Carnival Fantasy review 3-12-2011 to 3-18-2011

[ssatterly]

Carnival Fantasy Review 3-12-2011 to 3-18-2011

A little history about us; we have been taking care of my DH’s father for a few months now as his health declined and he passed away on 2-18-2011 so we decided to take a last min short get-away from the stress we booked the cruise 1 week to the day of departure and got the last cabin on the ship (U47). We did not even think why the ship was sold out. But then it dawned on us it was spring break. Oh well we are going on a cruise. 6 days to Nassau Freeport and Key West.

This is my DH’s 3rd Cruise all on Carnival, my 8th cruise with 5 on Carnival and 3 on RCCL. All have been good. None bad!

We only had a 3.5 hour drive to Charlestown for the ship. At 1st we were going to drive down the morning of and just park at the port but we decided to go down Thursday night and stay in Charlestown to see some stuff there. We left Asheville at about 5:30 pm on Thursday and was at The Radisson buy the Airport by 9pm. We were a bit tired so we just had dinner at the hotel and stayed in and planned out full day in Charleston for the next day. The hotel is very nice. They have an indoor pool and hot tub, a game room a workout center and even a hot sauna. They have an onsite restaurant and room service too. So for Friday we decided to go to downtown Charlestown and check out the Market and have some shrimp and sweet grits.

We did not sleep well. We were up most of the night trying to figure out the dang sleep number beds. We thought we would try a room with them but never again if you stay here get a room that does not have them…Our backs were hurting and got very little sleep. We got up on Friday and went downtown. It was cold. I am glad I had my jacket with me. My goal for the day was to get me one of those really neat sweet grass baskets. I didn’t really want a big one so I got a small cute on and it was still $35 they are not cheap but they are so cool. We did a little more shopping for little nick knack type things then we went to A W Shucks for lunch. It was so good. If you like Shrimp and sweet grits this is the best place to go. Yummy, so very good, still tasting it and want to go back there again just to eat. So after lunch we decided to take a horse drawn carriage ride through downtown we used the Red Barn company. It was great still a little chilly but very nice and we learned a lot about the very pretty town of Charlestown. After the hour or so tour we did some more walking and checking things out.

It was starting to get late so we went to dinner and we ate a little restaurant called Cajun Kountry Kitchen real close to the Radisson. It was so good; it was a local man with his own type of Cajun food. Wow it was good.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and went down to the pool and hot tub to relax for the big day the next morning. While we were at the pool there were a few others down at the pool we got to talking to them and come to find out they were going on the cruise as well. They as we talked more they are on cruise critic as well. Hi there 4again and family. They were also on our shuttle in the morning to the port as well. We booked the park and cruise package which include parking for the week, shuttle to and from the port and breakfast. It was well worth it. I would book there again if in Charlestown.

More to come and I will add a link to to my pics soon as well:

[ssatterly]

Embarkation Day

Well I was up at 5:30 I am always an early riser but on cruise days I am up even earlier. The shuttle was not due to leave till 11am…UGGGG!!! So I got up took a shower and began to get ready and put stuff back in the suite case that we had taken out. I got my DH up at about 9am and he got ready and we went down for breakfast. The Radisson had a buffet that was pretty good since it was free it was even better. After breakfast we went back to the room and relaxed a bit longer and then came down to the waiting area for the shuttle at about 10:30 or so. We all loaded up and away we went to the port. We were on the same shuttle as Cruise Critic member 4again…Hey you all again!!! We got to the port at about 11:30. At the Charleston Port you have to take a Shuttle to the ship from the area that they let you off at. No big deal. We walked in and there was no line at all, we went in got our sail and sign cards and we were on the ship by 11:45 give or take.

