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

[poohbear80]

:eek:I have about 21 family members going on this same cruise Aug. 20, 2011. We can't wait; this cruise started out just for my 3 kids who says we never carry them cruising DH and my 6 cruise:D. Their ages DD 13 DS 10(when we leave) DS 6(when we leave) after my DH mom heard we where going to take the kids on their first cruise she jumped on as well her first cruise too. Next thing I know the DH sister and her 3 kids DS 11 DD 8 DS 7 first time cruisers too. From there a can of worms open my mother, grandmother, aunts, uncle, cousins, mother n law friend and a friend of the friend just everyone ALL FIRST TIME CRUISERS:eek:. Like they say the more the marrier. Its going to be the first time DH and me cruise with people we know before the cruise. Your review has help me out alot because it gives me a better idea of what the ship looks like. We have sailed on the Glory, sensation (2), Triumph, and Victory and now the Fascination. Your pictures are great you did a wonderful job it being your first review keep up the great work.;)

[tmt218]

You dont' have to ask her, mine has the certificate, but I know she was really dragging the next day. I just wanted to verify the "cut off time". Thanks

 

OK She did say she got a little drawstring bag too. Yes the cut off time was 12:00. You may want to ask when you sign her up to be sure. I failed to ask and that was the answer I got when I picked her up. They could have just been telling me that too.

[tmt218]

Did I miss the shuttle launch pictures?

 

:cool:Bill

 

 

No not yet!

[tmt218]

Thanks for your great review. We'll be on the Fascination next month & I'm so excited!

I let my husband choose the itinerary so unfortunately we're headed to KW instead of HMC. I sooooo wanted to go to HMC!

 

 

Thanks for reading! Key West is a great stop. It's not HMC but still a nice place to visit. We use to live in South Florida and I have only been once as a kid. I would love to go back as an adult. I love key lime pie and want to try the key lime pie dipped in chocolate on a stick. Sounds yummy! Have a great cruise. Tell Hubby you want to go on another cruise to HMC.

[tmt218]

:eek:I have about 21 family members going on this same cruise Aug. 20, 2011. We can't wait; this cruise started out just for my 3 kids who says we never carry them cruising DH and my 6 cruise:D. Their ages DD 13 DS 10(when we leave) DS 6(when we leave) after my DH mom heard we where going to take the kids on their first cruise she jumped on as well her first cruise too. Next thing I know the DH sister and her 3 kids DS 11 DD 8 DS 7 first time cruisers too. From there a can of worms open my mother, grandmother, aunts, uncle, cousins, mother n law friend and a friend of the friend just everyone ALL FIRST TIME CRUISERS:eek:. Like they say the more the marrier. Its going to be the first time DH and me cruise with people we know before the cruise. Your review has help me out alot because it gives me a better idea of what the ship looks like. We have sailed on the Glory, sensation (2), Triumph, and Victory and now the Fascination. Your pictures are great you did a wonderful job it being your first review keep up the great work.;)

 

That's shocking how many people are going? You guys will have a great time though. A cruise is a great vacation for families. It allows something for everyone. You can do your own thing and excursions. Then all meet up over dinner and talk about your day. You and DH may have to book a second cruise to recover.

Have a great cruise! Thank You! Glad you like the review and Thanks for reading.

[tmt218]

This is our last full day of our cruise. We slept in this morning DD needed her rest or she would be a bear. She got up about 10:30am. By the time we go up and ready it was almost lunch time. We decided that we would have breakfast anyways. While eating breakfast the had started setting up the chocolate dessert buffet. I was to full to eat any of it. It did look good though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tmt218]

 

 

 

 

 

[RBCL]

Great, now I'm hungry.

 

Oh - you're allowed to eat the cakes, right?

[tmt218]

 

 

 

After drooling over all the sweet goodness DD wanted to go to camp. She wanted to meet up with her friends. They used camp as a meeting place. DM and I went back to the cabin and read on the balcony. First we went up on deck to look at what was going on.

 

Looking at the aft wake

 

 

[LBumb]

great aft shots

[tmt218]

After awhile DD and her friend came back to the cabin with lunch in tow. They sat on the balcony eating and talking. DM and I watched the movie Eat,Pray,Love on tv. We also saw some of the Guest Talent Show playing on the tv. DM and I headed to the Palace Theater for the Newlywed game. We always get a good laugh out of the questions and the answers.

