Fascination Aug 26-30,2010 With Pics!

[obx_fintoo]

Background - DH and I booked this trip last minute, just one week out. Our only goal was to relax and have a fun weekend. This was our 22nd cruise on Carnival. We have mostly done shorter cruises and cruise frequently out of Jacksonville. It is an easy port and an easy drive for us.

JaxPort - We arrived at the port earlier than we usually do. Normally try to arrive just at 11. JaxPort is super easy to navigate. You show your docs and picture ID to the guards as you drive in. If you want to drop off your luggage or passengers, you turn right to the lot by the ship. Otherwise, turn left and park. You can drag your luggage, which is what we usually do, or wait and someone on a golf cart will pick you up.

Here's a pic of the Fascination from the parking lot.

[obx_fintoo]

JaxPort continued - This time, we got to the port around 10:35. We drug our luggage (1 insulated bag with sodas and 6 Miller Lite bottles, 2 rolling bags - checked; carryon with toiletries, medicines and jewelry, and belly pack with passports and Fun Pass).

There were still a few stragglers coming off the ship so they weren't letting anyone inside but VIP. Luckily there is a separate VIP entrace door. We walked in, showed our docs, breezed thru security and headed to the VIP lounge. We were checked in quickly and seated in the 4 rows that are VIP Express Boarding by 11:05. We were informed that a wedding party would be boarding ahead of us, but that we should be on by 11:30. At 11:29, they led us on to take the embarkation photos, then S&S pic. Then you walk outside and into the ship on Deck 3. We took the elevator up to the lido deck and headed straight to the Mongolian Grill.:cool:

[obx_fintoo]

Food - The Mongolian Grill is very good. Just fill up your bowl (or bowls) with noodles and veggies, pick your meat (chicken, beef, shrimp or a combo of these), pick your sauce (I always get the hottest, and I can't remember off hand what the milder choices are but I think one is terayaki). Good stuff!

We mostly ate on the Lido, for lunch and dinner. Yes, it can be done and the food is still good. Below is a pic of the first night's prime rib! We went to the pizza and deli bars as well. On elegant night and then on last sea day for breakfast, we did the MDR. Service was good both times, although we had a table for two for breakfast and I felt it was a bit slower than it should have been. (Note: I tried the CC tip of ordering Eggs Benedict with the sauce on the side and it was excellent!)

We did room service for breakfast the other days, except debarkation when I ran up and grabbed a few things and brought them down to the room. We do not usually cruise for the food and I had no complaints this sailing.

[obx_fintoo]

Rooms - Since we booked so last minute, we had an inside room. We have done these before and really have no problem with them. In fact, the 2nd day, several people asked us how we liked the early morning storm and we said "What storm?" and DH is a light sleeper! Here is a pic of an inside with 2 uppers.

[obx_fintoo]

Rooms continued - In contrast to our skinny doored inside room, some friends we have cruised with before who were also on this sailing got an upsell call and upgraded to a Grand Suite (U74). It is handicapped accessible, and since we went to see their room first, our door felt very small! :rolleyes:

This was a very nice room and they would book a Grand Suite again, however the only complaint was the shower. Since it is HC accessible, there is no little lip to separate the shower floor from the rest of the bathroom floor. On the last day, we had some movement from Danielle and they had water sloshing around their floor when they showered.

Here are pics of U74.

[obx_fintoo]

Smuggling - If you noticed above, I mentioned that one of our checked bags had soda and a few beers in it. It is a zippered insulated bag and for every trip out of Jacksonville, we have filled it with these items, attached a VIP luggage tag and checked it. Never had a single issue. Well, apparently the cracking down rumors are true. We got this bag at around 1pm with a nice little note saying they had found alcohol that was taken and would be returned on the last night.

We were not alone. We ran into many folks who had bottles taken. One couple had checked 3 bottles of wine and they took them all. Good luck if you attempt to smuggle thru JaxPort.

We mostly stuck to buckets of Miller Lite. Before you sailaway, you will pay an additional sales tax for Jacksonville. 4 Lites in plastic 16 oz bottles with 15% gratutity and extra tax were $21.72. Once we were on open sea, the price dropped to $20.47.

