Sensation review Feb 26-March 1

[dremn2004]

I am going to try to get this review done before I forget all the details....

 

A little back story first... My husband and I have been on 3 cruises (2 on Sensation prior to this).. and we decided it was time to take two of our three children (aged 18 and 17) on a cruise. We originally booked a trip on the Ecstacy out of Port Canaveral for the first full week of May. After booking we found out my daughter was pregnant and she would be too far along to make the cruise in May. We decided to take them on the Sensation at the end of Feb. This would put her at 23 weeks 4 days at the time we disembark. Seemed like the perfect solution. Four weeks prior to our cruise date, she began having pre-term labor pains. As a result the ob refused to sign off for her to go on the trip. We contacted Carnival and asked if we could put someone in her place. They said, since we booked past guest that it would be a 50.00 fee, but we could put someone else in her place. We tried everyone we could think of, but because of the short notice and other obligations for people asked, we were unable to find someone. So the three of us (DH, DS and myself), took off on our vacation!

[dremn2004]

We normally always cruise out of PC, because we love an Italian resteraunt there, and when we cruise is the only reason we have to make the long drive to be able to eat there. Normally we will leave around 4 am the Saturday morning before we get on the boat on Sunday so we have time to rest up before we get on the boat. This time, expecting a delay going through Daytona (weekend of Daytona 500), we left out about 2am.

 

The drive turned out to be uneventful and we made it to PC with no traffic or delays. We arrived in PC around 11 am. We went straight to the Radisson to see if we could get in our room. We were able to go ahead and get set up for our shuttle to the port for the next morning, but they said our room would not be ready for awhile. We decided to go have lunch (at Kelsey's) and then went to Walmart in Cocoa to pick up a few things while we waited. As we were heading to the checkout line, we got a call from Radisson saying our room was ready. We were supposed to have a standard double for the night before the cruise, but they said at the time I booked, they were sold out for that night, so we got upgraded to a suite for no additional charge.

 

We got into the room and relaxed for a few hours, then decided to walk next door to the go-cart and putt-putt course to check it out. We rode go-carts for a while, then my husband and son blew a little money in the arcade. After they had their fun, we headed back to hotel to get ready to call it a night and get ready for our big day tomorrow!

[dremn2004]

We got up Sunday morning early and excited! Our shuttle time was supposed to be at 10:30, so I headed out about 8:15 to get breakfast. DS and I headed across the street to McD and picked up a few biscuits and an iced coffee, went back to the hotel to eat and get ready to head to the lobby to wait on our shuttle. We pulled up in front of the hotel and dropped off our luggage. DS and DH stayed with luggage while I went to park the car in the area for cruises and get checked out. It was roughly 5 after 10 when Kurt (the hotel employee over the shuttle program) came in to the lobby calling for anyone going on Sensation. I got all excited and said me, my husband and son are already out front with the luggage. He asked if I was with the Key party and I said yes, he said great, we are waiting on you! I got on the shuttle and we were on our way!

 

We arrived at port roughly about 10:20. We had bought a rolling cooler specifically to take on cruises, well it did not make it. As soon as I set it on the belt to go through the xray, some woman popped up out of nowhere and asked if we had a car there. I replied that we did not, we had taken a shuttle from the hotel. She said she could not allow us to take the cooler, as it was bigger than Carnival allowed, (it was about 12x16x18). This is slightly smaller than my FIL always takes on his cruises and he has never had a problem getting it on. My reply was that it fits inside the xray machine and instead of bringing 2 12x12x12 coolers, one for myself and one for DS, we brought this one. She replied that it does not matter if it fits through the xray (which she immediately sent it through as soon as I got my mixers out of it), but since it was bigger than Carnival allowed, she could not let us take it. Ok.... whatever.

 

We got checked in, at this point I informed them that DD was going to be a no show as she could not make the trip. We got our S&S cards and were given zone 5 and went over to the area to wait. This is the part we hate!! Normally there is not much of a wait to start boarding, but this time we had to wait almost an hour before they started letting people board. We waited patiently until they called our zone number.. YAY!!!

 

We went through the line, had our picture made, all the usual procedure to get on the ship..... then we stepped into the atrium..... We are finally here!

