Walking on Sunshine: Spring Break Review

[Havinsnest]

Now that it's been a week since we got home I finally have time to write a bit.

 

This cruise was a Christmas gift to my daughters and grandson. No, I'm not rich. My dad left me a small inheritance last year and my sweet husband insisted I put some of it aside to "play" with as I saw fit. From the day our second daughter was born, 33 months after her older sister, I began dreaming of a Mom and Daughter Trip when they were grown. This trip was a tick mark off my Bucket List and it spent the last of my play money.

 

This review includes the following cast of characters:

Kathy/Mom: me,AKA the Monkey. My girls kept saying, "Give the Monkey a banana whenever I wanted something they did not. This was my 5th Carnival Cruise (3 on Conquest, 1 on Victory). I also have 1 NCL cruise, a trip on the Alaskan Marine Ferry up the Inside Passage and an army transport "transatlantic cruise" from Germany to NYC in 1958 under my cruising belt.

 

Katie: Daughter Number 1 - has cruised twice but never on Carnival and she is mom to

Colton: Grandson age 5 - his first cruise

Kristie: Daughter Number 2 - has cruised once before with her dad and me in 2009 on Conquest

 

The grandson was included since I am usually his Spring Break caregiver. The other males in the family were quite jealous.

[maureencruiser]

Let's hear it! :D

 

 

[Havinsnest]

We usually sail from Galveston but I picked this cruise for the ports and Sunshine. We had originally planned to leave Arlington on Friday afternoon, drive to the Austin area w

 

here Kristie lives, spend the night, get up early on Saturday and drive to NOLA.

 

At 4:30 on Thursday afternoon that plan changed as it dawned on all of us that Katie and never been to NOLA. SOOOOO, a quick phone call to the Holiday Inn in Metairie and a new room booking later, our plans updated.

 

Katie and I had our nails done, did a couple of errands and then picked up Colton from school at lunchtime on Friday morning. A quick drive through lunch and we were headed south on I35.

 

We were in the Austin area and at Kristie's house by 4:15, loaded her gear, goodbyes to the 20 month old granddaughter and, after a Sonic break in Elgin, we were on our way!

 

The girls tag teamed the driving of my Annie the Equinox - stopping about every 2 hours to stretch, potty, and switch drivers, and I sat in the back with Colton. I read to him, he played on his iPad, I texted with my husband, and we all got caught up on each other's news. Including the news that Kristie and her Jordan have accepted a job in the UAE (she will be teaching science) beginning in August! Wait! What? You are taking our granddaughter away? Why don't you leave her with us for the 2-5 years? (A no-go, by the way, darn it)

 

 

Colton napped after we said his prayers about 9 but never did sleep soundly and for long. Katie napped slightly while Kristie was driving at one point but mostly we were all awake all night. We got to the hotel about 1:30 am.

 

We got our room keys and headed to the elevator (Katie only does stairs, by the way). Imagine our surprise to find luggage in the room we entered! Luckily no inhabitants...must have been on Bourbon Street. Katie's key didn't work at all but we heard a baby crying so we think we woke up occupants of that room as well.

 

Back downstairs I go to the front desk. They had had a computer crash earlier and had been hand assigning rooms. Someone had forgotten to mark these rooms as assigned. After many apologies we had new keys to a suite and another room, breakfast vouchers and all sorts of of freebies.

 

We were finally in bed about 3:30. Up at 8 for breakfast and a day of sightseeing.

 

We took Colton to see Elation in port so he'd have an idea of what a cruise ship looked like, as well as driving over part of the Pontchartrain bridge, visiting the WWII Museum (which he called the Airplane store) and many other things.

Acme Oyster House for supper, a quick trip to K-Mart (which we no longer have in our area) and then to Morning Call for the best beignets ever.

 

Back at the hotel tragedy struck, though.

 

Beignet Down.

 

 

After CSI left and the crime scene was cleaned it was to bed for us.

 

Up early on Sunday for our CRUISE! Took the hotel shuttle to the port. The traffic was horrible at the terminal. I killed time taking photos. Katie killed time by posing for them.

 

[Havinsnest]

FINALLY got to the terminal and got a porter to get our luggage.

 

He pointed us in the right direction and we flew to the doors. They took our photo first which was new for me, this was the first "Give the Monkey a Banana" Moment as the girls weren't thrilled with the shirts I had given them to wear but whatever it takes.

