Sunday, April 25, 2010

Photo tour and Profile of Carnival Sensation


Carnival has made the decision to keep its Fantasy-class ships viable. These eight ships were built in the early 1990s and have served the company well. Offering good quality amenities and facilities at an affordable price, these 70,000 gross ton ships were in no small measure an important factor in making Carnival the world’s most popular cruise line.

Today, the fleets of the major cruise lines, including Carnival, are dominated by much larger ships with more features than the Fantasy class chips. As a result, most pf the major lines have sold or are transferring ships of the same age to their subsidiaries in the secondary market. From a nautical and technological standpoint, there is nothing wrong with these ships. The problem is that they do not have all the features that the new ships have.

Carnival, however, has seen that there is still a place for these ships. There are ports that serve areas where there is an untapped demand for cruising but which may not be big enough to justify deploying a new mega-cruise ship to that area. In addition, there is a market for short cruises that are an economical vacation or a good short break. Again, it probably would not be an efficient deployment of resources to have new mega-cruise ships doing short cruises but it would work with a smaller ship.

Therefore, Carnival is investing millions on its Evolutions of Fun re-vitalization program for its Fantasy class ships. For Carnival Sensation, the third of the Fantasy-class ships, this revitalization took place in two parts. In 2007, her interior public spaces and staterooms received a facelift. Then, in 2009, she went in for a second refit.

This time, the big changes to Sensation were to the open decks. The main pool area has been redecorated so as to give it a more upscale feel. In addition, the spiral water slide and the children’s Water Wars equipment have been removed. Similarly, the children’s pool, which was located at the stern on the promenade deck, has been replaced by an adults-only retreat.

Sensation, however, is still family-friendly. Replacing the aforementioned children’s facilities is a new aqua park called Water Works. This large area has a giant spiral water slide, racing slides, and fountains spraying streams of water.

In addition to the changes to the open decks, Carnival added three sections of balcony staterooms to the ship. Balconies are incredibly popular in the cruise business. Consequently, ships built without balconies have to have balconies added if they are to remain viable in the primary market.

The new Beyondships profile and photo tour of Sensation shows the finished product. In addition, I have added a page to the photo tour to show what the ship looked like before the most recent changes were made. The profile is at http://beyondships.com/CarnivalSensation-Profile.html and the photo tour begins at http://beyondships.com/CarnivalSensation-Tour-1.html

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