Fascination Review 4/18/16

[Pilotmom]

This was a 6 day cruise leaving from Jacksonville. We had stops in St. Thomas, St. Kitts, St. Maarten and the cruise ended in San Juan.

 

This was the 8th cruise for my husband and I. (7 on Carnival, 1 on Celebrity) We are both pretty quiet people and enjoy cruising to relax. We live in Northeast Ohio and while we had a pretty mild winter, we were still looking forward to some warmer weather on the cruise. We did fly in the day before and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.

 

Embarkation: I thought it went very smoothly. Since it was a repositioning cruise, there was no parking at the port. Everyone was arriving by taxi. We arrived at port around 11:00. We did have to sit in a holding area for maybe 15 minutes, but by 12:00 we were on the lido deck eating lunch.

 

Quick impressions of the ship: I enjoy the smaller ship. We have sailed on the Fantasy several times and it is very similar to the Fascination. Our room (interior front on Main deck) was clean with no funky smells and I never heard any weird noises. Our room steward was very kind (as always). We had your time dining and thought the meals were very good. Most nights we shared a table with 6-8 other people and it was nice to get to know them a little. The wait staff was excellent as always. We saw both comedians and they were on the ship all 6 days. We also saw several of the shows (Divas, Gravity defying comedian and Motown) and enjoyed them.

 

Our first two days were Sea Days. The weather was pretty cloudy and the seas a little rough. We have three kids (ages 17, 15, and 11) at home. Like most parents, they keep us pretty busy. So we enjoyed our sea days with no agenda. Spent a lot of time walking around and reading. We did spend some time in the gym (all so I could enjoy warm melting chocolate cake for dessert!). We did go to Tea time on the first sea day. The desserts were yummy as always. I did miss hearing the piano player since we were moved to the dining room and they now charge you if you want a nicer tea than Lipton black tea or Bigelow green tea. We also enjoyed the taste bar and thought the Fascinators band did a great job (especially 80's night!)

 

One of my favorite things to do (at least one evening) is watch the sunset from the Serenity Deck.

 

 

Up next: St Thomas

[ontheweb]

This was a 6 day cruise leaving from Jacksonville. We had stops in St. Thomas, St. Kitts, St. Maarten and the cruise ended in San Juan.

 

This was the 8th cruise for my husband and I. (7 on Carnival, 1 on Celebrity) We are both pretty quiet people and enjoy cruising to relax. We live in Northeast Ohio and while we had a pretty mild winter, we were still looking forward to some warmer weather on the cruise. We did fly in the day before and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.

 

Embarkation: I thought it went very smoothly. Since it was a repositioning cruise, there was no parking at the port. Everyone was arriving by taxi. We arrived at port around 11:00. We did have to sit in a holding area for maybe 15 minutes, but by 12:00 we were on the lido deck eating lunch.

 

Quick impressions of the ship: I enjoy the smaller ship. We have sailed on the Fantasy several times and it is very similar to the Fascination. Our room (interior front on Main deck) was clean with no funky smells and I never heard any weird noises. Our room steward was very kind (as always). We had your time dining and thought the meals were very good. Most nights we shared a table with 6-8 other people and it was nice to get to know them a little. The wait staff was excellent as always. We saw both comedians and they were on the ship all 6 days. We also saw several of the shows (Divas, Gravity defying comedian and Motown) and enjoyed them.

 

Our first two days were Sea Days. The weather was pretty cloudy and the seas a little rough. We have three kids (ages 17, 15, and 11) at home. Like most parents, they keep us pretty busy. So we enjoyed our sea days with no agenda. Spent a lot of time walking around and reading. We did spend some time in the gym (all so I could enjoy warm melting chocolate cake for dessert!). We did go to Tea time on the first sea day. The desserts were yummy as always. I did miss hearing the piano player since we were moved to the dining room and they now charge you if you want a nicer tea than Lipton black tea or Bigelow green tea. We also enjoyed the taste bar and thought the Fascinators band did a great job (especially 80's night!)

 

One of my favorite things to do (at least one evening) is watch the sunset from the Serenity Deck.

 

 

Up next: St Thomas

 

Since we are sailing from San Juan this August on the Fascination including stops at the islands you mentioned, we are looking forward to more of your review.

[Clarea]

Nice start, looking forward to more.:)

[Pilotmom]

St. Thomas

 

We were originally scheduled to be in St. Thomas from 9:00- 6:00. Due to a delayed departure from Jacksonville and rough seas, we arrived at 11:00. The Captain did inform us the day before that we would be arriving late. He also gave us two extra hours and we departed at 8:00. We were planning on a beach day, so this did not change any of our plans.

