Fascination 6/21 - 6/26 room R2 review

[Sabalon]

It's been over a year since I've done a review, but it's been over a year since I was on a cruise!

 

My wife and I went on this cruise for our 20th anniversary. Last time was in Feb 13 on the Fantasy (same class ship) out of Charleston. This time we left the kids at home. Overall, very enjoyable.

 

Sorry this is so long - it kinda grew in the telling.

 

Pre-Departure

Jacksonville is a 5 hour drive from Atlanta, so we headed down on Friday, stopped by and saw my sister, nieces and nephews. We made it to Jacksonville around 3pm. Swung by the port entrance real quick to make sure I knew where it was and headed to the Sheraton off Butler Blvd, about 15 minutes from the port. $49 on Priceline, and was a lot nicer than some of the other cheap "hotels" in the area. Did some last minute shopping of needed items - it isn't vacation til you visit Wal-Mart. Next morning, got up, had breakfast and drove to the port, arriving at around 10:10. Lady at the gate said if we were departing we were too early and to come back around 11. Went back to Butler Blvd to get some eye-shadow my wife wanted and got back right at 11.

 

Embarkation

When we got there at 11, there was a line of cars waiting to get into the port as they checked boarding passes and let you in. Based on when we got back, it seems 10:30a may be the magical time to get there. No worries though. Went to drop the luggage off. At Charleston, as you entered the port, the porters would take the luggage. At JAX, you pulled right up to the port - same line to drop passengers off, etc. They have two rows of cars, about 12 in a row pull up in line, shut the engines off and get your luggage out. This turned into a bit of a mess, cause the front of the line of cars I was in packed the whole house and then took forever to find a tip for the porter, holding up the whole line. On the nice side, the security guard barking out what to do would call the porters over and reminded people to tip the porters, and did so by the porters name. "Don't forget to take care of James". Pretty much everyone at this port was super-friendly. My wife stayed there and I went and parked the car at the lot - $75 for the duration. We looked at off site parking, but financially almost every option ended up being around $130 total for hotel and parking/shuttle. We went with the priceline option and port parking for quicker getting out of there. Short walk from the lot and into the queues.

 

They did a quick initial look at boarding pass and ID and you got in line. FTTF had their own line, which never really formed as a proper line because they got handled so fast. We probably spent about 45 minutes in the queue to get to the x-ray and security checkpoint. It wasn't cool inside but it wasn't hot either. Again - everyone working security at this port was very friendly.

 

We had to wait in a smaller queue for the Carnival rep to check us in. The usual looking at papers and id's, asking questions, taking pictures and issuing cards, then it was off to the ship. This was at 12:27 we finished because she said our room would be ready at 12:30 and then said, oh...so 3 minutes. We had our first encounter with the photo crew - which I love...stand in warm lines for an hour+ and then we'll take you picture to show how happy you are. As we headed for the gangway, one more (friendly) security guard who made a point to comment on my wife needing sunscreen (think of white linen - then think whiter!).

 

Since the room was just about done we waited in the elevator bay for a few minutes and went to our room to drop off carry-ons.

 

Stateroom R2

We booked late because I am switching jobs and there was some uncertainty. We let them assign us a room, and it was "interior" room R2. Interior because it was the interior rate but has two portholes.

 

I was a little worried about this room because I get sea-sick easy and this was on the front of the ship. Last time we had midship and it still bothered me. But with the lateness of booking it was what it was. It could have been the room or the ocean those days, or more likely the ginger pills, but I did not feel sick at all the whole cruise. I did not want to take Bonine because it knocked me out last time. So I actually got up early most mornings to watch us make port. However the last day returning to JAX (and when we were tendering) we found the downside to the room. It sounds very much like the bow thrusters are right below this room. They started at 5:45am arriving back at JAX for the St. James River traversal and didn't stop til we were docked. I'm sure it was loud as we docked in Nassau but I was up topside at that point. Other than that noise, it was a nice little room, with somewhat of a view.

 

Nassau

Meh...been there before. Didn't care for it last time either. Shops on Bay St, and Atlantis. Wife wanted jewelry so we were up and down Bay as she tried to remember where she saw something she liked. I bought some curry powder and hot sauce. We had lunch at Sharkeez down by the ships. This was a GREAT choice. The Jerk Chicken Pizza was one of the best things I've ever had. We then went back on board to enjoy the water slides and pools without tons of people.

