Carnival Cruise Line
Fantasy Cruise Review
7 Day Bahamas

Mitch Imamura

Our cruise was on 1-5-2006. The review form only allowed for the year 2005.

The very first thing I have to say about this cruise, is that you get what you pay for. This is considered a “value cruise” not a “luxury cruise”. If you go into this cruise with that in mind then you will have a nice time. If you are expecting someone to be there for your every need (even someone to bring ice to your room), then you need to find a different cruise. If you are looking for a relaxing no frills inexpensive couple of days on a cruise ship, then this is your cruise.

One of the best things we encountered on this cruise was the staff, which was always friendly and helpful whenever we had questions (which was quite often). The ship is not very well mapped out and it was hard to find our way around when we first arrived. There was no information or literature about the days’ entertainment, dinner schedules or location, TV station guide, phone numbers for different services on the ship, do not disturb sign, or listing of ship activities in our room upon our arrival so we had to wander around and figure things out for ourselves. Late on the second day we were told by our bartender that we could get a map and entertainment schedule from the information desk which helped tremendously.

The food in the buffet (Windows on the Sea) was more cafeteria style food and cruise line. It wasn’t inedible but it sure wasn’t what we expected to find on a cruise ship. Breakfast was pretty good, but how can you really mess up eggs and toast? If you don’t want to dress up and go to the main dining room, I would suggest the sandwich bar in the back of the Windows on the Sea dining area or the burgers and hot dogs from the buffet on the pool deck. The room service was pretty standard fare as far as cruise ships go (as I am told), cold sandwiches, small salads, cold cereal, and little cookies and dessert. Do not order the cookie/brownie combo. The cookies were store bought bag cookies and the brownies tasted like they had been left out on the counter for a couple of days. Definitely get a soda card and one of the soda tumblers with a lid to carry your soda without spilling it everywhere, when you get on the boat! Although in the buffet room there are no waiters/waitresses so you need to go to the bar every time you need a refill.

The bars, clubs, and casino are all nice. Not too big, not too small and are all very active and fun. There are a variety of choices, but most of the entertainment doesn’t start until late. The casino is nice and roomy with a decent choice of games. The only show we tried to attend was the comedy show which did not turn out too well. We arrived a half hour early and sat in the upper level and waited for the bingo game that was in progress to end. While we sat upstairs a nice waiter took our drink order while the lower level filled up and 3/4 of the upper level filled up. When the bingo game ended, which was 5 minutes before the comedy show was supposed to start, they announced that the upper deck was closed for cleaning and everybody needed to move downstairs. We had waited for half an hour, bought 2 drinks and then were told to move to an area that was nearly to full capacity along with about 100 other people? That was wrong! We should have been told in advance not 5 minutes before the show starts. Needless to say we left, along with all of the other people that had been waiting upstairs for half an hour and could not get seats downstairs.

The room was actually pretty spacious and nice. Our only problem was its location next to an office of sorts that had really thin walls. We could hear all of the conversations next door and we assume they could hear all ours as well. We did not meet our steward until I called the steward office (which I had to get from the information desk) to get bathrobes. He told us that they did not give robes to interior rooms, but would try to get us a couple. When we later returned to the room we had 2 robes, and we met our steward (who was extremely nice) when he later brought us the belts for the robes. But when the cleaning crew cleaned our room that night they took the robes and we never saw them again.

We arrived about 2.5 hours before our departure and check in was pretty fast and easy. When were to leave the ship everybody jammed into the lobby where we were to get off at, which was the same floor we were staying on. Needless to say it was impossible to get through the crowd of people and to any other part of the ship other than our hallway. Luckily the hall we were confined to was the first part of the ship to depart and we were one of the first passengers to leave the ship and were in our car within 10 minutes from departure.

The ship itself was small but nice and tastefully decorated. Most of the public areas were clean, well lit, and fully staffed with knowledgeable and helpful employees. Our only problem with the ship itself was the elevators. They are very very slow. Most of the time we ended up using the stairs instead of waiting for the elevators to hit every floor until they reached the one you were on.

My girlfriend had the full body seaweed wrap and massage at the spa and was extremely happy with it. The staff was very personable and professional, and resulted in one of the best spa treatments that she has ever had! The only downside was they tried to sell her $435.00 worth of after spa treatment products (which she thankfully declined). A nice little piece of advice is to book your spa treatment or massage right when you get on the ship, they give you a discount for booking on the first day and they book up pretty quickly.

Overall our cruise was relaxing and pleasurable. Other than a couple of bad experiences we really enjoyed the ship and staff. We did not have high expectations of this cruise and enjoyed the time away from work and just relaxed and had fun. As long as you don’t expect a “fine luxury cruise” and realize you are on a “value cruise” then you will enjoy yourself.