Carnival Fascination Review 11/24/12: Toddling through the Bahamas

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

This is my first review so I hope it turns out well. I'm going to try to include some pictures so please be patient while I figure it out. I think I know how to post them so we will see in a few minutes! I typed it up in Word earlier this evening and I've uploaded pics to Photobucket so I will post it all before I come back to answer any questions. I have a tendency to get sidetracked so that's why I'm posting it all first. I don't want to get lost between posts because I'm good at that! :D

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

We just returned from our cruise on the Fascination 11/24-11/29. It was me (27), DH (32) and DS (14mos). We booked this cruise back in February for just my DH and me as an anniversary/belated honeymoon cruise. We chose the ship and itinerary solely on the date and price. Our anniversary is 11/28 so it fell on the last sea day. We booked a port hole room for around $585 for two of us including taxes and fees. Our plan WAS to have both sides of the family help watch our DS so we could have some alone time and a relaxing getaway, but some things changed with one side of the family and the person we were counting on to watch our son during the day time moved, but we decided to go ahead and go on the cruise and take DS along.

We upgraded to an aft-view extended balcony for 3ppl back in August. I knew the room would be small and we would only have a shower in the bathroom, but the big balcony would definitely make day time and nap/bed time easy since we would have something to do. We were scared, nervous and reading reviews about cruising with a toddler every time we had some free time from work, school and nap/bed time rolled around. I know that every child is different and reviews should be taken with a grain of salt. Well I wish we wouldn't have read any reviews because most (not all) of them were negative and said they would never do it again. We had such a great time with our son. He was always smiling and having a good time.

About two weeks before the cruise, I checked the fare viewer and noticed that Grand Suites were only $10 more than we had paid for our aft-view so I texted DH while he was at work, we picked and room and I called Carnival. We paid $18.19 total for the upgrade because taxes and fees had increased a bit. This actually worked out great price wise because less than a week later we had a $100 price drop and then we were refunded $30 in taxes and fees on our S&S so it was like getting the GS for free and getting a partial refund on top of it!

The crew loved little man and would always stop us when we were walking around or come and find us just to say hi and bring him little gifts that they would make out of things from around the ship. He absolutely loved them too. We only had two bad moments during the whole 5 days. The 12 hour drive finally caught up to little man on the first sea day and he napped more than usual so we had to skip elegant night due to a little meltdown after nap #2, but it was nothing that 30 min in front of a mirror making faces at each other couldn't fix. We decided to hit the Lido buffet this night which was a big hit because they had eggplant parm which was DELICIOUS! The second mini meltdown was in the MDR on the last sea day. He took a nap early this day and was super tired when we went to dinner, but we thought we would try it anyway. He started to get grumpy after we got our appetizers because different crew members were coming by constantly to say their goodbyes and play with him one last time so he was overstimulated and tired. We asked for the entrées to go and headed back to the room to finish eating and relax. This worked out great because little man finally finished his dinner and part of mine so he was all smiles again. :cool:

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

We live just outside of Charleston, WV so Google Maps said it would take us 11 hours to get to Jacksonville. We figured we would have to stop a few times so it would take us about 12-12 ½ hours to get there. We decided to leave on Friday, the 23rd at 2:30am so little man would sleep through most of the drive. This worked out better than we had hoped. We took along a portable DVD player and enough Sesame Street DVDs to last the whole drive.

 

We didn’t have to make as many stops as we thought we would (about an hour and a half’s worth) and Google Maps was of course wrong so we arrived in Jacksonville around 1pm. Hotel check-in wasn’t until 3pm so we decided to go ahead and drive by the port and take a look at the $8 lot right outside so we could make a final decision on where to park the car the next morning. After seeing that lot and how they had the cars parked tight against each other, stacked 2-3 deep in a row and some were even outside of the fence right on the side of the road, we decided to pay the extra $30 and park at the port. It was well worth it and it was nice to be able to tip a porter to help take our bags to the car after the cruise and just load up and go. We didn’t have to load all of our bags and cram into a shuttle bus just to have to unload it at the lot before loading it into the car. We were on the road in 7 min after we walked out of the terminal.

