Travis

Age: 27
Occupation: Store Manger
Number of Cruises: First
Cruise Line: Carnival
Name of Ship: Sensation
Sailing Date: March 3rd, 2003
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

First I need to start by saying that I felt obligated to write this because this site and others reviews helped me immensely! This site made my first vacation go very smoothly.

Embarkation:

We arrived at the port at 11:30 am (perfect time). The lines were very small and you are able to get a seat. Our boarding number was group 3. They started boarding at 12:30 and we were on the ship by 12:50. As I have read in other reviews, locate your room, be sure to have a change of clothes with you in your carry bag. The next thing to do is find your way to the Lido deck and dig in to what will be your first of many wonderful buffets. I know your thinking as I was; I want to explore this beautiful ship but trust me there will be time for that. There were no lines at the buffet and a wonderful table on the deck. As you walk out on to the deck it all begins. There is like 7 servers with trays of tropical drinks in a souvenir glass.

Rooms:

Our room was located on the main deck. We had a room with a window, which was perfect. I wouldn’t recommend any thing less and no need for anything more. The rooms were very spacious and so was the bathroom (surprisingly enough). Our room steward, Pat, was awesome. She was very helpful, in and out of the room like the wind. Oh and the towel animals were cute to see each night. The beds were extremely comfortable and the climate control in the room was great.

Dinner:

We opted to have dinner in the dining room (Ecstasy, late seating) which was fun. I especially loved the formal night; everyone dressed to a tee! We didn’t care for our assigned table and met up with a group of ladies, changed to their table and had a blast. The food was very elegantly prepared and not nearly as tasteless as others have reported. It is not 5 star, but close to 4 star meals. The menu changes nightly with a nice variety of foods. You can have as much as you want. If you ask your waiter nicely they can more then likely bring you an entrée served the night before (if for some reason you don’t find that night’s menu appealing).

Lunch:

We ate at the Seaview lounge on the lido deck for lunch. It was buffet style and the only real waiting there was if you wanted a burger. It didn’t make much sense to waste any part of a beautiful day sitting in the dining room eating lunch. The staple food each day was burgers, hotdogs and french fries. The other dishes changed from chicken parmesan, to beef stroganoff and a variety of salads. The desserts were very elegant as well, blueberry cheesecake, key lime pie, fruit tarts and banana cream pie are just some of the selections.

Drinks:

The drinks were very moderately priced. A mixed drink is $3.50, $6.25 if served in a souvenir glass. And, no they are not watered down you can taste the alcohol in them. The 15% gratuity was added to each drink. At first I was a little unsure about this but the servers and the bartenders were all great and deserved that and more. The wine selection at dinner is impressive, there must have been like 200 different selections in all price ranges.

Grand Cayman:

We decided to go snorkeling with the stingrays at Stingray City. We opted for the 10:15 excursion. After a little confusion as to where we were suppose to meet to take this excursion. Once we finally located our group we walked to a group of buses, then boarded and were off. When we arrived, the boat that was to take us to the sandbar was about 15 minutes late. Once it finally arrived an ambulance pulled up and a lady was taken from the boat. Apparently she had accidentally stepped on stingray and had gotten its stinger in the foot. Well this scared a lot of the our group me including but it stopped no one from getting into the crystal clear blue water.

Cozumel:

We did this stop all wrong. We decided to go into town and do some shopping and then just explore. After some time the haggling got to be old and we were tired with half the day left. Hint: When you dock go through the duty free shopping area on the dock. It will give you an idea of what you will find to buy from the shops with the right price! We then ate at the Crazy Pelican and called it a day.

All in all it was great. To do again we would choose to just explore Grand Cayman, because of the time limit. In Cozumel we would do an excursion and then shopping.

Debarkation:

It was as if the ship didn’t want us to leave. They send you color tags when you get your tickets. Ours was red but it turns out they should have been pink. No big deal, until they call color tags to get off the ship and pink is the first, red was the last! Other then that no real problem getting off. The whole process was only an hour and a half and very understandable.

Carnival gets 2 thumbs WAY up. We will be trying out the funship Imagination next year. Hope this review has helped.