Just back from Bahamas on Fantasy, review!!

[95turbogirl]

Well we had a good week with friends and family and didn't get blown away by the hurricanes, but if this had been my first cruise it might have been the last.

In fact I don't know that I will be able to convince my family to try another one in the future. Thank god it was my fourth cruise so I know better.

 

Majority of the staff I encountered on the Fantasy was mildly friendly and some just plain unfriendly. Including 1 girl in Camp Carnival where my daughter enjoys so much on our cruises. The entertainment wasn't very good. And the food was a gigantic disappointment, I found myself preferring to eat on the Lido deck over the dining room for the 1st time ever. All of the entertainment was just a mimic of what we have experienced on other ships just less entertaining. (Does Carnival not know how to come up with a new routine? The hairy chest competition and the Newlywed game? I could recite this from memory now and this was just my fourth cruise!)

 

We did have a wonderful room steward who was always friendly and excellent! I also enjoyed a wonderful massage in Spa Carnival by Merly who told me to bring my daughter along! And let her play with all her lotions laughing the whole time!

 

We are sailing on the Freedom next year and I pray this was just a blip in our Crusing lives!

[ANGSWIN]

Well, that is just a shame! I seriously hope it was just an "off" week for them, because there have been some really fantastic reviews coming off the ship for the past couple of months. We are due to sail on 12/17. I have read here on CC that the Fantasy will have just come off a 2 week dry dock by then. Maybe the crew will be a little more rested and cheerful????

[okwriter]

Agree that many recent reviews have been excellent, so maybe this was an isolated experience. As for entertainment,many newbies have never seen the shows, contests, etc., so it is brand new for them! But those who cruise frequently do seem to tire of it...

 

OP, let us know how the Freedom is when you return!

[Maverick1795]

My family and I are on the Fantasy leaving on Wednesday. How was check-in? What were the shows? Is it still Ticket to Ride? How were Freeport and Nassau? Sorry for the questions. We are all excited and just had a couple of things on my mind that you could probably answer. Do you have any pics?

[RogBus101]

Well, that is just a shame! I seriously hope it was just an "off" week for them, because there have been some really fantastic reviews coming off the ship for the past couple of months. We are due to sail on 12/17. I have read here on CC that the Fantasy will have just come off a 2 week dry dock by then. Maybe the crew will be a little more rested and cheerful????

Hey Cruising Buddy,we are on the same sailing! I guess I missed it but where did you find out about the dry dock And what upgrades are they doing to her?

Thanks RogBus101 & Wife.

[chapps]

Hey Cruising Buddy,we are on the same sailing! I guess I missed it but where did you find out about the dry dock And what upgrades are they doing to her?

Thanks RogBus101 & Wife.

 

i read on one of the threads that it'll be in dry dock for a couple of weeks. nothing too extensive; just a freshening up. it was supposed to be in november time-frame if i remember correctly. :)

[gaylensgigi]

We were on this sail as well.There were a few dissapointments(The parking lot you sit in before boarding).They have made a change to the pumpkin soup,if you were a fan before,you wont be happy.

BUT,for the most part,we had an excellent time.Saw a lot of familiar faces from previous cruises.Didnt do the shows or the hairy chest thing, we were on Serenity,and that was great,

If you are a Karaoke person,you MUST see Jays show.We usually arent,but that guy is brilliant and we stayed there just to watch him.

Tom,in the piano bar is very good,wide assortment of songs to choose.

Great spa specials on port days.

I had a blast,it may have been the company I was with blinded me to any other imperfections, but I will definately be sailing the Fantasy again.

And, Risa,if you are out ther, thank you, yes,that was exactly what I was looking for:)

Happy cruising to all

[RogBus101]

i read on one of the threads that it'll be in dry dock for a couple of weeks. nothing too extensive; just a freshening up. it was supposed to be in november time-frame if i remember correctly. :)

Hey! Come to think of it you're on our Sailing too! This is sooo cool they are shining her up just for us. my Wife did some checking and she thinks we might the first sailing after the dry dock. This is sweet!

RogBus101 & Wife.

[Grandma58]

My family and I are on the Fantasy leaving on Wednesday. How was check-in? What were the shows? Is it still Ticket to Ride? How were Freeport and Nassau? Sorry for the questions. We are all excited and just had a couple of things on my mind that you could probably answer. Do you have any pics?

