1dennis3

We sailed on the Carnival Fantasy out of Charleston SC on January 25th through Feb 1st 2014. Over all the cruise was nice but I will never sail on this ship again. Here is why,

The Serenity deck, it is nice that they had one, but it is small and on the starboard side it was very noisy. There is a 4 foot by 8 foot exhaust vent that runs continuously, so that side of the deck is not quiet at all. If you have a group of 3 or 4 people, it’s hard to get that many seats together. Ice cream. There are a total of 4 ice cream machines on the ship; all of them are on the Lido deck. 3 are side by side at the salad bar and one is outside on the open Lido deck area but this one was out of order most of the time. Drink dispensers. There are 4 of these, 2 in the dining area and 2 on the open lido deck area, my complaint here is that the 2 in the outside area were often closed. The sound system on the Lido area around the pool is terrible. Sounds like a very cheap sound system turned up very loud. The food on the Lido deck in the pool area was mediocre at best and never changed. It was the same selection every day, it never changed. The food inside at the buffet was a little better but certainly nothing to write home about. They served Italian food 4 out of 6 days, and for me personally 1 day is more than enough, a variety would have been nice. Also, they did not stay open very long for any of the meals. Shorty, the cruise director, she was very nice and personable, but I only saw her actually interact on one occasion, the guest talent show. On past cruises, the cruise director was everywhere participating in all kinds of activities all day and evening. The pool area on the Lido deck had 2 bars, but only one was open. The second one was never used.  Probably because every night the Lido deck was a ghost town. There was no activity on the Lido any night. (except for a couple of 10:30 party’s, that were attended by a few people) During the day there were a lot of people around the pool but when evening came people scattered to other parts of the ship. The entire Lido deck had 1 men’s bathroom and 2 women’s bathrooms. Bathrooms were few and far between on all the decks. Entertainment was terrible all over the ship with the exception of the comedians, they were good. Although Half Moon Cay is Carnivals private island and you can user your sail n sign card there, BUT, if you have purchased the drink card for alcoholic beverages, you CANNOT use it on the island. The ocean view cabins are the smallest ocean view cabins I have ever stayed in. Very small and cramped. At the Platinum and Diamond party, 5 times I tried to flag down the waiters walking around with trays of drinks, each time they said they would be right back, none of them ever returned, the 6th one I practically had to block his way to get a drink from him.

 

On the bright side, every crew member I met was very pleasant and professional.