Sailing on Disney Cruise Line over the holidays has always been a dream of mine, but I didn't expect it to become a reality anytime soon due to the popularity of DCL and the astronomical holiday prices. However, we lucked out with a discounted Cast Member fare which actually made the Disney Fantasy our most affordable option over New Year's. I really wish that they had left the Christmas decorations up for the week, but I understand that they have to schedule decoration removal based on the availability of the shoreside teams. Maybe one day I'll get to go on a Merrytime Cruise and experience the ship's Christmas decor!

I first sailed on the Disney Fantasy in 2014, so it was interesting to see how the cruise compares nearly a decade later.

The rating system is based on ten components of a cruise vacation which I find important - itinerary, ship novelties, pools, activities, dining, bars and lounges, service, design and aesthetics, and stateroom.

Glad I Did/Wish I Did posts are a fun way for me to quickly share with others what worked and what didn't. It's been really helpful for us to refer back to over the years when preparing for our next cruise.

Glad I decorated our Stateroom Doors

Door decorations are very popular on Disney Cruise Line, and I'm always glad to partake. In the past, I've printed the door decorations onto magnetic sheets. This time, I made the door decorations out of metallic cardstock because I wanted Mickey's hat and shorts to be shiny and festive for New Year's. To magnetize them, I used super strong Neodymium magnets that I stuck to the paper with double-sided removable glue dots which ended up sticking to the door much better than the magnetic sheets. Because I went with fancy paper, I wouldn't say this is a cheaper way of making magnets than with the magnetic sheets, but at least this way I can reuse the magnets for our next cruise door decor.

We spent our final day of our New Year's Cruise at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Bahamas. Personally, I would much rather have spent Day 6 at Castaway Cay and Day 7 at sea. After spending the day at the private island, it's a little hectic to come back and then have to pack everything up. I also wouldn't have minded a reversed itinerary where we spend the first day at Castaway Cay (that way they could take advantage of the close proximity to Florida).

Our 6th day on the Disney Fantasy was a sea day! Personally, I would prefer to spend Day 6 at Castaway Cay and Day 7 as a Sea Day..... but I suppose due to distances/routes/fuel savings, Day 6 was our final sea day.

We started the morning with breakfast at Royal Court. When you go to the dining room for breakfast/lunch, they always ask you your room number. Stove was at the podium and gave his room number as "eighty-six sixteen." The host repeated back, "eighty-six sixty?" And Stove said, "Yeah!" We all heard the mix-up, but didn't think it would be a big deal.

We had an early morning in Falmouth, Jamaica! The Fantasy arrived in port at 7:30 AM, and our River Tubing excursion departed at 8:15 AM.

I booked our excursion through Shore Excursions Group, which is the cruise excursion booking platform for Cruises Only, which is Marriott Bonvoy's cruise booking portal. As I was searching for excursions, I came across a 5-star review that really sold it to me written by none other than Boyd Shingleton (a.k.a. "Stove").

We went on this exact River Tubing excursion when we were in Falmouth in 2017 on the Norwegian Escape and had such a great time that we decided to book it again.

The Historic Falmouth Cruise Port opened in 2011. It's located 18 miles east of Montego Bay, and 59 miles west of Ocho Rios.


We were in port with Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas.

On Day 4 of our New Year's Cruise, the Disney Fantasy arrived in Grand Cayman. After dealing with tender boats and a mostly closed port the week prior on our Celebrity Summit cruise, I was happy with our decision to stay on the ship today.

We started our day with 10AM brunch at Palo, one of the two adult-only restaurants on the Disney Fantasy. In the past, I've had not-so-great dinner experiences at Palo, but we really enjoyed brunch at Palo on the Disney Dream.

Good morning from Cozumel! Thankfully, the weather was looking much nicer than it had been on our Christmas Cruise just a week earlier.

I spotted a Royal Caribbean ship approaching in the distance. I think they were headed to the International Pier.

We were docking at Punta Langosta Cruise Terminal which is the older, smaller cruise ship pier in Cozumel. Disney ships typically dock at Punta Langosta. The International Pier (where we docked on the Summit) is located farther south.


We were scheduled to dock at 8:45, and planned to disembark immediately so that we could beat the crowds to the beach.