 

I had bid on our hotel room and won it for $57 for the night. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Jacksonville Airport. I would NOT recommend this place to anyone. The only reason I decided to bid for the room was because I had noticed that all bidders who had chosen that location and bid around $55 were getting that hotel and based on the Trip Advisor reviews, it was rated the #1 hotel in the Jacksonville area :eek: (not including the downtown area). All I have to say is that I hope this isn’t considered the cleanest hotel in that area because it was nasty. We had to move rooms 3 times before we found one that didn’t have nasty stuff on the carpet, tables, bathroom floor or bed sheets. :eek:

 

The condition of the first room was like what I would expect if I was spending the night in one of the cheap extended stay places and the second room was the same, but happened to be a little cleaner looking until we noticed that there was makeup and other stains on the bed sheets so they obviously hadn’t been changed in a while. After this one, I spoke with the manager who went and did a room inspection on the room we ended up spending the night in. It still wasn’t the cleanest room, but it was much better than the other two and I had a non-refundable rate so we stuck with it. She sent us a free bottle of wine to make up for the other two rooms. :rolleyes:

 

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

I took almost all of the pictures with my iPhone and they are HUGE when I try to post them from Photobucket. Can anybody tell me how to scale it down? If not then I will post them as is.

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

Well I guess I will go ahead and post the pics as is. They look huge when I preview the post so forgive me for the size.

 

Finally embarkation day has arrived!

 

We decided to head to the port around 10am so we could get on early, get some lunch and get little man down for a nap when the rooms opened up so muster drill wouldn’t be a disaster. After a stop at Walmart, we arrived at the port around 10:30.

 

 

We stepped into the VIP line at 10:40 and were seated in the waiting area with a Zone 1 boarding tag by 11. It would have been quicker, but we were in line behind a rather large family and NONE of them were ready to go through security. They were emptying their purses at the scanner and once the security guy noticed we had to wait on them to put the stuff back in and reorganize before they sent them through.

 

Boarding started at 11:30 and since we had our son in a stroller they let us go first so we wouldn’t be run over by other passengers. This didn’t work because a woman who was sitting 4 chairs ahead of us got upset and come up after they took the embarkation photo, stepped on our son and pushed the stroller out of the way so she would board ahead of us. It took everything I had not to say anything or smack her (I’m like a mama bear with her cub when it comes to my son and his safety). I brushed it off quickly after I got to hear the ding of the S&S card. Our cruise was beginning!!

 

As soon as we boarded we were informed that the rooms would be ready at 12:30 so we headed to the Lido deck to have some lunch before heading down to our cabin. They had a two man band playing calypso music all week on the Lido deck. It was nice to hear and it made it feel that much more real.

 

This was little man's first time away from home and near this much water so he was exploring everything!

 

[Beachlover1964]

Enjoying your review! Sorry but I don't know how to fix the pictures.

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

We were in stateroom U87 which is a Grand Suite and it’s the last one right before the Extended GSs start so we could see the bow of the ship from the balcony, but the back of it was the extension.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view was awesome, but be prepared to be drenched if you’re out on the balcony around 9-9:30 in the morning. Thank goodness we never were, but they would wash the side of the ship around that time every morning and the tiny strips of metal they have above the balcony to stop the water from falling straight down do not work. The water would also hit in the indentation on the extension and it would pour onto the balcony from there too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really wanted to finish the review tonight, but I can't keep my eyes open anymore and Photobucket keeps locking up on me so I will finish in the morning. If you've got any questions go ahead and post them and I will try my best to answer them in the morning as well.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[Cruise Envy]

Thank you so much for posting -- we are going on her in June!

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

This stateroom worked out great having our son along because we were able to separate the room a bit and make it seem like he had his own room for sleeping. The cribs are nice compared to what I was imagining them to be like. Little man slept great in it. We had plenty of room for him to run around and plenty of places for him to hide his toys. Having a bath tub was amazing because he is terrified of the shower. I tried to hold him in the shower at the hotel because they don’t have bathtubs and he freaked out. Our room steward Winai (Win) was absolutely amazing. He got a large tip at the end of the cruise because he was always there when we needed him, kept the ice bucket full, replaced the dirty glasses twice a day and always knew what he should leave behind when we would run out of the room and leave muffins or other goodies from room service on the counter.

 

We put the crib on the other side of the curtain that separates the bed area from the living space in the cabin. It was like he had his own separate bedroom.

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

The dining room staff absolutely loved little man. The hostesses would come running up to the dining room entrance when they would see us coming around the atrium for dinner. All 5 of them would come up and say hi and play with little man and they would always stop by our table two or three times each during dinner to check on him and say hi again. We had anytime dining since we didn’t know when he would want to eat each night and it was always different. The first night we had Ika and her team and they were AMAZING! I highly recommend her section if you can get it. We spent the second night at the Lido buffet. The third night we had a bad wait staff. They didn’t have cards on the table so I have no idea what their names were, but they kept forgetting stuff like silverware and menus. The fourth night we were in Andrias’ section and we loved him and his wait team as well, but Ika was still our favorite. We were lucky to get her section again on the fifth night and we weren’t disappointed.

