On the first night of our Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy, I do not remember falling asleep but I woke suddenly sometime in the middle of the night in agony with cramp in my leg. After a few minutes I thankfully fell back asleep and woke up again at 7:30am feeling much better. I went out onto our verandah and thankfully the storm that had been chasing us since we left Port Canaveral was nowhere in sight anymore and it was a beautiful morning outside. Being able to stand on your own verandah enjoying the fresh air and watching the sea is one of my favourite things about being on a cruise ship. A quick trip to Deck 11 ensued to get a cup of tea and we both sat in bed watching the “Good Morning Disney Fantasy” show on the television.

Once we had got dressed, I ran down to Guest Services to pick up a Personal Navigator for the day as I had forgotten to collect one the evening before. I had already looked at the Disney Cruise Line app which is very easy and convenient to use but I do prefer to look at the paper version when planning the day ahead.

After dropping the Navigator back in the room, we headed to Cabanas for breakfast. The first morning at breakfast always feels a little chaotic and this was no exception. Despite the drinks and ice creams being served to you on the pool deck because of the sickness on the cruise the week before, at Cabanas you were free to help yourself to the food and drink as you had to use the hand washing stations before entering.

After breakfast, our room had already been made up and we had been left our Castaway Club gift which was a backpack which we already have several of so I really hope they change it before our next cruise. Normally the gifts are in your room on embarkation but given all the extra cleaning the day before, this time they were delivered on the second day instead.

After breakfast we made our way to the Meridian lounge on Deck 12 ready for the Art of the Theme Show Tour that was due to start at 9:15am. I thought it would be a lot busier than it actually was but maybe it was because the tour is for adults only and not for anyone under eighteen which excludes a lot of the families with younger children onboard. Cory from the cruise staff team was our guide and he was absolutely brilliant – I do not think I stopped laughing the whole time we were on the tour. I love doing these tours on cruises as no matter how many times you do them, you always learn something new or see something different each time.

The Art of the Theme Show Tour is not a ship tour but a look at the different designs, various artworks and hidden details that can be found throughout the ship. Most of which you would not even notice but once you know they’re there, you see them every time you walk past!

One of my favourites was the Ratatouille artwork located outside Remy on the staircase between Decks 11 and 12. In the artwork you can see Remy and Emile looking out over the rooftops of Paris with the sun behind them – but it’s only when you look closely that you see that their shadows are actually Mickey and Walt.

We also learnt that the artwork represents what is located nearby on each deck where the staircases are. For example, the Goofy sports artwork is found by Goofy’s Sports Deck on Deck 13 and the Donald Duck picnic artwork is found in the stairwell outside of Cabanas.

On the decks where staterooms are located, stars on the carpet point forward and the nautical flags on the carpet also spell out the name of the ship. Staterooms on the port side of the ship have decorative fish outside the doors, whilst staterooms on the starboard side of the ship have seahorses. There is also some artwork on one of the decks which has seahorses on one side of the ship and fish on the other – they are actually each on the wrong side of the ship to what you would think but according to the Imagineers they are in the right place as they are all looking in the right direction – so the fish face port and the seahorses look towards the starboard side.

Another one of my favourite details which again I would never have known about if I had not taken the tour is the artwork found in the Aft stairwell on Deck 4 next to all the adult only bars. If parents come out of one of the bars after a few drinks and cannot remember where their children are, then there is someone on the artwork pointing up to Deck 5 where all the children’s clubs are located.

Another detail on the carpets on Deck 4 is that fairy dust leads the way to the Europa adult-only area as well as to the Tiffany store. There are also many references to the number “688” throughout the ship which was the hull number for the Disney Fantasy when she was being constructed at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenberg, Germany.

Outside on Deck 4, we learnt all about the ship being painted the colours of Mickey Mouse in his signature outfit – Red, White, Monica Blue (named after the lady whose clothes one day were the exact colour the Imagineers wanted for the ship as black was deemed too harsh) and Mickey Yellow for the lifeboats which Disney Cruise Line had to get approved with maritime authorities to prove it was just as visible, if not more than the regulation lifeboat orange.

Our tour finished in the lobby atrium of the Disney Fantasy which was designed in an art nouveau style and peacock-themed. If you stand on Deck 5 and look down, you can see the “body” of the peacock in the carpet on Deck 3, the “neck” of the peacock is the blue carpet on the staircase and the “head” can be found on the carpet of the balcony area of Deck 4 where you can meet characters throughout the cruise. The character statue is Mademoiselle Minnie Mouse wearing a peacock-inspired dress which she also actually wears during the cruise and is exclusive to the Disney Fantasy – I knew that Minnie wore that dress during formal night so I could not wait to meet her later that day.

We thanked Cory once the tour had finished as we had had such a good time. Even though the tour had lasted just over an hour, he said he could have told us so much more and immediately took us to the area just outside the Walt Disney Theatre where Imagineers wanted you to feel like you were amongst the stars – look up and all the signs of the zodiac are subtlety painted on the ceiling around you which I had never even spotted before despite walking through that area so many times!

Our next job was to book a placeholder as it is always a good idea to do this as early in the cruise as possible as it can get very busy as the cruise goes on – the last day can be crazy. We’re not sure yet if we’ll use it but it is always worth getting just in case – if we do not use it within two years, we will get a full refund. The placeholder costs $250 which we always ask them to transfer into Pounds (which was £193) so we can make all future payments in Pounds and not be at the mercy of the exchange rate. If we do find a cruise that we want to book, all we have to do is contact Disney Cruise Line and the money will be transferred to that booking and we will also receive 10% discount off the cruise fare as well as onboard credit on that cruise. We also have to remember each time we book a placeholder onboard to take a credit card with us as we cannot charge the Placeholder to our stateroom as we use an American Express card for our onboard charges but annoyingly you cannot pay for a cruise in Pounds with American Express.

