*Cassie*

The Digg then opened up to the outside. Now, I didn’t see the sign that Andrew later said he saw saying the aquarium passes ended there. There were no workers there either to direct us anywhere. So I think we probably weren’t supposed to walk out there, but I wanted to check out the rest of the grounds, so we walked around a little bit.

Walking directly out from there, is the beach area.

Going to the right, there were tables set up all over the place. I’m not sure if they were setting up for something or it had already ended. Walking past them we found this beautiful waterfall. I’m not sure what was up with Sophia, but she insisted on holding her hand up in the air. Ok then. :D

Then walking back and to the left, we walked past a pool.

Then we walked back through the Digg. Before we could get up to this tank, we waited on a couple that were trying to take a picture in front of it. Once they finally got their photo, Sophia went running up and turned around, posing just like they were, waiting for me to take her picture! haha

They also had a touch tank. She said she wanted to try to touch a star fish, but changed her mind as soon as her hand went into the water.

So down the elevator and it enters into the beginning of the Digg. There was a tour starting, so we walked around them back out to the main lobby area. The whole side here has floor to ceiling aquarium views and was decorated like the lost city of Atlantis. It was really neat!

I wasn’t sure how Landon would like it, but he just loved watching the fish!

They then directed us to take a left and go through the casino. Now, I had no idea just how huge Atlantis is! There was just so much there. We definitely want to go back another time just to stay Atlantis and spend time at the waterpark. But there are also tons of shops. And lots of very high end shops. We of course didn’t get to stop at a single one of them. We made our way through and before entering the casino, they had the big Atlantis chair, so we had to stop for a photo.

Sophia said she needed a picture by herself, as I was getting down, and then she kicked back to relax! :D

Then on through the casino. I was also shocked at how huge their casino was! Once through there, they had steps down to the aquarium. Since we had the stroller, we were sent off outside to find the elevator. Right outside they have the huge tank that is the top view of what we would later see down below.

Oh how I love palm trees!

We walked all around the side out there, no elevator in sight, until we realized when we walked out that door originally we should have just looked to the right and it was right there!

Then back to the room to get the stroller and we were ready to go. There were several other ships in port with us throughout the day. We were directly next to an NCL ship.

We made the short walk up the port and through the security building. Once you walk out there are tons of little stands with souvenirs and different vendors. Some of them get very pushy. At one point I had a lady following me, asking over and over if she could braid Sophia’s hair.

There are also tons of taxi drivers working together everywhere. One asked to take us on his tour, but we said we wanted to go to Atlantis so he called over to a lady and said she would bring us there. She had a small van, so we had to wait a few minutes for her to find another family to ride over with us.

They had lots of horse and carriage rides and Sophia got the biggest giggle each time she’d spot one on the ride over.

The drive didn’t take long at all and before we knew it we were dropped off right outside Atlantis. We had to first go over to the left side to buy our day pass. We did the aquarium adventure. My kiddos were free admission! While waiting in line, I took some quick pics of the marina area there.

I love the bright colors!

Nassau

And breakfast time again, yay! :)

I tried some kind of apple pastry this morning. It was pretty good as well.

After we finished eating, we went out to the deck to get a glimpse of Nassau.

Atlantis, where we would be heading to visit the aquarium:

And the port area:

Enjoying your review, and your children are beautiful! Can't wait to read the rest... Great pictures too.

Thank you! :)

I could not figure out where the toll roads were on your journey. Yes there are a lot of tolls in the Orlando area. When we are in the Orlando we never use them. The route we are planning to use takes us down the South Carolina coast on I-95. If you would like it I will email it to you. Its 1300 miles from here in northern Il., its about 50 miles longer than through Atlanta. Anytime you can bypass Atlanta its a good trip.

Aha! Yeah, it took us for-ev-er to get through Atlanta on the way down...

We were on the Sunshine last month and never smelled anything bad throughout the cruise.

Great review and pics! Loved the felt dolls you made for the ride down *off to pinterest for a tutorial*

There are so many cute ones! I wasted so much time looking through them all and debating on it.

Here's the one I used:

http://racheldenbow.blogspot.com/2010/12/dress-up-felt-board-tutorial-and.html

Almost done with my Nassau report. Be back soon!

That's my room! DH and I will be in that room for our B2B on the Sunshine! Did you find it to be noisy at all being so close to the lobby?

Ooh I'm jealous you get to do a B2B! Overall, not terrible. After the first night, my husband said he did wake up once from hearing a loud group all singing together. I didn't hear anything. But the last night we did both have some trouble sleeping through what I assume was the "Guess that 80's song" going on in the lobby. Lots of very loud group singing going on. But, we were in bed early each night to get our LOs to sleep, and I think those things were still not terribly late, so it might not be an issue for you.

