Disney Fantasy Cruise - Day 5 Cozumel, Mexico

 

The weather was sunny but windy.  The boat docked at Punta Langosta pier which is a great location for shopping and restaurants.  We had a leisurely breakfast then headed off the ship for some shopping.  When we exited the pier we were inundated with men trying to get us to come into their stores.  We walked for what seemed like a mile past many stores and each one tried to convince us to enter their establishment, "Come in, take a look, almost free".  After passing a couple stores, I think we saw everything there was available for purchase in Cozumel (jewelry, trinket items made in China, t-shirts 3 for $20, Mexican vanilla, tequila, panchos in your favorite NFL team's colors).  

 

When we arrived at what appeared to be the town square we decided to walk back to the pier on block inland.  The shop workers weren't as persistent and it wasn't quite as windy.  

We stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for a beer before returning to the ship.  We only spent about 2 1/2 hours in Cozumel.  If we return to Cozumel in the future, we'll spend the day at the beach or just stay onboard.  

Back onboard we relaxed for a while before going to see Disney's new movie, Frozen.  I love that Disney shows first run movies onboard their ships.

After the movie, we donned our pirate outfits.  Yes, it was Pirate night on the ship!  

Most of the guests dress up as pirates.  Disney leaves bandanas in your stateroom just in case you weren't prepared. 

They have two shows on deck 11, one with Mickey and pals, the other is the Buccaneer Blast complete with Captain Jack Sparrow and fireworks!  And let me tell you some guest's costumes are so good they look like they're part of the show.  No more t-shirts with cute pirate sayings, I need to rethink my next cruise's pirate outfit.

Disney Fantasy-Satellite Falls

This adult only area on deck 13 is quiet and relaxing.  If you get too hot you can soak away the heat under the satellite.

Disney Fantasy

View from our ship

Disney Fantasy Cruise - Day 4 Costa Maya, Mexico

Again we are scheduled to arrive into Costa Maya late, around 1:00 pm so we slept in...YEAH!  We ate breakfast at Cabana's then headed to Satellite Falls for rest and relaxation!  The falls are an adult only area on deck 13 forward.  Disney added some water and a little pixie dust to one of the ship's satellites and voila, its a refreshing retreat.  We ate lunch up there and watched the ship come into port.  Around 1:30 pm it started raining. What better time to ride the Aquaduck.  You ride on a raft through a tube of water that goes around the top of the ship.  Its a blast!  

That evening we watched the stage show Wishes, then went to La Piazza to hear Clara Oman perform her tribute to Elton John.  We ate dinner at Enchanted Garden, then we went to the Skyline bar for a drink and to watch the windows change views of skylines of different cities around the world.  

Disney Fantasy Cruise - Days 2 & 3

Day 2 - A Day at Sea

We slept in, had a late breakfast and a late lunch.  We sat on our balcony for a long time enjoying the sights and sounds of the beautiful sea.  After a little more exploring of the ship we booked our next cruise.  When it was time for Football, The Reader and I headed to O'Gill's Pub where she met other fans of her favorite team.  They didn't win but she found great pleasure in not being the only fan yelling at her team.  The cruise line had complimentary wings, ribs, little sandwiches available for us as watched the game.  After the game we went to the Walt Disney Theatre to see the stage production of Aladdin.   It was really well done, not to be missed.  Dinner was in Royal Court on this night.  Again, the food was wonderful.  All in all, a verery relaxing day!

Day 3 - Grand Cayman

We arrived in Grand Cayman at 11:30 am so we were able to sleep in again.  Because of the coral reef around the island, we had to tender into the pier.  This was and probably will be the longest wait we'll experience on this cruise.  It's a process and it's for our safety so we patiently waited.  Plus Disney provides lots of activities to distract you from the fact that you're waiting 30 minutes.  Once we arrived on the island, we found a taxi and headed for Cemetery Beach.  Yes, There's a beach along 7 mile Beach where you literally walk alongside a cemetery to access the beach.  We found this beach on TripAdvisor.  There are no facilities but the snorkeling was great and the beach was not crowded at all.  For the snorkeling, you have to swim about 200 ft off shore to reach the reef.  You start seeing fish shortly after entering the water so by the time you reach the reef, you hardly feel like you've swam very far.  We saw the typical caribbean reef fish (I'll talk more about the fish in a separate post). After we finished snorkeling, we collected our gear and walked back to the road.  Conveniently, there's a bus stop right there.  Cayman Islands were once a British colony so the hardest part of catching the bus is remembering which side of the road we need to be on.  The taxi out to Cemetery Beach cost $6.00 USD per person and the return on the bus cost only $2.50 USD per person.    

