After breakfast we went back to our room to grab our bags and as soon as we were allowed to, we got off the ship. We decided to walk to the second family beach over by Pelican Plunge because I thought we would play on it more than we did. As we were walking we did see the trams but we wanted to look around. We enjoyed looking at the vegetation and decorations along the way. Once at the beach we quickly picked some chairs to set our stuff on. Jonathan really wanted to go down the slide on Pelican Plunge first so he and Ryan headed off that; however, Ryan didn’t want to go without me so I went too. We all put on life jackets even though they aren’t required if you are over a certain height (I still recommend them). We swam out to the dock and it was much deeper than we expected. We climbed the stairs and everyone was excited to go down the slide. Since it was still early the line was not long at all. I was up first so that I could catch Ryan at the bottom and the life guard at the top told me to hold on to my sunglasses. I said “ok” not thinking much about it, well I should have just taken them off but I didn’t. As I went down the slide I was surprised at how fast it was. It was a fun ride . . . . . until you got to the bottom. The drop off was much further than I had anticipated. And the lifeguard wasn’t kidding. I hit the water and my glasses flew off and were no where to be found. By the time I got my breathe I had to get ready to catch Ryan and wasn’t sure how that was going to work. Well, the lifeguard standing on a platform at the bottom said I couldn’t catch him, that I had to wait at the side (again, thankful for the life jacket so I didn’t have to tread water for this). Ryan flew off the slide and was not happy. I got him as quickly as I could but I know he still swallowed water and was a bit scared. Thankfully, he was fine as soon as I had him and all he said was that he didn’t like it. Jonathan came down next as I was trying to swim back to shore with Ryan. And he quickly noticed my glasses were missing and thought this was hilarious. I filled out a form at the life jacket drop off and they told me that they dive at the end of the day to get lost items (since they have a lot!) and to check back that evening on the ship to see if they had found them. In hindsight, I would not have had Ryan go down this slide (and probably shouldn’t have either since I am pregnant); however, that didn’t even cross my mind despite every other thing we did I always had Jonathan check it out first. But we were all just fine and did enjoy the slide (it was just the drop that wasn’t fun).
We went back to our chairs to dry off and I realized there was no way I was going to be able to make it thru the day without another pair of sunglasses. So, off I went to buy a new pair from one of the shops on the island. Jonathan and Ryan stayed to play in the sand and water. Thankfully, I found a cute pair that was only $20 (I was scared I was going to be paying much more than this but the sun was so bright they were a necessity!). After I got my new sunglasses I rented two floats for us to use then headed back to the beach (all this was very close together so it didn’t take me long at all). I took the floats out to Jonathan and Ryan who were in the water and we all climbed on (Ryan rotated back and forth between Jonathan and me, he also had on his puddle jumper). This was so much fun! We loved just floating out in the water. We stayed out there for a long time. And again, I was so thankful for having Ryan’s puddle jumper. He felt so confident in the water instead of holding on to one of us for dear life. We had planned on renting bikes while on Castaway Cay; however, we were having so much fun just playing/relaxing in the water we changed our minds. After quiet some time we did get out and walk around a little bit. We found the kids’ splash area and Ryan played in there for a little bit; however, I think he got sprayed in the eye or maybe he got sunscreen in his eye, either way he was crying and his eye was red. We decided now was a good time to go get something to eat and sit down for a bit.
We found Cookies II pretty easily and got our plates. We were a bit disappointed in the selection of food (burgers, hotdogs, a few fruits and bagged chips) and then really disappointed when we ate. The burgers were very dry and tasteless. My husband said this was easily the worst meal of the whole trip. We weren’t expecting gourmet food but we were definitely not expecting the bad food we had. And Ryan didn’t eat much more than chips (he’s not much of a hot dog fan and he didn’t want to eat the burger). We did get yummy cookies and ice cream though. We sat for awhile letting Ryan calm down as he was still a bit cranky from hurting his eye (I tried to wash it out as best I could in case it was sunscreen and I never did see a scratch). But after we were done we went back to the beach. Jonathan went back out in the water while I cuddled Ryan for a few minutes (he was a bit tired). It didn’t take Ryan long and he was playing in the sand. While he played I read on my Kindle. We joined Jonathan back in the water and played/relaxed on the floats some more. It was starting to get a bit cloudy and you could see a storm coming in so we decided to head back to the ship. We packed up all our stuff and began walking back. We leisurely took our time, looked around more shops, got another ice cream cone and enjoyed the scenery. We even saw a cat on the way back (Ryan loved that!). We got more cold towels once back to the dock and Captain Hook was doing a meet-n-greet. There was no line so Ryan got his picture taken with him again.
Here are some pictures we took on our way back:
Once we were back on board we headed back to our room and then up to the pool deck for a last bit of fun. Ryan played in Nemo’s Reef and went down the Mickey slide and Jonathan and I both took turns going down the Aquaduck one last time. We didn’t stay up there long though as we wanted to make it to the See Ya Real Soon party with the characters so we went back to our room to clean up. And we are so glad we did. I highly recommend going to the early party, there weren’t a lot of people here and the cast members told us the late one is always the busiest. The characters do a little performance at the show and then they spread out for pictures. We were able to get lots of pictures! And Ryan was having so much fun. He even went up to the characters all by himself (this was big since he always wanted one of us with him the rest of the vacation). And it really didn’t feel like a huge organized deal.
