Carnival Fascination review - April 14

[helensobol]

High Level Overview of my experience on the Fascination sailing on April 14.   Feel free to ask me any questions if I missed something. 

 

Please remember this is my opinion of the ship and other people's experiences might have been different.   

 

Background:  I have been about 10 cruises which includes Carnival, NCL and RC.   When I booked this cruise, I understood the ship was older and didn't have all the bells and whistles that a lot of other ships have.  We picked it for the amazing port stops.   I cruise with my family which includes my 10 yr old daughter. 

 

Embarkment Process:  Fantastic!  We arrived at 12:30 and we flew through the lines and got onto the ship in record time.   It took us 15 or so minutes which IMO is amazing.   I was surprised that you get your room key when you get to your room but that probably assisted with the speed of getting onboard.     They notified us that our room would be ready at about 1 and they were correct.   We walked down at 1 and everything was set.  Note: they didn't announce rooms were ready.  

 

Cleanliness:  Fantastic!  It was always clean.  I rarely saw anything lingering on a table for more than 5 minutes before someone would clean it up.   I find this is common on most ships. 

 

Room:  we had an aft balcony that was very loud at docking time but the views and balcony size were amazing. Our room steward was awesome.  He filled our cooler every day which was a plus. 

 

Food:   Average.   I never had a bad meal or food item but nothing blew me away with flavors or overall taste.    Buffet:  The lines were a bit longer in the morning but if you went outside there were 0 waiting time even for the omelette station.  We always ate outside but I did see the line 40 people deep inside when going back to my room.     MDR:  On the first formal night we had to wait about 15 minutes to eat (we had My Time Dining).   I don't think 15 minutes is a long time and with the library next door, you could play a quick game before heading to your table.   The MDR staff were excellent,  all of them were extremely friendly and attentive.   I loved that they did a song/dance every night.  My daughter loves to participate so she was thrilled. 

 

Bars/Drinks:   I can't speak to this.  I didn't get a drinks package because we were barely on the ship.   We had a few drinks and there was never a line.  

 

Ports:   AMAZING!   We loved all of our port stops and had a great time on each of mini-adventures.  I can provide more info on what we did if people have questions.   Getting on and off the ship was a breeze.  We didn't ever have to wait in line.    Note:  They don't announce you can get off the ship.  I was surprised about the limited announcements overall. 

 

Cruise Director:   Honestly I didn't see her much but again this is so port heavy, I can see why.   We got off early and came back late each day.  

 

Pools/Slides:    The pool was crowded but that is to be expected. We had a great time on the slides each day and depending on the time of day, there was almost no line.  (especially if you got on 1-2 hours early from a port)    I probably went on each slide 10+ times a day. 

 

Overall Enjoyment on the ship:  Below Average.    I have zero complaints about the ship, it's decor or staff, my biggest surprise was the fellow cruise passengers.    They were extremely rude and disrespectful.    Example 1:  The chess board lost a piece a day.   Why someone would steal or destroy big chess pieces is beyond me.    Example 2:   There were lots of screaming and  in the hallways or the various public decks.    Girls screaming at each other over and over again.    Example 3:  People felt they could just cut in front of you or throw their dirty plates on your table while you were eating.   One morning a man at the table next to us,  picked up his dirty plate and dropped it on our table because he was done.  Not sure why he couldn't just leave it with his family who was also at their table.       There are many more examples but they aren't necessary to go into.   I'm not sure why the people acted this way but this is definitely outside the norm of anything I have experienced before on cruise. 

 

 

 

[luv2cruise2thebeach]

Thank you for the review.  We are sailing on the Fascination in September.  We were curious which nights you had as your elegant nights.  We would also love to hear what you did in each port.  This is our first time to every one of these ports except St. Thomas, so the more I hear about what people do as excursions the more helpful that is.

[JohnSpo]

Great review. I was on this cruise last April.  I didn't observe rude behavior like you experienced.    That is a shame.  Leaving dirty plates on tables with people still eating is something I have not seen yet.  That is beyond rude.  As you mentioned the ports were great.  I especially liked St Lucia.  Thanks for posting your review.

[ontheweb]

I guess you are saying the ports have recovered since the devastating hurricane hit Puerto Rico and other islands. At least I hope you are saying that. (Our cruise on the Fascination was pre both the hurricane and the refurbishment.)

 

We did not see any of the rude behavior you witnessed. It's a shame that happened. 

 

We especially enjoyed the Latin dancing, and appreciated that the locals and the band encouraged us despite we were not at their level.

