Terab85

Parking lot attendant checked our boarding passes and driver’s license and then we proceeded into the parking lot. Barely got out of our car before the porters came by and picked up all our check in luggage.

Here's my family as we're heading to the terminal.

We were directed inside the terminal and through another check point where they looked at boarding passes and passports (need to keep those two things handy). You are NOT allowed to take any pictures from this point until you are on the ship. Since we were priority, we were then directed to a lounge area where they took our photos and gave us our sail and sign cards. By this time, it was maybe 10:25-10:30 when we sat down to wait. They had two wedding parties (HUGE) and had to wait for all of them to board, then it was our turn. Took our onboard photo with the family and walked on the gangway towards the ship. The Jacksonville terminal isn’t as nice as the Port Canaveral but not as bad as I had thought.

Parking lot attendant checked our boarding passes and driver’s license and then we proceeded into the parking lot. Barely got out of our car before the porters came by and picked up all our check in luggage.

Here's my family as we're heading to the terminal.

We were directly inside the terminal and through another check point where they looked at boarding passes and passports (need to keep those two things handy). Since we were priority, we were then directed to a lounge area where they took our photos and gave us our sail and sign cards. By this time, it was maybe 10:25-10:30 when we sat down to wait. They had two wedding parties (HUGE) and had to wait for all of them to board, then it was our turn. Took our onboard photo with the family and walked on the gangway towards the ship. The Jacksonville terminal isn’t as nice as the Port Canaveral but not as bad as I had thought. We came onto the ship on deck level 2 or 3 and I immediately ran up the stairs to 7 so I could book our cabana for HMC.

Everyone was up early and able to have breakfast at the hotel, which included the usual waffles, cereal, eggs, fruit. After loading everything back into the car, we left the hotel about 9:40 to get gas on way to port. Wasn’t sure if they would let us park since the website says that the port parking doesn’t open until 10:30 but drove past just after 10:00 and we were able to get into the parking lot.

I had been going back and forth trying to decide if I should do this review since I've never done one with pictures, but with a little encouragement from ohitssunshine, I figured I'd give it a try (no judging please ;) ).

Little background on our group. Myself (49), DH (47), DD (23 & 21) and (soon-to-be SIL 26). We live in northern GA and DD & SIL flew in from Denver a few days before we drove down. We are celebrating our youngest DD 21st birthday and our 26th wedding anniversary, both which were a week before the cruise.

Drove down early Saturday morning, February 27th. We stayed at the Marriott Springhill Suites at the airport. Had two rooms with two double (queen) beds. I did not take any pictures of this hotel but was very nice, especially since we stayed for free using points. There is a Longhorn Steakhouse, Zaxby's, and Ruby Tuesday within walking distance of the hotel. More shops (including Walmart) and restaurants about a mile down the road. Everyone was in bed early since we had been up since 4:00am.

Next... Cruise Day!

Oh shoot - I realized what I did wrong. Let's try again!

 

 

 

You guys look so cute :D

Hahaha! Yes, we do need to keep traditions alive!

 

For the pics - since I took almost all of mine on my cell phone, they are on my google photos account. I just created one album that is public and added the ones I wanted to share in there. For the others - I use photobucket. I would LOVE to read your review if you can get it to work!!

I'm going to try the photobucket and see if I can get it to work but I don't think my review would be anywhere close to as entertaining as yours ;)

Distance around the walking track? I like to keep track of how many miles walked.

1 lap = 164.4 yards. You have to do 11 laps for 1 mile.

Can you tell me if a drivers license and birth certificate will work for boarding ect? We were going to get passports but I think we missed the window. Leaving in three weeks.

I'm not 100% sure. I had heard that a drivers license would be okay since it was just going to the Bahamas but we had our passports, so never followed through. I'd call Carnival to make sure. I think you can pay extra for a rush on the passport.

We are looking to sail on the Carnival Fascination out of Jacksonville on April 3rd. Has anybody been on this ship lately? If so did you see a basketball court of it?

I'm pretty sure there was not a basketball court. There is two ping pong tables, putt putt, and shuffle board.

Hello,

 

Considering fascination next February.

 

Can someone tell me if fascination has...

 

A piano bar?

A burrito station (doesn't have to be 2.0)?

A decent gym?

 

Thank you!

