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

[undercat]

I just realized that I forgot about the coughing kid incident. ...

 

 

LMAO @ the visuals! Shame on those parents for not teaching their child to be considerate of others!

 

Absolutely totes this:

 

 

[Beach_gal]

lmao at the coughing kid incident!

 

I am loving your review ~ thanks for taking the time to write this :)

 

How much is the bingo?

[808luv2cruise]

Following

[smurfm69]

LOL The coughing kid post was too damn funny! So sad and disrespectful of the parents to do nothing about it. I would have inquired about moving to a different table.

By the way, I think I would have managed to take a pic of them and posted a warning on cruise critic to not sit in the dining room by these people. Lol

[Crazyrbbt]

The coughing kid situation would've killed me. I love that you take a very uncomfortable situation and find a humorous way to post it. Great job.

[CottonCandi]

I've been hooked on your review(s) and have been "patiently" waiting to hear about the HMC cabana (and possibly photos?). I didn't want to beg, but I'm passed that now. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can you finish telling us about that Cabana??? (Sorry...I'll be okay.) ;)

 

Thank you. :D

Edited March 16, 2016 by CottonCandi

[Clarea]

Enjoying the review, really gorgeous stateroom.:)

[Careyd6]

I've been hooked on your review(s) and have been "patiently" waiting to hear about the HMC cabana (and possibly photos?). I didn't want to beg, but I'm passed that now. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can you finish telling us about that Cabana??? (Sorry...I'll be okay.) ;)

 

 

 

Thank you. :D

 

 

Me too!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[ohitssunshine]

I've been hooked on your review(s) and have been "patiently" waiting to hear about the HMC cabana (and possibly photos?). I didn't want to beg, but I'm passed that now. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can you finish telling us about that Cabana??? (Sorry...I'll be okay.) ;)

 

Thank you. :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying the review, really gorgeous stateroom.:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me too!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Haha, I'm so glad you are enjoying it! I have been so swamped with work since returning, but I'll get some more done tonight! Thanks for reading!

[esdoorn]

Yes, I'd love to hear about HMC soon, since we cruise their on March 28th and have a Cabana booked and really want to know which one(s) you would consider the best.

[YourCruiseGurl]

I just realized that I forgot about the coughing kid incident. I have to back up to dinner on our first night. I mistakenly thought this happened later in the cruise but now that I think about it, it was the first night.

 

So I don't know that I could tell this story without some sort of visual...so obviously I have created one.

 

Here we have a family sitting at the table for 4, with a beautiful view of the Jacksonville port out the window. We have mom and dad, little Sally who is all of 3 or 4 and then little Billy who is probably 8-10.

 

Next to them we have a nice couple, eager to enjoy their dinner.

 

And finally at the end of the row, which - this is the typical setup in the Sensation MDR on the Fascination if you sit near the windows...you have myself (for the sake of this story, I've chosen Jennifer Lawrence to represent me) and my husband. Again, this is my story and if I want him to be Ryan Gosling, he will be.

 

 

Notice I didn't include any photos for the little Billy's family.

That is for 2 reasons.

 

1. If I were them, I would be embarrassed

2. Because they pretty much were invisible the entire time, and did nothing to stop or apologize for the situation

 

I would also like to make one call out here in regards to the authenticity of this photo. No, I am not apologizing for likening myself or my husband to stupidly good looking actors...but I do feel the need to say that the photo of little Billy isn't as accurate as it could be. You see, this is because if you google "boy coughing" you get 99.9% results of a picture of a boy coughing AND covering his mouth. This is completely opposite of what little Billy must have been taught.

 

Little Billy started coughing as soon as we were seated. But it wasn't just a cough into his arm, sleeve, napkin, anything...he would lean back in his chair, kind of roll out of it towards the poor woman sitting to his right, and then cough...open mouth...into the open air. Repeatedly. I couldn't even bring myself to look at the woman next to me, but I imagined she was like...

 

 

So this continues to go on, and we've ordered our dinner and are enjoying our appetizers. Which now, this sparks my memory that they were the stuffed mushrooms, and I wish I had ordered 2. Anyways, back to the story.

 

My husband made eye contact with the dad, who was sitting to the left of little Billy. You know that eye contact like...are you going to do something? Something is amiss and you can fix it. You have a booger on your face, how do you not know? Dude, your mom is standing RIGHT behind you.

 

 

You know - THAT eye contact, and still...nothing. I on the other hand, couldn't bring myself to make eye contact with anyone.

 

It was almost like little Billy was a limp noodle who couldn't stay upright in his chair, and he just kept getting closer and closer to the poor woman sitting between us. Coughing over and over and over again. Never covering his mouth. His parents never saying anything to him or to any of us.

 

Even the waiters at this point are like

 

So our main entrees are just being delivered, and I am already picturing plastic tenting and hazmat suits because this kids germs are just EVERYWHERE at this point. All of a sudden, the poor woman in between us and her husband just get up, mid bite...and leave. They could not take it for another SECOND.

