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

[JennN]

Can you answer this for me- on the sunshine? Which deck do you get on and off the ship? Also, when embarking the ship - will I be able to take the stairs once on? Even though the rooms won't be ready? I do not prefer elavators.

 

Hi - you embark on 3, disembark on 3 and get to port on 0. And yes, stairs are open! We took them most times too but not by choice.

[JennN]

Great review. Question about the hotel you stayed at- The Hilton CB... Was the breakfast included? Did you have to pay for the shuttle to the port?

Thanks in advance. We cannot wait to go on the Sunshine in June/July

 

No to both - and breakfast was pricey! Shuttle was $5 a person.

[JennN]

Love the door decorations. Where did you find these?

 

Dollar Store! Cute right?

[JennN]

I wonder if the OP is gonna come back and finish this review. This is one reason why I hesitate to start a comprehensive review after my trips. They are time consuming. I give props to folks that do them to the end. Alot of work.

 

I am back!!! and will!!! Promise. I heard so much negative about the Sunshine I want to make sure the positive gets out there too. With the holidays and then broken wrist? thumb? it is hard!

[Yuridog]

JennN, you made my day...Looking forward to hearing more from you. I really enjoying reading your posts.

Sorry to hear about the health issues. It is surprising how much we use our thumbs for so much.

[wags_in_the_peg]

just off the Sunshine and was on the Cheers program. drinks under $9.95 at Alchemy are included, nothing at Shake Spot are included

[CruisingwithAutism]

just off the Sunshine and was on the Cheers program. drinks under $9.95 at Alchemy are included, nothing at Shake Spot are included

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

Feb '11 Carnival Elation

Nov '11 Carnival Fascination

Sep '12 Royal Monarch of the Seas

Nov '12 Royal Freedom of the Seas

Sep '13 Carnival Dream

Jan '14 Disney Dream

Mar '14 Disney Magic

Aug '14 Caribbean Princess

Oct '14 Carnival Dream

May '15 Carnival Sunshine

Nov '15 Carnival Sunshine

[pbmsmile]

Enjoying your review very much. We are on the Sunshine in about 60 days and are in Spa interior room 11006. Do you have any pictures of your MIL's room???

[LizBear12]

I'm a little late to the party, but I'm in! You're off to a great start I am really enjoying your review

 

 

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[gapearl]

Another great review from you Jenn! I would say hurry back with more but instead I'll just say I hope your arm gets better soon. :)

[TreeLuvr87]

This is too cool. I haven't been on the boards for a couple of months since we've been back from our Sunshine cruise but thought to look today. Started browsing through yours and realized - whoa! - they are in our room! We got off the day you got on and we were in 11021! Loved that room!

 

I spilled some chocolate cake on the carpet and it kind of stained, I hope they were able to get it out. It was the worst. I was drunk and called room service for cake at like 1am, when they're super busy, so it took until 2am to get my cake. Then I immediately dropped it on the floor and my foot while jumping up and down exclaiming, "CAKE CAKE CAKE YAY CAKE!" and I started to weep. I am thirty-two years old sheesh. Lol.

[beamqueen]

Loving this! We booked the sunshine for October and I'm apprehensive reading all the negative.. But so far your review has me excited!

 

 

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[JennN]

You all are too kind for sticking with me!!! I am updating as I type this reply too! Thumb is better though till in the brace...

[JennN]

Night 2's moon was amazing!

 

 

Day 3 was another sea day and at night, turned into a sad one at that!

 

But the morning was great - another day spent on the Serenity deck, with pool and relaxing time! DW and MIL went to the Havana Bar and brought me back some breakfast snacks and an ice coffee - they know a well caffeinated Jenn is a good Jenn all around!

 

 

We literally sat out there all cruise and became regulars...lol

 

Instead of sitting for 9 hours as I am known to do, we ventured up and about because of a funnel cloud/water spout! Yup! At sea!!! The funnel was remarkable and a neat thing to see...from afar that is.

 

 

No funnel in this one but one for the "oohhhhs" and "ahhhhs"

 

 

We walked out to desk 3 (I think) and took some more shots before heading in to prep for dinner and our trek to Alchemy (man did they make some moolah off of us!)

 

 

The food was awesome as were our wait staff and after, we had one (or four, but it's vacation so who's couting?) drinks at Alchemy before we went back up to our deck to sit out and discuss our day

 

There was an at sea airlift off the ship. It was so conflicting because while it was neat to see a helicopter, it was obviously a sad occasion that someone was that sick. There were super high winds and it took the helicopter many attempts but after 2-3 hours, we were back to cruising speed. Out of respect for the family, I didn't record it or take pictures of the rescue.

 

Because of the rescue though, we were told that we'd be getting into Aruba late - instead of 1pm, we wouldn't be there until 3pm at the earliest so our excursion was cancelled. Not sure exactly why but I assume the vendors didn't want to take people out so late to snorkel...

