Fascination Jan. 22, 2017 review

My husband and I took the 7-day Fascination cruise out ofPuerto Rico that departed on Jan. 22nd. I know others have posted their reviews, but I thought I'd throw in my 2cents :)

We arrived in San Juan early on Saturday morning and stayedat the La Concha Resort. It was a verynice resort and there were several restaurants and a Walgreens and CVS withinwalking distance. We ate breakfast atPinky's which is right across the street from the resort. We had the Mallorca breakfast sandwich and itwas delicious! It was a lot of food andtheir coffee was really good too. Wewere able to find a screwtop bottle of Merlot at Walgreens for $9 that was goodcalled Gato Negro. We didn't check ourbags on the flight down, so finding this was great.

Sunday we hung around the resort until about 1 and thenhopped in a cab to the cruiseport. Thedriver said it was going to be difficult to get down there because there was afestival going on. The traffic washorrible and we had him drop us off a few blocks away and we walked the rest ofthe way. We got on the boat and unloadedour bags and then set off to explore Old San Juan. So the "festival" that was going onwas called Sanse and I think the whole island showed up. There were people everywhere, music andvendors everywhere. Once you go to thecenter of it, you could hardly walk down the streets. Now my husband and I are pretty introvertedpeople, so we were a little uncomfortable in this situation. If you are a party animal and love crowds, thiswould be your festival. We made it downsome of the less crowded streets so we could experience some of Old San Juan atleast. We were walking along the roadthat is by the harbor and my husband saw a booth with this sandwich he had beenwanting to try called a Tripleta. We gotin line and the cook was only speaking Spanish to the customers and my husbandasked me if he thought we could navigate this (he doesn't speak any Spanish andI only speak a little), I said yeah we'll be fine. So it came time for him to order and the cooklooked at my husband and said "Hi, how many?" It was just classic because this guy couldtotally tell we were non-Spanish speaking Americans. The sandwich was REALLY good and we stuffedourselves and then got back on the boat.

Our stateroom was number U7, we had the bed arranged into aKing size and had a porthole. It was agreat sized room for just the two of us. The only downside was that when we were leaving port or coming into portand they turned on the slower engines or side thrusters it was noisy. We are pretty early risers anyway, so itdidn't bother us too much, but if you aren't I wouldn't suggest this room.

Overall, I thought the boat was just fine for thiscruise. Since it's very port intensivewe weren't on the boat that much and it was a great water taxi. The food was decent, my only complaint aboutthe food would be the desserts in the buffet. They were bland unless it was purely made of chocolate. They really need to add more flavor to theirdesserts up there. We only went to thedining room twice for dinner and both times the food was better there than inthe buffet. I would suggest getting adining time. Every time we walked by theanytime dining room there was a huge line. We had the 6:00 dining and our 10 person table only had 5 peopleassigned to it and ours wasn't the only table like that. We also ate at the Mongolian grill and thepizza place and the food was good. We preferredthe omelet station vs. the buffet area for breakfast. They will cook you fresh eggs there as wellif you just want a couple over easy eggs.

As far as entertainment goes on the ship, the comedians weregood. The PG shows were rough, people were still at dinner, so not as manypeople were there and it’s hard for comics to come up with PG material. I felt bad for them, they tried, but the over18 shows were funnier and more people were there. They had a juggler one night and he wasreally good and the Hasbro Game Show was entertaining as well.

Ports:

St. Thomas: We wentto Sapphire beach. We didn’t rentchairs, we just posted up on our towels and went snorkeling. There were tons of fish, sea urchins, andcoral to see. We liked the beach becausethere was natural shade from the trees.

Barbados: We got offthe boat early and walked to the Boatyard Bar. We were the first ones there and picked out an umbrella and chairs inthe front row. The Boatyard costs $20per person to get in and that gets you a chair, shared umbrella, one drink, aboat ride to snorkel with the turtles and a taxi back to the ship. The beach is beautiful! It’s a long beach with pretty sand and easyto walk along. You definitely need anumbrella, there are no trees for shade. Theboat ride to the turtles takes 5 minutes. We were on the first tour out there. At first we didn’t see anything, but then one showed up. One of the guys from the boat had fish andwas dropping it in the water for the turtle to eat. We were able to swim around with it and thatwas really neat. You stay there forabout 20 minutes. He did say that thereare normally more turtles there later in the afternoon