Gooooood morning! The sun was shining, and we had great weather - hooray! This view isn't a bad way to start 2023.

Rachel and I had agreed to walk Deck 4 with Judy at 8:30 AM.... pretty ambitious considering how late we were up, but somehow we made it.

It was very quiet - I think a lot of other people were sleeping in that morning.

Rise and shine, it's Embarkation Day!! (Again!)

I thought that I had allowed myself plenty of time in the morning to get ready and pack... and then I realized that all of Aaron's clean clothes were hanging everywhere since our laundry day and needed to be folded and packed - eek! The careful tetris job of packing everything made it very challenging to repack so it all fit. If I were to do it again, I'd have Aaron pack his own checked bag, rather than us sharing a checked bag. Aaron said that if he were to do it again, he would only pack his suit and brown dress shoes, and not his velvet blazer and black dress shoes, and then he wouldn't even need a checked bag.

Needless to say, everyone was waiting on me.

As we left Central Florida and headed toward the coast, it became very cloudy.

I'm not sure why, but the line of cars for the Disney Terminal at Port Canaveral is always horrendous. It's been like this since our first ever cruise in 2001. I've yet to experience anything similar with any other port/cruise line.

We were in port with the Norwegian Escape. We sailed on the Norwegian Escape over Christmas in 2017.

Ahoy! It's time for another Christmas Cruise.... and New Year's cruise review!

This year's Christmas/New Year's vacation was elaborate in both planning and executions, so in order to set the stage, I'm dedicating an entire post to the story of how our Christmas Cruise - WDW - NYE Cruise vacation came to be.

If you've been following the blog for awhile now, you probably know that it is Shinglebell family tradition to cruise over Christmas. From 2009 to 2019, my sister Rachel and our parents (a.k.a. Stove and Judy) would meet together and set sail to spend the holiday at sea. However, we introduced our boyfriends into the mix, and Christmases became more complicated. Back in 2020, Rachel and I came to the conclusion that we could alternate Christmases every-other-year with our family and our boyfriends' families. Since the cruising industry was not yet open in 2020, Rachel and I offered the first year to our boyfriends' families with the hope that cruising would return by 2021 in time for a Christmas cruise. And it did! (See my Trip Report for our 2021 Christmas on NCL Encore.)

On our last sea day, we were told by the Captain that we were behind schedule for our return to Port of San Diego. It was estimated that we wouldn't dock until around 9:30 AM. Due to our delayed arrival (well, there were other factors, I'm sure), very few people put bags in the hall the night before for luggage service. While we had scheduled breakfast time in the dining room we were in the night before (for us, Tiana's Place), we were advised to leave our bags in our staterooms until we arrived in port and not bring them with us to the dining room as is normal debarkation day practice.

You may be wondering if this would delay departure for the next sailing. Since there were no passengers boarding that day, I don't think that was an area of concern.

We also had a time change happen overnight, and when I woke up, I was very unsure about the current time. I thought it was 7 AM, but it was 6 AM. Rachel and Landon were in the same predicament, and I found them out on Deck 4.

It was a very chilly and cloudy morning.


But that didn't stop me from taking hundreds of photos to pass the time.

Day 4 started with a few laps around Deck 4.

There is a water fountain with a bottle filler on Deck 4, which is nice to be able to refill your water bottle. I also noticed a water fountain with bottle filler on Deck 10.

This morning, we would be stopped in Cabo San Lucas. Rachel had invited me to walk the 4th deck with her, but I arrived a little too late. We headed to Cabana's to grab breakfast.

As we walked back from breakfast, we realized that this would be a great opportunity to hot tub at the Quiet Cove pool - it was completely empty.


So, we changed into our swimsuits and took advantage of the empty Quiet Cove Pool.

It's been awhile since I've had an inside stateroom, and the darkness was kind of freaking me out. I was worried that I was going to accidentally sleep the entire day away. Around 6 AM, I turned on the stateroom television to the channel that show's the camera from the bridge to give myself a sense of time. Also, we had turned our clocks forward an hour, but we were on the ship's Wifi, so I wasn't sure if our phone clocks would automatically update to be correct (they didn't). I had forgotten to ask our stateroom attendant to leave a bucket of ice in the room, and at some point, I started getting very thirsty, so I left the room with my water bottle in search of water.

