Carnival Fascination 4/23-28: A Long Review With Lots Of Photos

[rnvattes]

This is my first lengthy, detailed review. I know what I like when I read reviews and I have tried to include that here. This review will be posted in pieces, and it may take me several days to get it all posted. In light of all of these things, I ask you to be kind and bear with me ;)

 

With that said, away we go!...

 

 

 

 

Background: My husband Shane (41) and I (37) had big plans to get away alone together to celebrate 10 years of our wonderful marriage. Our initial plans were for a 7 day cruise in February to the eastern Caribbean, but several life circumstances collided in the perfect storm that required we cancel the trip. We decided to reschedule for April; due to childcare needs we were limited to traveling on school vacation week, which worried me a bit, but that worry was needless. We narrowed down our choices and I created the craziest spreadsheet you can imagine, comparing all of our options, and taking into consideration airfare to departure ports, ports of call, ship, and cost - right down to the per night cost so we could get the most bang for our buck. Ultimately we narrowed it down to sailings that wouldn’t require any more financial input than we had sitting as credit with Carnival and in the end we decided on a 5 day sailing from Jacksonville, FL to Key West and Nassau on Carnival Fascination.

 

[rnvattes]

Departing Home and pre-Cruise Hotel Stay: Flying out of Manchester, NH has gotten to be so much more expensive than it used to be that it was worth our while to travel to Boston for our flights. We utilized Flight Line group shuttle from MHT to BOS. They arrived right on time and we arrived at BOS in plenty of time to have some dinner and get to the Gate. Our flight on Delta was delayed due to heavy rain, and we were concerned about making our connection in Atlanta but we were assured that we would. Our gate location was perfectly situated right outside of a sports bar, so we could view the Bruins playoff game 6 – which they won in OT -- before we left.

We landed in Atlanta and were pleased to see that our connecting gate was just diagonally across from our arrival gate since we had just 15 minutes until departure. The line for boarding was already well formed, so we jumped on in. No time for a pee or snack break, but at least we made it without getting stranded in ATL for the night.

Both flights were smooth and quiet. We arrived in JAX just ahead of schedule, collected our one piece of luggage (yes, we both fit into ONE suitcase – I was bound and determined!!), and called Jacksonville Hotel and Suites for our transfer from the airport to the hotel, included with the room rate of $92. The shuttle arrived within 10 minutes time with a smiling, courteous, friendly driver. We had two quick stops to make -- Microtel (which looked cute from the outside -- definitely micro sized! LOL) and one of the parking centers.

 

We arrived at the hotel just a few minutes later, and checked in effortlessly. We had a room on the third floor of the hotel, with a view of the parking lot.

 

 

[rnvattes]

I was initially quite surprised by the size of the room. I will make no bones about it, it was quite tiny (we were in a Queen non-smoking room). But there was ample closet space, a vanity/desk, and bedside tables as well. It was very clean and smelled fresh.

 

The bathroom was large for the size of the room itself. It had definitely been updated sometime fairly recently (I had read that there was somewhat of an "ick" factor in the bathroom only because it showed it's age). It was a soapstone (or similar) one piece vanity and basin, large shower (with typical hotel lousy water pressure) and tub. There were plenty of towels, as well as some sample-sized toiletries in case you didn't have your own.

 

The bed was comfortable, linens crisp and fresh.

 

The tv was small, and sat upon the armoire, but had a seemingly endless number of cable tv channels.

 

We slept well and woke early to get to the continental breakfast before our departure. Breakfast was the typical continental offerings -- pastry, muffins, toasts, bagels, cereals/oatmeal, milk, juice, coffee, cocoa, tea, and fruit. Everything we had was fresh, the kitchen area was clean though very small (only two tables for two there -- better to take your breakfast back to your room), and the coffee wasn't *that* bad (said the coffee snob).

