Baby on the High Seas - A Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Trip Report *new 4/15*

[schmass]

Hello and welcome to my first Trip Report! Not to be confused with my first Pre-Trip Report, found HERE .

In case you haven’t read the PTR, here is a little background on the Who, What and When of this trip. We’ll start with the What and When – We spent one night at Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village (Friday, September 5)
before boarding the Disney Fantasy for a 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise (Saturday, September 6 – September 13). We then spent Saturday at the Magic Kingdom and stayed at the Grand Floridian Villas before flying home the evening of Sunday, September 14th.

So now the Who:

We’ll start with Rory, the star of the trip.

He turned 16 months old during the cruise, and had a blast. This was his first cruise (on the outside anyway – I had just found out I was expecting before our last cruise), but his second Disney trip. We went to Disney World in February when he was 9 months old. His favorite characters are now Mickey and Minnie, as opposed to Buzz Lightyear his former favorite.

Next is Michael, my husband of almost 7 years (we’ll be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary next month!).

Michael may not have been a huge Disney fan before he met me, but he loves it now. I am still the one doing all of the planning and he is more along for the ride, but he enjoys our trips and looks forward to them. It was even HIS idea to join the Disney Vacation Club! He suggested this after our first cruise 3 years ago and we bought into it the next day.

I am Sarah, and I’ve been a Disney fan my entire life.

My family used to go to Disney almost every year when I was growing up. The Polynesian used to feel like my second home, as I had so many great memories of staying there over the years. I took a long break from Disney trips due to college and setting off on my own as an adult, but have made up for that break in the past 6 years. Our past 2 trips have been very different now that we have Rory in tow, but it’s allowing us to experience everything all over again.

My in-laws, Mike and Sue, also joined us for the cruise portion of this trip. They were unsure about going on a cruise, especially a Disney cruise, but agreed because they wanted to spend time with Rory. The live a 3-hr plane trip away from us, so they were excited for 7 days with him. This cruise converted them – they loved it! They were talking about future DCL cruises that they want to take, and not only just to see Rory, but for the actual cruises!


Up Next: Travel Day!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

joining! Followed over from your pre-TR (which, I found from my TR) ... super excited to hear how the cruise went for you! We have talked about a cruise but always seem to come to the conclusion to wait until all the kids are old enough to be "left at the club" - so interested to see how things went with a young one (might accelerate our timeline - but no pressure )

 

[maps81]

I am very interested in your experiences. We are a multi-generation group sailing on the Fantasy Eastern Caribbean in May 2015.

We are bringing our newest grandson on this trip- he will be 9 months old as we sail.

Also- we did the Fantasy Western exactly a year ago- so I am very interested to hear what you did on the port days.

If there are any tips or observances you discovered pertaining to bringing your little guy- that would be great! We had our 5 year old grandson on the trip last September- he had an awesome time! The baby will be the new "wild-card" on this upcoming trip!

Little Rory has the cutest face!

Thanks and look forward to reading your installments!

 

[Benchley]

Yippee! I'm in at the start. Can't wait to read your trip report as I'm planning for a fantasy cruise in 2016.

 

[Dugette]

I'm here and excited to hear all about your trip!

Love the adorable intro pic of Rory! So cute!

Glad that the cruise experience won over your in-laws!

 

[koukla1975]

I am very interested in your experiences. We are a multi-generation group sailing on the Fantasy Eastern Caribbean in May 2015.

When in May are you going? We are going on the fantasy may 2 2015.

 

[maps81]

We sail on the 23rd!

 

[schmass]

joining! Followed over from your pre-TR (which, I found from my TR) ... super excited to hear how the cruise went for you! We have talked about a cruise but always seem to come to the conclusion to wait until all the kids are old enough to be "left at the club" - so interested to see how things went with a young one (might accelerate our timeline - but no pressure )

Thanks for joining me over here! How soon until Peter is 3? My advice would be to wait until the oldest two are old enough, but Emma is still young enough to be easily portable. Then again, I might be a bad influence because we have caught the cruise bug and the thought of waiting 3 years seems impossible. You'll see later in our report, we have a similar discussion when it comes to deciding whether or not to take advantage of the onboard booking discounts.

