Then it was time to board the Nautilus, a semi sub boat. Wendy would be our guide for this part of the tour. Right before we boarded the boat, she informed us that conditions were clearer and calmer than they’d been in weeks, but their generator was on the fritz, so the air conditioner wasn’t working. But they had opened all the hatches! Ugh.
It turned out to not be horribly unpleasant on the boat. Warm, yes, but not too terrible. This was a fun experience. We didn’t see a ton, but we did see some cool stuff.
Once the Nautilus returned to the dock, we were free to explore on our own for the last 45ish minutes until the taxis returned for us. So we did. We bought tropical fruit popsicles (pineapple for Nick, coconut for me), and wandered, checking out the sea lion interaction, the various views, and the underwater viewing area.
Shortly before noon, we made our way out of Coral World, and found our taxi easily. It was another interesting, but pleasant enough ride back to port, complete with a couple VERY brief views of the ships in port (a Carnival ship had joined us) and a few rain drops.
Tony dropped us off very close to the security tent. Today’s was a more comprehensive ID check than Tortola’s was, but we were still back on the ship within 10 minutes or so.
Since we boarded the ship at midship, we checked the lunch menu at Royal Court. It was pretty boring (although pina colada bread pudding sounded fantastic), so we worked our way aft, and had lunch at Cabanas instead. This was very tasty today, with some Asian influences (even a delicious sweet and sour tofu dish that this meat eater thoroughly enjoyed). Our server Ronaldo was working in Cabanas this afternoon, and he stopped and chatted with us for a bit. He shared that nobody at any of his tables had been at dinner the night before, during our dinner service. Since he had previously shared that he had worked at Palo for awhile, but went back to the dining rooms because he preferred the fast pace of the main dining rooms, we immediately knew he had been bored out of his mind, and we assured him we would be at dinner that night. We got a big grin and look of relief!
After lunch it was back to the room, where I did some reading, finally finishing the book that I had started over February vacation.
Here is where I might have started getting a little antsy for the only time this trip. I had worried about sea days. I didn’t need to. There were more than enough activities onboard to keep my occupied during sea days. It was this port day where I was not in need of a nap, and not really excited about the idea of going swimming, when there were really no activities scheduled on the ship because they expected everyone to be off shopping at Diamond’s International, that I got a little antsy. And Nick recognized it even before I did.
So, we headed up to deck 13, to try our hand at Goofy Golf. However, it appears that they only let you mini golf when the ship is out to sea, for the safety of those in port. I’m not quite sure how they think the golf ball is going to fly up and over that wall, but, so be it. So, we took a couple pictures from deck 13, and went back to our room, where Nick had his next brainstorm.
We’ve been talking about ordering Mickey bars from room service since our first cruise. On our first cruise, we stopped ordering room service once it became clear there was a norovirus outbreak onboard and everyone that was quarantined was being fed via room service. So, we didn’t do it then. And we just didn’t think of it last year. So...we called up and ordered 2 Mickey bars. We also tried to order the “cake of the day”, but were told that wouldn’t be ready until we sailed away from St. Thomas?
The Mickey bars arrived about 15 minutes later. Neither one of us is actually a huge Mickey bar fan (too messy), but they’re not bad, and it was a real kick to see the room service dude lift the metal cover and reveal 2 Mickey bars.
Ice cream consumed, we hung around the room a bit longer. Then we headed down to Preludes for one more character picture. You see, Nick’s favorite character is Goofy (yeah...the guy who never smiles in pictures). And Goofy was doing greets this afternoon and tomorrow with Max, a character you don’t see a whole lot of. So, it was worth the 10 minute wait in line.
After that, it was just about time to sail away from St. Thomas. Since we had backed in, and therefore, our room was not facing the dock, and I was pretty sure it’d be a neat place to see us sail from up on deck, we went up near Satellite Falls, Nick stopping for ice cream for him along the way. I really was kind of surprised by just how few people were up here. It was a great spot to watch sail away from.
Once we set sail, it was time to get ready for the show, and for dinner. I’d been wearing a tank top all day, and was a little uncertain as to whether it met main dining room guidelines or not. So, it was back to the room for a quick wardrobe change and a peek at the night’s bedrunner animal.
Then it was off to the Walt Disney Theater. I was kind of excited about tonight’s show. You may have noticed I haven’t talked about Aladdin yet. I won’t be during this trip report. Aladdin was dark for our sailing, part of a roughly 10 week refresh to (presumably) align it with the upcoming live action movie. It even resumes showing the same week that movie comes out. In light of this, Disney is providing entertainment “usually reserved for longer sailings”. What does this mean? It means their Broadway Stars at Sea series is making an appearance on the Fantasy these days. And who did we get on our sailing? Alton Fitzgerald White, who starred as Mufasa in over 4300 showings of the Lion King on Broadway.
Together with his piano player/manager, Alton Fitzgerald White performed “Disney My Way”, basically, his arrangements of various songs from Disney Broadway performances. He also shared a bit of his story, which is one of incredible accomplishments. He is incredibly talented, and it really was a great show. Do I wish we could have seen Aladdin? Absolutely. Am I glad we got this experience, though? Absolutely.
At the end of the show, Cruise Director Leslie made the announcement everyone had been waiting for. There would be a “premear” of Avengers Endgame at 10:45 the next night, with the 3D version showing in the Buena Vista Theater, and the regular version in the Walt Disney Theater. There was much cheering!
From the Walt Disney Theater, we headed to the atrium for a picture with a really cool background. I was more than a little disappointed when I saw they had cut off the top of the palm tree in the actual picture. I LOVE palm trees!
Ciaran and Michael were performing, and the characters were mingling and dancing, so we spent the rest of the time until dinner in the atrium soaking in the atmosphere, and listening to the wonderful music.
Dinner tonight was in Enchanted Garden. It was the former Prince and Princess menu. Now it is the standard final Enchanted Garden night menu. I think Jenni and Ian were, once again, absent from dinner. For my appetizer, I had the salmon gravlax, which was good, in small quantities. Then I had the lentil soup, which was delicious. My entree was the trio of veal (a veal ravioli, some pulled veal, and a chunk of veal). I wouldn’t mind if they would make a meal entirely out of the ravioli. That was delicious. Then, I had the brand new addition to this menu for dessert: the strawberry and cream tower. This was amazing. I don’t remember most of what Nick ate that night, but he got the tiramisu. I know, because I took a picture!
Once dinner had finished, we headed back to the room to pass out. Except, we didn’t. You see, as much as I thought we had been booking it on the 2 days it took us to go the 1000 miles to Tortola, we weren’t. Now, however, we were doing well over 20 knots. I had read about the aft vibration issues on the Fantasy, but had read mixed reports, particularly about our room. Many simply referred to vibration in the aft rooms when docking, which is nothing that would have come as a surprise to me. What we found when we returned to our room was nothing like I had expected. The room was truly vibrating. The hangers were clunking, the ice bucket was clanging, the phone was rattling, and the bed looked like something out of the old TV shows, with the pay a quarter for a vibrating bed in a hotel scenes.
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