Carnival Fantasy - Awesome Anniversary Cruise – 01/01/11 – 01/07/11

[rtw68]

DAY THREE – FREEPORT, BAHAMAS

 

We awoke in time to watch the ship come into port. They had the Pilot boat bring the harbor pilot out, and I got video of that. I had purchased a Kodak HD video camera, and that thing did a very nice job of recording both pictures and videos.

 

Here is the link to the video:

 

I had read about that on a couple reviews, it was cool that we could see it from our balcony!

 

Freeport is not much to look at, because it’s a working shipping port. It was neat watching them load the containers on the cargo ship that was in port. I don’t know how they keep track of what they are loading and unloading.

 

 

We had the Dolphin Experience excursion purchased through Carnival/Unexso. They also have a Dolphin swim but to be honest, we wouldn’t have traded the two. It was a highlight of our cruise being that close to the dolphins.

 

Dolphin statue at the Unexso facility:

 

 

We took a boat ride over to the dolphin area

 

 

 

We got to be very close to the dolphin and pet it. He really liked DW and cuddled up close to her. I was afraid she would want to take him home! The water was pretty cold that day.

 

[rtw68]

 

 

We also got to hold the birds that they had around the area

 

 

 

Geez, my school bus driver never drove with the door open, is that safe? :rolleyes:

 

[rtw68]

Getting ready to leave Freeport, not quite “Pier Runners” but close!

 

 

So long Freeport:

 

 

We ate in Windows on the Sea. Can’t recall what we ate, but we remember it was good! Never had a bad meal the whole week.

 

Here was our towel animal for the evening:

 

 

Here’s the gang so far (unfortunately, they took the one from the first night):

 

 

The week is going fast! Only one port and a sea day left until they kick us off.

[islandcruisersnc]

Great Review, thanks! Do you remember if they had Creme Brulee for dessert in the MDR? I hope so!!:D:D

[rtw68]

Great Review, thanks! Do you remember if they had Creme Brulee for dessert in the MDR? I hope so!!:D:D

 

I do remember seeing it on the menu, I just never ordered it. :D

[islandcruisersnc]

Thank you! Am looking forward to the rest of your review!!:D

[luvofthecruise]

Don't stop! I've been looking for new Fantasy reviews with lots of pictures! Thank you:D

[albycruisin]

I hate to hijack a thread but I couldn't find a way to pm crusiecrazyk. Could you give more information around the Jeep tour in Freeport. My dh and I are sailing in March for our 10 yr anniversary (coincidence eh?) and are looking at that excursion.

 

Also to OP;

 

I see in January it looked warm enough for shorts and to swim and all. How hot would you say it got there?

[Shery]

Great job! Excellent photos.

 

The Fantasy looks just as good today as the last time I sailed on her two or three years ago!

 

:)

It actually looks better :). It was refurbished at the end of '08. We were on the last cruise before dry dock in 08....the cruise that Hurricane Gustav cut short. We went back on her again in Feb. 09 and felt like we were on a different ship. I really does look amazing. I was sad that they took the Fantasy from New Orleans. We will be going on the Triumph in Feb. I know it is a bit bigger, but it won't be as nice as the Fantasy. I will miss the new Evolutions of fun water park that was added to the Fantasy :confused:....I think that only the Fantasy class ships got that.

[rtw68]

I hate to hijack a thread but I couldn't find a way to pm crusiecrazyk. Could you give more information around the Jeep tour in Freeport. My dh and I are sailing in March for our 10 yr anniversary (coincidence eh?) and are looking at that excursion.

 

Also to OP;

 

I see in January it looked warm enough for shorts and to swim and all. How hot would you say it got there?

 

It was in the mid-70's for all three ports. It was actually warm enough in port for Nassau that we got some nice sunshine and actually got in the Fantasy's pool for a bit. The water was still on the cold side but we got used to it!

[stacyinohio]

This is great so far! Thanks for sharing, can't wait to see the rest of the pics and hear about the remainder of your trip. We are doing this same trip in three weeks on the Fantasy.

[Buckeyes1998]

Enjoying your review....looking forward to reading the rest of it!! :)

[rtw68]

DAY FOUR – KEY WEST

 

We awoke early enough to watch Fantasy enter the port. The boat docked at the Navy Pier so we weren’t sure how they were going to get us to down-town initially, but then I started seeing the Conch Trains labeled “Shuttle” and I knew we were going to be in good shape.

 

Our “Pub Crawl” excursion wasn’t until 1:00PM, so we hopped on the shuttle bus to down-town Key West.

 

View of Fantasy & Fascination from our shuttle:

 

 

Some pics of Key West:

 

 

 

 

 

We got back to the ship in time to drop off the stuff we bought, and went back down to the pier to meet up for our excursion.

[rtw68]

 

Phil was our Pub Crawl excursion tour guide. They take you to five bars and you get a free drink at each bar. They mix up which bars you go to. Turns out Phil owns a bar in Key West, and they switch off days that they lead the excursion.

