Reconnecting with my cruise past:Carnival Fantasy September 14-19

[rafinmd]

My first ever cruise was on the Carnival Fantasy in 1993. I have cruised a LOT since then but my only other Carnival cruise was on the Pride last year. I will be in Charleston for a meeting September 19-21 and thought a second look at my very first cruise ship would be interesting. This came together quite quickly and I just booked the cruise on Sunday. I have a professional meeting in Maryland today and Friday morning and will drive as far as North Carolina Friday and arrive in Charleston Saturday. I plan to do a daily report here and a companion blog with pictures at:

 

http://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Despite very different circumstances I was on the road about the same time as yesterday, roughly 7:30. My brother was in the submarine service based in Charleston in the 60's and I’ve made the drive there from Baltimore a number of times.

 

I think like most people, I’ve pretty much forgone maps for a car navigation system, and it’s usually a good thing but with some occasional limitations. I’m glad I had a map as a backup today. I don’t think I95 was complete when Roger was in Charleston and it isn’t very direct in any case. Most of those trips were on state route 41 which now connects with I95 just below the North Carolina border. I expected that route to work well with my plan to visit Fort Sumter in the afternoon. The tour boat leaves the naval museum at Patriot Point and 41 goes almost directly there.

 

About half my trip was on I95 through the southern half of North Carolina and it was quick and uneventful despite a bit of fog. I turned off I95 about 10, and the GPS was predicting an arrival at 12:24. As I got further from I95, the GPS kept prompting me to return to I95 and the predicted arrival time got later and later. By the midpoint of the journey the predicted arrival time had bumped up to 13:35, meaning I would miss the 13:30 tour. I was about 3/4 of the way to Charleston when the GPS finally started to recoginze a better route with my eta bumping back to 13:00, then 12:45, and I finally arrived at 12:35. With my 5-minute stop at McDonalds the backroads only added about 5 minutes net to the trip although the GPS tried to make it over an extra hour.

 

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After buying my ticket there was time for a noon snack at the dock, and the boat boarded about 1:15. Fort Sumter was built in 1829, one of several fortifications put up in the wake of the war of 1812. Along with Sumter there was Fort Moultrie, across the channel on Sullivans Island, Fort Johnson on the south shore, and Castle Pinkney close to Charleston. When the Civil War broke out in 1860 the Union had just 85 men between the 4 forts and General Anderson moved them all to Fort Sumter as the most defensible. As a Union supply ship was on the way the Confederates bombarded Sumter April 12, 1861, and the Union withdrew less than 48 hours later. While that was the only real action the fort saw, it was an active base until 1947, and was later turned over to the National Park service. A bit incongruous is a large black battery, Battery Huger, erected in 1898, completely out of character with the rest of the fort. It now houses the gift shop and museum. On the return boat ride we passed close to Castle Pinkney, one of the other forts, now property of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and reportedly in very poor condition.

 

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Back at Patriots Point I explored the Cold War submarine memorial, a garden like structure with a mockup of a submarine, near the parking lot entrance. A number of benches sit alongside the

surrounding pathway, each dedicated to one of the submarines of the era, including the Haddo.

 

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The Haddo crew reunion September 19-21 will be at the Airport Radisson hotel. It also had one of the better park and cruise packages so I will be there both before and after the cruise. On the way to the hotel I drove through Sullivans Island and Isle of Palms where Roger and his late wife stayed while he was on the Haddo. Sullivans Island is much like the 60's and the beach house looks very familiar, while the house on Isle of Palms appears to have been lost and rebuilt. On checkin at the hotel I was booked on the 10:30 transfer to the Fantasy.

 

Today’s parting shot goes back to the time when I was active as an EMT. Our training always emphasized “never trust a life to anything mechanical”. I think I can apply the same logic to a car GPS.

 

Roy

Edited September 14, 2014 by rafinmd

[erewhon]

Interesting photos.

