Fascination Review April 18-23 (pics)

Ok, so, I'm not a very good writer, story teller or speller. ;)

Let me start of by saying we had a fantastic time! This is my second cruise and my moms 4th. All with Carnival. It was me (24), my mom (50), my friend Chelsea (24) and her mom (54). An all girls cruise! This would be my friend and her moms first cruise. I am still a little unsure if my friend liked it or not. It was her first time leaving her 2yr old son behind so I got the feeling it brought her down during the cruise. Her mom seemed to have a great time and said she was ready to book another one! We are already booked on the Freedom for this November so maybe they will join us again.

Starting off, me and mom woke up very early the day of sailing to get to the airport. Our flight left at 6:00 AM from Indy and we connected in Atl. We made it to Jacksonville by 9:40 AM. I know everybody says to fly in the day before, we usually do, however, this time around due to work we had to fly in the day of. We were looking at the weather the whole week before we left (weather couldn't have been better) so now it was just up to working air crafts! We prayed the whole way down and we made it with more then enough time to spare. My friend and her mom (super risk takers) took a later flight and didn't board the ship till almost 3:00 PM....I don't know why they left much later then us.

We took the shuttle over to the port. I think we may have waited about 20 mins for the shuttle to get there and then maybe another 20 mins sitting on the shuttle before we actually left the airport. We picked up some more cruisers on the way over at a hotel. That took about 10 mins and then off we were. We had to stop on the way over for about 5-8 mins for a motorcycle group to drive by. The cops had everybody stopped for them. All in all, it was a pretty good drive over and we made it to port at around 11:30.

(Finally able to see the ship from the shuttle)

I will have to say that it took a very very long time to get on the ship. Or so I thought. But thats ok, we finally made it and went straight up to the Lido Deck to eat. We both had Reubens which were very very good. The lines on the Lido deck were very long through out the cruise. So, when we ate in there we figured out what we wanted and I went to one line and my mom went to another and we just shared what we got.

Here are some pics of me and my mom eating for the first time. Well....it felt like the first time since we always diet before a vacation.

(Me, so happy to finally be on a cruise)

(My mom, trying to smile, but she was too into the food)

(The palm trees at the Coconut Bar and Grill)

Ok, so after we ate we walked around until it was time to see our cabin. The time finally came and there we went. We were in cabin U241 which is an Aft Oceanview and it was fantastic! We unpacked our things and layed down for a little nap.

Then it was time for the Muster Drill....it went by fast...blah blah...we all know how it is. Then it was time to let the party begin. Up to the Lido to meet our friends who had just ate their lunch and got on board. They said they didn't really like that they had, but they like to critique food and we knew this going into the cruise with them, so we said "well maybe you will dinner." Anyway...we headed up to the top to see this huge ship try to make it under the bridge. And we did....now we were off and so very excited!

I'll continue later on...I also have the capers I can scan if anybody is interested.

Also, sorry the pics are so HUGE.

Thanks for your review. We will be on the Fascination in Sept. and I am excited to read your review and see your pics.

Ok, so leaving Jacksonville was very relaxing. We headed up to the Promenade for some sushi. The line wasn't too bad and we really enjoyed it. While we were sitting up there the poor Sushi guy must have dropped some plates or somebody pushed them over. You could hear the crashing all over the floor. I felt really bad for him but he was great the whole entire cruise. If you like eel, you have to try the barbeque eel. Thats not what it's called, but thats what it is, and it was fantastic. Here are some pics on the way out of Jacksonville...

(On the way out we saw a submarine....not something you see everyday, at least not here in Indiana)

After that we went to dinner and it was fantastic! Almost everybody at the table had the Ribs and they were great! For an Appetizer I think had fried shrimp and of course for dessert I had to start the cruise off right with the Chocolate Melting Cake! And I have to say, it was better this time then the last cruise. The last cruise it was real runney like pudding. After dinner, we would explore the ship some more and then head back to our room to sign in for the night. We were real tired as we woke up early to get there. Oh, we had the late dining and it was great. Having the early dining last cruise I always felt rush to get ready, this time it was perfect!

(Here is a pic of our room, we loved our room and will be doing Aft again, a matter a fact, we called today to try to upgrade to an aft ocean view or balcony and they were all sold out )

More, more, more lol We leave on the Fascination on June 8th and are so excited. I'd love to see the capers too if it wouldn't be too much trouble.

