Havinsnest

We sailed on Dream last Christmas. We always book a balcony. We figured out pretty quickly we did NOT like the lanai. When I look out from my balcony I like to be able to look down at the water rather than looking forward and down to see the water. That's a minor inconvenience but the real issue for us was seeing/hearing people getting frisky in the hot tub below us and I definitely don't like our grandchild being able to see two people doing more than getting frisky...which he did. His daddy hustled him back inside their room next door to ours and we spent the rest of the cruise peeking to make sure the lanai activities were G rated before allowing him on the balcony.

Deliberately booked Freedom - a non-lanai ship - for this holiday season so I guess that's going to be our requirement...no lanai.

We did the Dr Seuss breakfast on Dream last Christmas. A group of 6 adults and one 6 year old I'm not sure who had more fun...him or the rest of us.

Food was great, character visits were fun, the Boy got all sorts of attention and autographs, and we all had a great time.

I"m sorry the OP had the opposite experience to ours.

I happened by this review while doing a search for reviews of the Sharks and Rays Island Getaway excursion. They just started offering it through NCL, but there aren't any reviews yet, so I was glad to read yours- thanks so much. I had a couple of questions if you happen to notice this response:

1. how far was the swim to the reef from the boat where the sharks and rays are?

2. did you wear water shoes when swimming with the rays?

3. about the lunch.... It appears you were at Sobre Las Olas (NCL says that's where they are going too)... can you tell about what was offered? I have a picky eater son who would be looking for something plain like a chicken finger or basic taco, or something. I saw fries in your picture, so that will do in a pinch! Also, did you need cash for the food? How were the prices?

 

Thank you so much... your pictures were great!

Just saw this today. :(

You may have already cruised by now but

1) boat anchors on the reef so the rays are right there and the sharks are as well.

2) we usually go barefoot in the water even with rays.

3) the grandson had chicken fingers and, I paid in cash. Prices were moderate. Not cheap but not expensive either.

regular balconies: 45 sq.ft. compared to 35

That's probably why we thought it felt small. We usually have suites or aft balconies.

But when the seas are that rough, people in coves are not missing out on anything, because the people in the higher balconies are choosing to not go out on their balconies. Almost nobody wants to be out on their balconies when the seas are that rough.

We sit outside no matter the weather but I do see that others might not.

Sailed Sunshine Spring Break 204 out of NOLA.

Loved her.

I wrote a one day at a time week long review here on CC as well as on my blog. This is the "final thoughts" blog but the most specific Sunshine part of the post is this

We loved Sunshine. Yes, there are some common area problems with congestion especially on sea days and definitely on sea days at lunch. Some of the dining venues didn’t open until 12 noon so early eaters had very limited options. We love our balcony and we love room service so neither of the common area congestion things was a problem for us.

 

Since she’s leaving NOLA in a few days we probably won’t be sailing her again. In general, we only sail from ports we can easily drive too. But, never say never, we all agree we would sail her again if the occasion arose. For those who say they will never sail her, I say you are missing out. Great ship even with the blips.

BUT, that's why you would book a cove balcony. Those are the best balconies on the ship anyway, even if there were not the deck 5 obstruction. It's great being so close to the water.

I'm glad someone loves them. Everyone is different but we found them small, closed in, and claustrophobic. Not to mention if the weather is bad you can't use them. A friend who was in one on a rough sailing said the cove was closed or wet a chunk of their cruise.

What did Carnival say after you reported it?

Basically we got a snicker, a shrug and mumbles about did we know who it was.

Um, no, Trust me, I was NOT taking names!

We were a group of 12 - aged 6 years to 66 years. It made all of us decide never again are we booking a balcony on a "lanai" ship unless it's an aft cabin.

To each his own.

We've sailed both and love Conquest best. NO MORE SHIPS WITH LANAIS for us. Our Dream cruise at Christmas came with a Sex Ed opp for the 6 year old grandson (whose daddy saw it too and had to hustle him back into their room pretty darn quick). :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

When I look down from my balcony I want to see ocean. I do not care to see people having sex in the hot tub on the lanai.

