bda73

Hey great review, my family just booked the Bliss for Alaska 2020 (our 20th wedding anniversary). Just for first time future cruisers..always good to call your bank, cell phone and credit card companies ahead of your trip to let them know of your travels so they dont shut you card/cell phone off during your vacation. Cant wait to read more about your trip. We have been to st thomas 2 times and we both love that island.

Day 5 St Thomas.....

We arrived early in the morning to St Thomas, our excurssion of Meagan's Bay and Paradise Point tour was purchased thru Carnival. I am slowly leaning towards booking things on my own but for the sake of my fellow travelers we kept to playing it safe and staying within Carnival's control.

As you get off the ship there is a small market area for you to purchase pretty much anything you desire, but being that this was our second time to the island we had one destination in mind and that was the diamond district. There are plenty of taxi vans on the island so in my opinion this is one island you could book things on your own.

Our bus/truck took us up the winding roads of the island to give us a beautiful overview of Meagan's Bay (if i figured out how to post pics again Ill get them up.) Looking down over the lush green trees down showing the beautiful cutout of the bay. Now I will say I believe the beach is overrated. I prefer Horseshoe Bay in Bermuda, but never the less the beach is still beautiful if i compare to my home beach lol.

The tour took us down to the beach where the water was crystal clear and warm. Warning...for any pale people out there even though you feel cool in the water PLEASE APPLY AND REAPPLY SUN TAN LOTION, especially your face and if you cut your hair short the top of your head. I got lathered up but neglected my crew cut and paid dearly lol.

After 2 hours our tour guide huddled us back into the bus/truck and to Paradise Point. Its a tropical ski lift to the top of the island where you can overlook a scenic view of your ship and the harbor. There is a shop and a restaurant there if needed.

This is where our group broke apart as one of my buddies really wanted to see the Magic Ice bar while my goal was to get back to one particular jewelry store. As mentioned before there are plenty of taxis on the island and with enough time half our party went to the bar (my family did this on our last trip to the island) and the other half followed me to the jewelry area.

I have to say when you walk down the main strip everyone is outside trying their darnest to pull you into their store. All the taxi drivers are hooked up with one store or another so when i gave our driver the exact location he said to me....i know this guy...everyone does....and he will be better than the store you want to go to...and if he isnt the store you want is a few doors down...

ok fine...i would rather play nice with the guy who is driving me around and say sure lets go see your guy.

The store was typical pushy pushy...constantly wanting to upgrade what you wanted and asked for....my wife and one friend bought a Caribbean bracelet that is comparable to the irish Claddagh ring in which you wore it one direction it meant your heart was taken..another..and you were single and ready to mingle...lol...

My wife got fustrated with them after 5 minutes and basically told the guy enough...I want out...

So while one of our friends went across the street to buy an expensive watch my wife and son went down to Eden, thats the store where my wife fell in love with a chocolate diamond ring that I bought for her 2 years ago...we wanted to find matching earings or a necklace...

so while I waited for our friend my wife and son went to Eden and got to see the same husband and wife who we saw 2 years prior.

I do not like to haggle, I am simply not good at that, and I dont like to be around pushy sales men...in Eden I didnt feel the need to haggle...they were terrific asked us if we needed anything in particular and only showed what my wife wanted.

Yes...we spent a pretty penny...LOTS OF PENNIES!

But..my wife got what she wanted and that is all that matters right..

After that we drove back to the ship but stopped to buy my son some Ray Ban sunglasses at the market right before where you enter to board the ship.

Overall St Thomas is a beautiful island worth seeing and going back to.

Some pics of the adult area

I figured out how to get the pics to work.....

so here is our room:

The day we were supposed to arrive at San Juan was met with some storms which caused our arrival to go from 3pm (which by the way is horrible as most things you do in San Juan requires some travel time) to 6:30 which pretty much killed any chance of doing something in the daylight.

Our original goal was to get a cab and go to one of the forts then off to diner. This was the second time for my family so we knew of a nice restaurant that was nearby the dock. SO with the delayed arrival the ability to go to the fort was out, so we were then going to just walk around Old San Juan and eat....just what everyone wants to do on a cruise go out to eat LMFAO.

When we got off the boat there was tons of vans waiting each wanting to give us a tour....so for 10 a person we all jumped into an air conditioned van and went on a 1 hour tour. It was worth it. We got to see some of the highlights of the city...drove by the fort...saw some govt buildings and a beautiful site overlooking an old graveyard with the ocean as a beautiful backdrop.

So the first two sea days were pretty uneventful, spent time laying out first by the slides then over at the serenity area. Played your typical games of charades, jenga, trivia. We had the late evening dining and it felt like evey night the dining room at the Sunset opened late, being a table of 12 this meant we were usually the last to leave. Normally I would say that isnt an issue but it meant that we didnt get to see most shows.

The 70's show was fun as was the rock show. The comedy was so so...

Overall i was underwhelmed by the entertainment.

Loving this review although I can't see the pictures in the cruise critic app.

