Halloween Cruise: Carnival Fascination Review & Pics-10/28/13 Sailing to LSC & Nassau

[4hunters]

Awesome! Glad I found another review from you. I'm shocked Andrew didn't go with you this time, but your present-a-day idea for him was too cool. :D

 

Keep it coming!

[All4fun&fun4all]

One of my favorite things in the world CANDY!!!!

 

 

candy candy candy!

 

 

And another favorite thing! Coffee with a good friend!

 

 

After spending some time at the mall, we went back to the hotel to get freshened up for dinner and pre-cruise libations at Tailgate at 6:30. Time was ticking away....getting ever so close to cruise time!

 

Time for dinner. Tailgate!

 

 

WINGS and a cocktail! I could only eat 4 of these monsters!

 

 

Robin, Ann, Trace, Sheryl and Brian

 

[All4fun&fun4all]

After dinner, we walked back to our hotel and after chatting for a while, we headed off to dream about boarding the ship in the morning. I was so excited and nervous but that bed was nice and comfy and before I knew it, I began stirring around 6:30am. The day has finally arrived! Too excited to sleep anymore, I got up, got dressed, packed my overnight stuff away and went to the lobby for breakfast.

 

Ready to board with my orange lei for Halloween! Can you see the impractical wedges I am wearing? They will play a part much later. Ladies, wear practical shoes at embarkation...you can thank me later. Oh and I am so very sorry about the toilet in the background. Poor form on my part.

 

Hotel lobby breakfast, sausage and gravy, it was MEH! And some coffee!

 

I left the hotel around 8:10am to pick up Sheryl who lived really close by....but I got lost on the way to her house. Did I say how horrible I am with getting lost? I pulled up in the driveway and we loaded up the suitcases. After a quick stop for some gas and a little McDonalds, we were on our way to the ship! I followed Trace and Sheryl's mom who were travelling in the car in front of us. This was perfect since I would no longer have to think about getting lost.

 

HOORAY! It's almost cruise :30!

 

We made good time on the road and made it to the Florida Welcome Center around 10:50am

 

Florida Welcome Center

 

Almost there!

 

Go inside and get you a little cup of free orange juice. I couldnt figure out why Sheryl was talking about getting orange juice so I followed her inside and then realized...DUH! Sunshine state, oranges free orange juice. I am a total ditz sometimes.

Free Orange Juice

 

Yum

Edited November 8, 2013 by All4fun&fun4all
color & toilet apology

[Michellelhs]

gene's was a great way to kick off the pre-trip!!

great start nancy!! can't wait for more!

[cuppettmd]

After dinner, we walked back to our hotel and after chatting for a while, we headed off to dream about boarding the ship in the morning. I was so excited and nervous but that bed was nice and comfy and before I knew it, I began stirring around 6:30am. The day has finally arrived! Too excited to sleep anymore, I got up, got dressed, packed my overnight stuff away and went to the lobby for breakfast.

 

Ready to board with my orange lei for Halloween! Can you see the impractical wedges I am wearing? They will play a part much later. Ladies, wear practical shoes at embarkation...you can thank me later. Oh and I am so very sorry about the toilet in the background. Poor form on my part.

 

Hotel lobby breakfast, sausage and gravy, it was MEH! And some coffee!

 

I left the hotel around 8:10am to pick up Sheryl who lived really close by....but I got lost on the way to her house. Did I say how horrible I am with getting lost? I pulled up in the driveway and we loaded up the suitcases. After a quick stop for some gas and a little McDonalds, we were on our way to the ship! I followed Trace and Sheryl's mom who were travelling in the car in front of us. This was perfect since I would no longer have to think about getting lost.

 

HOORAY! It's almost cruise :30!

 

We made good time on the road and made it to the Florida Welcome Center around 10:50am

 

Florida Welcome Center

 

Almost there!

 

Go inside and get you a little cup of free orange juice. I couldnt figure out why Sheryl was talking about getting orange juice so I followed her inside and then realized...DUH! Sunshine state, oranges free orange juice. I am a total ditz sometimes.

