Fascination Review 8/10-8/15

[jgryder]

Background: Family of 5, 1st cruise for 3 DD 6,10,12 and 4th cruise for DH and I. We are a laid back family and can go with the flow! Important when you are on a cruise!

 

Drove to FLA from Virginia and stayed with friends the night before. We got to the the port about 9:30 parked at the 8.00 lot right outside the port. We had to wait about 20min for a shuttle. We tipped the driver and also the luggage guy at the port. Since we were there early there was very little wait and we even got to use the FTTR line even though we did not pay for it.

 

We were on the ship by 11:30. I had packed a small bag with bathing suits just in case we did not get our luggage. My DD had the waterworks to themselves! We had lunch on the lido deck and our bags were in our room by 2:30.

 

We had room M67 which is an inside room near the elavators. Perfect location. Yes we had 5 people in there. I was a bit worried when I saw the size but being very organized help. Unpack on your bags and put clothes away and store luggage. I bought an over the door shoe organizer at Target and hung it on the bathroom door and put all all bathroom supplies in that. It worked perfect. Nothing in the bathroom except shower supplies! We only used our room for sleeping and getting ready. We took turns in the room for getting ready at night. I would stay at the pool later with my youngest and the older 2 would get ready and go hang out in the library and then the rest of us would get ready.We also bought a power strip to use and plug in all our "stuff."

 

We had anytime dining but most nights we were in there early. We had Raja 3x, and 2 different ones 2 other nights. Raja knew us by name and knew what my 2 DD order every night. He always asked us how our day was. The food was ok. We got to see the conga line and my DD got to lead it.

 

I had 3 DD in activites. 2 in CC 6-8 and 9-11 and my 12 yrold in Circle C. My 12yrold did most of the evening activities and was back to the room by 11:30. My 9-11 did some of the activities as did my 6yrold. They both did the build a bear. I like that the Camps were an option for us.

 

The night shows were nice (bring a blanket for young ones) it can get cold and they can get sleepy. We all liked the music. This was the only thing we did at night.

 

HMC was the best. We were on Tender 20 and getting off the ship was easy. We wanted to rent a cabana but they were all sold out. Glad we didn't. We walked down the beach got 5 chairs in a bit of shade between cabana's 3-4 near the pirate ship. We never used our chairs as we stayed in the water the whole time except for lunch. The boards are not lying when they say this beach is the best! Lunch was ok but we were more excited about looking for fish. My DD bought their swim mask from home and they worked perfect.My DD will tell you that this was the best beach! Back to the ship took awhile to wait for the tenders but that is to be expected with everyone needing to get back.

 

Nassau is what everyone says. Easy getting off the ship and if you can get past the hair braiding and taxi drivers you are good to go...we were heading to the Sheraton for the day pass. We took the #10 bus (5.00) for our family. We met a lady on the bus who was from my hometown (small world) who was staying at there and offered to get us in as a guest. The lobby was nice and that was about it. I am so glad we did not pay for the day pass. The beach was ok. The pool was nice and the DD spent most of their time in there. We stayed about 3 hrs as we wanted to walk a bit downtown. We took the bus back and had lunch at Senor Frogs. We liked it and the DD liked having "real food." We walked thru the Straw Market and headed back to the ship.

 

Just a few points:

We spent most of our time at WaterWorks (never even made it to the pool) we would get 5 chairs together and that is were we would stay. Our older 2 could come and go but they knew where we would be and my youngest had fun riding the slides and hanging out. We had lunch in the lido resturant which was right below us.

We enjoy people watching and enjoyed watching everyone around us. Everyone seem to have a great time on this ship.

 

We were off the boat by 8:30 in our car by 9:30 and heading North! Home to VA by 8:30pm.

 

This cruise was by far the best money spent...I have friends that spend 2x this amount on a beach house for a week that includes just the house!:)

 

We would take this cruise again!

[momin05]

Can you elaborate on why you were disappointed in the Sheraton? We had planned to do that in October with our 7 year old.

[jgryder]

I really just felt like it was a hotel with a beach. There were 2 pools. One had a volleyball net set up in it so not much room to "swim." The other one had a neat waterfall which had shallow water but there wasn't much to do. Coming from HMC the day before there was nothing special about it. Water was not very clear so there was not much to see. It was very empty so it makes me wonder with the # of rooms there was where was everyone? Nassau does not offer a ton of excursions and we just were not willing to pay the price that the excursions cost so we thought that is was a good option.

[tony_g51181]

Notice you stated 8.00 lot??? Can u elaborate on that?

[luvsviola]

If you do the $8 lot, can the driver drop everyone else off with the luggage up at the port, and then go park? We are traveling with 3 small children, and would love the cheaper parking, but don't want to schlep all our stuff on the shuttle.

 

Also, do you get to keep your keys or do you have to turn them in?

[erewhon]

Thanks for the review of your cruise.

Glad you had a good time.

[dcsetman]

thanks for the great review. Headed there in about 33 days :)

[marshhawk]

Thanks for the review, we will be on the ship in October. We were at the Sheritan on our last cruise to the Bahamas, there are 3 pools, two giant hot tubs, and the beach, but agree, when the weather kicks up the water at beach is a bit o

odd. There is a dip, and then a sand bar, and then another dip, So it's not a beach that you just walk gently into the water. After HMC it's a lot different. The hotel has created a reef to snorkel out to -to see fish. When we were there it was during tropical storm Sean, the seas were rough and after getting battered around for a while, we ended up in the pools, which were nice. But we didn't eat there-did you eat there? How where the prices and food choices?

[tony_g51181]

thanks for the great review. Headed there in about 33 days :)

 

Dcsetman ill be there as well!!! I wish there was a flash forward button!!

[jgryder]

8.00 lot you do not leave your keys. They take your luggage for you and put it in the van and then get a porter once at the port. Just tip driver and porter.

 

We did not eat at the Sheraton but were told to eat at the Dolphin Grill outside if we were to eat there.

[jwjax]

jgryder Question?

 

Were both Atrium Elevators working, or was there still one closed due to a broken glass panel??

 

Just Curious, we sail in Dec.

[code_d]

Did you use radios to communicate with your kids as they came and went? Did they enjoy Camp Carnival? We are taking 10,11,14,15,16 with us for first time.

[jgryder]

Yes 1 elevator was still broken.

 

We did not use walkie talkies but I did see other families using them. We parked ourselves in the same place most days and never had a problem finding our kids.

[nextcruise]

Used the $8.00 parking last year and it worked out great! we had 5 in our party with no extra charges. Van was waiting outside when we debarked and in our vehicle on our way home in less than 20 minutes while saving almost half of port parking.

[Georgiagolfer]

Yes 1 elevator was still broken.

 

We did not use walkie talkies but I did see other families using them. We parked ourselves in the same place most days and never had a problem finding our kids.

 

Odd, CCL needs to fix this. It was also broken on our cruise on June 1. 2-3 months to fix an elevator is ridiculous.:(