MistyRo76

Aww…thank you so much! It’s so fun reliving our trip and remembering all the fun we had! unfortunately with a kiddo in school and a full time job, it’ll probably be next fall at the earliest before we get to cruise again. But I’ll definitely do another review! thanks for reading along!

I think some people see what they want to see. It’s a 20+ year old ship…there’s going to be wear and tear. But for me, that kind of stuff just doesn’t impact my cruise. It was a clean ship and we had a wonderful time! I’m glad now that we didn’t have to mess with taking an Uber to the port. Having our car there and being able to get right on the road was great! And we almost got back home before dark! Enjoy your trip! I can’t wait to go back to Charleston!

We just returned from our cruise last weekend. We ended up getting cabana 10 and it was a great location. There were restrooms just right back behind our cabanas. And the food pavilion was just a short walk. We walked over there and brought plates of food for our group back to the cabana and ate there. It was not super loud or crowded down in this area at all. We could hear music from the bars in the distance. we did not use the trams except for the one that took us to our stingray excursion. But the cabana attendant sent a ride to pick us up and take us back to port. Not sure if that is normal or not. But she asked what time we wanted to leave and then came back just before that time and told us a tram would pick us up on the road just behind the cabanas. we loved having a cabana and would do it again in a heartbeat!

Just back a week ago from our Sunshine fall break cruise and have started looking for a mom/daughter cruise for my kiddo's next fall break! 🙂 Based on our likely fall break week (2024-25 calendar not out yet), I've narrowed it down to two five day cruise options (only looking at shorter cruises right now). Option 1: Carnival Sunrise from Miami Nassau/Half Moon Cay/Grand Turk Option 2: Carnival Freedom from Port Canaveral Amber Cove/Grand Turk Pricing is comparable. We usually book balconies, but at a minimum I would want a window. I also prefer to be on a mid-deck (7 is our favorite deck). If we go with the Freedom, I would probably be tempted to book the bowling alley balcony cabin aft Deck 6 or 7. But for this sailing, the only cabins with windows would be deck 1 or 2. If we go with the Sunrise, I would consider booking the Interior w/ Obstructed Walkway View near the secret deck forward on Deck 7. Kind of seems best of both worlds - access to the secret desk just steps from our cabin, window and $300 cheaper than any balcony I'd consider. With it being me and the kiddo (9 year girl), I think it would be a good option for us! The itinerary on the Sunrise isn't my fave. We literally just did Nassau and HMC. If we booked this one, we would probably just stay on the ship in Nassau which would probably be very nice. And the addition of Grand Turk is appealing. The Freedom itinerary is good. I like the 2 sea days and I've never been to Amber Cove before. So that would be new for us. Sunrise has more bells and whistles than Freedom and would be a new to me ship. But I'm sure the kiddo would be happy with either as long as there are waterslides! Lots to consider! Help me pick! Or give me your insights on the ships!

I wouldn't hesitate to cruise on the Sunshine again for the right itinerary! It's great that she has so many of the upgrades some of the newer ships have with the Waterworks and Sports Square areas and ropes course and the added food options like Ji Ji's and Cucina! It felt like there was a ton to do and even more to eat! We didn't get to do/see/eat everything we wanted to in our five days on her! I never did get my Guy's Burger! 😞

We liked the Red Frog Pub in the evenings when we sailed Vista several years ago. It wasn't usually too busy and service was quick.

Sounds fun to me! My hubby doesn't drink but next time I'm cruising with the girls, I think we will do this as well. Don't forget the Serenity Bar! They have some of the best drinks on the ship! Are you also including the bars within the theaters/lounges? My favorite spots to get drinks are usually the Atrium, Casino Bar, and Reg Frog Rum Bar. I enjoy the drinks at Alchemy too, but they can be very slow!

Wrap up & Final Thoughts Overall, we had a GREAT vacation with many wonderful memories made together! Here are just a few final thoughts on our trip: Carnival Sunshine - I thought she was a great ship! She is showing her age a bit, but it was nothing that prevented us from having an amazing time. And crew were constantly cleaning and maintaining the ship while we were on it and in port. The layout took a day or so to get used to as it's not quite like similar ships such as the Valor. Just some minor differences that threw me at first. Lines were long at popular venues like Guy's Burgers and Blue Iguana. Even mid-day, you can expect a wait. But they move fast. The ship didn't seem overly congested to me. I had read of bottlenecks of people in certain areas, but didn't find it to be a problem. There were a lot of kids on this sailing due to fall breaks going on. So kids areas were very busy. Lines at Camp Ocean were often long and very slow. This area is also one of the most congested areas so when it's busy, the area becomes full. The line for the trick or treat event, spilled out the door onto Deck 10 and down toward the smoking area. This area just doesn't flow well. I think they can also do some things to streamline the pick-up/drop off process. Maybe have kiosks to check your kid in and then the staff verifies the info and takes the kid back. Also pick up and drop off should have separate lines or be in different areas. As I mentioned, my kid didn't love camp. But she's in that weird "tween" age group. Maybe they need to re-evaluate the programs for this age and offer more independent play for those who don't want to do group activities. Wi-Fi/Hub Chat - I purchased the premium wi-fi plan prior to my cruise. Once on the ship, my cell service was spotty so I switched over to Airplane mode and got on the Carnival Wi-Fi. I paid the $5 fee to activate the chat but when I tried to use it, it kept acting like I hadn't paid. I couldn't get the chat to work all day. I was able to send FB Messenger message to Kae Lee but because she didn't pay for the wi-fi, she could only read the messages not respond. Finally on day 2, the chat feature just started working. We would have periods of time during the cruise where the chat wouldn't connect. The wi-fi could be a bit spotty depending where you were on the ship, but over all seemed to work fairly well. We didn't have too many issues with rowdy behavior on the ship. A couple of nights, there were kids running up and down our hallway being loud late at night. But those were isolated events and not the norm. I didn't see any kids congregated in the stairwells. There were a couple riding elevators up and down one day, but didn't seem to be causing trouble or getting in the way of other guests. The pool was busy most days, but not overly so in my opinion. The lifeguard kept close watch and would intervene if anyone was getting too rowdy. A large majority of the passengers on this sailing (and I'm guessing most sailings out of Charleston) were from South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. Now that I've sailed out of a couple non-Florida ports, it's interested how much more regionally based the guests are when going from NOLA or Charleston as compared to Miami or Port Canaveral. Most of the guests are this cruise were very friendly - lots of Southern Hospitality on display! Port of Charleston - I would definitely sail from Charleston again if the opportunity presented itself before the port closes to cruises. But it would have to be a better itinerary or a great price. I'm not eager to return to Nassau again any time soon. Wish they would offer some longer itineraries from there with more varied ports. Getting on the ship in Charleston was super easy! One of the easiest I've had in 20 cruises. But debarkation too a little longer. It wasn't hard just a bit of a wonkier set up. I'm glad we waited until later to get off as the parking lot was mostly empty and it was easy to get out and on the road. The DOLPHINS! All the dolphins! If you sail from Charleston, go there a day or two early. It's such a lovely city with so much to do and something to offer everyone! I can't wait to go back! That's all I can think of for now. But happy to answer questions if anyone has one! If I think of anything I forgot, I'll come back and post it! I'm not sure what's on the agenda for our next sailing! Cruises aren't hubby's favorite vacation. But he's interested in possibly doing an Alaska cruise soon. We may look at those for 2025. I've already started the research and I think it's very possible we may go with another cruiseline for that trip. I may also sneak in another short cruise over our fall break next year as well. This could be just a Sawyer-mom girls trip as dad may not be ready to get back onboard just yet. I'm just waiting for next school year's calendar to come out so I can start narrowing down options! Thank you all for following along! It's been fun to re-live our vacation again here!

