FANTASY MAY 8, 5 DAY REVIEW w/ PICS

[Medtech2]

We watched the ice carving demo on the Lido and the hairy chest contest. It was amusing that the winning contestant had apparently won a hairy chest contest in the 70’s. Of course, that gives you a partial age range in this contest, not to mention they were not very hairy but it was funny to watch.

 

At 1:30pm we went back to the room and still had no towels. I went to Guest Services to complain and she just told me I should call Mario. I went back to the room and dialed and reached, not Mario who was again on break but the lady at Guest Services! Someone finally brought us towels at 2:30. Not only was this not good service but later that afternoon I heard a heated shouted argument between Mario and a man staying down the hall about problems with his lack of towels. The man stated he needed 5 towels as there were 5 in his family and Mario actually yelled that he should go to the Lido deck. The man then yelled back that Guest Services told him the steward would provide the towels. It should not matter how many towels you want or need. It is stated that you can use as many as you want as long as they get them all back. I found the attitude and shouting totally unacceptable.

 

 

We found it very amusing to see these little guys living on the ship. Occasionally one would fly out to sea from the Serenity Deck, go a few yards, and then come rushing "home". (i'm freee, oops!)

This one landed right near my foot while I was watching the ice carving:

 

 

That night was Formal Night and of course they served ribs and corn on the cob as an entree choice. I went for the lobster and shrimp and it was very good, much better than NCL’s. I had mentioned to my daughter how much I liked it previously when the waiter had pulled the meat out of the shell for me. I guess Tucker heard me or just did it on his own but my lobster came nicely presented out of the shell. Most plates I saw had the meat still in the split shell. Very good service!

 

We went to the family comedy show which was ruined by a family of hecklers down front who thought themselves clever for disrupting the performance. Hey guys, you weren’t funny, you were annoying. The odd thing is you have to leave the venue and then re-enter to see the next show. We were perfectly happy where we were sitting. The other suggestion I have is they move the comedy to the main stage. There were not enough seats. People were sitting on the floor and standing along the sides. They were giving the ladies a glass of free champagne at Electricity but again it was so smoky we left.

 

 

at the circular piano:

 

[Medtech2]

Chilled Strawberry Soup:

 

 

Ribs and Corn on the Cob in Formal Dress, lol

 

 

Maine Lobster Tail expertly served:

 

 

Caramel Apple Pastry:

 

 

Our towel animal--cute!

 

[Medtech2]

May 10 was Nassau

 

We had breakfast in the MDR. I asked for my Eggs Benedict well done and they accomplished that by broiling it--needless to say it was much better at the buffet. Service was very spotty. Oh well...

 

As we were docking we saw lots of trash and to-go containers in the water. It was sad to see. Here is a shot of us approaching Big Sister Breeze:

 

 

A panorama from the Breeze to the tip of Nassau:

 

 

Next to the Breeze:

 

 

[Medtech2]

In spite of my daughter's sprained ankle we decided to walk to Junkanoo Beach. It is an easy 10 minute walk heading to the right coming out of the terminal and continuing past the Hilton. You can see it from the ship. The 1st section is shadier but also a bit trashier looking. The sunny areas were cleaner and there was a bathhouse in the middle that was very clean. There was a DJ who set up to play and food and drink available for purchase as well as chair and umbrella rentals. We had brought our own beach mat. I bought it at Wal-Mart years ago and wish I had gotten more. It was $5, big enough for 2 to lie down, weighted, and best of all, no sand sticks to it. I have not seen these since...

 

I have a prescription dive mask and went out to look at fish but had no fins or snorkel. Just a word of advice--if you want to snorkel start at the end nearest the Hilton. The current was pretty strong and it quickly carried me up the beach. Without fins I had quite a workout to swim to shore before I went too far, plus I was having to mouth breathe(!) and that slowed my swimming. There were many schools of colorful minnows and only a few big fish but it was still nice.

 

 

 

You can see that mat here:

 

 

The Sensation coming to join us:

 

 

A local woman came with her daughter and sat by us. Her daughter was just precious!:

 

[Medtech2]

The Straw Market has been rebuilt and it is a conglomeration of 200 families all selling the same thing. "Hey beautiful lady, come look at my things." Well, I don't mind the beautiful lady part but it gets old saying "no thank you" 200 times. I wish they would branch out with their variety.

