Age:36 to 45
Number of Cruises: First Cruise
Ship:Fantasy
Departure Date:September 12, 1999
Itinerary:Freeport
Sunday morning we called from the hotel and was told that our itinerary had been
changed because of hurricane FLOYD. They said that we would be going to Cozumel Mexico instead. That
was fine with us since this was our first cruise and we were excited just to go. We had booked on
Carnival for the Camp Carnival program since we were taking our 2-year-old with us. We were told
that there would be lots of family activities on board.
Sunday we arrived at the ship and went to our stateroom, It was quite adequate. We got our Capers
and saw that the camp carnival program was having a tour of the ship so we got ready and went. We
found the playroom only to be told that the tour had been canceled because there were only 75
children on board. We should have taken this as a sign of things to come and got back off of the
ship! We went then to the Lido deck. Food was OK, Pizza was good, the lemonade was water they
finally fixed that the night before we left. We walked around the ship to try to find everything.
There was nothing going on at all! We had early seating in the Jubilee dining room. When we got
there, it was pretty much find your own table. Once we found it we sat down and the first person to
great us was from the bar! They are always pushing alcohol on this cruise. We are not big drinkers
and ordered Coke instead $3.00 for a 20-oz twist on! Dinner was nice and well presented but not a
lot of selections and small portions. They never acted like you were allowed to order more than one
item.
We went back to the playroom only to discover it had never opened. Walked around the ship some more
and the only thing open was the casino. Back to our stateroom we tried to order room service but the
phones did not work! Our cabin Stewart told us the next day that the ship had been hit by lightning
two weeks before and they had to change the numbers. I thought that this should have been posted in
the room. They gave you the bar specials every day it could have easily been posted on there.
We woke up Monday in Freeport Bahamas! We were told that we had to be back on the ship at 11:30 so
there were no shore activities to do. The only thing we had time for was shopping. The Taxi ride
into town was $4 per person and the shops pretty much had the same items. If you go, you can bargain
with them. After two hours of shopping we went back to ship. We were then told that we were going to
Key West on Tuesday. We were a little disappointed that they had taken us to the Bahamas for only
two hours after we were told that we were not even going there! Again there was nothing to do on the
ship except drink or gamble!
The play room was open and we took our son there for a little while. The counselors were great once
they finally opened. The only shows on board are after 10. I believe they do this so that the people
with children have to pay for babysitting. On Tuesday we woke up and were still on the sea. We did
not have permission to dock at Key West! We sailed around pretty much all day. We went to the pool
(saltwater). The children’s pool had no water! About three they announced we could finally go to
Key West. We went to book some shore excursions. There were quite a few to choose from. We could not
get off of the boat because of problems with immigrantions. By six we could finally get off the ship
but the only tours that were still open were Ripley’s and a train tour.
There was a bunch of people having to get refunds for their canceled tours. We chose the train tour
and it was nice, after the train stopped it started to rain. Everything was closed except for a few
shops and the restaurants/bars. Back to the ship! Christopher went to the playroom and we tried to
find the concert that was scheduled. Someone forgot to tell the musicians because they never showed
up!
There is one other thing I would like to say. They canceled breakfast in the
Jubilee dining room and no one was informed. Everyone was waiting in the hall way only to be told it
was not going to open!
Overall we had an OK time and are planning to go on another cruise (Disney this
time) There was just too many things wrong on this ship that could have easily been taken care of if
someone had been doing their job. If you have any questions please email me and I will get back to
you.
