Mr_chelledun and I recently returned from a five-day Bahamas cruise on the Carnival Fascination out of Jacksonville, Florida.  This was our shortest cruise to date and was selected to compliment a north/south road trip with stops on either end.  The Fascination was my seventh cruise and fifth on Carnival, the others having been weeklong trips on the Imagination, Triumph, Paradise, and Glory.  While we had a good vacation overall, I probably wouldn't return to or particularly recommend the nearly fifteen year-old Fascination for a first - or subsequent - cruising experience.

Embarkation
Jacksonville (AKA JaxPort) is a relatively minor cruise ship dock.  It only hosts one cruise ship, the Fascination, and only recently has even this ship been a full time resident.  Accordingly, you would think debarkation would be smooth and efficient since employees have only one ship to worry about a couple of times per week.  You'd be wrong.
We arrived for embarkation a bit later than expected after our Garmin sent us to the industrial port by mistake.  Oops!  Upon entering the correct port area, we waited in a long line to gain admission to the port, another long line to drop off our bags near the check-in, and then had to sit and wait for all those dropping off their bags along with us to get organized and drive out of the pull-in area.  Finally, we waited in the typical long lines to register and board the ship.  I was surprised that given the relatively low number of people on this ship (around 2000 as compared to 3000 or more on newer ships) everything still moved quite slowly.  By way of comparison, we have had much more efficient embarkations at Miami, Port Canaveral, and San Juan within the fast few years.

Stateroom
Carnival definitely provides the most space for the dollar when it comes to staterooms, and this ship is no exception.  We ended up selecting an Oceanview Guarantee in an attempt to use some refunded on-board credit after a huge price drop. This resulted in cabin M17, a porthole room quite near the front of the ship.  I probably wouldn't pick this spot again just because I felt more motion than in centrally located rooms, but the cabin itself was recently renovated and quite spacious for the approximately $600 per person price tag.

We had two beds pushed together and covered with Carnival's comfy bedding, including a white down comforter that I love more than any other hotel bedding.  In one corner was a tiny flat screen television, in another a wee little end table.  The desk doubled as a vanity with mirror and provided a spot to plug in hair appliances.  Those who have traveled on other Carnival ships should be aware that the Fascination is one of the few ships in the fleet which does not provide a hairdryer.  The room was generally neat, although not quite as squeaky clean and fresh as the stateroom we had on the Carnival Glory several years ago.

The bathroom in our stateroom was predictably tiny.  Annoyingly, the shower lacked much of a ledge to prevent leakage into the main part of the bathroom.  Carnival does provide halfway decent toiletries including wall-mounted shampoo and body wash as well as some freebie razors from Bic.

Public Spaces
Although the Fascination underwent Carnival's Evolutions of Fun upgrades very recently, it still looked worn and dated compared to pretty much every other cruise ship I've ever been on.  The theme is loosely Hollywood-related, complete with a main promenade known as "Hollywood Boulevard."  It's a cute idea, but unfortunately most of the rooms are dark, dingy, and eccentrically ugly - even by Carnival standards.  One of the worst offenders is the 88 Piano Bar which unfortunately doubles as the site of a very unglamorous afternoon tea ceremony.  Dirty piano shaped tables and a black, white, and silver décor left me feeling gross after spending time in this room.  The elephant-bedecked "Passage to India" lounge simply doesn't fit into the theme in any conceivable way, and the main atrium/piano bar offered a truly odd color scheme of purple, black, and gold which clashed utterly with the Christmas decorations adorning it during our visit.

I will give props to this Fantasy-class ship for having an excellent layout.  Unlike the Princess ships I have sailed on most recently, the Fascination is intuitively designed and it is very easy to traverse from one end of the ship to another.  After just one loop around, we were able to find everything easily and without wasting time.  The Lido deck and pool area is particularly well-organized, with lounge chairs arranged around a centrally-located pool and entertainment stage. 

