Back from Fantastic cruise on the Fantasy!! 10-11-2014

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

Ok.. bare with me.. this is my first ever review.. and I have a problem with rambling... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! We had an amazing time on the Fantasy. Let me start by saying yes, I know she is the oldest of the fleet.. but she DOES not show her age at all to me. We absolutely fell in love with the ship and the staff!!

Day 1 ---Charleston

We live in Greenville, NC and drove down to Charleston on Friday. We had booked the Red Roof Inn in Mt. Pleasant right at the foot of the bridge. We are not hard to please people... On the trip it was Me, my Husband David, my sister Haley and her boyfriend Taylor. Anyways, back to where we stayed ( I may or may not have some ADD, so bear with me!!) So we arrived at the hotel at a little under 5 hours. I could not have asked for more from the hotel.. it was CLEAN... just refurbished, and they let you leave your car for the week!!!

Day 2 --- TIME TO EMBARK!

The lady at the hotel called us a cab from the company that they use all the time. It was the Atlantic Cab company.. and they came with a mini van.. Mr. Frank was so nice.. I am a small town girl who does not get out very often (hehe) and was not used to riding in cabs! Anyways.. I was kinda a nervous wreck that morning.. just feeling like the mom of the group.. wanted to be sure everything was in its place.. documents, tags, etc. We did not get passports this go round.. just used out BC and driver's licenses. So as much as I had researched and read here on CC, I still could not take a deep breath till we were passed all the lines and actually on the boat! Mr. Frank was able to just calm my nerves and he made the ride to the boat very enjoyable. He told me to put his cell phone number in my cell phone and to call him on Thursday after we got thru customs and he would be back to pick us up... So we hopped out of the van.. grabbed our carry ons, and put our luggage out for the men to load up... ( we tipped them 5 bucks each couple ) oh, forgot to tell you that we got to the port right around 12:30. We went inside the port building and waited in the lines, that looked to take forever, but maybe it took 15 mins top! Got our sail and sign cards and we were on our way in!!! Nerves are gone!!! I was ready to start my vacation!!!

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David and Me, very excited to have made it on the ship!

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Haley and Taylor, they are excite as well, if you could not tell!

So we walked around for a while, knowing our rooms were not quite ready yet... checked out just about all the odds and ins of the ship.. then walked to our room and met Waiyhou (Pronounced YU) who was our cabin steward. He was so good to us!! He liked to joke around, and we liked that! He told us our room would be ready in ten mins.. so we walked around a little while longer..

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The Girls with Waiyhou

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and the boys!

So we dropped off our carry ons and headed to the Lido deck to get our drink of the day! It was the Fun Ship.. stupid me did not take a picture of the drink.. but let me just tell you.. that drink was so good.. I am thinking being on a ship and on vacation might have something to do with that! oh, and also.. they DO NOT SKIMP on the amount of alcohol that they put in these drinks.. you definitely get what you pay for. We did not do the cheers program this go round.. and boy were we dissapointed that we didn't! IT IS TOTALLY WORTH EVERY PENNY! David and Taylor are not really big drinkers.. maybe one or two a day.. Haley and I on the other hand were having a blast with the drinks.. so next time we go, we will be doing the Cheers package and the boys can use their drinks for Cokes!

We hung around the Lido for a little while, took it all in, and then went to the Casino to try to get out S&S cards punched.. well they were not open.. So we just explored a little more ---ate some snacks at the buffet and the Pirates Pizza.. and had a "few" more drinks..

Luggage--- we MAY or MAY NOT have tried to smuggle some alcohol in our luggage so I was still a little worried that we would have to take the "walk of shame" to go get our luggage...boy was I thrilled to see our beautiful suitcases sitting on our beds.. the first thing we did was see if our good stuff had made it! AND IT DID!!! So after all the excitement from that we got our rooms organized for the week.. We had an ocean-view room, mid ship, on the empress level (E136 & E140) and while it was nice to have the view, I think we have decided that we would go interior next time, just because we were HARDLY ever in our room. But, to each it's own

Now it was time to SET SAIL! We made our way to the back of the ship on the serenity.. and watched the boat take off!! We have officially set sail, which means, we were officially on VACATION!!!!

