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

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More photos from around the ship.

 

The Passage to India Lounge

 

 

 

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More from the Atrium

 

 

 

Hollywood Blvd.

I thought these tables were cool. Hence the name Hollywood Blvd.

 

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Seating along Hollywood Blvd.

 

The Stars Bar

 

More seating along Hollywood Blvd.

 

Casino Royale

 

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The Palace Theater

 

 

 

 

More Atrium photos

 

You can see Cricle C in the middle.

 

 

You can see Club O2 and the arcade is behind that

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The top is the Lido Deck. the middle is the Casino Royale, and the Bottom Is the Imagination Dining Room

 

 

 

Piano Bar

 

 

 

 

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Diamonds Disco It's cool how the diamonds hang from the ceiling

 

 

 

 

 

The computer hub

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The Tara Library- This is where the Chef's table is held. Has some southern charm.

 

 

Another art piece

 

 

 

That's all for tonight.

[mara93]

Can't wait for the rest of your review!! :)

[sadymichele]

AAAAAAAA!!! Cliffhanger! I was so waiting to see if you made it to HMC!! We are taking this same cruise April 2, 2011!! I'm so excited! ;)

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Can't wait for the rest of your review!! :)

 

More is coming right up!

[tmt218]

AAAAAAAA!!! Cliffhanger! I was so waiting to see if you made it to HMC!! We are taking this same cruise April 2, 2011!! I'm so excited! ;)

 

Take me with you! I am ready to go back! We are planning a land vacation that week but I would rather be back on the Fascination.

You will have a great time!:):D

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Here is our towel animal from the night before

Jesse and floppy Dog like their new friends each night

 

We woke up early. About 7am. We were to start tendering at 8am. The night before the boat was rocking and rolling. Not to bad but you hear all the horror stories about not being able to tender at a tender port. I was thinking that we may not be able to tender in. Our luck is that whenever we book a cruise to a private island we never make it. Well this time it didn't happen.

WE MADE IT!!! WE FINALLY MADE IT!! YIPEE!! I WAS SO EXCITED!!!

 

I woke up to this

 

 

 

 

 

 

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That Ship Bar is hard to miss

 

 

 

 

 

[RBCL]

Great photos of HMC...can't wait for more. :)

[MrsMMark]

I am loving your review and your pictures! With each picture I think, "Oh, I'm going love that" or "Oh, DSs will love that" or "DD will love that" (she's 11 and crazy about Elephants).

Couple of questions - Did you like the late dining? We've always done early, but are thinking of switching because we always seemed rushed to get ready for dinner and want to have time to visit the sushi bar before dinner. Also, we are considering a balcony cabins on the Empress deck -- do you recall if people were ever very loud in the lobby bar area?

Keep it coming!

[Kel040]

DD will have a blast. How old is she?

HMC was exactly what everyone say it is. I am already looking at another cruise to HMC.Even if I have to go by myself. I have a zillion pictures from that day. It is coming up after the sea day which I will start tomorrow.

 

DD is 19yrs old, so she and her BFF will have run of ship.. although I've told them they must meet up with us each night for dinner in the MDR and when we are on shore, we all stick together !! :D

 

HMC pictures are good.. looks like water was still a bit choppy ??? Can't wait to see more !!

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After seeing the beauty I was excited to put my toes in the sand. We headed up to the Coconut Grove Buffet on Lido Deck to grab breakfast. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it was going to be. As we were finishing up it started to get crowded. They had already started the tendering. We headed down to Deck 3 and they had the elevator roped off. We headed back up to Riviera Deck and walked down the stairs. The line had started to form and head down the hall. Not as bad as I thought. We waited about 10 minutes and I believe we were on the 2nd or 3rd tender boat. The line moved fairly quick. My advice would be to arrive early. Watch your step as the lovely people on that deck left their room service trays full of uneaten food and dirty dishes. YUCK! That is a HUGE petpeeve of mine. I hate that and think that is disguesting. I will never understand why on earth people do that. Why not just leave it on your desk or chair in your cabin. It doesn't just happen on Carnival either. Ok rant over!! Thanks for listening.

 

* Note to those who book a Riviera Deck cabin. This is where we lined up to tender. I would imagine that it was loud and noisy. I personally would not want to be any where near that area. Just my thought.

 

Moving on......

 

So we got on this

 

Headed into paradise leaving this

 

 

 

 

First signs we made it to HMC

 

 

The Private Oasis- I would hope to rent this one day. Any takers? A CC HMC cruise to rent the private oasis. Sounds good to me.

 

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This is a little church on the island. We didn't go inside.

 

Thought this was interesting

 

[SweetpeaOne]

Thank You! Where in OR are you? I have a friend who moved to Eugene a few months ago.

 

We are in Eagle Point.. Eugene does have a awesome mall..

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The Plaza area

 

DD in front of the conch shell fountain

 

Rum Rummers Bar

 

Jewelry Store

 

 

After looking around the plaza a bit we headed to the shore excursion hut. We showed our cabana ticket and they called for our ride. We were shown to an area along the road to wait. It took maybe 5 mins and we were off.

