katti michele

I sailed on her at the end of February and I scoured the boards and read the reviews (mostly negative) and i'll be honest, I think it affected my cruise. I stepped foot on her already thinking i'd hate it. So please, please, please, don't go into it with a negative attitude (like I did!) or it will make you notice everything and just be judgmental.

That said, I really did have a FANTASTIC cruise. I think a lot of it depends on what you enjoy doing on a cruise. We're two 20-something's so we enjoy eating, wandering around, getting dressed up and going to dinner (did I mention eating?! ;)) comedy shows, and the nightclub (merely to people watch :eek:). We don't do the water slides, don't really lay out, casinos, etc. I will say I read all about these "water buckets" and a smell and was ready with my galoshes and nose close-pin and did not notice anything of the sort.

Can't think of a bad meal I had (and by my comments above, I sure had many of them! :p) Brunch was delish, MDR was good and your typical service. I guess because there are just SO many places to eat for lunch, we never waited in line, never had trouble finding seating. Most of the time, we went all the way to the back in the Havana bar and got a high rise booth overlooking the back of the ship. It was quiet and a great view!

The comedy club is set up really terrible and it is very limited seating and we did see people get turned away. We actually were the first night, so we learned early on to get there at least 30 minutes early. As long as you know this ahead of time, you just have to be strategic and it won't ruin your experience.

For us, the nightclub/main lounge was a BUST on Sunshine so after the comedy shows, we'd go lay in those clamshells on Serenity. It was always dead up there at night and it was so nice and relaxing.

Sorry for the novel/mini review, but it really is what you make it! Would I choose to go on her again? Well...i'm cheap and live in New Orleans, so I will cruise on whatever ship is here! I'm glad I got to experience Sunshine, but i'm not heartbroken her stay was short and we have the Dream now.

Just wanna note that I was on the Sunshine at the end of Feb and the "Mexican Fiesta" consisted of stale "ballpark" chips (ya know, those perfectly round bright yellow ones), a thicker pita-style chip, and about 3 different salsas.

If you're looking for a good laugh, sit near the Blue Iguana during this time because people were scooping on the Triple Pepper Habanero salsa thinking it was cheese! Watching them take a giant bite was priceless :eek: And yeah, I can make fun and laugh because I did it too! Luckily it's pretty close to the ice cream/froyo machines. I wanted to stick my mouth under it the salsa was so hot!

Not sure what the Mexican Fiesta is like on the other ships, but it was pretty pathetic! :D

Kinda off topic, but if you're looking for chips, they have them this night!

Snorkeling was not a part of the tour.

We did the "Stingrays and Island" tour with Nativeways because we were not interested in snorkeling and felt the same way you do.

If you're not interested in exploring the island, then this might be pointless for you, but it definitely does not have a snorkeling aspect so it might be something worth looking into!

It was wonderful! The size was HUGE. It was very quiet as it's at the way end of the hall. The only ship noise we heard was when we were pulling into port and docking. Luckily we had excursions planned for all ports, so we were up long before the noise/jolting. I would definitely stay in this cabin (or others like it) even the opportunity/availability/funds.

I'll be cruising in an inside cabin at the end of this month and really not sure how i'm going to be able to survive after having so much space!

We did the "Stingray and Island" tour with Nativeways. We went to Hell, Rum Factory, Turtle Farm, 7-Mile Beach, and swam with the stingrays. It was wonderful to see a little bit of everything the Island offers. I highly recommend it!

It was a group of maybe 10 of us so it was the perfect size and not overcrowded at any of the stops we made.

Oh, I got 2 new non formal dresses this week! Striped one is a sweater dress from Old Navy, leopard print is jersey knit from Talbots outlet and looks much better on than in the picture. On second thought, I'm not sure the leopard print picture is my exact dress, but it's similar.

 

LOVE the leopard one!

I wish I could find something at Ross. I was in there last week, and they had nothing in my size at all. They did have a lot of really cute dresses in the smaller sizes. I will keep trying. I would love to get a bargain.

Definitely keep looking. I always find dresses there in sizes from 16-22 (Not sure what size you are, but you said you found lots of smaller sizes). One of the dresses I wore on my cruise a few weeks ago was from Ross and I got a lot of compliments on it!

The thing I liked about traditional dining was having a 'reservation', if you will. It was nice knowing that at 8:15 every night, I was expected to show up to my table with my same waitstaff. I feel like with anytime dining, we'll make up an excuse not to go and just eat on the lido. I'll be cruising with my boyfriend in December and he has no sense of time. :rolleyes: With traditional, I figure I can force him to get fancy and have a nice dinner at the same time every night.

I didn't even taste any of the chocolates left on my bed on my Carnival cruise, but I did bring them home and gave them out as souvenirs! :D My non-cruise people don't need to know they were left on my pillow each night, for all they know, I bought them in the gift shop. ;)

That's what I figured, since i'm going with a boy this time, he shouldn't have much to plug in!

I read about the noise and vibrations, but I figure that can just give us a good wake up call for our excursions, haha.

Just booked this cabin for my December cruise. Got off my first cruise on the Conquest a week ago (I think i'm developing a cruising addiction...) and had an aft inside cabin. I'm just curious if the oceanview rooms, or maybe this room particular because of it's strange shape, have only one outlet or more. Can't wait, the pictures of the room seem 3 times of the size of the inside cabin and has two windows.

All of your dresses look stunning! I just found this at Ross for $30 and will wear it on my first cruise in 11 days!

Now I just need to find shoes. I'm only 5 feet tall and the dress falls right at my ankles, so i'm a little confused on shoes. Don't wanna look like i'm waiting for a flood! ;)