An Englishman's Honeymoon Cruise - Carnival Fascination Review

Intro

Good morning/afternoon/evening. The time has finally come for my to make my space on this wonderful site again. Hopefully this cruise goes smooth then the last one, and that I do a better job on the review this time :D .

Spent last year and a bit reading all I could on Carnival and more specifically the Carnival Fascination. Such excellent reviews as the ones we have all seen from Mitsugrily and Stinger, whilst extremely informative, raise the bar high on what everyone now expects to read. Whilst I can not promise this will be a LIVE review, I will be writing at the end of each day. So at the very worst, my updates will read as though it is a live one. I also will add an afterthought for each day when I've had time to reflect.

The Plan

So why did we book this cruise? Well the honest answer is my new wife overruled me and said we were going on a cruise. She has always had a thing for cruising and despite the trouble last time, she hasn't been put off. Me being a bitter Englishman (;)), I remember well and grudgingly made the booking. So after looking at a LOT of different companies and ships we (I mean DW) settling on the Carnival Fascination. It seemed a great choice for us. A different island to visit every day and we get some extra time before the cruise in Barbados. My mood improving we went ahead and booked it. Well that was a good 18 months ago and shockingly it has flown by. It could be that the stag/hen parties and the wedding itself kept us both busy. Although the last three days of work did feel like a month. I mustn't grumble though. That time was well spent reading all I could on the cruise and stealing all the best excursions from the reviews I've read on here.

Official plan goes like this. Tomorrow we make the 200 mile drive south towards London Gatwick. Any one who had the misfortune of driving on our motorways knows how I am looking forward to this. Me being over cautious and not wishing to have get up at the crack of dawn to drive, we are stopping in the Crowne Plaza hotel. Just 10 minutes from the airport, it should allow a relatively stress free check in on Sunday morning. From there we board our Virgin Atlantic flight to Barbados at 11:05, ariving at 15:00 (local time). Never flown with Virgin and thanks to a lovely Scottish man crashing into my last year, I had some extra cash available to upgrade us to premium economy. I look forward to see if it was worth it or not.

Once in Barbados, we are stopping at the Savannah beach hotel in Barbados. Here until Wednesday 14th when we will board the Fascination. Not much planned for Barbados other then a catamaran trip on Tuesday. I plan to enjoy the golden beaches and gorgeous sea, whilst dabbling in a bit of Pokemon Go (sorry I am a big fan, despite being 27 :p ). Once we are on board and underway, we have something planned for every day.

St. Lucia (15th) - Booked ourselves onto the Spencer land, sea and beach tour. Seen many good reviews on here for this so very excited. Never been to a mud bath before and looking forward to seeing the Pitons in person.

St. Kitts (16th) - No official tour booked. Going to jump in a taxi and head to South Friars bay. This will be a nice beach chilling day :D .

St. Maarten (17th) - Booked for a spot of kayaking in Pinel Bay.

San Juan (18th) - All inclusive beach resort. This was a harder port to decide on. Such a long stay here and so much choice. However DW liked the look of the place.

St. Thomas (19th) - No tour booked and the only port that stressed me out organizing for. After researching, I loved the idea of getting the water taxi across to Water Island and heading to Honeymoon beach. Seemed dead easy. Ship arrives at port, walk down to dock and jump on the water taxi across. Little did I realize there was two ports and seems Carnival docks at the one further away. Only a 10-15 minute taxi away so I guess i need to stop stressing out.

After this a sea day (likely the first day we wont get up early) before back to Barbados on 21st.

Final thought

Certainly a packed one and I hope I can provide some entertainment. I don't claim to be a pro at this sort of thing so I apologize now for the mess this review will likely turn into. Anyhow I've now finished my beer and must venture to the fridge. Speak soon everyone!

PP :evilsmile: .

Have a safe journey to Barbados and enjoy your cruise on the Fascination! Looking forward to reading your report. :cool:

Yay! A Fascination review, and LIVE no less! Looking forward to your adventures, as we have some of the same excursions in mind for our August sailing.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Have a great cruise!

Your port excursion plans look great.

I bet you the "bitter Englishman" is going to come home smiling from ear to ear!

Thanks for the review.

Looks like everything well planned, including the ports. Hope you enjoy your cruise!

Will be following along.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app

Looking forward to your review. We have been on this itinerary before with Carnival. Loved every port! St. Thomas is a special place to us, so no matter how many times we stop there, it is always a great time! Enjoy your cruise!!

