Fascination review-May 27, 2018

[natefish95]

We're leaving Saturday morning for San Juan, sailing this same itinerary next week! Also, size is important, but it's what you do with it...

 

Sent from my SM-G960U using Forums mobile app

 

One without the other is fine, but both together is far better. Piloting a dingy is fine, but being the captain of a cruise ship makes many people happy. ;)

[natefish95]

The cruise begins!!

Day 1

 

I woke up, showered for like the 20th time since I've been in San Juan (it's hot, y'all), and got ready. I'm pretty sure my check-in time was at like 1:30, but I decided to just head to the port anyways and see what happens. The Fascination docks at the port in Old San Juan (I did see the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas at the other port across the bay).

 

Uber was fast and affordable like always.

 

My first glimpse of the Fascination in person!

 

Outside the terminal building there are porters taking luggage like every other cruise port in the world. They check your ID's and cruise docs like normal, and then you walk down this covered walkway into the building. This building was like a maze. Let me explain.

 

You go up an escalator and you're at the embarkation photo station. No thanks. I look like a hot mess already and posing alone is awkward. You then the corner and that's check-in. I got there around 11:30 and it was EMPTY! I walked right up and was checked in in five minutes. Fastest ever. You then walk around a wall (photos are on the other side) down some hallway and through security. It was weird doing that after checking in... You then go down another hallway, turn, down another hallway, down an escalator, across the baggage claim area, outside and then you enter the ship on Deck 3. Thankfully people were directing us.

 

Entering the ship in 3...2...1...

 

I am finally onboard the Carnival Fascination, my first Carnival cruise in basically forever and I was stoked! Honestly, one of my first thoughts was that this carpet is hella gaudy. It's like purple and gold, but I don't care. I want food and a drink and maybe not in that order. They had a lunch express elevator up the lido.

 

Looking down into the lobby

 

Lido deck. Looks inviting, huh?

 

Blue Iguana Tequila Bar

 

Guy's Burgers menu

[natefish95]

I really wanted a drink, but I was also starving, so I went to the Lido Buffet first.

 

 

Let's talk about buffet food. It was not good. This was the saddest spread of food I had ever seen. There was not much selection and the buffet areas themselves are quite small, which limits what can be put out. Towards the center of the buffet were salad and dessert stations, but the main entree areas was sad. Here was my plate of sad food.

 

 

I got a little bit of almost everything just to try and I'd go back for round two and get what I liked best. The only thing I really liked was the potato salad, but that's not a meal, so I went to Guy's Burger instead.

 

Now that's what I'm talking about

 

I love burgers. They're one of my favorite foods. Was this the best burger ever? No. Was it delicious? Absolutely. I think it's better than NCL burgers because their patties are always on the brink of being burnt. Plus, the toppings bar at Guy's is great. The chipotle mayo was amazing.

 

Afterwards, I went exploring this little ship.

 

Above the lido buffet is the Waterworks area.

 

Below the lido buffet and behind the Puttin' on the Ritz lounge is the Serenity adults only area

 

There was a good amount of loungers and some chairs further back in the shade. I spent a lot of time here. There was a towel station where you can check out a yellow Serenity towel, but I didn't think they were any better than the normal blue towels you're given. There are supposedly public bathrooms a flight of stairs down from Serenity, but they were always locked, so the closest restrooms are through the Ritz lounge and in the elevator lobby area.

 

Putting on the Ritz lounge where the comedy shows were held and some movies

[natefish95]

My favorite place on the entire boat, Alchemy Bar. More on that later

 

On each side of Alchemy were comfortable seating areas that were great for reading.

 

This is the main walkway on deck 9.

 

Bogart's Cafe, where I got iced lattes every day

 

Bogarts Cafe menu prices (sorry for the glare). This is all included in the CHEERS package.

 

The passage to India lounge was themed pretty cool

 

[natefish95]

Further down the main boulevard

 

Bonsai Sushi Express

 

I had all the intentions to go here, but it just didn't happen. The rolls looked pretty good and they were priced pretty fairly.

 

Looking down from the balcony in the main theater

 

Overhead view of the Lido

 

Hidden on the very top deck all the way forward is the mini golf course

 

The gym looked adequate

 

I didn't go to the gym, but you have to walk through the spa and locker rooms, so it can be a bit tricky to find. In the locker rooms there was a sauna and steam room, which are free of charge. You can get a locker key from the spa reception desk at no cost. Just hand over your key card, which you get back when you turn the key in. The men's sauna was out of order all week, which was disappointing, but I really enjoyed the steam room. I went almost every day. There was almost no one in there the entire week and it was very quiet and relaxing. It can comfortably seat 5, so a little small, but perfectly adequate.

