Cruise 2009

We sailed out of New Orleans on the Carnival Fantasy on Saturday. The New Orleans cruise port was MUCH better than last time we used it. We boarded the ship in time to have lunch on the Lido deck. The Fantasy looked great. It went into dry dock after our cruise in September for the new Evolutions of Fun renovations and almost looked like a different ship. Sunday was a day at sea. It felt so strange to leave New Orleans the day before with jackets on and wake up the next morning to beautiful, warm weather. We spent the day lying out in the sun, eating, and resting. We had formal night that evening then stayed up for the midnight comedy show. We arrived in Progresso on Monday. We did a little shopping then took a Mayan ruins tour. We had planned on seeing some Mayan ruins on our last trip to Progresso but ended up not doing it. I regretted it so much and was determined to do it this time. It was great! The ruins that we visited were only discovered and opened to the pubic in the mid 80's. It was so amazing to me to stand in the middle of those ruins and imagine life as it was.

We visited the area where the Mayans collected sea salt to trade. We also saw some flamingos from a distance. After the tour, we did some more shopping before leaving Progresso at 4:00. We arrived in Cozumel on Tuesday. We spent the first part of the day at Paradise Beach. The weather was beautiful, and it felt so great to just sit out in the sun and relax...and eat! In the afternoon, we went into town to shop and look around until the ship left at 5:00.

We had another day at sea on Wednesday as we headed back to New Orleans. We spent it lying out in the sun and playing in the new Water Works area. I mentioned the new Evolutions of Fun renovations that Fantasy had done. Here are some before and after shots around the ship. The before pictures were taken on our September trip...before the ship went into dry dock. The after pictures were taken on this trip. The changes were amazing.

Here is a before picture of the main pool area.

Here s the main pool area with the new renovations. Back pool deck before renovations.

This back pool was completely taken out and replaced with Water Works. Here is the back part of the main pool area/stage area before picture. They replaced all of the deck chairs and added the palm trees. You can also see the spiral staircases on the sides that were added.
Here is a picture of one of the hallways before renovations.
The carpet was replaced, the pictures were replaced, and the wood was added. They also added this wood to most of the interior eating areas on the Lido deck.We were so pleased with the Fantasy's new look. I look forward to sailing on her again, but mostly look forward to getting away with Jeff again. Thankyou, Jeff, for an amazing time! I appreciate Jeff's mom and dad for, not only keeping the kids, but entertaining them so well while we were gone. We couldn't do this without them!