Thanks for the link to your blog.

[LUVMYGSDOG]

Thanks for an enjoyable read and look forward to more. I have friends on this cruise as well.

 

Kim

[docrawdad]

Nice start to a cruise.... doc

[rafinmd]

Thanks, all.

 

My apologies, I post to my wordpress blog by email, and somehow in translation from email to wordpress the paragraph separation gets lost, making a long runon paragraph. I’m not sure what’s causing this and will try to do some research on it in when I’m back home. In the meantime, I’m going to try placing a different kind of separator like this “[______]” between paragraphs. It will still run together, but should make it easier to figure out where a paragraph should be.

[______]

It was very dark when my 5AM wakeup call came. Morning rain gave way to a pretty sultry afternoon, and the morning was taken up with a combination of final packing and taking care of last minute internet activity with my last chance for fast, free internet. Breakfast in the hotel was a nice buffet. There was one morning glitch. When I went to shut down my netbook after 9 it came up with “installing updates, do not unplug or power off”. The updates didn’t finish until nearly 11, virtually the last minute before my shuttle left.

 

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[______]

This was my easiest Charleston to date, but that doesn’t take much. The first time was on the Crystal Symphony and embarkation was supposed to be in New York, until Superstorm Sandy got in the way. It was a multi-day process that went something like this:

[______]

Day 1: Train to New York 2 days early to get ahead of the storm.

Day 2: Hunkered down in New York with the storm arriving overnight.

Day 3: My planned arrival in NY and I moved to my original hotel which had no power.

Day 4: A 6AM strategy session with my travel agent, a rental car back to Baltimore, and an unexpected Halloween at home with no stocks of candy.

Day 5: A flight to Charleston

Day 6: Finally on the ship

[______]

By contrast I boarded the hotel shuttle and a packed van left promptly at 11:30, with an arrival at the port about 11:45. Security here was a royal pain, but I was onboard about 12:15, and the finding a table in the lido was no hassle. I explored the ship a bit and my room opened about the time I arrived, around 1:20. My suitcase showed up just before 2. Looking at my first Fun Times, the Captain is Leonardo Contarino, and the Cruise Director is Jacques De Lange.

[______]

Although I have been on the Fantasy before, it was only 3 days and 2 decades ago, so this is effectively a new ship for me. I opted for the 2:30 ships tour where Jeffrey of the entertainment staff took us around all the public rooms. He indicated he was one of only about 10 Americans on the 900-person crew. The ship has many features I really can’t remember seeing before and has a very different “feel” from other ships. Probably the most unusual for me are the 2 dining rooms on the same deck separated by a central galley, and the lifeboats being so high on the ship. One thing I found quite strange was the 220v outlet in my cabin, it’s neither British nor European, like a US plug but with the 2 main prongs running the wrong way. Another surprise was the existence of 2 glass elevators on such an old ship.

 

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[______]

The muster is generally in public rooms on various decks. My station “C” was in the cats lounge. At the end of the drill we were escorted up to the lifeboats on the deck above. Sailaway precisely at 4, soon after the drill ended. I skipped the Lido sailaway party and went out to Serenity (Aft deck 9) as we sailed out past 3 of Charleston’s historic forts, Castle Pinkney and then Forts Sumter and Moultrie on opposite sides of the channel entrance.

 

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[______]

When I booked the cruise a week ago I had been placed in open dining but cleared the wait list for early seating about Tuesday. I am at Table 367 in the Jubilee (Aft) dining room, a 10 top. We had 3 couples and one other solo at the table, from a variety of eastern cities, and all of us seem to veterans of Superstorm Sandy cruises. We got good service from the team of Dwain, Sonny, and Shaun, and I enjoyed a fruit plate, beef barley soup, chicken a la grecque, and orange cake. It seems to be a good table.