 

After we ate, we took a walk to 747 Liquors, about a half mile up the road. We heard it was open at 9a and planned to get our carry-on wine there. But it is NOT a liquor store (it's a lounge) and it is NOT open at 9a.m. And it is seedy. VERY seedy. Oh well, no carry-on wine for us! After discovering we had been misinformed, we made our way back to the hotel, stopping at a Dunkin Donuts, located diagonally across the road from the hotel, for some better coffee. There are various restaurants within walking distance from this hotel, including Ruby Tuesday, a steak house, and a chicken place. The sidewalks were safe and the area was clean.

 

We headed back to our room and readied ourselves for our departure. Checkout was effortless.

[rnvattes]

Monday 4/23: Embarkation:

 

We utilized the hotel’s shuttle service to the cruise terminal, included with the room rate (incidentally, you also get a voucher for a shuttle ride back to the hotel, and then to the airport from the hotel if you need it after you disembark from the cruise; we had other plans and did not use this service but I was impressed that it was all included with the room rate). The line was impressive and I assumed we'd be in for a bit of a wait. But those drivers know how to pack that luggage in to the gills, and we managed to leave on the second van out (with only a very short 5 minute wait after the first van left). Our driver was again friendly and courteous, and got us to the terminal in about 20 minutes’ time.

 

 

 

What appeared to be a short line had already formed outside of the cruise terminal. It was 11:45 a.m. and we expected to be on board shortly. But this cruise terminal is like a Disney World ride: you approach the line and think, “This isn’t too bad! Shouldn’t be a very long wait!” and then you get inside. Our boarding passes and ID were given an initial check, and we slowly made our way beyond the little partition to find that there was a ginormous line snaking back and forth something like 12 times. There were only three security scanners – one reserved for Platinum cruisers (this is the first port I have experienced where I would say priority boarding would be a worthwhile benefit), and it took us a solid hour to make it through security. I have never taken so long to board before; this was one of the incredibly few “less than stellar” things on this trip.

 

 

Once through security, it was a quick stop at the desk to pick up our Sail and Sign cards and we were cleared for embarkation. We heard that first beautiful “ding” signaling our boarding the ship at 12:50. Vacation had truly officially begun!

Everyone was being ushered to Lido for lunch. But it being as late as it was, and given that we had access, we decided to see if our cabin was ready.

 

 

 

[rnvattes]

We passed a few room stewards and none of them asked us to let them finish getting ready, so when we arrived at our cabin – M267 – and found the room stocked, door open -- we assumed we could settle in. We took a few quick photos, checked out the reading materials – FUN TIMES – and similar in the room, checked out our FANTASTIC aft view, and were surprised by our cabin steward (who was surprised by our presence as well!). He said they weren’t quite ready for us, so we apologized.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rnvattes]

And for all of you out there curious about the "goodies in the bathroom"... it was very very very skimpy:

 

 

We dropped of our carry-on bags while we were there. We put the very few valuables we had with us in the safe along with our travel documents, and we used an old Barnes and Noble card to lock and unlock it; we kept that stowed in some clothing in one of the drawers so that we both always had access to the safe. We had a plan to meet back in the room in event of an emergency, wait 10 minutes, and then take the stuff from the safe and go to muster; if the other of us arrived there and found the safe empty we knew to head directly to muster. Fortunately we never had to utilize this plan, but we liked knowing we had made one.

 

We headed on up to Lido to get some lunch. It was great not having our carry-on bags to lug around with us while we ate! We expected the line at lunch to be horrific since it seemed we boarded at prime time. But we didn’t wait at all. Lido lunch was Italian food, and while I don’t remember exactly what we ate I know it was yummy, since everything was all week. We found a table easily, enjoyed our lunch, and then headed out to explore the ship a bit before our meet-up with our Cruise Critic friends.

It was quite breezy and a little on the cool side in JAX, so we didn’t spend a lot of time out on the decks until we found a nice spot on Veranda deck overlooking Lido, forward. We were in the sun and shielded from the wind so it was quite comfy. We sat and enjoyed the music and did some people-watching for a bit. Before long it was 2:00, the pre-arranged time for our meet-and-greet with our Roll Call buddies.

[rnvattes]

We headed one deck down to Lido and to the port side bar. We were looking for some people named Cindy and Marty, wearing beads and in possession of a stuffed Tiger. We found them easily, introduced ourselves, learned all about Tiger, and chatted a while. It was then that we shared our first DOD – the famous Funship!

