Carnival Sensation Review
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First let me preface this by saying that this is the 4th Carnival cruise my husband and I have taken - all 3-4 night to the Bahamas. However, this was the worst one yet.
We cruised out of Port Canaveral with another family who had never cruised Carnival before. Embarkation was a breeze and we were aboard the ship by Noon. The cabins were not ready yet (that was OK), so we headed up to the Lido deck to grab some lunch. The buffet was just so so. The deli sandwich that my husband got looked pretty good. Tried to get pizza, but the staffer was not even available to ask "how long?". One other guest said he told him 10 minutes for cheese and pepperoni. I don't know if they were making it to order or what. So I never got to taste the pizza everyone raved about.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent wandering around the ship waiting to leave (about an hour after the posted departure time). The muster drill went ok even if ours was on the Lido deck in the hot Florida sun. Our luggage finally arrived in our cabin around 5 pm. I was surprised that it took as long as it did. We've always received it earlier on past bookings. The kids were finally able to swim for a few minutes after the muster drill. Surprise #1 - the water slide closes at 6 pm. I have no idea why. After that, pretty much everything shut down on the Lido deck, so we went to get ready for dinner. Surprise #2 - Dinner in the Fantasy dining room. What a let down. We had the 8:30 dinner seating (selected that so we could get the most out of our day in port). Our waiter was also a head waiter. He apparently didn't have a "runner" or anyone that did the drinks/bread/cleared the table. He was doing it all himself for our table and several others. Dinner took 2 hours. We waited over 40 minutes just to get the appetizer and had to keep asking for drinks. He said it was always this way on the first night. Unfortunately, this did not change for either of the 2 remaining nights. Overall, the food on this cruise was a major disappointment. I had one good meal.. the last night I chose the Chateaubriand, which was quite tasty.