Carnival Sensation - Bless her Heart - Preview and Report

[Clarea]

Enjoying this interesting review, thanks.

[KmomChicago]

Hello Caryatid, hi there Jimbo and thank you Clarea. I’m glad you’re here.

 

 

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[KmomChicago]

Faster to the Fun. To buy or not to buy? In New Orleans this past March, we needed it. We knew we would be able to check in early on embarkation day and that we had to get on the road ASAP once it was all over.

 

That lil gal in the hat is the glue that holds Kmom’s existence in place, and DH is on her left. See that lady in the white airbrush t shirt? She and her husband, along with 2 other families, were ahead of us. That’s the boarding area you see behind her.

 

When I turned around and took a pic of the rest of the terminal, it looked like this.

 

 

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[KmomChicago]

The photos of the Faster to the Fun embarkation area in New Orleans serve two purposes. The obvious one is to illustrate just how many people get on these ships, and where FTTF can put you relative to the rest of the pack.

 

Note that there is a separate room, mostly hidden from view of us commoners, for the Suites guests and high ranking Carnival loyalty club members, and they are also ahead of us in absolutely every sense of the term. But they are a rather small percentage of the population, so FTTF still puts you very close to the front of all lines.

 

The second point is that anyone trying to decide about a trip on an old cheap Carnival ship needs to know who the fellow passengers will be. Here they are. They're me, Kmom, and people just like me. Plenty of reviewers are unhappy because of the other passengers. So have a gander and opt yourself right on in or out as you see fit.

 

I would like to claim Kmom does not make decisions based on such factors, but of course that can't be absolutely true. I'm fine with people who like to drink as long as they are not screaming in my face about something while under the influence. I don't care if the people sitting next to me at the evening show dressed up for elegant night. In fact, I don't want to dress up either.

 

On the other hand, I have read reviews from people who sailed big Royal Caribbean ships out of Asia, where they were among less than 100 Americans on sailings with over 6,000 Asian tourists. They did not like the other passengers. Let's face it. There are cultural differences. I visited China many years ago (bucket list thing during my non-cruising period). And I get it. They are perfectly fine people but accustomed to a different sense of personal space, among many other differences.

 

We are looking into a Norwegian or Baltic cruise eventually, and I am having to give consideration to such things. Costa apparently is full of cigarette smoke due to a law requiring all Italian citizens to smoke at least 3 packs of cigarettes per day, even on vacation. MSC has moved into the American market this year and has fabulous new ships and some great prices, but apparently their Euro cruises are not to service standards expected by Americans. Plus the fact that the other passengers are not Americans but mostly Europeans!!!

 

In fact, I recently saw a comment to this effect regarding a European cruise on MSC: "The ship was gorgeous, but this cruise was terrible. Even CARNIVAL would have been better!" Pretty funny. We Americans are a pampered bunch.

[jmcsnowball]

Loving your style kmom, I totally get you on not minding slightly crappy things, as long as you're not overcharged for them.

My husband and I are going on our first Caribbean cruise in February with Carnival and we're so excited. Following!

[KmomChicago]

You've got me hooked and I am definitely following along! I am a fellow Disney nerd, who also pledged at a young age to move away from cold, dark, New England to sunny Florida as soon as I was able! I headed down to Florida for college and grad school, and lived there through my early 30s, when we sadly had to move away because of DH's job. I never had the pleasure of being a cast member, but I was an AP holder, and would spend at least one weekend a month in Disney (oh the days of being double income, no kids!).

 

 

 

I also, love a bargain, and don't have a problem with Fantasy-class ships, we're stepping up in the world with the Liberty in April, but we'll be back with the Paradise in Dec, and will likely do the Elation in 2019. We live in SC now, and its a pretty easy drive down to the Florida ports, but I still really, really wish I was living in Florida!

 

 

 

Your plans sound great, and I can't wait to hear about how it all plays out especially your Nassau day! My DH is a Navy veteran, so he also shares a love of all things military history, so I might be borrowing your ideas for our next cruise day in Nassau!

 

 

 

We have lots in common! I had annual passes for 2 or 3 years before I landed the gig at WDW. It was a truly wonderful time of my life (but not better than now). I look forward to hearing about Liberty after your trip.

 

Of course I’ll give full details of the fort excursion. Hopefully it will be of some use for you and your Navy guy! I would actually love to go on the rest of the Fantasy class ships. I like their bold, throwback decor and each seems to have some interesting unique features. Hopefully they will be around for a while!