 

 

[beshears]

Thank you for your review.  Mine was published under: Cruise Critic Carnival Fascination member reviews: "Checking Out Ports after 20 years, and St. Lucia too".  We were on the same ship, with same itinerary the week before.  In fact, two ladies that were at our large table were doing the same cruise over again, so they were on the ship the same time you were.

 

As for rude people, I'm sorry to read this.  If you, or anyone else that just read your review now, they will see how "happy" we were with our cruise, and especially everyone that worked for the cruise line, as well as the guest.

 

As someone mentioned earlier, my main reason to go this route was to go back to St. Lucia (I fell in love with it years ago, and figured this 3rd time will probably be my last), and I was able to see it, and the other ports as well.  Some of them I have been to several times, but I was able to check out St. Kitts, and St. Maarten, and I was really impressed on how they had changed in 20 years.

 

 

[jimbo5544]

Nice review, thanks for doing it.  I have not seen one of the Fascination in a really long time.   I once argued with some Carnival brass about why they put such an old ship in a 7 day cruise out of San Juan.  While I did not get an acceptable answer, the answer I did get was one of the themes of your review. It is a port intensive itinerary and the ship is secondary.  While that may be true, seeing much better ships doing 4 and 5 day cruises bug me....but I do get the point. That said, I digress thanks for the review.

[LittleYiaYia]

Thanks for your balanced review.  We do this cruise on this ship each February.  We love these ports and find that the weather is usually very cooperative with warm temps and little to no rain.  We are off the ship every morning and do not return till all aboard time so we do not really need all the bells and whistles that the larger, newer ships provide.  In the evening we are so tired, maybe a show after dinner and then we are ready for bed.  I believe one of the main draws of this smaller ship is that you seldom find any lines.  The longest line we ever saw was at guest relations.  Maybe 10 people deep. 

 

Sorry about the rude fellow passengers.  I can see where this would leave a bad taste in your mouth.  Hope this was just a one-time phenomenon. 

 

One question, your sail-a-way cards are now at the room?  They must have added mailboxes since last February.   

[helensobol]

On 4/26/2019 at 12:12 PM, luv2cruise2thebeach said:

Thank you for the review.  We are sailing on the Fascination in September.  We were curious which nights you had as your elegant nights.  We would also love to hear what you did in each port.  This is our first time to every one of these ports except St. Thomas, so the more I hear about what people do as excursions the more helpful that is.

 

Elegant nights were the sea day and the port of St Lucia. 

 

Ports:

 

St Thomas - we rented a car from Paradise rentals (100 for a Jeep).   We started by going to Paradise Point then we went to Drakes Seat.   From there we took a scenic route to Sapphire beach.  Sapphire beach was almost empty.  We spent about 2 hours there in a cabana for FREE.   Then we had lunch near the port that brings you to St Johns.    On the way back we drove to 99 steps (not worth going to IMO) and Bluebeards.  

 

Barbados:   Went to Copacabana.   Got there early (10am) and got front row beach seats.   Water and sand was beautiful.  Best I have ever seen.    They have a great deal that you get 2 beach chairs and umbrella for 50 dollars and you get 40 dollars of food credit.     Taxi was 5 dollars a person each way.   

 

St Lucia:  Took spencer ambrose land and sea tour.  Great tour, great people.  The volcanic mud bath and waterfall were a lot fun esp for my daughter. The beach you go to at the end is very small which would be my only complaint.   Definitely worth the money. 

 

St Kitts:   Took Greyford island tour.   The tour was nice but not especially exciting for my daughter.  It was a lot car travel.  I would recommend going to Cockleshell beach instead.

 

St.  Maarten:  Our favorite day.  We rented kayaks from Caribbean paddling and went over to Pinel Island.  on the island there are beach chairs and a restaurant.   Great swimming,  ok snorkelling and a pier you jump off.    Everyone loved this day most. 

 

Puerto Rico:  If you have time, I highly recommend going to the rainforest and then hitting up the food kiosks in Luquillo.  The beach is beautiful there. 

 

[helensobol]

On 4/27/2019 at 9:25 AM, LittleYiaYia said:

 

One question, your sail-a-way cards are now at the room?  They must have added mailboxes since last February.   

 

There were no mailboxes at the rooms.  They just placed that above your room tag number. 

 

Another shocker for me on this boat was the doors are not metal!  All our magnetic door decor didn't work 😞 

 

As far as passengers,  it was very disappointing but that isn't Carnival's fault.   I'm guessing it was just bad timing.   We did our best to ignore it and enjoy ourselves.     The hardest part was explaining the behavior when I enforce kindness and respect with my daughter.   She kept asking why people would act that way.  

