Carnival Fascination 4/23-28: A Long Review With Lots Of Photos

[HopeILuvCruisin]

Great review. This year is also my wife and My's 10th anniversary. I laughed when I read that you guys were trying to take a nap so that you cold stay out later. I don't know what it is, but on our last cruise we did without the kiddos, we were very excited to hang out with our friends who also have two small kids. We just kept talking about these late nights we would have without having to wake up early with the boys. Then comes the cruise and we were in bed by 11:00 every night. I guess its just age. I was blaming the kids.

 

This is hilarious! We were (are) the same way....Our Legend cruise we said we HAVE to make it past 11:D

[rnvattes]

Enjoying your review and pics ~ looking forward to more! We will be onboard June 23, and I was wondering how long from sail away until the ship reaches the Dames Point Bridge? Thanks!

 

 

And, as an FYI -- the unusual tree in your photos is a Banyan tree. They are pretty cool, aren't they?

 

 

 

Thanks again for the review and photos!!! :)

 

 

I can't be sure -- I wasn't watching my watch. But per the info on my pics, I took the first ones at 4:35 and the last ones at 4:55... so 20 minutes? We were only moving a few minutes before I moved forward to take the pics.

 

 

 

Yes, the Banyan Tree is awesome!

 

 

 

Thanks for reading :) Have a wonderful cruise!

[yonder]

Thanks for the review. My son and our future daughter in law will be getting married on the fascination on 7-16!!! This will be their first cruise!!! We can't wait!!!:)

[rnvattes]

Thursday, April 26: Nassau

 

As was common throughout the trip, I was awake well before my sweetie. I lay in bed reading, but soon became too fidgety and headed out to take some pictures of the ship before too many people were awake. I got a lot of really great shots before heading back to the cabin for coffee and toast from room service.

 

Lido, looking aft:

 

 

WaterWorks, looking forward:

 

 

Lido, looking forward. Those very large windows on the rounded section are the windows on the Owners' Suites:

 

 

Whale Tail!

 

 

Crew Beach

[rnvattes]

All the way forward on Veranda Deck is the "secret door" people talk about. Really not all that secret ;) Anyway, if you go through that door you can access an area where the following pictures were taken:

 

Veranda Deck balconies:

 

 

 

Bridge (I don't see anyone up there... who is driving this ship anyway?!):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back inside I visited some of the public areas, now empty in the early morning.

 

 

Empty Palace Theater, as viewed from the stage

 

 

 

Promenade

 

[rnvattes]

Something tells me this is the Casino

 

 

 

Passage to India - one of the lounges. The elephants are NOT real ;)

 

 

 

I noticed the tables along Promenade had some really cool artwork on them. I snapped pics of several table tops, and share two of them here. One has a lot of old time Hollywood Stars on them (how many can you name?!), the other is of Fascination as she was being built.

 

 

 

 

 

On my way back to our cabin, I found this outside the other dining room. We had been looking for this ALL WEEK; we remembered seeing the menus posted outside the dining room on cruises past, but we could not find such a thing on this sailing. Here it was - we were looking in the wrong spot all the while.

 

[rnvattes]

Today was our stop in Nassau, but we weren’t arriving to port until noon, and even then we had almost no plans at all aside from staying on the near-empty ship. Another easy-going day lay ahead of us. Coffee and toast arrived and I switched on the news. It is so nice lounging in bed – TOGETHER (at home we take turns with sleep-ins so only one of us gets to each weekend day) in the morning without having to referee any (loud) children. We surveyed the Fun Times to see if there were any “must do” activities today. Sometime around 10, I think, we headed out to Coconut Grove for a full breakfast. Then we decided to scope out some lounge chairs. I thought we would meet with a good bit of trouble, it being sort of a “sea morning”, but we went to our Veranda-Overlooking-Lido-Stage spot and found plenty of open seats.

 

The view from my lounger:

 

 

 

 

We got there just in time for some more TV Theme Trivia; we really loved playing along out on deck. Phil, the Entertainment Director (who we later learned was on his last sailing before some time at home), was funny in a quirky kind of way and we really enjoyed him. The weather was, again, absolutely perfect, and we enjoyed lounging in the sun, reading, and listening to music. I had plenty of Cruise Tunes loaded up on my iPod, but I found that I enjoyed the music they were playing at least as much as my own stuff, so I didn’t use the iPod as much as I have in the past. I did use it a lot in the room, though. I had picked up a great little speaker for $19.99 at Target before we left home that was just right for providing us with in-room music.

