Quick review of the 2/12/17 Fascination

My quickreview of the 2/12/17 Carnival Fascination Southern Caribbean out of San Juan

Fascination –This is a really old ship and doesn’t have the 2.0 upgrades, but it does havethe American table menus. The hub appdoes not work on this ship, but if you do the $5 per day social media packageyou can text people on the ship and back home. This ship needs some work, there is visible rust in lots of places includingour shower on the shower head wall and the tile on the floor. I did not encounter any sewage like odors as Ihave heard other people complain. Thisis the same ship as the inspiration and the imagination in California. We live in So Cal, so we have sailed those two ships quite a biton 3 day cruises a few times a year. Thedifference is that those 2 ships are getting and have gotten all the refurbsthe other ships have and they just look much better than the Fascination. The cruise director is Filipe and he is greatand so are his staff except for the bingo guy Ty, Ty is a condescending, rudebutthole.

Day 1-Wearrived in San Juan about 1pm on 2/12. We got to the port by taxi and it took about 15 minutes. I had all of our paperwork ready to go. We got through security very quickly, I hadpurchased faster to the fun but I didn’t really need it. When we were checking in they gave myhusband his sail and sign card but they didn’t have mine. We were led to another room that said it wasfor platinum and diamond guests. I wasconfused because I received an email the week before from Carnival that I wouldnot be platinum until after I finished this cruise, but apparently that was notthe case. My platinum card was very cooland went with the nice silver beaded lanyard I had brought. The best perk was getting up to 3 bags oflaundry done for free. We took advantageof that on day 5.

Having FTTFor being platinum didn’t get our luggage to our cabin any sooner we still hadto wait about 2 hours for it all to show up.

When we goton board we checked out our cabin R115, and then went to the buffet for somelunch. On the first day of all Carnivalcruises they always have cake pops, I love cake pops. I made a nice large plate of them and broughtthem to the cabin to have at a later time. There are no refrigerators in any of the cabins, unless you have asuite. But the cabin was freezing sothat wasn’t a problem.

We thendecided to go off the ship and explore old San Juan. We didn’t bring wine with us so on the wayback to the ship we each bought a bottle at the Walgreen’s across the streetfrom the cruise terminal and brought that back with us on the ship. Not a problem. Also they sell cans of soda in 6 packs in theWalgreen’s that you can also bring on board you can also bring drinks in juiceboxes or pouches with you as well.

We wanderedaround and went into different shops I didn’t spend that much money, I decidedthat this trip I was only going to buy things that you can’t get elsewhere(this mostly worked) I found some moneybanks that were shaped like animals and were made of leather and to get themoney out there was a snap hinge on the bottom. I had never seen anything like this anywhere before so I bought 2peacocks and an elephant. They were 12.99. Fyi, PR is the United States and they do charge tax this is not a dutyfree port.

My husbandwent back to the ship before I did; he needed a nap so I continued towander. I found this really cool placecalled Pigeon Park which had hundreds of holes in the wall and there werepigeons flying in and out of them, it was very cool. Maybe this is where the term to pigeon holesomething comes from?

I went backto the ship around 5:30 and woke my husband up so we could get ready for ourfirst dinner. The first evening is openseating so you just go to the dining room to which you were assigned and tellthem how big a table you would like and we didn’t have to wait at all.

I’m not realbig on food porn but I did take some pictures, but not tonight. I had the flat iron steak and it was reallygood, as well as a Caesar salad. I amprobably the only person who doesn’t like the chocolate melting cake. It tastes like dark chocolate and I much prefermilk.

The musterdrill was around 9pm it was pretty quick as they go on Carnival. We started in the karaoke bar and ended onthe promenade deck we were done in about 45 minutes. My husband and I stayed on deck to watch ussail away and watch for the hand off of the pilot to the pilot boat from theship. This took forever, probably aboutan hour from when the pilot boat came along side trying to pick up thepilot. The seas were rough so they wouldget close and then back off, over and over again. There was applause when he made it.

We went tobed early to get ready for St. Thomas.

Day 2 St.Thomas-I did the ship tour of Meagan’s bay beach and downtown shopping. My husband did the 2 tank boat dive. I brought the snorkel stuff to the beach withme but there was nothing to see in the water except feet. The beach was really crowded and they chargedyou 6 for a chaise and 5 for a chair and you have to trek them up the beachyourself. I suggest get a seat as closeto their restaurant gift shop area so you don’t have to walk a mile with allyour crap. I was by myself but I metsome very nice people. On the way to theship they gave us a little island tour and stopped at some look out stops forpictures.

