It was not my choice for this sailing, but I did have a great time. As I work in hospitality (guesthouse manager), I did notice little things that needed attention. I am in the habit of looking at the little details, like there was a loose screw on the bathroom door, and when you shut the door, the screw would pop out and fall to the floor, trimming loose around the desk inside the cabin. But overall, the ship was fantastic! Do wish that the buffet had longer hours, and there were not may dining options open late. The onboard entertainment could have been better, but again, overall was great. The crew were fantastic and attentive! The main public areas were clean, but once you got into the cabin areas, you start to notice little thinks, like the carpeting could have used a good cleaning, and some areas actually smelled of cigarette smoke, and on our sailing, just down the hall from us, you could smell sewer in the hallway. We did notify our cabin steward and did see some crew working in the area to try and fix the problem. Read Less

I booked the Carnival Fascination for my friend and I, so I could go back to St. Lucia for the 3rd time (may be the last time), and to show her what it was all about. I have been on many ships, of different sizes. The Fascination ship was smaller, but for me, it was so much easier to navigate, than a large ship. There were no long lines, and the elevators go by letters, instead of numbers. We were on deck 5, so our letter on the elevator was M, as our room number is M82. The bad part of these letters is that most people, young and old, had a hard time trying to see the correct one to push. I am not nit picky, so I was happy with the layout of the ship, and how it looked. There were several things going on like Love and Marriage show, Quest, Hasbro Game Divas, Motor City (Motown Music which was good). Outside, ice carving, hairy chest contest. Piano bar is good too, and there is no smoking, which is great. We ate in the MDR, and the food for us was good, especially their Portabella mushrooms, and mashed potatoes. I have never had this problem before, but I ordered pork chop, and I could not cut it, but other than that, all the food and deserts were great in the MDR. The lido buffet area, deli, pizza, Guy's Burgers, Blueguana had really good food most of the time. My friend had a bad accident while we were on tour in Barbados, so the rest of the trip sort of went down hill, but we made it!!! I won't go into all the details, but here are a few of the stops, and who we used to take us on tours, and we were happy with all of these. St. Thomas we took a taxi and went to town, and they have some wonderful jewelry without paying taxes, and we both bought some! Barbados we had Carson Taxi and Tours, and I'm sure it would have been good, but unfortunately half way through my friend had a bad accident, and we had to head back for the ship. After this accident, my friend went on the other tours with me, but stayed in the van all the time, as she was not able to move around much. St. Lucia we had Cosol Tours. I won't go into the details, but they are wonderful, and you can read everything they do on the tours, and it is worth every dollar! St. Kitts we had planned on going to the beach but after my friends accident we decided to just take a Taxi. We had Jimmy's Taxi sightseeing tours T-438, and it was a wonderful tour and I learned so much about St. Kitts. St. Maarten we had Bernard's Tours, and what a wonderful tour it was. We learned about the French and Dutch side, and see so much beauty of St. Maarten. Read Less

service was amazing. I want to compliment Nestor, our server for dinner. he made it entertaining and was overall a very cheerful person and made my cruise. the food was amazing and the first time I was full every single night. and trust me, I eat a lot of food. loved the different variations of food they had to eat throughout the cruise especially guy's burger shack. i loved that they had water slides on the ship so you had something to do on the sea day. cabin was always spotless and i loved the towel animals they made especially the heart on the last day of the cruise. i loved club o2 and all the activities they had especially the ps4s. the ship was a lot larger than i expected it to be. so first impressions, amazing. overall, i would definitely sail with them again and i would definitely recommend this to someone else. Read Less

