Fantasy July 29th 5 day Costa Maya / Cozumel Review

Day 1. We stayed at the Downtown Mobile Candlewood Suites. They have a great deal on a room, 1 night parking and parking at the port. Our appointment was 12 - 12:30, but when we arrived traffic was pretty backed up. They had 2 different streets that fed into the parking garage entrance. There were 3 or 4 lanes for dropping off luggage. We got in a slow lane because a Suburban with about 10 people was in front of us and the people did not have their luggage tags attached. So between them and the porter, they had to get all those tags attached which seemed to take forever. When we finally got moving, we had to park on the very top (open air) of the garage. I assume that not many cars after us had to divert to the overflow lot. Since our hotel had prepaid on our behalf, it was nice walking past the people that were paying at the kiosk (this is one of those lots where you pay after you park and place a receipt on the dash). BUT, it did make me a little nervous because I had no way of knowing that the hotel really took care of things. I gave them my car's description and tag number when we checked in and they promised to take care of the rest. I guess they did because our car was there when we returned :D

I found the Mobile port to be a little disorganized and slow. We snaked around all the ropes and finally entered the building (yay, AC), only to be greeted by the security lines. I have another thread about my power strips, 1 of which was taken away from me, but overall found security to be a bit inept and slow.

We snaked through more ropes but didn't seem to wait too long to get called up to the check in counter. The lady was nice and handled check in efficiently and the nice surprise this year was that she was able to post our gift cards. Last year in NOLA, they wouldn't do that at check in and we had to take care of it later at GS desk. The only concern was that our last of 5 gift cards was from AMEX and it actually was treated like a credit card. When I checked my account later on the hub, I only saw 4 gift cards but no mention of the AMEX. No worries though, as I later checked with GS and they said because it was treated like a credit card, we wouldn't see it until the Gift cards were exhausted. She was right and everything worked as explained. My reason for concern actually was because the lady at check in seemed a little confused about it too.

Since check in took so long, we were able to head straight to the rooms because it was a little past 1:30. We unloaded the bags and headed up to lido. I'm not sure if it was because we were so late or what the reason was, but the lido buffet, Guy's burgers and the Burrito bar were not crowded at all. And we had no trouble finding a table inside! That was my first Guy's burger and I would say that is one of the best Carnival additions I've seen in a while. It was very good and much improved over the old burgers.

We left late but the reason was not given. I think we pushed away at about 5 pm. We would later be informed that this would get us to Costa Maya late and we would lose an hour.

DW purchased 2 drinks from one of the bar waiters while up on Lido waiting for sail away. He comes back later and said they had made a mistake and asked her to sign another ticket. Note, they are not giving you a receipt now, at least voluntarily. He said we would get credited for the original ticket. Again, I checked the hub app and didn't see the credit posted but it did eventually show up the next day. In hindsight, I would have gotten a paper receipt for peace of mind.

Dinner was very good throughout the cruise. We were late dining (8:15) and in the Jubilee Dining room which is the aft dining room. Like other fantasy class ships, you can't easily access this dining room from the floor it's on, so you have to walk the floor above or below and then take the stairs or elevators to that level. You figure it out, but it's sort of confusing. We got a 4 top table to ourselves which we were kind of bummed about because we usually enjoy meeting some new folks, but it wasn't a big deal. The waiter and his assistants were very attentive. Food was hot (or cold if it was supposed to be) and served very quickly. Unlike some other past cruises, we were never running for the 10 pm show or comedian.

We ended the night attending the welcome aboard show. It was refreshingly new! Since we had our newbie niece with us, we would have sat through it even if it was the old show (Everything is alright; beachballs; Anchors Away, etc). However, I don't know if they were having an off night or if its always that bad, but something was off. The sound system didn't seem to be working that great and the singers, well, they just weren't that good. Seems like every high note was just out of his / her range. But it wasn't awful, but noticeable.

