We went on the Carnival Fantasy for a conference. If you are looking for a new venue for a conference, family reunion or other gathering, consider a cruise. If you need help planning, contact Cruise Bug Vacations.

New Orleans elicits a wide range of reviews. Being my first visit, I arrived ready to experience the Crescent City on my terms. Obviously, Katrina brought New Orleans to the news, but the reporting of the event didn’t give an entirely accurate picture. According to some locals, some people were under the impression that New Orleans had been wiped from the face of the earth or it was still under water, years after the hurricane did its damage. It’s true that some parts of New Orleans disappeared, but other parts, like the French Quarter, the main tourist destination in the city, remain.

In retrospect, leaving from New Orleans on a Carnival cruise was quite appropriate and comical in some way. I had heard that I would either love or hate New Orleans and that I would definitely hate Carnival. Being curious, I didn’t want to just accept an opinion, but wanted to experience both the city and the cruise to find out why.

I could hate New Orleans for its good food and good music. This is the port where you can gain weight before even boarding the ship. On the other hand, you could lose that weight by practicing what was an all too common event on the sidewalks of the French Quarter – involuntary purging oneself. Is that a nice way to put it? If you can overlook the extreme and unseemly behavior of some of the visitors to New Orleans and see the architecture and experience the hospitality of the locals, you will come away with an overall positive impression of the town. I would never want to be there for Mardi Gras, as I am not interested in observing debauchery, which I suspect would be at an all time high during this time. Hey, I’ve seen those ads for the Girls Gone Wild videos. Go and enjoy the historical and cultural aspects of New Orleans and just ignore the rest.

Making Bananas Foster at Brennan’s

We enjoyed these restaurants: Broussard’s, Brennan’s, Bourbon House, Arnaud’s, Court of Two Sisters, Mother’s, Muriel’s and Johnny’s Po-Boy. We didn’t have a single bad meal and really overindulged. Fasting would have been a good idea for our days on the ship. Even though the ship didn’t have a deck where we could do laps, the gym came equipped with every type of machine imaginable.

Waddling onto the ship, from the overabundance of delicious food that I sampled in the Crescent City, I wondered how Hurricane Dean would affect our itinerary. The itinerary includes Costa Maya and Cozumel as ports. Have never been to the Costa Maya port, I was looking forward to visiting the Chacchoben Archaeological site. The captain regularly kept us apprised of the hurricane situation and advised us that we would try to avoid it and head east to Key West, which would be our first port.

We hadn’t been to Key West and although disappointed about missing Costa Maya, we were excited to visit yet another new destination. Our time in Key West was short, but we visited many sites including Ernest Hemingway’s home, the lighthouse, the southernmost point in the continental US, the Eco-Discover Center and more. We visited most of these destinations using the services of Old Town Trolley. Their knowledgeable guides gave us a good taste of Key West in the short time that we had there.

We enjoyed lunch at the Conch Republic Seafood Company. This trip sounds like an adventure in continuous eating, doesn’t it? After lunch we stopped at the Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe and tried a frozen key lime pie on a stick. We shared; I swear. Would you believe we took all this in and made it back to the ship by 1:00? Obviously, all the other passengers spent as much time as possible in Key West. The line to board the ship started far away from the gangplank. We moved rather slowly, but the sun shined brightly and there was really no reason to get inside. Well, except for the fact that the ship would be leaving soon.

We hadn’t been to Cozumel for years, so were anxious to re-discover the island. We opted to take the clear kayaking excursion offered by the ship. A short trip down the road from the port plopped us into a pleasant resort with a restaurant, kayaks and snorkeling equipment. Our group divided into two. One group kayaked while the other snorkeled and then switched. We snorkeled first. Having sensitive feet, I had great difficulty getting into the water, full of sharp stones and other things attacking my feet. The guide helped me navigate the treacherous water. Several inexperienced snorkelers panicked at the start and walked back to the where the kayaks were. The snorkeling was good and the guides were concerned about the welfare of their charges.

