My Picture Review of the Carnival Sunshine 12/6/14

[JennN]

Hi folks! As is my customary greeting, I always start out my reviews with a warning - first, I am a woman married to another woman. If this for some reason bothers you, feel free to X on out of the review right now!

 

Still there? GREAT! Hi, my name is Jenn. I cruise with my wife, Nicole and her mom (my MIL) - we introduced MIL to cruising two years ago and she's been on every one since with us! Good thing I like her :)

 

This is our 6th Carnival cruise - 2 on the Dream, 2 on the Valor, one on the Breeze and this one on the Sunshine. I was nervous that we wouldn't like the ship based on reviews. But, we decided to continue the tradition of sailing that first week of December and we waited 300 days - after waiting that long, a dingy would have been ok! More on the ship later.

 

Again, we booked this cruise almost a year prior and we were itching to get vacation started. The day had finally come!!! My MIL lives in Maine and had a layover in NYC while we were flying direct from DC. So, we should have been to MCO an hour before her at 2pm. We wanted play time on the beach and in the pool!

 

Instead, I got to the airport and the drug-sniffing dog stopped to sniff me, TWICE! Lol, I was convinced he was just in training and he picked up the smell of our two cats because there was no way I was carrying anything illegal!

 

After the dog finished with me, I was pulled aside by TSA because of a weird nail-like thing in my sneaker and the x-ray machine picked it up.

 

 

Weird right? After pulling it out, I was left with a huge hole in the sole of the only pair of sneakers I owned, let alone packed. I figured that we would get to MCO with enough time that I could shop as we waited for my MIL to arrive.

 

My wife and I boarded, tired but with smiles:

 

 

...until we were then were told to deboard due to a malfunction:

 

After waiting for two hours, the malfunction was "fixed" (I don't know about you but flying in a plane was was not able to fly a few hours ago because of a broken part but was now suddenly fine made me super nervous) and off we went.

 

We landed an hour after my MIL and of course, in a different terminal. We were tired, hungry and anxious to get vacation started! So, no shopping for me (which would prove to be a mistake) as my MIL was waiting with car service all the way over in Terminal A. We got our checked bags (all three of them) and hoofed it on over from Terminal B to Terminal A.

 

Determined that vacation would start off on a great note, I got rid of my funky attitude and just focused on the fact that there was still a bit of daylight out - I'd get to see Cocoa Beach!!! We checked in, threw our bags down and ran down to the beach to see a beautiful moon peeking out:

 

 

We decided to get something to eat at the hotel - we stayed at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront and loved it. There was a laundry room, we had a great view, the room was clean and the grounds were great! Not to mention that the food was good as were the drinks. With a cocktail in hand, vacation had finally begun!

[kelkel2]

YAY!!!!!!!! A Sunshine Picture review!!!!!!

[Methosage]

Love your writing style...can't wait for the rest of the review :-)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[JennN]

Thanks to you both!

 

I try to write like a talk :)

 

More to come...

[JennN]

After a few Long Island Iced Teas, I got the bright idea to swim and while my MIL was down, my wife declined and headed up to bed. My MIL went for a dip in the very very windy pool!

 

After about an hour, we officially decided to end Day 1 and head to bed. We wanted to venture out to the ocean but it was scary out there so, me being me and not a morning person, promised my MIL I'd get up at 7am for a morning swim. And much to her shock, I did!

 

 

There were a few surfers out and I almost lost my flip-flops to the higher tide (which would have been tragic as they were one of only 2 pairs of shoes I was now down to), but I was glad to have woken up early to get out into the ocean. I've missed it!

 

We ate breakfast at the hotel and got in a van at 10:30am promptly to head out to port. It was a 15-minute drive and we were all hushed not to mention cruising because a family was surprising their kids with a Disney cruise. I was so excited and it sucked not to talk about it. Eventually the kids realized it though and after we dropped the family and another couple off at other ships, we headed to see The Sunshine up close!

 

We were like three little kids on Christmas morning! We decided to get on the Sunshine for mainly one reason: the Serenity area. My wife and I don't have kids and my MIL's are all grown. On every other ship, the slides and play area for the kids are right by the Serenity deck! I guess that's nice for people with kids to stay close to where they are playing but for us it stinks - how am I supposed to relax with tykes screaming their heads off??? We were excited to think that Carnival finally got it right!