I remember hearing about Captain's Suites ages ago but had forgotten about them.

Which ships have them?

Re: price drop

We always book suite or aft or aft wrap. NEVER have we had a price break. I just always assumed those rooms were in demand and fewer of them there was no reason to discount them.

I was on Sunshine in March. Loved it.

Will be on Dream in a few weeks. Expect to love it, too.

As others have said, Destiny was renovated into Sunshine. Other ships have this or that but Sunshine is the ONLY ship (right now) to have everything on it.

If the only reason to sail is to go on the ship with the most options, you will be sailing Sunshine every trip until another ship with everything is built. We sail for a variety of reasons and itineraries so our options vary with our ships.

Loving Vancouver! Got here Friday night.

Just realized I don't know how early we can board tomorrow.

Anyone know?

Thanks!

Loving your review.

So glad you had a great Texas experience. As a native Texan I can assure you that it's the way we are made. :D

Kathy, what was the date of your cruise.

I just got off one (March 9-16th) and we "followed" the Sunshine it seemed

We were on the Conquest and the picture you showed of the ships at anchor at Belize looks like the one I have a picture of!

The ship in the middle is a Aida one I think.

 

Andy

Same week!

March 9-16 was our Spring Break for most of Texas. Between the 4 of us, one is a college student in Arlington, one is a Pre-K student in a private school, one teaches in Austin and one works at a high school in Arlington. We all had the same Spring Break. Even the future daughter-in-law who didn't get to go had the same Spring Break in her school district in Pflugerville, Texas near Austin.

And, yes, that ship is an Aida. RCI and NCL were there that day, too, as I recall.

Conquest is our favorite ship. Loved her when she was in Galveston. Kristie took photos of her every time we saw her this cruise. :)

Very nice review. The Sunshine was a beautiful ship wasn't it....we were onboard December 8-15, 2013. We absolutely loved the Sunshine and it looks like you did too.

 

I love your pictures of the Dolphins. The were awesome. We have swam with stingrays, dolphins, and manatees.....what's left??? :)

 

Thanks Again for an awesome review

Thank you. And, yes, LOVED Sunshine.

I don't know what's sea animal is left to swim with but if you find one, let me know!

Post Script.

The hotel found Captain after my call. He's already been delivered to FedEx for his trip home from New Orleans.

Colton has decided he will wait for 'his' Captain to arrive home...Mutti doesn't need to go buy another one.

I really like the Holiday Inn in Metairie and their finding him and calling to tell me to say they had him (first person didn't understand what I was looking for) just reinforces my opinion of them. Kudos to the housekeeping staff and their general manager for making a little boy a very happy person. :)

We loved Sunshine. Yes, there are some common area problems with congestion especially on sea days and definitely on sea days at lunch. Some of the dining venues don't open until 12 noon so early eaters have very limited options.

We love our balcony and we love room service so neither of the common area congestion things was a problem for us.

Since she's leaving NOLA in a few days we probably won't be sailing her again. In general, we only sail from ports we can easily drive too. But, never say never, we all agree we would sail her again if the occasion arose. For those who say they will never sail her, I say you are missing out. Great ship even with the blips.

When I started writing this story we had one future cruise booked. Alaska on NCL's Star (chosen of the one way route) in late June. We'll spend the first week in July with our best friends who live just north of Anchorage.

As of yesterday we have a second future cruise booked. Our son and his lovely bride to be are getting married on Dream, at Christmas. So back to NOLA we go. Our future daughter was born and raised there, leaving with dad and sister after Katrina to attend the University of Texas and become a Texan by choice. Much of her family still leaves in New Orleans and Metairie so even those who can't cruise (an elderly grandmother for instance) will be able to attend the wedding and see the ship.