 

The couple on the left were married the longest. The couple on the right were married about 5-7 years.

 

This couple were the newlyweds. They just got married on Saturday and were on their hineymoon.

 

 

This couple were married about 20-25 years. They were the winners. They got the most answers right. All the couples got a bottle of champagne.

 

 

After the game we went into the fun shops. They were having a t-shirt sale. We bought 2 t-shirts and headed to lido for lunch. I had chicken fingers and fries and DM had a cheeseburger, chicken fingers and fries.

 

 

I snuck in a picture of DMs cheeseburger Ha Ha!

 

 

I hurried to meet DD. She had an appointment for a Kid's Spa Ice Cream Party at the spa. I have never seen anything offered to kids or teens in the spa before. They had several packages to choose from. They also had Mother and Daughter packages.

In DD's spa party it included a foot fizz, foot scrub (you choose your flavor of vanilla, chocolate and Strawberry) foot massage, and mini pedicure. You also get your nails painted and ice cream while relaxing. DD had a great time as did her friend. There was about 6 girls total. It was 39.00 for an hour. It wasn't wildly advertised and we wouldn't have know about it unless we went to the spa. They also offered the pick 3,5,or 7 packages. It was 79 for 3, 99 for 5, and 119 for all 7. Next time I will indulge myself.

 

While DD was at the spa party I headed back to the cabin to start the packing process. It was painless with DD not around and I had it all done in an hour. I went back to the spa to pick DD up. It was getting close to dinner time and headed back to the cabin to get ready.

We got ready for dinner and headed to the Far From Over show in the Palace lounge. It was a good show. It's based on music from the 80's. I am a huge 80's music fan.

After the show we headed to dinner. DD gave our drink waiter Sherly a tip for her hard work. She always had a soda waiting for DD. She made her this

 

She also gave Malvin our head waiter his tip for his hard work. Our Asst. Waiter wasn't there tonight. He had been sick the past 2 nights with the flu.

[tmt218]

Tonight for dinner I had Shrimp Cocktail

 

Crab Cake- it wasn't very good. It was fishy. DM didn't like hers either

 

I had the salmon for my entree- it was overcooked and dry but edible. Nothing like salmon in Alsaka. I was spoiled on that one.

 

I had the WCMC for my dessert

 

 

My DM had a salad, the crabcake, the veal parmesan, and WCMC for dessert.

DD had 2 shrimp cocktails, the salmon, and no dessert, No she wasn't in trouble. She didn't want any!:eek:

 

After dinner we headed back to the cabin to finish packing last minute things and put our luggage out. We were going to head to Karaoke Awesome but DD was tired and wanted to go to bed. We watched tv and went to bed.

[tmt218]

Great, now I'm hungry.

 

Oh - you're allowed to eat the cakes, right?

 

 

Sorry!:p:) They do look good. Yes you can eat them. They had people cutting them up and serving them to you. I snapped those photos before they did.

They had servers out at both dessert stations serving you. They would put them on a plate for you after you picked what you wanted.

[tmt218]

great aft shots

 

 

Thank You!

[navybaby1113]

We ate the exact same thing on our last sea day for lunch.

[weekendbeacher]

Thank you for this review and pictures. I am going on my first cruise April 30th. The pictures really helped!

[tmt218]

We ate the exact same thing on our last sea day for lunch.

 

That's so funny! Looks like we have the same food tastes.

[tmt218]

Thank you for this review and pictures. I am going on my first cruise April 30th. The pictures really helped!

 

Your Welcome. Thanks for reading! Enjoy your first cruise. I hope you have a great time.

[tmt218]

This was our towel animal from the last night

 

Here are some miscellaneous pictures

Do not disturb signs cruzin style

 

 

Coconuts Grill Buffet

 

The salad bar They also had fresh fruit on there as well. To the right you can see the ice cream/frozen yogurt machines.

 

[tmt218]

This was from the last nights dining room show. The wait staff singing leavin on a fun ship. It was the only time we saw a dining room show on this cruise. It wasn't planned that way. We were always done with dinner by the time the show began.

 

The waiter in the middle made a rabbit puppet from a napkin. He moved his hand as he was singing. It was hilarious.