Going to follow your adventure! Thanks for doing this.

Looking forward to your day by day reports. Hope y'all have a great cruise. :)

I'm ready to read [emoji1384]

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Well a very good morning to you all. Thank you all for your kind words thus far, certainly hope this lives up to the expectation now :D. A special hello to Jamman, read a a lot of your reviews in the build up to booking this.

So where am I now? Sat in my hotel room preparing to set off to Gatwick. Yesterday was a good day. Set off from Sheffield in a very wet miserable looking day. Was slightly concerned the drive would be a depressing one in the rain. Rather surprised then that half an hour into the drive, the clouds parted and sun came out. Was a lovely drown down south in the sunshine, for once :D . Arrived at the hotel without any issues.

Only managed one shot of the room before me and DW made our mark and made a mess ha ha. Spent rest of afternoon chilling before having a walk down road before dinner. After that we returned back to the room before chilling in front of the tv with a movie. Didn't sleep well. Not sure if it was the pillows or (more likely) severe excitement :D. Bit of a grey start today but soon be leaving all this behind!

Looking forward to your review and following along. We sail on the Fascination on 5 Nov.

See you on board! We will be overlapping with you. Have a great cruise!

Enjoying your review so far! :)

Well a very good morning from Barbados. Currently sat on one of our balconies looking out onto the sea.

What a day yesterday was. Such a long day with the time changes, but everything went great!

Left the hotel yesterday morning just before 08:00. Traffic was very quiet and we were soon pulling up to Gatwick within ten minutes. Check in was smooth at the Virgin desk and soon on our way to security. We got premium access meaning we had a separate security line. Never had this before but I'm now a fan as it meant cutting out a lot of waiting. No problems getting through and in no time at all, sat down with my first pint and breakfast!

Gatwick airport is nice (as airports go) with a good selection of shops. We had a good nosey about at things before heading to our gate. Again we had a separate line thanks to upgrading to premium economy and we pretty much just walked straight onto the plane without any hold ups. Never travelled on a Virgin flight before, so can't say how regular seating compares. But premium economy was excellent. Nice comfy seat, plenty of leg room and sockets for any charging we would need to do. We took off a few minutes early and we were on our way .

During the flight we were well looked after. Cabin crew came along often offering snacks and drinks, also had a little area at front where we could help ourselves. Had the chilli con carne (not sure if spelt correctly :/ ) and DW had chicken and sweetcorn. Everything tasted great. Mid flight crew came around again with ice lollies and towards end of flight, served us afternoon tea. The scones and clotted cream were awesome and wish I'd asked for more.

Had a little sleep on the flight, but spent most of my time catching up on films I'd not gotten around to watching. Barbados airport had a bit of a que, but nothing massive. Biggest hold up was after collecting baggage. No one seemed to know where or what they were doing and there was a bit of a hold up at the final gate to leave. Found the Virgin reps and was soon on the bus to the hotel. Was a fun ride. The driver showing no fear as he expertly navigated the winding roads. Small delay due to a car crash blocking a road, then small matter of a marathon. Not sure I could have ran in this heat, hats off to them!

Check in was smooth at the hotel. Reception was nice and cold and very nice. Everyone was given choice of a rum drink or a non alcoholic version. Not sure if these are standard measures or if it was due to being a long day, but it had a hell of a kick! Couple of the ladies drank to much in first sip and were spluttering due to strength. DW had two sips before giving it to me (winner!). Reception staff were lovely and gave us all the information we need. One gentleman then escorted us to our ocean view room.

Room is very lovely. Lots of room over two levels. Makes me sad only here for a few days.

Spent a short time changing and getting use to all the different switches. Couldn't wait much more, the sea looked gorgeous and I had to get in it. Quick change and I was running straight in! Water was lovely. Straight away saw lots of fish. A little rocky but I had ready about that and was prepared. 2 minute walk to left or right gives you clear sand underneath. Only had a short swim as we were getting hungry. Cool shower and into clean clothes. Ate in drifter which had a good selection. Staff were very lovely and kept bringing me a beer over whenever I was running low. We were sat next to a lovely couple of ladies who are both coming on the cruise as well. By time we finished our food we were both beat. So we headed back to room ready for our first full day.

Great start! I'm doing this cruise in November so I'm excited to hear

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Great start! I'm following as we are booked for October.

