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]

Sunday 9th November (cont)

After showering and changing into smarter clothes we headed out for our brunch reservation at Palo.

Fancy lights

We started with a glass of Prosecco each, one glass is included in the cost of the brunch

We had the same server, Junior, as we’d had for dinner and again he was excellent. We chatted to him a bit about Madeira as he’d had a chance to spend some time off the ship and had loved it there as well.

Savoury breads, I love the one at the front

Pastries

I tried the almond croissant because Molly from Mammoth Club always raves about it in her cruise videos. I thought it was just flaked almonds on the outside which I like, bit of a mistake on my part. It was filled with an almond paste which I really dislike, luckily my bite was mostly the pastry which was very good. This was just not to my taste at all, you really need to like that marzipan flavour to enjoy it. What I did enjoy was the chocolate hazelnut pastry next to it

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 9th November (cont)

Junior had explained the menu to us, that we could order as many dishes as we wanted

Seafood antipasti to start, everything was very good especially the tuna

Zucchini frittata which I’ve had before and love, perfectly simple dish done very well

Next was the mushroom ravioli, another quite simple dish that tasted very good. I loved the lemony butter

Then dessert

I was quite full and only wanted something light so had the pannacotta which was delicious

This was another excellent Palo meal, well worth paying extra for

It was almost empty by the time we left so I managed a photo of the private dining room

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 9th November (cont)

After brunch I relaxed on the verandah while booking Lightning Lanes for after the cruise. I did find it more difficult than in the summer to get the times that I would have liked, especially for Hollywood Studios even though that was going to be our fourth park day.

We were sailing through a fog patch which seemed appropriate as it was going to be pirate night

I wasn’t feeling 100% so spent the afternoon napping and chilling on the verandah, I wanted to make sure I felt ok for the pirate night show and fireworks later. Sophie got dressed up early, she was on a mission to get the most important character photo of the cruise

She also won pirate trivia on her own

Luckily the fog didn’t last long

We were properly on our way across the ocean now

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 9th November (cont)

We were in Animator’s Palate for dinner which is my favourite dining room for pirate night, it can be themed because of all the screens

The same photo I’ve taken every time I’m in this dining room, I love the themed tableware

Pirate night menus, for a lot of cruisers this is their least favourite menu but I’ve always enjoyed it

Shrimp to start, followed by the grouper

There was some sort of table protector under our tablecloth which was making the surface a bit wobbly so we gave Sulley the wine to look after

There wasn’t anything on the dessert menu that stood out for me so I went with the Pirate’s Treasure sundae

 

[littleroo]

Do you have a picture of your pirate outfit, too? Sophie looks adorable in her outfit!!

I don't know, the pirate menu looks pretty great to me! I will have one of each!

 

[cgersic]

Sophie's pirate outfit is amazing!!! And the fog definitely added to the theme.

 

[Baron Von Capybara]

we may have a couple of those butter knives at home

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

we may have a couple of those butter knives at home

Because they sell them onboard?????

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Do you have a picture of your pirate outfit, too? Sophie looks adorable in her outfit!!

I don't know, the pirate menu looks pretty great to me! I will have one of each!

I am not the best at getting my photo taken and my outfit was nowhere near as elaborate as Sophie’s

I’ve never understood why people don’t like the pirate night menu

 

[Baron Von Capybara]

Because they sell them onboard?????

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 9th November (cont)

We wanted a good spot for the pirate show and fireworks so after dinner headed straight up to the top decks. The space filled up very quickly

We had a very good view of the stage from where we were, I think this is the best view I’ve had on pirate night

I even got to watch some of it through someone else’s phone

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 9th November (cont)

The show was a lot of fun

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 9th November (cont)

More pirate photos

And fireworks . There’d been rumours that they weren’t going to go ahead with them because it was pretty windy, they ended up being on the opposite side of the ship to usual so they wouldn’t blow back

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 9th November (cont)

There was a dance party after the fireworks, we decided to escape the crowds

We took our drinks back to our room

It’s very important to watch at least the start of the movie on pirate night

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 10th November: Day 2 of 7 Days at Sea

Second day in a row of Mickey churro waffles at breakfast

An early morning walk around deck 4

And then a very busy day of lounging in my favourite spot. The weather was mostly gorgeous apart from the ten minutes of rain that we were warned about in advance that the ship couldn’t avoid. With all the ocean space available we could often sail around any rain patches, if we couldn’t there would be a very exact announcement about when it would rain and how long for. I just bundled up and waited it out

Later on some verandah time, miles and miles of nothing

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 10th November (cont)

That evening there was a violinist called Katerina Rossa performing in the Walt Disney Theatre and she was amazing. She was playing Disney tunes while dancing around the stage in a ball gown and heels, my favourites were Let It Go and Pirates in the Caribbean

An outdoor walk to the Europa area

Making my drink

I seem to have taken a lot of photos of this drink, it’s very pretty

Then to Enchanted Garden for a Mediterranean themed menu

I had the shrimp to start but don’t have a photo, followed by the beef. Both were very good

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 10th November (cont)

Desserts

The strawberry crème puff

After dinner we went to watch a livestream of the Destiny christening on funnelvision. It was surprisingly quiet, I thought more cruisers would have been interested

Then up to Goofy’s sports deck for stargazing. I’d really enjoyed this last year, all the lights were switched off and the view of the night sky was beautiful. This year it was too cloudy to see anything

Tonight’s room creation