Fascination 3/4/18

I’m not going to do a long review but will be happy to answer questions. But I do have some observations and thoughts that I hope someone might find useful that I will share here. First, this is a tiring cruise, especially if many of these are new ports and you are trying to see them and filling your days with activities. I will break down the ports below but my best overall advice is to make at least St. Martin a beach day - this port doesn’t have a lot to do, irrespective of the hurricane damage. Best to go to a beach, spend your money eating and drinking local food and relax.

As for the ship, I am one that prefers fewer people on board and while I love the bells and whistles of Sunshine, we don’t have to have them and are content with this ship. I am not going to focus on the ship much because she is a standard Fantasy class with 2.0 but I do want to comment on some of the unique things relevant to this itinerary.

For informational purposes We were in a balcony on the Main (5) deck-on the starboard side and it was a convenient location to comedy club and Alchemy, our most likely evening hang outs. The good thing was we heard almost no announcements - not a lot were done in the evening and we were ashore all day everyday. The bad thing is the announcements are repeated in Spanish. I am sure this is done for the large number of guests from Puerto Rico, but I makes everything twice as long. Also, I am not sure that is necessary because even in the Spanish speaking groups, there always appeared to be people who spoke English who could translate. Where it was HORRIBLE was muster - it took an HOUR! You are inside for most of it and then have to be taken out side. And everything is again repeated in Spanish. Because we had been up since 545 am to catch our flight, it was awful to be outside at 10 pm doing muster. Hated this part.

It is clear that the ship is not only recently out of dry dock but also following a FEMA 4 month contract where it was not running at full capacity on vacation mode. Little things in service were just “off” in terms of timing, forgetting ordered items etc. That said, Retno and Wilson were great in the Sensation dining room as were Javorka, Mark and Milan in Alchemy bar.

Now onto the days:

Sunday: San Juan

Boarding the boat initially was a bit chaotic because P/D line was not marked and the staff misdirected us a couple of times. But other than that we walked right on by 2 and were able to have Guys and Blue Iguana for lunch. The weather was cloudy with passing rain showers so we didn’t attempt to explore other than to go ashore for sunscreen, wine and other supplies at Walgreens. Plus we had just been there a year ago and walked the wall and forts so nothing new to do. We were able to easily bring 2 bottles of wine on board (I am not a rule breaker) even though technically we were reboarding. The reason you can do this here is luggage screening is after you get your ship card - so the staff has no idea if you are boarding initially or not. I much prefer this because you are not jammed up trying to enter the terminal.

Next morning was St. Thomas. Due to really rough seas the night before, Sapphire and Magen’s Bay were closed. One of the few open beaches was Secret Harbor and they were directing people there. We arrived fairly early before the huge crowds and secured some chairs up high (the beach is very shallow) under some coconut trees on the far right. This is near the rocky snorkeling area where my college biology major went exploring and watched a lizard mating ritual. Unfortunately visibility was zero and we could not snorkel. But we did have a delicious lunch of nachos with beef brisket and some smoked chicken wings before swimming and returning to the ship.

The next stop was Barbados. We used Glory tours Best of Barbados ($145 pp) which seems like a lot but when you break it down into its sub parts of Harrison’s Caves ($60 pp), the gully ($?), lunch ($20+ pp) and the turtle/ shipwreck snorkel ($20 pp) is it very fair for an all day tour. The island is just expensive. The turtle snorkel was a bust - again too murky. But the shipwreck is about 15 years old and forming a nice reef loaded with fish. The highest point is maybe 6’ under water and if you can dive down, there is tons to see. I did have a scary moment - the anchor had not set before they sent some of us in the water and the boat was driving badly and with the occasional swell I was being pushed toward the boat. I was 5’ from the back screaming cut the motor before he finally did - I did not have my mask and snorkel on and could not use my arms effectively to swim. They said they didn’t provide fins and not to worry about ours - so again not prepared. That won’t happen again on my end!

