Fascination Review April 28-May 3

[Cristallo]

I'm not going to go into a lengthy review of the ship since everyone know's what there is to do on board her. This is my opinion and therefor subjective to my personality.

 

History: This was DH and I's 2nd cruise on the Fascination. We live in town so sailing on her is easy. We're about 45 mins from the port and get dropped off. The last cruise on her was in Nov 2010.

 

Embarkation Since we've sailed on her before we knew what to do and where to go. The current JaxPort is supposed to be a temporary structure so it's not very large. The waiting area can be confusing after the first zone's fill up. You have to walk down a large bank of desks where they give you your S&S cards, after you get your card you have to keep moving left down the desks but once that area fills up you have to move back to where you started. It get's confusing because you have two lines of passengers crossing each other. Another problem we had was since CCL upsold us a balcony cabin the afternoon before we left when we got there our S&S had to be made again. That meant we had to wait an extra hour to get our cards to get on board.I'm glad we got there early. Grade: C

 

Cabin: We were in U198, port side aft. It was a basic balcony cabin. Only things of note were whenever the thrusters came on or the stabilizers came out the cabin shook. Not a big deal for us since we're earlier risers.Another thing was that during the day our cabin was freezing and at night it was warm no matter how you turned the knob on the ac. Also our neighbors said that in their cabins it smelled some. It came and went in ours. Grade:B

 

Food: Overall it was okay to good. Some dishes were better then others. The stand outs to me were the Thai chicken tenders, cappuccino pie, WCMC and penne mariscos (I had mine without the scallops.) I found something to eat every night even if it was just a burger. The only disappointment was in the ribs. Last time they were tender and amazing. This time they were a bit dry and tough. Breakfast and lunch were a mix of lido buffet and dining room and they both tasted fine. Grade:B

 

Entertainment: We're not really show people, it's just not our thing but we enjoyed the comedy show (Note: I remember one reviewer stating that there wasn't a family friendly comedy show. Yes their were. They were around 8:30ish with the adult one's around 10-11pm). We did see one show after hearing glowing reviews on the elevator. It was the 80's show in the forward theater. It was good and we were glad we saw it. Our neighbors LOVED dancing at Diamonds are Forever night club. Grade:B

 

Ports: We were supposed to be headed to Nassau and HMC but the captain felt we couldn't tender to HMC so we became Nassau and Freeport. Nassau had 6 ships in port that day so we knew it would be busy. We walked down to Junkaroo Beach stuck our feet in the water and then headed back to the ship. We did a bit of shopping on the walk back. In Freeport we got off at their little straw market walked around for about 20 minutes and got back on board. Seems like a lot of people did the same. Nothing much to see or do without having to take a taxi to Port Lucaya. Grade: C

 

Fellow passengers: Everyone seemed great. No loud kids, no stumbling drunks. Everyone seemed friendly and we met some really nice people around the ship that we'd repeatedly talk to. Our neighbors were smokers but were nice enough to ask at the start of the cruise if it bothered us. They didn't smoke like a chimney so it wasn't a problem in the least. Grade: A

 

Crew: Were great as usual. Our cruise director was a British woman named Jen who's favorite word seemed to be "brilliant" and "booty". I remember more announcements this time then last. Only one issue was with the shore excursions desk. I had asked a question relating to the Oasis our roll call had rented. It wasn't anything specific but a general question on how to get to it when we got to the island and the man behind the desk treated me like I was asking how to kidnap the Captain and kept saying I needed to ask the gentleman who was heading the rental for the group. Really? I needed to ask another passenger how to get to the Oasis? I know it's not in my name but come on I only wanted directions. Grade: B+

 

Debarkation: Since we had a friend pick us up we didn't want to make them wait so we did self assist. Easy peasy. Waited on the promenade deck. Grade:A

 

 

I've got most if not all of the Fun Times if anyone wants to see them and ask away if you have any questions.

[MrsZee]

I'd like to see them. Wanna email or post? Thanks!

[gsobrit]

Whats the best time to arrive before the crowds.

[crusinkaty]

I would love to see them also

[kcep02]

I would love to see them also. Did you have an OV and got the upsale call for the balcony?

[reerun25]

I would love to see them as well, sailing on her at the end of the month!!

[Cristallo]

I'll try to get them posted this weekend. We didn't take tomorrow off from work...silly us.

 

 

We arrived at the port around 10:30 and they were already to zone 3 for boarding. It wasn't busy yet but as we waited for our S&S to be made it got busier and busier.

 

We were in an mid inside and were upsold to a aft balcony. They called around 2 the day before.

[gsobrit]

Thanks, that's early! Driving from NC day of cruise.

[vivavegas]

Thanks for the review! Would love to see the fun times!:)