Review of Sensation, 12/18-12/22

[Anacodia]

This was my first cruise. We sailed with my husband's family which included his two brothers, his sister in law, and his parents, so 7 all together. My husband and I reserved an aft balcony room, number U-230. I'm convinced that this is the best room on the ship. We didn't do any shore excursions. We are kind of quiet people, so the balcony was wonderful respite from the constant party everywhere else. What struck me about this cruise was the amount of time I waited in lines. We got on the ship around 11:30 and headed straight to the Lido Deck for lunch as suggested by other cruise critic reviews I’ve read. We waited in line, got our food, and then waited and waited for our room to be ready at 1:30. While we were waiting we must have said ‘no thank you’ 20 times to the constant stream of staff wanting to sell us a drink. Some were pushy about it, some were not. We were very lucky to get a table in the Lido area, there were people everywhere. My mother in law discovered that my husband and I were not seated at the same table as the other 5 family members. We were directed to the Ecstasy dining room between 1 and 3pm to speak with the Maitre’D. This is were we met Amith.

 

Amith is the Maitre’D for the Sensation, which he mentioned every time he had the chance. On the surface, he was vivacious and magnetic, but he has the kind of personality where I couldn’t decide if he was genuine or not. We spoke with him, he told us he would see what he could do and would send a card to our room. 6pm rolled around and we received nothing. My husband and I sat at our assigned table with 3 other lovely couples. Dinner was pretty good (I had the ceasar salad, tilapia and key lime pie) and the service was great. Our headwaiter was named Dixie and she was from Peru. She was happy and fun and gave us great advice about the food situation since we were new to the ship (like where to eat, when dining rooms closed, etc). Amith was there and took to the center of the dining room in the middle of our dinner, announcing that his name was Amith and he was the Maitre’D about 8 times during his speech. He came around to all the tables to say hello and introduce himself as the Maitre’D. After dinner, we walked around the ship and enjoyed our balcony for the rest of the evening and went to bed early. Sleeping on the ship is great; you get rocked to sleep each night. The mattresses are very firm, which was slightly uncomfortable for me. Of note, the ship has a weird vibration that occurs from time to time. It happened almost consistently in the main dining room at each dinner, to the point where someone mentioned it.

 

When we woke up, we were in Freeport. We decided to hurry up and get ready to go out. After showering etc, we headed up to the Lido deck for breakfast and was met with a 20 minute line of other people waiting to eat breakfast. We waited in line and got our breakfast. It was then that we realized that you only wait in line if you want hot stuff like eggs and oatmeal. If you want cold stuff like fruit or cereal, you could walk right up and get it. That’s what we did for the rest of the cruise. We went to Freeport, and what a ho-hummer. We walked around the straw market which took about 10 min, and then found a convenience store to get a soda. We bought 2-20 ounce bottles for $1.50 each and brought them back on the ship. I enjoy drinking soda very much, and this is the way to do it. I had a pretty good headache by this point (late morning) and went back to the ship to eat lunch. We had to wait in a line to get back on the ship.

 

 

After lunch, I took some tylenol and an allergy pill and took a nap. After that, I felt great for the rest of the trip. We got off the boat one more time in Freeport to take a couple pictures and waited in line to get back on the ship. The ship left at 5, and we watched it leave from our aft balcony. We set back out to see and it was time to get ready for dinner (we had the early seating). My mother in law had already been to guest services and the lido deck to find someone who would help our seating situation. Of note: Had I known this was going to be such a big deal, I would have called Carnival and linked our reservations. I really had no idea it would be such an ordeal. At the direction of one of the hostesses on the Lido Deck, we showed up to the main dining room at 6 to speak with Amith, the Maitre’D. He asked us to wait, and he would see what he could do. He stopped back by several times to explain ‘I am working on your table and your table ONLY right now’. He found us a table and the 7 of us sat down with a very pleasant couple and their teenage son who wore his sunglasses during the whole dinner. Amith stopped back by later to explain that the people who originally had the table we were sitting at were super pissed that their table had been given away, but he was able to find them a seat that they were happy with in the fantasy dining room. That night was elegant night, I got the lobster and shrimp which was good.

