Fascination to Mobile in 2022

[CruiseAdict218]

Per John’s Facebook:
 

CARNIVAL FASCINATION TO MOVE TO MOBILE IN 2022

 
MIAMI (Feb. 18, 2020) – Carnival Cruise Line today announced that Carnival Fascination will move from its current homeport of San Juan, PR and be based in Mobile, Ala., effective Jan. 16, 2022. 

Carnival Fantasy will continue its popular four- and five-day cruise schedule from Mobile through January 2022, at which time Carnival Fascination, will pick up the itineraries.  In conjunction with today’s announcement, Carnival Fascination itineraries from Mobile will open for sale later today.  Guests currently booked on Carnival Fantasy and Carnival Fascination through January 2022 will not be affected and voyages will operate as planned.
“Carnival Fascination will bring some exciting new features to the Mobile market, including a greater variety of balcony accommodations, a Bonsai Sushi Express venue, the cocktail pharmacy-themed Alchemy Bar and a Cherry On Top sweets shop,” said Fred Stein, Carnival’s vice president of revenue planning and deployment.  “We have worked with the Mobile community over the last several years to successfully build demand and create this opportunity for a newer ship to enter the market.”

In the coming months, Carnival is expected to announce plans for Carnival Fantasy.  In addition, its deployment team continues to evaluate options to return to San Juan after 2022 with a ship that can resume calls to eastern and southern Caribbean destinations currently served by Carnival Fascination. 

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Lots of news there and I’m sure some of you will have questions about different parts of this information but at the moment I don’t have any more to share with you but of course I will as soon as I can.
Great news for Mobile.

Cheers 

[toad455]

Sounds like the Fantasy is about to be retired. 

[Jamesatgsu]

Not that the Fascination is really any different from the Fantasy, I'm still excited about the move because it means a new ship for me. Really enjoyed cruising out of Mobile.

[mpdog42]

So what is the PR going to get?

[GeorgiaMomof4]

We love the Fantasy - maybe they will freshen her up and put her somewhere like

Jacksonville.  Not a fan of the Ecstasy which is there now.

 

 

[Aplmac]

28 minutes ago, toad455 said:

Sounds like the Fantasy is about to be retired. 

 

Oh God please...from your mouth to God's EAR!

 

She's been serving faithfully since 1990!  It's time for her to move on

and do her bit to modernise the Carnival fleet, overall!

 

Hopefully she'll pass on to another, smaller cruise line

and not go to Alang........

[Aplmac]

14 minutes ago, Jamesatgsu said:

Not that the Fascination is really any different from the Fantasy,

I'm still excited about the move because it means a new ship for me.

 

It also means a "new" ship

for us who live in Barbados and who board here.

 

Hopefully we'll get a ship considerably more modern?!

[Jamesatgsu]

5 minutes ago, GeorgiaMomof4 said:

We love the Fantasy - maybe they will freshen her up and put her somewhere like

Jacksonville.  Not a fan of the Ecstasy which is there now.

 

 

Interesting since they are they same class of ship.  I enjoyed the Fantasy (other than Camp Ocean).

9 minutes ago, mpdog42 said:

So what is the PR going to get?

Sounds like they may go without for awhile. I hope they get something larger, as I've been pretty tempted to go out of San Juan, but I don't want to go on a similar ship to what I can get out of Mobile or Jacksonville which are like 4 hours drive for me and 7 days is a lot for a small ship, IMO, which are what we've looked at from there.

[Aplmac]

11 minutes ago, Jamesatgsu said:

Sounds like they may go without for awhile.

I hope they get something larger,

as I've been pretty tempted to go out of San Juan

 

but I don't want to go on a similar ship to what I can get

out of Mobile or Jacksonville

 

Carnival's  "Southern Caribbean" route is one of its most popular!
The ship is always full or nearly-full.

 

It is unlikely that no ship will get posted to Puerto Rico

to facilitate this interesting loop Southward to Barbados, and back to PR.

 

[Jamesatgsu]

12 minutes ago, Aplmac said:

 

Carnival's  "Southern Caribbean" route is one of its most popular!
The ship is always full or nearly-full.