The 1st thing we did was stop at guest services to put down out cash deposit on out account. Then off to the Windows on the Sea for lunch. We had the Mongolian Grill... No Lines... It was so good. We had it many times for lunch during the cruise. The line was never too long for that. After lunch we went and explored the ship this is the oldest ship in the fleet but it does not show. She is so pretty. We walked around and checked out the serenity deck for a while. At 1:30 the cabins were ready and we dropped off our carry on and 1 suite case was there so we unpacked it. It was time for the safety drill so we went to the Lounge for our drill then we were all lead to where our life boat would be if we needed it. After the drill we went to see if our luggage was there it still had not arrived so we went to the top deck for the rest of the sail away. Sail away did start while the drill was going on but not enough to matter as we were just backing out. We were now on our way!! It was now about 5 after sail away so we went to our cabin again to get freshened up for early dinner. We wanted anytime dinning but since we booked so late it was full. Our luggage was now there so we went ahead and unpacked. We went to dinner and the Welcome aboard show. This is the same on all ships but we like to go to see the spoon challenge and to check out a sneak peak at the comedians for the week. Well wouldn’t you know it my DH got picked for the snoop challenge. It was funny to see him up on stage. After the show we did so more exploring and then went on to bed as we were kind of tired and needed to get some rest. We did get to meet Fun ship Freddy as well. He is so cute.

Tomorrow is a fun day at sea!!

[ssatterly]

For the fun day at sea we didn’t really do a whole lot it was also Formal night. We went to the main dining room for breakfast. After that we did go to the shopping talk and basically relaxed and hung out in the serenity area. We did have a nice lunch on the Lido deck and read our books and spent some time in the hot tubs. We meant to go to tea on this day but slept thru it on the serenity deck. After a wonderful dinner of Lobster we went to the production show. It was good but we have seen that one on the Destiny when we were on her in 2009. It was called night club express. Then after the show we went to the Punch liners Comedy club it was fun as always then we got pizza at the pizzeria then we people watched for a while and called it a night. As we were walking to out cabin the other night clubs like the piano bar were packed and rocking. This day was also the diamond sale in the gift shop. My DH the night before in the gift shop got him a black diamond and white gold men’s band. It is very nice. He wanted me to look at some rings then but they we not on sale yet so we waited until today to get me something. I picked out a nice 1 ct. 2 two toned white and yellow gold ring. He had the intentions the whole time before the cruise to get us each a new wedding set. I had no clue. His ring was on sale for $220 retail of over $500. Mine was $1894 with retail over nearly $4000. I have never spent that much on a ring and I never really ask for much other than to cruise…(LOL) my DH insisted so I finally gave in. I stared at it the rest of the night it is so pretty. It has a princess cut center stone and 10 round diamonds on the side. Now I was very happy with what I just got as a gift but my DH stated that it seemed to need a band. I didn’t think anymore of his comment at that time. More on that later as it was now our bed time.

Next up Nassau.

[KirkNC]

Keep it coming!

 

Kirk

[ssatterly]

Keep it coming!

 

.

 

Kirk

I am working on Nassau day right now.. I have a link in my sig. where I am posting pic's as well. Still have a lot to upload but they are comming

[bonniemari]

Ok, you got me hooked-can't wait to read the rest of your review and see the rest of your pics.

[bonniemari]

Hope you are going to post a pic of your new bling:)

[ssatterly]

Nassau:

Since we booked this trip sp close to sail date we decided not to do any shore trips. We were just going to walk around and do some shopping. The ship docked at 7am and we ordered room service as a wakeup call. It arrived at about 5:45 am. We ate then got up and got ready for the day. We were off the ship by 7:45 none of the shops were open yet so we just got an idea of where things were at on the shopping map. We then noticed that the Disney Magic was coming in so we watched her come in and the dock. Then my DH was hungry again so we went back on the ship to eat again. Then we got off again and things were starting to open up. We did our normal port type shopping and went to the straw market. There were 3 ships in port and we felt the straw market had way too many people in it. I could only imagine if there were more than 3 ships in port. Ugg!!

My husband has always wanted a Phillip Stein watch. If you know much about watches you know they have some pretty nice watches and they are pretty pricy in the states. He found the one he wanted back home and here it was listed at $550 plus tax he got it in Nassau at Venetian Jewelers for $450 and no tax. He asked me which one I liked and I found one and it was $360 with no tax. Which I thought was a lot for a watch but we got them both anyway. When I got home I checked the retail cost of the one I got and it goes for $450 plus tax so we did save nearly $200 plus tax getting them in Nassau. This jewelry store was the 1st store to do ship raffle for the day. It was for a necklace I think. We entered but did not win. Oh well. That’s nothing new. So off we went to the next store that was doing a ship raffle and that was diamonds international for a sapphire and diamond necklace. We entered the raffle but did not buy anything here. Well guess what my name was drawn out and I won the necklace. I was so happy. It was about a $200 necklace and I got it for free. Go me!!

