Disney Fantasy/Western Caribbean

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Reviews: 2

Helpful Votes: 51

Review summary

Beautiful ship. Not tacky and loud like other cruise ships I've been on. We had an inside stateroom and the "fake" porthole was awesome bc it was actually like a live stream so we were seeing pretty much what everyone with a window saw. We like inside cabins bc they're so quiet. The food was good but a little bit too gourmet for me. I like a nice steak and salad, these meals were beautiful to look at and most of them were very good but not delicious.....to me. I'm sure that is just my taste bc others at our table loved everything. I actually ordered from the kid's menu several times! Cabin size, cleanliness, storage were all excellent. We had some toilet trouble and had to call for service a few times but they were there immediately. The bathtub is an awesome addition that I haven't had on other cruise ships. The turn-down service was about the same as I've had on Carnival or Royal Caribbean. We had a queen bed and a pull out sofa. I slept on the sofa bed bc I can sleep anywhere. Well, I can sleep anywhere and was not able to sleep the first night at all. This was THE worst mattress I have ever slept on. I was really surprised that it was so bad I couldn't sleep bc I never have a problem with that. I asked the maid and at front desk to do something about it and offered suggestions such as putting a bunk or twin mattress on it, putting cushions from the pool lounge chairs on it or doubling up a comforter and making the bed over it. They put a doubled up comforter on it and I actually had to double it again so it was 4 layers in thickness and place that under my body. That actually worked and I placed a pillow at the end where my feet would be. The maid did not do any turn-down service on my bed though and I didn't care for that. In comparison to Carnival, I don't think I would enjoy Carnival as much now that I've been on Disney but I have to say the service on Carnival was by far much better than Disney. It's not that anyone on Disney was rude or not willing to help but it seems like on Carnival the employees are falling over themselves to keep you happy. When we would leave our cabin for an hour we would come back and the beds would be tightened up, everything tidied up and the cabin cleaned. All day long it was taken care of. Not so with Disney. They came in the morning to make beds and replace towels and at night for turn-down service....on just the bed, not the couch bed. Didn't even tidy up the counter tops. We didn't get ice until we realized we needed to put the bucket in the same place we found it (had moved it to make more room on vanity). We had only moved it to a shelf not 10" away...! I was traveling with my sister so we had separate bills. They continuously messed up the charges and I had to stand in line several times to get it corrected. The morning we got off the ship when we had to swipe our Key to the World card they wouldn't let my sister off the ship bc it showed that her credit card wasn't good. She took care of it while I sat in line with the luggage waiting, delaying our express dis-embarkation process that we had chosen so we could catch a flight. Later we found out that they had charged her card with a bunch of my items AFTER I had gone to customer service TWICE during the week and stood in line to get it straightened out!! It seemed to me that many times if you asked a question you got conflicting information from employees. It didn't seem to matter what the topic was. The thing I love about cruises is how easy they are. You don't have to worry about where to go, how to get there, directions, etc. These mistakes were a big inconvenience that interfered with my experience. They need to tighten up on that end. One morning we were sitting in the Cabanna dining room reading and waiting to eat breakfast. The buffet wasn't open yet bc it was early. Employees were coming into get ready. This is a walk through restaurant so it's not closed off. There are many open sections set up exactly the same that wrap around the front two sides and front of the ship for buffet dining. While we were sitting there an employee came up to us and said they were going to have a meeting and we needed to move. I have to tell you that pissed me off. There were 10 other sections just like the one we were in and they made US move! They could just as easily have moved and let their guests enjoy the morning. I love the adult only areas. There are a lot of them and sufficient room. They were never crowded and we were there on a holiday week. There is one pool area with a swim up bar and a hot tub that butts up to the glass wall overlooking the ocean. It's right on the other side of the main pool and fast food restaurants so it is somewhat noisy. The other two areas with pools are wonderful. Kind of hidden away and very quiet. We read, ate, drank and slept there all day on sea days. Something that was different than other cruise ships I've been on that I didn't care for was that all exterior and "open" areas such as pool decks, adult pool areas, outdoor restaurants, etc. were not "open" but enclosed with glass panels. I didn't like it bc it was pretty warm when the sun was out bc there was no breeze. It did shield wind but I would rather have had a nice breeze. The glass panels are together like a window with only a two inch break at the end of each deck section so there wasn't much air flow. I found that odd for tropical location cruising....? All in all, Disney is the way to go. They do most everything first class. I won't go back to the other cruiselines. Disney ships are beautiful. The public restrooms are first class and decorated beautifully. The Disney "Magic" is imposed in the ship in a very subdued way. Not "in your face" at all. For example, our shower curtain was a beige linen with a gold embroidered nautical and when you looked closely you could see Mickey ears in the pattern. You didn't even notice unless you really looked at it. Then you start noticing little hits of Disney everywhere you go but very subdued. I can't say enough how beautiful the ship is and very clean. There are ups and downs with every vacation experience and Disney wins by far in comparison to other cruises that I have experienced. We didn't have children with us so we didn't pay much attention to the kids activities. All I can say is that you really don't have to interact with kids at all on a Disney cruise if you don't want to. They pay a lot of attention to the fact that the adults are the ones paying and they do a lot to make us happy! The entertainment was wonderful although we missed one show bc there were no seats. I don't think that should happen.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

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Entertainment

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Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

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