 

Hibiscus sculpture in front of a bank:

 

 

panorama on the way to the Straw Market:

 

 

The "new and improved" Straw Market:

 

 

The is a Senor Frog's at every port it seems:

 

 

Our favorite sign!

 

[Medtech2]

We went back to the ship and had lunch in the buffet. It was Caribbean day and the jerk chicken and Caribbean beef stew were excellent. The banana pie was refreshing. I had wanted to try the slides and since we had on our suits we went up. We were the only ones up there. While my daughter found the big tube slide slow I thought I was going to toss my lunch it was so fast and twisty. Note to self--never eat 1st again! We went up to the Serenity Deck for sail away

 

The view of Junkanoo Beach from the ship:

 

 

The Breeze had already departed. Goodbye Sensation! Goodbye Dream!

 

 

A Party Boat and Atlantis in the distance:

 

 

I have never been to Atlantis. Besides the price they built it atop the place my DH and I honeymooned: Loew's Harbor Cove, Paradise Island, Nassau. We were so poor back then we went to a local store and bought bread and peanut butter to eat. We walked everywhere, including Ardastra Gardens, because we could not afford a taxi. But we were honeymooning in the Bahamas! Great memories! Good times!

[djcass4199]

Thank you for doing this review! Can you please post pictures of Promenade? :-)

 

Also, since Fantasy is the oldest ship in the Carnival fleet, did she look like she was showing her age??

[Medtech2]

At dinner that night we saw the dancing waiters for the 1st time. I could live without that. We were always seated to one side and they "performed" in the middle so we never saw anything but we did wave our napkins. Perhaps if they conga lined around the dining room but our waiter never stopped serving to go up there. I was grateful for his service and attention to delivering hot food! The French onion soup was wonderful! YUM!

 

My daughter had the jerk pork and I asked for the short ribs and a side of polenta to try. They brought me the full polenta/chicken meal which was just as well as my daughter's pork was dry so she ate the chicken. Polenta is not for me--I am a shrimp and grits girl! Rum raisin ice cream was in another dessert but I requested it with my chocolate melting cake.

 

Shrimp Cocktail:

 

 

Jerk Pork:

 

Short Ribs: (the eggplant side was fab!)

 

 

Polenta with Chicken:

 

 

The show that night was "The Brits" show. Again not very big on production value but the singers handled the material better than they had "Motor City". There was a mini British trivia bit beforehand and I won a medal for knowing what you do with Spotted Dick. Since my DD would not do trivia with me and get me a ship on a stick I was happy to get this!

 

 

 

 

We got back to the room to find our steward had removed our pool towels!

 

But Mario did leave this guy:

 

Edited May 21, 2013 by Medtech2

[NCTribeFan]

I think I had the worst towel animals I've ever had on my cruise. I don't get too excited about them any more, but your's were definitely better!

 

I see I'm not the only one who enjoys the chilled soups. Will definitely use my next "free drink" coupon for lunch in the MDR on the day the avocado soup is on the menu. Loved it.

 

Sadly, I gave up on the Eggs B a few cruises ago. :(

 

There is a towel desk on Serenity. He isn't open real early (like I tend to get there before 8:30), but you can check out big, fluffy yellow towels from him. And the main pool area also has a towel counter that has the regular blue towels.

 

In fact, in your pic, you can see Joni was in the background. His desk is between the starboard hot tub and the back entry into the Forum Lounge. He's Mr. Serenity Deck, but it would be nice if he'd enforce the No Reserved Seating. The sign is right in the middle of the rail, which is where EVERYONE seems to want to be (because of the umbrellas, maybe) and are the first loungers to be saved with a towel, book, anything while people go eat for an hour. :mad:

 

Nice pics. I also have a panorama of the ship's butts in Nassau.

[Medtech2]

Thank you for doing this review! Can you please post pictures of Promenade? :-)

 

Also, since Fantasy is the oldest ship in the Carnival fleet, did she look like she was showing her age??