Before we went on the cruise, we bought a travel booster seat because we didn't know what the high chairs would be like on the ship and I couldn't find any pictures of them. Most of the ones we have used in restaurants had wheels on them and he always pushes himself away from the table so I was happy to see that the high chairs don't have wheels and have heavy bottoms so he couldn't slide it across the floor. We even had trouble sliding them when he was in it so I felt very safe using them. They even had trays for them which was also a relief because my son likes to be independent and he prefers to feed himself. It can sometimes cause problems if he isn't able to.

The bar servers would stop by and bring little presents they had made using straws, umbrellas and sometimes fruit. Everybody would come by and help him color his menu when he wasn’t eating. It was really fun for him. I'm sorry, but I didn't think to get any pictures of the things the crew brought him.

I didn’t get any food pictures. To be honest, I had intended to get pictures of everybody’s food every night, but when we got in there it was all about getting the food from the plate to his mouth. I can say that everything we got was always hot when it came out and it was cooked the way we ordered it. The only problem we had when it came to dining was the silverware. The dishwasher must be messed up because about 1 out of every 3 sets of silverware had a dirty fork and/or knife in it. I know this can happen from time to time, but it was really annoying after day 2. We wasted a ton of clean silverware because we couldn't use one piece out of the set and would have to get another one since they only have spoons laying out in single pieces.

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

I can’t comment on any of the shows or the entertainment because we didn’t get to do any of it. We were on the Lido deck when some of the activities began and quickly had to leave because the volume was way too loud and little man couldn’t stand it. Things were OK when they were talking on the mic, but when the yelling and screaming started it was just unbearable. There was a blonde haired girl on the entertainment staff and her voice absolutely terrified my son. It was shrill and she seemed to be miserable all week so when she was on stage and had to host something she would yell things to try and act enthusiastic. At some point she managed to blow out a speaker on the starboard side of the Lido deck and it popped and cracked the rest of the cruise. It was awful.

We were supposed to have Paul Santley as our CD. We had him on our last cruise and he was very charismatic and funny, but he had to attend the CD conference so we had a younger guy named Brendan Lewis who went by Lewis. The Assistant CD was Crazy Chris. The CD seemed very immature and he tried really hard, but he didn't seem to be very good at it. We all have different things we look for in a CD so others may have seen differently, but he did send us a bottle of champagne and a ship on a stick for our anniversary so I can’t totally dog him. Crazy Chris… well I don't have anything good to say about him. I found him to be very raunchy and he said very inappropriate things for a family cruise. We just turned around and left when he was in the same area after the hairy chest contest on the first sea day. I wish I had at least gotten some pictures of the entertainment staff so you could put faces with the names, but I didn't think about it at the time.

The two ports on this 5 day cruise were Key West and Nassau. I know a lot of people don't care for the itinerary, but I would love to do this one again without little man so we could explore a little more on our own. We still had a lot of fun though and he seemed to love the new sights and the beach!

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

Key West

We didn’t plan to do anything this day other than walk around and hit Southernmost Point for the obligatory photo. So here are some photos from Key West.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a panoramic shot of Southernmost Point.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a panoramic shot of the pier at the end of Duval Street. It had a beautiful view!

 

 

 

This was a tiny beach about a mile from Mallory Square. It was located at the end of Duval Street.

 

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

Don't forget to stop by Kermit's and get your key lime pie on a stick! I expected it to be more like a popsicle, but it was an actual slice of pie that had been dipped in chocolate. I didn't care for it because I don't like key lime pie, but my hubby absolutely loved it!!

 

 

 

I can't remember what the name of this tree is, but it was beautiful. It stretched across the whole property and around the house.

 

 

 

 

A different tree, but it was the same type.

 

 

 

 

I just had to get a picture of this place because I've never seen one so open about their services. My mouth dropped when I read the sign. My hubby was laughing because I had to run back and get a picture of the entire house to go along with the sign. lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's one last shot from the pier at the end of Duval Street.

 

 

[maxandmolly]

I love little man's curls! I can't believe how little you paid for your GS compared to my 1A! Just didn't have the $$ to upgrade this time. The MDRs must have different dishwashers, I was on the other side and our silverware was always clean. Our service, meanwhile, left much to be desired. But like you, our food was always hot, the way everyone wanted it, and the two assistant waiters worked very hard and were very nice.

I agree about the itinerary. I really enjoyed Key West too and only got to about half of the things I wanted to see and do.

I didn't really spend any time on the Lido (Serenity was the spot for me) but what little I did, told me very quickly that I agree with your CD assessment.

Can't wait to read more, it's interesting to read about my cruise from someone else's eyes!