 

Now the one barrier I had between little Billy and I...is gone. I look over and see him in all his glory, just limp noodling all over his chair, coughing every 30 seconds or so straight into our shared aerosphere. Little Sally doesn't know any better, she's just trying to figure out what happened today that landed her on a boat with 2,000 strangers and chicken tenders for dinner. His parents still oblivious to the carnage their son has caused.

 

We finished our dinner as quickly as possible and got the heck out of dodge. I am usually such an easy going person, I don't care if your kids act up, because they are kids. But at 8, 9, 10 years old, you should know how to cover your mouth. And if you aren't covering your mouth, then as parents, you should really remind your kid - and apologize to those around you who it is affecting. At least. Personally, if my kid had been that sick to where he could not stop coughing throughout an entire dinner service - I would not have brought him on a cruise, or at the very least got room service and kept him holed up there until he was feeling better.

 

So that's the coughing kid incident. It is one that will likely be retold and acted out many a times in our household because, well...we are a-holes like that and laughing about it afterwards keeps us from opening our mouths in public. I can't believe I forgot that was on day 1 - but now I will get back on track...

 

 

 

 

You should tell stories with pictorials you create for a living. This was He-larry-us! [emoji23]

[bakersdozen12]

OMG!! Never laughed so hard in my life!!! I totally feel for you guys but so glad it was you and not us ;) It's amazing how parents don't want to take responsibility for their kids. We would totally be sharing that story with everyone because like you, we're a-holes too ;);)

 

I know, me too! This was hilarious. Well, the way it was told. In actuality I kind of feel bad for the kid. Manners or not, he obviously was sick and should have been home in bed, not on a cruise ship. And I'm actually surprised that he was even allowed on the ship at all.

 

Anyway, loving this review! Can't wait to read about your cabana. I'll be in HMC in July and I have a cabana reserved. I haven't made up a list of ones that I want to pick first, if available, so your review will help.

[ohitssunshine]

Yes, I'd love to hear about HMC soon, since we cruise their on March 28th and have a Cabana booked and really want to know which one(s) you would consider the best.

 

I'm on it!

[ohitssunshine]

You should tell stories with pictorials you create for a living. This was He-larry-us! [emoji23]

 

Hahaha, I am glad you enjoyed it - it made me laugh to put it together :)

[ohitssunshine]

I know, me too! This was hilarious. Well, the way it was told. In actuality I kind of feel bad for the kid. Manners or not, he obviously was sick and should have been home in bed, not on a cruise ship. And I'm actually surprised that he was even allowed on the ship at all.

 

Anyway, loving this review! Can't wait to read about your cabana. I'll be in HMC in July and I have a cabana reserved. I haven't made up a list of ones that I want to pick first, if available, so your review will help.

 

 

Yes! I completely agree, having my own kids - I would never drag them out into public feeling like that. I did feel bad for the kid :o

 

And HMC in July will be nice and hot - the cabana will definitely be a haven for you!

[ohitssunshine]

SO jealous! You should go to Senor Frogs and see if you can get someone to spill on your hubby. You know, to keep the tradition alive ;);)

 

 

Your review has been awesome! I couldn't figure how to get pictures on here, so I'm just letting you do all the work for me :p

 

Hahaha! Yes, we do need to keep traditions alive!

 

For the pics - since I took almost all of mine on my cell phone, they are on my google photos account. I just created one album that is public and added the ones I wanted to share in there. For the others - I use photobucket. I would LOVE to read your review if you can get it to work!!

[ohitssunshine]

lmao at the coughing kid incident!

 

I am loving your review ~ thanks for taking the time to write this :)

 

How much is the bingo?

 

Thank you for reading!

 

I was trying to make out what that slip said but I believe we paid $2 for the bingo dabber and $30 for the 3 games. Basically the 3 boards you see are each one game, so you play the 3 boards, pull that layer off and there are 2 more layers below it. They had a special that you could bring back that slip and get a bonus board at the next session for $10...I THINK. My memory is the worst and like I said, I failed to take notes!

[ohitssunshine]

So the sea day was a bit of a blur past the bingo and excursion and sales talks. We had went back to the room and found that we had our first cabin service. This is the first time I had seen anything like this - but our steward took the time to organize all of my makeup. I always lay all of my stuff out on the counter, and I am not messy about it at all - so it was already fairly organized, but she laid it all out so neatly on a towel that I wondered if I had just done it in my sleep. It was funny because hotel surfaces skeeze me out. I usually do put everything on top of a towel, or on top of other things like cups, etc so that they don't mingle with the heebie jeebies on the counter.

 

Don't judge my cheap makeup - and if you are a Naked palette lover, I am telling you that you need to try these new palettes by Cover Girl. Only like $10 and I think they are even better than Naked.