[______]

There was a 10PM welcome aboard show. On the way there I stopped briefly at Cleopatra’s Piano Bar. This ship seems rife with music at ear-splitting volume and Cleopatra’s was no exception. Roger sang LOUD, often so loud he just about drowned out the piano. I didn’t regret leaving my cabin with just a few minutes to pause before the main show. Cruise Director Jacques ran an audience game and we had short presentations by the 2 comedians. I thought Manny Olivera was pretty good, I was less impressed with Johnny Millwater who did mostly impressions, few of which hit home with me.

 

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[______]

Today’s parting shot comes from the “Coffee News” that was sitting in the hotel lobby where I waited for the port shuttle. It is a quote from Charles Spurgeon: “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of it’s sorrows but only empties today of it’s strength”.

[______]

Roy

[regnig]

Roy, many thanks for doing this "live from" as I & DD are on the 9/29 sailing and since I've never sailed Carnival I'm all ears & eyes too! :D

[winddawn]

My first ever cruise was on the Carnival Fantasy in 1993. I have cruised a LOT since then but my only other Carnival cruise was on the Pride last year. I will be in Charleston for a meeting September 19-21 and thought a second look at my very first cruise ship would be interesting. This came together quite quickly and I just booked the cruise on Sunday. I have a professional meeting in Maryland today and Friday morning and will drive as far as North Carolina Friday and arrive in Charleston Saturday. I plan to do a daily report here and a companion blog with pictures at:

 

http://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com

 

Roy

I'm enjoying your review in-process, Roy. I enjoy solo cruises too and enjoy reading others' perspectives on them. Carnival Fantasy was my first cruise experience back in the 90's also.

 

Looking forward to more....

[rafinmd]

Thanks larsen and winddawn. By the way, if there are any questions I will try to answer although by my posting schedule it will take a couple of days.

 

My alarm went off at 5AM, and when I went on deck it was totally dark. As usual on sea days, my morning started out with a 5 mile walk. On the Fantasy’s deck 14 jogging track 5 miles is 53.5 laps, making it vital to pay attention to the lap count. Despite the early hour there were several walkers and runners, and a surprising number of people out about 6:45 to watch the sunrise. Despite clouds on the horizon, the sunrise was quite nice.

 

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[______]

It was a pretty quiet morning with no significant activities. My likely only visit to the Celebration Dining Room was for brunch (offered on sea days), including my free soda as a VIFP member. Carnival really doesn’t have much in the way of perks for past guests at the lowest level. I tend to believe that is a good thing; my take is that every customer should be a valued customer, and that what I really expect for my loyalty is a string of great memories. I was at a 2 top “by myself”, but the tables were so close together that conversation flowed with the 2 adjoining tables and I might as well have been at a 6-top.

 

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[______]

I didn’t do much in the afternoon either (and have been a bit drowsy today), but did get to afternoon tea. It was served in Cleopatra’s Piano Lounge, and there was a lady playing the piano. It’s a shame she was only there for tea; I liked her better than Roger. I’m booked on a 2016 cruise through the Northwest Passage (Seward to New York) and brought along a book, “Across the Top of the World”. I found time to read the first chapter after tea.

 

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[______]

The Elegant night also was the occasion of the Captain’s Celebration before dinner. Most ships have a chance to meet the Captain with the photo staff chomping at the bit to sell us a picture. I was surprised and pleased to see they were not there and have one of the entertainment staff volunteer to snap my picture. Table 367 in the Jubilee dining room was full tonight with one other couple joining us. Most had the lobster tails but I opted for the spaghetti carbonara and cherries jubilee.

 

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[______]

The main evening entertainment was “The Brits” by the ship’s troupe. I stopped by the Punchliner Comedy Club after the show and Jonny Millwater seemed better than my first impression of him.

[______]

As today’s parting shot, first impressions are important, but they can change. A number of things surprised me today, most of them pleasant, with a second look at Johnny Millwater being one of the better ones.

