A look at our trip sailing on the Disney Fantasy in October 2024 – today we look at our first day arriving on board!
Come cruise with me as I recap my trip on the Disney Fantasy! This was a 4-night itinerary with stops in the Bahamas at Nassau and Lighthouse Point, Disney’s newest island.
After a few days in Disney World I was headed onto a cruise with a few friends. You know what they say – after a Disney World vacation you feel like you need a vacation!
We had arranged the bus transfers through Disney Cruise Line. I received an email the day before with instructions. We were staying at Port Orleans French Quarter and had our luggage ready in the room for pickup around 7 am. Luggage tags had been sent in the mail ahead of time to attach to these bags and it was a straightforward process. We kept a few carry-on bags for when we first got on the ship.
Our pickup email instructed us to meet in the lobby of Port Orleans French Quarter at 9:30 am to check in, with a departure time of 10 am. It only took a few minutes to check in, and since we had a little time we grabbed some beignets from the Scat Cat Club for breakfast!
We got on the bus a few minutes before 10 am. It was clear we’d been the last stop since the bus was pretty full (I’m not sure how many other resorts they had stopped at first). The ride to Port Canaveral was just over an hour.
The Disney Fantasy was in full view when we arrived – but it was windy at Port Canaveral! This turned out to be a general theme throughout our trip. It was VERY windy the entire time we were on the cruise.
Our boarding group was number 5, and they had just called #1 when we arrived. So after using the bathroom and taking a few pictures out at the viewing deck, it was time to get on board!
We were on the ship just before noon, but rooms wouldn’t be ready til around 1:30 pm. Plenty of time for our first stop – lunch!
Lunch at Cabanas
Cabanas is the buffet by the pool deck, and one of your two options for lunch on arrival day. There is a good variety of items, but I would say it’s pretty basic/standard food. Pizza, chicken fingers, French fries, pasta, sandwiches, salads, etc. There was a small section of international cuisine, and a carving station where you could get turkey and other meats. It did the trick, though I think Marceline Market on the Disney Wish is definitely superior.
Once we had lunch, we explored the ship until our rooms were ready. The staterooms are a pretty decent size on Disney Cruise Line – the verandah room is very nice to have the balcony, and you have a decent amount of space. Our luggage hadn’t arrived yet, so we really just had a look around before deciding to go out and try some of the bars/lounges!
Europa Lounges
I love the themeing for the bars on the Fantasy. They’ve gone with a European theme, and there are all sorts of lounges themed after different countries. This whole area is called Europa. Each location has a unique menu that specializes in drinks from that country.
The first place you encounter is La Piazza (Italian), and from there you can get to O’Gill’s Pub (Irish). A small hallway will also lead you to Ooh La La (French), The Tube (Great Britain), and the Skyline Lounge (a neat lounge with “windows” that show the skyline of different European cities – it cycles through 6 different skylines).
We first grabbed a drink in La Piazza. The bar here is so beautiful – it’s round and themed to look like a carousel. They have a variety of Italian wines here, but I went with one of the cocktails.
My drink of choice was the “Escalus” (bourbon, Campari, limoncino, ginger, orange juice, and muddled mint leaves).
I chose it because it sounded unique – not like anything I’d had or seen before. And it was good! I enjoy bourbon, and that balance of juices here was quite nice. There was some sweetness to it, but it was very well-balanced and interesting with all the flavors involved.
While we were in the area we also decided to stop by O’Gill’s Pub. This is the place you want to go if you’re looking for good draft beers. You’ll also find some Irish whiskeys and a few cocktails.
Though I’m usually big into craft beers, I knew we would be doing a beer tasting here later in the trip so I decided to try another one of the unique cocktails. This time I went with the “Gin Tea Tonic” (gin, green mango peach tea, and King’s Ginger).
This was so fun right from the presentation! It came in a little “teapot,” with a Henrick’s gin branded teacup to pour the drink into. The drink was really tasty, but it was a STRONG ginger flavor. I really like ginger, but if you don’t you might want to steer clear. Maybe it’s because the teacup was so small and I kept pouring from my teapot, but it also felt like a never-ending drink. No complaints there, but we were feeling pretty good by then!
Sailing away & the Rainforest Room
After attending the lifeboat drill, we went up to the pool deck at 4:30 to catch a bit of the Sail Away party. It was incredibly windy up here and super crowded, so we only stayed for about 5 minutes before deciding to head elsewhere.
That “elsewhere” was the Rainforest Room in the spa! We’d gotten the pass for the length of the cruise. The Rainforest Room is a great option if you want to enjoy some of the facilities and relax a bit, without a full spa treatment. It’s identical to the Rainforest Room on the Dream.
We tried out the heated tiled chairs, the showers, and the hot tub before needing to get back and get changed to catch the show that evening. I love the live performances on board. The Disney Fantasy kicked things off with a performance of Aladdin, and it was probably the best show of our cruise! The Genie was hilarious.
Dinner at Enchanted Garden
We had about an hour between the show and dinner, since our dinner was the 8:15 seating. I headed back to the room to unpack and rest before making our way to Enchanted Garden.
We were seated with some other people and were very excited to make friends with a lovely couple from Australia! Our servers in the restaurant, Oka and Tita, were fantastic. Dinners were definitely a highlight during the cruise.
I enjoyed the lobster ravioli, sea bass, and orange yogurt cake at Enchanted Garden. It was all very good, but I think my favorite part of that meal was the risotto that came with the sea bass.
Although tired after dinner, we still went to do a few activities! We went to The Tube, where they were doing some game-show-type events. It was fun and we grabbed a drink there to try. At that point though it had been a very long day and it was off to bed soon enough.
The next day we were scheduled to be in Nassau, though I intended to stay on the ship and explore rather than get off there. Since the Fantasy was new to me, there was a lot that I wanted to see and do!
Video of Day 1
Here are some fun snippets of videos I took during our first day, to give you a less than 1-minute overview!
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What do you think of this trip? Have you ever done a sailing on the Disney Fantasy?
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