Just back from Fantasy

Just got home from the 4 night Fantasy trip. Some general observations:

Yes, she is an older ship and she is showing her age in some areas. But overall she is in good shape. After a drydock early last year the carpets look good, and our suite looked good.

The crew was exceptionally friendly. The cruise director Mikey was one of the best we've seen.

We tried "my time dining" for the first time. Not a fan. We much prefer the set time with the same waiter each night and some table mates that we can get to know during the cruise. This was a one and done for us, we'll be going back to set dining.

Desserts - I think the desserts overall are a victim of the popularity of the warm melting cake. I like chocolate, but i normally can find something else that sounds good that tastes good other than the WMC. This trip the only other dessert that was really tasty was the Bitter and Blanc bread pudding. Other than that most desserts lacked flavor.

Getting into and out of Mobile was pretty easy. As is normally the case, the slow exit from the ship was not of Carnival's doing but was caused by Customs only having 4 guys checking people in. 4 stations sat empty while the lines slogged along slowly.

Any questions - feel free to ask.

Thanks for your thoughts. I agree with you about set dining time. One less decision to have to make daily.

A dear great niece just finished her freshman year at Auburn. War Eagle!

Thank you for your feedback.

Our first cruise ever was on the Fantasy. 13 years ago and we have not been on her since, but we loved it so much we have cruised 23 more times since then! ;p

Thanks for your thoughts. I agree with you about set dining time. One less decision to have to make daily.

 

A dear great niece just finished her freshman year at Auburn. War Eagle!

My wife and I both graduated from AU and now our daughter is a student there as well :)

Haven't sailed on the Fantasy but we absolutely loved sailing out of Mobile when the Holiday was the resident ship. Not only were the employees at the terminal some of the friendliest we've ever come across, but our fellow cruisers were absolutely fantastic.

We do prefer my time dining. Ever since the cruise lines started this, we haven't looked back. Last year on MSC was the first time that we had to do traditional dining (since the don't offer an alternative) and we dreaded it.

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Our first cruise ever was on the Fantasy. 13 years ago and we have not been on her since, but we loved it so much we have cruised 23 more times since then! ;p

Our first cruise was also on the Fantasy. It was 10 years ago in May out of NOLA. WOW. We are looking at Mobile for our next one. I love that ship.

Our first two cruises were on the Fantasy 2004, 2005. And then our Diamond b3b in April of this year. Mikey IS awesome, Steve the hotel mgr is also awesome. And the captain is very friendly and welcoming (best ever, personality-wise) and our maitre'd, 007, just takes the cake. We had a blast!! Couldn't have asked for a better Diamond cruise.

At 11:30 yesterday morning, traffic was backed up on Canal St. all the way to Claiborne, waiting to get into the parking deck. It never moved the whole time I sat at the traffic light.

So do you think THAT many people had an 11:30 check-in time??:D

So do you think THAT many people had an 11:30 check-in time??:D

I'd bet that there were some people in line that were going to be late for their check in time and were probably annoyed by the wait. Meanwhile, I had just busted out of jury duty early, so I, on the other hand, was a happy juror. LOL.

Moving forward, you can always request the same server each night with YTD. We always do once we find one we like.

What time did you get into the port and was the traffic back up clear by then? Did you park in the terminal garage? If so, was it hard to get in or did you have to go to the overflow lot? We're trying to plan for our cruise next year and seeing a lot of complaints about traffic and parking.

War Eagle here too. (Look Up Auburn Christmas Lights - Georgia - that's us!)

We are sailing on her later this year.

We got 11:00 boarding. Will we be able to get there with parking traffic?

What time did you get into the port and was the traffic back up clear by then? Did you park in the terminal garage? If so, was it hard to get in or did you have to go to the overflow lot? We're trying to plan for our cruise next year and seeing a lot of complaints about traffic and parking.

The thing about the attached parking deck is that they have to clear it of previous cruisers before they will let the next cruise start parking. Ship was there at 7am yesterday morning. I only saw a handful of vehicles in the overflow lot at the civic center, so not many got sent there. I know this because I parked there for jury duty at 7am. The line I saw at 11:30 was less than a half mile long. I've heard that the wait is about 45 minutes to get into the parking deck. If you get there too early, the police will turn you away, so a little strategy and luck probably goes a long way to hitting the sweet spot. Prepay for parking also speeds things up, I'm sure.

