The Fascination..the good,the bad and the ugly

[elainmir]

Let me start by saying this was MY experience..just trying to help others by stating how things went for us...we did return most of the way to Jacksonville after we'd been underway for around 3 hours...a medical emergency..we met the Coast Guard and they transported the patient off. They kept us up to date on what was happening for this evacuation. This caused us to lose about 3 hours in our Freeport stop. They did not update on the patients condition after they were transferred into Coast Guard care. We had a blast because we were with each other but I have to be fair and tell you our take on everything.

 

We sailed out of Jacksonville on Thursday, April 2

 

Embark- Jacksonville has it going on..very fast to get on the ship and the people at the port are super kind and friendly! Loved how awesome they were! Parking was paid upfront and was a breeze!

 

FTTF- Upon boarding we wanted to go drop things in our room, the doors were blocked off and the person near the doors said rooms aren't ready you can't go to your room. We said we had FTTF...he acted as if he didn't know what on Earth that was. Finally it was cleared up and he allowed us to go. We had aft extended balcony...luggage arrived swiftly...the only cruddy part was the disembarking..more on that later.

 

The Cabin- Aft extended balcony U239

 

We loved the extra balcony space and the view. We were on the end which is a great cabin to be in...only one neighbor :) The only downside was we could not figure out WHY our bathroom smelled like a dang porta potty in July..turns out the access panel for the toilet/plumbing line is behind the mirror and sink...it has a lock on the side..it wasn't shut all the way so two days in that bathroom was ripe...I kept yelling at hubby to courtesy spray...:p lol my bad.

 

The Casino- I've NEVER been on a ship where you had to beg them to open tables for willing players who were waiting around because the other tables were full. We had to do that more than once. The slots were tighter than Dick's hat band folks...many of the folks we played Blackjack with were trounced at the tables these few days we played. Very very smoky and small casino. We had one dealer that just kept making mistakes. I mean MANY. She should NOT be in a casino. The rest of the casino dealers were fun..they sang or danced or interacted.

 

 

The Décor- needs an overhaul in the main areas..very dated.

 

The Food- I tell you I hate wasting food but the food was bad. And I mean bad. Easter ham had been sitting so long I could've mashed it up like you would potatoes..almost like it had been waterlogged. ugh...I existed on boiled eggs, bacon, salad, some pizza and tuna Sammy's from the deli. The coleslaw was ok as well. I'm NOT a picky eater but it seemed tons of stuff had onions cooked in with it...sausages, potatoes...come on now...hubby got oatmeal because he said how can you mess up oatmeal? yup you guessed it..they did.

 

We had never been on this class of ship before and I thought oh it'll be great, very intimate..:rolleyes: I've gotta stop thinking!! The bar/guest services area was dinky..like super small for all the folks on there. The casino is super tiny. And dark! It felt super crowded almost everywhere..

 

Our room steward was Yoga..he was awesome! Great guy..we had excellent service those few days. Lots of staff said hello, asked how our cruise was going..very friendly..even the dealers on this cruise were fun.

 

 

Now let me state we were NOT the only folks who commented on what I'm about to tell you..

 

1. This is the first ship I have EVER been on where they made NO announcements in regard to the ports, what deck to exit the ship from,etc..we lost an extra hour in Freeport in addition the the three lost due to the medical evac because we kept waiting for them to say ...if you have an excursion,etc..please proceed to deck 3..:rolleyes: I finally called guest services..several people commented that they only heard the CD George say be sure your on ships time...but gave NO TIME to be back on the ship...it was not done well. The same goes for disembarking...this was an unholy hell of a mess. The left hand does NOT know what the right is doing here.

 

2. If you are going to make announcements be sure people can understand what you are saying...why do they get people who can not speak well in public to do things like the muster station "talk" ...the guy we had in Puttin on the Ritz lounge muster station could NOT talk..he kept saying MONSTER station..seriously...and I've never had any crew doing the MUSTER drill to speak to the passengers like they were a blabbering bunch of naughty two year olds..but this guy did..he'd tell us to get quiet or we'd have to stay longer...I don't know what he was hearing but it was CHURCH MOUSE QUIET IN THERE!:rolleyes:

 

Nassau and Freeport were fun , relaxing jaunts around the area for us. No excursions other than straw markets and chilling with my honey bunny.

One super cool thing is the Pirate Republic store on the backstreet to get to the straw market..their beer is AWESOME! If you like craft brews try them out!

