Fantasy 10-11-15 Review: HMC, Grand Turk, Amber Cove

[waywyrd]

It's been a few weeks but I figured I'd do a semi-short review since I have a few pics of Amber Cove to share. Not a lot, mind you, since my battery-eating Canon decided to mess with me on this trip and chew through every battery I brought. But I'm happy to share what I did get.

 

On to the cruise!

 

Our cruise left a week after all that ridiculous rain brought the flooding to our state, which made driving to Charleston an adventure. With part of I-95 closed down and half the roads in our hometown flooded, it took a lot longer than usual. This was our ninth cruise, but the first time sailing out of Charleston - not terribly impressed with the port or the parking (Port Canaveral has spoiled us), but, hey. It was just a means to get on the ship.

 

Embarkation was quick, and we soon found ourselves noshing up on Lido. This was my second time on the Fantasy, and she looked just like I remembered from back in 2006. No, she's not the newest thing, and no, she's not a garbage scow like my snobby coworker claims :rolleyes: - she's a little worn but was clean, the crew was friendly, and the food was good. That's all I want.

 

A few pics I took while waiting for muster:

 

Looking out at the USS Yorktown:

 

Serenity on the back of the ship:

 

Waterslide area:

 

Requisite whale tail shot:

 

Looking out over Charleston:

[waywyrd]

Waiting for that horn to blow!

 

A guy next to us dropped his phone all the way down to the next deck. The whole crowd gasped, but somehow it didn't break. He then had a line of people asking what kind of phone that was, lol.

 

Our cabin is ready! Alas, I could only get an oceanview, since there are only a handful of balconies on this ship. I know, #firstworldproblems. I love a balcony room, but I'm happy to be going period.

 

It was hubby's birthday the week prior, so I had the room done up. The decorations they put up were cute, we left them there the whole week. The cake was quite good, but rich. A carton of milk helps.

 

 

 

Bye, Charleston!

 

We usually eat in the MDR, and tonight was no exception. I had the sweet and sour shrimp, hubby had the brisket. I declared the shrimp 'meh' - I thought the same thing on the Liberty when I had it - but the brisket was delicious. Dessert was the always good creme brulee, so I was happy.

 

And stuffed. We crashed early and skipped the welcome aboard show.

 

Next: sea day #1

[waywyrd]

Usually we just bum around on sea days. I catch up on my Kindle reading, hubby gets some sun and tries out the gym. Of course, people watching by the pool is always fun. They had the usual hairy chest contest today, but there weren't a lot of hairy chests to be had...

 

 

 

I quickly found that the casino wasn't going to be my friend this week, so it was off to an early dinner. We do My Time, but almost always hit the door right when they open. I do miss having the same waiter every night, though. Tonight was the first "elegant" night, and most everyone dressed nicely. So, lobster it was, with cherries jubilee for dessert. Or should I say, cherry jubilee, since there was one sad, lonely little cherry swimming in sauce next to the ice cream. I don't know where his friends were.

 

Now I'm wishing I had taken food porn pics like I see on so many other reviews...have to rethink my no camera at dinner policy on the next cruise.

 

We hit up The Brits show...it was okay. Followed that up with comedian Derrick Eason, who was quite funny. An extremely strong Zany Zombie may have influenced that...

 

Next: Half Moon Cay

[jimbri]

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[flipityflopflop]

Thanks for the review so far. We are leaving on the Fantasy at the end of this month & I have been hoping someone would do a review like this. The last time we were on her was the October 9th sailing of 2006.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[momonthego17]

Looking forward to reading what you thought about Amber Cove!

[waywyrd]

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the review so far. We are leaving on the Fantasy at the end of this month & I have been hoping someone would do a review like this. The last time we were on her was the October 9th sailing of 2006.

You're welcome! I like the Fantasy class ships, they don't feel as crowded to me. I just wish I'd been able to take more pictures!

[waywyrd]

Looking forward to reading what you thought about Amber Cove!

I'm hoping to get this done tonight so I can get Amber Cove up. :)

[waywyrd]

Oh, Half Moon Cay. I LOVE this island. I can overlook the aggravation of tendering just to lounge around on this gorgeous beach any day.

 

 

Obligatory goofy shot with DH:

 

Once we tendered in (with only a short wait, hallelujah), we quickly browsed through the stores and headed down the shore to get away from the crowd. We had the beach all to ourselves for most of the morning. Heaven! There were a handful of fish to be seen while snorkeling...better snorkeling to be had later, after lunch. Speaking of lunch, it wasn't the greatest. Hockey puck hamburgers, anyone? But the salads and cookies were delicious, so we scarfed that down with a two dollar Coke. We chatted with a very nice Carnival employee who was tending to the area, he said he'd worked for them for 30 years (!) and was from Honduras. We saw him later in the week, working the Lido buffet. Always with a smile. I wish I could remember his name!