More to come! :) ;)

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

Dinner time.. We had the late dining time and that seemed to work well for us. We did not want part of our pool time to be taken away with having to go get ready. We ate in the Jubilee Dining Room. Haley had actually emailed the Maitre D' and asked for a table for 4 by the window.. ( I told her after that fact that it would be dark and we would not be able to see the water haha) So we go to our assigned table, and guess what?? It is a 10 top and NOT by the window.. She was a little bummed, but I told her this was the fun of the cruise meeting new people! We could not have been paired any better with a group of people then we were! They were perfect, and we ended up spending a lot of time together outside of dinner! Dwayne was our main server, and Shawn was his assistant. He had another assistant who was a woman, but we did not exactly click with her.. she just had no personality and frankly acted like she did not want to be there, so we did not even bother with pictures with her!

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Shawn with the girls!

We did not get the picture of the food the first night, I do not think I could have operated my camera if I had tried---darn those Drinks! I could not even tell you what we ate that night---- No worries--- I got that out of my system the first day! Pace yourself people.. or your whole cruise will be a blur!!! We ended up just going to bed that first night and being that boring couple!

Day 2--- Sea Day and Captains Night

We woke up and decided to go get some breakfast on the Lido.. It was good.. your basic eggs, bacon, sausage kind of thing. We wanted to spend as much time as we could at the pool and hot tubs. We got to the Lido fairly early and got really good chairs! We were in and out of the pool and hot tubs all morning.. but on this day-- we were getting bit in the pool. Everyone was.. and not horrible bites.. but little stings! So we eventually found out there were teeny tiny microscopic jelly fish that were in the pool! NO NO TITO! I was done with that.. who wants to swim with jelly fish!? So we were a little bummed with that.. We decided to get some lunch and eat in our lounge chairs so we didn't lose them!

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lunchtime!!

We literally stayed at the pool till supper time.. it was Captain's night, so we left and went and got ready!

Here are some pictures from Dinner.

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The Gang all dressed up!

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Lobster tail! We had two of these of course!

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the famous warm chocolate melting cake--which Taylor got 2-3 of each night!

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What a fun dinner we had!

After dinner, we changed and went to the comedy show. Valerie Storm was the comedian this night. She was funny.. but her whole act was about Balls.. But it was funny!

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Haley with the Comedian, Valerie Storm

We turned in early for the night after the show so we could be well rested for Freeport!! The first Port of our Cruise!

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

Here are the pictures that did not post.. like I said, I am a newbie, and it takes me a while :)

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Head Waiter Dwayne with Haley and Taylor

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Lunch on the Lido! :)

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

Day 3--Freeport!

Ok, so we woke up and headed to get breakfast again on the Lido to let the crowd get off the ship first. Not sure if there was a crowd when we could first get off at 8 but when we were getting off there was NO crowd at all. We were off to freeport after we swiped our S&S cards! We had decided to go to the Grand Lucyan Resort for the day. The cab ride was $10 pp round trip and the resort was $15 pp for the day which included using the 3 pools ( one of which was an infinity pool over looking the beautiful ocean), their private beach with lounge chairs-- don't forget to bring your towels!!

Here are a few pictures of the resort

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infinty pool

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Next stop was to Senor Frogs!!!

If you have never been to one of these.. and are Kid free.. you need to go!! It is a non stop party!

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beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

They hand out free shots at senor frogs.. about every half hour! Like I said, it is basically a non stop party!

Here are some more pictures!

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Captain Jack Sparrow showed up for the free shots!!

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Free Shots Time!!!

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beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

After Senor Frogs, we decided to get back on the boat and go up to the Lido for drinks and the pool and to see if we had any pier runners--which we didn't.

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view from the boat

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Miami Vice--Haley's favorite drink!

