Carnival Sensation/Shore Excursions

[bnr0914]

Help! I have so many questions!

First, has anyone been on this ship lately? or been on and taken any pictures? I heard that it went through a major refurbishing. Is it true? Also, no one at carnival seemed to know the answer to this, but is it true that the bars and pool are closed while in port?

Finally, I need a good shore excursion, weather it is through the cruise line or not. I am traveling with my 9 year old son and husband. I want to do something that you normally wouldn't do! What are the pros and cons of using the excursions provided by the cruise line?

Thanks! :)

[Mike45]

I took my wife and son on sensation last sept.. we loved that ship. I don't think it's had any renovations lately. But carnival said it was due sometime in 2009. I hope you like purple. This ship has purple everywhere. but it was a clean ship with great food. Can't remember if you could swim in port. Once underway they waited till they were out about 20 miles before they filled the pool. They used sea water for the pool. One attendant told me they wait because they felt water was cleaner farther out.

[Mike45]

I do believe the bar was open in port.

[regd]

We just were on the Sensation this April and had a wonderful time. The pools were certainly open when we were in port as were the bars. We did not do any shore excursions so canot help you out in that way.

[golf43]

We were on the Sensation last year. We had a ball. We did the excursions through Carnival. We had alot of fun on the jeep tour in Freeport. I highly recommend that tour. Some people prefer to find there own tours to take instead of going through the ship. We always use the ships tours. One thing I know for sure is if you get hurt while on a Carnival excursion, Carnival will pay when you visit the infirmary on the ship. I fell while getting on a boat to go over to Atlantis.

 

The jeep tour was really neat. Here is a preview of what we did that day in Freeport.........

 

. We left the ship at about 7:50am. Got off and someone told us where to meet for this excursion. We waited around until about 8:20am. Then we boarded a bus to take us to where we would get our jeeps. The man who was head of our tour was named Sam. It took about 20 minutes to get to the jeeps. I would say about 10 jeeps were lined up waiting. As soon as we got off the bus we picked out a jeep to drive. We picked a yellow one to drive. The 3 of us occupied one jeep. We each brought a bookbag with us. Too much stuff. Not a lot of room in the jeep for all of this stuff. They gave each jeep 4 water bottles to drink that were cold. We were about the 7th vehicle back. We followed in a line. Sam was in the first jeep. We all had walkie talkies that Sam would communicate with us. Sam took us all over the island. A camera man was riding with Sam. He did a lot of filming to the point that when we got back from that excursion they played it on the TV’s on the ship. Also you can buy the DVD that they made of this excursion for $24.99

 

We went off the road for a bumpy dusty ride. We stopped in what looked like a forest to see a cave or a big hole in the ground. We went to a beach and had lunch. Lunch could have been better. It was only conch fritters, corn bread and a salad. Salad dressing was warm. Yuck! I did not eat it. The drink was some type of fruit punch. Now that tasted good. We were at the beach for about 1 ½ hours. Then we left there and got back to the ship at about 2:15pm. It was a fun day. It was hot. Also at the end of this excursion you have dust all over you. Your hair feels awlful with sand in it. Use plenty of sun block and wear sneakers. I would recommend this excursion. We had a ball.