After that, we headed back to the aft lounge for the night's only comedian (18+) and laughed our butts off at the Cowboy Comedian. I just really think Carnival is doing a good job with their comedy clubs. Some are better than others but they are ll funny. The only issue but not really unique to this ship is the seating and sight lines. Those columns get in the way so even it looks like a "good" seat, it may not be, especially if the performer moves around a lot.

More to come...............

Following [emoji847] I am thinking of sailing on the Fantasy soon so any and all info would be appreciated! We loved her sister ship, The Elation.

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enjoying the review.please continue.

Will be on the Fantasy in a couple weeks! I look forward to the rest of your review!

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Thanks for the review.

I'll be on the Fantasy in a few weeks. Looking forward to the rest of your review. Interesting about your power strips....

Thank you for your feedback!

Nice start to your review.

Day 2 at sea:

We slept in late and chose the Seaday Brunch in the Celebration DR. I've said this in other posts, but I think this is one of the best kept secrets aboard. Whether it's the breakfast on port days or the brunch on sea days, the DR's have very few people in them but the service and food is outstanding. You're in a climate controlled room and not elbowing people at a buffet. The dress code is relaxed for breakfast and brunch also. A magician came around to a nearby table that had a child seated and did some comical close-up magic which we all enjoyed.

Out of a little boredom, --and I swore I wouldn't do this again but I did-- we hit the casino for a few minutes. DW likes the quarter push game, which I insist is a sucker game but she can make an hour go by on $10 so that's fine. I went to the Blackjack tables and even though I hate 6-5 blackjack, I went ahead and plopped down $60 ( I went to my room and intentionally only got $60). Like most cruises, there were some really bad amateurs at the table doing crazy things, but for some reason that seemed to help me. I doubled my money in about 15 minutes, tipped the dealer and cashed out. Went straight to the S&S Kiosk and deposited my cash winnings!! BTW, there seemed to always be 2 open Fun 21 tables, 2 $6 tables and 1 $10 table. I never saw anything else in the way of blackjack. Not sure about Fun 21 because I don't play, but the $10 table was also 6-5 (bleh). The $6 tables required either a $6 bet or $5 plus $1 on the side bet game. I know that the $6 tables had continuous shuffle machines, not sure about the other tables.

Like most casinos, this is where the smokers hang out so if you don't like cig smoke, I'd suggest you stay away, DW did win a free drink in that quarter game, so there's that.:D

We found a 90's music trivia game down further on the Promenade deck and although the 80's is more our thing, we enjoyed it. It was followed by a trivia pursuit game which was fun, but a little difficult for the fun crew member to score because she basically awarded the point to whatever group was correct AND in her line of sight at the time.

Spent some time on Serenity, which on this class of ship is quite small. You access it through the aft lounge or from the back of lido and down some stairs. There are maybe 40 loungers in the sun and 20 or so chairs under the lido deck in the shade, a couple of hot tubs and that's about it. We prefer the shade, but when we sat down, we noticed water dripping down from the ceiling above so we had to move. Not sure what the deal was (it's right below the pizza and deli counter), but there were a few of these leaks that you had to avoid. It was here that we really took note of this ships age and the wear and tear. I saw cracks in the grout lines, missing tiles on the hot tubs and just overall aging. Not a deal killer -- we knew this was Carnival's oldest ship before we got on.

I needed to get in a little walking so I headed to the gym, which was the first time I had ever been in a Carnival gym. The locker area seemed well attended to with plenty of clean towels and clean showers. The gym itself had nice modern equipment and I enjoyed my walk on the treadmill. There were maybe 20 people there spread around. Some of them were crew members (dancers perhaps).

While I was doing that, DW ironed the clothes that needed it for Elegant night. She said she only waited for 2 people in front of her, so that wasn't bad compared to past cruises especially considering we were an hour or so until first sitting.

Gotta go do some of that work stuff, so I'll be back later with comments on dinner and evening entertainment.