KatieKepic
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2015
I've never written a trip report before but I love reading them so thought I'd give it a shot. My family and I cruised on the Fantasy a few weeks ago on an Eastern itinerary (Tortola, San Juan & Castaway Cay) with SWDAS.
Our sailing
Katie (me): the planner and travel enthusiast! I absolutely love researching and planning trips. I'm constantly planning our next adventure and adding places to my bucket list. I always joke that I missed my calling as a travel agent. I love the sun and being on the water, the beach in definitely my happy place.
DH: My husband who thankfully shares my passion for travel. He’s my sounding board during my decision making process and very seldom complains when I drone on for hours about traveling. He loves history and tends to prefer excursions with some tie to that.
DS: Our son who is eleven and has high functioning autism (I only mention this as it impacts some of our travel plans/decisions). He plays soccer and loves reading, Pokémon and sharks. He prefers Disney World to cruises but still loves to sail.
DD: my Minnie-me is nine and loves all things Disney and Disney cruises are definitely her vacation of choice, I think she’d live on the “Mickey boat” if we let her. She is a little fish and loves the water and beach like her Momma!
Photo from our cruise on the Magic this past August.
Cruise Planning:
We had originally booked one of the 2020 Greek isles cruises on opening day with a placeholder but in June, we decided to cancel for a few reasons but mainly because we were taking our kids (9 & 11) to Europe for the first time in August and weren't sure how they'd do and were apprehensive about doing European cruises two years in a row with them. To keep our placeholder, we had to move the Greece reservation to a new cruise. We decided to try the Fantasy (we've only sailed the classic ships) and Port Canaveral. My husband is part Puerto Rican and hasn't been to San Juan and both he and the kids are Star Wars fans. Our school also has a winter break in February and this cruise coincided with part of that which was the deciding factor.
Even though we booked in June, we were busy planning our European adventure and didn't really start doing much planning for this one until well after we got home. This caused some stress for me as I'm very OCD and like to have everything planned out pretty far in advance. Coming back from three weeks in Europe and trying to get back on a schedule with school and activities for the kids and work for DH and I, we didn't have much planning time. That was followed by the holidays and then the end of the fiscal year for me (I'm a financial controller) which made planning time even more difficult. This was definitely the most unprepared I've felt for a cruise and I was still finishing FEs up to the day before we left.
Up next: Florida Bound
Our sailing
Katie (me): the planner and travel enthusiast! I absolutely love researching and planning trips. I'm constantly planning our next adventure and adding places to my bucket list. I always joke that I missed my calling as a travel agent. I love the sun and being on the water, the beach in definitely my happy place.
DH: My husband who thankfully shares my passion for travel. He’s my sounding board during my decision making process and very seldom complains when I drone on for hours about traveling. He loves history and tends to prefer excursions with some tie to that.
DS: Our son who is eleven and has high functioning autism (I only mention this as it impacts some of our travel plans/decisions). He plays soccer and loves reading, Pokémon and sharks. He prefers Disney World to cruises but still loves to sail.
DD: my Minnie-me is nine and loves all things Disney and Disney cruises are definitely her vacation of choice, I think she’d live on the “Mickey boat” if we let her. She is a little fish and loves the water and beach like her Momma!
Photo from our cruise on the Magic this past August.
Cruise Planning:
We had originally booked one of the 2020 Greek isles cruises on opening day with a placeholder but in June, we decided to cancel for a few reasons but mainly because we were taking our kids (9 & 11) to Europe for the first time in August and weren't sure how they'd do and were apprehensive about doing European cruises two years in a row with them. To keep our placeholder, we had to move the Greece reservation to a new cruise. We decided to try the Fantasy (we've only sailed the classic ships) and Port Canaveral. My husband is part Puerto Rican and hasn't been to San Juan and both he and the kids are Star Wars fans. Our school also has a winter break in February and this cruise coincided with part of that which was the deciding factor.
Even though we booked in June, we were busy planning our European adventure and didn't really start doing much planning for this one until well after we got home. This caused some stress for me as I'm very OCD and like to have everything planned out pretty far in advance. Coming back from three weeks in Europe and trying to get back on a schedule with school and activities for the kids and work for DH and I, we didn't have much planning time. That was followed by the holidays and then the end of the fiscal year for me (I'm a financial controller) which made planning time even more difficult. This was definitely the most unprepared I've felt for a cruise and I was still finishing FEs up to the day before we left.
Up next: Florida Bound