Just Off The Fantasy......

[bunny1954]

Hi everyone. Just off the Fantasy on Saturday and back home last night. Cruising was myself, DH, DS (sister) and DBIL.

 

This cruise was special for me. About 6 years ago, I discovered I had a sister I had never met. We have e-mailed and "chatted" on Facebook, but had never met in person. Shortly after I booked this cruise, I asked DS if she and DBIL would be interested in joining us and was overjoyed when they decided to go.

 

My DD and her family live just outside of Charleston, so DH and I stayed there for 2 nights pre-cruise. It was decided that we would meet up with DS and DBIL at DD's house on Sunday night and all go out to dinner.

 

Embarkation: We left cars at my DD's and her mother in law's and my DSIL took all of us to the port. I hope that Charleston gets a new cruise terminal built. It was kind of confusing getting dropped off in the right place. The parking situation may be perfectly secure there, but I was glad we had not left cars as I was a little put off at how the area looked. We arrived at the terminal around 11:45 and we were on board about 12:45. The rooms weren't ready until 1:30. When the rooms opened up, we took our carry on bags and dropped them off and headed to the Lido for lunch. Walked around a bit and then it was time for the muster drill. We were an hour late leaving, but that did not affect our arrival time in Nassau. Our bags arrived and we unpacked.

 

Food: The buffet on the Lido deck was mostly good. The salad bar was really good. The lettuce was always fresh and there was a wide variety of items including cold meats and cheeses. Desserts were hit or miss. I had an apple crumb dessert that was really good, but the mango cheesecake left a lot to be desired. We had the 8:15 seating for dinner. Our wait staff was mostly good. They were far superior to the wait staff we had on our last Carnival cruise. The first night I had the brisket and it was excellent......fork tender. It was probably my favorite meal of the trip. I had the meat loaf one night which was good. The prime rib was good, but way too fatty. And I didn't care at all for the last dish of the trip I ordered which was the panko breaded shrimp. The gazpacho and potato soups were excellent, but the chilled cucumber soup lacked flavor. I had the warm chocolate melting cake for dessert every night with 2 ice creams. DH had the Bitter N Blanc one night and thought it was really good.

 

Shows: We were able to make the 10pm show every night. Production shows were "The Brits" and "Motor City". One night was also the local talent (cruisers) performing and the other night was "The Gender Game" which is the "Love and Marriage" game re-named. We also made the early family friendly comedy show one night. I don't remember the guy's name, but he was very entertaining.

 

Ports: Nassau and Freeport. Been there before. In Nassau we just walked around and then took a taxi over to Atlantis where everything was over priced (taxi was $4 each way). In Freeport, we did a semi submersible tour on our own and then walked on the beach. Taxi was $5 per person each way.

 

Debarkation: One of the easiest ones I've ever done on Carnival. When you get your debarkation number, you are given a location and a time to meet. We were Zone 8 and met in the main theatre at 8:30. They were running it a little slowly as it was cold outside so you didn't have to stand around waiting in the cold. We walked off the ship about 8:50, found our luggage within 5 minutes and another 20 minutes later we had cleared customs and were outside the perimeter and waiting for our DD to pick us up.

 

Overall, it was a great cruise and provided a good value for what we spent on it (we had an ocean view room). We enjoyed cruising with our newfound relatives and would probably take this cruise again if all we were looking for was a cheap/short vacation. The fact that our DD and her family live there gives us a good excuse.

[michelle1836]

glad you had a good cruise. we really liked the Fantasy when we sailed in December. would definitely sail again!

[clinthi]

Great review! And what a wonderful story about your sister!