 

 

 

“Officially The Best Day Ever.” Who were we to argue? We were soon joined by Robert and Mandy, and then Michelle and her Mom. We all enjoyed some easy conversation, everyone obviously excited that our ship had finally come in! Edwin stopped by briefly, but was gone as quickly as he arrived; when we met up with him again in Jacksonville for a post-cruise bike tour he explained that he was preoccupied by the fact that he hadn’t found his cabin-mate yet (he was sailing solo and had found a roommate online). We all visited for about an hour before Shane and I decided to make a quick stop in our cabin before the muster drill.

 

The muster drill was pretty quick and painless as such things go, and everyone seemed well behaved, at least at our muster station. We gathered first in the Puttin’ On The Ritz Lounge (comedy club) for some instructions. Then we headed out to Lido to our life boat station. We were packed in pretty good, but not uncomfortably so, and we were done within about 20 minutes I think. If it took longer, it sure didn’t feel like it. It was well done.

 

Time for sail-away!! We headed back out to Veranda deck and found some open loungers near to where we had been hanging out before our meetup. When I realized we were moving (the horn didn’t sound until much later) I decided I wanted to head forward so I could get some great pics of us passing under the bridge. It was packed up there, but I found space enough for myself. Initially the wind was wild, but once the ship turned (it was facing the wrong way when we boarded) it was absolutely beautiful and perfect. Everyone was so excited – it was a fantastic atmosphere. They (unexpectedly) blew the horn, at last, scaring the crap out of all of us up front and this poor little boy who screamed in horror for a good while. Poor buddy! The rest of us got a kick out of it once we recovered. Shane had stayed back in his lounger since he is not a fan of being up by the railings, and I wished he was there with me, but it was fun nevertheless.

 

JAX is not the most scenic of departure ports, by a long shot. It’s in a shipping terminal, and the river water is not blue, but brown. There are no palm trees like in MIA or FLL, or even pretty buildings to see, like you would get in a non-blue-water port like NYC. But that bridge is pretty magnificent. It really looks like it’s a very tight squeeze; I imagine there is far more clearance than it appears. But when we made it safely under, everyone cheered! I snapped a few more pics and headed back to Veranda deck to my love.

 

 

 

[rnvattes]

 

 

 

 

 

[rnvattes]

We spent some time back in our room, Shane enjoying a nap and me enjoying the window seat in our aft-facing ocean view room. I got some great pics and knew we had scored big with this room; if we couldn’t have our originally planned aft-wrap balcony, this aft facing ocean view would do just fine!

 

Now, on the ORIGINAL cancelled trip, we had an aft-wrap balcony. But on this reSCHEDULED trip we had a porthole booked. I was the one who called when I saw a price drop, got upGRADED to a Grand Suite (yes, at no cost) only to have them call back the next day and take it away from us. Long story short, after that they did upgrade us to an OV room midship, but as it was located RIGHT near the stairwell and elevator, we requested that be changed. We went down a deck and all the way aft. I was quite pleased with where we ultimately ended up. Sure the balcony would have been nice, but the view was what I REALLY wanted.

 

 

 

 

[rnvattes]

After some rest and freshening up we headed to the Casino. They were having a “Learn A New Game” hour, and we thought we’d check it out. We sat with the casino boss and he showed us how to play Blackjack. It was fun, but I’m still not comfortable stepping up to a table to play and throw money away. We talked about going a few times – or I should say Shane did – but we never got up the guts to actually go and play.

 

After we left the Casino we went up to the Spa. I wanted to get an up-do for Cruise Elegant night and I needed to make my appointment. That was done easily enough, and without too much “upsell” pressure – though they did remark to Shane that they have all manner of men’s services too. He was not interested and so after making my appointment, we moved along.