 

We visited St. Thomas last year on a cruise and I found it a beautiful island. I was really glad it was included on our itinerary again. My husband wanted to snorkel, so we decided on Sapphire Beach. We don't usually do excursions through the ship, unless it is an excursion we really want and are required to go through the cruise line. The excursion to Sapphire Beach included transportation and a chair for $45. A taxi would cost around $25. After reading St. Thomas port reviews, we decided to take the local bus (AKA dollar bus). I felt perfectly safe the entire time. We actually met a couple from New York who had retired to St. Thomas and chatted with them awhile before their stop. To give an example on how nice the locals can be, my husband and I weren't sure if we needed to change busses. A young man overheard us and told us we did not need to change, this bus would continue on to Sapphire Beach. My husband did use the GPS on his phone so we knew when we were close to Sapphire Beach, because you do need to push the button to get the driver to stop. You are dropped off at the road and need to walk down the drive to the complex. It is a hill and takes maybe 5 minutes. Since it only cost us $4 to get there, it was worth the $19 savings to walk down the drive.

 

Sapphire Beach has a nice snorkel area to the right. They do have chair rentals or you can just use your towel. There are trees for shade. There is a small dive shop if you want to rent snorkel equipment. My husband brought his own, so I'm not sure on the cost. There is a bathroom and changing rooms, along with water by the dive shop to rinse the sand off. The bathrooms were ok. They definitely could have been better, but since it is a free beach and at least they have bathrooms available, I will not complain. The day was overcast, but warm. My husband saw tons of fish. We did spend time in the water together and I was not concerned about leaving our belongings on the beach. The beach was clean with a nice mix of people on the beach. There were several other people from the ship (I could tell by their towels). The buildings were showing their age, but if I had a week to stay on the island, I wouldn't mind staying there. It was perfect for what we wanted- a relaxing day on the beach. When it was time to leave, we did have to walk back up the hill. There were taxi drivers available, but we decided to ride the local bus again. It arrived within a couple minutes of us getting to the road. There were several young school children riding, which surprised me a little. I don't think I would want my 11 year old riding this bus alone. But I do think it also tells you it is a safe way to visit the island if you want to safe some money.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a picture of the local bus

 

Since the ship was not leaving until 8:00, we decided we had enough time to walk into the downtown area of Charlotte Amalie. There is a path and sidewalk to get there. It took us around 15 to 20 minutes to walk there. We decided to find the 99 steps. There are some nice buildings to look at and we ended up by Blackbeards Castle (which was closed). There are also some great views of the harbor, so if you just want to wander around town, this was a great area. We also walked by Fort Christian, but it was also closed. By the time we headed back into town it was after 6:00 and most of the shops were closing. We headed back to the ship the same way we came.

[Pilotmom]

St. Thomas

 

99 Steps

 

Harbor Views

 

Fort Christian

[sparks1093]

Enjoying the review so far!

[Pilotmom]

St. Kitts

 

We had never visited St. Kitts before. After reading several reviews, we decided to use Thenford Grey Tours. I was impressed with everything about the company. I received a quick reply when I made the reservations, the meeting area was at the end of the pier and easy to find and we had the most amazing driver for the day. We took the Grand Tour ($48 per person). There were 14 of us on the comfortable bus. He drove us around the Capital- Basseterre, providing local history. Our first stop was Romney Manor and Batik shop. The grounds were beautiful. There were ladies making the batik and explaining the process. They did wonderful work and there is a shop attached if you would like to make a purchase.

 

 

Next was Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park. Husband and I really enjoyed this stop and we could have used more time here. The views are amazing! The admission price is included in the tour. It is a very narrow and windy road to the top going through narrow arched entrances that would have been hard for me to drive a small car through. (Again, our driver's maneuverability skills were impressive- just inches to spare on each side!)

 

[Pilotmom]

St. Kitts continued

 

More pictures from Fort

 

Next we made a quick stop for a picture where you can see the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other. It was very busy and now might be a good time to warn you that there are monkeys everywhere. Locals carry them around on leashes and will put them on your shoulder. You will need to pay them if you want a picture. While I usually like animals, the thought of having a diapered monkey on me was not something I wanted. I stayed clear of all of them.

 

Our last stop was at the beach. Our driver took us to Carambola. For those that wanted to stay, he dropped us off. Several others did not and he took them back to the port. After about 2 hours, he came back to the beach and picked us up to transport us to the port. It was a nice clean beach. Restrooms were very clean. We just walked down the beach and used our towels. Husband again went snorkeling. I know they had food available, but we did not eat anything there. The skies were still a little overcast, but overall it was a great ending to the day.

 

Saw this guy while out snorkeling

 

Next up: St. Maarten!

