Some Notes from the Fascination

[TennesseeTater]

Just returned from a 5 day on the Fascination. Instead of doing a full review, thought I would just list some points.

 

Embarkation: Was pretty smooth. Arrived at the port around 10:45. This was our first Platinum Cruise so we were escorted to the Platinum lounge and checked in. We were given our Priority boarding pass and waiting about 15 minutes before they let us on the ship. We went straight to our cabin to drop off our carry on bags. It was very nice to be able to go straight to the cabin and not have to wait until 1:30.

 

Dining Room: We took our 4 year old for his first cruise and we were a little hesitant on taking him to the dining room. We figured we would take him to Lido every night and then take him to Camp Carnival while we ate in the dining room. Of course things never work out the way you think they will with children. He waned to go to the dining room with us and luckily we had no issues. I was very impressed with the waiters and the special attention they gave him. They would always offer to cut up his food for him and try to make him smile, which they usually did :) On one night he wanted to eat with Camp Carnival. That night we ate in the dining room I was impressed that our waiter asked us if we wanted a slow dinner or if we were in a hurry (we had anytime) We told him we were in no hurry and had a nice dinner with the courses not drawn out or rushed. One thing I did notice is that the food was always hot from the kitchen, which was not typical of our past anytime dining experiences. Having our child with us may have sped up the process as well.

 

I will say we did get frustrated with the cabin steward. Before I give you the negative I will say that in terms of cleaning our room, changing the towels, etc we never had any issue and he was great. The issue was with the ice. We brought on a twelve pack of coke and a couple bottles of wine. We got a bucket of beer from lido and kept the bucket in our room to cool down our wine and keep a couple cokes on ice. In all my past cruises the room steward would always keep ice in the bucket. After dinner the first night we came back to the room and the steward had emptied the ice bucket and the wine and cokes were now warm. I saw him in the hallway and asked him for some ice. He looked at me and said " I always empty the ice buckets and then when I'm done cleaning everybody's rooms, I go back and put ice in them." At this point it was about 8:45 PM. I told him we had a 4 year old and may be in bed some nights and would prefer he not knock on our door at 9 PM asking if we wanted ice, and if he could please fill our bucket when he did turn down service. The next day my wife went down to the room after he had made the beds and once again our ice buckets were empty and the wine and cokes were sitting there warm. My wife saw him in the hallway and had to tell him Not to empty the ice bucket unless he was ready to re-fill it. I don't know what his issue was, but he just couldn't grasp the concept of not dumping the ice bucket and re-filling it at the same time. We eventually just left it alone as it was not worth the hassle.

 

We had an oceanview room on Main deck and in all my cruises this was my first experience with inconsiderate neighbors. It would be 2 AM and people would just walk down the hell yelling at each other. I was awakened several nights by loud neighbors. Nothing major, I was able to just roll over and go back to sleep, but my wife said next time we should spend some extra money and move to a higher deck, not sure if that would help though.

 

We used Priority Debarkation, met in the Sensation Dining room at 7:45, had to wait about 20 minutes, and then were taken right down to the gangway.

 

We had a great cruise, and our son loved it. Please feel free to ask any questions. Thanks!

[abitaturbodog]

Thanks for the quick review. We're traveling with my 5-year old nephew next month, and am glad to hear that the wait staff doted on your little guy.

 

As for noisy neighbors--you will have them on every floor. In fact, in my experience, balcony cabins are the most noisy and the most expensive. Some people cruise with those foam ear plugs because of the noise. You might wan to pack some for your next cruise.

[TennesseeTater]

Thanks for the quick review. We're traveling with my 5-year old nephew next month, and am glad to hear that the wait staff doted on your little guy.

 

As for noisy neighbors--you will have them on every floor. In fact, in my experience, balcony cabins are the most noisy and the most expensive. Some people cruise with those foam ear plugs because of the noise. You might wan to pack some for your next cruise.

 

I think you will also be impressed with how they treat your nephew. The waitstaff, specifically, truly went out of their way to make him feel special. He loved Camp Carnival and they did a great job as well.

 

In all our cruising this was really the first time we have noticed a lot of noise. In the past you would occasionally hear people walking down the hallway, but on this cruise it was every night, several times a night. We are easy going people and could just shrug it off though.

[vacationlover16]

We were on the same cruise, same floor. I actually went to the room of the noisy neighbors Tuesday afternoon due to their loud talking and asked them to be quiet because I was napping. They had the door wide open and about 6 people were squeezed into the interior room talking at the top of their lungs. They made a few rude comments after I left but they did quiet down.

 

Otherwise, we had an absolute ball!!!

[Tapi]

Your observations are similar to ours.

 

- The Fascination 5 night was our son's 1st cruise when he turned 1.

- The waiters went out of their way for him (and us). Wonderful.

