We were hoping that a number of family members would join this celebratory cruise for our parents' 60th anniversary so we chose a 4 night sailing that spanned the Columbus Day holiday weekend departing from a convenient Florida port for all of us. As it turned out there were only a total of 5 of us that participated, two of which were my mid-80's year old parents.

All five of us are very experienced cruisers with well over 20 cruises each under our belt. My parents and younger brother were taking their 3rd Carnival cruise, while DH and I were experiencing our first sailing on Carnival. Our previous cruise lines include Celebrity, RCCL, NCL, Costa and a couple other lines (several now defunct. It was interesting comparing and contrasting the experiences, and we found more similarities than differences. Heck, we just ADORE cruising - I think DH would have loved the life of a ship's Captain, as he fell in love with the sea from our very first cruise together for our 10th anniversary!! I grew up in the 60's taking several Florida-based cruises with my parents. No one I knew back then had ever been on a cruise, so I felt VERY privileged. DH and I finally could scrape together enough money for that first one week cruise back in 1984 and then it was a number of years before we were able to take any more cruises. Now we try to book at least two or three every year! We had always been afraid that Carnival cruises would be too much a "wild party" experience for our tastes, but we picked a good time of year and this sailing turned out to be a good fit for all five of us.

We particularly enjoyed the incredible weather we experienced during this cruise. We took a chance booking smack in the middle of hurricane season, but we were rewarded with blue skies and sunny weather the entire four days. Loved the revamped pool decks and all the fun options available like the water slides and the "adults-only" sun deck. The pool IS a bit too small for a ship this size - as it was very crowded with all the good weather we had. We also enjoyed the mini-golf course on the Fascination and found it quite challenging. I would have liked to use the nice gym more (eliptical machine was great!), but just ran out of time. We had no problem finding chairs on the higher front decks to read or just sun bathe. So relaxing! We were surprised that we were not hounded much at all to buy drinks like we have been on a couple other cruise lines. It did seem that they had PLENTY of business selling drinks-of-the-day on this sailing! Apparently these shorter sailings just be more profitable in that regard. We found some great deals on liquor in the gift shop and stocked up for the holiday season ahead as I love to make rum cakes to give as gifts! Read more