[helensobol]

On 4/26/2019 at 3:09 PM, ontheweb said:

I guess you are saying the ports have recovered since the devastating hurricane hit Puerto Rico and other islands. At least I hope you are saying that. (Our cruise on the Fascination was pre both the hurricane and the refurbishment.)

 

 

You can see a lot of devastation outside the tourism areas.    Most islands said they were recovering and were optimistic about things to continue to improve.  

 

The rainforest area of PR was were you saw the most devastation.   

[christyran1228]

On 4/26/2019 at 7:03 PM, jimbo5544 said:

Nice review, thanks for doing it.  I have not seen one of the Fascination in a really long time.   I once argued with some Carnival brass about why they put such an old ship in a 7 day cruise out of San Juan.  While I did not get an acceptable answer, the answer I did get was one of the themes of your review. It is a port intensive itinerary and the ship is secondary.  While that may be true, seeing much better ships doing 4 and 5 day cruises bug me....but I do get the point. That said, I digress thanks for the review.

We went on this itinerary in November 2014 when the Valor was still there (bigger ship) ... we had so many price drops that we ended up in a suite for less than $1,500 total.  So if I had my guess, they put a smaller ship out there because it's easier to fill up at a premium price.  I just booked the itinerary again this morning, and I'll just say it was more than $1,500 ... especially since balconies on that ship aren't easy to come by.  That's just my $.02.  🙂

[richstowe]

2 hours ago, christyran1228 said:

We went on this itinerary in November 2014 when the Valor was still there (bigger ship) ... we had so many price drops that we ended up in a suite for less than $1,500 total.  So if I had my guess, they put a smaller ship out there because it's easier to fill up at a premium price.  I just booked the itinerary again this morning, and I'll just say it was more than $1,500 ... especially since balconies on that ship aren't easy to come by.  That's just my $.02.  🙂

We loved our Celebrity Summit cruise out of San Juan when Carnival;s Valor was stationed there . Prices were low especially for the Valor .

We are looking at another San Juan cruise . It's going to be work , unlikely to succeed, convincing my DW to take an OV instead of a balcony . And yes Christy, OV's are much cheaper. When I fail to persuade her, it will probably be a balcony on the Summit again . I like Carnival but for a similar price , it's always going to be Celerity . Better ship and much better fellow passengers . 

[JaniceB]

Thank you for your well written review.  

[luv2cruise2thebeach]

20 hours ago, helensobol said:

 

Elegant nights were the sea day and the port of St Lucia. 

 

Ports:

 

St Thomas - we rented a car from Paradise rentals (100 for a Jeep).   We started by going to Paradise Point then we went to Drakes Seat.   From there we took a scenic route to Sapphire beach.  Sapphire beach was almost empty.  We spent about 2 hours there in a cabana for FREE.   Then we had lunch near the port that brings you to St Johns.    On the way back we drove to 99 steps (not worth going to IMO) and Bluebeards.  

 

Barbados:   Went to Copacabana.   Got there early (10am) and got front row beach seats.   Water and sand was beautiful.  Best I have ever seen.    They have a great deal that you get 2 beach chairs and umbrella for 50 dollars and you get 40 dollars of food credit.     Taxi was 5 dollars a person each way.   

 

St Lucia:  Took spencer ambrose land and sea tour.  Great tour, great people.  The volcanic mud bath and waterfall were a lot fun esp for my daughter. The beach you go to at the end is very small which would be my only complaint.   Definitely worth the money. 

 

St Kitts:   Took Greyford island tour.   The tour was nice but not especially exciting for my daughter.  It was a lot car travel.  I would recommend going to Cockleshell beach instead.

 

St.  Maarten:  Our favorite day.  We rented kayaks from Caribbean paddling and went over to Pinel Island.  on the island there are beach chairs and a restaurant.   Great swimming,  ok snorkelling and a pier you jump off.    Everyone loved this day most. 

 

Puerto Rico:  If you have time, I highly recommend going to the rainforest and then hitting up the food kiosks in Luquillo.  The beach is beautiful there. 

 

In September our Sea Day is at the end preceded by St. Lucia, so that would be back to back nights for elegant nights.

[christyran1228]

18 hours ago, richstowe said:

We loved our Celebrity Summit cruise out of San Juan when Carnival;s Valor was stationed there . Prices were low especially for the Valor .

We are looking at another San Juan cruise . It's going to be work , unlikely to succeed, convincing my DW to take an OV instead of a balcony . And yes Christy, OV's are much cheaper. When I fail to persuade her, it will probably be a balcony on the Summit again . I like Carnival but for a similar price , it's always going to be Celerity . Better ship and much better fellow passengers . 