 

I bought my MIL FTTF as a birthday gift and, of course, we had it too. I always think it's worth it - if not for having the room ready when you board as well as for the special line at the Guest Services desk.

 

Here are a few shots of us waiting to board:

 

 

[TomsKim]

I'm getting ready to sail on the Sunshine on January 3rd. I look forward to seeing/hearing more of your review. Thanks for sharing!

[watermelonqueen99]

Subscribing! I always enjoy your reviews! :)

[JennN]

And... we're on!

 

 

 

The decor for me was a hybrid of the Breeze, feeling very tropical and the Valor which screams Americana. I liked it! First things first - after an elevator rendition of Let It Go for John Heald, we went up to the rooms. We were on the spa deck, interior for MIL in 11003 and balcony for us, 11021

 

 

 

 

 

It was, in all honesty, a wee bit smaller than a regular spa balcony but not so much so that we could really feel it. We liked that, unlike on the Dream, the decor was indeed a different color than the regular rooms. We had our "fancy" soaps and shampoos and no, we didn't have a clam shell with freebies (I overheard people complaining about this at lunch one day and corrected them that it wasn't Carnival's cut backs but the product companies being stingy).

 

With no luggage yet, we headed to Lido for some lunch. But first, we walked down the hallway and outside the door that left us right on the Serenity deck!!!

 

Pictures...in next post!

 

But I will say we loved this location!!! It was the best yet - we wandered out for chairs every morning and it was close enough to the food to not be a hassle but far enough away to keep us from overeating!!!

[Hazelroo]

Can't wait for your review! I am taking my first trip on the Sunshine in April! :D

[hhalliv]

Awesome review, I love it! Thanks for taking the time to do one!

[dawnrae]

We are also going to be on the January 3rd sailing. We booked a balcony guarantee and got assigned a Cloud 9 Spa Balcony cabin. So I am looking forward to the rest of your review also. Thanks for sharing.

 

 

Dawn

[kybluecruiser]

Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to read and see more!

[bitzy]

I've been on the Sunshine once last May and I loved it. Waiting for more reviews.

[mackatty]

Subscribed! Going on the 8-day So Carib on the Sunshine in Feb, so really looking forward to your review :)

[pirate4me2]

Enjoying your review so far. Thanks for taking time to put this together!

[deladane]

thanks for taking the time to write your review! i enjoyed your valor review and i'm looking fwd to reading this one too :) i loved sailing on the sunshine last year, and i'm glad you seem to have enjoyed it too!!

[Swampbaby]

Subscribed! Going on the 8-day So Carib on the Sunshine in Feb, so really looking forward to your review :)

 

If you are on the FEB 7th cruise, we'll see you there.

[PathfinderEss]

Thank you for the nice photo review.

[tbbtravels]

Nice pictures. Keep em coming.

We sailed on the Sunshine Jan 2014 out of NOLO.

Nice. I agree she is reminiscent of the Breeze.

Just sailed on the Breeze in Oct so now I can compare. LOL

[JennN]

Thanks everyone! I am glad that people are reading :) With that being said, I am off to do the next update!

[JennN]

So where was I? Oh yes, exploring the Serenity Deck.

 

The Sunshine totally hits this nail on the head! It was peaceful, plenty of chairs and staff did time people and sticker! We were able to get a spot by the pool every day - granted, we were out there before 9am but we had such great weather we knew we'd want to get in the water rather than sit away from the pool. The last sea day we did enjoy the couches on Deck 14 since it was cold out but otherwise, I was in that pool every day.

 

The pool *is* small (I was across it in 6 swimming strokes) but being a dipping pool was fine as there were no kids, there was no splashing. The pool though is COLD. Like really cold. It didn't bother me and the day we hit Curacao, we needed something cool (that was the busiest day in the water with 17 people!).