[______]

Roy

[SMSACE6]

I am enjoying your trip report, thanks for taking the time to post

[jbhcw]

thanks for your review of the Fantasy...it was our second cruise..first Carnival...in 1995 I think! Although all of the Fantasy class ships are getting old...I still love them...feels like coming home when we step on board:):):)

[rafinmd]

Thanks Jane and SMSACE6

 

When I went on deck shortly after 5, the lights of Grand Bahama Island were quite prominent. It was just starting to get light when I completed my 2-mile (22-lap) walk on the jogging track, this time with very little company. My cabin has wifi but the signal is pretty weak so I’ve been going up to the Lido deck for my serious online work. Just as I was logging off (about 7am) the sun started to appear on a nearly cloudless morning. I got out just in time to catch the sun coming up between 2 lifeboats. We pulled up to the pier about 7:30 with the Norwegian Sky about 20 minutes behind us. My tour did not leave until 10:15, so I had time for a nice leisurely breakfast and left the ship about 9 to do some browsing in the straw market. I arrived without a hat and was looking for a baseball cap but in the end accepted an upsell for a safari style hat. This is my second visit to Freeport, after the Carnival Pride 18 months ago.

 

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[______]

There were only 5 people on my beach Segway tour and we shared a bus with 4 snorkelers for about a half hour ride to the Segways. Our guide fitted us with pads and helmets and gave each of us a brief orientation on the use of the Segways. He was just getting to me when the group from the Sky returned and we were issued their Segways. I have been on them twice before so my orientation was brief, and we were on our way.

 

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In this area there is just a narrow strip of land between the road and the beach, and we mostly followed a trail but occasionally ventured into the road. There were 2 spots where the guide stopped to take our pictures first on a stretch of beach (I doffed my helmet to display the new hat) aand the other mounted on the machines.

 

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We saw Australian Pine (not a native species) and some grape trees, along with a vacation home of Dan Marino. We spent a joyous hour on the Segways, then had a short walk to a beach club where we could buy lunch or hang out on the beach.

 

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The bus returned for us a little after 1, and we were back at the pier about 2. I did a bit of additional shopping at the drug store that had been closed in the morning. As I returned to the Fantasy, a shower burst out that was on the verge of soaking me.

[______]

I had a relaxing late afternoon on the ship and read another chapter of “Across the Top of the World”. All aboard was 4:30. The Captain announced at 4:20 that we were waiting for just a few guests and would be leaving soon. Unfortunately, one straggler showed up at 4:59 and the gangway was taken in soon afterwards, but the Sky had already started dropping lines. We backed out of our slip about 5:15. Two of my 3 favorite ships, the Crystal Symphony and Prinsendam have open bridge wings and I love to be out on the Sun deck looking down on the officers as they guide the ship away from the dock. The Fantasy does not have that but does have a walkway which leads almost to the bridge, and the end of the bridge wing is glass. I stood about 10 feet from the bridge (the security rope is 5 feet away) and watched as we pulled away. When the horn blew the Captain was working a control on the edge of the panel nearest me. Once we had left the dock I went back to Serenity for the cruise out of the harbor. We hit open sea about 5:45 and I was about 5 minutes late to dinner.

 

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[______]

We had the usual 8 at table 367 and I enjoyed the Chicken Sicilian style. The waiters danced at the end of the meal. The evening entertainment was “The Hasbro Game”, a kind of team effort where groups engage in various challenges like bowling with supersized balls and pins. As I finish writing, I hope to be in bed early.

[______]

As today’s parting shot, one lady was extremely lucky she got back when she did and the ship waited as long as it did. That would be far too close for my comfort.

[______]

Roy

[winddawn]

Sounds like you are having a great cruise and are enjoying nice weather.

 

Staying tuned.....

[LUVMYGSDOG]

I am really enjoying your review and wanted to thank you for taking the time to write it.

 

Kim

[rafinmd]

Thank you Kim and winddawn.