So now we were off to Effy Jewelers for the next 2 drawings. The 1st one was for a 1 ct pair of smoky topaz set of earrings. Well wouldn’t you know it my DH won those. But since he doesn’t ware earrings he gave them to me. I am such a lucky girl! The next drawing was for a nice Effy signature cougar keychain. If you have shopped there you know that their mascot is a cougar. Or maybe it’s a leopard, either way it’s a big cat. Well guess what my name was drawn for that. Go me! So of the 4 raffles on the island on this day we walked away with 3 of them. So then it was about 1pm or so we just kept looking at the shops for stuff for people back home and we bought a few little things but nothing too big. At about 3 we went back to the ship for lunch and we were shopped out. We dropped off our stuff to the cabin and had lunch. We then went out to the slides and did some time on them. They were fun and we enjoyed them we did that till a little after 5 then it was off to get ready for dinner. After dinner we went to just chill a bit and people watch some more we just relaxed the rest of the night and listened to some live music and enjoyed our time together. Then we went to call it a night and we decided not to get up as early the next morning for Freeport.

Next up Free Port.

[bonniemari]

Tapping my foot and hitting refresh:)

[ssatterly]

Freeport

This morning we decided to just get up when we wake up, but me being the early riser that I am I was up early so I went ahead and got a shower, got dressed and got ready while my DH was still sleeping. Once I was done it was about 7:30 give or take so I got my DH up and he got a shower and got ready as well. We went to the main dining room for breakfast. I love Carnival’s eggs Benedict. Once we were done with breakfast we went to get off the ship. Freeport is very industrial but since we have never been there we got a taxi to Port Lucayca, it was only $5 per person each way. Not too bad. Our plans were to shop and just chill as we were only in port till 4pm and had to be back on the ship by 3:30 and had to factor in the time to get back to the ship from where we were.

We got to the area and did some shopping for some small stuff such as a nice Conch shell and magnet type stuff. We found what we were looking for and decided to head to the beach for a bit while we waited until noon for the 1st drawing in the stores from the ship, we thought we could get lucky again and maybe win some more stuff. The 1st drawing was at Columbian Emeralds, we did not win that one. Oh well can’t win them all I guess. So next we went over to the Next store for the 12:30 drawing it was at the Jewelry warehouse. By now the shopping guy from the ship knows me and my DH by name. LOL Well it was time for that drawing as well. We didn’t win that one either. Oh well, but little did I know while I wasn’t looking my DH had spotted him a nice Citizen watch for a good deal it was on sale for $117 with no tax. That one he got retails for over $200 in the states. Well I was just looking around while DH got his watch. He then told me to see if they had a nice diamond or gold band to go with my ring he had gotten me on the ship. I told him no that it was fine the way it is. Well he insisted so I began to look. The 1st one I looked at did not match well so I didn’t get it then I saw two channel set ½ ct band with 11 diamonds in each one. One was 14K yellow gold and the other 14k white gold. The yellow one did not look good with the 2 toned ring that I had gotten on the ship so we looked at the white gold on and it looked like a perfect match. It looked as if it were bought together as a set. All I could say is perfect but I did not want to spend the money that it was marked it retailed for $1800 and it was marked $899. Now don’t get me wrong it’s not a bad price and no tax but I have never spent that much on jewelry ever and if I got that plus the ring I already got then that was going to be $2793 just for my rings…But then again I would be wearing 1.5 carts of lovely diamonds. The ladies in the store said if we applied for in store credit she would take 10% more off the ring and make it $810 still more than I have ever spent but we said ok. We did not get the in store credit but she still took the extra off the price. So I tried it on and I could not get it to fit they said no problem they would size it before we left. So we said ok and they asked the size and I told them a 7. They put the ring on the sizer and it was a 7, they said to try it on again and they even looked at my other ring and it was a 7 too same size. They told me to bend d knuckle a bit and it went right on. My fingers were swollen abit due to the Bahamas’ humidity. So no sizing was needed. That was good. So we bought the ring and went to have some lunch.

