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Fantasy cruise review

amillard222

By amillard222,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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amillard222

amillard222

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This is my first time cruising and doing a review so I hope this is helpful as well as fun...so be nice:D

Well, even though I thought our cruise would never get here it is already over:(. I could not have more wonderful things to say about the Carnival Fantasy. A little back ground info first. Hubby is active duty Army and we were supposed to go on this cruise in September, I had the cruise booked, our excursions purchased, drink tickets bought and we were packed. Then DH comes home from work to tell me that he has to fly out of state to go to school in KY the day before our cruise is supposed to sail. Needless to say we were very upset. We were under 14 days so if we canceled we would lose all of our money and oddly enough this is not a situation that travel insurance covers. I would just like to take a moment to give Carnival a woot woot, I called and the first lady I talked to was not very informed and was also kinda rude, I was told there was nothing she could do. However the second time I called, the lady I talked to was beyond great. Carnival ended up following their rules by the book, we had to forfeit our deposit, but they were nice enough to give us a 400 dollar credit so we were not out any money. Carnival has definitely found a life long customer because they were so great with us before we even got on the boat. DH(33) and I(30) do not have so there will not be any kind of info about any kid activities in this review.

Ok onto the fun part. We sailed on Oct. 20 out of Charleston, SC. We chose not to go down ahead of time because we were not afraid of the car breaking down or missing the boat or any other frightening thing you have read about on these boards. We woke up early (3am) on the day we sailed and drove down to Charleston. We live up by Richmond, Va so it took us about 7 hours to drive down. Not to bad even after stopping for breakfast we still made it to the pier at about 10:45am. I was already missing my pups. We had put them in doggy daycare for the duration of our cruise. When we got to the pier there was very little traffic and only about 40 cars waiting. I know that seems like a lot but there were 2 lines so there were only about 20 cars in front of ours. Our passports were checked along with our boarding pass and then we got to set and wait in line for about 15-20 min. until the baggage people got ready to start taking our bags. The time went by so quickly because we could see the boat from where we were waiting and we were getting so excited. When the cars finally started moving it took about 10 min. to pay for parking ($75) drop off our luggage and park. After parking in a really big garage we walked to where the shuttle was waiting got on the bus and rode it for the 2 min. it took to get to the boat. A quick trip thru security and customs and then on to the embarkation picture. Less than 30 min. after getting to the pier we were on the boat. That went a lot more smoothly than I had thought.

Ok hubby will be home for lunch shortly so I gotta get off here and get movin..lol, will write more after he goes back to work and will also add pics as soon as I can figure out how.

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mamajules

mamajules

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Love the pictures! Keep the review coming, great so far. We're sailing on the Fantasy New Year's Day - can't wait! This will be my 6th Carnival cruise, not a bad one yet. Not been on a Fantasy class ship yet, and first time out of Charleston, so looking forward to new experience.

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of cruising, glad you enjoyed yourself. I'm sure it won't be your last!

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Bunkie103

Bunkie103

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Let me just add to the OP's post that the garage you park in has REALLY nice big spaces for the cars. I was a little concerned because DH has a brand new car with less than 1000 miles and I had images of people opening their doors in some of those narrow parking spaces and denting his new car. (It's been a long while since we had a NEW car.) So we were pleasantly surprised to see how large the spaces were.

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amillard222

amillard222

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Ok now where was I? Oh yes, just got on the boat...lol. We used cash for our sail and sign card so we had to go up to deck 7 to the guest services. And then on up to the Lido deck for lunch. Yummy. For those of you who will be first timers like me, when you get to the buffet the left side will be food like chicken strips, hamburgers and frys and the right side is the Mongolian grill. Then if you go thru the sliding glass doors all the way back there is a salad bar, another hot bar and a bar with cakes and lots of sweets. We did not find the salad bar for a couple of days because we thought that the back area was a “sit down” type of place where you are seated with a waiter. After lunch it is time to do some walking to check out our new home for the next 5 days.

I am hoping these photos work and do not turn out to be huge.

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We had a dolphin show before our sail away.

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After walking around for a while they finally anounced that we could go to our rooms. Yay I have been waiting for so long to finally be able to see what every one was talking about. I am nervous that it will be to small, that we will not have enough room for all the extra stuff I brought. Well, the rooms are small but not as small as I thought. Hubby is 6'4" and about 250lbs and I am a little chunky dunker and we fit in the room and bed with lots of space to spare. I never felt that we were sqished together. By the end of the cruise even with all the extra stuff that we bought and all of the towel animals there was still lots of room. After checking out our room and hubby putting 2 of our 3 suit cases away(he is ocd with cleaning) we are still waiting on one suit cases and are ready to go check out the serinity area.

