Carnival Sensation Cruise: Day One

On Thursday afternoon, a group of 10 of us boarded the Carnival Sensation!

For those who live within driving distance of a cruise port, cruises are a great way to go on an inexpensive vacation since we only need to park at the port and hop aboard. No flights! I’ve gone on a small handful of cruises, never paying more than $300 which includes a small room and every single meal.

Most cruises charge extra for drinks, spa services, fitness classes and excursions. Since we typically bring our own liquor aboard the ship (you can prepay for bottles to be in your room upon arrival and every guest is allowed to bring a bottle of champagne or wine aboard a Carnival cruise) and do the cheapest excursions imaginable (booze cruise!), a weekend cruise ends up being quite affordable when compared to flying somewhere, paying for a hotel and lots of meals and drinks out at restaurants. It always seems like at least half of the people aboard cruise ships leaving from Florida are from Florida.

Our cruise group included me and Ryan, my sister Leslie and her boyfriend Ross, my former sorority sisters and friends Laurel and Leah, Leah’s fiancé Ricky, Leah’s sister Jenn, Ryan’s cousin Daniel and Daniel’s friend Ryan.

Got that?

It was a fun group!

Carnival Sensation Cruise: Day One

When we arrived aboard the ship, we hit up the lunch buffet before we dropped off stuff in our room and mixed ourselves drinks using the vodka we preordered. We then took our drinks to the Lido Deck at the top of the ship to get the fun started! 

We didn’t have long before all cruise passengers were required to participate in a safety drill just in case the worst should happen while we were at sea.

Once the drill was over, we went back to our rooms to see if our luggage was delivered, changed into our bathing suits, refreshed our drinks and headed back to the Lido Deck where we spent the rest of the afternoon.

Our group had an 8:15 p.m. dinnertime and headed back to our rooms a little before then to get ready for our first dinner aboard the ship.

Since I wasn’t in blogger-mode at all, I didn’t snap any pictures at dinner but enjoyed the first of three three-course dinners on the Carnival Sensation. I loved the food and dinners were always one of my favorite times on the ship!

After dinner on the first night, we headed out to one of the clubs aboard the cruise and had a good time watching people perform karaoke (we even saw a proposal!) before calling it a night.

It was a great start to a great cruise!