Was just on the Fascination a couple of weeks ago. Yes on the piano bar, no on the burrito station (does not have the 2.0), and even though I didn't work out in the gym, we did check it out. Lots of treadmills, ellipticals, and decent amount of weight machines.

Enjoy!

Hahah, YES! So glad we are not alone :D

 

We booked a quick 3 day cruise to do some more bar hopping in Nassau - we will miss you guys!

SO jealous! You should go to Senor Frogs and see if you can get someone to spill on your hubby. You know, to keep the tradition alive ;);)

Your review has been awesome! I couldn't figure how to get pictures on here, so I'm just letting you do all the work for me :p

Oh little Billy! I would have had to run out of that place because there would be no way my husband would have kept his mouth shut, lol.

And I work at a elementary school, so I would have been like "Don't they teach you to cover your mouth in kindergarten" :p

OK, after we watched the sunrise we went to check out the buffet breakfast. My husband really wanted waffles and we were on a mission to find some. When we failed that mission, and rather quickly I might add, we decided to go back to the cabin get ready for the day. At this point we had just thrown on a sweatshirt and pants to check out the sunrise. After we got ready we would head out to brunch, where we hoped to find waffles on the menu. In fact, to get him to brunch, I might have at this point assured him there would be waffles and because I would not chose to lie to my husband, I think I assured myself that there would be waffles as well.

 

In reality, I just wanted an excuse to have a mimosa.

 

We did end up going to brunch, and as the funny way the universe works sometimes - we were both let down. I never saw the "I'm on vacation so drinks at 8am are validated" menu, and was never offered to order from the bar, and there were also no waffles to be found either. Thanks universe, I learned my lesson.

 

We did have a lovely couple seated next to us, and again the seating arrangement was the same as the dinner with a 4 top/2 top/2top. We noticed that they had some trouble getting what they ordered - asking for pineapple juice and getting orange, asking for salsa and not getting any, etc. These were minor things, and our meal came out as expected with the only hiccup being that my coffee was refilled with regular, when I had been drinking decaf. My husband noticed and let me know when the waiter had left. I typically do not drink coffee at all since quitting it 2 years ago, and a cup of regular would have had be bouncing off the walls. Our meal was tasty, and it did not take long at all either. I had read some reviews where brunch can take quite a bit of time, but we did not experience this.

 

We were a little disappointed by brunch. I had planned to do it for both at sea days but after the first one, we didn't bother going back. We did get to order our mimosas (at almost $9 a pop :eek:)

I just realized that I forgot about the coughing kid incident. I have to back up to dinner on our first night. I mistakenly thought this happened later in the cruise but now that I think about it, it was the first night.

 

So I don't know that I could tell this story without some sort of visual...so obviously I have created one.

 

Here we have a family sitting at the table for 4, with a beautiful view of the Jacksonville port out the window. We have mom and dad, little Sally who is all of 3 or 4 and then little Billy who is probably 8-10.

 

Next to them we have a nice couple, eager to enjoy their dinner.

 

And finally at the end of the row, which - this is the typical setup in the Sensation MDR on the Fascination if you sit near the windows...you have myself (for the sake of this story, I've chosen Jennifer Lawrence to represent me) and my husband. Again, this is my story and if I want him to be Ryan Gosling, he will be.

 

 

Notice I didn't include any photos for the little Billy's family.

That is for 2 reasons.

 

1. If I were them, I would be embarrassed

2. Because they pretty much were invisible the entire time, and did nothing to stop or apologize for the situation

 

I would also like to make one call out here in regards to the authenticity of this photo. No, I am not apologizing for likening myself or my husband to stupidly good looking actors...but I do feel the need to say that the photo of little Billy isn't as accurate as it could be. You see, this is because if you google "boy coughing" you get 99.9% results of a picture of a boy coughing AND covering his mouth. This is completely opposite of what little Billy must have been taught.

 

Little Billy started coughing as soon as we were seated. But it wasn't just a cough into his arm, sleeve, napkin, anything...he would lean back in his chair, kind of roll out of it towards the poor woman sitting to his right, and then cough...open mouth...into the open air. Repeatedly. I couldn't even bring myself to look at the woman next to me, but I imagined she was like...

 

 

So this continues to go on, and we've ordered our dinner and are enjoying our appetizers. Which now, this sparks my memory that they were the stuffed mushrooms, and I wish I had ordered 2. Anyways, back to the story.

