Carnival SENSATION review - June 17th sailing

[chappy]

Carnival Sensation review June 17th-21st, 2004

 

As a point of reference, this is my third and my wife’s fifth Carnival cruise. Previous cruises together include the Pride (June ’03) and the Fascination (January ‘04); she’s also done the Jubilee with her mom, her brother and his family in July 2002 (man, I hate it that I missed that one with the in-laws…), and she and a friend made the Miracle’s third sailing this year from Jacksonville, in March.

 

We arrived in Tampa on Wednesday evening, having driven down from the east metro Atlanta area after work. We found an inexpensive hotel about four miles from the cruise terminal, and called it a night around midnight, after a very long day.

 

We arrived at the Tampa port about 9AM Thursday. The luggage drop off was not very well marked, but a quick question to one of what seemed like dozens of police in the area (security was excellent, firm but friendly), and we were pointed to the correct location. A very pleasant porter grabbed our bags, and, after some conversation, we tipped him and headed over to the cruise parking facility.

 

After paying the $40 fee for parking, we walked over to the terminal. There were many Carnival reps around, assisting those passengers departing the ship, and providing information to those of us arriving to board. The word was that they expected to begin moving us into the terminal around 10:30, with a target time to start boarding of 11:30.

 

We headed over to a small coffee shop (there is a mall adjacent to the terminal) and enjoyed watching the previous cruise passengers departing, and watching our fellow travelers arriving, until we saw that passengers were being admitted into the terminal. Security checks and check-in was fast. Our check-in staffer was a hoot, full of fun banter, and came complete with drink recommendations. She mentioned the 11:30 target, but laughingly guaranteed they’d miss it. She was right… but they did not miss it by much. We enjoyed chatting with some first-time cruisers, and the time went by quickly; boarding started at about 12:15; we were in the second boarding group, and were in our cabin well before 1PM.

 

This was a last minute booking, for an inside guarantee. I knew the ship had sold out a couple of days after our booking, so we were pleasantly surprised to be in a cabin with twin portholes (R2, first port side cabin on the Riviera deck). My wife was thrilled to be able to have that “wake-up†peek of the ocean at the beginning of each day. We were celebrating our 26th anniversary, and the unexpected “room with a view†felt like a little anniversary gift. Thanks, Carnival!

 

We stored our carry-on stuff and headed out to see the ship and to have some lunch on the Lido deck. It was then on to the obligatory, but efficiently and quickly handled, lifeboat drill.

 

The passage out of Tampa Bay is long – some 44 nautical miles or so, I think. The channel out passes by residential areas filled with condos, various shipyards and oil storage facilities (some of the tanks host beautiful paintings of sea- and wild-life), and a small airfield. The highlight is the passage under the I-275 bridge (the name of which escapes me), with its optical illusion of the funnel stack “just barely†clearing.

 

Our luggage arrived at our cabin door early, in plenty of time to get dressed for dinner. We had late seating in the Fantasy dining room. Our Maitre’ D was George "the Greek". He has a delightful personality and was a lot of fun. Our waiter had a great dry sense of humor that still had us going the last night of the cruise. The food was the usual Carnival fare, which we have found to always be good and at times extraordinary. The prime rib, lobster, “delice of the seaâ€, and the roasted sirloin were as flavorful as we’ve had, and cooked perfectly. Our first night we dined alone, but were joined on Friday and Sunday night by a friendly couple from Dothan, Alabama. (We did not make dinner Saturday, following a l-o-n-g day at Paradise Beach in Cozumel.) Our dinner conversations were a lot of fun. The wait staff led us in song each evening, and George could do stand-up. We called it a night after dinner, still needing to catch up from Wednesday’s work – pack – drive.

 

Oddly, the sheets on the bed had a strange odor to them; this persisted even when changed out. The odor was hard to describe, and it was not real strong, but it was there. Others commented on it. On the plus side, Sensation has wonderful soft, thick comforters, better than we’ve experienced on any other ship.

 

Friday was a full day at sea. We rose early and caught a beautiful sunrise. After breakfast, we set up at the rear pool area on the Verandah deck. We spent the day enjoying the sun, the breezy salt air, the ocean views, the pool and hot tubs, and the company of our fellow cruisers.

 

This day held two disappointments. First, a problem developed with the pool early afternoon, and it had to be drained. I believe that some type of glue had been used to do a pipe joint repair, and the glue had not set and got sucked into the pipe and then the pool. So, we lost the rear pool, and the Lido deck pool was not an attractive alternative, as it was wall-to-wall with kids. (We were more aware of the multitude of kids this trip than on the Pride or Jubilee, our [her] other summer sailings; the only time we got irritated with them was the non-stop playing on the elevators, playing elevator tag, punching all floors and then walking off, etc. At times the elevators were virtually unusable, and we encountered two that were malfunctioning during the last day of the cruise – I think they were worn out.)

