Day 8: Castaway Cay

On our final day on board the Disney Fantasy, we made a stop at Castaway Cay! This is always my favorite stop on our Disney cruises! Sadly, our time on the island was cut short by several hours due to the "pit stop" the day before at Turks and Cacos, but we all understood the reason. (A patient needed medical attention.)

With a few extra hours on board the ship, a new navigator was released which included an extra "Art of the Theme Show" tour (which I LOVE)! I also decided to get up and run a few miles on deck since the Castaway Cay 5K clearly wasn't happening that day...sad times.

After my run, I stopped in the Cove Cafe one last time for a cold brew. Y'all, this stuff is SO good.

Jason and I also had breakfast at Cabanas.

Jason decided he didn't want to go on the tour with me since he did it on our last cruise. I've actually taken these tours on every since Disney cruise I've been on, because you get something different from each guide.  This time, we had a semi private tour as it was just me and one other cruise guest in our group!

This tour is a walking tour of the ship, where cruise staff informs you of the secrets and facts behind the art work, layout, and design of the ship. It really is a neat tour that's usually held on at sea days, and I encourage everyone to go!

We weren't set to land at the island until 12:45 p.m. or so, and the captain announced that BBQ would be served in the restaurants on board instead. We were looking forward to said "BBQ", but it sadly was not anywhere near the Cookies standard. (Still good, just not what we were expecting.)

When we finally docked at Castaway Cay, we were ready to disembark and because of all the people, we decided to walk to the next tram stop.

I felt like I was walking to the start of a runDisney corral with all the people!

Sad times for no 5K!

We very briefly shopped around here but didn't buy anything and said we would on the way out. Sadly, by the time we made it back, all of the shops were already closed.

By the way, I think everyone had on this swim suit coverup that was available at Target this past summer! It was so funny to see it everywhere we went on the ship!

The tram to Serenity Bay arrived and we couldn't wait to finally relax on the beautiful beach.

It was a beautiful day and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time in the water and swimming!

We also decided to walk over to Cookies II to relax for a few minutes and were shocked by the emptiness of it all!

This is totally unusual for Cookies!  I guess everyone ate on the ship!

We went back into the water for a little and enjoyed seeing a stingray and a starfish!

Before we knew it, the lifeguard was notifying us that it was time to leave. We seriously felt like we'd just gotten there.

We took our time getting back to the ship and stopped for a few pictures along the way!

Dinner on our final evening was in Animator's Palate where we had the chance to animate our own Disney characters! Mine is the second one from the right! (I'm NOT a artist!)

We also said goodbye to our servers for the final time as our flight was set to leave early the following morning.

They were awesome!!

In the atrium that evening, they held a "See Ya Real Soon" farewell show where the characters stop by for a few pictures and a final farewell.

We were already standing down on the floor where  Mickey and Minnie were stationed, so hopped in line to take a picture with them. 

We also decided to watch the Incredibles 2 which was playing that night at 10:45 p.m.  Our goal on this cruise was to watch Christopher Robin, Ant Man & The Wasp, and the Incredibles 2 throughout the 7 days on board the ship. We were able to watch all three and Jason added Solo to his list! I'd say it was a pretty successful cruise!

While disembarking the next day, we noticed that they were setting up for the Halloween on the High Seas cruises. Hi Mickey pumpkin!

...and just like that, our cruise was over! After arriving at the airport, Jason realized that he forgot to grab our garment bag from the cruise terminal. We still had about 2 hours until our flight, so we stopped by the Disney Cruise Line relations desk where we were handed a card for lost and found. We called the number and left a voicemail and within 10 minutes, we received a call back. Sadly, they didn't think they would have enough time before our flight to bring the bag to the airport, so we decided to have it mailed via UPS. We chose the regular/ground option and literally three days later, it arrived at our front door! Thankfully, we didn't have anything super important in that bag, but it was definitely a lesson for us to always keep our important stuff or souvenirs in our carry on bags!

We had a blast on our cruise and loved the Eastern Caribbean itinerary with the extra "at sea" day! This is such a neat itinerary and we can't wait for our next cruise!

Thanks for following along! :)

Disney Cruise Day 7: Last At Sea Day

Our goals for our final at sea day were to relax and just simply enjoy being on the Disney Fantasy. I had a massage booked that morning and Jason wanted to watch the latest Star Wars movie (Solo), so we slept in, took our time getting ready, and enjoyed being on a giant vessel out at sea!

I loved looking at the "map" every day on the TV in our room to see how far we'd sailed!

After breakfast, I stopped by the Cove Cafe for another cold brew. I'm seriously addicted - they are delicious!

My massage was booked for mid-morning and after saying goodbye to Jason, I headed up to the Senses Spa.

They had me change into a robe, then wait in this little room to fill out paperwork and wait for my name to be called.

After meeting my massage therapist, she took me down the hallway to this room. The view was awesome (but let's be honest...who really notices the view during a massage when you have your face down in a pillow?)

Sooo...what were my thoughts on this massage? Well, I decided to splurge for it because it was my birthday trip and I'd never experienced the spa on a cruise ship thus far. What I booked was the 50 minute Swedish massage and somehow, the massage therapist talked me into a hot stone massage. I've had a hot stone massage back at home in the past, but that's not what I booked to begin with on the ship and I shouldn't have let her talk me into it. From the get go, I felt as if the massage therapist was pushing "higher" services and product at me to raise the price of my massage. The massage I actually wanted was the massage I booked in the first place and her tactic didn't register until she was already underway into the hot stone massage. At the end of the massage, she then came in and tried to sell several different Elemis products to me. Don't get me wrong - I fully understood that I was on a cruise ship and that's what they do, but I didn't really care for the whole thing. It also made for a less than enjoyable experience in the spa and to be honest, I'm not sure I would return for a massage. I was seriously bummed as this was something I was looking forward to for so long.