 

Boarding is a little rough around the edges. Don't go down until around 1100 and then it went fast as after that. Ticket to Ride is the show. We took a tour on Nassau with a private company that was great. Not able to post pics. I'll try to look up the name of the company on Nassau.

[Grandma58]

We were on this sail as well.There were a few dissapointments(The parking lot you sit in before boarding).They have made a change to the pumpkin soup,if you were a fan before,you wont be happy.

BUT,for the most part,we had an excellent time.Saw a lot of familiar faces from previous cruises.Didnt do the shows or the hairy chest thing, we were on Serenity,and that was great,

If you are a Karaoke person,you MUST see Jays show.We usually arent,but that guy is brilliant and we stayed there just to watch him.

Tom,in the piano bar is very good,wide assortment of songs to choose.

Great spa specials on port days.

I had a blast,it may have been the company I was with blinded me to any other imperfections, but I will definately be sailing the Fantasy again.

And, Risa,if you are out ther, thank you, yes,that was exactly what I was looking for:)

Happy cruising to all

We did have a most awesome cruise.;)

[gaylensgigi]

My family and I are on the Fantasy leaving on Wednesday. How was check-in? What were the shows? Is it still Ticket to Ride? How were Freeport and Nassau? Sorry for the questions. We are all excited and just had a couple of things on my mind that you could probably answer. Do you have any pics?

They still have Ticket to ride,my friends who saw it said it was great.If you miss it, the Philipino Band, Music Images(?) do an all Beatles set afterwards in the Cats Lounge.They are also a dont miss.We took a private tour in Nassau,went to Ardastra Gardens,very cool.Also went to a dockside somewhere,had conch fresh cracked and prepared with veggies we picked up at a roadside stand.Stayed on the ship in Freeport.You will have fun,if that is what you go to do:D

[gaylensgigi]

We did have a most awesome cruise.;)

Yes, we did...you sure rocked those flamingo slippers:D

[Grandma58]

Boarding is a little rough around the edges. Don't go down until around 1100 and then it went fast as after that. Ticket to Ride is the show. We took a tour on Nassau with a private company that was great. Not able to post pics. I'll try to look up the name of the company (Island Marketing) on Nassau.

 

Look on the cruise critic members for the 9/17 Fantasy cruise. We had a thread for each port with ideas. There would be more info in an early post.

[natesmom14]

Hi there! I think it is all in who has already sailed where as to what your opinion is. I can see if you have been through the same routine a few times or have had a different/better experience on another cruise line where this may pale in comparison- but for us, it was perfect!

 

This was my family's first cruise- and we cruised with my brother and his wife who were on their 4th cruise. All told, we had 7 kids with us- ages 13 down to age 2.5.

 

We had a blast! Granted, seas were a little rough and my nephew (who gets carsick anyway) spent most of one day throwing up- his parents were unprepared as he had never had problems cruising before and they had never experienced rough waves. I had never cruised before and our family took the Bonine on the drive to Charleston as I didn't know how we'd do (THANK GOODNESS!!!!)! We tried to give him some of our Bonine as he started getting sick, but at that point it was too late and he just had to make it through until the waves settled. By dinner that night, he was fine and ate like a horse. By the 2nd full day, only my one son and I continued to take it- everyone else in my family was fine. The two of us woke up a couple of times kind of queasy but never got sick. The gave it to my nephew the rest of the trip and my sister-in-law actually took it herself as they even got a little rough for her.

 

We had any time seating so we didn't have same waiter each night. There was one who wasn't overly friendly, but every time there was any type of "issue" (we were fine, but at one point he thought we had waited on dessert menus too long), he was super apologetic. We were always seated immediately- even with 11 people in our party some nights. We all loved the food- both on Lido and in dining room. However, we only ate in dining room at night- always at buffet for breakfast and lunch. Yes, the eggs were the traditional Golden Corral type powdered scrambled eggs, but everything else seemed fresh and tasted great. My 10 year old son loved having a custom omelet made to order every morning!

 

My husband- who does NOT like to try new things and has always been content just laying on the beach in Daytona- said this was his favorite vacation EVER. Coming from him and how nervous he was to try something new- that is HUGE. He is ready to plan another one!

