Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Fantasy Cruise Review
Gabriele Wenzelow
Itinerary: Mexico from Mobile,
AL
Sailing Date: April 15th, 2010
Age: 52
Occupation: Government
Number of Cruises: 1
My son and I recently traveled on the Carnival Fantasy to
Cozumel, Mexico. The Fantasy Ship was an all inclusive
vacation all in itself, we enjoyed our time on the ship
immensely. We met some wonderful people, ate delicious food
and sunned on the deck. There were more activities for
families of all ages especially the children. The 5 star
evening meal was out of this world every night. The dining
staff went out of their way to make us happy and also
entertained us. My only complaint on the ship would be all
the smoking, even though it was only in designated areas. My
sons only complaint was there were so many unruly kids
running around unattended, knocking people down tripping
over your legs when sunning, no parents in sight. They were
taking over the hot tubs which stated adults only. The
swimming pool was quits small and mostly kids were in there
also. The super slide activities were mostly occupied by
kids also, but they had a blast. We would have liked to go
into the nightclub about 9:30 in the evenings, but it was
reserved for teens 12-15.Our only other complaint was there
were no singles for us to talk to almost everyone was either
married or otherwise attached.
My son enjoyed the casino, the games and competitions that
the Ship's Fun Patrol had arranged, we both loved the
Beetles Tour concert, the singing, dancing and costumes were
wonderful. We also enjoyed the karaoke, and I had fun in the
art gallery activities. The gift shop gave away free
samples, and there was plenty of family photo opportunities
from professional photographers.
I would go on this cruise again, the best part was on the
Carnival planned excursion on Cozumel, my son enjoyed the
rappelling tower and the zip lines and we both loved the
snorkeling and all the beautiful fish we saw that would come
right up to us. We also saw a stingray and a puffer fish.
All the folks working at the excursion area were very kind
and helpful. It was only after we got done with the
excursion and wanted to sightsee some in Cozumel that things
went downhill. The very nice van driver from the excursion
took as back to town as we requested and dropped us off at
Senior Frogs. Afterwards we walked a bit to find the Best
Choice Taxi near the Hotel Lagusta which was suggested by
our excursion guide as being reasonably priced. There were
so many taxi stands, rental car and moped rental stands that
it got very confusing. Seldom were prices listed so you
could shop around and no one from the ship to ask, we were
on our own. We were on our way to find the Best Choice
rental car stand when we were stopped by some men at a
rental car stand on the sidewalk in front of the Park Royal
Hotel. We had only stopped for directions but they were very
persistent and intent on getting us to rent a car from them.
When we said no, they changed their story and said it was
not a good idea to rent a car anyway, we only had 2 hrs
until we had to board the ship again and it would take 30
min. to just fill out all the paperwork. One of the men said
he was selling timeshares for the Park Royal Hotel. We
started to leave when he suggested a taxi would be the right
solution since we just had 2 hrs and that he knew of an
English speaking driver whom he would call for us right away
and for $35.00 for me and another $35.00 for my son, this
driver would drive us all around the island and show us the
attractions.
We said ok, and and he called a taxi and we got in. The
teenager taxi driver did in fact speak English, but he
demanded $50.00 more from each of us, saying he did not
receive the full amount of his payment from the man who
called him, only a cut, a portion. I told him I was not
going to pay any more, just to take us back to the place we
boarded the taxi and we would get a refund. He would not go
back and insisted we pay him more money, it got ugly, heated
and yelling started them. Finally, he took us back, but the
2 men were no longer there, this was just 10 min. later. The
young man acted dumb and said he did not know where to find
the man who arranged the trip. We wasted another 30 min
trying to convince him to take us to the man so we could get
a refund of $70.00 .I had to threaten to call the police and
my son's shirt came off ready to fight he was so mad, the
young taxi driver said get in the tax I will take you to
this man he is manager at the Park Royal Hotel. This is when
our negative experience started.
Negative Happenings:
The manager at the Park Royal Cozumel and staff all of a
sudden didn't speak English and didn't "understand " when a
problem arose. The manager "refused" to come downstairs and
deal with our problem of wanting a "refund" after he tried
to rip us off for a taxi tour of the Island of Cozumel which
he arranged for us. So much for honest business dealings and
trying to make a customer happy. The lobby clerks were kind
enough to call him in his room and they explained the
situation. Then they handed the phone to my son and my son
talked to him on the phone from the hotel lobby. Instead of
just coming down to talk things out, he shouted and argued
with us from the phone in his safe room upstairs and refused
to come down and talk to us . He also refused to refund our
money. What a rip-off, we were hustled and treated with
disrespect. I really got the impression the Mexican people
of Cozumel did not like Americans and thought were were all
rich and fair game to be scammed. It was very upsetting and
my son and I had to threaten to call the police in order
just to get our money back. Our entire vacation was ruined
and I will never again step foot in Mexico. Finally the
young taxi driver refunded our money after a big scene was
made in the lobby entrance.
We still had 2 hours til ship boarding so we rented a moped
which was broken down and out of gas. We stopped to put
$2.00 in, but the man at gas station did not speak English
well and didn't have any change in dollars, so we ended up
having to pay him $5.00.We wanted to drive the perimeter
around the island. In the busy tourist part of the town,
people drove taxis, rental cars and mopeds like a racetrack.
We almost wrecked twice from people cutting out in front of
us. Finally, in a couple more miles the streets were less
occupied and the driving was safer, but then all of a sudden
the paved street ended and there was only a dirt road left
which was flooded from rain. We had to turn around but the
jeep behind us could keep going. We turned the moped back
in, thank God we got our collateral back, our 2 ship passes.
They were all we had to get back thru customs on the pier,
as we had left our passports on the ship. If we had wrecked
the moped we would have not been able to leave, but rather
would have been stuck on Cozumel until the moped damages
were paid. We did get the additional insurance, but there
was a deductible and we had no more money left.
Walking back to the pier, the sales pressure was high to buy
things from vendors. The city smelled from exhaust fumes
from mopeds and sewer, there were many broken pipes and
construction taking place, also you were not allowed to
flush toilet paper, but had to place in trash cans.
Attraction Information Snorkeling and zip line -details
above Restaurant Information We did not eat or drink
anything on the island. We brought canteens with water from
the ship.
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