Photo Review of my 4/11/15 Eastern Caribbean Cruise Carnival Sunshine

[VacaLovers2]

Great review and I am loving the pic's! Keep it coming!!!

[deadmoney]

Looking forward to the rest of your review, we sail on 5/9

How was the wifi?

[Giggity]

Loving your review so far!! We don't sail on her for awhile but still love reading and looking at all the pictures!! Great job!

 

And holy rental car and stateroom!!! Nice!!!! It must have been nice to finally get into some sunshine after the horrible winter we had here in MA!!!!

 

Thank you! Yes it's been a rough winter for sure, I'm in Rhode Island so we've been hammered with snow this winter. We loved the stateroom, it was everything and more than we expected. Will be hard to go back to a regular room after staying in this one!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review, we sail on 5/9

How was the wifi?

 

The WiFi was better than previously since you can get unlimited access, they don't limit your time or anything. There were times when signal strength was sketchy, but for the most part I'd get a connection everywhere on the ship and the speed wasn't too terrible, as long as you aren't trying to upload tons of files/images.

[stobe1]

..........

Edited April 21, 2015 by stobe1

[crusinpsychRN]

Very different looking ship than the rest of the fleet. What a sweet suite!

 

After seeing your pics I'd sail her.

 

Are the plants and trees real on Serenity?

Edited April 21, 2015 by crusinpsychRN

[Giggity]

..........

 

You're right is was Eastern Caribbean...my mistake! Not sure how to edit the thread title..

 

Very different looking ship than the rest of the fleet. What a sweet suite!

 

After seeing your pics I'd sail her.

 

Are the plants and trees real on Serenity?

 

It was a nice ship, I've been on the Glory and the Splendor, the Sunshine is definitely better. I really liked the food options - I'm personally not much of a buffet guy, I think I went to the Lido buffet maybe once in the week. I liked the Steakhouse and the Italian Restaurant. I didn't visit the Asian Restaurant but I did hear it was good. I did go to the Guy's Burgers place once and honestly I don't know what the big hype is...the burger was okay but not spectacular!

 

Good question about the plants and trees on Serenity, I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure they are fake.

[Giggity]

Ahh, the Serenity deck at night, always pretty empty. The pool was pretty cold at night once the sun goes down, sure looks nice though! See way at the top of the waterfall? The round glass? There's a nice hot tub up there that was empty every night! I went up nightly.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a shot up on the deck with the Serenity hot tub, you can see it on the left.

 

 

[deadmoney]

Thanks for the tip on the hot tub:)

[jaylinks]

Very different looking ship than the rest of the fleet. What a sweet suite!

 

After seeing your pics I'd sail her.

 

Are the plants and trees real on Serenity?

Very different looking ship indeed..sailed on her twice as the "Destiny" and it's like night and day as the "Sunshine". These pics have put her on my "to-sail" list. Really beautiful, pics and ship!!!!

[cruzeluver]

Thank you so much for posting. Your pictures are fantastic! Some of the best I have ever seen on CC.

 

We just booked the 10 night Carnival Journey cruise next year on Sunshine and this has me really looking forward to it!

[big ragu 1950]

enjoy all of your pics. so glad we have decided to book 10 day out of Charlestown next may.

she really looks so different from the Destiny days.

[Janelle818]

You're pictures are the best I've seen for the Sunshine! So excited to cruise on her 11/8!! Thank you for taking the time to post a review!!

[Giggity]

You're pictures are the best I've seen for the Sunshine! So excited to cruise on her 11/8!! Thank you for taking the time to post a review!!

 

Thank you! More photos to come

[J and J]

Thank you! More photos to come

 

Can't wait. Thanks for taking the time to post!

[cruiselife4me]

Loving your review! I'm thinking of cruising with a friend and maybe trying Carnival again.

 

:) Mary

[wrigley80]

I love your photos of the Serenity area. That is the best feature on the Sunshine.

Just a quick question. Why did you take your rental car all the way back to the airport in Orlando??? Why not just do a one-way rental and drop off in Cocoa Beach with Hertz??

[Giggity]

I love your photos of the Serenity area. That is the best feature on the Sunshine.