October 14, 2023 - Carnival Sunshine Debarkation & Travel Home Well, folk...we've just about come to the end of our journey! Today we would leave the Carnival Sunshine. Now, normally when I cruise, I'm hauling butt off the ship as early a possible to catch a flight home. But since we drove to this cruise, we decided to take our time getting off the ship and hopefully beat some of the early rush. We had set our larger luggage out the night before just leaving our backpacks and one small rolling bag to take off with us. I set an alarm for 6:45 AM so we would have time to get ready and grab a bite to eat. Initially, we thought we would just go to the main dining room for breakfast, but Drew opted for coffee and a pipe over food, so Sawyer and I just hit the buffet. We ran into Kae Lee and sat near the Blue Iguana. We found Drew in the Deck 10 smoking area and told him, we would meet him back at the cabin. Everyone was supposed to be out of their cabins by 8:30 AM. Sawyer and I went back to the cabin and hung out on our balcony. It was a beautiful morning in Charleston and the dolphins were right were we left them, welcoming us back! At 8:30 Drew was not back. I noticed he had taken his phone, so I turned my phone off airplane mode to try to text him. I had several messages from him asking where we were and saying he was knocking at the door trying to get in. We didn't hear the knocking from the balcony - those balcony doors are pretty sound proof. Sometime between buying his coffee and coming back to the cabin, Drew misplaced his S&S card. He finally showed back up to the cabin and we grabbed our stuff, did one final check of the room and left. We found our cabin attendant and gave her an extra tip. On our way down to the Lobby on Deck 3, Drew decided to swing back by Java Blue to see if he card was there but it wasn't. We asked one of the crew directing people off the ship what he needed to do and were told they would be able to show him off the ship manually by pulling my profile up. So we got in and line and soon we were off the ship. Once off the ship, we followed the line to the baggage claim area. We had priority bag tags #3 and found them easily in the area for #3 tags. We then got in a line for a shuttle bus to the parking lot. They were using large coach buses to move people to the lot. Baggage was able to be stored under the bus and it was just a short ride. Once we collected our bags again, we walked a short distance to get away from the shuttle bus traffic. We dropped our bags there and Drew took off to get the car and drive it around to us. Within minutes, we were all packed up and on the road. It was a mostly uneventful drive home. I-26 still sucked! The mountains were still beautiful. And it rained on and off the last hour of our drive. Pretty much our drive down, just in reverse! We pulled in our driveway just before 7:15PM and came home to one happy puppy! I will share some final overall thoughts on the cruise, ship and trip overall in the next post!

October 13, 2023 - Carnival Sunshine Fun Day & Sea Overnight we heard a few rumbles of thunder and we woke up to grey skies and rain. I had planned to get up early and run on the track, but due to the weather I ended up just sleeping in. Drew went early for his coffee and pipe while Sawyer and I just slept (her) and relaxed (me!). I had made reservations for the Green Eggs & Ham Breakfast at 9:45 AM. This breakfast is held in the Sunset dining room (Deck 3 Forward). We arrived at the appointed time and were sat a large table with another family. The dining is transformed into a Dr. Seuss wonderland with ice sculptures, table decor, themed menu items and visits from several Dr. Seuss characters. A member of the Fun Squad helps entertain the kids with some fun games! I have done this breakfast a couple other times and it's always a fun treat! Sawyer ordered the Truffula Tree Pancakes w/ a Side of Sausage, I ordered the From There to Here, From Here to There, Funny Belgian Waffles are Everywhere and Drew got the Fox in Socks Steak & Eggs (sorry - no pic of this one). You can also get orange juice, apple juice, coffee, hot chocolate or bar service to drink. While everyone is waiting for their food, our first two special guests appear: Thing 1 & Thing 2! They went table to table takings pics with each family. Toward the end of the breakfast, Cat in the Hat and Sam I Am appeared and kids could take pics with them on their way out. The kids menu also has a place for autograph stamps from each character. Overall, the food was great but the service was very slow! I'm not sure what the change is between breakfast and dinners in the MDRs, but in our experience the breakfasts did not flow nearly as well as our dinners. But honestly, the whimsy of Dr. Seuss and all of his characters are the real stars of the show at this meal! And for the low cost, it was very worth it! After breakfast, it was still pretty overcast but the rain had subsided. We went up to Sports Square to see if the ropes course might be open, but it wasn't. Sawyer wanted to play chess with Dad, so I left them there and went down to Deck 5, got a mimosa and got in line for Bingo cards. I needed to cash in the free bingo entry I won at Deal or No Deal. Once they started selling the cards the line moved quickly. The free bingo entry gets you 3 cards ($25 value) for each of the 3 games they were playing that day. You can upgrade to one of the larger card packages by paying the difference in price. I upgraded to the $48 package which got me 9 cards for each game plus 6 bonus cards for the third game which was the Jackpot Bingo game. Using my free bingo winnings, I only had to $23 to upgrade. I caught up with Drew and Sawyer. Drew wanted to go have a pipe and Sawyer wanted to chill in the cabin for a while. I figured that would give me a chance to our bags packed up and ready to put out that night. She played on her iPad while I packed. We then went to Liquid Lounge for Jackpot Bingo. We also had our final towel animal of the cruise when we got to our cabin! Jasper was holding his Q&A in the lounge so it was already very full when we arrived 25 minutes before Bingo. I found seats on the upper level. It was fun listening to Jasper's Q&A. It's a great way to learn a lot about your CDs (favorite ship - the Horizon, how they handle crew sick days onboard, the career progression for a CD, etc.). Soon our Bingo Host Nicki was on stage giving us the instructions for the upcoming games. Game 1 would be traditional bingo, game 2 was all four corners and game 3 was Jackpot Bingo. For Jackpot Bingo, you win $5000 if you cover all the squares on a card within 49 numbers being called. After 49 numbers, the game continues but the Jackpot amount is off the table. No jackpots on this cruise! But the winner of game 3 took home $1400! I had one card that only needed one more number called on game 3 when the winner called Bingo! So close!!!! 😞 After Bingo, we went to a kids Trick or Treat event at 4:00 being held by Camp Ocean. We had to check in at Camp Ocean where we received a bag for our candy and a map of where to go to get the candy. Our stops on our hunt for candy took us to the Carnival Adventures Desk, Fun Shops, Warehouse Arcade, Circle C, Club O2, Pizza Pirate and a few others. Once you get to Pizza Pirate, they will reveal the final mystery stop (Limelight Lounge). The kids all had to be at Limelight Lounge by 4:30 for a their last candy and a little party. Kae Lee and I were going to the Diamond & Platinum Reunion Party at 4:30, so we let her daughter take Sawyer to Limelight Lounge and told them they could run around together until they were to meet us at 5:15 back by Cherry on Top. The Diamond & Platinum Reunion party was held in the Liquid Lounge and as per usual waiters were circulating around with trays of free drinks including Rum Punch, Margaritas, white/red wines, beer, Whiskey Sour and a few more. You can order special request drinks and they will get them from the bar in the back of the lounge. This was one of the worst attended Diamond & Platinum parties I've ever attended. There couldn't have been more than 40-50 people there. I'm not sure if it was the timing of the event or if this sailing had a low number of Diamond and Platinum's on this sailing. But it was a little sad! They played the standard Carnival video and everyone cheered when a ship they've sailed was shown on the screen. Jasper then recognized the youngest and oldest D/P guests, youngest D/P member and the cruiser with the most days at sea. Most of those people didn't come to the party so their prizes would be sent to their cabin. The youngest D/P guest was only 8 years old and the gentlemen with the most days at sea on this sailing had 801 days sailed! I did the math and if he sailed only 7 days cruises that would equal over 114 total cruises! He had sailed more than a month straight on the Sunshine with Jasper during his time as CD there. Since many of the prize winners didn't attend, Jasper decided to recognize the oldest cruiser in the room. That went to a lady who (I believe was 78). As she was going up the stairs to the stage, the ship listed to the left which caused her to begin to fall backwards. Jasper quickly reached out and grabbed her arm and pulled her forward helping her onto the stage. His quick reflexes and strength really prevented this women from taking what could have been a very nasty fall! We enjoyed a few drinks here and some music by the country duo on board then set off to meet up with the girls. Unbeknownst to Drew and Sawyer, I had arranged for our last party tray to be delivered this afternoon. It was a small mini dessert tray that consisted of little cheesecakes, chocolate covered strawberries, a chocolate cake, and a few other small treats. When we got back to the cabin, the dessert tray was waiting for us. We took it down to Deck 3 and found dad finishing up his pipe so we all enjoyed our dessert there enjoying our ocean views and the start of another beautiful sunset. I wanted to check out the 7:30 The World Works Here show in the Liquid Lounge with Kae Lee and her family so I met them at 7:00 when seating opened for the show. We found seats on the upper level center stage. Great views here for the shows. Drew and Sawyer decided to hang out in the cabin and just meet me at dinner after the show. Since we had 30 minutes until the show started, I walked over to Alchemy and got a Purple Sunset. Due to the long wait time at Alchemy, I got back to Liquid Lounge just minutes before the show started. The concept of this show is to honor the Carnival Sunshine crew who come from 60 different countries. The show started with Jasper introducing various crewmembers from different departments/jobs who came in carrying the flag from their home country. The parade of flags going out of the lounge was cool to see. Then they brought a some junior cruises from Camp Ocean and Circle C up to be a part of a couple songs by signing the words. I really enjoyed that part of the show as well and the kids all did amazing! After that, the show transitioned more into a typical Carnival stage production doing songs about love. The vocals were really good but I'm not a huge fan of these type of stage productions in general. But that's just me...the crowd seemed to enjoy it! The kids from Circle C! After the show, it was time for our last dinner of vacation. This time tomorrow we would be home! I failed to take pics of most of my dinner tonight. I had the Marinated Chicken Tenders (excellent), Steak Ale & Cheddar Soup, Penne Mariscos (delicious!) and the Braised Short Ribs (so good!) and for dessert another Melting Cake! Here's the one dish I got a picture of! After dinner, Sawyer & I went to look at all of the portraits we took throughout the week. We hadn't looked at them at all up until now so we had a lot to find! And of course, she wanted to buy them all. But we narrowed it down to four. Here's the only one I haven't posted so far. As we were looking at photos, Jasper and the Fun Squad were in the Atrium doing a 90's celebration. Since this was Jasper's last night on the Sunshine, they were having a little good-bye celebration in his honor. The rest of the Fun Squad presented Jasper with a gift and they all serenaded him with "I Will Always Love You". It was a really sweet moment! Jasper wasn't on the Sunshine for very long, but he clearly made an impact on the rest of the team! For those going on the Valor soon - enjoy your time with Jasper. He's a good one! He was dressed as L.L. Cool J LOL We found dad outside on Deck 3 having a pipe. I snapped a few cool pics in the glow of the blue lighting. I took Sawyer back to the cabin to get her settled in for the night. When Drew got back, I headed for the casino to play blackjack one last time and cash in my chips. I walked away a winner again and made $325 for the week! Just about paid off my entire S&S bill! I honestly haven't had a week like that playing blackjack on a cruise ever. Not one time, did I walk away at the end of day down for that day. Hope that luck carries on to my next cruise! We called it a night early knowing tomorrow would be a long day driving back to Kentucky!

