FlyingCruiserNJ

DAY 4:

Today was a relaxing day. A sea day. The day that the ship makes a lot of money from people who just want to drink all day and buy stuff like pictures, Carnival logo merchandise, etc. Anyway...

I got up and just sat around for a while. Nothing much else to do other than look out the window at the ocean. Nice weather all trip long. Calm seas. The ocean route that ships seem to take back to Canaveral from the Bahamas passes rather close to the Florida coast. Based on visual observations and seeing the map on the tv, we were no more than 15 miles offshore. Close enough to see all the east coast Florida beach cities. Miami came into view along the left side of the ship around noonish. The captain briefed us on current weather and the forecast for the rest of the day and told us what to expect when we got back to Canaveral for the next morning.

We both had our free drink coupons still sitting on the counter in the cabin so we used them at the brunch. Traditionally we cash them in on the last sea day. We went to the fantasy dining room, which is where sit-down brunch is held each day. We were seated around 1200, and ordered our drinks. My mom got a pina colada and I got a miami vice. I figured why not. Never had one but read some real good things said about it on here. It wasn't bad. I have to say Carnival's brunch menu and dining room atmosphere is a lot better now. They abruptly ended that stupid punchliner brunch idea when people realized they didn't like it. Give them credit for that. The food is better too. I ordered a steak and eggs. Sunny side up eggs and a really good 6 or so ounce steak, cooked medium. Also had pretty decent homefries. Not enough to fill me up completely though. :D

After that, I went upstairs to check out the deck scene and my mom went to the photo gallery to buy a few pictures. I think she got an embarkation photo and maybe one other. Interesting tidbit: usually photo gallery staff is very friendly and talkative and she told me that the person working in there said he preferred the Sensation to some of the newer and fancier ships. He said it just has a better feel and is more like a home to him and he said a lot of others there feel the same way. Kinda makes you think. IMO that can tell you a lot about a ship and the general atmosphere for workers. It seems like Sensation has very satisfied, happy crew. I didn't buy any pictures as I didn't see anything worth spending the money on this time. We both went and looked in the gift shop but the merchandise wasn't really anything special. I will sometimes buy keychains or magnets with visited ports if they are on sale there and I did not when we were off the ship but I had already done that in Freeport, so no need to on here. I often times will get a ship-specific mug for my collection but I did not do that here as my mom had gotten one years ago when she had sailed the Sensation.

So, we met up on the lido at the mongolian wok at about 1430. I got thai barbeque rice noodles and a chicken/pork combo this time. I got in just before they closed for the day, and I don't feel as if it was as good as the shrimp and szechuan noodles. Not bad, just not as good. But it is all about personal preference. Very popular attraction on this ship. My mom got some pot roast and fried chicken from the buffet as she does not like spicy food. BTW, it was ok she said but even the golden corral buffet back on land probably has better.

I still had a lot of money left on my shipboard account, mainly due to not getting any wine and not going on an excursion. So of course, I had to get a DOD, which was a Cruiser in a souvenir glass. I never had gotten one on Carnival so I went to the lido bar and got one. It was good. Some sort of orangey-liquor mix. Tasty. I can use the glass when I am at home also, just to feel more like I am cruising. The glass even says "HEY LOOK, I'M ON VACATION" lol. By now, it was 1600 and time was just flying by. I always wanted to go on the waterworks slide, so I did that. I only went down the little shotgun slide though. I am too much of a chicken to go on the high, long twister slide. I went twice. After that, my mom went back to take a nap and pack and I watched us pass by Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, etc along the coast. Come tomorrow, it is reality again and we will be back on land with all the other regular people. :mad:

I went to the hot tub about 1730 and it was not crowded at all. I relaxed in there for a while, saw my buddies from the first day in there again, laughed a few times about stuff we had done and talked about then, and then I went back and got ready for dinner and packed some at 1900 or so.

We went to dinner at 2015. I usually get some concoction of shrimp or alligator fritters or something during a cruise but I did not this time. I actually only got a crab cake this time, which was very good as usual. I ordered turkey and stuffing for main course, which was ok but not great. I got my wcmc for dessert and again, fruit plate. Tonight, the maitre d gave a nice farewell speech and the staff did a somewhat different farewell show. I liked it. They all gathered on the stairs at the doorway, and of course did their bags are packed, sad to see you go etc routine. It seemed nicer than what they used to do. The maitre d made a joke that did hit the spot though. He said breakfast would be served on lido on Thursday morning, lunch would be served at the airport and dinner would be served at home Thursday night. Very true. We thanked the staff on the way out of the mdr of course, and were on our way.

