Carnival Fantasy November 17-22, 2018 Review

[cruisewithwife]

I had the sweet and sour shrimp which are good

I also had the crispy chicken bites which were an appetizer to come out with my meal.  I was not impressed by these.

DW had the chicken and the salmon

[cruisewithwife]

Next up was the dessert menu...which we thought on this ship they did not have as many options as there was on our previous cruises

The oldest had strawberry ice cream

I tried the strawberry cream and had some butter pecan ice cream.  The strawberry cream I was not impressed with and had one bite

The little one went with a banana split

DW had the carmalized phyllo.  Also you can see in this pic which I guess I forgot to mention we always get a cheese plate when we first arrive at the table as it goes great with the bread before your meal.

[cruisewithwife]

We headed over towards the welcome aboard show and stopped by the liquor tasting on the way.  Tried Jack 100 for the first time and wow that stuff was potent.  The welcome aboard show was ok our cruise director was Marty.  With that being said he is nothing compared to Malcolm.  People have always wondered who the cruise director is and I have never thought much about it until we had Malcolm and then having someone else.  I will say Marty just wasn't as good at getting everyone involved but he was still good.  We also thought the performers on the Fantasy were not quite as up to par as the ones we saw last year on the Freedom.  After the show we headed over to the cats lounge to check out the live band for a bit.  

This is the girls dancing with members of the band

After all of that and the fact that it had been almost 3 hours since we ate we headed up to the lido deck for some hot chocolate and pizza

We headed back to the room to find out towel animal and call it a night.  Day 1 in the books

[cruisewithwife]

Day 2 a day at sea which are some of the best days nice and relaxing.  We went up to lido to grab a bit to eat.  I am a big fan of all the meat and cheese stuff they always have out

This was a unique breakfast for the kiddo wanted baked beans and pancakes...I found it more odd they served baked beans fro breakfast but whatever does the trick I guess

Also got a huevos ranchero and an areapa from blue iquana.  I will say this is one of the best huevos ranchero I have had

[cruisewithwife]

After enjoying some breakfast we took the girls mini golfing.

It was so windy up there the balls would roll around without you even hitting them

[cruisewithwife]

They were having a card making activity so we took the girls to that. 

After that activity we took the girls to Camp Ocean to play for awhile so we could go relax on the Serenity Deck

Just kidding the Serenity deck was packed

It is cool how on this ship Serenity is off the back so you can look out

[cruisewithwife]

Instead we went up one deck off the back of lido where they had tables to sit and enjoyed the view.  This was a very nice place and we spent a lot of time out here

A butterfly came to visit us while we were relaxing

And since the pizza place is right by this area we might as well have some pizza too

[heffy2]

Great review so far! I sailed in Fantasy for her 10 Panama Canal sailing in September and loved her.

[JaniceB]

Great pictures of the ship, following along.

[Out of Iowa]

" This was a unique breakfast for the kiddo wanted baked beans and pancakes...I found it more odd they served baked beans fro breakfast but whatever does the trick I guess "

 

Attribute the baked beans (aka "beans";  "baked" not needing to be specified since green beans are called Runner Beans in the UK) to the English. 

 

No Full-English breakfast is complete without beans!   Curious?  Ask John Heald for more details.

[cruisewithwife]

After relaxin we went back to pick up the girls and head to Seaday Brunch.  This is by far one of the best things on the cruise in my opinion.  Below is the menu

[cruisewithwife]

You can ask for a seat by the window and they will usually accommodate you.  The little one was enjoying already

I had what could be the best meal on the ship...steak and eggs...double steak of course.

