BenjiRodney

We had a great time on this cruise and would do it again.

Please let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer them.

We booked the Behind the Fun tour for the sea day home. Someone did not read their instructions that you could not have phones/cameras. Our escort made them take it back to the room. Security did wand everyone to make sure you had nothing that you weren't supposed to have. And they were with us the whole time. Some of the places we got to visit were the main galley, met the chef, saw the freezers and storage rooms below, the main laundry (which on Fantasy Class ships is below the water line), the engine control room, the crew training area, behind the stage area, front of the ships bow, where the bell is (don't ring it, old maritime superstition that the bell only rings twice, upon entering service and when the ship is retired) the crew mess areas and of course the Bridge and to meet and have your picture with the Captain. Also the chef sent a card and some desserts to each person and you get a Ball Cap Lanyard and wristband to keep. I want to do this again on the Magic to see the differences.

Each person we came in contact with on the tour was nice and talked to us. I was impressed how clean everything was below deck and the areas that the public does not normally get to see.

This was one cruise where we had perfect weather. It looked like it was going to rain towards the end of the day. It waited until the last tender was back, and the Captain was turn the ship around to leave. It was cool to see the rain come at us from two sides and the lightning but on a show as we were leaving.

I did not take my big camera over to the Island, only had my phone and GoPro. Did not want to worry about trying to watch a camera while playing in the water. We rented tubes and floated around. $15.00 gets you one for all day use. Waiters did come up and down the beach with drinks, nothing like sipping a frozen drink while floating in paradise.

The ship photographers are also out and about and in the water even with you capturing the moments.

Here you can see some of the floats and tubes. The rental place was directly behind the clam shells.

Lunch was a real nice set up. Served from 1130-130. Just like you would find on Lido, Burgers Dogs Chicken etc and desserts.

Full bar service was available back closer to the main entrance where you first came in.

A few small huts selling things and a store run by the cruise line was all the shopping to be had. This is not a place to buy things if you wait.

We took a 45 minute behind the scenes tram tour on Half Moon Cay. You get to see where all of the activities take place and also get to see the area where the staff members that stay on the island for it's upkeep live. They make their water and generate their electricity on the island. Wish I would have booked the string ray excursion.

The tender process was painless here, no one was in a hurry or seemed rush. The Tenders were large and held something like 400 people. And you will go through xray screening prior to boarding your return tender. Makes the process flow smoothly.

This was the prettiest beach/sand/water I have seen.

This one is the tender ride back to the Ecstasy.

Words cannot describe how amazing Half Moon Cay is/was.

Here links to a couple of videos I did and posted over on YouTube.

Views of the Atrium changing colors:

I know some people are not a fan of the decor of the early ships, I love all of the lights and neon especially at night. I liked the changes in the colors:

I always liked the lighthouse at the entrance to the harbor in Nassau. Stayed at the front of the ship to get pictures of it as we sailed out and on to Half Moon Cay.

Beautiful pictures! Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Thank You, I feel like I slacked off in the pictures department on this one. Took around 300 pics compared to 1300 in Alaska last year.

It was nice being the only ship in Nassau:

We still had about 3 hours before we had to be back on board, thought we would check out the Straw Market, mistake. Hot, muggy and unable to breath in there, not sure how those ladies do it. Bought one thing and stuck to the stores on the main street.

We probably spent 1.5 hours at the Gardens, then had two brief stops on the way back towards the pier.

Even got to hand feed Lorakeets.

More from the Gardens:

The Gardens were home to trained flamingos, other birds and some animals. Nice landscaped grounds to walk around.

The trainer could tells the birds left face, right face, march, halt etc and they followed his commands.

We thought about a Dolphin Encounter at Altantis, but the costs were kind of high. We can do a Dolphin Encounter in December on the Magic in Amber Cove for half the cost. We decided on a City Tour and Ardastra Gardens.

We arrived into Nassau and had breakfast with many visitors this morning:

Note, there were tons of kids on this sailing, many had not gone back to school yet. Where we live school started August 9th. And this year we have had missed days due to the heat and not snow, so cant wait to see what winter throws at us.

Rest of the staff and crew we would encounter would be great. The dining room team we had were excellent, Nadiya, Errol and Gede were fast and efficient. We enjoyed the 4 nights we ate in the MDR for dinner. Never had a problem with the food on Lido either, always something to eat from pizza to the deli to a burger, I did not want for food or snacks on this cruise.

We were usually in and out in about 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour 25 at the most. This is our waitress Nadiya:

Once on board our rooms were ready, dropped things off in the room, Ocean View deck 6 U49. One of the things I did not like on this cruise was the service from the room steward. "Pancake" he came and introduced himself and asked if we wanted morning or evening service for the room. I am used to twice a day, but told him evening would be fine. And never had we not received a towel animal on the first night. I do not have any pictures of the sail away or do I know how long it took to get out to the open water. I took advantage of some specials and spent the 3 hours after sail away in the spa getting relaxed for the week.

The area with the white tent is where they will check your ID and Boarding Pass again in you choose to walk. Once through and close to the door, a Carnival agent will direct the FTTF and Diamond/Platinum members to a separate screening line and then to the front of the line to receive your S&S card and then you are on your way up the stairs and on to the gangway and the ship. So once we made it to security, soda was opened, checked and resealed, received card we walked right on. Longest was the wait to drop bags, pay and then park.