9-night Southern Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Fantasy Day 7 - Antigua

Tuesday July 26 Antigua

This is the second of the two ports that we had been to previously (well, not counting Castaway Cay) and we were more than happy to return to this one. Last time through (January 2020), we had an incredible day with Adventure Antigua on their “Eco Tour” so I didn’t hesitate to go straight back to their website and see what other tours they offered. Their “Adventure Islands” tour looked great with minimal repetition so we booked it and recommended it to others on our Facebook meet group. We had so many people book it on my recommendation that they had to add another boat! I thought they actually handled the two boats of people really well (I had been worried we might be too many people).

We got up and got ready and met on the dock right on time. Like before, we sailed out around the island for about an hour and one of the three guides onboard pointed out different interesting things along the way. We arrived at Lavisount Island at around 10 AM where they have a rescue preserve for tortoises. They were super friendly giant tortoises that loved getting neck and shell rubs and were pretty excited about having carrot snacks. We had a lot of fun petting and feeding them before it was time for lunch. Just like a couple of years ago, we had a tasty lunch and we enjoyed it under a shade tree, just the three of us. 

We left Laviscount and got back on the boat to go to Hell’s Gate Island. We had visited Hell’s Gate two years ago and knew that the trek to the top might be tricky for Emmaline with her ankle so I stayed down with Emmaline in the water snorkeling while Roger climbed up to the top. 

We left Hell’s Gate and traveled a short way to our snorkeling spot near Great Bird Island (which we visited in 2020) and the other boat on the tour, who had gone to Laviscount with us, swapped places with us. That way there was only one boat of people in each spot. It was perfect. These guys are pros. Emmaline wanted to do the Advanced snorkeling path vs. the Beginner so I went with her. She wasn’t allowed to wear fins, as per the PT, so I went with her finless as well. There were only two others on the Advanced tour. We saw a big puffer fish (not puffed) and a ray and a bunch of other fish and coral. By the end, Emmaline said she was pretty tired after swimming and fighting some current. I could have swam all day, but it’s sort of my super power. 

Then it was time for rum punch (for the adults) and banana bread. Their banana bread is particularly yummy and we lounged in the sun to dry off and warm up as the boat carried us back through that beautiful blue water to the dock in St. John, Antigua. We were back onboard around 3:00 and then it was time for another round of showers, laundry, and snacks. After she was cleaned up, Emmaline went off to work on the photo scavenger hunt for the day and Roger and I finished up that second round of laundry we weren’t able to do the day before. I organized some things about the room and made some notes for my trip report. Then, wouldn’t you know it, it was time for ice cream! When I first heard they were opening paid ice cream shops on the Dream and the Fantasy, I thought that was the dumbest thing ever. Why would you pay for ice cream when you can get soft serve for free pretty much anytime? Welp, it’s because it’s really good ice cream and gelato. It’s like buying a fancy coffee from Cove Cafe vs. getting drip coffee from the machine on deck. Major upgrade. Plus, Roger really likes that they have plant-based options.

Then it was time for the show in the Walt Disney Theatre, this time it was Charles Peachock who is a juggler we’ve seen before and he’s great. We were hoping for juggling lessons again like we had later in the cruise last time, but they didn’t do that. We were bummed. Some elements of his show were the same as what we had seen before, but it was still very enjoyable. 

Between show and dinner, Roger and I went to the 18+ show that Buckets N Boards were putting on in The Tube. That was a lot of fun. I liked it better than their family show, actually. Emmaline went to Vibe while we were there. It’s actually funny, before the cruise when we told her she could go to either, she said she would probably stick mostly with Edge and not go to Vibe, but she probably split her time half and half equally. She liked Vibe a lot more than she thought that she would. She did say she felt that the counselors in Edge were more involved, but she liked the activities better in Vibe. 

Then it was time for dinner and we were in Royal Court with a new menu we’d never had before, the “Vista” menu. No idea why it’s called that or why they served that one up, but it was actually pretty good. Apparently it used to be called “Taste of California” and it’s usually reserved for longer sailings. I really enjoyed the artichoke appetizer and I ordered both vegetarian entrees and both were really good. Slight edge to the mushroom ravioli. I’m a sucker for any kind of pasta thing with mushrooms involved. After dinner we were beat and went straight to bed. We ran into Peter Pan in the stairwell on the way to our room. This cruise had a lot more random interactions with characters just roaming around than any cruise we've been on in the past and it was a lot of fun. 

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