 

We were getting hungry, so we headed to the Sensation Dining Room for dinner. We had opted for Your Time Dining (YTD) so we could go whenever we wanted. We were seated at a table for two with Rodolpho and his team. They were all business and we did not feel pampered and attended to the way we hoped to. We even felt a little bit hurried by them; we had barely seated and he wanted to know all of our selections from starters to dessert. Still, our meal was great as was our wine (Santa Julia); we ordered this one bottle that wound up lasting most of the week since aside from that first glass I was the only one drinking it (they cork it and store it for you and will bring it out at each meal if you so desire).

 

 

After dinner we headed to the photo gallery to scope out our picture from embarkation, and then just wandered around the ship a bit. We took in the Game Show Mania show in the Palace Theater which was a LOT of fun! It was set up like a game show where there were three contestants answering trivia questions for points. The winner of each round won a bottle of K-Mart champagne and a 24Karat Plastic Ship On A Stick. One of our Cruise Critic Roll Call buddies – Robert – played in one of the rounds (though I can’t remember how he did in the end…).

 

After that we headed back to our cabin. We were not interested in the Welcome Aboard show and, quite frankly, were pretty tired. We turned in pretty early. We were excited to find our first towel animal, a sting ray, and our Fun Times for Tuesday, along with our turned down bed and some chocolates. Wouldn’t it be great to have such service at home?? We moved the stingray to the window seat for the night, and apparently he was blinded in the process; later Shane found a little “thingie” and flicked it away, and I soon determined it was our sting ray’s eye! Poor sting ray.

 

[Fireflymkz76]

I look forward to seeing more pics! We are cruising on the fascination on the 18 of june!

[jbanana1]

I don't know if the Jacksonville Plaza hotel offered a free shuttle to area restaurants and stores but the Springhill Suites which is in that same area did. There is a Walmart close by where we got our bottled water. They also had wine at fairly good prices but I had brought my champagne with me on the plane since I wasn't sure if their Walmart would have the kind I like for the price I buy it when on sale.

 

I remember when my hubby and I were just learning blackjack. The table games are intimidating until you learn how and play a few times. A good website to practice blackjack is www.blackjackinfo.com. You click on strategy trainer and choose your options (#decks etc.) You will usually have 6 decks at the casinos. Be sure to print out the basic strategy card for reference. The website trainer will let you know when you make a mistake. If you go to a land casino see if they sell bj strategy cards in the gift shop and buy some if they do. You can keep it on the table when playing. I still keep my strategy card on the table for reference even though I know basic strategy really well now there are still a couple of hands that I want to make sure I'm making the right play. Sorry to make this post into a gambling post but one additional tip on learning basic strategy. The key to understanding why you hit or stand is remembering you are trying to beat the dealer and the dealer always hits on 16 or less and stands on 17-21. You play your hand according to the dealer's up card so if it's a 6 or less that's when you will stand (or double down) on your low total hands (9-16). If the dealer's up card is a high card, 7-10, face card or Ace, you will hit your low totals (9-16). Since the dealer stands on 17-21, you will stand as soon as your hand reaches 17-21 and of course always hit if your total is 8 or less (unless you are splitting pairs which I won't go into here).

[cruiseclues]

Great start on your review...anxiously waiting for more...but a long review with photos is a lot of work...so we hope you don't feel rushed. :)

[rnvattes]

I don't know if the Jacksonville Plaza hotel offered a free shuttle to area restaurants and stores but the Springhill Suites which is in that same area did. There is a Walmart close by where we got our bottled water. They also had wine at fairly good prices but I had brought my champagne with me on the plane since I wasn't sure if their Walmart would have the kind I like for the price I buy it when on sale.

 

I remember when my hubby and I were just learning blackjack. The table games are intimidating until you learn how and play a few times. A good website to practice blackjack is www.blackjackinfo.com. You click on strategy trainer and choose your options (#decks etc.) You will usually have 6 decks at the casinos. Be sure to print out the basic strategy card for reference. The website trainer will let you know when you make a mistake. If you go to a land casino see if they sell bj strategy cards in the gift shop and buy some if they do. You can keep it on the table when playing. I still keep my strategy card on the table for reference even though I know basic strategy really well now there are still a couple of hands that I want to make sure I'm making the right play. Sorry to make this post into a gambling post but one additional tip on learning basic strategy. The key to understanding why you hit or stand is remembering you are trying to beat the dealer and the dealer always hits on 16 or less and stands on 17-21. You play your hand according to the dealer's up card so if it's a 6 or less that's when you will stand (or double down) on your low total hands (9-16). If the dealer's up card is a high card, 7-10, face card or Ace, you will hit your low totals (9-16). Since the dealer stands on 17-21, you will stand as soon as your hand reaches 17-21 and of course always hit if your total is 8 or less (unless you are splitting pairs which I won't go into here).

