This was my first cruise ever. Earlier, I had seen several not-so-good reviews about Carnival cruises (versus other companies) but I thought they were somewhat biased. I've been watching Carnival offers here and there over the past couple of years but never really dared to book a cruise because of what I've heard previously about this cruise company. At the end of 2011 my husband and I were traveling from Connecticut down south and Charleston was one of the cities we planned to stop in. Accidentally, I saw a cruise offer departing from Charleston exactly during the time when we planned to be there. Since it was a shorter cruise (5 days) to the Bahamas and we'd celebrate the New Year's Eve on the ship (we always try to do something special for the NYE), we decided to book this cruise several weeks before the departure. The ship was Fantasy, which I later found out to be the oldest ship in Carnival's fleet (20 years old). I have to admit that the embarkation process was very smooth and well-organized.

The "fun" began when we opened our stateroom door... A strong stench - a mixture of mildew, dirty man's socks and vomit - literally knocked us down! It was the worst stench I've ever experimented in any hotel room in my whole life! We were to live in that gas chamber for five days... By the way, after debarkation, our things/luggage still stunk for two days and we had to keep them out in fresh air to rid of the stench. The room was OK otherwise, the bed was fine, flat screen TV, etc. There was enough space in our room for everything we took with us on the ship. I read in other reviews that Fantasy had larger staterooms compared to other, newer ships. Fantasy has been refurbished in 2008, although there were certainly some things in our room that badly needed to be updated. Mainly, in the bathroom. The toilet seat was disgusting! And the shower floor was terrible. You can see 3 photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48684309@N08/6653868229/in/photostream/

Next comes entertainment. Since we have nothing to compare it with, we took other people's word: it was below par. They have been on several cruises (they were sitting at our table, so we talked, mainly about cruises) and said that this ship's entertainment was the worst one. First, there was little entertainment that wasn't totally commercialized (in other words, you wouldn't have to pay for it additionally, like Bingo, for instance). If you don't gamble (and we don't), there's little to do for you on the ship. If you don't shop for alcohol (we don't care for it) or jewelry (if I buy jewelry, it's always from a place that would be easy to go to in case there's any issues, but it isn't easy to do this once you leave the ship), then you're screwed - you'll be bored to death on the ship and count days, like we did. One of our dining companions, who was on 7 cruises, said, complaining about the boredom: "Why not have a scavenger game for the adults and have them find 20 things on the ship?" Yeah, not on Fantasy - once they start looking for things, they'll notice how much this ship is worn out. It needs a serious update everywhere. The cosmetic refurbishing won't hide all the signs of wearing out of this vessel. Read more