Seldom A Dull Moment!: Let's Hurry Up and Wait for our Disney Cruise...Day 1

Our Caribbean cruise and more....

So this Disney cruise started out as a 7 night 2013 Mediterrannean cruise, and then for financial reasons got switched to a 7 night Caribbean cruise in August of 2014, and then due to Carleigh's new high school obligations, got changed to a June 21-28 Caribbean cruise. So...I was VERY happy when the date finally arrived for our much awaited Disney Cruise. This is our fourth Disney Cruise, with the last being in summer of 2011 to Alaska. And for those of you wondering...yes there will be a #5 Disney cruise on our horizon, we are thinking summer of 2016.

So, if you are interested in why we love them so much and want to "play along" as we cruise the Caribbean ports of Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Jamaica...let's go!

Evening before Day 1:
We flew down to Orlando on Friday and stayed overnight in the Airport Hyatt. It is a beautiful hotel attached to the airport with an outdoor pool and many restaurant opportunities. We claimed our baggage and walked over to the hotel, checked in, dropped our bags in our rooms and then ventured out into the Airport Mall - Disney Store, Universal Store, and many others....

We checked in with the Disney Transportation in the airport to see when we should be there for our bus to the ship on Saturday morning...first bus leaves at 9:15ish on Saturday morning, so we were set...

After a nice dinner at the hotel, we all settled down to get a good sleep before our cruise began.

..until we opened Katie's suitcase to see that her bottle of hairspray had emptied all over her suitcase - yes it was in a ziploc bag, but not closed enough...luckily her formal dresses and outfits didn't get affected, but half of her clothes did...we washed a few in the sink and tried to get rid of the smell as best as we could. Hopefully this would be the only disaster, and a mild one.

Day 1:

We woke up early, had a Starbucks breakfast in the airport and were ready to head to our bus. Today would be a series of "hurry up and wait" games. The Rahn family is very good at playing those games. We hurried up to get ready and waited in line at Starbucks...

We hurried up to get to the Cruise Transportation area in the airport and waited for them to be ready to load the first bus...

We hurried up to be one of the first to the Cruise Port and waited for them to call our boarding number to get on the ship...we were one of the first families into the port to check in at about 10:15 ad then we waited until about 11:30 for boarding to begin. We were boarding group #2. :)

We spent the time wandering around the port and going out on the viewing platform to take pics of the ship before we boarded...

Then it was time, we boarded and as you enter, they take an embarkation picture..

They then announce your family name as you enter into the huge Atrium of the ship, and all of the crew members clap...

The girls in the Atrium right after boarding

And again...hurry up and wait...we boarded at 11:30, but couldn't get into our staterooms until 1:30. That's okay, Disney was transporting our luggage from the hotel, so we just had our carryons and headed up to lunch. The ship was fully functional, just rooms weren't ready until 1:30. We were sheduled to sailaway at about 4:45.

Lunch and exploring the ship....we hadn't been on the Fantasy before, our previous cruises had been on the Disney Wonder (one of the smaller Disney ships).

The theming on the ship is so fun, but not overwhelming...Disney, but low key Disney.

Elevator Selfie...

We went to explore the kids clubs, becasue once we set sail, adults (and older kids) wouldn't be allowed into the 4-11 year old clubs...

so much fun for the little ones to just hang out and explore...

We then went to find the clubs for Katie and Carleigh...

Carleigh would be spending her time in The Vibe - a club for 14-17 year olds...and it definitely looked that way...definitely a night-club for the teen crowd!

the entrance to the Vibe...


yes, that is a bar in the back corner with sodas, Shirley Temples and snacks all day and night at no charge...

You needed a special "VibeTeen" card to be able to get in once the ship sailed, Carleigh was all over that! She made lots of fun friends and spent every evening in this club from about 10:00 p.m. - about 1:00 a.m.

Katie would be spending time in The Edge with the 11 - 14 crowd. She also spent every evening there doing activities, games and having fun.

The great thing about the kids clubs (for all ages) is that the counselors really cater to the age group. Both girls loved the counselors in their clubs - and the counselors were from all over the world with all sorts of different accents...SO much fun and very little worry for mom and dad!

After exploring for awhile, we found Chip and Dale with no line, they were just hanging out in the Atrium, so we got a quick pick and then headed to the Sail Away party...

The chandelier in the 3 level atrium is beautiful.


The tube above the big funnel vision screen is the Aquaduck - a water roller coaster that the girls rode a few times through the cruise..

After the sailaway party, we changed for dinner (tonight was cruise casual) and wandered for awhile. We had second seating dinner, so we ate at 8:15 p.m. every night, which was fine with us...we had snacks at around 5:00 and had more time for fun during the day!

we found a family game show to watch until Dinner...

and Don and the girls ended up participating...:)

relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere :)

Our first meal was great and we met our servers, "Ninja" from Thailand and Mahadi from Indonesia. They stayed with us for all 7 dinners and we got to know them very well. The first night Katie didn't want a dessert, and said she wanted "Nothing" for dessert, so Ninja brought her this: