciest bathrooms on a Disney ship. I don’t know how true the story is but a few days later on a ship tour our guide told us they were the second most expensive Disney bathrooms to build, the first being the Tangled bathrooms in MK

We were finally back at sea, it was good to be moving again after two days in port

I needed to soak up some of my champagne

 

[belledream]

Outside the bar are the fanciest bathrooms on a Disney ship. I don’t know how true the story is but a few days later on a ship tour our guide told us they were the second most expensive Disney bathrooms to build, the first being the Tangled bathrooms in MK

I would really love to believe this is true, because my jaw dropped when I walked into those bathrooms. It was unreal how opulent they were!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 6th November (cont)

For dinner we were back in Animator’s for the regular menu and the Crush show

I know I had the pasta purseittes because I love them but forgot to take a photo. I’d persuaded Sophie to try them as well but she didn’t like them

Then a salad and the beef

The dessert menu but no dessert photo. I’m pretty sure I had the lemon icebox pie

That night’s towel creation

 

[cgersic]

I can't get over the spots on the champagne glasses before the class! At $75 pp, I would think they would sparkle!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

I can't get over the spots on the champagne glasses before the class! At $75 pp, I would think they would sparkle!

Weirdly they weren’t noticeable when I was in the bar, I would have remembered something like that. It’s only when I saw the photo after that I noticed

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Friday 7th November: Day at sea

A very exciting start to the day: laundry. A downside of a longer cruise is having to do laundry and with limited facilities it can become a bit of a battle for washing machines. An upside of being an early riser is I never had an issue getting one at 6am

The sea was still a bit rough but nowhere near as bad as the first day, and it was a lovely sunny morning but still a bit on the cooler side. This meant that deck 4 was open and I could go for my morning walk even if it was hard to walk in a straight line because of the ship’s motion

Then some time up on the pool deck

On a sea day I mostly just love to relax and watch the sea but for those who prefer organised activities there is a lot to do. As well as the usual sea day activities on a Disney cruise like character meet and greets, animation classes, crafts and trivia, a transatlantic has lots of extras. This cruise we had Don ‘Ducky’ Williams again who gave a couple of talks and led an animation class, a Disney archivist giving daily talks, cooking demonstrations and a pair of professional dancers giving daily classes. It would be very hard to be bored

This sea day we also had a reception for Castaway Club members who were gold level or above, this only happens on cruises that are longer than seven days. This took place in the Walt Disney Theatre. After an introduction from Cruise Director Jimmy, Captain Wesley came out and spoke for a while. I might be a bit biased because he was a fellow Brit, but Captain Wesley was the best captain. Obviously it’s a job with an incredible amount of responsibility that is taken very seriously, and he had to make the big decision to miss Vigo, but other more relaxed times like the reception he was very funny

In this reception we were shown a bit of behind the scenes from the Aladdin show, in particular how the flying carpet works. The system for this was part of the IT upgrade that had happened in the Fantasy’s recent dry dock. We saw the carpet operate with the smoke effects and then without and could see how all the system moves underneath it. It was very interesting

Photo from the DCL website

We were also introduced to the backstage crew of the theatre, people you rarely get to see

After that I had time for some more lounging before lunch

Earlier that day I’d got chatting to a lady in Cabanas, it started because we were both wearing Pooh hoodies. She was also wearing some Pooh earrings which I’d complemented her on. That afternoon I bumped into her again and she pixie dusted me these earrings which she’d made herself