Well let me start by saying my DW and I have been on over 25 previous cruises including Carnival, NCL, RCCL, HAL, and a couple of small lines. We are in our young 50's and consider ourselves independent travelers. We have found reasons to like and dislike all of the cruise lines for various reasons and our tastes. Generalizations can always be tough but some of our impressions are Carnival is less elegant but more fun, we love NCL's freestyle dining but the service was weaker, HAL has great service, elegance, and food but an older crowd, and RCCL has ok food but excellent entertaining shows. We tend to like smaller more intimate ships but have had great fun on bigger ships as well. That said here goes on the 8-22-09 sailing of the Fascination.

We picked this ship specifically for its Jacksonville embarkation port, this is a convenient drive for us and we save a lot in airfares often associated with southern Florida ports. We weren't nearly as thrilled with one the two ports we were to visit, Nassau, having been there before and not having had a particularly great time. This however was just a quick getaway and a time for relaxation so we just decided to make the best of it.

We drove half way down the previous night and stayed at the Quality Inn at Richmond Hill Ga. The hotel was nice and the staff helpful. We had a very nice free breakfast the next morning and left for Jacksonville. We parked at the port, being 2 couples it was cheaper for us then to try and drive all the way to Jacksonville where room prices are higher and we would have needed 2 rooms. We arrived at the port at 12 and within 30 minutes we took our obligatory pictures and were heading up the gangway. Read more