Fascination Review 1-11-16

[nycruiser2006]

Just off the Fascination on Saturday January 16th.

Here is a little info on us:

I have been on 2 previous Carnival ships, and 3 Princess. DD and I decided to try a quick 5-day out of Jacksonville for a couple reasons. 1) We have family in Jax so we got to spend a few days with family catching up before a 5-day cruise and 2) it was very reasonable priced for a quick winter get-a-way.

Feel free to ask questions, I will try to get to them as quickly as I can in between real-life work days :(

 

We left Saturday morning from Upstate NY to Jacksonville FL. We flew JetBlue to JFK, and then had a connecting flight to Jacksonville. Ok – first problem: we board the tiny plane to JFK and my daughter’s carry-on will not fit in the overhead bin. The people sitting behind us are struggling as well. The flight attendant comes up and offers to take both bags and gate check them. My DD walks with her bag to the back of the plane and gives it to the attendant. Well, here is my experience in the past with gate-check. Like strollers, car seats, they will gate check them, and then they are usually waiting for you to pick up right as you get off the plane heading back up the ramp into the airport. So I was not concerned.

Well, the couple behind us starts asking the attendant about where her bag will be and the attendant explains that they would have to go to baggage claim. Well, they start freaking out because they have to go to a completely different terminal at JFK and board another airline and go through another security check, etc. and do not feel that they will have enough time to do all that. This is the reason why they carried on their luggage. The attendant tries to go back to gate check and ask if it can be stored underneath. Comes back to say No, it is too late. By this time we are ready for take-off. A few minutes into the flight I casually ask her if our bag will go directly to Jacksonville or be gate-checked waiting for me. She proceeds to tell me that DD told her our final destination was JFK so yep, we have to go to baggage claim and then back through security. I was like: WHAT????? I looked at DD and she says: she did not ask me where our final destination was!!!!! So for the next 25 min I am having a small attack worried about what is to come next. We need to deplane, go to baggage claim, go through security at JFK, then find our connecting flight all in 40 minutes. Ok – so we get the bag quickly enough and head for security. The line wrapped and snaked around like nobody’s business. A couple tried to just blend in and cut in line just in front of us. Well, I was having no part of that. I hastily said: “the back of the line is WAYYYYY back there!”. They said geesh – uh OK! - and then a couple directly behind us let them cut in. By this time the line was crawling so I was having my second mini-breakdown of the day and it was only 7am!!!! So made it through security and now running to the gate and got there with 3 minutes to spare before starting to board. OK WHEW – we are good to go. Flight to jax went smoothly and had a great weekend. Stayed with my Sister and her family and met my dad out to dinner.

Monday arrives and Yay time to cruise!!! But oh wait: there’s frost outside and we need jackets ?!@#$%^^?! Oh well, we don’t care – we are headed to the Bahamas.

 

Next up: Embarkation day, Jax cruise port, and FTTF

Edited January 21, 2016 by nycruiser2006

[Vigorosity]

I was on this cruise with you and am doing a review , too! I hope you had as much fun as I did....and now I'm home stuck inside from snow.

[nycruiser2006]

I love your review so far and especially appreciate the pictures. I didn't take many at all so my review will not have any pic's.

 

This cruise was so much fun. Yes, we have a lot of snow here, but unfortunately not enough to keep us home from work :(

Edited January 21, 2016 by nycruiser2006

[Vigorosity]

Thankfully, my job loves cancelling! But...my paycheck isn't as happy about it. Haha.

[nycruiser2006]

EMBARKATION DAY!

 

Well the day has finally arrived! It is still pretty cold outside – but there isn’t a cloud in the sky! We were staying with my sister, so my dad said he would come pick us up and drive us to the port. We made a quick stop at my sister’s office to say our goodbye’s and drove to the port of Jax. Very easy to navigate and signs everywhere so you know exactly where you should be. He dropped us off out front and the porter put the Orange “FTTF” stickers on our luggage since we had purchased Faster to the fun. This is my first experience with FTTF and I am now a die-hard fan. I love, love, loved it. We didn’t have any ports that we had to tender, but I used it at guest services all the time. And you get priority debarkation as well.

Anyway – from drop off, through security, through check-in to the minute we walked on the ship was the fastest I have ever encountered. We arrived at 10:50 and were in our room at 11:23. YAY!!!!

This is my first time booking a Porthole room – Riviera deck R21. Typical room, except where a window would be is where the two portholes are, has a huge shelf that my DD ended up using all week to keep her stuff close by!

So we dropped our bags off, our room steward scooted right in and introduced herself as Ren, and we were off to explore the ship! It was beautiful out even though it was chilly and we found a spot out at the very back of the ship near the waterslides and just chilled on some loungers until muster.

 

I can’t comment on the time our luggage arrived except to say when I got back to the room at 3pm everything was there. A quick muster drill and we were on our way!

 

We danced, ate and partied on lido and before I knew it we were going under the Dames point bridge. Now we are out to sea and the start of a wonderful cruise.

 

Next Up: 5 days of Fascinating fun

Edited January 21, 2016 by nycruiser2006

[ohitssunshine]

So excited to see a Fascination review! I've sailed the Fascination twice and loved both trips - and we be back on her again very soon!

 

Thanks for doing the review, looking forward to it!

[ohitssunshine]

I was on this cruise with you and am doing a review , too! I hope you had as much fun as I did....and now I'm home stuck inside from snow.

 

Yay! Fascination reviews are few and far between - will keep an eye out for yours too!

[Mistyhon]

Yaaaay thanks for the review, we'll be on her next week (our first time on a fantasy class ship!)

[nycruiser2006]

Our 5 Fantastic days on the Fascination:

 

Room:

As I said above, we had a porthole room – Riviera deck R21. This room was close to the front of the ship, yet not far from the forward stairs/elevators. I did the stairs most days, but sometimes it was just tough to go up as high as lido, or higher. All elevators worked fine. I did find this room to be noisier than other cabins. I was pre-warned about the thrusters when pulling into port, and yes, you could definitely hear them. But also I noticed just in general more noise at night. Like a banging down below us.

NOTE: it was mentioned on other reviews of a “fog-horn” type of noise in cabins AFT. I did not hear any noises like that being up front.

 

Food:

Lido: I was not impressed at all. The hamburger was so bad, so dry and definitely not 100% beef so I had a few bites and never ordered another. Fries at Lido were delicious.

 

Pizza: always hot, freshly made order. Wonderful!

 

Panini/sandwich station: fresh made to order and delicious. You can add or delete other toppings.

 

MDR: Service was outstanding all 3 nights we attended. Food was hot, and very tasty! No issues

 

Ports:

Nassau it was cloudy/ very dark skies. We decided to stay on board and just do our own thing.

Freeport: we got off the ship, shopped a little and ended up at Senior Frogs. So much fun!

 

Staff: everyone we encountered was friendly, accommodating and our room steward was the best. I asked for ice one day, and never again had to ask for it. We were not offered our choice of morning or nightly service, and it seemed like she cleaned up 2-3 times a day. Still had morning cleaning and turn-down/cleaning at night as well.

 

Disembarkation: Since we had FTTF we got zone 1. I planned on doing self-assist and walked off at 8:15 exactly as scheduled. Security was quick and we were in a shuttle on our way to jax airport in no time at all.

 

In closing I have to say I loved the Fasciantion, the staff was top notch and my cruise was worth every single penny.

Edited January 22, 2016 by nycruiser2006