9/6 Fantasy Review

Going to try to do a short review of our recent 5 nightcruise on the Fantasy. There were fourof us, including a 5 and 13 year old. Mywife and I have numerous cruises between us on Norwegian, Celebrity, RoyalCaribbean, Disney and Carnival. Prior tothis one, we have only taken the kids on a Disney cruise.

We chose this particular cruise based on schedule anddeparture location. We were hesitantabout taking the kids on a Carnival cruise and using the kids’ clubs. We were spoiled by the clubs on Disney. We figured we would give it a shot becauseeven if we didn’t use the clubs at all, we were all good with spending theentire cruise together.

Parking and luggage drop-off in Mobile went quick andsmooth. We arrived right about 11:30AMand had already done prepaid parking. There was barely any wait to drop-off the bags. We did FTTF and were on the boat in about 15minutes. I know there were no portsusing tenders but I would still pay for FTTF every time. The speed of getting on and off the boat makeit worth it to me. In addition, we wentstraight to our room and dropped off out carry-ons before getting something toeat.

We had an inside stateroom with two pull down bunks on theRiviera Deck. We had seen pictures andknew it was going to be small but WOW. We weren’t quite prepared for it. When the bunks are down, one is so low you can’t sit up in bed withouthitting your head. The other ispositioned so you can’t walk around the foot of the bed without bending overand leaning way over the bed. But, weknew what we were getting into and this is what we paid for. The only real complaints we had were the factthere were only two plugs, one of which was in the bathroom and would only workwhen the light was on, and a slight sewage smell. The smell wasn’t there all the time but wegenerally noticed it right as we entered the room. If you use the bunks, check under thebed. On the last night we found theladders stored under there. Althoughthey might have been helpful for the kids I don’t know there was room for them! Our room steward was okay. I have nothing good nor bad to say abouthim.

We weren’t really impressed with the food on thiscruise. We really liked Guy’s Burgersand Blue Iguana. The lido buffet neverreally impressed. I have to say, thefried chicken they had one day was awful. It was all just okay. The pizzasand deli were always pretty good but I don’t feel like they were anythingspecial. We went to the sea day brunchand Dr. Seuss breakfast. The food atboth were really good. The steak andeggs is excellent. If you do the Dr.Seuss breakfast, I recommend you not be late. They started rolling out the characters right on time and if you were 10minutes late you might have missed the first ones. We felt really rushed but our 5 year oldenjoyed it and the food was good. We didget breakfast delivered one morning and regret it. It was the day we were in Cozumel. We weren’t getting off the ship and thoughtwe would get to sleep in. They ended updelivering our food over an hour early. It was right as people were starting to get off the ship so in additionto the disturbance of having the food delivered, we had all the added noise ofpeople in the hallway. We had your timedining for dinner. There was one nightwe had to wait over 30 minutes and one night about 15. We tended to get there a little early andnoticed a lot more people waiting on our way out. The food was always good but not great. While I like the flexibility of your timedining, the service always suffers. There was one night we left before desert because we were tired ofwaiting. My wife and I also noticed thedesert selection at dinner and in the lido dining area was pretty poor. I felt like I usually ordered desert atdinner simply because it was time to order, not because there was something Ireally wanted. I never saw anything onthe lido desert buffet that looked good enough to get.

We got both the bubbles package for the kids, vacationtreat, and the cheers package for us. Weloved both. The bar service staff wassome of the best we’ve had. We seemed toalways see the same few servers/bartenders and got familiar with them. There were a couple who got to know our kidsand would joke with them and call out to them whenever they saw them. One of the servers near the waterworks wouldautomatically bring us drinks every ten minutes or so while we were there. We missed the ship not having an Alchemy Barbut Wendy, who frequently works the Majestic Bar, does a great job.

We spent a lot of time around the waterworks. We spent several hours there both sea daysand the day in Cozumel. We never had aproblem finding chairs as there seems to always be people coming andgoing. Lines were never too bad for theslides. The larger slide needs some workthough. It was a little uncomfortablegoing over the joints in some of the sections.

We really liked the cruise director, Benjamin. He seemed to be everywhere. He was pretty funny and we saw him stoppedtalking to guests several times.