I met my husband in town for some shopping after hisscuba diving. I got a beautiful sapphireand diamond anniversary band at little switzerland. I also got a free color changing bag with apurchase at del sol.

We went back to the ship and had a snack (best pizza Ihave ever had on a ship) it was too late for a nap, but Tuesday was a sea dayso it didn’t matter. We stayed up lateand saw about 5 comedy shows and the welcome aboard show, they were all verygood.

Day 3 At Sea Valentine’s Day! Tuesday I got up beforemy husband and had seaday brunch, nothing yummier than french toast rolled infrosted flakes! I then went to theport/shopping talks, my husband met me there when he woke up. I won a pair of fluffy slipper socks fromCaraloha Bamboo. I really needed them,our cabin was freezing. We playedtrivial pursuit and looked at the shops, same stuff different ship. Tonight was elegant night so I took anothershower and got all prettied up. Primerib on the menu and a special Valentine’s Day dessert.

Day 4 Barbados-Wednesday was Barbados, I booked theship tour speedboat and snorkelling with sea turtles and shipwrecks. My husband went and did his own thing. It was raining when we got off the ship and atad chilly. We met our tour in thePalace theater and then were led off the ship. We were picked up by a bus and taken on a 5 minute drive to the boatdock. We were not allowed to wear ourshoes on the speed boat, I hate being barefoot. Our first stop was at a shipwreck, they chummed the water and there wereso many fish it was really cool.

When we got to the turtle spot there weren’t any, wesnorkelled around for quite a while and we never saw a turtle L

After the excursion I went back to the ship had ashower and a snack and then went to explore the city of bridgetown. Not much to see, but there was a woolworth!

My husband hired a cab to show him around Barbados for$80 he got the grand tour. He went toRihanna’s old house, and Rihanna’s mothers new house and he even went to thecab driver’s house and met his mom as well. They then took him to the beach and he was able to scuba off the beachfor $60 and the cab driver waited for him.

I was concerned about my husband because you had to beback on the ship by 4:30 and he didn’t come to the cabin and he wasn’tanswering any of his texts, but he was on the ship and eating.

We went to the Diva Show and it was very good,although their sound person doesn’t know what he is doing. We also saw a lot of comedy shows.

My husband likes to play poker and this was the firstcruise we were ever on that there was never anyone at the poker tables. The casino people said that the majority ofpeople on the ship were from San Juan and they just don’t gamble.

Day 5 St. Lucia- I have never been to St. Luciabefore, it’s always fun to see new islands. We booked our own excursion through Scuba Steve. I paid for a private dive boat, but we werepicked up by a dive boat with a lot people on it. We were told that someone called in sick andthat was why there were so many people. My husband is a dive instructor and takes a lot of under water photos hedidn’t want to deal with resort dive people or people learning to dive. We also booked this because I could go as asnorkeler with him diving. As it turnsout there was one other snorkeller and she wasn’t feeling well so I was able tohave my very own snorkel guide to show me where the cool stuff was. The boat ride to the first spot was about 45minutes and the weather was beautiful and St. Lucia was beautiful as well. Wesaw lots of beautiful mansions on the sides of mountains aswell as resorts. Before the second divethe boat dropped me and my guy off at a resort to snorkel in a cove and to usetheir facilities and get a drink. The pictureon the right was the cove. And the other picture is the resort from thewater. My guy (can’t remember his name)said that this resort runs about 2K per week. We were there for about an hour and the boat came and picked us up andtook us back to the ship.

After a shower we went off the ship to take a watertaxi to see the city. Because ofeverything we saw along the coast we didn’t expect the city to look so run downand poverty stricken. It really wasn’twhat I wanted it to be, but I would defineately go back and take an island tourand learn more about the island, the people and their government and all thatgood stuff. The people that we met werevery warm and inviting. We didn’tencounter anyone that was trying to push their wares on us in the craftmarkets. We got back to the ship rightat 4:30 which was all aboard.

We went to dinner went to a show and then went to bedto get ready for St. Kitts.

