| Author | Message | ||
     Señor Moment © Citizen Username: Howardt Post Number: 2481 Registered: 11-2004  |
We've never taken a cruise before and are trying to take a short, cheap, last-minute cruise in October. We've found something on Carnival's FASCINATION out of Miami. Anyone have experience with that particular ship? Any caveats? Thanks! | ||
| Bailey Citizen Username: Baileymac Post Number: 481 Registered: 3-2005 |
Don't die on board! My boss takes the Carnival Cruise to Canada every year. This year, his sister and her 60-something year old boyfriend/significant other went too, and unfortunately, the boyfriend had an aneurysm and died the 2nd day into their trip. The next morning, they gave her a bill (over 4,000.00) for their services, and expected payment immediately. | ||
| Stuart0628 Citizen Username: Stuart0628 Post Number: 332 Registered: 2-2003 |
We took Fasccination 4 years ago, for a 3 day cruise. o Know that in general, the ships that do the 3- and 4-day cruises are not going to be the top-of-the-line ships. That said, Fascination was clean and had a fair number of the amenities that you would expect on a modern cruise ship. o Some of the decorations were a bit tacky (the faux Hollywood deco stuff) o When we attended the floor show, they managed to screw up our drink order. We ordered orange juice for our then-3-year-old. They brought a screwdriver. "Mommy, this makes my mouth hurt". They comped us the OJ and gave us this story to tell. o The food is competent, both on the buffet line and the dining room. It isn't up to Celebrity's standard or Royal Caribbean's, but you won't starve. o Overall, I had a very nice time and enjoyed it for what it was. Yes, my experiences on Celebrity, RCCL and Disney were all better, but this was fine. If the price is right, know you are getting what you pay for but by all means enjoy! | ||
| Señor Moment © Citizen Username: Howardt Post Number: 2482 Registered: 11-2004 |
Bailey, that's an unfortunate story! I'll certainly TRY not to die on board. I'll bring my checkbook, though, just in case... Stuart, that's great info, thanks. Do you recall if the ship had gym facilities? I hear some of the ships have extensive gyms with machines, steam, sauna, etc. Also, is booze included or do you pay extra for that? (That could double the cost of the vacation!) | ||
| oots Citizen Username: Oots Post Number: 479 Registered: 6-2001 |
SENOR: we sailed on the carnival miracle two years ago-it was brand new and is a terrific ship. it currently sails out of tampa-it may do some trips shorter than a week-not sure. we had a great time & I would not hesitate to cruise with carnival again. oots | ||
| Stuart0628 Citizen Username: Stuart0628 Post Number: 334 Registered: 2-2003 |
Booze is extra--this is true on virtually every cruise--but not unreasonably priced, if I recall. I am pretty sure they had gym facilities. Your travel agent can confirm this or you can go to either the Carnival web site or a site like http://cruise411.com or http://vacationstogo.com to get the details on the ship. | ||
| Ukealalio Citizen Username: Ukealalio Post Number: 2619 Registered: 6-2003 |
Senor-BTW, thanks for stopping down at HTTA's the other day, at our public rehearsal. Took Family on Carnival Victory to Nova Scotia a few weeks ago. If you like to drink (Yes they do charge you extra but you can buy drink cards that lower the inflated cost a bit), gamble and EAT repeat EAT repeat EAT, a Carnival Cruise will be like reaching Nirvana. I enjoyed it because I really got to relax and my son had a ball (we hardly ever saw him, they had a great teen camp and the kids went wild from 9AM till 3AM). My family really enjoyed Nova Scotia and St. John and we did a lot of fun activities there. A word to the wise, if you want to do any of the excursions research them outside of Carnival. We found excursions that really cost $30, Carnival was inflating the price to $100. The problem is if you go with carnival, they guarantee to wait for you, if you go alone, they don't, plan wisely. The shows are well produced but on the tacky side. The boat itself was very impressive in a gaudy way. The Gym was very big, well equipped and clean. It was a real trip working out looking out at the high seas. On the last day, my wife tripped outside one of their shops where someone dropped a whole bottle of booze and it wasn't promptly cleaned up. When this happened the staff who were very nice suddenly turned cold and went into their, "She's gonna sue us", mode and were very unfriendly. Unfortunately that put a bit of a damper on what was actually a quite pleasant trip. P.S.-They had a great Reggae band by the pool everyday. |