On promenade, they had decorated for Halloween, which was the next day. I liked it. A lot of staff had dressed up, and there were halloween decorations all over. Made the ship have some personality. We hung out on promenade near where the cover band was playing and watched game 6 of the world series. And Boston wins! Shane Victorino gets another ring! Boston wins a title at home for the first time in almost a century. A lot of other people were watching too. Cool. When that was over, I went and played a $5 game on the casino vault and of course did not win. Apparently someone had earlier though, because there were only a few dollar amounts left to win.

We then went to see the last comedy show, and it was good and entertaining. The show was decently attended but there was no problem finding a seat in the lounge. Afterward, we went back upstairs to get dogs, burgers, fries and ice cream for the last time and enjoy the last little bit of the cruise. At about 0100, I went back to the room to do last minute packing and get some rest before the trip home.

FlyingCruiserNJ

Continued.

So, we went to dinner at 2015. We had to stop by the maitre d and confirm that we had a different table from our original, and they showed us where it was. It was much better than the other table we had been at the first two evenings. It was just a table for two but we had plenty of people around us to make the atmosphere good. We had a different wait staff and bar man of course but they were adequate and even joked around with us a little. I got navy bean soup as I always do on Carnival as they make a pretty good version. I ordered jerk pork and I believe, mahi mahi for my entrees. Not bad. You can order a baked potato on the side if you want and I did this. They are pretty decent, usually. Bar service kept my soda glass full. We wanted to order a bottle of wine earlier in the cruise but when we asked to see a wine list, they said they didn't have one. Only a limited list of wines that we did not want was at each table. On the last night, we then finally saw a proper wine list included in our menus. Oh well. They lost out on a sale there. I got Barefoot red wine on a short cruise last year. Decently priced and lasts for the entire cruise. We planned to get the chardonnay this time. The dancing was done as usual and it was entertaining. Some of the restaurant staff seems to get into it more than others. The only thing I don't like is that the show seems to actually interfere with quality of service. It is not the fault of the servers, who are just doing their jobs but it actually does sometimes get a little annoying. Anyway, I again got a fruit plate and wcmc. The fruit plate consists of watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew slices and stawberries and blueberries, along with kiwis. Very nice.

We left the mdr about 2200 and got ready to see the deck party. I actually stopped by the casino for a minute to lose a few dollars on the penny slots. Sadly, what they call penny slots are really not. You have to play 9 credits minimum and win very rarely. Casino slot payouts are lousy compared to a place like Vegas or Atlantic City. Probably not as much oversight. I wanted to do the casino vault but there is always a line of people who want to also have fun losing money, so I moved on and got ready to go to the deck party.

At approx. 2300, it began. Of course, the typical deck party music, wobble, electric slide, etc. Lots of people dancing on lido. Also had a decent mexican buffet. I have heard they can still do this on the older ships because there is no blue iguana cantina on board even though there is a blue iguana bar next to the taste bar. It was pretty good. Normal stuff. Tacos, etc. Long lines though. I got my soda to go with it and of course, hit the hot chocolate. Who cares that it was in the 80s even at night? It tastes oh so good. I got two mugs of the stuff. After hanging out there for a while, I went back downstairs to the room and went to sleep. Believe it or not, early night.

Next up: day 4 - sea day

FlyingCruiserNJ

I've been browsing pictures of the OV's. Looks like the windows are pretty dirty (salty/wet) most of the time......can you actually see out of them? Take pictures? :confused:

 

Thanks!

Sure you can. The lower deck ones might have a little contamination but not so you cannot see out them. Of course you can't see anything at night as it is dark. :) It isn't even a factor on higher decks. I was just in an oceanview on upper on the sensation a few weeks ago and it was perfectly clear. It is probably the same for portholes. Oceanview rooms are good for if you just want to sit in the cabin and look out at the ocean on a sea day or a departure or arrival into a port, but IMO I don't usually even pay the premium for one. I am perfectly happy with an interior room. If I want to splurge it will be on a balcony, and even that is rare. I would rather spend that extra 50 or a hundred bucks on other stuff onboard or in a port.

FlyingCruiserNJ

Yes, boarding for a 2200 departure from SJU is the same as for an early departure. We did that in 9/2012 for the eastern caribbean sailing. Great itinerary btw. They have you board and treat it just like a normal cruise. The first night is ATD for everyone in the mdr and sailaway is in the dark, at night. I didn't like it too much. But plan to be there same time as always as you paid for that full day on the ship so get onboard asap.

FlyingCruiserNj

Before there were "Upgrade Fairy Phone calls" from Carnival offering to sell you an upgrade at a cheap price, Carnival used to upgrade guests at the last minute.

 

Twice in the past, I was upgraded from a balcony cabin to a Junior Suite at the last minute. I found out about it the week before sailing.

