Sunshine Review - 6 Day Western Caribbean - 11/18/13

[Kim_KS]

Those were some really nice free samples! Great review so far- looking forward to the rest!

 

I was excited to see the Mary Kay mascara. Can't wait to try that out!

 

 

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[Kim_KS]

What level were your rooms on ? we are going out on the 1/12/2014 cruise and we are in aft extended 5346. thanks

 

We were on deck 7 - 7333 and 7320

 

 

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[Kim_KS]

What were your room numbers? We also have an AFT cabin with an inside nearby for our 3 kids.

 

 

Clay.

 

We were in 7333 (aft balcony) and 7320 (inside)

 

 

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[Kim_KS]

Thanks everyone for the kind words - I wish I could reply to each of you individually.

 

I am working on the next installment but was having issues loading my pictures. I got them loaded tonight and hope to post more of the review tomorrow.

 

 

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[billys mom]

Thanks for the review...can't wait for the rest of it.

[pirate4me2]

Thank you for doing a review! I am considering booking Sunshine for our next cruise and was waiting to see how the reviews of her once she started sailing from the US came back. Can't wait to hear more about your adventure!

[gregg204]

Thank you for doing a review! I am considering booking Sunshine for our next cruise and was waiting to see how the reviews of her once she started sailing from the US came back. Can't wait to hear more about your adventure!

I was also on this cruise and would not hesitate to book the Sunshine again. Beautiful ship. I'd say almost all of the problems mentioned on her 1st few cruises have been corrected.

[whendoweleave?]

My mom's sailing the Sunshine in February and I'm jealous! We usually sail out of NOLA, since we can drive their in a few hours, but decided to take one of the newer bigger ships this time. When we booked a year ago, we decided to fly to Orlando to take the Dream. And now, lo and behold, the Dream is coming to NOLA 3 months after we FLY to sail her in January! :rolleyes: Oh, well!

 

Keep up the great work! And thanks for taking the time!

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Great start. Keep those pics coming!

[Kim_KS]

I was also on this cruise and would not hesitate to book the Sunshine again. Beautiful ship. I'd say almost all of the problems mentioned on her 1st few cruises have been corrected.

 

I agree Greg! It was a great cruise and we loved the ship!

[Kim_KS]

I apologize for the long delay! Between my kids' wrestling, basketball and lacrosse I haven't had a chance to breathe this week. I think I need another vacation! :)

 

Sea Days - Tues/Wed/Sat

Our Sea Days started with breakfast in the dining room for the SeaDay Brunch. I had no idea this was no longer the Comedy Brunch? The menu looked pretty much the same, although I noticed the Churro was missing from the dessert menu. :(

My Huevos Rancheros were still on the menu so I was happy. I think I ordered it all three times we ate there! The first morning, the service was very slow, but they seemed to get everything worked out and the other mornings were quicker.

 

Sea Days also included a lot of trivia for us. We had fun playing as a family and trying to win a ship on a stick. It was a little frustrating to see the same couple people win them time after time after time but oh well. How many ships on a stick does one person need anyway? I just wanted one to go with the one we won on Conquest in May. :) The closest we got was a tie on Name That Logo but we lost out in the sudden death play-off. We did get a medallion. Oh well - we had fun trying.

 

 

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Edited December 8, 2013 by Kim_KS

[Kim_KS]

Sea Day afternoons were spent out in the sun in the Sports Square area. The kids loved the water slides and ropes course. I didn't try either. LOL. I started up the water slide steps with hubby and kids and decided I was too chicken and went back down. LOL. I really wanted to try the ropes course. Finally the last sea day I made sure I had on tennis shoes and when we went up there it was closed? Maybe it was too windy, I don't know. This area was really great - we enjoyed everything up there - slides, ropes course and mini golf..\

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kim_KS]

We never had trouble finding a place to sit in this area. Lots of open chairs and lots of sun. Loved it!

 

[Kim_KS]

I was able to get some of the Fun Times downloaded from the Fun Hub website. Just a tip - if you want to download them, make sure you get them that day. Sometimes the previous day was available, but not always.

 

I have two of the days saved as pdf but I'm not sure how to load them here. Do I have to convert it to a picture somehow?

[agc291]

I am not sure how to post the PDFs but I am sure someone else can help. Looking forward to the rest of your review. We are interested in sailing the Sunshine once she comes to Port Canaveral.

[Rsebdb]

We never had trouble finding a place to sit in this area. Lots of open chairs and lots of sun. Loved it!

 

 

This is such a beautiful photograph. The next time there's a photo contest with Carnival, you should consider entering this one. Thanks for including it in your review!

[Kim_KS]

This is such a beautiful photograph. The next time there's a photo contest with Carnival, you should consider entering this one. Thanks for including it in your review!

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Thanks! I have to give credit to my 14-year-old daughter for taking that one. She has a great eye and most of the really good pictures I have were taken by her! She wants to be a photographer when she grows up. :)

[Kim_KS]

I'm finally back! Ugh! I think next time (if there is a next time) I write a review, I will have to write the whole thing before I start posting it! So anyway - here's the next installment...

 

Grand Cayman - Nov 21

 

Our first port day was Grand Cayman. We grabbed some breakfast from the buffet when it opened at 6:30 am and headed up to the Liquid Lounge to wait for the tenders. They were supposed to start at 7:00 am. We got #3 when we arrived and didn’t have to wait too long to get on a boat.

 

 

 

 

Our excursion was supposed to meet at 8:30 am ship time so I was worried about getting to shore quickly, but we had plenty of time. We got to Georgetown in time to walk around a bit, stop in a few shops and still get to our meeting place early. As a side note - ship time was an hour different than local time when we were there.

