Carnival Fantasy - December 11 to 16, 2017

Review of the Dec. 11th 2017 cruise out of Mobile Alabama.

A little late on the cruise but the holidays and family come first.

Pre Cruise

Our drive down was uneventful other then forgetting some minor items like a tie and dress shirt for elegant night. We were able to pick up some missed packed items at a huge shopping center in Spanish Fort not far from Mobile. The shopping center had a lot of stores inculding Dillards, Chick Fa La, Victoria Secrets, Charming Charlies etc.

We were coming in a day early and stopped for lunch at Wintzels in Mobile. Can’t say enough good things about this place if you like seafood and oysters. We arrived for Happy hour and they had ½ price ray oyster by the dozen and $2 domestic pints and my wife had a $3 glass of house wine. My wife and I split a ½ dozen of Oysters Bienville for appetizers. We should have ordered a dozen because they were wonderful. I don’t recall what my wife ordered but I had ordered a fried seafood platter and it was good. Now our bellies were full so we had to get to the hotel to check in.

We decided on the Hilton Park and Cruise option on Royal St. I think the total cost was around $155. For that you get 5 days parking at the port and a one night stay in the hotel in a suite. They also provide on site parking free of charge. The hotel was nice and even had a Jimmy Johns sub shop attached to it. The room was nice enough although the air conditioning made a loud noise due to bad bearings in the fan. By the time I noticed it was too late to complain as I was already settled in for the night.

Day 1 Embarkation

We had a 11-11:30 Check in with FTTF printed on our luggage tags. We didn’t pay for FTTF but it had printed on our tags and since I don’t have a color printer at the house I had to have Office Depot print them out for me for a per page charge. I wasn’t about to have them reprinted because of their mistake. We made the 5 minute drive over around 10:25. There was a long line of cars waiting to get into the parking garage. We later found out the the previous cruise was delayed leaving the parking garage due to a freight training pulling up and not allowing the other vehicles to exit the parking garage. There is a whole lot of people trying to zoom up along the side of the long line and trying to cut in. There was also a lady handing out pamphlets so you can prepay your parking. This put the port about 30 minutes behind. We did notice the police using either drug or bomb sniffing dogs in traffic. After the initial delay it was pretty straight forward. Pull up to where they tell you to, Drop off luggage to a porter (leaving a tip), Make sure your tags are on the luggage then go park your vehicle and begin embarkation.

FTTF allowed us to bypass some lines but it wasn’t busy at this point anyway. When we received our sign and sail cards I was surprised to see the FTTF sticker. We were placed in the FTTF waiting section and boarded after the wedding parties, platinum, etc. Our state room was ready and we were able to drop off our luggage and grab a burger and the drink of the day. I’ve attached a video of our state room. Room U230 Aft facing.

The room was clean and typical of a oceanview room on a Fantasy class ship. There was a slight vibration which caused one of the doors to the closet to rattle. Solved that by placing a washcloth between the door and the face of the cabinet. We also pushed our bed against the window to allow a little more room in the cabin.

Ended up getting a The ringer from Guy’s burger with some fries. The drink of the day was cold and the burger was hot and greasy. Everything was perfect and a great start to a great cruise.

Short video of our cabin

Food

Food and taste like most things is totally subjective. As I mentioned before Guy’s burger was terrific. I would rate the burger along the same line as Red Robin or any other premium burger joint. We had tried different things that we normally wouldn’t try so naturally the dinners were hit and miss. The brunch was terrific. We had tried the seaday brunch 3x. Salmon and steak and eggs were the favorites. Couldn’t go wrong with the fresh fruit platter either.The seaday brunch as soon as they opened at 8:30 was fast. I have read reviews complaining about the service time of the seaday brunch, but we found that early on it wasn't a problem as well as after 12:00 it seemed pretty fast.

Excursions

We did two excursions, one in progresso and one in Cozumel.

In Progresso we booked the Uxmal Mayan ruin excursion through carnival on Black Friday. Carnival was running 10% off and I felt that was much safer than trying to book it myself through autoprogreso. The costs was competitive with the 10% off. It was well organized as we all met outside the cruise ship on the dock. I’d imagine in the summertime it could get pretty uncomfortable waiting for the group to disembark and walk to the bus. As we boarded the bus we were all handed a brown bag lunch containing a bottle of water, ham and cheese sandwich, piece of fruit and some cookies/crackers. The bus ride was 1 hour and 30 minutes to Uxmal. The bus was comfortable, and the AC was ice cold. The tour guides were knowledgeable and gave several different accounts of the Mayan culture. The tour look liked it covered about 60% of the ruins. There were several sites we didn’t see with the tour guide, but he was available after the tour to answer questions. We were able to climb one of the temple pyramids after the tour was over. The climb was steep and long. The descent was the scary part as you don’t want to fall and roll all the way down the pyramid.