 

I'm sailing on Glory in a few weeks and booked in a specific balcony cabin, and was wondering if there's any likelihood of a last minute upgrade to an unsold suite. I'm guessing they only upgrade passengers who aren't assigned specific cabins.

 

To me, an upgrade is moving from one category to another (inside to Oceanview; Oceanview to Balcony, etc) , and not moving from one floor to another higher floor within the same category. Even though Carnival charges more for higher floors, I don't think anyone really considers this an upgrade, per se.

 

Does anyone have any surprise upgrade stories?

I never got upgraded from one class of cabin to the next higher until just a couple of weeks ago. I did not even know until we got to the checkin desk even though they did email me notice tthat they were going to do t a day or so earlier. I had booked an interior on upper, aft, albeit at a highly discounted special interline rate. We got upgraded to an oceanview on the upper, midship. This was on the sensation October 27 from canaveral. Great surprise. Decent size cabin, smallish bathroom and shower but that is pretty much standard. I had been upgraded within my class before (oceanview to oceanview eg) but never a full class. My mom is a platinum and I have 1 more cruise to go to get there but I'm not sure that had anything to do with it or if it was just luck. I would assume they had a hard time filling cabins on this trip and they were able to move people around. Airlines do the dame thing with J class seats for frequent fliers. Costs them little and helps keep brand loyalty.

FlyingCruiserNJ

Continued.

We were parked alongside the Disney Dream,NCL and the Ecstasy today. Lots of people here. When we were headed out into town, there was a line probably close to 500 people or more long to get back thru id check. Those ships were leaving earlier so it seems everyone from those ships was headed back at the same time. Advice: don't cut it too close if you are headed back to your ship late as you never know how long it will take to get thru the checkpoint and ealk or ride back to your ship.

We walked around and ended up going to frog's again as they gave us a buy one, get one free coupon for margaritas the day before in Freeport. The atmosphere is not a much fun but the drinks were good and the outdoor deck was right on the water with a good view. We made our way back to the port area at 1545 or so and the checkpoint line wad much shorter now. There was a guy selling bottled water for a dollar each right before the passport check and since you can bring as many as you want back onboard with you, my mom got a bunch. Much cheaper than what Carnival charges onboard. I got dogs and chicken fingers for a late lunch to go with my coca-cola and hung out on deck to watch sailaway. Apparently some pax had gotten married in port and had just gotten back onboard to celebrate. Maybe one day I will get married on a cruise ship if I meet the right person. Hmmm. Anyway...

We left at 1715 or so because we had to wait for the Ecstasy to leave in front of us but we were soon on our way. Btw that horn is LOUD iif you are standing anywhere forward of it. Lol I found that out the hard way. The sailaway dance party was jumping and shortly after we left, I got into the serenity hot tub again. I met a few people from the UKN who were doing a US tour thru this fall and had a good discussion with them about good places to go and see in the USA. I also met some people who were from all over the country, but who had very similar jobs. Cool. There are a lot of people like that on cruises. I went back to the cabin about 1945 and got ready for dinner. That is up next.

FlyingCruiserNJ

Here is the next installment. What better way to relive this Bahamas cruise on a cold Nomember morning while working hard (or hardly working) than to post a review here goes.

DAY 3: NASSAU

We arrived at 0800 here, just like yesterday in FPO but again, I slept in until about 1100. It is vacation after all. My mom, as usual, ordered room service breakfast which was the usual bagels, pastries, fruit, hot tea, etc about 0930. I went to the late risers breakfast again and got fried eggs overeasy to go with my meat and potatoes. They will do that on request at the omelet station and if you want decent eggs you have to get them there. They use that imitation scrambled egg mix in the carton for the buffet and imo, it is so bad I don't even bother eating it.

I have been to Nassau numerous times and have seen all there is to see that would ever interest me. No desire to waste money and time doing another Carnival-sanctioned excursion there. So we again did not get off the ship til later. I like golf so I went up to the sports deck to play mini golf. They have changed how they control the equipment now apparently. They used to make you sign out a putter and ball at the poolside towel hut on lido but now you can just pick one of each up right by the 1st tee. In terms of Carnival 9-hole mini golf courses, this was fun but not that difficult. It was not crowded either as a lot of people were off the ship. I did a few laps around the track also, on the sports deck.

At about 1400 we decided to get cleaned up and go to the port area. That will be the next part.

FlyingCruiserNJ

Thanks for posting. We are doing the same trip Thanksgiving week. Can't wait!

