Fascination and Irma review of BTB

We are seasoned cruisers that live in Orlando FL and typically try to sail from ports we can drive to however last Feb when we were looking for a cruise vacation we came upon the Fascination going out of Puerto Rico with 6 ports over 7 days. Despite the need to have airfare and a pre-cruise hotel we were excited for this itinerary and went ahead an booked for Sept 3-10. Two days before leaving Irma started making the news and I thought for sure we would get cancelled as Irma was going to impact most of our itinerary. We had purchased insurance so were prepared with a plan B if our cruise vacation was going to get cancelled and patiently watched emails, read boards, Facebook etc looking for any information we could get. So Saturday we head to the airport and hope for the best and land in beautiful San Juan. We had been to San Juan before so we planned to just be lazy and relax at our hotel and get up refreshed and ready for our vacation the next day. So with that said I will set up my review in somewhat the order things happened but may get off track or repeat so please be kind :)

San Juan Airport - Nice airport despite most signage is in spanish but you can figure out where to go so no problems. After collecting our luggage we went to the taxi stand to check into the Sheraton Convention Center. Most of San Juan is divided into sections and the cab rides have set rates to each section. For our trip to the Sheraton it was $14.00 plus $1.00 each for our 3 bags plus tip. This was about a 12-15 minute ride from the airport.

Sheraton Convention Center - We booked this as we thought it was on the ocean or had an ocean view the hotel does have nice views but more of the bay and the actual ocean is probably too far to walk to. They have a huge outdoor pool on the convention center side and another pool on the 4th floor. The main floor has at least 4 restaurants and a decent size non smoking casino. We had a club level room so we did not eat in a restaurant but enjoyed some nice sandwiches and nibbles in the club. The club also had a complimentary breakfast which was very good. From the club area you could see the Fascination in port.

Heading to the pier we again used a cab for about the same price as the airport trip and got dropped off right at the front of the pier, we were promptly greeted by one of the luggage handlers and he wisked away our bags so we proceeded to check in. We pretty much planned our arrival to adhere to the check in time of 1:30 that we selected when we were completing our cruise documents and found that their was ZERO lines turned in our documents had our picture taken and was on the ship within 15 minutes of getting dropped off.

First impression of the Fascination:

We had read a lot of negative about this oldie but goody ship. She has had a few balcony's added in past dry docks but mostly had ocean view which is what we booked. The center of the ship is the hub of most activities and she is very easy to navigate if you can get back to the center. Everything is clearly marked and being a Fantasy class did not require a great deal of walking. The ship is very clean and kept in good repair but the one outstanding thing this ship has going for it was their crew everyone we encountered was friendly and accomodating and we observed many of the crew interacting and laughing/smiling even when working. Our cabin was on the Main Deck convenient the the mid/aft elevator which worked our perfect for us. We were asked by our steward if we wanted morning, night or both and never blinked an eye when we asked for extra pillows. From that moment he knew our names and we were greeted as such every time he saw us. Since the ship departs late ( 10:00 PM} we had plenty of time to unpack and organize our room before our first dinner which I will detail later under the Food topic. The mandatory muster drill started at 9:00 and we went to our designated area which seemed a bit disorganized but thankfully we did not have to go up to the open deck and line up due to some light rain. The drill was over by 9:45 and we left the port promptly at 10:00.

More to come tomorrow!

I look forward to reading about another unique sailing experience.

Thanks for the review.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of your review! We are on the Fascination in February.

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts:)

I am looking forward to reading the rest of your review! We are on the Fascination in February.

 

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts:)

I will be joining your cruise in Barbados on the 21st!!! :D

We did the Fascination for our honeymoon in June and absolutely loved it. While the ship is older, we loved it and we also stayed on Main deck. PERFECT deck to stay on! Can't wait to see your review!

cant wait to read your next review!:)

Looking forward to your review.

Very nice start to review, looking forward to more...

We loved the Fascination, sailed from San Juan in March, so anxious to read your review.

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Hoping to be on this ship next week. Following.

Can't wait to read more! We have this cruise booked for Feb, I hope it can still go on as planned.

Review Continued: Day 1 - St Thomas

We arrived nice and early in beautiful St Thomas our original plan was to grab a cab to Meghans Bay and have a nice relaxing beach day however with Irma brewing their were rip tide and heavy surf warnings and neither of us are strong swimmers and me with a bum knee and hubby with a bum ankle we decided to stick to port shopping. With the forecast ominous for St Thomas a lot of the port stores had already boarded up but several still came in and opened up shop for us. It was a beautiful day and you would never know that Irma would arrive the within 24-48 hours. We found a coffee shop open across the street and decided to relax with a "strong" cup of coffee and had the pleasure of chatting with a local that was also enjoying a cup of coffee. He was a pleasant man explained his home was up in the hills on the west side and had no plans to leave his home and had rode out other hurricanes with minimal damage. We talked for quite a while about island life and we had spent about an hour, time flies when your on vacation! We hit a couple of stores on the same side of the road and found they were all having going out of business 50% off everything! I bought a nice blue lapis necklace, earring and bracelet set for $15.00 total. These stones were readily available in every port with much higher prices. Score for me!! We decided to head back to the ship and see what the pool looked like as we were in port until 5:00 so we figured that maybe the pool would be empty.

