Sensation 3/27 Review

[CruiseHealing]

I am ready to write, are you ready to read!

Where do I start? First, I will say this; by the end of the second day (day at sea) I actually told my wife I was thinking about exercising the Carnival Cruise Guarantee when we reached Nassau. The reason we did not because that was Thursday and was getting off the ship on Saturday, so we decided to stick it out. Half Moon Cay was our first stop and there are no flights (obviously) so using the guarantee was of no use with only two full days left. By the end of the cruise, I was glad we stuck-it out.

Now on to the cruise, when we parked, this was very close to the terminal, a real nice benefit; we noticed 5 or 6 news vans. They were interviewing passengers getting off the ship, many unhappy people. People were telling us “not to go” or “hope you have a better time than us”. I really felt for these people, they had been through a lot and I would not be surprised to see lawsuits filed by some passengers regarding their 9 hour embarkation adventure.

With respect to our processing, it went pretty smooth. Note: the ship has the old room key system. About 12:30 pm we were given the green light to board (a little later than normal). But the terminal personnel were out of sync. One person would tell you to go, and then another would tell you to stop. At one time, my wife and I were told to go up on the escalators. Half way up, I noticed that my teenage kids were held back because they did not want to have too many people in the area were the ramp is. Another terminal person tells the guy to let the people go up the escalator and the two start arguing with each other that they are not the supervisor. While they continue to argue, my wife and I are up on the second floor while my kids are still at the entrance to the escalator. I finally had to shout down to the employees about letting my kids join us on our cruise. When I did this, that brought a supervisor, and things finally got straighten out. I am glad I yelled.

Now to the ship, let me start with the following: These are the things that were not completed during refurb: 1. Waterslide out of order, 2. no basketball courts, until the last day when they finally had finished installing one of the backboard and rim, but the rim was slanted by at least 10%, so your shots would rarely go in. By mid afternoon nobody was interested in playing. 3. One pool side bar was open the other was closed and protected by yellow caution tape. This made for long lines to get a drink during the day at sea. 4. The yellow caution tape salesman was very happy because it was used throughout the lido deck because they were replacing the spacing tar between the boards. So access was a little more challenging. 5. No Ping Pong table, 6. No shuffle board. They were repainting the lines so it was closed. It took 3 days to do this and it still was not done when we left the ship. 7. Card Room was closed and being used for storage. 8. Internet was slower than dial-up. I am not exaggerating here. It really was. It took 10 minutes to check 1 stock price, get the headlines from Drudge Report, and check to see if we had received any email from our neighbor watching our house (This is why I never gave any reviews from the ship). 9. Every window you looked out of was dirty. Carnival buy some Windex and start cleaning. They were dirty when we boarded, and when we left. No one cleaned a window during the whole cruise. 10. During 4 of the 5 nights, the ship turned off the water from 1:00 am to 5:00 am for schedule maintenance. What, the ship was only in service less than a week; they could not have had this done before they set sail on 3/23? If you went dancing or were in the casino, and wanted to take a shower before going to bed, you had to leave by 12:45 am to get that shower. This morning I woke up at 2:00 am to get a drink of water and the pipes were dry. Oh, well back to sleep with a dry throat. Note: I understand maintenance, but 4 of the 5 nights this is happening. Give me a break that is not scheduled maintenance that is major repair work going on. If you are going to turn off the water that many nights provide free bottles of water per passenger per night.

These are some things that occurred that had nothing to do with the refurb. 1. At Half Moon Cay, at 1:00 pm they ran out of beer. Can you imagine that? Were they ill prepared or were the passengers drinking so much to forget the cruise that we drank the island dry. They had to order more beer from the ship, but that took over an hour. 2. We ordered a “clam shell”. We were told that it would be $9.00. I was the first one to order one (I was also the first one on the island) so they had to radio back to the ship to get the price. Another sign of being out of sync. The person radioed back saying $9.00. When I checked my Sign and Sail balance (I did this every night) it was posted at $15.00. It took me three days and the help of a very good purser to fix this problem with the Shore Excursion desk. 3. When we went to lunch on the first day we made a beeline for the pizza shop. Love their goat cheese pizza. We were the first in line, no pizza. They had not started making the pizzas. What were they thinking that nobody was going to show up? No one was working the sandwich area either. It took fifteen minutes to get our pizza and a sandwich. Once again out of sync. 4. In the dining room (Ecstasy) our waiter (Emanuel) was very good. Probably the best we ever had. However, his assistant was never to be seen. Always off doing other things, so our waiter pretty much did everything. I am not saying that the assistant was slacking off, he may have had other responsibilities, but he just never provided us with good service.

Now, with the dirty laundry aired, let’s get to some good memories. Half Moon Cay was the turning point of the cruise. We really enjoyed the island. We did a kayaking excursion and loved it. I loved it so much I am going to buy a sea kayak. The clam shell is a must because there are not many trees on the beach. There were probably 30 to 40 clam shells to rent. We stayed there until 4:00 pm, enough time to take a shower and get dressed for the early dinner.

The miniature golf course was lots of fun. It was in really good shape and a little challenging. I play golf a lot and I can tell you the greens are a little slow, but this is because it is new. My daughter kicked my butt. If you want to play, bring a couple of balls from home. Getting the balls is a pain, Lido desk, sign and sail card, bring back so you are not charged. The putters are already on the course so you just need to bring a few balls.

The food in the dining room was good; the last three days were really really good.

Nassau was fun. We just did a beach day, but the waves were really rough so we mostly laid out in the sun. Freeport is Freeport, enough said about that. If you haven’t been there; then go and then you will understand.