 

 

The next morning, we were in Nassau. It was beautiful!! We tried to eat in the main dining room, but apparently it closed at 9:30am (we arrived just after 9:30). The day before it closed at 10, and it closed at 10 on seaday. We ate on the Lido deck, just cereal and juice. We got off the ship and started walking, off the pier deflecting shore excursion offers. We walked all the way down to Junkanoo Beach and walked in the sand and put our toes in the water. We were basically the only ones on the beach. The beach was rocky but clean for the most part. We sat and admired the ocean and watched the world go by. It was a little too chilly for swimming. We walked back to the main area and found Bay Street and spent several hours walking around and shopping. We ate some Conch fritters at a restaurant there. We got back on the ship (after waiting in line) and rested, then went back to Bay street to shop some more. We did get asked by a local if we were ‘interested in any Bob Marley items’. We politely declined, and my husband leaned over and said, “I think we just got asked if we wanted to buy some weed”. Haha, maybe so, I was so naive I wouldn’t have put that together. We had planned on going to Atlantis after dinner but did not make it out there. We were asked repeatedly to take pictures by the photographers. At that point I was wearing a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt that has a picture of a dog and says, “Embrace your inner doofus”. No thanks, don’t need a formal picture of that. We were the only cruise ship there in the morning, but the ecstasy arrived around noon and some RCL ship around 4.

 

 

I was really dreading the sea day and being cooped up on the boat. I had a pretty fun day though! The weather was wonderful, we had breakfast in the main dining room and enjoyed our balcony for a while. They were serving lunch in the MDR, we checked out the menu but then opted for the lido deck. We waited in line for mongolian grill which was really good. We found a table by the pool and started to eat. Surprise, it’s time for the hairy chest contest. It was really funny to watch!! Amanda, the entertainment person, is really funny and a good director. We decided to play some mini golf, and that was fun. It wasn’t overly busy, and a group of about 8 that was in front of us let us play through. We didn’t use the lounge chairs by the pool, but chair hogging was at a bare minimum. We were inundated all day with info about the debarkation process. We enjoyed dinner that night in the MDR where I had 3 appetizers along with a main course. Why? Because I wanted to. For debarkation, we opted for self assist, which was easy enough, although it did involve waiting in a big disorganized line.

 

My husband and I flew into Melbourne, FL after someone on cruise critic mentioned that it was as close to Port Canaveral as Orlando. We also rented a car which cost under $50 for the overnight, picking up at the Melbourne airport and dropping off at Port Canaveral. Both excellent pieces of advice. Melbourne airport is teeny tiny (7 gates total) and the ride up to the Port was so easy. Hertz dropped us off right at the ship and was waiting for us when we got off the ship at 7:30am.

 

Hope this is helpful. I appreciated all the info, especially reviews when I was researching for this trip.

[MSRussell]

Was Amith the "It's Showwwtimmme"? If so, we had him in the Ecstacy. We left as you boarded

He was a little enthusiastic. I think he is pretty new at this, from what someone said.

How did you like the long pier at Nassau? I didn't know until the way back there was a free bus that circles around to all the ships.

Melanie

[chuckwagon52]

Thanks for your review.

[gelo7]

Nice review.

[Anacodia]

Was Amith the "It's Showwwtimmme"? If so, we had him in the Ecstacy. We left as you boarded

He was a little enthusiastic. I think he is pretty new at this, from what someone said.

How did you like the long pier at Nassau? I didn't know until the way back there was a free bus that circles around to all the ships.

Melanie

 

Yup, that's him. And I didn't know until just now that there was a free bus that circles to all the ships. Interesting.

[MSRussell]

I had gone on a B2b2b on the Sensation, to get to Platinum, and on one of them Disney Dream was right across from us. It was so pretty seeing it lit up at night.

I was on the Balcony one day, watching the pier, and the bus kept driving around, every half hr or so. I thought it was Disney's.

Never saw it when I walked the loooooong pier to Festivale Place. I have a problem walking as it is, that would have been great if I knew the bus came around.

Found out on the way back. I was so grateful I almost leaned down and kissed the tires.

 

 

[Anacodia]

The Disney Dream is a gorgeous, beautiful ship, isn't it!!!!

[LBumb]

good job

[rockbock]

Thanks for this review. I'll be on the Sensation in a few weeks. :)