 

 

We woke up early as it was time to leave today. Not something we were looking forward to. I hate disembarktation. Not only am I never ready to leave but I'm not a fan of a crazy mess. Nor the wait. I went out to the balcony to look around and saw this

 

Wow not good. Where did that come from and how did we make it into port? Well my guess is we arrived into port before the weather changed. We got ready and headed to the buffet for breakfast. Breakfast was good. Again nothing special. For me anyways. We decided to just sit there and wait for our number to be called. It wasn't overly crowded or noisy. You could hear Trevor when he came on the intercom. I am guessing the fog was holding us up a bit. They started calling the self debark people at about 8:15am I am guessing alot more people are doing this. It took awhile between decks. About 9 he started callinf zone numbers. It was 1-5 then a min or so later he came back on and changed it to 1-10 to speed things up a bit. We started to head down to deck 3 as we knew our zone was next. We went to Riviera deck and walked to the front of the ship. It was interesting to see how quickly the room stewards can turn a room around. Sheets and linens were every where. They were busy working hard. We waited in the front elevator area. Our number was called and down the stairs we went. Handed our S+S card over, heard the last ding, and down the sidewalk to baggage claim we went. Found our luggage zone and all 3 bags easily. Everything is well marked. Porters are readily available but we didn't need them. We had 5 bags between the 3 of us. DD is good about pulling her weight and is good about helping out. She is a good traveler. Handed our customs paper. The guy didn't even look at it. We called our shuttle service to take us back to the hotel where our car was parked. We walked across the street to where we were instructed to wait. Not even 10-15 mins later he arrived. It was the same guy that dropped us off. We had the van to ourselves. He loaded our bags up and we were on the road to the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel he asked us where our car was. He pulled up beside it and loaded our bags into our car. Great guy. We headed into the hotel to get some ice and use the bathroom before we got on the road. It was 10:30am by this time. I didn't think this was a long process from ship to hotel.

[tmt218]

That's all for tonight. I will start the shuttle launch tomorrow!

Good Night Ya'll!!!

[douglinc@msn.com]

Really enjoying your review, can't wait for more.

 

Doug

[tmt218]

Thank You!

[tmt218]

We were all set and headed south to watch the final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery. I grew up in South Florida and I took for granted that I was able to watch a launch easily. I even went to a middle school named after the first teacherto head to space. Christa McAuliffe. I remember all the excitement that surrounded the Challenger launch back in 1986. I also remember the tragedy.

With only 3 shuttle launches remaining. I knew that I wanted my DD to experence a shuttle launch and see a piece of history. Just as many of you remember Apollo and the first walk on the moon. The space program as we know it will be gone. If we will even have a space program. All the funding is gone. There isn't any funding for the 2 remaining shuttle launches. 7,000 NASA jobs have been lost in the space coast so far with more on the way. That doesn't include the manufacturing jobs NASA provided across the country. I was speaking with a nice lady that lives in the area. She said that NASA and the Kennedy Space Center is what brought people to the area. Without the jobs and the visitors the surrounding towns have nothing. She said many people had already moved away.

Anyways....We headed south to Titusville, FL it is only a 2 hour drive from Jacksonville. Most folks head to Cocoa Beach but the prime viewing areas are in Titusville. They have many parks along the Indian River to watch a launch. The drive wasn't bad we arrived at our exit at about 1pm. The exit was backed up and the bumper to bumper traffic had began. We decided to get some lunch. We stopped at my favorite traveling resturant....Cracker Barrel. There was one at our exit. It was busy and we had to wait about 20 mins for our table. We didn't mind the wait. It was still early. After our lunch and with our bellies full we tackled the traffic. It took us 30 minutes to get to the viewing areas. We first wanted to head to Space View Park. They provide a live feed from NASA's control room. The park also has some space history monuments and astronauts handprints. A really nice park. Unfortunately it was crazy busy and we just headed to Kennedy Point Park. We paid 10.00 to park across the street and walked over. We took beach towels and some water and snacks. We still had over 2 hours to wait.

 

 

 

 

You can see the white building in the distance. This is the Vehicle Assembling Building. They push out the Shuttle to one of the launch pads. The launch pad used was 39A it is 3.4 miles from the VAB to the 39A launch pad. Here is a picture of the process http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:STS-36_Rollout_-_GPN-2000-000680.jpg

[tmt218]

Here is the VAB up close

 

 

To pass the time we walked around. There were people from all over the U.S. Some people camped out over night in their rvs, vans and cars. It was a big deal. Just how big a deal it was we didn't quite know. Many news crews were there.

 

 

 

It was time.....