Carnival Fantasy Review
A solid cruise out of the great state of Alabama!
Rating by category
Additional details
As an Alabamaian, I was excited to hear about Carnival bringing a cruise ship back to Mobile. I decided to support tourism in my state a give this cruise a go. I have been on several cruises through Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) in the past, but this was my first ever cruise on a Carnival ship.
Booking:
The online booking process was extremely easy. I booked this cruise multiple months in advance and took advantage of an early saver rate that included $50 of onboard credit. The only downside to the booking process was the $50 per person penalty charged for changes when booking an early saver rate. I have make changes on other cruise lines from 1+ year out up til the date money was due and never incurred any penalties. This is something Carnival really needs to consider changing. They are penalizing customers who plan ahead for their vacations. In my opinion, this is a group of customers you don't want to treat in this manner. One we made final payment, we had access to print our boarding documents, luggage tags, and other embarkation information. Again, this process was very easy through their website. We also booked Faster to the Fun and Shore Excursions prior to the cruise via their website. Again, a very easy process
Cabin Review
Ocean View
The cabin was smaller than I've experienced on prior ships with the same type of room. I attribute this to the age of the ship. The room was very clean and our stateroom steward was excellent! One of the best stewards I've had on a cruise ever! There were some minor cosmetic issues with the room. This was surprising since the ship had underwent a dry dock within the last 6 months. I would have expected those type of issues to be resolved during a dry dock.
Port Reviews
Cozumel
One of my favorite ports on any cruise. I want to go back to Cozumel again!
Mobile
We had selected the 11:00am - 11:30am embarkation time. We had arrived in Mobile the day before and arrived at the port around 10:40am (we were not sure how traffic would be in the morning so we gave ourselves some extra time). When we got off the interstate, we were greeted by a long line of cars. I assumed we had arrived before the parking garage had opened. The line of cars was slowly moving. After about 10 minutes we had moved up enough in the line of cars to be greeted by a police officer. He asked if we were picking up someone or getting on the cruise today. When we told him we were embarking today and were parking in the parking garage, he directed us down a side street and we were told to go to the last car and turn around and line up behind the last car. This line of cars stretched for over a quarter mile. It took us at least another 20 minutes to get up to the parking garage at the port. We dropped off our bags on the ground level with the porters and proceeded to park. We paid for parking in advance to save time and gathered our carry on bags and headed for the terminal entrance. We were directed by multiple people on where to go and had to make multiple stops to show our boarding documents, passports, etc before even getting to security. Past security we made our final stop to get our sail and sign card. We were then directed where to sit. The waiting area was very tight (had too many chairs for the space) and uncomfortable. When they started making the boarding announcement, they started with the Gold and Platinum cruisers and people in Suites. The words and tone used in the announcements for these groups made those who were not among the chosen ones feel like second class citizens. Finally we (Faster to the Fun) were called to board and made our way to the gangway. This was by war the worst embarkation process I have ever experienced on any cruise. Period.