 

 

[DeepSeaDiver1000]

Thanks for the great review. I really enjoyed it. :)

[ohitssunshine]

Along my journey moving to a vegan diet, I fell in love with pigs. Not surprising because I have a 35 pound pug at home, who is basically also a pig. But I never really liked farm animals much until I started to volunteer at an animal sanctuary and the pigs just stole my heart. I also fell in love with a pretty famous pig - Esther. If you haven't heard of Esther the Wonder Pig, you should check her out! Her story is amazing, as her dads adopted her thinking she would be a mini pig and then she continued to grow to over 600 pounds. Long story short, what was meant to be a small pet turned their lives upside down and they now opened an animal sanctuary and care for many more animals. They are actually doing a group cruise next March to help raise money for their new sanctuary - and yes, we are going!

 

Ok Jen, shut up about the pigs...well I share this because I started to collect pigs and we found the cutest stuffed pig in the gift shop. Our room steward did a great job of adding little Curly to her towel animal creations.

 

What? You don't name your stuffed animals as a grown adult?

 

Just as I am a pig fanatic, my husband is a turtle lover. We have had pet turtles and tortoises and one day hope to have a tortoise sanctuary. We looked high and low for a cool turtle souvenir but only came up with a small keychain. Once this purchase made it into our room, she added that as well.

 

 

 

[ohitssunshine]

Thanks for the great review. I really enjoyed it. :)

 

Thanks for reading!

[ohitssunshine]

Today was also elegant night so for most of the day we just walked around the ship checking things out and relaxing. We caught a couple minutes of the mixology contest out on the lido - and headed back to the room to grab room service for lunch.

 

The Fascination did have the new room service menus and I hope InvKevin doesn't mind, but he was in our roll call and has created a cruising site (no advertising) with a lot of information including the new menus, so I am linking you there.

 

I was excited when I first saw them because I imagined ordering a philly cheesesteak or a quesadilla without the meat. I would soon be sad to learn that these items are pre made and they would not allow me to customize it. The best they could do was the cheese pizza with pineapple. Bummer. We settled on a couple salads and veggie trays.

 

 

I wanted to be dressed up and heading out to get photos taken at 4:30. My husband is such a good sport - I don't know where he gets his patience but I am so thankful for him!

 

Selfies on the balcony before we head out!

 

 

[ohitssunshine]

As usual, the promenade and atrium were packed full of backdrops and eager photographers - and we chose 3 or 4 settings to get our photos taken. After I felt satisfied that we got at least one good photo, we decided to get in line for anytime dining and to our surprise at just after 5:15 - 5:25, there wasn't a line yet started and we were the first. I was eager to get our dinner started because we hoped to see the comedy shows that evening.

 

We were seated at a table for 2 and were placed in between the 4 top and another 2 top. To our right was the same couple from brunch that morning. They realized it before we did, and we struck up a conversation with them. They had been on something like 50 cruises (We met 2 couples with pretty high cruising stats, so it may be a bit off). We chatted about kids and work and a lot about cruising. I asked for their favorite port and they said Curaçao was definitely one of them. Conversation was good, dinner was good (I think tonight was the eggplant that puts mine to shame) and we rushed through dessert to get to the comedy show. Just as we stood up to leave, the waitstaff was about to break into song. This was the closest we had come thr entire cruise, to seeing them perform. It just didn't align to our dinnertime at all. My husband was probably thankful, but I always enjoyed it.

[reerun25]

Today was also elegant night so for most of the day we just walked around the ship checking things out and relaxing. We caught a couple minutes of the mixology contest out on the lido - and headed back to the room to grab room service for lunch.

 

The Fascination did have the new room service menus and I hope InvKevin doesn't mind, but he was in our roll call and has created a cruising site (no advertising) with a lot of information including the new menus, so I am linking you there.

 

I was excited when I first saw them because I imagined ordering a philly cheesesteak or a quesadilla without the meat. I would soon be sad to learn that these items are pre made and they would not allow me to customize it. The best they could do was the cheese pizza with pineapple. Bummer. We settled on a couple salads and veggie trays.

 

 

I wanted to be dressed up and heading out to get photos taken at 4:30. My husband is such a good sport - I don't know where he gets his patience but I am so thankful for him!

 

Selfies on the balcony before we head out!

 

 

 

Just FYI.. The selfie pic on the balcony is not showing up... for me anyway..

[Beach_gal]

Thank you for reading!

 

I was trying to make out what that slip said but I believe we paid $2 for the bingo dabber and $30 for the 3 games. Basically the 3 boards you see are each one game, so you play the 3 boards, pull that layer off and there are 2 more layers below it. They had a special that you could bring back that slip and get a bonus board at the next session for $10...I THINK. My memory is the worst and like I said, I failed to take notes!

 

Thanks for the info! I <3 bingo!

 

STILL loving your review. Your personality shines through your writing :-) Such a fun read!

 

We're on the Fascination this summer so am really excited to read a great review about her.