We took a New Year's cruise on the Carnival Fantasy...out of Charleston, SC. It was me, DH, our 5 kids (13, 12, 10, 3 and 3) and my parents. This was our 4th Carnival cruise (2 before kids and 2 with kids). We have also sailed DCL and RCI (Explorer, Independence, Liberty and Oasis).
As is pretty much always the case, we had a great vacation. It certainly was not like we spent our 5 days comparing everything on this ship to DCL (or RCI), but you can't help but note the differences...especially after the trip. Carnival definately comes in well behind DCL and RCI for us.
First thing I think Carnival should note to people booking....the ship has NO heating system. None! So, when you sail out of SC in the winter, the ship is FREEZING!!! I'm not talking about a little cold so pack a sweater...FREEZING! It wouldn't have been bad if we knew that and had packed accordingly. Thankfully, because we knew SC would be chilly, we wore pants on the ship and packed pants to wear off the ship. Had we known the first 2 days on the ship would be so cold, we would have packed differently. As it was, I wore brown corduroy pants and a sweatshirt to formal night (not the black dress I had packed)...LOL. Once we got down past Florida the temps rose and the ship was fine.
STATEROOM...or more appropriately called giant walk in closet with beds. We actually laughed when we opened the cabin doors. Thankfully, we were split up in 3 cabins and, although they were the smallest cabins I have ever seen, they worked out fine. We have a saying that our vacation goal it to spend as little time as possible in our cabins, so size doesn't matter much. We woke up, got ready, returned for a quick nap with the twins, got ready for dinner and did not go back to the cabin until after midnight when we dropped into bed. The bathroom was nice and the beds were very comfortable. One other note..TV selection was a joke. Thankfully, we do not go on vacation to watch TV.
FOOD...dining room food was very good. The Warm Chocolate Cake may have changed my life forever....SO GOOD! I had 1 meal in 5 nights that was not too good. My pork, as well as my father's, was over cooked. The buffet food was awful. It even looked awful. Thankfully, the salad bar in the buffet area was very good and we really enjoyed the Mongolian Grill (I ate this everyday for lunch). The kid's food section was good too. We did try the Sushi bar one night and it was good. My son enjoyed the 24 hr pizza. 5 out of the 9 of us bought the soda package. Our service team was fine...we had My Time dining but got the same table 4 out of 5 nights. DH and I also enjoyed our Chai Latte's.
KIDS...Once it was warm enough (days 3 and 4), my 12 yr old and 10 yr old enjoyed the pool and waterworks area. They weren't great, like Oasis, but they had fun. I went to the Adult hot tub at night and enjoyed that...and it was ADULT (although I did not see any kid challenge that so I don't know what would have happened). There was no adult pool but we wouldn't have used it anyway (too cold for me to swim). My twin 3 yr olds and my 10 yr old really loved their clubs. My 12 and 13 yr old enjoyed their clubs but we were a little disappointed with how often their age group was closed. They didn't open until 12:30pm. They didn't do much during the afternoon and did not really pick up until around 10pm. Still, my tween/teen found friends through the club and had fun hanging out with them all week. I still think having to pay for the club after 10pm, for the 11 and under groups, is tacky. I could see after midnight but, it is what it is and we paid. One thing to note...they had special parties/activites that the kids definitely wanted to do and they came with a fee. One night my 10 yr old wanted to go to the late night party for her age group. It was $26. Another night my tween wanted to do the Jr Spa night...$39 for that. The ship has Laser Tag and that is $5 for each 5 minute game...and of course there is the arcade. For the twins...there really wasn't anything for a preschooler to do other than the clubs. Oh..except build-a-bear. That was $20 per bear. We skipped it though...the twins were too young to beg for it and my older 3 were old enough to skip it. The dining room does not have cups with lids....not a big problem but it would be for a younger toddler. They did have a children's menu and provided crayons (unlike RCI). The menu did not change though...same each night. A big note for me...railings have no plexiglass and are widely spaced. I would not have let my 3 yr olds on deck without being locked into a stroller...would have made me too nervous (esp with twins). It was fine for my older 3...who I hope have the sense not to squeeze through a railing and fall into the ocean.
OTHER...We enjoyed the casino. It was very small and the slot machine selection was bad. The 2 cent slots had a minimum cost of 18 cents....my Mom, not the big gambler, was a little turned off by that. The tables (we play Let it Ride and Blackjack) were fine. We liked how conveniently everything was located....other than the fact that it was a bit odd that you had to walk through the bar to get to the younger kid clubs (no other way in)...but that wasn't a big deal. We really enjoyed our stop at Freeport. The beach was beautiful and the market was fun to browse. There wasn't a lot of extra entertainment....only morning trivia (except the Nassau day when they had afternoon trivia too). The comedian, according to my parents, was very funny. The production shows were not great. I was looking forward to the Beatles show but it was really cheesy.
We also enjoyed the dance party on deck to bring in the New Year. It wasn't elaborate but it was a lot of fun...better than sitting home, for sure!
That's about it....
Jess
As is pretty much always the case, we had a great vacation. It certainly was not like we spent our 5 days comparing everything on this ship to DCL (or RCI), but you can't help but note the differences...especially after the trip. Carnival definately comes in well behind DCL and RCI for us.
First thing I think Carnival should note to people booking....the ship has NO heating system. None! So, when you sail out of SC in the winter, the ship is FREEZING!!! I'm not talking about a little cold so pack a sweater...FREEZING! It wouldn't have been bad if we knew that and had packed accordingly. Thankfully, because we knew SC would be chilly, we wore pants on the ship and packed pants to wear off the ship. Had we known the first 2 days on the ship would be so cold, we would have packed differently. As it was, I wore brown corduroy pants and a sweatshirt to formal night (not the black dress I had packed)...LOL. Once we got down past Florida the temps rose and the ship was fine.
STATEROOM...or more appropriately called giant walk in closet with beds. We actually laughed when we opened the cabin doors. Thankfully, we were split up in 3 cabins and, although they were the smallest cabins I have ever seen, they worked out fine. We have a saying that our vacation goal it to spend as little time as possible in our cabins, so size doesn't matter much. We woke up, got ready, returned for a quick nap with the twins, got ready for dinner and did not go back to the cabin until after midnight when we dropped into bed. The bathroom was nice and the beds were very comfortable. One other note..TV selection was a joke. Thankfully, we do not go on vacation to watch TV.
FOOD...dining room food was very good. The Warm Chocolate Cake may have changed my life forever....SO GOOD! I had 1 meal in 5 nights that was not too good. My pork, as well as my father's, was over cooked. The buffet food was awful. It even looked awful. Thankfully, the salad bar in the buffet area was very good and we really enjoyed the Mongolian Grill (I ate this everyday for lunch). The kid's food section was good too. We did try the Sushi bar one night and it was good. My son enjoyed the 24 hr pizza. 5 out of the 9 of us bought the soda package. Our service team was fine...we had My Time dining but got the same table 4 out of 5 nights. DH and I also enjoyed our Chai Latte's.
KIDS...Once it was warm enough (days 3 and 4), my 12 yr old and 10 yr old enjoyed the pool and waterworks area. They weren't great, like Oasis, but they had fun. I went to the Adult hot tub at night and enjoyed that...and it was ADULT (although I did not see any kid challenge that so I don't know what would have happened). There was no adult pool but we wouldn't have used it anyway (too cold for me to swim). My twin 3 yr olds and my 10 yr old really loved their clubs. My 12 and 13 yr old enjoyed their clubs but we were a little disappointed with how often their age group was closed. They didn't open until 12:30pm. They didn't do much during the afternoon and did not really pick up until around 10pm. Still, my tween/teen found friends through the club and had fun hanging out with them all week. I still think having to pay for the club after 10pm, for the 11 and under groups, is tacky. I could see after midnight but, it is what it is and we paid. One thing to note...they had special parties/activites that the kids definitely wanted to do and they came with a fee. One night my 10 yr old wanted to go to the late night party for her age group. It was $26. Another night my tween wanted to do the Jr Spa night...$39 for that. The ship has Laser Tag and that is $5 for each 5 minute game...and of course there is the arcade. For the twins...there really wasn't anything for a preschooler to do other than the clubs. Oh..except build-a-bear. That was $20 per bear. We skipped it though...the twins were too young to beg for it and my older 3 were old enough to skip it. The dining room does not have cups with lids....not a big problem but it would be for a younger toddler. They did have a children's menu and provided crayons (unlike RCI). The menu did not change though...same each night. A big note for me...railings have no plexiglass and are widely spaced. I would not have let my 3 yr olds on deck without being locked into a stroller...would have made me too nervous (esp with twins). It was fine for my older 3...who I hope have the sense not to squeeze through a railing and fall into the ocean.
OTHER...We enjoyed the casino. It was very small and the slot machine selection was bad. The 2 cent slots had a minimum cost of 18 cents....my Mom, not the big gambler, was a little turned off by that. The tables (we play Let it Ride and Blackjack) were fine. We liked how conveniently everything was located....other than the fact that it was a bit odd that you had to walk through the bar to get to the younger kid clubs (no other way in)...but that wasn't a big deal. We really enjoyed our stop at Freeport. The beach was beautiful and the market was fun to browse. There wasn't a lot of extra entertainment....only morning trivia (except the Nassau day when they had afternoon trivia too). The comedian, according to my parents, was very funny. The production shows were not great. I was looking forward to the Beatles show but it was really cheesy.
We also enjoyed the dance party on deck to bring in the New Year. It wasn't elaborate but it was a lot of fun...better than sitting home, for sure!
That's about it....
Jess