 

Some pictures for you to enjoy:

 

 

 

The view of the main Lido pool

 

Contemplating whether or not to move

 

We did, eventually, move and walked to check out Waterworks and the slides:

 

It was a pretty neat area. Sadly, we forgot to try this area out (I wanted to play mini-golf and try out the slides) because of high winds and then cold on the last sea day. But the area looks like a blast for kids (of all ages!)!!

[JennN]

We decided we should move along and get to the drinking, er, fun! From reading all the reviews on CC about Lido and the back of the ship, I knew we had to hit the Havana Bar first. We met for breakfast (my MIL used most of here OBC for a fresh squeezed orange juice here every morning) where they have breakfast and lunch treats - and coincidentally, they made omelettes back here at JiJis and Cuchina every morning. My wife had pasta for lunch EVERY SINGLE DAY!

 

Anyway, to Havana we went for our first drinks of the cruise, and let me tell you, this broke some sort of seal for all three of us because we drank more than on any other cruise. More proof of that later!

 

Here is the Lido buffet. Now, I heard a lot of negatives before our cruise about the buffet but I actually like the layout of it!

 

Smaller stations, yes. But it made sense to me geographically speaking if that makes any sense. I grabbed a salad and headed back to Havana:

 

 

 

There we are, in all of our drinking and lunch glory! As you probably know, Cuchina is free at lunch time and you basically mix and match your own pasta dish. My wife and I followed MIL's suit and got it for lunch and my wife fell in love. Whereas I fell in love with the empenadas and had those for lunch at least 4 times! But here is some pasta food p0rn for you:

 

 

I had some kind of drink that was mixed with a grapefruit soda that was yummy. The pasta was good too. After two drinks and lunch, we decided to wander back up towards the room to see if our FTTF luggage came.

 

For 300 days my MIL and wife had been SOOOOO excited about the Shake Spot and getting a spiked milkshake. Me? I can take or leave ice cream but was all for trying it with alcohol! So we stopped for yet another beverage:

 

[JennN]

We perused the menu:

 

And each decided on a shake - I think I got the Irish Float...and I can't remember what the others got but while we waited with baited breath for the yumminess, we admired the gingerbread house (one of the few decorations around the ship):

 

 

Seems like my wife went for Strawberry

 

Anyway, the final verdict was that even though my MIL treated us to one with her OBC, we decided they weren't that yummy nor delicious and, on our way to the room to see if luggage arrived (it didn't) we ditched the shakes. Alcohol abuse? Maybe. But I wanted to spend my calories on something I enjoyed, like a Long Island Iced Tea!

 

So, we headed on up to the spa to get our wristbands and free scrub and to check out the amenities. Now, my favorite spa is on the Dream - between the thalasso pool and large cool down room (even if there is mold growing in the window and in the rugs - still can't figure out why they'd put a rug in these rooms) and the Sunshine's spa paled in comparison. Failed really.

 

First, the woman who worked that desk every damn day was a grumble puss. Rudest person I encountered the entire trip. There was a line, which we expected, but she was just so nasty. We gave her the benefit of the doubt with it being first day craziness but nope, that was her personality. When we finally got up to the front desk, she threw the bands at us and told us the scrub was in the spa to use. That we didn't get a personal one (LIES!!!! Meh.). And, I wasn't going to use the same scrubs that people's hands had already been in anyway so we skipped it and just went on a tour. SMALL!

 

Aroma Steam Room - this place was HOT. Most days, the aroma was not a pleasant one!

 

This room was totally broken. There was a buzzer from Day 1 that went off and on Day 6 was still going off. No steam or anything. This was a room my MIL could sit in - she couldn't do 5 seconds in either of the steam rooms!

 

The Oriental Steam Room

 

Again, these rooms fit maybe 6 people comfortably. And, as the cruise went on, it seemed like the rooms and floors were never cleaned (I always wear flip-flops, a bathing suit and sit on a towel or two!).

 

One final picture in the next post!

[StaceySteveDMB]

Great review so far! We will be on the Sunshine at the end of June same itinerary. We sailed on the Sunshine earlier this year for a two day cruise when she first got to PC. Fantastic ship and the slides are great! I am looking forward to the rest!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[CanadianDee]

Subscribing. We're on the Sunshine in January. Love your writing style!