Carnival Fascination Review - Dec 19-24, 2012

[CruiserKid]

The Flight - Took Southwest flight to Jacksonville. Arrived on time and took La Quinta Inn Shuttle to hotel. I had to wait like 30 minutes for shuttle, but it was okay since I was there extra early. Climate was cool, so no plans to go to the beach.

 

The Hotel - La Quinta Inn Airport North. Nice, clean, comfortable, affordable & safe hotel. Surrounding neighborhood not too bad, but not very nice neither. Many abandoned buildings. I was only approached once requesting a handout at night while walking out late in the neighborhood. Not recommended for walking out late at night. Stayed two nights.

 

The Cruise

La Quinta Inn provide free shuttle to port (sign-up when you register). Since I arrived Saturday, I had first choice for shuttle time. I selected 10:00 AM. Shuttle arrived on time and quickly took me and other passengers to the cruise port. We were at the cruise port within 15 minutes. I had VIP boarding so I went quickly through security, checked in and was waiting in first place to board the ship. There was hardly anyone there, so arriving at this time, even if not VIP, should get you through check-in process quickly.

 

At 11:00 AM, a wedding party boarded. About 5 minutes later, VIP and general boarding began. I was on board the ship by 11:10 AM. No food was out yet. The ship was practically empty. I walked around and took pictures of an empty ship. About 30 minutes later, the salad bar was opened. By then, many more passengers had boarded. This is my first experience that I have to wait for the restaurants to open on board the ship. I’ve boarded early many times. Anyway, by the time they opened, lines grew quickly, but no problem finding a spot to sit down. I had a quick delicious lunch and relaxed until 1:30 for cabins to be available.

Category 1A (E185). Cabin was great for a single passenger. There is enough room for two because there is a bunk bed that could be unfolded. Since I was single, the bunk bed remained folded up the entire cruise, giving me more room. Love the inside cabins because day and night are exactly alike and I could sleep anytime. I would sleep for a couple of hours in the afternoon so I could stay up late and wake-up early.

 

I had late seating at Table 300 in the Imagination Dining Room. It was a big round table as we enter the dining room. Food was very good in the dining room. As usual, service is not fast, so I take my time and consider dinner an event to sit back, relax and talk with other. For some reason, our table was usually one of the last ones to be served even though some of us arrived early. Perhaps because we always had tablemates coming a little late, so they waited to take our order later than other tables. Service was great, but did not exceed my expectations. I’ve cruised so many times that this is the type of service I was expecting and the type of service I got. It was very good service. The Super Charged Maitre D’ was very entertaining. He spoke in an unusual manner and was pleasant.

 

Open Seating Breakfast/Lunch. I much preferred the old fashion dining room assignments for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but I think that’s a thing of the past. It’s hit or miss. The first day I had breakfast in the Sensation Dining Room, service exceeded my expectations. It’s hard to exceed my expectations because I already expect great service. It was excellent, attentive service. The second time, it was barely acceptable. It took a very long time to get a refill on the small cup of coffee. Pineapple juice was never brought. Bagel was “forgotten”, then brought without the requested cream cheese. By the time the waiter came around to refill my cup, I had finished breakfast. I’m not usually picky about these things, but I guess the first breakfast was so good that it made the second one look terrible.

I also had lunch one time in the dining room because I saw on the menu there was German Chocolate Cake and in my opinion, no one makes it as delicious as Carnival does. Only problem was that when it was time for dessert, the waiter informed me that they were out for German Chocolate Cake. I was so disappointed, but that’s life. Since lunch is only served in the dining room on sea days, the number of lunches in the dining room is considerably less. On my past two cruises, I specifically went each sea day to the dining room to look for German Chocolate Cake, but none of those lunch menus had it. Oh well, I didn’t need the extra calories anyway.

 

Lido Restaurant. Made to order omelets are available, but you have to go to the outdoor part to order them (by beverage area outside). I had a difficult time ordering egg substitute. For people who are watching their cholesterol level, consider the main dining room for breakfast. Easy to order egg substitute, turkey bacon and you don’t have the temptation to pile on the plate. I tend to eat less at the main dining room than the lido buffet. The Pizzeria also has delicious Caesar Salads with garlic bread. The deli also provides delicious made to order sandwiches from 11 am to 11 pm daily. Dinner on the lido deck no longer had the Steak Fries, which I love. The selections seem less and less comparing to prior cruises on Carnival.

