This is my 8th cruise - Traveled with my husband, daughters 21 and 19 and my son who is 14. This was our second time on the Fascination.

I was prepared for the old ship - old service - rude people all the things I remember from before and things I had read on Cruise Critic. However this was not what I found.

Stayed at the Holiday Inn Blount Island. Awesome hotel, great staff - very close to the port. Parked at the hotel and shuttled to and from port. No problems going to the port however they only had 1 van running to get you back to your car so there were long waits and angry people. We waited about 30 min and were some of the first off the ship. Take note that there is nothing around the hotel or port other than a Wendy's next door. I wasn't happy with the Jacksonville Port, or Jacksonville for that matter. We stayed a day before the cruise - seems like a dangerous area to me. However the location of the hotel is safe and again the hotel was great - if I had to leave from Jacksonville again, I would stay here. Read more