 

It is unlikely that no ship will get posted to Puerto Rico

to facilitate this interesting loop Southward to Barbados, and back to PR.

 

No doubt it is a great itinerary, just going off the wording of the article saying after 2022, which would basically mean going all of 2022 without a ship. Could just be bad wording of course.  Personally I'd like to see the Dream take over this route.

[Beach_gal]

"In addition, its deployment team continues to evaluate options to return to San Juan after 2022 with a ship that can resume calls to eastern and southern Caribbean destinations currently served by Carnival Fascination. "

 

What does this mean - 'evaluating options to return to San Juan after 2022..."

 

Doesn't sound very optimistic. I hope they name a replacement soon for those of us that sail out of PR regularly. 

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, Jamesatgsu said:

Not that the Fascination is really any different from the Fantasy, I'm still excited about the move because it means a new ship for me. Really enjoyed cruising out of Mobile.

 

IMO it is an upgrade because it has the alchemy bar and the full size comedy club.

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, mpdog42 said:

So what is the PR going to get?

 

Hopefully moving up at least to conquest class. I've been holding out on the route hoping they'd get an upgrade from Fascination. They can have one of the New Orleans ships and we'll take a Dream or Vista class please.

 

Edited February 18, 2020 by Saint Greg

[jasong38501]

35 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Hopefully moving up at least to conquest class. I've been holding out on the route hoping they'd get an upgrade from Fascination. They can have one of the New Orleans ships and we'll take a Dream or Vista class please.

 

Have you looked at the prices Carnival is getting for the 7 day trips out of PR? The cheapest 7 day cruises in the fleet most weeks. I would be shocked to see much of a capacity upgrade. The press release sounds like Carnival has no current plans to put any ship there.

[Saint Greg]

10 minutes ago, jasong38501 said:

Have you looked at the prices Carnival is getting for the 7 day trips out of PR? The cheapest 7 day cruises in the fleet most weeks. I would be shocked to see much of a capacity upgrade. The press release sounds like Carnival has no current plans to put any ship there.

 

It's the only fantasy class ship doing 7 day cruises. I don't know what you're reading that says they have no plans to put another ship there. Fascination is there into 2022. There's plenty of time for them to decide which ship goes there. 

[jasong38501]

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

 

It's the only fantasy class ship doing 7 day cruises. I don't know what you're reading that says they have no plans to put another ship there. Fascination is there into 2022. There's plenty of time for them to decide which ship goes there. 

It's in the statement that Carnival released today. The one at the top of the thread. It says Carnival is evaluating options to return to San Juan after 2022. So if Fascination is moving to Mobile in January 2022, and Carnival is evaluating options after 2022, that means that at least for a year that won't be happening. And I seriously doubt it will be happening after that with any more capacity.

[soonernstlouis]

2 hours ago, jasong38501 said:

Have you looked at the prices Carnival is getting for the 7 day trips out of PR? The cheapest 7 day cruises in the fleet most weeks. I would be shocked to see much of a capacity upgrade. The press release sounds like Carnival has no current plans to put any ship there.

Greg, I would recommend you take Freedom of the Seas if sailing a Fantasy ship is the reason you are holding out on the Southern route; similar itinerary & not a 10 day trip that many can’t take that much vacation at once for.

 

Just as jasongg38501 said it’s usually very well priced (I think I paid $350/pp for a window view) and the ports more than made up for what the ship lacked.

[Saint Greg]

6 minutes ago, jasong38501 said:

It's in the statement that Carnival released today. The one at the top of the thread. It says Carnival is evaluating options to return to San Juan after 2022. So if Fascination is moving to Mobile in January 2022, and Carnival is evaluating options after 2022, that means that at least for a year that won't be happening. And I seriously doubt it will be happening after that with any more capacity.

A ship is going to have to go somewhere with another new ship coming that year. I think they’ll move one to San Juan.

[jasong38501]

6 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

A ship is going to have to go somewhere with another new ship coming that year. I think they’ll move one to San Juan.