This is my 3rd time on this itinerary but first time on Fascination. Love the stops but not the ship. The service on the serenity deck was lacking. Sometimes it took an hour to get a drink. There were kids under 21 all over the place on the serenity deck as well which made it a challenge to get a spot. The buffet area was crowded and again the service for cleaning tables was slow. The formal dining was nice, and the service was good. Waiters learned our names and preferences right away. However, the room itself felt small and claustrophobic making it hard to see the activity during the show times. The "sports bar" is just that in name. There are 4 televisions but 3 are solely for showing commercials for products they are selling on the ship. The register is in front of the only one showing sports, so you spent the majority of the time looking at the back of the bartenders heads. I went during March madness. Impossible to watch a game in there. So small, only one television, and they schedule band performances in a cramped area making it impossible to hear or talk to anybody. Absolutely the worst setup for a "sports bar" I have ever seen. I missed having a large TV screen on the Lido deck over the pool area that I have seen on many other ships. I find it nice and relaxing to sit out under the stars and watch movies on the giant screen. Also helps make it easier to see what is happening during events like ice carving, hairy chest, etc. Like I said earlier though, the port stops are great and help offset how lacking the ship is. I would do the itinerary again but would never go on this ship. I think of the ships as floating hotels. I’m on shore doing stuff all day so the ship is a place to eat, have a few drinks, and then sleep. Typically, I consider Carnival ships to be along the Holiday Inn level – get the job done at a great cost. This one felt much more along the lines of Motel 6. It got me where I was going and that was about it. Read Less

I found I like not fighting to board and leave the ship, jostling shoulders, almost tripping over others. so what if the buffet is smaller- there are less people to be in line. the only thing I didn't like was the height of the overhead bunks, as you cant sit on the lower without contortions to your neck.4 adults had cabin M-58- perfect to the elevator access-no noise. the itinerary was almost frenetic as only 1 seaday so off on adventures daily. love the water colors and no tendering. ate in dining room the most as I prefer not being in lines. wish the menu would change more as the same selections seem to be there every year, and limited selections for the vegetarian passenger. as usual hate the upsell and the outrageous prices in the salon. used the gym for prescribed physical therapy and it worked out well. staff good. hate the staff doing "showtime" during my dining which I like to be quiet for conversation. Read Less

We knew going in the Fascination is an old boat, but it has a great itinerary and only one day at sea so we went ahead and booked. Overall we were more impressed than we expected. We were a party of 5, two parents and teenagers aged 19, 18, and 14. The cabins are very clean and look updated, no wear and tear to be seen (and we were on the Riviera, so bottom deck). Beds and pillows are comfortable. Bathrooms were also very clean. There is a hair dryer in all of the rooms (online information said there was not). Plenty of closet space, but the safe is not large enough for a laptop. We had no issues with anything missing from our room. There's only one standard outlet in the room and one in the bathroom (the kids struggled for charge time!). Our room steward was attentive and friendly. Around the ship you could see a little more wear here and there, but overall not much. The public bathrooms were all clean and look recently updated. The decor is a bit out of date, but didn't detract from a good cruise experience. The ship was full, but we had no trouble finding a pool chair on the sea day (or in the late afternoons) and other than the buffet you didn't really feel too crowded. Getting on and off the ship at the ports was very easy and organized. The ports are great. We did the social WiFi for the kids and the basic WiFi for my husband and they worked fine with the exception of one day. We struggled a bit with the entertainment staff, while they were very friendly and outgoing they seemed to be screaming into the microphones, both out at the pool and inside during bingo. I am sure they have to have the volume up for some guests, but it was always so LOUD and sometimes distorted. We did not attend any of the evening shows or entertainment except the 80's dance party on the Lido deck, which was fun. We would recommend the mini speedboat tour in St. Kitts, and the Golden Eagle Catamaran on St. Maarten. Both were excellent and well run excursions, booked through Carnival. In Barbados we went to The Boatyard, which was a great day. Just get off the ship and go to the taxi stand and say the boatyard, it's $5 each to take a shuttle there and they will shuttle you back in the afternoon. It's $25 each to get into the Boatyard and that includes a beach chair and umbrella and one drink each, plus a short snorkel tour on a boat you board right off their pier. It was the best snorkeling we did all week, we saw several stingrays and a sea turtle. Food and drinks were good and not too expensive, and the staff was really friendly and fun. We had a great day there and highly recommend. I recommend getting the Carnival trip insurance, we ended up with cancelled flights that caused us to board the ship at the first port in St. Thomas. Carnival was very accommodating, they allowed us to cancel our excursion we had booked through them for that port with a full refund and arranged for our check-in that day. Upon return home I submitted the receipts for trip delay and baggage delay along with a letter from the airline explaining and we were reimbursed right away. The only real disappointments were the buffet, which is laid out poorly. You have people coming and going with strollers and wheelchairs and not wide enough spaces. The ice machines were working sporadically in the buffet and outside by the Mexican/ burger joint. Then workers would be using the ice machine to fill up glasses when customers were trying to get ice. Didn't seem to be a good system. And they seemed to be doing work continuously around the ship, varnishing railings and closing stairs, along with loud drilling. It made getting around a challenge. You would think they would take a week off and just do all the projects at once. Food was good, drinks are good but of course pricey (we don't drink enough to justify a package). We only ate in the dining room one dinner and it was fine (we aren't foodies). We wouldn't go back on this ship, but that's only because we try and go new places on each trip. If you are looking for a way to see these islands, we would recommend this cruise. Read Less

