Short Sensation Review

This will be a short review of my cruise on the Sensation from Miami, December 4-9th to Jamaica & Grand Cayman. I will try to answer any questions. This is just how my cruise went & others may have had different experiences.

Background: My mom received a casino offer for a free cruise & took me with her. Because this was "free" and we just went on a cruise in May, we kept our expenses to a minimum.

We flew from Pittsburgh to Ft Lauderdale because the flight was almost $150 per person cheaper than flying into Miami. We purchased Carnival's transportation service. We met a rep. at baggage claim as instructed and they took us to the transport bus. The bus was air conditioned & we had no issues.

Embarkation: We had FTTF, so we skipped the line waiting to get into the terminal. From the terminal to on board was about 20 minutes. That was quick but I did not like that they made you wait in line to get a photo. We declined the photo, but still had to wait inline. Our luggage did not arrive until after 4:00 p.m.

Food: I have to say, I was disappointed. I expected the food to be like it was on the Pride, but that was not the case. Guys Burgers were good, but the MDR & buffet food was not. Most of the time the food was luke-warm or just plain cold. Even my chocolate melting cake was cold. The taco place was good, pizza was so-so, & deli was ok. Best food I had all week was off the ship.

Room: we were in an inside upper/lower room due to the free cruise rate. The room was fine. I had heard the water was brown on this ship, but I did not notice that anywhere. I saw our steward once. We were given the choice to morning/afternoon/ or both for service. We asked for only morning with ice & for the upper bed to be raised during the day. At night we asked for no full service, just the bed to be lowered. We made this request because with the bed lowered, my mom couldn't sit on her bed. We had only one small chair. Note: there was no fridge or hair dryer in this room. The bed was never raised the entire trip. I had to go to guest services twice because our room was not serviced at all on the two port days. Our phone was also broken so I couldn't call our steward or make any other calls. Even after going to guest services, the bed was never raised. My room was serviced after requesting so from guest services, but the phone was never fixed.

Entertainment: We attended two PG comedy shows, but found them lacking. The adult show started at 11:45. That was too late for my mom to stay up. There was a ventriloquist show that was AWESOME! There was a holiday show that was very good. The Studio VIP show was very entertaining. We went to karaoke twice, but there was a large group there that kept staring at my mom & me. The vibe was just off. I can't really put my finger on it. We didn't stay long either time. The cruise director was Orlando Magic. He was great! They had Christmas carols with some fake snow at the atrium lobby one night. That was fun!

I will be back later today or tomorrow to review Jamaica, Grand Cayman, a tour we took, & disembarkation.

Nice start, looking forward to the rest.:)

Jamaica: The vendors and drivers were pushy. We gave a polite "no thank you". We took a short walk to Margaritaville, but considered just getting back on the ship. There was a small beach area that we put our towels down & stayed a while on the beach. We had lunch & a drink which were very good. The walk back was more of the same pushy vendors. We tried to shop in the little shops, but the vendors wouldn't leave us alone. One shop owner said everything $1, but when asked to be shown something for $1, nothing was available. We tried one more shop. The lady told us to please have a look & touch. We tried, but every time we picked up something, she would start hassling us to purchase. I know these locals are just trying to make a living, but they way the go about is a real put-off. We would have spent $$ here if we weren't hassled and given time to actually look at the things we were interested in.

Grand Cayman: We took a $4 taxi ride to Royal Palms. We paid a $2 entry fee and $12 each for a chair. This was the best day! The beach was beautiful & the service, food & drinks were excellent. Good music played & the adult only pool was fantastic. We hated to leave. $4 taxi per person back to the port for a little shopping. We were not hassled here, but the prices were quite expensive.

Disembarkation: We did a carnival excursion of a tour of Miami with airport transfer back to Ft. Lauderdale. We were off the ship by 8:30. Unfortunately we were directed to the wrong place to wait for our tour. The operator had to come track us down. This was a double decker bus with most people sitting on top in the open air. The tour didn't really start for almost 45 minutes because we stopped to pick up other passengers at other terminals. After everyone was on, it started raining hard so we had to leave the upper deck. Everyone from the tour eventually joined us & the tour was over before it really got started. We couldn't see out the side windows & the operator didn't give us any additional information. Our 3-hour tour ended after and hour & 1/2 as we got off the bus early. There was no point in staying on a bus driving around Miami with no tour information. Of course, they can't control the weather, but could have at least given us some information about Miami. We had lunch at Bubba Gumps & waited for the transport bus to Ft Lauderdale airport. The transport bus was on time & comfortable.

Home: Once at the airport we learned our flight was delayed two hours. An hour later we learned it was delayed three hours. I was so glad to finally be home! A cruise is what you make it, right? Well, we tried to make the best of some crappy situations. I will cruise again, but it will be back on the Pride out of Baltimore. That is what I know & love. I am glad this cruise was free & I didn't pay thousands of dollars for my family of four. BTW...it was a steaming 22 degrees when we landed and a high of 34 today.

Same experience we had in Jamaica. Drivers and vendors are just too aggressive and intimidating. We just stay onboard whenever it’s one if the itinerary.

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Thank you for both of your posts.

Keith

Appreciate the feedback. Sorry about the lack of stateroom service.

very informative. thank you. I will def keep the Great Cayman option in mind!

Thanks for the info. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it more but I appreciate your honest impressions.

Thanks for the review.

Loved the review, it's honest. Still really wanna try the Fantasy class though, will hopefully be Elation.

Fun going back and reading this now. . . I am re-reading my own review of Sensation just a couple of weeks after your cruise.  First time I have read it beginning to end in years.  Overall still very glad to have had the opportunity to try out this old ship and the iconic Fantasy class back in the Before (Covid), but it's no surprise five of the eight ships were put out of its misery during that time and now Ecstasy became the sixth to go.  

More recent reviews are not all that kind to Spirit class ships either - while they have a nice layout and plenty of balcony cabins, they are due for something like the major overhaul of the Sunshine treatment which was done really well on Radiance, making it look like a nearly brand new, modern floating resort.  Not that Carnival can keep spending against its massive debt load to do so.

With the exception of Mardi Gras (better food, so many options) honestly at this point we have really barely been able to tell a difference in the food on any of the ships. We now have 6 Carnival cruises since 2017, 4 of them since August 2021. Same MDR menus (more or less), similar quality buffet food, Deli, PIzza, Guy's burger, and Blue Iguana.  Big Chicken is a nice addition, not sure if/when the rest of the fleet will get that.