I am very interested in your experiences. We are a multi-generation group sailing on the Fantasy Eastern Caribbean in May 2015.

We are bringing our newest grandson on this trip- he will be 9 months old as we sail.

Also- we did the Fantasy Western exactly a year ago- so I am very interested to hear what you did on the port days.

If there are any tips or observances you discovered pertaining to bringing your little guy- that would be great! We had our 5 year old grandson on the trip last September- he had an awesome time! The baby will be the new "wild-card" on this upcoming trip!

Little Rory has the cutest face!

Thanks and look forward to reading your installments!

Welcome and congratulations on your new grandson! I think that 9 months old will be a great age for the baby to be on the cruise. We took Rory to WDW at 9 months and it was such a fun age for him to experience everything. At that age he might be able to still go to the shows in the evening and fall asleep there, too. A cruise is just such an easy vacation - Disney really knows how to take care of everyone in the family.

Yippee! I'm in at the start. Can't wait to read your trip report as I'm planning for a fantasy cruise in 2016.

Welcome, thanks for joining! You will LOVE the Fantasy!

I'm here and excited to hear all about your trip!

Love the adorable intro pic of Rory! So cute!

Glad that the cruise experience won over your in-laws!

Yay, thanks for joining! Yes, it was amazing to see how much they ended up loving the cruise!

 

[schmass]

Day 1 – Travel Day

On Friday, our travel day, Michael and I both worked from home since we were only going to be putting in a half day. We were in the middle of switching daycare providers, so we didn’t have anywhere to send Rory, so we figured we’d just keep him home, hope for good naps, and trade off keeping an eye on him. We were very lucky that our next door neighbor was going to be home and asked if she could have some “Rory time”. It worked out perfectly – he went to breakfast with Michael, came home and took a nap, and when he woke I brought him next door. My neighbor asked what time we were leaving for the airport, and when I told her 2pm, she asked if she could keep him until 1:45pm – perfect! We were able to get our work done, finish up the packing, and left for the airport right on time!

Rory fell asleep on the way to the airport

but we ended up waking him when we transferred him to the stroller. I thought that would be a good thing because then he’d be tired and fall asleep on the plane, but…well that’s coming up. We made it through security and headed over to a restaurant to get something to eat.

I was so happy. Our trip was finally here, I was done with work for a week, and we had zero stress at the airport. It was a great start to the trip!

We flew on JetBlue, my favorite airline, and I was happy that this plane had rows of 2 seats across rather than 3. Since Rory was traveling as a lap infant, it’s easier to not be constantly worried about the third person in the row. We’ve never had any issues with him flying, but his last flight was at 11 months old, and he wasn’t walking then. I’ve heard that younger babies are easier to fly with, and I have seen that firsthand now!! He was an ANIMAL on the plane. He wasn’t being bad, but he was everywhere. He was exhausted, but wouldn’t sleep. He wasn’t crying, but he was making a lot of noise. We definitely had our hands full. He never slept a wink. Fortunately our flight time was only about 2 ½ hours rather than the 3 it was supposed to be. We must have had some good tail winds!

We landed about 7pm and started making our way over to the Magical Express. I stopped Michael and mentioned that we might want to pick up our bags and bring them on the bus with us. He didn’t want to do that, and I reminded him that it can take several hours to get the bags and that Disney Cruise Line needed to collect our bags at 8am the next morning. If Bell Services held our bags until the morning like we’ve had happen in the past, we’d be really rushed to get everything ready and the suitcases out by 8am. We decided to grab our bags but then realized our baggage claim was in the other terminal, so we decided to just get on the ME bus after all!

We got right on a bus but then we had to wait for a while. It was fine though, I still felt like everything was going so smoothly so far (aside from Rory’s antics on the plane).