Reading your wonderful review and am curious. We are here in northetn Il, and drive to central Florida for all our cruises out of Florida. We have driven through Atlanta and also down through South Carolina. Where were the lots of tolls, we have never paid a dime to get to Florida.

Just in Florida, mostly around Orlando. On our way back though, we went up through Jacksonville instead and were able to skip all of them! So next time we'll have to plot our route out first and see if we can get around them again.

Thanks so much for your review! We are on the Sunshine for 10 days soon!! Can not wait!!!!

So close to the single digit dance! Enjoy!

Great review.

 

You have such adorable kids.

 

You should record your daughter saying she doesn't need a nap and play it for her when she's a teenager and sleeping until noon. :p

Thank you! And that's brilliant. Yes, I keep telling her one day she'll beg to be able to have nap time. Too bad that doesn't work right now.

Enjoying your review and pictures! We can't wait to sail on the Sunshine in September. We remember sailing with our boys when they were little. They were 5 and 3 on their first cruise. Such precious memories! Enjoy them while they are young as they grow up so fast! :)

Yes even though this age can be rough, I know this stage won't last forever and before I know it they'll be grown. Thanks for reading, enjoy your time on the Sunshine!

Please share how to make the frozen lemonade:) I have enjoyed reading your review.

 

 

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It's really easy! Like I said, I made it twice and different ways each time. The way I recommend is lemonade first, rather than ice cream first. So fill up one of their cups half full with lemonade, then add the vanilla ice cream until the lemonade reaches probably an inch or so from the top. You'll need to mix it well, so you don't want it too full. Enjoy!

Sophia was now begging to go back to the arcade. We talked her into playing at the playground a bit instead. Unfortunately, it was closed for Camp Carnival use. She could have stayed to play, but we would have had to go inside and check her in. We weren’t wanting to leave her, though. So we decided on some more mini golf. We even managed to catch the sunset out there!

The taste bar wasn’t open tonight, so we just went back to our room. Our towel animal was there waiting for us.

Coming up… Nassau!

After finishing our drink, we headed back to the room since she was looking a little tired. Landon was still sleeping and I tried convincing Sophia to snuggle in and try to rest, but she was insistent that she wasn’t tired. She was instead complaining she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten much of her hotdog at lunch, mostly just the fruit, so I suggested Andrew take her up to the buffet to see if she wanted anything. They went to do that, so I slid in next to Landon to get some reading time. I had started the first book of the Legend book series and I was hooked!

A little while later Andrew walks in carrying a sleeping Sophia. Apparently, just shortly after sitting down with a pizza, she fell asleep mid chew! :D So he laid her down in her bed. She was completely out. Landon was still completely out, too. He started to stir at one point, but just flopped over on me and was immediately back out. These kids were exhausted!

So again, they were both out for hours, not wanting to wake up. But finally they were both awake and we were ready for dinner. Tonight I got Sophia a grilled cheese and Landon grilled ham & cheese.

This was my favorite dinner of the buffet all week. The chicken was really good and the short ribs were just delicious!

Andrew picked out a few desserts for us. I liked the cheesecake, but the others were just ok.

And of course this one just wanted an ice cream cone.

I didn’t get a pic, but we did go back and grab some desserts. I’m thinking it was a brownie and some chocolate chip cookies. Once we finished up eating, we were ready to go back to the ship.

Along the road there are a couple little benches that make for a cute photo op!

We stopped in one of the shops, but there wasn’t much there. They had a few stands outside with hair braiding and such, but there was some work going on to the roofs there, so several of them were empty.

Sophia kept trying to pick up the shells on the fountain! haha

We made our way back through security and onto the tender. We waited a little while for it to fill up. I’m not sure exactly how long of a wait, but not too terrible. This time we had to wait for it to clear out for us to be able to move the stroller off, though. But it still wasn’t too long.

Once back through the security area, we went back to our room to clean up. And there was quite a surprise waiting for Andrew! I’ve heard some people have recently received birthday gift cards, but I assumed that was if it is during the cruise. Andrew’s birthday was a little over 2 weeks prior, but he still got the $50 spa gift card. How nice! Oh how I would have loved to use that…

After showering and getting everyone cleaned up and changed, I got Landon down for his nap, and Sophia and I snuck out for some girl time. We went up to the Lido deck and got a kid’s “strawberry daiquiri” and found some empty chairs to hang out together.