 

My husband made eye contact with the dad, who was sitting to the left of little Billy. You know that eye contact like...are you going to do something? Something is amiss and you can fix it. You have a booger on your face, how do you not know? Dude, your mom is standing RIGHT behind you.

 

 

You know - THAT eye contact, and still...nothing. I on the other hand, couldn't bring myself to make eye contact with anyone.

 

It was almost like little Billy was a limp noodle who couldn't stay upright in his chair, and he just kept getting closer and closer to the poor woman sitting between us. Coughing over and over and over again. Never covering his mouth. His parents never saying anything to him or to any of us.

 

Even the waiters at this point are like

 

 

So our main entrees are just being delivered, and I am already picturing plastic tenting and hazmat suits because this kids germs are just EVERYWHERE at this point. All of a sudden, the poor woman in between us and her husband just get up, mid bite...and leave. They could not take it for another SECOND.

 

Now the one barrier I had between little Billy and I...is gone. I look over and see him in all his glory, just limp noodling all over his chair, coughing every 30 seconds or so straight into our shared aerosphere. Little Sally doesn't know any better, she's just trying to figure out what happened today that landed her on a boat with 2,000 strangers and chicken tenders for dinner. His parents still oblivious to the carnage their son has caused.

 

We finished our dinner as quickly as possible and got the heck out of dodge. I am usually such an easy going person, I don't care if your kids act up, because they are kids. But at 8, 9, 10 years old, you should know how to cover your mouth. And if you aren't covering your mouth, then as parents, you should really remind your kid - and apologize to those around you who it is affecting. At least. Personally, if my kid had been that sick to where he could not stop coughing throughout an entire dinner service - I would not have brought him on a cruise, or at the very least got room service and kept him holed up there until he was feeling better.

 

So that's the coughing kid incident. It is one that will likely be retold and acted out many a times in our household because, well...we are a-holes like that and laughing about it afterwards keeps us from opening our mouths in public. I can't believe I forgot that was on day 1 - but now I will get back on track...

 

 

OMG!! Never laughed so hard in my life!!! I totally feel for you guys but so glad it was you and not us ;) It's amazing how parents don't want to take responsibility for their kids. We would totally be sharing that story with everyone because like you, we're a-holes too ;);)

It's just amazing that after all these years my husband didn't even bat an eye. He knows it's crazy but he was like yep, give me the list...:rolleyes:

Nick is like that with me too. He just laughs but doesn't say a word :p I am ALL about lists :D

Ok, now I am back on track...

 

After dinner, the ship is just getting colder and colder with the temps dropping outside and still being docked in freezing cold Jax. So we decide to just hang out in our cabin and try to get warm, and just wait to see when this thing is going to sail.

 

When we got back to our room, our steward was outside in the hallway and introduced herself. I wish I had written down her name because she was awesome. It was really unique and it started with a K - if anyone staying on the upper deck recently may know who I am talking about, please chime in!

 

She hadn't done our turn down service yet and confirmed our dining plans for the week with us. This was the only night that we missed each other, and the rest of the week she was totally aligned with our schedule. I told her we were all set and if she just had the Fun Times for the next day we would be good.

 

Now the ship is getting cold and unfortunately the cabins do not have any heat. You can turn the AC down or off, but there is no option to turn on heat. We thought, well lets make use of the nice big tub and take a hot bath - but alas...the water boiler issue meant no hot water either. I gave in and I suited up in sweatpants, a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie. You guessed it - I had that hood up over my head and tied tight to minimize the cold air from mingling underneath.

 

At this point, I am wondering if we will be sailing at all? There was another updated announcement that the repairs were almost done around 8, and that we would be sailing around 8:30. That time came and passed. We ended up passing out sometime early that evening - something about all of the excitement leading up to the trip and a lot of early mornings beforehand just whips our butts the first night or so of any vacation. We went to sleep wondering if they would be waking us up and asking us to debark in the morning. :(

 

You made me laugh about how cold you were in your cabin. Poor Nick has to deal with me and how hot I get. I think we propped open our door a few times ;) I was determined that we were going to stay up late to watch us go under the bridge. Think it finally happened after 10:00 (or was it 11:00 :confused: ).

So here is where day 1 starts to lose its luster...I know I had mentioned it was cold in Jax but let me just tell you what a baby I am. I lived in NY for 30 years and just decided to move to Florida simply because I was cold. I hate the cold weather, and I hated the snow and the gloominess of all things winter. I left all of my extended family, and my husband and kids and I moved to Florida on our own. I love Florida. The bright blue skies and white clouds - make me smile everyday.