[poohtig11]

I am enjoying review and your little one is very cute. Your pics our great.:)

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

Nassau

We wanted to do a beach day so we narrowed it down to the Sheraton or the British Colonial Hilton. We chose the BCH because we didn’t want to take the Jitney with all of the stuff we were lugging around and the BCH is $50pp (booking through Island Marketing before hand and it’s $55 at the BCH the day of) plus they give you a $30 food and drink voucher per adult. Little man was free since he is under 4. It took us 10 min to walk there with most of that time being spent navigating all of the people in the customs terminal. With the food vouchers DH got a bacon cheeseburger and a Budweiser, I got a turkey club and little man had a child’s chicken tenders and it came to $56. We ended up spending about $30 on another beer and two daiquiris so we spend $28 and change over the price of the day passes. The BCH is very peaceful and quiet so it was perfect for us. We set ourselves up on one of the two bed huts they have on the beach and spent the day in the water and just playing in the sand.

 

Here are some pictures of the property. I forgot to get one of just the shoreline so I am including a close up of little man so you can see that it definitely wasn't rocky and didn't have big pieces of shell either.

 

 

Here's the harbor pilot bringing us in. We were so excited to arrive in Nassau at 11:30am so we could actually watch it for once.

 

 

 

The Carnival Sensation and the Majesty of the Seas were in port when we arrived. The Carnival Destiny was also there, but on the port side along with another RCCL ship, but I wasn't able to get any pictures of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the British Colonial Hilton as seen from our balcony on the way into the harbor.

 

 

 

 

The hotel is very close to the port. Here is a picture taken from the beach at the hotel.

 

 

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

The first picture is the close up of little man to show how smooth the sand was at the water line. The rest will be random pictures taken around the resort. For some reason I forgot to get pictures of the pool area and the Patio Grille, but I can say that the pool was a smaller one and the restaurant was small as well, but it was nice and had an island look to it. They had some tables and chairs set up under an awning and some padded couches and chairs on the other side. All of it had an ocean view. By the pool they had loungers, some round beds that were covered and had pillows and some cute little couches that were oval shaped with a higher backs and pillows on them as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

They had several of these little two bed setups along the beach. They were really nice and helped keep our stroller and the bags out of the sand.

 

 

 

 

This shot and the one after it are the only two that have a little bit of the pool area in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't express how beautiful and tranquil the resort is. The pictures don't do it justice.

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

Here are a few more pictures of the resort. It's located just around the corner from Senor Frogs. Just follow the sidewalk along the wharf and you can't miss it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Senor Frogs. Don't give in to the temptation! Keep going! The food at the BHC is great and the drinks are STRONG! I can stand a couple of drinks before I start to feel anything, but one Hemingway Daiquiri had me giggling for the next hour! lol

 

 

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

I need to take a break for a little bit because little man is getting hungry. I will be back later this afternoon to finish up with some random photos of the ships in the port and the Fascination. We did manage to get a few of the Lido deck during the daytime and at night and of the atrium. I'm also going to get the Fun Times scanned and uploaded before bed tonight. I will try my best to answer any questions if you have them.

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

I love little man's curls! I can't believe how little you paid for your GS compared to my 1A! Just didn't have the $$ to upgrade this time. The MDRs must have different dishwashers, I was on the other side and our silverware was always clean. Our service, meanwhile, left much to be desired. But like you, our food was always hot, the way everyone wanted it, and the two assistant waiters worked very hard and were very nice.

I agree about the itinerary. I really enjoyed Key West too and only got to about half of the things I wanted to see and do.

I didn't really spend any time on the Lido (Serenity was the spot for me) but what little I did, told me very quickly that I agree with your CD assessment.

Can't wait to read more, it's interesting to read about my cruise from someone else's eyes!

 

 

You didn't miss anything on the Lido. When the calypso music was playing it was a fun place to be, but as soon as the activities started it went down hill fast! I wanted to spend some time on the Serenity deck, but I spent so much time taking little man around the ship and letting him play that I just didn't get a chance. We went out and spent part of the last sea day in the area right outside of the Lido buffet that overlooks the Serenity deck, but that was as close as I got.

 

I am enjoying review and your little one is very cute. Your pics our great.:)

 

 

Thank you! I used my iPhone 4s for all of my pics. My hubby used his SLR and my pictures turned out just as nice as his so I was very happy. I think I got the better pictures in the end though because I was able to get a lot of panoramic shots!

[iluvdoxies]

We were in stateroom U87 which is a Grand Suite and it’s the last one right before the Extended GSs start so we could see the bow of the ship from the balcony, but the back of it was the extension.

 

 

 

 

[/FO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lol grand suite on CCL what a joke !

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

lol grand suite on CCL what a joke !

 

 

Considering we barely paid over $1000 for the cabin, I'd say it was just fine. If you want to go on another line and pay $5000 plus for a suite on a 5 day cruise then by all means do it, but Carnival is just fine for us. This ship is 18 years old so I didn't expect it to be huge, but compared to a regular sized stateroom, it was great.