Back onboard, we rinsed our snorkel gear and took a long nap.  We skipped the main show (a magician/illusionist).  We weren't very hungry when we woke up so we thought we'd head up to Cabana's and grab a couple items off the buffet.  Ah, but we discovered they don't have a buffet at dinner, they have table service dining instead.  We also learned that on the last night, Cabana's is completely closed.  From now on we'll stick with our rotational dining.  

We did manage to stay up long enough to see Ronn Lucas, the Ventriloquist/comedian perform.  He was hilarious.

Disney Fantasy Cruise

Disney Fantasy Cruise - Western Caribbean

Day One

We (my partner and I, I'll refer to her as "The Reader" because she spends most of her time reading on vacation) arrived at Orlando Int'l Airport just before 11:00 am and headed straight to the buses to catch our Disney Cruise Line transfer to Port Canaveral.  During the transfer we watched a short video, a couple cartoons, and tried our best to answer Disney trivia questions like, "Who was the first voice of Mickey Mouse".  (The Answer is Walt Disney!, I had no idea.)  Before we knew it, we were at the port. 

The embarkation process was a breeze.  We walked through security easily and headed straight to the check-in counter where we only waited in line for about 5 minutes.   We were assigned boarding number 24 and by the time we finished checking in, they were already boarding #21.  So again only a short wait before getting on the ship.  We were onboard at 12:45 pm.  Since our rooms weren't ready until 1:30 pm, we were encouraged to go have lunch so we headed off to the Enchanted Garden restaurant.  Then we headed up to our stateroom to change out of our cold weather gear into our vacation appropriate attire.  We spent the next couple hours exploring the ship, getting our bearings.  

We passed by our room at 3:00 pm and our bags were waiting outside our door.   What a relief!  Disney's luggage service really works and works well.  If you place your disney luggage tags on your checked bags before you check in for your flight at your home airport, the next time you see your bags will be at your stateroom onboard the ship.  I've done this when staying at WDW, but not a cruise before and was a little nervous about the tags falling off or getting ripped of enroute.  This is an amazing service and one of the many reasons Disney is so Magical!  During check-in they asked if we wanted to take advantage of their onboard airline checkin for the return home.   Of course!  I'll talk more about that later in our cruise when the time comes.  

After the emergency evacuation drill at 4:00pm, we headed up to deck 11 for the sail away party with Mickey and Friends.  Boy that Donald can really shake his tail feathers!  Then we went to the Walt Disney Theatre for the first stage show called, "A Fantasy Come True:  Welcome Show".  It was a very cute show with more singing and dancing with Mickey and Friends and an overview of the highlights of the ship by Cruise Director Ray (who, it turns out, was our Cruise Director on our last cruise to Alaska! We met him later in the evening in La Piazza and reminisced about the previous cruise.).  We meandered through the shops briefly and then headed to towards the main lobby.  We arrived just in time to see the lighting of the Christmas tree.  Usually, I try to not think about Christmas until after Thanksgiving.  They had selected one kid (we missed how they selected him), crowned him, Mickey gave him the magic trident, donned him with a beautiful velvet rope.  After a brief countdown and some pixie dust, he lit the tree and the garland all around the lobby.  

Next we grabbed a glass of wine from the lobby bar and headed to La Piazza where we relaxed and enjoyed the music of young woman pianist.  When she finished her set, we headed to dinner at Enchanted Garden.

We had such a long day of travel I didn't think I'd stay awake through dinner but I managed.  As expected, the food was delicious and the service was exceptional.  

Fish and Chips

We stopped at Fish Pirate's Saloon for lunch.

They had live entertainment!

We ordered fish and chips and the waiter asked, "Do you want fries?"

Delicious!

Disney Cruise to Alaska - Ketchikan

Ketchikan!  I saved the best for last.

We were up early to watch the ship pull into port in Ketchikan.  Today, we were very fortunate that the weather was dry and the sun was shining for most of the day.  And as luck would have it, the ship docked right in the center of town.

If you're interested in Totem Poles, you won't be disappointed.  There are many to see and the choices for purchase are almost overwhelming.  If you are serious about purchasing one to bring home, the people running the shops will be able to explain what they mean and provide information about the native artists.  Most of the totem poles we saw were being sold through a company called Alaska Black Diamond from Ward Cove, Alaska.  I'd never heard of this place.  