The Fascination also offers several venues devoted to health and fitness, including a modest-sized gym which was typically crowded and a top-floor jogging track.  I never understand why ships put their track on the upper-most level because it is nearly too windy to stand up there, much less jog!  The miniature golf course is tucked inside the track and according to our tablemates the wind makes it sort of a debacle to try to get the ball in the hole.

Dining
Food was, sadly, worse than usual on this cruise.  One shouldn't expect gourmet cruise food (outside an extra charge specialty restaurant, at least) but most lines have at least a few stand-out items.  The Fascination, unfortunately, features a dumbed-down menu of unexciting items blandly prepared.  In the main dining room, appetizers tended to be halfway decent (after all, it's tough to mess up a Caesar salad or a plate of prosciutto).  Everything went downhill from there, however, as we ended up with one disastrous entrée after another.  I personally experienced an overcooked, poor quality steak, an undercooked bowl of pasta with lukewarm sauce, and - on the opposite end of the blandness spectrum - a spiced pork dish so over seasoned I couldn't even eat it. Desserts were equally uninspiring.  We ended up ordering the too-mushy molten chocolate cake practically every night because virtually nothing else was appealing.

The casual dining situation was little better taste-wise.  Practically everything on the daily buffet looked much better than it tasted, whether it be hot dogs, nachos, pork loin, or onion rings.  Breakfast was better than lunch, but the only real standouts at any meal were the baguettes (Carnival always does an excellent job on its bread products) and the chocolate chip cookies. Most of the dessert looked beautiful but tasted like cardboard.  It's actually shocking to me that one can fill up a plate with small portions of five or six different nice-looking chocolate items and have them all taste like crap.  No wonder there is so much waste on cruise ships.

In an effort to give praise where it is due, I must say that I did like the open, tropical feel of the Coconut Grove Bar and Grill.  Despite the full ship there was always seating available and I liked the intimate, comfy booths for two that were tucked in the corners of the dining space.  We regularly sat here and grabbed a piece of pizza or deli sandwich along with a drink from the bar in the back of the Coconut Grove.

Entertainment
There is always plenty to do on a cruise ship, but unfortunately the Fascination's daily activity schedule was far sparser than that of any other cruise in recent memory.  This seemed odd considering the two sea days on this itinerary.  Usually we have a tough time deciding between activities, this time we had trouble finding activities going on at a given time.

One example - while cruise ships typically have an active schedule of on-deck entertainment during the day, the Fascinations musicians would be scheduled to begin playing at noon, start playing late (at 12:15 or 12:30), and finish at the schedule end time of one.  They would then disappear, not to be seen again until the afternoon.  Another example - the Passage to India lounge was open only a couple of our five nights at sea, despite having advertised drink specials on other evenings.  It seems that Carnival has cut its entertainment budget for smaller-sized ships significantly now that it has 3000+ passenger boats in the fleet.

There were a few entertainment highlights, however, that you should be sure to check out if you sail on the Fascination:

1. Far from Over - This 80's tribute musical show featuring dancing and singing is better than anything I've seen Carnival's main stage in recent years.  It isn't Broadway, of course, but if you love 80's music as much as I do you will find yourself dancing in your seat all the same.  The uniforms and rubick's cube-style backdrops are also pretty fabulous.

2. R-Rated Comedy Show - Carnival typically provides at least one late-night comedy show on each of its voyages.  The Fascination's was hilarious, as they usually are.  This is a popular event, so be sure to show up to the Puttin' On the Ritz lounge at least a half hour early.

3. Tara Library - This little spot is one of the ship's most attractive and least visited.  We checked out books on several different occasions and enjoyed reading them on the deck or in our stateroom in the afternoon.

4. Past Guest Party - Always a highlight, this event was held in the main showroom and came complete with yummy hors d'oeurves and free drinks.  We sipped wine with a lovely elderly couple from Florida and clapped and cheered for the Carnival ships we'd sailed on in the past.

