Carnival Fascination Review (and pics)

I am a little (3months) late posting a review...sorry.

My family and I have done a "family cruise" for the last two years. This year, we went on the Fascination on February 19th, 2011, to Nassau and Half Moon Cay. There were 10 of us this time around.(DH and I, my parents, one set of grandparents, my aunt and uncle and my 2 sisters). It was overall a great trip. I would definitely do it again!! (Then again, I love to cruise, and I haven't met a ship yet I wouldn't sail again...)

DAY 1: Friday, February 18th:

We drove down and stayed in the LaQuinta Inn in Jacksonville, FL. The hotel was adequate, and served our purpose. It had Continental Breakfast, so I was happy!

DAY 2: Saturday, February 19th:

BOARDING AND SAIL AWAY

We took the first shuttle from the LaQuinta early in the morning. That was all that was left...(to make a long story somewhat shorter, when we booked the hotel, we asked about shuttle times and if the slots ever fill up, and we were assured that it almost never happens so no worries, we could have our pick when we arrived. It just so happened, this was one of the "almost" times, and everything was filling up fast. Being as we arrived late at night, we got the leftover slot, which, we later discovered, wasn't bad at all!)

When we got to the Jacksonville port, we were let out and told to have a seat on the benches in front of the doors. The WORKERS hadn't even arrived yet lol! It was a beautiful day, and I couldn't believe how nice it was in mid-February. Back home, it had snowed hard right before the trip! We just sat and enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air, did a little people watching, and made small talk with some fellow cruisers. The workers showed up shortly after we arrived, and then the guests that were on Fascination were cleared to disembark.

In no time at all, we were cleared to come inside the port and have a seat. We watched as a few cruise employees came off and on, a wedding party came through, and then...we got to go!! It was so easy! Being the first shuttle payed off, and ended up being a blessing. Everything ran so smooth. We got our Sail and Sign cards, and walked onboard.

Being as we were so early, our rooms weren't quite ready, so we went to the lido deck to grab a bite to eat. I was walking through the sea of tables and trays when I caught a glimpse of a familiar face...I thought "surely it isn't...it can't be...it is!! JOSEPH the SUPERCHARGED MAITRE D!!" I met him last year on Inspiration, and he has since been my DH's and my favorite Maitre D. I went up to him and asked him if he remembered me (I didn't think he would, because he sees so many people). To my surprise, he hugged me and said he DID remember me, and said he forgot my name, but remembered that my husband and I had sailed with him before. He asked which dining room we had, and when I told him, he let me know that we would be with him all week...I was so excited! A great start to the cruise already!

Lunch was good. I had some awesome stir-fry. We took it to the outdoor aft seating overlooking the serenity deck, enjoyed a relaxing lunch watching the little boats and seagulls, and waited for the rest of our group to arrive.

About the time our whole group got onboard and all had lunch, our rooms were ready. We had cabin U34, a forward Oceanview room. We were pleased with the room, minus the fact that the window was dirty with some sort of film, which made the views a little less awesome. But hey, we were on vacation, and any view beats no view! The room was clean inside. The usual Carnival room experience, with a decent sized room, small but not too small bath and shower, adequate closet space, and (my fave) Carnival robes and a bathroom basket of goodies! This one had samples of toothpaste, a nasal strip pack, a razor with coupons for refills, soaps and some tums I think.

Our room Steward, Jury, came around promptly and introduced himself. He was a very nice man and a great room steward. He was always on top of any request made, and always smiled. DH and I got settled in our room, then left to explore the ship and watch as we sailed away. The ship was very pretty! I liked the layout. All the floors with rooms are grouped together, and all the entertainment is grouped together on top of them. This was a plus imho.

I was supposed to meet some cc friends onboard, so after walking around a bit, we tried to locate them where we had previously determined to meet. We found then, formally introduced ourselves, and watched sail away together from the back of the ship by the waterslides.