We used the kids’ clubs a little bit. We weren’t impressed. Don’t get me wrong, the staff seemed reallygood and we felt our 5 year old was safe. They just didn’t seem to have a lot to work with. The room she was in was pretty plain withsome toys and a TV. They played moviesand games on the TV. They did do somearts/crafts which she enjoyed. They hadsome cell phones they gave out to some parents if the kids were really young,allergies or other needs but we didn’t get one. It was my understanding if she decided she was ready for us to pick herup she would just have to wait until we checked in. We never sent her for very long at a time soit was never an issue. She ended upgoing once, maybe twice a day for about an hour and a half at a time. Our 13 year old went to his club a few timesin the evenings. He really liked thegirl in charge and met a few other kids.

In Costa Maya we booked a day at Maya Chan. We have some mixed feelings about it. The walk to where we met their representativewas a little far and was not the easiest to find. We were thinking we passed it but couldn’tsee their sign until we were right on top of it. They put us in a van with another familywhich was nice. It was about a twentyminute ride through some pretty desolate areas. Being an American, it is always surprising to see just how people livein areas like this. Makes you reallyappreciate home. Costa Maya is not a bigcity. I didn’t see any reason to walkout of the development at the dock unless you were meeting a tour. We hurried through the shops at the dock toget to our van and then back to the ship so didn’t stop to look. It did look pretty nice with several shopsand places to eat. Maya Chan was mostlyreally good. The staff was awesome. They were so friendly and really tried to doeverything they could to make sure everybody was having a good time. The weather didn’t really cooperate withus. It rained really hard shortly afterwe got there. Luckily there weren’t manyother guests and there was plenty of room under the main building. We all just hung out during the storm, got toknow each other, got drinks and then ate. I tried all the food and it was really good. I wish I could have eaten more but would havemade myself sick. There were also drinksavailable whenever you wanted. They’dmake you anything and the bartender was more than happy to suggest differenttypes of tequila and beer to try if you asked. He made smoothies for the kids that they loved. My son ended up drinking 5 strawberrysmoothies, they think it was a record. Itnever got sunny but didn’t start raining again until right as we were gettingready to leave. There was some seagrasson the beach but we had been warned, they were very upfront about. It is my understanding it is this wayeverywhere in the area, not just at their beach. They have employees constantly clearing itaway which did cause some odor but it wasn’t overpowering. The water was nice and calm allowing us totry paddle boarding and kayaking without battling waves. The water wasn’t crystal clear or blue but itwas very comfortable. We had a lot offun in the water and playing some of the games they had available. If we had come expecting clean sand and waterwe would have been disappointed. But weknew what to expect and aren’t bothered by grass/seaweed. Again, the staff here was what really madethe place. We also liked they arrangedthe transportation. We would have reallybeen worried on the ride had we just caught a taxi ourselves.

We stayed on the boat in Cozumel and enjoyed not having thecrowd at the pool. We’d been therebefore and didn’t think the kids needed to see anything on shore around thedock.

Disembarkation was a breeze thanks to FTTF. I also strongly suggest using a porter. They take you to special lines reserved forthem to go through customs. Only took usabout 20 minutes from the time we got our bag until the time I was getting tothe car.

Overall, we really wanted to like this cruise. We read the reviews beforehand and knew itwas an old ship. If you need to have aship with nice clean paint, no rust and the latest and greatest amenities… this is not the ship for you. What we didn’t like was the food selectionand quality along with subpar service. That being said, there was nothing so egregious it caused our vacationto be ruined. We would cruise carnivalagain, just not this ship.

Thanks for taking the time to write a review! I am sailing on Carnival Fantasy in January 2019. I have a junior suite and will, most likely, be travelling solo.

Thanks for the review!

Thank you for the review!

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Thanks for the review. I would guess having a small cabin and the lack of desserts that you enjoy impacted you the most? Does Carnival not have the melting cake, cheesecake, and ice cream each night any longer? Those work for me. But yes the newer ships are probably a better fit if you want to pay a bit more. Again thanks!

enjoyed your review.thanks.

Thanks for the review! We sail on the Fantasy in October :-)

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the review. I would guess having a small cabin and the lack of desserts that you enjoy impacted you the most? Does Carnival not have the melting cake, cheesecake, and ice cream each night any longer? Those work for me. But yes the newer ships are probably a better fit if you want to pay a bit more. Again thanks!

Yes they have all of those!