This is by far the smallest ship we have been on in our years traveling with Carnival but it was an unexpected plus in our mind as there was rarely a wait to get on and off ship and to get food, there was always a seat outside in the sun or inside at the shows and it was nice seeing people you met along the way a bit more as the ship was small and you would cross paths more. Also I felt like we were not as jammed into the buses and vans on excursions as we have been on past larger cruises. We would LOVE if dining room buffet opened at 5. We only eat in the actual waiter/waitress/full service dining room once or twice when on cruise and you can only eat so many Guys Burgers and Pizzas- saw many people just like us who were coming down after a long day of excursions ready to eat some fruit and salad only to be told it wasn't open until 6. Again...minor. Its not like we are going to starve on a Carnival cruise but would be a nice thing for the company to consider. All in all - the trip was great. Loved the destinations- very interesting. Everything was up to par with what we expect from Carnival. Read Less

We had a wonderful cruise vacation on Carnival Fascination sailing from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The number of island destinations was the main reason we chose this cruise (Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas; Bridgetown, Barbados; Castries, St. Lucia; Basseterre, St Kitts; and Phillipsburg, St. Maarten). We were happy we selected the FTTF (Faster To The Fun) as we were able to board the ship near noon on our sailing day and disembark early. As well as obtaining the early seating for dinner and priority service at Guest Services. Boarding at San Juan, was the worst part. People stood all around the outside of the dock area in no real discernable order. Thinking we were in a line for early boarding, we were stopped from entry when the people in front of us had a 2 pm board time. We kept trying every employee and finally gained admittance around 12:30. Later, we found out that this cruise also boards people at St. Maartens and (we think) St Thomas-which adds to the confusion in Puerto Rico. It seems that ALL passengers must be off the ship for 4 hours in San Juan for customs-including those who are not boarding at San Juan. So those people-who have valid sea passes are also waiting around trying to re-board. There should be a better way to allow those with sea passes and noon boarding unfettered access to entry. The ship is smaller and originally put into service in 1994, but they continue to update as recently as 2013. What our balcony cabin E249 lacked in a more modern bath area, was made up in the automated floor lighting when you got up at night, as well as the window beside the door to the balcony. We Love Guys Burgers (and fries) and had them continually! Plus we enjoyed the Blue Iguana for great Mexican food out by the pool. Also we Love that the ice cream is available 24/7! We enjoy dining in the main dining room and were not disappointed with the food, the service, the presentation or Lobster Night! Our main waiter, Elmer, is wonderful anddeserves recognition. As well as Ronnie and Yasa who assisted with our fine diningexperience. And finally, our cabin steward, Marlon, was one of the best we have ever had among allour 30 years of cruising. In St Thomas, we chose to walk around the town and stopped into "Pirates TreasureMuseum" for $16 per person and spent several hours learning about the shipwrecks,seeing items found below the sea, reading diary entries, and even speaking withCaptain Jack Sparrow's little brother. We recommend this adventure. At Barbados, we didn't take a cruise tour either, choosing instead to take a taxi to the George Washington House and Garrison Tunnels. This is only about a mile or so from the dock. The tour guides are knowledgeable and pleasant for both the restored home as well as the newly found Garrison Tunnels. Again we recommend. At St Lucia, we opted for the Carnival excursion of the Catamaran Cruise to the Pitons and were very pleased. The catamaran crew was wonderful, the scenery from the shoreline was amazing and we were able to stop for about a half an hour to walk along a little beach. For St Kitts, we chose the Highlights & Brimstone Hill Fortress sold by Carnival. Here our bus driver allowed a woman at the entrance to Brimstone (a Brimstone employee?) onto our van who pressured us to rent a device to tell us about the Fortress. However, the device repeatedly tells you to find "stop # blank on your map"-but there is no map! You have no way to know when to listen to your information at what location. Do NOT purchase this scam at the Fortress. Finally, we chose the new Rainforest Adventures St Maarten for the Sky Ride. The viewsare incredible and the Flying Dutchman looked like a wild ride! This is a definite GO. The only glitch we had was with our return flight, which we chose. The Boeing 737 Max 8's were downed days before our cruise. We called our airline, Southwest Air, and wereinformed that since neither nonstop flight to or from San Juan|Baltimore MD were onthe Max 8, there would be no problems. The flight to our cruise had no issues. However, when we got off the cruise at the end of our vacation, we found that Southwest had cancelled our return flight while we were at sea and then failed to notify us. Later we were informed that the Carnival system must not interact well with the Southwest system and that is why Southwest did not notify us of the change in our return flight cancellation. Instead of taking our confirmed nonstop flight at 2:50pm to Baltimore, we waited at the airport with ALL our luggage until 4 hours before an 8 pm flight to Orlando Florida. Southwest did give us a lunch ($10) and dinner ($14) voucher, but did nothing to help us with a room overnight in Orlando where they stranded us. We called Southwest following our trip and found that Southwest will only hollowly apologize. The $130 we paid to have a room to sleep was an additional expense that is our problem. We used to think Southwest was a premier airlines. It was disappointing to see how they reacted when a problem arose. At the very least, we now know. Again, Carnival has given us a wonderful vacation. You really should go on this one. Read Less