Finally the bus pulled out and we were told we’d be stopping at Art of Animation then Pop Century and then our destination, Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village. Michael commented that every time we get on the ME, we are the last stop. Every time!

The good thing was, that Rory took that time to take a little nap. Of course by this point it was his bed time, but we were just happy he was being still. I think it was just before 9pm when we pulled into AKV. Michael sat down in the lobby with the sleeping Rory and I checked in. I had done online check-in, but that counter wasn’t open, so I waited a minute at the desk. We found out that we’d need to meet at AKV Jambo the next morning at 10:45am, but that we should really be there around 10:15. I inquired about our bags and she said if they weren’t there in a couple of hours that they would be delivered the next morning. I mentioned that DCL was picking them up at 8am and she called over someone who works for ME. He made a call and then told us they were in a cage at the airport, ready to be transported to the resort, and that we’d have them in about an hour!

We got to the room and Rory woke up but stayed snuggly with Michael.

I looked in the closet for the pack n’ play, but it wasn’t there, so I made a call to housekeeping. They said that they would send one up. After 20 minutes we still hadn’t received it, and Rory really needed to go to bed. I called again, and apologized for calling a second time but said that we had a baby that needed to go to sleep. I spoke with someone different and he asked if I checked “all the closets”. I didn’t see any others besides the one – turns out it was in the armoir that holds the TV! I felt really badly and told him that yes, it was there after all. I felt even worse when 10 minutes later a woman brought an actual crib to the room. We told her we were all set and apologized, and stuck with the pack n’ play.

Now that we had the pnp all set up, guess who decided he wasn’t tired after all!?! He went from lying on Michael, to running around like a nut. He kept stealing Michael’s hat and putting it on and running around with it.

He knew he was being cute and that he was supposed to be going to sleep. We got a call that our luggage arrived and asking if we wanted it delivered, so we said yes! and it was in our room within 10 minutes. Definitely the quickest ME luggage delivery we have experienced!

Shortly after that we all fell asleep, dreaming of the Fantasy!

Up next: Exploring Animal Kingdom Lodge and Arriving at Port Canaveral!

 

[Dugette]

Sounds like a typical travel day with a young toddler.

I totally understand what it was like for you to have him as a lap infant on the flight. I felt that I was trying to contain a wild animal with Izzy. That is why I always tried to get a vacant seat for her carseat, if they had one - she did much better contained (now she's 2, so we have to buy her a seat from here on out).

Glad you got your luggage and found the pack 'n' play. And Rory fulfilled his toddler obligation to run around full of energy after bedtime.

Looking forward to hearing about the cruise.

 

[schmass]

Sounds like a typical travel day with a young toddler.

I totally understand what it was like for you to have him as a lap infant on the flight. I felt that I was trying to contain a wild animal with Izzy. That is why I always tried to get a vacant seat for her carseat, if they had one - she did much better contained (now she's 2, so we have to buy her a seat from here on out).

Glad you got your luggage and found the pack 'n' play. And Rory fulfilled his toddler obligation to run around full of energy after bedtime.

Looking forward to hearing about the cruise.

We have yet to put him in his carseat for a flight. To be honest, I'm not sure that he'd be any better in that? Maybe he'd fall asleep easier, but I don't know. We didn't want to bring it with us since we wouldn't need it during the trip and didn't want to store it in the stateroom. I think we have one more flight with him as a lap infant, and I'll hope for a vacant seat for that one!

 

[KatMark]

Love the intros and the travel day. Rory is just too cute for words.

I'll have a hard time keeping up until I get home (we are still in Florida until Sunday).

 

[schmass]

Love the intros and the travel day. Rory is just too cute for words.

I'll have a hard time keeping up until I get home (we are still in Florida until Sunday).

Thank you! Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[schmass]

Day 2 – Part 1 – Animal Kingdom Lodge and arrival at Port Canaveral

I didn’t sleep very well, and was actually a bit relieved when I woke at 6:45 and could get up. Surprisingly, Rory was still asleep. At home he’s normally up around 5:30/6:00, with the occasional 6:30 wake up. I quickly (and quietly!) got ready and headed out to do a little exploring since I didn’t get to see much the night before.

