Could have been much better
Carnival Fantasy Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 27
5 Night Western Caribbean (Mobile Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 07, 2019
Ship: Carnival Fantasy
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
Old ship, good food, fun ports. I'd pick a larger ship with something to do on ship days that wasn't the casino or bingo next time.Embarkation
Embarkation was a smooth, easy process. We showed up a little early, but that didn't seem to matter. We were onboard half an hour or so after our shuttle dropped us off.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The Main Dining Room food was good, but we discovered the MDR with assigned seating was much nicer than the anytime dining when we joined our friends there on the last night.
The drinks seemed rather weak as well. My wife had 2 margaritas on shore and really felt them, but the next day 3 on the ship did nothing.
The Blue Iguana Taco, Guys Burgers, Deli, and Pizza Pirate were all delicious.
The buffet was ok, but very lacking in healthy food options. The premade caesar salads were swimming in dressing, and half the time there was no actual salad on the salad bar, just sliced deli meat and cheese cubes.
Onboard Activities
The only pool was tiny, overcrowded, and had music blaring so loud you couldn't talk to the person next to you.
The adult area, Serenity, was nice, but only had 4 umbrellas for about 30 chairs. The waiters often disappeared for 45 minutes, so you couldn't count on cold drinks to help.
We didn't make it to the fitness center because the only access was through the predatory and extremely overpriced spa.
Entertainment
The stage shows were nice, but the same 8 performers singing and dancing a choreographed routine. They did Motown, British Invasion, and Country shows, that all lasted 30 minutes. I sort of felt like I was watching a high school program.
The piano bar player was fun and talented, and the comedian was funny.
The various singers, guitar players, and steel drum player were all pleasant when you could find them.
Service and Staff
Our room steward was great, very pleasant and on the ball.
The waiters and bartenders were distant and disinterested most of the cruise. On the final day, after guests were asked to take a picture with people they liked a lot of them became friendly. The rest of the cruise, they often got the wrong beer, despite my pointing out the tap of the beer I wanted. Thirsty Frog Red and Thirsty Frog Wheat taste nothing alike, and even the bartenders would pour the wrong one half the time.
Waiters in the lounges, shows, serenity deck and elsewhere would often be hard to find.
The waiters in the assigned seating MDR were great, singing and dancing, remembering their guests and their preference.
The waiters in the anytime MDR were nice, but you never got the same seat or waiter, so the level of service was not as good.
Ship Quality
The design seemed intentionally confusing. The only sign of what deck you were on was at the elevators, and the signs were numerical (deck 5, for instance). But the light up areas above the elevators that told you where they were were in letters (deck M for deck 5).
You often had to go up or down a deck, then pass through an area and back down or up to get to areas, with very little signage.
The bathrooms were not well marked, you had to look on the app to know where to look for them.
Cabin / Stateroom
The cabin was nice. The bed was soft and comfy. The place is showing its age, though. The wall panels didn't align everywhere, there were gaps and bulges. Also, the walls were not magnetic, so all the stuff we bought to stick to them was useless. We had a porthole room, and something, rust or dirt of some kind, kept filtering down onto the windowsill.
Ship tip
Don't expect to be entertained much. If you like to party with 50 strangers in a pool or gamble or play bingo, you'll have a great time. If not, expect to be bored.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We did an e-bike excursion at Cozumel. That was a very interesting tour. The Corpus Christi Church was beautiful, the local lunch was delicious, and our guide was very informative and fun. I was not a fan of the long, narrow duty free shop you are forced to go through to get on and off the pier.
We didn't do an excursion, but took a taxi to Mahahual and wandered. The Krazy Lobster owner convinced us to sit at his beach, and the staff there was great! Prices were reasonable, cheaper than at the other 2 places we stopped at in Mahahual. The port area was nice, but we didn't spend much time there.
I can't believe that the only entrance and the only exit for this port is across busy train tracks. A bridge or tunnel is desperately needed to keep traffic moving when thousands of people are trying to enter and leave at the same time.
Disembarkation
Disembarking was a complete mess. Long lines, half the elevators weren't working, and confusing directions about who went when made it chaos.
They expected everyone out of their staterooms by 8:30, but didn't begin allowing people off the ship until 8. They directed you to take your luggage up 5 flights (for us) of stairs to wait until your deck was called to disembark, then you were supposed to go back down 3 to get to the gangway. Again, half the elevators were offline, and 2000 people trying to use the remaining elevators to do that was just a mess.
To top it all off, the port in Mobile has a set of train tracks that go across the only way in and out of the port, and they had multiple trains come through as we were all trying to get to our shuttles and cars. We were stuck for an hour waiting for our shuttle, and had to move as the Porter's were trying to prepare for the next passengers arrival.