Carnival Sensation Review

Love Carnival Cruises, Hate Sensation

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Carnival Sensation
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Brockwest
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Aug 2010
Traveled with children

We adore Carnival Cruises and have cruised them many times (see my review of the Carnival Valor), but have finally found a bad ship that is not up to Carnival's standards. We decided to take our seven-year-old on her first cruise, so chose a shorter cruise to see how she liked it.

The shuttle bus from the Orlando Airport was magnificent, quick, easy, cool, and door-to-door. I highly recommend it over renting a car and parking it...even if you plan to eventually tour Orlando after the cruise. Embarkation was magnificent (VIP because of Penthouse), but I didn't see anyone have to wait very long. Carnival really has embarkation down right! The fun stopped there.

We arrived excited to see our most-expensive-on-the-ship Penthouse Suite and were dismayed to see a tiny, dingy, Motel-6 size room where the bed took up almost all the floor space, with a TINY shelf and a MINIATURE bathroom with no electrical outlets or hair dryer. In fact, the entire "suite" had only one under-powered electical outlet (it took 24 hours to charge a camera that takes one hour with a normal outlet.) There was no thermostat...you just stood on a chair and adjusted airflow from the ceiling vent to more air or less air. There was a big, nice balcony...that you SHARED with the cabin next door! They had a divider between the two, but with a floor-to-ceiling seven-inch gap so you could see and hear every word from the adjoining cabin. Penthouse? The bathroom was the smallest I've ever had on 20 cruises and lines. One person couldn't turn around, much less two. I was bitterly disappointed, as on the Carnival Valor and Destiny the bathroom was HUGE (5 times the size) with a HUGE jacuzzi. On those ships the bedroom was easily 4 times larger. I would guess I could stand six adults in this "Penthouse Suite" whereas I could stand 40 adults on the Valor suite. That's....a big...difference. I could stand adults in the bathroom on the Valor whereas I couldn't stand one adult on the Sensation. (Don't ask why I go around standing adults in bathrooms, just go with the story here!)

Cabin Review

Cabin SS

U98 Penthouse Suite Tiny dingy lower level on hall opposite the cheapest cabins Big Balcony SHARE BALCONY with cabin next door!...7 inch-gap floor-to-ceiling on balcony with cabin next door No outlets in bathroom One outlet in entire cabin No bedside phones One phone in "suite" across the room on wall Teeny closet with no space Smallest bathroom ever encountered on any ship...one person can't turn around Zero room stewardess response Excellent ocean front zero dresser-top space Zero penthouse amenities No thermostat No bags pick-up Fabulous room service dining Occasional room cleaning/bed make-up tiny HOT fridge Zero cabin space...bed takes up entire room hard bed very poor TV reception Motel 6-quality

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