 

 

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[beachbum6264]

You don't have to walk up the Queens Staircase to get to Fort Fincastle. If you are on Elizabeth St and the staircase is ahead of you and Princess Margaret Hospital is on your left, take a right and head through the parking lot - there is a path that goes up along the hill to the fort, a much easier walk than up the stairs. Fort Fincastle is much bigger than Montagu, and the view is pretty good from up there too. You can always get a taxi to take you up there and walk back down. It would be worth it. (I lived in Nassau as a kid)

[KmomChicago]

You don't have to walk up the Queens Staircase to get to Fort Fincastle. If you are on Elizabeth St and the staircase is ahead of you and Princess Margaret Hospital is on your left, take a right and head through the parking lot - there is a path that goes up along the hill to the fort, a much easier walk than up the stairs. Fort Fincastle is much bigger than Montagu, and the view is pretty good from up there too. You can always get a taxi to take you up there and walk back down. It would be worth it. (I lived in Nassau as a kid)

 

Thank you beachbum! This is Valuable Information and may very well influence our fort excursion. I will be looking for your other posts with additional Nassau insider info. I was able to run around Atlantis when it was a newly hatched addition to Paradise Island and mostly open to riffraff cruise passengers like myself. I also once took a rather cramped and uncomfortable van tour around the main areas, and on my first visit we walked to Ardastra Gardens. I distinctly remember passing the cricket field nearby, and this was over 30 years ago!

 

I believe my dad will take more short cruises to the Bahamas without us after he gets hooked with this first voyage and gets comfortable with the program. Since those shorties all go to Nassau, the more I can teach him on this trip, the more confident he will feel on return visits.

[KmomChicago]

Loving your style kmom, I totally get you on not minding slightly crappy things, as long as you're not overcharged for them.

My husband and I are going on our first Caribbean cruise in February with Carnival and we're so excited. Following!

 

Hi Snowball. Glad to have a fellow crap-tolerant friend along for the ride. I am sure you will love your cruise and look forward to hearing your impressions afterward. I hope you got a good deal on it!

 

You know, it's kind of a hard concept to define the Kmom Crappy Continuum, because YMMV (for those on the thread struggling with the abbreviations, that's Your Mileage May Vary).

 

I'm interested to hear everyone else's honest appraisal of: What Crap can you Put up With, and What Crap Really Ruins Your Day?

 

Starting at Perfect, which is where a lot of travelers expect every detail, to the vast Continuum Category of Less than Perfect, to Unacceptable, Kmom and her bunch can handle a lot of Less than Perfect, but we does has our limits! I think the following apply to my whole family.

 

I like air conditioning; I like it quiet and dark when and where I want to sleep; I like functional indoor plumbing, enough space to stand up and turn around, and I like it all to be mostly clean. I like service personnel to be cordial and smile back when addressed, but if one doesn't, I don't have the energy to take if personally or remember it at all for very long.

 

I like to be able to find a quiet place to get away from crowds and I like those crowds not to physically contact me or scream directly at me or jump ahead of me in lines, but I could not care less what they look like, how many children they have, how they are dressed, where they come from, or how much they are enjoying their drinks package. Hell, if they paid for it, my opinion is they should spend the entire voyage drunk as a skunk, as long as they can be cool about it.

 

You know what is really too crappy for me? Cigarette Smoke everywhere, and a Lack of Morning Coffee. I don't smoke, and have spent the better part of 50 years watching America give it up. To be very clear here, I don't hate smokers or think the casino should stop letting people smoke.

 

In fact, when in a gamblin' state of mind, I can plop right down on a stool and feed dollars into machines for an hour or three, whether it be in Las Vegas or the local riverboat casino. My mom, who is not going on this next cruise but who taught me how to travel (cheaply and sometimes crappily) and I have in fact spent a fair amount of time together doing just this. You know that New Car Smell? They could package Old Casino Smell, and while it's not great, it is iconic.

 

But I would not want every inch of the ship to be wafting in the smoky stuff, as I have read is an issue on Costa, for instance, due to smoking still being very mainstream in Italy.

 

At home I get up every morning and have coffee - early. I guess coffee is an addiction. Or even better, maybe a VICE - if so, it's probably the only one I have left. Ah, memories!

 

Of course many hotels provide the little machine in the room, so the necessary fix is available on demand. On the ship I was worried about this, and we ended up buying insulated Carnival cups from the gift shop (should have brought travel cups from home but did not think of it) and filled them up at the buffet each night so they were ready when I woke up in the wee hours. I think coffee is always available up there, but I did not want to chance it, nor drag myself up there in my PJ's for the first cup.