Haven't sailed on the Fantasy but we absolutely loved sailing out of Mobile when the Holiday was the resident ship. Not only were the employees at the terminal some of the friendliest we've ever come across, but our fellow cruisers were absolutely fantastic.

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Same! Got to sail 3 times on Holiday - including the final sailing with Carnival - and just loved that little ship and her crew.

OP - thanks for the observations. We're booked on Fantasy (finally!) in September. Can't wait to sail on her, and to sail out of Mobile again!

What time did you get into the port and was the traffic back up clear by then? Did you park in the terminal garage? If so, was it hard to get in or did you have to go to the overflow lot? We're trying to plan for our cruise next year and seeing a lot of complaints about traffic and parking.

We had an 11:30 check in time. Arrived at the port around 11:00. We came down I-165 which basically feeds you straight to the port. The line to enter the parking approaches from the opposite direction, so we had to go down to the the I-10 ramp past the garage and do a U-turn. There was a pretty long line back toward the interstate. You want to be in the right hand lane as you approach the parking. It took about 20 minutes to get into the deck. You unload your bags as you enter the deck and hand them over to a porter. The main hold up from what we could tell was people not being ready to hand their bags over (i.e. put your tags on your bags before you leave home). Overall, we didn't think it was all that bad.

War Eagle here too. (Look Up Auburn Christmas Lights - Georgia - that's us!)

We are sailing on her later this year.

We got 11:00 boarding. Will we be able to get there with parking traffic?

LOVE the lights :)

We arrived around 11 and the line was back to the I-10 ramp, maybe a couple of blocks. You should be fine.

Mobile was a nice change from the busy FL ports.

Thanks for the report.

is the fantasy on the american table menu?

We are 90 minutes from Mobile, and are searching for a cruise from Mobile. I have friends who sail from there a couple of time a year. They travel the "back roads" and have never had to wait longer than 15 minutes. They also gave me the advice to have the luggage tags already in place - said that was the hold up for most people.

On a side note: their last cruise was delayed from returning to the port for a couple of hours due to weather. She said that traffic was a total nightmare leaving port!

We are 90 minutes from Mobile, and are searching for a cruise from Mobile. I have friends who sail from there a couple of time a year. They travel the "back roads" and have never had to wait longer than 15 minutes. They also gave me the advice to have the luggage tags already in place - said that was the hold up for most people.

 

 

On a side note: their last cruise was delayed from returning to the port for a couple of hours due to weather. She said that traffic was a total nightmare leaving port!

Traffic is a nightmare because they put the terminal in the most congested spot along the waterfront. It was probably the worst possible place that they could put it. Easy on and off from I-10, but, hundreds of cars jockeying for position along a skinny street, and a railroad track running right in front of the terminal that has the potential to screw up the works at any given time. This was a plan that only someone who loves pandemonium could love.

is the fantasy on the american table menu?

I don't think so.

We just went on our first ever cruise (a rookie, yes, I know) out of Mobile. We live 3 hours from Mobile, in Jackson, MS and wanted to do a port that was closer, with a smaller ship. The getting to the ship/on the ship/parking when we got there was not the problem. it was getting OFF the ship that took FOREVER, to get the bags, then we ended up having to tote our bags to the overflow lot across the train tracks because the incoming traffic for the next cruise had already started, and the process was kinda slow. But, that's life I suppose. Plus, this was a Memorial Day cruise we were getting off of, and the ship was completely packed as well.

We just went on our first ever cruise (a rookie, yes, I know) out of Mobile. We live 3 hours from Mobile, in Jackson, MS and wanted to do a port that was closer, with a smaller ship. The getting to the ship/on the ship/parking when we got there was not the problem. it was getting OFF the ship that took FOREVER, to get the bags, then we ended up having to tote our bags to the overflow lot across the train tracks

What time did you get to the terminal? I notice you were parked in the overflow lot. We hope to avoid that and park in the garage.