The comedians were very funny, and the show last night “Far From Over” was probably the best show I have seen on a cruise, except the last night on the Disney Wonder. An excellent show that I wish lasted longer than the 1 hour. The cruise director needs to get a new joke book. He was entertaining, but if you have sailed a lot you have heard them already and wish for new material.

Overall, on a scale from 1 to 10, I would give this cruise a 5. Grand Turk would have placed the cruise higher. It was our worst cruise, but I am glad we stayed on and did not exercise the guarantee. It had a slow start but improved during the vacation. I still would like to get to Grand Turk; I just don’t think it will be on the Sensation. I think this ship has some serious propulsion problems and that is why they will be swapping this ship with the Fantasy to do the Grand Turk itinerary. We have cruised on the Sovereign of the Seas a week after its last well publicized refurb and did not see as much uncompleted work as this ship. Carnival should have kept this ship in dry dock at least another week to 10 days to get the job done right.

One last thing, upon returning we just learned that we have to change our clocks ahead 1 hour for day light savings (I wish they would set it and forget it) time which means we all loose an hour of sleep. By this time next week, after playing catch up on work and emails, I will need some . . .

CruiseHealing

[Cruise Cat]

Good review.

 

On seeing many of the tv specials on refurbishment/dry dock, stretching, and even new launches, they are always rushing towards the end to get done. I personally will not book a week or two after one of these. I am glad things got better for you as the week went along.

 

C

[Bunkie103]

Thanks for a very comprehensive review. Kept wondering how things were going for you this week, sorry it wasn't better.:(

[Knights on the Beach]

Yes, thanks for posting your very fair and balanced review. It's so much easier to read this type of review! I agree with you that the Sensation just wasn't ready to start cruising yet, but it seems like a no-win situation for Carnival. If they had to cancel a few cruises, there would have been thousands of unhappy people. If the cruiselines build in a little more cushion room when they do the refurbs, then they are losing revenue. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[REDSOX1]

Thank you Cruise Healing for the review, at least there were some highlights.

We are booked in May and looks like its the Fantasy, not sure how I feel about it, I'll have to do some more research about that ship. We are planning to do the sea kayak, sounds like you had a great time on that excursion.

I'm right there with you with the daylight savings thing, it really messes up the kids sleeping schedules too! We should start a petition or something:D

Thanks again for the prompt review. I had been reading your previous posts and was waiting!!!!

[LHP]

Thanks for a fair and balanced review. Carnival obviously should have bitten the bottom line and cushioned in a few more weeks of drydock.

 

As I have stated in other posts, a possible explanation is that Carnival has never drydocked ships from a 6 months FEMA usage before. I don't think there is anything the occupants did during those 6 months. But any time you take a huge complicated piece of machinery out of its "normal" routine"... it is going to go "female" on you!! (unpredictiable outcome from unusual circumstances - is going "female")

 

Carnival definately needs to step up to the plate and give discounts on future cruises that would reflect the items not available. If someone loves ping pong (which my son plays every day on a cruise), waterslide and basketball - then that person's discount should adequately reflect that part of the cruise that should have been working and wasn't. No water from 1am - 5am, 1 complimentary water should have been in each cabin every night.

 

I know things of this scale don't happen often on Carnival (and yes, I would imagine Carnival has gotten spoiled with the vast majority of cruises going right every week). But when things like this do happen, Carnival needs to be more proactive setting it right!!

[K.T.B.]

Wow. What a great review. You listed what problems you had without going off on a rant. You were able to relate everything and still get your point across clearly. Everyone who has a bad experience on a cruise should follow your example. Sorry to hear things still weren't running well though.

 

Here's hoping the next cruise you take begins and ends much better! :)

[cloudydrms]

Thanks CruiseHealing for your honest review. I know that I waited and waited for you to post from the ship and I was trying to think positively. (He's just having so much fun that he doesn't have time to post.) I think I'm glad that the Sensation and the Fantasy have switched places. It sounds like the Sensation just wasn't ready to sail yet. (Though to all those now scheduled on the Sensation...I'm sure it'll all be worked out soon.)

 

Cindy

[pacerzfan]

Thanks for a fair and balanced review. I agree that everyone who has a bad experience on a cruise should follow your example. Thanks for showing both the good and the bad. Here's hoping your next cruise is a total win!!!!

[Kittybork]

But any time you take a huge complicated piece of machinery out of its "normal" routine"... it is going to go "female" on you!! (unpredictiable outcome from unusual circumstances - is going "female")

 

Going female? I protest.

[Stircrzy]

An "A+" review.

 

The good, the bad, and the ugly presented in an honest manner.

 

Thanks!

[Knights on the Beach]

Going female? I protest.

Me too, but at the same time I also agree! :D

[LABecca]

I'm a little confused. :confused: I'm almost certain, when I sailed on the Sensation in 04 our sail and sign was our room key. It was the same on the Conquest in 05. Is it different now? Did you have a separate room key?

[jbhcw]

Thanks CruiseHealing, sorry your cruise wasn't quite what it should have been. Looks like we're on the Fantasy, been on her twice so I'm okay with that. Wonder how all the people now switched to the Sensation feel, hopefully everything will be up and running in the next week or two.

 

This will be our 10th Carnvial cruise and 16th overall and I can truthfully say we've never had a bad cruise, even though we had to leave a crusie on, of all ships, the Sensation due to a MVA in St. Thomas. Have never had ships switched though. Hope your next cruise is wonderful, do you have one booked? If not, I'd book one immediately and I would also email my review to Carnival. At least you'll get a bottle of wine in your cabin for your next cruise.