Just got back from Fascination

GottaCruz · June 5, 2006

Well, everyone, we're back. Just woke up from a nap. We did the early debarkation , got off the ship at 7:00AM , were in the car by 7:15 and at our house at exactly 8:00.Are you all jealous???? Just one of the perks of living here in Florida, much more important than worrying about the hurricanes. Yes, I mean that seriously. The three of us jumped into bed, Wayne slept for an hour and then was off to work. I just got up and DD is still fast asleep. WE all went to sleep about 2:AM and got up at 6:40 , so we are pooped, to say the least.

We were so happy to meet gymbrat and her mom. They are great. Of course, after seeing photos of gymbrat from her previous cruises, we recognized her. All I can say, is that I thought her cruise and contest photos were amazing. Well, they don't do her justice. Needless to say, I asked gymbrat a million questions about how she eats and the kind of exercise she does to look so incredible. If the cruise had been longer, I'm sure we would have spent even more time together but it went sooo fast, with only one full sea day, one day in port and the day we got on the ship. Anyway, we did have someone take a photo of us together, minus DD , she was off and about already. Mine didn't come out very well so gymbrat will post hers. We hope to be able to meet up with gymbrat again one day, either on a cruise, or at a CruiseCrazies get together.

We also met a family from Kentucky that we spent quite a bit of time chatting with . I told Eva about CruiseCrazies and hopefully she will join us soon. We really enjoyed Eva, her mom and her son. Great people and love cruising like we all do.

I've already posted a review a while back on the Fascination but I'll post a new one since it's been a whle. Just got to catch my breath first and come up with the energy.

Of course, as usual, we had a fantastic weekend on the Fascination.

JoeyandDavid · June 5, 2006

:grin: Welcome Home Miss C... I do indeed hope you persuaded Eva to at least take a look at Crazies..you know the ones that do usually become regulars :grin:

So Gymbrat looks better than her pictures??.. well remind me not to stand next to her for a photo (no need in hurting ones on feelings ) :grin:

Longboysfan · June 5, 2006

Good to hear you had a great time.

GottaCruz · June 5, 2006

Thanks, Joey and Longboysfan.

I hear you, Joey. Why do you think I took the picture the first day, right after we met, being fully clothed, before eating all those meals? No, gymbrat is not someone to take your picture with if you're in a bathing suit.Although, I don't take any pictures of myself in a bathing suit even by myself. NO, NO, NO.!!!!

Joanandjoe · June 5, 2006

Welcome back, Cheryl. We're glad you had a good time. Surely you couldn't have gained more than a pound or two on such a short cruise.

What time did the ship get in, that you were able to get off at 7 a.m. Most of the time, no one has gotten off our ship in under an hour and 30 minutes (in U.S. ending ports), and we've never seen anyone get off as little as an hour after the ship docked. We were in the first group off the Zenith, one hour and 40 minutes after it docked.

gymbrat33 · June 5, 2006

Cheryl, Thanks for all the compliments! It was a pleasure meeting you.

Embarkation and debarkation was a breeze. I'll be submitting my review soon.

I'm very strict about my diet, but I ate a lot of chocolate and pizza on the cruise. I was so bloated since I ate foods with so much sodium.

I told a few people on the ship about Cruisecrazies.

GottaCruz · June 5, 2006

Thanks, Joanandjoe. The Fascination has early debarkation for self assist passengers. Don't know what time we got into port but if you take all your bags off yourself, you can walk off the ship early. Usually, they say 7:00, today they said you can get off starting at 6:30. No waiting, no lines, in fact, today, Customs didn't even stop us to look at our passports. We were kind of surprised at that. Hubby is always in a rush to get back to work on Monday morning, so we always do the self-assist. To tell you the truth, because he doesn't miss more than 1 day, Friday, he is more motivation to cruise so often. That works great for me. :grin: Usually DD has to get to school so it works out great for us.

Now, does anyone know if Royal Caribb has the same early debarkation.? If so, hubby will give them a try.

GottaCruz · June 5, 2006

Hey, gymbrat. You just posted while I was typing. We were so happy to meet you too. Hopefully, between the folks you met and the folks we meet, we'll see some of them here. I'm ashamed to even tell you that the scale is 5 pounds more today than it was on Friday morning before we left. Is that even possible? I guess the way I ate , it certainly is. Though I'm hoping that some of it is sodium and a lot of retained fluid along with the sodium. Well, I'm going to be good now and see how fast I can get rid of them. At least this cruise, I was smart enough to take my loose dress slacks and some adjustable waitbands. They are lifesavers.

gymbrat33 · June 5, 2006

I haven't stepped on the scale. I will do that tomorrow morning. This has been the smoothest debarkation in a long time. On the Valor and the Liberty everyone was waiting in line to debark around 2 hours because after they had cleared the ship, Immigration asked not to let anyone out. They had already let some passengers out of the ship including my mother and one of my brothers. They were waiting outside for us for 2 hours.

On Saturday when I was standing in line for the Deli this man that looked just like Wayne turned around and asked me how are you doing today? (so I thought it was your husband) and then I asked him where you were and he said who? He looked just like your husband.