Peter B

Age: 38
Occupation: Accountant
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Sensation
Sailing Date: June 26th, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Family Orientated: This trip definitely met my expectations for a family trip. Besides my wife, we had 4 children, two 20 year olds, a 15 year old, and a 13 year old. After reading all the reviews prior to the trip I felt that I had general idea of what to expect. There was plenty to do, and with us basically splitting up into 3 groups that was nice. My suggestion towards families is to bring along a set of walkie-talkies, these came real handy when trying to contact the young ones.

Embarkment: This was no problem at all as they have this process down pat. There were plenty of Carnival staff to check your documents and sign you up for the ship's "Sail & Sign" card, this by far was the most organized process. FYI, don't forget about your "Tip" money to the Porters that take your luggage, Carnival will NOT allow you to carry on you luggage, just the small bags can be carried by you.

Ship: Although this is an older ship, we felt that it wasn't too bad. The thing they need to do is change the carpets in the hallways and stairs, as they are long overdue for replacement. If you like Vegas and Purple, you'll like the grand entrance.

Tips: Please take my advice and read your bills, they will be charging you $10.00 per day per person for gratuities. Carnival decides how this is to be split up, which we felt was a bit unfair. Since our total came to $300.00 and we certainly didn't feel that the service deserved that much, we went to the Purser's desk to adjust that amount. We did go to the Dembarkment meeting the last day and nowhere did anyone mention that we could adjust the tip amounts, keep in mind these are NOT mandatory they cover themselves by a disclaimer stating that these are "Suggested Gratuities". I don't know about other large families, but we have never tipped a waiter $33.50 for one meal.

The Purser's desk was less than helpful and reluctant to give me the adjustment paperwork to decrease the tip amount. We were tipping our waiter and the bartenders cash all week, which was another reason for us to adjust their $300.00 amount.

Drinks have an automatic "Suggested Gratuities" of 15%, take note that we didn't see that little disclaimer until the last night and asked if we could cross out the tip amount, again with reluctance the bartender said "Yes" we could but then asked why would we want to do that? People take note for a 5 day cruise we tipped over $300.00……

Dining: Dinners were great, don’t' miss them. Portions were small and the sitting time there at minimum will be approximately 1 1/2 hours with dessert. Sitting down for breakfast didn't work well with us, we had various tastes and demands so the Lido deck breakfast buffet work out great, it's the exact same menu but you have the choice as to how much you want. Lunches were awesome, we never left hungry.

Bar Credits: Since my wife and I knew that this was a cashless ship, we prepaid our bar tab by using the order sheet Carnival mailed out to us under "Specialty Items". The bar credits normally are used for friends to buy tickets for the vacationers, but we bought them ourselves. We were on a budget and this helped us from going crazy with the drinks, one coupon equaled $4.95, which includes that darn gratuity.

If you have kids get the unlimited soda card for $20.00 per child under 16 years old, ours definitely got their monies worth.

Duty Free: Mexico had unbelievable deals on liquor, however: had we known that the limitations for booze was no more than 2 liters per persons of drinking age, we wouldn't have bought 6 bottles. We were over by 2 bottles and as a result on the last day prior to getting off of the ship I had to wait for 1 1/2 hours for customs to read my card and to pay the duty tax. The tax was minor, the long wait wasn't worth it.

Excursions: 4 1/2 hours in Grand Cayman was way too short. We took an island tour to the Turtle Farm, Hell post office and back. The tour was 1 1/2 hours an cost $15.00 per person. Doing the short tour allowed us to shop in the stores afterwards. Don't get caught up with the ship's Tour packages, I feel we did just fine planning our own tours and paying for them on shore. Here's what I'm getting at, in Mexico we all went to Paradise Beach, cab fare for a van holding all 6 of us was $26.00. At the beach we ran into some other guests that paid $79.00 per person for the same destination, once we told them that this service was available through the local taxi service they were more than upset. Oh yeah, as for Paradise Beach, Great service can't complain on bit. Snorkeling was free, the beach was free, and they had a water trampoline and a water-climbing float. One of the bartender's was from Canada, her name was Jana and had some great advice regarding Mexico, don't miss this place!

Debarkment: This by far was the worst. I didn't understand why we couldn't just stay in our rooms until they called for us? We all had to be on the Lido deck by 8:45 AM, and didn't get off until 10:45 AM. There was plenty other guests quite miffed with this as well. This is something Carnival need to fix as this is the last memory we have of the ship.

Well the wife and I are definitely going on another cruise, hope this helps you in your cruise as the prior review