Thank you for the review and great pics!! We sail the Fascination in July and can't wait!!:)

Ok, so day number two was a day at sea. We didn't wake up real early and slept in. We went up to lido for breakfast. Me and my mom both had an omelette. The omelette guy seemed to be going real slow, I think we were in line for about 15 mins as he was making them. By the time we sat down to eat everything else we picked in line was cold. Oh well.... I just think he didn't have his stove hot enough and thats why it was taking him forever to make. We walked around for a little looking for our friends. By the time we got out there the chair hogs were out and hogging! We finally found our friends on the adult only deck. We got lucky and as we were sitting down two were getting up next to them and we got their chairs. Our friends saved our chairs as we went and got our bathing suits on. We got back and they headed to get lunch for all of us so we could save their chairs. I had chicken fingers and fries with that cheese sauce. I will soon be on my way to gaining 5 pounds! Oh well...back on the diet wagon it is.

Tonight was formal night. We got dressed up, some dressed up more then others. Our friends didn't realize how dressy people got. They were dressed nice, but not as nice as others. I did notice on this cruise mostly everybody dressed real real nice compared to my last where people wore blue jeans to formal night. This night was also the Captains Party and the drinks were flowing and mighty delicious.

(Here is a pic from our window of the sunset, you can sit right in the window with the aft cabins)

(Here we are at the captains party, that nice lady on the far right is Linda and was very sweet, Hi Linda!)

From there we headed to dinner and it was lobster! It was great too, I even ordered 2! And this is probably why I gained 5lbs but it was worth every savory taste. Our other table mates ordered lobster as well. The guy sitting across from me who was just a little older ate about 4 lobsters and the filet migon. I do believe he was a little intoxicated but he made it great fun at dinner every night! I think it is amazing how Carnival pairs everybody up at dinner. It was all mother daughter couples along with Joseph and his mother. So it made for good fun everynight at dinner. Our waiter was Janel and he was from the Philippines. He did a great time the whole week and I would like to say I think we had the best in the whole Imagination Dining Room...or at least I think he had the best dance skills.

(Janel dancing one night in the dining room)

Later on that night we would dance our tails off in the Diamonds are Forever club. We had a lot of fun, so much fun we missed the show Hey Mambo. Which I really wanted to see...oh well, it helped burn those calories.

(My mom dancing with our table mate Joseph)

I do believe we stayed out past 1AM this night so after our feet were hurting and we worked up another appetite we headed up to Lido for some Pizza and then to bed. Lord knows I didn't need that pizza that late, but it was oh so tasty. Especially late at night.:D

More, more, more lol We leave on the Fascination on June 8th and are so excited. I'd love to see the capers too if it wouldn't be too much trouble.

No problem, I will make copies for ya when I'm done.

Thank you for your review and the great pictures. They are sized just right as far as I am concerned, I feel like I am on the ship already. I look forward to more, more, more...

We sail on May 2, so the clock is ticking soooo slow.

Ok, so day 3 we arrived in Nassau. The weather was beautiful! As my mom was getting ready I sat in our window and watched the Disney Wonder come in. Here is a pic...

I think their ships are beautiful. Whenever I have kids I would love to go on one.

After we were all done getting ready we rushed up to the dining room for breakfast. They offered breakfast in the Sensation Dining Room till 9am today. I think we got there 10 till 9 ad they were happy to seat us. I tried an omelette again with bacon and it was SUPERB! Much better then yesterday...mom had the same thing except she had turkey bacon. Which is what we normally eat at home, but, what the heck, we are on vacation so I wanted the nice fatty stuff!

We headed back down to our cabin to gather all of our stuff for the day. We were going to the Wyndham on cable beach which was really nice and an awesome deal. We got off and found our friends. They were just going to shop for the day and do a local tour of Paradise Island.

(Here we are getting off the ship)

(The famous Atlantis, I'll make it there some day, but not today.)

(Our beautiful home for the week)

(This is the building you walk in before you head into town for those who haven't been)

Ok, so we head into town. I look at my wrist to check the time....OH MY GOODNESS no WATCH! Being that we were going out on our own I thought it might be a good idea to have the time. So, I ran back to the ship...ok, power walked. Across the ship to my room....grabbed the watch and powered walked back to my mom who was sitting with our stuff. (I couldn't run guys, I know I know...would have been good exercise, however, I had flip flops on.)

So, now I'm out of breath and tired for the day, time for a nap. Not, gotta catch the number 10 Jitney bus to get to the Wyndham. It's only $1.25 and they will take you will you wanna go. I did a lot of research on this before we left, so I knew which bus to take. There are different ones though...So, we get on and ask just to make sure if he could take us to the Wyndham, he said he could so we sat down and relaxed. Or so we thought....the bus system there is kind of like our taxi service in NYC or something. When somebody wants off they just say "stop bus" and when somebody wants on they just wave their arm out to catch the bus. I found it kind of neat and wished they had a similar system like this in good ol' Indiana. HeHe....we are driving and driving and he is stopping so much to let people off and on. About 30 mins has gone by and I know I read it was only like 5-15 mins to the Wyndham. We are starting to get nervous...mom gets up and asks if he is taking us to the Wyndham, he said yes, but is taking us the long way. Well I would say so. Because we got on that bus at 11:15 and we didnt arrive at the Wyndham till 12:10. It's ok though, the resort made up for it all.