DINNER:

After dark, we got ready for dinner. I wore my casual orange floral sun dress and DH wore a Cream collared shirt and khakis. We had late dining at 8:30pm. When we got there, we were greeted by Joseph, and seated at table 369 with our waiter, Spice (who, by the way is hilarious and amazing...truly one of the best) and his assistant waiter, Tommy. Tommy was a good waiter and nice, just quieter than most. We liked him too though. Dinner was AMAZING!! Of course, I had some warm chocolate melting cake!

After dinner, we wandered around a little, then turned in for the night. Upon entering the room, we were greeted to a turned-down bed, a FUNTIMES, some mints, and an adorable mama and baby walrus towel animal pair.Can't beat that! We picked out what we wanted for breakfast, hung our room service tag on the door, and went to bed. We slept very well. The beds were extra comfy!

DAY3:

I will be honest...day 3 was a day at sea, and after having our breakfast, DH and I decided to be lazy. We were both not feeling the greatest, so we propped up in the bed, turned on the TV, and watched movies almost all day! We tuned in and saw my uncle win the hairy man contest...he did a tarzan yell AND a booty shake lol! Later on, we got dressed and got out of the room because it was formal night, and we didnt want to miss it! We got all decked out (no pun intended) in my zebra and cheeta print dress and his black suit, gray shirt and red tie, and headed to catch the tail end of the show. It was good. The singers and the dancers were talented, all except ONE dancer that seemed noticeably off-step all week. He may have not been feeling well or something...who knows. We had our pictures made on the way to dinner...that is always fun to me...then off to dine! I left a note for Jury asking him if I could leave all the towel animals he made from each night in the window so at the end of the cruise I could take a group picture, and he obliged.

DINNER:

Dinner was, once again, amazing! The food was outstanding (Prime Rib, Lobster and Steak with WCMC for dessert). The waiters were entertaining and eager to please. My family is very outgoing, so the conversation and laughs were endless. We took silverware and spelled "Spice" (our waiter's name) on the table. He found that amusing and we all had a good laugh together.

Afterwards, it was time for bed. We are not the party type, not to mention we were both feeling slightly under the weather, so we retired early. We got to our room, and were once again greeted by the usual, but tonight there was an elephant waiting to greet us wearing my husband's sunglasses, and the walrus family in the window!

Great review! We are sailing her June 11. After 9 sailings on larger ships, we are looking forward to this class of ships! :D

Thanks for the great review.

Kirk

Great, can't wait for more! :D

So far so good!! Love the pics!!

I appreciate it since you have just gotten off the Fascination if you can answer a few questions for us. We have gone on the Fascination last year in May and experienced disappointments but perhaps things have improved for this ship.

1- In the lunch buffets inside the Lido buffet did they have meat carvings (not the deli area) Did they have any soups offered here also?

2- When we went they only offered one hot dish in the lunch buffet generally fish (we not eat seafood) and only one vegetable dish and one rice/potato dish. Have they added any additional selections to the hot foods (not including the fast food type foods pizza, chicken fingers, hot dogs, burgers, etc.).

3-What is the price of cocktails I heard from another poster that a Long Island Iced tea was $10.00 now, when I was on this ship last year it was $8.75 and on RC in december it was only $7.50.

4-Did they offer any other foods besides pizza, burgers, hot dogs, fries after 11pm? Did they bring back the salad?

5-What time now does breakfast end in the MDR and buffet (we like to stay up late and get up around 9:30 thusly always not having breakfast available to us.

6- What type of shows/entertainment is she offering during this time?

Im sorry you didnt' feel well day 3 was it rocky on this ship? My father in law came with us last year and he not feel good for two days, ok it was a tiny bit rocky to us (after going on the huge and new RC ships where you feel nothing he felt movement on this ship which to me is nice at times to know I am at sea lol).

I hope they still kept the live rock n roll band anyway, cruises are just great I just only hope that they improved on things as I can take this ship few times a year as Jax is only 35 minutes north of us. We been taking RC out of Orlando and it be nice not to have that drive.

Any information you can give us would be greatly appreciated and thank you for your review like to hear more. :)

We're about a month away from this cruise, so can't wait to read more. Thanks for taking the time!

Looking forward to the rest of your review. I sail on her on June 25th!