 

We walked the trails over to the Stingray Adventure area, just to nose around. Nobody was really minding the place, but two ladies were smoking a joint in one of the buildings. ;) There was a nice covered area by a small dock where you could sit and watch the stingrays glide by...pretty cool.

 

Once we had our fill of that, we headed back to the beach, grabbing some more lemonade on the way. It was pretty hot. I'd heard the snorkeling was good along the rock wall right where you tender in, and I wanted to check it out.

 

I heard right!

[waywyrd]

These little guys were everywhere, and they weren't shy. Are they Sergeant Majors? I'm not so great with identifying my marine life. Anyway, I had a blast swimming with them.

 

 

 

A few more critters:

 

 

 

Annnd then my camera started giving me the proverbial finger, flashing low battery. Thanks, camera. I take you all these nice places and this is how you treat me. Ah, well, the sky was clouding up and it was about time to wait for the tender. Fun, fun.

 

Next: Grand Turk

[waywyrd]

Forgot to mention the hypnotist we saw that evening...I thought he was pretty funny, DH found the whole thing annoying. What was annoying were the people on stage pretending to be hypnotized, peeping out periodically at the audience. They were so obvious.

 

The adult show comedian that night was Ronnie Bullard. Hilarious. No Zany Zombie needed. :D

 

So, Grand Turk! One of my favorite ports, great for a lazy beach day. We had decided to rent an ATV from Karib's Auto Rental and go exploring on our own. It was 80 bucks for the day - you pay half as a deposit online when you make the reservation and the other half when you return. We had arrived in port at noon, so we were in a big hurry to hop on and get going.

 

We should have looked over the ATV a little better...

 

It started out fine. They give you a little map that wasn't much help - we wanted to see the lighthouse all the way at the northern end, so off we went. Took a wrong (scenic) turn, but finally made it there. There are wild horses and donkeys everywhere.

 

 

The lighthouse was neat. Didn't climb up it, I think it cost extra.

 

 

About ten of these guys came bopping out of the brush to say hello. They were quite friendly (but looking for handouts!).

Edited November 1, 2015 by waywyrd

[waywyrd]

There's a small gift shop and concessions stand at the lighthouse, but nothing really caught my eye. I wanted to hang out on Governor's beach a while, so we hopped back on the ATV and proceeded down the road.

 

Then the gas light came on.

 

Well, crap. I thought this thing was supposed to be full? No biggie, there were a couple gas stations (I think it was $6 a gallon?), we'd just stop and top up.

 

And then the freaking tire blew. In the middle of nowhere, not even close to a gas station. That tire was so bald, the air was showing through. The phone number that Karib had written on the map? I couldn't read it.

 

Super.

 

We limped to a gas station and put some gas in, and asked the very nice man attending where the air hose was. No air, he said. Down the street we went to the next station, no air. By now I was looking for a kid with a bicycle tire pump, anything. No luck.

 

By then we were close enough to Governor's, and said the heck with it. We went to the beach. The tire wasn't shredded, it was thick enough to ride on - slowly - but was a pain to steer. It was smoking hot that day and we needed to hop in some nice cool water.

 

Unfortunately, the hurricane had done some damage to the beach. A ton of sand had been washed away, with tree roots hanging in the air where we laid towels this past February. Stupid Joaquin.

 

 

There was a bunch of sea glass, though. I picked up three lovely purple pieces after taking this pic.

 

 

Miss F through the trees near Margaritaville.

 

 

It was an adventure, for sure, but it didn't ruin the day. They actually looked surprised when we drove up with a flat...lesson learned. Look at the tires before you take off!

[clearwaters]

It's been a few weeks but I figured I'd do a semi-short review since I have a few pics of Amber Cove to share. Not a lot, mind you, since my battery-eating Canon decided to mess with me on this trip and chew through every battery I brought. But I'm happy to share what I did get.

 

On to the cruise!

 

Our cruise left a week after all that ridiculous rain brought the flooding to our state, which made driving to Charleston an adventure. With part of I-95 closed down and half the roads in our hometown flooded, it took a lot longer than usual. This was our ninth cruise, but the first time sailing out of Charleston - not terribly impressed with the port or the parking (Port Canaveral has spoiled us), but, hey. It was just a means to get on the ship.