 

When I went on deck just after 5 the skies overhead were quite clear with the waxing moon showing pretty brightly, but the lights of Nassau still quite distant. I only walked 1 ½ miles (16 laps) today expecting to do more walking in Nassau, and finished about 6:00. The rising sun was quite pretty through low lying clouds and found a small hole to peek through as we entered the Nassau harbor. The Enchantment of the Seas was already firmly moored on our arrival and the Norwegian Sky followed us into the port. This is my 4th visit to Nassau after the Fantasy in 1993, the Monarch of the Seas in 2012, and the Carnival Pride in 2013. The Nassau terminal building is closed for renovation, access to town was a bit confusing but I thought better than having to walk through all the shops to get to the street.

 

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[______]

For the second consecutive day I booked a Segway tour. Yesterday’s tour in Freeport was my best ever Carnival excursion; this was just a small step behind. The representative for the tour took 5 of us out to a taxi (Toyota van) and Reggie took us out to the departure point on the beach a half mile west of the pier. Our guides Codwick and Adrian fitted us with pads and helmets and gave some instruction on the machines, the same offroad model we used yesterday. The tour was basically along the beach fr another half mile or so as far as a complex of fish fry places. Codwick explained that out tour area was all along artificial land created from dredging the harbor and talked a bit about island life. He pointed out Fort Charlotte, originally one of 4 never used forts, 3 of which are still standing. On the way back we stopped at a vacant lot where the guides had set up a short slalom course to practice our navigating skills. The Segways are a bit deceptively wide and it’s easier than I thought to clip a cone on a tight turn. We returned to the pier about 10:30.

 

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[______]

I took a short walk in town to “The Queen’s Staircase”, about a half mile from the pier. The 66 steps lead up he hill from a nice quiet valley in town. The steps were carved by former slaves as a thank you to the Queen after she abolished slavery in the Bahamas in the 1840's. For lunch I tried the Lido’s pizza which was not great but pretty good.

 

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[______]

The Nassau Public Library is about 3 blocks from the pier in a former jail. The place has good wifi priced at $2.50 for 5 hours, a very nice deal. The circular room has about 5 small rooms (former cells) around a central open space. It’s tiny and cramped but a good place to get some work done. I spent probably 90 minutes there and made my final return to the Fantasy about 2. It was getting hot enough that I really didn’t want to be outside any more.

[______]

All aboard was again 4:30 and we were again waiting for “a few guests”. At 4:35 a list of about 9 names was read; I saw 4 people come aboard about 4:40 with an officer by the gangway looking for people headed for our ship. Two more came at 4:45 and the gangway was pulled up. By 5 we had backed up about a ship length and soon we turned around and were headed for sea. We passed close to the Nassau lighthouse, built in 1806. Codwick claims it still uses a kerosene lamp and that the kerosene beam is visible form a greater distance than modern electric lights. We had the usual 8 of us at table 367.

 

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[______]

The main entertainment was a reprise of Hasbro, the game show. I passed but visited Manny Olivera’s “Family Friendly” comedy show. He seemed to be mostly interviewing kids and seemed a bit mean spirited.

[______]

As today’s parting shot, I haven’t seen much of what’s going on in the outside world during the cruise. One delightful exception was walking by a big screen this morning and seeing that the Baltimore Orioles had clinched their division. They’ve had their problems in recent years and were really due for a good season. Congratulations!

[______]

Roy

[regnig]

Roy, thanks again for taking your time to keep us updated. If I followed your story and added correctly it sounds like the Captain left 3 people in Nassau. If that's correct it certain serves them right. Too many assume the "it's all about ME attitude".

Edited September 18, 2014 by larsen

[rafinmd]

Roy, thanks again for taking your time to keep us updated. If I followed your story and added correctly it sounds like the Captain left 3 people in Nassau. If that's correct it certain serves them right. Too many assume the "it's all about ME attitude".