 

Half-Moon Cay

We did the Snorkel Half-Moon Cay by boat excursion (approx $65/pp). We choose the early time trying to beat the noon sun. Because of that, the the excursion people were on the first tender off. (ha...take that FTTF people :) The tender sucked. It was an old repurposed glass bottom tour boat. The lower deck was cramped and hot, and it was enclosed so that didn't help. The AC unit looked like it quit about 10 years ago. When we finally got to the pier, they opened the windows to allow a tiny bit of flow. The tender we took back was open air seating on both levels. I rented a locker as there looked to be limited numbers of them - $7 for the day, re-enterable. We went to the snorkel boat, signed in and sat topside. Again - Ginger pills for the win. The 15 minute ride to the reef did not phase me one bit. The snorkeling site was three reefs - nothing too special, not like the tropics, but lots of fish. You had an aqualung you had to wear, but inflating it was up to you. You had 45 minutes in the water. This doesn't sound like much, but you do tend to tire out easy, and it is plenty of time. When we got back on board, they had free waters and sodas if you wanted for the ride back. All-in-all a very nice outfit and great excursion. They had three lifeguards in the water if needed, and a 150' tow rope off the end of the boat if you wanted to pull yourself along (ie. not a strong swimmer). We then spent some time on the beach, had some lunch, more beach time and headed back to the ship an hour before the last tender rush. The beach did not seem that crowded.

 

Lunch on the island is a mess. The food was good, especially the jerk chicken. It just seems they could use some logistic planning. The line leaves the food area for the drink station - and the station is setup as drink, cup, ice instead of a logical get your cup, get your ice, get your drink. So quite some confusion. But if that was the worst part of my day, not bad! There also were some wild chickens that lived on the island...don't know if that's why the BBQ was so good - fresh food!

 

Onboard Food

Buffet is the usual. Great breakfast, lunches hit and miss depending on your tastes. Burgers and hotdogs at lunch and Mongolian wok if you didn't like the hot-line.

 

Dinner. Last time we had any-time dining. But due to the lateness of our booking we were at the 8:15 seating. This actually worked out great because you never felt rushed getting to dinner, and I liked having the same wait staff. They were Joel (Joe-el), AnaMaria, and something with an H that was very hard to get a glimpse of. They were awesome. Very friendly. The night before our anniversary they brought out a piece of cake with candles in it and said "So, how many years is this anniversary." I said "Tomorrow will be 20 years". He said "Oh...then you didn't see this" and "hid" the cake. He left the cake but told us "tomorrow, only candles, no cake". The next night they announced it to the immediate area, sang to us, etc.

 

I can't remember everything I had, but roughly:

Appetizers: Onion soup (so-so), alligator fritters (awesome), chicken tenders in thai spices (very nice), chilled mango cream soup (very good), Roasted Duck (very good)

 

Dinners: Lasagna Bolognese (if they had this every night I would have ordered it every night), Chateaubriand with sauce bearnaise (okay), meatloaf (awesome - though the side of "creamy potatoes with cheddar cheese" were the size of a small scoop of ice-cream), and some other things which weren't bad, but just not that memorable I guess. My wife loved the seafood items.

Desserts: Chocolate Melting Cake - several times. Coconut cake was very good, Ameretto Chocolate cake was kinda weak, Wife liked the baked Alaska.

 

Menu from one night - meant to take more:

 

Entertainment and Activities

First off - do that many people really buy artwork when they go on a cruise? I've never seen so much fuss made over so much crap. Then again, what do I know about art.

 

The onboard band was named "Remembering Melanie". I didn't get to listen to them as much as I would have liked but I thought they were very good. They did "themed" nights, one being Woodstock, one being 80s, which is where I heard them the most. Would like to have heard more of them.

 

One comedian was Kelly Terranova and I enjoyed his show. The other was CeeJay Jones, but we didn't get around to seeing him.

 

Trivia - didn't do this on the Fantasy, but we did quite a few of them here. I won the General Knowledge (a fluke!), 80s Music, and Doctor Who trivia. The triviamaster was British and I'm sure if I wanted to argue some of his incorrect answers, we could have gone toe-to-toe on it. But I'm proud of my plastic trophies!

