Hi - I've spent a lot of time on the Europe message board, but this is my first time on the Caribbean board, so...in the event that I commit some serious transgression of the rules or decorum here, I hope you'll forgive me.
I'm looking into a 4 or 5-day family (Dad, Mom, 3 teenaged kids) vacation between Xmas and New Year's, aand I came upon the Cruises only (Cruises.com) site. They are advertising a Western Caribbean cruise departing on December 27, with some very attractive prices.
The ship is called the Fascination, on the Carnival Line. Can anyone give me some input, positive or negative, about the ship...nice, comfortable, new, old, et?
And how about the Cruises site..is it reputable and dependable?
Thanks for any help.

I have booked four cruises with Cruise.com and have been very satisfied. I use a lot of the discounters to price the cruise and then I call my TA at Cruise.com and she does better than the other web sites and better than cruise.com's. I have never sailed on Carnival and I doubt I eve will. I like Royal Caribbean and I love Celebrity.

Last time I was on the ship (1998?) the interiors of the ship was decorated in very NEON colors everywhere. There were manequins all over the boat of old Hollywood stars.

Service and food were good though the buffet was lacking. I personally would not sail any of the Fantasy class of ships again (Fantasy, Fascination, Sensation, Estacy--and a few others I can't remember).

If you consider it as a cheap getaway - go for it or if you are only into it for the ports. If you want more out of the ship, I would choose a different ship.

I would take a 7 day cruise to really make it worthwhile. Everytime I've gone for shorter time, I was disappointed. Besides, I don't think you receive nearly as nice a treatment on those shorter cruises.

We have used cruise.com many times and they always has the cheapest rate. I never had a problem with using cruise.com Can't comment on the Fantasy but in general I concur with DawnCT about cruise line preference

While Cruise.com is a great company, she's talking about "cruiseS.com"--which is Cruises Only.

Cruises Only is a huge company, they are very reputatable, but they don't discount, so you will pay a premium booking through them. Take the price they gave you, and request a quote through CruiseCompete.com. Let the agents know in your comments the price you're trying to beat and see what happens. You're likely to save a lot of money shopping around.

As to the Fascination, it's a good choice for a family cruise. Personally, I love the Fantasy-class ships (have also sailed the Imagination). They're not the newest or the fanciest, but they're big enough to have all the amenities and small enough to not feel huge. At 180 sq. feet per cabin, they're pretty comfortable. There's plenty for teens to do, and while they don't have the absolute best food at sea, it's still quite good--and you can't beat the prices on the short cruises.

Sailing over the holidays is more expensive than other times of the year, but if you need to accomodate school and work schedules, you may not have a choice.

Good luck, and happy cruising!



I've booked through Cruise.com--in fact, I actually booked the Fascination through Cruise.com in 2001.

If you know exactly which cruise and cabin catagory you want - then you can't go wrong with cruisequick.com. Best prices I have ever found on each of my 13 cruises!

Larry: You've gotten good advice from the previous posters, but make sure you watch for what triathlete pointed out. You asked about CruiseS.com and many of those responding did not catch the spelling and responed about Cruise.Com.
These are two differnet agencies.

MWM1. Cruise.com has even beat cruisequick.com in price. Always speak to a "live" person however at cruise.com if you want a competative rate.