Disney Fantasy Cruise - Day 6

What a relaxing day! Curt and I just enjoyed the ship this morning and took some more pictures. The art on the Fantasy is amazing ... the pictures I took of them are not. Ha!

 

 

 

 

 

My "picture taking" disclaimer ... the stabilizers on the ship do work! I just didn't seem to be able to take a picture straight! I must admit that the last picture is one of my absolute favorites (notice I didn't take it). The picture of Walt is stunning .. he was such a dashing looking man and the man on my other side is quite dashing too. :) 

We decided to eat at Enchanted Gardens for lunch today and the buffet was wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our lunch we went to another presentation by Gary Hoffmann, an Imagineer at Disney. In the first one he talked about his latest project ... The Art of Animation resort at Disney World. He is the project manager on this and I have to say this resort looks incredible. It is another value resort from Disney and has some wonderful theming that will offer family suites. 

In the presentation we saw today he talked about Disney all around the world. He went through the new things happening at Disneyland, Disney World, Disney Paris, Disney Tokyo, Disneyland Hong Kong, and the new Shanghai Disney resort opening in a few years. There was a wonderful question/answer session again and I am hoping to see a Cars Land coming to Disney World. He didn't say it was coming, but I'm still hopeful!

Now, on to the night I have been waiting for ... dinner at Animator's Palate and the "Draw Your Own Character" show. This was a semi-formal evening as you can see from our picture at the top of the post with the ever beautiful Minnie Mouse. When we sat down at our table we had a piece of paper where you were to draw your character. They gave you about 10 minutes to draw and then picked up your drawings to get them ready for the animated show.

These were Curt and my drawings. I loved Curt's sci-fi character! I am still trying to figure out why I only have one Mickey on my character's shirt and why was it a belly button Mickey????? I know it was a last minute addition, but some times I just have to laugh at myself!

 

I have posted some pictures below showing the drawings animated. This is just so awesome ... then they add the Disney characters and have these animated drawings interact with them. Disney is just in a league of their own regarding innovation.

I was thrilled when I saw my drawing dancing with Pinocchio (I'm on the right in the orange)!

 

 

 

 

 

I was going to post videos I took showing the animation, however, I just should not be allowed to handle a video recorder! All was going well until I announced (why do I talk during these things) "there's my character" ... then I proceeded to lower the camera so we saw the legs of my character. Really? I was all over the place on filming that! The video with the Disney characters was just as noisy (me talking) and chopped up. At least I managed to tape my character dancing with Pinocchio and got some stills from that. Whew!! 

After that the night just got better with going to see our evening show.

Another "shed a tear" production that Disney does so well. We decided to go to the "Tube" that evening to see the magic show with David Williamson. He was so entertaining and funny!!

I forgot to take a picture of the animal towel tonight. Maybe it was the excitement in knowing that we will be at Castaway Cay (pronounced "key") in the morning. That is Disney's private island and I have heard so many wonderful things about this ... thanks for dropping by.

Disney Fantasy Cruise - Day 5

Today started out a bit cloudy with a sprinkle of rain. Curt and I had an excursion at 8:15AM. We went to the Buena Vista Theatre and joined those who were also on the St. John Island Tour. We had to wait a bit for the excursion to begin and that was probably due to the weather. Thankfully, the weather cleared up and we were off!

I will warn you now that this post will be picture heavy! I fell in love with St. Thomas and St. John. Curt took so many beautiful pictures. We took a ferry over to St. John, sat on the top level, and that trip was like a ride at Disney World! We were traveling against the current and bounced up and down the whole way ... LOVED IT! Our guides were very good and here are some shots of our trip to St. John.

After our arrival in St. John we were lead to an open air bus for our tour. We stopped in numerous places to take pictures. The beaches were incredible with their white sand and beautiful blue waters. Our guide said a yearly pass for the beaches was only $15! He also explained that their school system on St. John did not include high school. The children had to take a ferry every morning to St. Thomas for their high school years and college. He said it only took 20 minutes, but very different than being bussed to school. As for the weather there, he said the lowest they got was 65 and with that the blankets were used! 

Here are some pictures from our tour. Curt also took a number of panoramic pictures and if you click on the picture you will see it in its full size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then returned to the boat for the ride back to St. Thomas. Now, I'm thinking we are going to have a fun ride back and agreed to sit on the top level again on the ferry. How wrong I was. It seemed we were with the current this time and the ride was very smooth ... and HOT! This is where I got my delightful sunburned arms. While the scenery was gorgeous and I enjoyed the tour I could not wait to get back on the ship in some air conditioning! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Curt and I got back on the ship we went to Cabana's and, you guessed it, I had my shrimp lunch. We enjoyed just watching some on the people on their boating excursions and chillin'.

 

 

 

Dinner was at Royal Court again and then the show that evening was:

I was up for a relaxing night and didn't want to see the show so I just stayed in and read. Curt enjoyed the show then decided to see the movie "John Carter" in the Buena Vista Theatre. He had to admit to our sons that they were right about it not being the best movie. Atleast he didn't have to contend with the noise like we did from "The Avengers" since the movie was at 11:00PM. Oh, here is our towel animal for the night and our favorite one decorated as a pirate monkey!

 

Tomorrow is a day at sea and that evening is the dining experience I have been waiting for. At Animator's Palate we were going to see the "Draw Your Own Character" show. Thanks for dropping by!