Day 6 St. Kitts – I have never been here either. My husband and I booked the fort and islandtour. We learned a lot about theircountry and that it is named form Christopher Columbus Kitt is short forchristopher. Our first stop was thebatik factory, the gardens were beautiful and we saw a demonstration of how theirbatik fabrics are made. Everything wasbeautiful, but a little pricey, but since this is a handicraft that I can’t getelse where I bought a beaitful blue batik tank top for myself and a green onefor my daughter. Our next stopwas a very large fort, it was situated in a beautiful area of the countrysideoverlooking the ocean. I woulddefineately like to come back to St. Kitts and do the beachy things. We went into the city to look around afterour tour here as well and we walked around, had some KFC, and went back to theship.

New comedians boarded the ship so we had some newcomedy shows to check out. I found allthe comedians were very good and entertaining. The motown show was also very good. We had a comedy juggler in the main showroom as well as the comedylounge.

Day 7 St. Martaan – I have been here many times but I haven’tbeen in a few years. There was so muchmore built since the last time I was here. We docked on the dutch side and decided to rent a car and go to Marigoton the French side. Oh my goodness thereis so much traffic in this island it was ridiculous. It took us over an hour to get to Marigot. We found a parking spot right away and wewandered around the the water front area. We had lunch at a really yummy French Bakery. There is also a fort in Marigot, but it wasso flippin hot I didn’t even want to attempt to go up the steps. I love butterflies, the last time we were inSt Martaan we went to their butterlfly farm and it was really pretty. So we did this again. It was $13 to get in that was the cruise shipdiscount. We saw some really beautifulbutterflies that I have never seen before.

After the butterfly farm we went back to Phillipsburgto do some jewelry shopping. I wassuccessful, I got a beautiful pair of sapphire hoop earrings. I also got a new Swatch watch, there inagain!

After shopping for about an hour we returned our rentalcar (at the port) the cost of the carwas cheaper than a shore excursions it was $72 for the whole day and we didn’teven use enough gas to make the guage go down so we didn’t need to fill itup. There were 6 ships in port when wewere there. This was the most ships wehad seen in port on the whole cruise.

We said good bye to our last port and got back on theship. We showered and packed so wewouldn’t have to do it later in the evening, I had some drinking and comedyshows to do, didn’t want to take a break to go pack.

Day 8 Debarkation- Because of Platinum status we wereable to wait to get off the ship in the palace theater where they had juicecoffee and pastries. We got there about8:15 and were off the ship by 8:30.

I was very disappointed in the customs security checkin PR…there was none. We didn’t gothrough customs like you normally do when you get back in the US. No one asked us why we were travelling, whatwe bought or anything else. Off the shipand into the taxi line. This is verydisturbing there could be people smuggling anything from drugs to weapons. It is still upsetting the lack ofsecurity. When we come home from the 3day cruises to ensenada we go through customs at the port and they ask allkinds of questions and sometimes they randomly pick people to go through theirluggage.

We stayed at the Courtyard hotel in San Juan about 10minutes from old San Juan. When we gotto our hotel our room wasn’t ready. Weate breakfast again and took a 4 mile walk to the condado. When we got back our room still wasn’t ready,and the lobby was filled with luggage from people coming from the ship andgoing to the ship and the cruise line uses this hotel for it’s employees thatare waiting to get on the ship. They finallygot our room ready and we took a nice long nap. We cabbed to old San Juan for dinner and we ate at the birthplace of thepina colada! It was very good!

I think that this is the end of this review, I willtry to add things as I remember them. Feel free to ask questions, I will answer them.

HKMOM

48 days til we sail on the NCL Pearl for the Girl's Cruise!!

Thanks for the review.

Appreciate the detailed feedback.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Thanks for your informative review. :) I will be cruising onFascination next week and I am looking at some excursions for St Lucia and StKitts. My itinerary states that the ship arrives in St Lucia and St Kitts at8am and I would like to know what time I will be able to leave and join my tour.I would appreciate your advice please.

All the ports said the arrival was 8 and departure at 5 and back on the ship at 4:30. We were definitely in most of the ports by 7

Hkmom

Are fridges likely to be added to the Fascination cabins during the upcoming dry dock?

I heard nothing about fridges in dry dock. Our steward kept the ice filled. My dh & dd have have t1d but you don't need to keep insulin refrigerated . It wasn't a problem.

Hkmom