 

One trivia with the Assistant Cruise Director was called invisible movie trivia - they take a still from a movie and photoshop the actors faces/hands out, so you just see the clothes. Sounds simple... but is actually quite tricky. You see Peter Venkmans' ghostbuster outfit and that's simple. You see an empty suit and a fishtank - not so much.

 

Did about $10 of casino play. At this rate I'll qualify for free drinks around the death of the sun. Didn't visit any of the clubs. Piano bar sounded good and the guy with a guitar in the lounge did a great job as well. No kids, so can't speak to the arcade, Circle C, O2, etc.

 

Disembarkation

We did the relaxed one where our luggage was put out the night before. We sat up on the promenade deck for about an hour waiting for our zone. Got off the ship pretty quickly, found our bags, and the customs line went pretty quick as well, then to the car and drive home. Much MUCH MUCH better than Charleston, where they took pleasure in being a pain.

 

The Bad

Am not a raving "love everything", so here is what I didn't like.

 

The photo-ops. I understand getting on the ship, random fun shots, etc. I don't mind that. But every night at dinner got old. Get up, go squat by my wife for a photo. (Though ironically the one photo we did buy was one of those)

 

Drink please. That got old after a while too. Constantly being asked if you want a drink. I know they are doing their job, but still. Though I will say the ones that I did get a drink from were very nice. Though one girl, I asked what was in the Hurricane Wave - the menu just said "hurricane and banana daquari swirled." I had no idea what was in a Hurricane so was hoping she could tell me. She just pulled out the same drink menu and pointed to it.

 

Crew. I read Cruise Confidential and have heard some stories between this cruise and the last one, and had a hard time trying to shake a feeling of Carnival raiding less developed countries for a cheap work-force. One of the people I talked to said it was nice, but sounded apprehensive - don't know if it was a language thing or she just didn't know how to answer. But that was in the back of my mind the whole time. Then again, so is most of the stuff from China, etc. We just don't see that on a regular basis.

 

Smells. Not too bad, but it seemed whenever we were in port, you'd catch whiffs of what smelled like raw sewage, both below and on deck.

 

Shower. Something about the shower in our room was wrong. You couldn't get it to cool down too much. You could get it scalding hot, but never could get it to a cool temperature. Though once in a while it would do it. Probably something wrong in the control. At least it was usable.

 

Sick. So, hot Florida weather, AC, hot on deck, AC, hot in Nassau, AC in shops. Do this back and forth many times a day and by the third day I had a nice little sinus cold going on. Not Carnivals fault. Though the $15 for Dristan that would be $5 at a CVS was insult to injury. At least it wasn't norovirus.

 

Overall

Really had a great time. I think the lack of bonine (and kids) made me enjoy this more than the Fantasy. Being the same distance to both ports, I would choose the Fascination again, mainly because of the port. On board, other than the names, everything was pretty much the same.

 

Part of me would like to try a larger vessel, but 2000 is a lot of people...I couldn't imagine something like 3-4000 passengers some of the larger ships handle.

 

And gotta love views like this...

[kentuckyluckyguy]

Excellent review! We will be on her in just over 100 days for the same itenerary. It will be my second time on her and she will be the first ship I've repeated on.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[pinniped71]

Thanks for the review! We are sailing Jan 17, 2015. It will be our son's first cruise!!

[marshhawk]

Thank you for the review. I cruise on her in November, this will be my fourth time on the Fascination. I love this ship, because of the size, the crew, and HMC, and the accessability from Atlanta.

I am glad that I am not the only one who loves the alligator fritters;), but I think it's the secret sauce.:)

And thank you for the information about the rope off the back of the snorkeling boat, as I have aged I find that swimming long distances is not an option for me anymore, but hanging on and seeing the sea would be great Only 19 more weeks:( and I will be there!:D

[reerun25]

Love the ship, and enjoyed your review!

[Rosanna040607]

What time were you off the boat?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[KroozFoolz]

I enjoyed your review!

Thanks for sharing!

We have cruised on Fascination 4 times - love that ship!

[Sabalon]

I believe that we were off the boat by 11:30 - noon. Customs line was a bit slow, but non-invasive. I really do think we were in our (hot) car by 12:30.