Great review! We are sailing her June 11. After 9 sailings on larger ships, we are looking forward to this class of ships! :D

We are also sailing on the 11th, but this will be our first cruise. Nice review.

Thank you for posting!! Very good review.

Thank you for taking the time to write this review. We sail on her for the first time in November (we have only sailed on the Paradise). Looking forward to more :)

Thanks for taking the time! :)

We are also sailing on the 11th, but this will be our first cruise. Nice review.

You guys going down the night before?

1- In the lunch buffets inside the Lido buffet did they have meat carvings (not the deli area) Did they have any soups offered here also?

On certain day, DH said he saw then doing meat carvings. He got some roast. It was located in the center. As far as soups, yes they had one or two, but to be honest, I didnt get any, so I dont even remember what kind they offered.

2- When we went they only offered one hot dish in the lunch buffet generally fish (we not eat seafood) and only one vegetable dish and one rice/potato dish. Have they added any additional selections to the hot foods (not including the fast food type foods pizza, chicken fingers, hot dogs, burgers, etc.).

Depending what day of the week, they changed selection. Each day they featured a different "type" of food at lunch. (Ex. one day, in addition to "usual stuff," they had jerk chicken and Caribbean food, one day it was Mexican. Every day they had a salad bar as well, and outside they had a Mongolian cook-in-front-of-you type stir fry. You could request beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, or a mixture. This was my FAVE, and what I ate most days. (Think Shoguns yum!)

3-What is the price of cocktails I heard from another poster that a Long Island Iced tea was $10.00 now, when I was on this ship last year it was $8.75 and on RC in december it was only $7.50.

We dont drink, but we did get a virgin pina colada. I will try to find the receipt, but I think it was like 6-7 dollars...I could be wrong, so I will try to check for you.

4-Did they offer any other foods besides pizza, burgers, hot dogs, fries after 11pm? Did they bring back the salad?

I think that and room service is still the only option :( except for late night deck party one night I think.

5-What time now does breakfast end in the MDR and buffet (we like to stay up late and get up around 9:30 thusly always not having breakfast available to us.

Breakfast times as of Feb are:

8-10am for main dining room

6-10am is "Continental" in Coconut Grove

7:30-10:30am is Lido Buffet

8am-12 is "Late Risers" in Coconut Grove

Basically, you can only eat in MDR until 10, then Lido til 12.

6- What type of shows/entertainment is she offering during this time?

They had an 80's Las Vegas Style Show that was wonderful! The Welcome aboard show was good too (we wandered in after dinner and saw 1/2 of it.) They had a lot of comedy shows this cruise. The comedians were very funny imo, especially "Scotty K".

Im sorry you didnt' feel well 3 was it rocky on this ship? My father in law came with us last year and he not feel good for two days, ok it was a tiny bit rocky to us (after going on the huge and new RC ships where you feel nothing he felt movement on this ship which to me is nice at times to know I am at sea lol).

Thanks :) The ship was a little bit rocky a couple nights, more so than the other ships I have sailed. Not anything unbearable though. I have vertigo, so it messed with me a little more than it would most people I think. I'm like you though. Part of cruising is a little motion, and I usually always feel funny getting back on land lol! ;) Whatever it was that made me feel bad, by the next day, it was gone, so I had an awesome rest of the trip.

Hope this helps answer some of the questions...sorry I didnt know them all ;) any more, just ask! I hope yall have a great time!

Great review! We are sailing her June 11. After 9 sailings on larger ships, we are looking forward to this class of ships! :D

I hear ya! This class is still my personal favorite...especially the Inspiration ;) Happy Sailing and hope yall have a blast!:cool::D

Thank you very much for the answers. It appears that the Fascination now offers a bit more during its lunch buffets than it did last year, thats good to hear. The shows sound good too. I would like to see breakfast served like the other cruise lines (buffet breakfast) till 11am that would be nice but I guess its ok for me to skip breakfast as I never have it at home anyway.

I also like to see even just cheese/fruit and like mini sandwiches served after 11 that be a plus, but recently I just had a thought why not go to the nightly buffet before it closes bring back a plate of snacks to eat later on. Now that will work for me. :)

Thank you very much again!! By the way love your review and photos.