 

They did offer a 12oz beer special on the Lido all cruise. Bud or Bud Light for $13.80 or Heinkein or Amstel Light for $17.80.

 

Drinks of the Day are $7.25. Other "Icy Inventions" are Kiss on the Lips, Mocha Chocolate Getaway, Hurricane Wave and various Daquiris. For my future cruisemate who is interested.... the menu says these drinks are available as non-alcoholic versions for $4.75.

 

On that note, it's time to fix dinner. I'll finish up later. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer.

[obx_fintoo]

Entertainment - We did not go to any of the shows this time. We participated in several trivia games and liked Craig, the social host from Scotland. He was about to start vacation and will be back on the Legend next. CD was Trevor Bloch who we have sailed with before. He's a nice guy with ok CD skills. His family had joined him for this cruise so he was happy they were around. We saw him with his son in a stroller a few times.

Karaoke was in the Puttin' on the Ritz lounge each night and Host Sheila did a good job of running things. It seemed to have long hours each night. The selection is just ok. You may see several verisions of the same song and artist and can't tell which one is the one you are used to. But everyone seemed to have a good time.

[obx_fintoo]

Kids - We have a kid, but didn't bring her along this time.;) She really enjoys Camp Carnival. On the Fascination, this is located on the Verandah deck foreword. 2-5 on one side, 6-8 on the other. I don't really know much about the older kids clubs yet. The kids on this ship were not an issue. I saw nothing worse than one group of 4 boys running down the stairs to Lido to return their putters from mini-golf.

I tried to see if I could get copys of the Fun Times for the kids, but they weren't placed out. They had the individual days posted and it looked like lots of activities for each group.

The waterworks area always seemed to have a good turn out. Below is a pic of the slide.

Weather - We had some spotty weather for most of the cruise. It wasn't bad, just typical hot, with afternoon showers. On the last sea day, we had some noticably movement although not nearly the worst we have seen. This didn't seem that bad at all to me, who doesn't get seasick, but there were plenty of folks running to the restrooms all the last day. It was more of a side to side sway than an up and down slam.

[obx_fintoo]

Other miscellaneous stuff

 

Filapino band - As usual, there was a Filapino cover band called Simple Friends that rocked the Passage to India Lounge most nights.

 

Deck Party - This was held on Nassau evening. They started setting up and it got windy. The band did play one quick set (Simple Friends) and we had some dancing in the light rain, then it stopped raining, then it started raining really hard!:eek:

 

Band relocated to Passage to India and while they were setting up, Deck Party dancing with all the social hosts took place in the Diamonds are Forever Disco. It was a blast. I blew out my flip-flop and had to go down for a back up pair! Below are some pics from that night!

Ports - I was surprised at how few people got off the ship at either port. There is nothing wrong with the Bahamas but we have been there so often, we don't feel the need to get off everytime. Usually only in Nassau to make some phone calls and visit a few favorite local haunts.

If you have any questions about the ports, I will try and answer.

More to come.... should finish up tomorrow night.

[jbanana1]

Enjoyed your review and pics. Can you post a copy of the FunTimes?

[halterk]

A copy of the FunTimes would be nice, as I will be on her in less than a month!!!

[GatorMomInNC]

Can you tell me around what time of day the trivia contests are going on? That is what I would like to do, if I can get my kids to stay in CC for that time...

[obx_fintoo]

Enjoyed your review and pics. Can you post a copy of the FunTimes?

 

A copy of the FunTimes would be nice, as I will be on her in less than a month!!!

 

I do have Fun Times for each day and will try to get them on by the end of the day.:cool:

[Supermomma4]

Enjoying your review. DH and I will be sailing on the Fascination in November:D

[obx_fintoo]

Can you tell me around what time of day the trivia contests are going on? That is what I would like to do, if I can get my kids to stay in CC for that time...

 

Here's what they had for Trivia:

Thurs: 7:45pm - Trivia Fun, 8:45pm The Great Game Show - both Palace Theater We did not do either of these.

Fri: 9:30am - Know it and show it - Stars Bar - missed this one as well

3:00pm - Pick the Flick (Movie Trivia) and On your Mark, Set, Draw! - Stars Bar - we did both of these with a few other folks that we recruited as they walked by. For the Draw game we split up into the Girls vs. Guys. DH won! (by a point!):p

Sat: 2:30pm Trivia Marathon - Lido Deck - Did this one and won!:D

Sun: 9:30am - Name that Jingle - Palace Theater - did not do this one

10:30am - 80's Trivia - Star's Bar - would have liked to do this one but missed it.