 

Kmom's needs are simple but like everyone else, when the minimum care requirements are not met, we all become Angry, Grumbly, Uncomfortable, and Dissatisfied Customers.

 

Which Less than Perfect details can you live with on your vacations? Which ones are guaranteed to Ruin the Experience?

Edited December 5, 2017 by KmomChicago

[KmomChicago]

Ship On A Stick. Gold Plastic Ship on a Stick, to be precise. In Cruise Critic Lingo I suppose that is GPSOAS, because these people are Big on their own Secret Language.

 

Kmom is in on this language, however, and you can be too.

 

A lot of people grumble about Carnival being boring, with nothing to do. To counter this, they hold a lot of silly trivia contests aboard their vessels.

 

Silly, I tell you. Nothing serious about this trifling waste of Kmom’s time.

 

Nothing cutthroat about these friendly little gatherings with like-minded passengers, heh heh.

 

Gol’ Dang it, gimme one o’ them GPSOAS’s right now!

 

Is NOT what Kmom was thinking when she rose above the pack. . . PULVERIZED the field, really, to win this beauty on Carnival Triumph:

 

 

 

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[KmomChicago]

Go ahead, turn green with envy, if you are so inclined. God knows I was envious, match after match, as those smarty-pantses kept besting me in topics of No Importance to Humans. Such as Sports. Weather. Harry Potter. and Military History. Okay just Harry Potter. And other stuff Kmom can not win!

 

We played a fair amount of trivia on that cruise, and believe me, a lot of the competitors were green indeed. But that might have been due to their drinks packages, coupled with too much greasy food.

 

OLDIES, you see. Tunes, that is. From the 60's, 70's, and 80's And especially if they were one hit wonders, or used as movie or TV themes from the same timeframe.

 

The Spy Who Loved Me? Yes!! The Theme from S.W.A.T? Oh yes. Starland Vocal Band and their One and Only Hit Song?

 

This is Important Knowledge, my good people! And those who Know it deserve an Award!

 

A couple of notes as in the old Name that Tune format, or a snippet of lyrics, or a few references to the show or film, and BAM, sorry friends but that GPSOAS may very well be mine.

 

DH was astounded at Kmom's lightning fast responses and he watches Jeopardy with me, so he should already know how this game works.

 

Did I brag? Boast? Strut around like a Superior Being? I think you know the answer to that question, my friends. Am I still doing it? I don't know, let's think about that. My almost 12 year old has stolen ALL the thunder in my life for about, oh, 12 years now, so Yup. This one belongs to Kmom.

 

Carnival Sensation Roll Call January 2, 2018: Consider the Trivia Gauntlet Thrown Down.

[willdra]

This!! I'm all in. You had me at "Bless Her Heart" and "She Means Well", and it just got better from there! I am appreciating your style. Thanks for the giggles so far.

[Ralphinsc]

Loving the pre-view and the writing style there! Really looking forward to your trip and reading about it!

[KmomChicago]

This!! I'm all in. You had me at "Bless Her Heart" and "She Means Well", and it just got better from there! I am appreciating your style. Thanks for the giggles so far.

 

Hello willdra! Thank you for being so kind as to giggle at my babbles! (blushing). I see you are hanging out with the hot new girl named Horizon very soon! I will be expecting a full report, at least six pages, double spaced, with no fewer than 10 photos. The more snark, the better!

Edited December 6, 2017 by KmomChicago

[KmomChicago]

Loving the pre-view and the writing style there! Really looking forward to your trip and reading about it!

 

Hi Ralphinsc! Thanks for the encouragement and I can assure you we are Really looking forward to the trip as well. Its freezing here AND it gets dark at 4:30!! And it's not even winter yet!

 

I see you've got one coming up on the Valor; she is a pretty one with her flaggy decor. My peeps the patriots would love her!

[celinasantana561]

Hi I’m going on the same cruise too. 27 days left!

 

 

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[aceofbase]

As op said, Bless her heart. Just got off her on Saturday & did a mini review. Good luck!

[KmomChicago]

Hi I’m going on the same cruise too. 27 days left!

 

 

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Hi Celina! Watching that number drop. So excited!

[KmomChicago]

As op said, Bless her heart. Just got off her on Saturday & did a mini review. Good luck!

 

Welcome back AceofBase! I read your mini review and here's a link for anyone interested - I saw a lot of those following this thread already read your review.

 

Ace did not feel the pool ol' Sensation (bless her heart!!) measured up to her prior voyage on Carnival Pride. Ace notes some bright spots - Guy's Burger and BlueIguana were good, as was some of the main showroom entertainment and the Cruise Director and their DIY port excursion in Grand Cayman.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2573082

[KmomChicago]

I really appreciated Ace’s review of the Sensation andconfirmation of the Bless Her Heart status.

