Carnival Sunshine Review - April 24-29 2016

A little about us first. This was the third cruise for my husband (Andrew) and myself (Cassie), the second for our daughter (Sophia, 3) and first for our son (Landon, 14 months). We cruised on the Sunshine out of Port Canaveral to Half Moon Cay, Nassau, and Freeport.

DISCLAIMER: This is not going to be the most exciting review you’ll ever read. In fact, I debated even writing it, but I like going back to read our first two on occasion and want to also have this one to later compare and thought maybe this might help out other families of little ones doing planning. Comparing our first cruise (just the two of us) to our second cruise (with our daughter then 14 months), obviously there is a big difference when cruising with toddlers. But now this time having a young toddler and a 3 year old… it was rough at times! We still had fun, but it was exhausting. I’ll share some of our experiences that might help to have a heads up about.

Cruise Planning

When we decided we wanted to do another cruise, we knew we wanted to try out a ship that had the 2.0 upgrades. We then looked at the ports that would be easiest driving distance for us: New Orleans, Charleston, Jacksonville, and Port Canaveral. New Orleans, for the time frame we wanted, only had the exact same itinerary we did on our first cruise, so we ruled that one out early. Charleston and Jacksonville didn’t have 2.0 ships, so they were also out. So it was down to Port Canaveral. Now my husband had been hoping to try a 7 day cruise this time, but they only had 5 days. We semi-debated a 7 day out of Miami, but knew we couldn’t deal with another drive to Miami (never again!). So we decided the Sunshine was the one for us and we’d just add on some beach time in Cocoa Beach before the cruise. Book it!!! :D

Pre-Cruise

We would be driving down to Florida from Central Illinois. Even with breaking it into 3 days, 17 hours is a lot of time spent in a vehicle, especially for little ones, so I knew I needed to be ready for whining. I put together a tub of busy toys. Along with books, coloring books, and activity books, I made a few things I found online (thank you pinterest!): a felt dolls book, an “are we there yet” map, foam lacing shapes, a gel filled aquarium, can of pipe cleaners, and an eye spy bottle

So our trip started out on Wednesday, 4/20, with first driving down to my in-laws in Southern Illinois for a night, they would be watching our dog for us. Thursday morning we then took off for a long day driving down to Valdosta, GA.

And of course it had to start out like this:

Lots of rain on and off. But we kept the kids happy enough and made it!

The “are we there yet” map didn’t quite work out how I was hoping. Now I just heard lots of “are we in Georgia/Florida yet”. Oh well!

We finally made it to our hotel for the night and after letting them run around a bit, we got the kids to bed since it was past their bedtime.

Then the next morning, after grabbing some breakfast at Bojangles (so wish we had those up here!), it was back on the road to finish our drive to Cocoa Beach. Once crossing over into Florida, we had to stop at the welcome center to get our free Florida orange juice and of course take our pic by the sign (which ended up being the only pic we got of all 4 of us looking at the camera...).

A few more hours in the car, and lots and lots of tolls, we finally made it! As we were driving past the port, we even spotted some ships. Not much longer and we’ll see a whale tail over there!

We made our way over to our hotel to check in. We stayed at the Best Western Cocoa Beach. Overall, we were happy with our choice. It is set up with several different buildings; two larger buildings with interior entrance rooms, and three smaller two-story outside entrance buildings. We stayed in one of the smaller motel rooms. At check in, I was asked if we would be going on a cruise, and when I said yes to that and that we would be driving over to the port, we were given a 40% off parking voucher. I knew about this and was planning on asking for it, but it was nice that they checked with everyone in case others don't know about it.

It was a great location; just a short drive from the port, several restaurants all along the street, and had direct beach access.

We had a couple complaints with the room, though. I quickly noticed the bottom of my son’s feet were turning black. I’m not sure if it was something in the dye of the dark carpet or what the deal was, because it seemed pretty clean other than that. The rest of us kept socks on in the room, but he just rips socks right off, so I went through some wet wipes cleaning up his feet when we’d leave the room.