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Ok time for sail away, finally we get to watch the ship pull away from port. Just a note, the muster drill took forever and was really silly. Our station that we had to go to was "A" which was inside of the Universal lounge area. After going there and waiting for about 20 min. they talked about safty and then we all (about 200 people) had to leave and follow them up 2 decks to the life boats. Any way thank goodness that is over all together it took about 45 min. We were checking our watches, afraid we were going to miss the sail away. We made it up to the sports deck, after a quick stop to get a couple of DODs and waited until 4:30ish and the boat finally started pulling away.

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The adult area is where we spent most of our time relaxing. We enjoyed this area so much that we got up every morning at sea and were usually the first people at this area.

After spending about an hour or so laying out it is finally time to get ready for our first dinner. I am nervous because I have read so many horror stories about bad table mates and I am really hoping that we have some nice people. Me and rude people really dont mix. Any way it turns out that I have nothing to worry about, our table mates were some of the nicest people that we met on the entire vacation. We were sat at a table for 10 but only 8 people ever showed up for dinner.

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I have to give a big hello to Michelle and Dave, Karen and Doug and Ashley and Adam. We really had a lot in common with our table mates. Michelle and Dave, Karen and Doug and myself and hubby were all celebrating our Anniversary. And Adam is in the Army like my hubby and is deploying to Iraq this month, wow he is actually leaving tomorrow Nov. 3(best of luck and be safe Adam). I would love to sail with any of our table mates. They did not even blink when I took pics of my food:D

Our waiter Gustti was the nicest person ever. He knew our names and was always quick to get what ever we needed. He was also one of the funniest people that we met.

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amillard222

amillard222

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I got a couple of the pics in the wrong place but just stay with me I am learning:p

After sail away and walking around a little more it is time to go back to the room the get ready for dinner. Our 3rd suit case still is not out side our door at 6:00pm but when I walk in the room I understand why. We got called to the naughty room:D. There was a note slid under our door that tells us to come down to deck 3 to collect our stuff. I kinda know what they are gonna say when we get down there, we did not smuggle any thing on so....it must be my hair iron. Yup, we get down there and security actually met us as soon as we got off the elevator. Wow now I feel like a criminal. They lead us over to our bag and ask in a really serious voice "do you have a iron in your bag?" Yes I do, I have a hair iron in there. "No, a clothes iron" No sir i did not bring one of those. "may I look?" yes of course, please go ahead. So we unlock the bag and the proceed to look at everything in the bag, clothes, shampoo, shoes ect. and then they find my hair iron. He said what this? Uh its my hair iron...lol, he says " this is for hair?" um yes sir it is. Ok now I am wondering has he really never seen a hair straightner? Mine is not unusual or odd looking it actually looks like every other one I have ever seen. Finally he talks with a lady and then lets me keep my hair iron and lets us go. I would just like to say, I had no problem what so ever in letting these folks go thru my bags. I found the experiance funny and was actually glad to know that Carnival is serious about being safe. The security was never anything but polite and nice, as was I. However I do get the impression that if I had not locked my suitcase I would have been spending a week without my hair iron and then I probably would not have been so happy. We got our bag and went back to the room and now I have a free souviner from our trip. I will put our naughty room letter in a scrap book.

Dinner was wonderful, I loved having the late seating. It has been a really long day since we got up around 3am to drive down to the port and it is almost time for bed. The experiance with the boat rocking was not bad but is something I will never forget. I would be sitting down on the bed and all of the sudden it would feel like I was falling. It was not a bad feeling really just something completly differant than what I thought. I was really nervous about getting motion sick but it never happened, thank the heavens. One final note for day one, I love little bits of silly info. so I loved that the tv told how deep the ocean was. Tonight the ocean is 240 ft deep. I loved looking at the depth everyday, I am a very curious person and I thought I was neat and a little scary thinking about there being 240 feet of water under me. Time to sleep, it is our first sea day tomorrow and we gotta get up early to beat the chair hogs;):p

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amillard222

amillard222

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Really enjoying your review. Keep it coming!

Thanks girl, you know I could not have made it without your review. You were so much help and that is really the only reason that I am doing this. LOL when we got down to Charleston that morning I was looking at the cars to see if I could see you. I remember you saying you would be heading to work.....Charleston is a very beautiful city and the next time we sail I think we will spend a couple of days there.

Any of you folks that want to read an awsome review you need to check out all4fun&fun4all. Her review is wonderful and very helpful.

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amillard222

amillard222

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Awww what a wonderful sleep....but first things first. I ordered room service from the little card that you hang on your door at night. Let me say I did NOT do a good job at ordering. The first thing that I did wrong was I had room service delivered at 5:45am. I know I know you think I am crazy but normally hubby is already up done his PT. The second thing that I did wrong was to assume that the condiments they bring would be individual size. Now let me tell you what I ordered : )

2 boxes of cereal, 2 milks, 2 bagels 2 cream cheese, 2 strawberry jelly 4 cups of coffee 4 cream for coffee and 4 packets of splenda, 2 of the salmon to put on the bagels. Ok now I did not take a picture of this tray because when the man brought the 2 trays we looked kinda like this:eek:

Silly me had read that the coffee cups were very small and I had also read that the cream containers were tiny. Unless you like your coffee to look like milk 1 cream will be enough for all your coffee needs. 1 cream cheese and 1 jelly was more than hubby and I needed for the bagels and since we do not drink much milk we did not need but 1 milk for our cereal. I learned my lesson. After going back to sleep until 6:45 we got up put on bathing suits and went to eat breakfast on the Lido deck......yes we ate agian. I had told myself that I would not be one of those people that ate and ate and ate but........we ate 2 breakfasts almost every morning and sometimes ate 2 lunches.

