Live-ish on the Fascination

[travlin]

Hi All! This is my first Carnival Cruise. I have sailed HAL, NCL, RC, Princess and Disney. I chose this cruise because I wanted to try Carnival and this itinerary is new for me. I am in a grand suite. I usually am in balcony rooms. I am not a partier so I won’t be offering opinions on those type of things.

Check in was easy with FTTF. Everyone was extremely friendly from the entry to my cabin. It was by far the

most pleasant check in I have ever experienced. My cabin wasn’t ready; it just needed vacuuming. I dropped off my carry on and went to try the famous Guy’s Burger Joint. It was sooo yummy! I plan to revisit.

The ship is a bit different from others I have been on. It doesn’t feel as open and airy in the public spaces. The halls are a bit tight on Lido Deck. However, my cabin hallway seems much wider. These are in no way criticisms. I have yet to explore everything and may find I am wrong.

I am back in my cabin and found my luggage waiting. This cabin is fabulous! I feel like a princess. The closet is a cruiser’s dream. Their are at least 16 drawers in the room. Plus there are shelves galore. The lamps have USB ports to charge phones etc. That helps a lot with the lack of plugs. Of course, that seems to be a cruise ship problem across the board.

I won’t update a lot, but I thought a new Carnival cruiser’s fresh view might be interesting. I am excited for the week. We haven’t heard if we are following our itinerary because of Tropical Storm Isaac.

[audcc77]

Thanks for checking in. Yep, those grand suites are nice. We sail on Fascination in January. We love this itinerary.

 

Enjoy your cruise and I hope the weather cooperates.

[LittleYiaYia]

Enjoy your cruise. We sailed the Fascination this last February and will be onboard again next February. This is our favorite itinerary. We enjoyed the Fascination because she is such a small ship, easy to navigate and we found the crew to be friendly and eager to please. We never had to wait in line for anything. I agree, embarkation was the best of any we have ever done.

 

Looking forward to hearing more from your journey.

[FlaMommy75]

We will be on this cruise the week of Thanksgiving and really look forward to hearing about your trip. I hope Isaac stays away :)

[Pr1612]

Looking forward to your posts. Please post pictures of the menus i leave on this ship on October :)

[Hillbillygram]

We are sailing on the Fascination this coming Sunday. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[salty dingo]

Missing the Fascination... were on her a few short weeks ago and many great memories are still fresh!

[Jordan's Mom]

Sailing on the 4th of November! Can't wait! First time in a suite.

[beshears]

We plan to be on the Fascination the end of March next year. I understand it is a much smaller ship than what I have been on, but there's no problem with that. I appreciate your posting so far, and look forward to reading more.

 

 

I do have a question for you, or anyone that has been on the Fascination within the past year. Is there a "live" band on the ship? I have been in different bands in my lifetime, and I just love LIVE music!!:)

[travlin]

I meant to post more than I did. I bought the platinum internet package, but it can only be as fast as satellite allows. I am back in San Juan. I enjoyed the cruise. The islands are gorgeous, but they are recovering from the hurricane. The devastation is still very apparent. I won’t spend time talking about excursions since I didn’t do many of them.

As I said, this was my first Carnival cruise. I have been on 16 cruises so far. There are some things Carnival does very well. I did FTTF. That is well worth the price. Debarking today was a breeze. Actually, the entire process once in the port was the best I have ever encountered. I did see the drug dog “hit” on two couples. They were removed from the line. That was a first for me. Hopefully they were false alerts,

Dining: I only ate in the dining room twice. Remember, food taste varies from person to person. The first night my chicken must have worn a training bra because her breasts were tiny. The sausage stuffing was not good and looked very unappetizing. The first dress up night I had lobster. It was very, very good. Both nights, the service was fast and friendly. Other cruises lines seem to overwork the servers. As a result, I have waited a long time for each course. This is not so with Carnival. I ate on the Lido deck the rest of the trip and found food I enjoyed. The potato salad is yummy. I ate it every night.

Cabin: As I mentioned, I had a grand suite. I used my balcony a lot. The bed was the most comfortable cruise ship bed I have been on. My cabin steward, Kris, was the best. He is super friendly and has a great sense of humor. The shampoo is terrible. I expected that since most cruise lines have terrible shampoo. The towels were huge! I did smell cigarette smoke while on my balcony. I couldn’t tell where is came from. That isn’t Carnival’s fault.

This is by far the friendliest cruise staff. Everyone was super nice....well...except the sandwich guy who was cranky. That’s ok.

Cons: 1. I was frustrated that I could never hear announcements. Typically I have been able to tune the tv to a channel once I hear those chimes and listen. I felt out of the loop. I was told I missed announcements about Tropical Storm Isaac. 2. The ship isn’t as open and airy as other ships I have been on. 3. This was a party ship. There was a lot of noise late at night from people who were obviously very drunk. I witnessed a physical fight between two women one afternoon. They were drunk. I know that Carnival sells itself as Fun ships. So, I expected it. Of course all cruises have drunks and party animals. This one was REALLY one big party. That is a con for me and a pro for others.

Please don’t flame me. I probably will choose another cruise line next time, I am just too old and boring for the party atmosphere. This has nothing to do with the cruise line. They offer a very, very nice product. I am glad I checked out Carnival.