I finally have a minute to sit down and write some more, so here it goes:

I should first mention that I completely forgot that we attended part of the Welcome aboard show and the late night comedy on the first night. Sorry about that ;) I guess being sleep deprived I forgot to add that...

The Welcome aboard show was good, but if you have been to one, you pretty much know what to expect. I do like seeing a preview of the comedy acts/shows, so thats why we went for a little while. They didn't disappoint. The comedians were very funny in late night. We went to two comedy acts during the week. Scotty K did a hilarious bit about "Sweet Home Alabama" and other songs. You will never think about some songs the same way again lol!! We still talk about it ;)

Now that I fixed my faux pas...I can get back on track lol!!

DAY 4: MONDAY, FEB 21:

HALF MOON CAY, A TROPICAL PARADISE:

We awakened to the sweet sound of room service that morning. I had my usual: coffee, fresh fruits, a danish and an orange juice. The ship arrived at 8am. We hurried up and got ready, and went out the door. We got in line for the tender boats, and were on in a matter of minutes.

We sat on the top deck of the two-platform boat. I was able to get an awesome shot of the ship from there!

In no time at all, we had made the trip and let off the tenders and into paradise. As soon as we stepped off, we followed the lines through a big archway and into the open vendor area. There were open air type shops to the right, a store straight ahead, and an info/excursion desk and med station to the left.

We followed the stone pathway beside the info desk, which led around to the beach and cabanas. We had rented Cabana 13, a pretty pink cabana. I am now a HUGE fan of Cabanas. We had got ours online off the Carnival website for $199 (The site says per person, but it is per cabana) a few weeks prior to sailing, then picked the exact one we wanted once onboard. (TIP: If you do this, go to excursion desk FIRST THING after boarding. There was already a line when our family got there to pick theirs, and our first choice was gone. No worries though. 13 turned out to be just fine.) It came with 4 sets of snorkel gear, 8 drinks, 4 floats, fresh fruit and veggie tray, and the cabana had a 4 chair dining set, two loungers, a mini fridge, 2 storage compartments, a window air conditioner, and a misting fan.

Thank you very much for the answers. It appears that the Fascination now offers a bit more during its lunch buffets than it did last year, thats good to hear. The shows sound good too. I would like to see breakfast served like the other cruise lines (buffet breakfast) till 11am that would be nice but I guess its ok for me to skip breakfast as I never have it at home anyway.

I also like to see even just cheese/fruit and like mini sandwiches served after 11 that be a plus, but recently I just had a thought why not go to the nightly buffet before it closes bring back a plate of snacks to eat later on. Now that will work for me. :)

 

Thank you very much again!! By the way love your review and photos.

You're welcome ;) and thanks for the compliment! Yep, I've been known to take a certain food item to the room for later...mine is those breakfast Danishes...they are like Pringles...you cant eat just one ;):D

The weather Couldn't have been more perfect in HMC that day. We played in the beautiful, crystal clear water. I taught my baby sister how to catch a wave on a float and ride it into shore...I'm never too good or too old to be a big kid lol!

Later, we grabbed a bite to eat from the lunch pavilion, and took it back to the cabana to eat. I didnt eat much, but it was good. I had some fruit, chicken and a cookie. DH had a burger that he said was good. DH and I I also had a virgin strawberry daiquiri and a virgin pina colada from the shipwreck bar...very tasty! (BTW, the top of the shipwreck bar has some GREAT views and spots for a photo op! I will try to post some of mine if my computer will cooperate...it is being slow as molasses :rolleyes:.)

There was a guy in the Shipwreck Bar doing live music, and he was really good imo.I had been told that people on cc were worried about possible noise problems from the bar, but where we were at cabana 13, it was not a problem at all. I do think the first couple cabanas on either side might have had noise issues, but as long as they don't mind the music, it would prob be ok. It is all in what you are looking for. We wanted a quieter atmosphere for Mamaw, and cabana 13 was perfect for that. And the bathrooms were close by, so it was far away enough but still close to "facilities".

Some Shipwreck view pics:

Great Review thanks for sharing

Just a funny lol...