The Fascination has 1 pool that is very small it has a weird divider with a wood plank I guess so you could walk across if you wanted too but it was very narrow, this made the already small pool smaller so if you enjoy laps it won't be possible. Their was only a few people around so we took advantage and got wet. We then grabbed a quick bite and headed back to our cabin for an afternoon nap with Chef's table on our agenda for this evening.

Page keeps blowing up so I will continue tomorrow with details about the chefs table!

Chefs Table:

I don't often spend a lot of review time on food as it is subjective however my DH convinced me to go outside my comfort zone and try this extra fee experience. At $75.00 PP I agreed but felt that perhaps we were wasting money since my food preference is very basic. We made the reservation and asked about seafood allergy and would it still be worthwhile if i could not eat seafood. NO PROBLEM so we get ourselves all dressed up and go the grand atrium to meet our dinner companions for the experience. We were greeted with a glass of champagne and then the chef came down and wished us off to the beginning of our culinary experience. We started with 4 amuche buche in the galley and then took a brief tour before stopping at the baking area where we got a demonstration on how they make those famous chocolate melting cakes. We were then promised the recipe for these delights at the end of our dinner!

Chef's table cont...

We then were led to the library which had been transformed into a long table for 14 as well as the "chef's" station where our next 7 courses would be prepared. Each course was delivered and masterfully plated to look beautiful the chef would then describe the dish and depart with a "enjoy" LOL I felt like I was on masterchef. Two of the 7 courses did contain seafood however chicken was substituted for me and you and the chef made it look exactly like what everyone else was eating...amazing! Each course was paired with either white or red wine and sparkling or plain water. The wine flowed freely and water glasses were kept filled the entire evening.

Prior to our last course of dessert we were treated to a mini magic show which had many of us amazed and bewildered wondering how did he do that??

After dessert we were given our souvenir menu and our melting cake recipe as well as a group photo of our table. This was an absolute amazing experience which took about 3 hours total if you have this in your budget I highly recommend it.

We finished our evening with our daily contribution to the casino and headed to bed tomorrow is a sea day so no need to get up early.

Food in General:

Since I spent time on the chef's table its probably the right time to talk about food in general. Most mornings we ate breakfast at the Lido, it was fast as we are usually up early so the omelet station is pretty short line. The outdoor food area in the morning has the same items as inside and has made to order omelet's or fried eggs. The inside buffet has the same basics but has a better selection of pastries than what is outside. If you want an omelet I would get my inside pastry first then get your omelet. Lunch outside was burgers, hotdogs, chicken fingers and the mongolian wok inside it was themed each day and this is where you find the salad bar and dessert bar. Pizza was available 24 hours a day it is a very thin crust which was yummy if you ate it hot but not as good once it cooled off. Made to order deli sandwiches are next to the pizza but they close around 10:00 pm. Soft serve icecream was available 24 hours and had vanilla, chocolate, swirled in 2 machines and frozen yogurt in the 3rd one usually available in strawberry, vanilla or chocolate. Bowls and cones were always out any time I went to get my go to dessert. Dinner we had anytime dining in the Sensation dining room we had excellent wait staff and was able to request our waiter for the entire week. With the American table menu it was easy to find something you would like and if you order something you don't like they are more than happy to get you something else. The only meal I disliked the entire week was the prime rib it had a very unusual texture which made it taste funny, a few of our close table fellow cruisers also commented on the texture. I am not a big dessert fan especially after bread, appetizer and main course but I did have 2 chocolate melting cakes one was undercooked and soupy and one was overcooked. Still delicious but could only eat about the top inch each time. We did attend the sea day brunch and had the filet with eggs was not impressed as it was well done and luke warm. All in all we found the food to be good although on the salty side, I like salt but didn't even need to put salt on anything the entire 2 weeks. If you are in a hurry just tell your waiter and he will be quick about bringing your food but you still need to allow at least 1 hour for dining room dinner service.

Day 2 - Fun Day at Sea

We both love the casino so since we spent a lot of time here on our sea day I can answer any questions you may have. The casino is not very large but only felt crowded after 8pm until about midnight. They had most of the popular slots including the baby's and buffalo's and quite a few card tables, roulette, craps and a texas hold em. The casino host is Marisol she was a sweetheart always checking in with us to see if we needed anything. It takes 1500 points to get a drinks on us card which gives you free drinks for the cruise I had mine before dinner so not that hard to get if you like a casino. The casino had several $$ giveaways each evening but they were always late between 10-12 I won $50.00 on a spin the wheel week 1 and $50.00 on the hot seat promo night. Week one had a lot of heavy gamblers with several big jackpots won ( one was for 16K on a poker machine). While you can drink in the casino food is not allowed. It is also 1 of 2 designated smoking areas and only 1 small section along the cage wall that was designated non smoking. We were comped a bottle of wine and a steakhouse selection during the week based on our play and we each received a bounce back cruise. These bounce back cruises are tough to book though you only have 2 weeks to book and although the paper says you have till March to go the only dates that show are through Dec.