12:30 - Movie Quote Classics - Star's Bar - Now this one I was really looking forward to, because I love movie quotes. However, it was lightly raining so they moved the "Groove for St. Jude" dance down to this area and that overrode the trivia! :(

Ok, gotta get some work done. More to come later including....

An update on an event featuring Free Drinks! :cool:

[Mrdillion]

Enjoyed your review and pics. DW and I are sailing on the Fascination in November.

[fsu1]

Yea we will be on the fascination Sept. 27th! Great review! Keep it coming! :)

[Meyer2]

Enjoyed the review!

[idiebabe]

Enjoyed the review...thanks for the pics!

[nicole276]

Thanks for the great review. The trivia sounds so fun. I didn't realize they offered so much trivia. We have never done it on our past cruises, but hope to in our cruise Oct 2nd!! Can't wait :)

[thptrek]

Do you have any more pictures of the Grand Suite? Love the review.

[obx_fintoo]

Thanks for the great review. The trivia sounds so fun. I didn't realize they offered so much trivia. We have never done it on our past cruises, but hope to in our cruise Oct 2nd!! Can't wait :)

 

Thanks! Yes, they have lots of different trivia options. I had read some reviews recently of other ships where folks came to trivia the 2nd or 3rd day and couldn't play due to it being a continued game from the 1st day but we did not experience that. As with anything, it's going to vary from ship to ship and staff to staff!

 

Enjoy your cruise! I just have 3 more months till I go back again!:cool:

[obx_fintoo]

Do you have any more pictures of the Grand Suite? Love the review.

 

Thank you. Sorry, those were all that turned out. (expect for a couple where my friends and DH would not get out of the way and instead of the room, you could only see them cutting it up in the mirrors! LOL )

 

The balcony is an OK size. Four of us sat out there most of the afternoon when we were docked at Nassau.

[obx_fintoo]

Sorry for the delay!

 

Finally below are the copies of the Fun Times. I got used to them although at first I grumbled about missing the Capers. One thing that was helpful is a section on the back that states Opening Times for everything that is opening that day. Kind of cool to have them all together.

8-26-10 Jax.pdf

8-27-10 Freeport.pdf

8-28-10 Nassau.pdf

8-29-10 Sea Day.pdf

[obx_fintoo]

Casino - I will say that we spent a good deal of time in the casino as usual. We are Ocean Players Club members and always e-mail the casino host prior to the cruise. Since it was so close to cruise time when we booked, they did not get the forwarded e-mail. On the first night at Roulette, DH asked to see the casino host and when he came over we introduced ourselves and chatted for a bit. His name was Roberto and he took very good care of us for the rest of the cruise. :cool:

As Platinum, we get free entries into either the Slot or Black Jack Tournaments. We both tried the Slots this time and I got the lowest score ever! Didn't break 1,000! LOL The Wild Card winner ended up winning the Tourney which was cool.

Roulette and Slots were ok to us. Craps was a very cold table the whole cruise. Some areas are designated non-smoking but there is definitely smoke smells all through the area. DH played Black Jack a few times with mixed results.

Funniest thing I saw this cruise, happened in the casino on the last day....

I was playing slots and this elderly Chinese lady starts talking to me in Chinese. She was kind of pointing to the machines, so I said in English (since I don't speak Chinese;)) "You just put your card in, then what amount money you want to and play." She didn't seem to get that, so I pointed towards a casino worker. He was (I think) from Honduras.

He also did not speak Chinese.

He got on the intercom to see if anyone on duty at the time did speak Chinese. Apparently he couldn't find anyone. All this while the lady is just jabbering away. He looked at me and I just smiled and shrugged. So finally, he starts just showing her what to do - taking her S&S card, pointing and saying "Hoy! Hoy!" It must have worked out ok, because I saw her later and she was hooked up to a machine via her S&S card and spinning away. I saw the staff member a little later and stopped him and said, "Excuse me, do you speak Chinese?" He laughed and said, "Well, I didn't think so until today!"