LittleMissMagic's 2014 Disney Fantasy Western Caribbean Cruise - A Photo Review!

LittleMissMagic · June 3, 2014

We are a Disney family- with WDW visits at least yearly (or have withdrawal symptoms) and have sailed on all four ships. Your review style is fantastic! Looking forward to the rest of your review with a "magical" anticipation!

Great to meet another Disney family! Glad you're enjoying my review! :) Be sure to check out my blog for more Disney love.

LittleMissMagic · June 3, 2014

May 14, 2014 - Falmouth, Jamaica

This was the first time that the Disney Fantasy had ever visited Falmouth, Jamaica. The Disney Magic had visited before, and we were told that passengers had rated Falmouth 3rd place as overall cruise port. The Fantasy had been visiting Costa Maya, Mexico, which passengers had only ranked 10th.

Falmouth, Jamaica was a first for us, as well. I had been to Jamaica once before with my family, visiting Ocho Rios on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas in 2008, years before the port of Falmouth had opened.

Max has always wanted to visit Jamaica. In fact, I learned years ago that it was his number one place to visit because Jamaicans have dreads, and Jamaica just sounds awesome.

When we had visited Ocho Rios, Royal Caribbean instructed us not to take any cabs outside of the cruise port and encouraged us to take their excursions. This was a warning that we remembered when going to Falmouth and assumed it to be the same (note: we received no warnings on the Disney Fantasy about crime in Falmouth, so I think I assumed wrong). Therefore, this was the one day that we actually booked an excursion in advance. We selected Chukka Beach Express for $32 per person which included transportation to and from a nearby beach, as well as beach chairs.

Chukka Beach Express

The downside to booking a beach excursion through Disney Cruise Line was that we had to get off the ship early in the morning and returned to the ship in the early afternoon, while on our own, we would leave the ship around 10 or 11 AM and return later in the afternoon.

We met at 8:45 AM in the Buena Vista Theater which is where first-run movies are shown throughout the cruise. This was actually the only time that we went in that theater. It seemed that Disney had given us an early meeting time so that everyone would be there on time. Because when it was our scheduled time to meet, there were 20 guests still missing! When our excursion was called to leave the ship (about 15 minutes after our scheduled meeting in the theater), there were still guests who hadn't checked in, yet. We ended up on the last bus to leave which ended up waiting for the late guests.

Falmouth, Jamaica by vshingl, on Flickr

When our bus finally got moving, our bus driver took us through downtown Falmouth while our tour guide told us a bit of history. I think the bus driver might have been new on the job because there were a few times when our tour guide had to turn around and quickly tell him which way to go. After we went downtown, we ended up.... back at the cruise terminal. We had just taken a loop of the city. Then we went on towards the beach.

Falmouth, Jamaica by vshingl, on Flickr

This was taken from the bridge that James Bond drives across in Dr. No (1962). Also, Usain Bolt is from Falmouth. His family still lives there. We were told that we would see Usain Bolt today, and if we didn't... it's because he's just too fast.

The actual name of the beach is not listed in the shore excursion description. It just says "nearby beach". The sign in front of the beach said "Good Hope Beach", however, we were at a private portion which was only for Chukka guests.

Chukka Beach Break by vshingl, on Flickr

When we got off the bus, we received complimentary punch. I was disappointed to discover that this was not rum punch, but just normal punch. Yuck.

We learned that a bus would come to take guests back to the ship every hour, starting at 1 PM. So the excursion could actually be extended past the three hours listed on the description.

LittleMissMagic · June 3, 2014

Chukka Beach Break by vshingl, on Flickr

On both sides of the Chukka beach were huts with outside vendors. Guards stood at each side so that independent vendors could not sell on the Chukka beach. It was nice to not have to pretend that I was sleeping to avoid the people trying to sell souvenirs on the beach.