Love this girl!

It was soon lunch time, so we decided to make our way back to the lunch area. On the way there, Sophia was very happy to see the foot washing station so she could get all the sand off. Now the lunch area got super, super congested. When you first walk up to it from the road, it looks like there is just one long line. However, if you walk around, there are 5 or 6 different stations, all with the same food, and a line for each one. You don’t have to stand in that long line in the front.

Here is the lunch menu:

I made the mistake of not grabbing an extra plate to put the fruit on. Since it was on the plate with Sophia’s hotdog, the little stinker ate pretty much all of it herself! Lunch was good, nothing super special, but it hit the spot. For whatever reason though, they only have super tiny little Dixie cups for the drinks, so we ended up making multiple trips over there getting more and more to drink.

It’s at the very beginning of the beach. This was the hardest area for the stroller, but we made it and she had a great time! Landon had fallen asleep in the stroller on the walk over, so Andrew stayed with him in the shade while I watched Sophia.

I got this shot before moving on.

And a closer pic of the ship:

While searching for a bathroom we happened to find the lunch area. And, chickens! Lots of chickens!

We finally found a bathroom, but there were signs up about not cleaning feet in there so we just told her we’d take her to the kids water slide area and she could wash them off there. Although she wouldn’t let us just wash them in the water at the previous beach area, she was happy with this plan (that’s a 3 year old for you)… So off to find the play area.

We played here for probably an hour-ish and then decided to find a spot at the beach. We debated where to stop, but I actually wish we would have walked even further. We ended up just a little to the right of the big Captain Morgan’s ship bar and, although there were plenty of open spots to sit, there was constantly a stream of people walking by.

I wish I could say I ever got to enjoy a moment of relaxing in one of those chairs, but with two squirmy kids that never did happen. Oh well!

Sophia was very excited to get out to the water, so Andrew took her out while I got Landon changed into his swim suit. I’m glad I was able to snap this picture of them. Apparently Sophia was upset that the pretty blue water wasn’t washing up to her feet, just the sandy color! :D

Couldn’t get him to look at the camera of course, but had to try!

The sand here is amazing! It’s so incredibly soft. I’ve never felt anything quite like it. Just an absolutely beautiful beach!

I brought Sophia out into the water a bit while Andrew played with Landon in the sand. Even though the weather was gorgeous, the water was surprisingly chilly. Sophia took a wave to the face and freaked out from the salt flavor and was done. Then of course her feet and legs got covered in sand on the way out and she was just over it. She doesn’t like getting dirty and just wanted to be cleaned up. And of course she didn’t like us trying to rub it off with the beach towel, so we had to pack up early and head off to find a bathroom.

We weren’t quite sure how stroller friendly the island was going to be. We did ok for the most part, but there were a few sections where we had to both pick up an end and carry it over when we got stuck. But there is a sidewalk path and road section that we moved along just fine.

We decided to first head towards the kids playground. On the way I had to stop to get this picture.

The map was a little confusing and we weren’t sure exactly where we were, but suddenly there it was!

You can see some of the cabanas to the right of the Captain Morgan’s ship bar and the larger villas to the left.

Here you can see the kids water area to the left and I assume that’s the private oasis to the right.

Almost there!

And we made it! We also lucked out and were the first ones helped off the boat, so we were able to quickly get a photo.

Half Moon Cay

After getting ready, it was breakfast time again. Yay! As we were leaving our room they had started the announcements about tendering. At that point they were giving out boarding numbers and you’d wait for your number to be called.

I didn’t get a pic of the kid’s plate, but it was the same as the day before: pancakes, fruit, yogurt. This morning I wanted to try out the made to order omelette bar. I can’t remember what I all had put in it though, but it was really yummy!

We went back to our room to grab the stroller and beach gear. We happened to pick just the right time, because right as we left our room they announced that there was now open tender boarding and you could go right on down to deck 0. By the time we made it on an elevator and through the little security section, there just happened to be a handicap spot available for us to sit with the stroller and after a few more minutes the tender was full and we were on our way over to Half Moon Cay.

Here we go!

Love reading your review ! I was on the sailing right after yours . Although I had a wonderful vacation , the ship and crew definitely needed a break. Good thing they had a dry dock coming up .

Yes, I noticed little things as well.

We are (very) impatiently waiting for our cruise aboard the Sunshine in October. Thanks for the great review!

I know that feeling! :)

Thanks for the review! Husband and I are cruising on the Sunshine in November!

Enjoy your cruise! Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Great review...can't wait to read the rest!

Thanks for reading. More coming soon!