One of things that I knew I wanted to do when I booked this cruise on the Sunshine was Ji Ji Asian Kitchen. This was my first sailing on a ship with a Ji Ji on it and I've heard nothing but rave reviews! So I went ahead a booked a reservation online through My Cruise Manager for just Drew and I. I knew we could take Sawyer and she would probably enjoy it, but I thought it would be nice for Drew and I to have a little one-on-one time. I was initially just going to have Sawyer have dinner with Camp Ocean and hang there while we ate, but Kae Lee offered to entertain her while we dined. I made our reservation for 7:30 PM and we met Kae Lee around 7:15 PM to drop Sawyer off when them (on our way to meet them I showed Sawyer the secret deck located all the way forward on Deck 7). Sawyer and their daughter explored the ship on their own for a while - playing in the arcade, hiding some more ducks, and buying some sweet treats at Cherry on Top. Kae Lee would just take Sawyer to dinner with them in the Main Dining Room and I planned to meet them there after we were finished at Ji Ji's. I have to say our experience at Ji Ji's far exceeded our expectations even with all of the rave reviews I read previously. I was worried that all the glowing feedback would leave an impossibly high bar to meet. But I was wrong. This meal was fantastic and was easily one of the top two meals we had our entire vacation! Ji Ji is located on Deck 9 after near the Havana Bar area. During the day, you can get included noodle bowls here for lunch. But in the evening, they section the area of seating on the starboard side of the ship and turn it into a dedicated dining space for Ji Ji's. They do the same thing on the port side with Cucina del Capitano. When we arrived, we were shown right to our table which was a table for two right next to the window. Ji Ji's was not busy at all that evening. There were only two or three other tables occupied the entire time I was there. Not sure if that's due to us booking this later in our cruise or because we chose a later dining time. The food at Ji Ji's is served family style. We were able to order two appetizers, two entrees, two sides and two desserts to share. Below are pics of our food along with descriptions. Ji Ji's offers some signature cocktails along with a Thai Iced Tea. Drew got the Thai Iced Tea and I got the Sake Sangria which is made with sake, triple sec, pineapple juice, Starry and fresh fruit. It was delicious - light and not too sweet. This was a Chef's Choice appetizer. They were made of potato and cheese fried with a sweet chili sauce and chili vinaigrette. Very tasty! Nanjing-Style Duck served with a green chili sauce. This dish was amazing! The glaze on the duck was sweet and tasty and there was just the perfect amount of crispiness on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside. The green chili sauce was a perfect complement! Slow-Braised Pork Belly with a caramel chili sauce w/ black vinegar. This seemed to be the most raved about appetizer in all of the feedback I read prior to our cruise and it did NOT disappoint! So tender and flavorful and the sauce was amazing! For our entrée's, my choice was the Singapore Chili Shrimp which came in a sweet and spicy chili sauce and Drew chose the Chairman Mao's Master Stock Pig which came with a cilantro-chili sauce. Both were awesome! For the Shrimp, we were able to select our spiciness level and chose the highest level. It definitely left my mouth tingling a bit! Our sides were the Wide Noodles and Hot & Spicy Crisp Potato Fries. Delicious! And finally for dessert, we chose the Rose Crème Brulee w/ ginger cream and the Fried Wonton with had lychee fruit, tapioca pearls and coconut milk. The Crème Brulee was amazing! For me, the flavor of the wonton was great but I didn't love the texture. I thought the wonton would come out more crispy and it wasn't. That may have just been a case of my expectations being off. But it was still very good! This meal was top notch and our service was great as well! We left Ji Ji's very satisfied! It was about 8:30 when we finished up. Drew went back to the cabin to pack a pipe and I headed to the Main Dining Room to sit with Sawyer and the rest of the gang and chat while they ate their dinners. They had ordered but hadn't gotten any food yet when I had arrived. I did end up ordering a Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. I totally didn't need it, but it sounded good by the time their desserts were coming out! 🙂 After dinner, we headed up to Lido deck to catch some of the Halloween Costume Contest and Deck Party. I honestly wasn't sure how well attended the costume contest would be. Up until then, I had only seen a handful of people dressed up. On my previous Halloween cruise last year, there were so many people dressed up in costume at dinner and just all around the ship that evening. But by the time the actual party started, the lido deck had filled up with people dressed up. Jasper came out dressed as Ken and there were a couple Barbie's in the crowd as well! Apparently Jasper and the Fun Squad were giving out raffle tickets to be part of the costume contest during the pre-party events. The costume contest was broken down into several different groups - Jr. Cruisers, Individuals, Groups. Each group had 5-6 participants who introduced themselves, told where they were from and who they were dressed up as. The crowd applause determined the winner in each group. The junior winner was dressed up as the Titanic! 🙂 After the costume contest, Jasper led the group in some line dances, the Congo, and a few fun games. We watched the festivities from up on deck 10 until about 11:00. Drew took Sawyer back to the cabin to go to bed and I played some more blackjack. I ended up making another $100 tonight taking my total winnings so far to $275 including my free fun play money! Tomorrow would be a day at sea and our last day on the Sunshine!

