REVIEW--Sensation 2/7/10 4 Day Bahamas

[Umphreak2010]

This was my wife and my first cruise so we were very excited, spent alot of time reading posts here and on the Carnival site and other review and travel sites.

 

We arrived in Orlando on Saturday evening and spent the night there. The space shuttle was scheduled for a 4:30am launch so we woke up to watch from the hotel room only to find out weather caused a scrub...oh well. We took our time the next day getting up, ready and having breakfast in Orlando before heading to the Port. Following a 45 minute drive to Port Canaveral, we were directed to the Porter's station to unload bags. I tipped the porter a few bucks for handling the bags and took the car to parking. As a side note, I read alot of comments regarding locking your bags and have to say...I packed zip ties with the intention of at least making it somewhat difficult to have easy access. In the excitement, I forgot to attach them so I gave my unlocked bags to the porters. I will say that with 2200 passengers arriving, the porters are quite busy and there are hundreds of people milling around so accessing your bags for the purpose of stealing is really not a problem. Upon receiving our bags later, they were never even opened at any point during embarkation so I think the panic over locking bags is just that..panic.

 

Anyway..because we booked a Verandah cabin (V-16) we were entitled to VIP boarding services so we headed that way with our carry on's. The biggest hassle of this whole process is security at the entrance to the building but they were friendly and as quick as possible. To save time, take your belt off because the buckle will make it go off and make sure you empty your pockets well. After about 10 minutes we went upstairs and were directed to the VIP area where we were immediately taken to a small private office, given the health forms to complete and issued our Sign and Sail cards. We were then escorted to the front of the boarding line, had our picture taken together, scanned onto the ship with their sign and sail reader while having our picture taken by security for later and were on the ship. We left Orlando at 10am and were walking on the gangplank at 11:30 so it was quite a quick, easy process.

 

I found the idea of using cash for my account appealing so we went straight to the information desk (formerly the pursers desk) in the lobby and made the initial deposit to my account. I asked about our room and we were informed that they would not be ready until 1:30 but we were welcome to drop our carry-on bags off there if we would like. In a hurry to check out our cabin, we headed right for the lobby elevators and took a ride to the verandah deck to find the door to the hallway closed but unlocked. We opened it, found our cabin open and walked in to drop our stuff off. The room was fantastic with a nice size queen bed, a sleeper sofa to the side, a small coffee table, beside tables, a large counter/vanity mirror two large closets (one with a small safe) and of course a restroom which I found to be larger than I expected. The balcony was small with 2 chairs and a small table but you are unable to turn the chairs facing the water due to the shallow balcony and if the person furthest from the door needs to go inside, theres a little dancing involved to get out of the door's way which opens out. A note about the door--several people said to bring a bungee cord or doorstop to keep the door open and enjoy the breeze but we found our door to stand open on it's own via a little stop-point on the closer so the bungee was not necessary. The room steward and his houskeeping assitant were working a few doors down and I let them know we were just dropping our stuff off and would be out of the way. They told me the room was ready and welcome aboard. A nice surprise to have the cabin ready at 11:30.

 

We headed to Lido to check out the ship a little and grab some lunch. Had lunch at the Seaview buffet inside. It was very good with a large selection of fish, chicken, pasta, salads, sandwiches, pizza, etc etc etc....this theme continues the entire cruise so bring your comfy pants. We also went for the drink of the day which was delicious and followed by 5 or 6 more that afternoon and evening!!!

 

Muster is different now from what I read as you are no longer required to bring your life vest. When the alarm sounded, we headed straight to our muster station which happened to be the Lido deck..very handy only one deck down from the room. After about a 30 minute period while they took the other muster stations to their lifeboats (ours were there on Lido as well) and demonstrated life vests etc, we were done and headed off to explore some more.