It did make me wonder if it’s time to up the ante on the drama here in this old preview.

Calls for a little tragic faux Shakespeare, methinks!

 

To cruise cheap, or not to cruise. That is the question.

Whether 'tis thriftier in the wallet to suffer

Low quality food and service while protecting my fortune

Or to shell out more cash and avoid a sea of troubles

And by opposing put Carnival right out of business? To sleep

To sleep better on a fancy mattress on a better ship, a better line all around

But end the heart-ache and natural shocks of stuff

That can go wrong when travelling, especially on an old rustbucket

Devoutly wish’d to travel again, but broke after dropping 10k

Making future cruises no more than a dream

Ay, there’s the rub

[KmomChicago]

Really, Ace's review did raise some concerns. Now Kmom is pretty laid back, but carries that burden of making everyone around her HAPPY. And so, travelling with 4 people, somebody ain't gonna like something, most likely.

 

Ace had bad cabin service. Well that just sucks and frankly I have rarely, if ever, seen anyone say that. People grumble about morning only or evening only service, but Ace got no service on the two port days.

 

Even unhappy reviews often say the room steward was the best part of their cruise, so this is a sad and surprising turn of events. We had evening service on the Triumph which worked out great, basically while we were off at supper and shows so I will try this route on Sensation since Ace had no luck with morning service.

 

Ace found the food mediocre. My family is not too high falutin' about food, so I am still not going to worry about this.

 

We are usually happy with food that we don't have to cook ourselves, and overall we are probably more impressed with quantity than quality - we spend a goodly amount of time at our local Chinese buffet, and coincidentally, we are finally getting a Golden Corral! Yippee!

 

Now a lot of you frequent readers have read the comments: this buffet (or even the main dining room) was terrible, like Golden Corral!

 

Translation: the buffet will have to be WORSE THAN GOLDEN CORRAL for us to be bothered by it. The crowds around the buffet are going to be more of a problem for us than the food.

 

And anyway, there's always Guy's and Blue Iguana. And pizza. And free soft serve. We are simple folk.

[sjn911]

Thanks so much, I loved the Paradise in '09. My last cruise was Spirit in '11 and soon I pray and think I'll be able to catch up to a move back to State of Birth and add more cruises and other travel to life again to survive terminal winter here as well..(MT in the Rockies..Eastern slope). Love your style, writing style, love travel at "most" levels with certain caveats and well...what can I say..I was 9 watching the moon land so only a few on you, loved the Music trivia and satisfying the family part...thanks so much for blessing us with the lead up and review...I am IN.

[aceofbase]

I have always had EXCELLENT, large tip-worthy room stewards on my previous sailings. So I was shocked by no service two days as was guest services. My fault was having an idea of what I was getting & comparing one ship to another. I should not have done that. When I spoke to guest services yesterday, I did find the reason there were very limited comedy shows is that a large group (100 +) booked this cruise & Carnival blocked out areas (including the comedy club) for them to use for private events. A cruise is what you make it, so go enjoy! We did... even with the areas that needed improvement. Happy Sailing ya'll!

[TubT]

Huh. A concept I never fully explored. A pre-cruise review. Don't see any reason why it couldn't be useful. So, keep it up.

 

Now, that said, one of our earlier cruises was on the Sensation. I'm talking about 1995 or so. Does that sound right? At that time, I found the ship crowded and gaudy. But keep in mind this was after 2 cruises on the old Constitution in Hawaii, and one on the Crown Princess. The old one. The Sensation is the same size as the old Crown Princess, 70,000 tons, give or take, and it had 1,000 more passengers. Now, it seems kind of nostalgic to go on a cruise to the Bahamas with only 2500 of your closest friends.

[KmomChicago]

Thanks so much, I loved the Paradise in '09. My last cruise was Spirit in '11 and soon I pray and think I'll be able to catch up to a move back to State of Birth and add more cruises and other travel to life again to survive terminal winter here as well..(MT in the Rockies..Eastern slope). Love your style, writing style, love travel at "most" levels with certain caveats and well...what can I say..I was 9 watching the moon land so only a few on you, loved the Music trivia and satisfying the family part...thanks so much for blessing us with the lead up and review...I am IN.

 

Hi Sjn and thanks for the kind words! You know more about Fantasy class ships than I do, so I respect and appreciate your positive take on Paradise. I'm sure the young people are enjoying their youth and all, but it's pretty cool to have been around for the first moon landing!