 

Winter in Florida is usually limited to about 2-3 weeks. We will get a couple of frost advisories and the temps dip down into the 30s overnight. Luckily, during the day the temps usually jump back up into the mid 50s at least, and most often into the 60s. This year, the cold had lasted a little bit longer and I was really nervous about leaving for our cruise when temps were still so low. Most of the time, we time our cruise just right so that it is almost a passage to summer. We leave the cool weather, head to the Caribbean and come home to 70 degrees and climbing.

 

So this trip - it was much colder than it usually is when we head on a cruise. I boarded wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt :eek: So naturally, I was excited to get the ship heading south as soon as possible.

 

So the Fun Times, I believe said the Muster Drill would be at 3. There was an announcement made that it would be at 3:30. We went to our station - B, which was on the Promenade deck and waited. And waited. And waited. The drill didn't start for what felt like FOREVER. I actually wondered if it had something to do with either of the weddings on board?

 

Once the drill began, it still took what seemed like forever. And then at some point during the drill, the captain came on and announced that due to a water boiler issue, our departure would be delayed until 5:30. Finally, the drill ended probably close to 4:30/5, and we decided to head to dinner in the MDR.

I thought the Muster Drill was terrible. We went out just above the pool area, which is where our wait area was about 3:15 and just waited. Didn't see any employees even getting ready until after 3:30. Finally closer to 4:00, we made our way downstairs to the Lido deck and waited and waited and waited. Unfortunately, we had to stand the whole time. Seemed like it took forever too :mad:

FTTF - So I mentioned that I kept FTTF so that we could get into our room asap. I should point out that they had made an announcement that all cabins should be ready by 12:30. And if you remember, we were at the Excursions Desk until about 12 anyways. So in reality, we were only able to access our room 30 minutes earlier than everyone else.

 

Having said that - as we made our way to our room, we noticed that the housekeepers were still knee deep in cleaning rooms and I would be surprised if they were actually all ready at 12:30. If anyone else on the sailing can chime in here, I would be curious to know!

 

So at this point in time, we are just hanging out in the room and checking everything out. There is a TON of storage in this room, and you can see most of it along the left side of the room in the photo I posted. The thing is, many of the drawers have some mechanism built in, I am sure to prevent the drawers from rolling open if the ship gets moving - but some of them were just downright hard to open and took a bit of a pull. Once you get used to this, they are usable and all - but I thought I would mention it.

 

We eagerly awaited our luggage delivery and soon enough - we got that knock on the door and all 4 of our bags were delivered without issue.

 

I'll point out here that I had bought a brand new travel steamer for this trip - as the old trusty one we had brought with us so many times before had finally died. Of course, I didn't realize that the rules had changed and steamers were now no longer allowed on the ship - until we talked about it in our roll call. I think this is kinda crazy. I don't want to be walking around in wrinkles for 5 days and while wrinkle release spray helps...I also didn't want to spend my mornings dousing my clothes in spray. So yes...I smuggled my steamer. I mean, I use the word "smuggle" loosely...It's not like I hid that thing anywhere, I just packed it in my luggage. And it made it. And I was like hallelujah to all. This neat freak would have been going crazy if it had not!

I had meant to ask you about the steamer since we talked about it on the roll call. I don't think they were checking luggage too closely. I wonder if that's because JAX is a smaller port or not. I'll be curious about your trip on the Sunshine next year. I ended up having to take a couple of things down to the laundry and using the iron :(

So we completely bypassed the embarkation photo, and headed to the ship. We board the ship I believe, on the 3rd deck? There were a lot of people creating a traffic jam right when you get on, but we just turned and saw the stairs and started heading up them.

 

We made it to the excursion desk, and not one person was in line! Success!

But then one of the employees let us know it would not be open until 12, and it was just around 11:15, maybe 11:20 at this point. But after all of my stressing, I was pretty much like...OK. I will be right here.

 

Just a couple minutes behind me was Terab85 and then gcdanno - both from our roll call and in line to get their cabana. Luckily, the employee updated us and said they would be actually opening at 11:30. I think we all relaxed a little bit more, knowing our vacation was almost ready to start...just have to get out of this line now! But then the minutes ticked by....I think they said they forgot to open the desk, that she was on her way, and that she had to bring some supplies with her and was running late. Regardless, she didn't open the desk until closer to noon as first communicated. :rolleyes:

 

At this point, I am like whatever - give me my cabana so I can officially enjoy vacation! I was the first one in line, and had first choice of cabana and went with #14. Would it be the best decision? We will find out...