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After second breakfast we went to the adult area to relax, lay out and enjoy our day. I have been wondering how hubby was going to do, he is not the kind of person that can be still. He always has to be up moving. He actually did really good this first day just relaxing. There was maybe one or two people out at the Serenity area when we got there and I have to say that the chair hogs must have over slept because no seats had been saved. Maybe hubby and I were up and out there when all of the smart people were still snoozing lol.

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After laying for a couple of hours we went and had lunch, walked around for a while and then yup you guessed it, we had lunch agian.:D

We went and got a DOD, but I forgot to take a picture of it until it was already gone. Oh well it was yummy, this one was called a yellow bird. I have to give a shout out to Larry, he was one of the bartenders on the Lido deck and from day 1 he remembered our names. He was very nice and very sweet. Larry also was very good at taking care of drunk people. He is an asset to Carnival, I had to laugh at all the drunk women hitting on Larry, and all he would tell them is "sorry I am gay" hahaha He had me and hubby laughing. After drinking our dod we went to lay out some more and then back to them room to relax in the cool air. The sun was way more intense than we had inticipated and as we are pretty pale we had to take breaks. We did not want to get burned to a crisp as we were just getting over pretty serious sunburns we got at Virginia beach. There were people out there who looked like lobsters. I was wondering how some of them were even able to walk around they were so burnt. For all of you who are new to cruising, there are people of all shapes and sizes out in their swim suits. Old and young, skinny and chubby(me). Honestly there were more people who were over weight than people who were skinny. Enjoy yourself and dont worry what others think.

After watching part of Prince of Persia we walked around a little more and then it was time to get ready for our formal night. Hubby wore black slacks a red long sleeve dress shirt and a tie(no jacket) I wore a nice dress that I bought just for this night. I got it at Dress barn on clearance, it was not really a "formal" dress, but just one I thougt was pretty. Some of the women wore dresses that were very very beautiful and very formal and some women wore dresses that did not look like anything but a swimsuit coverup with a pair of heels. I say that not to be judgemental but just to let you all know that people wore all kinds of clothes to the formal night. I know that this is a hot topic with some people but to be honest I would not have cared it my table mates had worn jeans. Hubby and I dressed up for ourselves, not for others. We had a blast getting our picture taken and this was the only one we bought. I will try to scan it and get it on after I go and have lunch. Any way dinner was wonderful, hubby and I had lobster and shrimp as did most of the other people at our table and a couple of the others order the lobster and shrimp and the prime rib.

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Chocolote melting cake is what hubby had for desert most nights. It was really yummy and really rich.

Ok time for me to go have lunch. I will try to get more on here later along with our formal picture.

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All4fun&fun4all

All4fun&fun4all

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Thanks girl, you know I could not have made it without your review. You were so much help and that is really the only reason that I am doing this. LOL when we got down to Charleston that morning I was looking at the cars to see if I could see you. I remember you saying you would be heading to work.....Charleston is a very beautiful city and the next time we sail I think we will spend a couple of days there.

Any of you folks that want to read an awsome review you need to check out all4fun&fun4all. Her review is wonderful and very helpful.

 

Thanks! Trust me...every time that ship is in port I wave at it the whole way across to Mt. Pleasant. LOL. I have a serious cruise addiction problem. :cool:

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chapps

chapps

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Thanks! Trust me...every time that ship is in port I wave at it the whole way across to Mt. Pleasant. LOL. I have a serious cruise addiction problem. :cool:

 

 

HAHAHA! "YOOOOHOOOO! FANTAAAAAAASY!":D i'd do the same, and i'm still a cruise virgin. ;)

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amillard222

amillard222

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Our formal picture, I could not figure out how to scan it so I took a picture of it.:o

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Ok on with our first sea day. At dinner the waiters sung to Phillip and I, all we could understand was Hoppy Versary, kiss kiss. Hoppy Versary, kiss kiss. They made us laugh. One of the other couples at the table had the same anniversary date (oct. 3) as Phillip and I which was pretty neat. After dinner we changed clothes and went up to the very top deck to walk around and enjoy the moon light and stars. Very romantic:D....time for bed, we have to get up early in the morning and explore nassau. Television says we are 77 miles away from Nassau and the ocean depth is at 2,970 ft.

one of our favorite things was watching the sunset every night

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