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Sensation quickie

tree.critter

By tree.critter,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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tree.critter

tree.critter

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I'm sitting aft on the lido deck right now getting ready for the muster drill for leg 2 on my btb. I'm a little sad as the Disney Dream is docked across from us and they are playing Caribbean music prior to sailaway and we've got generic DJ stuff. I wish we could just have a little bit of island music to set the mood.

Leg one was fun though and I love my PH cabin and room steward. Comedy club was good, food good, nothing outstanding, was surprised that the service in the atd MDR was excellent and easily better than Jan. Dream cruise.

Reboarding the ship was easy, there was 7 of us doing btb and having the ship to ourselves was pretty nice, will definitely consider btb again in the future.

Did not miss being connected to the daily grind one split second.

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ucmom3

ucmom3

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We were on the Sensation at the end of Sept., and sometimes the music from the DJ would be so loud you could hardly hear the person next to you. I really don't enjoy hearing all that Techno music while trying to relax. We did go back to the Serentity area for awhile, but had to leave there when 13 y/o wanted us to go to the pool with him.

 

 

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RuthlessBoss

RuthlessBoss

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We were on the Sensation at the end of Sept., and sometimes the music from the DJ would be so loud you could hardly hear the person next to you. I really don't enjoy hearing all that Techno music while trying to relax. We did go back to the Serentity area for awhile, but had to leave there when 13 y/o wanted us to go to the pool with him.

 

 

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The music isn't to my taste, but what can one do? The volume of the music is horrendous.

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Grandmaanne7

Grandmaanne7

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The music isn't to my taste, but what can one do? The volume of the music is horrendous.

Are there many areas on the ship to go to escape the loud music? I am cruising with my sister next month and we haven't seen or spoken to each other (we use email) since March so we plan on catching up a lot. That will be hard to do if we can't hear each other :eek:

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RuthlessBoss

RuthlessBoss

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Are there many areas on the ship to go to escape the loud music? I am cruising with my sister next month and we haven't seen or spoken to each other (we use email) since March so we plan on catching up a lot. That will be hard to do if we can't hear each other :eek:

You'll have no problem finding alternate areas. It's Lido that's the worst at times.

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tree.critter

tree.critter

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I am back home, had to work Fri and Sat so took a little time to catch my breath and time to finish up with some final thoughts here.

 

The music. I pretty much avoided all of the party stuff around the ship but when walking through these areas I would see many people having a lot of fun with smiles on their faces so just figured my age is starting to show through. They did have a solo guitarist a couple of times in the atrium and was very surprised when I also saw a flautist (flute player) also soloing. The flute was a surprise and as a fairly accomplished player myself I just found it a bit weird and out of place. He was good though, just didn't seem to fit the crowd at all. The rock cover band was surprisingly good also and I did spend some time listening to the classics.

 

My room was M14, a PH which I had for both legs, usually have a balcony but have done an OV in the past which was ok so figured I could "suffer" through this room since it was very inexpensive. WOW, I was surprised at the spaciousness of this cabin and how much I truly loved it, especially as a solo.

 

We had calm seas and fabulous weather throughout so never noticed much motion at all and absolutely no noise whatsoever while moving. I have a strong preference for forward cabins since I don't like hearing the engine noise or the mild vibration that comes along with it. I'm blessed with immunity (or maybe just extreme tolerance) to motion sickness so that's never been a concern for me.

 

Visited Nassau and Freeport and did not do any excursions but did go out for a bit of shopping in both ports. Was my first time in Freeport and won't visit there again unless I plan some sort of excursion, the taxi at Freeport was only $5 each way to Port Lacaya where we were told was "the best shopping". Not in my book it wasn't, pushy vendors with very little variety. Same tourist stuff everywhere and not much in the way of eclectic or unique shops at all. Nassau is much more fun for shopping and I visited a favorite spice and tea shop and came home this time with a tasty pepper jelly.... YUMMY!!