Chukka Beach Break by vshingl, on Flickr

This beach has incredibly soft, fine sand. It's so fine that it is almost silt. I believe it is the softest sand that I've ever encountered. Max loved the sand so much that he filled his Red Stripe bottle full of it and brought it home.

Chukka Beach Break by vshingl, on Flickr

At about noon, the bottom fell out of the sky. I pulled my towel over me for cover, and Rachel did the same. I didn't realize that Mom, Dad, and Max had sought cover in the trees. After several minutes, the water had completely soaked our towels, so Rachel and I figured that we might as well give in and decided to wait out the rain in the water.

Chukka Beach Break by vshingl, on Flickr

The sky was completely dark, and it didn't appear that the sun would be coming out anytime soon, so we decided to take the first bus back to the ship.

Overall, the Chukka Beach Express excursion was very good. The beach was clean and private, and the chairs were nice and new. Not to mention, the sand is the softest ever. There were also foam floats available to rent.

DaKa2002 · June 3, 2014

I had really high expectations for Palo after reading many positive reviews, which might be why it turned out to be such a disappointment (I would say that Palo was the most disappointing thing for us on the entire cruise... so I think that says a lot about how Disney really impressed us in all other aspects).

Thanks for checking out my Breeze review! If you're looking for more, another good one is my Royal Princess review.

Next time I recommend you try Remy - absolutely wonderful (although a bit more expensive). It competes very well with the Olympic restaurant (Celebrity) and is near Victoria and Albert's restaurant in the Grand Floridian at WDW at a much lower price point. Remy tops any other restaurant at sea we have experienced to date.

ducklite · June 3, 2014

Next time I recommend you try Remy - absolutely wonderful (although a bit more expensive). It competes very well with the Olympic restaurant (Celebrity) and is near Victoria and Albert's restaurant in the Grand Floridian at WDW at a much lower price point. Remy tops any other restaurant at sea we have experienced to date.

We actually preferred Remy to Victoria and Alberts.

DreamingBig1 · June 3, 2014

It's funny that you said you were not real impressed with Palo. We went on the Disney Wonder in 2010 with our family.

After reading about how impressive Palo was, I booked a evening out with my wife. In short, I wasn't totally impressed with the food and similar to you the atmosphere. It was just ok.

It's funny how you mention the waiter being kind of annoying. We thought the same thing. There's a tendency for cruise line staff (any cruise line - except Celebrity, we found they could give a crap. LOL) to be "like me, like me, like me", but Disney especially so. Disney must really award good feedback or threaten the staff with waterboarding. Not sure which.

We actually preferred the regular dining restaurants to Palo.

So you struck a cord right there with me on Palo.

Overall I would recommend Disney, especially for family's with young/tween children. We had a blast. Palo agreed, not worth it.

Great review and pictures!!!!

Edited June 3, 2014 by DreamingBig1

Guinness4me · June 4, 2014

Love it! can't wait to read more. We are on the Fantasy in 2015 for Turkey day! We did Palo Brunch on the Dream and loved it, it was more relaxed and actually buffet style with menu offerings. Re-thinking Palo dinner after your post.... maybe stick with Brunch.

ducklite · June 4, 2014

Love it! can't wait to read more. We are on the Fantasy in 2015 for Turkey day! We did Palo Brunch on the Dream and loved it, it was more relaxed and actually buffet style with menu offerings. Re-thinking Palo dinner after your post.... maybe stick with Brunch.

We only had dinner at Palo on the Dream, bu had both on the Magic and preferred the brunch.

bear3412 · June 5, 2014

Awesome review. Great pics.

....
When our bus finally got moving, our bus driver took us through downtown Falmouth while our tour guide told us a bit of history. I think the bus driver might have been new on the job because there were a few times when our tour guide had to turn around and quickly tell him which way to go. After we went downtown, we ended up.... back at the cruise terminal. We had just taken a loop of the city. Then we went on towards the beach.

......

How long was the bus ride to the beach?