I could not take my eyes of my new rings all I can say is wow. I have never had that much spent on me at one time in diamonds. We paid a total of $2700 for the 2 rings which would have retailed for $4800 plus tax in the states what a nice savings. They shine and sparkle wondferly. So we went to lunch there in the area at a place called Agave, the food was great but the service was so slow. After lunch we went to the beach to take some photos and put or feet in the water. Man was that water still cold. I don’t know how some people were staying in that water. Burr. We did get some nice photos and it was pretty.

After we left the beach we did a bit more shopping nothing big my DH loves walking sticks so we found a couple of those and got DS some stuff since he was home watching the dogs. Then we took a cab back to the ship and spent a bit of time taking some more photos and looking at the few shops that were there. There was a NCL ship in port as well. Once we got back on the ship we played on the water slides again until dinner.

After diner we went to the show they had a juggler who was a comedian as well. He was very good and funny. We started to stay for the love and marriage game but we got tired from all the walking so we left and went to bed. Key West is the next port and this is the one my DH was looking forward to the most.

[ssatterly]

More to come tommrow.. I have the review complete up untill Key West and I have all my pic's uploaded up untill Key West as well. The uploading the pic's has been taking all day...Seeesh!!!!!

[jrmende63]

Susie..I saw some of the pics you took...awesome! Wow with your luck with winning things...I hope you do come on the Carnival Destiny so maybe you will rub off on us! LOL

We sail the Carnival Fantasy this fall so I am excited to read your review.

[SexyK]

Very nice so far. Enjoyed the pics to. Will be back on the Fantasy in Oct.:) Keep it coming.

Happy Cruising!!!!!!!:cool:

[ssatterly]

Susie..I saw some of the pics you took...awesome! Wow with your luck with winning things...I hope you do come on the Carnival Destiny so maybe you will rub off on us! LOL

We sail the Carnival Fantasy this fall so I am excited to read your review.

 

We are hoping to be on the Destiny 4-4-2011 sailing

[nctxmix]

Enjoying your review, we'll be on this ship in June. Do you have a link to the pictures?

[ssatterly]

Enjoying your review, we'll be on this ship in June. Do you have a link to the pictures?

 

The link is in my Sig. I am still downloading pic's I am working on Key West now.

[ssatterly]

Key West:

We were to dock at the Navy pier today since the Enchantment of the seas was already there. They warned us up front that they would be stricter here due to it being a Military base even though we were in the US. We docked at 8am and were having breakfast in the main dining room while we were docking. After we got done eating we were able to get off at about 8:30 give or take. In this port we wanted to see the Southern Most point and have a piece of Key Lime Pie at Kermit’s. We also were given 2 free passes to the Butterfly Conservatory on the ship as well. Come to find out we save $24 just by having those tickets from the shopping host on the ship. We did not really have an interest in the beaches here since they are all manmade. Once off the ship we had to take a free shuttle down to Mallory Square, it took about 15 min or so. Once in Mallory square we decide to buy tickets to the old town trolley it has 12 different stops and you can get on and off as much as you want for 2 days. It was $29 per person and they do give a $5 discount to seniors or military. So it’s not bad and I think the ship charges more than that as well.

So once we got on we decided not to get off at all for the 1st trip so that we could really see where we wanted to get off later. The 1st trip took about an hour And a half it was a nice tour around the whole island.

We did not go to any of the shopping give a ways in Key West we were too busy site seeing. But they were having on at noon. So we did not win it. Oh well.

Once we made the 1st loop we knew we wanted to get off at stop 3 for Kermit’s Key Lime pie. We found out later that his Key Lime pie is the best in Key West as it’s been featured on the food network and the travel channel. It did not disappoint. It was so good, I had the frozen strawberry key lime pie dipped in white chocolate and my DH had the original frozen key lime pie dipped in milk chocolate. Man it was good. Kermit’s also has a lot of their product out to sample as well and it was all very good. As we were leaving Kermit himself was there and we got some photos of him with his key lime pie. He is a very nice and humble man.

So next we went back to the trolley stop to hop back on and we only had to wait for about 10 min or so no big wait time at all, it gave our key lime pie time to settle.