 

I wasn't actually quite at the rail when the announcement came. I expect that the other 3 actually had come on board either just before the announcement had been made or in the minute or so that it took me to get to my vantage point. I THINK, based on the experience in Freeport that they would have waited until 5 or a little longer if necessary, but would not have minded if they had been left. Two days in a row to wait for stragglers is a lot.

 

When I got out on deck just after 5 we were about 2 hours north of Freeport and the moon was again shining. It was quite windy for my 5 mile walk, and as the sun rose the horizon was quite cloudy.

[______]

I am not really a Carnival customer and normally I wouldn’t be interested in their behind the scenes tour but most other lines do not offer it with their older ships. The tour was advertised in the Funtimes as available through shore excursions. They didn’t open until 11, and I thought it was a morning tour. A check with the front desk confirmed that with “I’ll be happy to sell you a ticket for the 9AM tour. Unfortunately, Carnival’s rules prohibit any photography so there will be only one picture to share. We met in Cleopatra’s (16 of us led by Garish of Human Relations) and started off with the crew bar, forward on deck 7. Hours are limited and there is a strict no tolerance policy on drunkenness, but limited drinks are available at a discount. We stepped outside to the bow on deck 7 where Garish pointed out the ship’s bell (dated 1989) and explained that all the white lines on the deck defined muster areas for each of the crew’s life rafts. Each piece of the deck bore a number corresponding to the crewman’s assigned life raft.

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[______]

Our next stop was back stage where the sound manager explained the technical aspects of the theater and a dance captain explained how things work for the performers. Under the Fun Ship 2.0 concept the instrumentals are pre-recorded but the performers all sing live. While there are people labeled singers and dancers each performer does both and each must pass both dance and vocal auditions. The cast comes on as a group and rehearses for about 3 weeks with the outgoing cast before taking over. In our case, the cast just took over this week and will be doing their first live performance of Motor City tonight..

[______]

From there we went to the galley, between the 2 dining rooms and got a look at the food preparation areas and the operation for moving the food from the chef’s hands to our waiters’ trays. At the pastry station we were given a plate of treats.

[______]

Heading down to the bowels of the ship we toured the trash room and the marshaling area where things will be offloaded in the morning and 16 containers worth of new supplies will be picked up. Our next stop was the 24 hour laundry where everything is washed, and saw giant folding machines in operation automatically folding sheets, tablecloths, and towels. One thing lacking on the Fantasy is dry cleaning which must be done onshore. In the storage section we stepped briefly into one of the meat freezers at -20F. We didn’t linger long there.

[______]

We were not able to visit crew cabins but in the crew training room Garish showed us photos of typical crew cabins. Regular crew get 2-person cabins, “staff” nicer double cabins, and officers get private cabins. We stepped into the staff dining room and got a look inside the crew dining room.

[______]

The engine room itself is off limits but we visited the engine control room, and saw a wide range of gauges, controls and monitors. The Chief Engineer explained that the Fantasy is a diesel electric ship with the propellers driven by electric motors powered by 6 diesel generators. He pointed out pictures of the actual electric propulsion motors and generators in operation on some of the monitors in the room. He indicated that the Fantasy burns about 16,000 gallons of bunker fuel per day and must refill every 3 trips.

[______]

We then made the trip all the way up to deck 10 and the bridge. At all times there are 3 people on the bridge, a Quartermaster lookout and 2 senior officers. The bridge (as well as the engine control room) is a VERY secure area where even housekeeping is not allowed and the bridge team does it’s own housekeeping. The officers explained how the bridge works, including the transition to electronic charts and the auto pilots, and Captain Contarino greeted us and posed for a picture with us. Our final stop was back in Cleopatra’s where we filled in evaluations and were given souvenir hats. We were also given a handout with facts about the ship and it’s operations.

http://getawaysfrom21044.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/handout.pdf

[______]

I normally snack my way through breakfast but most of the morning was on tour so my final stage of breakfast became an omlet just after 11. When I returned to my room there was a plate of goodies on the table, I assume another perk of the tour.