I keep thinking that we need to branch out to other cruise lines, but inevitably end up booking with Carnival ... still on a mission to become Platinum I suppose.  I hope you can convince DW!  🙂

Edited April 30, 2019 by christyran1228

[christyran1228]

On 4/26/2019 at 8:53 AM, helensobol said:

Pools/Slides:    The pool was crowded but that is to be expected. We had a great time on the slides each day and depending on the time of day, there was almost no line.  (especially if you got on 1-2 hours early from a port)    I probably went on each slide 10+ times a day.

 

 

Does the Fascination have Dive-In movies?  I can't find any information about it, so I'm assuming it doesn't? 

 

Thanks  🙂

[helensobol]

17 minutes ago, christyran1228 said:

Does the Fascination have Dive-In movies?  I can't find any information about it, so I'm assuming it doesn't? 

 

Thanks  🙂

 

Unfortunately no.  The middle of deck has a stage instead.

 

 

[LittleYiaYia]

No MUTS on Fascination.  They do show movies sometimes in the Puttin' On the Ritz lounge.  I realize that for those of you that enjoy the outdoor movies, this is no substitution. 

 

18 hours ago, richstowe said:

We loved our Celebrity Summit cruise out of San Juan when Carnival;s Valor was stationed there . Prices were low especially for the Valor .

We are looking at another San Juan cruise . It's going to be work , unlikely to succeed, convincing my DW to take an OV instead of a balcony . And yes Christy, OV's are much cheaper. When I fail to persuade her, it will probably be a balcony on the Summit again . I like Carnival but for a similar price , it's always going to be Celerity . Better ship and much better fellow passengers . 

 

These kinds posts always make me wonder if I am living in lala land.  I have sailed the Summit, the Fascination, Jewel of the Seas and the Millennium out of San Juan.  I saw no difference in the clientele from one cruise ship to the other, except the Celebrity ships tended to have older passengers and less things to do in the evening.  I enjoyed all of these cruises, but when the Summit costs almost $1000 more for a same category room at the same week of the year, it's not hard to chose the Fascination. 

 

Whichever you choose, have a great cruise.

[richstowe]

19 minutes ago, LittleYiaYia said:

No MUTS on Fascination.  They do show movies sometimes in the Puttin' On the Ritz lounge.  I realize that for those of you that enjoy the outdoor movies, this is no substitution. 

 

 

These kinds posts always make me wonder if I am living in lala land.  I have sailed the Summit, the Fascination, Jewel of the Seas and the Millennium out of San Juan.  I saw no difference in the clientele from one cruise ship to the other, except the Celebrity ships tended to have older passengers and less things to do in the evening.  I enjoyed all of these cruises, but when the Summit costs almost $1000 more for a same category room at the same week of the year, it's not hard to chose the Fascination. 

 

Whichever you choose, have a great cruise.

We have enjoyed the company of the overwhelming majority of the people we've met on all our cruises .  We have however noticed differences . 

For the cruise date we are looking at , a balcony cabin starts at $1888 on Fascination with $50 OBC . The same TA is offering a Summit balcony starting at $2558 with $375 OBC and their drink package included . We are not big drinkers but that is a better deal for us plus we are on a Celebrity ship. 

Having said this, I know either cruise would be great !

 

Edited April 30, 2019 by richstowe

[LittleYiaYia]

Enjoy your cruise, I hear the Summit is very nice after the refurbishment.  A balcony is certainly a plus for this itinerary, nice to have when sailing into and out of these beautiful ports.   

[so,ton saint]

On 4/30/2019 at 8:03 PM, LittleYiaYia said:

Enjoy your cruise, I hear the Summit is very nice after the refurbishment.  A balcony is certainly a plus for this itinerary, nice to have when sailing into and out of these beautiful ports.   

Hi my wife and i am joining Facination in march 20/20, doing a stay and cruise with Virgin holidays, but going back to Celebrity we done the same on the Ex Celebrity galaxy now Marella Explorer doing a stay in Barbados  and farther south to Grenada bequia and St vincent the year before was the Ex  Royal  Splendour  of the sea, a small ship like Facination but name change Marella Discovery, i think these smaller ships are ideal for the Caribbean and hopefully i will enjoy Facination, am joining the ship in Barbados  as this is one of her stops.

[LittleYiaYia]

We also sailed the Celebrity Galaxy to the Southern Caribbean.  This was in 1997.  If I remember correctly, Martinique, Antiqua and Grenada were also on that itinerary. 

 

The Fascination is small, not glitzy and you won't find tons of activities every day.  However, there are so many plusses, no lines, a clean and comfortable ship, good food and a wonderful staff. 

 

Enjoy Barbados, it is one of our favorite ports.  Enjoy your cruise!