 

next up, what we did instead!

[JennN]

At about 3pm we docked at Aruba. Being from Ny, all my life I've heard my parents friends RAVE about Aruba and it being *THE* vacation destination. I was excited to go - mostly because our original excursion would have given us beach time as well as sunset time - we had never been in a port past 8 or 9pm before.

 

We decided to ask the information desk woman where she's recommend - she said there were two main beaches. Eagle beach was more lively and Palm Beach was further up the coast and more quiet. My MIL and wife opted for Pal Beach.

 

We took a cab, they dropped us off at some alley in front of a hotel and we were there:

 

 

I think the cab ride was $20. He gave us a tip to walk towards the hotel on the way back if there were no cabs in the lot by the alley dropping others off.

 

I am not sure if I was just bummed that our excursion was cancelled and that the care-freeness was taken from me but these guys kept trying to sell us chairs, and the Hilton resort owned some so while we had towels and such for the sand, it didn't feel right. That sounds booji or something but you know what I mean? to go from not having a care in the world to wondering which chairs we could sit on or if we were in people's way. Plus, the security of our stuff.

 

Eventually I said "EFF IT" (literally) and took a selfie

 

 

before heading into the water. There was a bar of sorts on the pier but party boats kept coming in with people so we didn't venture there.

 

 

 

 

The waster was sort of cold and the sand not the perfect white, softness I'd envisioned but \/\/hatever! I am on a beach!

 

And it's the little things, right? For instance (and this became the running joke throughout the cruise), an older couple decided to park their stuff next to ours (which is the only reason why we looked up at them), They had snorkel gear and swam around or a while. The woman yelled at the man that she was done and went up to sit on her towel...then moved to an unoccupied chair (rebel). The man trotted around snorkeling then got out, sat on his towel for a while and eventually started yelling his wife's name. She was right behind him and replied, "Where did you think I went? Geesh if I can snorkel, I won't drown. Use your eyes!" so of course, "use your eyes" was our quote and we laughed about how he'd plot to kill her someday.

 

Maybe it was funny to just us?

 

Anyway, we got out of the water after about an hour and dried off waiting for sunset....

[JennN]

We took pics and waited...

 

 

now for one of the chair hut:

 

Still waiting and then FINALLY!

 

 

Yay! Sunset. OK, let's go!

 

We walked back to the ship, got changed then ventured back out into town for a walk where we found a mall, a Starbucks (see post above about the importance of keeping me caffeinated) and DW tried to buy some local rum but couldn't find anything until we were back in the port area (at which time I chugged a local beer - I like to have one as my own souvenir!).

 

 

 

 

We ate dinner late that night (yay YTD!) - around 8pm. I can't remember what I got I just know my taste budgs did not care for it and the whole wait staff was trying to get me to order something else - I relented and had a baked potato. LOL. It wasn't like I didn't have a salad and app! Plus there was pizza up above or a deli sandwich!

 

By the time we met for our nightly constitutional by the pool, it was after 11pm and despite our best attempts to go do something fun on the ship, we were all zonked and decided to head to bed. We'd be in Curacao early and wanted to try to get off sooner rather than later to plan an excursion of sorts - MIL and I wanted the beach but in the end, the DW held her ground and, well....

 

To be continued...

Edited February 4, 2015 by JennN

[JennN]

JennN, you made my day...Looking forward to hearing more from you. I really enjoying reading your posts.

Sorry to hear about the health issues. It is surprising how much we use our thumbs for so much.

 

you don't know what you got til it's gone! :D

[JennN]

Enjoying your review very much. We are on the Sunshine in about 60 days and are in Spa interior room 11006. Do you have any pictures of your MIL's room???

 

I don't, sadly. I try not to go into her room at all when we've got the balcony. Her room had 2 beds and the overhead bulk bed too.

 

You will have a blast!

[JennN]

I'm a little late to the party, but I'm in! You're off to a great start I am really enjoying your review

 

 

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As I've said since it's taken me 2 months to write this - better late than never ;)

[JennN]

Another great review from you Jenn! I would say hurry back with more but instead I'll just say I hope your arm gets better soon. :)

 

It's YOUR reviews that are amazing. So glad (and honored) that you are reading mine!!! ;):D:p

[JennN]

This is too cool. I haven't been on the boards for a couple of months since we've been back from our Sunshine cruise but thought to look today. Started browsing through yours and realized - whoa! - they are in our room! We got off the day you got on and we were in 11021! Loved that room!

 

I spilled some chocolate cake on the carpet and it kind of stained, I hope they were able to get it out. It was the worst. I was drunk and called room service for cake at like 1am, when they're super busy, so it took until 2am to get my cake. Then I immediately dropped it on the floor and my foot while jumping up and down exclaiming, "CAKE CAKE CAKE YAY CAKE!" and I started to weep. I am thirty-two years old sheesh. Lol.

