This is a somewhat scaled down trip report of my recent cruise on the Disney Fantasy, which included a Pixar Day at Sea. I sailed with my wife, my daughter Molly, and her wife Mariah. None of us had ever experienced a Pixar Day Sea sailing, so we were excited. It was also Mariah's first time on the Fantasy. The day before we sailed, we visited the Riviera Resort and had dinner at Topolino’s Terrace restaurant, but I'll put pictures of the food and the resort grounds in other threads. This is just for the cruise.
Day 1 -- Port Canaveral, Sunny 70°
This was Molly's first cruise as a Pearl Castaway Club member, so our Port Arrival Time was 11:30 and our boarding group was #2. We got to the port at about 11, and were guided to a line outside the terminal for 11:30 people. They actually started the boarding a little early and we were inside the terminal at 11:15. I took a lot of pictures, and because Molly is Pearl, we got the photo package for free. So we took advantage of the ship photographers right away!
We boarded around 11:45. The girls headed to Cabanas for lunch. I headed to Guest Services. There was a Toy Story breakfast and a character meet-and-greet that I had been unable to book online prior to departure. ("We are unable to complete your request at this time"
) So I wanted to see if there were any spots available. I explained the situation and he asked exactly what I wanted to sign up for, I told him, and after about 10 minutes, he said, "Ok, you're all set". So I left feeling ecstatic and joined everybody for lunch.
Later that evening, the events still had not appeared in My Plans in the app, so I went back and this person told me that we had only been placed on the waiting list. We had never actually gotten the reservations that I wanted. This was a really big disappointment. If he'd told me that we were on the waiting list in the first place, I sort of would have expected that and not been too disappointed. But because he left me thinking that we'd gotten the reservations, somehow it felt worse.
The afternoon was very windy. So much so that they actually pulled the gangway away from the ship and halted boarding for almost 2 hours. Many, many people didn't actually get onto the ship until 4:00. That was unfortunate for those people, but it also meant that we couldn't complete the muster drill until everyone was onboard and at their stations. So those of us who went up on deck at 3:30, when the drill started, stood for 45 minutes or more before it was over. There was nothing that DCL could have done about it, but it generated a LOT of unhappy comments from guests. I have to admit that I would much prefer if they went back to the online muster drill that was introduced immediately after COVID. But this wasn't the worst thing in the world for me.
After the muster drill, we walked through Europa since it was Mariah's first time onboard. She's sailed on the Dream and the Magic previous to this. I love the Dream, as well, but I like Europa's theming more than The District. La Piazza is so fun, and I like Ooh-La-La better than Pink on the Dream.
After wandering and unpacking, we went to see Aladdin in the Walt Disney Theater. I've seen it before but that was 10 years ago!
I really enjoyed it. Jasmine and Aladdin were both terrific and Jafar was played by an actor with Broadway experience. He was fantastic! (I forgot to write down his name, sorry.) Carpet was funny and Genie did a good job of not going overboard with his ad-libs.
(Before the muster drill and after the Aladdin show, I snuck off to O'Gills to watch parts of the NFL playoff games. It was pretty fun with the whole place packed.)
Our first dinner was in Animator's Palate. In fact, we had a very odd dining rotation. First two nights in Animator's, then two nights. in Enchanted Garden, then one night in Royal Court. Our serving team was really good, despite our Assistant Server (Francisca) being on her very first contract. While our service was terrific, the food was pretty mediocre. The beef tenderloin was overcooked, the bolognese was very average, and the pork tenderloin was as dry as sawdust. (On our second night, the shrimp mac-and-cheese appetizer was dry and way overdone. Not our best experience in Animator's.) But Crush came to visit us at our table, and that was fun. Overall, we enjoyed our evening and were mostly just happy and excited to be on the ship!
One thing that didn't make me happy was that near the end of our meal, some of the servers started cleaning up their sections and they were sweeping up into buckets and they were just banging the brooms on the buckets. It was not magical. And then, while we were still having dessert, the music shut off and the lights came up to full brightness. It was like they were telling us we had to get out because they were closing up. That was not cool. And we hadn't shown up late for our seating or anything like that. We got to the restaurant right on time. But we decided to go 15 minutes earlier the next night, and thankfully, that made a difference as we didn't have that experience again.
