3 Nights Belgium Cruise from Southampton Cruise

Amazing !

I had always been curious about going on a cruise, but up until I sailed aboard the Fantasy, I had only ever been to All Inclusives. Boy was I missing out! The food is fantastic. The service impeccable. Both island destinations are fantastic and very unique. Castaway Cay is a great way to introduce young children to the ocean. Disney has effectively created a lagoon here with a large rock wall so the water is calm and easy for young children to navigate. Lighthouse Cay is a very different experience. The beach faces east and the open ocean. I really enjoyed this beach as there are a ton of reefs to snorkel and explore. A quick stop in Massau on day two rounds out the 5 night cruise. We stayed in an interior state room and I thought it was lovely. Others in our party had balcony rooms so there was an opportunity to enjoy that as well. We travelled with a party of 16 and this was the trip of a lifetime. Highly recommend!

Cruising and Disney fan tries 1st Disney Cruise

Family of 7 (grandparents, adults, and a 5 year old) has been on many cruises with both mainstream and premium level cruise lines and much of the Disney parks. This was our family's FIRST DISNEY CRUISE. Despite fairly high expectations and a hefty price tag, Disney Cruise line/Fantasy impressed us: POSITIVE SURPRISES: 1. The sheer investment and design quality of the ship made me feel like I was walking through a AAA ride like Beauty and the Beast at Tokyo Disney or a AAA restaurant like the Be Our Guest Restaurant at Magic Kingdom. Royal Court restaurant made me think I was waiting in line to see the princesses at the Castle. 2. The food in the 3 main dining rooms and buffets were excellent - Better than MDR on Royal Caribbean, Princess and Celebrity. My mother, who is uppity about her food, is ready to abandon other cruise lines and just go exclusive with Disney. 3. The entertainment was diverse, exciting, and made use of some costumes, props, and environments with high production quality. You won’t find Broadway-level shows like this on other cruise lines.The violinist was great. The magician was impressive. Most of the Broadway actors were great singers and danced with the right energy. The 5YO played Midship Detective 3 times. 4. On other cruise lines, you might have 50 activities a day, but Disney has 250. Disney is super efficient with utilizing their space and employees to max out the entertainment 5. To that point, I was surprised at the raw density of Meet N Greets. My biggest complaint about the Disney Parks is their stinginess with character meetings. The cruise got it right, and there were multiple after-dinner events where the 5-year old had a blast dancing with many costumed characters. The attention from the costumed characters alone is almost enough to fork over money for another cruise. 6. Strong phone app to help organize activities, preview dining menus, and chat with family members for free 7. High customer service everywhere. On a crappy cruise line, a waiter might deal with 32-38 passengers. On this cruise line, he’s focusing on providing good service to 16-18 passengers. 8. I have never seen such an amazing/large cabin - footrest for the shower, curtain to divide the room, huge sofa bed, a separate bathroom/sink for the toilet. NEGATIVE SURPRISES: 1. The percussion show was a good idea to add variety, but we found their act incredibly boring. Disney, you can do better than that. 2. I was raised to believe in tipping people for their work, so my family never scoffed at the prepaid gratuities, but we were always under the assumption this was enough. I was mortified to learn how much the staff was relying on us to tip beyond the prepaid. NOBODY PRESSURED US TO TIP MORE. But I think Disney needs to find a gentle way to educate its customers that these servers are doing twice the work for half the number of customers, so it makes sense for customers to pick up the financial slack. 3. 90% of the entertainment and entertainers were great, but the Jasmine actress (Broadway, not Meet N Greet) looked overweight and totally out of place. 4. Just warning you that you have a slim window to give feedback, so push pause on your photo-organizations and do the official Disney survey before it expires. CONCLUSION: I originally thought the Disney cruises were going to be good quality but horrendously overpriced. Now I think they are great quality and only teeny bit overpriced. Yeah, we paid a premium, but we got great food, great interior design, Broadway shows, lots of attention from costumed characters, and an amazing cabin. Bottomline is my nephew didn't want to leave the ship and my mother is pestering me to look into booking our 2nd Disney cruise.

An Excellent Cruise with Kids

We have completed over 35 cruises since 1982 on Celebrity, HAL, Princess, RCCL, NCL, Carnival, and Scenic River cruises, but never on Disney. We took our 6 year old granddaughter and my adult daughter and son in law on the Fantasy . The cost for DCL is higher than most, but the look on my granddaughter's face when she met characters and princesses was worth it, The ship is well thought out with classic public areas and family friendly cabins. I especially liked the bathroom areas, one with a sink and toilet and the other with a shower and sink. Makes it easier for families to prepare for the day. Our cabin was always spotless, as was the entire ship. If you want to get away from the kids, the forward part of the ship provides ample space for adults only. The food in the MDR's (three) was above par and the portions larger than most other lines. The food in Cabana's, the buffet, is okay, but I miss the ability to make my own salad, with only prepared bowls available. The buffet on this ship,, unlike most other cruise lines, is closed during dinner, which is disappointing if one wants an inexpensive alternative to the MDR, but a limited selection of burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, and wraps, is available at Flo's Cafe near the pool, for extended hours. We didn't try any of the alternative restaurants as the food in all three dining rooms was actually quite good. Most entertainment is geared for the kids, as one would expect for a DCL ship. The shows were high quality productions that my granddaughter loved. Meet and greets with all of the Disney characters are constantly available, but many have long lines to have a photo session with. We took the Caves and beach tour in Grand Cayman (so so ) and the ship's Dolphin Encounter in Cozumel, which I found to be excellent . Service throughout the ship was excellent, no matter what venue we were in. All in all, if you have kids, this is the place to be.