Afterwards we browsed the grounds for 15 minutes then headed to the restaurant that is right outside the site. I googled the name of the restaurant and it came up as Ppapp Hol Chac de Uxmal. The food was very good and reasonably priced. Beware the salsa they give you with the chips is very spicy. Was expecting that level of spice and I was glad I had something to wash it down with. The food itself was kinda bland but when we added the provided salsa it was perfect. Lunch for two with one alcoholic drink and two cokes came to $23.

Cozumel

We chose the Salsa and Salsa excursion in Cozumel. That was only a 15 minute bus ride to the location. The dancing chefs and everyone involved was terrific. If you read the reviews on carnival they will pretty much mimic what I experienced. We made several different types of salsa and margaritas. Make sure you have some breakfast on the ship before you try this excursion. Drinking on an empty stomach is not recommended. There isn’t a meal served on this excursion but they have plenty of chips. As other reviewers noted the bathrooms are down a flight of stairs. There are several people that you can tip when the excursion is over so be sure to bring some cash. We tipped the dancing chefs, waiters, bus driver, and tour bus guide operators. Thats a lot of tips to go around but we knew before hand by reading the reviews so we came prepared. After the Salsa and Salsa you could stay at the small beach for an extra hour. No one else wanted to stay so we left with the tour group and headed back to the ship.

Misc notes

While in Progresso and Cozumel we were able to use our ATT phones as if they were in the USA by signing up for something called Roam Mexico. It didn’t cost any extra and my phone operated as if it were in the US using the data and minutes included in our plan. It was a great way to stay in touch with my family and my wife was able to do some business while away. Tethered the laptop and was able to fire off a few important emails while away on vacation.

The gym was clean and every time we went we were able to get cardio machines next to each other. One thing I will remember is to bring some corded headphones so I can listen to the TV while working out on the cardio machines. They have little TV monitors attached to the machines but I had to use closed captioning.

We had a magician stop by our table while at dinner and he was terrific. Just doing normal card tricks but I watched his hands intently and I couldn’t see how he was tricking us. It was the first time we had a magician stop by while we were eating and it was a welcome change to the photographers stopping by and interrupting us.

We did two comedy shows and two of the dance shows. We loved all of them and will continue to do them while we were on board. The comedians made us laugh and the dance shows were very entertaining. Some will argue that the dance shows aren’t broadway quality, but I honestly wouldn’t know the difference anyway. We didn’t enjoy the bingo and won’t do it again. It costs us $40 and we didn’t win anything back. It was also computerized and we felt strongly that because of this it was rigged against anyone winning the jackpot. The odds are just too great for us to waste our money on that again.

We also found the onboard laundromats used quarters. We like to do a load or two of wash during our trip so we don’t have to pack as much. We had to go to the customer service to get a roll of quarters.

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

Thanks for the review.

Great information and thank you for taking the time to write and share this.

Keith

Great review, thank you!

Thanks for the great review!! I have one question about the Salsa and Salsa excursion. I know about the dancing chefs. Do they make you get up and dance? I want to do this excursion, but hubby says heck no!! He is not dancing.. hahaha.

Thanks for the detailed review, we came off the Fantasy on 12/7 and also had a good time.

Thanks for the great review!! I have one question about the Salsa and Salsa excursion. I know about the dancing chefs. Do they make you get up and dance? I want to do this excursion, but hubby says heck no!! He is not dancing.. hahaha.

They do not make you get up and dance and they didn't try to coax anyone that did not want to dance. I think somewhere between 1/4 to 1/3 Did not participate. The dancing portion only lasted 30-40 minutes and you could have easily slid out and enjoyed the beach if you so desire. The dancing portion wasn't real dance lessons, it was more like line dancing. Even for accmplished dancers, Latin dancing is really difficult. My wife and I had taken dance lessons for 3+ years a long time ago and we both looked awkward as did everyone else.

They do not make you get up and dance and they didn't try to coax anyone that did not want to dance. I think somewhere between 1/4 to 1/3 Did not participate. The dancing portion only lasted 30-40 minutes and you could have easily slid out and enjoyed the beach if you so desire. The dancing portion wasn't real dance lessons, it was more like line dancing. Even for accmplished dancers, Latin dancing is really difficult. My wife and I had taken dance lessons for 3+ years a long time ago and we both looked awkward as did everyone else.

Thanks!!! I have read great reviews on this and wanted to try it. I will let him know and see if I can talk him into it!!!