Surprise & the Sunshine - Oct 12-17 review with pictures

[GeorgiaMomof4]

OK all - back to work for me tomorrow so I'm headed off to bed.

 

I'll do my best to post our day in Key West tomorrow evening.

 

In the mean time if you have any questions - just ask and I'll try to check on here during the day tomorrow.

 

Thanks for following along with me.

[Brentonsmom]

We were on the same sailing and completely agree with the service in the dining room. We only went 1 night, formal night, so we could get our lobster. We were seated for at least 20 minutes before they took our order and were there for right around 2 hours. Never got our sodas, just had water. The food was very good but just such slow service. We had never had it so slow on any of our past cruises. Our wait staff was also very nice but did seem rushed.

Tina

[daniella1279]

Awesome start to you review! I think it's great that your son got to cruise with you and get to spend time with his biological parents. I have a niece that has been adopted. I wish her adopted parents could have been a little more giving with my brother when he was doing well. Maybe he would still be with us today.

 

We cruise on the 5 night sunshine in February and also have a aft balcony on the same floor. Super excited about the cabins location!

 

Danielle

 

 

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[lifeisgoodPat]

I am loving your review. You have a great writing style, and I loved the kids being surprised with the cruise. Hubby and I will be on the Sunshine Oct 2nd next year going to Bermuda. I am very excited about that trip, but it is soooo far away. Maybe, I can squeeze another cruise in-between. lol. I can always try...

[mikem1977]

Great review so far.

 

Sad to hear about the new cruise director. I though Jamie Dee was for the Sunshine and was really looking forward to her for our December cruise.

[angiem0217]

We are thinking about sailing the sunshine. Did your kids enjoy waterworks? Can you post some pictures of the waterworks area?

 

 

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[ch27088]

Great start to your review and I'm loving it. I wish I could have seen the faces on your kids when they found out they were going cruising...I bet it was priceless! Great going on the wonderful surprise.

 

Thanks for taking us along on your vacation, and I'm subscribing!

[GeorgiaMomof4]

We were on the same sailing and completely agree with the service in the dining room. We only went 1 night, formal night, so we could get our lobster. We were seated for at least 20 minutes before they took our order and were there for right around 2 hours. Never got our sodas, just had water. The food was very good but just such slow service. We had never had it so slow on any of our past cruises. Our wait staff was also very nice but did seem rushed.

Tina

 

 

Tina -

 

Like I said - I always hate to complain but that was just the fact! We've never had service like we had on the Sunshine before. It really just flabbergasted us. I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that way.

 

It definitely won't deter me from another Carnival cruise but it might prevent me from sailing the Sunshine again even though I know the staff's contracts rotate.

 

We are actually trying to decide on a Thanksgiving 2015 family cruise and the Sunshine is one of the ships in the running. We'll have to mull that one over though.

 

Thanks for reading!

[GeorgiaMomof4]

IDK why my computer suddenly won't let me see review pics. Anyone know what I can do?

 

 

 

 

So sorry - but I don't have a clue - maybe someone reading here more tech savy than me can help you!

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Awesome start to you review! I think it's great that your son got to cruise with you and get to spend time with his biological parents. I have a niece that has been adopted. I wish her adopted parents could have been a little more giving with my brother when he was doing well. Maybe he would still be with us today.

 

We cruise on the 5 night sunshine in February and also have a aft balcony on the same floor. Super excited about the cabins location!

 

Danielle

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

 

Danielle -

 

Thanks for reading! Yes, if someone had told me 6 years ago that Collin's biological Dad would be joining us on a cruise - I would have laughed out loud! I'm glad that things have gotten better with him and he is able to be a part of Collin's life.

[GeorgiaMomof4]

I am loving your review. You have a great writing style, and I loved the kids being surprised with the cruise. Hubby and I will be on the Sunshine Oct 2nd next year going to Bermuda. I am very excited about that trip, but it is soooo far away. Maybe, I can squeeze another cruise in-between. lol. I can always try...

 

 

 

There are some great prices out there right now for some cruises - I'd definitely try to squeeze one in before next October if I could!

 

Thanks for following along with my review. They are time consuming, but it brings back great memories when I'm writing one.

 

I never in a million years thought I'd be able to pull off a surprise with the kids but it did work. I have a feeling if we had booked farther out than we did we wouldn't have been able to keep it a surprise. Actually my 17 year old daughter slipped a couple of times and said some things about Florida and the cruise, but we just kind of brushed her comments aside. I guess it worked because they genuinely were surprised.

