Carnival Fascination Review

We embarked on our only cruise on the Carnival Fascination in July of 2014.  This was our first Carnival cruise, so other than what we had read about, and viewed on YouTube, we had no expecations other than having fun!

A member of Carnival's smallest sized ships, the Carnival Fascination is still large in size and excitement!  At 70,367 gross tons, the Facination can accomodate 2056 passenges and 920 onboard crew members.  We found the size almost perfect for the number of guests onboard.  Never felt too crowded or cramped, yet never felt like there was too much space .

Once onboard, we headed straight to our room, which was ready when we arrived.  After settling in and doing a little bit of unpacking, we decided to head to the buffet.  As we have come accustomed to seeing on other ships, the buffet area was packed the first few hours of the cruise.  After eating, we decided to tour the ship and try to get used to the layout.  The Fascination had many of the same options that the larger ships have, so it's not like anyone would miss out on everything by booking one in this ship class.  At the time, the main things they were missing that we notice now were Guy's Burger Joint and Blue Iguana Cantina.  We do still talk about how the Fascination's deli, as we feel this was one of the best we've had on any of our cruises.  

The shows were good, just as with many other Carnival ships.  The playlist production on the Fascination was another area we favored over any other Carnival cruise still.  This could be due to that one being the first one we had seen, and every other one since then have been pretty much the same songs and routines....still good though!  

Plenty to do during the day on the Fascination.  Always seemed to be live music playing throughout the ship, which kept us in party/vacation mode.  The onboard crew were very good.  Our steward and wait staff were very nice and engaging.  

Overall, we really enjoyed our first Carnival cruise on the Carnival Fascination.  So much so, that we quickly booked a cruise on the Carnival Triumph!

Would we recommend the Carnival Fascination:  Yes, especially for a first time cruiser.
Our favorite part:  Easy to find your way around the entire ship
Pros:  Size and crew
Cons:  Older ship, still looks great but showing it's age in some areas