Sorry to let the cat out of the bag about ACME! That and Ji Ji Asian Kitchen on the ship were my two favorite meals of our entire trip! Their She Crab Soup was phenomenal! I would eat there again in a heartbeat! As far as the condition of the Sunshine, she is showing her age a little bit. But there was nothing that impacted our enjoyment of the ship in the slightest. The biggest thing I saw was the large area that was cordoned off with caution tape right in the middle of the jogging track that I noted earlier in my review. And of course there's signs of rust around the ship but that's to be expected with a ship of this age. Our cabin was great! Storage was fine for the three of us, cabins were clean, beds were comfortable. The bathroom was standard, but could have used some extra places to hang wet towels and bathing suits. With three of us, our wet stuff took up the entire drying line pretty quick! The cabin was a bit on the warmer side - but it wasn't to the point of being uncomfortable. I just used the sheet at night and was fine! We loved all of the other amenities the ship offered with the additions of Waterworks and the upgraded dining options. It took a minute to get the layout of the ship down as it was just different enough from other similar Carnival ships. There were a lot of lines especially early in the cruise - but everything seemed to flow quickly. I think you and your family will greatly enjoy her!

A little bit before 9:45AM, we began walking along the beach toward the main port area. We checked in at the Information Desk and had to sign the waiver for the tour. Within a few minutes, they were calling our group to follow the guide over to the shuttle which would drive us to the back side of the island where the excursion would take place. It was a fairly short ride and I enjoyed the scenery. In my 4 or 5 visits to Half Moon Cay, I had never been anywhere but the main beach area so it was nice to see more of the island. Soon we pulled up to the Stingray Cove. This path takes you to where you enter the water for the excursion. The main tour guide gave a quick rundown of all the important “need to know” items. There were lockers to store anything you didn’t want to take into the water. They also provide you with flippers, mask, snorkel and water shoes if needed. This is where things went a bit askew for us. Sawyer stubbed her toe and it was bleeding a bit. One thing I will say about my girl is that she isn’t always the toughest kid when it comes to pain and blood. This stubbed toe caused her to have a little meltdown. I personally think she didn’t want to admit to being scared and was trying to get out of doing the tour. I finally got her calm enough to get into the water. She was fine swimming around in the stingray enclosure for a bit. But then she started freaking out a bit when the stingrays would come near. The guides asked us to get into a circle. The stingrays were freely swimming around us and would often brush up against our legs. At this point, the guide coaxed a ray passed us with a treat so we could pet it as it went by. We were also able to kiss and feed a stingray if we wanted, which of course I did. Sawyer didn’t kiss or feed it but did touch one at the end and was more comfortable. They also let us hold a conch shell with a live conch inside and a sea cucumber. It was a good excursion especially for only $49 per person. I didn’t get any pics as I elected to leave my cell phone in the locker so I’d have two hands available to help Sawyer if needed. We ended up walking back to our cabana after the excursion was over. Before long us gals headed over to the food pavilion and stocked up on food to take back to our cabana. There were burgers, hot dogs, jerk chicken, salad, fruit, potato salad, and various desserts. It hit the spot! The rest of the day was spent lounging in the water. Those floating mats were perfect! The cabana staff checked in with us several times during the day to see if we needed anything. They were also very interested in when we were going back to the boat. I told her we would probably leave around 2:45 as the last tender was at 3:30. She came back just before 2:45 and told us she had a shuttle coming for us! Sweet! Saw this guy waiting for the shuttle. As we got back to the port area, Sawyer started not feeling great. I think she was a bit overheated from the hot, sunny days. We were one of the last ones to get on the next tender boat. We had to stand for the whole ride back to the ship and Sawyer was starting to get nauseous. Thankfully she didn’t get sick and people were nice enough to let us off the tender first. She wanted to stay out of the sun and just chill for the rest of the afternoon. We did find our third towel animal upon our return! Gang’s all here! I caught these finally views of Half Moon Cay as we were departing. We then started getting ready for dinner! Sawyer would be having dinner in the main dining room with our friends while Drew and I ate at Ji Ji Asian Kitchen!

October 12, 2023 - Carnival Sunshine: Half Moon Cay For our stay in Half Moon Cay, we decided to splurge and book a cabana. This would be our first time booking a cabana in Half Moon Cay or anywhere else. I booked it totally on a whim one day and I’m glad I did because a few days later they were showing sold out. Also, when I purchased the cabana it was $499 but within a few days the price of the cabanas went up to $699. I probably would not have booked it at that higher price. I also used discounted AARP gift cards to pay for the cost of the cabana which saved me $50. Our friends ended up deciding to join us in the cabana and split the cost with us. So for $225 per family, I felt like it was absolutely worth the cost! As I mentioned previously, we selected cabana #10 which was located further down the beach. There were restrooms right behind our cabana, the food pavilion was just a short walk away and we were down away from most of the crowds and noise. Grand villa, villa and cabana guests and those with shore excursions booked were instructed to be in the Liquid Lounge at 7:30 AM to await the first tender to the island. I got up around 6:30 AM and ran up to Lido to grab the kiddo a bagel and cream cheese. I ate one of the protein bars I brought from home. They did have the invasion of the towel animals up on Lido this morning. But I didn’t have time to get any pictures. At 7:30 we headed down to Liquid Lounge. Before long, they announced the ship had been cleared and that the first tender to shore would be for the employees and supplies going ashore and we would be on the second tender. Shortly after 8:00, they started calling for groups to head down to the gangway starting with those in the Grand Villa and so on. When we boarded the tender boat, the entire top level was filled so we took seats on the on the lower level near the side of the boat. I didn’t realize we were in the splash zone down there! We got soaked on the ride over to the island! It was a pretty rocky ride. In between splashes I was able to snap some pics on the sunshine. Once we got to shore, we started walking on the paved path down to our cabana. It was about a 5-7 minute walk to our cabana which was the bright green cabana. Inside our cabana we had a round table and four chairs, two lounge chairs, a small fridge, fans, snorkel gear, and floating mats. There was also a shower to rinse the sand off. Carnival provides drinks (2 sodas or waters per person) and snacks in the cabana. The snacks consisted of fruit and veggies with dips and chips and salsa and guac. Mitsy??? 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ And you can’t beat this view from our cabana. I think these white Party Bana things you see in the above pic are fairly new. You can book them as an excursion. But it was pretty much a free for all of kids climbing on the ones that didn’t appear to be to reserved. It was about 8:50 when we arrived to our cabana. We had about an hour until we needed to head to the Information Desk for our stingray adventure excursion, so Sawyer set about playing in the sand. Kae Lee and her family opted to get off the ship a bit later and ended up arriving just as we were heading out for our excursion. Technically the cabanas are meant to accommodate four people. But no one questioned us having six including the girls. There was usually not all six of us in the cabana at once and the amenities in the cabana were plenty for our group. One fun thing to mention - At the villa closest to us, we heard a commotion. People laughing and hollering. I looked over and saw the group all standing in a circle. Turns out, it was a couple renewing their vows after 50 years of marriage! That was really neat witness! Wishing that couple many more years of love and happiness!