 

DISEMBARKING: Let me say the folks in Jacksonville were once again awesome and kind when we FINALLY departed the ship. IT TOOK FOREVER. The ship is so small they send you to dining rooms,etc to wait. FTTF was socked in a dining room with early flight folks..we waited until 8:45 before they said follow us..to the elevators to take you to deck 3...another 25 minutes to exit..Carnival has a huge mess. People were sneaking off when it wasn't there turn to go. or coming down stairs instead of waiting where they were told...they were sent back to wait UNTIL LAST to disembark. Once inside it was easy peasy to get out of there. The unorganized chaos was ALL CARNIVAL..Jacksonville port folks had it going on once you exited.

 

 

 

 

Everyone was having a good time on this cruise...it was great! The last day was ROCKY due to the swells...hubby and I had FOUR motion sickness pills each! I think for us though no more small ships...only the bigger classes...

[Sweet Dutch Girl]

I gather this was one of those weekend 4 dayers...not my personal idea of cruising.

 

Thank you for the review and for your subjective views about the food...though, I would have loved all the onions. And I always laugh when I hear reviews about the tightness of the slots in cruise ship casinos...its not like people will be back every weekend if they win big. Wasn't the information about the ports and the times in your daily hand-out?...I rarely listen to announcements just time things by reading about them.

 

Fascination is getting pretty old...heck she's over 20 and pretty out-dated. Next time you should try one of the newer ships and let us know how they compare.

[ruachsm]

I must say part of your review made me bust out laughing. We had the same "monster" station leader in December on the fascination. Think he was the DJ. We could not understand most of what he was saying it got quite humorous. All I could understand was when he would say "I need everyone to be really quite" but the problem was the room was already silent. Lol thanks for the much needed laugh

[Karebear98]

I'm sorry you had a off week on her, did a 5 day last February it was great food and all idk Maybe some staff has changed.

 

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[elainmir]

Yep definitely a 4 day...we've never done one that short. It was a late bday/valentines gift for hubster...I think I will stick with the bigger ships. I heard several passengers who flew from up north for this 4 day cruise...I wouldn't have wasted my $ on a flight for four days but hey we are 4 hours from Port.

 

I definitely LOVE my bigger ships! This is the smallest I've done...not for me.;)

 

ruachsm glad ya got a laugh..at least you KNOW what I was talking about!

[Tapi]

Been on Fascination 4 times. The experience has ranged from "best cruise ever" to "we are never sailing on Carnival again". And it didn't have to do with the length of the cruise, as the longest one was the worst. But our last Fascination cruise was what triggered us to try other cruise lines.

 

Fascination is what it is. A great option for those wanting to sail on an older and smaller ship, relegated to short, inexpensive Bahamas cruises from an easy "drive to" port. But for those looking for something more, she doesn't deliver the best that Carnival has to offer.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Tapi

[roseaxel]

Sorry your cruise was not perfect. I happen to love the Fascination, have been on it 4 times and going on her again this Saturday. Were our cruises perfect? No, but we never had any experiences like you describe. I can always find food that I like. I don't let small things ruin my cruise. I am not cooking or cleaning, so all is good. We are Platinum, so debarkation is always fast. Never have we been off the ship later than 8am. And we love the smaller ship. That is just our preference. We don't need all the bells and whistles on the larger ships. Yes, it is showing it's age, but everything is always clean and the crew are constantly cleaning. And IMHO, for the price, it is a great value.

 

We play in the casino a lot. I don't expect to win big, and can usually play a good while on my budgeted money. And the casino is very generous with us. I don't expect anything from them, so anything they do is greatly appreciated.

[portocaller]

I love the smaller ships and wish Carnival would build a few newer ones. That said, they aren't for everyone. Especially if you get motion sickness. Rocking is what I love best but I feel for the green people.

 

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[cyntil8ing]

We were on this cruise too. My family, (me, dh, ds 8 and dd 11) booked it a week and a half before departure as a last minute spring break cruise. We drove the 12 hours as last minute flights were twice as much as the cruise! We left Wednesday morning, drove to Savannah, GA then finished the drive Thursday morning, walking right on to the ship to our cabin around 12:30pm.

 

We didn't get off the ship so the changed port times didn't effect us. We enjoyed having Waterworks and the pool to ourselves while everyone else was exploring Freeport and Nassau. We had wonderful weather unlike the last sea day.

 

This was our fourth cruise on a Fantasy class ship, two on Fantasy and one on Imagination, so we knew what we were getting into. Personally, I like the smaller ships. While the decor is definitely out-of-date, it was very neat and clean.

