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.
Texaspepper - TX
Conquest 10/02/11
Conquest 02/20/11
Ecstasy 10/25/10 Photos
RCL VOTS 01/10/10 Photos
Ecstasy 07/31/09 Photos
Fantasy 07/06/09 Photos
Conquest 03/15/09 Photos
RCL VOTS 02/01/09
RCL VOTS T/A 11/29/08 Photos
Conquest 09/28/08 Photos
Conquest 04/08 Photos
Ecstasy 10/07 Photos
Elation 09/06
RCL Rhapsody OTS 10/2002Photos
NCL Seas 10/2000 Photos
Holiday 11/98
Destiny 06/07
P&O Canberra -LA to NZ1969
