Carnival Fascination Review 2/10-2/17

[purplephenom]

This will be a text only review- I don't have my pictures uploaded yet, we just got off the ship on Sunday, and I'd like to get this posted when my thoughts and memories are still fresh in my mind. 

 

My name is Vasanthi, we'll call my travel partner D.  We are two thirty somethings, from Maryland.  We aren't into the casino or huge drinkers (though I think we probably drank more on this cruise than our previous 3 cruises combined), we love exploring ports, and we typically stick to Carnival excursions for a few reasons that aren't all that important to this review, but just figured I'd toss it out there.  This was my 6th cruise, and D's 4th- we've done the western route a couple times, and the Aruba/Curacao route, so this was definitely different from what we had done before.  Of the 2 of us, I am the planner, so I'll switch between I and we in this review- because I was the one doing all the research, D is usually along for the ride, happily or humoring me..depends on the day. 

 

Cruise Planning: 

 

I was very, very hesitant to book this cruise.  Puerto Rico flights were expensive, the ship was small and old, and I love sea days, and this cruise only had 1 and it was towards the beginning of the cruise.  But D was persistent, and he finally wore me down.  So, being the deal seeker that I am, I booked this one early, and constantly started checking for price drops.  We ended up with $150 in on board credit.  At this point, I'm starting to like this cruise more- because I get thrills out of finding good deals. 

 

I started checking out flights to Puerto Rico from Maryland 2 years pre cruise, and was shocked at the prices.  We generally prefer Southwest, but will branch out as needed.  Flights were ranging from $400-700 a person, and I was back to being skeptical about this cruise.  Then it dawned on us to sign up for the Southwest credit card, and voila, "free" flights!  So again...good deal = happy me. 

 

Leading up to this cruise, the government shutdown had us nervous.  Were we going to be able to make our flight?  Would TSA lines be ridiculous?  We fly out of Baltimore- would ATC choose to ground all flights? Obviously government workers had much more serious problems to worry about, and this was decidedly a first world problem, but I probably refreshed twitter a million times a day to see if the government had opened back up.  When it did, we were very relieved and began to get really excited about this cruise. 

 

Saturday February 9.

 

We flew out of BWI at 8:30 am, and were in Puerto Rico by 1:30 pm.  A quick cab ride later (taxi line were very organized and we were in a cab in 5 minutes), and we arrived at the Decanter Hotel.  Pre cruise, i was a little nervous about picking a hotel- do we stay in Old San Juan, do we stay at the beach, why are hotels so expensive, what we do we do???  We settled on the Decanter hotel due to location- right in Old San Juan and near the forts. Also one of the cheaper hotels in the area.

 

We got to the hotel, charged up our phones and were off for a day of exploring.  Our priorities for the day were to tour the forts, and find some Mofongo.  Mofongo is a plantain and meat dish that is popular in Puerto Rico- and we both LOVE plantains.  A secondary priority was to find as many cats as possible.  Cats were brought into the fort area years ago, and now there are cats all over Old San Juan.  We are animal lovers, and I was super excited about this.  I'm not totally sure D believed me when I told him there were cats everywhere, but we did see a bunch of them wandering the streets.  Some took one look at us and wandered away, but others loved any attention we wanted to give them. And they were adorable.  But..this is a review about a cruise, not cats, so let's move on. 

 

We never did make it to the forts this day- they were walkable from our hotel, but we walked the other way, and just wandered around the city.  D needed a pair of sunglasses and my mom gave me strict instructions to pick up pretty magnets from everywhere we went, so i was on a magnet hunt.  We found some Mofongo, tried the local beer (Medalla- it was very cheap and very good), and tried some ice cream with Bailey's in it.  Then more wandering, found a street festival going on, and just took in the sights.  We were tired from being up at too early o'clock, so headed back to the hotel, grabbed some more Medalla and called it an early night.

 

Sunday February 10.

