Mediocre experience

Item: Carnival Fantasy
Rating: 3.1
Author: lisadbradley

Carnival Fantasy Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

lisadbradley

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 4

Overall rating:

3.1 out of 5

4 Night Western Caribbean (Mobile Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 14, 2019

Ship: Carnival Fantasy

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: M254

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

We were disappointed in the facilities and food, in particular. Staff was well-trained and friendly.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Employees were very helpful and the process was quick and easy.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Food was not hot in the restaurant and especially on the buffet. The food in the restaurant was mediocre and the food on the dinner buffet was disgusting. The buffet was poorly managed and was not clean. The burger and burrito locations were good but the station where you dressed your taco was filthy and I was nervous about eating there.

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

The pool is tiny, like scarcely larger than my back yard pool, and there is only one. The hot tubs were full of a dozen children at the time, so the only useful ones were on the Serenity Deck where one was out of service the day we tried to use it and the other was full of eight people. We were unable to get seats on the main deck or serenity deck on the day at sea until about 3pm. The mini-golf is a basic putting green without any attempt to be entertaining and is located in an area of the ship that is extremely windy. The fitness center is nice and the spa was lovely.

Entertainment

2 out of 5

The love and marriage show was entertaining and the comedians were very good. The guy in the piano bar was not very good at his job and was kind of a jerk. The karaoke bar was uncomfortably quiet, like a dozen people in the entire bar. The stage shows were ok, a little hokey. There just weren't many options. The cruise director was very entertaining and there was live music in many places that was pretty good. The music trivia was fun and well done.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

If there's one thing Carnival knows, it is obviously human resources. These folks were amazing - they were gracious, responsive and well trained.

Ship Quality

1 out of 5

Elevators have letters on the outside, numbers on the inside. Staff is constantly confused when you ask them how to get somewhere. The ship is old and desperately needs updating. There is very little wayfinding signage.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Clean and basically comfortable. Good service. Pretty basic; bed was very very firm.

Ship tip

I'd skip it.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Cozumel, Mexico

5 out of 5

We visited Mr. Sanchos, which we did not book through Carnival. We had a great experience and look forward to returning.

Thumbs Up 13

Disembarkation

3 out of 5

This was slower than embarkation, but we didn't really mind. Might've been nice to have a way to wait somewhere warm - a good bit of the wait was outdoors.