 

 

 

Thanks to the Priority boarding of our suites, we flew through check-in and we were on board at a new all time (for us) early time of 11:20 am!

 

Dropped off our carry-ons in our rooms (2 suites, side by side, on Deck 7), spoke to the room steward who promised to open our balcony door and divide the beds (oops! someone missed a memo) after his break, took a few photos, let Colton open the gifts he found waiting for him (sand toys and a Carnival bear) and we headed to the Lido for an early lunch. Mark, our steward, was amazing, by the way! We loved him.

 

 

 

They are smallest suites we've ever had. Kristie said, "Where is the rest of it?" :eek: I'm glad I took the upsell to the suites from the balcony rooms I had originally picked.

 

 

Lunch of Guy's Burgers. They were tasty but, frankly, I miss the old fries and I've had better burgers.

 

Edited March 23, 2014 by Havinsnest

[Havinsnest]

Empress Deck 7

7149 and 7143

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Havinsnest]

The rest of Sunday was spent checking out the ship, touring the Spa, touring Camp Carnival, going to the Camp Carnival orientation and unpacking and sitting on our balcony and enjoying our trip down the Mississippi River.

 

 

My thoughts on Sunshine? Adding more staterooms took away from common areas and the common areas left are not all adequately used. I saw John Heald post that Carnival is going to add more chairs and sofas to Deck 5. They need to! It's the perfect people watching area and there are several hundred feet of an area with huge windows and nowhere to sit to enjoy the view.

 

Regarding the smell in the Lounge I kept hearing about? Nothing. We were in the Lounge twice within 3 hours on Sunday. Once for Muster and once for CC orientation. For about 30 seconds I caught a slight odor during the CC orientation. It smelled like stale diesel fuel - which does smell like sewer sometimes but it was gone as quickly as it appeared.

 

Speaking of Camp Carnival:

The Boy was so excited about Camp Carnival that he cried when he realized he wasn't going there on Sunday. Sadly, once he got to CC on Monday morning he didn't really care for it.

 

They break up the ages poorly...his group was 2-5. Many 5 year olds are in Kindergarten, and like Colton, they are already reading. Two year olds, especially early 2 year olds, are still babies, not talking well and still taking naps. His complaint was "too many babies" so we didn't send him back unless he asked - both times after lunch so the babies were all in their own cabins taking naps. We met several other parents of 5s who had the same comments and whose 5 year olds had the same complaints. How sad to go from so excited he cried that he couldn't go to detesting it in the space of a few hours. :mad:

 

Dinner was casual and Colton fell asleep. (As the cruise progressed he fell asleep after every shore excursion and every dinner and I began to refer to the cruise as the Colton Nap World Tour.)

 

 

He woke up in time to meet his first Towel Animal. On about Day 4 he exclaimed, "Mommy, Mark can make a anything out of a Towel1!".

 

 

Early to bed to be ready for Monday!

[Dazzies]

Loving the review! Can't wait to read more. :)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[cruizinisthebest]

My daughter is 5 and she enjoyed CC very much last year. And for 5, she's quite mature and advanced. I noticed the younger kids but she never complained about them and enjoyed the afternoon and evening activities, which is mostly when we utilized the camp. During the day the kids were typically with us. This year she will be in the 6-8 group turning 6 just a few weeks before we sail on the Sunshine. Not too worried, because she's used to being around kids older than her at home. Sorry your grandson was disappointed with camp. That is a bummer. He's adorable. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[Susiecruisey]

More more... We leave in one week.

[gregg204]

Looking forward to the review. We took an upsell offer to suite 7149 also in Nov. We were expecting something a little bigger. I'm glad we did take the offer but I prefer the lido balconies. Overall loved the Sunshine especially the serenity area.

[Havinsnest]

My daughter is 5 and she enjoyed CC very much last year. And for 5, she's quite mature and advanced. I noticed the younger kids but she never complained about them and enjoyed the afternoon and evening activities, which is mostly when we utilized the camp. During the day the kids were typically with us. This year she will be in the 6-8 group turning 6 just a few weeks before we sail on the Sunshine. Not too worried, because she's used to being around kids older than her at home. Sorry your grandson was disappointed with camp. That is a bummer. He's adorable. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

He was only there 2 mornings and 2 afternoons. Afternoons were definitely his preference since the little ones were generally asleep!

 

I taught preschool for 9 years. I would never have put 2s and 5s in the same group. Too much difference.