 

Cruise Day!!!! We were up early, but our check in time wasn't til 1 pm.  Our hotel check out time was 11 am; we didn't really have anything planned for this time.  We finally decided to go drop our bags off at port and just walk around til check in time. We ended up calling an Uber to get to port, I highly recommend this- Uber is super cheap in Puerto Rico.  Our ride to port was probably about 10 minutes (old San Juan traffic was awful, even on a Sunday morning).  A similar Uber ride here at home would have been about $10, in Puerto Rico it was $3.50.  Ok good start to our cruise..again those good deals make me happy. 

 

We arrived at the port area about 11:00 am, and there are tons of people standing around waiting to drop off bags, and 1 guy with  a megaphone trying to create some order.  He was less than successful, but he was certainly trying.  The porters were quick, and our suitcases were taken from us about 11:15.  At this point, we were going to go explore Old San Juan a little more- I wanted a picture by the I Love San Juan sign if nothing else.  But we realized we were in a fenced in area, and the guy with a megaphone was trying to form a line to begin check in.  Wait a minute, our check in time wasn't until 1 pm.  We didn't want to be rule breakers, but we were told to get in line anyway.  So...we're not going to complain about getting on the ship early.  As the line was forming, a couple people with Carnival name tags on were walking around and checking check in times.  They pulled the people who had Priority boarding out of line and told everyone else to stay put- they said they'd board Priority people and then start with the regular line.  At this point, I'm feeling guilty- are you sure we're ok in this line, we're not supposed to be here until 1.  But, we were told to stay put...so, ok!  

 

Check in was a breeze- according to the first picture on my phone, we were sitting on Lido eating lunch by 11:50.  We did receive our sail and sign cards at check in.  The Fascination doesn't have mailboxes, so i'm not sure if that is the reason they weren't waiting for us at our cabins, or if this port just hasn't switched over yet. 

 

We usually book the cheapest cabin on the ship- on this ship that was a deck 4 inside.  These older fantasy class ships use deck 4 as the lowest passenger deck- and that threw some people off all cruise.  Many times, we ran into someone who desperately wanted to go to deck 1 or 2.  Of course, they meant 4 or 5, but was cause for a little confusion. 

 

We had planned to eat and then get back off the ship...but it was hot, and we had our fill of Old San Juan the day before.  So we ate our lunches, walked around the ship and took some goofy pictures, and got to know our home for the next week.  Since this cruise only had the one sea day, i headed up to find a lounge chair and enjoy my kindle for awhile. 

 

About 3 pm, D texted me from the cabin saying our luggage had arrived, so I ran downstairs to unpack.  We found we had plenty of room to put all our stuff away in drawers and closets.  When we cruise, we use the vanity for a catch all for all our junk, and it was big enough for that, nothing ended up on the floor as on previous cruises. 

 

At this point..we were sort of at loose ends.  Normally, this is the part of the day where we go to muster.  but we had a good 4 hours before muster, due to the late departure.  So we took the time to just relax, and walk around the ship.  Because of the late muster, dinner is open seating the first night.  We were scheduled for late dining in the Imagination dining room, so we took the chance to try open seating in the Sensation dining room.  I wanted to see the other dining room, and I think D just wanted food and didn't really care where we ate.  

 

We didn't really like the idea of open seating- part of our reason for choosing late seating is so we don't have to wait and can walk in and sit down.  After about a 10 minute wait, we were seated at a table for 2 that was so close to the 4 top on 1 side of us and the 2 top on the other side, i wasn't sure if we should chat with our neighbors or not. We said hello, and everyone carried on and it was slightly awkward but not too bad.  The food was good, and i finally got the chocolate melting cake i had been waiting a whole year to eat again.  

 

After dinner, we changed out of our nicer clothes and got ready for muster.  I was pleasantly surprised by the muster drill on this cruise.  It was the first drill i was a part of that was inside, and not standing on a deck in straight lines.  I was worried about the drill in 2 languages, fearing it would take a long time, but it went quickly.  Also, everyone was checked in at our muster station about 5 minutes early, and the drill was over quickly.

