Carnival Fantasy 7.24.14 - 5 day to Freeport & Nassau

[funinthesun1964]

Just off the Fantasy about an hour ago. We had a good time, great weather and enjoyed the cruise. I have pics to share and will upload them when I get home.

 

We had cabin R20, a porthole. We just booked the cruise one week prior so not much choice available. It was fine though. We had smooth sailing.

 

I will give more details later...now for the drive home ...

[KirkNC]

Welcome back, hope you enjoyed your cruise!

[cruzeluver]

Looking forward to your pics. Thanks! We board Fantasy in just a few weeks!

[lauraezzell]

Woo-Hoo!!! Another Fantasy review!!! I love her and miss her every time I see the pictures.

[goldwinger88]

37 days and we sail on the Fantasy again..

 

Hope you had a great cruise!

[theporrhouse]

Can't wait to read your review and see pictures. We are going to be on her September 9th for the first time with 2 of our 7 children and my future son in law. Then October 26th just the husband and I to celebrate 22 years together.

 

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[michelle1836]

Just off the Fantasy about an hour ago. We had a good time, great weather and enjoyed the cruise. I have pics to share and will upload them when I get home.

 

We had cabin R20, a porthole. We just booked the cruise one week prior so not much choice available. It was fine though. We had smooth sailing.

 

I will give more details later...now for the drive home ...

 

I thin we had that cabin the last time on the fantasy. just booked for august 8th cant wait to go back

[Cricket551]

Glad to hear you had a good time can't wait to hear more and see pictures:D

[Lovingsandandwaves]

Looking forward to pictures! We sail on her on August 13!

 

 

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[funinthesun1964]

I'm back!!

 

Wow, I can't believe how tired I was last night! Slept like a baby fortunately. Got started on some laundry and photos are uploading as I type this.

 

This was our 10th cruise, and this was a "just DH and me" cruise. Most often, we enjoy cruising with friends, but wanted a quick getaway for relaxation with some fun. DH is on two weeks vacation, and I am current unemployed, so thought we would take advantage of the time off.

 

We had cruised before on two other Fantasy class ships, the Fascination and the Ecstasy. I was expecting this ship to be similar to those. It was, but also a little different. For one - the main theater (Universe) has windows and the seating was not as steep. We were there for our muster drill and it seemed a little smaller. We noticed the difference right away from the 8 other ships we had sailed, including the fantasy class ships. Just an observation. The other difference was the Forum lounge, deck 9 aft. This was the area for the comedy club and it seemed smaller also. The seating was different - no permanent, fixed seating. There were different types of chairs and only some areas had tables where you could place your drink. Not a big deal - just noticed it. We enjoyed comedy there a couple of times.

 

Ship was well used, we knew this was the oldest in the fleet. Very noticeable signs of wear and tear and all that. Not to say it was not clean -- saw employees out and about and doing chores, just the same as the other ships. The carpeting in our cabin was very well worn and tracked, it could have used replaced. Another observation - the cabin doors do not close automatically if you leave them ajar as they did on other ships. You had to close them all the way. I accidentally left the door semi-open when I entered one day and DH went in to use the bathroom and said "HEY, you didn't close the door!" LOL, not a big deal because the way the bathroom was arranged, no one could have seen anyway.

 

Photos are almost finished, so without further ado, I will begin with details and thoughts on the Fantasy sailing on July 24th 2014. This was a 5 day sailing leaving Charleston and going to Freeport and Nassau.

 

Also, I do have the Fun Times with me and can scan those for those of you who may be interested. :)

[LibbaK]

I sail on fantasy next week. I look forward to reading your review and seeing pics, scans, etc.

 

 

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[funinthesun1964]

We drove from NE Ohio and left Wednesday morning around 5:40 am.

 

I had reserved a hotel. We decided that we would stay around an hour to 75 minutes outside of Charleston, and then drive the rest of the way in the morning of the cruise. To my surprise, I found that I had enough Hilton Honors Points to book a free room at the Hampton Inn. This was not the taj mahal of hotels, with an exterior entrance, but it would suffice for the night. The hotel was an older and worn, but I found it to be very clean. Employees were exceptionally nice. We had a room on the 2nd floor, which mean we had to take the steps. We do not mind, since we are very capable and even need any additional exercise that we can get.

 

The hotel was in Orangeburg, SC and we arrived by shortly after 3pm. We checked in and carried in some of our luggage to the room.

 

The rooms had shutters, which were closed upon entering. It was nice and cool, the air conditioning was on and running full blast. A little cool for me, so I adjusted the heat. I immediately turn lights on when I enter a room to inspect for cleanliness. It passed the test!

 

 

 

 

Room had microwave and fridge, but we did not use them.

 

Ordinary bathroom, older style with tub and toilet in a room and sink on the outside of the bathroom.

 

 

[funinthesun1964]

Welcome back, hope you enjoyed your cruise!

 

We had a great time!

 

Looking forward to your pics. Thanks! We board Fantasy in just a few weeks!

 

Hope you have a wonderful trip!

[funinthesun1964]

37 days and we sail on the Fantasy again..

 

Hope you had a great cruise!

 

We did have a great cruise and hope you will, too! It's hard not to enjoy a cruise!

 

Can't wait to read your review and see pictures. We are going to be on her September 9th for the first time with 2 of our 7 children and my future son in law. Then October 26th just the husband and I to celebrate 22 years together.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Forums mobile app

 

September will be nice, October even better. I like hot weather, but it was really HOT for us! Enjoy!

