Carnival > Reviews > 7 Night Sensation Cruise out of Tampa

Author's product rating:   

Customer Service on Board	Friendly and attentive
Activities on Board	Good fun
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Lots
Disadvantages:	getting on and off the ship can be entertaining

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

We went on the Carnival Cruise Lines ' Sensation ' in September 2000 sailing from Tampa..This was our second cruise with Carnival, the first one was in 1996 from Port Canaveral ( yes next door the the Kennedy Space Centre)to the Bahamas for 5 days on the ' Fantasy ' which we thoroughly enjoyed, but was tooooooooooo short, we were only just getting used to it all when we had to get off....anyway back to the story.....

It started with a real bang, we got caught up in A hurricane which meant we couldn't leave Tampa on time, we were put up overnight in Tampa by Carnival in the Doubletrees Hotel but had to pay for our own food, the next day no one knew what was going on, very little information given out, but eventually we were ferried to the local Mall and dumped there, we were told to be outside at 3 pm for the buses to take us to the Port, we got there at 2.30 pm the buses turned up at 5.15pm no refreshments, no Carnival representative and a lot of angrey folk just hanging about not wanting to go very far in case the buses turned up.

We eventually joined the Sensation at about 5.45pm on the Monday, and she departed Tampa about 9pm in the Evening, we were so late we missed out on calling at Grand Cayman Islands ( which is what we really wanted to see)..Carnival also creditied everyones sail & Sign account with $100 but it didn't really compensate us for all the inconvenience and aggravation we had endured, plus our cruise was cut down to 5 days, so we were not very pleased..

However, we started to enjoy the cruise and the cruise staff really worked hard to keep everyone happy, the Food was very good, and as usual lots of it..Mexico was 'interesting ' and an experience, but New Orleans was terrific, absolutely sensational and the atmosphere electric Bourbon Street, the clubs, the cemetaries, yes you read that right the Cemetaries in New Orleans are spectacular and different to any others....we would like to have had more time in New Orleans instead of Mexico ( where every thing was ' Almost Free Senior !!'), however that was just our opinion..

We want to have another go at this Cruise, and hopefully we will get to see Grand Cayman next time..

Dollar Car rental guys were really great and allowed us to keep our car until we had been sorted out by Carnival in Tampa on the Sunday of departure, although we enjoy going with Carnival and for the most part were looked after by them, and bearing in mind that the Hurricane wasn't their fault, I did feel that we still missed out on what should have been an experience of a life time...it certainly was an experience thats for sure!!...and Carnival...well

All in all we enjoyed our cruise with Carnival, and to be fair they did their best to cope with 2000 unhappy passengers, we got $100 each plus we were up graded to a cabin with sea view rather than an internal cabin, which is what we paid for....and the all important question is!! would we go with them again Yes we would .....but we would also like to try other Cruise Companies in the Carribean as well..just to compare like for like in the interests of research and a balanced Ciao report of course....any offers of a free cruise would be most welcome !!