Our FIRST cruise... Review time....

[Hockey Addict]

Hi everyone...

 

We just got back yesterday from our first cruise... Fascination 11-1-08. 5 Day going to Nassau and Half Moon Cay.

 

It took me 13 years to talk DH into going on a cruise. I will give you a review later today. I don't want to keep you hanging but there is some stuff we have to do today. Like go to the grocery store... MAN am I starving this morning! It's from eating in the dining room every morning... we normally don't eat breakfast but boy did we while on this cruise....

 

So hang tight I will be back later today.... Can anyone tell me how to get my house to stop rocking??? :D Actually I love that the house is rocking. I wish it wouldn't stop!!!

[techmom]

Oh man, you are hooked!!!!!!!!!!!!

Watch out, you will be looking on the website to book your next one. Our last one was on the Conquest in April and I just told my DH I can't stand it, we have to book something NOW.

[Giggles2007]

Hi everyone...

 

We just got back yesterday from our first cruise... Fascination 11-1-08. 5 Day going to Nassau and Half Moon Cay.

 

It took me 13 years to talk DH into going on a cruise. I will give you a review later today. I don't want to keep you hanging but there is some stuff we have to do today. Like go to the grocery store... MAN am I starving this morning! It's from eating in the dining room every morning... we normally don't eat breakfast but boy did we while on this cruise....

 

So hang tight I will be back later today.... Can anyone tell me how to get my house to stop rocking??? :D Actually I love that the house is rocking. I wish it wouldn't stop!!!

 

 

Congrats on your first cruise. And I can totally understand the being hungry. When I got back from my first cruise my stomach felt empty right before breakfast, lunch and dinner! Normally I don't eat breakfast either and lunch is usually something light. But I had to tell my stomach to chill out we are not on the cruise anymore :D. But my remedy to stop the house from rocking, is to book another cruise. I cruise every two years and it seems to work for me.

 

I look forward to your review.

[Hockey Addict]

Oh man are we hooked... I am SO happy that DH LOVED IT! Booking another cruise... we looked online last night... we already have one picked out!! We'll be booking it this weekend probably! :D

[kyrisong1]

::::::::::::::waiting for review:::::::::::::

[SROYCE]

Glad to hear your first cruise was wonderful. My DH and I went on the Fasination for our first cruise and loved we. We can't wait for our next one.:)

[NCTribeFan]

I just keep taking my anti-nausea meds for a couple of days post cruise now and the Mal DeBarquement symptoms don't bother me. And if you'd done your homework on CC, you'd know that!

 

:p

 

Looking forward to your review. Our turn is 5 weeks from tomorrow!

[Muumuu]

Ah, another addict is born. Welcome to the wonderful world of cruise addicts. Although actual cruising is the only relief, the planning of another eases the symptoms.

[obx_fintoo]

Oh man are we hooked... I am SO happy that DH LOVED IT! Booking another cruise... we looked online last night... we already have one picked out!! We'll be booking it this weekend probably! :D

Oh My! Being so close to the port, you guys can just wait for the great last minute deals! I predict you'll be Platinum by next year! LOL:D

[vacruizer]

Welcome to the addiction! Glad you had a great time.

 

I took me forever to talk my DH into our first one - we finally went in Sept. 06. We were booked for the second within a month of coming home. Then we booked a third prior to even going on that one and snuck in two weekend cruises to nowhere that were within driving distance. After that, DH said no more cruises until 2010 - he wanted to do a land vacation again. Well, guess what? We just booked the Glory for January - he changed his mind. He won't admit it and secretly misses cruising!!! :p

 

It really is hopeless once you are hooked - you might as well just come home and booke the next one. :D

[izzyvet]

Yes,,, definitely book another cruise soon. It will help you feel much better. I feel the need to ALWAYS have a cruise booked, I get along with my DH much better that way, he feels the same. You can always cancel, as long as it's far enough out, if it doesn't work out.

 

Looking forward to your review!