Once back on the ship we walked up to deck 7 as the elevators were full from everyone returning to the ship. Honestly, I almost always took the stairs unless the kiddo really wanted to take the elevator. Figure with all those big meals and melting cakes each night, the extra steps would be a good idea! We swung by our cabin to drop off our beach bag and towels and found our second towel animal of the week! Sawyer let me snap a pic before moving him over to her bed with all the soft creatures! Thankfully, our cabin attendant Anabeth left us fresh blue Carnival towels for the following day in Half Moon Cay. The ones we took to Nassau were wet and we an early port call the next morning. Sawyer hadn’t had her fill of the sun and water yet, so we made our way up to the Lido pool. She swam and played with two friends she made at Camp while I enjoyed a Chocolate Mocha Getaway while lounging by the pool. I loved seeing Sawyer making connections with other kids! Before long the horns blasted indicating it was time to say goodbye to Nassau. After an hour or so at the pool, it was time to head back to our cabin and get cleaned up for the evening. While I was getting ready, I kept getting distracted by the beautiful sunset off the port side of the ship. I loved seeing the other cruise ships in the distance against the colors of the sky. We had plans to meet up with Kae Lee and her family for the Deal or No Deal game show. You can purchase cards to play along with the contestants chosen to play on stage. If the contestant opens case number 10 and it has the $25 amount in it and you card has the same amount under number 10, you have a match. If you get two matches, you qualify for prizes starting with a free entry to play Bingo later in the cruise. You can purchase 1 card for $25, 2 for $40 or 3 for $50. I purchased two cards so Sawyer and I could both play along. The cards are scanned when you buy them and associated with your Sail & Sign Card. Each card has a unique ID number which is what is used to determine who gets to go on stage. They play two games and you just use you same player card for both games. The first contestant to play chose case number 12 as her case. She did a great job in choosing her cases and when she got down to the last two cases, her #12 and one other case, the remaining amounts left were $350 and the grand prize of $1000. The banker offered around $600 to walk away but she said “No Deal”. I don’t blame her one bit…the worst she could have done at that point was $350. It was worth the gamble! And when they opened the cases, she had the grand prize of $1000 in her case! It was so exciting! I think this was Jasper’s first $1000 winner cause he went absolutely nuts! He had the stage manager come out to take pictures and videos of them. It was pretty cute! The second guy didn’t do as well but still walked away with some money. But anything was going to be an emotional let down after the big prize winner in the first round. We did have two matches on the second game and won one free entry to Bingo. Since the player card is tied to your Sail & Sign Card, they can easily track what each guest wins. Here is the list of prizes you can win for playing along with the game. She thought we should have won more! Right after Deal or No Deal we headed to the Sunset Dining Room for dinner. Tonight I had the Broccoli & Three Cheese Soup, Fried Mozzarella, Caesar Salad and the Salmon Cakes. The Mozzarella was delicious! But this was probably my least favorite meal on the ship. Nothing was bad just not my favorite dishes. I think the Salmon Cakes coils have been a home run with a different sauce. We didn’t do much after dinner tonight as we had a very early morning the next day. Drew and Sawyer turned in early and I went and played blackjack for about 30 minutes or so and broke even for the night.

I believe it is going to Norfolk, VA. I may have to keep an eye on Norfolk sailings too! Never considered sailing from there before but it’s not a bad drive from where we live either!

She had an amazing time! Especially seeing all the dolphins!

October 11, 2023 - Carnival Sunshine: Nassau Bahamas Nassau has always been one of my least favorite cruise ports. I haven't cruised to Nassau in quite some time and last time I did, I stayed on the ship and got a massage! But we knew we had to get off the ship this time with the little one with us. I looked at the tours offered by Carnival and nothing really struck us as "must dos". I also looked into doing a resort day pass here, but they were all super expensive. I'm not paying $500 for a family of three to spend 6 hours somewhere. I'm just not doing it! So we decided to go the "el Cheapo" route and just walk to Junkanoo beach for a "free" beach day. The beach itself is free, but you pay a la cart for everything else (chairs, umbrellas, food, jet skis, paddleboards, etc.). Once you get out of the port area, you turn right and keep walking until you see the Margaritaville Resort. Junkanoo is just past Margaritaville. The walk itself isn't too bad but it was an extremely HOT morning in Nassau. And there was little shade on our walking route. Here are a few pics from our balcony and as we leave the port. There were five other ships in port with us including Carnival Spirit and Carnival Conquest! Immediately upon arriving at Junkanoo, we were met by one of the workers of the nearby beach bar. He asked us if we wanted to rent some chairs and umbrella. He quoted us $40 for two chairs and one umbrella. We probably could have walked down the beach further and found somewhere free to put our stuff down, but it was already quite crowded there, so we just took the path of least resistance and forked over the money for the chairs and umbrella. There were about five rows of chairs set up and we were put in the fourth row back. They really pack these chairs in like sardines! There are small paths every so far to walk between to get down to the water. I was glad that we weren't in one of the front rows as the tide was up and the water was rushing in and under the first two rows of chairs. I rescued more than a couple flipflops and swim masks that were swept away by the receding water! As soon as we put our stuff down and got sunscreen on, Sawyer and dad took off for the water. I wandered around taking some pics. You can see that Junkanoo really isn't far at all from the cruise port. Sawyer wanted to play with her sand toys but because the water where we were was coming up under the chairs, there really wasn't any beach for just playing in the sand. We walked down to the other side of the small pier and stopped to walk out on the pier to take some pics. Busy day at the beach! And you can see how far up the water is coming. She found a nice spot to sit and play in the sand. After a while, we went back to find dad and she played more out in the water. Before long, we started getting hungry. We had initially planned to walk over to the Fish Fry area for lunch as well. If you aren't familiar with Fish Fry, it's a long strip of sit-down restaurants, beach shacks, food trucks, etc. that ends beachside in the Arawak Cay area. It's known for local, authentic Bahamian food and has been featured on the Food Network and I believe Guy Fieri himself stopped by there once! It's walkable from Junkanoo, but it was so hot out that day that we decided to just order food right here at the beach. We placed our orders and the food would be delivered right to our beach chairs when it was ready. Like everything else in Nassau, lunch was expensive! We paid $60 plus tip for a burger & fries, shrimp & fries, a conch appetizer and two sodas. Nassau really makes me long for the reasonably priced and capacity controlled beach clubs in Cozumel or Costa Maya where I could get an all-inclusive day pass for $50-60 to include a large multi course lunch and all I could drink! It took almost an hour to get our food. And he told us after we ordered that the fries hadn't arrived yet so we could either wait until they got the fries or sub our sides. So we went with the mac & cheese for Sawyer and rice for me. The shrimp was really good especially with the dipping sauce. Drew enjoyed his conch and Sawyer fed a good portion of her burger to one of the stray dogs that spend time on this beach during the day. There were strays everywhere. They curl up under the beach chairs and wait for someone to drop some food. Sawyer loves animals so much, she just wanted to help these poor dogs some of which were in pretty rough shape. She took one of the sand toys and filled it with water to give to the dogs in addition to sharing her burger. Sweet girl! Kae Lee and her family had decided to walk around downtown when they got off the ship and then head to Junkanoo. I thought with how crowded it was, they might not be able to find us. But it had cleared out quite a bit by around lunch time and they did find us. The people next to us left so they were able to rent their chairs. The skies started to turn more overcast and threatening. Looked like there was some rough weather offshore include what looked to be a little twister. But we didn't get more than a few raindrop at the beach. The Carnival Magic was joining us around 1:00. See the funnel? Five of the six ships lined up in port. Margaritaville Resort Me & Kae Lee Relaxing! His bright orange shirt made him easy to spot when the beach was crowded! 🙂 We were supposed to be back on the ship by 3:30PM, but we were ready to head back around 2:30PM. It was about 3:00 PM when we were back on the ship. Overall, it was a good, if expensive, day in Nassau!