Free Orange Juice

 

Yum

I could tell that you were worried about the toilet picture, "You Looked A Little Flushed!" Mikey<><

[All4fun&fun4all]

Our next stop was to be Jetway Parking. Way back at the beginning of our cruise planning we wanted to use the $8.00 lot that was right outside of the port area. Well, it appears that they got shut down due to some fraud issues so I went in search of finding a reputable place to leave my brand new car for 5 days. I read about Jetway Parking here on the CC boards and checked out some reviews and decided that they would be who I would use. They advertise $4.99 a day parking with a round trip shuttle fee of $10.00. They offer 24/7 surveillance on site so I was sold. We ended up getting a group rate however, which cut the cost by about $5.00. CHA-CHING.

Just an FYI, it is located on the little frontage road on the right hand side if you are headed towards the airport. Their DBA name is EZPark and Fly so you may see one or both names.

I pulled up at the front and left my keys in the car while I unloaded my bags.

 

 

They have a little covered area but it was sunny out so we just stayed off to the side to wait for our shuttle. There isnt really a queue to speak of so people were just scattered about. Shuttles were coming and going and I figured that they were probably bringing back previous passengers at the time. The wait was killing us.

The waiting is the hardest part

 

A very large bus arrived and we all piled in. The Jetway guys (and Trace) loaded everything in the back and we sat for a little while longer waiting for a few more passengers. A little after noon we were off and headed to the port.

See all of this stuff I have in my lap? I have a tu tu, a plastic container with nametags, a backpack with Melissa's water, my purse, my cruise binder and my camera. I think that's my cooler there too. This was way too much stuff to have attempted to carry on without a travel partner. Lesson learned for next time.

 

First glimpse of the ship!

 

 

 

Have your documents out when you are pulling into the port. We went through a few areas and then stopped for a gentleman to board the bus to check our ID's and to make sure we all had our boarding passes.

 

The bus then pulled into a parking spot in front of the terminal and they began unloading all the suitcases. This is where things began to go south for me. You remember how I mentioned those cute wedge shoes earlier? And allllll that stuff I was trying to juggle? Well, when I stood up to gather my stuff to get off the bus I stepped wrong and broke all the little strappy parts on my shoe. So now I am trying to debark the bus and redistribute all of my carry on stuff with a messed up shoe.

I gather my suitcases, strap my cooler back on top of my rolling carry on and attempt to gather myself together to get ready to go through the security screening without laughing. Then I see Melissa who flew in earlier and was waiting for us outside the terminal. I give her the 12 pack of water from my backpack and head inside.

You have to show your boarding pass and I.D. when you walk in and they will direct you to the check in desk. Check in went flawlessly. I put cash on my account at the desk and we were in and out of there in no time flat. Then it was off to the security scanner. I was a little worried because I actually had a bottle of wine AND a bottle of champagne but I shouldnt have worried at all. They didnt bat an eye. They didnt even remove the liquids from carry on to inspect them to make sure they were actually water, soda, wine whatever!

But now security guy wants me to take my camera off my wrist. I hobble up there with my broken shoe and realize that the camera strap has magically knotted itself around my bracelet that a good friend made for me before I left home. This guy was insistent that I take the camera off and I ended up just removing it with the bracelet still attached. Where there was absolutely no line at all, now there is....and it is all my fault. Sorry folks!

I look around to see if Candid Camera or Funny Videos is set up somewhere close by filming this debacle. Nope. Is that Benny Hill music I hear in the background? Why does this stuff only happen to me?

Edited November 8, 2013 by All4fun&fun4all
sequence

[All4fun&fun4all]

I meant to throw in this picture of Jetway Parking so you know what to look for. Their office is just a double wide trailer but the lot is completely secure and quite large. They say that they dont turn anyone away so they have plenty of room it appears.

[All4fun&fun4all]

Now that my train wreck is behind me, I hobble over to the embarkation photo area, smile pretty for the picture like all that nonsense didnt even happen and then hobble through the covered area towards the ship. Almost there.