We opted for the clear kayaks because Bugsy doesn’t know how to swim,so being able to see the underwater world from the comfort of a kayak would be perfect. The only problem was that it is impossible to see anything through the “clear” bottom of the kayak. We enjoyed our paddle anyway and made it back to the start where refreshments were being served. The day hadn’t been exactly clear and the sky suddenly darkened. Heavy glasses became airborne and plates of food sailed away. The skies burst and we all got soaked. At least, we had finished our excursions so heading back to the ship caused no pain.

We heard that the hurricane devastated the Costa Maya and that the port won’t be on any itinerary for a long while. Check on the cruise site for updates. It may be a year before this port reopens.

Sail Away

The Carnival Fantasy sails year-round from New Orleans. The base prices start at less than $300. Go to Cruise Bug Vacations to book your cruise.

We traveled in cabin U133 on the Carnival Fantasy in August, 2007, leaving from the port of New Orleans. Bugsy had bicycled to New Orleans from Memphis when he was a kid, but I had never been there. Although the French Quarter quickly recovered from Katrina because it didn’t bear the brunt of the damage from the hurricane like the 9th Ward did; the slow progress of improvement to the devastated areas tells a sad story about the government’s inefficient and inadequate response to the city. Many of the former residents have permanently abandoned the city.

Take a free tour of the French Quarter with the National Park Service.

We toured the city, enjoyed the fabulous food in the French Quarter, but kept alert when we were there on the recommendation of the desk personnel at Loew’s, where we stayed before the cruise. In the few hours that we were in the French Quarter, we saw several people being handcuffed and arrested. We try to observe our surroundings and thought that the desk clerk may have been overly concerned, until one morning as we waited at the desk to get walking directions, we listened intently as some other guests relayed their story about one of their friends not returning the prior night from his bachelor party in the French Quarter. The desk clerk calmly advised the friends of all the options and where they might start searching for their friend. Hearing that incident kept us more on-guard the rest of the time that we spent in New Orleans. Unfortunately, the crime rate in New Orleans has increased. Don’t let that fact paralyze you. Use common sense and take safety precautions especially when visiting outside the French Quarter. We had no problems whatsoever, except for being conned out of a tip by a shyster on the promenade. We stupidly succumbed to our Midwest nature and chatted with this guy. That was our first mistake. We now know to follow mother’s advance and don’t talk to strangers.

So what does all this have to do with the Carnival Fantasy? New Orleans is the home port of the Fantasy and other cruise ships. Tourism does help with the recovery of the city. You can help that recovery by cruising from New Orleans and injecting some cash into the local economy. The food and architecture in New Orleans are equally fabulous and the locals love to see some visitors. Several restaurant owners mentioned that some people think that New Orleans is still closed down. That is definitely not the case.

Being our first cruise on Carnival, we didn’t know what to expect. If you have read previous posts, you know that we had heard mostly negative things about this particular cruise line. We walked through the terminal with an open mind, ready to deal with anything. We arrived in the early afternoon, so boarding the ship was a quick, easy and efficient process. Our first good impression of the ship was the size of our room. At 185 square feet, the room seemed huge. Most impressive were the nice linens on the beds.
Carnival, obviously proud of the new “Carnival Comfort Bed”, offers the bedding for sale. The incredibly comfortable bed and pillows make sleeping heavenly. In addition to the cushy bedding, robes and fluffy towels come in each stateroom. These stateroom features are all part of a fleetwide enhancement program, so you can expect the same quality on any of the Carnival ships.

Our usual method of operation is to toss our bags in the closet and start our exploration from the top of the ship. In this case, since we had an early breakfast we headed up to the Windows of the Sea Restaurant to grab a bite to eat. We heard that they made a good Reuben up there and after finding our way around, we found the sandwich station. An attractive space, Windows of the Sea consists of many stations with different types of food at each station. Although we only ate there a few times, we found that the arrangement prevents waiting in long lines.
That Reuben lived up to our expectations. We also enjoyed the goat cheese pizza. Although we tried to get soft serve ice cream, the machine was broken every time that we were there.