 

After muster, we decided to stay put since Karaoke was offered in the same lounge, and I wanted to sing before i lost the nerve to do so.  So we hung out for awhile, chatting with some of our fellow cruisers, watched Karaoke for awhile, i got my song in and we headed to the Piano Bar.  The Piano Bar is one of our favorite places to be on cruises- and piano player Pete was great.  He had a good mix of songs, mixed in some banter, and everyone generally seemed to have a good time.  

 

About midnight, we decided to call it a night, and get ready for St Thomas...

 

This section got longer than I was expecting, so more to come on St. Thomas later today. 

[fbe2228]

Thank you for doing this review.  We will be on Fascination this Sunday and your information will be very helpful.  I'm sure you'll get to it, but who was the band that played in the evenings and how were they if you had the opportunity to listen?  Thank you!

[purplephenom]

1 hour ago, fbe2228 said:

Thank you for doing this review.  We will be on Fascination this Sunday and your information will be very helpful.  I'm sure you'll get to it, but who was the band that played in the evenings and how were they if you had the opportunity to listen?  Thank you!

 

 

I don’t know the name of the band, but they were good. Played a good variety of music, and usually had an audience. They were set up near the casino so the area was a little smoky 

[fbe2228]

Thank you.  Maybe we'll park ourselves down a little ways so that we can still hear them but not be in the smoke.

[purplephenom]

Monday February 12...St Thomas. 

 

This port was tough for us to decide on something to do. At first, we thought about just going to the beach, but decided we wanted something more active. Then we thought about parasailing, but it was pricey and you only got one ride. Then we thought about zip lining, but I really wanted a water excursion. After some indecisiveness, Carnival added the sea lion swim. D was like book it now! Ok decision made. 

 

This was one of the best Carnival excursions we have done (I’ll say the same thing about Barbados for similar reasons).  

 

we left port a few minutes early for this and we only had 5 people in our group. That is unheard of for Carnival, all 5 of us couldn’t believe it. 

 

This excursion took place at coral world. We got there, signed our lives away and met up with the sea lion girls who were going to be helping us. We had 2 trainers and a 3rd trainer who served as our photographer for the day. We were told to take everything off that we weren’t going to wear for the swim; shoes, sunglasses, jewelry, hats had to come off. We were fitted with life jackets. They told us a little about the sea lions and their training, and made it very clear that the sea lions were their first priority (we were their second). If the sea lions weren’t enjoying themselves, they’d be switched out and they didn’t have to do anything they didn’t want to do. 

 

We we were allowed to jump in the water with 1 sealion. He just swam around with us for awhile, they eventually had him do some tricks and showed us what they were teaching him. Everyone was allowed one individual posed photo. 2 of us did these in the water, 2 more did it on land. Then they saw the sea lion had enough and brought in a different sea lion to take a photo with the last person. 

 

We we probably had an hour with the sealion, it was plenty of time, not just a glorified photo session. A flash drive was available for purchase, and it’s worth it. I think the 2 of us have around 100 photos. 

 

We had some time to explore Coral World, and were taken back to port around 12:30. 

 

I would give this excursion an A.  Plenty of time in the water, and to explore the park. Photos are expensive but cheaper than dolphin photos in other ports. They emphasize safety of the sea lions and guests. The small group made all the difference. 

 

Back in in the port area, we did some browsing, but nothing really caught our attention. 

 

Back on the ship, we grabbed some Blue iguana for lunch.  Blue iguana doesn’t have burrito bowls on the menu, but the popularity of these bowls grew thru the week. On day one, we saw a couple people with these bowls, by day 7, seemed like every other table had one. 

 

This is was a quick port day for us.  We looked thru the fun times but nothing really caught our attention. I normally look forward to crafting activities, but these were all held at 2 pm, and we were never back on the ship for them. This ship had a lot of juggling classes, but much fewer of the other dancing classes and games that we have grown to enjoy on other ships. That may have been due to the port intensive cruise, but was a bit of a let down. 

 

That just meant more time for me to enjoy my kindle. My kindle and a deck chair and I’m a happy girl. Serenity is very small on this ship, so it was always full. Lido was usually busy, but not full, except for our seaday afternoon. And one deck up from Lido, there were plenty of chairs to choose from. So that’s where we hung out. 

