I sailed on this cruise with my wife and 3-year-old son. I chose a 4-day cruise because it would be my sons first. I chose Carnival because they accept non potty-trained children into Camp Carnival. EMBARKATION/ARRIVAL: We had arrived two days earlier to take advantage of staying at the beach before our cruise, so we had no problems getting to the ship in time. We arrived at the port around 1:45 pm. There weren't too many people arriving at this time. There were about 5 people ahead of us at security, and we were through in less than 5 minutes. We went upstairs and because we were in a suite, used VIP check-in, although there was really no line for regular check-in. I had filled out the Funpass online, so I showed our passports and credit card for check-in, and we had our room keys and Sail & Sign cards in less than 10 minutes. (The Fascination uses the old style punched hole cards for room keys). We had our souvenir embarkation picture taken and headed on board the ship. After getting our cads scanned and photos taken, we went directly to our cabin. There was nobody directing you where to go or how to get to your cabin, which would have been helpful. SHIP: The Fascination is an older ship but it seemed pretty well kept. The interior decorations did seem a little dark for my taste and it was a little confusing to get around until you got the hang of things. Also, some of the labels in the elevators didn't match the actual floor where things were located, which caused some confusion. A nice thing was that they had little pullout pocket cards with a side view of the ship decks to help you find your way. CABIN: We stayed in a Category 12 Suite, Cabin U94 on the upper deck. The cabin was fairly large and had a lot of storage space. There was a good-sized closet and lots of counter space and drawers. The sofa was made into a bed for our son, and stayed that way throughout the cruise; it wasn't changed back and forth during the day. This was fine as there was still plenty of room.. There was a refrigerator that had the top shelf filled with soda and water that could be purchased, but the bottom and door were empty and fit the cans of soda and water we brought on board. The in cabin safe required you to use a credit card or other card with a magnetic strip to lock and unlock. The safe was a little finicky in accepting the swiped card and would beep loudly when it didn't read the card correctly. The bathroom was decent, and had a "whirlpool" type tub/shower. The tub wall was very high so it made it a little difficult to get in and out for a shower. The shower spray was connected to a hose so it could be removed and used as a hand sprayer. My wife found the shower controls a little confusing. The one thing I was disappointed in was the chairs and table on the balcony. They were made of cheap plastic. I did see nicer chairs on other balconies. Our cabin steward Sushi was great. We hardly saw him, but everything was always cleaned up or turned down etc, even if we were only out for a little while. DINING/FOOD: We ate every meal in the Coconut Grove on the Lido Deck. We tried eating in the dining room on the first night, but our son couldn't sit in one place for that long.. The food at the buffet was good, but not great. There were usually lines at the buffet, especially for lunch. They had multiple lines setup, but they didn't all serve the same food. The open lines varied from day to day. I did have a problem with the availability of kid friendly food. You could only get food from the kid's menu if you ate in the dining room or if your child ate with the Camp Carnival staff. The room service menu was limited and only had peanut butter & jelly sandwiches from the kid's menu. We asked if we could get macaroni and cheese; and were told no. CASINO: The casino was on the small side and usually quite smoky. They had table games as well as slot machines. I did think the video slot machines were a little expensive. They were usually 10x20 or 20x20 type machines. The 3 card poker limits ranged from $3 to $5 minimum; depending on the day. They also had an electronic Texas Hold'Em table. The casino charges a 3% service charge to get cash from your Sail & Sign account. For slots, you can use your Sail & Sign card in the machine and directly charge your account and get credit applied to the machine. You can also transfer money back to this account and use it later. There is no service charge for this. CAMP CARNIVAL: There were not many kids on board this sailing. In the 2-5 year old range, we never saw more than 3 kids in camp. The camp facilities looked nice and appeared to have been updated during the last Fascination upgrade. The 2-5 year old room was a good size, and had a flat screen tv, rest room and lots of toys. When we registered, the camp counselors