My 50th birthday cruise!

At long last, I am writing this review. I always depended heavily on readers reviews when I first starting sailing for the variety of responses to ships and ports. Honestly, I'm not sure how objective this review can actually turn out. I was with 6 of my most favorite family members. An all girls cruise for my 50th birthday. Party girls one and all. We probably would've had fun on a leaky rowboat.

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Night Before Stay
Stayed at Radisson at the Port Resort. Highly recommended. Beautiful rooms, great transportation to the ship. Fabulous pool with waterfalls, good food by the pool and a pretty good bar, too.

Donnie D!
Before I mention ANYTHING about this cruise, I have to introduce you to Donnie D. We were at a table for 7 and a man walked up to join us at our table. We warned him he might want to move, but he stayed put - brave guy. He became one of the best parts of our cruise. Everyone onboard knew him. Apparently he is quite wealthy -- from Chicago. He cruises constantly, "whenever the mood hits him." He became our buddy and our ticket to good tables, constant amazing service and soon we were called "Donnie's Girls" by all the personnel onboard. What a great guy! We had a picture taken with Donnie D and all 7 of us. We framed it and he said he'd hang it up in his house.

Boarding
Smooth as silk. Or at least we entertained everyone around us by constantly pronouncing it was my 50TH BIRTHDAY!! We enter the ship, ohs and ahs from the new cruiser and off to the buffet. It's the same as usual -- a buffet.

Ship
Although the Sensation is an older ship, she has held up pretty well. I like the Fantasy class ships -- easy to navigate. The sisters had an ocean view and the nieces the same right next door. We decorated our doors with pics of sisters on one door, nieces on the other. I used both childhood and current pics. We got so many comments from other passengers. I can't tell you how many times we were stopped in the hall so that people could "match" up the younger girls with the older! They usually guessed right, so we obviously have a family full of mothers/daughters that look alike.

Entertainment
One of the best deck parties I've been to ever. Lively band and passengers. We danced (and danced and danced). After a little too many tropical drinks, a couple of us lay on a deserted patch of deck and watched the stars. Divine.

Entertainment in the main lounge was wonderful. An 80's show that turned my nieces into maniacs. They were pre-teens and teens in the 80's and knew every song, They also SANG them - loudly. One of my nieces was chosen for the Jeopardy-type game and won a bottle of champagne.

Piano Bar was actually scary. The piano player was honestly depressed. He was glum and sad. We went in once and then didn't go back. He would stand outside the door because no one would come in. Sad, because the piano bar is usually a great hangout.

Casino
One niece is a BJ nut who goes to LV and is a pretty good player. She came out a bit ahead. She is also a severe asthmatic and the smoke was controlled enough it didn't bother her at all. Good job with the ventilation system, Carnival. Our buddy Donnie D would walk into the casino and the casino manager would quickly open a table for him (and for us). Grand.

Food
Buffet was the same. Pizza yummy. Dining service superb. Of course, it might have had something to do with our dining companion, Donny D. Waiters and Maitre 'd all knew him from former cruises and fawned all over him (and us). Chocolate melting cake as good as always, as was the pumpkin soup.

Ports
Freeport: At my advise, we stayed onboard in Freeport and spent the day at the spa. Massages, seaweed wraps, hand massages, salt scrubs - heaven. TIP: We attended the raffle first night onboard and 3 (or 4) of us won some sort of service in the spa. There were only about 15 people there and they had free service coupons for about 10 people. We traded around and all got what we wanted for free! All services were wonderful. Salt scrub and massage (my two) were the best I've had -- at least at sea.

Nassau: In Nassau we strolled thru the straw market for those who hadn't been to Nassau and then grabbed a cab for Cable Beach. Can't remember the name of the hotel lobby we walked thru to get to the beach, but the beach experience was wonderful. Small number of vendors on the beach (not pushy at all), bar on the beach, free chairs and not at ALL crowded.

We decided to parasail and I put that on my "you must do this before you die" list. After parasailing, we headed back by the good old #10 bus (I've been to Nassau 5 other times and took the bus several times -- it's easy and 50 cents). Radio was on and one niece began singing along with the music. Mostly locals on the bus who laughed and had a great time. The few tourists looked at us like we were crazy, but all the locals waved goodbye as we left. Stopped at Fish Fry for a wonderful lunch on the upper outside deck. It feels more like the "real" Nassau with mostly locals and few tourists. Great, but all fried (hence the name) food. Back on the bus and to the ship.

Formal Night
We all dressed up - not formal gowns, but very, very dressy. It was a blast, but 7 women getting dressed for formal night in two cabins is a riot. We ran back and forth between cabins in various states of attire. We also kept blowing the power in our cabins out with hairdryers plugged into the power strips. We had lots of pics taken on formal night of the various groups: sisters with sisters, mothers with daughters, all together, etc. I'm so glad that Carnival has b&w pics available.

The End
Too soon our cruise was over and we waited in our cabins until they threw us out. I always marvel at people who don't have an early flight, or a long drive, rushing off the ship. They have to pry me away.

In short, I would recommend the Sensation for both newbies and more experienced cruisers. Even though it's 4 short days (hard if you've sailed on many 7 day cruises), it wasn't a wild party, but also not boring.