Thursday was St. Lucia where we had an

0830 am tour with Spencer's Land Sea - probably the best bang for your buck with nice happy and energetic guides helping to ensure a good time. A large amount of the tour is spent on the speed boat with some land time to see the volcano and waterfall. If you have a bad back this is not for you as the boat ride is a bit rough. Sugar beach is lovely and they got us there just before the massive crowd so we actually got the last available chairs. The food was home cooked and delicious with chicken, root veggies, rice and peas, noodle salad and platains. The snorkel area here is roped off and you can see well up near the rocks. It is long and narrow along the shore so you have to be willing to swim the coast to see the variety.

St. Kitts was our Friday stop and we use My Island Tours. Javin (with Peaches the Monkey) was early and we were the only people on his tour so we ended up alone in a 4 bench seat open air bus. It was nice to have the open air but harder to hear him as he spoke about the island. He gave us some personal history at the old gin mill before taking us on a hike into the rain forest; I would not recommend this hike for anyone with back or knee issues as you scramble over rocks and at one point make a 200’ vertical climb. Next stop was the highlight - the black lava rocks. It was great to be able to climb down onto them and really be in the middle of it all. The tailgate picnic was tasty empanadas and some local pastries and juices. Next we went to the shipwreck snorkel but passed because 1) somehow I didn’t have a swim suit 2) it is a LONG swim to the site and 3) the water quality has been poor due to weather. We opted for extra time at the beach which is lovely - you can get a shaded chair for $5.

The final stop was St. Maarten where Eagle Tours cancelled our catamaran trip because no one else signed up. Instead we

took a cab (van) ride around island $100 for 4 people and ours for the day. Devastation on all parts of the island. The Orient beach facilities are destroyed - so no bathrooms, bars etc. The water is also not as calm as it appears the previousprotective reef was destroyed. Had a nice lunch on French side at Best of the Beach. Maho was crammed and all of the waterfront hotel/condo are destroyed there as well. Everyone that wasn’t at Maho was at Simpson Bay which does have restaurants and shopping open. As I suspected from a prior visits, this is just not my favorite port of call - it is a glorified beach day and when most of the beaches are no longer usable and the reefs destroyed. Personally, I would put this after Jamaica on my list of least favorite ports of call - I think I even prefer the Bahamas because of the variety of options.

So all in all, not the great snorkeling vacation we had planned. Mother Nature simply didn’t cooperate. But nice to see new places and see some different islands. I wish Carnival would offer this type of variety more.

Let me know if you have any questions - I don’t save Fun Times but we had 4 comedians, a juggler, a hypnotist and a couple of playlist production/Hasbro/Clue type things. And the menu is the standard Carnival 7 day.

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Thank you for your report.

Keith

Not the best weather and not the best conditions of the ports, and still you seem to have made the best of it and had a good time.

Thanks for posting your thoughts and observations.

Thank you!

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I’m not going to do a long review but will be happy to answer questions. But I do have some observations and thoughts that I hope someone might find useful that I will share here. First, this is a tiring cruise, especially if many of these are new ports and you are trying to see them and filling your days with activities. I will break down the ports below but my best overall advice is to make at least St. Martin a beach day - this port doesn’t have a lot to do, irrespective of the hurricane damage. Best to go to a beach, spend your money eating and drinking local food and relax.

 

As for the ship, I am one that prefers fewer people on board and while I love the bells and whistles of Sunshine, we don’t have to have them and are content with this ship. I am not going to focus on the ship much because she is a standard Fantasy class with 2.0 but I do want to comment on some of the unique things relevant to this itinerary.

 

For informational purposes We were in a balcony on the Main (5) deck-on the starboard side and it was a convenient location to comedy club and Alchemy, our most likely evening hang outs. The good thing was we heard almost no announcements - not a lot were done in the evening and we were ashore all day everyday. The bad thing is the announcements are repeated in Spanish. I am sure this is done for the large number of guests from Puerto Rico, but I makes everything twice as long. Also, I am not sure that is necessary because even in the Spanish speaking groups, there always appeared to be people who spoke English who could translate. Where it was HORRIBLE was muster - it took an HOUR! You are inside for most of it and then have to be taken out side. And everything is again repeated in Spanish. Because we had been up since 545 am to catch our flight, it was awful to be outside at 10 pm doing muster. Hated this part.

 

It is clear that the ship is not only recently out of dry dock but also following a FEMA 4 month contract where it was not running at full capacity on vacation mode. Little things in service were just “off” in terms of timing, forgetting ordered items etc. That said, Retno and Wilson were great in the Sensation dining room as were Javorka, Mark and Milan in Alchemy bar.

