Deborah Fleming

Age: 50
Occupation: Urban Planner
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Carnival
Name of Ship: Sensation
Sailing Date: December 5th, 2002
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Rain, rain and more rain. That pretty much sums up our 4-day cruise. My sister and I sailed on Carnival’s Sensation from Tampa to Cozumel Dec. 5-9, 2002. We are probably the only 2 people on record who’ve gone on a Caribbean cruise and never put on a bathing suit! But at least we didn’t have to deal with the Norwalk virus. And the rain didn’t stop us from eating and playing bingo.

Background

Let me introduce myself so you’ll get some perspective on where I’m coming from as you read this review. I’m a 50 yr. old female living in Tennessee and working as an urban planner. This was my second cruise, my first being a 7-day Alaskan cruise on Holland America. My 45 yr. old sister, who’s a restaurant owner in Virginia, accompanied me. It was her first cruise.

This itinerary and this cruise line would not have been my first choice. But you can’t beat the old group rate! I belong to a traveling walking club that sponsored the trip. There were 35 of us onboard. You may be asking yourself what cruising has to do with walking. As originally planned, the itinerary included a day in Key West. We were going to do a 10 kilometer walk around Key West that included the southernmost point in the continental US. Our tour director was notified a few months before we sailed that Carnival was changing the itinerary (still don’t know why) and our only port would be Cozumel. We had the option of canceling but we all said “what the heck” and went anyway. As I explained to my sister, there are worse things that can happen to you besides having to spend an extra day on a cruise ship.

Arrival in Tampa, December 4

We decided to arrive in Tampa the day before so we would be rested and ready to go. Dec. 4 turned out to be a terrible day in terms of weather, and an omen of what was in store for us during the entire cruise. An early winter storm was making its way thru Tennessee and then on to Virginia and North Carolina. Forecasts showed freezing rain in Tennessee during the morning rush hour and over 6 inches of snow in Virginia later that afternoon. My sister and I both had to go to Plan B. She got up at 3 AM and drove to her local airport and was able to go standby on an earlier flight to Dulles in Washington, D.C.. I got up at 4 AM, called my friend (and driver), and headed out to the airport. The ice never materialized in Tennessee but if the temperature had gone 1 or 2 degrees lower, the interstate would have been a skating rink. My sister beat the snowstorm that hit Virginia and was waiting for me in Tampa when I got there.

Travel Tip – To avoid hassles at the airport security check-in, make sure you put all of your “implements of mass destruction”, such as tweezers, nail clippers, manicure scissors, razor, etc. in your checked baggage.

We checked into our motel early and visited a new upscale mall in Tampa called International Plaza and ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. December 4 would be our last day of sunlight.

Embarkation from Port of Tampa, December 5

We took a cab to the cruise terminal at Pier 2. Our motel was near the airport and the cab fare, including tip, came to $15. The Sensation is an imposing sight as you approach the pier. A porter was there to take our bags and he directed us inside the terminal. We arrived a little before noon and ended up in boarding group #4. The lines to process were long (the Sensation’s passenger capacity is over 2,000) but moved fast. The Carnival employees working at the counter were friendly and helpful. We picked up our Sail and Sign cards and room keys and then waited for our boarding group to be called.

Travel Tip – Pack pants, shorts, and dresses with pockets, as you’ll need to carry your Sail and Sign cards and room key with you everywhere you go.

As we sat waiting, I checked out our fellow passengers. What an eclectic group of people! All different ages and backgrounds. Given that it wasn’t school break time, I was surprised at the number of school age children. The cruise terminal itself is basically a warehouse. In an attempt to make it look more nautical, they sprayed the overhead girders with some type of substance to try to make it look like barnacles. Pretty strange.

Once onboard, we found our cabin, #238 on Empress Deck aft (back). If it were anymore aft, we would have been in the water! We were tucked in a corner, which worked out fine in terms of no one disturbing us, and there was hardly any foot traffic. Our cabin was a Category 6 Oceanview stateroom, which meant we had a window, not just a porthole. My sister pointed out to me that according to the Carnival cruise brochure, we were in the highest category of outside cabins, not counting suites. Our tour director told us the “upgrade fairy” had visited us. A week or two before sailing, the cruise line offers unsold cabins at bargain rates so they can fill the ship. They give the bargain cruisers the inside cabins on the bottom decks and then push everyone else up.

Travel Tip – You may want to bring extra clothes hangers with you, since I found them to be in short supply. There were no hangers with clips to hold pants and skirts. Don’t take up space in your suitcase with a bathrobe. Carnival supplied us with white terry robes.

After checking out our cabin, we headed up to the Lido Deck where lunch was offered for boarding passengers in the Seaview Bar & Grill. This would be the only time we ate a meal in the Seaview. The food was what you would expect at a buffet-type venue. I tried a slice of pizza from the 24-hr. pizzeria and thought it was tasty, especially the crust. The pizzeria is handy if you need a snack between meals, especially if you have the late dinner seating. They also had soft-serve ice available most of the day, and hot off the grill hot dogs and burgers. We didn’t try the burgers but people who did said they were good. And you could always get tea and coffee.