But our big issue was with our door. It would not lock just by being pulled shut. After pulling and pulling on it, my husband finally figured out that you have to first jiggle on the inside handle to release the lock and then you can pull it shut.

It also had two large outdoor pools that I forgot to get a pic of.

After unloading the van, we walked over to the Cocoa Beach Pier, which is just one block over.

Sophia was so excited about the beach!

We walked through the shop, but Sophia was getting antsy and just wanted to get down to the beach. So we walked back to the hotel, ditched the stroller and picked up the sand toys. Then over to the beach we go!

Here’s a full look at the pier. We hadn’t realized that you have to pay to walk all the way to the end (starting at that middle blue building). It was just a couple dollars, but we knew she wanted to get to the beach so we didn’t bother.

Sophia complained and complained about walking in the sand (said it hurts her feet…), but had no problem taking off once she saw some birds. She started asking them if they know Judy (any bird who lands up on our chimney and chirps, she runs over and talks to them, she calls them Judy).

My little guy wasn’t quite so sure about the sand. He was too little to really get down and play with it during our trip to Gulf Shores last summer, so this was his first real experience with it.

But after a few minutes he decided he liked it and quickly realized it was fun to play in.

We got a nice surprise when we looked out and saw a ship was headed out! Not much longer and it’ll be our turn!!!

The kiddos were both itching to get down and check out the water.

This guy just seemed amazed by it! He just stood there and watched and watched it. We then took his hand and brought him close enough so the water washed up onto his toes. He loved it!

And then this happened… I knew I should have put her swim suit on. Not sure what I was thinking. She thought it was pretty funny, though.

A little more playing in the sand (which meant she ended up caked in it), before packing our things up.

Here’s a better look at the suites from the beach. And you can see our smaller building to the left.

After a shower for Sophia (another downside of the room, no tub for the kids), we cleaned up to get ready for dinner. Thanks to Trip Advisor, we decided on a local restaurant for dinner, The Tiny Turtle. And I’m so glad we did. It was delicious! I got the beef islander wrap, I’m pretty sure Andrew got the Sofrito Bowl and the kids shared a grilled cheese. I highly recommend checking it out! Very fast service, too.

We ended our night with some swimming at the hotel pool. The sky started to look like it was going to storm on us, but it never did, thankfully.

Coming up… our full day in Cocoa Beach before boarding the Carnival Sunshine!

Great start to your review!!! I am loving it!!!:D

You have such a beautiful family.......

Cannot wait to read more..:D

Such cute kids!

Nice photos, looking forward to the rest.:)

I remember your previous reviews and loved them! I am looking forward to more of your review. So nice to see Sophia again, and your new addition to the family. :)

Great review - looking forward to more!

Kim

Enjoying your review so far. We will be sailing on the Sunshine in two weeks when she leaves dry dock and heads to Charleston. Those kids are absolutely adorable! Can't wait to hear the rest of your adventure.

My wife and I are native Floridians and I drive in and out of Georgia fairly often for work and when we go on vacations and I have never stopped at the welcome station for free OJ. Imma have to do that next time.

I've also never sailed out of Canaveral but I'm looking at that for our next cruise (we haven't been on our first yet lol. We're heading to Ft Lauderdale in July for our first Carnival cruise)

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

Great start to your review!!! I am loving it!!!:D

You have such a beautiful family.......

Cannot wait to read more..:D

Thanks so much! Hopefully I won't disappoint.

Such cute kids!

Aww thanks! :)

Nice photos, looking forward to the rest.:)

Thanks for reading!

I remember your previous reviews and loved them! I am looking forward to more of your review. So nice to see Sophia again, and your new addition to the family. :)

Oh thanks so much! :)

Great review - looking forward to more!

 

 

Kim

Thanks for reading!