 

We headed to dinner; we loved that we could be out of the dining room in around an hour. 

 

After dinner we we headed to the piano bar. The layout here was a little awkward. The piano bar is big and plenty of room, which was great. But it was situated between the teen clubs and could be heard in the hall. That seemed a little odd but it didn’t bother us. The bigger issue was any atrium parties could be heard in the piano bar, and piano player Pete was drowned out. After a couple attempts to play thru, he just stopped until parties were over. 

 

We we had a great bar waitress in the piano bar. Trisha from St Lucia went on vacation when we reached St Lucia. Until then, Pete had her sing a couple songs nightly and she was GREAT. She should be performing somewhere. 

 

Next up....sea day

[purplephenom]

Tuesday February 12. Sea day. 

 

This was a chill day for us. We went to the sea day brunch around 9 am. No wait for a table for 2, and we actually had space between tables so we weren’t awkwardly avoiding eye contact again. 

 

We finished up brunch and headed up to the Lido deck around 11 am. I wasn’t expecting to get 2 chairs together, but we found plenty of chairs at the back of the ship. I settled in with my kindle, and D with his headphones. 10 minutes later, here comes a bar waiter with giagantic pineapples filled with pina coladas. Yes please! We will take 2 of those. 

 

This is was the day we really felt the lack of activities around the ship. But, we made our own fun. A little mini golf, a little ice cream, it’s all good, we had a good time. 

 

I also went went to the fitness center on this day, around 5 pm. Plenty of open machines, all seemed in good working order. And it was nice to workout looking out on the water. 

 

After dinner, it was back to the piano bar for us. One disappointment was karaoke wasn’t every night. I think it was 3/7 nights.  We really enjoyed the piano bar, so it was fine, but D had mentioned wanting to do different things this cruise. 

 

 

Next up....Barbados!

 

[cindik]

Enjoying your review, we did this cruise in December and have it booked again in 2020. Loved it! Nice to get new ideas for excursions next time!

[purplephenom]

6 minutes ago, cindik said:

Enjoying your review, we did this cruise in December and have it booked again in 2020. Loved it! Nice to get new ideas for excursions next time!

 

Thank you! I loved these ports when it came down to it. May consider it again as well

 

 

[purplephenom]

Wednesday February 13...Barbados. 

 

As soon as I started looking at Barbados excursions, I knew I wanted to see turtles. D and I visited the aquarium in Atlanta last summer, and the turtle there ducked away every time I tried to find it... so my refrain for months became “at least I’ll see turtles in Barbados.” So I was pretty excited about this one.  And hoping I didn’t have bad luck again. 

 

Carnival has 3 different turtle excursion. 2 are on a catamaran. We chose the more expensive of the 2, which included lunch and an open bar. We were a little disappointed in a catamaran excursion in Aruba last year, where we were on board for 5 hours and maybe in the water for 1.5. So we were hoping we would get more water time here. 

 

Lets ts start with crowds. Yes this was more crowded than calabaza or silver moon. But the guides were great at getting everyone taken care of, we were very content. There were 40 to 50 people on board but we had room to spread out and relax

 

The trip included breakfast pastries with tea/soda/juice, lunch, an open bar, and desserts. 

 

First stop top was the turtles. We were the only boat there. We spent 30 minutes in the water with 2 turtles. 2 Guides fed them fish. so they hung out with our group. Every 5 minutes or so, the guides encouraged anyone who hadn’t seen a turtle and gotten good pictures to come forwards. But the turtles were swimming around our group so everyone ended up with plenty of pictures. 

 

Our 2nd stop was to be at a shipwreck but the captain said too many swells so we had to skip it. They took us to a reef area near a beach instead and said we could snorkel there but not swim to the beach because of the swells. The reef area was calm, but there wasn’t much to see. Some people got back on board at this point...D gave Snorkeling a shot, I just hung out in the water. There are worse places to be than the Caribbean Sea, right?

