My husband and I have cruised with Carnival many times before and this was our second time on the Fantasy with this itinerary. We chose it because a) we are a 3 hour drive from Charleston, b) it was 5 days over a weekend so my daughter wouldn't miss too much school and c) it sailed the day after my daughters 13th birthday and this was her gift.

We chose to drive down late Thursday night and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on Savannah Hwy (Rt. 17). I got a decent deal on Hotwire for the room as one of their secret rates and we paid $99 incl taxes. The room was nice enough and they had a free continental breakfast in the morning. (which we chose to skip as we LOVE Toast of Charleston and had already planned to eat breakfast there!).

As I said before, we sailed on the Fantasy in March 2012 and were under-impressed at that time. Being lovers of CCL we were hoping that it was just a fluke and booked again. Neither of us are "high maintenance" nor do we demand 5 star service or quality but we do like to get our money's worth. The Fantasy is an old girl. (Nothing wrong with that, I am too!) She's kept clean and comfortable and the environment is quite friendly. A previous review compares her to an old pair of jeans which is very accurate! Since we had our daughter with us, we had a room with a Pullman bed. It was a little tight quarters, however, it was nice and we weren't in the cabin much. Read more