Enjoying your review so far. We will be sailing on the Sunshine in two weeks when she leaves dry dock and heads to Charleston. Those kids are absolutely adorable! Can't wait to hear the rest of your adventure.

Thanks! :) Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

My wife and I are native Floridians and I drive in and out of Georgia fairly often for work and when we go on vacations and I have never stopped at the welcome station for free OJ. Imma have to do that next time.

 

I've also never sailed out of Canaveral but I'm looking at that for our next cruise (we haven't been on our first yet lol. We're heading to Ft Lauderdale in July for our first Carnival cruise)

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

Yes, it's a really nice welcome center. They have both orange juice and grapefruit juice to choose from. I had read about it on here and we checked it out on our way to our last cruise, so had to stop again.

I'll add in more info once I get to the port section, but everything went really smoothly with boarding, so no complaints at all with Canaveral.

Enjoying the review so far, and can't wait to read more!

Enjoying the review so far, and can't wait to read more!

Thanks for reading! :)

Pre-cruise day in Cocoa Beach:

Our morning started with going over to the breakfast room that is in one of the larger buildings across the street. They had a very nice breakfast selection. A pancake machine, eggs, sausage, muffins, cereal, yogurt, fruit, etc. Sophia thought the pancake machine was pretty neat; you just push a button and out comes pancakes!

Blurry phone photo, but we had to get a pic with the astronaut surfer in the breakfast room.

After breakfast we grabbed our beach gear and headed over. There were quite a few surfers out this morning.

They were fun to watch.

We had fun playing at the beach for a couple hours. Landon got right to playing in the sand today. He loved it! I’m really not sure why I didn’t put him in his swim suit, though. Especially after the mess Sophia was the afternoon before. I obviously wasn't thinking. He eventually ended up wet and covered in sand today. But oh well! They had a blast and that’s all that matters.

Why yes, yes we did have matching beach hats! :D

Once the kids were ready to move on to something else, we packed up and walked back to our hotel room to clean up for lunch. We again picked a local place and went with Epic Burrito Company. Another very good meal. They were a little slow, with just two people working, but I’m glad we went. You choose if you want either a burrito, taco, quesadilla, bowl, salad, or nachos and then pick your toppings. I went with the steak quesadilla. Yummy!

Andrew got a burrito (I’m thinking chicken, but can’t remember at the moment) and the kids shared a cheese quesadilla.

After lunch we went back to the hotel to let the kids nap. Sophia has started protesting naps (unfortunately…), so she ended up just playing the tablet and with some toys while Landon napped.

Once he was up and ready to move on, we went back over to the pier to people watch for a bit. It was so nice out! I was really surprised by the weather. I was really expecting that crazy Florida humidity, but there was none of that. It was just perfect out!

Lots more surfers out now.

We debated on how we wanted to spend the evening. My husband has this thing with mall food courts. I don’t know, he just loves all the selection I guess. So after a quick search we found a nearby mall and decided to go over there. We assumed (wrong) that they would have a kids playground that we could spend some time at before eating dinner. They didn’t though, so we just walked through some shops.

Sophia wanted pizza, so I got a slice for her and Landon and I got the stromboli. It was mega greasy, though. Not so good. But we topped it off with a little pre-cruise treat and got some fro-yo! Landon wasn’t so sure about the sour green apple flavor, his reaction was pretty hilarious, but Sophia and I liked it! Then she said “hey mom, take my pic!” and went running over to give the yogurt cup guy a hug.

Sophia wanted to end the night with some swimming in the hotel pool. The weather had started to cool off a bit, so I decided to keep Landon in the room and (since we had multiple bags for the different legs of our trip) I worked on reorganizing/packing to get ready for the cruise, which Andrew took Sophia to swim.

Then finally it was time to try to get some sleep before the cruise!

Coming up… embarkation!

I am enjoying your review. Your kids are so cute!!!

Looking forward to the rest of your review! Loving it!

Enjoying your review!