I can not believe that Carnival let us miss Half Moon Cay! This was the whole reason we booked this cruise. I should never cruise with them again! I mean it's just some waves and rip currents.... Ok now that I have your attention- really we did miss it and this is how so many acted. To that later. We just returned from a 5 day on the Fascination to Nassau and HMC. Thought I would let all know how it went.

We left Cincinnati Thursday night around 7pm. We were going on our anniversary cruise with another couple- their first cruise. We drove thru the night to Jacksonville. We stayed in the Fairfield Inn and Suites on Jacksonville Beach. I have to say it was very nice! The staff was great and the room big and new. We were able to walk across the street to the Marriott they are affiliated with and use the beach access, bar, and all their facilities there. We just relaxed and made it our first port of call. After a nap we walked down to the Chicago Pizza place, didn't like it- over priced, poor service, and mediocre food. So we bought some beer and walked over to the beach. We made it as far as the bar on the beach and ran into Minda the bartender and she made us some Great Strawberry Margaritas. After some time there we walked to a place called Philly Time I think. We got some wings and Philly sandwiches. Met the owner John who was very nice and liked to talk. Then called it a night- big day coming.

Woke the next morning and had a light free breakfast in the lobby (need to have room for our burgers and pizza). We left and picked up our friends staying with some relatives. After a stop at Wally world for sodas for the trip we were at the port only 10 minutes later. The hotel is so close to the port. We arrived in the terminal at 11:15 am. Our friend Aunt kept our van for the week so don't know about parking, but it looked right there and well marked. There was a ton of security everywhere. After all the paperwork was in order we were led to the waiting area. It was forever until we boarded, I mean it had to be at least 20 min. (lol) On the ship before noon. The staff was great. After we got our first picture we headed to the gang way. The nice thing about Jacksonville is that from the check in desk to the ship was only about 100 feet! You do board on the lowest deck which was weird. We then went to the Pursers desk and had our names switched from the cabins ( we booked two cabins with one of our friends names on each of them to get them the discount). It was so easy and again the staff was so nice. Read more