Carnival Sensation Thanksgiving cruise review with photos of Sensation and Dream

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Closet shots

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The bathroom

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The atrium...piano...Glass elevators working...good bar drinks...decorated for the holidays...this is what you see when you first board the ship

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Serenity Deck - no kids allowed

 

another view

There was a lot of availablity the first day, but we never could find a place after that.

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Taken at the Seaview Grill the first day

Below is the Room Service menu

 

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Thanks for all the encouragement from those responding that they like my review!

 

After our breakfast in the Lido buffet, we headed back to our cabins to see if our luggage had arrived. It was there just as we arrived, so there was not much of a wait for it. As I mentioned earlier, there was plenty of space for our things, so unpacking was a breeze. Our empty suitcases fit easily under the bed.

 

Flying with luggage is not what it used to be unless you fly Southwest, which we did not. My friend and I each brought a suitcase that had to be checked. It was $15 for each of us on Continental. My friend's parents brought only one suitcase with both of their things in it. Their luggage was overweight as a result and they had to pay AirTran $39. The moral of this story is that it would have been less expensive for them to bring a suitcase for each and pay $30 instead of the overweight fee for one (they were 7 lbs. overweight). They cured the problem on the way back by splitting up the luggage, but keep it in mind if you are a couple travelling.

 

After unpacking we headed out to find some deck chairs for some sun and to watch us pull away from port. There were plenty of chairs always with extras stacked nearby, so finding a recliner was never a problem. In port the day we were leaving was the infamous, new Carnival Dream. From a distance we could see the basketball court in full use, but could not tell much else. There were no other ships in port or leaving that Thursday, Thanksgiving Day.

 

The waiters were peddling the special of the day Rum Punch, so we were asked numerous times if we wanted one. That's all they carried on their serving trays. We are not rum fans, so we asked for another drink and were told by our deck waiter that we had to go to the bar to get it. I was surprised at that, but we just took care of ourselves. That was the only time they would not serve anything other than the speciality drink.

 

There was a live band playing by the pool and it seemed they were trying to play some calypso music, but not totally calypso. The pools were packed with kids and the slides were full of children using them despite the chilly weather. Each time I saw the hot tub, it was SRO (standing room only). I don't know how families can fit that many people into the hot tub! I wish I had gotten some photos of that, because it actually was quite funny looking.

 

 

 

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Glad to be of help and thanks for the positive reinforcement on the review!

 

When I left off last time, we were enjoying dinner in the Fantasy Dining Room through our choice of Anytime Dining. Before I get into more of the food selections, I want to set everyone's mind at ease about the dress code. I never saw anyone dressed inappropriately. We wore nice jeans and sandals on 2 of the 3 nights and dressed for the Elegant Night. I had black slacks and a jacket on. The male in our group was the least formally dressed (and we had to make him change before we would go to dinner at that!), but we all fit in. I saw a couple of tuxedos on the late fixed dining time, but no formal dresses. The dress was much more casual. There were a couple of men I thought could have dressed a little better than in a golf shirt, but it really did not detract from the evening. On the 3 night Sensation cruise, the Elegant night was the second night (Friday), which is a little odd just because we were in port that day & night. It appeared that most people were there for dinner on the ship, though, rather than hanging out in Nassau. Elegant Night is the meal in which they serve lobster and prime rib. More on that later...

 

In a previous post, I spoke of how outstanding Helena is in her management of the Anytime Dining seating. We prepaid tips, but we felt she was so good (even remembering our names!) that we gave her a $20 on the last night. Gosh, she hugged us and followed us out of the dining room even. It was funny because on this last night, we were able to get seated right away. The first two nights we had to wait a short time for a table. When we walked to the podium the 3rd night, Helena said she had had a bad dream the night before because we came to the dining room a third time and she could not seat us. Talk about dedicated! I teased her about dreaming about work, but she takes it very seriously. She was there for every meal. They work very hard on the ship. There were envelopes out that last evening to tip the Maitre D', but, if I ever saw him, I would not have known it. I like to tip the people who make my trip enjoyable. Everyone should be tipped and I don't understand the people who try to take off the tips. It's most of their livlihood. We didn't care for our waiter, but I would never had conceived of removing his tip. On the other hand, he could have received a nice additional tip if his service had been better.