 

Thanks for that tip! I will check out the site. We are pretty confident on when to hit and stand -- it's the splitting, insurance, and all that other stuff that confuses us (well at least me). And whenever the dealer at the learn to play said, "It will go a lot faster at the real tables" I was all :eek: and I think whatever confidence I had for the moment was gone! I will check that out though. We love texas hold 'em and blackjack and I'd love it if we could play at a casino -- we just have to get some courage ;)

[rnvattes]

Tuesday April 24: Sea Day

 

Since it was a sea day, and since we were still a bit tired from making our trip to JAX, we were in no particular hurry and had no particular plans for the day. I hoped to sleep in, but I am incapable of that, really. Upon waking I opened the curtains to peek at what the day brought and was greeted with a most beautiful sight. The sun was just coming up and the sky had that beautiful pre-dawn pinkish hue. There was some kind of freighter off on the horizon. Not a cloud in the sky. And the sea looked like glass, and was getting so blue! I could definitely get used to waking to that sight every day! I sat in the window seat a while, with the curtains closed so that Shane could keep sleeping, listening to some Sunrise Cruise Tunes on my iPod.

 

 

I noticed that the water was getting more blue the further south we went.

 

 

After a bit I crawled back in bed and waited for room service to arrive. I had filled out the door hanger the night before and asked for coffee, yogurt, fruit and juice to be delivered between 7:30 and 8:00, but it did not arrive until a bit after 8. Not a big deal, really. I remembered reading some similar feedback on breakfast room service on Cruise Critic before, so I just made a mental note to request it earlier than I thought we'd really want it, so we'd be sure to have it when we actually wanted it.

 

I was pleased with the coffee, and surprised by that! I remember that on sailings past the coffee was just horrendous; on one trip I drank only from the specialty coffee shop after one cup of the free stuff, and on another I brought my own Starbucks instant singles. But this was good coffee – not too weak, not too strong. I had asked for creamer to come, which it did, but there were no sweeteners provided. I checked the room service door hanger menu and there was not a space for it; I made a mental note to write it in going forward, and never had an issue thereafter. Despite not having sweetener, I enjoyed my morning java.

 

We took in the news and the Today Show while we lounged in bed enjoying our coffee and juice. The live channel was an affiliate of NBC – Channel 7 out of Florida – and carried the exact same format as our Channel 7 at home. We noticed it had snowed the day before in upstate NY and New England! Heehee – got out of town just in time!

 

After a while we got ourselves together, reviewed the Fun Times, and headed up to Coconut Grove on Lido for our “real” breakfast. Shane had pancakes and raved about them. I had bacon, eggs, and toast. It was all very good. It was busy in the Grove but no lines, no waiting, and a table was easily had.

 

[rnvattes]

After enjoying our breakfast we headed out to find some loungers on Lido. The chair hogs were most definitely out, but many chairs were occupied with actual people. We were lucky to score some loungers right by the stage, under a (fake) coconut tree.

 

 

 

We lathered up and sat back to relax. It was bright, sunny, and warm, but not too hot (which was good). A while after we sat began some TV Theme Trivia. We had fun with that and got a bunch of them right. The winning “team” had something like 25 correct and won a 24 Karat Gold Plastic Ship on a Stick, all for watching entirely too much tv!

 

We enjoy having lunch in the dining room on sea days, so after a while we went back to our cabin to change from our beach attire into some “cruise casual” clothes. It’s so nice and quiet in the dining room at lunch, and you don’t have to fight the crowds. It’s great to get in from the sun for a bit and enjoy being waited on instead of waiting in lines at the buffet.