The grill had a good selection of hot dogs, burgers and chicken along with crispy fries and other stuff. The Mongolian Wok was great. It reminded me of Flat Top restaurants in the U.S. You put your own stuff (veggies) on a bowl then select your meat and sauce. Then they stir fry it. It was okay for me, but I know some friends that would love it. I’m not a fan of stir fry, but if you are, I think you will be pleased.

 

Serenity. Nice comfortable place for adults to relax. It was just okay because neither tub was working 100%. One tub at least had strong jets going while the other one had weak jets that it looked like just a tub with hot water. Serenity was busy most of the day and practically empty at night. They also closed the hot tubs by 10 pm (sometimes sooner if nobody was enjoying the hot tub). However, Serenity Deck is open all the time. This Serenity did not have those hammocks found on other ships.

 

Lido deck. I sure enjoy not having one of those blaring large screens. I admit, I love to see movies on them, but not hearing loud music on them. I enjoyed much more the live music that was available sometimes on the lido deck. There was always lounge chairs available, however, most of the ones closer to the pool were usually taken or reserved by people or “chair hogs.” In the evening, many lounge chairs became available, even the ones near the pool. The resort style pool was nice and 4.76 feet deep. One of the hot tubs by the pool is for adults only and the other one allows kids. The hot tub that allowed kids was crazy. It was usually filled with kids. I once counted over 15 children in it at the same time, packed like sardines. There was only one deck party when we left the Bahamas. They had a Mexican Buffet, but it was pretty poor compared to other Mexican Buffets at previous cruises.

 

Past Guest Party. Free drinks were rolled out from preserved trays. There were good selections. This time they played a game on knowledge of Carnival Cruise Lines. It was multiple choice: A or B. If you lost, you got off until there was a winner. It was held in the main show lounge and it was pleasant. Read about carnival if you want to win.

 

The 80’s show. This was the only show I watched. I had stopped going to shows because I’ve been on so many cruises and I felt they looked very similar. However, I’m a big fan of the 80’s, so I decided to check out this show. I loved it. Great music, singing and dancing. Only a couple of parts may be inappropriate for little children.

 

Comedy Club. I went only once to the adult comedy show. It was okay, but I’m not much into foul language, so I don’t enjoy these shows as much as others. But I have to admit, he was pretty funny. I don’t know the comedian’s name, but he did make me laugh a few times. I thought it was disgusting when the Carnival social host made a towel #@&% instead of a towel animal. Not for kids, listen to the warning in the Fun Times.

 

Dance Club. It was never really packed, but people there enjoyed themselves. Empty or full, just make the best of it and enjoy the music.

 

Casino. I played very little, so I don’t have much to say. However, I did enjoy playing Texas Hold’em in the electronic poker table with others. It’s all electronic and the house takes part of the pot. Same people playing for a while, will eventually have less and less money because the house keeps taking it’s cut. I lost $80 here. However, I did join the blackjack tournament and won $500. That was enough for me to book another cruise for August 2012. I’m booked for Carnival Fascination again doing the exact same cruise, so that shows that I did enjoy this cruise. They also have a new game Casino Vault. You have to put the key in the right spot to win $100, $200 or $500 & iPad2. I saw several hundreds of dollars go into this machine and never saw anyone win. However, others shared that they saw a $200 winner and a $100 winner during this cruise. I put a few dollars myself into this machine, but it is very difficult to win. Looks easy, but it’s not.

 

Trivia and other games. I joined in a few games, but nowhere near winning any games because my knowledge is very limited. I recommend Carnivllaire (something like that, a version of who wants to be a millionaire). The golf tournament was kind of weird because it was play on your own and tell the social host how many strokes it took to complete the nine holes. The winner was the one with the least strokes (honor system). The Scategories was also weird because this time you had to team with a partner and got points if you are your partner matched.

 

The Mini Golf was great, but the only problem is that when there is too much wind, they close the top deck where mini golf is at.

 

Waterworks looked great, but I thought the water was too cold for climate conditions and did not try it. However, I did see a few people enjoying it.

 

Disembarkation. I did self-assist where you take off your own luggage. I got up early to pack in the morning. I went to breakfast and got off at around 8:45 AM. Many people had gotten off already, but I waited until I was ready. It was quick and smooth. I was surprised that I didn’t have to present my passport nor any ID. It seemed like I only passed through customs, but no immigration cause there was no documentation check. I purchased on board transfer to JAX. I just had to wait for bus to almost fill up and it was a nice quick ride to the airport.