You can purchase this one.

Totem in Whale Park near the center of town.

Totem outside the Tongass Historical Museum.

Our excursion was in the afternoon so we spent the morning exploring Ketchikan.  It's a walkable adventure.  Creek Street was once a red light district but now its filled with interesting shops selling local artisan goods. 

In the afternoon, we headed out for our Lighthouse, Eagles, and Totems excursion.  We boarded the motorcoach from the ship and it drove us north of Ketchikan to Ward Cove where we boarded our boat for our tour.  I love the irony of this.  Now when people ask about my totem from Alaska, I can say I've been to Ward Cove.

During our tour, we saw a traditional clan house and many totem poles including Fog Woman at Totem Bight State Park.

Totem Bight State Park

Fog Woman

We hung out with the locals....

Remember to bring a camera with a big lens, there are so many eagles but they're usually up in the trees.  There were even two eagles sitting on top of the lighthouse.  Without a powerful lens, all your eagle photos will look like this.

Guard Island Lighthouse

After the tour, we returned to the port with enough time for more shopping!

The last day of our Alaska cruise was a day at sea.  We spent the day up on the top deck enjoying the view.

This cruise was so amazing.  It was wonderful to see so much pristine wilderness.  I would love to go back to Alaska.

Disney Cruise to Alaska - Juneau

It rained all day!  And we were prepared for it, rain ponchos and umbrellas at the ready.  The ship docked just south of the downtown area, just far enough that you had to take a shuttle from the ship to get to downtown.  Our activities for this day included a stop at the Botanical Gardens and the Mendenhall Glacier.  

The Botanical Gardens

A guide met us at the bus and gave us a short tour of the grounds and explained the history of the gardens.

They created these amazing flowering tree sculptures by uprooting dead trees, then replanting them upside down into the ground.  They added the flowers and nature does the rest.  Very unique and beautiful.  

Next we boarded golfcarts and trams for a slow journey up the mountain to the lookout point for views of Juneau airport and the surrounding area. Because of the rain, the visibility wasn't very good.  This part of the visit would have been more enjoyable on a clear day.

Mendenhall Glacier

The pictures on Google earth don't do this area justice.  The bus dropped us off just outside the Visitor's Center.  Even though the rain was coming down a little harder we chose to walk out to the peninsula to get a closer look at the glacier.  The umbrella came in handy to protect the camera lens from getting wet in the rain.  Even after taking several photos, there's nothing like being there in person.  Besides the visual aspects of being there, you could hear the rain and the waterfall next to the glacier.  And the air was damp and cool.  It was amazing.  

If standing out in the elements is not your thing, there are great views of the glacier from inside the visitor's center.  They have information on glaciers and rangers available to answer your questions.  The gift shop is small but filled with a nice collection of books on Alaska.  

At the end of our tour the bus offered to drop us off downtown Juneau.  Since we had spent several hours now out in the rain, we decided to just return to the ship.  This was a difficult decision because our wait staff onboard the ship told us the best place to eat Alaskan King Crab Legs was at a little place on the water behind the Library, but you eat outside on picnic tables.  This will be on our list of must do's for our next trip to Alaska.  

Disney Cruise to Alaska - Skagway

Shortly after hearing the all clear from the Captain, we boarded a bus for our first shore excursion, Liarsville Goldrush. 

This felt like a step back in time visiting a camp from the Alaska gold rush era.  We toured the camp, watched an entertaining puppet show about the gold rush, then panned for gold. 

You are guaranteed to find a piece of gold.  The gold nugget is actually a tiny gold flake but it's still a lot of fun trying to find it. 

We were also greeted by Disney Characters.... 

They served hot apple cider and cookies after panning for gold. 

We also enjoyed a salmon lunch.
 

When we returned to Skagway after the excursion, we spent some time shopping in town.  Skagway is a small town with a population of about 900 people.  There were several stores selling souvenirs and local art. 

If you like trains, there's a fun store here at the train station.

Visitor Information Center

We shopped for totems, found that there are a number of local Alaskan artists that turn antlers into  art.  After shopping we stopped at the Red Onion for a snack and a cold beer.  Back in the goldrush days, this saloon was a brothel.  Today, they only sell food and bevarage but every so often the Madame will invite you upstairs for a tour. 

We're not sure about the bed pans



We ended our visit of Skagway enjoying views of the area from the ship.