Once back n the trolley we wanted to go to stop 11 I think it was. The southernmost point in the US and the butterfly conservatory. We had to wait in line for about 15 min to get our photos taken at the southernmost point. Not too bad. It was a very nice day. We found out the it would be closer to go to Cuba (90) miles than to a Wal-Mart (154) Miles back in Miami. One we got that done we walked over to the butterfly place it was only about a block away. On the way over we saw a man selling fresh coconuts with just a straw in them for the milk. I had to try one. Well I am not a big fan but at least I know what fresh coconut milk tastes like.

Once we got to the butterfly’s I was amazed. They were everywhere, it was so peaceful, and I could have stayed in there all day. Now they say if a butterfly lands on you its good luck. Well my DH had 4 of them land on him and 1 stayed on his shoulder the whole time we were in there. I never could get one without bribing him. We put some food on my shoulder and finally 1 landed on my but it took some work. More on that luck sayings later.

After we left the butterfly’s we walked over to a very small beach area by the southernmost house just to take some photos. We were getting hungry so we stopped at the southernmost beach bar and grill and had some lunch. It was really good. With nice views of the beach. After lunch we headed back to the trolley stop and did a bit of shopping at the southernmost gift shop. We just picked up a couple $5.99 T-shirts and some magnets and small things nothing big like our jewelry purchases.

Then it was back to Mallory Square where we did a bit more shopping and got some hats and candy. It was getting time to take the shuttle back to the ship. So sad as we had a great day in Key West. It was a nice place. Once back on the ship we took some more photos and we people watched again, after that we went to get ready for the 2nd formal night on the ship. We went to the past guest part and hung out a bit before dinner then went to dinner. After dinner we changes clothes and it was time for the 2nd night for the comedy club. We watched 2 shows tonight and they were both very funny we enjoyed them a lot. We then went and got pizza and ice cream and headed to bed. We were tired we had a long day in Key West.

Next up last fun day at sea!

[spideyfam]

Sorry for the loss of your father in law.

 

Sounds like you had a good time. Thank you for the review!

[ssatterly]

Sorry for the loss of your father in law.

 

Sounds like you had a good time. Thank you for the review!

 

Thank you. It was a very nice way to get away from the stress of the loss. We had a great time.

 

More review to come after Church.

[jrmende63]

We are hoping to be on the Destiny 4-4-2011 sailing

I am on the 4/4/11 and the 3/3/11 sailing! We are doing a Back to back for our 30th wedding anniversary!

I know they only have inside cabins left but hey if it is free YAY!

[Bradpinksc]

Love reading all the reviews of the ship. We go in May and can't wait. We are going to Bermuda.

[LBumb]

thanks for posting

[Bradpinksc]

Keep the review coming..love to read it.

[type one mom]

Thanks for the wonderful reviews! We are getting excited about our FIRST cruise on the Fantasy. I never even thought about jewelry or raffles . . . wow! Any specific sight-seeing tips (did you walk around Atlantis) or shopping tips? We'll drive to Charleston . . . probably the morning of departure. What time would you advise boarding? I'm glad you mentioned the water was still cold . . . guess I was dreaming about "summer" weather a little early. We're a little nervous about leaving our children. Did you use the ship's internet (I understand .75 per minute) or is posting on this board free on the ship? I'll have to look through your photos when I get more time. I'm glad it sounds like the cruise successfully relieved your stress . . . one big reason we're finally taking a cruise! :)

[ssatterly]

Last fun day at sea.

Today my DH told me to pick out whatever I wanted to do and he would follow. We both realized a couple days before we left that today would be St. Patrick’s day so we bought a couple of cute green hats and flashy green buttons for the day. We got up at about 9am as we did have anything planned until 10:15am and that was win a cruise BINGO. So I got up and got ready 1st like I always do. Then while DH was in the shower I was trying to call in to the morning show to pick a number there were 6 prizes and the phone was busy the whole time. But when there was 1 number left the phone rang, and guess what I got in and got the last number. I won one of those watches that they always do the crazy watch sale on the last day for $19.99. We had decided that this cruise we had enough of those and didn’t want to fight that mad house. And wouldn’t you know it I still got one just without the madness. Not too bad if you ask me. So that was the 1st little bit of luck that we had for the day. We had noticed that Squishy (the Assist Cruise director) didn’t have any green on and was getting pinched, so we had a extra flashy button and we gave it to him and he wore it the rest of the cruise.