She had some rust here and there but what ship doesn't? I thought everything looked fine. She is not fancy and does not have Bells and Whistles but was clean and comfy. The bed was wonderful! The bathroom as you saw was small with no storage but certainly usable.

 

I will look to see if I have pics of the Promenade. i tended to take pics of the venues themselves. Was there somethingyou were interested in?

[Medtech2]

I think I had the worst towel animals I've ever had on my cruise. I don't get too excited about them any more, but your's were definitely better!

 

I see I'm not the only one who enjoys the chilled soups. Will definitely use my next "free drink" coupon for lunch in the MDR on the day the avocado soup is on the menu. Loved it.

 

Sadly, I gave up on the Eggs B a few cruises ago. :(

 

There is a towel desk on Serenity. He isn't open real early (like I tend to get there before 8:30), but you can check out big, fluffy yellow towels from him. And the main pool area also has a towel counter that has the regular blue towels.

 

In fact, in your pic, you can see Joni was in the background. His desk is between the starboard hot tub and the back entry into the Forum Lounge. He's Mr. Serenity Deck, but it would be nice if he'd enforce the No Reserved Seating. The sign is right in the middle of the rail, which is where EVERYONE seems to want to be (because of the umbrellas, maybe) and are the first loungers to be saved with a towel, book, anything while people go eat for an hour. :mad:

 

Nice pics. I also have a panorama of the ship's butts in Nassau.

I saw the towel guy but we used the blue ones from Lido. If I had not heard Mario shout at another man about the towels AND guest services insist he should be providing them I would have let it slide.

 

We never saw any chair hogs this trip. Everyone was like us. We left for 20 minutes tops to go to the buffet and come right back. The 1st day we were right at the rail in the sun. When we were leaving for the day we had already had people ask us to let them know so they could have our spots.

 

Joni did enforce the no smoking policy. He even spoke to a guy who just carried an unlit cigar around...

 

The 2nd day I dragged my lounger up under the overhang to be in the shade. Never saw anyone just leave stuff on a chair early and then leave. Everyone came and sat.

[Medtech2]

Here are two pics of the slides:

 

 

[Medtech2]

May 11, Saturday Freeport

 

We again ate a leisurely breakfast in the MDR as DD wanted smoked salmon. I had the combination (western) omelet. It was good but nothing beats our local Huddle House. I don’t know what HH puts in them but they are FLUFFY. As her ankle was bothering her we sat on the Serenity Deck to await the opening of the library. She was reading a book a day and ran out and DD is plain cranky without a book. I myself cannot read in a car or on a ship as I get motion sickness. I never once felt sick on this trip but DD complained of nausea; however she would not stop reading.

 

 

 

The view from our room:

 

 

The view from on deck:

 

 

 

I saw a lot of people cruising in casts and braces. Accidents happen but you don't let that ruin your cruise!

 

[Medtech2]

We went through the port shops and I tried to connect to the internet but my IPOD touch would not connect. Our waiter had said Senor Frog’s had free wi-fi so we went there but they have stopped offering it. Since we were there we had guacamole prepared tableside and I ordered a margarita with no salt. It came out crusted with salt and I sent it back. I told my DD to watch, I bet they would just pour it into another glass and they did. “UH, MA’AM, still salty. Please take it back and I’ll try a lime daiquiri.” We all know Senor Frog’s is expensive but it was fun.

 

We decided to take a taxi to Port Lucaya. $5/person/each way. We went through the shops there and headed across to the beach. We ended up walking through the Grand Lucayan resort. They used to have guards but are financially strapped so we strolled along the paths and wandered down to the beach. We followed it to the public beach. What a difference! Look one way and you see white sand. Look the other and you see grey sand with flotsam as a bonus. On the drive to and fro we could see the Triumph being worked on at the dockyard.

 

 

 

 

[Medtech2]

At the resort:

 

 

 

 

Looking at the Private Beach:

 

 

Then turning to see the public beach: (What a difference!)

 

 

You can access the public beach right by a path that runs alongside the resort, right next to the casino where the taxi drops you off, across from the shops.

[Medtech2]

More views of the resort:

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone know what kind of bird this is? A kite?