 

Around 11:00 we approached the port of Nassau. The upper decks got quite busy at that time, everyone watching as we pulled into port and the Captain turned us a full 180 degrees so we could back in. The water was beautiful, as was Atlantis off in the distance. We got a number of great photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnvattes]

Just after noon everyone left us  It was soooooooooo quiet all afternoon, and we relished it. We waited for everyone to leave, then grabbed some lunch; I enjoyed the Mongolian Wok, and Shane had some pizza. With so many passengers off, having eaten ahead of departing for their day on Nassau, there was absolutely no wait in any of the lunch locales.

 

Two of Fascination’s sister ships – Fantasy and Ecstasy – were in port with us. I took the opportunity of being parked up alongside Ecstasy to take some photos of our ship as mirrored. I was especially interested in taking photos of the Owner’s Suite. On my early morning stroll I realized on our own ship how not private the Suite is. The deck is visible from Lido, the windows overlook Lido (and at night you can see straight into them!), and there just really isn’t any privacy at all. Definitely not worth the money people spend to stay in there since I would feel like I had to keep the curtains drawn all the time, and what good is that?

 

Pictures of Owner's Suite on Ecstasy, as viewed from Fascination:

 

 

 

 

Norwegian Gem was also in port. A old friend of mine from high school had posted on Facebook that she and her family were “cruising like Norwegians” the day we left, and I wondered if that was the ship she was on. When we returned home, I learned it was! Small, small world.

 

Anyway, there were four ships in Nassau that day – very very busy. I knew this ahead of time from doing some pre-cruise research. And that information was important in us planning to stay on the ship. The only excursion we found of interest was the water park at Atlantis. But, all the reviews I read indicated that they gave you a 1-hour tour of the property before setting you “free”. Add in the transfer to and from the property from the ship, and the reviews said that you were left with about 2 hours, give or take a few minutes, to enjoy the water park. With four ships in port, we figured the Water Park would be overrun, and for the cost of the excursion it just wasn’t worth it to us. As I sat on deck that afternoon, sipping my daiquiri, listening to the quiet of the near-empty ship, I was validated in our decision.

 

[gsobrit]

Keep it coming! great review, we leave out June 23rd.

[cruzegurl104]

This is so great!! I love all of the pictures, our cruise is going to HMC & then Nassau,, I hope we have as pretty weather as you guys did! Fingers crossed!:)

[SeeLSee]

Thank you so much for these wonderful pictures and comments. We are sailing (with our kids) on Facination in August (100 days from today to be exact!). Cannot wait and your review has made it that much more exciting!

[h_blond2]

Great review! I love the pictures!

[rnvattes]

Thanks for all the wonderful comments :o (blushing)

 

Just slept off my night shift, and I'm back to post a little bit more. Not sure I'll be done in time for this weekend's sailing though... sorry!

[rnvattes]

Around 3:00 we decided we were done with the sun. Shane headed back to the cabin first, and I joined him a short while later. I was again amazed at the view we had from our stateroom. These photos were shot through our window:

 

 

 

 

 

We showered and dressed before heading down to the gangway. As we were leaving the ship, sooooooooooooo many passengers from the other three ships were returning and it felt like we were the only ones going in the away-from-the-ships direction. It really freaked me out and had me questioning how sure I was that we were there til 10pm. I mean, I [knew it was 10p, but it's easy to get to questioning yourself when you're like salmon swimming up stream. I just kept thinking - I don't want to be a pier runner! LOL A real nice, friendly guy asked us if we would take some pictures of his beautiful family - and then he returned the favor.