 

 

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I do not have copies or pictures of the Fun Times as we all relied on the Carnival App. The app is free however if you wanted to add the ability to text each other that was $5 extra. If you wanted slow internet for social media to keep up with everyone on sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter that was an extra $40 for the entire cruise. Yes you could post, but it was slow and unreliable at times.

So lets talk about the ship. The ship looks old. You just get the feeling that when they renovated the ship only the exterior and pool deck got a remodel. The carpets in the cabins and hallways were worn down pretty bad. I know I know picky picky...you can see where everyone leaves their luggage at the conclusion as the area is faded.

The kids did enjoy the water slides, but a couple of times they were closed due to high winds..cant help that.

There were plenty of deck chairs along the back of the ship where there is NO POOL..so if your kids didnt enjoy long high slides they had to go to the main pool area, which is extremely small.

I will say that the serenity area for adults lived up to its hype. Great padded chairs and little enclosed loveseats..a few hammocks...the adult pool with the water fall was very nice as was the adults only hot tub.

The main big screen on the lido deck was pretty crisp and made watching nighttime movies entertaining.

Couple of major issues happened during our stay...

8337 A/C was a meatlocker the first night and after complaining about it they basically turned the air off completely the next three days my buddy and his wife were in a sauna..

the inside cabin never had A/C...now image 3 teenagers, football size guys in an interior cabin without a/c it smelled like a gym locker...everyday a call went down and every day maintenance did not correct the problem. Carnival gave us a 100 on board credit for each passenger in the room...big whoopie

The other three cabins, including mine, were fine.

Ok...so as seasoned cruisers I found myself constantly comparing this ship to others we have sailed on...

We always book a balcony and lately its the aft balcony that we choose.

We had room 8339, our friends were 8337, 8330 and our boys were the inside cabin 8326

Here is a pic of our room

the room itself was ok in size...

the balcony was a little smaller than the one on the NCL Breakaway and the bathroom was very very tight....

Hi Al...

 

Just wondering what your itinerary was? I like to know ahead of time!

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Amazon photos

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Good start!

thanks it is going to take some time as I am going through the 2k plus pictures we took during the 8 days

Nice start, can't wait to hear about your cruise. Is that the group luggage or just your family?

That was 10 out of the 12's luggage.

My wife and I tend to over pack when we travel to have extra clothes just in case.

One thing I will mention about the Sunshine is that they allow, on casual nights, for the men to wear dress shorts. I have had issues in the past where cruise lines had rules stating men had to wear slacks while allowing women to wear microskits into the dining rooms.

Ok with that out of the way let's begin......

Our car service met typical NYC traffic as we headed in from eastern long island...dam you 59th Street bridge!!! Never the less we arrived at the port at 11:30 a good 30 minutes later than our check in time. Because we paid for Faster to the Fun, we bypassed a vast amount of people both before the metal detectors as well as the check in desk. This in itself was worth the $80 per cabin as four of us in our party of 12 have medical issues, 2 bad backs, a sprained ankle and one bad knee. Yeah it sucks getting old lol.

After checking in we were able to get right on board and entered via the main lobby.

We were greeted by a nice array of towel animals.....

Say hello to my little friends.....

Hello everyone, my name is Al and over the next few posts I will be posting about my experience aboard the Sunshine. This is my first written review so please be kind as I am an accountant and not an English major lol.

First a little about me, my family and the group that went on this vacation.

We all come from Long Island New York and are all good friends. Out of the 12 of us there were 7 first time cruisers.

My wife is a teacher, my son is a 14 year old football player.

Our friends are T, his wife L and their two boys N (16 years old) and J (13) (both football players) who were cruise virgins.

Our friend C and her two daughters J (20) and G (16) who also took the plunge in trying out a cruise for a vacation.

Last but not least our friend LR and her son B (also 16 year old football player).

All the boys go to the same school and have been playing football since they were 5/6 years old.

The group relied on my wife and I's past experiences when it comes to what to do, where to go and what to bring. Sometimes I have to admit I found myself comparing this ship to past cruises, both good and bad and may have given off an biased opinion towards the rookies.

As I go through my/our experience please feel free to ask any questions or post any comments.

I will only post pictures of my family and not of the others as I respect their privacy and don't need to lose friends over a misunderstanding.

My son and I.....

My beautiful wife and our son

Just SOME of the luggage

Four cruises with four people, all with phones. Also had a camera. Never brought a power strip and never had issues keeping everyone charged up. So this is not a must.

To each their own as I've done 7 cruised and always brought one so I never had to worry about which outlet has what.

I usually bring two cameras 3 phones a gopro with external chargers and extra batteries for all.

All depends on how much you use your technology.

Most rooms have 2 outlets available so bringing a strip gives you flexibilty.

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Power strip is a must.

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Barrachina

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Last year we went to san juan for a Carnival cruise and fell on love with mofungo and tres leches dessert. ..did you see the restaurant that was the home of the pina colada?

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Lol...posting during the super bowl...commitment

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Quick question, did you happen to see on any of the dinner menus beef wellington? Our first cruise we saw it and didnt order, now every episode of Hells Kitchen reminds us of not trying it.....

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Im from eastern suffolk...cant wait to try all the fruity drinks with the unlimited drink package

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I would expect the size of the steak to be small for breakfast.

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