 

Now, let's check out the Grand Suite!

 

I appreciate that you didn't mention how out of breath I was after running up those freakin' stairs to try and beat you ;)

The first time we sailed out of Jax, we had arrived around 10 am and I remember the gentleman in the parking lot booth telling us we would be sitting in our cars until noon. This was also 6 years ago - but it was in the back of my mind as we pulled in to the port a full 30 minutes earlier than anticipated at 10am on the dot.

 

There she is!

 

To our surprise, not only were we let right into the lot - but there were quite a few others already there! (Don't forget, you pay for parking upon your arrival and will need to show your documents at that time as well)

 

I didn't take any photos during this time just because there is a lot going on. But I will share my experience of the embarkation process the best that I can.

 

As a reminder, we had priority boarding because of the Grand Suite, and we also had FTTF.

 

We parked and decided to just bring our bags with us, but we also did not see any porters collecting bags in the parking lot. They were still unloading from the previous sailing as well. We made our way to the area where you drop off your luggage, but there was nobody there to take it. They said they would be right with us. In the meantime - I was watching all of these people with carry ons, make their way into the building. I was so anxious to get in there and get in line!

 

I had prepared ahead, and after looking over the maps of HMC cabanas, I had made a list of my top choice down to my last choice. I wanted to prepare my husband to be able to tell them which cabana I wanted in the case that he made it to the desk before I did...yes...I was thinking of this like a Black Friday Doorbuster.

 

 

(Notice I had 10/9 listed towards the end...I really didn't want to take the cabana that one of our roll call members had really wanted when she had booked her cabana long before us!)

 

Finally a porter comes over and starts to tag our bags with the FTTF, and we are off into the terminal. As soon as they see that we are priority, they direct us to that security line, which is longer than the other line. :rolleyes:

 

After reading so many comments from people who had their power strip confiscated, my husband had ours in his carry on bag. This went through security without issue, and we then headed over to the priority check in area.

 

The priority check in area is a smaller room with 3 check in desks, a couple of sofas for waiting and I believe some refreshments like water and maybe coffee. We didn't have a wait in front of us and were checked in pretty quickly, and then directed to the seating/waiting area for boarding. At this point I am doing a mental check of how many people are in front of us, and how many cabanas they all have and so on and so on. We wait about 30 minutes and the woman who was organizing all of the priority check ins lets us know that there are 2 weddings boarding before us, with over 100 passengers with their party. :eek: And they also had a site inspection boarding as well. I am not familiar with this at all, but it looked like about 50 people who boarded and who we later saw touring the ship.

 

They started the boarding process with the weddings and site inspection, and then over to our group - finally! :D As we are walking towards the photo set up, my husband says..."why don't we skip this, so you can get to the excursion desk faster?" And I completely agree...

 

I loved your cabana list picture!! That is so funny. I believe you have earned the OCD crown on that one *lol* :D

Wondering if there were plenty of taxis waiting when you got off the ship?

You know I'm not sure. We got off the ship just after 8:00am, ahead of most people and we b-lined it to our car. I did see a bunch of vans, but not sure if they were taxi's or not. Sorry

Thank you for the update on the fascination we will be sailing 04/18. I love the :)smaller ships, they are great for relaxation.

I did like being on the smaller ship. Didn't have to stress much about getting around like on the Liberty. :p

Be sure to check out the adults only Serenity area. Very nice view of the ship's wake. Deck 9, aft.

The only downside of the Serenity on the Fascination is that it is small. If you don't get there early enough, it fills up quickly. Also, since it's in the back, it stays pretty shaded in most areas. If it is a cooler day like we had, it was too cold to sit in the shade. There are plenty of other areas around the ship to lounge out.

First time on the Fascination for me coming up do they have hair dryers in the rooms ??

I'm not sure about all the rooms but in the junior suites they did. I had packed mine just in case.

What are the must do-s onboard?

We loved the comedy club. We are not much into gambling, so didn't spend a lot of time in the casino. The things I wished we had done were the piano bar and maybe go down the slide at least once ;) We caught most of the Motown show which was fun and part of the Divas which was okay.