Fascination 9/4 Sailing

[grandmato4]

opps- needed to edit that this was a Oct 4th sailing -not 9/4----- Sorry!!!!!!

 

We returned yesterday from our 5 night Oct 4th sailing on the Fascination out of JAX. I'd have to say that we found a little bit of everything on this cruise. I booked the cruise last Oct as a Christmas present for my DH, DD, and SIL and we did have a good time. Flew into JAX the day before and spent the night at the Hampton Inn and Suites by the airport. Hotel suite accomodations were good and the price was right with the convenience of two restaurants in front of the hotel. Only problem was getting the hotel shuttle to pick us up at the airport, called twice with the hotel staff telling us the first time they would sent the shuttle and called again 30 minutes later to be told they had sent the shuttle but would call again. 20 minutes later when it still had not arrived we grapped a ride with another hotels shuttle offering us a ride to arrive at the Hampton to hear that the driver hadn't arrived to work YET that day. Not a great way to start a vacation but we were in Florida and on vacation so we managed to put it behind us and enjoy our time in Jacksonville. Ate dinner at the Ruby Tuesday's which is in front of the restaurant. The shuttle driver had finally arrived at work so we asked to be taken to the Walmart just down the road to pick up some Champaigne and soda to take on the cruise. When we were done we called for the shuttle to come back and pick us up and he did come very promptly this time. Arriving back at the hotel about 9 pm we decided to go enjoy the pool and hot tub for a few minutes which we had all to ourselves.

 

The next morning I call at 9:30 to Gator City Taxi to ask them to pick us up at 10 to take us to the cruise terminal to hear that they were not allowed to pick up any cruise passengers, unless they were part of a wedding party until 11 am. to which I said fine. At 11:30 when they still had not arrived so we called again to hear that they would be there shortly. At about 11:58 they finally showed up and we were finally on our way to the port. There were many many people at the terminal and the drop off lines were very long with the taxi drop off lane being closed off. Fortunately our taxi driver asked a security person why and told him that was the line the taxi's were always allowed to us and the security person finally allowed our driver to use that lane which made our wait much shorter than it would have been otherwise. The lines of people at the terminal were very long but they did move quickly and we were on board the Fascination shortly after 1 p.m. Up to Lido deck to get something to eat, and of coarse by then with so many people already on board finding a place to sit was a bit of a problem but with a little patience we did find a place for the four of us to sit and enjoyed our first food on board.

 

I had not originally planned to book a cabana at HMC but in talking to everyone the night before we decided that we would attempt to get a cabana if any were still available and if not that would be ok too. Boarding as late as we did I assumed they would be all booked so I had not gone directly the the excursion desk. After getting something to eat and dropping our luggage off in our rooms close to 2 pm we wandered around the ship and between 3 and 3:30 found ourselves near the excursion desk with no one standing in line there so I went over and asked about a cabana to find out that only 4 had been booked up to that point so we were able to book my first choice of #10 green which turned out to be absolutely wonderful.

 

Muster drill was held at about 3:45 and I must say, it was the longest by far drill I've ever had to endure. We've heard others complain about long muster drills on different ships but up until this point all that we've ever done on both Carnival and Princess had been short and sweet and nothing painful in the least. This one felt as if it lasted forever with first meeting in one spot and hearing the instructions and practicing putting on the lifejackets and then everyone having to walk to our lifeboat and standing for what seemed like forever and then finally being told this was the lifeboat we would be on if anything should happen. I must admit that this was the point that the shuttle problem and taxi problem and now a lengthy musterdrill caused me to loudly muttered something about NEVER ever sailing out of Jacksonville again!

 

With lifejackets put away, and a MiamiVice in hand and music playing I must say that sail-a-way was wonderful sailing under the Jacksonville bridge. It is amazing how few feet there is clearence between the ship and the bridge. The weather was beautiful and all was right with the world again!

 

We had 6 pm. dinner in the Imagination dining room sitting at table 265 with a great waiter Teo and his assistant Dwi. Their service was great all four nights that we ate in the dining room. After dinner we wandered the ship some more and attended the Welcome show in the theater which was one of the better welcome shows we'd seen on Carnival. Later we played in the casino for a while and later had a wonderful first nights sleep aboard the Fascination.

 

more to come.......

[grandmato4]

Seeing as I typed the wrong sail date in the title of this thread I decided to start another thead with the correct date of our sailing as to not confuse anyone --so sorry for any confusion.:o