This review can be very helpful for the newbies. Carnival Fascination Jax to Bahamas was my very first cruise and to be honest, I was not prepared for it at all. I have stayed in many hotels in US but I must say that I am very much impressed by top notch services Carnival Fascination offers. We embarked the ship in less than ½ hour after clearing security. Once we were in the ship, there was staff at every corner greeting us with a smile and helping us with the direction to the room. The room was pretty spacious given it has lots of closet space. We are family of 3 people including 6 years old so the queen bed and a wall bed worked out pretty well for us. The beds were neatly made and had luggage mat on it. There was dresser with mirror and couple of chairs. There was the "FunTimes" newsletter on the bed that explained the schedules and important stuff about the ship. We chose oceanview stateroom so the window was huge and clear. There were three blue beach towels in the room. Also the room had 3 life jackets including the kid's size. There was safe in the closet and also had water/sodas with reasonable price. Bathroom was clean and has standing shower. There was more than enough towels in the bathroom and also had shower gel and shampoo dispensers with both filled in. There were complimentary toothpastes and shampoo/conditioner sachets. Please remember to pack your own conditioner as there are none provided.

Next we went to explore the ship. We were on Empress Deck which has Atrium, Guest Services, Internet services, Bar and Shore Excursion desk. The next few decks had Spa, Gym, Casino, $10 Luxury shop, Imagination dining, Sensation dining, Photo Gallery, different camps for 2-17 years, BAR, Fun Shops, Show areas, Pool, Hot tubs, 3 Water slides, Breakfast/dining area, Ping Pong table, Sports deck that has Mini Golf area and Jogging. The lunch was ready and it was DELICIOUS. There were a lot of options from grills to Mongolian Wok. There is a lot of seating area on the Lido deck where breakfast/ lunch/ snack are served. There is always a courteous staff that cleared the leftovers in less than 10 minutes no matter where people left them. I must say the staffs are very hard working and have a lot of patience. Throughout the day the ship had a lot of fun games to offer. The times were reflected in the newsletter so you won't miss it. You can drop off the kid at the camp for free and go for shopping or play your luck at Casino or hang out at the bar. The camp charged reasonable $20.00 if you wanted to sign up for Night Owl camp from 10:00 PM -3:00 AM. The Pizza place, beverage and Ice cream machines are open 24 hours. I loved the pizza there. Remember Beverages included only lemonade, water, coffee, iced tea. Sodas, alcohol and bottle water are at reasonable price. The crowd was very nice. Everyone seems to be mingling and having fun. There were quite a few shows/games that I participated but did not win the "24 carat prize" Sigh. The water slides, pool and hot tub was nice and clean. Water was cold though when we started from Florida but towards Bahamas it warmed up a bit. The ship offered Signature dining at night. I signed up for early dining so was there by 6:00 PM. You need to be on time for this.

Being a newbie I made a mistake of not properly packing my clothes. Make sure you pack at least 1 cocktail/party dress for each night. People do take this dining seriously and everyone was dressed in their best. We were seated along with another family from Georgia for the next 5 nights. I have to speak the truth here, I was not happy with that. I had an option to change my seat but I did not want to hurt anyone's feelings. This family just disgusted me. Every night they ordered like 2 starters, 3 entrees and 2 desserts for each of them and wasted a lot of food. They did not order more food because they did not liked their first ones or wanted to try new stuff. They just kept ordering food because they wanted to eat everything since they paid for it. That made me sick. Read more