No problem, thanks for reading. I have read quite a few awesome reviews on here by some awesome writers, and I felt like I had to give this whole review thing a try. I apologize for not having any pics to upload at this time but hopefully I can take care of that at some point in this review. People always have told me I am a good writer so hopefully I can paint a good picture of the experience with my words. Have you ever been on the Sensation? It is a cozy ship albeit about 20 years old. Some workers actually told me they prefer that ship to the bigger and newer ones due to the comfort and familiarity factor. I can relate. Newer and bigger is not always better. For the value, this type of vacation cannot be beat. Only thing this family of ships is missing is a steakhouse. Mdr dining is good but on the larger ships the steakhouse option is usually good. But I still have plenty to go in this review, so keep reading and I hope you get some good info for your upcoming trip thru this.

FlyingCruiserNJ

Eek, sorry about all the typos in the last post. I'm typing on my phone and doing so in between actually having to gasp, work today. A few things I did not mention in the last post the second time I typed it out. Our server at frog's was awesome. His name was Jason, originally from Nassau but he and us agreed that Freeport is probably the nicer and more laid back of the two cities.s this was formal night iirc. We packed light and this was a short hop so we didn't bother dressing up too much for dinner. By my estimation, two thirds of the pax on board went the same route as we did. Casual dining attire to say the least. Of course Carnival will never do away with "cruise elegant" night though, because they sell a lot of overpriced formal portraits from that evening. I went to the hot tub to watch sunset and sailaway from FPO and I must say that the hot tubs on serenity are surely hotter now than they have been in the past. I guess Carnival does listen to the people when they were always complaining about the temps in the hot tubs. I stayed in for too long (lol) but I did meet some funny and cool people there while I was relaxing. I went on to see them numerous other times during the cruise. It is funny how that out of 2000 pax on a ship, you always end up seeing the same hundred everywhere you go. At least it seems that way.

I went back to the room to gwt ready for dinner before 2000. Word to the wise: if you are going to run the shower water hot for an extended period of time, keep the bathroom door closed. Apparently the hot steam from the shower um, set off the smoke detector. We got a call from security to make sure we were ok and they came out to inspect and reset the device. We apolgized for the trouble and were off to dinner. I got beef barley soup and lots of bread for starters. I got the bone in bbq ribs because I don't like the way Carnival mangles good prime rib by oven roasting it and then serving it cold. Every time. I also got lobster because, like, it was there and I am on a cruise. Duh. Finished with a mickey mouse wcmc and fresh fruit plate for dessert. I shared a black forest cake with my mom. Carnival does that well. About out tablemates. I have never experienced a table for 10 where the people either did not get along or/and did not show up at all. One side of the table told us they changed their dining time to earlier but our other tablemates never showed again. Only two other people showed up. That was awkward and I didn't like it so we asked to be moved to a different table the next night. Our request was taken care of and we got our new table assignment in the cabin that evening.

We went to the stage show, and surprisingly, it was better tonight. The live theater band that still works on that ship made it that much better. I wish Carnival would keep them on all ships but they seem to have other ideas. The band on promenade was super all cruise long. They played covers of anything the people wanted to hear and well. We watched the end of game 5 of the ws with some other Redsox fans on promenade and the right team won again. Just one more back in Boston to wrap it up on Wednesday. Following that, we saw the comedians in the lounge. They were good and funny but I cnnot remember their names right off hand lol. Adult comedy for sure. If you are easily offended or are not of age, you really ned to "get the * out," as George Lopez says in the opening disclaimer.

After the shows we went to lido to get some pepperoni pizza and hotdogs. I got a late night dog and my mom got fries, grilled chicken breast and a few chocolate chip cookies. I also rediscovered the Carnival hot chocolate here. It is in a machine right next to the coffee and is out of this world good. I also got an ice cream cone for dessert. After the crowd thinned out about 0100, I retired to the room and went to bed, gotta rest up for Nassau.

Next up: day 4 of our journey and day 3 of the cruise.

FlyingCruiserNJ

OK folks, here is part 3 of my vacation review. I tried to post this once already but the site for whater reason did not allow it to show up. Anyway, this was Freeport day. Here goes.

DAY 3:

We had a scheduled arrival time of 0800 this morning and I assume we arrived then but I wouldn't know because I slept in until almost 1100. :D So, I went up to the lido for what they call late risers breakfast. It is served until 1130 daily for people like me. Lol. I would have been up earlier but the excursion I wanted to go on was sold out. I have never had an excursion sell out before. It was a city tour and brewery trip that I had read about before sailing and decided I wanted to do. Apparently lots of others did too and when we went to book it the first day at the shore excursions desk, the gentleman there told me it had sold out. Bummer. Nothing else on the list got my attention so we lost out. Lesson learned here is that if you want to do an excursion, book it online before the cruise. That way you are set. Anyway, for breakfast I got an omelet with ham and sausage and bacon and potatoes from the buffet line. I also got a hotdog and some fries from the grill. The burgers and chicken poppers are much better than they used to be on this type of ship. I also got orange juice and orange guava passion fruit juice from the machine. The guava juice is awesome on Carnival and I have not been able to duplicate it anywhere else. The only downside to getting brunch on lido deck is that it was hot and sticky (about 85 degrees) and there were swarms of flies bothering us the entire time.