 

I am getting tired so the food will be picked up again later. I have a lot more to post of various aspects of the ship and Nassau, so I'll try to speed things up.

 

The photo attached is of the 4 of us in the Polo Lounge (aka Cigar Lounge, aka Martini Bar) before dinner. They make great Cosmopolitans and Dirty Martinis in there!

 

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The slides

 

The driving range on the sports deck

 

Miniature golf

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On the open sea heading to Nassau

 

 

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Coming into Nassau harbor

 

 

 

That's the Carnival Dream already docked.

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Still getting caught up with photos you can see...

 

 

 

The Dream in Nassau

[spd3zoom]

Wow! Fantastic review and pictures! Keep them comming. We are sailing her in May, with my 86 yr. old mother, who has never been on a cruise. Same ship, same cruise. We also have a cat 12 SS booked. Can't wait.

You have a wonderful way with words. Love the Sensation Eye Candy!:D

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Wow! Fantastic review and pictures! Keep them comming. We are sailing her in May, with my 86 yr. old mother, who has never been on a cruise. Same ship, same cruise. We also have a cat 12 SS booked. Can't wait.

You have a wonderful way with words. Love the Sensation Eye Candy!:D

 

Thank you so much! I am glad you are enjoying it. We certainly did!

[jerseyjjs]

We were on the Dream watching you guys come in port. I was on one of the balconies, starboard-side, 8th (verandah) deck. I *think* I can see myself!! ;) I was on the Sensation in 2004, the updates look good. Thanks for the memories.:D

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Since I promised something about the Dream, I thought I would plug it in here. As I mentioned, the Dream was in port in Port Canaveral when we boarded the Sensation on Thanksgiving Day. We set sail at 4:00, leaving the Dream still in port.

 

As we pulled into Nassau harbor, lo and behold, there was the Dream! It had left after us and beat us into Nassau!

 

She's a big ship and had backed into her dock in Nassau. We were to end up going in nose first to the right of her so that we shared a boardwalk between the two ships. The photos I show first are of approach into the harbor with the Dream already there.

 

Here are the bigger photos of the Carnival Dream we were docked next to

 

 

 

 

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I was on the Carnival Dream last week, and I enjoyed your pictures of her, so I thought I'd share two of the pics I took in Port Canaveral of Carnival Sensation. :)

 

 

Thanks so much! These are fun to have!

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Arriving in Nassau, the weather was slightly chilly (it was late November, after all). We came off the ship with the mission of finding the Yellowbird Party boat for a tour around the islands that would stop at a beach for about 90 minutes and would have rum punch flowing and music playing. The reviews I read of it all were raving about the good time people had on it. So we get down to the end of the pier and there are a bunch of locals selling excursions of various types. I didn't see any signs for the Yellowbird, so I asked the first guy I saw where we could find that excursion. The guy said he had never heard of the Yellowbird, to which I said, "give me a break! you just want me to buy your excursion". I moved to the next guy near him and asked and he pointed me down the pier to the right and said we could catch it there.

 

