Our Family Fascination Fall Break Cruise review with pics Oct 5 - 10, 2015

[JMHAM1]

Thanks all for following along. I fully intended to get it all done last week in the evenings while hubby was out of town and the kids were in bed BUT life had other plans and I had no time. I am hoping to knock off a big chunk of it this weekend. Now on with the review.....

 

When we got on the ship they mentioned rooms should be ready around 12:30. It was about 12:15 or so and while I a usually a rule follower, we we on ahead and opened the door to the hallway where our rooms were. We were on Empress Deck 7 so the hallway was right there! When we arrived at our rooms E171, E173 and E175, they were ready. YAY! We could drop off all our stuff.

 

I noticed that they configured the rooms the way we requested them online. E171 was the boys, we wanted two twins in there and E175 was the girls room so we wanted two twins in there. E173 was our room and we wanted the beds as a King. All three rooms had an upper pull down bed.

 

The Blue Moons I ordered for hubby, the 6 pack of Coke and the 12 packs of water I ordered were already in the room(s). The Cruise Cash notifications were also there. Good job Carnival! Got all of that right Day 1.

 

 

 

Those are pics of the room with the bed up and the bunk pulled down. I have seen other pics where the upper was pulled down over the head of the bed. Hubby is very tall and I was worried that would be a problem. Ours was at the foot of the bed. You had to duck to get under it but I prefer it that way. The room steward left the beds down all week. It's not something you could put up and down yourself. I'm thinking they would probably put it up during the day and back down at night if you wanted.

 

All three rooms are outside cabins with an upper pull down.

There was plenty of room for three people in any of these cabins. They did seem larger configured in the two twin arrangement because they put one bed under the window and the other under the upper pull down so all the floor space in the middle was free.

 

 

The bathroom was adequate. I wanted to mention that the toilet in these cabins was straight in the room. Sometimes the toilet on Carnival ships are set at a strange angle. The shower was also a full rectangle shape. Again sometimes Carnival showers can be an odd shape. I forgot my binder clips for the shower curtain but because the shower was a full rectangle, there wasn't a problem with the shower curtain sticking to me.

 

We checked out the rooms quickly and then went up on deck. We ate lunch the first day on the Lido. It was very busy with long lines for the buffet. (A theme that would continue all week). On the plus side, even though it was busy we were able to find a table in the buffet area with a view of the water.

 

You can see from this pic how grey the day was. It was also a bit chilly with drizzle on and off. Other than this day, the rest of the weather was beautiful!

 

 

I also took the pic below so I could compare the occupants of the hot tub as the week went on. Notice the hot tub on deck is already full of kids.

 

[Meadet]

Great start ☺ Particularly interested to get a cruisers perspective travelling with a family of young children. Looking forward to the next installment!

[sparks1093]

Yes, I know how life can interfere with plans:). Glad everything is okay!

[LuCruise]

Following along as I'm always looking out for future cruises. Looks like this was a great family vacation (and hopefully feels like a vacation this time (.

[JMHAM1]

From the time we got in the car on the way to Florida, our 5 year old was talking about the pool and the slides. I think he watched a YouTube video of the slides daily for the whole year we had this trip planned. Needless to say, he was chomping at the bit to get in the pool. I told him we needed to wait until the safety drill was over because I really didn't want to stand around in bathing suits during that. Also the FB group had planned to meet on the Lido deck right after the muster drill.

 

 

 

Here are a couple of photos from the drill. I think Carnival has some opportunities here for improvement. Other lines have this down to a science and I don't think they compromise guest safety by doing it inside. It seems like other lines are a bit more efficient too but that is just my opinion and observation.

 

The day we were there, it was not hot but it seemed like it took a long time to complete. As you can see, our station was on Lido deck. After all the areas had signed off we waited while other stations who gathered inside in the theater or wherever actually climbed the stairs to the Lido deck and went out to where the lifeboats were.

 

 

As you can see, hubby and our two oldest are thrilled!

 

After the drill, you guessed it, time for slides!! We went down to the room and our luggage had started to arrive. We popped on Cole's swimsuit and grabbed one of the other kids to accompany him while we watched. This first day, it was still a little cool for me. If you have kids, you know they don't care how cold it is....they just want to swim! There were several out of the deck shivering and having a blast!

 

 

 

[jhusemann]

We were on this sailing too! I found myself in one of your pictures. I too wanted to do a review but life has gotten in my way. Thanks for this review!

[reerun25]

Enjoying your review.. We have sailed on the Fascination twice, and really enjoy that ship!

[exarkkun]

This is a great review! My husband and I did a 5-day Bahamas from Jaxport on September 21 because it was an easy drive for us from Chattanooga! Do you think you might try ruising from Mobile when that opens up?

[JMHAM1]

We were on this sailing too! I found myself in one of your pictures. I too wanted to do a review but life has gotten in my way. Thanks for this review!