 

 

Our first stop was the Tree Bar.

 

 

The bartender made a really good drink, I’ll be darned if I can remember the name.

 

 

He was a real character!

 

 

Earnest Hemingway is really big in Key West. The tree had a brass plate that said he did a certain thing on the tree (sorry it’s real legible). I laughed for a while at that one!

 

[rtw68]

Oh yeah, here is Phil. He made the excursion a blast!

 

 

The next bar was the “Flying Monkeys Saloon.” This bar had really good frozen drinks, Phil recommended the Flying Monkey. It was a combination of two frozen drinks, really good!

 

 

 

On to our next bar!

 

 

We walked for a bit to get to the next one. Passed some really nice older homes.

 

 

[rtw68]

Next one was the Schooner Wharf Bar. Pretty cool outdoor pub with a guy singing.

 

 

 

They had a rum punch drink that was “ok” Here was the wharf:

 

 

Phil had a Conch blowing contest to win some beads.

 

 

DW got an “A” for effort, but another lady one!

 

 

Next stop was the “Lazy Gecko.” We paid the $1.00 upcharge for a better frozen drink.

 

[rtw68]

Last stop was Rick’s Bar.

 

 

 

 

Phil and DW:

 

 

Hey, there’s our ship:

 

 

 

One thing we noticed is that a lot of the ship’s crew went into Key West also. It was funny seeing them in their street clothes. They must go shopping for necessities as we saw many of them bringing back luggage, and bags from Walmart, Sears, CVS, etc.

[rtw68]

Well, we didn’t end up being pier runners that day. We were on the “right” side of the ship this time as we were facing the port.

 

Watched the crew finish filling Fantasy up with water and roll up the hoses before leaving.

 

 

It’s amazing how people push the time SO close to leaving port!

 

 

Hey, we’re leaving!

 

 

 

 

Goodbye Key West, we had fun!

 

[rtw68]

We were pretty lazy the rest of the night. We ate in Windows on the Sea and relaxed as we headed back to Charleston.

 

Here was our towel animal for the night:

 

 

Here was our group:

 

 

DW and our room steward Alexander. He was GREAT!

 

 

Lido looks pretty deserted:

 

 

Forward cam on the TV:

 

 

Hard to believe one more day and they will throw us off! GEEZ!

[rtw68]

DAY FIVE – FINAL DAY AT SEA

 

Well here it is. The final day at sea. We were hoping to have some more time on the Lido deck, but unfortunately, the weather was not going to cooperate. Seas were very rough and it was very windy. Nice cold front was coming in.

 

 

 

 

I walked around and took some more pictures:

 

 

 

This area was JAMMED PACKED when we left Freeport:

 

[lovermonkey]

Thanks for posting. We are going to the same places in April. We are going to the same dolphin encounters as you.

[rtw68]

There is always something being cleaned and painted on the ship and it showed too! For a ship of its age, it was very nice, inside and out. I will always question how someone can think the Fantasy is not a very nice ship.

 

 

Some more random pics:

 

 

 

 

 

[albycruisin]

Great trip report so far, love all the photos. Can you tell us if there is something that you wish you had packed that you didn't and things that you packed that you couldn't do without?

[rtw68]

DAY SIX – DISEMBARKATION

 

We debated quite a bit to do self-assist, or put our luggage out the night before. We finally decided to put our luggage out as we had Zone 1 on our tags.

 

Glad we did! We were up early in the morning, had some breakfast, and then waited in our cabin for all the self assist folks to get called off.

 

Zone 1 got called around 8:30am and headed to the elevators. The whole time they said the stairs would be closed off and everyone would have to use the elevators.

 

Well, we waited 10 minutes for an elevator and saw others going down the steps, so we decided to do that.

 

Boy am I glad we did! I felt bad for a couple of the handicapped people that HAD to wait for an elevator.

 

We walked down to deck 3, heard the final BONG of our sign-and-sail cards and we were off the ship.

In the ship terminal, we found our luggage and headed for customs. After a couple questions, we were outside the terminal.

 

We really didn’t know what time we were going to get off the ship, so the nice folks at the Hampton said to just call them, and they would have the shuttle pick us up.

 

Within a half hour we were off the ship, in our car, and driving away from Charleston.

[rtw68]

Great trip report so far, love all the photos. Can you tell us if there is something that you wish you had packed that you didn't and things that you packed that you couldn't do without?

 

That is a very good question.

 

Well, the problem is we WAY overpacked! :D The main problem we had was the weather and time of year. We weren't sure how much we would need based on the cooler/warmer weather. On our trip down to Charleston, we packed jeans/sweatshirts and didn't take any of that with us on the ship.

 

DW took too many pairs of shoes, she only wore a couple pair. We packed for two elegant nights but only went to one. I packed too many polo shirts and shorts. Brought two swim trunks but only used one.

 

We really didn't think that we forgot or needed anything else. If the weather was warmer at night, I would have loved to have a bungee to keep the door open to hear the ocean.

 

Hope that helps!