 

We chose the "Any time" dining and loved it. I prefer the idea of being able to eat on my schedule instead of feeling I have to plan my day around when my seating is. We were assigned to the Fantasy dining room and on the first night decided to head there to eat at 6. You can dine between 5:45 and 9:00. We arrived around 5:45 to find a short line waiting for the dining room to open. Getting seated when the opened the room was a little slow the first night because some passengers come to the wrong room, at the wrong time and stand in the wrong line (to the left for any-time, the right for assigned time). After sorting all that out, we were proptly seated at a table with 4 other guests. Dinner the first night was great. I had the flat Iron steak with potatoes and vegitables and my wife had the mahi mahi...we were both very satisfied with our shrimp cocktail appetizer and thoroughly enjoyed our meals..the steak was delicious and cooked perfect. After all the hype, I had to give the warm chocolate melting cake a try and it completely lived up to the legend...You cannot miss this desert while on board!!! It was so good I had it the second night following lobster tail (good but small) and shrimp. The second night being formal night, I decided to order some wine from the bar and asked the waiter to bring us a salad as well as shrimp cocktail. They are more than willing to accomidate requests for seconds or extras so don't be afraid to ask!! We also had a bottle of peligrino at the table that we didn't finish that night and I was quite impressed that the headwaiter remembered to bring it out and it hit the table right when we were being seated the following night. The only night we missed the dining room was wednesday following the sea day because the day got away from us and we never really stopped partying. I did hit the Lido buffet a few times that day.

 

 

To be continued...out of time for today but I'll cover some ports of call and other interesting things we did as well as some advise if anyone is interested. Feel free to post questions!!!

[Umphreak2010]

The Carnival Capers are no more and are replaced with the "Fun Times" From what I saw of some Capers Scans, the Fun times is more concise and easy to follow and included a small perforated panel you can rip off that has the whole day's schedule at a glance..pretty handy for planning your day. I, of course, kept all of them and if anyone wants them, I'd be happy to scan them and post or email them if you're interested....

[beachchick24]

Great review so far !

Id be very interested to hear about your ports of call !

[twocruiseguys]

We will be on this same cruise March 21. Our first on the Sensation. Please keep the reviews coming. Good job. Great detail. Love the reviews from first time cruisers. Always a refreshing perspective.

 

Eagerly waiting . . . . . .

[d-train]

We had V16 on the December 27 sailing. Loved it too! The steward was great. If you need or want anything, he will take care of it straight away.

[Umphreak2010]

I'll be able to spend more time on this hopefully tonight! Haven't forgotten and I got a TON of info from here prior to my cruise and am eager to help others with info!!! It's hard to find time to review your last cruise when you're busy researching the next one!!!

[zirka]

nice review, keep it coming.

[Umphreak2010]

Sorry for the delay...work work work...and spending alot of time planning our next one...Looks like the Dream in June of 2011.

 

Ports of Call:

 

First thing I will say is, while I am a compulsive planner, my wife is not and we chose just to wing it as far as ports went. I did some pre-cruise research (alot of it actually, thanks cruise critic!!) regarding some options in both Freeport and Nassau. I chose not to attend the CD's talk in the beginning but did watch on the cabin TV that evening. Danny Ghilarducci was our CD and he was OK from what I saw. Everyone raves about how funny John Heald is so I hope he's still on the Dream next year so I can see if it's my sense of humore but Danny came accross as a little corny for my liking..Very friendly, concise and told a few amusing stories, but nothing to roll on the floor over. I also did not attend the Shore excursion talk but again did alot of research before hand and asked a few questions at the desk. Most reviews have lead me to believe doing it on your own is the way to go as opposed to getting herded around like cattle. If the taxi stand and people wandering in groups around ports were any indication, I'd say those reviews were accurate.

