Fantastic Fun on Fascination 2/19-2/24 including Discovery Launch....TONS of Pictures

[tmt218]

Brilliant review! We are going on her next March.

 

Anymore photos coming along? :)

 

Thank You! Yes I have a ton more photos. Looks like you are going on a new itinerary. I am glad they change it up some.

[RBCL]

It's a 5-Day to Key West and Nassau...they didn't do that this year?

[tmt218]

Loving this review & pics. We sail on her in May in an oceanview but considering upgrading to a balcony.

 

Besides the downtown ATL traffic, how was the drive? About how long did it take you, after you got out of the ATL? We live off of GA 400 & completely understand the traffic around here!

 

We left our house in Dahlonega at 3pm. So that wasn't bad. From the toll plaza to Henry county it was about 2 1/2 hours. We stopped for a potty break. Stopped for dinner and that took an hour and 15 mins. Stopped for gas once as well. We arrived at the hotel about 1am. Over all it was 10 hours with traffic and stops. I didn't think it was to bad considering. Without stops and traffic it was suppose to take about 7 hours. We took I 75 to I 10. My Mom and I said it would have been better for us to leave early Sat. AM but we like to arrive the day before. We like to be relaxed the day of our cruise. The jury is still out on that one.:rolleyes:

HTH

[tmt218]

It's a 5-Day to Key West and Nassau...they didn't do that this year?

 

I guess they did but must have over looked it. I was only looking at our dates. For some reason I was thinking it went somewhere else.:rolleyes:

[mama_2_boys]

Loving the review so far! We are on the Fascination in May and can't wait!!

[tmt218]

So after lunch we headed back to our cabin to get settled in and chill on the balcony. Our luggage was waiting for us. We started to unpack our bags. We met our room Steward. I forget her name but she was from the Philippines. She was very attentive and keep our ice bucket and cooler full of ice. We didn't see her much but our room was always clean and taken care of. Never was introduced to her assistant but he always said hello when in the hall. It was time for our muster drill. We started to head out and noticed 2 extra bags by our door. We had all our luggage and told the room steward that those weren't our bags. They belonged to M206 below. We had muster station E which is held in the Puttin' on the Ritz lounge. It was on the Promenade Deck Aft. We sat in the lounge and listened to the speech. Then headed to our life boats and lined up shoulder to shoulder. This was new for us as well. We usually just head to the muster station, listen to the instructions and then leave.

 

After that we headed to the Waterworks area. We were meeting our roll call there. My DD had been emailing some girls from our roll call. We met the girls and their families. They were peas in a pod all cruise long. It was very windy and with the sun starting to go down but that didn't stop the kids from going down the slides. The big slide was closed only the kiddie and racer slides were open.

 

 

 

[Megan_Strick]

I am going to attempt my first ever review so please bare with me. Traveling with me are my Mom and Daughter who is 9. This makes my 5th cruise over all. 2 with Princess and my 3rd with Carnival. My DM has 1 more cruise than I and it was when she graduated high school on Costa. I tease her that it doesn't count cuz it was way long ago.;):rolleyes: My DD was on her 3rd all with Carnival. We live in North Georgia about 65 miles N. of Atlanta so we have many ports to depart from that are a days drive. We were looking at a land vacation in Orlando or the beach. Hotel prices weren't the greatest and we started looking at cruises. We were looking at a short cruise out of Port Canaveral on the Sensation. My Mom wanted to try a different ship so I started looking at Tampa and Jacksonville. Well the itinerary for the 5 day Fascination was to hard to pass up. I have always wanted to go to Half Moon Cay. My Birthday gift to myself was a day at HMC paradise.

 

 

Well the big day arrived my birthday and the day we travel to Jacksonville. My plan was to leave about lunch time. My DD ended up with 3 tests on her agenda that day and changed our plans. She needed to be there for those tests. I was bummed but what can I do right? So I got DD off to school. She was bummed to go to school knowing that we would be leaving that afternoon. I'm sure it made for a long day but she was a trooper. I finished packing some last minuite things and took care of some errands. Soon it was 2:00pm and I needed to load the car and pick her up before 2:30pm. The school has a cut off time for early pick up.

 

I picked her up and off we went. Stopped by McD's and got a snack for the road. We headed towards Atlanta. Was making good time until we hit the Ga 400 toll plaza. Paid the toll and made it a few miles until it was a parking lot. Those of you that have driven through Atl know what I'm talking about. It took us well over 2 hours to make it out of the Atl metro area. Traffic the whole time. We made it out and DD was hungry. So the good Mommy I am I stopped to feed her before she turned into a bear. Plus she would sleep when her belly was full. We decided to eat at our favorite traveling resturant....Cracker Barrel!! It seems that whenever we are on a road trip we always stop at Cracker Barrel. The food is filling, good and you know what you are getting. I always get the same thing there no matter what time of day or night it is. French Toast, hashbrown casserole and sweet tea. YUMMY!! My DD got chicken tenders and hashbrown casserole. I forgot what DM had to eat.

 

 

 

 

Where in GA are you? I'm in Brunswick.

[tmt218]

Loving the review so far! We are on the Fascination in May and can't wait!!

 

Thank You! You are going to have a great time. Are you on one of the special week long cruises by chance? Trevor the CD said they had a week long cruise going to HMC, Nassau and Grand Turk. Sounds like a great! I am wanting to head to Grand Turk and I can always go to HMC. I could live there.