 

He had a great cruise so it wasn't the end all of his experience but it's something we're going to keep in mind in the future.

[Havinsnest]

Monday, March 10

 

Sunshine's "Confusing" layout:

I've seen lots of comments about Sunshine's lay out. I admit to being confused and not by the layout. I have not sailed Dream, Magic, or Breeze so I don't know what those ships are like but Sunshine is very similar in layout to Conquest and Victory and they are the same as all the other Conquest and Destiny class ships. The galley is in the way on decks 3 and 4 if you want to walk from one end of the ship to the other. In each case you have to go to 5 to get to 3 or 4. No big whoop. We almost always book on Deck 7 and almost always have the aft dining room. We walk to the Deck 7 aft and either use the stairs or elevator to get to Deck 3 for meals.

 

The Sun accents are pretty and I liked the atrium area.

 

 

 

 

 

We didn't get to tea like I'd hoped but we had a full busy day.

 

It started with room service fruit at 7 and brunch in the MDR about 8:30. We were assigned to Sunrise for dinner and it's where the brunch is as well.

 

I had a hair appointment (loved Catherine in the Spa!), Colton went to Camp, and the girls spent time getting some sun.

 

 

Monday at 4 Colton and I went to Build a Bear. He built a monkey named Buddy.

 

 

 

Monday evening was a first Elegant Night. We dress up pretty well. Colton ate mostly from the adult menu so I can't say much about the children's menu. The menu was still the "old" one, not the new American menu thing.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't drink. I don't gamble. I spend my money on photos. We took advantage of the Elegant Night Photos and photographers. This is my favorite.

 

[Havinsnest]

Tuesday, March 11

 

I headed up to the top of the Serenity Deck and got a couple of the wonderful cabana beds/chairs. Kristie joined me after breakfast. Katie and Colton spent the morning at the water park.

 

They are definitely trying to monitor "chair hogs" better. We saw stuff on chairs at 6 am that were still there at 8 with no one around. Starting at about 8 a Carnival employee began wandering through at 40 minute intervals. If the chair was person-less, she put a sticker with the date and time on it. When she returned in 40 minutes if no one was there still, she took the towels, clothes, etc to the bar area and someone moved into the now empty spot.

 

 

It was windy on the top deck but it kept us cool as it gets hot in a

hurry inside that covered chair.

 

 

 

LOVED the pool and spa area.

 

 

It was a very full ship with 1500 kids. For things like the ice sculpture you could see all the people. It's really the only time I noticed the huge crowds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've seen lots of Indian Chief sculptures but the bird/duck ? was new for us.

 

[Havinsnest]

Katie and Colton spent the morning at the waterpark. He loved the slides.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the day we decided Colton wasn't feeling well.

 

He took a nap at the water park and then took an all afternoon nap in the cabin.

 

 

He was extremely ill during his entire first year and had a major surgery at 10 months to have his stomach and esophagus reworked. He can't vomit because of the surgery and he also has a bunch of strange little allergies so it's sometimes hard to figure out what's going on with him.I guess it was a virus. On Tuesday he quit eating well, he would spike a fever at night that would go away as quickly as it arrived and he slept more than normal. But he would also act normal and run and run and run and play and then just collapse. About the time we decided, on Thursday, to take him to the infirmary he felt better just as quickly as the whatever it was started.

Edited March 23, 2014 by Havinsnest

[gelo7]

Enjoying your review.

[Havinsnest]

We had Tuesday night reservations to the Steakhouse - Fahrenheit 555 - but because Colton wasn't feeling well Katie stayed with him and Kristie and I went to dinner.

 

We have eaten at the steakhouse on each of our cruises that had that option. This was my favorite. It's upscale and classy without being weird.

I loved the venue and it's almost hidden and quiet location.

 

The meal was delicious as always.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The staff was very helpful, too, as they packed up Katie's meal and sent it to her. I'm glad she got to enjoy the steakhouse's fare, too.

 

[Havinsnest]

Work with me. I love to cook so I love food presentation. We take lots of food photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow: Honduras and our first shore excursion!

Edited March 24, 2014 by Havinsnest
spelling

[Chrisp414]

Hi - I see you've posted a pic of the apple dessert served in the steakhouse. Can you describe it? Is it apples on a puff pastry? Pie crust? Cake like bottom? I was thinking of ordering this - hardly anyone mentions this dessert - mostly the cheesecake or the chocolate dessert. This looks pretty good to me. Thanks.