 

Embarkation was quick, and we soon found ourselves noshing up on Lido. This was my second time on the Fantasy, and she looked just like I remembered from back in 2006. No, she's not the newest thing, and no, she's not a garbage scow like my snobby coworker claims :rolleyes: - she's a little worn but was clean, the crew was friendly, and the food was good. That's all I want.

 

A few pics I took while waiting for muster:

 

Looking out at the USS Yorktown:

 

Serenity on the back of the ship:

 

Waterslide area:

 

Requisite whale tail shot:

 

Looking out over Charleston:

 

Lovely pics. Thank you.

[cruiserfam1031]

Going to these ports in May. Ready to read your review and see pics from Amber Cove.

[momof3cruisers]

Thanks for the review. Looking forward to reading about your Amber Cove day.

[waywyrd]

Amber Cove day! Everybody was excited as we pulled up to the port...

 

 

Left side of the port...some stores and a restaurant.

 

 

Crooked picture of some resorts off to the left.

 

 

To the right of the white building on the hill you can make out the hilltop cabanas. Pool and waterslide are to the right of those.

 

 

Cabanas on the water.

 

[waywyrd]

Closer to the cabanas...

 

 

 

Walking up the pier to the main building (there are people who can give you a ride down the pier if needed).

 

 

 

 

In a hurry because everyone wanted a picture here, I cut the 'A' off. *sigh*

 

[waywyrd]

Random pics around the shopping area. I'd say no more than half of the stores were open when we were there, but the pool, waterslide, zipline and the restaurant by the pool were going full blast.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 2, 2015 by waywyrd

[waywyrd]

The main thing we wanted to do in the Dominican Republic was go to the Teleferico. So we walked to the taxi area and almost cried when we saw the posted prices for taxis. It would cost us $110 just for the taxi to go to town and the Teleferico? I was rethinking my decision to not book an excursion. Sheesh. But I guess they saw the look of horror on our faces and knocked it down to $80. Still too flipping high IMO. But we really didn't want to hang out in the port all day, so we hopped in and took off. It was a nice new, air conditioned van. The driver spoke very little English but he was a sweet old guy.

 

If you're good at bargaining, you could probably do a lot better than me. I hate arguing prices.

 

At the Teleferico, the second you step out of the cab, they try to stick you with a "tour guide." You can tell them no, but this is one time I accepted because they can take a ton of nice pictures. Plus he got us seats in the cable car by the front window. We ended up giving him twenty bucks - you pay whatever you feel like it was worth.

 

Incoming!

 

 

 

Not a fan of heights, but the views are awesome up here...

 

 

 

[waywyrd]

Looking down on Puerto Plata. Amber Cove is to the left...it took maybe 15-20 minutes to get to the Teleferico.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 2, 2015 by waywyrd

[waywyrd]

And here's what we came to see - a smaller version of the Christ the Redeemer in Rio. Very cool. And the views up here are killer! I've read that you should do this in the morning if you are so inclined, since the clouds tend to roll in later in the day and obscure the view (and the statue!).

 

 

 

There are gardens surrounding the statue, nothing that will knock your socks off. And a gift shop they will try and funnel you into, with very pushy salespeople. There's a small cave on the grounds:

 

 

[jimbo5544]

Great review so far. Thanks for posting the pics of Amber Cove. The cable car ride looks awesome, how long did it take to get to the top?

[waywyrd]

Great review so far. Thanks for posting the pics of Amber Cove. The cable car ride looks awesome, how long did it take to get to the top?

Thank you! It took about ten minutes to get to the top. Wasn't a bad ride at all.

 

Forgot to mention that it's ten bucks a person to ride round trip.

[waywyrd]

So after the cable car ride we wanted to see the Fortaleza San Felipe. Back in the taxi we go...traffic in the town of Puerto Plata is insane. It took maybe 20 minutes to get here? I wasn't keeping track of time too much, too busy looking around.

 

 

 

 

We didn't go inside the fort, I just wanted a few pictures outside. There were a few people set up near the entrance selling stuff, and I think I saw a small donkey for kids to ride. They seem to be doing a lot of work in this area, building what looked to be a pavilion near the fort.

Edited November 2, 2015 by waywyrd

[waywyrd]

Random shots near the fort:

 

 

 

 

After the fort, we went off to the "Central Park." Basically a town square surrounded by a church, City Hall, and a few government buildings. Towards the back there are vendors set up selling stuff...it was sort of a party atmosphere when we got there, with dancers, musicians, and men on stilts. Don't know if this is an everyday thing or just because the ship was in town, but it was fun.

 

 

 

Inside the church: