Our party consisted of 3 adults and two children (7 & 8 year old cousins). My wife and I have cruised before, but the kids and the other adult in the party were first-timers. Since we were taking children for the first time, and weren't sure how well they would like cruising, as compared to a "resort" vacation which we've taken with the same group a couple of times, we wanted a reasonably priced, mid-length cruise. Through our personal travel agent we found the Carnival Fascination cruise on November 13, 2010, for five nights at a reasonable price. Two days at sea, and two ports-of-call sounded perfect. And it could have been, if not for the poor service staff.

The Fascination is older than other ships we've been on - built in 1997 I believe. It has been through renovations, with the balconies on the cabins that have them added during renovation. The cabins are a bit cramped, but the balcony made ours bearable (we've learned NOT to cruise without a balcony - just a personal requirement). Passageways throughout the passenger areas are also narrow, so we got to know some of the service/maintenance staff well as we worked our way around them throughout the cruise. Otherwise, the facilities were pretty good, although obviously on a somewhat smaller scale than larger ships.

Because we booked the cruise only about three weeks prior to cruise date, we were forced to settle for late (8:15) dining. This was less than ideal for the kids, but still better than resorting to the other pizza/buffet line dining options for dinner. The worst part was that, other than the strictly adult shows/entertainment, Carnival schedules all their entertainment around the early dining schedule. So we did not have the opportunity to attend any of the shows, which we normally enjoy when cruising. Our recommendation is, if you want to be entertained in the early evenings (6:00pm - 10:00pm), you must dine early. Read more