I got cleaned up and we decided to get off the ship and just go around the port area. It is nice although it is isolated and not near anything; more or less a made-for-cruise ship type place. I had gone to FPO last year on the ecstasy with my cousinN who is autistic and whose first ever vacation was a cruise. She elected to do the swim with the dolphins tour and she said it wad great, but iam not a big dolphon fan and didn't want to spend $150 to do he tour. They had a nice stand set up with keychains for a dollar a piece and I got one that was shaped like a Bahamas flag. I like to get keychains/magnets/shot glasses from every place I go for my souvenir collection. We walked around and went to senor frog's for a little drink and some fun. I got my picture taken in fron of the place next to the frog statue; it was funny. We went inside and I got the drink of the day, which wad dome tequila and orange juice combination. It wad good and cost about $6. People had their birthays there and the servers were um, entertaining them ad a reward atop the bar. But that was topped by the musical chairs conga line frinking game that about a dozen brave souls entered into. It consisted of a normal conga line and musical chairs but each participant had to take 2 shots of liquor each time around. It ended up with a brother and sister competing to see who could hang in longer and the brother won. Good fun. We actually later met up with them again on the ship. They wrre funny. We went back to the ship about 1530, just in time to get red beans and rice and jamaican beef stew, washed down by a coke for late lunch. We sailed away about 1700 and waved bye to Freeport and the Glory and Bahamas Celebration, also parked there that day.

Next up; dinner and evening activities from this day. Hope you enjoy so far and happy reading.

FlyingCruiserNj

DAY 2:

Sensation Port Canaveral EMBARKATION DAY. I got up about 0930, got the hotel's continental breakfast and finished my dinner from the night before. It is neat to have jerk chicken and pork for breakfast. lol We got ready, packed up, checked out about 1100 and waited for the hotel to port shuttle to pick us up. We booked with 123 Friendly Transportation, which was a good choice. They pick you up right at your hotel and for $36 per person round trip, they take you right to the ship. We stopped to pick a few other people up at other hotels along the way and were on our way down the Florida Turnpike, and an hour later were at Port Canaveral. The driver was excellent and friendly, a very nice guy. We talked to him about everything Florida, from agriculture to the space program during the ride. We met a few other pretty cool people on the bus ride as well.

We got off the van, and went right to the passport and security checks because all we had were two rollerboard carryons and backpacks. No need to make the porters work too hard. We got to the platinum checkin lounge, which in Canaveral is very new and nice. When we checked in, we were met by a big surprise. We always print out our boarding passes ahead of time, and we got a little concerned when the agents told us we had a different cabin than what was on our paperwork. Uh-Oh. Not really. It turns out we got upgraded to an oceanview on the same upper deck. Nice cabin. I later found out that they had emailed me a notification that we had been upgraded on Friday but I was busy and did not check my email at all so.... I put down a $200 cash deposit for the sailing for onboard charges, we got our sign and sail cards from the helpful staff and were on our way. We got the obligatory embarkation photo done, and made our way up the long glass jetway-type boarding bridge to the ship. We actually saw the same wheelchair assist gentleman that had helped get my grandmother on and off the ship just about a year or so when we had traveled out of the same port on the Ecstasy and he recognized us right away. Pretty cool.

So we were onboard about 1300 and dropped our bags off right away in the cabin. Nice cabin. Right near the elevator, easy transit anywhere you want to go on the ship. We went up to the lido for the lunch buffet after that. I had a $10 credit on my account and I am not sure why but I was not complaining. I signed up for my bottomless bubbles card at the little desk they have set up near the pool the first day and got my first drink, a coke with no ice. We got a table and I went right to the Mongolian wok. I had read too many good things about that place on this site for the year or so I had been reading before I signed up so I had to check it out. I got the thai noodles and szechuan shrimp they were offering and it was great. The guys who make everything to order right in front of you are very good at what they do and they really do move the line quickly. I also got some freshly carved roast beef from the rotisserie station right next door. I made a last few phone calls to a few friends and relatives before I shut my phone off for the cruise and went to explore the ship. At about 1530 we got ready for the muster drill. Carnival really is thorough and detailed with these now, even more than they were in the past. It took a good half hour and at approximately 1605 we were released from the drill, horn sounded and we were on our way.