[GeorgiaMomof4]

We are thinking about sailing the sunshine. Did your kids enjoy waterworks? Can you post some pictures of the waterworks area?

 

 

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Yes, they loved the water works area and the ropes course and sports square area too. I'll look and see what pics I have and post some if I have any. I'm sorry to say I was kind of lazy picture taking this trip. I normally take way too many but sure didn't this time! Hopefully I'll have some I can share though.

 

Thanks for reading and I'll try and post more tonight!

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Great start to your review and I'm loving it. I wish I could have seen the faces on your kids when they found out they were going cruising...I bet it was priceless! Great going on the wonderful surprise.

 

Thanks for taking us along on your vacation, and I'm subscribing!

 

 

 

Thank you for subscribing and sharing in our memories. My husband said I was giving too many details, but that's what I love about reviews I read. Hopefully there aren't too many personal things in it.

 

I would give anything to have been able to capture the looks on their faces when they found out about the cruise. I just didn't realize it was going to happen right then so it caught me off guard. It was priceless though - something I'll always remember.

[teacher32]

Great review so far.

 

Sad to hear about the new cruise director. I though Jamie Dee was for the Sunshine and was really looking forward to her for our December cruise.

 

 

Loved Jamie! Wonder if she is just on hiatus or is now on another ship?

[daniella1279]

Loved Jamie! Wonder if she is just on hiatus or is now on another ship?

 

 

I think I have seen that she was in fl for meetings?

 

Danielle

 

 

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[gamecock411]

[quote name='The_ZOO']we will be on board with you on the Sunshine Feb 7th![/QUOTE]
Great! I don't know about you but I can't wait. There are 7 of us going.

[Familycruisers20]

We were on the Sunshine last July and loved every minute of it! In fact, just today booked 7 cabins for next June (friends ). We had the best dining room servers! I hope we get good ones next summer !!

Question, was there any noise in the deck 5 cabins? When we were on the ship and in the dining room there was usually a loud engine vibration sound...I was nervous that that would be heard in those cabins.

My current cabin is below the galley, now I am nervous about the noise there too!

Great read!

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Tuesday – Key West

Prior to leaving home I had researched Key West (we had never been before) and we decided we wanted to just do a city tour and my only goal was to try as many pieces of Key Lime pie that I could.

Some one mentioned here on CC that you could sometimes get discounts for the City View Hop On Hop Off trolley tour through Groupon. I did check that but ended up just going to the City View website and they were offering even better discounts. It was $19 each for Glen and myself and Hope and Collin were both free so we thought that was a great deal.

After a quick omelet (they make them back in the Havana Bar area where the JiJi’s Asian Restaurant and the Italian restaurant are) we headed into Key West.

I guess a lot of people decided they were going to sleep in because we didn’t have any trouble getting off the ship.

We stopped at the Del Sol shop and I bought some sunglasses for me and my girls (they are $49 with a lifetime guarantee). If you lose them, break them, scratch them, whatever – they are guaranteed. You mail them the warranty card that is enclosed with your sunglasses and they replace them with only a $7.00 shipping fee. The new pair also comes with another guarantee so you really should only have to purchase the 1 pair!

We walked on to the City View Trolley stop and got our confirmation stamped for that day. We waited about 5 minutes and off we went. We had a great driver that gave us a lot of information about Key West. There are chickens everywhere and we learned that they are protected as well as several of the different types of trees in Key West. I believe the trolley makes about 8 stops and you can get off and on as many times as you like.

We went straight for the Southernmost point because we decided it would probably get really crowded later on and we wanted to do the infamous picture opportunity.

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We walked back to the trolley stop and hopped back on for the remainder of the tour.

Our driver said he had lived on Key West for about 40 years and as a kid going to school, they never missed any school due to bad weather because it was shorts and t-shirt weather every day. He said one day though that a cold front moved through and the temps dropped down into the 50’s and the teachers and staff were in a panic. You had all these kids at school in their shorts and t-shirts and no heat in the schools. They dismissed school early that day and even called it off on the next day because it was supposed to be cold again – 62 degrees! Hope and Collin thought that was hilarious that they missed school because they thought 62 degrees was cold!

He also said he had 5 daughters and felt like he had spent half his life driving the 4 hours to the nearest mall with his girls to shop. I don’t think my kids could function if they were 4 hours from the nearest mall.

He gave us a lot more information too – we really enjoyed the ride and the sight seeing.

We went by Hemingway’s house, the Butterfly conservatory and the Florida Keys Eco Discovery Center (stopped in there – Hope really enjoyed it). There was really a lot more to see and do than I thought there might be.

