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

[TrqoisWtrs]

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

 

 

I want one of Phil's necklaces. :D Seriously, where can I get one? :)

[rtw68]

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

 

You will LOVE IT! We did the cheaper dolphin encounter and think we got more bang for the buck. Sure, you get to swim with the dolphins on the more expensive one, but the water was COLD!! We were in the water for about 3-4 minutes and that was enough for me.

[rtw68]

I want one of Phil's necklaces. :D Seriously, where can I get one? :)

 

We asked him, they aren't "for sale" anywhere, that he could tell us.

 

The only way someone got his was to blow his Conch (shell). :D

[rtw68]

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

 

EMBARKATION

No complaints, we got there early. Got on quick! Rooms were ready when they said they would be ready. Only issue is we left port late, after 6:00PM.

 

CABIN

Fantastic! It was huge and the balcony was great. The bathoom had a step-up which is something you had to get used to. Tons of storage and closet space. Bed was very comfortable and we slept great every night. Don’t know if I can justify the cost of the Grand Suite moving forward, but I will try to book a balcony room whenever we can.

 

CROWDS

The only time the ship felt crowded was during the last sea day. We ate lunch a litte close to noon and everyone was jammed inside, hard to find a seat. In general if you avoid the peak times, it never felt crowded.

 

FOOD

Never had a bad meal. Both in the MDR and the Lido/Windows on the Sea. Very nice variety for DW for healthier foods and deserts. Only thing we noticed was they would shut down the salad bar and other areas between 30-45 minutes before they were supposed to close for lunch. Room service was generally good, we only had one snafu where we got someone else’s items.

 

The Ice Tea in the Lido/Windows on the Sea isn’t very good as others have mentioned. I made Arnold Palmer’s the whole time (a little ice tea/a lot of lemonade) and it was great!

 

ENTERTAINMENT

Bands were good, when we saw them. We saw the main show and it was fine. The Cowboy comedian was hilarious, and the Chinese acrobat/comedian was pretty good. We didn’t go on the ship for the entertainment, because we spent time doing other things, but it was good overall.

 

DRINK SERVICE

This is the only area that we had issues with. It seemed like there was a continuous “train” of servers constantly asking if you wanted something. We would have a new drink in our hands and they wanted us to get the next one.

 

A simple “no thanks” or “we’re good” would send them on their way. Not a major distraction or anything that ruined our fun. I think a less pushy approach would be better.

 

We purchased some rum through the Bon Voyage service, brought our allowed quantities of diet coke, and didn’t have a huge bar bill. We enjoyed ourselves, but overall it wasn’t horribly expensive.

 

WATCH SALE

The last sea day they have a $20.00 deal on the watch with two other items. They normally cost $89.00. It’s a mad-house when they go on sale.

Make sure you examine them. We overheard others saying that some of the watches were not working right, or the minute hands would jiggle/etc.

We didn’t personally buy them, we spent money on other stuff.

 

THE FANTASY ITSELF

For it being our first cruise, having no frame of reference, we loved the ship. You could feel the motion of the ship the entire time. Not necessarily rocking, but motion being caused by the props at higher speeds.

 

Nothing bad, but just different than what I expected. We were midship so the motion of any waves was minimized. When we were eating in the aft or watching a show in the Universe lounge in the forward part of the ship, you definitely felt the waves.

 

Everyone was very friendly and always said good morning, have a great day, etc.

 

We picked the Fantasy because of it going from Charleston initially. The more we read the various reviews of the ship; we knew we made a good choice.

 

That definitely proved it and we had a great time!

[All4fun&fun4all]

What a wonderful review with spectacular pictures! I cant wait to sail on her again! The Pub Crawl looked like a blast. Maybe next time for us!

[rtw68]

What a wonderful review with spectacular pictures! I cant wait to sail on her again! The Pub Crawl looked like a blast. Maybe next time for us!

 

Thanks!! :D

 

Your Fantasy review has always been my favorite one! We looked at it over and over again before we went.

[Meyer2]

Great review! Also enjoyed the pictures! Thanks for sharing.

[jobell]

Loved your review! We sail in 5 days on her and are so excited!

 

Thank you for such detailed information...it's very helpful.

[scarolinagrl23]

Thanks so much for the review and pics. My hubby and I are going out of Charleston in May, just about the same Itinerary minus Key West and I was excited to see the pics of the ship. This will also be our anniversary cruise so hope that it is as good as yours was!:D

[modernscarlett]

Thank you so much for the review. We are also considering the Dolphin Encounter, so your review was very helpful!

[imola]

We were on the same sailing. Great review. Glad you had a good time. We plan to head back for another sailing since we live close. Can you tell me where the Hampton Inn is located in Charleston as nothing came up under West Ashley. Thanks

[rtw68]

Here is their address:

Hampton Inn

678 Citadel Haven Drive

Charleston, SC 29414

Phone: 843-573-1200

 

Its about 15-20 minutes from downtown Charleston.

[mom2dea]

Do you mind posting the Funtimes ? Also do you remeber about what the price of the hotel was ? And did you feel safe there ?

[rtw68]

I do have them. I will have to get them scanned and figure out where to post them :-)

 

The hotel was great, no troubles at all. Very nice and we did feel very safe. There is a japanese steak house right next door that we went to one night. Get there early though!

 

We had a suite so it was around $500 for a three night stay. More than we would spend normally!

[fun!melis]

We will be in a GS for june 2012.....

 

What room did you have again?

 

Pics of the room was great..have any more

[rtw68]

We were in room U102.

 

Let me check and see if I have any more pics of the room. I don't believe I do, unfortunately.

[cruiser fanatic]

Any Funtimes yet?

[cruiseclues]

Great you had an awesome anniversary...really liked your photo review...you even had a dancing pole in your Grand Suite. :):):):)