J. Brown

Age: 40
Occupation: Customer Service
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Sensation
Sailing Date: August 21st, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

It has been several months since our cruise but our family of 4 had such a great experience the memories are still vivid.


Check in was a breeze – the mass of confused cruisers isn’t as bad as it looks. The porters and security personnel are old hands at this and will point you in the right direction- literally. At every turn, every door, and escalator there was someone to help usher you the right way. Have the porters take your bags, have your ID ready in the check in line, look for the next port employee to wave the flag at the check in desk to check you in, and then it’s just a matter of waiting for your group to be called to board. We had just begun to settle ourselves in the waiting area behind the check in desk when we were called to board. We were dropped off by the car rental people at the port around 12:45 and were checking out our cabins before 2:00.

Our outside cabins were Riviera deck aft. Yes, we did hear engine noise but found it soothing rather than annoying. The cabin was roomy enough with sufficient storage space and the bathroom served its purpose. If you want luxury you probably don’t want a standard cabin. Our cabin steward was very attentive and efficient throughout the cruise.

My husband was sick (more about that later) and my 12-year-old daughter needed some down time (we spent time with family in Homosassa, FL prior to the cruise) so my 11-year-old son and I explored the ship. Yes, the ship is 10 years old. Yes, there is a lot of purple. Yes, some carpet and furniture is worn. If you’re looking for exquisite luxury this is not the cruise for you. If you can deal with or even enjoy the Las Vegas style atmosphere this ship is fine. My kids summed this ship up pretty well: “this reminds us of Circus Circus” in Las Vegas. I was recently on the brand new Sapphire Princess and I got the feeling of the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas. Hopefully, this gives you some kind of reference for the atmosphere.

My son and I had lunch at the Sea View dining room, the Lido deck buffet. The buffet looked a little overwhelming at the time and not many people had found the pizza counter yet so we had the 1st of many pizzas for lunch. “Pizza and ice cream?” became our family joke throughout the cruise…10am, 3pm, 2am…didn’t matter, 2 of our favorite foods were always available.

Try to be on deck when the ship passes under the Sunshine Bridge. I happened to be on the aft Veranda deck talking to my mom on the cell phone (cell coverage is still good within Tampa Bay) when I looked up and the funnel seemed inches from the bridge.

The kids and I had dinner most nights in the Ecstasy Dining Room. The kids usually weren’t in the mood for “nice restaurant” food so opted for the kids menu – chicken tenders and pizza. My steak was actually a perfect medium well. The other courses were fine if not very memorable. The wait staff were very friendly, helpful, and attentive throughout the cruise. Our bar waiter even picked up on my daughter’s “12 year old attitude” and played up to it beautifully – even if she and I were starring daggers at each other, he would make her laugh and soften up.

We intended to spend the day at sea at the lido pool. After reading reviews about how crowded it can get we staked our claim early. The water slide was too tame for my kids and the pool is just a pool so we ended up going our separate ways to explore the ship. The kids were signed up for the kids club (orientation was that morning) but never ended up doing activities with the groups. My 11 year old was the oldest of the 9-11 year group and my 12 year old was the youngest of the 12-15 year olds. Neither found either group to their taste so ended up roaming the ship with several other 11 and 12 year olds in the same boat so to speak. At first, I was very concerned about them terrorizing adult cruisers but soon realized that most adults we met were actually helping the kids with their games of elevator tag. I still tried to keep them from being too rambunctious. They also played ping-pong, volleyball, and the arcade games. We finally caught up with each other late in the afternoon, yes, for pizza and ice cream.

My husband finally went to the medical office to have the doctor look at his ear. We had been snorkeling at Homosassa Springs (with a manatee!) and Crystal Springs prior to the cruise and his ear was pretty painful. We did not buy the medical insurance and the doctor wanted $50 for a bottle of earwax removal drops. My husband passed on this and toughed it out with Tylenol.

We booked our shore excursion at Grand Cayman with Carnival. With such a limited time ashore and reading about the tendering, I felt more comfortable paying a little extra. We did the coral reef and stingray city snorkel and had a great time. The “reef” is fairly shallow, some scattered coral on a sandy bottom at about 10-12 feet deep. The people with Kelly Water sports scattered squid to attract many colorful fish and we saw Dory but never found Nemo.

There were a lot of people at Stingray City. Several other boats were there with loads of people. It actually didn’t matter because there were plenty of stingrays for everyone to experience feeding if they wanted to. One of the crew took pictures with a digital camera in a waterproof case. We viewed the picture on a laptop and paid $15 for a floppy disc with a copy of the picture. Getting home and printing that picture was well worth the money. Also well worth it were the 35mm waterproof disposable cameras I brought from home. These were for sale on the ship – for $14.95. Buy your own before the cruise. I used 4 of these cameras on this vacation and ended up with some great pictures. Of course, there were also photos of stingray tails, half a stingray, my flipper, my daughter’s snorkel, etc. – most with peoples swim suited rear ends in the background.

Back to my husband’s ear problem. The kids and I got in the long but fast moving line for the tender to return to the ship. My husband asked for directions to a drug store and walked couple of blocks to get the eardrops he needed. The ship is not the only source for this sort of thing.

Next is Cozumel and Snuba. What an experience. We intended to take a taxi downtown and check out any excursions we were interested in there but ended up booking the Snuba trip with the ship again – long story, never mind. We were met by taxis and had a short drive the Sanddollar Sports where we had a short but thorough orientation. We carried our gear across the street to a beach where we were hooked up to the tanks that would float on the surface while we swam up to 20 feet below. My daughter stayed near the surface at about 10 feet deep because she had trouble clearing her ears. The boys and I were not bothered by this and had an incredible experience – even when my weight belt fell off. The instructor, in scuba gear, was able to keep me from floating away and got my belt back on with no fuss at all.

We returned to an almost deserted ship. My son and I had the Veranda pool to ourselves for a couple hours. Most cruisers were in Cozumel while we relaxed on an uncrowded ship. I still feel like I missed out seeing Cozumel but the peace and quiet was great.

While sailing from Cozumel late that evening, the seas were pretty rough. I understand that is normal for the area. Several passengers were headed below decks hoping for less rocking motion. My son asked for Dramamine for the first time on the cruise. All in all it wasn’t too bad and the Dramamine worked fine on my son.

Just a few more miscellaneous points I wanted to make:

We found the shows and casino enjoyable. Browsing through the ship stores was also. Can’t complain about the drink prices since I usually ordered whatever the daily drink special was. One of the highlights for the kids was belly-ing up to the bar to order soda with their unlimited drink card. My daughter even had a favorite bartender who mixed her sodas just right. My son’s favorite nighttime activity was hanging out in the arcade – that opens to the disco – and watching intoxicated people dance. We hung out together more at night after I found this out.

All things considered, this was a wonderful cruise and good value for our money. You shouldn’t have expectations for luxury, but you can still have reasonably high expectations for service, amenities, food, entertainment, and value and not be disappointed.

We will sail with Carnival again although we would like to experience one of the newer ships.