[J&K08]

My wife and I had our first cruise on the Carnival Sensation and we are hooked too. The moment we got back into the house she sat down on the couch and said, "Man, I really want a strawberry diaquiri!" Being the loving hubby I am I offered to go out and to get the stuff to make one but she said, "I want it now! I wish one of the waiters could come by right now and bring me one! If you get it it is not the same!"

 

The service was great! The crew of the Carnival Sensation were excellent! Especially our dinner waiters Pankaj and Dimitri whose service was above and beyond! Money well spent! :D

[punkidoodle]

Oh man are we hooked... I am SO happy that DH LOVED IT! Booking another cruise... we looked online last night... we already have one picked out!! We'll be booking it this weekend probably! :D

 

Hey there, cruise buddy!! I wish you guys were sailing with us on the Glory in April. Can't wait to read your review also.

 

Diane

[Hockey Addict]

I read about taking the meds after we got back but I didn't have to take anything while onboard at ALL! So I just didn't pop any pills. I hate taking pills as it is!

 

OK you guys ready?? I may be long winded at times so bare with me... I really thought I would have NO problem remembering things but MAN do the days sometimes blend together!! (that and a few too many drinks doesn't help) I'm uploading pictures on photobucket as I type this... I may have to stop here and there to resize to add pictures.

 

DH, 34 (Steve) and I 36 (Steph) went on our first cruise after taking 13 years of talking DH into it! I'm so relieved that he loves it. He's as excited to plan our next one! I did all of the planning. A friend of ours, Jama 41, came with us.

 

We live in Jax so there was no travel needed. My parents dropped all 3 of us off at the port. My dad, driving a LOT slower then I wanted him to, got us to the port at 11:10am. I wanted to be there at 11. Oh well, 10 minutes longer, not bad.

 

When we got out of the car BAM there was a porter, opened up the back of my SUV and was loading those bad boy's up on his cart. YAYYY it's really HERE!!!! I'm FINALLY getting on that ship!!! The 1st tip of the cruise goes to the porter... thank you, take care of them!!! :D

 

Five minutes later we were walking up to the terminal and walked right in. Showed our drivers license and our Fun pass. Next stop, time to walk thru that x-ray machine.... after that over to stand in line for about 8 minutes to show our drivers license again and birth certificates. (I gotta get passports now for the next cruise) That took about 5 minutes for him to check that out and get our sign and sail cards.

 

Off to the next line... we stood there and moved along slowly for about 10 more minutes until we made it to the front of the line and they put us in the next section to sit down. Before we knew it we were up to the final line.... we're almost there!!!!!!

 

Take our picture.... hand our sign and sail card over the the girl, smile for the birdy and off we go...... time to get on the ship!!! As soon as we walked out of the building to head to the ship I SCREAMED!!!!! I was SO HAPPY!!! I've been SO excited for over 150+ days since we booked! Just ask everyone on our roll call I was driving them LOONEY!! So, we got to port at 11:10am... we were heading up to the Lido Deck now... it's 12:15pm..... not bad I think!! The time went real fast waiting to get onboard. I thought for sure it would take forever!

 

We headed up to the Lido like everyone else. Of course I grabbed my first DOD! There he was standing there on the way to the Buffet... how convienent ;) After all, I like so many others, had to make sure my S&S card worked, right??? 2 Funship specials please!! Then we stood in line at the buffet. Just the usual hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, there were some other dishes too but I was so excited I stuck with a hot dog and fries... Their fries are GREAT! Grabbed a table by the bar and started the vacation! Ohhh what's this?? Another drink?? Why YES thank you, I think I will!! :D

 

After we ate we need to have one of our bad habits... This is part of the Lido that we can't smoke on so I asked if we could smoke right outside the Lido along the rail. He told me they were fueling, I should head down to the casino. NO PROBLEM! I wanted to check out that casino anyway!

So down we go to the Promenade Deck to check it out and have one of those bad habit's.

 

 

We would end up spending a lot of time in the Casino.

 

 

That's me!! I was SO HAPPY! The funny thing about this picture is that we ended up playing that bank of Slots a lot! DH did really good one one of them! Man are all of those drinks STRONG!