SAILAWAY:

We left out of the port along with the Disney Dream and an NCL ship. They both followed us for the rest of the trip everywhere we went :p. Lots of people in the waterfront restaurants and entertainment venues waved to us and we waved back. Same with people on the beach. Note. Don't ever go swimming there. We could see thousands of jellyfish all around the ship. Must be a nightmare for swimmers if they don't know beforehand about them. Also, you can see the assembly building at Cape Canaveral from there. The US flag painted on it is the size of a football field just by itself. It can easily be seen from about 10 miles away. Go to the space center if you ever get the chance. It is really neat. I did a few years ago, while the shuttles were still in operation.

I didn't do much for the rest of the afternoon. I did check out the serenity area, at the very back of the ship behind the comedy club. I love the hot tubs but did not go in this evening. We had the late dinner seating in the Ecstasy dining room at the very back of the ship. We got ready for dinner and headed down to enjoy the MDR. I have only missed the MDR dining one time in all my Carnival cruises, and that was because I had been in the sun for too long at our port for the day and was just too beat to go. MDR is a huge reason why I cruise. I always order two appetizers, two entrees and sometimes an additional dessert to go with my warm chocolate melting cake. This evening I ordered soup only because there was not anything else on the app menu that I wanted. I did get the fried chicken for the main entree and it was only OK. Carnival fried chicken isn't the best. I also got the flat iron steak, which is offered every day. I had heard about the "mickey mouse" from cruisers here, so I just had to get the wcmc with two ice creams. Our wait staff took care of that for us. The bartender came around and always made sure my soda glass was full. Good. However, our tablemates for the night were not too talkative and as a matter of fact, did not even show up the next night. Oh well. Their loss.

After that, we checked out the lame welcome aboard show and made our way to the comedy club with a stop in the lounge on promenade where we watched the world series. I have to chuckle as the game ended in very satisfying fashion for me. I am a Phillies fan and don't like the Red Sox but I love Shane Victorino and was glad to see him get another ring. He wasn't good enough for the Phils though but I digress. If you are wondering, the ship was mostly Red Sox fans, very few Cardinals fans that I could see at least. The comedian was good this evening, and he gave his own welcome aboard adult comedy show. There were two comedians on this ship and I liked them both. I had never seen either one onboard Carnival before. After that, I went to bed sometime between midnight and 0100. Gotta rest up for our first port day.

Anyway it is late and I am tired of typing lol, so I will bring you the next installment of my adventure sometime tomorrow hopefully when I get some more free time to just type away. Hope you all have enjoyed so far.

FlyingCruiserNJ

Hello folks, this is my first CC trip review. I traveled on the Carnival Sensation, from Port Canaveral on October 27, thru the 31st, with stops in Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas. I have been on a total of 10 cruises since I began cruising in 2006, with 8 being on Carnival. I wanted to take a short autumn vacation, and I haven't been on the same ship twice so I had to find a trip that fit into my timeframe, pricerange and left out of the right port. So I found the Sensation, an older ship but a very good one, for $129 per person for two people plus taxes. I travel often with my mother, who has been on many more cruises than I have on many lines, and is a Carnival platinum. I did take a few pictures but I am not savvy with how to upload them so I will not be able to show post them here just yet. Maybe next time. I will try to use my storytelling skills to tell you how it was instead. There are a lot of wonderful storytellers and reviewers on this site, so I have to step up my game to match up. I will give it my best try here. So, here goes.

DAY 1

I always travel to the port city the day before departure as I know acutely well that flying in the day of the trip is very risky. I don't want to risk missing the cruise because I couldn't get a flight or the flight I was on was late arriving day of sailing. I live in NJ, near Philadelphia, so I am quite a ways away from Florida. No problem though. Just a 2 hour flight to change the weather. I had attended a wedding the night before and I am not a morning person to begin with, so I chose a flight later in the day. I flew down at 3:00 PM out of PHL, got great seats :D and an early departure to MCO Orlando. No takeoff line + wonderful enroute weather + good tailwinds = 30 minute early arrival to the gate in MCO. Great start to the vacation:cool:. I wanted a late afternoon snack so we stopped at the food court landside near baggage claim. I went to Panda Express and my mom went to Chick-fil-A. Good food and price considering it is airport food after all.

We didn't check any bags, just did carryon so all we had to do was get the shuttle to our hotel for the night. I got the LaQuinta just north of the United hangar on the north side of the airport for $52 a night including taxes. The van driver was very helpful and friendly and even helped check us in for the room when we arrived at the hotel. Very good, clean, safe, comfortable hotel for the price. I highly recommend this place for anyone who flies into MCO for a next-day cruise. I would say most of the people in this hotel were going on cruises the next day. It is kinda out of the way if you are looking to go to the theme parks but it is a nice pre-cruise place to stay. Anyway, we got settled in, I watched some college football and we decided where we were going to go to dinner. The van driver suggested a place right down the block, called Fish On Fire. OK. We went there. Great atmosphere, lots of locals there along with hotel guests. The cover band they had was good, and played mostly blues and classic rock. I got a combo platter of pulled pork and jerk chicken thighs with black beans and rice on the side and a bottomless soda for about $14. Very good food and value. I couldn't even finish it all so I took it back to the hotel for later on. We watched some of the world series there also (good ws stories from the cruise itself also) and went back to the hotel when the game was over. I went to the pool they had there but it was only in the 60s that evening so I didn't go in (even though it was much nicer than the 38 degree PHL I had just left) I went to sleep early on, about midnight as I was tired from the travel day.