[tmt218]

Where in GA are you? I'm in Brunswick.

 

I live in Dahlonega. In North Georgia. Home of the gold rush! I like your quote from the Zac Brown Band. Zac Brown grew up in this area. He use to play at some local resturants and bars on open mic night.

[tmt218]

The whale tail

 

The terminal and parking lot

 

[tmt218]

More photos

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing special to look at until you get to this....

 

[tmt218]

 

 

 

 

 

Whew! We made it.

[DEBnGAB]

I gotta wait til I get home to see all the pics (its my work PC). nice job!!!

[tmt218]

More photos...hope you don't mind...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tmt218]

 

 

 

 

 

[tmt218]

 

 

 

[cakewoman]

Wanted to thank you for your review of this ship. I am going on this cruise ship in Sept. I will be staying at the Quality Inn off Airport Rd. and parking car where I only pay 3.75 a day practically next door of the hotel. I also love Cracker Barrel Restaurant on long drives. I will be driving down on the 16th so I;m sure I will find a CB. I have an inside cabin on the main decck and praying I will get an upgrade. I will be bringing 3 boys 18, 16, 12 and its going to be tight in the room. OHHHH the bathroom will not be good for me. Thank goodness for maids!!!!

[tmt218]

At sailaway I met up with Mybearsbaby and her husband. Such a great couple. We called them the newlyweds not so newlywed couple. They have been married 5 years and look so in love. They were so cute. I met cruisingbandmom. She has a DD my DDs age. I also met christina1966 who is Mybearsbabys' Mom. She has a DD my DDs age too. The girls got to know each other before the cruise and acted like long lost friends. They were stuck like glue. The 3 girls decided the waterslides were getting cold and moved to the hot tubs. They got into the adults one on accident. We didn't see the sign. They were just sitting there talking amongst each other and I didn't see the big deal. Someone apparently did and rules are rules unless it's chair hogging:rolleyes: then it's NOT enforced. My DM went with my DD and I stayed with Mybearsbaby to watch the sailaway. We were hoping to be captured by CCer APDMOM. She stands on the shore and takes pictures of the ship. Here is the link to her thread. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1205811&highlight=fascination+in+jacksonville

She will take them for you if you ask and she's in town. Here is the thread to our photo too. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1264154&page=9

After watching that and the colder I got I decided to head in and start getting ready for dinner. My DD and DM went back without me. They were cold.

[mama_2_boys]

Thank You! You are going to have a great time. Are you on one of the special week long cruises by chance? Trevor the CD said they had a week long cruise going to HMC, Nassau and Grand Turk. Sounds like a great! I am wanting to head to Grand Turk and I can always go to HMC. I could live there.

 

Yes we are :) I'm VERY excited about HMC and can't wait to see Grand Turk too. I have 2 and 4 year olds and they are very excited about the pics of the waterworks you posted.

[mama_2_boys]

At sailaway I met up with Mybearsbaby and her husband. Such a great couple. We called them the newlyweds not so newlywed couple. They have been married 5 years and look so in love. They were so cute. I met cruisingbandmom. She has a DD my DDs age. I also met christina1966 who is Mybearsbabys' Mom. She has a DD my DDs age too. The girls got to know each other before the cruise and acted like long lost friends. They were stuck like glue. The 3 girls decided the waterslides were getting cold and moved to the hot tubs. They got into the adults one on accident. We didn't see the sign. They were just sitting there talking amongst each other and I didn't see the big deal. Someone apparently did and rules are rules unless it's chair hogging:rolleyes: then it's NOT enforced. My DM went with my DD and I stayed with Mybearsbaby to watch the sailaway. We were hoping to be captured by CCer APDMOM. She stands on the shore and takes pictures of the ship. Here is the link to her thread. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1205811&highlight=fascination+in+jacksonville

She will take them for you if you ask and she's in town. Here is the thread to our photo too. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1264154&page=9

After watching that and the colder I got I decided to head in and start getting ready for dinner. My DD and DM went back without me. They were cold.

 

So cool that APDMOM got pics of you guys!!!

[tmt218]

Wanted to thank you for your review of this ship. I am going on this cruise ship in Sept. I will be staying at the Quality Inn off Airport Rd. and parking car where I only pay 3.75 a day practically next door of the hotel. I also love Cracker Barrel Restaurant on long drives. I will be driving down on the 16th so I;m sure I will find a CB. I have an inside cabin on the main decck and praying I will get an upgrade. I will be bringing 3 boys 18, 16, 12 and its going to be tight in the room. OHHHH the bathroom will not be good for me. Thank goodness for maids!!!!

 

Your welcome! I hope you enjoy it. When I was searching for information on this ship there wasn't much info. The hotels on Airport Rd. were nice and I felt the area was safe. I will cross My fingers you get an upgrade call. You could always call and ask how much an upgrade would be closer to your cruise date. You never know. When getting ready for dinner you could always go to the spa and use the showers there too.

[tracier66]

Loving the review. Taking the same cruise May 14th and can't wait.

[RBCL]

If you don't mind me asking - whats it like inside the terminal? Is it a confusing layout?

[MrsMMark]

I'm loving your review too. We are debating whether to take our kids on their first cruise on the Fascination in October. Thanks for the information!

[tmt218]

Loving the review. Taking the same cruise May 14th and can't wait.

 

Thank You! I am sure you will have a great cruise.