Matt Mason

Age: 34
Occupation: paramedic
Number of Cruises: 3
Cruise Line: carnival
Ship: sensation
Sailing Date: August 12th, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

I guess I’ll start at the beginning, there is a flat rate for taxi’s in Tampa so don’t pay more than $20 to or from the airport. we arrived at the pier at 1pm and were on the ship by 1:45. hurricane Charlie was bearing down on us so people were made to disembark and move their cars off the ground level of the parking garage, this didn’t seem to interrupt the boarding of passengers.

We went to our state room R203 (in the basement) and were pleased to see it had been decorated for our sons 13th b-day as requested. The rooms on carnival are supposed to be the largest in the industry but the difference is so small I didn’t notice. The room was clean and closet space ok, unpack and don’t try to live out of your luggage as you might do when staying in a hotel. This was our 1st window room we’ve always had a balcony on other ships. We did discover we can cruise more often if we stay in this class.

We went for lunch and to explore the ship. The food was good not great, best meal is on formal night in the dining room ( prim rib or lobster ) we flat refuse to dress up on vacation other than once for the formal wearing a jacket and tie witch is more than acceptable. Do not try to wear a golf shirt this night you’ll stick out and will feel under dressed. We ate at the sea view a lot, food was good and plentiful as was on Disney, and RCCL. The sensation is very clean and comfortable she shows her age if your looking in the right places so don’t go have fun. Activities were fun and there were plenty of them kids activities were ok my son went to many on his own.

As we left Tampa hurricane Charlie was less than 24 hours away it was 1st on everyone’s mind. Carnival went out of their way (literally) to ease our minds. The captain had sent a letter to each state room and told us he planned on finding us flat seas and sunny skis for our vacation and he did. We headed due west in the gulf at 21knots all the first night which we kind of felt then south / southeast on mirror flat seas and bright sunshine and no delay arriving in cozumel.

Cozumel was beautiful we found our on shore excursion on the internet and we went to the PalMar beach club ( go see cozumelinsider.com ) we also did some shopping if you don’t know how to barter take the shopping tips lecture on the ship or you’ll be taken for a ride.

Deck party was ok pool hours are horrible I complained about that. Pools open 8am to dusk only. Why? No pools after dark even for adults and the slide closed at 5pm.

All in all the staff was great the ship was very clean the activities were fun the port was beautiful and we had a great time. I would give the sensation 7 out of 10 stars. If I were given a free cruise with the same ports on any of the big 5 cruise lines I would reach for the RCCL ticket. I will sail again on carnival they have the best value. Carnivals crowd appeared to be younger and drunker. This may have been the time of year we normally cruise over thanksgiving break.