We took the elevator up to Deck 11 as we wanted to go to Cove Cafe and get a coffee and sit down for a bit. Just as we were walking towards the Quiet Cove area, we both did a double take when we saw a Cast Member in front of us – amazingly it was Geffrey who had been our Head Server on both our previous cruises on the Disney Wonder. We never expected to see him on this cruise (he had actually boarded the ship the day before too) and we spent a few minutes catching up with him.

Once we got to Cove Cafe, we ordered a coffee and decided to try one of the new cakes that they have. Nothing really interested me but we decided to share the Chocolate Orange Cupcake – it was nice but it was so rich that I could never have eaten one by myself. I really hope that one day they bring back those amazing Vanilla cupcakes as they were just perfect and I really missed them.

Whilst we were sat inside Cove Cafe, the Captain made his midday announcement followed by all the ship horns sounding. I had not even realised the time as I had wanted to listen to the horns but as we had another sea day the following day, I knew I could hear them then.

After lunch sat outside at Cabanas, we changed into our swimwear and made our way to Satellite Falls on Deck 13 for the afternoon. This is one of my favourite areas of the ship as it is so peaceful and there is plenty of shade – you really noticed how quiet it was after walking past both the family pools and the Quiet Cove pool which was not quiet at all. We grabbed a couple of sunloungers facing the ocean and I promptly fell asleep – there really is something about that view and the sound of the ocean!

Once I woke up maybe an hour later, I decided to walk around the deck and get a cold drink when I noticed that there was actually a short line for the Aquaduck. I asked my boyfriend if he wanted to go on it so we dropped our bags back in our stateroom and grabbed our GoPro before heading back to the Deck 12. You can use GoPro’s on the Aquaduck but the rule is they have to be physically attached to you using a wrist, chest or head mount – a simple wrist strap is not good enough as you need to be able to keep hold of the raft with both hands at all times.

As it was very windy, you could only ride the Aquaduck in groups of two which was helping to keep the line short and moving quickly. It was our first time riding it at sea and it was just as much fun as I remember!

We took a tea, a cold drink as well as an ice cream back to our stateroom to spend some time sitting on our verandah – we figured that as we had a giant verandah we might as well make the most of it! We saw a beautiful sunset behind the ship and it was only when I looked back at my photos, that I noticed you could see the exhaust fumes from the ship’s funnel – we did not notice any smell from the fumes though throughout the cruise.

After having a shower and getting ready for the evening, we walked down to Deck 4 a few minutes early to meet Captain Mickey at 7:15pm. There was only four people already in line which was already proving much quieter than our second night on the Disney Dream which was manic – this was a theme that continued throughout the whole week which is just another one of the many reasons why I prefer longer cruises.

It was also formal night and we both noticed that people were a lot more dressed up than they were on our last cruise on the Disney Wonder out of Galveston. After meeting Mickey, we went to Preludes to meet Minnie Mouse in her peacock dress at 7:30pm and again there was only a short line. I also found out from one of the Cast Members that Minnie would be meeting in her Captain’s outfit the following day which I was incredibly excited to see.

As it was the time between the two dinner seatings and the two shows (the show on this night was The Great Dubois: Masters of Variety), the lobby atrium was now very crowded. There were many formal photoshoots taking place everywhere and as it was the Captain’s Welcome Reception (you could also meet Captain Marco), there were also free alcoholic drinks being handed out which consisted of beer as well as two brightly-coloured fluorescent cocktails. To escape the crowds, we went and sat outside on Deck 4 on one of the sun loungers and watched the world go by.

Our dinner on this evening was in Royal Court on Deck 3 and once again we had a great table located at the back next to the murals on the wall and as this area is elevated on a platform, we could see across the whole of the restaurant. Tanya already had a Ginger Ale waiting for both of us on the table and to start I ordered the Iced Lobster and Jumbo Shrimp and the Breaded and Deep Fried Brie. For my main course I ordered a large portion of the Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes which were being served in Animator’s Palate as they are one of my favourite foods onboard and I would miss them the next night as we had dinner booked in Remy instead. I ordered the Opera Cake for dessert and as nice as it was, I could not finish it as it was huge and a little too heavy to eat it all.

After dinner we went back to our stateroom to change and finally met Antonio who was our brilliant Stateroom Host who we had kept missing since boarding. We figured out that we had not seen him as because our stateroom was exactly centre in the ship, we kept walking on the starboard side of the ship to get to the elevators out of habit as that is the side we’ve sailed on all four previous cruises and he was looking after the rooms on the port side.

We went down to the Deck 4 balcony and met Minnie Mouse once again with a much better background than Preludes as well as seeing Princess Tiana, Stitch and Goofy all wandering around Decks 4 and 5.

I also went to Guest Services to collect a Personal Navigator for the next day and I was asked if I wanted one left in our stateroom each night. As convenient as this would be, I said no as I actually do not mind having to go and get one as I love exploring the ship and do mind the walk at all – I like getting the exercise to help cancel out all of the food I eat onboard! I also took some photos of the maps behind Guest Services showing the locations of all the Disney parks around the world as well as Aulani in Hawaii – somewhere I cannot wait to visit in the future!

As it was past 11:00pm at this time, as usual we got a cup of tea from Deck 11 before going back to our stateroom. I must have been tired as I cannot remember what towel or blanket animal we had that night and I completely forgot to take a photo of it which I’ve never done before.

Our first full day onboard the Disney Fantasy was incredible as well as completely relaxing which was everything we were hoping this cruise would be. The following day would be another day at sea including meeting Captain Minnie Mouse as well as our long awaited dinner at Remy which we were both looking forward to.

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