The O mile marker for Highway 1- another funny story from our driver. He said everyone kept stealing the O marker so they decided they would epoxy it onto the sign. Not such a good idea because when they found they couldn't remove the O marker they ended up cutting the entire sign down. Needless to say they now just keep a vast supply of 0 markers!

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I was reading a review here before we left and someone mentioned that they had purchased personalized shells from a little corner cart in Key West. She said it was Linda’s Names on Shells or something like that. I looked her up and found out exactly what corner she was on because I thought those would be cute souvenirs for some of my friends back at home. We found the cart and it just so happened that the lady working there that day was having a birthday – same day as Collin’s. We thought that was pretty neat! I bought 3 shells – I think they were $6.00 each or 3 for $15.00.

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Now for the important part – key lime pie.

We got off at one of the stops close to Kermit’s Key Lime Pie Factory. Kermit himself was actually out front giving out samples of his key lime pie. Our driver told us he was always there and was one of the hardest working people in Key West. I don’t know about that, but his key lime pie was delicious! I tried the chocolate dipped on a stick and didn’t care for the chocolate, but the regular key lime was probably the best I’ve ever had.

We walked on up the street and came upon another key lime pie place – umm – I think it was Key West Key Lime Pie Factory. Yes, I had another piece – and it was good – but nothing like Kermit’s.

We did a little shopping and headed back to the ship.

Hope striking a pose!
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We let the kids do the ropes course and swim some after we got back on the ship. We really like being up on deck when leaving a port. Seems like you get to see a lot as you're sailing away. We did leave 2 people in Key West! My husband said he saw them running up as we were pulling away. I did hear they they met back up with us in Nassau - I'd say that was a costly trip.

Leaving Key West
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Went to the dining room again tonight - same story - different night. I had told our head waitress that Collin's birthday was today. I really thought they would do something for him, but it wasn't looking promising. Finally Hope said something to her about it and she did bring him cheesecake and strawberries with a candle and they sang to him. He was tickled!


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Glen said this was his last night going to the dining room. The extremely slow service was more than he could handle. I couldn't really blame him but I do enjoy going to the dining room.

Don't remember what we did tonight - whether it was a movie up on deck or a show.

We didn't have to be up really early on Wednesday because we didn't get into Nassau until noon.

Coming up - Nassau

[Domino D]

[quote name='GeorgiaMomof4']

I don’t think anyone ordered anything that they didn’t really care for except the fried chicken. Mary ordered it one night and said it just didn’t have any flavor to her.

[/QUOTE]

Enjoying your review. Seems very balanced to me, so I don't think you are complaining to much at all. I for one am glad to have an idea of how to set my expectations. You are not one of those people going "My vacation was ruined".... "There was toothpaste in my sink". You are simply saying there were some issues we haven't had before.

Glad you guys enjoyed your cruise.

Got to ask, why would a group of fellow Georgians even think you could get good fried chicken on a ship? Come on now.

[wrigley80]

I'm all caught up now. I would mind being left in Key West....I just love it there. I can definitely think of a lot worse places to be left.

I would be just fine living in Key West :D

[kelkel2]

[quote name='wrigley80']I'm all caught up now. I would mind being left in Key West....I just love it there. I can definitely think of a lot worse places to be left.

I would be just fine living in Key West :D[/QUOTE]

Loving the review and Brianna, I am so sorry to hear your dad is in the Hospital. I am praying for your dad and for a speedy recovery!

[wrigley80]

[quote name='kelkel2']Loving the review and Brianna, I am so sorry to hear your dad is in the Hospital. I am praying for your dad and for a speedy recovery![/QUOTE]


Thank you so much. We didn't get the news we were hoping for but its the hand were dealt. So we're just going to enjoy every minute together [emoji17]

[mpcaruth]

Thanks for the great review! It's nice to see reviews that include kids too. It gets me all excited about our upcoming Sunshine cruise.

[mpcaruth]

[URL="http://s1193.photobucket.com/user/angelagrant1965/media/Sunshine%20Review/2014-10-14Collinsbirthdaydecorations002_zps4547c0c7.jpg.html"][IMG]http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa345/angelagrant1965/Sunshine%20Review/2014-10-14Collinsbirthdaydecorations002_zps4547c0c7.jpg[/IMG][/URL]


I love this picture: PURE HAPPINESS! We have been celebrating my son's birthday on a cruise for 6 years, and I always decorate the room and door for him. Until this year, he always thought the captain ordered his room to be decorated. He's 13 now, so his is not as gullible.