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Stephen A. Fox

Age: 29
Occupation: Firefighter
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Sensation
Sailing Date: October 2nd, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Let me start by saying my new wife and I had a wonderful time on our cruise. It was the first time for both of us. Getting to Tampa and to Sensation's port is relatively easy. Print off some directions from Carnival's website just in case.

EMBARKATION: Drive your vehicle straight towards the ship and drop your luggage off there, do this BEFORE you try to park in the garage. If you need assistance there are plenty of port employees around.

Have your ID's out and you will go right through the lines, although they seem long, they actually move pretty fast. From the time we dropped off our luggage to getting to our room on the ship was an hour and 15 minutes.

DAY 1: As soon as we unpacked and checked out our room, which is a decent size, we went up to the Lido deck to eat lunch. The food was excellent the whole cruise. The only complaint I have is the pizza at the 24 hour pizzeria is not very good, but everything else was. After that, we checked out the ship and went through the life jacket drill. The ship left the dock a few minutes after 4:00 p.m.

We ate supper in the Ectasy dining room at our assigned table. The food again was excellent and it has the feel of an elegant restaurant. I believe we did some shopping at the Galleria, sang some Karoake and hit the Casino that night.

DAY 2: We were at sea all day and my wife was sea sick all day. The boat was constantly swaying back and forth all day. It was enough to notice and I believe it was affecting a fair amount of people on board. We basically slept in, layed out, had some drinks, and ate supper again at the dining room. It was formal night and everyone was all dressed up. We had lobster tail, which was great. A quick word about the drinks: If you want to drink on this cruise, prepare to pay ALOT for your drinks. First, they are not very big and they charge as much or more than you would pay at your average bar or nightclub. And, of course, the 15% GRATUITY added to the price of every drink makes it even more expensive. For your standard mixed drink you will pay probably $2.00 more on the ship than you would otherwise. Everything is charged to your Sail and Sign card. Which is very convenient, but you can run the total up on those in a hurry.
DAY 3: We arrived at Costa Mayo, Mexico. This was changed from Grand Cayman due to the hurricane damage suffered there. We basically did some shopping there and went for a horseback ride along the beach. Costa Mayo basically lives and dies if there is a ship in port. There is not a whole lot there but you can do alot of "bargaining" with the shops there. We went back to the ship that afternoon and saw a Vegas style show that night and a comedy show later which was pretty funny. We didn't eat in the dining room the rest of the cruise. We ate at the buffet at the Seaview bar and grill on the Lido deck. They always changed the menu and everything was good.

DAY 4: Cozumel, Mexico. We arrived and were the only ship in port the whole day. After an adventurous taxi ride we made it to our ATV Wild Tour excursion($70 per person if sharing an ATV, $90 for your own). It wasn't the tour through Carnival, we booked it online prior to leaving. It was awesome! It was on the other side of the island away from all the tourist stuff and it was basically a trail weaving in and out of the woods along the beach. If you've never operated an ATV (4-wheeler) I don't recommend this tour unless you are going to ride on the back with someone who has. When they say wild, they mean it! We were supposed to kayak and snorkel on the same excursion, but the water was way too rough. We just rode the ATV's a little more instead. We went back to the ship and cleaned up since we were very dirty from the ATV ride (Oh yeah!!).

We went to Chankanaab park and my wife swam with the dolphins. It was $125 but she says it was the experience of a lifetime. She was in the lagoon with 2 dolphins and an instructor. They let her do several different tricks with them. The whole thing lasted about 30 minutes. After that, we did some snorkeling at the same park and had several large drinks at Fat Tuesday's with a great view of the ship all lit up at the pier. This was an AWESOME day! Beware: Cozumel is very touristy and things are not as cheap as you may expect. I was told they can have as many as 20 cruise ships there a day.

DAY 4: We were at sea and basically did nothing but rest, relax and read. Although we did catch a very funny newlyweds show.

DAY 5: You had to wake up and see the customs people to pay taxes on the alcohol that you bought while away. We were only allowed 1 liter per adult, but we ended up not paying the Tax on the other 2 liters we had because the customs people were only having about every third person in line pay and the rest were turned away. The tax is pretty cheap anyways. Disembarking was a snap and we were off the boat by 9:00 a.m.

WORDS OF ADVICE:
1. Have all your proper forms of ID i.e. driver's license and certified copy of birth certificate. No need to pay the $80.00 to get a passport.

2. Prepare to have a pretty large bill on your Sail & Sign card. $10.00 per day per person is automatically taken out for gratuities and then the drinks and shopping on board will add up quickly.

3. When shopping in Mexico always try to make a deal with the vendor, they should come down some anyways.

4. Don't forget to take time and relax. There is so much to do and see you may forget to just get in a chair on the Lido deck and do nothing for a few hours.