St. Lucia: We bookedan all day van tour with Cosol tours. Weloaded up in our van with our driver Baptist. He was a great driver/tour guide. He answered any questions we had, told us about himself and the islandand was very nice. He explained how thetour would go and we were off! It was agreat tour, we stopped several times to take pictures, we stopped and hadbreakfast which was a bunch of different local foods, all of which weredelicious! We got on a speedboat thattook us over to Sugar Beach where we were able to snorkel for an hour. The snorkeling there was amazing, we saw allsorts of fish, cuddlefish and my husband saw some sea cucumbers. They also took us to the Sulphur springs andthe waterfall. They pack in a lot on thistour and we felt like it was a great tour. If you get easily car sick, DO NOT do this tour. It is a lot of up and down and twisting andturning roads. It is a great tour to seea lot of the beautiful island of St. Lucia. I would also suggest you wear a swimsuit that you aren’t too attached toon the tour. The Sulphur springs waterstained my swimsuit in places.

St. Kitts: We werestill exhausted from the Cosol tour and didn’t feel like doing much. We walked around the shops right outside the shipfor about an hour and then got back on the ship. We got prime chairs next to the pool and satin the sun and read our books. It wasnice to just relax.

St. Maarten: Webooked a speedboat tour with Captain Bob/Soualiga Destinations. Our tour guide/captain for the day wasBrett. He was very informative andfun. The tour took us to a couple ofsnorkeling spots, lunch was chicken or fish with beans and rice (delicious!), PinelIsland, and we got to see the planeslanding and taking off at the airport. The boat was fast and safe, the ride was like a rollercoaster, which Iloved. I was in the front and he did saythe back of the boat was less bumpy. Brett had Jimmy Buffet and other music playing while we rode around inthe boat. There were plenty of drinks onthe boat too. At one of the snorkelingspots we saw sea turtles munching on sea grass and rays and fish. We went up onto Pinel Island and there were iguanasof all sizes crawling around this one area wanting lettuce from you. They were cool to see.

On Sunday, we got off the boat and headed to our hotel. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott IslaVerde. It was a really nice hotel, theyhave the biggest hot tub I have ever seen and it was nice and hot. It was overcast the day we were there and thehot water felt nice. The beach along thehotel is fairly long and nice to walk along. There are shells everywhere to look at along the beach. It was nice to be close to the airport sincewe were leaving early the next morning.

We had an amazing time on this vacation and I would go backand do everything the same in a heartbeat.

Thank you for your review. We leave tomorrow for the same cruise and are planning on some of the same places you went to. Nice to hear that you liked them!

Thank you for your review. We leave tomorrow for the same cruise and are planning on some of the same places you went to. Nice to hear that you liked them!

Have an amazing time!

We too will be staying at that Marriott. Can you tell us how the breakfast or dinner was? Buffet or standard? Pricey?

We too will be staying at that Marriott. Can you tell us how the breakfast or dinner was? Buffet or standard? Pricey?

We didn't eat at the hotel at all. We walked down the road and found a Mexican sports bar to eat at. In the morning our plane left really early, we had brought some Clif bars to eat for breakfast. Sorry I can't help you. They did give us each a free drink coupon when we checked in.

Thank you for your review. We leave tomorrow for the same cruise and are planning on some of the same places you went to. Nice to hear that you liked them!

Annie,

We will be on the cruise with you. Check out the roll call here on cruise critic.

Howard

Thanks for the review. I never realized that the $20 at Boatyard included a taxi back to the ship. That's a good deal.:)

Thank you for the review. We will be on the Feb. 26 sailing.

Annie,

 

We will be on the cruise with you. Check out the roll call here on cruise critic.

 

Howard

Will do Howard! See you there.

Thanks for the review.

Thank you for your feedback.

Thanks for posting your review. The Fascination is our favorite Fantasy Class ship. :)

Great review of one of our favorite itineraries! (We really LOVE the Boatyard, too!)

Thanks for the review. We are on this exact cruise next week.

Thank you for this great review! We will be on this one at the end of June. My DH's first time, my 3rd. I love these islands. I've been looking for something off the beaten path, so as not to repeat previous trips with the shore excursions. Each island has it's own flair, and yet many of the activities are the same. We're also planning on the IslaVerde Marriott for the return night. Good to hear that there are places within walking distance of the hotel. Did you have to cab it to the airport for your return flight? Any other thoughts on your trip will be a delight to read!

Thanks for your review, I am taking this cruise next January. I'm also concerned about the traffic issue for Sanse- it will be festival weekend either at the start or at the end of our cruise. You said you walked to the Boatyard from the ship- is that a pretty easy walk, and how long did it take? Just wondering if it's worth skipping the cab fare.