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Thank you ... I posted there too ... hopefully some people will see either here or there 🤗

Hi all ...

We are looking for 6 people who would be interested in joining us for the Saona Island tour offered by the Bayahibe Fishing Centre as explained below. Total cost per person including Lobster lunch is approximately $USD 71. If interested please communicate with us to see if we can put this together.

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We only offer private trips for this cruise to Saona island in a small boat that can take 8 people

$180 boat

$30 each lobster lunch with grilled chicken fish, rice, potatoes, said, pasta, drinks during the day

$3 each entrance to the park

$15 each taxi- shared taxi

Wow .. good to know to be able to pay in CAD! Thanks for sharing :)

Just booked a 15 day repo cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Valpairiso Chile in Nov 2017 with Celebrity for 1559 each...CDN$$$. Celebrity let's us pay in Canadian.

 

 

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My rules for me.

 

Every garment must fulfil more than one function, I must be able to wear it more than once in different settings. For example, a top/shirt that can only go to the dining room for dinner but nowhere else, cannot come on the voyage. A pair of shoes that are only for show with a particular dress cannot come on the voyage.

 

Black bottoms are good. Black leggings, black skirt, black pants, black shorts. You can spill on them, and it doesn't show. You can throw any number of colourful tops over them, and nobody knows they are the same old, same old. You can wear them to bed and to dinner on the same day, and nobody but you knows that your pyjama bottoms are making a dinner appearance.

I'm with you with everything you said! :) And, really, who cares if someone realizes if you wore one legging twice :D LOL ... Next time I'll take even lesser clothing with me (it was so little to start with ... travelled with a half size roller carry on for a 14 day trip)! :)

Was you able to use snapchat on the ship?

Ahhhh... Never tried snapchat😅 but whatsapp did work... Video messaging and voice messaging did work 🤗

On Holland American you are allowed one bottle per person. Apparently there is an $18.00 corkage fee. They do check the stuff that is brought on board at every port.

Wow ... corkage fee of $18!!!... Terrible ... I'm glad we didn't have to do that at Carnival :)

My family and I sailed Fascination in January of this year out of Jacksonville. I had no problem with the ship itself, but thought that the food was mediocre at best.

 

I'm generally not too difficult to please, but by the second evening of our cruise I felt like I couldn't eat another bite from their kitchen. It reminded me of what you would expect from a Golden Corral.

 

This is just my opinion, and I don't mean it as a personal affront to those of you who like the food on the Fascination.

Sorry to hear about your experience :( It's sad when you can't enjoy your meals when on vacation.

Since I'm not a pro-cruiser, and very limited all inclusive resort experience, my spouse and I thought it was just perfect.

But, mind you, although we're big in (specifically seafood) buffets in the US, we simply refused to dine at the buffet on Fascination (because of the food options), and only dined at the "your time" dining room where the menu choices were changing every night. And, every night was a real hit!

So, I'm trying to figure out now, did we lower our expectations so low that we were happy with whatever :D or they pulled their socks up, or it's a hit and miss thing one cruise is better than the other one etc ...

We're hoping to do another cruise (perhaps soon), but I want to clear up the worries, as for my spouse and I the food is very important ;)

Glad to hear you research before commitment, what i have been doing my last too cruises is booking my excursions thru Carnival then going online to see if any outside Co. have the exact same excursion at a lower price, then you fill out THE BEST PRICE GUARANTEE FORM OFFER THRU CARNIVAL. they will give you a OBC for the difference. For my cruise to Hawaii i received $62 OBC and this August for my ALASKA cruise i received $80 OBC. So i working on my excursions for my Southern cruise out of SAN JUAN, so far i have found a $29 difference in one excursion i like this Carnival offer

Who knew!!! Great tip ... thank you!

For sure for our next cruise we'll do our "research" too ;) Although as I mentioned before (and also in my report) we did our own things at every port except St. Kitts ...

also around the pool deck, is there many bars like 2? or u can only get drinks from the servers?

 

yes for the cabins, do all have a small fridge? mini bar? etc

We were on Fascination in June (balcony room), and no small fridge or mini bar in the room ... I'm not sure if they deliver one if asked (like in the hotels). But, we really didn't need one either :) Enjoy your trip ... we loved our cruise very much!

will be taking this cruise soon. can anyone tell me if there are shore excursions we can book once we get off the boat?

last cruise we went to we booked an excursion when we got off at grand cayman. there was several vendors with different shore excursion options.

thanks!

Almost at every port there were tours available... also very visible information desks to arrange anything you may need (plus maps, pamphlets etc ...).

Hope you'll have a great time :)

We're back. It goes so fast.