 

Losing the rear pool is the kind of minor problem that anyone can experience – things break. But the next issue was a real irritant, and potentially dangerous. The smokestack started belching partially burned refuse, mainly cardboard, and it started hitting the Verandah deck and the children’s wading pool deck at the rear of the Promenade deck. My wife was hit by a smoldering chunk of cardboard; she was able to brush it off before she got burned. One deck chair was singed, and folks had to keep an eye to the sky to avoid being burned. Although several people (including us) pointed out the problem to Carnival staff, it continued to be an issue (though never as bad as Friday afternoon) for the duration of the cruise. We’ve experienced seeing small soot particles before, but never such sizable chunks of hot debris hitting the decks.

 

One general observation: the public areas of Sensation, and especially the restrooms, are not as clean as we’ve come to expect.

 

Friday night was the Captain’s party, but, by comparison to other Captain’s parties, this one might have been better termed a “first mate’s†party. We’ve admittedly been very spoiled by other ships. In 55 minutes, we saw the hors d’oeuvres trays and the drink trays twice. We expected the never ending offering of drinks and food we’ve experienced on our other cruises. This looked like a Captain’s party on a budget, with unhappy, unsmiling crew members to boot. It really looked like the whole thing was a chore to those involved. Another recent review surmised that the crew of the Sensation was “tiredâ€; perhaps so.

 

The Vegas-style revue that night was “Hey Mamboâ€, a Latin-themed music and dance presentation. It was enjoyable.

 

We arrived in Cozumel Saturday morning to another beautiful sunrise. We left the ship early, were the first at Paradise Beach, and closed the bar there down late that afternoon. I’ll post a review of Paradise Beach on the ports of call / Cozumel board, but we wholeheartedly recommend it. We grabbed a few souvenirs at the dock shops, hit the Lido deck for a quick supper, and called it a night, once again leaving the late night frolicking to the younger set.

 

We awoke under full steam Sunday morning, and had a relaxing sea day. My bride split her time between the pool deck and the funnel deck, while I enjoyed roaming the ship, taking pictures, losing money in the casino, and taking in some music. Two previous full days of sun had me just a little tender, so I only occasionally visited my bride on deck. We lunched together, and then later in the day I enjoyed the salsa and chips get-together at the Mirage bar and the classical music trio at the Empress atrium bar. The “Five Seasonsâ€, a trio consisting of piano, violin, and clarinet, played beautifully. Other shipboard musicians that we heard as we moved about the ship sounded great as well.

 

I went by the library to find the Cruise Critics log, but the librarian on duty said he had been on library duty on Sensation for 18 months and had never heard of the log. I didn’t take the time to look further.

 

The revue Sunday night (an early show for late dining guests) was entitled “Party Time†and might well be the best we’ve seen from Carnival. The vocals, the band, the dancers, and the adage team – all were in fantastic form, and seemed to throw their all into the performance. We thoroughly enjoyed it. As a bonus, at the end of the performance the cast ended up on the steps of the Fantasia lounge, and folks were invited to take a cast photo. We thought that was a nice touch, especially considering that there was only about a 45 minute turn around for the start of the second performance.

 

Once again we skipped the late night activities, and hit the sack.

 

Then we woke up. We were in the Tampa Bay channel. Rats. Monday. Back in port. Back to reality. Reality sucks. Double rats…

 

Now that that’s out of my system…

 

Sensation employs self-assisted debarkation. A lot of passengers availed themselves. Even so, we were off the ship and at our car by 9:30 AM, and back home by 5:00 PM.

 

All in all we had a relaxing, enjoyable cruise. As usual, the positives far outweighed the negatives. The only real downers were the lackluster Captain’s party and the smokestack bombings.

 

Now, let's get that next cruise booked!

 

Chappy

[Cotton]

Thx, Chappy, for your review. The Sensation is my next venture, so I'm always glad to read a review. (Happy Anniversary!)

 

"Laissez les bon temps rouler!"

Festivale 1987

Carnivale 1988

Mardi Gras 1989

Pacific Princess 1990

Norway 1994

Holiday 2001

Holiday 2002

Holiday 2003

Sensation 2004

[chappy]

Couple of folks asked for Sensation info in a recent post, so bumping this up.

 

Chappy

[betsyrossapk]

Thanks for the review. I will be doing a similiar itinerary in Nov., when the Inspiration takes over doing this voyage. I am looking forward to visiting Cozumel, as I have heard alot of good things about it.

 

Inspiration: 11/4/04 129 days & counting

[GoinCruisin]

Wow, I tell you what... when people say that their WHOLE cruise was ruined because of this or that... they should read your review!! To think that you guys were hit by smokestack bombs and still managed to have a great time. If anyone had reason to post a negative review it would have been you, but instead you focused on the positives and enjoyed your vacation (more people should do that!!!)... So glad you enjoyed the Sensation... I LOVED her and so glad to here that the beds have been "upgraded" to the nice new plush spreads. I cannot wait to sail her again in October (hopefully they will have that little smokestack problem under control ;))... I am very impressed that you did have 2 things happen (the pool thing can be a big hassle!) that many would have let ruin their vacation (hey, they were pretty major...) and you still posted a glowing review... good for you!!! Thank you!!!!

[sledman]

Thanks for the review Chappy.

I will take my first cruise in Oct. on Sensation. Can't wait, but I will watch out for falling flames. ;)