 

 

DH looks DRUNK already but he isn't. I was trying to get him to STOP making faces at the camera!

 

If the pics are too big I will re-size them! This is a test!

[punkidoodle]

Keep it coming Steph....I'm reliving the cruise through your review...:D

[Hockey Addict]

Hey there, cruise buddy!! I wish you guys were sailing with us on the Glory in April. Can't wait to read your review also.

 

Diane

 

Hey there!!! Ya know... I'm going to mention it to Steve... October seems like a LONG time to wait!! He said once a year.... lol until I get him to change his mind on that too!!!

 

Photobucket is driving me nuts... it's real slow!

[Hockey Addict]

Ooops, I put the wrong picture in. Here's the one of DH

 

 

Diane... what is the date you guys are going? Steve told me to look it up!! :eek::D:eek:

[obx_fintoo]

Hockey Addict - I am so excited to be reading your reveiw! We are sailing on the Fascination 4-day in less than two weeks! Can't wait to hear and see more about her! Thanks! :D

[gypsyrose]

I can tell already this is gonna be a GREAT review. Love your enthusiasm. And I absolutely LOVE picture reviews. Keep it coming!!

[Avril]

OMG Steph, keep it coming, I'm so enjoying it and you have great pics as well!! :D :D I'm reliving my 1st cruise through you and Steve. Mine was a 4 Day Western Caribbean in January 2003 onboard the Carnival Imagination. I was like Steve: I didn't want to go but after, I was hooked!! :D I'm so happy that you had a great time and that Steve had fun as well. I can't wait to read the rest!! :D One question, does the Fascination have the new Water Works and Resort Style pool area? Do you have any pics of them (or whatever pool area it has)? I wanna see more ship pics!!

[Hockey Addict]

After we had our cigarette we took a stroll towards the aft. There they have the Stars bar, Passage to India, Bogart's, Beverly Hills bar, and Puttin on the Ritz. In the Puttin on the Ritz they were setting up a Florida/Georgia theme for the big Florida/Georgia game that was going on that day. They had the blow up Dawg and Gator they were setting up. I didn't get a picture because they weren't up all the way yet.

 

We made our way over to the Palace Theatre. I snapped a couple pictures from the balcony. I have more pics of it I will post when I get to that part.

 

 

 

The post's are in bad spots sometimes but I understand they HAVE to be there for support and they can't put the seats too steep because it can't be TOO tall in there.

 

 

 

 

We just bummed around again and we decided to go see if we could get to our rooms. And we could! I have no idea what time this was for sure, they told us we couldn't get to the rooms until about 2pm. I know it was before 2. There were quite a few people in the hall and some luggage already out. I was expecting to get luggage last because that's just the luck I have. We opened our room and I was so surprised to see that the stateroom was bigger then it looks here on cruise critic. I've read all the reviews I could before going. The staterooms REALLY are bigger then they look!

 

 

DH got us the basket with 2 Carnival T-Shirts, 2 Sun Visor's, a bottle of Champagne, and 2 Champagne Flutes. He also got me the Bon Voyage Carnival PJ's. All cotton like a long t-shirt. It's comfy! I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the PJ's. I usually take a picture of everything!

 

 

When we booked this cruise, we booked Riviera inside. Jama did the same thing. She decided she would go ahead and pay for a oceanview room a couple of weeks later. So I called Carnival with both of us on the line and she talked to someone and told her she wanted to change to oceanview. She said no problem. She pulled up her reservation and told her they were having a sale and that for $120 more she could do a oceanview. (she was paying single rate) It was lower then what I had told Jama because I looked it up on the internet for her. Then the girl on the line said to me.... Steph... I have your reservation here too... (we hooked them together) and you can upgrade to an oceanview as well for NO ADDITIONAL COST!! WHAAAA?? :eek: I'll TAKE IT!!! Well, I asked her a couple times if she was messing with me... after she laughed and told me no she wasn't messing with me about 3 times I told her that I would take it! So we were now on the EMPRESS DECK OCEANVIEW!!! Not bad for a first timer, huh??