 

First day at Freeport, I was up early enough to watch ship come in to dock..very industrial, not alot to see except some cargo vessels and a couple of cruise ships in dry dock...not sure which ones..but at least one was a Carnival ship. We ordered room service for coffee only, went out to the Lido deck to have breakfast. Went back to the room, grabbed our things and headed off the ship around 10:30 or so. This was very easy maybe a 5 minute wait while people figured out how to use the scanner then across the gangplank for yet another picture. Then another with a rastafarian looking guy carnival had posing and another with that little steering wheel. Walked past the shops there, peeked in a little but had already decided to do most of our shopping at Nassau based on advice. We waited about 5 minutes or so until there were enough tourists to fill a van taxi and loaded us up. Our driver was very polite, told us all kinds of trivia and information about the island, where the celebs live and what not...about a 15 minute ride later, we were dropped off at the entrance to the Port Lucaya market. I belive the ride was about $6 per person each way. Our driver asked what time we wanted to go back. We were with a mixed group of 10 people but all managed to agree quickly that we were good to go at 1:30. He assured us he'd meet us there. There are some shops along the way there, you can walk through a little open air market with some VERY AGGRESSIVE but friendly merchants. Wife bought a bracelet..I was offered a bag of pot because I had a Bob Dylan Tee on...I declined but now apparently have a connection in Port Lucaya, Bahamas. ;)

 

We walked a short way to the beach, went out and walked on the sand, The beaches were pretty, water was cold for my liking (south carolina here) but some people were in and some were riding banana boats, jetskis etc. Decided to go back toward the market and check out liquor prices and were a little tired of people offering to braid my wife's hair on the beach..LOL. Checked out some shops on the way back and stopped at a cool little open air bar on the corner by the stage in the center of the little marketplace and drank a few very cold beers and enjoyed talking with the bartenders. Most of our taxi group ended up congregating there as well all making bets on whether or not our taxi driver would be back to get us as promised. We all walked up the the drop off point around 1:15 with a nice little buzz happy to find him waiting for us! Back to the ship, again at I think $6 a person plus I tipped him a few extra bucks for being so on the spot! These people live on the tourist trade and are eager to please. Overall not a bad port but if we had to sail past it, I'd not have my feelings hurt. Re-embarkation (is that a word?) was a little more cumbersome as you have to go through the metal detector which once again for me meant unloading my pockets of change and taking my belt off and nearly losing my shorts in line :D but not too bad.

We didn't purchase liquor on the island but once you're past security, there's a guy sitting at a little table accross from the elevator with a sign indicating that he is the person you surrender your booze to. Doesn't seem real strict, could probably just scan it through security and then head right for the elevator but I didn't see this happening so I can't say for sure how that works.

 

Nassau:

 

We slept late after the big dinner of lobster tail the night before followed by a marathon night of partying on my part that night....Side note..the Lido bar is the 24 hour bar (ouch)...I arrived in my cabin that night around 2:30, sat on the balcony and had a nightcap and 2 big slices of pizza from the 24 hour pizza guy (conveniently located about 100 yards from the 24 hour Lido Bar).

 

We woke up late that morning, ordered room service by phone. It arrived in about 15 minutes or so. A tip that I'm glad I knew before...if you order cereal, order milk too. It's not coming with it if you don't. The coffee was good again and the bagel and cream cheese tasted fresh. She had the fruit plate and really enjoyed it. We decided to stay on the ship until after lunch since we were in Nassau overnight anyway. She went to enjoy the Pool deck and some DOD's and I went to explore the ship some more and take some pictures. They had the lifeboats open, looked like some cleaning and maintainance happening and even had one lowered down to the water. I enjoyed my DOD (Bahama Mama) while taking pictures of the Fascination on one side of us and the Destiny on the other. I had a great view of the Destiny's big screen Lido TV and it's incredible!!