Before you can go anywhere, you have to go through the "welcome" building. I walked up to the information desk to double check the information I had just received and the woman behind the desk said "why would you want to go on the Yellowbird?" My answer was that it sounds like fun...is there a problem with it? She said that we should be going on the Booze and Cruise excursion, which, coincidentally, she just happened to be selling herself. She held up a flyer for it saying it was $60PP, to which I said the Yellowbird is $30 so we'll stick with that. She shrugged her shoulders and pointed us in the same direction as the other guy. As we made our way down the pier, we could not see any signs of the Yellowbird. We got down to the straw market (which is absolutely not worth the time, by the way) and were looking around when a guy walked up to us and asked if we wanted the Booze & Cruise. We said no and told him we wanted the Yellowbird. He said it was probably leaving today from the OTHER side of the pier where the water taxis are! That would have meant a hike back and it was supposed to leave at 1:00. We figured that we would never make it, if that was the case because it was 1:00 already. Then another guy comes up and says we need to buy tickets from him to get on the Yellowbird. There was no Yellowbird in sight and he wanted $35PP. I told him no thanks ...that we would wait and buy tickets as we got on. He asked if we have reservations and I said no. He said the only way we could get on is if we had advance reservations or bought from him. I told him my research indicated differently to which he said it was sold out and the ONLY way to get on was to pay him. Reluctantly, we did. Then we see the Yellowbird coming toward us about 5 minutes later and it was totally empty! It pulled up toward the dock and the guy who sold us tickets talked to the operator. He came back to us and said the Yellowbird was cancelled for the day and that we would have to take the Booze Cruise (docked there). Not for the same price, mind you...we would have to pay another $30PP each. We asked for our money back and he did give it to us. What a run around from everyone! Those guys at the pier and in the information center cannot be trusted in my opinion. This is one time it might have been worthwhile to book what we wanted to do through the cruise line excursion desk.

 

After this debacle, I remembered from reading on this forum that the British Colonial Hilton had to be nearby and they have a beach there. As a matter-of-fact, I had taken photos of the hotel and beach as we came into the harbor on the ship. So, we are at the end of the pier, just across from the straw market, and start walking up the street. We just follow the sidewalk as it makes a turn to the right and we are there! It was very close. I had read here that if you avoid the front desk and just walk out to the beach that you can get a better price from the towel guys to use the beach. We strolled through the lobby and out the back to the pool and beach area. Nobody paid any attention to us and it was definitely not crowded, so we just went onto the beach and laid out on recliners for an hour or two. It was a little cool to be laying out, but the sun still felt nice. We bought Pina Coladas from the bar by the pool (they took a credit card) to donate to the hotel's coffers. They were good, although a little too icy. The beach was a little dirty when we got there, but the hotel staff was busy cleaning it up right after we got there. One of us tested the temperature of the water and pronounced it too cold for human life. We then watched as a few young children ran in and played in the water for an extended period. Kids and water...nothing is too cold for them, I guess!

 

So, this little respite was nice and did not cost us a dime except for the drinks we bought. We were right on harbour and you will see from a picture the ships in the background. The first one you see ifsthe Sensation, which appears dwarfed by the Dream right behind it.

 

This beach would not have been worth paying for, but it was o.k. for a taste of a sugar sand beach for a brief time. After about 90 minutes, we picked up our stuff and headed out for more discoveries. That will be the next segment...

 

The bigger size photos you can actually see and a few others. The ones from the ship are showing the British Colonial Hilton.

 

 

British Colonial Hilton from our ship. It's very close to the dock and has a small but decent beach.

 

 

There was no dredging going on by the hotel, so those worries are over.

 

Sugar sand beach at the British Colonial Hilton

 

 

See how close it is to the dock? Carnival Dream is huge compared to the Sensation.

This is what you will see when you walk through the lobby and out the back door of the British Colonial Hilton. The area you see first is the pool. The beach is just beyond.

[czechgal]

Beemergal,

 

This picture is absolutely beautiful, It looks like a professional picture. I love how the sky and water are the same color!

 

[bzymom22]

Great review! Love all the details and your pix!

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I am not finished with the review yet, but I am still catching up on reposting photos that were too small before. These are our 3 nights of towel animals.

 

 

 

These are always a treat to return to the cabin to find!

[markmogil]

Great photos and review!

 

Looks like you've figured out how to post full size images :)

 

Keep 'em coming.

 

Mark M

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Great photos and review!

 

Looks like you've figured out how to post full size images :)

 

Keep 'em coming.

 

Mark M

 

Yes....finally! More coming