The Master Melon Carver

After our lunch, we started our exploration of the ship. We entered the drawing at the spa, which seems to be a rather popular activity. It certainly lessened our chances of winning anything. A woman sat next to us on the sill and remarked that she saw lots of poor people here in the gym. We refrained from replying, not really knowing how she came to this conclusion and not knowing how to respond in the first place. Maybe she was talking about us. We couldn’t figure out why she sought us out for this odd revelation. We were thrilled when she moved away.

Cruising has become quite affordable allowing more people to choose this type of vacation. Many people scrimp and save to have a cruise vacation and have just as much right to cruise as this obviously elitist woman with her huge disposable income. We met some very nice poor folk on this cruise.

Other observations and comments

Hurricane Dean decided to change our itinerary. We had been looking forward to visiting the Costa Maya and were excited to see some new archaeological sites. That never happened as we avoided Dean. In lieu of Costa Maya, we headed east to Key West, which we had not visited before. Our time there was short, but sweet and hey, we weren’t in the hurricane. We did reach Cozumel after Dean had devastated the Costa Maya, which won’t open for a long time until the docks and other infrastructure are repaired. The Fantasy now visits Cozumel on its 4-day cruises and Cozumel and Progreso on its 5-day cruises.

Sail Away

We happened to travel during hurricane Dean, so we missed the Mexican port that I hadn’t been to and was excited to visit. This was replaced by Key West, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

And the cruise itself? The ship was clean and comfortable. We found the food to be satisfactory most of the time, only tasting one dish that we didn’t particularly care for. We could have just ordered something else, but we didn’t bother. It wasn’t as if we didn’t have ten other side dishes and dessert to satisfy us. We really liked the goat cheese pizza served in the buffet area and to be honest, we never expected this. We aren’t buffet people, but there are separate stations in the buffet serving such items as pizzas and sandwiches. We had a good Reuben on boarding day and had the pizza after a shore excursion when it was too late for lunch, but too early for dinner.

What we noticed on the Fantasy is that everybody was having fun. These are the Fun Ships after all. We didn’t see the drunks that we heard dominated Carnival. Actually, I saw them on another cruise line. But that brings up an important point: The same people don’t travel on the same ship over and over again. So, the chances of me seeing the obnoxious drunk in the elevator on the other cruise line the next time I cruise with them are slim to none.

Remember that a cruise is what you make it. Maybe going into the cruise with low expectations helped us, but we also know that we are on vacation and want to enjoy ourselves.. Sure, there are things on Carnival that don’t compare with Seabourn, but they are two different products and two different prices. Comparing apples with oranges is dangerous.

There were a few things that I didn’t like about the Fantasy, none of which would have caused me to have a bad time. I do like a promenade deck that encircles the entire ship for walking, which the Fantasy doesn’t have. Although it is a nice perk, it isn’t a deal breaker. Then again, if I could choose between two ships with the same itinerary and the same price, I would chose whichever one had the walking deck, but that is a personal preference.

I was almost sucked in by those who told me how horrid Carnival was. In retrospect, I think that few of them had sailed with Carnival; their comments resulted from hearsay.
If there is a lesson to be learned, it is to be open minded and most importantly to have a good time.

Sail Away

Truth be told, the definition of an upgrade is rather arbitrary, but obviously follows somebody’s idea of what makes a cabin more desirable. What one person considers an upgrade, another may consider a downgrade. For example, if you love have a cabin in the middle of the ship on a lower level, a move to a cabin on an upper level may not please you. On the other hand, another passenger might feel that the above offer was definitely worthy of being called an upgrade.

Rarely do these sales involve an upgrade to a different category. Some folks luck out and do get moved from an inner to an oceanside, but that results from a cruise line booking maneuver and not from a sale promising good rates on upgrades.

You might think that an upgrade would mean a larger cabin. That is a possibility, but most cabins in a similar category have the same square footage. Always check the deck plan to see the size of the cabin.

Always read the fine print for exact details, restrictions and limitations of any sale.

Sail Away