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Carnival Fascination Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 20

Overall rating:

4.2 out of 5
Carnival Fascination

7 Night Southern Caribbean (San Juan Roundtrip)

Sail date: April 21, 2019

Ship: Carnival Fascination

Cabin number: ph2

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

Overall, this ship has a great itinerary to some of the best islands, but the ship lacks in some areas. The itinerary makes up for it in some ways, especially since the price for this specific cruise can be very low (from $350). So you get what you pay for.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5
The main dining room food was excellent. The buffet lacked severely and there were no specialty restaurants

Mongolian Wok

1 out of 5

I am very upset they took this off of fascination and replaced with subpar mexican food.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
The ship is pretty old, so onboard activities lacked as well. There was only 1, very crowded pool and 2 very small and equally crowded hot tub. There were shows and lip sync battle and deck parties some days, but usually I found myself bored as a teenager, even with a group of friends.

Spa Carnival

5 out of 5

The spa was very nice and relaxing.

Mini Golf

3 out of 5

The area itself was okay, but there were kids breaking the golf sticks and throwing them overboard.

Entertainment

4 out of 5
The few shows that did show were good, lido deck DJ lacked.

Children's Programs

Did not use kid clubs.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5
All of the staff were very nice.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
The ship is more than 20 years old, it was pretty rusty and lacked the fun modern design of today's newer ships

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
I had Penthouse 2 on the 12th deck adjacent to the spa. Very spacious one bedroom penthouse. Walk in closet and Bar inside our staterooms as well. But for all the money that penthouse was worth our balcony still had obstructed views.

Ship tip

Only book this ship for the itinerary, not for the ship itself.

Ports of call

San Juan, Puerto Rico Did not visit port

Just went straight from the airport to cruise.

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas Did not visit port

Did not get off the ship this day because I was not feeling well, I have also been to all over these islands too many times to count so it did not really matter.

Bridgetown, Barbados

5 out of 5
Took one of the best tours I ever had on a cruise. The guide was very funny and it was not boring at all. We even drove past the famous singer Rihanna's house. Afterward we went to a private beach and it was overall a good day.

Castries, St. Lucia

5 out of 5
Did an zipline excursion here, not booked by the cruise line. It was fun and we made it back to the ship well on time.

Basseterre, St. Kitts

5 out of 5
Did an ATV excursion here, not with the cruise line. Passed by some very nice beaches. The ATV excursion was fun and we drove by cows and got to visit a former slave plantation.

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

3 out of 5
We came during their Carnival, so there was so much heavy traffic we were in the same spot in the highway for over an hour. We decided to get out and hitch hike back to the port in fear of missing the ship. We ended up taking a water taxi to town to do some shopping and eating and then got back on the ship.

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
Got off the ship and got all my luggage smoothly.
Was this review helpful? 20

3 Comments

MrMeeseeks    4 years ago

What tour did you do in Barbados, and what resort?

cruisereckoning    4 years ago

Thank you and glad you enjoyed.

portofrome    4 years ago

Thanks for your review

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