It was already 10:15 and we didn't feel like doing Karaoke, so we walked around Deck 11 for a little bit (although I was too full to get an ice cream for dessert) before heading back to the room for the night.
Day 1 -- Port Canaveral, Sunny 70°
This was Molly's first cruise as a Pearl Castaway Club member, so our Port Arrival Time was 11:30 and our boarding group was #2. We got to the port at about 11, and were guided to a line outside the terminal for 11:30 people. They actually started the boarding a little early and we were inside the terminal at 11:15. I took a lot of pictures, and because Molly is Pearl, we got the photo package for free. So we took advantage of the ship photographers right away!
We boarded around 11:45. The girls headed to Cabanas for lunch. I headed to Guest Services. There was a Toy Story breakfast and a character meet-and-greet that I had been unable to book online prior to departure. ("We are unable to complete your request at this time"
) So I wanted to see if there were any spots available. I explained the situation and he asked exactly what I wanted to sign up for, I told him, and after about 10 minutes, he said, "Ok, you're all set". So I left feeling ecstatic and joined everybody for lunch. Later that evening, the events still had not appeared in My Plans in the app, so I went back and this person told me that we had only been placed on the waiting list. We had never actually gotten the reservations that I wanted. This was a really big disappointment. If he'd told me that we were on the waiting list in the first place, I sort of would have expected that and not been too disappointed. But because he left me thinking that we'd gotten the reservations, somehow it felt worse.
The afternoon was very windy. So much so that they actually pulled the gangway away from the ship and halted boarding for almost 2 hours. Many, many people didn't actually get onto the ship until 4:00. That was unfortunate for those people, but it also meant that we couldn't complete the muster drill until everyone was onboard and at their stations. So those of us who went up on deck at 3:30, when the drill started, stood for 45 minutes or more before it was over. There was nothing that DCL could have done about it, but it generated a LOT of unhappy comments from guests. I have to admit that I would much prefer if they went back to the online muster drill that was introduced immediately after COVID. But this wasn't the worst thing in the world for me.
After the muster drill, we walked through Europa since it was Mariah's first time onboard. She's sailed on the Dream and the Magic previous to this. I love the Dream, as well, but I like Europa's theming more than The District. La Piazza is so fun, and I like Ooh-La-La better than Pink on the Dream.
After wandering and unpacking, we went to see Aladdin in the Walt Disney Theater. I've seen it before but that was 10 years ago!
I really enjoyed it. Jasmine and Aladdin were both terrific and Jafar was played by an actor with Broadway experience. He was fantastic! (I forgot to write down his name, sorry.) Carpet was funny and Genie did a good job of not going overboard with his ad-libs.(Before the muster drill and after the Aladdin show, I snuck off to O'Gills to watch parts of the NFL playoff games. It was pretty fun with the whole place packed.)
Our first dinner was in Animator's Palate. In fact, we had a very odd dining rotation. First two nights in Animator's, then two nights. in Enchanted Garden, then one night in Royal Court. Our serving team was really good, despite our Assistant Server (Francisca) being on her very first contract. While our service was terrific, the food was pretty mediocre. The beef tenderloin was overcooked, the bolognese was very average, and the pork tenderloin was as dry as sawdust. (On our second night, the shrimp mac-and-cheese appetizer was dry and way overdone. Not our best experience in Animator's.) But Crush came to visit us at our table, and that was fun. Overall, we enjoyed our evening and were mostly just happy and excited to be on the ship!
One thing that didn't make me happy was that near the end of our meal, some of the servers started cleaning up their sections and they were sweeping up into buckets and they were just banging the brooms on the buckets. It was not magical. And then, while we were still having dessert, the music shut off and the lights came up to full brightness. It was like they were telling us we had to get out because they were closing up. That was not cool. And we hadn't shown up late for our seating or anything like that. We got to the restaurant right on time. But we decided to go 15 minutes earlier the next night, and thankfully, that made a difference as we didn't have that experience again.
It was already 10:15 and we didn't feel like doing Karaoke, so we walked around Deck 11 for a little bit (although I was too full to get an ice cream for dessert) before heading back to the room for the night.
I had the pot de creme for dessert, and it tasted ok, but the texture was weird, almost like jello. It was ok, but not my fave.
)
Anyway, next time you drive to the port, if you want a break on parking, you can check it out for yourself.