 

after they called us back on board, the bar was open. They had about 5 types of rum, plus local beer, plus other stuff. But they had me at rum, I didn’t question too much after that. They served lunch at this point. Chicken/fish, rice and beans, lasagna, and a couple salads. The food was good, the drinks were strong, I was happy. They would walk around serving drinks or you could walk to the bar. 

 

After eating, some of us got back in the water...they said no Snorkeling after drinking but I guess floating around was ok. 

 

On on the way back to the Tiami (the catamaran provider) offices, they served more drinks and desserts. 

 

Back at the tiami office, they had a small shop.  Prices here were better than the port on small souviniers

 

If you needed fins on this excursion you needed to bring your own. They say they don’t provide them for the safety of the turtles and reefs 

 

overall i’d Give this excursion an A minus  the parts we were able to do were excellent. Catamaran wasn’t crowded, plenty of water time, bar was great, and I didn’t get kicked in the face Snorkeling. This really didn’t feel like an overcrowded ship excursion. The minus is because we didn’t see the shipwreck or beach...but you can’t control Mother Nature. 

 

We we got back to the port tired and happy, did a little browsing and called it a day close to all aboard time. 

 

Back on board, nothing besides guys was open to eat.  I’m not a huge burger fan, D loves but doesn’t really love Guys. We were still full from lunch though so no problem. A little later, I tried the deli. The pizza line was out of control at this point (around 5j, and waiting in line really didn’t appeal. But, my sandwich was fine. 

 

After dinner this night, we went back to the piano bar. I think we called it a night a little earlier; we were tired and that made the piano bar seem more annoying and less fun, but that was very likely more us and less anything to do with the piano bar.  

 

 

Next up...St Lucia. I feel like I’m talking to myself here, so I hope I’m not boring everyone. 

[mlshum]

I just got off this same ship a week before you got on.  Like you, I finished my review fairly quickly.  Such a great cruise!  I wish I had found the sea lion excursion in St Thomas because it sounds amazing!  Thanks for doing this review.  I’m enjoying following along!

 

Michelle

[LittleYiaYia]

4 hours ago, fbe2228 said:

Thank you for doing this review.  We will be on Fascination this Sunday and your information will be very helpful.  I'm sure you'll get to it, but who was the band that played in the evenings and how were they if you had the opportunity to listen?  Thank yo

 

We will be on this cruise with you.  We did this cruise last February.  They had a great band in the casino every evening and also in the atrium occasionally.  Of course I realize it is someone new this time.  We really don't remember the casino as being too smoky.  The Latin band that played was also very good.  I'm glad to hear it was a new player in the piano bar as we did not enjoy the entertainer at all last year.  Only 5 days to sail away!!!

[mommio]

Thank you!  I'm really enjoying your review.  Going in April, second time on this itinerary,  but first time on the Fascination.

 

[purplephenom]

Thursday February 14...St Lucia. 

 

The one thing I wanted to do this cruise was see the Pitons. Volcanos and sugar beach? Sounded so awesome. We booked Carnival’s snorkel between the pitons. As luck would have it, it got cancelled. We looked into Spenser Ambrose and his tours. We really wanted to do his snorkel adventure. But no one had booked it and we couldn’t drum up interest. So at this point, I told D to just pick something. He selected Snuba at pigeon island. 

 

Im sounding like a broken record here, but this was another case of I can’t believe this is a carnival excursion. We had 10 people in our group. That’s it? Ok let’s go. We get to pigeon island and they divided us into groups of 4, 4, and 2. After explaining the procedure, off we went with our guide. After showing us how the breathing regulator worked, we had a chance to try while still being close enough to touch bottom. I needed more weight in my belt and the guide gave it to me unobtrusively, without embarrassing me.  At this point, we were good to go.  The guide let us go as deep as we wanted, down to 20 feet. I think I hung out at about 18 feet, some others were on the surface and everyone was comfortable. Our adventure lasted  about a half hour but it felt longer. D was done when we got out of the water. I was tired too...but I never want to admit I’m ready to get out. 