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I went up on deck briefly for the Groove for St. Jude but spent most of the afternoon packing and catching up on my writing.

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[______]

All ten of us were present at Table 367 for a sad farewell dinner, topped off by the waiters singing “Leaving from our fun ship”. I called it a night soon after the evening’s main show, Motor City. There is a lot of audience participation in the show and Ken from Table 367 got to sign a couple of lines.

[______]

Today’s parting shot is a happy one. With the magic of modern communications I got a family email announcing the birth of our newest member, the grandson of one of my cousins. Welcome to the world Gabriel Brown.

[______]

Roy

[guemmerzeng]

Thanks for an enjoyable read and look forward to more.

[rafinmd]

I actually woke about 4:45. My first order of business was to go online and I headed up to the lido. When I started out my GPS showed us about 15 miles from Charleston. When my remaining 30 minutes was up and I started my walk (17 laps/1.5 miles) we had already passed Fort Sumter, and we turned around to face out towards the sea in my last lap or 2. We moved very slowly downstream to the dock with the first lines going out about 6:35 with a bit of lightning on the horizon. When the sun was due up at 7:05 the sky was totally socked in with clouds. After breakfast in the Lido and final organization of my carryon I left my room for the Universe Lounge about 8:15.

[______]

The Fantasy is using a so-called silent disembarkation; there are no shipwide announcements for groups to disembark. Announcements are made only in the Universe Lounge, and there’s a big screen showing which groups are leaving now and which are next up. There was just one hitch in the system, the guy at the mike was talking constantly, with most of his babble having nothing to do with the disembarkation. I had brought along my kindle, but reading with the guy’s constant talk was just about impossible. My group number 10 was estimated at 9:05 and actually called at 9:00. There were lines getting down the stairs and off the ship, at the entrance to the terminal and at customs but they all moved pretty quickly. I was out of the terminal and at the shuttle parking area at 9:35, and the Radisson van was there. He was ready to leave with the luggage compartment crammed full, but he put my suitcase in the aisle and I took the last seat with my carryon on my lap. We arrived at the hotel just before 10 and I was placed in one of the few rooms that was already madeup.

[______]

My brother had already arrived but was on a tour with the Haddo reunion, and I went to Panera for lunch. We got together about 3 and worked on the technical aspects of the talk he gives tomorrow, and then he went to a group dinner and I went back to Panera. It started raining mid afternoon and does not show signs of quitting.

[______]

As today’s parting shot it was an interesting experience going back to my first ever cruise ship. From the outside, the Fantasy looks extremely outdated, and Roger mentioned that even from his view of the ship from the other side of the river. I’ve sailed a number of ships from the same era, the Statendam, the Crystal Harmony, the Prinsendam (1998), and the Monarch of the Seas, and compared to the Fantasy they all feel and look extremely modern. Despite it’s outdated appearance, the Fantasy still provided a very pleasant experience. I’ll mention that one of my habits is that I avoid ship elevators except that on a new ship I will take a token ride downward in each elevator. For at least the last half of the trip elevator 3 was not functioning. That’s the ONLY thing I saw on the ship that wasn’t working well; it seems to be in excellent shape.

I’m really not a Carnival person, largely for the style but even more so for the itineraries, but I had a great week and enjoyed a rock bottom price. How can anyone complain about that.

 

Menus and Funtimes are now posted and verified--

 

Menus:http://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com/menus/fantasy-menus/

 

Funtimes:http://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com/programs/fantasy-fun-times/

 

Roy

[LUVMYGSDOG]

Roy - thank you so much for the review and the pictures! We have sailed on the Fantasy twice because its an easy drive and we always have a great time!

 

Enjoy your time in Charleston!

 

 

Kim