[Pilotmom]

St. Maarten

 

We were in St. Maarten last year and enjoyed Bernard's tour. If you want to make several stops around the island, I would strongly suggest his tour. Another well run group. This year my husband wanted to do the regatta. This is a tour that was only offered through Carnival. Again, the weather was overcast. We met on the pier. There were also guests from another cruise ship that was in port at the same time. We were split into two groups. Half were put on the Stars and Stripes and the rest put on the Canada boat. ( I think it was the Canada II, they did call her Candy). I will admit I was little apprehensive about this excursion. I don't have a lot of experience being on boats and really didn't want to end up in the water while the boat sailed away. Everyone was given a job, so I didn't even have the option of just holding on to make sure I didn't end up falling overboard. There are three "official" crew members that explained to each of us how to do our assignment. I believe there were 13 of us on each boat. And then we were off. I'm happy to say I did not fall overboard and actually had a great time. I would recommend this excursion to others. We had some laughs and everyone really seemed to enjoy the race.

 

Afterwards we walked around town picking up souvenirs for the kids and trying to avoid going back to the ship. Knowing it was our last day, I didn't want to have to pack up. If you want to stay close to port, there is a beach with lots of chairs and food and drink options. This year I also noticed you had to pay to use the restrooms on the boardwalk, so bring along some quarters!

[Pilotmom]

San Juan

 

Debarkation went smoothly. We chose the self assist. Rather than rush to the airport, we had decided to extend our trip one more day. By 8:15 we were off the ship and ready to go. We had decided to stay at Posada San Francisco. I know this place is not for everyone. It is a hostel. We had a private room with a double bed and fridge. There are several bathrooms (each one had a lock) in the hallway. There is also a community area with a kitchen. It is a nice family run business. They will hold your bags for you before you check in and it is walking distance from the port. The elevator was not working, so we did have to carry our luggage up 6 flights to the check-in desk. After dropping off our luggage, we headed back to the Sheraton to pick up the car we had rented. I really wanted to visit the rainforest, but was having a hard time finding a tour that would leave later in the day. I didn't think we would be able to get off the ship as quickly as we did, but I felt this worked out better anyways. Again, using the GPS on our phone we headed towards the El Yunque rainforest. Even though I had printed off directions and had a map, the GPS was a huge help. Obviously, the road signs are in Spanish and the names are very long. It was hard to try to read the signs to figure out which lane to be in. With the GPS, I could better direct my husband who was driving. It took us approximately 45 minutes to get to El Yunque. The park was beautiful and well worth the drive. Because it was Sunday, there were a lot of visitors. Parking is limited in some areas. It is a place where you park, get out and enjoy the immediate area, then get into your car and drive to the next area. We did hike to La Mina Falls (around 1 hour 20 min round trip). It is a paved narrow trail, only room for single file. When you pass people walking the opposite direction, someone will need to step off the trail. As a word of caution, it can be very slippery since it is so damp in the area. It was less than a mile to get to the falls and follows the river almost the entire way. There were a lot of people swimming in the pool at the base of the falls. It is a beautiful path. The hardest part was walking back to the car since it is a steep and difficult path. The other trail we hike was to Mt. Britton Lookout Tower. It was another steep hike to get to the tower. There were nice views along the way, but we did not have a big view from the top of the tower because we were in the clouds. It was a nice experience to see the clouds rolling up and over the hill. We also stopped to see LaCoca Falls and Yokahu tower (great views here).

 

When we arrived back in Old San Juan, the area was extremely congested. Because people where arriving to embark on the Fascination and there was another ship in port, driving in the narrow streets was insane. Roads were blocked and several are one-way. After going in circles( very very slow circles), we did find a parking garage that was not full. We walked around old San Juan and found a place for dinner. It did start getting dark around 6:30. After dinner we walked back down to the port. There were many vendors set up in the area.

 

Last year when we flew out of San Juan, it took us just over 2 hours to go through the agriculture check, airline check in and security check. Since I certainly did not want to miss the plane and we needed to return the rental car at the airport, we planned on leaving with plenty of extra time. Imagine my surprise when there was NO LINE at either the agricultural check or airline checkin. Even the security line was reasonable. We were at the gate within 40 minutes of dropping off the car at the attached car rental return. What a difference!

 

 

I hope everyone enjoyed my first review. If you have any questions, ask! These islands were all so beautiful, I don't think I could pick a favorite. I hope to visit them again and maybe take the children next time!

 

Safe travels!

Rachel

[Pilotmom]

Sorry, my bad. This is the 99 steps

[Roz326]

thanks for the excellent info and pictures!

[undercat]

Thank you for your review and lovely photos!

[LUVMYGSDOG]

Thanks for the review and pictures!

 

 

Kim

[Sophia2007]

Thank you for the review!

[reerun25]

Great start to the review!! Looking forward to more!