My condensed review w/pics: The Fascination (Grand Suite) to HMC (Cabana) & Nassau

[ohitssunshine]

I am starting to second guess titling this thread as My Condensed Review...I really didn't think that I had much to share because of my lack of photos and notes - but it is turning out to be more than I expected. I mostly enjoy doing the reviews so that I can look back on them and remember certain details when booking other cruises - and I personally LOVE to read reviews and wish there were more!

 

I know the Fascination being an older ship has been covered quite a bit - so I did not take a tour of the ship to snap pics or anything at this point. I have some photos of the main areas in my Fascination review in my signature - and like I said, there are plenty of Fascination reviews out there. I mostly wanted to share my personal experience, and to include the Grand Suite details and Cabana in HMC.

[ohitssunshine]

FTTF - So I mentioned that I kept FTTF so that we could get into our room asap. I should point out that they had made an announcement that all cabins should be ready by 12:30. And if you remember, we were at the Excursions Desk until about 12 anyways. So in reality, we were only able to access our room 30 minutes earlier than everyone else.

 

Having said that - as we made our way to our room, we noticed that the housekeepers were still knee deep in cleaning rooms and I would be surprised if they were actually all ready at 12:30. If anyone else on the sailing can chime in here, I would be curious to know!

 

So at this point in time, we are just hanging out in the room and checking everything out. There is a TON of storage in this room, and you can see most of it along the left side of the room in the photo I posted. The thing is, many of the drawers have some mechanism built in, I am sure to prevent the drawers from rolling open if the ship gets moving - but some of them were just downright hard to open and took a bit of a pull. Once you get used to this, they are usable and all - but I thought I would mention it.

 

We eagerly awaited our luggage delivery and soon enough - we got that knock on the door and all 4 of our bags were delivered without issue.

 

I'll point out here that I had bought a brand new travel steamer for this trip - as the old trusty one we had brought with us so many times before had finally died. Of course, I didn't realize that the rules had changed and steamers were now no longer allowed on the ship - until we talked about it in our roll call. I think this is kinda crazy. I don't want to be walking around in wrinkles for 5 days and while wrinkle release spray helps...I also didn't want to spend my mornings dousing my clothes in spray. So yes...I smuggled my steamer. I mean, I use the word "smuggle" loosely...It's not like I hid that thing anywhere, I just packed it in my luggage. And it made it. And I was like hallelujah to all. This neat freak would have been going crazy if it had not!

Edited March 9, 2016 by ohitssunshine

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[Keith1010]

Enjoying your review.

 

Keith

[ohitssunshine]

After unpacking, we headed to the lido deck to grab some lunch. This was the first time either of us had cruised since we cut meat and most dairy out of our diets. I was nervous about the options that would be available, but was absolutely impressed. There were many items marked as vegetarian and some we had to ask about but determined that they were also.

 

One of my favorite sandwiches is a rueben. I now make them with vegan bacon, 1000 island, onions and kraut and I don't even miss the old sandwich. Occasionally if we are dining out and there aren't a lot of options, I will have cheese and in some restaurants I order a rueben without meat. I decided I would try the ship's deli version of that and made it my first meal onboard.

 

After repeating "right...NO meat" 3 or 4 times (as expected) I was served up a nicely toasted rueben sans meat. Unfortunately, it was super disappointing :o It just doesn't compare to a nicely toasted in (vegan) butter sandwich that I could put together at home. I was sad that I wouldn't be enjoying my favorite sandwich all week, but was over it in minutes...

 

After lunch, we walked around the ship for a bit just killing time until the Muster Drill.

 

 

 

[canadaman111]

Really enjoying your review so far! Can't wait for more!!

[ohitssunshine]

Thanks for your report.

 

Enjoying your review.

 

Keith

 

 

Thank you both for reading!

[teknoge3k]

I'm loving it as well. I love any reviews with eye candy. lol

[ohitssunshine]

So here is where day 1 starts to lose its luster...I know I had mentioned it was cold in Jax but let me just tell you what a baby I am. I lived in NY for 30 years and just decided to move to Florida simply because I was cold. I hate the cold weather, and I hated the snow and the gloominess of all things winter. I left all of my extended family, and my husband and kids and I moved to Florida on our own. I love Florida. The bright blue skies and white clouds - make me smile everyday.