Seems we have a Third Generation Cruise Addict on our hands. Colton is very excited that Uncle Chris and Aunt Sarah are "taking him" on another cruise and that it's going to be at Christmas. He's already checked with Santa to make certain Santa understands we'll be sailing and that only stocking gifts will be allowed on board. He's been assured Santa will leave bigger things at under his tree at home. ;)

We realized last night...when he had a bedtime meltdown...that Colton's dream light got left somewhere. He's had all the new friends and hadn't noticed it. I've called the hotel and they don't have it and looking at the photos I don't think Captain made it on-board Sunshine. I'm headed to Target at lunch to replace it. Boy needs his dream light.

For this boy, seen here on his first night home with his new friends from the cruise and his old friend Superman given to him by Uncle Chris on the occasion of Colton's 5th birthday and who did NOT get left somewhere in our travels,

Hope you enjoyed our story/review. I'm sure I left out things others would like to hear about. If you ask and I know the answer I'll be happy to help you.

God Bless and Enjoy the Sunshine!

Side Note: Has anyone used the Carnival Gift Cards? I bought cards for my daughters and The Boy as gifts. One of them made it to the account perfectly the others took anywhere from 2-6 attempts to get to the account. I can't figure out if this is a gift card issues, a computer problem, or user error. I am going to try them again for our Christmas Cruise so I guess I'll know more in December.

Final Day Morning:

Embarkation was a dream. Debarkation, not so much. We were to be in the Forward MDR by 8:15 so at 8 we made our way out of breakfast in the aft dining room and headed forward. Katie doesn't use elevators and I don't use stairs going up so we split the girls heading to the stairs and The Boy and I to the elevator. They made it to the meeting place. We did not.

You know how there's always someone who thinks they are more important than everyone else? People began crowding in the Lobby although no one, other than Self-Assist, had been called yet. They ended up turning off the elevators and trying to turn people around who were on the stairs. Poor Butch. He was making announcements and you could see he was frustrated. I've never seen such a mess.

While waiting to be able to get down the last flight of stairs once the elevators were off, I listened to one guy who kept saying, "They told us we could get off at 7 am and here we stand at 8 o'clock." After about the 15th time I heard his tirade I turned and looked at him and replied, "Sir, I don't know who "they" is but this ship isn't technically due in to port until 8 am. NO ONE ever said you could get off the ship BEFORE IT WAS DUE TO DOCK." His wife turned to him and said, "I told you they didn't say 7." He didn't say anything else. It took about 30 minutes to get people out of the way and order restored. Colton and I made it to the meeting spot at exactly 8:15 and we were off the ship by 9.

Since we had to drive home we didn't wait on the hotel shuttle, instead taking a taxi back to the Holiday Inn to let them know we weren't going to be on the shuttle and to pick up the car. Led-foot Katie drove most of the way home with Kristie navigating. We made a couple of potty and gas breaks but mostly we just headed home.

Colton and I sat in the back and read, worked on his journal, and played games. He napped a couple hours so I worked on my journal.

We started his travel journal last year on a 17 day, 10 state, 10 family member road trip vacation and we continued it on this cruise. Each night he and I would talk about what we/he had done that day and I would write down his thoughts and comments. If he was asleep at dinner and didn't wake back up when we got him back to the room he and I would do the journal the next day. I am a journal person. I think we are losing our written history and I hate to see that happen so I'm a big advocate of journaling in some form. I've always had a diary or journal and now I have an 11 year old blog. I also write on paper wall calendars. I have every one since I was 12 and in the 7th grade. The journal technique of writing and reading worked with Colton's mom, aunt and uncle when they were small although they stopped as teens. A couple of them journal again in an informal way, calendars and written word in Facebook notes. We'll see if the 15 year old Colton is still journaling in 10 years.

We were back in Arlington having dinner at a favorite restaurant with the men in the family at 6:15. Not a bad day's drive.

Thanks for the review. I'm sorry the Shore Excursion and Guest Services desks didn't understand the "give the monkey a banana" theme. :D

I don't know...since I'm the one usually giving people things and doing for others I really wasn't expecting anyone to "give" me anything. On the other hand, I don't like being taken advantage of nor do I want to take advantage of others. Which is why I kept trying to make them understand we had hundreds of internet minutes for which we didn't pay.

Sunday, March 16

and all too soon we were back in NOLA

Waiting to leave the ship.

One last look at the Mississippi as we head home to Texas.

A special cake for dessert on our last night.

and ice cream

Katie spent her day getting more sun.

Colton and I did another Build A Bear that is a Monkey (for cousin Elisabeth who is 20 months old)

Look Mutti, this is your room.

And this is mine!

Thank you, Mommy, for taking me to play on the slides.

I spent part of the day taking photos around the ship.

I LOVE the bathroom art.

Kristie spent the last day reading

We spent Saturday playing and getting a little more sun on Sunshine.

LOVED the towel animals by the pool.

I tell everyone what good experiences we've had with Carnival's Guest Services. Our first cruise part of our luggage went into the Gulf on the last morning as luggage was being off-loaded. We were treated better than I can explain - including a free cruise and all our losses paid for as well as new luggage.

It's a good thing that was our first experience because this cruise had several negatives with guest services and the shore excursion desk.

I booked two different excursions which said "5 and under" free. I did a screen shot of the details online of both excursions and printed out them screen print. I got charged for Colton both times. I called my PVP, he put me in touch with the shore excursion department by email, and as I was writing my email to them I realized the second excursion changed to "3 and under" as I was writing the email so I included my screenshots.

The excursion people answered within an hour. The person said, yes, it had changed but I had ordered before the change and they owed me for two excursions. I was to go to the shore excursion desk once we got on board and they would refund me the price of the excursions as OBC. So, the first thing we did when we got on Sunshine was go to the excursion desk. The man working there said his boss was on break but he would try to help me. I always travel with a binder that I call my Travel Book. It includes everything - passport, tickets, hotel confirmations, copies of documents, copies of emails, and what have you.

I showed him my paperwork, emails, screenshots, etc. He picked up the shore excursion book and showed me where the Dolphins were free for Colton but not the Sharks and Rays. I pointed out the emails addressed that issue. He said come back when the boss is here about that one but sign here for credit for the Dolphins. It took three more trips and several conversations before I finally got the second credit.

Went to the Dolphin excursion and two tickets said Dolphin Swim and one said Dolphin Encounter. The guides put me in the Swim since they could see a mistake had been made. Got back from the Dolphins to discover I had been charged another $129 for the Swim. Back down to the shore excursion desk with all my paperwork. Ooops. Their error. YA THINK??? They finaaly gave me a OBC refund. But, it's all good...I was going to spend that money on photos anyway.

As I'm dealing with the shore excursion fiasco, Kristie is trying to email with her husband. Except her internet minutes are gone. Except they aren't. They show as there but they won't work. She called Guest Services and the next 65 minutes was just one dumb thing after another. First they told her it was an error and they would get it back on. When it didn't come back, she called again, and they told her it was MY error and I had to go to the GS Desk and show them my card so we can reactivate her S&S card. Which I did. Still nothing. Another phone call and they told her SHE had requested them to untether her account from mine.

In her words....

if you focus on the negative, you could have a really awful time. Believe all the bad reviews you see, if you want, but we have a lovely balcony, wonderful waiters and fantastic room steward and are having a wonderful time. Just ignore the messed up folio problems (somehow my folio was untethered from the group AND inactivated), the missing photographs (my mom tends to BUY ALL THE PICTURES), the total lack of non crowded public areas, the craptastic shore excursion desk staff and it's all good.

Yes, they untethered her account from my credit card and then tried to convince us SHE had asked for that to happen.

Um, no. This was my gift to my girls. I promised the trip wouldn't cost them a dime. She definitely would not have untethered her account. They finally blamed it on a computer crash the day before and we were finally all back online. Except they gave her her minutes and then gave me the same amount. Back downstairs to let them know we had too many minutes. I was assured no, we didn't have too many minutes. Well, maybe not but *I* didn't buy 395 minutes! I finally gave up trying to convince them they were giving me something for free.