 

Now onto the days:

 

Sunday: San Juan

Boarding the boat initially was a bit chaotic because P/D line was not marked and the staff misdirected us a couple of times. But other than that we walked right on by 2 and were able to have Guys and Blue Iguana for lunch. The weather was cloudy with passing rain showers so we didn’t attempt to explore other than to go ashore for sunscreen, wine and other supplies at Walgreens. Plus we had just been there a year ago and walked the wall and forts so nothing new to do. We were able to easily bring 2 bottles of wine on board (I am not a rule breaker) even though technically we were reboarding. The reason you can do this here is luggage screening is after you get your ship card - so the staff has no idea if you are boarding initially or not. I much prefer this because you are not jammed up trying to enter the terminal.

 

Next morning was St. Thomas. Due to really rough seas the night before, Sapphire and Magen’s Bay were closed. One of the few open beaches was Secret Harbor and they were directing people there. We arrived fairly early before the huge crowds and secured some chairs up high (the beach is very shallow) under some coconut trees on the far right. This is near the rocky snorkeling area where my college biology major went exploring and watched a lizard mating ritual. Unfortunately visibility was zero and we could not snorkel. But we did have a delicious lunch of nachos with beef brisket and some smoked chicken wings before swimming and returning to the ship.

 

The next stop was Barbados. We used Glory tours Best of Barbados ($145 pp) which seems like a lot but when you break it down into its sub parts of Harrison’s Caves ($60 pp), the gully ($?), lunch ($20+ pp) and the turtle/ shipwreck snorkel ($20 pp) is it very fair for an all day tour. The island is just expensive. The turtle snorkel was a bust - again too murky. But the shipwreck is about 15 years old and forming a nice reef loaded with fish. The highest point is maybe 6’ under water and if you can dive down, there is tons to see. I did have a scary moment - the anchor had not set before they sent some of us in the water and the boat was driving badly and with the occasional swell I was being pushed toward the boat. I was 5’ from the back screaming cut the motor before he finally did - I did not have my mask and snorkel on and could not use my arms effectively to swim. They said they didn’t provide fins and not to worry about ours - so again not prepared. That won’t happen again on my end!

 

Thursday was St. Lucia where we had an

0830 am tour with Spencer's Land Sea - probably the best bang for your buck with nice happy and energetic guides helping to ensure a good time. A large amount of the tour is spent on the speed boat with some land time to see the volcano and waterfall. If you have a bad back this is not for you as the boat ride is a bit rough. Sugar beach is lovely and they got us there just before the massive crowd so we actually got the last available chairs. The food was home cooked and delicious with chicken, root veggies, rice and peas, noodle salad and platains. The snorkel area here is roped off and you can see well up near the rocks. It is long and narrow along the shore so you have to be willing to swim the coast to see the variety.

 

St. Kitts was our Friday stop and we use My Island Tours. Javin (with Peaches the Monkey) was early and we were the only people on his tour so we ended up alone in a 4 bench seat open air bus. It was nice to have the open air but harder to hear him as he spoke about the island. He gave us some personal history at the old gin mill before taking us on a hike into the rain forest; I would not recommend this hike for anyone with back or knee issues as you scramble over rocks and at one point make a 200’ vertical climb. Next stop was the highlight - the black lava rocks. It was great to be able to climb down onto them and really be in the middle of it all. The tailgate picnic was tasty empanadas and some local pastries and juices. Next we went to the shipwreck snorkel but passed because 1) somehow I didn’t have a swim suit 2) it is a LONG swim to the site and 3) the water quality has been poor due to weather. We opted for extra time at the beach which is lovely - you can get a shaded chair for $5.

 

The final stop was St. Maarten where Eagle Tours cancelled our catamaran trip because no one else signed up. Instead we

took a cab (van) ride around island $100 for 4 people and ours for the day. Devastation on all parts of the island. The Orient beach facilities are destroyed - so no bathrooms, bars etc. The water is also not as calm as it appears the previousprotective reef was destroyed. Had a nice lunch on French side at Best of the Beach. Maho was crammed and all of the waterfront hotel/condo are destroyed there as well. Everyone that wasn’t at Maho was at Simpson Bay which does have restaurants and shopping open. As I suspected from a prior visits, this is just not my favorite port of call - it is a glorified beach day and when most of the beaches are no longer usable and the reefs destroyed. Personally, I would put this after Jamaica on my list of least favorite ports of call - I think I even prefer the Bahamas because of the variety of options.

