Carnival Fantasy Review

Fantasy? I think not

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Carnival Fantasy
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littlewake2
6-10 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Feb 2011
Cabin: Ocean View
Traveled with children

We took a 5 day cruise out of Charleston on the Carnival Fantasy for a friend's birthday. We had a group of 10 with us and everyone made it back safely. Being from South Carolina it was very easy for the group to take this cruise as it was less than 3 hours from home and the price was pretty reasonable. I will first off say that it was not my favorite cruise by any means, however there were some positives. I will further preface my review by saying we have cruised RCL and NCL and this was our first Carnival cruise. I did not really know what to expect in terms of quality and experience compared to the other two lines, however I will say it was definitely an experience.

Embarkation: I was a little worried with the embarkation process due to the ship leaving from a makeshift cruise ship terminal. I was pleasantly surprised by how smooth the process was. The signs to get into the parking area were very helpful and all of the port staff did a great job getting everyone to where they needed to be. We got into the terminal and made it through the lines and onto the ship in under 30 minutes, which I consider pretty good. Once on the ship we made our way to our room that had just become accessible, and then on to grab some lunch from the Lido.

The Ship: This could be a little severe to some and maybe I'm just plain picky, but I was not impressed at all with the ship. I do know that Carnival tends to have a much different theme than RCL does, but some of the decor was horrible. The stairways (minus the ones that go two floors in the middle) were just plain ugly. They were dark and there were no pieces of art of pretty scenes as on the RCL boats. Obviously this boat is very old and it showed in many places, however I will say that Carnival had done a decent refurbish job which helped some. I did not care for how the floors were named, with many not having numbers next to the name. We got on some elevators and all they had was a floor name and then some only had numbers. The majority of the lounge areas were somewhat pretty, but the overabundance of smoke took away almost all the beauty. Previous ships that I have been on have not been filled with smoke as this one was. It seemed like everywhere you went there was a cloud of smoke, with some being worse than others. I don't ever remember being turned off by the smell of smoke on other ships that I have been on. Most all the RCL ships we have sailed on had a lot less smoking areas and I guess there tended to be less people smoking because I have never had to leave a lounge area as I did this time. I think that the more modern boats tend to have things arranged better, but you can only do so much with an older ship and I'm aware of that. Why is the pool the size of a postage stamp? I definitely liked the water slide being accessible to everyone and not just kids and the putt putt was nothing too great to look at, but it was fun anyway. The gym seemed to be decent sized for this ship, however it got way overcrowded and we just went to using the small track outside. I always wished the sushi bar had more to offer and was open more hours, however I fully understand the logistics of their operation from a financial standpoint.

Cabin Review

Ocean View

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