 

My poor 13 year old only had a few kids with him in his Circle C club (we are on Fall break in our county in Georgia- so he did run in to a classmate on ship, but she was rarely in camp, if at all, he never commented one way or the other after initially seeing her on board)- he met up with a couple of boys and hung out with them during camp time, but he still had a great time. My younger two had a blast at camp!

 

Overall, we had fun at the few shows we did attend- but, again, they were new to us. Honestly, we spent much of the time relaxing and spending time together... We didn't even spend many hours at port- even though Bahamas and Key West were completely new to us- we just enjoyed taking it easy on the ship after shopping for just a couple of hours in each port! We did try the beach at Nassau and the waves were ROUGH. My daughter got the braids done on the beach and I swear she still has some Nassau sand stuck in her braids no matter how many times we've tried to wash it out!

 

We were satisfied with service, food, shows, etc. Getting on and off ship was a breeze for us... everything (except the seas occasionally!!!) was very smooth. As a first experience, this was fabulous.

 

The ONLY thing I could "complain" about was how early they shut everything down the night before we came back in to Charleston. They were closing slides and pools WAY early on Thursday night and I felt like they were ready to boot us off the ship right then. Had we wanted to take our kids for one last slide or dip in the pool before getting our luggage ready (it didn't have to be out until between 8PM and Midnight!), we couldn't. Deck chairs by the slides and slides were closing at 6PM. We paid for a 6 day cruise and we should have been able to use those things up through the end of our last night- in my opinion.

 

From my brother and his wife's point of view- as previous cruisers and return guests on Carnival- though not on this ship- they had a great time also! They did say that this wasn't their favorite ship they had cruised on, but overall had a very good time and enjoyed the shows with us and really enjoyed the food...I will say I bet they are prepared with the Bonine from now on- it's not worth it to take a chance! Even with as beautiful as the weather was, those waves were rough. My husband LOVED it- said he liked actually feeling like we were on a boat and not a floating hotel that had no movement. I actually enjoyed the movement for the most part as well....

 

Happy Cruising for those preparing to go! I am already thinking ahead to our next one!

 

Amy

[chasinraynbowz]

The Fantasy is my favorite ship. I love her size. She is older and doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but for us... thats ok! We are trying the Elation in a couple of months and expect to be just as happy.

 

Op, sorry your cruise was not what you had hoped it would be.

[ANGSWIN]

Hey! Come to think of it you're on our Sailing too! This is sooo cool they are shining her up just for us. my Wife did some checking and she thinks we might the first sailing after the dry dock. This is sweet!

RogBus101 & Wife.

 

I believe the 12/11 sailing will be the first, but we will be the next!

[RogBus101]

I believe the 12/11 sailing will be the first, but we will be the next!

Still Very Very Sweet.

[Maverick1795]

We were on this sail as well.There were a few dissapointments(The parking lot you sit in before boarding).They have made a change to the pumpkin soup,if you were a fan before,you wont be happy.

BUT,for the most part,we had an excellent time.Saw a lot of familiar faces from previous cruises.Didnt do the shows or the hairy chest thing, we were on Serenity,and that was great,

If you are a Karaoke person,you MUST see Jays show.We usually arent,but that guy is brilliant and we stayed there just to watch him.

Tom,in the piano bar is very good,wide assortment of songs to choose.

Great spa specials on port days.

I had a blast,it may have been the company I was with blinded me to any other imperfections, but I will definately be sailing the Fantasy again.

And, Risa,if you are out ther, thank you, yes,that was exactly what I was looking for:)

Happy cruising to all

 

I think that we will most def. enjoy ourselves. Nice to see a fellow Myrtle Beach'ian on the boards with us! Living on the waterway, it would be nice if a ship could just pull up to my backdoor and pick me up!

[jordanaire]

Thanks for the review! We're flying down to Charleston early Saturday, as we will be sailing out of there aboard the Fantasy on Monday. This will be the first time we've sailed aboard a particular Carnival ship more than once! The Fantasy was the first cruise ship we ever sailed on!

 

Sorry to hear that they've changed the recipe for the pumpkin soup. That's one of my favorite dishes!

 

Looking forward to hearing the band play the Beatles medley. We love watching these bands perform on the ships. We've never been disappointed!

 

:cool:Bill