coasterjan

My daughter and I experienced the exact same thing - walking to the Queen's staircase and we both got the sensation we were walking into trouble. We had gotten off the ship and headed left towards the hospital using Google maps. It was seriously "sketchy". We doubled back the way we came and when we got back to the "touristy" area, we headed up the hill and *then* left to the staircase and fort, and it was much better.

I made the horrific mistake of trying to drive a rental car into the Port of Miami to drop off our friends and suitcases before returning the rental car to downtown Miami almost 2 weeks ago - Sunday Jan. 15. Traffic was a NIGHTMARE. Miami-Dade police had blocked off almost all the cross streets, making us go all the way down to Terminal A and across in front of ALL 7 ships in port every pass of the island. The ramp onto the bridge was closed, forcing us to go back in front of the cruise ships *again* to be able to get off that cursed island. I will *never* try to drive to a cruise out of Miami again.... We had 4 companions that drove to the port and parked, and they had a bit of a rough time too but they arrived before 10 am and didn't run into as much traffic as we did. We used Uber to get to Miami airport when we got off the ship and traffic seemed to be much better at 8 am than it was at 11 am the week before, but still more cars than I ever want to deal with again... Please allow yourself plenty of extra time, and brace yourself for what could be a harrowing experience if the police are out there blocking roads like they were 2 weeks ago. Janis

My experience has been that Carnival uses the available sea water to fill their pools each day, and empty them to clean them at night. Unless something is different on the Sunshine, they are using untreated ocean water that is definitely not heated except by the body fluids of your fellow swimmers (which is the main reason I avoid the pools!). As has already been pointed out, 12 year olds probably don't care.