[natefish95]

The rooms opened right on time about 1:30. I was staying cabin U-171, which is a interior upper/lower. This means that there is one twin and then another twin bed pulls down. I was shocked by how spacious the cabin was!

 

 

 

 

 

There was plenty of storage space. The desk area was nice and large. I never turned on the tv, so can't speak to that. I hate how Carnival refuses to use shower doors. The clingy curtain is just gross in my opinion, but the shower was actually very big. Carnival provides their own shower gel and shampoo. For those that followed my NCL Getaway review, they know I forgot my own so I had to use the ones NCL provided. Thankfully, I remembered my own this time.

 

Random literature waiting in my room that is "Good to Know"

 

Show schedule for the week. Love how Carnival does this. I referenced this picture many times throughout the week to see when things were going on.

[natefish95]

Day 1 Fun Times

 

 

Hallway outside my cabin

 

I spent some more time wandering and exploring. I know at some point I went to the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar for some margaritas and then a while later I discovered my new favorite bar, Alchemy Bar.

 

Alchemy menu

 

 

The bartenders in Alchemy this week were Milan, Marc, and Jelena. They were all incredible and super nice and great at suggesting new drinks I might enjoy based on what I usually order. They were also super fun to chat with. This bar never got busy (probably because these drinks are a bit more expensive and most didn't have CHEERS this sailing).

[natefish95]

I can't remember if the dining rooms that night opened at 5:00 or 5:30, but it was open seating anyways. I went around 5:30 and was expecting to eat alone, but was unexpectedly shown to a sharing table. Now this was a nice gesture, but I wish the hostess would have asked my preference first. I wish I would have eaten alone because it was a little awkward. It was a long table of 12. Some couples at the end didn't speak English so conversed amongst themselves at the far end. I was near a nice mother and son, but we didn't really have anything in common or much to talk about. Same for the other people. Nice, but nothing in common and nothing to talk about, so it was mostly quiet.

 

Night 1 menu pics

 

 

 

 

I did not take any food pictures because that just seemed a bit weird around people I don't know and barely talked to.

 

For my appetizers I got the chilled Vietnamese roll, which was decent. Not too much flavor and the peanut sauce was very strong. I'm pretty sure I got the corn chowder as well, which was pretty good. For my main I got the sweet and sour shrimp. I'm not sure why because I'm picky about shrimp. I wasn't a big fan, but it was edible. And for dessert, what I've been dreaming about for years, the chocolate melting cake! It was delicious and exactly as I remember it. Perfection.

 

Forgot I took this picture. Almost everyone skipped dessert, so I was sitting alone shoveling this deliciousness in my mouth.

 

Service this night was very fast and only took about an hour from start to finish.

 

After dinner I walked around on deck and took pictures.

 

Around 7:00pm I believe was when we had our FB page meetup. We had a very active group with awesome hosts. It's always so much fun to meet people in person who you've been chatting with the past few months. Super fun group. We had all kinds of activities organized including a slot pull and a onesie/PJ contest. But let me tell y'all, there was so much drama after that slot pull. All I'm going to say is that some people wrote nasty messages on the FB page and then left the group. Some people need to chill. You're on vacation. Don't get your granny panties in a wad. Nonetheless, super fun group!

 

I went to the welcome aboard show at 8 in the theater, which was nice. I really can't remember what all it involved. Marcelo was an amazing Cruise Director. Lots of personality and super engaging. I know he left the Fascination last week though. He was replaced by Marq Anthony. Marcelo will return July 28th according to John Heald's schedule.

 

Muster drill was at 9:00pm and I was falling asleep. It lasted around 30-40 minutes, so not awful. We did not have to stand outside thankfully. There was a muster station located by the pool, which I thought was a little bizarre. I was in the Ritz lounge, so it was cool and comfortable.

 

Sailaway was at 10:00pm, but there really isn't much to see.Was very different sailing out so late and while it's dark.

 

Later on I went to the adult comedy show by Lance Montalto, which was pretty funny. He was the least funny comic all week, but was better than both of the NCL Getaway comics.

 

I then headed back to my cabin and fell asleep almost instantly. The bed was very comfortable!

 

Day 1-done

 

Next up-Day 2: St. Thomas

[MeganGC1983]

Loving this review! Thanks so much!! Can’t wait to see the rest!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[JohnSpo]

I am enjoying your review. Great photos. Nice tour of Fascination.:cool:

[natefish95]

Day 2-St. Thomas

Welcome to St. Thomas! I didn't get off the ship, so if you're looking for port information, go to the destination boards.