More to come...it's time for me to report to the dining room. Well, my own dining room.

You are a great writer . . . . I'd love to hear more about the Wyndham because this is what we are thinking about doing. No bus though, we have a disabled child so we will grab a cab. Was it worth it?

I want to hear about the Wyndham as well. We are looking to do a B2B2B on the Fascination next year....so the more info the better.

Thank you so much for those pics. We are going in August. That first pic of the ship viewed thru the trees, really had an impact on the kids. Now they are excited about it.

I am so glad to see a Fascination review and with pics!!!!! We are sailing on the 19th and in an Aft Cabin as well:D I can't wait to read and see more!!!

Ok, so we made it to the Wyndham after taking the long way. It was great. As you walk in you just go up to the desk and let them know you want the day pass. It's $40 dollars per person for the whole day which includes the lunch buffet. Everybody at the desk was so very friendly. They did let us know that a cab ride would be $20 dollars probably after we told them how long it took us. They told us on the way back it should only be about 15mins and they were right. So, when we got there we looked around and it was beautiful. The beach was very nice and clean. There is a huge slide that kids will love. I know this because I loved it and even my mom who is 50 and has never been down a water slide again. Well let me tell you I couldn't get her to stop going down it! She can't swim and I convinced her it would be ok because it's not very deep only about 4ft. We went ahead and went to the buffet which I thought was very good. They had everything from hamburger and hot dogs to fried plantains and jerk chicken. I think they also had like a mongolian barbeque where they cook the fried rice in front of you. They had different kinds of dessert like bread pudding, cheese cake, ice cream and brownies.

When you go to the buffet they give you a receipt and it showed that it was $20 dollars a person! So I feel the whole thing was real worth the money. You also get to use the Sheraton next door and it's facilities. The beach at the Sheraton is nicer I do believe but the water in their pools seemed very very cold. They had jet skies and things like that. Also had people selling some items along the beach and they also come walking down the beach. It didn't bother us as they weren't too pushey or anything. Here are some pics below...

(Wyndham slide)

Ok, so before we headed over to the Sheraton we went end and ate some lunch...these pics aren't the best but it can give those who plan on doing this an idea of what the lunch was like. I didn't have a hamburger or take pics as I'm sure most of you have seen them before :p

(Some special rice, fried plantains, some pasta something and some jerk chicken)

(Salad and some shrimp)

(My mothers plate...almost gone when I sat down. She acts like she didn't eat 2 lobsters last night, geesh. Can't take her any where :p)

Ok, over to the Sheraton...

Sheraton...

(No chair hogs here)

I love just the ladies cruises, that was the first that got me hooked, thanks for sharing! Considering the Fascination for our next ladies cruise.

Ok, so enough of that. We headed back over to the Wyndham...like I said the water was pretty gold at the pools over at the Sheraton. We laid around for a little bit and hung out in the pool. Before we left we thought we would try our luck at the casino...we won $25 bucks. Not to shabby.

So if you plan on doing the Wyndham please get this in mind...they drive kind of crazy there so please be careful when crossing the street to get to the Wyndham. It's kind of a busy street...my dad told us this before we went there because he was there awhile ago and saw a girl get killed while trying to cross the street there. So please be careful...when leaving, all you have to do is go down to the end of the hotel and wait till you see the number 10 jitney coming. Just kind of wave your arm like your in NYC and they will stop for ya.

So when we got back we shopped for awhile...we didn't buy anything. But enjoyed looking around. We headed back to the ship and once we were on we took a little power nap. This is the good thing about having late dining, not being so rushed to get back and get ready was great. Here are some pics from our room as we were leaving...it looked like rain.

Ok, so, we woke up at about 7 and got ready for dinner and Sushi. Here is the pic of the eel I was talking about earlier.

From there we went to dinner and I believe I had fried shrimp and fried grouper. Can't remember for sure, but it was fried and it was good. That night I went to play some bingo and didn't win. Tried my luck in the casino and lost $30 dollars and saw the comedian who was pretty funny. The night before we saw the adult comedian show and it was hilarious! We would sign in early once again this night...well like midnight...which is early for us while on a cruise. Tomorrow was Half Moon Cay...

So, we woke up a little later and weren't in much of a hurry to get off the ship. We took our time going to eat lunch and then I wanted to take pics of the ship while there was barley anybody on board. Here are some pics...

