This was a last minute trip booked at a hefty discount, so overall, the trip met expectations. The ship is old, and its clearly evident throughout. The additions during the drydock are nice and shiny, but the core public areas look worn out, overhead signage looked like it was from the 80's and didn't reflect the new areas, and many areas looked like they weren't touched during the drydock. Staterooms still looked worn, and the windows of the ship were filthy. BUT....for the price carnival is offering on a lot of the sailings, one shouldn't expect greatness.

One thing, and I think it may be a Carnival fleet wide thing now, the cabin service left a lot to be desired. Stewards now, but default, only come into the room to do service once a day. On day 3 I finally met our steward and informed me he would only clean the room in the morning, but offered to do it in the evening if we preferred. He did not offer to do both/to do turn down service. This is quite dissapointing, because I always saw turn down service as one of the little perks of cruising. The towel animal on the bed at night made sense...now its relegated to a shelf in the corner of the room after the AM room servicing. Carnival is likely cutting corners here by reducing the amount of times stewards have to service staterooms so they can cover more rooms...so they can reduce staff numbers, and save money. Despite this decrease in service, gratuities have stayed the same. I, personally, will take this decrease in service into account when picking my next cruise/cruise-line.

However, the ships inadequacies didn't really bother me too much since I didn't invest much in this trip. Good things about the ship include a pretty good entertainment staff, pretty good food (sometimes great, sometimes quite bad), and the itinerary is hard to beat. Islands should be the draw for anyone going on the Fascination out of San Juan. St Thomas and St Maarten are still in recovery mode, so adjust expectations because of this. Despite this, both ports were still enjoyable and had a lot to offer. Other ports were great, St. Kitts and Barbados take the cake. St Lucia has its pros and cons. Read more