 

Back on board....the food. I chose ATD and was surprised by the attentiveness of our servers each night. The food was mostly good, love the Indian cuisine and went vegetarian more often than not. I went to MDR for breakfast only a couple of times, like the omelettes better on the buffet where it's easier to get what I wanted. For some reason ordering an omelette with tomato, peppers, onions and cheese only wasn't working for the MDR cooks. They wanted to put ham and mushrooms in both times I tried. I enjoyed the salad bar a lot, good for those of us attempting to stay relatively healthy on a cruise. Would load up on salad then go see what they were offering in the buffet. I make a conscious effort to not waste food so tried several bite size samples, some were awful, others very tasty. Seems like the fish dishes are hard to get right without overcooking anywhere on the ship.

 

Casino, did not use but did notice that it didn't seem nearly as smokey walking by as on most other cruises. I suspect that it may have been that we just didn't have as many smokers on board (I may get flak for this) but it seemed like the younger generation is less addicted to tobacco than those of my age group. Up on deck in smoking area it seemed like the older folks enjoying their smokes far outnumbered the youngsters. This was a pleasant surprise. I would rather smell pot than tobacco any day and did smell that a couple times also...... can't help but wonder if staff just turns a blind eye or if they even try to enforce no illegal drug use.

 

There is a coffee shop on board that I LOVED..... this is a weakness for me and after one cup of coffee on Lido I made my way to the coffee shop every day, sometimes twice to get a proper caffeine fix. There are several lounges and places to find for relaxation during the days. Michaelangelo's lounge, Touch of Class piano bar were a couple of my personal favorites and up on deck the Serenity Deck was good but not so serene and I actually found other spots on the deck on Veranda deck much nicer for peace and quiet.

 

Entertainment, mostly I enjoyed CD Wee Jimmy's interaction with the guests and his wicked sense of humor. He really made for some very memorable moments. You all know the spoon and string game...... well Isaac (70ish) was very intent to do his best by his team and have to say when Isaac's belt, pants AND underpants dropped to his ankles you would never see a short fat man in a kilt run so fast across the stage to fan out his quilt to protect the children from a view that was not quite g rated. It was the single funniest moment I think I can remember on a cruise ship. Enjoyed the shows more on the Sensation than on the Dream in Jan..... go figure?!

 

The second leg of the cruise I "discovered" trivia accidentally while looking for a nice place to read my book. Walked into sports trivia getting ready to start and was talked into staying against my better judgement........ I won my first ever SOS! Well, that was fun so I went to a few other trivias....... came home with 3 SOS and a medal. One SOS I "earned" by trading one of my bottled Mexican cokes with the trivia host so that one can't really count but I admit, win or lose I really enjoyed those games with the other players and hosts.

 

We had an emergency air evacuation on last sea day which is covered on another thread, was interesting and the upside for many was that we came in close enough to Miami during the rescue that we got cell service.... that was a surprise and I made a couple quick phone calls back home.

 

Priorty boarding and debarkation was nice. Was the first time I was off the ship early, usually stay as long as possible but had a lot to do to get ready for work the following day and many phone calls to clients that needed to be taken care of.

 

I wanted to save this part for last. Sensation staff. In every way the staff that I had interactions with throughout this cruise were wonderful. Wee Jimmy and his entertainment staff...... a special nod to Shannon from Ireland that was on the third week of her first contract with Carnival. The staff in the MDR and up on Lido at the buffet and Deli all seemed to want us to enjoy our meals as much as possible and were very willing to make substitutions or extra whatevers. My favorite single person was my room steward, he and his team did what they do every day.... just kept working their tails off so that when we lay our heads down at night a good night of sleep was inevitable.

 

Overall my first BTB was fun and loved learning and going through the very simple process of escort between cruises was great. Walking the ship nearly alone was a bit eerie. I am glad to have the experience of the short cruises but don't see them in my future. There was definitely a younger crowd and a lot of drinking going on (nothing horribly obnoxious though!) and actually not a lot of children which was a bit of a surprise. I like to feel like I'm really going somewhere!!!

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