When boarding the Fascination, you enter the ship at deck zero and then take the elevators up. If cabins are not ready you would then go straight up to lido unless you have FTTF or are Platinum. But we were in luck! Our rooms were already ready to go.

Melissa and I scurried on up to our cabin to unpack our carry on stuff and decorate the cabin door. I also wanted to take off my long sleeved shirt and put on another pair of shoes.

Here I am in my cabin. We were in E-7. Can you guess my smuggling method and why I was trying hard not to laugh?

At this point it dawned on me. All of my other shoes were in my checked luggage. I am such a bonehead. Ladies, pack emergency shoes in your carry on. They have little fold up shoes that would have worked perfectly for me in this instance. Oh well! I guess I will be going barefoot for awhile.

Cabin E-7 was a porthole cabin. This is my 3rd time in a porthole and I am still in love with paying interior price for a little daylight and a slight view. I have never been up as high as Empress deck and I really, really liked it up there. It was easy to get to everything and being in a porthole we were all the way up front so little to no foot traffic or voices outside. There was only one night that we heard any noise from the venue upstairs but it was around 9:30pm and it was not very obtrusive.

Melissa and I decided to head upstairs to lido to grab a bite to eat and find our friends. I decided to have a little bit of some stuff off the buffet since it was Italian day. I was unimpressed. Maybe it was just because I was too excited to eat but I didnt eat very much of what I chose.

Meh buffet food

 

Lido around 1:30pm

Lido again

Lunch with friends

 

I had my first drink of the day in hand by 1:45

[All4fun&fun4all]

Sheryl is gonna kill me for that last picture. Here is a better one.

 

After lunch we decided we wanted to check out Jennifer's (willow028) aft balcony cabin and deliver her package to her. Off we go in search of Jennifer, Kyle and Sid the cockroach. Jennifer also writes reviews here on CC.

Me, still without shoes and a special delivery

 

Hey look! I found her!

And now I want a flippin aft balcony. It was very spacious and I can only imagine what it is like at night sitting back there.

View of Jacksonville from aft balcony

 

 

Jennifer and Kyle on their loverly balcony

I got to meet Sid the cockroach but he was too busy guarding his stash. He sure is greedy.

[All4fun&fun4all]

And now it was time for everyone's favorite thing! MUSTER! (where did I leave that sarcasm font?) Ok, ok everyone. Muster is very important and could save your life. It only takes a few minutes and then you can get back to the fun so give these folks all your attention because they are the ones that will ensure that you get on a lifeboat long before they will get on one themselves.

Our muster station was A which was located in the Palace Lounge forward. We sat behind Birdie, James and Angela who were members on the Ghoulie page.

And next to Valarie and John.

After a quick safety briefing we filed out and up the steps outside to our lifeboat station. Here is my lifeboat if there was to be a need for one. Thankfully, there was not.

MUSTER!

Jacksonville Terminal

Industry

[All4fun&fun4all]

I could tell that you were worried about the toilet picture, "You Looked A Little Flushed!" Mikey<><

 

Good one Mikey!

 

I am taking a little break to upload some pics from our Sailaway gathering. Be back soon! Thanks for reading!

[All4fun&fun4all]

In previous conversations on both the Ghoulie page and CC we talked about gathering after muster for sailaway on Verandah deck overlooking the lido deck pool on the left side if you are looking at the funnel. Right by the ping pong tables. We had a heck of a turnout for sailaway fun. We had bubbles and leis and boas and drinks and dancing. It was a total blast!

 

View from where we gathered

 

 

A gathering of ghoulies

 

 

People!

 

 

Birdie blowing bubbles

 

 

Valarie and John and Michelle and Tony in the back

 

 

Nathan and Kelly

 

Edited November 8, 2013 by All4fun&fun4all
words

[All4fun&fun4all]

The next two pics are courtesy of Angela. Thanks!

 

Bubba, Me and Caz

 

 

And our whole crazy group.