Day 3 tomorrow Barbados!!

Following this....thanks for the review!

Day 3 Barbados

We arrived in Barbados to another beautiful day. We had already decided that we would hire a cab and get a "local" tour which we have done on other islands without issue. We had a choice to go private for $45.00 each or with a group for $35.00 we opted for private as its a more comfortable ride and you have more flexibility in what you see or how long you spend. He first brought us to a church which was billed as the oldest church in the islands we opted not to stop and look inside. We then continued driving while he pointed out local points of interest including a drive by of Rihanna's home, pretty huge and of course on the water! At this point it was pouring out and made it difficult to see things however our next stop was to the top of the island for a million dollar view. When we arrived at the top it had stopped raining but you could see the rain bands surrounding the outside of the island and therefore not much of a view. To our delight it started to clear and we were able to get our pictures. This stop had a small bar and a couple of souvenir tables and a monkey you could pet. Their was also clean restrooms. Our next stop was a small beach with a nice beach bar we were able to sit on a bench overlooking the water and enjoy a cocktail and watch the crabs scramble along the rocks. Very pretty little place and not a normal tourist beach. We concluded our tour with some more points of interest and was returned back to the pier in 3 hours. This was the perfect amount of time for us. We spent some time port shopping before returning to the ship for our daily afternoon nap

Thanks for this review. We just got switched from the Elation to Fascination.

Ship Activities/Shows/Entertainment

Being a port intensive itinerary you may find the morning activities to be a little lacking. Afternoons were filled with a variety of trivia, giant size Hasbro games and all the typical outdoor activities, Ping Pong, Mini Golf, Main Pool, 2 Jacuzzie's, smallish water park for the kids. The Serenity area is nice but no pool and 1 jacuzzi. All stores and casino's are closed while in port. The evening entertainment had a production show which were just okay although I did enjoy the Motown show. Another night had a juggler/comedian and he also performed in the atrium and giving juggling lessons. Hasbro game show is fun, Love and Marriage and the Quest done one night traditional and one night Latin. Comedy show were at least 1 family version per evening and 2 or 3 adult shows late night. Karaoke each night and a couple of clubs that had late night dancing. Ice carving demo, towel animal demo, hairy chest and all the other cruise traditions were on the fun times with locations and times.

One new thing we enjoyed was the carnival hub app. Download the app on your phone before your cruise and when you get onboard you complete the process. This gives you all the activities, weather, dinner menu's, and port information if you "favorite" shows or activities you want then a text will pop up on your phone as a reminder. This has NO charge to use and works off the Wifi system and does not use your data as you are in airplane mode. If you have multiple family members you can enable a chat feature for $5.00 each phone.

Internet has improved dramatically we bought the deluxe internet for 1 and we were able to share by logging off and then logging in. Its pretty smart it will tell you that its already being used and did you want to log off the user and switch to you. Pricey for the 7 days it was $123.00 but we needed to keep in touch with our family and get updates on Irma as it was approaching Florida. We found that all the common areas got you a good strong signal, in the cabins it was so so and on the balcony it was frustrating as it would go off and on.

Enjoying your review. I am on the ship on the ship in December can't wait for the rest of your review.

Day 4 - St Lucia

This cruise was actually pretty surreal, we knew that Hurricane Irma was above us reeking havoc and causing tremendous damage but we were below and enjoying beautiful weather and strangely calm seas. We arrived in St. Lucia bright and early to another beautiful day. As this was our first time here we had decided on another private island tour so we walked off the ship in search of a tour. We opted to join another couple on a tour that promised sightseeing, a botanical garden and some beach time. Our first stop was a mountaintop view that has a great view of the bay and the ship however once you step off the taxi van you are attacked by many many many locals trying to sell you their jewelry. I found the pure #'s of vendors and trying to squeeze through to the viewing area to be intimidating and uncomfortable. The botanical garden was a walk through along a bumpy, rooty, path where the ladies point out local flora/fauna and talk about the old island life and how they lived it was interesting and they give you some samples of local fruits to eat at a couple of stops. The walk is short but tough if you have any mobility issues they do hand you a walking stick to begin the tour.

Our next stop was a beach alongside the airport near the cruise terminal it was a nice clean beach with a bar where you could get drinks and food. Their are a few chair/umbrella rentals at $5.00 each for lounger and $5.00 for umbrella. Our driver asked how long we wanted to stay and was back to pick us up at the exact time. Total tour time was about 3.5 hours. Did a little pier shopping and headed back to ship.