Tag: cruise

Sailing on a Fantasy

IMG_20130424_115324I am now officially back on dry land after an amazing week on board Disney’s newest vessel, the Disney Fantasy. For those that don’t know, the Disney Fantasy launched just over a year ago at the end of March and is the forth vessel in the fleet for Disney Cruise Line. While she is the same class and design as her sister ship, the Disney Dream, there are many things that have been updated and refined on her that make her what I feel is the very best of what Disney can offer.

I had the wonderful opportunity to sail on the Disney Fantasy with a good friend on a 7-Night Eastern Caribbean cruise that took us to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands; San Juan, Puerto Rico and Castaway Cay in the The Bahamas. Along with the ports of call, I got three wonderful days at sea to explore this amazing ship!

IMG_20130423_135747Where to start, the simplest change which turned out to be one of my favorite changes was the addition of the Satellite Falls adult only area on the upper deck. This was the perfect spot to come and relax to read a book and soak up the sun on the deck. I couldn’t have been more pleased with this addition. The other update that I really loved was the whole Europa Adult Entertainment area. All of the night clubs are themed after various places in Europe complete with an authentic Irish Pub and a dance club themed after the London Underground, for those that know me and my travels, you will know that this just rocks my world! Everything else is nearly identical to the Disney Dream but just slightly updated to fit the theme of the ship which matches that of the Disney Wonder.

IMG_20130423_104147The ports of call on this voyage where familiar ones to me with the exception of San Juan which I haven’t been to since I was younger. St Thomas was simply beautiful the day we were in port. I couldn’t have had any better weather. I took the gondola to the top of the island and just enjoyed the view while having a nice cold beverage and catching up on emails. I felt very much like a crew member as I was looking for the available Wi-Fi to connect to. The blue in the water isn’t shown justice in any of my photos from the stop. It was just simply amazingly blue and so clear!

IMG_20130424_130417San Juan was another great stop and I spent the time to explore the old historic forts on the island and with it being National Park Week, there was not admission fees. Score! After walking all over Old San Juan, it was time to return to my new favorite spot on the ship at Satellite Falls to do some more email catch up and just enjoy reading. What a perfect way to cool off and relax for the afternoon!

In addition to the night life and the ports of call, the new shows on the Disney Fantasy are well worth the view. Aladdin and Wishes were simply amazing and I think really show what kind of entertainment Disney is known for and can put on even when you consider that you are on a ship in the middle of the ocean. I was also able to catch Oz-The Great and Powerful in 3D onboard which was a nice added bonus to the trip.

IMG_20130424_115642Even if you don’t have children, an adult can still have a blast on a Disney Cruise. This was the perfect and much needed get away that I needed for the spring where I could just step back and relax and let nothing get to me. I managed to survive with no added weight coming up from the ship as well, thank you Senses Spa and Gym. In addition to the gym, I also completed my first 5K on Disney’s Castaway Cay. You have no idea how fun a run in almost 100% humidity and the Caribbean heat!

I think the other part that made the vacation so wonderful was seeing some old friends that I haven’t had a chance to catch up with in a while since they are off at sea working on the ship. I want to thank all of you for everything you do and for giving me such a wonderful retreat for the week! Hope to see you all again soon!

7-Night Eastern Caribbean

7-Night Eastern Caribbean

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Discovering New Destinations in 2013

Disney_Wonder2013 has started off with a blast this year and I am just returning from my first adventure of the new year. Last week my friend and I went down to Miami for a day and enjoyed the night life in Miami Beach before boarding the Disney Wonder on a 4-Night Bahamian cruise that took us to Key West, Nassau and Castaway Cay. It was a great trip and experiencing Miami Beach and Key West for the first time really made the trip. It was also fun to experience the cruise with a first time cruiser and a group of international friends. The only downfall of the cruise was twisting my ankle on the first night on the stairs, and no, alcohol was not involved but, seeing old friends and making some new ones onboard made up for the downfall.

4-Night Bahamian Cruise from Miami, FL
Bahamas_4Night

Trip Photos

Home for a few days now and catching up on laundry and house work before heading to Naples, FL to visit the family for the weekend and then back for a few days to Orlando and then off to Washington, DC for a weekend with the boys. Yes, I know I am lucky to be able to do the trips I do. It keeps me going and excited to discover new things and visit new and exciting places.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.webbyaquatics.com/archives/2013/01/discovering-new-destinations-in-2013/

Back on Dry Land, Again

Well, I am just returning from my most recent trip, a 5-Night Western Caribbean Cruise onboard Royal Caribbean‘s  Liberty of the Seas. This was the first time I tried Royal Caribbean and I must say that while I think I will be sticking with Disney Cruise Line, I still had a great time with my best mate David. Here is what our trip looked like.

