This was my 2nd cruise with Carnival so obviously my 1st was memorable and enjoyable enough to book another. Well... I could not have been more wrong! First, I must say that the ship itself was not the problem. Although it is an older ship with few amenities it has held up pretty well for its age. My problems began at the port of Miami. For this to be one of the busiest ports around it sure could use a MAJOR makeover. The area is undergoing some construction and not a moment too soon! The streets are bumpy/cracked and the terminals are falling apart cold. But the reason for this negative review was the overall service on the ship. One word??? Awful, Terrible, Ridiculous, Lousy, Pathetic... sorry got carried away :).

I recognized that a number of the ship's employees had the word "trainee" on their name tags but I don't recall Carnival charging "training cruise" money when I booked it. When we arrived at our stateroom there was an "foul" smell which was coming from the housekeeper. On top of having a hygiene issue, we asked that the 2 double beds be moved together as orginally booked. Needless to say, when we returned we still had 2 double beds and a not so pleasant odor. Calling the desk was no help at all so we just ended up putting the beds together ourselves. We then ventured to the casino...could be bigger but okay.

There was a time posted for the casino to open and we actually arrived after that scheduled but when we got there the casino was not open. So I asked one of the workers politely when would it be opening. The worker answered me as though I was a bother and simply said in about 10 of 15 mins. Finally, after another "30" mins i was dropping my coins away. Enough of that... on to the food.... Emeril!?!?! help!!! The dining room menus on this cruise were the same as my first cruise with Carnival and that was extremely disappointing. The food selections were very limit and not prepared well. This menu is just plain "tired"! Thank heavens for pizza and breakfast but even the pizza needed some help this time. Lastly, it must had been a law passed that I was unaware of that removed/banned the phares/words "excuse me", "I'm sorry", "thank you", "hello", and "please from the English/language because the passengers on the cruise sure didn't use them! And I'm not just talking about under aged children either.

There are some rude and ignorant people out there and the majority of them must have been on the Fascination with me. But even so, I made my own fun and good time with my traveling group. I must say that if I travel Carnival again it will definitely be on one of its larger and newer ships. I'm not going to say avoid all "fantasy" class ships but avoid the Fascination if at all possible!