 

The only bad part about the changed port times for our family was that everyone with anytime dining seemed to go at 8:30pm Saturday night. The comedy show ended, something in the theater ended and everyone else seemed to have stayed in Nassau until the last minute. The line wrapped all the way around the atrium.

 

Our family prefers fixed late dining, but with the last minute booking, we didn't get to choose. We had good service two nights, ok service one night and great service the final night. Table location was pretty awful all four nights, twice all the way in back by the kitchen, once in a high traffic area where we kept getting bumped and once in the very front where we had to listen to everyone complain about their table location.

 

We thought the food was fine, but I can't say I really cruise for the food. Everyone always found something to eat and dh got his wcmc each night.

 

I agree that having no announcement that the ship was cleared and where the gangway was located on Freeport day was a mistake. And the long wait to disembark was painful. There were a lot of people taking all their luggage and getting down the stairs from deck 4 to deck 3 was a slow crawl of death. I was so pleasantly surprised to find no wait for Customs and Immigration. They were practically waiving people through. We were in our car and on the road by 10:30am. We drove straight through and made it home by 11:00pm.

 

All-in-all, we had our typical Carnival cruise, lots of fun family time spent together, trying to win our coveted ship-on-a-stick, doing our traditional scavenger hunts and just getting away from all the electronics and internet for a few days. I haven't heard the Minecraft music in a week!

[NCbmwmom]

Thanks for that review. We will be boarding this Saturday. 2nd time on Fascination, and we've only sailed on Fantasy class ships. Honestly I'm not sure I want to try a bigger class. My kids know their way around, and we have always had a great time. I just hope our cabin don't smell like poo this time. Almost everything else I can roll with! :cool:

[Bella8286]

Thanks for the review! We love the Fascination but I can relate to some of your issues. The last time we went, we had a few issues as well. First of all, you're right in the Jax port crew is awesome! We always do FTTF and this was the first time we have ever had it and our luggage did not arrive for almost an hour and a half after we embarked and our room wasn't ready. They did allow us to go to our room but it was in the midst of being cleaned. The pool bathrooms stayed nasty during our last cruise as well.

 

Disembarking on the Fascination has ALWAYS been AWFUL. We just expect it now. The first time we cruised on it, we never heard announcements either and it was almost 10:00 before we got off, HORRIBLE!

 

We're now those people who lug our suitcases down the stairs and jump on the first elevator that stops or else it will be forever before we leave :rolleyes: We're use to being off and on the road before 8...

[elainmir]

Don't get me wrong I didn't let any of the things I reviewed ruin this cruise for us..no way! Vacation is VACATION!:D Which means your not at work! Nothing can ruin that! I'm willing to make lemons with lemonade..I just wanted to relay our experiences..good and bad.

[CruizCuz]

Don't get me wrong I didn't let any of the things I reviewed ruin this cruise for us..no way! Vacation is VACATION!:D Which means your not at work! Nothing can ruin that! I'm willing to make lemons with lemonade..I just wanted to relay our experiences..good and bad.

I personally would like to thank you for your honesty, and also for giving the reasons for your opinions. It helps because there are some areas I can avoid, and some I can hopefully make better. I agree that any cruise is a good cruise. But I also have realistic expectations, and your review definitely helps keep those same expectations in "check".

[martinhughes1]

I highly doubt disembarkation was entirely Carnival's fault. You are re-entering the US from visiting other countries with one less person on the manifest (person evacuated 3 hours after ship left port). With that said I am nearly certain customs was most of the delay even though you breezed through the custom agents when you exited the ship.

We sailed Fascination on our very first cruise and loved it. We are now booked on our 11th on the larger class ship and look forward to each and every one we sail on. We look forward to being waited on and visiting new countries. We always get off the ship while in a port even if we just walk around a strange new place.

[Wildgrits]

We will be cruising on the Fascination when it start it's Southern Itinerary.

 

You mention that the décor was dated. Didn't she just get out of dry dock?

[Tapi]

You mention that the décor was dated. Didn't she just get out of dry dock?

 

 

Carpets were replaced and a bit of freshening up was performed here and there. But that doesn't take care of the early 90's decor. To make the Fascination (and pretty much the entire Fantasy class) not look dated, they would need to perform a major, "Sunshine style" overhaul.

[Wildgrits]

OH that's sad. I was hoping for Guy's Burger Joint and Red Frog, and such.

 

Maybe by 1/17 they will change ships for our itinerary again.