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Nine of us embarked from Jacksonville on the Carnival Fascination. Embarkation was really quite smooth/easy. We arrived at noon, went through the line fairly quickly, and immediately went to the pool bar on the Lido deck. While on the Lido deck, an announcement notified everyone that all cabins would be ready at 1:30. We attempted to go sooner, but the doors to the hallways were closed. So, at 1:30 we headed down, changed into our bathing suits (we had packed ‘em in our carry-on), and quickly headed back up to the pool bar.
The ship is in good shape, especially considering its age. It’s one of the smallest I’ve been on, so that made it fairly easy to keep up with members of our group. I was surprised to find out we did not have voicemail on our cabin phones, though (although, I didn’t really try too hard to figure it out, so it could’ve been there after all). The steward always kept our cabin very clean and tidy. We had a midship oceanview cabin on the Empress deck (I’ve gotta have a window, although I would prefer a balcony) and its location made it easy to get to everything. I could feel movement almost all the time (throughout the ship), but it was tolerable (kinda fun, actually).
The first dinner was “come as you are”, and some (most) people did --- I was embarrassed for many. I’m not saying everyone should’ve dressed up, I’m just saying there’s a level of self-respect that many of them lacked. It wasn’t so bad at the other dinners, though. For the most part, the food was good, but there were a few ordinary items. On “elegant night” (they don’t call it formal night anymore), two of the choices were lobster and prime rib. The lobster was very good, but the prime rib was extraordinary….the BEST I’ve ever had….it melted in my mouth. Speaking of “melting”, the Chocolate Melting Cake was deeeee-lish too! I had read somewhere on Cruise Critic that punch is always available on the Lido deck, but I never could find it. Lemonade was all I could find, and I’m not a fan.
I’ve been to Freeport and Nassau previously, so I pretty much knew what to expect. We should’ve stayed on the ship while in Freeport, but others wanted to go into town, so I went along. We took a taxi ($5 each way) to shopping and the beach (Port Lucaya, I think?). We ended up walking behind the Radisson Hotel and hanging out at a nice beach bar there. Nassau was much nicer, and there’s no need to take a taxi anywhere because the dock is adjacent to the main part of town. However, we did take a water taxi ($3 each way) to Paradise Island so we could check out Atlantis. Paradise Island was the nicest of all, and Atlantis was even more amazing now than it was when I first saw it several years ago. If you want to go to Atlantis’ beach, you can pay $35 by entering through Atlantis, or you can walk and walk and walk around the outside of Atlantis, down the street, through the sand, and to the back side of Atlantis to the restaurant/bar for free….that’s what we did, but it was exhausting (the conch fritters were excellent!). Then you can exit through Atlantis with ease. I wasn’t too fond of waiting and waiting for the next water taxi to take us back, so I wish we had taken a regular taxi instead. I almost forgot to mention how CROWDED Nassau was….there were SIX ships in port that day (five too many, in my opinion). And I learned an interesting tidbit of information from our “tour guide” on the water taxi (who, by the way, will be asking you to tip him for his services). He said they were dredging out the harbor to allow TWELVE to FIFTEEN ships to dock there in the future!!! How in the world can Nassau accommodate ALL THOSE PEOPLE??? Just another good reason to STAY ON THE SHIP!
The entertainment on the ship was fine. The stage shows were ok….I guess it’s just not my thing. I always find it entertaining to watch karaoke, and my fiancé tricked me into going on stage to sing “Puppy Love”….it was my first time and I was shaking like a leaf, but I survived. One of the comedians was kinda lame; the other was much better, but beware of the language at the late-night show (it’s not for everyone, I don’t mind eff bombs so much, but I can live without the GDs). The Passage to India night club was the favorite of my group (our ages ranged from late thirties to the early sixties). The disco (I think it was called the Diamond Disco) was always packed with younger people.
At least half the people on board were not sunbathers, so we never had a problem getting enough deck chairs together to accommodate our entire group. I was very surprised at the number of children onboard --- shouldn’t they have been in school??? They usually congregated in the pool area, so we opted for the opposite side of the stage or the next deck up for our relaxation. Our favorite day was the “day at sea”. The weather started out kinda gloomy, but the captain steered us around until he found the sun (around noon)! They had a band on deck, a few trivia games, an ice carving demonstration….just small things to distract us ever so slightly from our sunbathing/relaxing/drinking. Ahhhhh….my real life is great, but cruisin’ is awesome!
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