 

Winter in Florida is usually limited to about 2-3 weeks. We will get a couple of frost advisories and the temps dip down into the 30s overnight. Luckily, during the day the temps usually jump back up into the mid 50s at least, and most often into the 60s. This year, the cold had lasted a little bit longer and I was really nervous about leaving for our cruise when temps were still so low. Most of the time, we time our cruise just right so that it is almost a passage to summer. We leave the cool weather, head to the Caribbean and come home to 70 degrees and climbing.

 

So this trip - it was much colder than it usually is when we head on a cruise. I boarded wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt :eek: So naturally, I was excited to get the ship heading south as soon as possible.

 

So the Fun Times, I believe said the Muster Drill would be at 3. There was an announcement made that it would be at 3:30. We went to our station - B, which was on the Promenade deck and waited. And waited. And waited. The drill didn't start for what felt like FOREVER. I actually wondered if it had something to do with either of the weddings on board?

 

Once the drill began, it still took what seemed like forever. And then at some point during the drill, the captain came on and announced that due to a water boiler issue, our departure would be delayed until 5:30. Finally, the drill ended probably close to 4:30/5, and we decided to head to dinner in the MDR.

Edited March 9, 2016 by ohitssunshine

[pbmsmile]

Great review.. I am excited for the HMC part!

[kitkatnicolo]

Great review! Thank you!

[Crazyrbbt]

I'm loving this so far. I'm anxiously awaiting your review of the cabanna, as we are also thinking about #14.

[esdoorn]

looking forward to the HMC part of the review as we will be there in two weeks and secured a cabana.

[Mommabear2Five]

Loving your review - can't wait for more!

[RedBeard78]

Enjoying this..

[sjn911]

Really enjoying your review!!

[ohitssunshine]

Really enjoying your review so far! Can't wait for more!!

 

I'm loving it as well. I love any reviews with eye candy. lol

 

Great review.. I am excited for the HMC part!

 

Great review! Thank you!

 

Loving your review - can't wait for more!

 

Enjoying this..

 

Really enjoying your review!!

 

Thank you all!

 

I'm loving this so far. I'm anxiously awaiting your review of the cabanna, as we are also thinking about #14.

 

looking forward to the HMC part of the review as we will be there in two weeks and secured a cabana.

 

I will definitely share our experience - and there were a couple others in our roll call that rented cabanas as well. I am not sure if they are also doing a review, but hoping the info will be helpful!

[ohitssunshine]

So dinner in the MDR was as expected - we arrived for Anytime Dining and waited in line for maybe 5 minutes. We were seated at a table for 2, with a decent view of...well...the port. Because we were still there. I am not one to fuss about where we sit in the MDR, as long as we can sit at a table for 2. I just prefer it that way when we get limited time to spend together on these breaks from a hectic life.

 

So here is where I fail as a reviewer. I took one photo of the menu. Period. Out of the entire cruise. Just one. And the quality is, I mean...top notch. What can I say - I just don't feel comfortable whipping out my phone/camera to take pics of every detail and I was trying to snap one as quickly as I could. Thank goodness some people are comfortable doing so - because I THRIVE on their reviews. In fact, I am not sure how some of you made it to this point in my review without many photos :confused::p

 

 

I cannot remember what I had on this night, but my husband had the Indian Vegetarian that is on every nightly menu. Throughout the cruise I had the Sweet Potato/Yam Pot Pie - which was different but good, the Eggplant which puts my homemade recipe to shame, and some Veggie Pasta dish that had a tomato-y sauce, but I cannot recall what it was. It was delicious though! All in all, I was very pleased with the vegetarian options that were available.

 

I had done a lot of research on how to eat vegan on the cruise, and many people have chimed in to say that they were given a special menu in the MDR and the chef had no problem making them dishes that fit their dietary needs. The only reason I did not do this was because it had been so long since our last cruise and I was just nervous as heck about what my options would be. When you are limited to the food that is on the ship - I was worried I would not like what they made and then would I find something in the buffet or just be hungry? Now that I have seen their options - I will totally stick with all vegan on my next cruise.

 

[ohitssunshine]

Well, I totally forgot that before we went to dinner - we actually had a M&G planned for our roll call at the tail. We planned to meet at sail away so that we could all watch the tail inch under the Dames Point Bridge.

 

If you haven't seen this before, it is a pretty cool sight. This is not my video - and if you are impatient like me, you will FF to about 2:10 in the video to see the action start to happen.

 

With our delayed departure, I wasn't sure who would be meeting and who wouldn't - but we met up with Terab85, her husband and 2 others, who I'm sorry - I cannot remember their names! It was super windy and cold, so after chatting for a few - that is when we headed to dinner.

