Jo Anna Patton

Age: 51 to 60
Occupation: School Librarian
Number of Cruises: First Cruise
Ship: Fascination
Sailing Date: June 3rd, 2000
Itinerary: Southern Caribbean

Since I received so much useful information from the cruise reviews before my cruise, I felt I should provide my feedback upon my return. Perhaps I might include some small piece of information someone might find useful.

My husband and I took our first cruise on the Fascination June 3rd. Since we opted for the air and sea package, our flight was part of the package. We left Fort Worth, Texas on a 6a.m. flight to Atlanta, then from Atlanta to San Juan. The flight to San Juan from Atlanta is about  four hours. The Carnival agents were waiting for the plane and they direct you to pick up your luggage, deposit it on a truck and load onto busses heading for the cruise terminal. Once you're at the terminal, it's waiting for your turn to have your passports checked, and your Sail and Sign card assigned. Although all of our bags were still on the truck, we did have our toiletries and a change of clothes with us. The check-in process does not take long, and your picture is taken as you board the ship.

After being directed to our room, our luggage began to arrive. Rather than tour San Juan, we decided to stay on the ship, get settled, tour the ship and get something to eat. The first meal in the dining rooms are open seating and we did wear shorts. After dinner, we attended the orientation meeting. At this meeting, we were introduced to the cruise director, and given some information on shopping in the next three ports. I did find this part a little commercialized since the focus really seemed to be on what stores were recommended. Later that evening we had the required life-jacket drill.

Sunday morning the ship was in St. Thomas. We chose one of the ship tours. This tour took us up to the top of Paradise point where we could see quite a bit of the island. Then, after light refreshment, we were taken to town for shopping at our leisure. Although you can find some bargains, it pays to know your prices ahead of time. The bus returns you to the ship when you're ready. And if you still have not had enough shopping, the Havensight Mall is right at the dock.

Monday morning found us in St. Maarten and although we had paid for a tour, through our own misunderstanding, we missed it. Our choice was to walk around on our own, or to find a taxi to take us around. We chose the former. Not much to see in St. Maarten, a lot of poverty.

Tuesday, our tour took us all around the island of Dominica. We chose the Emerald Pool tour, which was a good choice. The bus took us to the rain forest where the Emerald Pool was, some in our tour went into the water. Then we were taken to a resort and treated to folkloric dance and song and rum punch. (All good)

Wednesday the ship was in Martinique. Although we had signed up for a cruise to the beach, that tour was cancelled. We opted to join three other couples and hired a taxi to take us to the beach. We were lucky, we got a very friendly driver, who took us to a beach about 20 miles outside of town, waited for us, and then showed us some of the sights on the way back to the ship, all for $20 per person. Martinique was our favorite island, but many did not like it. Generally it was more prosperous than the other islands, but expensive. Perfume was supposed to be a bargain, but I did not shop here.

Thursday the ship was in Barbados. Since we were so lucky with a private driver in Martinique, we decided to try it in Barbados as well. We joined with four other couples, and saw all of Barbados, from east coastline to the west coastline, in four hours for an amazing price. (We were lucky because we had two true negotiators with us.) We even had time to get a little shopping in. If you don't want to venture out too far, the cruise terminal has a shopping mall, plus some independent shops across from the terminal.

Friday , we spent the entire day at sea and Saturday morning we were back in San Juan.

Life on the ship: Everyone has always talked about the size of the rooms on the Carnival ships and it's true. We had lots of room, able to store all of our bags. We also had a safe in the room for locking up valuables. For the true enthusiast, there is a television in every room. This can be useful  for viewing the videos of the activities of the previous day on the ship.. The bathroom was also a good size, but we did have a problem with the drain. The water from the shower would go out the drain in the shower and come up the drain in the bathroom. Our cabin steward blamed the ship listing as the problem, but the water problem occurred when we were in port.  Other than that, our cabin was comfortable, clean and we had plenty of towels and the infamous towel critters every night. (In addition to chocolate on your pillow at night.)

Be very selective about the time of year that you take your cruise. Because we are both teachers, we took our cruise the first week in June. Consequently we had a lot of young people, children and teenagers on the boat. This meant that the disco was pretty much taken over by the teenagers.

The best advice for new cruisers would be to read the ship newspaper everyday. Not only does it help you keep up with what day of the week it is (you tend to lose track on the ship), but it will also let you know what activities are going on for the day. The second piece of advice would be to attend the orientation on the first night, it is worth it to get some ideas about the islands you will be visiting. Also, attend the debarkation orientation, absolutely essential for getting through the process. All in all a great vacation.

Ask a Question About Carnival Cruise Lines