 

 

 

 

 

It was so neat to have the Ecstasy and Fantasy in port with us. It was like seeing triplets! :D

 

 

 

[rnvattes]

Our only plan for Nassau was to grab some drinks and maybe appetizers at Senor Frogs. We visited there on our cruise in 2006 and enjoyed the fun, wild atmosphere. Once again it did not disappoint. Our bartender, Richard, was fantastic and had a great personality. Within a few minutes of us sitting down to get some drinks – I had a yard of mudslide, and Shane had a fruity drink of one sort or another – the fun began. Two patrons were chosen to participate in a beer chugging contest, each one representing one half of the bar. Whichever side finished their beers first won free shots for their side of the bar. The one side won, but the other side had some technical difficulties, so (surprise of surprises!) everyone in the bar won free shots! I'm pretty sure the guy that was leading all the fun was the same one working there in 2006 ;)

 

 

 

 

 

[rnvattes]

We met a really nice couple from Toronto while we were there. They have cruised before, but this time were staying on Nassau for several days, on a vacation from their own left-at-home kids. We visited a while and enjoyed our drinks and some chips and salsa. Some more contests took place and it was just a really fun place to be. On our way out we stopped in the souvenir shop, but not finding anything we had to have moved on before long. We ran into Cruise Critic roll call members Michelle, her Mom, Robert, and Mandy as we left. They had enjoyed the See and Sea tour of Nassau and said they had all had a wonderful day. They confirmed that we were to be back on board at 9:30pm for a 10pm sail-away and finally set my mind at ease. The group had arrived at Senors not long before but were well into their first round of drinks and appetizers by the time we found them. They had some conch fritters, which they graciously allowed me to sample; I found them to be more fritter than conch, but yummy still.

 

We of course took the obligatory Senor Frogs photos ;)

 

 

 

 

On our way back to the ship we briefly stopped in the Straw Market. But not being people who enjoy being harassed while we shop, we didn’t stay but a very few minutes before deciding we didn’t need to have that experience. We went back to the ship instead.

[rnvattes]

We enjoyed our dinner with Gilbert and friends once again before going to the Palace Theater. Rather than a show tonight, they were having Activity Night: Trivia, Match Game, 60 Seconds or Less, Bingo, and Battle of the Sexes. We did not make it in time for Trivia. For Match Game they had one man and one woman up on stage. The entertainment staff would ask a question and they would write down their responses; those of us in the audience would do the same. At the end they reviewed the questions and revealed the answers of the people up on stage; as long as there were at least 2 people in the audience who had their same answer, that team (men or women) won a point. It was very silly! 60 Seconds or Less was similar to Minute to Win It only with much easier challenges. I can’t remember all of the tasks they had to do, but I do remember we laughed so hard! We left before Bingo and Battle of the Sexes.

 

A little commentary on the shows on board: On the one hand, it is disappointing to see the reduction in the number of real shows they are putting on. The first night was Welcome Aboard - we didn't see it but from past experience and from the description in the Fun Times, I know that it's a hodge-podge of singing, dancing, welcome schpiel by the CD, and sneak preview of some of the other on-board acts showing through the week. The second night was a "real" show - Hey Mambo - singing, dancing, and costumes, and we left there feeling like we had really seen something. The third night was the show that the Guests put on, like a grown-up Talent show. Not a real show at all, and we didn't bother with it. Activity night was fun, and probably made sense with a number of people still off in Nassau, but not what you expect. The show on the final night, Far From Over (the 80's show) was PHENOMENAL, and was exactly what shows on board should be. I know the economy, costs rising, etc etc, and I appreciate that Carnival is trying to find ways to cut costs to keep OUR costs down (and still keep plenty of money in their own till). But I do wish the shows at night were more like they used to be, when you never wanted to miss a single one and the theater was packed to the gills well before the curtain went up. :::stepping off my soapbox now:::

 

 

It must have been a little after 9 by that point. We visited the photo gallery again. We found all the pictures of us, weeded out the really bad ones, and stacked the few remaining ones together behind our formal pictures. This worked well for us – the next day, our last day on the ship, we were able to go to the formal pictures and make our final selections without having to hunt and peck again. I recommend this little trick, until Carnival decides to go digital ;)

 

 

There was a Mega Deck Party planned for that night at sail-away. You know, the one with the Mexican buffet and line dances on Lido? It was still a bit early, but we headed out to Lido to start scoping out the situation. The band was already playing when we got out there, a cover band called Music Mix. I had heard on Cruise Critic that they were pretty good, and we were not disappointed. They played a nice mix of tunes. We tried to get a table, but they were already spoken for except for one on the starboard side near the grill. Starboard on Lido, as you may be aware, is the smoking section – and it was very smoky. It was, however, the only place aside from the Casino that we ever noticed any cigarette smoke at all during the trip, which was nice. After a few minutes trying to endure, I couldn’t take it any more and we moved on to try and find a better spot.