5-Night Western Caribbean Itinerary:

 

Day Date Port Ashore Onboard
Saturday 10-Nov-2012 FORT LAUDERDALE
Sunday 11-Nov-2012 AT SEA
Monday 12-Nov-2012 BELIZE CITY 9:00 AM 5:30 PM
Tuesday 13-Nov-2012 COZUMEL 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
Wednesday 14-Nov-2012 AT SEA
Thursday 15-Nov-2012 FORT LAUDERDALE  09:00 AM

We got to do some pretty cool things while on this trip like visit the Altun Ha Mayan Site

And even raced some America’s Cup 21-Metre’s

Overall, it was a great trip! Check out below for more pictures:

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Where Were you One Year Ago?

So one year ago I was cruising along in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on the Disney Magic. It’s hard to believe that an adventure of a lifetime was only a year ago. I’ve been fortunate to have experienced many great travels and look forward to doing many more in the years that come. For those that want to relive my Transatlantic Voyage, click on tag Transatlantic to the right. Enjoy a few pictures from down memory lane.

From 14-Night Transatlantic Cruise – September 2011
From 14-Night Transatlantic Cruise – September 2011

Permanent link to this article: https://www.webbyaquatics.com/archives/2012/09/where-were-you-one-year-ago/

Photos from 4-Night Bahamian Cruise

So things are finally getting back into a grove at work after my short 4-night Bahamian cruise on the beautiful Disney Dream. Not much else to report at this time so I will just post the pictures from the most recent trip.

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Transatlantic Cruise Recap

Well, yesterday morning around 6:00am, the Disney Magic returned to her home port of Port Canaveral, Florida and along with her arrival, came the end to my 14-night journey from Barcelona, Spain back to Florida. Other than my study experience in London, this was the longest vacation I have taken on my own outside of the country and the longest voyage I have done on a ship to date. The funny part about the whole trip is that I wish it was longer. I really enjoyed being at sea and enjoyed all the amazing new friends that I met along the way.

I don’t really know where to start with a recap. There are so many great memories from trip. Barcelona was a beautiful city which I would love to go back to and explore more. The 24 hours that I spent there were too short but, the reason for the visit was the cruise. I know I will get back sometime in the future for a longer visit. Next up was Gibraltar. This is an interesting place. I felt like I was in a small town in England but, here I am looking out over to Africa and Spain. Also, never in my life have I seen wild apes that will literally just come up to you and let you touch them.

It’s at this point that I need to say that back on the ship, we had one of the more entertaining shows. Yes, my blog from a few days ago was correct, the infamous Charo performed onboard the Disney Magic both singing/dancing and her amazing guitar. I will be the first to admit that I didn’t really think much of it when I saw it on the schedule but, I think it was one of the more entertaining shows from the voyage. The first half of the show were more pop oriented pieces while the second half was her playing classical Spanish guitar.

Here are several clips from the performance:

In addition to watching several other performers on the ship and several Disney shows, I spent a lot of time just enjoying the Disney Magic. While she is 13+ years old, she is still a great ship who doesn’t feel that old. While on the crossing itself, we were blessed to have no weather at all. It was smooth sailing for all 5 days across the Atlantic Ocean. Perfect weather for sitting by the pool and just relaxing. The pool experience was different on this cruise versus all of the others I have taken this year and in the past. While most Disney Cruises have the majority of passengers at the family pool, due to the large number of adults on this voyage and extremely small number of children, the opposite was true for this voyage. I think everyone on the ship was trying to get those coveted deck chairs at the Cove Pool each morning. I also spent time on the days at sea visiting the gym in the Vista Spa and believe it or not, I managed to loose 9 lbs on the voyage. Yes folks, I went on a 14-night cruise and LOST weight.