Next we went to breakfast in the dining room and has a nice breakfast to help get woke up. After breakfast we went down to the main show lounge and plays win a cruise bingo in all of our green St. Patty’s day stuff. Everyone was saying how festive we were and they wished they would have thought about it. We were sitting in front of the couple that had won the $1500 bingo the night before and said if they didn’t win they hoped that we would since we looked lucky!

Well normally we only buy one bingo card and share it but this time my DH had bought 2, one for each of us. The game had started my card was not doing very well. But my DH was hitting all kinds of numbers. We had to make the X on the card. After only about 8 calls or so DH was down to 1 number I noticed this and made him stand up. So he did, you could hear every one moan where it was announced that “we have a stander”.

At that point I was getting a little excited because DH was standing but then again we never win anything so I wasn’t jumping up and down yet. But then again we had been pretty lucky this cruise so far. He only needed a O16 for the win. After a couple more calls there were a couple other standers. I thought to myself just our luck. I still was not even close to standing I didn’t have any hope for my card. It’s still on the ship trying to win I think. Then it seemed like the next few letter were all in the O column but still not O16. But still no one was yelling BINGO we still had a chance. Then here it cam O16. I was jumping up and down before my DH said BINGO, yes you read that right he only said bingo he didn’t yell it. I was more excited than he was. They confirm his win and we had to go the guest services desk to claim our paper work for the free cruise. It was then when it dawned on him he had really won and he was shaking, he shook for about the next 2 hours. He was then know for the rest of the cruise as the BINGO man.

After that we had planned to go to the debarkation talk but we missed it due to the fact it was right after bingo and we had to get all the paper work done for that. It’s ok we missed it we watched in the cabin later that night before bed. There was some new stuff on there that we were not familiar with so we are glad we watched it.

So after all of that we took our voucher to the room and went for lunch we had Mongolian again today and the chocolate buffet for dessert. The Chocolate dipped fruit was to die for. YUMMO!

After lunch we thought maybe just maybe our luck could keep going so we played bingo again in the afternoon. I did get to stand a few times but I never won. Oh well I guess we can’t win them all.

So after Bingo we went to Tea Time, it was held in the piano bar. It was really nice with the hot tea and pastries being served. It was at 3:30pm. Right after that they had a galley tour they allowed cameras on the tour as well. It is not near as in depth of the tour they give for the behind the scenes tour but it does give you an idea of what goes on in the kitchen. I took photo’s in there it was neat.

When it was over it was time to get ready for dinner. Tonight was the 2nd big show and it was called Ticket to Ride and it was a tribute to the Beatles. It was very well done and was better that the 1st one earlier in the week. If you at least make it to one please this would be the one to see. Don’t get me wrong they are both good but this one is better.

There was also a raffle in the gift shop that we went to as well. You got a blue ticket for every $50 you spent in the gift shop. Well we had about 45 tickets so we thought we had a good chance. Well dang it all our luck had run out we didn’t win but that’s ok I was still a happy girl. I got some very nice jewelry and watches and won a free cruise so I was still the luckiest girl on the ship.

After dinner we were tried so we went back to the room to finish packing and put out our luggage. We were then getting hungry again so we ordered room service and it hit the spot, while we were eating we watched the talk about getting off the ship and they went over the things that would be different. At least on the Fantasy they are no longer calling tag numbers out loud all morning, there is a paper that you get in your room with your tag number and a time and meeting place. You just show up when and where it says with no loud number calling and then your group is lead off. It was very nice and made leaving a little nicer. More relaxed. Also now if you bought liquor on or off the ship it is no longer delivered to your cabin the night before, you have to go to the disco between 5:30 and 9am to pick it up. It seems to have went smooth and worked fine.

Debarkation:

We went to bed, and woke up to have our last breakfast in the main dining room and my DH was still being called bingo man, it was still fun hearing it. After that we went and chilled until out time to meet which was 9:30. We met in the lounge and were lead off at about 9:45. We were waiting for our shuttle by 10:15. Even going thru customs my DH was famous. It was so cool.

I have enjoyed everyone of my cruises on Carnival, but I have to say that this one was the best ever! Carnival we will be back and soon cause it will be on Carnivals dime and not ours! We are looking to use our free on the 1st week of April!