 

Anywhooo... sorry, sometimes I get off track!

 

Jama goes into her room (1 room between our room and Jama's room booked like that on purpose) and we go into ours. I start snapping pictures. I tell Steve.... don't touch anything yet!!!! Let me take pics!!! Then I hear Jama yelling my name out in the hall... STEPH!!!!!!!! Uhh ohhhh she must have seen the Bon Voyage gifts we got her! Sure enough... she did. You see, Jama loves her dog to death. She was so upset to leave her dog because she had never left her before. She was in good hands... Jama's mom was going to babysit. Well, Jama's dog has about 1,000,001 stuffed animals. I ordered from Bon Voyage the kids bag of stuffed animals. I had them put a note on there that I knew she was going to miss Jodi, but she could bring these home to her. I forgot to mention that when we were walking around earlier she spotted one of the stuffed animals in one of the gift shop windows and said she was going to have to get one for Jodi. HA... beat ya to it!!

 

So as Jama is yelling my name from 2 doors down, I go out in the hallway. She has all of these stuffed animals hugging them in her arms and thanking me. Well, this lady comes out of her room between our rooms and I thought Uhhh ohhh... I'm going to get yelled at before we sail away to shut up!! Nope, totally wrong. She looks at me and says.... I know who you are!!! I said, you do?? She says YES... You're HOCKEY!!! OMG! NO WAY! Kayjo aka Christi from my roll call is in the stateroom between us and Jama! ARE YOU KIDDING? What is the odds? She introduces us to her sister Heather who is travelling with her. Yep, it's me the loud mouth... did you find beads? HERE I have about 16 strands of them. Take some!!

[Hockey Addict]

OMG Steph, keep it coming, I'm so enjoying it and you have great pics as well!! :D :D I'm reliving my 1st cruise through you and Steve. Mine was a 4 Day Western Caribbean in January 2003 onboard the Carnival Imagination. I was like Steve: I didn't want to go but after, I was hooked!! :D I'm so happy that you had a great time and that Steve had fun as well. I can't wait to read the rest!! :D One question, does the Fascination have the new Water Works and Resort Style pool area? Do you have any pics of them (or whatever pool area it has)? I wanna see more ship pics!!

 

I'm a spaz sometimes... I can't help it!! The Fascination does not have the water works yet. They are going to get them. From what I remember it will be next year but I can't remember the month. Also the Serenity desk. I do have pics of all the pools. I'll get them up here. I took over 500 pictures on this cruise. A lot of them are sunset pics. I love sunset's!

 

Oh by the way... every time I spell check it wipes my entire post CLEAN so if you see typos.... sorry... I'm not gonna do that again! :D

[jbhcw]

Great reveiw and pictures, keep it up:) and welcome to the world of cruise addiction:D

[code_d]

 

Welcome to the maddness!

Love the review!

 

I can not wait to go in Jan, so good to read all about the Fascination. What would all of us junkies do with out this?:cool:

 

Thanks for all the pics.

[Hockey Addict]

So we are talking for a little bit and guess what!! A SUITCASE COMES! YAYYY!!! It's the small one... oh mannnnn... I want the big one! DH grabs it and starts unpacking. I go into the room and he tells me not to worry about it, he will unpack. OK no problem! I'll just stand here and SPAZ OUT BECAUSE I AM FINALLY ON THE SHIP!!! :D

 

Ohhhh look, more neighbors!! Across the hall there is a couple trying to get their door open. So I go out and introduce myself and help them open the door. I check out the stateroom. It's the same thing! I don't know why I thought the interior rooms would be the smaller. Very cool... nice to meet ya... I'm sure we'll be seeing you... if I forget your name, don't be offended! OOOOO another suitcase!! DH grabs it and starts unpacking.