- Now that you mention the ice, we also had a bit of an issue with this as well. We were on the Empress deck near the atrium so I kept taking my bucket to the atrium bar for ice refills (the bartender didn't like it and told me once to get it from the cabin steward, to which I replied that if our cabin steward was replenishing our ice, I wouldn't be there).

-There was a disproportionate amount of inconsiderate and poorly behaved fellow cruisers on this sailing. Several rude passengers, larger number of smokers not respecting non- smoking rules, etc. It was enough for us to consider a different cruise line for our next sailing and shy away from these cheapie cruises.

 

As mentioned above, we were on the Empress deck and we had unruly neighbors, so I don't think that moving to a higher deck like your wife suggested would be the solution. Unfortunately, rowdy neighbors don't follow a pattern. They can be found anywhere .

[abitaturbodog]

I would guess that a Spa deck cabin might be very quiet. :)

[Dare2Believe]

Glad to hear you had a great time! We're on the Fascination in Feb and are looking forward to it. Happy to hear the dining room food was hot and tasty - the Freedom was the only other Carnival ship on which we've experienced delicious and HOT food from the MDR... looks like we'll be in luck with the Fascination too!

 

 

We've never had a real issue with noisy neighbors, but we did have a noise complaint on the Freedom..the steward supply storage room where they keep their carts/vacuums was across from our balcony room on the Empress deck. They would come in and out - BANG BANG BANG - very late at night and very early in the morning...it was kind of frustrating. I know they couldn't help it, and they were doing their jobs but it was a bit of a downer.

 

Hint to avoid this - don't book a room across from a big empty white space in the deck plan! :)

[luvsviola]

Yay! We sail Saturday. Can't wait!

[winddawn]

Just returned from a 5 day on the Fascination. Instead of doing a full review, thought I would just list some points.

 

Embarkation: Was pretty smooth. Arrived at the port around 10:45. This was our first Platinum Cruise so we were escorted to the Platinum lounge and checked in. We were given our Priority boarding pass and waiting about 15 minutes before they let us on the ship. We went straight to our cabin to drop off our carry on bags. It was very nice to be able to go straight to the cabin and not have to wait until 1:30.

 

Dining Room: We took our 4 year old for his first cruise and we were a little hesitant on taking him to the dining room. We figured we would take him to Lido every night and then take him to Camp Carnival while we ate in the dining room. Of course things never work out the way you think they will with children. He waned to go to the dining room with us and luckily we had no issues. I was very impressed with the waiters and the special attention they gave him. They would always offer to cut up his food for him and try to make him smile, which they usually did :) On one night he wanted to eat with Camp Carnival. That night we ate in the dining room I was impressed that our waiter asked us if we wanted a slow dinner or if we were in a hurry (we had anytime) We told him we were in no hurry and had a nice dinner with the courses not drawn out or rushed. One thing I did notice is that the food was always hot from the kitchen, which was not typical of our past anytime dining experiences. Having our child with us may have sped up the process as well.

 

I will say we did get frustrated with the cabin steward. Before I give you the negative I will say that in terms of cleaning our room, changing the towels, etc we never had any issue and he was great. The issue was with the ice. We brought on a twelve pack of coke and a couple bottles of wine. We got a bucket of beer from lido and kept the bucket in our room to cool down our wine and keep a couple cokes on ice. In all my past cruises the room steward would always keep ice in the bucket. After dinner the first night we came back to the room and the steward had emptied the ice bucket and the wine and cokes were now warm. I saw him in the hallway and asked him for some ice. He looked at me and said " I always empty the ice buckets and then when I'm done cleaning everybody's rooms, I go back and put ice in them." At this point it was about 8:45 PM. I told him we had a 4 year old and may be in bed some nights and would prefer he not knock on our door at 9 PM asking if we wanted ice, and if he could please fill our bucket when he did turn down service. The next day my wife went down to the room after he had made the beds and once again our ice buckets were empty and the wine and cokes were sitting there warm. My wife saw him in the hallway and had to tell him Not to empty the ice bucket unless he was ready to re-fill it. I don't know what his issue was, but he just couldn't grasp the concept of not dumping the ice bucket and re-filling it at the same time. We eventually just left it alone as it was not worth the hassle.

 

We had an oceanview room on Main deck and in all my cruises this was my first experience with inconsiderate neighbors. It would be 2 AM and people would just walk down the hell yelling at each other. I was awakened several nights by loud neighbors. Nothing major, I was able to just roll over and go back to sleep, but my wife said next time we should spend some extra money and move to a higher deck, not sure if that would help though.

 

We used Priority Debarkation, met in the Sensation Dining room at 7:45, had to wait about 20 minutes, and then were taken right down to the gangway.

 

We had a great cruise, and our son loved it. Please feel free to ask any questions. Thanks!

Try taking a collapsible cooler with you. Then you won't have to worry about the bucket.

[TennesseeTater]

Try taking a collapsible cooler with you. Then you won't have to worry about the bucket.

