Carnival Fascination?

[stoddaj1]

We cruised Carnival from San Juan a few years back and loved the itinerary. We have some friends who are interested in doing the same in 2017. Upon looking at the possibilities (limited to March Break) it seems that the Fascination is the ship. We have not cruised on an older ship nor one this small and with so few balcony cabins. We want our friend's intro to cruising to be great and are concerned about the ship. Any input to help us make our decision would be much appreciated.

[Vigorosity]

If it's really only your possibility, go for it. My first cruise was on the Fascination...but to much less exotic ports. I fell in love with everything on that boat (and I'll be on the Fascination again in 10 days!)

 

Honestly, I think your friends will have a lot of fun. The service is wonderful and it never feels crowded to me. I saw lots of the same people more than once. The waterslide is awesome and I never really got bored.

 

Good luck with your decisions!

[wickedhangover]

First 6 cruises I went on I didn't have a balcony, one of the ships happened to be the Fascination in 2001. While I can't say what the condition of the ship is in now, I can say that I really liked the layout. I spent very little time in my room so having a balcony would have been a waste when I first started out.

 

The other thing is that 7 days out of San Juan mean being in a port almost every day and the stops are all great (to me). So I think steering them to this itinerary is great and it really is a nice ship.

[Cruisegirl6]

We got off less than a month on the Fascination, she generally is our last minute getaway since the port is only 45 minutes away for us....she at places does show her age, for instance in the shower the bottom part of the floor had cracks and broken areas but the main areas were all updated new carpets and all and were clean and a very very friendly staff.