 

 

or this lizard? (cute!)

 

[Medtech2]

The Triumph:

 

 

[Medtech2]

Back at the ship we showered and did the Martini Tasting. You get 4 mini-martini’s for $17 and there were 8 flavors so we tried them all. You get the recipe card and a martini glass charm to keep. We both loved the Sea Blue best and the Blackberry Bramble least.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All gone!

 

[Medtech2]

At dinner the waiters danced “Gangnum” style. Too funny! DD had the lamb shank and I had the seafood Newburg. We also saw both comedian’s shows.

 

Shrimp Appetizer:

 

 

Spinach Salad:

 

 

Smoked Duck Breast:

 

 

Lamb Shank:

 

 

Seafood Newburg:

 

[Medtech2]

Yippee!

 

 

 

Bitter n Blanc, basically bread pudding with a few chocolate chips: (I like the chocolate melting cake much better)

 

 

Tiramisu:

 

 

(Diet) Coconut Cake (not nearly as good as it looks):

 

 

Our towel animal:

 

[Medtech2]

I had wandered around the basically empty deck that morning while we were waiting for the library to open and explored the lifeboats that were open for maintenance. These older boats are canvas covered and just had long bench seats. I would really hate to put these to the test or pack them at their supposed capacity. I am pretty claustrophobic and being jammed in with so many people would probably cause me to seriously freak out. 150 people? No way....

 

I really did not like that the lifeboats block prime lounger real estate on deck:

 

 

 

 

[Medtech2]

May12, Sunday Mother’s Day at Sea

 

We slept late and went up to the Serenity Deck. I have to say I never saw any chair hogs this trip. It was always relatively easy to find a lounger. People were using them and no one was “holding” with just a towel. Since we were slightly sunburned we dragged our loungers up under

the covered portion of the deck. We went to the buffet for breakfast and if you like salmon they were offering salmon benedict.

 

 

Bringing an insulated large mug is the way to go. You can fill it with ice and juice in the morning and enjoy it later:

 

 

We laid around and enjoyed the hot tub and went again to the buffet for lunch. They had a chocolate buffet set up for lunch which I did not notice being listed in the Daily. They were making made to order Swan Cream Puffs and had chocolate sushi and a chocolate fondue. The fondue IMO was not as good as I got on Norwegian Sun. The chocolate sushi was okay if not sticky but one of them actually had Nori in it! BLECH! Not with chocolate!

 

 

 

I played around with our towel animal:

 

[Medtech2]

I went to Guest Services to take $4 off my service charge, in order to make a statement about the service snafus. It was a small amount but just wanted them to know the problems, starting with the lack of pool towels in the cabin. She told me the guest who got in the shouting match with the steward never reported it and she wished he would.

 

If the steward does not know what he should be doing Guest Services needs to know. Otherwise they can’t re-emphasize training. I told her the personnel just never smiled.

 

I saw a female employee walk up to the salad bar, construct a sandwich with her bare hands and no plate or utensils, and then just stand there eating it, looking bored. IMO the corporate culture in this sense was lacking. 90% of the cruisers on this ship were 1st time cruisers. They would not know that it should be better than this. Way better.

 

I did make sure to tell her that the starboard side dining staff, especially Tucker and Dennis, were outstanding.

[Medtech2]

That night at dinner I found myself lavished with attention. The hostess fawned over me. My daughter even commented that people should complain the 1st day so that they can get such good service. NOT!! Service should have been like that all along. It has been on my NCL cruises and probably is on other CCL ships but not on this sailing.

[Medtech2]

We dressed for our last night dinner.

 

 

 

My DD tried the frog legs and Mahi mahi. I tasted a bit of frog leg but the thought just turned my stomach even though intellectually I knew it was okay. I tried the flat iron steak. Okay, flat iron beef because that is not a proper steak and it was not grilled. Here too NCL is better as they actually still have grilled new york strips and ribeyes. Finished with a Grand Marnier soufflé. I did not taste any Grand Marnier but it was good in a plain eggy way.

 

Frog Legs:

 

 

Crab Cake on chopped apple, a great combination:

 

 

Mahi mahi:

 

 

The Flank - not what I consider - steak: