Kim Rapella

Age: 32
Occupation: Analyst
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Sensation
Sailing Date: September 20th, 2003
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

This was my first cruise and I found this website to be very helpful to me in setting expectations. I would like to add my 2 cents to on this cruise.

Room - We originally booked an ocean view room through Travelocity.com and about 2 weeks prior to sailing, I went back to the website and noticed that the prices were cheaper than we paid. We called Travelocity, and they were really helpful in giving us a few bucks off, so with that, we decided to upgrade to a suite. Now, by all means, this was not necessary, but I saw the very grim pictures of the staterooms on the internet, and because we had a 2 year old and assumed we would be spending a little more time in the room than the average person, we thought the upgrade was a good idea. This is what I didn't quite understand - in a hotel, if you get an upgraded room, your amenities, or quality of service is usually at a premium as well - on the cruise ship - not the case at all. The actual deck where the suites are located (the only suites on the ship) are mixed in, directly across from the cheapest rooms on the boat - interior upper/lower bunks. So while we expected better cabin stewards, etc, we were 4 feet from the 18 year olds that scraped $250 of allowance to get on the ship – which in not necessarily a bad thing, but when reading about noise in the halls at night, we were concerned. Our cabin steward was very nice, although I am not sure that she was the greatest - there were plenty of things we did not get/see. I never saw any Tums that other reviewers mentioned. We did not have any tags to hang on the door for privacy, to order breakfast, etc. We did not get our luggage until several hours after the ship sailed – this was an issue when I had diapers, sippy cups, etc in the luggage for my toddler. We had a vcr in our suite – which I am not sure if they are in all rooms, or just the “special” ones – either way, I am not sure why they are there. They don’t offer any video rental and they don’t even have videos for the kids, so we didn’t get to utilize it.

The first day onboard, I was feeling “under the weather” – FYI – take Dramamine at least 2 hours before getting on the ship. Because of my illness, my husband took my toddler to dinner, while I tried to sleep off the illness. The cabin steward came in while I was sleeping to put our beds together, and because she walked in on me, she didn’t leave the Carnival Capers paper (the very important newsletter of activities going on the next day. Because of this, our first day at sea was a little messed up since we missed a bunch of activities and didn’t really know what was going on. We never received a toddler life vest – we asked 3 times, and on the 3rd day, our cabin steward told us they didn’t have enough onboard. This was really annoying to me, especially since I only counted about 10 toddlers – as a matter of fact, Camp Carnival, the children’s program, told us repeatedly how low the enrollment was, there just weren’t very many children on our cruise. It seems the cruise ship doesn’t care if the little ones drown in the event of an emergency.

Food – the food was okay to good– the food in the dining room was the best on the ship, with room service being second (although the only thing you can get from room service is sandwiches – the grilled veggie one is excellent). We chose an early seating, 6:15, and we missed dinner a few times – the children’s program closes during certain hours, and we didn’t want our “terrible two” year old to disturb dinner for a lot of people. I suspect other cruise ships have better food and more options; we only had the buffet, dining room, or room service. I think the food in the buffet is better than the dining room when it comes to breakfast – same French toast, etc, except with smaller portions. The only difference was the eggs benedict – you couldn’t get that at the buffet.

Activities - The ship had a lot of activities, there was always something to do. The thing that really confused me the most was the lack of clocks onboard, and the lack of “signs” in front of the lounges, etc. If you did not wear a watch or carry your newsletter with you each day, you would never find anything or know what’s going on. Julie McCoy was not announcing all the activities over the loudspeaker, and if she were, it doesn’t come through in the rooms. I didn’t think it would be unreasonable to have some sort of daily activities posted. If would be nice if as you were passing the showrooms, etc, you could see what was scheduled for the day in that room. We did not even have a clock in our suite – the night we were in Cozumel, my watch stopped unknowingly and we missed dinner and a whole bunch of things before we realized the correct time. The bingo games were a complete rip-off - $20 for 15 minutes of bingo – one game to be exact – and the did this more than once a day – I am sure this is where Carnival makes their money.

Excursions – in Grand Cayman, we took the 7-mile beach excursion – basically a trip to the beach at a beach club. Carnival charged us $19 per person – which included a beach chair and a free drink. We got on a bus to get to the Colony beach club – the first thing the driver says is that for those of us that didn’t already buy tickets, here are the options – we did not get any options – only the Colony – he then says it costs $8 to get in – so now I am perplexed at the difference in the price. When we get to the beach club (which is another story), chair rentals are $3.00 and the “drink list” of what we can get for free is crap – we ordered Pepsi, and it took me 20 minutes to get them and I had to order them 3 times before someone got them. So I figured that either my Pepsi was $8 or Carnival made a few bucks on the deal. FYI – don’t go to the Colony if you decide to take an excursion – it’s small and it does not live up to the description Carnival gives you. We also took the beach excursion in Cozumel – to Playa Sol – that place was a thousand times better and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get off the ship and feel like you are staying in a hotel resort while in port.

Overall, the cruise was nice and I would definitely go on another – next time I would probably decide to go on a newer, bigger ship that can offer better rooms and more dining options. I would make sure that the boat is equipped to save my child’s life with a preserver, or I would bring my own. I would bring my kid’s videos, I would take my Dramamine early and I would bring a clock, and I will definitely bring a credit card with a lot of credit – the sign and sail card bills really add up quickly – ours was $700 and we don’t drink – at all – I never expected that at all.