Ryan gave Pluto a big hug first!
And then we spotted Donald hiding in the curtains. We were able to get a picture with him before anyone else noticed.
We were able to get pictures taken with Goofy, Chip and Dale, Daisy, Minnie and then finally Mickey. (we were even able to get back in line to try for a better picture with Minnie because Jonathan didn’t think the first turned out well).
After the characters were done taking pictures they did a little song and dance and then Mickey head shaped confetti fell from the ceiling. I grabbed a bunch of this for my scrapbook. We really enjoyed this little party. We looked thru all our pictures before dinner and decided to only purchase one (I would have loved to buy more but didn’t).
It was soon time for our last dinner on board. We were in Animator’s Palate tonight for the Animation show. After we ordered we were given the special placemats to draw our characters on and turn in. For dinner tonight I started out with a garden salad, just like the one I had the night before. And again, it was very good, it was simple but I enjoyed it and the croutons. Jonathan had a mushroom risotto and he enjoyed it. We thought we were going to be getting the corn three way soup but never did (and didn’t realize it until we had our entrees), Jonathan was a bit disappointed we didn’t get to try this after reading reviews about it. For an entrée I had grilled sirloin steak, it was just ok. Jonathan had seafood linguine pasta and said it was one of the best dishes he had all cruise (but didn’t top Palo’s chicken parmesan). Ryan had his usual chicken, fries and mac and cheese. It was the last night so I had to let him get what he wanted. For dessert, Ryan had a Mickey ice cream bar, Jonathan had the baked Alaska and I had the temptation because I couldn’t decide. The chocolate decadence cake and celebration cake were both very good but I didn’t care for the third one served with it. While we ate our dessert they played, what we thought was the new animation show with our characters we drew; however, there was a malfunction and none of the drawings were there (there were blank spots where the drawings were supposed to be). We waited for what seemed like forever because they said they were trying to fix it and replay the show with our drawings. Finally (after about 20 to 30 minutes) they finally played our show. It was neat to see the drawings and Ryan got a kick out of it. After the show we stopped by guest services to see if they had found my sunglasses but they hadn’t. Then we headed back to our room to finish packing. We had a long busy day and we knew that the next day would be exhausting so we didn’t stay up too late tonight.
Day 11: Debarkation day. We had a late flight today so we were in no hurry but they do make you get off the ship by a certain time. Because we had early dining our main dining room breakfast should have been at 6:30 am; however, there was no way I was getting up that early to leave. So we decided to skip that breakfast and just grab something at Cabanas. They do not have the usual full length buffet, it was a very simple small buffet on this day (Jonathan was very disappointed he couldn’t get his made to order omelet). We ate quickly and headed off the ship. It was probably around 9 or a little after. Before going thru customs we stopped by the lost and found area (they have a big area with lots of stuff here and two cast members manning down the station) to see if my glasses had shown up. And sure enough they were there!! We made it thru customs and were on a bus to the airport in what seemed like no time. We were so sad to leave the Fantasy, it really was a beautiful cruise ship. But we had been on vacation for 10 full days now and were ready to be back at home. Our flights home were uneventful but we had long waits in both Orlando and Atlanta along with a slight delay in Atlanta so we didn’t get back to Lexington until after 8. I was coming down with a cold (always do after vacation) add on top that my stomach was queasy from flying and it made for a very long day.
Final thoughts: We had a great, amazing vacation. We enjoyed so much about it. Yes, there were a few issues but overall we had a blast. We made a lot of wonderful family memories that we will cherish forever. Ryan still talks about it almost daily and wants to go back. He wears us out talking about it all the time, lol. Disney World was lots of fun. Ryan was even more into it this trip then he was back in January. We really enjoyed staying at Port Orleans Riverside and wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again. The Disney Fantasy cruise ship was beautiful. And in my opinion the best looking cruise ship we have ever been on. The décor was not tacky or flashy like we’ve seen on other cruise lines. The cast members were all very friendly and helpful. But I don’t think we’ve ever encountered any really rude employees on any of the 4 cruises we’ve been on (the others were on Royal Caribbean and Carnival). Honestly, the food was a little disappointing. I always look forward to the food on a cruise and this food just didn’t live up to it. Most of everything I had was good but not amazing; a few things were bad but not overall, it just didn’t wow us. I tried to hit everything in the trip report but I probably forgot a few things here and there. I know that we ate ice cream cones a lot (Jonathan loves the ice cream machines) and that we relaxed more on this vacation than on previous ones. I would have liked to have made it to a few more shows but it didn’t work out that way and I don’t regret it. Early dining made it hard to do anything after dinner without staying up late and that wasn’t really possible with Ryan. We usually prefer late dining but I thought (and still do) that it would have been too hard for Ryan to make it thru a late dining. Overall, we would definitely sail Disney again and look forward to our next vacation.
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