After lunch on the Lido Deck, we explored the other decks and familiarized ourselves with the layout of the ship. The system of staircases and elevators can be confusing and the first day or so I kept hitting dead ends, sort of like the game Chutes and Ladders. I found myself walking from end of the ship to the other, trying to figure out a way to get to the deck I wanted. It was good exercise, if nothing else.

We were supposed to leave the pier and have our Sail Away Party at 4 PM. We were out on deck and ready to go when a fog bank rolled into the channel. The harbormaster radioed our captain and said that we couldn’t sail until the fog lifted. We finally left the pier at 10 PM. I was looking forward to sailing under the bridge and out into the Gulf of Mexico but it was too dark and too late. During the time that we were stuck in Tampa, the casinos and duty free shops had to stay closed. They weren’t allowed to open until we were 7 miles outside of Tampa.

The Ship

The Sensation is nearly ten years old and in my opinion, in good shape. Both the interior and exterior were constantly being cleaned, swept, scrubbed, polished, and painted throughout our cruise. I expected the ship to be rather “glitzy”, but some of the decorating and color schemes left my sister and I a bit perplexed. For instance, the trim in our cabin was a metallic red, but the carpet, bedspreads, and chair coverings were a muted pastel pattern of pinks, oranges, and blues. There was a corner light that was so ugly my sister refused to let me turn it on! The atrium was attractive (sort of a neon blue, purple, and pink Las Vegas style) but the Christmas garlands, featuring red and green plaid bows, clashed with the overall theme.

I missed having a continuous outside, covered wooden deck that was unobstructed for walking. There was a small track on the Sports deck but it was generally too windy up there to walk for any extended amount of time. We were also surprised at how small the swimming pools were and that as big as the Sensation is, there were no retractable covers so you could use the pools during inclement weather. Then there was the problem of children monopolizing the hot tubs. Do parents not understand that a hot tub isn’t a kiddy pool?

Food, Glorious Food

As I mentioned, we only ate once on the Lido Deck. Since my sister owns a restaurant and has to wait on people for a living, we decided to take all our meals in the Ecstasy Dining Room and be the ones getting waited on. After all, that’s part of what you’re paying for. Even though Carnival is thought of as a “budget” cruise line, I was favorably impressed and gave the food an “A” rating. It was every bit as good as what I was served on Holland America, both in terms of quality and presentation.

Some of the dishes that stood out included: West Indian roasted pumpkin soup (sounds weird but was absolutely yummy), broiled tilapia, rack of lamb, broiled lobster tail (formal night), and grilled black tiger jumbo shrimps. One day at lunch, we ordered fried calamari as an appetizer. It was the most tender, tastiest calamari I’ve ever eaten. No small feat when you consider how many people they’re cooking for at one time. My sister had a Mongolian Beef salad that she said was the best thing she ate on the entire cruise. And let’s not forget dessert. Everything I had, from something as simple as lime sherbet to chocolate layer cake, was scrumptious. One night we shared a Grand Marnier soufflé. That was a new treat for me and how they do individual soufflés for hundreds of people is beyond me. I couldn’t make a soufflé for one!

The Eggs Benedict at breakfast were a special treat. The poached eggs were cooked but soft. Again, not easy when you’re serving so many people.

The head chef on the Sensation is Indian and it was interesting how he wove some of the spices and flavorings from that cuisine into the dishes, without it being overpowering.

Service

Our cabin steward did a great job but we never did get his name. The ice bucket was filled twice a day, and our beds were turned down in the evening with a chocolate on the pillow. Every night when we came in he had made a different towel animal. The first night it was a cobra.

Our dining room server was Marko from Croatia. Service was spotty. A big part of the problem appeared to be his assistant server (from Slovakia), who was still in training, and the cocktail server (Romanian), who didn’t have enough proficiency with English to be waiting on people. Marko ended up being frazzled because he had to do their work as well as his. They seemed to be a hindrance rather than a help. I was almost expecting a mini Balkan war!

The Cruise Director, Lenny Halliday, was upbeat and energetic. Part of it was his dry, British delivery that made simple things sound funny. I caught the end of the Newly Wed and Not So Newlywed game and he did a great job as moderator.

Activities

I attended 2 evening shows in the Fantasy Lounge and thought that “Hey Mambo!” was the best. Good singing and dancing. Sort of a Las Vegas revue, with thong-clad dancers wearing big headdresses and high heels.

Played bingo 4 times (didn’t win anything) and my sister hit the casino a few times. Enjoyed the Caribbean band on the Lido Deck. My sister opened an account at the Internet Café so that she could stay in touch with her restaurant manager. Every day there were 2 movies that were shown continuously on our cabin TV. One day we watched “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.

The shops carried a wide range of merchandise. There was a lot of jewelry. I bought myself a Fossil watch.

Compared to the Holland America ship I sailed on to Alaska, the Sensation has a lot more space devoted to bars, discos, and shopping, but that’s why Carnival calls them “fun ships”. It got kind of crowded in some of the public areas. But it’s amazing how you can be on a ship with over 2,000 passengers, plus the crew, and still find a quiet nook or cranny. One night my sister couldn’t sleep, so she roamed the ship for a couple of hours and came back without me knowing she had even left. If you were in a strange city and couldn’t sleep, you wouldn’t get up and go out by yourself at night. But you can safely do that on a cruise ship, and meet other insomniacs (and a few drunks) in the process.