Looking forward to the rest! :)

I'm following along too. We love this itinerary and have done it, twice fairly recently (but on Valor in May, 2013 and on Liberty in Sept. 2015), and several years ago (ok, I guess more than "several") on our honeymoon. We've always boarded in San Juan. Even though you just started, one of the things I'm really enjoying and looking forward to more of, is your pre-cruise stay in Barbados. I don't know if there is another review out there with Barbados boarding/pre-stay included. Hope you're enjoying your time in Barbados and I hope you both enjoy your cruise on this beautiful itinerary as much as we have. Looking forward to the rest.

None of the photos are working for me....

Great start! I'm following as we are booked for October.

I'm on your cruise!

Enjoying your review!!

How I miss a real English breakfast. I might download that particular photo! Oh, yeah. The rest sounds really appealing too. :)

Monday 12th - Barbados Chill Day

Well we awoke after what felt like a full nights sleep, to find it was still only 05:00. I guess our bodies were still on UK time. Bed was extremely comfy and I was able to nod off very quickly, something of rarity for me as i struggle at lot to get comfy. We awoke to glorious sunshine and the sound of the waves.

Now something I haven't mentioned yet is the water issue. When we arrive, we found that a water main had burst. As a result many of the hotels in the area were experience issues with water pressure. The hotel have been good at keeping us informed and doing their best to make sure the toilets kept flushing. However issues have continued over the last few days. Thankfully the hotel has laid on transport to another hotel 15 minutes away so all of us could keep showering. As of this moment, water is still off, so I'm looking forward to a proper shower when we get on the ship later this morning. Anyhow, that's the only downside thus far, lets continue with review.

I call this our chill day as it's the only full day in Barbados where we haven't got anything planned. We headed up to Rachel's for breakfast around 08:00. The breakfast buffet had a great selection for us. Everything from cereals and fruit, to the various components requires for a full English breakfast, they even had plenty of HP sauce (result!). There was also an area at the back where a lovely chef would make eggs, omelettes and pancakes to however you wanted them. Haven't had an omelette yet, but from what I've seen from everyone else's plates, they look great.

After breakfast we returned back to the room to pack our bits we would need for our beach chill day. Before setting off we returned to Rachel's for our meeting with the rep. She was a lovely lady (sorry I couldn't remember her name) with plenty of information about the island and various suggestions for place we would to visit. There's so much to see and explore here, I really do hope I can come back for a longer stay in the future. Once we had finished, we headed onto the beach. The sand and waters are perfect. As I have mentioned previously, the beach directly off the hotel is a bit rocky. This is excellent for viewing various fish, but not to good on the old feet. If anyone stops here I suggest water shoes. Beaches directly to the left and right are much easier, so you won't me left struggling. We decided to go for a walk, so turning right from the hotel, we head off along the cost. We headed up towards Needhams Point.

Didn't take long to make to Needhams point. Next to this is the Hilton hotel and their fabulous beach. Not sure how they get their sand so soft but it was heavenly. On the way we saw several surfers enjoying the waves. Really do wish I knew how to surf as it looks immensely fun. We decided to chill on the beach around the Hilton and the DW cracked out the camera for what would be the first of around a million pictures, in order to get it "just right". The waters around this area were very calm and inviting. It wasn't long before we were both in the waters. Makes a big change swimming in such beautiful waters. The UK has some brilliant beaches, however nothing compares the the Caribbean. Although from what I've seen of the places the ship will take us to, I haven't seen anything yet.

We returned back for lunch in drifters at the hotel. Good selection again on buffet, with chefs also making burgers and pizzas to order. Not sure how they manage to be in a kitchen in this heat, so I take my hat off to them. DW had a plan cheese pizza, with my going for my favorite ham and pineapple (bring on the hate pineapple haters ;p) After a quick beer (or three) we headed back onto the beach again and turned left this time. Didn't have a clue where were going, being to stunned by what we were seeing. Had a couple of brief showers whilst we walking. Was fun to see everyone running for cover as me and DW strutted our stuff through the rain. We're from the UK and not going to be put off by a little bit of rain when it's so frigging hot!

Dinner that evening was a BBQ down again at drifters. The steak and chicken prepared by the chef was brilliant. DW fell in love with the vegetable lasagna. We had a few cocktails, (well i say we, DW struggled with the strength of them and I ended up finishing both of them) before heading back to bed.

Anyhow, enough of my ranting, here's the pics!