We left our cabin around 7:15PM to go out and take some pictures in our dressy attire. There were not long lines for pictures on Deck 5. So we took some as a family, some of just Drew and I and I took some solo shots. Sawyer was not enjoying the dress she was wearing. She can be a little more sensitive to how things feel on her skin and even though it was fine in the store, now it was bugging her. Rather than her be miserable all night, Drew took her back to the cabin to change while I did my solo portraits. They were soon back and we met up with Kae Lee and family near Alchemy. I got myself a cocktail and the bartender made Sawyer a craft kiddie cocktail (it was really, really good!). Then we headed down to dinner. Here's the photo we got where Sawyer was in Dress #1. For dinner tonight I had the Pork Tarts, Cream of Mushroom soup, Caesar Salad and the Spaghetti Carbonara for my entrée, though I did ask for an appetizer size to save some room for my new fave, Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. Drew and I also split an order of the Fried Oysters. The pork tarts were amazing and the pasta was really flavorful. The soup wasn't my favorite and the Oysters were good mostly cause of the dipping sauce! lol And here's a pic after Sawyer changed into dress #2! She was MUCH happier! After dinner, Drew and the kiddo turned in early, while I spent some more time playing blackjack. It was another winning night at the table and I was now up about $150 total for the cruise! I didn't stay out too late as we had an early morning port call in Nassau!

When Sawyer found out that Carnival offered Build-A-Bear at Sea, she could barely contain herself! My girl loves stuffed animals, as I'm sure is obvious since she's almost always carrying one with her in our cruise pictures! She has been wanting to visit our local Build-A-Bear for quite some time, but I kept putting her off knowing she would be able to do it on our cruise. I promised to keep a close eye out on the daily Fun Times so we would know when it would be held and wouldn't miss it. It was scheduled for today, our first sea day at 4:30PM. This timing may present a bit of an issue for us though! Since tonight was our only elegant night, I was treating Sawyer and myself to a trip to the salon and we had appointment's scheduled for 5PM. That wasn't going to leave a lot of time for Build-A-Bear. I had never done the Build-A-Bear workshop on a cruise before so I had no idea how it was set up or how long it would take. I told Sawyer we should get there early in case there was a line. So about 3:40PM, we packed up our stuff from our spot near Waterworks, stopped by the cabin to drop some things off and headed to the Limelight Lounge, Deck 4 Aft. When we arrived there around 3:55PM, there was already a huge lined formed that stretched back to Bonsai Sushi. One of the other guests let me know that they had heard they would start handing out numbers and letting people into the lounge around 4:10PM. Before long the line started moving. We were given number 24 and went into the lounge and found seats in the front row to the very left. This was a great spot as it was right where you start when your number is called. But we were very nervous about if we would have time to make our bear before having to head to the salon. A few minutes later Drew showed up. Since we had some time before the workshop started, I ran up to the salon to see if they might be able to bump our appointments back by 30 minutes. Unfortunately, given it was elegant night they were booked up. And if we cancelled Sawyer's appointment now, we would be charged 1/2 of the cost. When I got back to the Limelight Lounge, they were still handing out numbers to new people arriving and were at number 112! Glad we got in line when we did! I got back to our seats and we came up with a plan. If Sawyer hadn't been called yet by 4:55, she would tell Drew exactly what she wanted and he would get her stuffed animal made and we would go to our appointments. So i felt better knowing she would at least get her prized stuffed animal. Right at 4:30, our CD Jasper appeared on stage and began giving everyone the rundown on how this would all work. He went through all of the choices for stuffed animals and their accessories. Several of the stuffed animals and clothes were specifically made for Carnival. Once instructions were done, they started out by calling numbers 1-5. They had two people on the stage working machines to fill the bears with stuffing, so it actually went pretty quickly! While everyone is getting bears made, Jasper is walking around entertaining the kids with different games - name an animal that starts with (insert letter here), etc. By just before 4:55PM, they called numbers 20-25 and we jumped right up and got in line to select our stuffed animal. She chose to get the shark and the Camp Ocean theme onesie. We zipped right through the rest of the process and paid and were on our way to the salon! On my last cruise, I had extra on-board credit to spend and decided for the first time to treat myself to a nice up-do in the salon on elegant night. I had such a great experience that I wanted to do it again on this cruise and bring Sawyer along with me! Figured it would be nice to have a night off from doing her hair and mine cause we both have a lot of it! I have to say that I was really overall disappointed with this experience at the salon. I booked myself a regular up-do for medium length hair at $69 plus gratuity. I pre-paid for my service online. Sawyer was booked for the Red-Carpet Blowout which includes washing, drying and styling. Her service was I believe $81 plus gratuity. I had a picture of what I wanted for my up-do and showed it to the guy doing my service. It was not anything intricate or overly complicated. It was basically a voluminous braid called a mohawk braid. The style I had done the cruise prior was much more intricate. I felt like this was a very basic style. When I showed him the picture, he immediately said he couldn't do it and asked what I wanted instead. Trying to come up with something else on the spot wasn't easy. I told him that I just didn't want my hair completely flat on the top of my head. He recommended doing it half up and the rest down and curled with some volume on top. I found another photo I had saved on my phone with something similar just with a half braid or twist and he couldn't do that either. It seemed like he had a very limited repertoire of up-dos and he was going to keep denying my requests until I agreed to what he wanted to do. Having the kiddo with me, I just went with it in hopes that I would like it better once done. I didn't. It wasn't me at all. But I didn't want to make a fuss in front of my kid so I just thanked him and waited for her to be done getting her hair curled. Her hair looked pretty...but it wasn't anything better than what I could have done myself. I think if I do another salon visit on a future cruise, I will visit with the person assigned to do my service on the first day and show them what I'm looking to have done to make sure they can do it before I commit. I ended up taking my hair down when we got back to the cabin and washing it and doing it myself. 😞 Welcome to the family, Sharkey!

I did not see the ghost of Zoe...in fact I wasn't even aware of her until another CC member mentioned on another reply to this review. If we go again, I'll have to keep my eye out!

We met up with Kae Lee and her family and played a very windy round of mini golf. You get your golf clubs and balls on Deck 11 port side in the Sports Square area the go up the stairs right there to Deck 12 where the mini golf course is. It was extremely windy up while we were playing. There was no keeping score or trying to line up shots. You put the ball down and swing before it blows away! LOL But either way it was a fun time! On the last hole, the ball goes down a tube to another putt-putt green down below on Deck 11. Then you take your final shots and are done. After putt-putt, the girls played some tic-tac-toe and checkers. Sawyer and I then had some ice cream and met up with dad near the Red Frog Bar for the pumpkin carving contest. Anyone interested in doing the contest has to fill out a little paper with their name, cabin number and a guess of how many candy corn were in the container sitting on the table there. The people with the four closest guesses would be picked for the pumpkin carving contest. Anyone under 18 had to have an adult present to participate. While everyone was submitted their guesses, one of Carnival's master carvers was doing a live demo on pumpkin carving. Unfortunately, we were way off in our candy corn guess so we were not able to participate. Then it was up to Waterworks where we spent most of the rest of the day! Sawyer her friend from Camp Ocean up here and those two ran around playing on the slides and in the splash area most of the rest of the afternoon! At one point, we all decided we were hungry, so I went down and got in line at Blue Iguana Taco Bar. The lines at both Blue Iguana and Guy's Burgers were almost always fairly long - even after the normal lunch rush. But they moved quickly. I got us two plates of tacos with 2 of each kind - pork, chicken and fish. I then topped them with various cheeses, sauces and other yummy toppings. The salsa bar was in need of replenishing though as several items were completely gone (creama!!) and others were almost gone. It remained partly to mostly cloudy most of the day with a few peeks of sun here and there. But it was still a nice day at sea! Drew left us after eating to go....(you guessed it) have a pipe. We made plans to meet at LimeLight Lounge before 4:30 for the Build-A-Bear workshop.