 

So all in all, not the great snorkeling vacation we had planned. Mother Nature simply didn’t cooperate. But nice to see new places and see some different islands. I wish Carnival would offer this type of variety more.

 

Let me know if you have any questions - I don’t ipsave Fun Times but we had 4 comedians, a juggler, a hypnotist and a couple of playlist production/Hasbro/Clue type things. And the menu is the standard Carnival 7 day.

 

 

 

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We were on the cruise before you. 2/25 - 3/4. We liked Fascination because we enjoy the smaller ships. We cruise for the ports not the ship, all the bells and whistles are not important to us either. I thought the Fascination looked great, I noticed some new carpeting, new tile, our mattress and bedding were new and we thought the pool area looked bigger without the fake palms. We were on deck 7,in an ocean view, two doors from the atrium and steps from the elevator. The windows needing washing as usual.

We had anytime dining also. We thought the food good to very good and the service was exceptional. We had Ricardo, Sayselle and Cassandra. Room service was also spot on, hot food hot and cold food cold.

Now, MUSTER!!! What a disaster. One half hour waiting to enter the theatre without any explanation why the wait. Then, one half hour telling us (in two languages) how to put on our life jackets. We did not go outside. No mention of finding the correct life boat. Very little information. . A baby was crying and I told my husband maybe we should cry, maybe they will let us go. They really need to get their act together, just because some of crew is new that is no excuse for bungling an important part of the cruise.

We went to Megans Bay on St. Thomas. New Palm trees and sand. The beach bar and restaurant is up and running. The bathrooms and gift shops are functional.

Poor St. Maarten. Orient Beach is a disaster. They had a porta-potty and a make shift Tiki-bar. All the palms gone. So sad to see the destruction across the island. We took an island tour for $20 a person. The driver was very informative. I thought maybe Maho looked so crowded because the beach had eroded and was smaller? All I know, it looked shoulder to shoulder. Did you see all the half sunken boats in the harbor?

I did not want to hijack your post, I agree with your review. Glad you had a good time even though Mother Nature did not cooperate. This is our favorite itinerary and we hope to repeat it again soon.

Good reading your review - thanks for taking time to share. Mixed thoughts hearing of some of the things you ran in to. With the recovery going on there, you have served us well as a Pathfinder, as it most likely should continue with improvements as time passes. Your positive attitude a good example to follow.

Thanks for your review... Sad news about St Martin...but not unexpected. Used to be one of our favorite stops.....

Wow. You hear about the destruction but until you actually hear it first hand from someone who has seen it you really don't get it. All the palm trees and buildings gone. Very sad.

Thinking of booking this itinerary in 2020 for my bday, since we haven't been to most of the ports. St kits, Barbados. Etc.

Thanks so much for the information.We are sailing on Sunday and haven't been to most of these islands so looking forward to them, even though they are still recovering. You gave some excellent points that will help us in deciding what to do at each. I was really looking forward to lots of snorkeling and plan to bring my gear but I wont get my hopes up too high in case visibility is still not great. Appreciate you sharing!!

Thanks for your review! Will be on this trip May 6. Glad to see you made the best of it!

Thank you for your report. I was flying out of SXM after a 9 day holiday when Irma started to form, and I cannot look at photos of the devastation without reminding myself that I was one of the last to see it before the hurricane hit. I booked my Fascination cruise for this December with that in mind, because I really want to visit SXM, my all time favorite Caribbean island, and see what was destroyed, and how the locals have rebuilt. Christmas will be nearly 16 months after the storm came through, so I'm hoping the island is in better shape, but I am prepared to still try and see as much of the island as I can in a single day, regardless of the condition.

Thank you for your description of what you did in St.Lucia, I am trying to find a good tour for my day there as well. I will definitely look into that.

Amazing report, I'm sorry your trip didn't turn out as planned, but I'm glad you enjoyed it still.