Also, I brought my camera. Because I am Victoria on Vacation.

I went straight up to deck 9, figuring I could cross over to Cabana's for water. It was very quiet and lovely that morning. Not many people were up and about. It was pretty much just me and the cleaning crew, so I took advantage of the opportunity to take a lot of photos.




I figured out that it was around 8:00. And I was also able to refill my water bottle at the drink station set up outside of Cabana's. Pre-Covid, it was self-serve, but now they have it blocked off with tables, and a Cast Member fills a cup for you. They were happy to use the disposable cup to fill my water bottle, though.

Something that you may already know about me is that I work for The Walt Disney Company. It's been a dream since I was a little kid, and still some days I feel like I need to pinch myself. I work in a group at Disneyland Resort called Architecture & Facilities Engineering. I do not work with the Cruise Line (though I'd welcome the opportunity!), and am not speaking on behalf of the Company.

For our final sea day, we knew to expect gloomy weather. No swimsuits for us - it would be a mostly indoor day!


We started the day with another brunch in Triton's. I really appreciate the menu here. They had steak!

Today was a full day at sea. Aaron and I started the day with brunch in Triton's.


We braved breakfast in Cabana's once the entire cruise (when we just missed the cut-off for seating in the dining room), and Aaron was horrified - he said never again (guess I spoiled him by taking him straight to the dining room every day - the buffet is the madness I grew up with on cruises)! Seriously, Cabana's in the morning (well, anytime really) is complete chaos - screaming children, clanking dishes, a fight for tables. Aaron and I ate almost exclusively in the dining room the entire cruise. The Sea Day brunch offerings are nice because in addition to breakfast dishes, they offer steak, soups, pastas... very good selection!

On Day 5, we arrived at Puerto Vallarta.  Puerto Vallarta is a port I'm familiar with because whenever we sail on Princess Cruise Lines, Rachel and I watch The Love Boat in our stateroom on repeat.  And in The Love Boat, they're always sailing to Puerto Vallarta.  I was excited to finally visit the Love Boat-hyped port.

Aaron had visited Puerto Vallarta once before on family vacation back in 2012.  It was a land vacation, and he remembered some very important details.  He was able to point out the hotel they had stayed in.  And, from the moment he found out we were going to Puerto Vallarta, he told me, "There's this really awesome restaurant called The Pancake House, and we have to eat there."

I know what you're thinking because it's probably what I was thinking - The Pancake House?  Pancakes?  In Mexico?  Why??  However, Aaron raved about it, and kept bringing it up - so much so that he convinced me it was important.  And I told him to forget about any other excursions in Puerto Vallarta (he really wanted to go to Marietas Islands Hidden Beach, but I was worried that we didn't have enough time, and it would be too complicated to figure out ourselves without a touring company).  We were there with a goal to accomplish one thing - dine at The Pancake House.



Grey skies when we arrived in Puerto Vallarta, but it was very hot!  The ship docks in a nice grassy area across the street from a Walmart and Sam's Club - I bet it's a hotspot for crew members to stock up on essentials.

This was my first time in Mazatlan, and maybe I should've done more research because I didn't realize what an industrial port it was.  My plan was "go to the beach" but apparently that's not a popular tourist thing to do in Mazatlan.

When we got off the ship, we boarded a tram which took us through the shipyard to the tourist center.


We were immediately bombarded with people selling tours. All types of city tours. But I still wanted to go to the beach! We located a quiet bench to sit down, regroup, and decide what we really wanted to do. We had collected brochures from different tour groups, and there were beaches that they went to... but the idea of boarding a bus did not sound great to me. I wanted to ride in a Pulmonia, one of the open-air golf cart-looking vehicles.

On Day 3 we woke up in beautiful Cabo San Lucas!  This was my second time in Cabo - I had visited before with my family on our 17-day Panama Canal Cruise.  I really enjoyed the port on that cruise and was excited to be back.  Also, since I had been there before and new exactly what I wanted to do, I didn't book an excursion in advance through DCL or another company because I was pretty sure I could get a better price and more custom experience in port.


We stepped outside on the fourth deck to check out the view -