 

Couple cool things. Our guide showed us how to clear masks underwater. This was cool and I picked up on it right away, which meant I never had to come up to the surface to clear it. He also showed us to to put the breathing regulator back in your mouth underwater, so of course I had to try it. When I told D that, he gave me a what’s wrong with you look. But I survived. And felt accomplished. 

 

After Snuba, we had the option to hang out on the beach, go get drinks, or hike to fort Rodney. I wanted to do the hike, but D is a much faster walker than me. And I didn’t want to slow the group down. Sticking with the is this really a carnival excursion theme, no one else wanted to hike. So the only people I was slowing down were D and our very patient guide 

 

in doing my research, I found you could hike up to Fort Rodney, and then a little further to the signal station. The first part was supposed to be easier than the 2nd, and a lot of people stop after the first part. So we chatted and walked up to the first part and took some pics and then our guide keeps walking. Of course D is all in here, I’m thinking wait where are you going I didn’t agree to any of this. But I’m not quitting now so up I go. And the views were worth it from the top, and I felt accomplished. Now coming back down...I definitely slowed our guide down. But I didn’t fall on my face and completed the hike in sandals. So it’s definitely possible and not that bad. The expression on my face must not have been very happy, D was like I thought you hated it. But I had a good time

 

we got back down and one of the guides began telling me I should get scuba certified. He definitely made me think about it. One day....

 

id give this excursion a B plus...there wasn’t a ton to see underwater. If we go back here I want to Snuba at sugar beach. But the group size was small , we learned a new skill, the hike was something different and out of the ordinary. 

 

Back in the port, we did a little shopping and got on bored. We headed to the piano bar after dinner, only to find some atrium party going on, and we knew Pete wouldn’t start. So we checked out the party until it was time and then enjoyed the piano bar. 

 

Pictures this night were all valentines stuff. Too lovey for us, but people seemed to like them. 

 

Next up...st Kitts 

 

 

 

[purplephenom]

25 minutes ago, mlshum said:

I just got off this same ship a week before you got on.  Like you, I finished my review fairly quickly.  Such a great cruise!  I wish I had found the sea lion excursion in St Thomas because it sounds amazing!  Thanks for doing this review.  I’m enjoying following along!

 

Michelle

 

 

The sea lions were great. Our guide mentioned they’re adding dolphins shortly. If they do, and keep the small groups I think they’ll be successful. 

 

 

20 minutes ago, LittleYiaYia said:

 

We will be on this cruise with you.  We did this cruise last February.  They had a great band in the casino every evening and also in the atrium occasionally.  Of course I realize it is someone new this time.  We really don't remember the casino as being too smoky.  The Latin band that played was also very good.  I'm glad to hear it was a new player in the piano bar as we did not enjoy the entertainer at all last year.  Only 5 days to sail away!!!

 

I’m pretty sensitive to the smell of smoke. So it may not have been awful. I usually avoid the area, but the band was good so I stuck it out a little bit. 

 

 

14 minutes ago, mommio said:

Thank you!  I'm really enjoying your review.  Going in April, second time on this itinerary,  but first time on the Fascination.

 

 

I was surprised at how small the ship was but it really didn’t matter. The lack of activities was more surprising but wasn’t a deal breaker 

[michiganredrose]

We head to San Juan next Friday for this cruise! Love reading other people’s experiences! Thank you!

[Upinthehills]

We're doing this cruise on March 3rd.  Thank you for writing this review!  I'm enjoying imagining our vacation.

[purplephenom]

Friday February 15th...St Kitts. 

 

This was a weird port for us. Initially we had booked a kayak excursion. I eventuallly changed it to a self driving Jeep thing. After seeing it was sold out, and being exhausted the day before, D suggested we change it again to a beach excursion. We selected Carambola beach. I had done some research pre cruise and knew the Carnival price here wasn’t too bad. 

 

So I know the deal with carnival. Excursions include travel time. 2 things surprised me with this excursion. 1, we got an unannounced stop at Timothy hill. And 2, we got longer at the beach than the listed excursion time. So I was pretty happy with this last minute change. 

