R there anyone who live in Tuscaloosa r going on the Fantasy out of Mobile on Dec 24th -28th?

we are from the huntsville area but are taking that cruise for our first cruise ever.

My wife and I are going on the Fantasy too.  Our cruise will be 12/14 to 12/19 and will be our first cruise.  The excitement is building with only 41 days left ... Today we found out our cabin assignment - we will be on the Empress deck towards the front of the ship.

you will love the ship! i was on the fantasy in 2004. you will have a great time. have fun!

Hi, I'm not going on ur cruise but a few weeks later. Fantasy is a beautiful ship. I really enjoyed this ship, we didnt have anything to compare it to since it was our first time. We left in January from New Orleans. This time its Mobile. We are following Fantasy. We liked her that much that we are following her. Its a smaller ship but so nice and the staff is great. They really go our of their way to make you happy. I cant wait to cruise again only 69 more days till then....happy sailing

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

Arriving At The Port - Wechoose to park at the Port Of New Orleans Parking Garage as it is themost convenient. Drive up. Insert credit card or pay cash @ $14 perday. Press button. Take ticket drive up the ramp and there are theporters waiting to take your bags. Drive up one more level and park.Ride the elevator down to go through security, Carnival check in andyour in the waiting area. We were sitting in the waiting area by9:25am. A bit early but time went fast. We boarded at 11:30am and washaving 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 goodsize 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 everymorning. I had a medium size collapsible plastic cooler that our roomsteward would fill with ice in the am and pm. Tipped her $8.00 extra atthe end. Room was clean and quiet. ONLY ONE 110 volt outlet in theroom. I took a power strip with 4 plug slots for my laptop, batterycharger, night light clock.

Food & Dinning - We hadlate 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 didnot feel like dressing up and so we ate on the buffet for the rest ofthe cruise. Most nights we looked on the dinning room menu and thebuffet had many of the same item. PLUS my wife, Linda loved the freshcooked hamburger served on the Lido Deck buffet.
For lunch I went to the dinning room once and also for breakfastone morning. Food was good. I was impressed. I am really a RoyalCaribbean fan when it comes to dinning. Having cruised also on the CCLConquest a few times I always preferred RCL but the Fantasy was verygood.

Ports Of Call - Soon as you getoff the ship in Progreso and get through the shopping area there youboard the free bus ride to the town. When you get off the bus walk 1/2block-turn left and walk one block. Ta Da! The beach. We rented aplastic beach lay down chair. $2 each. The first place has padded laydowns for $8. We took the next place for $2.00 as we were only staying3-4 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 dothe Corona Beach Party for $39.00 per person. Did not want to drink at10:30am.

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

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

Entertainment - Did not go toany shows. Really just enjoyed sitting on deck at sunset. . .prefer theaft Lido Deck with a full view of the water at sunset. Did get chosento preform in the Wed Night Talent Show sing live with the FantasyOrchestra singing "My Way". There were 6 other guest chosen to preformin the show. Went very well. We all got the 24 carat gold platedplastic 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 forpreforming in the Legend Show. . .I did not buy the Fantasy DVD

Disembarkation - Packed ourbags on Friday night and put them in the hall at about 11pm. We wereZone 7. Breakfast was served in all areas from 6:30am to 9:00am. Weboth had a nice parting breakfast and headed to the Promenade Deck towait. Took about 20 min after Zone was called to get to our bags. Hadthe porter load them and went through US Customs in less them 2minutes. I declared every thing we bought on board the ship. . .wellover the legal limit I might add. . .Customs agent look and said. ..welcome back and have a safe trip home. That was it. Porter took ourbags 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 outof the garage in 3 minutes headed to the French Quarters for Linda toshop at the Open Market for a hat and purse. Then lunch at Acme OysterHouse for Gumbo and Jambalaya. Oh. . .for got to mention. . .PatO'Brians first for a hurricane. A must. .maybe 1 or 2 of them. We wereat our Sheraton At The Galleria by 2:30pm headed for the pool. Of thetwo Sheraton's we stayed. . Sheraton At The Galleria was the better ofthe two. Clean, newer and a full complementary Breakfast Buffet servedon Sunday to guests. Other days is is Continual.

In closing. .I was surprisedand impressed by the Fantasy experience. I did not think it wouldmeasure up to a Conquest Class Ship or even to a Royal CaribbeanVoyager Of the Seas. . I was impressed and pleased with the Fantasyexperience. Fantasy will move to Mobile, Alabama in Nov 2009 and Iunderstand the Triumph will replace her in New Orleans, LA. The BigEasy was really EASY. Go there and help New Orleans rebuild theireconomy back up to pre Katrina days. Very friendly city and very niceplace to cruise from.