 

 

YAY! I hope you can relive it a little through the review.

[JMHAM1]

This is a great review! My husband and I did a 5-day Bahamas from Jaxport on September 21 because it was an easy drive for us from Chattanooga! Do you think you might try ruising from Mobile when that opens up?

 

It is entirely possible. I think anything we can drive to would be great. I had also considered Baltimore but that is a little farther than I like to drive. I think the next one we will book may just be hubby, myself and the littlest. I would totally love a couples cruise but our 5y/o is a handful and I'm not sure my parents would survive him the whole week.

[JMHAM1]

One of the things on my "to do" list for this trip is to take pictures of the Fascination going under the Dames Point Bridge. I wasn't sure when this would happen and don't think I noted it but it was not that long after the muster drill. We were out on deck watching the kids play on the slides when I happened to look up and see it coming.

 

 

From this angle it looks like our balls might be dragging. Wait, that came out wrong, it looks like we might not make it. That sounds better right? Anyway, I will say that once we got close it went by quickly so have cameras ready. My DSLR has a setting that will take continuous shots and I still don't think I got a good one. Maybe it was where I was standing. Too close to the whale tail I guess. Oh well, this means I will have to go again so I can take some better pictures. Below are a couple of shots as we approached then cleared the bridge.

 

 

 

We were watching the slides from the deck above but thought those chairs at the bottom were calling our names. We headed down and continued watching the kids slide for awhile.

 

 

 

 

Is this a happy face or what??

 

 

For the parents, from the deck chairs at the bottom of the slide you can see all slides. It is a little tricky to see your child when they are going up the stairs and you can't see them waiting at the top but if you just keep an eye on where they are, sitting here is fine. There was never a time where I felt like we had lost anyone in the crowd on the slide area. Cole, happy face in the pic above, is 5 and he had NO PROBLEMS going down the big yellow slide. He tried the racers and also the "baby" slides. He said he liked the twister best. We found if he sat up, it went slow and he would sometimes have to use his hands to move him forward as he got towards the bottom. If he leaned back and crossed his ankles, it went quickly and he slid all the way down.

 

 

Edited October 25, 2015 by JMHAM1

[JMHAM1]

The Waterworks area has waterslides but it also has water features. There are some buckets that fill with water then tip over when full. Our daughter had the timing down.

 

 

Cole could not get the timing down and kept missing them. He would run under the one that just dumped. 100 pics later......SUCCESS!!

 

 

Below are some more pics of the slide. Cooper and Kelsey were racing. Cooper got to the bottom first but little sis made a big splash.

 

 

Remember when I said you needed to lean back, cross your hands over your chest and cross your feet to get up speed on the yellow slide? Below is the result when hubby decided to try it.

 

 

Now time to get some ice cream! They had the self serve ice cream and self serve frozen yogurt machines side by side. There was always a line of various lengths but it went quickly. They had the option of a cone or a small dish. I did see something I had never considered before......some women were getting the cups used for tea or lemonaid and were filling those up with the ice cream. A couple of them poured milk over and gave it a stir....milkshake anyone?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[looneytunes31419]

 

The kids begged to swim but we didn't get there until nearly 6PM and we needed to eat dinner. I also didn't want to deal with wet bathing suits either. It was overcast and not warm enough really in my opinion so they made due with the sports court to play some basketball and blow off steam.

 

 

 

While hubby and the kids were playing basketball, I noticed they started drawing quite a crowd. A man sat down next to me and was really enjoying watching them play. After about 20 minutes he said he was sticking around until someone made a basket. :p I had to laugh because while we have a couple of goals outside our house and the kids play all the time, no one was hitting anything that evening. The spectators agreed that it was the saddest display of basketball skills they had ever seen! Glad we could bring some enjoyment into the lives of others. HA!

 

After basketball, we went to the nearby Denny's thinking it would be inexpensive and everyone could get whatever they wanted. The Denny's was not busy and we soon found out why. The service was SLOW. By SLOW I mean, I could have hopped back there and made the food myself slow. We didn't have anywhere to be and were just enjoying talking but there were probably 6 other tables that walked out before being either seated or served. If you stay in that area, you may want to skip the Denny's.

 

After dinner we went back to the hotel to get some rest. I checked and double checked our tickets, documents, camera, phone (I lost my iphone at the hotel the night before our last cruise), etc. Everyone enjoyed the free internet and slept well. Hubby took the kids to breakfast while I got ready. I didn't eat anything. I figured I would get plenty on the ship.

 

 

We took a few minutes to go over the expectations of the kids and the rules for conduct and behavior before we headed out to the ship. For the record we have a 17 y/o boy, 14 y/o girl, two 13 y/o boys, a 12 y/o girl and a 5 y/o boy.

 

The drive from the hotel to the port was about 25 minutes and went by quickly.