Great ports. Wonderful experience onboard. Staff was very attentive. Smaller boat so I felt the movement of the boat more than last cruise. We are looking to do this one again next year. The food was good. Ate in the dining room more this time than last year. Wonderful experience with the crew there. The ports were the best. Learned so much from each place. Great being able to visit places that are older than our county. The entertainment crew did a superb job in making people of all ages and backgrounds had fun. My son loved the kids programming and wanted to be there whenever we got back in port. We did the Faster tot he Fun and that was worth the money. We were the first people on the ship . It was great for guest services as well. I actually felt bad because at one time there was a long line of people waiting and I got to go ahead of the because of FTTF. Worth the money! Read Less

I chose this cruise because of its itinerary. I have been on other Carnival Cruises before and was looking forward to going on a smaller ship as smaller ship = less people. As soon as we got to the Carnival Cruise area, there were porters there to immediately help us with our luggages. Embarkation went smoothly. We embarked around 4:30pm and it wasn't crowded. The food, overall, was okay. We have had better on other Carnival cruise ships. Even food in the dining room at dinner was just okay. The desserts offered at dinner, I felt, was nothing to write home about. I preferred the desserts offered in the buffet room. The servers were very efficient in the dining room. If you had a show to catch, you just had to let them know and they served you quickly so you could make your show. In the buffet room, there were always tables available. We also had a baby with us so whenever a server saw us, they would offer to bring us drinks, more food, or a baby chair. The entertainment was pretty good. They tried to mix it up and have a variety of different entertainment (gameshow, lip sync, magic show, singing and dancing). Most nights were singing and dancing shows. Still very entertaining. Our cabin steward was pretty good. We had a baby with us so we could only get our room cleaned/turned down once a day and we opted for the morning to get it done. Sometimes it was a hit or miss (depending on nap time). I wish our cabin steward would have attempted to check on our cabin room in the evening if he missed the morning as I told him I wanted our garbages cleared even if he couldn't come in to clean the room. Other than that, he was very nice and always said hello to us and inquired about our baby. One thing I didn't like at all was the service in the dining room at breakfast time. If everyone in your group wasn't there at the same time to get a table, they refused to seat you. I found this ridiculous, especially since we had a baby and wanted to get her settled before we even ordered our food and as we waited for the rest of the people in our party to show up (which was 5 minutes later). The debarkation and embarkation at the ports were surprisingly quick and efficient (compared to other Carnival Cruises in the past). I was surprised at how we didn't have to wait in long lines to get out of the ship. I felt there were lots of room on the ship for everyone. We were able to find deck chairs and tables for dining. The lines for food were not overly long. Overall, this was a pretty good ship. We had a great time and your vacation is what you make of it. Read Less