So, after leaving the massage room, I headed over to the bathroom to change and decided to take a shower. These Elemis products really were nice and I enjoyed being in the spa, but I still couldn't shake my feeling of disappointment with the whole thing.

This is the changing area with lockers that are provided for use.

After the massage, I decided to walk around the ship and explore! Jason wasn't out of his movie yet, so I had a bit of time to see the sights and relax.

I also happened to be out on deck when the horns blew which was really fun to hear!

Our captain also made an announcement that we had to make a pit stop at Turks and Cacos due to a patient on board who needed medical attention. It was interesting to see the process - we got fairly close to the island and they literally sent a little boat out to collect the patient. I hope they were able to get the medical attention they needed!

Once Jason returned from the movie, we had lunch and then decided to take a nap.

It was a day of relaxation after all!

At dinner that evening, our server gave me the biggest surprise ever!

A little back story - two cruises ago, the menus were changed a bit which means that the pot stickers (one of my menu favorites) were taken off the pirate night menu and replaced with something that doesn't taste very good at all. So on pirate night, I mentioned to our server (Ana from Portugal) that I missed my beloved pot stickers and on our last at sea night, she surprised me with a plate full!! I jumped up and hugged her...I seriously couldn't believe it! This is the kind of thing that I feel sets Disney apart from other cruise lines. She seriously made magic happen for me!

Since it was our last day at sea, we also enjoyed a little lobster that evening.

This guy was waiting on us in our room when we returned! :)

Our DVC lanyards were also given to us on this day. We proudly wore them the remainder of the cruise! I loved hearing "Welcome Home" everywhere we went!

Up next: Castaway Cay and our final day on the Disney Fantasy!

Disney Cruise Day 6: St. Thomas

Hello there and welcome back to the recap of our most recent Disney cruise on board the Disney Fantasy! On our next port stop, we sailed to the gorgeous island of St. Thomas, which has now quickly become one of my favorite island stops, ever!

We planned on snorkeling that day and shopping in the afternoon, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself here.

I woke up early the morning of our visit to St. Thomas so I could watch the ship pull into port. I was intrigued by several structures I saw on our way in, so I kept them in the back of my mind to ask about later.

The day was simply perfect!

While the ship did it's official docking, Jason and I had breakfast in Cabana's. No Disney Cruise breakfast is complete without Mickey waffles! :)

As I mentioned earlier, our plan for the day was to take a catamaran to a sunken shipwreck in "pirates cove" for a little snorkeling! When you hear "pirates cove" and shipwreck, you think of an old wooden pirate ship like the kind you would see in the movies, right? Well, I did. Sadly, this was an old WWII ship that was sold off after the war and the captain who purchased it, used to to smuggle goods to the islands. When he found out he was about to get caught, he sunk his own ship. Face palm.

Anyway, on our catamaran ride out to shipwreck cove, we saw more evidence of Hurricane Irma's destruction. The side of this resort had a massive hole in it and was still not back up and functioning at the time.

Despite the silly pirate story, we still enjoyed our snorkeling experience and even had a guide along with us. This was my first time to ever snorkel with a guide and she was fabulous! I also loved how she referenced Finding Nemo with several of the fish we saw. (We saw a lot of blue tang which she referred to as Dory!)

My favorite part of the snorkeling experience was the sea turtle. We literally swam with it for a little ways and it was incredible! This snorkeling excursion was hands down one of my favorites, ever.

As the excursion neared its end and we returned to the catamaran, we saw a lot of blue tang hanging out at the bottom of the boat!

This really was a great experience overall, especially the guided part!

We returned to the ship around noon and saw crew members repainting the hull. They seriously did this all day long. It's amazing to me how much care and attention Disney gives to their ships!

Since it was only noon and we had another four hours to explore, we grabbed a quick bite to eat on the ship, showered, then returned to the port to do a little shopping!

Unlike Tortola, the port here at St. Thomas was bustling and full of stops!

Since we had so much time remaining on the island, I suggested to Jason that we take the gondola ride to the top of Paradise Point! Thankfully, he agreed with me!

The view of St. Thomas was simply gorgeous from the top of Paradise Point!

At the top of Paradise Point, there was a restaurant and a few shops. Since we just ate on the ship, we didn't have anything to eat, but we did sit for a while and enjoy the use of our cell phones (since St. Thomas is a US territory).

As we went to leave, we noticed some form of commercial or something being taken. We couldn't tell what they were doing, but it was interesting to watch while we waited for our gondola! Oh, and if you're curious, it's a 7 minute ride to the top and a 7 minute ride back down.

I absolutely love tropical flowers!

Once we returned to the boat, we headed over to The Tube for our first ever DVC event! It was a mix and mingle event where DVC members could share stories and meet fellow DVC members. Fun times!

As a mid-afternoon snack, I had a little birthday treat. I mean, I couldn't let the entire cruise go by without having one of these special August themed cupcakes, could I?!

The middle was filled with raspberry! :)

It was a pretty tasty cupcake!

Sunsets at sea are the best! :)

That evening, we caught the late showing of Ant-Man and The Wasp! We had been looking forward to seeing it on our cruise and were excited it all worked out!

Up next: Our final at sea day! Stay tuned for more cruise fun from the Disney Fantasy!