 

We had an adjoining room with our mother in law (wahoo :( ) and we let her borrow our cooler. The room steward did the same thing with that too. He would empty the cooler, then clean the rest of his rooms, and then come back and fill everything with ice. The problem was that everything warmed up in the time that it took for him to come back. Like I said, not a huge issue but it was the 1 thing we would have liked to be better.

 

We were very happy with our cruise and can't wait for the Breeze in January. I want to go ahead and book another cruise but the wife says that's a no go because our 4 year old needs a brother! Lord help me.

[bafinegan]

Dh and I were also on that cruise. We had a porthole on upper deck. Security was called 2x ( not by us- I thought it was like a soap opera) for yelling, screaming and fighting. Heard security ask the man if he wanted to press charges (this was evening of day 3). He declined and never heard another peep out of that room. DH thogh theyh might have been put off the ship, but we saw luggage outside the door for p/u on the last night. And agree about the ice- must be a new thing. And TOTALLY agree about rude people ( and kids). But overall we love the Fascination so much we are looking to book our 6th cruise on her :)

[TennesseeTater]

Dh and I were also on that cruise. We had a porthole on upper deck. Security was called 2x ( not by us- I thought it was like a soap opera) for yelling, screaming and fighting. Heard security ask the man if he wanted to press charges (this was evening of day 3). He declined and never heard another peep out of that room. DH thogh theyh might have been put off the ship, but we saw luggage outside the door for p/u on the last night. And agree about the ice- must be a new thing. And TOTALLY agree about rude people ( and kids). But overall we love the Fascination so much we are looking to book our 6th cruise on her :)

 

We saw Security knocking on somebody's door about 4 or 5 rooms down from us one night as well. The irony is every single person we met on the cruise was as nice as could be. We had several pleasant conversations with folks all around the ship. Apparently the bad passengers just stayed in their cabin the whole time and made noise.

[mj]

Thanks for the review.

[vacationlover16]

We saw Security knocking on somebody's door about 4 or 5 rooms down from us one night as well. The irony is every single person we met on the cruise was as nice as could be. We had several pleasant conversations with folks all around the ship. Apparently the bad passengers just stayed in their cabin the whole time and made noise.

 

I agree, I tend to keep to myself and I don't know how many conversations I had with friendly strangers. I talked to people on the shuttle to the airport on the way to Jacksonville for this cruise, people at the hotel before the cruise, and many more on the ship! We really did have a great time. I even spoke to the people later on the same evening after asking them to quiet down, no hard feelings at all.

[marshhawk]

Thanks for your mini review-what were your ports and how were they? I had tried to ask questions, but the system crashed, so now I will just ask about ports.

[TennesseeTater]

Thanks for your mini review-what were your ports and how were they? I had tried to ask questions, but the system crashed, so now I will just ask about ports.

 

We went to Half Moon Cay and Nassau. Had a few sprinkles at Half Moon Cay but other than that it was a great day. Nassau was typical. We have been there so many times we didn't have anything lined up. We got off the ship and walked around for an hour and a half or so and then went back.

[marshhawk]

Thanks. I loved HMC, and we love Nassau, not for the city, but for the Sheritan beach, and Blackbeards Cay, we did not enjoy Blue Lagoon, no matter when we get into Nassau, we get rain. ! We are going back to the Sheritan on this trip. OK hopefully my system wont crash-

Which dining room did you get with the anytime dining? And what deck do you enter the ship on in Jacksonville ? If it's the lower deck then I can just walk up to my cabin, if it's the Empress deck I will high tail it down to my cabin, want to be free and clear of carrrying aroudn my stuff! The joy of FTTF.:D

[TennesseeTater]

Thanks. I loved HMC, and we love Nassau, not for the city, but for the Sheritan beach, and Blackbeards Cay, we did not enjoy Blue Lagoon, no matter when we get into Nassau, we get rain. ! We are going back to the Sheritan on this trip. OK hopefully my system wont crash-

Which dining room did you get with the anytime dining? And what deck do you enter the ship on in Jacksonville ? If it's the lower deck then I can just walk up to my cabin, if it's the Empress deck I will high tail it down to my cabin, want to be free and clear of carrrying aroudn my stuff! The joy of FTTF.:D

 

We usually walk down to Junkanoo but decided to just walk around. My wife and her mother shopped a little and we let our son sight see a bit. Anytime dining was in the Sensation Dining room (midship).

 

We actually got on and off the ship on Deck 0, like you would use getting on and off at a port. I was surprised by this because they did have a gangway, but didn't use it.

[icruz]

Try taking a collapsible cooler with you. Then you won't have to worry about the bucket.

 

The room stewards do not fill ice buckets until all other work is completed, period !!!...it has been that way on our 40 + sailings with CCL...I will always get an extra beer bucket from the lido guys, and get my ice from the Lido Buffet area