Then my second favorite the hey pork chop

DW went with eggs benedict

The little one had chocolate chip pancakes (which GM ate more of then her) and mac n cheese

 

[cruisewithwife]

We also enjoyed some dessert which included the banana pie

and chocolate cake

[cruisewithwife]

We took the kids back to Camp Ocean cuz it was time for the Slot Pull I had organized.  As I have done in the past you always get a lot of people interested before the cruise but the numbers seem smaller come the time of the event.  I headed to the location and sure enough there was people waiting with their $20 how exciting.  We ended up getting 20 people to participate which was not as many as initially thought but still good.  We got all the money put in the machine and let the pulls begin.  I want to say within the first 3 people's turn we hit a $125 which was good.  Then we kept going and hit a few more.  Things were looking promising we got the end and we all cashed out with $24 so everyone got their money back and $4 extra.  Everyone had a great time and some were excited and wanted more fun so 11 of us went in again and this time we tried a different machine.  Early on we hit $165 awesome.  I was the last puller and hit a $140 which we had other hits in between this time we ended up each taking in $36.  So the people who went both rounds ended up doubling their original $20 and we had a great time cheering each other on.  It was funny cuz our people at dinner said they saw us all screaming when we hit a couple of the big ones haha.  Here is a few views outside the windows by the casino.

[cruisewithwife]

I never took any pics of the room when we first got on I guess but decided to on way back now.  We were in M46 interior

Here is a picture of our door banner

[BuzzBuzzen]

Great photos and review , thank you.

[cruisewithwife]

4 minutes ago, BuzzBuzzen said:

Great photos and review , thank you.

Glad you enjoy

[cruisewithwife]

It was time to head to the Cat's Lounge for some Yahtzee.  But on the way we had to stop for one of my favorite cruise hacks, bring root beer with and make root beer floats.

The girls enjoy this

It was time for Yahtzee

It was done a little different than we have played on other ships.  On others it turns into a show and you watch each team roll and see what they pick.  On this one he was like ok you all roll in your groups and when you finish let me know what your score is.  The girls had fun rolling regardless.

[LindyWebb]

I see you brought your own tumblers on board for drinks. Did you find you used them a lot? I am debating them or red solo cups. 

[KmomChicago]

Love the use of the Cats lounge for several activities.  On Sensation and Triumph most of that kind of stuff was in the atrium lounge which was not particularly convenient for it, while the nightclubs sat empty all day.  Way back in the day on Premier, they tended to use the nightclubs and show lounges for day activities and it seemed much better use of space, so I could not understand Carnival's insistence on using the atrium lounge for everything.  I assume it had to do with always having a staffed bar available nearby.  Did they open the bar during your activities or have a cocktail server running around?

[cruisewithwife]

22 hours ago, LindyWebb said:

I see you brought your own tumblers on board for drinks. Did you find you used them a lot? I am debating them or red solo cups. 

Yes we use them a lot.  We have custom cruise ones for DW and I.  Especially if you like your drink to stay cold it comes in very handy.  Also the one cruise we ordered alcohol delivered to our room and then would mix our own drinks and walk around the ship

[cruisewithwife]

14 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Love the use of the Cats lounge for several activities.  On Sensation and Triumph most of that kind of stuff was in the atrium lounge which was not particularly convenient for it, while the nightclubs sat empty all day.  Way back in the day on Premier, they tended to use the nightclubs and show lounges for day activities and it seemed much better use of space, so I could not understand Carnival's insistence on using the atrium lounge for everything.  I assume it had to do with always having a staffed bar available nearby.  Did they open the bar during your activities or have a cocktail server running around?

On the Freedom they held a lot of the events in Red Frog Pub which was cool but this ship did not have it so I guess this was closest thing to it.  The bar was open during most of the activities but the casino bar was also about 50 steps away which was always open.

[cruisewithwife]

So we brought along our old video camera to let the girls play with a little bit.  I finally pulled the videos off the other night so here is some videos from the first 2 days that should have been earlier.

 

This is at breakfast on start of day 2

 

 

This one is them walking the length of the ship....carefully it gets a little bumpy haha

 

[cruisewithwife]

Here is a few pictures on our way back to the room.

[cruisewithwife]

Tonight was formal night for dinner so we had to get ready early

I'd say we clean up pretty good. DW does all the work ahead of time making sure we have coordinating stuff

Got one more picture our glasses of wine and off to try out the photo areas

Here is one more of the girls on the way to dinner