So after 5 sea days, we finally made landfall again in the Caribbean in St. Maarten. I had been there before earlier this year and was planning to head to the cool beach by the port but, there was lots of road work being done making that plan impossible so we had to settle for walking around town. Still great weather at this point in the voyage. After St. Maarten, we headed to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Not much to do in the city itself but, we had an amazing sailing, snorkeling and beach experience with the amazing weather. Probably one of the best investments of the cruise I think. After Tortola was one more day at sea and then a visit to Castaway Cay. Castaway Cay was the usual but, again, with so many adults on the ship, the adult beach was way to busy while the family beach was empty.

Overall this was a great vacation and a great get away. I would do another transatlantic crossing anytime with no hesitation. It will be hard now to do shorter cruises in the future. Anyways, that’s the recap of the trip in a short summary.

Here are pictures of the trip for everyone to look at:

And as something fun to share, here is the Disney Magic Cruise Staff performing the pub classic, If I Were Not Upon the Sea.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.webbyaquatics.com/archives/2011/09/transatlantic-cruise-recap/

Transatlantic Cruise – Days 9, 10 & 11 Update

At Sea off the Virgin Islands – Hello once again from the Disney Magic. We left Tortola in the British Virgin Islands today around 4pm to start our travel back to the Bahamas and Castaway Cay. We have one more day at sea tomorrow before we arrive and only 3 more nights left on the ship before returning home on Saturday.

Since my last post, we finished our 5 day journey across the Atlantic Ocean and had an enjoyable day in St. Maarten. Due to road construction, we could not make it to the airport beach which was our plan but did enjoy the time walking around town looking at the shops for a few hours before returning back to the ship to relax by the pool and hit the gym.

Today we arrived in Tortola around 7:30am and met for our shore excursion at 8. We did a sail, snorkel and beach trip which was amazing. Very glad we decided to book it (thanks Mom for the suggestion). After getting back to the pier, we walked in to town for about 30 minutes but there really isn’t much there to do and since our all aboard was early in the afternoon, we headed back to the ship for lunch and just relaxing around the ship.

Overall, the voyage to date has been very relaxing and I can’t believe that it is almost over. This has been one of the best cruises I have taken and I’m not ready to get off the ship yet. I could easily go for another week plus if I could. I have met some very great people on board and can’t wait to stay in touch. Also, surprisingly, I have not spent nearly as much money as I was bracing for this trip which will be nice on the American Express Card at the end.

I’ll post more of a recap when I am back home. For now, here are a few pictures.



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Transatlantic Cruise – Days 6,7, & 8 Update

At Sea – Sorry for for not updating for a few days but the satellite connection has been in and out the last few days. We only have one more day at sea before we arrive in St.  Maarten although I would be happy with more days at sea.

I’ve been hitting the gym with running and doing yoga on the deck usually in the the morning before heading to breakfast and getting coffee at Cove Cafe. Sorry folks but Nescafe is just not cutting it in the morning. The rest of the day usually has included relaxing at the pool and doing the activities around the ship like the various trivia.

This morning we slept in a bit and had Palo for brunch which was a nice change from the buffet that we have been eating. Overall the good had been great but it’s starting to get repetitive as we go. Still love it though.

Again, not much to report on the sea days. I haven’t seen another ship out there on a few days which is strange. Still smooth sailing. More updates to come once we reach land in a day.

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Transatlantic Cruise – Day 5 Update

At Sea – So today marked our first of five days at sea as we cross the Atlantic. The good news is we gain an hour each night as we cross the time zones so it is nice to catch up on sleep. We are also lucky in that the ocean has been like glass and smooth sailing.
Slept in this morning and relaxed around the deck and did several trivia games and bingo today before hitting the gym for Body Toning before going to see Villains Tonight and then heading to more trivia and dinner. Tomorrow is more of the same with Yoga on the deck in the morning. Another short update but not much to report.

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Transatlantic Cruise – Day 4 Update

Off the island of Madeira – Well, today was our last day on land for the next five days. We spent the day on the island of Madeira walking around the town of Funchal. Beautiful town to walk around. I tried a sampler of madeira wine, four different types total, and will honestly say I am not a fan at all.

After our walk around town we came back to the ship to relax by the pool and I spent some time at the gym and then yoga on the deck which was very relaxing. We said goodbye to Europe around 9:45pm and are now underway with a light rolling. Just getting back from Rockin’ Bar D where we celebrated Andrew’s 29th birthday.
Tomorrow is our first day at sea so we will see how it goes. Not a big update today so ill post a few pictures. Till next time.

image

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