This would be our home for the day

 

 

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More cabana pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

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As you can see we booked a cabana (online) for the day. I suggest you book online as they sell out fast. When we boarded the ship we went to the shore excursion desk. I was disapointed in the selection. There were only 5 cabanas left to choose from. Here on Cruise Critic there has been some talk on here weather you can pick a cabana or Carnival chooses it for you. I am happy to report that this was not the case and it's first come first serve. As of yet and I hope it stays that way or they adapt the way HAL has it set up on their website. On HAL I noticed that when you book a cabana online you get to choose what cabana color/location you want. Ok so all that was left was 1,2,4,5, and 6. I asked where the "ugly" ship was as it wasn't on the map. He stated it was in the area of 4,5, and 6. Well I wasn't thrilled but I went with 6 purple. My favorite color. It was farther down the beach and away from all the action. I'm not sure why people stop way down there and not walk farther down the beach. I noticed so may chairs down our way were empty. Further down had even more empty chairs. Walk farther down the beach unless you want/like to be by the action. So did I tell you I was bummer? LOL The more I thought about it the more I wanted to cancel. My DM said to just go with it and see what happens. So I chilled out about it and went with it. It was a cabana after all how bad could it be, right?

 

Well It was wonderful! I loved it and would book one again. I would even book # 6 again. It was past the water sports rental center. 2 cabanas from the bathroom and a short walk from the BBQ dining hall. It had plenty of shade but towards the later afternoon it got more sun. Not sure if the longer summers would make a difference. It was perfect. We had a full spread of snacks. Fruit, veggies with dip, salsa and guacamole with chips, sodas and water. Plenty for us. We had chips, soda and water leftover. Which we took back to the ship. The guy when we booked gave us all the sodas and water for 4. Nice touch. They also provided plates, utencils, napkins, and a cooler full of ice.

 

The cabana also came with (enough for everyone) snorkel gear, floating mats, a misting fan, and a shower. It had 2 cushioned lounge chairs and a table with 4 chairs. A fridge, trash can, and plenty of cabinet storage. They also provide the Carnival beach towels. We brought ours from the ship anyways. It was nice to have a dry towel if needed.

 

This way how far the ship bar and the water sports rental hut was from our cabana

 

More bar photos the sign

 

The stained glass windoew from inside

 

 

 

Another photo of the water sports rental hut. Someone chillin in the hammock and the clam shells.

[tmt218]

Great photos of HMC...can't wait for more. :)

 

Many many more to come. Hope you don't mind. I'm saving the best for last.:D

It really was a great day and the sand and water was so beautiful. My favorite of all the places I have been. Land and sea.

[tmt218]

I am loving your review and your pictures! With each picture I think, "Oh, I'm going love that" or "Oh, DSs will love that" or "DD will love that" (she's 11 and crazy about Elephants).

Couple of questions - Did you like the late dining? We've always done early, but are thinking of switching because we always seemed rushed to get ready for dinner and want to have time to visit the sushi bar before dinner. Also, we are considering a balcony cabins on the Empress deck -- do you recall if people were ever very loud in the lobby bar area?

Keep it coming!

Did I like late dining? This cruise yes I did. Our waitstaff was wonderful and did a good job when our tablemates were late. My DD was always hungry before dinner. If you don't feed her she turns into a bear. :eek: Not pleasant to deal with but she is just like her Momma.:D Gotta keep us fed and we are good to go.So we would grab her a quick bite to eat. I didn't like the fact that we would get out of dinner at about 9-9:30. DD was usually tired and wanted to go to bed. She is the only child I know that you don't have to make go to bed or have a bedtime. Anyways I also didn't like that I couldn't have a late night snack or eat the midnight mexican buffet. Those tacos looked so good too! :D I wouldn't want the early seating as I would have felt rushed to get ready and I don' t enjoy that. I say switch and try it out. If you don't like rushing to dinner you will like it. Another option for dining is the Your Time Dining. You don't have a set dining time or wait staff. They have a YTD section. This cruise/ship it was in the Sensation dining room. You show up anytime between 5:45 and 9:30. Sometimes you may have to wait for a table during busy times. If you find wait staff you really like you may request them and sometimes you may have to wait to be seated in their section. We have done this on Princess and is by far our favorite choice. We just get ready for dinner when we want and go eat. I haven't had a long wait yet. I wanted YTD this cruise but it was waitlisted. I didn't see many using it this cruise. It seemed like alot more people were eating in the buffet. We had a family of 4 who never came to the dining room and we saw alot of tables empty.

I had a friend on the Empress Deck but she was in an oceanview farther down from the balconies. I'm assuming you are looking at the 8D balconies. Midship. I wouldn't think it would be loud. They played music in the early evening from 5 to 7 out there. If you look at my earlier photos the piano player and the artium bar photo was at night. Not that many people out there. Most were up by the casino Stars Bar or by the Beverly Hills Bar. I think you would be far enough back that your wouldn't notice any noise. I would book one in that area.

HTH

Thanks for reading. More on the way

[MrsMMark]

Thanks for the response - just what I needed to know! I don't think we'll do anytime dining because it is first cruise with kids and we want them to HAVE to come eat with us at a certain time - or they might not come at all. We have one that could happily survive a 2-month fast as long as he has video games or a waterslide or a television or . . . !!! I'm sorry to hear about your dud table mates -- our table mates have been the highlight of our past (2) cruises, but those were longer cruises and a few years ago. From everything I've read lately I'm trying not to expect much in that department! Can't wait to see the rest if your review - one night soon I'm going to get the whole family to sit down and look at your pictures together!