 

After lunch on Lido, we each put swimsuits on under our shorts and headed out with just a little backpack with towels, magazine, book, sunscreen and camera for our day. Again, Debarking and Re-embarking were a breeze. I had done some research on Atlantis for the day but we just felt like laying on the beach for a while and I was really interested in Para-sailing. My wife was too but as of that morning she had chickened out on me. We looked a little around the shops right there at the port then went to catch a taxi to the Atlantis area and Cabbage beach. Again a group of 10 got the "discount" rate of $6 per person. A short drive there with another friedly driver and we were dropped off at one of the Atlantis entrances with directions to the public beach. We walked through the massive convention end of the Atlantis and came out a little further down the road, went around the corner and up a path to the beach. There were several taxis parking there so apparently they should be directed to drop you at the public beach entrance. We were approached by a man offering jet skis etc. I told him I was interested in parasailing. He said he didn't do parasailing but he could bring me to the guy who does. The guy that was with him then said the parasail wasn't up because of high winds. It was pretty windy so I understood..he tried to push me to rent a jet ski but the water was really rough and I was just interested in that point in laying on the beach for a while and having a few drinks. The same guy introduced us to another guy who got us 2 beach chairs for $10. He set them up and knocked all the sand off and was very friendly. Walked down to the water for a while but once again it was cold which dissapointed me a bit because the waves were huge and looked like alot of fun. There were still several people swimming and some on the jet skis riding around. Toward the end I did see someone on a parasail go by but was to tired to look for him. Drank a warm beer from the little snack stand right there on the beach, declined a bunch of offers to braid hair again, tooks some pictures and read a little. Both of us decided it was time to head back for some shopping at the straw market and some drinks on the ship.

 

Here's my summary of the ports...It's nice and you should go to the beach to say you did it. If there's an excursion you'd like, you can find it ahead of time by looking on the internet or asking questions when you get there or go with the ship. And granted it was early february and windy but the water was a little cold to swim. I knew that was a possibility when I booked and would like to go in the summer to enjoy the ocean and some snorkeling. I like the boat...there's fun and waiters on the boat and the sun is the same.

 

 

Overnight in Nassau was nice...warmish night. Dinner was good again and there was a deck party that night from 11:45 on. It was semi busy early but died off last I checked...I spent alot of time in the polo lounge and piano bar that night and called it a relatively early night.

 

 

Now onto the only bad part....rough seas on sea day.

 

When we woke that morning, we both noticed there was a little more bounce in the ship. It was windy out and there were 3-6 foot waves. The captain made an announcement the he was doing as well as he could to keep it steady and we were only traveling at about 10 knots. He did a great job for the entire day but it worsened as night came. We skipped dinner this night due to our late rising and we just kind of snacked and hit the buffet all day for breakfast and lunch. I had a sandwich in the deli for dinner and it was pretty good too. I attended the debarkation talk really just to pass some time. My wife spent most of the day on the pool deck reading and enjoying the entertainment and watching the activities. I watched a few myself and they were amusing but I didn't feel like participating. The hairy chest contest was pretty funny. I packed the bags late that afternoon so we could enjoy the evening. We partied pretty well until about 10 when my wife decided to call it a night. I was going to the 10:30 adult comedy show in the front lounge so I headed that way. I got there just in time to catch the beginning of jackpot bingo so I bought one card for the wait. By this time, the motion on the ship was severe to the point that I felt like my feet were leaving the floor walking the corridors and people were struggling to walk a straight line. The older man behind me grabbed my shoulder several times and almost took both of us down!! Every time the ship lurched everyone in that lounge went "WHoooooaaaaaaaa!!!" I had taken 3 dramamine at that point and was having a little trouble concentrating on my bingo card. Housekeeping staff were handing out vomit bags and running around cleaning up messes all over the lounge. As much as I was looking forward to the comedy show, I've never been so ready for a game of BINGO to end in my life. As soon as someone yelled, I dropped my card on the table and headed out. Luckily I was one flight directly below my cabin so it was a short trip and it was a photo-finish getting back to the cabin :(. Needless to say, I missed the comedy show (if it even went on).

I realize this has nothing to do with Carnival and is just a possible outcome of the whole cruising experience so it in no way dissuades me from cruising again and I will say that the crew and staff did a great job at handling a rough night at sea.