 

Before the cruise I had decided to treat St. Thomas as a "sea day" and just stay on the ship and relax. I didn't get too many pictures from today, so let me try and reconstruct my day.

 

 

Docked in St. Thomas

 

 

I was in St. Thomas last year on the Escape and enjoyed it. I highly recommend Sapphire Beach if you're looking for a beach day. From my POV on the ship, you could definitely still see some damage present, which is sad to see. I'm hoping hurricane season is much kinder this year than last.

 

Apparently I forgot to take pictures of the St. Thomas dailies. Oops.

 

Anyways, I slept in and missed breakfast in the dining room. So I went down to Serenity to relax in the sun for a bit.

 

Eventually I went up to Lido and grabbed a Guy's Burger for lunch and went back down to Serenity to do some reading, listened to a few podcasts, and just enjoyed the quiet.

 

 

They do have waiters coming around taking drink orders periodically, but it always took awhile, so I would always go one deck up to the bar in the back of the buffet and get a drink there. I'll give a shoutout to John the bartender from India. I met him on embarkation day and he was so much fun. He got me to try some new things and made who knows what when I told him what I liked and told him to surprise me.

 

At some point I went and freshened up, had a few drinks at Alchemy, and then went to our official FB meetup with some of the ships officers. The Entertainment Director Caitlin was there as was Marcelo and members from the Fun Squad. Our FB hosts and organizers also had a raffle and I won a ship on a stick! I never win anything. We had a mini family game night tonight and I didn't even win at that.

 

Proof

 

By this point it was too late for dinner, so I went up to the buffet to try and scavenge. I really don't know what I ate, but I did go to the bar. Drinks with a view!

[natefish95]

This was also Memorial Day, so it was nice seeing the flag hanging in the lobby.

 

I hung out at the Alchemy Bar, and then went to the Love and Marriage show, which was hilarious. I went to the adults only comedy shows from Johnny Millwater, which was really funny. While I was at Alchemy after the show, I met a couple and we went to the casino together. I've never really gambled, but they were roulette players, so I tried my hand at that and lost $20, but it was a lot of fun. By this time it was like 1:30am and I had a beach day planned for Antigua. We'll see how that turned out...

[natefish95]

Day 3-Antigua

 

Antigua Fun Times

 

Close up on activiites

 

Close up on dining

 

So our port time in Antigua was 7:00am-3:00pm and I had researched beaches. I settled on Darkwood beach because it seemed rather remote, easily accessible by public bus (or taxi), and had a small shack for food and drinks. My body had other plans though.

 

My CHEERS count from the day before was in the double digits (not maxed out though) and I was feeling ROUGH. To sum it up, I did not get off the boat in Antigua. I was super bummed too, because I was looking forward to seeing Darkwood Beach. Antigua looked nice from the boat though

 

 

 

 

I knew I needed to eat and finally discovered the deli in the back of the buffet. I settled on the turkey wrap, which was honestly oddly watery. The flavor was fine, but the turkey itself was very moist. It's like it was sitting in a bucket of water. It was just weird. I had much better experiences at the deli later on in the week though.

 

We pulled away from Antigua late because people were missing and I learned later that we left them (we also left people in Barbados from what I heard).

 

You could feel the ship movement a little while leaving Antigua, because Barbados is a pretty good distance away. Nothing too bad though. Before getting ready for dinner, I went up to the steam room and relaxed there for a little while enjoying the silence and the motion of the ship.

[natefish95]

Tonight was the first of two formal nights. I'll be honest and say that I hate formal nights. I wear a suit and tie for work and I'm sure as heck not going to wear one on vacation. I must be in the minority because everyone was dressed up with most in suits and a few tuxes. I understand wanting to get nice family pictures, but no formal nights is my favorite thing about NCL. Nonetheless, I put on long pants and a button up and went up to the dining room to finally meet my dinner mates for the first time.

 

I was at a round 12 top table. When I arrived there was another solo traveler there from Puerto Rico. Soon after a family of 4 from Chicago joined us and then another solo traveler from Atlanta. They didn't show up that night, but the other table mates were a mom and her two daughters and another solo traveler from Maine. My biggest fear was that I would be sitting with like a family of 4 for dinner, which is awkward. Thankfully, Carnival seemed to group some solos together, which I was really pleased with.

 

Dinner menu

 

 

I started off the with kale and pork tarts

 

These were one of my favorite things all week. They were so good.

 

Then I had the fried oyster.

 

Good, but nothing special

 

And for my main, lobster tail! I do love that Carnival still serves lobster tail in the MDR. This has disappeared from NCL in recent years.