I believe it comes into the fleet in November, assuming this one is on time, so perhaps that is why they said after 2022. You could be right about that, but I still doubt it would be anything larger than a Fantasy or perhaps Spirit class ship. The ticket prices just don't justify increased capacity and with that port intensive of a schedule I can't imagine on board spending is any more impressive.

[Aplmac]

3 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

Hopefully moving up at least to Conquest class. ===> Preach, brother!

 

I've been holding out on the route hoping they'd get an upgrade from Fascination.

 

You're not the only one

who's been holding out on the Southern Caribbean route

hoping for a ship to replace the 26 yr.old boat!

 

Hundreds of islanders remain ticked off that, over the last decade or more,

we got to enjoy decent Carnival ships in this order: Destiny, replaced by Victory

replaced by Valor, replaced by Liberty -

each replacement improving on the previous ship!

 

And then we get this thing.............

 

 

[purplephenom]

20 minutes ago, Aplmac said:

 

You're not the only one

who's been holding out on the Southern Caribbean route

hoping for a ship to replace the 26 yr.old boat!

 

Hundreds of islanders remain ticked off that, over the last decade or more,

we got to enjoy decent Carnival ships in this order: Destiny, replaced by Victory

replaced by Valor, replaced by Liberty -

each replacement improving on the previous ship!

 

And then we get this thing.............

 

 

 

What is it you don’t like about this ship? I mentioned this in another thread, but I was all prepared to hate it, but no lines and easy to get chairs plus the ports made up for it. The ship has some of the upgrades- are you looking for something specific? 

 

I know now a lot of people feel the way you do, and I’m certainly not trying to change anyone’s mind. 

[soonernstlouis]

1 hour ago, Aplmac said:

 

You're not the only one

who's been holding out on the Southern Caribbean route

hoping for a ship to replace the 26 yr.old boat!

 

Hundreds of islanders remain ticked off that, over the last decade or more,

we got to enjoy decent Carnival ships in this order: Destiny, replaced by Victory

replaced by Valor, replaced by Liberty -

each replacement improving on the previous ship!

 

And then we get this thing.............

 

 

Ironic that you included a picture of an RCCL ship next to Fascination since you can’t embark on one from Barbados.  Nor can you embark on an NCL ship there.  Even with the Brits using that port I doubt it accounts for more than 200-300 of the 2,000+ capacity each week on that ship.

 

Don’t get me wrong-Barbados was my 2nd favorite island I’ve been to (Big Island-Hawaii #1), but it’s much more of a destination than a source of tourists.

[jimbo5544]

5 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Hopefully moving up at least to conquest class. I've been holding out on the route hoping they'd get an upgrade from Fascination. They can have one of the New Orleans ships and we'll take a Dream or Vista class please.

 

Totally agree, I cringe when I think of some pretty wonderful ships doing 3 and 4 day cruises. 

[xDisconnections]

7 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Hopefully moving up at least to conquest class. I've been holding out on the route hoping they'd get an upgrade from Fascination. They can have one of the New Orleans ships and we'll take a Dream or Vista class please.

 

I’m not quite sure a Conquest, Dream or Vista class ship will be coming to San Juan. This particular market hasn’t exactly been very profitable and often requires them to deeply discount the fares just to increase occupancy and room allocations. This route was previously serviced by the Carnival Victory when we sailed it and then later two Conquest class ships (Valor and Liberty).

 

They has trouble filling the rooms and needed to discount the fares. Because the ADR and RevPAR were both very low, they reduced the capacity and number of berths available for that embarkation port and is the reason why you are now seeing a smaller Fantasy class ship.

 

Last minute, this cruise has been offered at a bargain for locals and low enough to offset airfare in certain markets.

[xDisconnections]

1 hour ago, jimbo5544 said:

Totally agree, I cringe when I think of some pretty wonderful ships doing 3 and 4 day cruises. 

Royal Caribbean has their Voyager and Freedom class ships doing some of the 3/4 cruises and it really makes it convenient to have a really nice weekend getaway on a pretty good ship.