 

Edited March 10, 2016 by ohitssunshine

[ohitssunshine]

Ok, now I am back on track...

 

After dinner, the ship is just getting colder and colder with the temps dropping outside and still being docked in freezing cold Jax. So we decide to just hang out in our cabin and try to get warm, and just wait to see when this thing is going to sail.

 

When we got back to our room, our steward was outside in the hallway and introduced herself. I wish I had written down her name because she was awesome. It was really unique and it started with a K - if anyone staying on the upper deck recently may know who I am talking about, please chime in!

 

She hadn't done our turn down service yet and confirmed our dining plans for the week with us. This was the only night that we missed each other, and the rest of the week she was totally aligned with our schedule. I told her we were all set and if she just had the Fun Times for the next day we would be good.

 

Now the ship is getting cold and unfortunately the cabins do not have any heat. You can turn the AC down or off, but there is no option to turn on heat. We thought, well lets make use of the nice big tub and take a hot bath - but alas...the water boiler issue meant no hot water either. I gave in and I suited up in sweatpants, a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie. You guessed it - I had that hood up over my head and tied tight to minimize the cold air from mingling underneath.

 

At this point, I am wondering if we will be sailing at all? There was another updated announcement that the repairs were almost done around 8, and that we would be sailing around 8:30. That time came and passed. We ended up passing out sometime early that evening - something about all of the excitement leading up to the trip and a lot of early mornings beforehand just whips our butts the first night or so of any vacation. We went to sleep wondering if they would be waking us up and asking us to debark in the morning. :(

 

[canadaman111]

Ok, now I am back on track...

 

After dinner, the ship is just getting colder and colder with the temps dropping outside and still being docked in freezing cold Jax. So we decide to just hang out in our cabin and try to get warm, and just wait to see when this thing is going to sail.

 

When we got back to our room, our steward was outside in the hallway and introduced herself. I wish I had written down her name because she was awesome. It was really unique and it started with a K - if anyone staying on the upper deck recently may know who I am talking about, please chime in!

 

She hadn't done our turn down service yet and confirmed our dining plans for the week with us. This was the only night that we missed each other, and the rest of the week she was totally aligned with our schedule. I told her we were all set and if she just had the Fun Times for the next day we would be good.

 

Now the ship is getting cold and unfortunately the cabins do not have any heat. You can turn the AC down or off, but there is no option to turn on heat. We thought, well lets make use of the nice big tub and take a hot bath - but alas...the water boiler issue meant no hot water either. I gave in and I suited up in sweatpants, a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie. You guessed it - I had that hood up over my head and tied tight to minimize the cold air from mingling underneath.

 

At this point, I am wondering if we will be sailing at all? There was another updated announcement that the repairs were almost done around 8, and that we would be sailing around 8:30. That time came and passed. We ended up passing out sometime early that evening - something about all of the excitement leading up to the trip and a lot of early mornings beforehand just whips our butts the first night or so of any vacation. We went to sleep wondering if they would be waking us up and asking us to debark in the morning. :(

 

 

That doesn't sound like a good start to your cruise. I have a feeling it is going to get better in the morning......

[ohitssunshine]

We wake up at around 5am and what is this? We are finally moving!

 

(I took this after we ran out to get sunrise pics...but you get the idea)

 

A quick trip out on the balcony to test the temp - and yes, it is still chilly!

We head up to the lido to grab some warm coffee and check out the sunrise. Usually I am all about the sunrise/sunset pics - and many of the photos I have taken of them are framed and hanging throughout our home. Turns out that this would be the only sunrise photo I take, and I missed every sunset the entire trip. It was just really nice to be relaxed and spending time with my husband versus focusing on "I have to take a pic of this, I have to get a pic of that..." that is how I usually am.

 

 

 

[Mommabear2Five]

We sailded the Facination last February out of Jaxport and I remember being on the Lido at sail away, and looking up at the brige we were going under and thinking "we're not gonna make it." I was totally not expecting it! But then again, I had had more than a few Fun Ships right after we got on the ship :D

 

More please!

[ohitssunshine]

Thought I would share this quick - we brought a bungee cord to hold our balcony door open. We tried to attach it to something closer, but no such luck. This did the trick though.

[ohitssunshine]

That doesn't sound like a good start to your cruise. I have a feeling it is going to get better in the morning......

 

The funny thing is - I am one of those people who can be like, whatever happens, at least I am on vacation! But this was the closest I think I have come to wondering if our vacation was going to really be ruined.