 

After lunch we changed back into our beach attire and went back out to Lido. Actually, we were fortunate to score some loungers on Veranda deck overlooking Lido, just a smidge away from the stage. This was our new favorite place and we were lucky enough to get chairs here the rest of the trip. We tried to enjoy some time in the hot tub, but it was overrun with little people (and a few big people). Activities were going on on the Lido stage – Master Mixologist was just wrapping up -- so we went back to our loungers to take them in. I enjoyed a margarita (though I was disappointed that the salt rim was just regular old table salt, not margarita salt) and we watched the hairy chest contest. Always funny, and rarely about whose chest is most hairy.

 

Before long we were ready to get out of the sun and have a nap so we could plug along a little later that night than we did the night before (spoiler alert: we just can’t stay out late anymore!). On our walk back to our stateroom we noticed MANY room service trays in the hallway. We were shocked to find that ours – which we put out just before 10 a.m. – was still outside our door too! This was the one thing that really bothered me all week; it just made the hallways look (and in some cases smell) dirty. There seemed no need for it – send someone through with a cart once an hour or so. Clearly it was not within the room stewards’ scope (no disrespect intended toward them) as our room was cleaned between breakfast and lunch and yet the trays lingered on.

 

After a nap we made our plan for the late afternoon and evening. I had a 5:30 hair appointment for my up-do. We went to the gym – well Shane went to the gym, I went to the track – for a workout. Rather than go allllllllllllllllllll the way forward to workout then alllllllllllllllllllllll the way back to shower before I went alllllllllllllllllll the way forward again for my hair appointment, I took the advice of some fellow Cruise Critic members and brought my stuff and a change of casual clothes for a shower after our workout in the spa. Totally worthwhile. I enjoyed a nice 3 mile run on the track – 33 laps, broken up by one mile clockwise, then counter clockwise, and finishing up clockwise – and Shane enjoyed his run on the treadmill (he preferred to be in, rather than up high and out near the rails; I know it's not really that near the rails, but I guess when you have a fear of heights, it's too close for comfort). We reconnected briefly before he headed back to our cabin to shower and get ready, and I headed to the spa to shower before my hair appointment. The showers in the spa are ENORMOUS and the water pressure is fabulous. The locker room area was pristinely maintained and there was an attendant there almost the whole time I was there.

 

I dressed and checked in for my appointment. I was taken to the relaxation room to wait. It was a quiet room and there was citrus infused water for guests to drink. But that was all. No soothing music, no pleasant images on the large screen tv, and only a few very dated magazines to peruse. It didn't feel very spa-experience-like, the way I've been used to at home. My stylist was about 15 minutes late taking me back, by which time I was not relaxed but bored, and on the verge of asking when I was going to be attended to. He was very nice and did a great job on my hair once he collected me, though. He even added in an extension to add some volume; I was worried that was going to impact the cost, but it still only ran me $50 (I have shoulder length hair). He did try to sell me some vitamins for my hair (what is a visit to Spa Carnival without some kind of upsell attempt?) but when I told him I can’t even remember to take my daily vitamin he didn’t press further.

 

I headed back to the cabin to find my extremely handsome husband dressed and waiting for me. He complimented my hairdo and took some photos for me (since I couldn’t really see it from the front).

 

 

I finished doing my makeup and dressed, and we headed out for our Cruise Elegant night.

[reerun25]

Loving the review!! I will be sailing on her in 17 days, and can't wait!!

[rnvattes]

Apparently we were between photo times as there was nobody to take our picture when we first got up to Promenade. We were going to eat first and then return for photos when we spotted a lone photographer down by the Atrium Bar doing photos on the stairs. We posed, together and separately. He gave us a card so we could more easily locate our photos when they were placed in the gallery, but for the love of Pete we never remembered to bring those cards with us and looked through thousands of photos to find ourselves. It would be so nice if Carnival would “go green” already and make all the photos digital; it is awful to see all the wasted photo paper and ink getting left behind and/or tossed into the “reject boxes”. In any case, when we did find these photos the next day, we were quite pleased with them, and ended up buying one to bring home with us.