 

 

I ran off for a moment to get a really good angle at us going under the Dames Point Bridge. It was soooooo cool.

 

It's right in front of us

 

 

The front part has cleared it. That's a good start

 

 

Are we gonna make it?

 

 

EEK

 

[my2monkees]

Looks like it's going to be another great Nancy review. Too bad Andrew missed going but so glad he was able to be back to work. It's been a long year waiting to go on another cruise and I can't wait for January to get here.

[Stevo24]

Looks like you had a blast!!! Can't wait to see the rest of your review. It just reminds me how badly I need to book my next cruise!

[pepsigirl64]

:D I am glad to hear that you didn't lock your keys in your car. You mentioned that you left them in the car while you unloaded the suitcases, and I thought "oh no". I kept waiting to hear about the keys!! LOL.

It looks like the party crowd is ready to sail!! :D

[Aldeya]

With that being said, I will hang back for a moment while the masses of concise review readers vacate and leave behind the brave few who want to come along for the ride. Go ahead….I will wait.

 

Are they all gone? Good. Shall we proceed? Sure! Why not.

 

 

When I read this I knew It would be my kind of review! :):D:D Keep'them coming!

[wrigley80]

I love your reviews...I keep checking back in for more :p

[jamona2311]

Yay I love ur reviews! Always so much fun n I

enjoy your kind of ramblings. :)

[All4fun&fun4all]

Ok, let's get back into this. I have a box of wine on hand and the Andrew is napping. More review! Thanks to everyone so far for your encouragement. Pepsigirl if I had locked my keys in the car I would have just cried. Murphy's Law is my best friend so I am almost surprised that I didnt lock them in the car. I am a huge mess.

 

We left off with passing under the Dames Point Bridge. That was such a scary and amazing thing all at once. Everyone started cheering. I am really glad I got to experience that.

 

All clear and headed out to sea

 

 

And now for one of my favorite cruise activities....Cupid Shuffle, Cha cha slide, Wobble, Electric slide. LOVE THIS PART!

 

 

I grabbed a Nikki (Darling_Nikki here on CC) and said let's gooooo

 

 

Look at Nancy...she's trying to take our picture

 

 

That's better

 

 

Youre facing the wrong way Nikki

 

Edited November 9, 2013 by All4fun&fun4all

[All4fun&fun4all]

Then I headed back up to our spot to mingle a little more. I found my roomie.

 

 

Angela and her fancy camera

 

 

Michelle and Jacqui

 

 

I headed back down to my cabin to get freshened up for dinner. I could see this from my porthole

 

 

And then eventually the jetties

 

 

Here is my door decoration. It didnt turn out as cool as I hoped it would. I got the measurements for the cabin door and precut the orange backdrop but the door is apparently smaller than the measurements I got. I liked the dark palm trees and added a fish net in the upper right corner and put two spiders in it to represent myself and my roomie. I brought along foam pumpkins that I planned having my friends decorate and would stick them on the bottom around the tree. I got a few but it is really awkward carrying around a marker and foam pumpkins.

 

[nybumpkin]

Here is my door decoration. It didnt turn out as cool as I hoped it would. I got the measurements for the cabin door and precut the orange backdrop but the door is apparently smaller than the measurements I got. I liked the dark palm trees and added a fish net in the upper right corner and put two spiders in it to represent myself and my roomie. I brought along foam pumpkins that I planned having my friends decorate and would stick them on the bottom around the tree. I got a few but it is really awkward carrying around a marker and foam pumpkins.

 

I think your door decorations are fantastic! I've always wished I could do something creative like this. Thanks so much for your review.

[All4fun&fun4all]

And then it was time for dinner. As I have mentioned in previous reviews, I never miss the first night. Luckily my luggage showed up in time for dinner so I had shoes again! YAY.

 

I had early dining this time which was in the Imagination Dining Room, located aft. Our table was linked ahead of time with friends that we were sailing with, so we could just be our silly selves and avoid awkward silences when we break out into random conversations that others may not understand. There were a total of 11 people at our table. Probably the best dining experience I have ever had. In the future I will link my booking with friends.