 

We awoke at 7:30 already back in port canaveral and tied off. Up and dressed I went to the info desk to cash my refund check of $142 (Yay!) and then met my wife for our only sit down breakfast in the dining room. After breakfast, we went to the promenade to wait for our zone to be called. Since we were zone 6 I figured it would be awhile but as soon as we sat, they announced zones 1-10. This was the longest wait the whole time...about 15 minutes from the announcement of zones til we were off the ship as they bring everyone past 2 or 3 scanners at the main door in the lobby. Follwed directions to baggage and customes...found our bags quite easily as they are placed by zone # and proceeded to customs. The agent looked at my customs sheet, said "Huh, Mauldin South Carolina..Have a good day" and waived us through without even opening our passports or really even looking at us. Out to the car and we were on the road at 8:45 so the whole process from bed to car took about and hour and fifteen minutes..quite quick and easy in my opinion.

 

Overall this was our favorite vaction to date and we have yet to stop talking about it. The crew, staff and other passengers were a blast although there was a smaller young crowd than I expected. We were already talking about our next cruise on the trip home that day and are in the final stages of planning and getting ready to book.

 

If there are any quetions about onboard activities, I have all the Fun Times from the cruise here and could scan them if anyone is interested. I'll also try to post some pictures. Sorry if I ramble but first cruise and first review and I really left alot of little detail out but I'd be happy to answer questions as well as I can....

 

Happy Cruising everyone!!!

[Umphreak2010]

Hope I did these right...

My wife from the front viewing deck back to our balcony

Towel creature

Coming into Freeport

Freeport Beach

My Delicious Rum Filled Beverage:D

[Umphreak2010]

The Destiny

Nassau from the Aft Deck at Waterworks landing

Waterworks

Lido

Destiny and her Big Screen

 

I didn't include the Fascination pics because she's exactly like the Sensation in outside features.

[Umphreak2010]

Lido Again

Mini Golf

Serenity from above

Nikola..our favorite Bartender (we saw alot of him)

[Umphreak2010]

Public Beach (Cabbage Beach)

Private Beach (Resort)

Seagul Enjoying a DOD in a coconut

Coming Back from the Straw Market

Fascination with The Sensation to the right

[Umphreak2010]

Good view of the Aft Balconies for those who may be considering these.

[Jimmylisa]

Umphreak2010,

 

Great review, I see you enjoyed the Sensation just as much as we did on our first cruise. We were in the same dining room for dinner, and I see you enjoyed one of my favorite drinks also (Bahama Mama). We are currently planning our second cruise this October on the Inspiration out of Tampa. I am planning a second trip with my family (mother, sister, nephew, daughter, and my husband) and a few friends. Hope your next cruise is alot smoother. I am not sure the distance from where you live to Sumner, SC, my son was station there for over 3 years as a Army Recruiter and Ft. Jackson for 2 years as a trainer for new recruiters stating out. Now station in OHIO.

[Umphreak2010]

Umphreak2010,

 

Great review, I see you enjoyed the Sensation just as much as we did on our first cruise. We were in the same dining room for dinner, and I see you enjoyed one of my favorite drinks also (Bahama Mama). We are currently planning our second cruise this October on the Inspiration out of Tampa. I am planning a second trip with my family (mother, sister, nephew, daughter, and my husband) and a few friends. Hope your next cruise is alot smoother. I am not sure the distance from where you live to Sumner, SC, my son was station there for over 3 years as a Army Recruiter and Ft. Jackson for 2 years as a trainer for new recruiters stating out. Now station in OHIO.

 

Thanks. Hope you enjoy your October cruise. I'm already counting down to June 2011 even though I haven't really finalized the week yet.

I assume you mean Sumpter SC which is about 150 miles east of us. We are 100 miles southwest of Charlotte and about 120 miles Northwest of Fort jackson..i know that area pretty well..Go Gamecocks!!!

 

I think just abou every review I have read about the Sensation has been good although some complain about the decor, I like it as it reminds me of Vegas a little and I like the 'over the top'-ness of it. And every review about first time cruses on the Sensation has been good. All in all it is a really good first time cruist that you get off of wishing you had done a longer one because that ship is just fantastic and fun.