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Monday, January 12, 2015

Back From The Sea

All good things come to an end, even the cruise we planned to take for 37 years .

We did a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy, and it was worth waiting every second of those 37 years for.  We had a such a great time that we’ve already booked another cruise on the same ship, with even the same stateroom we had on this trip, for January 2016.  Yep, we’re not going to wait another 37 years before sailing again!

I’ll do several follow on posts to cover this trip and the things we did.  To start, we left the Journey at the COE volunteer campground (with their permission) and drove the Element toad to Port Canaveral, Florida.  We stayed the night before the cruise at a really yucky Hilton hotel there for the free week long parking and round trip taxi service to the ship.

And what a ship it is!

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With a staff of 1500 to take care of our every need, want and desire.

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Entering through the terminal to the ship brought us into the main atrium presided over by Minnie Mouse.

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An incredible chandelier lit the atrium from the ceiling.

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Our stateroom was clean, neat as a pin and very roomy.

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We had splurged and got one with a veranda, two chairs, a small table and a million dollar view.  We spent a lot of time enjoying the ocean view and relaxing while reading our Kindles, in between all the activities offered on the ship. 

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There were tons of things to do, if you were bored, it was your own fault.  Even though the cruise is family and kid oriented, there was lots of adult only areas and activities.  Disney has perfected a nice balance for everyone to enjoy themselves.

We were off before we knew it, the ship handled so smoothly, we hardly noticed its movement.  We were escorted out of the harbor by a police boat.

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Once we cleared the channel entrance a small boat pulled alongside while the ship was underway to take off the Harbor Pilot who had guided the ship from its berth.

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During my Coast Guard days, many times I had driven boats like this alongside ships underway to take off or put on men.  It was interesting to see a boat come alongside from this view, I was always down there looking up.  Fun memories.

Other sights brought back additional memories.  It was a great career and not a day goes by I don’t think about it.

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In no time the Fantasy was headed out to sea.

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We took in the view from up on the superstructure.  The breeze was quite refreshing!  You couldn’t even think of keeping your hair neat with that wind.

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Enough for now, I’ll stop and let you get your sea legs…  ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

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20 comments:

  1. Nice suite, like the t-shirt, heard eating is a big part of a cruise.

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  2. WOW! Really looking forward to your posts!

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  3. Keep the posts coming... we are so anxious to hear about the Disney Cruise!!! Just glad to hear it was so good it needs to be repeated:o))

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  4. Glad you had such a good time- looking forward to the next posts.

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  5. I bet it was great fun for you to be underway again and for Marti to be with you this time. Looking forward to reading all about it. We missed you.

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  6. Nice! We are going on a Disney cruise in April 2016 so I am looking forward to seeing your upcoming posts. :)

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  7. Love cruising, can't see what's not to like about it, glad you enjoyed.

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  8. awwww...that post was way too short. lol.. Can't wait to see more.

    I had to laugh when you mentioned the police boat. We always call the pilot boats "police boats". Not really sure why, I think when we first started noticing them we thought the writing on the side said police..so it stuck.

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  9. You booked it for January 2016? I'm guessing you'll be flying to catch that ship from Arizona since you also said you'd there next January. Right? On cruises if someone ends up hungry, it's their own fault too.

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    1. Did I forget to mention we're going to clone ourselves? Silly me.

      Actually, the cruise leaves 30 Jan 2016, so there is plenty of time to do AZ, just a couple of short PDD days to get to FL in time to make the sailing. ;c)

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    2. Hmm... I'm already plotting how to get my rig washed next winter. ;)

      A room with a balcony is surely the best way to go cruising.

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  10. Nice. Good to get away from time to time. The stateroom option is definitely a worthwhile upgrade. Sometimes you have to stay at a yucky hotel though, to get the free parking.

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  11. Welcome back to the real world, unlike Disney. I love re-caps of a cruise, our last one was 10 years ago.

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  12. So want to take George on a cruise some day. Looking forward to more pictures and commentary!

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  13. Welcome back! I imagine there was no rock and roll and it didn't smell like diesel and cold stores? Where's the 'adventure' in that :)

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  14. Welcome back! The only thing not to like on a cruise is what it does to the waistline!!! :(
    Looking forward to the rest of the story.

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  15. I always over eat on cruises. We have always had a good time, no matter which cruise line.

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  16. The worse part of getting off the ship is facing that scale:)

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  17. Marty looks like she was having a ball! I did not realize that Disney cruises were also for old fuddy duddys like us.

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  18. Welcome back! Glad you loved it after waiting so long. Looking forward to reading all about it.

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