 

So I'm standing there looking out the window and go over to see how many wrinkles decided to come along with us on the cruise when I hear... knock knock knock... Hello Steven and Stephanie!! OOOOO!!! OUR STEWARD!!! I run over... HI THERE!! He says hello, I am your room steward Arnel from the Phillipenes (yea, I spelled that wrong I am sure) HI ARNEL!!! He asked how everything was, said he would get us an ashtray since we were using a glass :p and I told him that I had a cooler in the luggage if he could keep it full of ice for us during the cruise. No problem! Do you have it now? I will fill it up now! DH checked to see if it was in that suitcase because he couldn't remember which one it was in. It wasn't. I told him not to worry, later tonight would be good. I asked how to call room to room, I also asked for robes. Not a problem either! He told us that he works in the morning and then later in the afternoon. If we needed something to just call him if we didn't see him in the hallway. He asked us to sign that we spoke to him, I gave him some cash and he said that he would see us soon.

 

DH is putting stuff away still and here comes another suitcase! 2 minutes later here comes Arnel with a ashtray and he asked if we had the cooler in that suitcase we just got... sure do... he took it from us and he was back in about 5 minutes with ice. Man those guys are quick! DH found the baby cans of pop and I popped a couple in the cooler.

 

So DH gets unpacked and it's about 3:30. I am starting to freak out because I want to be by the funnel for sail away. Our roll call was set to meet there for sail away. I also did NOT want to be in muster drill. Jama calls me on the cabin phone to make sure it works because she just met Arnel and wanted to see if she remembered what he said to do. Then she tells me to go into the hall. So I hang up and go to the hall. Jama walks out of her cabin with her life vest on. I start busting up laughing and Christi and Heather come out to see what the loud mouth, I mean... what I am doing now. Then they tell us that Muster Drill isn't until tomorrow. WHAT? REALLY? I always read that it was on the first day before sail away. Well, Arnel told them it would be tomorrow at 10:00am. OK... well... that's cool!! LET'S GO TO THE FUNNEL!!!

 

I had to stop to take a couple pics of the Atrium... there's more of those to come too...

 

 

Looking up towards the glass ceiling

 

 

 

So we make our way up to the Lido deck to get up to the Funnel.

 

 

There's FUN SHIP FREDDY!! Let's go get a picture. Well Fun Ship Freddy is on a mission. His mission, AND he chose to do it was to get a picture with EVERY person on the Lido deck. He was bouncing one person to the next. So DH gets the camera ready and I get by Freddy and Steve snaps a picture. Then he walks away. So the next victim is a little girl. The little girl looks at her mom with Freddy and the mom goes to take a picture. The photographer waves her off and says only professional photographers. and snapped a picture of Freddy. The little girl looked sad after that. The mom looked... well... you can imagine. You gotta be quick!!

 

 

 

As soon as I walk up the stairs to the funnel I see someone smiling, waving and then waving me over.... It must be the beads!! Yep.. it was Greg and Nicky from our roll call!!! YAYYYY!!! Nice to meet you!!!! We start talking, saying it was a little chilly up there.... you know, the usual and then Christi and Heather come up behind us. We tell Greg and Nicky about how their cabin is next to ours... And then here comes PUNKIDOODLE!!!

 

Side note time.... Punki and her DH lives in Ponte Vedra Beach. Minutes away from Jacksonville. Well, on our roll call we were talking about how the Fascination was setting sail on September 20th for the first time out of Jax. So we decide we would meet up there for her first sailing. That was the first sailing that she didn't leave until 6pm. So we had already met in person. But Punki's best buddy from childhood and HER DH was onboard too. So we got to meet them. Very cool...

 

Here comes more people!! FlipFlop and her DH (they are both hockey fans too and he wore his hockey baseball cap for sailaway) Moni... hey hey the gang's all coming now! We chit chatted, ordered more DOD's... this is when we met G-Men. Steve's new buddy. G-Men is awesome. 90% of our drinks were brought by G-Men. He's hilarious! So cool... he has 5 more month for this tour and then he will be going to another ship. He didn't know which one yet.

 

 

OOOOOOOOOO WE'RE STARTING TO MOVE!!!!! (we left a little late)