I found this cool overlook of the savannah and took a few pictures.

Some of the music that was playing in the common areas is music that is on the Power of One soundtrack, which is one of my all-time favorite movies and soundtracks. That made me really happy! After taking a few pictures, I just wandered around the Kidani lobby before heading back to wake up my family at 7:30. They had actually just gotten up and everyone was well-rested and in a good mood.

I decided to check out our view, but wasn’t expecting much since we had a standard view studio. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked out and saw this!

Savannah view – yay! Looking the other way you saw a walkway, so ours was probably the last standard view room in that hallway before starting the savannah view rooms.
View looking to the left:

Rory was enjoying the view, as well!

Our bags were collected at 8am and then we headed over to Jambo House to hit the Mara for breakfast. We ended up hopping right on a bus that was going to one of the parks and Jambo House was the first stop. After a fairly quick breakfast, we wanted to do a little exploring.

We found some flamingos:

Look mom, flamingos!

Then we checked out the main pool area before walking back to Kidani and checking out that pool area.

Pool at Jambo House:

The splash area looked really cool and I think Rory would have enjoyed it, but we didn’t have time. Originally I had thought that maybe we would have some swimming time, but since our meeting time for the DCL bus was earlier than I anticipated, that was a no-go. I was fine with that, as I was happy that it meant we’d be on the ship earlier than expected, as well!

After a quick stop in the room to get our carry-ons, we caught another bus over to Jambo House to meet the DCL representative. This was around Rory’s nap time, and once again he didn’t sleep when we thought he would. I tried putting him in the ergo and getting him to sleep that way, but nope! We went out to a savannah overlook instead and saw so many animals up close, including giraffes – it was so cool!

We got on the bus, stopped at All Star Music to pick up more cruise guests, and then were on our way to Port Canaveral!

Rory finally fell asleep and slept for about 45 minutes, waking as we approached the ship.

We got there around 12:15 and got checked in quickly. It was kind of funny (and strange), the man who checked us in asked us if it was our first cruise. I said that it was Rory’s first cruise, but our third cruise. He asked when our last one was and I said September 2012. He said “was he conceived on the cruise?” What? Really? I said “no, actually I found out two days before the cruise that we were expecting him”. And he said “Oh, I thought he was a cruise baby”! I couldn’t get over how strange that was.

It was open boarding, so we got in line, got our picture taken, and waited to board…

Up next: We're finally on the ship!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

joining in - great start!

 

[Flossbolna]

Great start to the trip report! Seems like Rory is enjoying the trip very much so far!

On your check in person: Maybe he had this DCL commercial in mind: http://youtu.be/rHrSX0gHX_8

 

[schmass]

joining in - great start!

Welcome! Thanks for joining!

Great start to the trip report! Seems like Rory is enjoying the trip very much so far!

On your check in person: Maybe he had this DCL commercial in mind: http://youtu.be/rHrSX0gHX_8

Welcome! Yes, Rory enjoyed it from beginning to end!

That commercial is hilarious - I have never seen that before!

 

[KatMark]

I'm glad you found a lookout and were able to see some animals. And then to find them looking out on your balcony.

Yay...you are at the ship. So excited to hear about it.

 

[Dugette]

Glad you were able to get in some good animal-viewing during your short stay at Kidani!

That is super weird about the check-in person - some people really don't have any filters. How awkward to be asking a stranger about the conception of their child.

 

[cscream13]

Joining in too! We are cruising in a few weeks on the Fantasy with DS who will be 17 months old. We cruised with him last year when he was 6 months, but as you mention with your plane flight experience, I am sure it will be a whole new set of challenges now that he is a toddler! Also, happy to hear we aren't the only crazies flying in on Friday night and staying at WDW for just a few hours before going to port the next morning! I, too, have been hoping for some morning swimming... I guess you can't really count on a midday pickup. I'll keep that in mind to be flexible!

Thanks again for posting... Can't wait to hear more!