My Cruise Review on the Sensation

(Also submitted in the Cruise Review section)

I took my first cruise on the Carnival Sensation on February 9, 2012 and have good and bad to share that really led to a pretty mediocre vacation. The good, 98% of the service was wonderful, it was a great new experience and I tried new food (I am a self-proclaimed foodie). The bad, problems travelling with a person with health issues, embarkation from Nassau was a mess, problems with the ship, a bit of boredom and some pretty bad food. Overall it was an ok vacation, but nothing that excited me enough to book my next cruise, especially not on Carnival.

The good parts were the service, it being a new experience and I got to try new foods. Honestly 98% of the service was incredible, Vladimir, our MDR server was the cutest, sweetest, most caring man on the ship I think. He was attentive and helpful and never batted an eye at offering a kiss on the cheek or help with a question on the menu. Our room staff always greeted us in the hallway and asked how our day was or if we needed anything. The other 2% was really disappointing, a woman at the customer service desk that acted like she cared about a problem I had then made a fake phone call to someone about it, ie she picked up the phone but never said anything and hung up once I left the desk, a photo rep that yelled at me because I walked to the window with my photos in an area I wasn’t supposed to but there was no sign telling me not to and I had been looking for 15 minutes before he even noticed me, and a chef on the Lido deck that was supposed to be serving bacon but kept walking away with the tongs facing the line and no one was there to assist so people were reaching across the food in front of the bacon to get it and one woman even drug her hair through the eggs. It was a great chance for me to experience something new as I had always wanted to go on a cruise, but never talked myself into it before. The bonus points for me were trying new foods, the MDR always seemed to have something on the menu that I had never tried before so I made a point of trying something new every night.

The bad, whew this one might get a little long for me. My Mom has health issues and if I was able to find someone to help they were very attentive, but it was not always easy to find someone to assist us and they seemed to be able to only assist us from point A to point B and we had to make our way from there. My Mom is not wheelchair bound but needs one at times because of back surgery, knee surgery and MS so we did not bring a wheelchair with us as we were told that they would be happy to assist us on the ship with any issues. An example of a problem was when they called muster for the emergency briefing they said if you have special needs that you will need assistance with raise your hand, my Mom raised her hand and he stopped the presentation and asked her what her question was. She explained that she would need special assistance and he told her to just keep her hand raised and someone would come take her information. It was the end of the muster before anyone came by, I ended up having to raise my hand for my Mom because she could not keep her hand up that long (about 15 minutes). If a customer has special needs and has expressed those prior to the cruise and worked with the special needs division via email and phone calls then I would think this information would be shared already and someone should have talked to us about these needs for muster without the rigmarole.

Embarkation in the evening from Nassau was a huge mess. The dock had three areas (lanes) people were walking on and you did not find out until you got to the very end that one lane had a line for people getting back on the Sensation so you had to walk all the way back to the end of the line. We waited to get back on the ship for over an hour without anyone from Carnival present at all. The least they could have done was have someone at the end of the dock telling people what “lane” to go down to get back on the ship.

This was the Sensation’s first trip out of dry dock for renovations and it had some serious problems. We did not leave dock until 9:30 PM on Thursday when we were scheduled for a 4:00 PM departure. I ran into four couples that said their rooms were flooded and others that said entire hallways were flooded and they had fans and water vacuums set up to dry the hallways. The next morning they told us they had “loading” problems and that was why we were delayed, but everyone was talking at breakfast about the massive flooding on the ship. People are not naïve and we talk amongst ourselves, a lot, so to try and feed us a line of BS felt very condescending to me. Besides, it was the first trip out of dry dock so why would there have been so many loading problems, they knew they had a full ship so it should have been ready to go when the passengers were. A couple I waited in line with in Nassau said their shower was still backing up about three inches deep with water as of that morning. Our bathroom smelled disgusting and it took until Friday afternoon for it to be addressed. There was even a soda pop cap in the drains in our bathroom.

I am kind of an outdoorsy always moving person so I had trouble finding things to keep me busy on the ship, I am not a comedy club, night club karaoke type so in the evenings and on our sea day I had trouble finding things to do that were active. The pool was too small to swim in and I could only play so many rounds of mini-golf. Luckily I love to read so I sat and finished four books on my three day trip. The most fun I had was the lido deck party and I even learned a new dance! It would have been nice if the ship had what you see on TV a climbing wall or the surf pool.

Other than the MDR, the pizza and the sushi bar I felt the food was sub-par. Half the time items were not marked on the buffet so you had no idea what you were getting. Many of the warm items were served barely warm, and many pans were empty or had crumbs of a serving left in them. I did enjoy the pizza and the sushi, but didn’t think they were anything special and the sushi was only open for an hour a day or I would have made breakfast and lunch off the sushi as it was one of the better tasting things I had all weekend.

All in all I am not sure a cruise to the Bahamas on Carnival is something I would do again.

For my foodie review I have posted here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=32537249&posted=1#post32537249

And as an FYI the things that were bad did not ruin my vacation at all, I just think I would prefer an all inclusive resort in the Bahamas to a cruise there as I would like more time to swim and snorkel and enjoy the island so I could get my outdoorsy fix in :) I am really glad I took this trip just wish I hadn't caught the worst virus I have had in years on this trip.

My next cruise will be my hubby and I to Alaska and I am still researching which cruise line I will use.

So sorry. I've been on Sensation, but a year ago. I saw the ship didn't leave on time, much speculation as to why. There may have been loading problems, it seems Ecstasy did also on it's maiden voyage from Canaveral. I think their leaving changed the loading schedules. As for Nassau, something must be going on there, it's usually a clear walk to the ship. Guess you hit all the negatives on your voyage, it usually isn't that bad. REALLY!

Another small ship is Ecstasy, they do 4 and 5 night itineraries but include their beach, or Key West, along with Nassau and Freeport.

The Ecstacy did not leave on time on maiden voyage out of PC due to weather issues coming over from New Orleans. There was a terrible storm that weekend. We were on that 1st sailing. The crew told us it was horrible. The ship was basically limping along with a horrible head wind. Staff who were seasoned cruiser were feeling the effects of the motion. Waves were extremely high not to mention the winds. We were not permitted to park the car until 5:30 the ship. It was total chaos at the port but we pulled out around 8:00pm. The crew brought sandwiches to people waiting to board the ship. Many people complained about MDR closing and buffet closed on time also. But you could find food if you looked. All in all we had a great cruise.

I have also cruised on Sensation and had great service.

The Ecstacy did not leave on time on maiden voyage out of PC due to weather issues coming over from New Orleans. There was a terrible storm that weekend. We were on that 1st sailing. The crew told us it was horrible. The ship was basically limping along with a horrible head wind. Staff who were seasoned cruiser were feeling the effects of the motion. Waves were extremely high not to mention the winds. We were not permitted to park the car until 5:30 the ship. It was total chaos at the port but we pulled out around 8:00pm. The crew brought sandwiches to people waiting to board the ship. Many people complained about MDR closing and buffet closed on time also. But you could find food if you looked. All in all we had a great cruise.

 

I have also cruised on Sensation and had great service.

I was on Ecstasy shortly after that, there were some tales to tell about that voyage to Canaveral. That has turned out to be my favorite ship, sailed 2 times since.

Thanks for posting your review. I can totally see how some of the things you had to deal with would discourage you from cruising Carnival again. Just know that some of what you experienced (flooding, etc.) is not normal. Hopefully your next cruise will give you a much better cruising experience. :)