Carnival Sensation Review

Not what I expected

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Carnival Sensation
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spincalf
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Jul 2014
Traveled with children

My family rarely takes a vacation, but decided to this summer before our daughter goes off to college. My sister wanted to go on a cruise, so our families went together. This is our first cruise, and more money than we've ever spent on a vacation before, with the flight down and the hotel beforehand. I will probably never go on a cruise again. It was not what I expected.

The ship was apparently built in the early 90's, but it looked like an 80's disco. Everything was purple and blue and pink and neon. It smelled like stale smoke EVERYWHERE except outside. Our room was on the main deck and was WAY too small for the four of us, with one tiny bathroom. The kids' beds came down over ours like bunks. To use the restroom at night I had to crawl over the bottom of my bed, under my daughter's bunk and around furniture. The room was hot all the time, and smelled like it had previously been a smoking room. We were miserable. The people at guest services (and the rest of the boat staff, as a matter of fact) had heavy foreign accents of all kinds, and it was extremely difficult to understand many of them when they talked. Back to guest services...they rarely smiled and were very unfriendly. We never complained about anything, just asked questions about where to find things, ports we were docking at, etc. They stared at you like you were taking up their precious time.

We're also always very careful with our money, and did not realize how much MORE money we would need once we got on the ship. They get you coming and going. I don't know if other cruise lines are like this, but it was nerve-wracking. You couldn't bring more than one bottle of wine, so we had to buy most alcohol on the ship, and it was not cheap after having to do that for four days. The coffee was REALLY BAD, so to get a good cup it had to be bought at the coffee bar, which cost more money. I felt like their hands were constantly in my pockets.

Cabin Review

Hot, tiny, miserable, smelled like smoke.

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