Gary Ingram

Age: 58
Occupation: Pharmacist
Number of Cruises: 3
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Fascination
Sailing Date: February 22nd, 2002
Itinerary: Nassau

PLAN: I hadn’t been on a cruise for 20 years, my wife had recently been on a cruise with her girlfriends on Royal Caribbean but missed some ports due to a hurricane. Our previous cruise was on Carnival. We had flown in from Michigan. We now lived in Cape Coral, Florida and only had a two-hour drive to Miami. This was kind of a spur of the moment cruise and we booked a guarenteed class 4 room. We planned not to spend a lot of time in the room anyway on a short cruise.

PRE-BOARD: I had printed out maps from mapquest and had no problem finding the port of Miami. Our problem was the signs said to get in left lane for Carnival cruises. After twenty minutes of going nowhere we could see the right lane was moving quicker and letting busses through. We finally came to a turn off for one of the lines and discovered we really needed to be the right lanes to get to Carnival. It was a massive traffic jam. We finally got to the parking lot. Our luggage was on self-rollers so we had no problem getting it to the terminal. Since I had booked late, I was told to pick up my tickets at the terminal counter. MISTAKE! Lines were not clear and/or being ignored. After finally getting our tickets we went to the check-in line. This took maybe 20 minutes, but after being in line for 15 minutes another section opened and those people walked right up to the counter while we were still waiting. After this stop it was a non-delayed walk up the entrance area. We got our sign and sail cards and we were on the ship.

EMBARKATION: The entrance area was beautiful and totally different from my previous cruise. We proceeded to our room to check it out. We were in the aft section on Riviera deck. I had hoped we might get an upgrade but that didn’t happen. The room however was very nice, and my wife said it was larger than she had just had on the R.C. cruise ship. We dropped our luggage and off we went to see the ship. I had a good idea where everything was at on ship. When I’m bored occasionally at work I will take the deck layout from the ship and create my own virtual image tour walking around the ship. Reading these reviews also gives me a heads up to what to look for. As we left port, we were docked behind the Grand Princess (spelled monster). We will do it one of these days. We are presently booked for a Carnival Triumph cruise in a couple months and are looking forward to the large ship.

THE SHIP: The Fascination was much more than I expected. I was really impressed by the deck space around the Lido deck, and other smaller areas. We never spent anytime laying around. The weather was a little cool for us and the wind was 20 knots for a large part of the cruise. Since living in Florida we have been spoiled with plenty of sunshine and warm weather, and can pass on days like these to sun bathe. Some exterior walkways were closed because of windy conditions. The topless deck was never used because of its exposure to the windy conditions. I found the Coconut Grove bar and grill one of my favorite places to eat. The ship columns were camouflaged as palm trees, metal leaves and coconuts. The food was plentiful and very good. The bar was in the stern of the ship and had glass walls to see out the back and two small areas on either side to eat outside if you chose. This is where the 24-hour Pizza is available. We found the pizza very tasty however the selection was sometimes limited. They would make your choice of pizza if you wanted to wait a few minutes. Our designated dining room was the Imagination Dining Room. The room’s ceiling and walls had imbedded lights that were wired to pulsate in patterns and colors. Our designated table was actually a booth near the kitchen door. I didn’t find it very attractive and thought it might be related to our room selection. Being a big guy I often find booths are uncomfortable. Our dinner companions were not to our liking and two of them spoke very little English. I spoke to the Maitre D and the following meals were at a table with two other couples that we enjoyed very much. My wife really enjoyed having lobster tail for dinner. The lobster tail was not the best we have had but was a nice meal as all the rest were also.

The multi-level Palace Lounge was quite large and attractive. We enjoyed both of the shows we seen there, Broadway and Hollywood. The Hollywood Boulevard, the main walkway between the bars in the rear of the ship all the way forward to the Palace Lounge never seemed crowded to us. The boulevard provided the entrances of several smaller piano and theme bars, casino, shops and internet café.

NASSAU: We went to bed early as usual and planned on getting up early enough to see us enter the harbor in Nassau. When we woke around 6:30 we heard rumbling and my wife said it was the thrusters and that she thought we were in port. I grabbed my camera and took the elevator up to the Lido deck. We had already docked by the time I got there.

This is probably my biggest complaint about an inside lower deck room. You can’t look out and see what’s going on. We had been to Nassau on our earlier cruise twenty years prior. We decided not to do any tours and take our own walking tour. We walked up to the water tower and fort area. The problem with walking is the very poor conditions of sidewalks and streets. It looked as if nothing had been improved during the twenty years we had been gone. The other site I wanted to see again was the Queen’s staircase. You should see these items. We could stand and listen to the tour operators give their spiels about the different sites. I think it is a real shame that an island with all the tourist traffic and dollars left behind, cannot improve the island beyond the ship’s port. We saw only one paver stone sidewalk that should set an example. The straw market was being rebuilt. The temporary straw market tent area was like a rave dance. It was almost impossible to move down the aisles. There was really no need to go down each aisle, they were all the same merchandise and each had an aggressive attendee. The children were rather pesky, running after tourists trying to sell wooden whistles. We really weren’t shopping but found the jewelry prices not to be real bargains. Early evening brought showers to the area and we cancelled plans to taxi to Paradise Island and tour the Atlantis resort hotel. If we return to Nassau, it would be to Paradise Island and see the Atlantis. One couple from our dinner table had booked the night at the Atlantis and told us about it. They found they had little time to enjoy it because of the rain and early rising to get back to the ship.

DISEMBARKTION: As requested, our luggage was color tagged and placed outside our door for pickup during the night. Our deck was one of the last to be called. We simply walked off the ship into the luggage area, found our luggage and left. It was very quick once our deck was called.

CONCLUSION: We took the cruise as a getaway and not a party blast. We didn’t attend a lot of functions or midnight buffet. We had learned from our previous cruise that you couldn’t do everything and see everything and still relax. Slow down, relax, and enjoy the things you like to do best, avoid the rest. As I stated earlier, the Fascination was much more than I expected. We enjoyed ourselves, met some nice people and seen some sites. We found all the crew did their jobs well and we had no problems. We bought several photos of our trip (more than I expected). I would recommend this ship.

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