 

How could we have forgotten our tried-and-true location? The same chairs we spent all day in were the PERFECT location to see the band and take in some people watching! It was cool and breezy, but not cold by any stretch of the imagination, and we enjoyed sitting and listening to the music.

 

There was a very loud group below us, though, presumably watching for pier runners as we were nearing sail-away. They kept screaming and hollering and it was really quite annoying! I got out of my chair to see what all the racket was, and found that it was a group of teenagers who were on the ship for their senior trip (imagine – a cruise for senior trip?! We went to the local amusement park when I was a senior). This, and a very few brief moments late one night, were the only time we ever noticed this group who I overheard were from Tennessee. I have to say they were well behaved and did not stick out with obnoxious behavior. We knew there were a couple of girls staying near our cabin (which is when we heard them that one time late at night) – but I was SHOCKED when we were disembarking to notice that most of the aft starboard cabins on Main were occupied by members of this group! Kudos to them.

[rnvattes]

Back to the Deck Party. Despite the great music, there was nobody dancing yet. Well, nobody except for this one totally adorable much older couple who could really DANCE. You know, the kind they must have used to teach in school where they are actually doing real dance steps with the man following and the woman leading? They were so good! We joked that they were TOO good, intimidating the rest of us with their moves and keeping people from joining them on the dance floor. It was great watching them; they were clearly having so much fun, just smiling and laughing and dancing their feet off!

 

It was getting late – probably almost 11:00 ;) – and we were not interested in Mexican buffet food before bed, so we started to make our way back to our cabin. We stopped briefly in the Coconut Grove and grabbed a snack (and some glasses of ice for me!) and made our way back to our room.

 

We were moving by then, and when we opened our door to find our towel animal – a rabbit tonight – it looked like he was quivering. It was too funny! We couldn’t decide if he was cold (our steward seemed to turn our vents up to high – meaning super cool – each time he visited) or afraid. We got a big kick out of it. We put him in his spot in the window seat and closed the curtains. Do you know, he was still shaking in the morning?? Poor bunny…

 

[matt082600]

Great review! Can't wait for the rest.

[AmberTeka]

I have enjoyed your review so much. I agree with you about the trays. I always tip the cabin attendant $20 dollars the first day...and leave the trays in the room. We order coffee sometimes. then we tip at the end of the cruise..about the same. That way..I don't feel like he or she had to do extra...mess with trays..without getting something for it. On HAL they are big on telling folks NOT to do it.

 

I loved you bit about watching the dancers. We were on Princess last year..and I would go early to Trivia to get a good seat and wait for my Husband. A band played in that club before Trivia..and every night..this Chinese couple would be there..and they would dance. Oh My..their feet almost did not touch the floor. They floated. Sometimes they did ballroom dancing..and their feet moved in perfect unison. I enjoyed them..almost as much as the shows. They both wore solid black..and everything they did..the Tango..the rhumba...the cha cha cha..step step step box step..perfect unison.

 

I learned they were part time instructors on the ship and then One Older man.....got on and goodness. He could do the bop..the Mashed Potato...the twist..all of the old dances..and did them like he was a teen agers. He danced with his kids..and they were great to watch.

I had no idea there was a fort on Key West. And I taught Florida History at one time!! My husband is a nut on forts. He will certainly tour that.

Thanks again for your review. It was awesome.

[DaisyMargaret]

I look forward to seeing more pics! We are cruising on the fascination on the 18 of june!

 

 

We are also sailing on 18 June on the Fascination, so looking forward to my cruise.

[gelo7]

Nice review.

[gsobrit]

I like your idea of staying onboard while in port. Do they have the pool and slides open while in port? I think i see some people on the slides in one of your pics?

[iwannacruz]

My family will be doing the same itinery on May 21. I was wondering how many formal nights there are and when they occur.

[CruzerDeb]

Thanks for the great review! Looks like I need to book a cruise to Key West.:)