[funinthesun1964]

Woo-Hoo!!! Another Fantasy review!!! I love her and miss her every time I see the pictures.

 

You are going to miss her again, sorry :p

 

I thin we had that cabin the last time on the fantasy. just booked for august 8th cant wait to go back

 

Have fun!! Not too much longer now!

[funinthesun1964]

Glad to hear you had a good time can't wait to hear more and see pictures:D

 

I hope you will enjoy seeing the pictures!

 

Looking forward to pictures! We sail on her on August 13!

 

 

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Hang in there, just a couple more weeks. Have a wonderful time.

[funinthesun1964]

Forgot to include another picture of the room...just one more view...and it just of an ugly desk, lol

 

 

 

 

The drive down was uneventful, I drove from home to Wytheville VA, then DH took over. Nevertheless, to me it seemed tiring. We decided to relax a little at their pool area.

 

It was very warm and humid so after a while I jumped in to cool off.

Thankfully, no pictures were taken of that episode.

 

 

We had brought a couple beers from home.

 

 

There was a Zaxby's next door which was advertising pickle chips being back. I sent DH over to get a side order for a snack. Very small quantity but we didn't need a lot. They were good!

 

 

 

We had another surprise. This Hampton Inn has a manager's reception on Wednesday nights only from 5:30 - 7:30. This was Wednesday night. So we enjoyed hamburgers on focaccia bread, chips, beer and wine. This was filling, and good! No worries about dinner!

 

We went to a Walmart a little later to get more sunscreen, and some gum. We saw a little of the town and got some more exercise walking around the store. I'm sure we killed about 500 calories, right?

 

Anyway, we had a fairly good nights sleep and the next morning we headed to the breakfast offering. It was a little better than most, more than what I really needed. Coffee was good.

 

We decided to leave the hotel around 9:15 am and we were on our way to the port!

 

Thanks Hampton Inn, for free dinner, free hotel room, and free breakfast! Can't beat that! :p

[funinthesun1964]

I sail on fantasy next week. I look forward to reading your review and seeing pics, scans, etc.

 

 

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Thanks, I'm glad someone will enjoy them!

[cruiserNC]

Nice pictures looking forward to more.

[blondie151o]

Looking forward to some pics!

I sail in 78 days on the fantasy & I live in charleston! This will be my first real vacation since having my son. He's 15months.. Looking forward to some mom & dad alone time! ;)

 

 

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[funinthesun1964]

Nice pictures looking forward to more.

 

Thanks for your comment!

 

Looking forward to some pics!

I sail in 78 days on the fantasy & I live in charleston! This will be my first real vacation since having my son. He's 15months.. Looking forward to some mom & dad alone time! ;)

 

 

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Congratulations on your son and hope you have a wonderful cruise. Charleston is a nice city, nice climate. Wish we lived somewhere that is warm all year around.

[funinthesun1964]

So, we left the hotel around 9:15 - 9:30ish, and headed to the port. We were about 75 minutes away, and I think we should have waited a little longer, looking back.

 

When we arrived at the port area, there were signs that said "cruise". We entered one area and were told that parking would not begin until around 12:00. It was before 11, but we moved on to another parking lot which curved around with cones and lanes, and were asked to show our documents. The person there was not clear about proceeding to the parking area, we asked where the parking area was and he pointed and said "down the street a little". Okay. We ended up leaving this area and drove along the downtown streets, DH found a porta-potty and used it, and then we made our way back to the parking area a while later. The port person, cop or whoever he was asked us "how did you get back to this area again" or something similar, LOL, let us back in, and since it was about 11:00 at this time we were allowed to line up (in cars) to enter the parking deck. My recommendation would be not to arrive until noon here, but I'm not sure if it is like this EVERY time, or just this time. My guess is always, as we still saw people leaving the ship from the previous cruise and we understood why when it was our turn to leave the ship.

 

This was the craziest process ever. I had read about it from others reviews, but it was just so complicated and strange compared to other ports. Here is a picture from when we were waiting in the car:

 

 

We were finally directed on where to park (in a covered area), we gathered our belongings and then there was a shuttle bus to take us to the ship, which was clearly within view, but you MUST take this shuttle if you park at the port (not if you take a taxi or shuttle from a hotel, or dropped off by family, etc.)

 

Waiting in line for the shuttle bus

 

 

Then went through the cruise terminal. No waiting, quickly obtained our S&S cards and had our security pictures taken. Went up the ramps and boarded the ship. The biggest pain was just getting to this point!

 

Finally got onto the ship and this was our first sight.

 

 

As usual lately, a DJ was playing in the atrium.

 

[funinthesun1964]

I started moving along, and we were anxious to check out the ship. I had my mind on Mongolian lunch though too.

 

 

 

Out to the Lido deck

 

 

....and headed right to the Mongolian Wok. No line! We must have been among the first to board the ship, it was still fairly empty.

 

 

Edited July 30, 2014 by funinthesun1964

[Seago2]

Wow, this could. It have come at a better time! I've got a B2B in 20 days and I'm hanging on by a thread here :p

 

OMG, it's actually 18 days- yayyyy

Edited July 30, 2014 by Seago2

[lauraezzell]

Loving the review so far. It would be great if you could post the Fun Times too. I would LOVE to see them. Thanks for your review!