Just a quick question. Why did you take your rental car all the way back to the airport in Orlando??? Why not just do a one-way rental and drop off in Cocoa Beach with Hertz??

 

Thank you! The Serenity area was very nice on the ship, I spent lots of time there. Good question on the rental, that would have saved alot of time! The Mercedes that rented from Hertz was part of their "Dream Car Collection" which does not allow one-way rentals, you have to return them to the same location you rent them from.

[Giggity]

Okay so here we go, our first island stop...beautiful Cozumel Mexico! I had been to Cozumel 3 years ago and I really liked it there. Last time we went to a beach called Paradise Beach. This year we made reservations to a private beach called Nachi-Cocom.

 

http://www.cozumelnachicocom.com/

 

This private beach costs $55 per person and is all inclusive beach access, drinks, and food. They only let a limited number of people in everyday so it is recommended that you make your reservations ahead of time online.

 

We docked that morning at 10am, right next to the Carnival Glory which I sailed on 3 years ago!

 

 

Of course, before you're allowed to roam free you must walk through what seems like a never ending store, the Dufry tax & duty free shop:

 

 

 

After we were able to make our way through there and through the tourist shopping center, we made it to the taxi stand to get our rides to the beach.

 

 

Since our group was over 10 people we had to split up in a few taxis

 

 

About 20 minutes later, ahhh wonder Cozumel Beach:

 

Edited April 27, 2015 by Giggity

[Giggity]

The beach was very nice, very quiet as well. I'm not sure how many people they actually let in the beach per day, but where a friend and I were sitting we were so far away from others we felt like we were on a private beach to ourselves! They also have jet ski and banana boat rentals. My friend and his sister went jet skiing for an hour which was a blast - though the water was a bit choppy that day so it was hard to go full speed without getting soaked!

 

Here's some more photos, the beach was beautiful:

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a huge pool & hot tub with a swim up bar!

 

 

[Giggity]

They also had a very nice sitting area that was in the shade from the sun, but didn't see many people in here since the beach and pool were the place to be

 

 

After a few hours of beach and jet ski time, it was time to get some food! It was nice being all inclusive, but I think we went a bit overboard with what we ordered. They have waiter service right to your seat at the beach

 

 

The food was okay, I wouldn't call it spectacular, but it wasn't the worst I've had. My only complaint about the beach would be that the waiter service was a bit slow at times, and, we were tipping quite well!

 

Another shot showing the beach, walkway, and the pool is on the right:

 

 

Here's walking out on to the pier looking back at the beach:

 

 

Here's a shot showing the swim up bar:

 

 

And before we knew it, it was time to head out. We left here a bit earlier than the rest of our group so we could go downtown to check out some stores, and also to get some much needed Starbucks Coffee!

 

[Giggity]

On our taxi ride from the beach to the shopping & Starbucks we passed a crash - looked like one of those little dune buggies crashed into a Jeep Wranger..someone's day was ruined for sure. Gotta be careful with these rentals.

 

 

Here's some other places we passed along the way:

 

 

 

 

It was only about a 15 minute taxi ride, and then a very welcoming sight for me:

 

 

After we grabbed some lattes we headed to the shopping center that was right there. We saw some Parrots!

 

[Giggity]

Here's some more photos of the shopping area, I believe this is the Downtown area but I could be wrong..

 

 

 

 

[Giggity]

We grabbed another taxi and headed back to the ship, which of course has its own pretty good sized shopping area before you head back to the ship. The weather this day was absolutely beautiful!

 

 

 

 

Here's a great shot showing a small beachy area (you can get a massage right over there on the right!) and you can see the Glory and Sunshine in the background.

 

 

 

[Giggity]

Way off in the distance at another pier we could see the Carnival Triumph docked in Cozumel as well, I grabbed a shot with my zoom lens:

 

 

Here's another shot of the Glory:

 

 

Here's a wide angle showing the Sunshine, Glory & Triumph - left to right:

 

 

It was finally time for us to board our ship, we wanted to beat the crowds and the long lines:

 

 

A short time later we were able to watch the glory leaving right from our balcony:

 

[reerun25]

Really enjoying your review!! Looking forward to more...