 

You know, we noticed the carpet was a bit dark in a spot, lol. Must have been you!!! That's really neat to have been in the same room. How did you like it?

[JennN]

Loving this! We booked the sunshine for October and I'm apprehensive reading all the negative.. But so far your review has me excited!

 

 

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You really have to take these things with a grain of salt. For some reason we expect perfection with anything and everything these days. As long as I am enjoying myself, I let it roll off my back. if I can't, I say something in the moment to give people the opportunity to fix it. On a cruise, I tend not to worry much!

[JennN]

I keep forgetting to mention that we went to the spa every day. But geesh is it TINY! Plus, there was a family (same ones who complained at the steakhouse) in there who were loud and obnoxious. They owned the place apparently! And no matter what time we went, there they were. By the last 2 days, we didn't bother to go. I was feeling sick so I liked the steam rooms but enduring their idiocy wasn't worth the 5 mins of breathing!

 

Anyway, onto Curacao!

 

Like I said last entry...my MIL and I wanted to go visit a beach. A good beach to get rid of the bad taste of Aruba's beach. We both love to swim whereas DW likes to read. Or learn (pshhhht! I am on vacation, don't learn me!). We sauntered up to Lido/Havana Bar for breakfast...My MIL got her $5 fresh squeezed OJ from the bar and I was so sad but it took me all that time to learn that Havana sold lots of coffees - Latin and Italian so I found a new place for a really good $3 coffee.

 

We spied an infinity pool from the ship but knew it would be attached to a resort and it was probably a no-go for us. We decided to explore the city a bit and worst case scenario, we got bored and go back to the ship, change into suits and take a taxi somewhere beachy.

 

Instead, we walked over 15,000 steps in the humidity and heat where my MIL came up with our second memory quote of the trip...but I digress.

 

Waking up, we weren't so sure what the weather had in store for us!

 

 

The obligatory ship photos...

 

 

 

As you can see, there was a little cobblestone path that wound up and around to some port stores/bars and rather weird fort that was also turned into a shopping area.

 

 

Then a bit further out were some outside vendors. A lot of it was decorative or scarfy and we weren't interested. We were interested though in the bridge just ahead of us though. It was long but on the other end were these colored buildings and so we walked across it. It was wooden, there were a ton of people and the bridge moved!

 

 

I was tiptoeing across it as though that would somehow make me lighter and not cause the entire bridge to collapse! Plus, there was a weird stench and I just wanted across. It put a weird sensation on my knees though and I felt like it took forever to cross!

 

Anyway, where as I was perfectly content in just getting across, DW and MIL found some guys who worked on the bridge and found out it's a suspension bridge and swings open...it fascinated them and I just zoned out.

 

But finally, we got over the bridge and our excursion of the town began!

[JennN]

One more from the bridge

 

Now then, we finally made it into the town - which screamed Caribbean to me!

 

 

DW's mission, despite it being 9am, was to buy some local liquor, including the obvious Curacao. She brought her backpack and good thing too since she spent 1.5 hours in this unassuming liquor store:

 

 

It was NOT a United Colors of Benetton, for the record. At first, the women running the joint looked at us like we were going to steal something but after some chatting, DW was sampling and deciding what she was going to buy. We also spotted a local beer and she bought that too for me. But then she wanted to sample some other stuff so I went back outside to sit. And I contemplated going into the pharmacy to get more cold meds but decided overseas pharmacies scare me because I don't know what to ask for or what they could be selling! So I stalked it, longingly

 

 

We decided beer would be good for me to kill the cold but we had no opener (neither did the store). So as we ventured down another side street, DW bought a bottle opener and I drank my beer on a bench. Hey, it was almost 11a by that point!

 

[JennN]

From there, we walked down even more side streets and we kind of fell in love with the town!

 

 

That is a bus stop!

 

 

we saw "Dushi" all over and a woman in a t-shirt shop (that we spent $80 in!) explained that it meant sweetie - in a way kind of like the expression "Virginia is for Lovers" or when you call something awesome. Instead, you say Dushi. Kind of neat!

 

 

 

We really enjoyed walking the streets and talking to people. I didn't care how drenched in sweat we were!

 

And I apologize for the tackiness now but we thought their license plates were way toooooo cute so we took a picture!

 

 

OK, so we cared a little but and decided that we'd walk back and stop in the fort area for a drink before heading back to the ship for lunch. Well, a shower and then lunch. We talked to a cruise couple from Australia who knew about the bridge too and we took a picture of the sign:

 

 

It was weird how obsessed my MIL and DW became with finding out all they could about this bridge. It didn't help that there was a cruise ship in between this and another, "taller but not tall enough for the ship to go under" bridge.