 

The first stop we made was by the guest services desk. When I booked the rooms, I put me and DD in one and Dh and DS in the other, so that we could get past guest rates for DD and DS, so we wanted to move DH into the room with me. We also wanted to get an extra key to get into DS room, cause he is a very hard sleeper and we knew we would have to physically go into the room to wake him up. We got this taken care of (or so we thought) and headed to the Lido deck for our first DOD!!

 

We found us a table and DOD, then DS and I headed to get lunch for the 3 of us. We ate lunch and just hung out here until time to get into our rooms.

 

We made our way to upper deck and since we were just a couple of minutes early, we waited patiently (again) until the opened the doors. At first they only opened the door to the starboard side (where our cabins were located). I stuck my head around the corner and spotted a steward and ask him if we could go to our rooms. He said that if our door was closed, they were ready and we could go in. Sice we still had to pretty good way to go from where we were to our room, DS walked down first to see if ours were closed, he came back and said yes, so we tugged our stuff down the hall.

 

On the way to our room, DH asked what cabin we were in, I said 209.... a Bon Voyage employee ahead of us turned around and said.. "you are in 209?" I said yes, he said, well I was just coming to see you.... and in his hand was the bottle of Malibu rum I had purchased from bon Voyage.... He opened the door for us and inside, on the bed was the cooler and four beers that I had ordered for DH from Bon Voyage.

 

We checked out our balcony, then we headed out to show DS around until time for muster drill.

 

The muster drill was about the same as normal, except this time instead of the CD making most of the announcements, the captain came on and made a speech and one thing that I had not recalled being said at any previous muster drills was his statement that in the event that an emergency and we had to evacuate, the lifeboats would be loaded, women and children first (not specifically word for word, but woman and children first was mentioned), followed by all families would be loaded together. The remainder of the muster drill went about the same. Then it was time to pull out of port.

 

As soon as we were released from the drill, we headed up and forward to watch as we pulled out. We found ourself just below the ships horn.... big mistake....lol. It seems our captain and the captain of the RC ship sitting in port decided to have a horn sound off.... that thing blew for so long and so many times, I was not sure we were gonna be able to hear afterward....lol.

 

As soon as the thrill was over from pulling out of port, we headed to our room to get ready for dinner. We finally arrived at the dining room and met our headwaiter Davin and his support staff. I will say, the 3 out of 4 nights that we ate in the MDR, he and his staff was awesome!

 

DS had the flat iron steak, DH had the lasagna (yuck) and I had the tilapia. DS enjoyed his, while DH and I wished we had ordered something else.... but as neither one of us eats a lot at one time, between the apps and dessert, we got filled up.

 

After dinner, we decided to go explore the ship some more until the things started that we wanted to see/do... Well on our way to Fantasia lounge for the game show, we were called over the intercom to contact guest services. The first thing that came to our mind was something had happened to my SIL or DD. We were one level above the guest services desk, so we just walked down the stairs and walked to the desk to see what was going on. We had to wait a few minutes while they got the Hotel Manager to come talk to us. It seems when we had got my husband changed to my room, they somehow moved my son out of the room as well, but did not put him in another room. So they had a pax with no berthing, and a room with luggage in it, but no pax assigned. They were thinking they had a stowaway, but could not figure out what happened to DS. After a little explaining, we got it straightened out.

 

DS then headed to a show and we headed to the game show. I ended up getting picked to participate and won my first ever ship on a stick!!!! I was so excited and proud of myself!!!

 

We ended the day in the casino, where I played blackjack. Started with 20.00 and walked away with 185.00! All in all, we had an excellant day despite the little hiccups......

[fishteamteam]

Nice review so far.....we were on the RC ship waiting to leave on that same day! We pulled out right after yall....in fact I think I took a picture of your ship as we past you at sea! :D Waiting to hear about the food on Carnival, we didn't care for the food on RC. :o

 

Cindy

[rockbock]

Leaving on this ship on Sunday. I'd love to hear more...

[dremn2004]

I am working on getting the rest posted. I have Freeport day almost done, and am hoping to get all done and posted, along with what few pics were taken in the next couple of days.... I am just trying to make sure I put everything in, as I let a little too much time go by before starting and am trying to make sure to remember everything.

[TPLGT]

Great review. We are sailing on May 17. We have U210, a similar balcony room. Question: how was the balcony? Was it small (knees hit the railing) or was it big enough to relax with enough room for the table and chairs...thanks.