 

It was time for dinner, now, so off to the Sensation Dining Room we went. Having been less than impressed with Rodolpho’s demeanor the night before, we did not request to be seated with him. We took our chances and were seated with Gilbert and his team. Their section was toward the back of the dining room, right by the windows, a beautiful location to enjoy our dinner and watch the sun set at sea.

 

 

Gilbert and his team were amazing, and we wound up requesting to sit in their section for the remainder of our dinners during the cruise.

I don’t remember very many things I ate on this cruise, but I do remember Cruise Elegant night. I had the most tender lobster tail I have ever had in my entire life. It was so amazing and quite delicious. It was served with shrimp as well. What more could I ask for? Shane had the prime rib which was very tasty too, with mashed potatoes that met with his approval; he is a mashed potato connoisseur so this is saying something ;)

 

I was pleased to see the photographers coming around to the YTD sections at dinner, as they do in the Traditional Dining sections. The photographer got a great shot of each of us, which we ended up buying. Both of us just look so incredibly relaxed and happy in the pictures from that night. And we were!

 

 

[AmberTeka]

BLESS YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO WRITE THIS REVIEW!!!

 

We leave in little less than two weeks..On May 21st, and I am glued to these boards trying to find out..what to pack...good things to do and see....

 

Thank You!

[rnvattes]

After dinner we headed to the show in the Palace Theater. It was called "Hey Mambo" and featured some amazing singing and dancing. The costumes were magnificent, as well, but I noticed that for the women they were quite risqué; thongs all around! Not what I would have been happy to bring my children to had they been with us. But as adults, we enjoyed the show.

 

Note: no pictures of the show itself are allowed, but we snapped a couple of the theater and of some cute couple in the audience ;)

 

 

 

We considered watching the Magic Show, but do you know it was at 10:30 and we just couldn’t make it??? Old fogeys… we headed back to our cabin instead. We found our room prepped for our sleep – bed turned down, towel animal (I think it was a puppy?), chocolates, and of course the Fun Times for Key West day.

 

 

 

The only thing missing was some extra ice. I had left our steward a note the first day to ask for extra ice to be provided at turn-down; I drink a LOT of water, but it has to be ice cold. I went through the ice in the small ice bucket very easily and hoped to have extra ice so that wouldn’t happen during the night or early in the morning. Never did get any though. I just made it a point each night to stop in the buffet (as our cabin was all the way aft, it wasn't much out of our way on the way to the aft elevators or stairs) to grab two glasses of ice to start me off with; then I had enough to get through the night and the morning. We set a wake-up call for 7:00; the ship was only going to in port 7a-3p and we wanted to maximize our time and figured we would get a nap when we re-boarded. We settled in and let the ship rock us to sleep…

[WAHMto5]

Thank you so much for the review! We are going on the same cruise next month and even have room #M262!

[flatpik6]

Really enjoyable review and great presentation......even the random shot of the pedicure. lol...

 

We will be on the Fascination on July 7 and look forward to more of your review.

[Captain Carnival]

Great review and pics!!

Ironically, you mention that when you passed the microtel you could tell in was micro, however the Jacksonville Suites was a microtel before the new one was built and the old one became the JaxSuites.

[rnvattes]

Thank you so much for the review! We are going on the same cruise next month and even have room #M262!

 

You are going to LOVE it! Would not hesitate to book an aft OV again :) As I said, the balcony would be nice, but the view is what I want. And the window seat is just right.

 

In case you, or anyone, was wondering, it was not much of an inconvenience to be all the way aft. Actually, we were not far from stairs/elevators that took us right outside the Coconut Grove on Lido. It was only a long walk to get to the spa and the gangway. Otherwise, no big deal at all.

[rnvattes]

Great review and pics!!

Ironically, you mention that when you passed the microtel you could tell in was micro, however the Jacksonville Suites was a microtel before the new one was built and the old one became the JaxSuites.

 

Interesting! I had no idea! I guess I know what the Micro is like then ;) When we d/o that pax at Micro, we drove all the way around it, whereas when we arrived at Jax Suites we went only to the front door. Thus I didn't get an opportunity to appreciate the full smallness of it LOL