Carnival Fantasy - Wrap-Up

I was going to do a couple more posts about this year's cruise vacation, but I didn't see any reason to drag the subject out any further. So this post is a summary of all the random thoughts I've had about this vacation and cruising in general.

--If you have never been on a cruise before, then most of the flaws I described in the previous posts probably won't be noticeable to you.

--The one aspect where the Fantasy beat the other ships we have been on was with their kids' program. Circle C and Club O2, the clubs for tweens and teens, were always packed and the staff kept the kids occupied. Unlike the first cruise my kids went on in 2008, I wasn't peppered with cries of "I'm bored!" for five days.

--I see more overweight people on cruises than I do in my everyday life. In particular, I see more obese people who need the assistance of walkers and wheelchairs to get around. Since I am uncomfortably close to 300 lbs right now myself, seeing these people struggle is a good reminder to keep up my efforts to exercise and get in better shape.

--We have taken cruises for several years in a row and we've loved them. However, this one was a little less impressive than the last ones. All of our party wanted to blame it on the ship and no one wanted to admit that we are probably getting bored with cruising. I'm not saying I will never take another cruise, but I will be taking some time over the next few months to research other options that are around the same price as a cruise.

For my reader who requested photos: we didn't really take many photos on this trip. All the photos that are representative of what a cruise ship looks like are from a couple years ago. If you want to see them, visit ABM's Flickr page.

Carnival Fantasy - Food

Carnival Cruise Lines prides itself on providing dining experiences every hour of the day. There are buffets and traditional sit-down service for all three meals on most ships and in the wee hours of the morning you can get pizza up on deck and sandwiches via room service. Since we all know that my cooking is sub par, you can imagine that I look forward to eating someone else's food for a change. This time around, though, I was less than impressed.

Part of the problem is that the entire cruise line has a standard menu, almost like going to a McDonald's or an Applebee's restaurant. This makes it easy to tell when the dishes aren't cooked the same. Many dishes arrived at the table cold or, in the case of the chilled soups, not cold enough. Simple dishes like baked chicken and grilled chicken breast were overcooked. I ended up eating steak three nights in a row because it was the only dish the chef seemed to get right.

Another big problem was the water. Common advice here in NC is that if you are vacationing at a SC beach, you should bring your own water. I don't know much about how ships load up with water, but if they filled up in SC it might explain why the water on the Fantasy tasted funky. It affected the taste of all the drinks. There were two incidents that made it obvious that the company knew the water tasted bad. When we first checked in, the room steward told us that we wouldn't be able to get water anywhere on ship so we would probably want to buy the bottled water in the mini-bar. I just nodded but didn't understand what he meant. Later at dinner, all the waiters were offering bottled water immediately to the tables (for a charge, of course) rather than pouring water from pitchers. You had to press them to get them to give you the free water, but once you tasted it you knew why they didn't want to give it to you. Blech!

Lest I sound like a Dani Downer, there were a few bright spots in my culinary experience on the Fantasy. The Warm Chocolate Melting Cake, a Carnival menu classic, was delicious. I got a NY strip loin sandwich with brie on a baguette from room service that was better than anything I had in any of my dining room meals. The redskin mashed potatoes from the buffet were heavenly and I wish I had put more than a tablespoon of them on my plate. On our other cruises, we had this kind of experience every time we put our forks to our mouths. The Fantasy just didn't live up to Carnival's usual level of excellence.

Carnival Fantasy - Ship and Service

Complaining about the service and accommodations on a cruise ship smacks of "rich people's problems", as one popular preacher often says. The fact that I had people cooking for me and cleaning up after me for five days should have been enough. However, after you've been on two or three cruises, it is easy to spot when things aren't up to snuff.