 

I actually had the melting chocolate cake 4 times. (Twice we ate at the buffet and once I had the apple pie for dessert.) When I first ordered it, I told the waiter I had not had it in 3 years and hoped it was as good as I remembered it to be. When I took the first taste, it was even better! I could feel the expression of joy that was on my face, and the waiter commented on how he could see how much I enjoyed it.

Hahaha .. Good for you :D because we simply couldn't resist the temptation seeing it on the menu every night ... and we ate two of them some nights! I agree it goes by fast, very fast ... even today, we were talking about the trip we had ... what an amazing vacation that was!

Hi I just book a cabin like yours on the fascination and I was wondering if they are able to put the beds together to make a king. Ive read that they cant be put together. Ill be in room M227. Thanks:)

We only had one bed ... it's more like a queen bed than a king size though ... Perhaps your room has only one bed too. We were in M119 :) And, have fun during your cruise! ;)

@ontheweb - wow! Have a fantastic trip! All of a sudden I got excited for you . I am glad I was able to help. So go celebrate it, for me too of course! ... Just by having two of the melting chocolate cakes

Thank you for this review - we have done this itinerary before in 2012 and are doing it again next year - 2017 in September - your review was long but so well put together that you did not realize the length so again thanks.

LOL... I know, I know... it's long, hence the warning 😅 But, at the end, I am very happy to hear you enjoyed reading it. The notes are really for ourselves with my spouse as we get older we forget the details 😱 Hope you will have a blast in 2017. I think that's one of the best routes in the Area.

Thank you for taking the time to read and comment 🙏🏻😄

When is the muster drill?

 

The reason I ask this is we were considering since sail away isn't until well into the night going off to explore San Juan some after boarding (and getting something to eat and maybe a swim). But, then it occurred to me that at some point they have to have the mandatory muster drill. I can't imagine it would be during any of the dinner seatings.

For Barbados boarding (which we were in that group) it was I think at around 4pm... for those who boarded in San Juan it was at*night after 8- 9pm...

Have fun :)

I'm also thinking if you need a fridge for medication etc they would/should provide one as there was enough room to put a bar fridge (like they would at a hotel).

For anything else, there is room service, bars, and an amazing restaurant ;) plus not so bad buffet which we only used for our morning coffee, and afternoon snack when we returned back from our excursions....

No, no hair dryer either ... but I had mine with me and also I heard/read that if you need one, the room steward could provide one. However, as I have a long hair, I personally didn't want to take a chance ;) Also I travel a lot, I have "folding" hair-dryer which takes no space from very valuable hand carry luggage (we only travel with one carry-on each).

Hope it helps :)

Can anyone tell me if the balcony rooms on the Fascination have a mini fridge? I have read several conflicting posts on if they are in the rooms.

In June we were on Fascination, and we had a balcony room which had NO fridge ... luckily we didn't need one. Our room number was M119 (if it helps).

We joined the cruise from Barbados in June ... and it was great ... 4 days into the cruise we dropped off people in San Juan and picked up new passengers. We had to choose Barbados as it is easier and more economical for us to get there than San Juan (from Vancouver, BC).

Over all it was a great cruise (for us) :)

We had such great time on the cruise in June, we can't stop looking at the cruise deals ... and pretty much everyday (since we got back) we've been looking at our pictures :D

I've been to St. Maarten on the Breeze, but for some reason I cannot remember, (maybe it is old age? lol :rolleyes:) does Carnival dock or tender into Philipsburg, St. Maarten?

 

Also, can anyone give me insight regarding the Maho Beach excursion, "Airplane Watching and Snorkel Cruise"? I had the Segway excursion reserved but got notification it was cancelled by the tour operator. We sail the Vista on December 17th.

 

Thank you so much! :D

In June we docked ...and it was our first time in st. Maarten, of course we went to Maho beach :D

As you may read in my detailed review we visited the airport area beaches almost at each location and Maho was the craziest place ever! ;)

After reading a thread in ask a cruise question and in the carnival forum, I have 2 more questions.

 

1. Is the muster drill outside by the lifeboats or in one of the lounges.

 

2. Does the room steward service your cabin twice a day, or are you given the choice of morning or evening servicing?

For us on Fascination, it was in a lounge ... Then me had to walk to our muster stations.

Then, the room steward was in the room at least twice ... Every day when we were back at around 4pm it was all done up... After that whenever we came back late at night the bed was turned down, he put a towel ornament, and the next day information pamphlet on the bed too 😀👍🏻

great review! thank You! going on this cruise in April 2017, have so many questions. you have answered alot for me already.

Glad you enjoyed it :) And, I think you will love the cruise ... the destinations are amazing (the food on board too ;) )

I should add, in our room there were real wine glasses :)

One more question.

 

My DW has been looking at Fodor's Caribbean and saw that there were two ports in St. Lucia with different things near each port.

 

Does the Fascination port in Castries or Soufriere?

Our cruise in June was at Castries ... :)