 

 

We crossed this cool bridge on the way and I was wondering if it was the same one we would be passing under on the way out of port. I'm not 100% sure but it sure looked the same! Maybe someone more familiar with Jacksonville can confirm. I have some more pics of us sailing under the bridge a little later on.

 

 

 

 

Is that a whale tail I see there???? Notice how overcast it was? The hurricane Joaquin passed through the Bahamas around this time. I was concerned we would have rough seas or bad weather for our trip. More to come!

 

 

Really enjoying your review and to answer your question If no one else answered it first I am sorry for the repeat but Yes that is the Bridge it goes under when going out to sea. it is really cool to see how really close it does get to the Bridge.

[LuCruise]

What amazing pictures you have. I especially love the ones with your kids on the waterslide and waterworks area. Looks like they had a blast! Thanks for sharing.

[AU_Cruiser]

We just cruised on the Fascination Oct 15-19. We really enjoyed it! I was impressed with the service, the talent level of the entertainment, and the friendliness on the ship. It was a nice break for us.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write a review. You're doing a great job!

[skrufy]

Bumer rain on embarkation day. We sailed out of NOLA last year in May and it was a misty cool day all day. I was so looking forward to sitting out on deck and seeing the sights of the Mississippi River.

[Donh44]

Me too!

 

I am cruising out of Jax in Jan. Will be driving and parking at the port. How does one go about prepaying for parking? Online? I am so dumb when it comes to this stuff.

[iheartmarshall]

Enjoying your review so far! DH and I were booked on the Fascination back in September, but changed it a few months back for a Christmas cruise on the Conquest. I'd really like to sail out of the Jacksonville port though -- it's 12 hours away, but we love the area so it's one port I don't mind driving to.

[lelder1]

I am cruising out of Jax in Jan. Will be driving and parking at the port. How does one go about prepaying for parking? Online? I am so dumb when it comes to this stuff.

Go to this link - scroll to the bottom of the page and there is a link to pay online in advance. http://www.jaxport.com/cruise/parking-and-directions

[SHORTKATHLEEN]

Enjoying your report!!!!!:)

[Donh44]

Go to this link - scroll to the bottom of the page and there is a link to pay online in advance. http://www.jaxport.com/cruise/parking-and-directions

 

 

 

Thanks so much for the parking info. Much appreciated

[kenrod]

Enjoying your pictorial.

 

You are right, there are not enough reviews of some of the older ships (which I still haven't been on).

 

Thanks a lot for sharing and I look forward to your continuing adventure!

[JMHAM1]

The first night we were a little tired. The kids did the meet and greet in their respective kids' area but our little one was not interested. We didn't catch the show this night either.

 

This time we tried the anytime dining option. We thought trying to hit an assigned dining time might be difficult with all the kids and I hated to have one of the big tables empty for us. I do wish we had gone with early seating so there would be an assigned table waiting for us with no wait. I also missed having the same waiters each evening. We usually sat in one of the same two tables but never had the same servers during the cruise. Maybe they rotate in that dining room. I'm not sure if it was the number of us each night (between 6-8) or the time we wanted to eat (around 6) but there was ALWAYS a line. One time we waited for 40 mins or so until they had a table for us. After that we got wise and either hubby or myself went to wait in line for the beeper, that's right, I said line for the BEEPER! I'm not sure how early you had to get there to be first in line because whenever we went early the line was already wrapped around past the elevators. The first night I forgot my camera for dinner and was only able to snap a couple of shots with my phone. Don't worry though, I remembered it for the rest of the time so there will be plenty of food porn!

 

Shrimp cocktail anyone??

 

 

I also go the flat iron steak. I thought it was a well cooked, basic steak. I'm not a fancy eater so it suited me fine.

 

Here is the view as you wait for the beeper. They had a really talented guy playing in the atrium nightly. As the cruise went on, he had quite the following of women of all ages. Our older teen was a fan as well as several older ladies who warmed the bar stools nightly.

 

 

If you are curious, this is the banana split off the kid's portion of the menu.

 

 

After dinner we headed back to the room with the littlest little and the older kids checked out the ship and other entertainment. I was shocked when my 6th Grader said she ran into a girl from their school who is in 7th Grade with my step-son. They were in the cabin next door to the boys and when she saw Ethan, she was like, "Oh Great!" I'm guessing she was not excited to see that particular classmate. :eek: Anyway, there were quite a few people from Chattanooga that we ran into during the cruise. My son wore his #noogastrong shirt one day and people from the area were coming up to him.

 

When we got back to the room we had my favorite towel animal! Um, not really but I did tell Cole it was a Seal.

 

 

 

 

 

[JMHAM1]

I'm glad some folks are following along. I was beginning to wonder if anyone was out there! I am going to try to load the dailies. I saved them for each day.

[Uncwrn93]

Loving your cruise review. We are on the Magic in January while different it's so fun to see all the fun others had.