2cruise4ever

[janet612]

I just read your message to me...I think you will have a wonderful time..I have family members that live in Miami that went with us. We got to the pier by 11:30 am and the passengers where already boarding. You have to make a line to go through security and have your baggages checked. Then make a line to for the paper work. When we got there the lines where already long but it goes quickly. It took us only 30 minutes. You also have to go through custom agents and show them your birth certificate or passport. Then do some more walking to get your keys and sail and sign cards. Once you make it to the ship they will tell you that your rooms will not be ready until 1:30pm and to go to the lido deck to have lunch. We did not want to carry our baggages, we had tons, so we went to the room and they were ready so we left our baggages there. The fascination is showing her age but it has been kept clean. The food is good not like RCCL, we have been there plenty of times. They have 24 hour pizzeria and a new thing they didn't have years ago which is a deli section where they make sandwiches for you. The entertainment was ok. They had 2 comedians that where kind of funny could had been funnier. The dancers where ok, sometimes I was a little board with them, again RCCL shows are better. The casinos were ok. The slots gave out some money towards the beginning of the cruise but towards the end they take your money. I played bingo and won 2 times in 2 days. $250.00 one day and $130.00 the other day. Was trying to win the jackpot of 1,000 but didn't. The jackpot was supposed to be $5,000 if you win and the powerball did not come out. But unfortunately the powerball came out and the jackpot was $1,000 instead. CCL keep the rest of the money which is not fair. Again RCCL is much better the jackpot is much higher, it once went up to $8,000 for the winner. Our OV cabin was M56. It was kept clean and we had robes. They also give you a small box of toothpaste and 1 razor for you and 1 for your partner. And they also give you a small bottle of lotion and some little trial size stuff. There is shampoo and liquid soap but no conditioner. There are no blowdryers so you have to bring your own. There is no refridgerator either. The rooms are bigger compair to RCCL, thats a plus. The last full day at sea our ship started to make some really bad turns and we wondered what was happening and when we looked out our window we saw 12 cuban refugees in a raft in the middle of the ocean. All the passengers whent running to the deck to see them and our CD Weee Jimmy told us that they rufused any assistance so we started on our way back to Florida. I wish I was going back...I hope this answers alot of your questions...Have fun..

 

 

Janet

[2Cruise4Ever]

Janet, thank you so much for the info. Did you book an OV guarantee? Or did you specifically choose that cabin? It looks like a pretty good location. I've heard that Wee Jimmy is awesome. I'm glad he's on the Fascination. I hope he's still there when we go in September. And, I'm glad to hear you were able to get on the ship rather quickly. As I had said, our flight lands at 8:45 in Miami and my cruise buddies want to go to South Beach to kill some time before embarkation. I said, no way, I want to be in the waiting area when they start boarding. Obviously, there may be problems with disembarkation of the previous cruise, or they may end up being late or something. But, I'm willing to take that risk and get to the pier as early as I can. Of course, those I'm cruising with have never cruised before and are going strictly by the brochures that say embarkation begins at 1:00. We CC-er's know better ;)

 

 

Anyway, thank you again. I look forward to hearing more.....:D

[janet612]

According to my SIL who was the one who booked our cruise said that we were on ov guaranteed with no room cabin set until about a month before our sailing date. Good luck in getting a great cabin

 

Janet