My Review Of Carnival Fascination ~9/19-9/24

[cuted126]

Background~ This is was my fifth cruise,dhs' second. We were celebrating our 4th anniversary. We sailed from Jacksonville 4 years ago,on the same exact dates for our honeymoon. We are from Virginia and drove down. We left on the 18th,around 9am and got to Jacksonville about 4:55pm. I cannot tell you guys how much I annoyed DH checking to make sure we (still) had our IDs,passports and birth certificates,LOL. I am compulsive.

I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy to see this sign after that drive!!! So was DH


Oh how I love Palm trees!


I also loved the different bridges Jacksonville has! I know,i'm a weirdo!

We checked into the Howard Johnson,which has the cruise & park package. It is kinda hidden away,very much off the beaten path. It wasn't a dump,but it wasn't great either. We did feel safe leaving our car there. It was decent and the beds were COMFORTABLE!!! That evening, we found a mall and did some shopping. Went to the beach and also to the Jacksonville Landing. I think the Landing is beautiful,especially the bridge. All in all,I had a great time in Jacksonville,but I was aching to get on the boat!

I could not get a good picture of this bridge to save my life.

[cuted126]

Anyway,we headed back to the hotel to get some much needed rest. I woke up 7-8 times from excitement!! Finally, it was daylight YAY! We got up,showered and went down to the shuttle about 10:30. Off we go!


I almost died from excitement and it seemed this ride was taking forever argh! Right as I asked our driver how long we had to go,there it was THE WHALE TAIL (insert scream here)!!! Finally,we are almost there. I checked for IDs and passports again Everything was still there.

We arrived at the port. Dh was impressed at how big the Fascination is,as his last ship was the Celebration. He noticed the size difference. Embarkation was a breeze,the whole thing took about 30 min! Eventhough the documents said arrive at 12:30 or something like that,there were right many people inside the terminal. We were on Lido deck eating at 11:32am!

I had been dreaming about those burgers and a funship special!!!

Me,with cheesy, excited, why did u take this while i'm eating, funship smile LOL


After lunch we exploredthe ship. I wanted to get good pics of everything while they were empty.

Promenade


Passage to India

I never saw too much going on in here,except for the last day and the first day. The first day I think a cpule got married in there. There were alot of weddings that first day. I think 3 or 4.

[Jeafl]

Great review so far, I love the pics! I'm not even sailing on the Fascination, but I am really enjoying your review anyway!

By the way, I am also OCD about checking for docs and passports over and over again! LOL

[gypsyrose]

Great start, lovin the pics and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

[cuted126]

Diamonds are Forever Disco


One of the entrances to the Casino


The bar right outside the casino


One of the door "knobs" on The Palace doors


Puttin on the Ritz Lounge (this is where karaoke and late night comedy was)

Ok,so I won't bore you with anymore around the ship pics,lol. We were in room U-230 which is an aft oceanview. Bigger then last years inside,but the bathroom was smaller. Our Room Steward was Yusef. He was excellent. I think we kinda got in the way of him cleaning the room a couple of times cause we hardly ever go to the dining room. He forgave us though,LOL

[cuted126]

The doors were open around 12:40 and we went to our room. I loved being at the back! It was mostly quiet besides the crew door across the hall that was slamming off and on the entire first night. Anyway,here's the room!


Little bathroom,but cute sink,lol! Shower immediately to the right and toilet to the left.

I sat in the window and took this pic.



I love it,we were finally on vacation. After we checked out our room, dh got his first funship special and I got my second and we waited for Muster drill.



I used to think that it was so cheesy to extend your arm out and take a pic. I used to almost puke when I saw couples doing this. Well,whatta you know,i've become one half of one of those cheesy couples,lol I love doing this now!!!


Funny muster drill story up next,lol

[TnTnFlorida]

Thank you for what you have so far! We sail on the Fascination in just a few days!

[missdebi]

Is that a cupcake I saw on DH plate? Yummo!!! We are sailing the Fascination on Halloween cannot wait-thanks for the pics-keep the review coming I am enjoying your enthusiasm!