Cozumel and Playa del Carmen, December 7

My sister had visited Cozumel and Playa del Carmen before so instead of signing up for a shore excursion, we decided to sightsee on our own. We had big plans – the Mayan ruins at Tulum, Chankanaab National Park, maybe some snorkeling. The walk from the cruise ship pier to the taxi stand was cold, windy, and wet. As a veteran of many soggy walks, I had packed a rain poncho. My sister had to rely on her sweatshirt jacket. The taxi took us into downtown Cozumel to catch the ferry to the mainland. My stomach was feeling a little queasy to start with and the rough ride over was no walk on the beach. I kept it together but other people ended up using the barf bags.

The first thing we did when we got to Playa del Carmen was go to a McDonald’s for American coffee so we could warm up. I also had my first encounter with a Mexican toilet. We decided to give the rain a chance to blow over before taking the bus out to Tulum. It never did stop raining. Not just rain but torrential rain. The streets became rivers that you couldn’t walk in. At one store, a man offered to sell my sister the rain slicker he was wearing and she took him up on his offer! We saw some creative examples of tourist rainwear. One man took a garment bag and cut armholes in it for his son. Then there was the couple wearing dry cleaning bags.

My sister was really disappointed that I didn’t get the real Mexican experience, with tourists and natives filling the streets and people sitting outside eating, drinking, and just taking in the sites. Around 2:00 we stopped for lunch. I had shrimp tacos and a margarita and my sister had chicken enchiladas suiza. Ditto on the margarita. Plus we shared flan (yum!) for dessert. We visited quite a few shops and bought some native crafts to use as future Christmas gifts. My favorites were the miniature bottles of tequila with a travel-size worm!

Due to the stormy weather, the ferry schedule was out of whack and we ended up waiting in the cold for nearly 2 hours. The boat ride back to Cozumel was even rougher than the one earlier in the day and more people got sick. I was glad I only had a few sips of the margarita at lunch. The street where we caught a taxi back to the pier was a virtual river.

Back onboard and in dry clothes (finally!), we found out that with the exception of the bus trip to Tulum, all other shore excursions were cancelled. As it turns out, we could have made it to Tulum. According to people who went, the rain let up once you got further inland.

On port days, not many onboard activities are planned. And just like when we were stuck in Tampa, Carnival couldn’t open the duty free shops and casinos while we were docked at Cozumel. From a financial standpoint, the whole weather thing ended up being bad for the local merchants and bad for Carnival.

Last Day at Sea

By this time we are running out of clothes. We needed more pants, long sleeve shirts, and rain gear. In other words, the stuff I packed for Alaska. There were a few hours of sunlight in the afternoon after morning showers. I didn’t put on my bathing suit, but did go out in a t-shirt and shorts and caught a few rays. It got windy around mid-afternoon and then started to rain again.

Travel Tip – Pack a few things you think you won’t need. They may turn out to be the things you use or wear the most, like my lightweight fleece sweater. If it’s the dry season, pack a rain poncho and/or umbrella anyway.

Debarkation, December 9

We were in the last group to get off the ship and had a rather long wait in the Fantasy Lounge. Debarkation was orderly. We picked up our color-coded bags in the terminal and turned in our declarations to Customs. Then it was outside to cold, pouring rain. Caught a shuttle out to the airport to pick up our rental car.

Our original plans were to either drive up to Tarpon Springs or visit Ybor City (old Cuban part of Tampa). That day Tampa got a record 5 inches of rain. I don’t like driving in my hometown in that kind of weather, let alone in a city I’m not familiar with.

We got headed in the wrong direction on the interstate and saw the sign telling us we were going over a long bridge and to make sure we had enough gas. Yikes! We were driving across Tampa Bay to St. Petersburg. Made it across in blinding rain and then got off at the exit for the dog track and turned back around. Decided to go back to the cruise ship pier in downtown Tampa and take in the Florida Aquarium. Kind of pathetic isn’t it, when you’re been on a Caribbean cruise that features an island known for its snorkeling, and you have to look at indoor tanks in order to see some tropical fish? The aquarium was fun and I would recommend it if you need indoor recreation.

Leaving Tampa, December 10

We loaded up the car in the pouring rain (so what else was new?), dropped the car off, and took a shuttle to the airport. Our flights back were uneventful.

General Conclusions and Observations

My sister said she enjoyed her first cruise and would consider taking another one. I’m getting a complex because this was my second cruise and on both of them, it rained incessantly. We both thought Carnival is a good value and we got a lot for our money.

Carnival is a completely different cruise line and cruise experience than Holland America. I enjoyed both cruises but for different reasons. I wouldn’t hesitate to sail either one again.

For those of you who’ve never cruised, Carnival’s 4-day itineraries are “Cruising 101” or “Introduction to Cruising”. A good way to stick your toe in the water without making a big commitment in terms of time and/or money.