TIA

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Next time I recommend you try Remy - absolutely wonderful (although a bit more expensive). It competes very well with the Olympic restaurant (Celebrity) and is near Victoria and Albert's restaurant in the Grand Floridian at WDW at a much lower price point. Remy tops any other restaurant at sea we have experienced to date.

Thanks - I will keep that in mind when I'm planning my next Disney Cruise!

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

It's funny how you mention the waiter being kind of annoying. We thought the same thing. There's a tendency for cruise line staff (any cruise line - except Celebrity, we found they could give a crap. LOL) to be "like me, like me, like me", but Disney especially so. Disney must really award good feedback or threaten the staff with waterboarding. Not sure which.

We actually preferred the regular dining restaurants to Palo.

So you struck a cord right there with me on Palo.

Overall I would recommend Disney, especially for family's with young/tween children. We had a blast. Palo agreed, not worth it.

Great review and pictures!!!!

I had read in advance on the message boards about the "Excellent Speech", and sure enough, we heard that our last two nights. However, when we were filling out our response cards at the end of the cruise, there was no place to rate our servers, but rather the dining rooms in general. We were very honest and did give some excellent ratings, but only where we thought it was deserved.

I think that the push for "excellent" is actually a disservice to Disney Cruise Line. My final semester in undergrad, I worked in a creative inquiry where we were evaluating our own architecture curriculum. This involved many surveys and interviews not just within our own school, but other school's architecture programs, as well. When evaluating responses, the 100% positive and 100% negatives were not useful (we called actually called them "throw-aways"), as they didn't give us specific things to improve on. The responses that were more in the middle were very helpful in our evaluations. I think it is a mixture of my survey and interview evaluation and research, not to mention the four years of receiving and giving critique, which enable me to give really honest and thorough feedback when writing reviews.

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Love it! can't wait to read more. We are on the Fantasy in 2015 for Turkey day! We did Palo Brunch on the Dream and loved it, it was more relaxed and actually buffet style with menu offerings. Re-thinking Palo dinner after your post.... maybe stick with Brunch.

Thank you! I hope you have a wonderful time on your cruise!

I think I'll have to give Palo Brunch a try in the future. And I hear there is champagne which is always a positive...

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Awesome review. Great pics.

How long was the bus ride to the beach?

TIA

Thank you! The bus ride back from the beach to the port was around 8-10 minutes. The bus ride to the beach from the port (including our town tour) was around 15-20 minutes.

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Port of Falmouth

After returning to the ship, eating lunch, and changing into dry clothes, we decided to check out the Port of Falmouth and do some shopping. Rachel was looking for an Alex and Ani bracelet, and Max and Rachel both collect shot glasses.

Disney Fantasy by vshingl, on Flickr

We were in port with Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas.

Disney Fantasy by vshingl, on Flickr

The shopping center is very well-developed. There are several jewelry stores (including, of course, Diamonds International), Del Sol, Cariloha, Shade Shack, Dufry Duty-Free, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, and several other souvenir stores. There is also a covered market-type area for vendors to sell artwork, and several kiosks for hair braiding, henna tattoos, and beverages.

Disney Fantasy by vshingl, on Flickr

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville - Falmouth, Jamaica

Margaritaville Falmouth by vshingl, on Flickr

We, of course, visited Margaritaville. It's a very large complex with a store, pool, outdoor eating area, restaurant, and several bars.

Margaritaville Falmouth by vshingl, on Flickr

There is a pool with a swim-up bar.

Edited June 5, 2014 by LittleMissMagic

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Margaritaville Falmouth by vshingl, on Flickr

And a hot tub inside of a giant Margarita glass.

Margaritaville Falmouth by vshingl, on Flickr

I was on the ground taking a picture of everyone else inside of the Margarita glass when a kind stranger offered to take a photo of all of us. She and her friend then insisted that we jump. We were a little skeptical because we didn't want to fall inside the hot tub. However, I'm really glad that we did because the shot turned out hilarious...