 

We we got to the beach, and were told chairs were included but there was a charge for umbrellas. I don’t like to get out of the water anyhow, so I didn’t need an umbrella. D is less enthusiastic about the water but he was ready to go today. We were talking about renting snorkel gear, but we took one look at the water and said forget it. This beach was super wavy. This was a day for jumping waves, not Snorkeling. 

 

An an hour into the wave Jumping, D was ready for a break. He chilled, I walked the beach. Carombola isn’t huge, but it’s pretty. After that, I was back in the water, and eventually got a few braids in my hair. Just a beach thing I like to do. They also offered massages and jet ski rentals but we didn’t partake.  

 

Back in the port area, we did some shopping and called it a day. We meant to shower and get something to eat, and go to one of the many juggling classes. We figured they were always in the fun times so why not. Well...I took my shower and fell asleep. I thought D would wake me up, but he joined me and there went juggling. 

 

After dinner this night, we changed things up and went to a deck party. I’m sure it had a theme but I just like line dances. D humored me, pulled up a chair and people watched. 

After that, we wanted to call it a night but I was wide awake from my nap. But we eventually fell asleep after a great day, and a happy excursion change 

[purplephenom]

1 hour ago, michiganredrose said:

We head to San Juan next Friday for this cruise! Love reading other people’s experiences! Thank you!

 

Glad you’re enjoying. Enjoy your vacation!

 

 

49 minutes ago, Upinthehills said:

We're doing this cruise on March 3rd.  Thank you for writing this review!  I'm enjoying imagining our vacation.

 

Enjoy your trip!

[purplephenom]

Saturday February 16...st Maarten 

 

We had a couple goals for this port. D wanted Dutch chocolate and to visit the French side. I wanted to visit Maho Beach. We debated several Carnival excursions and couldn’t decide. We ended up going with Bernard’s tours, and had DJ as our guide. 

 

Ironically, this excursion felt the most crowded out of everything we did. But DJ was great about laying out the plan for the day and reminding us of the importance of getting back to the van on time. 

 

We made several stops, and drove by other points of interest. We stopped at a lookout point and an iguana farm. Then we went to the beach for 90 minutes. Grand case beach was gorgeous. No waves, but no Snorkeling either. 90 min was just enough time to enjoy the water. I would’ve stayed forever but all good things must end. Next stop was markets on the French side. We had about 30 minutes there. This time really wasn’t long enough. It was just enough time to glance at all the little vendors. I wish this stop were either longer or eliminated. Missing it wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but just getting a taste was frustrating. 

 

Next and final stop was Maho Beach. This beach was absolutely jam packed and we only had 40 minutes here. DJ had asked that we not get in the van soaking wet, so that meant we weren’t able to go in the water here. I fully understand why he didn’t want a soaking wet van, I wouldn’t either.  Our time at Maho was spent standing on the beach, taking a few pictures and heading back to the bus. This stop seemed too short, but by this point we were all tired and getting back on the bus seemed like a great plan. 

 

After this point, I couldn’t tell you where we went. We drove past some points of interest while I enjoyed rum punch and D enjoyed a Carib beer or 2. At this point, I was tired, and pretty much zoned out.

 

We were back at the port early, and were able to find D’s Dutch chocolate. A little shopping and we sadly called it a day, knowing our cruise was all but over. This evening, we packed up our stuff, and went to a last dinner and piano bar and sadly called it a night. 

[purplephenom]

Sunday February 17...do we really have to get off?  

 

Getting off off this ship was a breeze. The night before we picked our luggage tag number. This ship has a set of tags (1 thru 11) for early debarkation and another set for late. Early is before 9:30, late is before 10:30. D wanted early, I wanted late. So we split the difference and picked the last early tag. 

 

We we were off the ship by 9, and at the airport by 10. 

[mpdog42]

Had the same choice of the Southern Route last year... after looking at the Fascination (which is a older ship)..I went with RC Freedom of the Seas...very glad I did...Carnival needs to get a better and newer ship out of the PR!