Next up: Embarkation day

FlyingCruiserNJ

My vote goes for the Radisson for sure. Awesome pool and hot tub and nice bar and restaurant. Plenty of food options within walking distance also. Good parking options for when you are on the cruise and shuttle takes you right to the port in about 10 minutes. Very nice rooms also. Reasonable price. I have stayed there twice. A good resort to stay at even if you are not going on a cruise. As an aside, if you fly into MCO and do not want to rent a car to drive to the cruise port, there are very good fairly priced hotels with shuttle connections right near the airport. I will use the LaQuinta just north of the airport as an example. Got a great rate of about $50 for the night. Flew in Saturday night before Sunday cruise, stayed here and got a shuttle for $18 a person each way to the port on Sunday that picked up right at the hotel.

We just booked Alaska in April! Better bet we will be drinking a lot to keep us warm!

Maybe some peppermint schnapps.

Ha, Alaska is not cold in the summertime. Big misconception everyone seems to have. I went there in August 2007 on the Golden Princess for a inside passage from SEA and it was like 75 every day. Kinda surprising to say the least. Although it can get cold at night going thru some of the windy passages there and during shoulder season. I drank the hot chocolate a few times on my last trip and it was almost 90 degrees every day.

Awesome, so I'm now the only one who loves the stuff. I do wonder myself sometimes why more people don't drink it but they are the ones missing out, not me lol. The machine does froth it up before it dispenses. Maybe that is why it tastes a little richer. Only thing I don't like is that you only get half a cup or so each time you hit the dispense button but if you hit it twice it pours too much and the cup overflows. But then again! If that's a problem I will just have to get two cups instead of one! Glad to see im not alone in my hot chcolate addiction. :cool:

Can I go to dinner and get just the warm chocolate melting cake? Skip the meal.

 

I have anytime dining to and usually get there when they up open but I think that would be a bad strategy if doing this.

 

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LOL, I don't know why you would want to but I suppose you could. They also have WCMC on lido at the buffet USUALLY, at least they used to. IMO, it is not as good as mdr but it should be there. I would not even be able to eat a melting cake without food first as it is very rich and sweet and would proably be too much sugar at once. Besides, mdr food is usually good so why not get some of it if you are going to make the effort to go to the dining room anyway.

I have AT&T with my iphone. Can anyone tell me if I will be able to text or use the phone on my cruise? It's on the Pride from Baltimore to the Bahamas, if that matters. I've heard it's best to turn the phone completely off so it's not roaming. :cool:

 

But once in the ports, does AT&T have coverage there so I can contact my kiddos at home?

 

Alternately, the ship has WiFi - can I send them texts or emails from the ship?

You CAN use them, I would not though unless it is a complete emergency because they charge like an arm and a leg per minute plus international roaming. I turn my phone off completely as soon as we are out of sight of land on the first day of the trip and turn it back on when we are parked and ready to debark on the last day. Sometimes I will take the battery out also. I know people who did not know about this and had a cell bill higher than the actual cruise bill.

Good for you. I got upgraded from an interior on upper on the Sensation to an oceanview at the last minute last week. No charge. It just goes to show you that people are not really interested in anything but bargain basement minimum accomodations seeing that the nicer and more expensive cabin classes are not selling. They sell you the nice suite at a lower price and hope that you like the experience and will book it again at a later date. Hope you enjoy it though! I have never been in anything more than a standard balcony cabin.

Almost always slip the room steward a few extra bucks at the end of the trip unless they were so bad that they made my experience awful, which was exactly one time ever. They do a great job, one that I surely could never do. Same with dining room staff. They work hard to make our vacation fun, they USUALLY deserve a little extra. You always have to tip the bag guys a little bit, at least if you want your bags to get to your room at a decent time and in the same condition you last saw them. I don't tip the bar people, as they probably get a cut of everything they sell and that is a good bit of money already. Just like on land, reward over the top service and let the people in charge know how good it was. Autotipping covers their salaries but standout service should earn the staff more.

