The weather in Mobile on our departure day was so bad the Fantasy couldn't return from the previous trip until 6PM - 10 hours late - so everyone had to wait at the Mobile Civic Center. Although we sat there for 11 hours waiting, I thought that Carnival did a good job keeping 2000 people fed and watered while we waited. No doubt some people will moan about the delay, but there isn't much they can do about the weather so we had no complaints. We finally got on board around 1.30AM and I can't tell you when we sailed as we were asleep by then! The late departure meant that we had to miss our first port visit to Progresso, so we got an extra day at sea.

We hit the same bad weather on our first day at sea, which resulted in my wife and son (and many others on board) feeling pretty sick most of the day. My 9 yr old daughter and I were OK so we spent the day roaming around the ship. It was too cold for the pools and waterslides so it was a little difficult keeping her occupied. She was in the 9-11 yr old kids club, but this particular group was not well attended at any time during the voyage. They also seemed to have dedicated rooms for all the other age groups, however this group seemed to be put into the Conference room, which had no dedicated layout or fittings. The overall feeling was that they were placed in there because there was nowhere else to put them. That, combined with the low (i.e 4-6) attendance numbers meant that the 9-11 kids club wasn't much of a hit, and several of their activities were canceled due to low attendance numbers. My 8 yr old son enjoyed the 5-8 club as there were more kids there and they had a dedicated room.

The weather during the rest of the trip was great and so we were able to use the outdoor facilities like pools, water slides and mini golf. Being January however, the pool water was cold! Read more