October 10, 2023 - Carnival Sunshine Fun Day at Sea Our first Fun Day at Sea started off WAY earlier than expected as Sawyer woke us up around 2AM to let us know she had just lost a tooth that had been loose for months! Thankfully, she felt it come loose in her mouth and didn't swallow it. We wouldn't have to be having a visit from the Tooth Fairy at sea though. Sawyer came to the realization that Santa, Tooth Fairy, etc. aren't real just days before our cruise. My girl is growing up but part of me still wishes she believed in these things for a while longer! I woke up for good around 7:45 and headed up to the jogging track to get in some running. I am training for my first 10K race which is next month, so didn't want to lose total focus on that while on vacation. It was a dreary morning, but mostly comfortable out. The jogging track isn't in the best shape and there's a large area in one section that is completely roped off and I had to jog around it. But I got in a quick 3 miles before heading back to the cabin to freshen up. Drew went to get an Americano from Java Blue Cafe on Deck 5 and then went to Deck 3 to enjoy his morning pipe. Prior to this cruise, I purchased 25 of the small rubber ducks and some Passport styled tags. I'm not really into the hiding of ducks and wouldn't do it just on my own. But Sawyer loves these ducks and I knew she would enjoy hiding and looking for them. Before we left home, Sawyer filled out our little Passport cards with each ducks name, our sailing date and ship name and where the duck was coming from (Kentucky). We affixed the cards to the duck with twine and packed them away for our trip. So while Drew was enjoying his morning routine, we packed up a few ducks and went around hiding them. Sawyer loved finding out of the way spots to tuck the ducks. While hiding ducks, I snapped a couple pics along the Promenade, Deck 5. Here's Ocean Plaza. A lot of things went on at Ocean Plaza. Usually in the evenings, there would be live music and during the day they would do trivia, arts and crafts and other events. And here's Alchemy Bar. We didn't drink much this cruise, but I did get a couple drinks from here. My one complaint is that the bartenders take orders from as many as 5-6 people at once and make all of the drinks at the same time. So if you were the first one to order, you had to wait until they were done making ALL of the drinks to get yours. It really seemed to slow down the overall process. Most other bars on the ship, take orders from 1, maybe 2 people at once and you can get your drink and go pretty quickly. And these are more complex drinks (crushed mint, spiraled fruit peels, etc.) which take longer to make anyway. One night we got seats for the evening show right when the doors opened at 7PM for the 7:30PM show. As soon as we were seated, I decided to run up to get a drink from Alchemy. My order was taken almost right when I got there, but I took over 20 minutes before I actually had my drink in hand. Again - we didn't drink a ton this time, but this would dissuade me from getting drinks here often if we were drinking more. We checked in with Drew on Deck 3 and he was about done with his pipe. I checked us all three in on the hub app for a table at the SeaDay Brunch. The app said our table would be ready in 10 minutes so we headed to the Sunrise Dining Room which is located on Deck 3 aft to wait. I am used to other similar ships such as the Valor, Freedom, etc. where you have to get all the aft on Deck 4 and then go down the stairs to get to the aft dining room. On the Sunshine, the Limelight Lounge is after on Deck 4 and you can go all the way through it and get to the stairs to the dining room on the other side. But on this morning, there was a private function behind held in the lounge so we had to go up to Deck near the Casino and then walk aft passed Ocean Plaza and Alchemy and go down two flights of stairs to get to the dining room. This wasn't an ideal set up! But we made it. Within minutes, our table was ready and we were seated. Drew found us a few minutes later. Service at brunch this morning was very slow! Painfully slow! But it was a sea day and we didn't really have anywhere to be, so we enjoyed our time together. I ordered the 12 Hour French Toast and a side of limp bacon. No overdone, crispy bacon for me! Drew got the Eggs Benedict and Sawyer had a bagel w/ cream cheese and fruit. The food was great once it finally came! After breakfast, Sawyer was dying to finally go play in the arcade, so we made our way down to Deck 5 forward. When I was completely our online check-in and setting up our onboard accounts, I put a $100 spending limit on Sawyer's Sail & Sign card. She was ready to start spending some of that money in the arcade and at Cherry on Top! We first peeked in Cherry on Top so she could start thinking about what she wanted to buy! Big decisions here! Then she spent about 45 minutes playing various games in the arcade. We played the craziest air hockey where all of a sudden about 20 mini pucks get released onto the table and then it's a big free-for-all! And her favorite game was the "everyone's a winner" little ducky claw machine (though this time it was filled mostly with turtles). She won six little turtles in 4 tries as she snagged 3 in one turn! She also played some games to earn tickets which were loaded right onto her Sail & Sign card. They have a large machine that has prizes in it. You just swipe your card and choose your prize! Easy peasy! After she spent about $40 playing games, we took her winnings back to the cabin where we found our first Towel Animal of the cruise.