[Havinsnest]

Hi - I see you've posted a pic of the apple dessert served in the steakhouse. Can you describe it? Is it apples on a puff pastry? Pie crust? Cake like bottom? I was thinking of ordering this - hardly anyone mentions this dessert - mostly the cheesecake or the chocolate dessert. This looks pretty good to me. Thanks.

 

The one in the MDR is puff pastry. The one in the Steakhouse is a cake sort of thing. Both are Delicious!

[Chrisp414]

The one in the MDR is puff pastry. The one in the Steakhouse is a cake sort of thing. Both are Delicious!

 

 

 

Thanks - I have had the MDR one - I like it even though it's kind of hard to eat neatly! I think I will try the apple one when we go to the Steakhouse. Thanks.

[Fitzget]

Is that second steak picture a ribeye? Whatever it is, I'm so getting that on my next cruise.

 

Thanks for the review. Enjoying so far.

[Havinsnest]

Is that second steak picture a ribeye? Whatever it is, I'm so getting that on my next cruise.

 

Thanks for the review. Enjoying so far.

 

Yes, it is. Kristie and Katie both had it and loved it!

[Fitzget]

Yes, it is. Kristie and Katie both had it and loved it!

 

Thanks! Can't wait!

[Havinsnest]

Wednesday, March 12 found us in Honduras. This was my second trip in 15 months to Mahogany Bay and everyone else's first visit. It's rapidly becoming my favorite port. The beauty. The quiet. The smiling people. The assortment of animals to see. The second largest barrier reef in the world to snorkel. The beaches.

 

We have had some wonderful excursions over the years, both through the ships and privately. I think this is the first time we've ever booked all our shore excursions through Carnival. The girls and I decided these were our best excursions yet.

 

Today we were up early and eating breakfast at about 6:30 am so we could be ready for our excursion to

Maya Key Private Island Snorkeling with Lunch

 

Both daughters and the grandson have their own snorkel equipment and one daughter is legally blind in one eye and doesn't see well out of the other so she has a prescription snorkel/scuba mask. Plus we needed to take Colton's sand toys (poor baby had never built a sand castle before!) and camera and towels and dry clothes and well, you get the point.

With that much equipment we must have looked like the Beverly Hillbillies sans Granny's rocking chair.

 

I have a KYSS bag, purchased with this trip and our June cruise in mind. This excursion was when we test drove it. I love it. So did the girls. I will be purchasing one for each of them. I highly recommend it. It held everything we took with us (including 4 Carnival towels and Colton's Batman towel) and still had room. The lock was easy to use and it held fast. Don't know why I didn't invest in one before now.

 

We are rule followers (and I detest being late to anything) so we sat in our room and patiently waited to hear a "we have been cleared and you can leave the ship" announcement which we've had on past cruises. At about 9 o'clock, knowing our excursion was at 10) Kristie called to check with Guest Services to be told, "Oh, we didn't make an announcement today but you can leave at anytime.". O-Kay. Gathered up and headed out.

 

After checking ship's time with my watch (mine was a minute faster) left the ship, had our photos taken, and then we scurried to the meeting spot at the end of the pier for our tour... only to find we were late! Luckily only a few minutes late and they hadn't left yet so we hurried to the little boat we were taking and climbed on; we were not the last 4 passengers to arrive. It seems others had been waiting for an announcement, too. There were announcements the other two days, by the way.

 

 

The boat ride was nice and in just a few minutes we were at Maya Key.

 

I was shocked to see the sea lions there. I thought they lived in cooler areas but they seemed happy as can be.

 

 

 

A brief explanation of the facilities and times for various things and we were headed to our beach chairs and fun.

 

 

Katie and Kristie found a REAL monkey to give a banana to (just kidding, they only took photos, no food handouts)

 

 

While Colton and I played in the water with some of his water toys. He discovered he didn't care for salt water and learned, in a big hurry, to keep his mouth shut when waves were near.

 

[Havinsnest]

I won't bore y'all with the "selfies" and "weies" that my silly daughters took but, thankfully, they also took a lot of underwater photos that were not of themselves.

 

I began investigating underwater cameras months ago. After lots of research and many recommendations I settled on the Olympus Tough - 820. This trip was our first experience underwater with it. It did so well I bought a second one during the cruise to give to Kristie to take to their new home on the Persian Gulf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2014 by Havinsnest