provided us with a beeper to be used throughout the cruise. The first time we dropped our son off, he only stayed 10 minutes before they paged us. The following 2 days he stayed twice for 2 hours each day. As soon as he got really comfortable, this short cruise was over. He fell in love with Funship Freddy and had to have the little stuffed version as well as the Funship Freddy book. You had to show your Sign & Sail card to drop off or pick up your child. When dropping off, if you put down both parents names, either parent could pick up. Even though they knew who we were (since attendance was minimal), they still wanted to see our cards, which was good. ENTERTAINMENT/RECREATION: We didn't partake in any of the ship's entertainment, so I can't comment on that, but it seemed like they had a lot of stuff going on. The pool area was very crowded when the weather was nice. The children's pool was great for our son because it was usually empty or had one other kid in it. At times there were adults without kids who would go into the children's pool. We did play miniature golf a couple of times. KEY WEST, FLORIDA: We docked at the Navy pier so we had to take the shuttle train into downtown. We basically walked around town. Key West has an extensive "tourist" area with lots of clothing stores, bars, restaurants and art galleries. We looked in various shops and then rented a stroller from a rental shop ($20 for 5 hours). We walked the length of Duval to the southernmost point of the US and got our picture taken there. The walk was far but not too bad. On the way we passed the butterfly place that we saw was a part of one of the excursions, and the aquarium is 1 block from where the shuttle drops you off. Based on the excursion prices you pay about a $20 premium for transportation to these 2 sites that are probably a walk-able distance for most people (Aquarium definitely is). There are public restrooms in the little indoor shopping area by the shuttle place, as well as in the gift shop where the shuttle drops/picks you up. The shuttles run about every 10-15 minutes. Getting back to the ship takes a little while because you are stopped at the gate and they check your Sail & Sign card and ID before letting the shuttle onto the Navy property. You must take the shuttle; you can't walk on or off the Navy property. They are also very controlling as to where you walk when you get off the shuttle and head back to the line to board the ship. COZUMEL, MEXICO: We waited to go ashore until the first group of people, including excursions were off the ship and headed down to get the tender. This process was a mess. There were over 100 people jammed up in a little area on deck 3, with crew members constantly trying to go back and forth. It took a little while to get on the tender, and then we had to wait until they loaded it up. One thing my wife didn't like was that there were people on the tender going around trying to sell silver jewelry and Cuban cigars. They were constantly asking people to buy, leaving and coming back to ask the same people again two minutes later. We got to the pier and got in a taxi to get us to Paradise Beach (PB). We had decided on PB based on information I gathered from the CC boards. It was $15 USD each way for the taxi. Paradise Beach was everything I expected and was great. I would definitely go back there and recommend it. Getting back to the pier was easy as taxis were waiting at PB. We had no waiting time returning to the ship by tender. MISCELLANEOUS: Most of the crew was very friendly, especially the housekeeping staff.. Our room steward remembered our names and greeted us by name whenever he saw us. I tried using the only ATM on the ship to get additional money for Mexico, but the ATM was broken. I asked at the purser's desk and they said it would be fixed in Miami. This forced me to get a cash advance from my credit card and pay a 5.5% service charge to Carnival, even though the ATM was broken. I wasn't the only one others were coming up asking about the ATM as I was getting my cash. DEBARKATION: We had a late flight (3:30 pm from Miami) as we were planning to go to Jungle Island before heading home. We got luggage tags with zone 7 (I think it goes from 1-25). Our number was called around 7:45 am and we headed off the ship. They have different carousels for the different groups of zones, and we had our luggage in about 5 minutes. There were no lines at customs, and we were through there in 5 minutes as well. OVERALL: Despite some bad weather, we had a great time, and our son just loved cruising, so I see many more cruises in our future. We had already booked an 8-night RCCL Explorer of the Seas for May out of NJ. After that we will probably try NCL, since Freestyle Cruising may be a better fit for us with our little one.