After finishing our sushi, we headed up to Deck 10 to check Sawyer into Camp Ocean for their welcome aboard activities. On our way there, we stopped to take a few pics of that night's beautiful sunset. And her hair cracks me up in this one! LOL Check-in at Camp Ocean was not super busy at this time. Within a few minutes, she was all set and Drew and I set out with an hour to kill with no kid! What would we do? We walked down to Deck 5 and walked the Promenade for a bit. We ended up in the Red Frog Pub which is tucked away next to Ocean Plaza. Other than a couple special private events, I really didn't see much going on in the Red Frog Pub. When we went in there, it was practically empty! We played a game on the shuffleboard table - deciding that whoever gets to 10 first wins. It took me a bit to get going and I was quickly down 8-1. But I mounted a furious comeback and put up 10 points in our last round to win 11-8. Drew was stunned! 🙂 Then we walked down to the Atrium to listen to some live music and have a drink. I had my favorite - Tiramisu Martini and Drew just had a soda water w/ lime. We needed to pick Sawyer up from Camp Ocean by 8:00. I told Drew I would run up and grab her and just meet him back in the Atrium for dinner. Our dinner was the 8:15 late seating in the Sunset Dining Room which is just off of the Atrium on Deck 3 Forward. When I got up to Camp Ocean, I couldn't believe the line of people there waiting to drop-off their kids. The line stretched all the back past the stairwell to in front of the entrances to Club O2/ Circle C. I wasn't sure if that was just the drop-off line. So I snuck up to the front to see about just grabbing my kid, but I couldn't get the attention of any of the workers. So I went back to the end of the line. Ten minutes later the line had barely moved and it was already after 8:00. Drew doesn't carry his phone with him on the cruise so I couldn't send him a message about the wait. So I sent Kae Lee a message and asked her to grab Drew from the Atrium and just head to dinner and I would meet them there once I was able to get Sawyer. After another five minutes of waiting, I went back to the front of the line and I was able to make eye contact with Sawyer and told her to let the worker know that I was there to get her for dinner. She said that they wouldn't let her leave but finally the worker brought her up to me and signed her out. As we walking to dinner, Sawyer said she didn't want to go back there. She didn't enjoy how regimented it was for her age group. She did make a friend in there who she would see and play with later. She just wanted to be able to play video games and hang with her new friend. We finally made it to dinner just in time. Our table was on the port side of the dining room. We had a table for just our group of six. It was one of those tables where one side was a booth and the other side was regular chairs. Since Drew doesn't carry his phone, we had to request a paper menu for him which was brought without issue. We also got both girls kids menus. I was really hoping that the Sunshine would have the new menus by our sailing. But we just missed them. I believe they start using the new menu's on today's 3-day sailing. Before I continue, I just wanted to give a few overall impressions of our dinners on the Sunshine. First of all, our service was outstanding! The flow of the meals were great! We were usually done within an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. Food always came quickly and hot! Our wait team was personable and very attentive Bread was always served right away. Although one difference I noticed from my cruise last year is that we weren't given a choice of bread. My last cruise, they would go around the table with a basket of different kinds of bread and we would choose what we wanted. This time, they just had one kind each night. Not a big deal - just something different. Drink service seemed better than in the past. But it was challenging for Drew to get refills on his Arnold Palmers each night. The food itself was all very good to great. Some things I liked better than others, but it was never due to it not being well prepared. Just personal preference. I'll note those each night where appropriate. Sawyer usually got a fruit plate each night which she would want brought with her meal. But even when requested with her meal, it was brought with dessert since it is technically on the dessert menu. My dinner tonight consisted of the: Smoked Poblano & Corn Soup, Quesadilla, Caesar Salad and the Sweet & Soup Shrimp. These were all really very good! The soup was very smoky and creamy. And the Shrimp came with a delicious tangy sauce. It smelled so good that I started eating before snapping a pic! Sorry! LOL One of the reasons I was hoping to have the new menus was for the desserts. I am not a big fan of the desserts on Carnival's current menu. But the new menus bring back cheesecake and key lime pie which are my two absolute favorite desserts! I have also never really been a fan of the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. I know, I know - that's blasphemy! But I've tried it in the past and didn't see the appeal of it. Since none of the desserts on tonight's menu struck my fancy, I decided to give the melting cake one more time....and to my shock I actually enjoyed it! And i ended up getting it every night we ate in the main dining room. I will say, the consistency of the melting cake each night was a bit...inconsistent (no pun intended). The first night it was very melted, almost soupy, in the middle - which I actually found quite enjoyable. Each night from there, the cake came out more and more well done inside. It was still tasty, especially with the two scoops of vanilla ice cream. I kept meaning to remember to ask for it less well-done when I ordered, but I would always forget. Of course we had the normal "Showtyne" in the dining room. Our waiter staff got Sawyer up to dance, but she got a bit embarrassed and wanted to sit back down! She doesn't enjoy being the center of attention sometimes. After dinner, Sawyer and I walked around for a bit while Drew enjoyed a pipe out on Deck 3. For reference, there are three main areas to smoke on this ship. You can smoke in the casino at smoking tables and only while actively playing. They do have some non-smoking tables, but the smell of the smoke is pervasive throughout the casino and Deck 5 in general. You can also smoke outside on Deck 3 or on the Starboard side of Deck 10 midship. Deck 3 seemed to change which side smoking was allowed on frequently throughout the cruise. One day I went down there to find Drew and crew were coming through and removing the ashtrays to move them to the other side and letting people know they would have to move. I'm not sure what the reasoning is for moving the smoking area from side to side. If anyone has insights on this, i would be interested to know. The Deck 3 smoking area was Drew's favorite spot as it was quiet and mostly shielded from the wind. After Drew finished his pipe, he hung out with Sawyer in the cabin while I went to the casino to play some blackjack. I don't play slots, but enjoy table games. Sometimes I'll branch out to Three Card Poker or Texas Hold 'Em table games, but usually stick to the $10 blackjack tables. Most of this cruise, I played at the $10 Fun 21 table. Fun 21 is a bit different than regular blackjack. There are no Kings in the deck. Blackjack pays out at 3 to 2 and 21 (any way - not just your first two cards) pays out immediately unless the dealer has a two card Blackjack. If you get 21 with more than your first two cards it pays out even with a couple of exceptions. It will pay out 3 to 2 if you get to 21 in five total cards, with 7-7-7 or 6-7-8. There are also $5 or $10 side bets you can make that will pay out if you have 20 with your first two cards. The payouts get higher depending on how you get 20 (more payout for suited or matching face cards for example). On my previous cruise, these side bonus wagers could be made with a $1 minimum and lots of people played them. But I didn't see anyone playing the bonus bets due to the higher per hand minimum on them. I did get dealt matching Queens of Hearts in my first two cards once. Had I played the $5 bonus bet that hand, it would have paid out $625! But I'm sure I would have lost more than that playing that bet each hand, so I'm ok with it! I stopped by the casino cage to get my $25 of free casino Fun Play which is one of the Platinum perks. They give you this free play just as cash in hand. Without even playing a hand, I was up $25! I started out playing blackjack with $100 in chips. After an hour or so, I had doubled my money, so I called it a night and went back to the cabin. That's all for Day 1 on the Sunshine! ! If you're still reading along, thank you! I'm happy to answer any questions people may have about Charleston, the ship or our stops in the Bahamas!

After getting unpacked and settled in, the kiddo wanted to go do the waterslides. So she got changed into her swimsuit and we headed over to Waterworks. I honestly wasn't sure if she would be too scared to do the larger slides as she's not always the most adventurous. But she did it...and loved it! She spent a while taking turns riding all three of the big slides and playing in the splash area and on the smaller slides. Then she wanted to check out the pool. She spent a little bit of time in the pool, but wasn't feeling it. It was too crowded for her liking, though I didn't think it was OVERcrowded especially considering the high amount of kids on this cruise due to fall breaks happening in schools. But either way, she didn't want to stay in the pool very long. Of course, the Red Frog Pub and Blue Iguana Bars were hopping on embarkation day! After getting the kiddo dried off, we met our friends up by the Whale Tale for sailaway. The kiddo wanted to get out of her wet swimsuit, so we went back to the cabin to change and then headed back to Lido for the sailaway party after a quick stop in the Atrium. The Sailaway Party was just getting started when we got up to Lido. The Fun Squad was out dancing and our Cruise Director Jasper Wade was getting everyone pumped up! There was even an appearance made by Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 & Thing 2. Jasper was filling in for a month or two on the Sunshine while her regular CD was on vacation. I really enjoyed him! He's got great energy, is very funny and vibrant and seems very genuine! He left the Sunshine after our cruise and will be on the Valor next! Sawyer was very overwhelmed by the Sailaway Party. She seemed to be enjoying it at first, but as the crowd filled in, she started not to enjoy it. There were several people dancing pretty aggressively near us and she was getting jostled about a bit. It just really made her very uncomfortable and she didn't want to stay. I figured it had been a full, busy day already for her, so we went back to the cabin and started getting ready for dinner and the evening's events. When I booked this cruise, I used a special offer that included a $500 on-board credit. I used some of the credit to prepay for certain things (shore excursions, specialty dining, etc.), but still had quite a bit left before we sailed. I decided to surprise the fam by having a couple of party trays delivered to our cabin. I had a note confirming my orders on our vanity when we got to our cabin, which I was able to snag and hide so no one else saw them. When I was alone in the cabin earlier, I called the Room Service number from the cabin phone and requested that the first tray, a sushi tray, be delivered to our cabin at 6:00 PM that evening. You have to call to schedule the delivery of these trays once onboard. We had late dining, so I figured 6:00 PM would be a great time for a small snack to tide us over until dinner. Just before 6:00 PM, Drew started to get restless sitting in the cabin and said he was going to go walk around. So I had to tell him that I had a little surprise coming to our cabin and that he should stick around. By 6:10 PM, there was still no sushi tray so I called back to Room Service to check on it. The girl who answered said she would check and ensure it was on the way. By 6:25 PM, still no sushi so I called back. This time I was told they were still making the tray and it should be on it's way soon. Finally around 6:40 PM, the sushi tray arrived! Sawyer was so excited cause she loves sushi! She started out last year with just eating avocado rolls w/ spicy mayo, but has really branched out since. She tried all three varieties that came on the tray and liked all but one of them. And she's gotten pretty good with Chopsticks, which her mama wasn't able to use until I was in my 30's! lol Also, I wanted to note that the trays come in several different sizes. I ordered small trays since it was just the three of us. On the website, the photo that comes up when you select the small tray looked much smaller than what we got. I'm not sure if they upgraded our order since we had to wait so long for it or if this is truly representative of the small trays. But this was 24 pieces of sushi for just the three of us. We couldn't finished it all! I also wish I had thought to request a side of spicy mayo as both Sawyer and I enjoy that with our sushi. The tray only came with soy sauce as well ginger and wasabi. But overall, this was a nice little treat to have in the early evening! And I'm glad I went with the sushi tray for one as we didn't end up making it to Bonsai Sushi this trip!