 

My roomie Melissa, Sheryl, Miss Helen and Sheryl's son Trace

 

 

Robin, Ann, Jamy and Linda

 

 

Valarie and John

 

 

Unfortunately all the pictures here in the dining room are all dark or blurry. Or both. I cannot figure this darn camera out! Anyway, I will just tell you what I had. There are so many pictures of Carnival food floating around out there that I am sure you know what it looks like.

 

For a starter I had the broccoli cheddar soup. Delicious as always!

For an entree I had the yam, squash, cheddar pot pie. Also good and the plating was pretty.

For dessert (yep I actually ate a few desserts this time) I had the oh so famous WCMC. I had a few bites and some bites of ice cream but I really wasnt all that impressed to be honest. I know, that's terrible isnt it. I really tried to like it but it just wasnt my cup of tea. I liked the ice cream for sure.

 

After dinner I wandered down to my cabin to see if our steward had left some ice in my less than 12x12x12 cooler. At this point we hadnt met him in person so I left him a post it note on my mirror requesting the ice. I just left a note each morning and he never failed to fill it.

 

We had a doggie towel animal tonight and it was wearing my sunglasses.

 

 

Here is what our cabin looked like looking from the door to the portholes (E-7)

 

 

And from the corner of the room looking towards the door

 

[All4fun&fun4all]

On our last cruise I really enjoyed the Martini Tasting. It was a pretty decent deal and I headed down there to try a few new ones this time. It was held at the Beverly Hills Bar (Deck 9 aft). You get to choose 4 different mini martinis and the cost is $17.00 plus gratuity making the total $19.55.

 

I tried (left to right) Caribbean Sunset, Florida Squeeze, Melon Crush and Sea Blue

 

 

The lighting was a little funky in here. Almost like there were blacklights above. I enjoyed my mini martinis and then Jamy and Linda from our table came in and we chatted for a moment.

 

There were two things that I wanted to purchase while I was on this cruise so I decided to head out to the $10.00 store and get a cute floppy hat. Then I headed to the Fun Shops souvenier area to get the license tag that says "My Other Car Is a Cruise Ship". I love it! It was only $12.95.

 

It was at this point that I started to really miss the Andrew. I had no idea what to do with myself and started just wandering aimlessly and taking pictures. Have a look at some random shots wont you?

 

Really long hallways

 

 

Promenade

 

 

Atrium

 

 

Lido deck pool

 

 

This guy really played well and was always smiling. He played a version of Wicked Game that made me stop and listen. It's one of my favorite songs and he did it justice. His name is Rob Roy and he played in the atrium.

 

[All4fun&fun4all]

Atrium

 

 

Promenade from a different direction. I told you I was wandering aimlessly.

 

 

Lido deck pool...again from a different direction

 

 

I went up to the Sport's Deck for a little while and it was so quiet up there and just so overwhelmingly breathtaking. I found myself just teary eyed and thankful for being able to be in the middle of the sea, breathing in the fresh air and just so happy. Very sappy yet very true. I am a lucky girl.

 

 

I did not fall down these stairs. Are you surprised? So am I!

 

 

It was almost time for the Welcome Aboard show (10:00pm) so I made my way forward to the Palace Lounge and found my friends.

 

It almost looks like I am sitting in Nikki's lap. Maybe I am. Look at Mr. Grumpy behind me. Maybe I was being a little loud. Sorry mister.

 

 

After the show I called it a night. I really wanted to make my way to the Nightclub to attempt dancing but I went to bed instead. I knew I wanted to get up in the morning in plenty of time to get ready for our tu tu meet up on serenity and then tu tu breakfast. Melissa and I chose some items for room service breakfast and I was out like a light. Those beds are so comfy and even though I havent slept on a twin bed in quite some time....my clumsy self didnt fall out. BONUS!

Edited November 9, 2013 by All4fun&fun4all
spacing