The first thing I noticed was that, for a ship that was supposedly refurbished two years ago, it looked pretty shopworn. For instance, the carpet was threadbare and stained in many places and the handle came off of my bathroom faucet the first time I used it. The hangers in the the closet were all rusted. All over the ship we saw workmen repairing drink machines, elevators, etc. This was something that was never visible on the other ships on which we've sailed. I wasn't expecting everything to look brand spanking new, especially considering the fact that the Fantasy does back-to-back cruises. However, I didn't expect it to look like an old motel, either.

The staff seemed a little worse for wear, as well. Generally, I am turned off by super-chipper servers, but these people went a little too far to the other end of the range. On other ships the wait staff hover in that gentle way that says, "I'm here to serve you." It makes you feel really special. Unfortunately, the staff on the Fantasy made our group feel like we were in their way. I don't want staff to bow and scrape, but I would like to get my cup of coffee without being rushed by a guy waiting to clean the coffee station.

Back from Vacay

My family and I have returned safely from our cruise to the Bahamas. In fact we walked in the door about 35 minutes ago. The short version: it was a good vacation, but in some ways not as great as previous cruises. If you want the long version, I'll be publishing several detailed posts over the next few days. These posts will probably be rather long, but they will all have "Carnival Fantasy" in the subject line so those who aren't interested can skip them. As for now, I'm headed for a nap!

Vacation Time!

Yes, it is that time of year again. ABM and I are going on another cruise, this time for a whole week without the kids. By the time this is posted, I should be on a plane to Fort Lauderdale.

As usual, I'm trying to beat down my guilt about going. I can't help feeling that there is somebody out there judging us for going on a trip when I have been unemployed since June. To combat that negativity, these are the things I tell myself:

--We don't treat ourselves to anything during the year, so this is the equivalent of a year's worth of date nights.

--Cruises aren't as expensive as people think. We couldn't afford the same accommodations, food, and activities at a stateside resort.

--ABM works hard and looks forward to this one trip all year. Why would I want to ruin it for him?

There. I feel much better now. Bring on the sunshine and the blue water!

We're back!

The great family adventure has ended, and it went smoothly. No one missed a connection or got left behind. The storms skirted around us and all we got was a little rain. I have a lot that I want to say about the trip, and I will probably spread it out over several posts this week. Right now, though, I'm knackered! After I get caught up on mail and housework, you will hear more from me.

Won't you let me take you on a sea cruise?

I'm back from my cruise to Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios, Jamaica and it was great. Once I let myself relax and forget about all our problems at home, I had a blast. It was actually easier to let go than I thought. I was surprised at how quickly I put all my worries behind me and shifted my focus to just what we were doing each day.

I was taken aback by how much I missed the kids. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a long time know that I don't have much of a maternal instinct. I love my kids but I don't miss them a lot when we are separated. In the past when I have taken trips, I was simply happy to be free of my parental responsibilities for a few days. This time, the minute I stepped on the ship I started thinking about how the kids would get a kick out of everything that we saw. Perhaps the kids were on my mind so much because they have finally reached the age where I think of them as people instead of high-maintenance little rugrats :-).

My view of cruises has changed since the first one we took 15 years' ago. To me, a cruise was the kind of vacation that the average person took only once in her lifetime, like going to Paris. Now I realize that the cruise ship is the transportation and the accommodations combined, like a floating hotel. With lines like Carnival bringing prices down within the reach of your average Joe and Jane, it makes sense to cruise more than once.

The woman who organized our cruise had taken the same trip on the same ship 5 years' ago, yet she said this trip was completely different. We were more adventurous than her previous traveling companions and didn't let her sit on the sidelines. Not that we were wild and crazy, but we didn't go to Jamaica looking forward to buying cheap jewelry. In Grand Cayman, we saw the stingrays



and in Ocho Rios we visited Dunn's River Falls.



We stayed up late every night to see the shows on board.



This was more than we did on our first cruise. So cruising doesn't have to be the same experience every time.

Later I'll be doing a more detailed post of what is involved in taking a cruise, including unexpected costs.