FlyingCruiserNJ

Hi there! We just had an interior. It was on the Empress Deck. Loved that one. Very quiet and private. The only issue we had was when the drunks came back to their cabin... but that would happen on any part of the ship. When you board the Glory, there is a fish and chips station above the Lido deck buffet. I highly recommend going there the first day. it is much less crowded (usually only a handful of people) and pretty good :)

What kind of cruise would it be without happy drunks running around the ship? :D Seriously, someone mentioned the interiors around deck 6 and I did have one right there above the disco for the BOS sailing on June 16 or so of this year and it was not bad. Yeah you can hear the action and music and all but it did not bother me at all. Some light sleepers might be bothered. Overall, Glory is my favorite Carnival ship. Yes, the fish and chips is great (found out about that from reading CC before that trip) and unless you know about it, one would probably never even see it. Guy's is great on there, only thing missing is the hotdogs on the grill and you can still get them steamed at the deli if you so choose. And the blue iguana cantina is great. I am not even a burrito fan but the ones there kicked butt. Great ship, enjoy it.

FlyingCruiserNJ

Well, I have to preface this by saying that MDR service is nowhere near as great as it used to be on Carnival. I believe it is because the company has chosen to cut costs by reducing total waiters and giving 3 man teams more tables to deal with than before (which is a mistake) but whatever.

A lot of the time the servers are running around either singing and dancing or getting food orders from a zillion tables all at the same time so they really don't have time to give everyone personalized service like they used to. HOWEVER, I too have had rude waiters and waiters that just plain were incompetent and screwed up everyone's orders at our table at least once during a 7 day trip so I can see where you are coming from.

If they are rude, ask the maitre d to move you the next night. Usually, they can accomodate you but not always. Don't complain because service surely won't get better then haha. Just don't tip them at the end of the trip, let Carnival know they were not good and move on. Bad MDR service sure isn't the norm from what I have seen. The guys try, they really do IMO. A lot of the time they are tired by the end of the day and just want to go to bed or may have had a bad day like we all do. They are human after all. Also, cultural differences can make people seem more surly than they are if you are not familiar with them. For example, some eastern european guys may come across as mean and disengaged, rude, etc but that is just cultural. If you actually notice they are being perfectly pleasant, just it may come across in a "harsher" tone than with some other people.

FlyingCruiserNJ

I really think they use Ghirardelli Hot chocolate mix, I use this at home. Its a lil more expensive unless you buy it in bulk which is what i do and I want to say that i saw this when I did the behind the fun tour on Destiny a couple years back. But IMO thats what it tastes like

It very well might be. I don't buy Ghirardelli much so I am not that familiar with the taste of their products but it sounds right. To the person who suggested ice cream in it; I never have tried that but will next time I have the chance. It really is good. It was 88 in FPO and NAS both days and hot at night on lido but it was still great to have a few cups of the stuff after the comedy shows while enjoying pizza and hotdogs after midnight. LOL.

FlyingCruiserNJ

Just got off the Sensation on Halloween day last week (review forthcoming when I can sit down and just write for while uninterrupted) and I noticed the hot chocolate mix they have is pretty good. Better than the powdered stuff you usually get at the grocery store. As far as I can see it is just powder mixed with hot water BUT is there something more to it that anyone may know about? I had it a few times, even when it was very warm on deck.

Anyone else have an opinion on the Carnival hot chocolate that they serve? Like or dislike? Know what product they actually use in the mix?

FlyingCruiserNJ

The lemonade is not bad. Not great but free and with a little ice it is fine. The OJ in the morning is pretty good and the guava juice is a treat that I can only seem to find on Carnival. Although in discussions with other cruisers, they said they saw the guava juice mix in costco or somewhere similar so will have to check that out.

I know people who mix iced tea with lemonade but I don't due to the fact I do not like iced tea.

FlyingCruiserNJ

Ah, yes. WCMC. The one and only.

It is actually one of the things that I look forward to on Carnival cruises. I have actually (gasp) sailed a few other lines in the past and they did NOT serve WCMC. It hit me at that point how much I missed the stuff on board a cruise.

I like it. Sometimes it is better than other times, sometimes it is undercooked, pudding-like and other times it is over-cooked, almost cake-like. Usually you can find overcooked/has-been-sitting-out-too-long WCMC on the lido dinner buffet if you are not a MDR person. I order it almost every night on board, rarely finish it because I usually combine it with another awesome dessert concoction :D. Just a taste is enough usually, but it is very rich and hard to completely finish-especially if you just ate two starters, two entrees and had a couple drinks beforehand lol.

I too have the recipe for WCMC at home(they give it to you if you take the behind the fun tour or galley tour too) and I even have ramekins at home to cook it in. I rarely make it though because you have to have a large gathering of people who want it in order to make a batch or too much goes to waste.

So yeah, marketing ploy or not for Carnival, WCMC is a classic that should never be messed with. Kinda like coca-cola but that is for another place haha.

FlyingCruiserNJ