Great trip on a budget!
Carnival Fascination Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 29
7 Night Southern Caribbean (San Juan Roundtrip)
Sail date: March 18, 2018
Ship: Carnival Fascination
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: E169
Traveled as: Family (young children)
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
I thought this cruise was great value for the money as we were travelling on a budget. Anyone who intends to cruise on this ship should understand that it is an older smaller ship without the bells and whistles that other ships have. Having 5 stops on this cruise and just one day at sea, you would not spend much time on the ship anyways. If you are sensitive to cigarette smoke, do not go on this ship.Embarkation
Super fast, we were checked in within 5 minutes and didn't wait in any lines
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The food was excellent. We loved the tacos at the Blue Iguana near the pool. Guy's burgers was awesome too, especially the fries! We ate dinner in the MDR every night and every meal was absolutely amazing! Our only food related complaints are that the coffee is horrible, and one time my husband received a potato that wasn't cooked all the way through. The food in the Coconut Grove was really great as well. For Sea Day Brunch I had the most amazing filet mignon with eggs. I think that was the best steak I ever had in my life! Favourite dessert was the passion fruit flan.
Onboard Activities
We played alot of table tennis and mini golf. We wish there was a basketball court.
Entertainment
We attended a show every evening and thought they were all very good.
Children's Programs
I have an 11 year old daughter who we took to check out the kids club. The club seemed empty all the time and very disorganized. Only a few kids attended so my daughter didn't want to join in. The kids' programs on Carnival are not a strong point for sure.
Service and Staff
Service was friendly, courteous and efficient.
Ship Quality
The ship is clean but it is very dated and needs an upgrade soon. The layout of this ship is very confusing. You cannot cross some of the floors so you need to either go up or down a level, then cross, then go back up or down to get where you want to go! We had the same issue on the Carnival Liberty. Also, there is way too much cigarette smoke on this ship. Our cabin was on deck 7 and the smoke from the casino filled our hallway. The smoke makes it's way from the casino into most other areas of the ship. My daughter is asthmatic and it was really difficult to keep her safe from the smoke. Also, the candy store is in the Casino - why would they put a kids candy store around all that smoke?
Cabin / Stateroom
Cabin is tight for 3 people. We had a King bed (2 twins pushed together) and an upper that pulled down from the wall. When the upper is pulled down, you cannot walk around the king bed. I lost count how many times we all bumped our head on that upper! We had a drainage issue in our bathroom where the water from the shower would go down the drain but come up the drain the main part of the bathroom and fill it with water. We notified our room steward who had it fixed the next day.
Ship tip
If you don't like cigarette smoke, avoid this sip!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We went to Magen's Bay Beach which was beautiful but the hurricane has really affected the beach-entry to the water. Almost everyone we saw had difficulty getting out of the water here as there is a large dip. There weren't any kids in the water due to this. There was alot of broken coral and shells here. The ride to the beach in Goldie's taxi was a lot of fun. He's very entertaining and stopped at the top of the hill so we could take pics. Taxi ride was $8 pp each way in open air bus-type taxi. Beach entry is $5 per adult. Kids under 12 are free.
We went to Carlisle Bay. Entered through the Harbour Lights Club free of charge, and paid $30 for 3 people go to on the glass bottom boat which took us out to snorkel with the turtles, then over to the sunken shipwreck to snorkel with fish. This beach is the nicest beach we went to during the cruise. It has powdery white soft sand and crystal clear blue water. Really great for kids. Taxi was $5 pp each way
We went to Reduit Beach where we bought 1 hour passes for Splash Island Water Park. This was $13 each for 1 hour and well worth the money! My daughter said this was the highlight of our vacation! The beach itself was very crowded that day but we stayed closer to the Splash Island side which was quieter. My daughter had her braids done here, and we bought rotis from Liz the Roti lady ($10 each). The taxi cost us $8 pp each way
In St. Kitts we went to Carambola Beach Club (free entry) at South Friar's Beach. The beach and scenery are nothing great here. Right next to Carambola we found a nice rocky snorkelling cove. We saw an octopus here, and some small colourful fish. The taxi cost us $4 pp each way
We decided to walk to Great Bay Beach from the ship which was a bad decision. Much of the road was under construction and there were no proper sidewalks. On the way back, we took the water taxi which was $5 pp one way. It is $7 pp both ways so that's a great deal and the boat operators are super fun and entertaining!
The beach here is really nice but there is a large dip which makes getting in and out of the water a bit difficult. We rented a Jet Ski here for $50 for 35 minutes. We also went to the Yoda Guy Movie Exhibit on Front Street. It was $10 for each adult and $5 for kids which I thought was quite steep as it's a small museum.
Disembarkation
Line up at customs was really long but everything else went smoothly.