Disney Christens Its Newest Cruise Ship, The Fantasy, In My NYC Back Yard!

This past Thursday evening I was one of the lucky group of blogging media that was able to review first hand the magnificence that is the newest Disney cruise ship, The Fantasy. We  were also celebrating the fact that the Disney Magic will start cruising out of NYC, Disneys newest port of call,  beginning this year.

This 1,115 foot, 130,000 ton luxury liner was docked at Pier 88, just up the block from my home! On board is a 765 foot water slide which snakes 12 feet off the deck and 140 feet above the ocean. The kids will be thrilled! There is also a 2,000 square foot water park called the Aqua Lab. Every other amenity that you expect is on board such as a video room for the tweens and teens, and everything has the added magic of Disney included! There are also several different night clubs for the adults, I got to disco my way through them during the evening.

For the sake of disclosure, I have only been on 1 cruise in my life, and it was a Disney cruise. I had no interest in cruises of any kind but my parents flew my entire family to Orlando, Fl. to embark on a Disney ship to celebrate their 50th Anniversary. It was wonderful and even included the Captain of the ship hosting a 2nd marriage ceremony for my parents. Again, I had never been on a cruise before, so I have nothing to compare the experience to, but my son was 2 1/2 years old and I saw a lot of the cruise through his eyes. From the wonder and awe in his eyes at watching his favorite Disney characters, to watching him on the beach on Disney’s private island where he kept telling my mom, “Grandma, look at me!” as he would run into the safe waters surrounding the island, my spouse and I could not have enjoyed the experience more.

So I came to this evening’s celebration already a fan of Disney cruises. The festivities for the Christening of Disney’s new Fantasy began in their state of the art theatre.  As soon as Neil Patrick Harris stepped on stage, I knew we were in for an evening of top entertainment.

We saw several acts from the Disney entertainers:

We were entertained by a comedian you might recognize:

And then finally, the Godmother of the Disney Fantasy cruise ship, Mariah Carey, performed the Christening of the ship:

 

It was an amazing star studded evening!

After those festivities we were treated to a delicious dinner. My group was in the restaurant called the Animator’s Palate. I had dined in this restaurant 6 years earlier on my first cruise, and I was shocked to see what Disney had done to update the experience! As we sat down we were all give a sheet of paper with instructions to draw a figure of a person. The surprise came at the end of our meal when all of our characters became animated and were seen dancing on the screens all over the restaurant,. We were all thrilled and excited to see how through the magic of Disney, our little drawings became the stars of the screens across the room!  This was my personal highlight of the night!

It was a truly magical night. Disney delivered as promised, I was ready to book a trip before I left!

My blog partner, NYCSingleMom and I were sad to leave!

 

Disclosure: I received no compensation for this post, all opinions are 100% my own and honest.