[cuted126]

Now I don't love or dislike Muster drills. For me,it kinda signals "The you are finally on a cruise" start of my vacation. Now,anytime me and dh go on a cruise,something funny happens at Muster drill. Last time on the Celebration, the drill took a looooonnnnggg time to start for whatever reason. We were on lido deck so we had chairs to sit in. Well,after awhile me and dh both ended up dozing off and slept through the ENTIRE thing in the front row,nontheless.

I ended up waking up by the sound of my dh snoring Then I woke him up. we looked around and people were leaving the drill. So there we were wearing big bright orange life vests,just sleeping away! I am so glad that hadn't broke out the funship video crew yet,LOL.

Up next,muster drill and fun day at sea. Duty calls here at home....

[navybaby1113]

Enjoying the review so far. I can't wait until we get a chance to sell on the Fascination.

[jetskier]

Great review so far. They are suppose to start muster drills where you dont have to bring your life jackets anymore. That will be great as you wont have to do a mad rush back to the cabin to get rid of the thing.
Dave

[kimcruiser]

I love the pictures and your story you have shared. keep it coming and thanks!

[bguppies]

We were on this cruise also and we thought this might be our first cruise (out of 5) that we did not have to traipse out on deck to the lifeboats in the heat.
We got almost through the entire drill in the rear lounge, when they decided at the last minute that everyone had to go upstairs to the lifeboats.
Oh well....

Great review so far.

Bill

[JAXCRUISER]

Great review--we're going on the Fascination again in December and I'm counting the days!

[jerseygirl79]

Originally Posted by missdebi

Is that a cupcake I saw on DH plate? Yummo!!! We are sailing the Fascination on Halloween cannot wait-thanks for the pics-keep the review coming I am enjoying your enthusiasm!

I was eyeing the cupcake too Deb, hahahaha. I must need a midnight snack....*sigh* no midnight buffet here at home.

[whendoweleave?]

Where's the rest! (I know, impatient! ) We've only gotten through muster! Let's have the rest of this awesome review, young lady! Happy Anniversary, btw!

[cuted126]

Ok,I'm back!

So Finally it was time for the muster drill. We go to our room to get our jackets. We joked about how this time we were not gonna go to sleep. We went upstairs to lido deck. Wow,same place we had before! I say the same thing "At least we can sit down". Strange enough we were in the front row again as they had lined tthe chairs up in a big square.

Okay,they tell us to put on our jackets. We are sitting there proud of ourselves for being on time,awake, and alert. Dh looks at me and says "Um,why does your jacket say E? Everybody else seems to have an F." I look around, and yup everybody has a F on their jacket. I shake my head and cover the big E on my jacket,dh laughs. They tell us we can take off the jackets cause the drill wasn't quit ready to start. We sit there wondering what in the world made us think we had F,when we had already talked about going to section E. I say come on,lets find the right section. So we dash up and go inside towards the atrium and what happens the drill starts. :::SIGH::::

I kid you not,we walk through almost EVERY muster station trying to get to E. I can feel everybody staring at us,as we walk through station after station. Finally after walking the entire promenade,we get to our station all the way AFT in the Puttin On The Ritz Lounge. Muster station E,finally! There were almost no seats and everybody was staring at us cause we were the last ones in. Nope,actually the next to last couple in. At least we got there before them,lol. By the time,we got to our station they were ready to walk us outside to the lifeboats.

We just can't get right with Muster Drills. Either way,our vacation would soon be underway.

[cuted126]

Soon it was almost time to sailaway. We went all the way forward On Verandah deck and watch the guys unrope us or what ever it's called Nothing is more exciting to me then when you sailaway on Embarkation day!! WOO!

Dh doing his cool man pose. Like he didn't just sit for 15 min at the wrong muster station,lol


We complete the big U-turn(or should I say O-turn) and we start towards the Dames Point Bridge. We went up on Lido to watch us go under the bridge.



As we are getting closer to the bridge,one couple tells us we are having high tides so they wanna see if we make it Um ok.

[mkluvs2cruise]

We were on the Fascination in April and LOVED it!!! Last June we sailed on it when it was in Miami and loved it then too. We are getting ready to go to Miami tonight to sail on the Imagination and cant wait! Love your review so far!

[cuted126]

The front makes it under




And so does the back!!! YAY!!! Goodbye Florida! We were officially underway. Pass on of those Funship specials please and start the line dances!