 

When we first started planning the cruise, my daughter insisted that we had to ride horses in Cayman. She researched the different companies and found the best one. We booked a ride/swim with Pampered Ponies. It ended up being about $112 per person, which included transportation and a 2-hour ride/swim. We were too meet our ride at Casanova Restaurant, which is very close to the port. Lucky for us, the restaurant wasn’t open yet, but their wifi reached out to the sidewalk. :) We waited and waited while the kids checked messages and texts. Finally about 8:45, I went next door to the dive shop to call the owner. She said she would call the transport service and see what was going on. About 15 minutes later we finally got picked up, with apologies for being late. This ended up being the only complaint of the day, and it really wasn’t her fault. She even took off in her own truck to come find us, just in case the van didn’t show up for us.

 

The drive to the stables took about 20 minutes and gave us a chance to see a bit of the island. I really liked what I saw. Modern roads, lots of shopping and restaurants. As we left town, we got to view the countryside, which was beautiful. Once we got to the stables, we were quickly saddled up and given some basic instruction on riding.

 

[Kim_KS]

This is the view from the stable property - what a life!

 

 

I had to laugh when we chatted with the owner, who is American, and she told us can be a bit boring living there. What? Looks like heaven to me! We were introduced to our two guides and we took off down the road on our way to the beach.

 

 

One thing they taught us - horses want to eat all the time! We learned this quickly as they wanted to stop at everything green along the way - lol.

 

 

Once we reached the beach we rode along the beach for quite a ways. The views were unbelievable!

 

 

[boaterette]

I am loving your review. A quick question for you. How were the horses? My daughter did a ride in Mexico and the horses were rather undernourished. She got off the horse and started crying. Were the horses well cared for?

[Kim_KS]

I am loving your review. A quick question for you. How were the horses? My daughter did a ride in Mexico and the horses were rather undernourished. She got off the horse and started crying. Were the horses well cared for?

 

I'm no horse expert - but they seemed very healthy to me. I read a lot of the reviews on tripadvisor and that is one thing that a lot of people mentioned - that the horses are well cared for at this place.

[Kim_KS]

Cozumel - Nov 22

 

We weren’t scheduled to dock in Cozumel until 10:00 am so we had a nice relaxed morning. We ate breakfast in the dining room and then headed down to get in line. We had reservations at Nachi Cocom so we headed straight for a taxi. While standing in line, we learned the couple in front of us was also going to Nachi so we were able to split a taxi and save a couple bucks. Turns out they were in our fb group and are also here on CC.

 

 

We arrived at Nachi Cocom by 11:00 am. and had our obligatory sombrero picture.

 

 

I don’t think I have to tell everyone here how great Nachi is. This was our second time there, first time for the kids and we had a wonderful day! My teenage boys ate more than their share of food. I found them digging in the sand like little kids - so cute!

 

 

My 17-year old buried my 16-year old

 

 

And they had a great time

 

[Kim_KS]

The weather was beautiful and thew views were amazing - like always!

 

 

 

 

 

And since my pedicure was inspired by other cruise toes shared here, I thought I’d share mine too!

 

 

My oldest son rented a jet ski ($60/half hour) and really enjoyed it. At one point he fell off and tried and tried to get back on with no luck. We were watching from the beach wondering what would happen. Finally someone road out on another jet ski and helped him. Later in the afternoon my 16-year old decided to rent one. He took his little sister out with him. After about 10 minutes of riding, the jet ski quit working. We watched as they waited and waited and drifted and drifted and no one went to help them. Finally my husband walked down to the pier where the rental place is located. They sent someone out in a PEDAL boat! It took him forever to get out to where they were. Then he puts them in the pedal boat with him and leaves the jet ski. But I don’t know if it was too much weight or what, but the boat couldn’t get going anywhere. Finally they sent out the glass-bottomed boat to rescue them. It was quite an ordeal. I’m not sure why they didn’t send the boat in the first place? They didn’t seem too willing to refund his money, but after I insisted, they gave him back $50 of the $60 he paid. By the way, don’t expect any help from Nachi if you have problems with the rentals. They were very quick to tell me that they had nothing to do with it!

 

I think we learned a lesson though, next time we’ll make sure we have rent two jet skis at once in case one or the other has a problem. It was very disconcerting to watch my kids drifting out in the ocean and not being able to help them!

 

In case you’re not familiar with Nachi, it’s an all-inclusive (food & drink) beach club. The cost is $55 per adult and $35 (ages 12-15). They limit the reservations to 100 per day so it’s not crowded at all. There is a pool, covered restaurant, beach chairs and palapas..

 

All in all, it was a wonderful day! The kids did not want to leave to go back to the ship. But then, who ever wants to leave Nachi?

 

That night we saw the Latin Nights show (not bad) and John DiCristo in the Punchliner. He was very very funny! We enjoyed all the family comedy shows that we attended. I love that Carnival has this option!

[wrigley80]

Enjoyed your review. We returned from our cruise on the Sunshine on Monday night. We had a great time.

We also played a lot of trivia in the Ocean Plaza. Was it really cold back there on your cruise?? On ours it as freezing

 

 

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[Kim_KS]

Enjoyed your review. We returned from our cruise on the Sunshine on Monday night. We had a great time.

We also played a lot of trivia in the Ocean Plaza. Was it really cold back there on your cruise?? On ours it as freezing

 

 

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Yes it was!! Luckily I read about the great hot chocolate here on CC so that helped. I also made sure I always wore a jacket! :)

 

 

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