 

Really delicious

 

Dessert menu (I had the melting cake of course)

 

Now before the cruise I thought the shows would be annoying and loud and ruin the atmosphere of dinner, but they were actually good. They played popular songs, so you can't help but sing along.

 

Tonight was the Divas production show, which was good. I don't want to be mean, but the talent was definitely much better on NCL. Still 100x better than anything I could do, but just wanted to point that out. Good show though. One of my table mates was actually chosen to be the Diva of the show and got a makeover backstage and $50 spa gift card and became part of the show at the end.

 

I went to a few comedy shows that night and spent some more time at the Alchemy Bar.

[natefish95]

Not going to get into Barbados right now because that will be a long post and it's 2am. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there though!

[Joebucks]

I was on that cruise last month, boy do I miss it. Bummed that you don't get to go to Barbados. That was one of my favorite stops.

[LE]

The cruise begins!!

Day 1

 

I woke up, showered for like the 20th time since I've been in San Juan (it's hot, y'all), and got ready. I'm pretty sure my check-in time was at like 1:30, but I decided to just head to the port anyways and see what happens. The Fascination docks at the port in Old San Juan (I did see the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas at the other port across the bay).

 

Uber was fast and affordable like always.

 

My first glimpse of the Fascination in person!

 

Outside the terminal building there are porters taking luggage like every other cruise port in the world. They check your ID's and cruise docs like normal, and then you walk down this covered walkway into the building. This building was like a maze. Let me explain.

 

You go up an escalator and you're at the embarkation photo station. No thanks. I look like a hot mess already and posing alone is awkward. You then the corner and that's check-in. I got there around 11:30 and it was EMPTY! I walked right up and was checked in in five minutes. Fastest ever. You then walk around a wall (photos are on the other side) down some hallway and through security. It was weird doing that after checking in... You then go down another hallway, turn, down another hallway, down an escalator, across the baggage claim area, outside and then you enter the ship on Deck 3. Thankfully people were directing us.

 

Entering the ship in 3...2...1...

 

I am finally onboard the Carnival Fascination, my first Carnival cruise in basically forever and I was stoked! Honestly, one of my first thoughts was that this carpet is hella gaudy. It's like purple and gold, but I don't care. I want food and a drink and maybe not in that order. They had a lunch express elevator up the lido.

 

Looking down into the lobby

 

Lido deck. Looks inviting, huh?

 

Blue Iguana Tequila Bar

 

Guy's Burgers menu

 

I thought another review showed embarkation on Deck 7, Empress. You clearly boarded on Deck 3. You think it might vary on different occasions. Guess it's not a big deal, but curious.

[beshears]

Enjoying your review with pictures so far. I noticed that the flier that Carnival puts out is 3-fold like I'm used to.:) We were on the much larger ship the Magic, and they have the flier as one piece-front/back, but I prefer the 3-folder much better. With the one-piece flier, the print is smaller as well. I like to mark them up as what I want to see for that day.:)

[Quilcruisers]

Great review. We cruised out of San Juan many years ago and loved it. We were on the victory. That year before, we were on a different ship and stopped in San Juan and fell in love with it. Looking forward to reading more.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[MsJersey84]

Great review!! I love all the personality commemts like when you were on the Marta.

"Why lord, why?" Lol..

[Stinger-pr]

I thought another review showed embarkation on Deck 7, Empress. You clearly boarded on Deck 3. You think it might vary on different occasions. Guess it's not a big deal, but curious.

The walkway used to transfer from the upper level of the terminal where you check in to the ship was damaged by hurricane Maria. That's why they are embarking using deck 3. You now have to go back downstairs to gain access to the gangway to enter the ship.

[LE]

The walkway used to transfer from the upper level of the terminal where you check in to the ship was damaged by hurricane Maria. That's why they are embarking using deck 3. You now have to go back downstairs to gain access to the gangway to enter the ship.

 

Thanks. Obviously, not all that important, but in reading these postings I hadn't come across your explanation, so was a bit puzzled. Likely other differences in reading postings from before last year's hurricanes and reading posting of those afterwards as recoveries are made.

 

It will be interesting to see if and when they return to using the walkway to Deck 7, as it appeared to lend itself to a bit more glamorous and warm welcoming atmosphere than the gangway on Deck 3.

[Morgeuse]

Thanks for this review! Looking forward to the rest.

[KatieKatie17]

I love this itinerary and I'm enjoying this review as much as I enjoyed your review of the cruise that preceded this one.

[Mwells1246]

I need to know how the rest of the cruise went!