 

Question: Did Carnival not offer the Spanish Gallion cruise to the Pitons and mud baths??

 

Mike

[purplephenom]

Impressions/Random thoughts. 

 

Cruise Director Brittney was great. Whatever activities she led were high energy, fun, and positive. She didn’t go overboard on announcements, and didn’t seem to have a super annoying catch phrase. 

 

Activities. I don’t know why juggling was so popular on this cruise and always in the fun times. Karaoke only half the nights was disappointing. Piano Player was great, we loved him. We participated in the Valentines duck hunt and that was different and fun. In the end, maybe it was good the fun times weren’t loaded or we would have been exhausted. I do wish crafting time was later in the day. 

 

Food. We loved getting out of the dining room in about an hour. Blue iguana taco salads and arepas were my 2 lido favorites. D liked the taco salads as well, and tried the buffet a couple times and said it was good. Pizza wasn’t as good as previous cruises; seemed to be lacking...something. 

 

Drinks. Were not huge drinkers but enjoyed trying different things on this cruise. Apparently the ship stocks up on drink stuff in St Thomas. Because the cruise before us was a super bowl cruise, the bars seemed to be out of lots of stuff. Also, broken blenders seemed to be a theme. But it wasn’t a big deal, just gave me a chance to try something else. 

 

Monkeys in St Kitts. I don’t really know where else to put this. We are animal lovers and expected to find the monkeys cute. But we saw them at Timothy hill, on the beach, and in the port area, and didn’t find them cute at all. More like creepy and dirty looking. In the port area, one of the monkeys jumped on me and wanted to play with my newly braided hair. Normally I would think this is the cutest thing ever, but I just wanted the monkey off me. 

 

Port shopping. We really enjoy browsing, but it’s getting harder to find things actually made in the ports. I was successful in Barbados, St Lucia, and St Maarten, but not in St Thomas or St Kitts. I really just want something unique and cheap. Not interested in jewelry or anything. 

 

Final thoughts. 

 

I went from i rom I don’t even want to do this cruise, to hmm when can we do it again. I see why everyone says it’s their favorite, and I still think Curacao and Roatan are my favorite ports, this route was a lot of fun. 

 

There wasn’t great Snorkeling where we chose to go, and that’s usually our thing. But we found new things to enjoy, so in some ways that was a good thing. 

 

My goal was to come home exhausted, and I think I did that. I feel like I got a lot out of this route. I was peeking at 2021 cruises and this time that year, the sea day is the last day. I think I would’ve enjoyed that better. 

 

Any questions, please ask, but were really creatures of habit on a cruise and pretty boring. 

[purplephenom]

10 minutes ago, mpdog42 said:

Had the same choice of the Southern Route last year... after looking at the Fascination (which is a older ship)..I went with RC Freedom of the Seas...very glad I did...Carnival needs to get a better and newer ship out of the PR!

 

Question: Did Carnival not offer the Spanish Gallion cruise to the Pitons and mud baths??

 

Mike

 

 

Thats not an excursion I saw. I saw a catamaran to the pitons, and a separate mud bath excursion.

 

I do want to go on freedom of the seas on day. I remember watching Samantha brown on the travel channel on that ship, and it’s what made me look into cruising. 

 

I went back and forth from I don’t care about the ship, to this is a ugly small ship, and in the end, for me it was a moot point. I was too tired to do much. 

[mpdog42]

21 minutes ago, purplephenom said:

 

 

Thats not an excursion I saw. I saw a catamaran to the pitons, and a separate mud bath excursion.

 

I do want to go on freedom of the seas on day. I remember watching Samantha brown on the travel channel on that ship, and it’s what made me look into cruising. 

 

I went back and forth from I don’t care about the ship, to this is a ugly small ship, and in the end, for me it was a moot point. I was too tired to do much. 

Sounds like you had a good time, thanks for the review!!

Mike

[CruzinKristin]

Thanks for the review!  We are going on this trip at the end of March.  Can't wait!