9-night Southern Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Fantasy Day 2 - Embarkation Day
Thursday July 21 - Embarkation Day
We woke up around 7:15 because we needed to have all our luggage ready for pickup by 8 AM. Roger ran down and grabbed some fast food breakfast from the food court and we ate in the room and got ready. The piece of paper we got in our room said to meet down in the lobby of the Hyatt at 8:50 for a 9:20 departure so we did that and the place was absolutely MOBBED. The first bus departed around 9 AM. We ended up being on the fifth bus at around 10:15 or so. I figured we either waited there or in the terminal building at the port so it really wasn’t that big of a deal. When we arrived at the lobby, we ran into a DCL CM that we had met on our June cruise. She helps coordinate bus transportation and last time she was actually working, then hopped on the bus at Saratoga to join her daughter and granddaughter for the sailing. We all chatted on the way to the port. Well, just by chance, she was at the Hyatt and it was so fun to see her again. She told us that there were 3200 passengers on the Fantasy for this sailing, but it would probably be close to 3000 that would actually board.
She saw Emmaline’s ankle brace and when it was time for our bus to depart, she put us with the concierge folks so Emmaline could have a little extra time getting to the bus. About four weeks ago, Emmaline stepped wrong coming down the stairs (on the day of her birthday party) and rolled her ankle and fractured it. I was concerned about how this would impact our trip, and indeed, we ended up having to cancel one excursion and rebook something else, but for the most part, it turned out okay. By the time we left for the vacation, Emmaline was out of her boot (they didn’t put her in a cast) and was in the ankle brace.
The trip to port took about an hour and we arrived around 11:15. There was a pretty long check in line and Emmaline ran into one of the friends she had been texting with prior to the cruise while we were waiting (and it turned out we were on another sailing with them a few years ago but never actually met). After we checked in and went through security (about 30 min), we thought they might be boarding, but they didn’t board until around 11:45. Then there was a super long time between groups 3 and 4. Finally around 12:20, our group (5) was called to board.
We went straight to Cabana’s to have lunch, then after that we were trying to figure out if we wanted to get wet or just do something else so while we pondered that, we took care of our muster check in. They said rooms wouldn’t be ready until 2:30, which seemed sort of late and was going to be right at the time of the Facebook group meet and greet. I don’t think anyone anticipated such a late room ready time. We decided to go ahead and take a couple of rides on the Aquaduck since we weren’t sure what else we would do. I had wanted to have a shower before the meet and greet, but rooms weren’t ready so we had some ice cream and hung around. At 2:25 I went down to check and the room was ready so I dropped off our carryon items and then went back to the pool deck for the meet and greet. Nobody was there. Finally around 3, people started to show up. After that, we went back to the room and cleaned up and did a little unpacking. Emmaline went to the sail away party at 4:30, but we still weren’t unpacked so Roger and I skipped it.
At 5:00 Roger and I went to have a snack up on the pool deck before heading back to the room to regroup with Emmaline. Then Emmaline and I delivered some of our Fish Extender gifts before going to the show that night. The show was Taylor Mason who did a comedy ventriloquy act. His act was pretty funny at times, but also lagged a little bit. It could have been tightened up/edited and about 15 minutes shorter and it would have been perfect.
After the show Emmaline went to Edge (the tween club) and Roger and went back to the room to relax a little bit before dinner at 8:15. Our first meal was in Animator’s Palate with the “Let the Magic Begin” menu and we found that our request had worked and we were with our server we had twice before on the Magic, Jay from Jamaica. After dinner, Emmaline went to Vibe (the teen club - at 14, she can go to both the tween and teen clubs) and then went to karaoke. Roger and I went to bed!
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