Margaritaville Falmouth by vshingl, on Flickr

Honestly, you could easily spend your entire port day at Margaritaville.

Margaritaville Falmouth by vshingl, on Flickr

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Margaritaville Falmouth by vshingl, on Flickr

Max spent over $30 at the Margaritaville store and had earned a 20% off drinks coupon, so we decided to use it on Frozen Concoctions.

Falmouth, Jamaica by vshingl, on Flickr

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Disney Fantasy by vshingl, on Flickr

rmandmm · June 5, 2014

Your reports are so good! Thank you! In the past three nights I've read the Princess and the Breeze and I'm following this one as well.

I really want to read your Adventure of the Seas but I'm having trouble getting the pics to load...it could very legitimately be operator error. I hope I can see them soon. Thank you for all your work!

We're on the Fantasy over Thanksgiving this year, so this is really helping me get my family super excited! :)

mairinmaureen · June 5, 2014

Palo by vshingl, on Flickr

I love your Dad's Mickey tie!

As for Palo, I heard the sea day brunch is your best bet!

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Your reports are so good! Thank you! In the past three nights I've read the Princess and the Breeze and I'm following this one as well.

I really want to read your Adventure of the Seas but I'm having trouble getting the pics to load...it could very legitimately be operator error. I hope I can see them soon. Thank you for all your work!

We're on the Fantasy over Thanksgiving this year, so this is really helping me get my family super excited! :)

Thank you!

Unfortunately, with my Adventure of the Seas review, I made a rookie mistake of hosting my photos on Facebook. With one of the Facebook updates about a year ago, all of the permalinks changed, and my photos were lost. Since Cruise Critic doesn't allow me to go back in and edit posts after thirty minutes, I'm afraid that my review will never have photos, again.

I am working on copying and re-posting my review with photos on my travel blog, but it's a tedious process and not posted, yet!

I hope that you and your family have a wonderful time on the Fantasy!

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

I love your Dad's Mickey tie!

As for Palo, I heard the sea day brunch is your best bet!

I was wondering if anyone would notice his tie! He actually has quite the collection of Mickey Mouse ties. We purchased his from Walt Disney World, but they also sold several styles on the ship. There are some really beautiful prints where Mickey is a very subtle texture.

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Sail Away Falmouth

I insisted that we watch the ship sail away from Falmouth. I was very excited because the Freedom of the Seas was in port, so I assumed that a horn battle would take place. We had participated in a fun horn battle with the Allure of the Seas while on Royal Princess over Christmas.

Falmouth, Jamaica by vshingl, on Flickr

We were all set to go and honked, "When You Wish Upon a Star" to Freedom of the Seas. We waited. Waited. Waited. NO RESPONSE!!!! We were very disappointed that Freedom of the Seas did not honk back. I was then disappointed that the Disney Fantasy didn't taunt the Freedom by honking again.

Falmouth, Jamaica by vshingl, on Flickr

Good-bye, lame Freedom! I will note that there were many Freedom of the Seas passengers on deck waving good-bye to us. I love waving good-bye to ships or people on land because there is something amazing and beautiful about hundreds or thousands of people waving all at once.

Edited June 5, 2014 by LittleMissMagic

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Falmouth, Jamaica by vshingl, on Flickr

Disney Fantasy by vshingl, on Flickr

LittleMissMagic · June 5, 2014

Pirates IN the Caribbean

Now, when telling Rachel what to pack, I had told her to bring a pirate costume. That was easy for her because she had been a pirate for Halloween before. I didn't have a pirate costume, and in all of my pre-cruise craziness with getting the Fish Extender Gifts ready and designing our stateroom door, I kind of forgot to come up with one. Luckily, Disney Cruise Line provided us with some bandannas to wear, but I really regretted not getting a pirate costume together.

Pirate Night by vshingl, on Flickr

LittleMissMagic's 2014 Disney Fantasy Western Caribbean Cruise - A Photo Review!

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