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David's Mojito

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We met up with our friends from dinner and had some shots!!!

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And we're off!! So long Freeport!!

Now, I have to say, we definitely enjoyed Freeport better than Nassau.. we did not plan anything to do in Nassau.. so maybe that is why.. more to come on that place tho!

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

After we left the port of Freeport, we hung around outside till it was time to get ready for dinner

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View of waterworks!

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Mini Golf!

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Sunset!! You can catch the BEST sunsets on a cruise ship!!!

Dinner time!! Pictures to come!

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

Dinner Time!! The food in the MDR is SO good.. and you can get as much as you want!

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Me and David

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Coconut Shrimp!

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Eggplant Parmesan!

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Some kind of seafood pasta.. can not remember what is was called.. but it was AMAZING!

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Now we are about to slip into our food comas!

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

Day 4--Nassau

We decided to sleep in till around 10 for this day, because like I said earlier, we did not have anything planned.. just wanted to go back to Senor Frogs for lunch and then do the straw market--- I know, I know.. we are crazy.. but I wanted to be able to say that we had been there.. well let me tell you.. if you go thru life and you can't say you even went to the straw market in Nassau.. it will be ok! It's HOT, and those folks a like VULTURES! Our friends from dinner decided to spend the day with us in Nassau, so it was fun just to walk around with them and go to lunch!

David did wake up early to catch some pictures of us getting into port!

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He had some company!

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View of all the ships in port!

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

So my one request was to get a drink out of a coconut!! Score!!!

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Time to take some pictures and get back on the boat!!!

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We went back to the pool and layed out till dinner!

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beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

Dinner time once again! I feel like we ate the WHOLE time!! We only ordered room service one time! We just were never hungry!

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Turkey Pasta

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Crab Cakes!! I may or may not have gotten a few of these! haha

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Prime Rib!

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Tiramisu

Back to the room to see our towel animal!!

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beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

After dinner we went to the other comedy show.. Azeem!! He was HILARIOUS!!! He interacted with the crowd great and kept us in tears from laughing so hard!!

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David and Me with Azeem

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Haley and Taylor with Azeem

Let me tell you.. if you are on this cruise in the near future.. you have to find KOKO the bar waiter up on the Lido.. he was amazing!! We would never order from anyone else that was walking around asking us if we wanted anything to drink!! We always waited for KOKO

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Me and Koko!!

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We loved him!!!

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

Day 4---Sea Day--headed home--

We got up and decided to eat in the dining room for seaday brunch

Here are some pics

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Pork Chops in Gouda Cheese Cream

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Bacon Mac and Cheese

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Fruit Loop covered French Toast

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Eggs Benidict

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Steak and Eggs!

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This day was kind of over cast--- but it was a come and go kinda thing, so we were fine with it.. we spent the WHOLE day at the pool and the hot tub!!!

David148 · October 20, 2014

Great review so far. Loving the pics! I'm from NC as well and going on the Fantasy in May. First time on this ship but can't beat the departure port :).

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

Our last night on the Cruise! We went to the casino to see if we could win some of that money back that we lost!! haha!! FAT chance!

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Dinner Time--- going to dinner broke! haha

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Salmon

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Roasted Duck--AMAZING!

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A taste of sushi!! I loved the "Didya" part of the menu....

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My FAVORITE dessert-- Bitter and Blanc!! It was SOOOO GOOD!! I wish they would make that a permanent dessert like the WCMC!

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

Well that is all.. I have to say we got a little sad as we were going thru pictures to post! I hope you enjoyed the review, I will be glad to answer any questions!! :) Thanks yall for reading!!!!

Meagan

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

I hope you have a great time!! She is a great ship!! We loved her and she will always have a special place in our hearts!! Thanks for your kind words!

SMSACE6 · October 20, 2014

Nice review! thanks for posting it, and thanks for the great photos too:)

beachmomma320 · October 20, 2014

Nice review! thanks for posting it, and thanks for the great photos too:)

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!!