(They had karaoke back there at night and it's also the top level to the Imagination Dining Room)

(Sushi bar, right next to the casino)

More of the ship...

(Shore excursion desk)

(Purser desk)

(The Palace, where they had shows)

(Elevators)

Outside...

Ok, so, by the time I was done taking photos I was ready to get in that breathtaking water. I will have to say that the water at Half Moon Cay is the prettiest I have seen. It's like bath water, can't get much clearer I don't think in my opinion. We didn't have anything planned this day except to kick back and relax and thats what we did. Here are some pics of the island...

As you get on the island there are little shops and you can also still book excursions as well being that it's their island. We walked out to the beach and just couldn't believe the view. It's hard to walk in the sand....or maybe I just didn't realize how out of shape I was. So we walked down to the water and walked way down...almost to the end. Towards the front of the beach where they have all of the water activities there weren't very many chairs...so just keep walking. It's worth it...

So, after getting in the water and laying around a little bit we decided to go grab some lunch. For those who haven't been there the lunch is free...and it's just what they have on the ship. Hamburgers, hot dogs, jerk chicken, chips and dip, rice and desserts. They have an assortment of fruit and stuff too. While walking up to where they served lunch I saw some beautiful flowers. Here they are...

We headed back to sit with our friends some more. They were doing snorkeling so were about to leave. Oh yeah....if you head further down the beach you can get a good seat under some trees and then you don't have to rent one of those umbrella things. They were only $15 dollars but we didn't know how to get one once we were already down there so we just laid under the tree. Our friends left to go on their snorkeling thing and we just laid there and got in the water. After about 30 mins we see our friends heading back...their snorkeling was canceled and they told them all of them was canceled for the whole day. Thats a bummer, because I know they were really looking forward to it. So, we all just got in the water...and swam and floated...swam some more and floated...and again and again.

Well...staying in the water all day...probably not a good idea. We kept putting sunscreen on, but I guess it didn't work. We all got so SUN BURNED. Let me tell you, that is killer sun out there. I don't what kind of sun it is, but I have never ever been burned like I was. It was awful! But, at least we had fun...hehe.

(My mom and friend Chelsea)

Ok, so heading back to the ship...very hard to walk once again. So we headed back to the water to make it easier on us. I do think their was a shuttle running...but I'm not for sure. Oh well, good exercise. As we were walking back the tide was coming in and everybody who had chairs close to the water....well lets just say sucks to be them. There were sandals and clothes floating in the water around their chairs. I hope they had more clean clothes...hehe...of that they learned a lesson.

So, after we got on the ship me and mom once again took a nap. I really don't think we meant to have that many naps but man. Once your head hits that pillow on those Carnival Comfort Beds there is no turning back. We were out! I woke up finally and got ready for dinner and sushi once again! Also, tonight was the past guest party and they allow you to bring a guest so we brought our friends. This was my moms first past guest party because she never went to any of the others. But since I got an invite this time I told myself I was going! And I'm glad I did, I really did enjoy it and the video they showed towards the end. They had drinks and appetizers which were all very good.

(Blurry pic of us at the past guest party)

(Drinks a flowing)

After that we went to dinner. We were all pretty sore from being so burnt so we would be going to our rooms early. I don't remember what I had for dinner that night. Too many drinks before dinner.

(All of us at dinner with our table mates...awesome people and I really enjoyed dining with them every night)

After dinner we went to look at our pictures we took through out the cruise. We like them...even though some are cheesy. We bought 4. Came to almost $100 bucks :eek: Oh well...now my dad has more photos of us...hehe After that we went to go see the adult comedian show again and then to bed. We were all so sore.

Lesson be learned...if you burn easily please remember to bring at least 50 spf...I'm bringing 100 spf the next time! We were so burned....and I guess so was everybody on the ship, everything was sold out of the shops even the Aloe. They gave my mom some type of ointment at the pursers desk but it didn't work. They also told her that everybody always seems to get real burned while visiting Half Moon Cay. So we went to bed....funny story...I woke up at about 5AM that morning and my lips felt so swollen. So I got up and looked in the mirror and oh my lord, what a site. Picture this, raccoon eyes and big ol lips! Being bi-racial and all I already have some good sized lips, so this was just crazy. I woke my mom up...and yup, hers too were swollen. We couldn't do anything but laugh....I looked worse then her so she headed up to the lido to get some ice and yogurt. The lady in gift shop told us that we could use yogurt for our burn. So, my mom put some on and she said it really helped. Me...well I just iced my lips. And then mom woke up early that morning and bought some benadryl for us. It helped...with that being said, no alcohol that day. Ok, so now we are on to a day at sea and our last day....