We have sailed on numerous Carnival ships in the past ten years, and this was our second sailing on the Fascination. There were much more good than bad on this one. First he good..... we have never stayed below deck 7 on any ship. This time we asked our Customer Service Rep at Carnival to find us a 5 day out of Jacksonville for less than $500 for two people. Didn't really think he could pull it off, but we were wrong. The catch was, we were assigned a porthole stateroom on deck 4 (Rivera). At first we were hesitant, but than remembered it was just a short trip to the Bahamas, so we went for it. The room was as good as any onboard and it wasn't rough or loud like I thought it might be. Having the porthole made the world of difference too. I would do this again in a heartbeat - save a bunch of money and have a great cruise. We did one excursion in Nassau to the "Promo" Private Beach with BBQ. The price was only $59, so we didn't expect too much. We were pleasantly surprised - we had a blast. Two pools, a bar, a Starbucks, beach chairs with padding, cabanas, umbrellas and snacks. Your travel out on a catamaran for about 25 minutes, which was kind of nice too. We've been to Nassau a number of times, and other than the "Dig" at the Atlantis, this was my favorite excursion to date. Next was the customer service. All I can say is WOW. They have two restaurants, one for selected time dining, the other for "Any Time Dining," which is what we did. We never had the same staff twice, and they were all excellent. A couple of things that were different... they didn't push the "extra" gratuities like they used too, which I thought was kind of nice, and we NEVER saw our Room Stewart, which was a first. They were in and out and never seen. They also did away with Electronic Bingo (Rip Off as I call it), and went back to regular Bingo Packages. It sounds like Carnival is listening to it's customers and trying to be accommodating. The Entertainment was just average for a ship this size. The Entertainment Director was hardly ever seen, and his assistant was HORRIBLE. There was an underway party the first night and he couldn't even get people to do the normal electric slide dances, etc., it was just pitiful! He had ZERO personality. The shows were mediocre at best. There were two comedians, one was ok, the other was terrible. There was a band outside the casino that was really good. They should have played the main stage and not the crate they had them on. My biggest complaints were that they removed the Gold Card Customers from the Captain's Party, which just sucked, we always looked forward to the parties once we made it to the Gold Level, now it's gone. Also, there was the lady on the microphone in the Casino. I heard her speak about 10 times throughout our trip, and I didn't understand one word she said. They really need to get someone who can speak understandable English on a ship full of English speaking customers. I wish the Casino was non-smoking, but you can't have everything. All in all, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable cruise, even with the few minor issues - we would do it again in a second. Smaller ships = smaller entertainment budgets I guess, so you get what you pay for.