texaspepper Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 at 04:27 PM

Cruise Date July 6-11, 2009

New Orleans - We arrived in New Orleans 2 days before the cruise.  Stayed in the Four Seasons By Sheraton in Metairie - about 10 miles out of the French Quarters.  Ate at Acme Oyster House in Metairie just about 2 miles from the hotel on Veterans Blvd.  Excellent.  Always eat at the one in the French Quarters, but can tell you the food is the same at the one in Metairie.

Arriving At The Port -  We choose to park at the Port Of New Orleans Parking Garage as it is the most convenient.  Drive up.  Insert credit card or pay cash @ $14 per day.  Press button.  Take ticket drive up the ramp and there are the porters waiting to take your bags.  Drive up one more level and park.  Ride the elevator down to go through security, Carnival check in and your in the waiting area.  We were sitting in the waiting area by 9:25am.  A bit early but time went fast.  We boarded at 11:30am and was having lunch on the Lido Deck by 11:50am. 

Our Room U137 Upper Deck Starboard - Room was ready at 1:30pm.  Outside room.  Large bath room with good size shower space.  No frig or sitting couch on the Fantasy class ships.  Safe to put your money,  etc in and lock with your own 4 digit code.  Good closet space and two robes to use.  Pool towels fresh every morning.  I had a medium size collapsible plastic cooler that our room steward would fill with ice in the am and pm.  Tipped her $8.00 extra at the end.  Room was clean and quiet.  ONLY ONE 110 volt outlet in the room.  I took a power strip with 4 plug slots for my laptop, battery charger, night light clock.

Food & Dinning - We had late dinning in the Jubilee dinning room.  Went the first night and ate.  Food and service was good.  Table for 10.  The rest of the cruise we did not feel like dressing up and so we ate on the buffet for the rest of the cruise.  Most nights we looked on the dinning room menu and the buffet had many of the same item.  PLUS my wife, Linda loved the fresh cooked hamburger served on the Lido Deck buffet.

For lunch I went to the dinning room once and also for breakfast one morning.  Food was good.  I was impressed.  I am really a Royal Caribbean fan when it comes to dinning.  Having cruised also on the CCL Conquest a few times I always preferred RCL but the Fantasy was very good. . .NOTE.  I went to the Purser Information Desk and asked about the tips for the dinning room.  Told them we ate all but one meal on the buffet.  No problem.  They credited back our dinning room tips -@$27.50 per person.  Thought that was very kind.

Ports Of Call - Soon as you get off the ship in Progreso and get through the shopping area there you board the free bus ride to the town.  When you get off the bus walk 1/2 block-turn left and walk one block.  Ta Da!  The beach.  We rented a plastic beach lay down chair.  $2 each.  The first place has padded lay downs for $8.  We took the next place for $2.00 as we were only staying 3-4 hours.  Shopped for a massage. . .or should I say they shopped me.  Got a 30 min (she said 45 min) for $10.  It was good.  We opted not to do the Corona Beach Party for $39.00 per person.  Did not want to drink at 10:30am.

Went for a swim in the water.  Refreshing.  Read other posts about the beach saying . .dirty. . .brown water.  No so.  The water is shallow and sand is light brown on the bottom.  Do go to the beach in Progreso.  Very nice time.

Cozumel.  Not much to say as we have been there many times and seem to do the same thing.  Walk, shop (well I watch as Linda shops) and eat at the Casa Brava Cafe on Cale 7th.  Went back on board and went for a swim in the ships pool.

Entertainment - Did not go to any shows.  Really just enjoyed sitting on deck at sunset. . .prefer the aft Lido Deck with a full view of the water at sunset.  Did get chosen to preform in the Wed Night Talent Show sing live with the Fantasy Orchestra singing "My Way".  There were 6 other guest chosen to preform in the show.  Went very well.  We all got the 24 carat gold plated plastic Fantasy Ship Trophy and a $5.00 discount coupon to purchase the $29.00 DVD of the show.  Hey, the Conquest gave us the DVD for preforming in the Legend Show. . .I did not buy the Fantasy DVD

Disembarkation - Packed our bags on Friday night and put them in the hall at about 11pm.  We were Zone 7.  Breakfast was served in all areas from 6:30am to 9:00am.  We both had a nice parting breakfast and headed to the Promenade Deck to wait.  Took about 20 min after Zone was called to get to our bags.  Had the porter load them and went through US Customs in less them 2 minutes.  I declared every thing we bought on board the ship. . .well over the legal limit I might add. . .Customs agent look and said. . .welcome back and have a safe trip home.  That was it.  Porter took our bags to elevator to the Port Parking and right to our car.  Tipped him $1.00 per bag plus a extra $3.00 and I loaded the bags and we were out of the garage in 3 minutes headed to the French Quarters for Linda to shop at the Open Market for a hat and purse.  Then lunch at Acme Oyster House for Gumbo and Jambalaya.  Oh. . .for got to mention. . .Pat O'Brians first for a hurricane.  A must. .maybe 1 or 2 of them.  We were at our Sheraton At The Galleria by 2:30pm headed for the pool.  Of the two Sheraton's we stayed. .  Sheraton At The Galleria was the better of the two.  Clean, newer and a full complementary Breakfast Buffet served on Sunday to guests.  Other days is is Continual.

In closing. .I was surprised and impressed by the Fantasy experience.  I did not think it would measure up to a Conquest Class Ship or even to a Royal Caribbean Voyager Of the Seas. .  but was a good experience over all.  Fantasy will move to Mobile, Alabama in Nov 2009 and I understand the Triumph will replace her in New Orleans, LA.  The Big Easy was really EASY.  Go there and help New Orleans rebuild their economy back up to pre-Katrina days.  Very friendly city and very nice place to cruise from.