5. Art Auction - We never buy anything, but they're typically fun to watch.  The snarky, entertaining auctioneer on this ship made for a good show for art purchasers and gawkers alike.  Plus, free champagne and door prizes!

One final word on the Fascination's entertainment offerings - if I never encounter another opportunity to line dance it will be too soon.  I'm not sure if it was the southern influence or just an out-of-touch entertainment staff, but every single social gathering from the Captain's cocktail party to the New Year's Eve festivities centered around large group dances.  This is something I have not observed with such frequency on any other cruise ship.  While other passengers seemed to enjoy it, a twelve minute rendition of the Cha-Cha slide is not my idea of a good time.

Ports
This Key West/Nassau itinerary was about as basic as it gets - sort of an intro to the Caribbean.  If you're seriously interested in seeing beautiful islands, I strongly recommend opting for a southern Caribbean itinerary instead or, at best, a seven-night eastern or western itinerary that gets you past the Bahams.  If you have a limited amount of time or don't care where you go, though, there are certainly fun things to do in any tropical port.

Key West is a great city.  This was our second time in this port so we didn't mind the half-day (7 to 3) port time too much.  I highly recommend visiting the Ernest Hemingway home and museum and stopping for a fruity drink at Sloppy Joe's.  Additionally, the Blonde Giraffe has not-to-be-missed Key Lime Pie both in standard and chocolate-covered form.  YUM!

Nassau has a more traditional tropical port feel and is perhaps the most touristy cruise-ship destination anywhere.  I highly recommend getting out of the immediate tourist village to explore more beautiful parts of the island.  Over the past ten years or so I have had two good experiences with Dolphin Encounters on Blue Lagoon Island, the first involving dolphins and the most recent involving sea lions.  One advantage with this particular itinerary is the opportunity to sample Nassau nightlife.  The ship's 10:00 p.m. departure allowed us plenty of time to party it up at Senor Frogs downtown.

Fellow Passengers
Practically all passengers, except for us, hailed from either Georgia, Florida, or the Carolinas.  The short cruise length and cruise port location was obviously responsible for this.  Mr_chelledun and I stood out a bit with our non-Southern accents and were referred to as "Northerners" and "Yankees" with some regularity.  We met some nice people but I did miss the national and international diversity that traditionally comes with a seven-day or longer cruise.

Carnival's short cruises are traditionally labeled as "party" cruises, but this one was not.  We were the only diners at our table of ten to order a bottle of wine with dinner and I saw very few folks indulging in the fruity Fun Ship drinks served on deck.  Folks seemed to be mostly of the early-to-bed variety as the nightclubs were pretty dead most evenings.  For us, this was a bit of a let-down as we like to kick loose a little bit on vacation.  Your mileage, of course, may vary on this issue.

Disembarkation
For the first time ever, we opted for self-assist debarkation since we had a reasonable amount of luggage.  This meant that instead of putting our luggage out in the hall and waiting for our deck to be called, we simply carried it off with us very early in the debarkation process.  I'm very glad we did.  Debarkation ran about an hour and a half behind so I can't imagine what time the last folks got off the boat.  Per usual, many folks failed to read the provided debarkation materials so there ended up being a lot of angry people who tried to self-assist but couldn't because they'd already checked their bags.  From now on, we will carry our own bags off any time we possibly can.

Overall . . .
On the whole, our five-night cruise on Carnival's Fascination was somewhat disappointing despite the low price.  We still had fun, because we always do, but it's clear that Carnival applies a lower standard for service and entertainment offerings on its shorter cruises.  While I will certainly return to cruising and likely to Carnival, I'll be sticking to longer cruises on newer ships and suggest you do as well.

*Check out some of my more favorable cruise reviews . . .
Disney Wonder
Carnival Glory  
Crown Princess
Emerald Princess

Recommended: No

Best Suited For: Families