Nicole721 Takes on the SUNSHINE: A Full PICTORIAL Review

[Nicole721]

Great review. Looking forward to reading the rest.

 

Thanks! :)

 

Will you have a cove balcony on the vista? Sorry if I missed it

 

 

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I don't think I mentioned it! By some weird strike of luck, we managed to score a Havana balcony for our Vista trip. Crossing my fingers that the balconies have hammocks. Or maybe not. If our balcony has a hammock, it's entirely possible and likely I never leave the balcony :eek:

[Nicole721]

Thank you for taking the time to review. Carnival cruise boards have the best reviews ever!!!!!

 

There are definitely some great ones around here, aren't there? :) Thanks for reading along!

[NoDayButToday]

 

I don't think I mentioned it! By some weird strike of luck, we managed to score a Havana balcony for our Vista trip. Crossing my fingers that the balconies have hammocks. Or maybe not. If our balcony has a hammock, it's entirely possible and likely I never leave the balcony :eek:

 

 

Can't wait to see your report on that room and the Havana area then. I've priced and backed out of booking a Havana room on the Vista for Halloween 2017 more times than I can count now.

[angelmomma530]

Cant wait for your Havana Cabana Vista review as well. We are on her next March!

[mikechass]

Thanks so much for the great review. Can't wait to continue reading it (only got to post 84) this coming weekend...

I appreciate the time you have spent getting this all down!

Safe Travels

Chass

[keishashadow]

We hit the same sort of lousy weather on that route...i'm with your mom - green lol.

[beanies098]

Thanks for the review! I'm looking forward to more. I'm going to be on the Sunshine with my dad in October!

[Nicole721]

Can't wait to see your report on that room and the Havana area then. I've priced and backed out of booking a Havana room on the Vista for Halloween 2017 more times than I can count now.

 

We were just looking at a balcony room for a few days, but as we were about to book, one opened up and we had to jump on it :D

 

Cant wait for your Havana Cabana Vista review as well. We are on her next March!

 

I can't wait, too! :P

[Nicole721]

Thanks so much for the great review. Can't wait to continue reading it (only got to post 84) this coming weekend...

I appreciate the time you have spent getting this all down!

Safe Travels

Chass

 

Thanks, Chass! Hope you enjoy the rest! :)

 

We hit the same sort of lousy weather on that route...i'm with your mom - green lol.

 

It was so odd to me to have such heavy motion when there was no storms. We've sailed through thunderstorms and tropical storms and never had anything like the winds and waves we experienced on this trip.

[Nicole721]

Thanks for the review! I'm looking forward to more. I'm going to be on the Sunshine with my dad in October!

 

Thanks for reading along! :)

[Jamman54]

Wonderful review so far!! Can't wait until it's our turn to sail on the Sunshine. Looking forward to reading the rest!

[Nicole721]

Wonderful review so far!! Can't wait until it's our turn to sail on the Sunshine. Looking forward to reading the rest!

 

Thank you! :)

[Nicole721]

Today started with promise. The sunlight streamed in through our cabin window, so we were already a step ahead of where we were yesterday morning, and the movement seemed to die down a little.

 

That alone put a little extra pep in our step, as we headed upstairs to breakfast on the Lido deck. Finding a table hasn’t been a problem and lines were virtually non-existent at the food stations, so we settled in with a quick breakfast (oatmeal for Mom, a breakfast burrito for Stephanie and arepas and salsa verde for me).

 

 

[Nicole721]

We were finished with breakfast before 9:00 am and headed out to find loungers, but for the life of us, could not find three together. We also couldn’t find bodies in the loungers that were saved with errant flip flops, copies of old Harlequin romance novels and even copies of the Fun Times (…I’m serious). The chair hogs were already out in full effect on this cruise. We found some empty sun beds up on the second level of the three-deck Serenity area and settled in.

 

 

It got really hot pretty quickly and after an hour or so, Stephanie and I headed down to the pool to cool off. The pool wasn’t too crowded, but there were some floaty bits (read: used bandages) lurking in the water, so I settled for dipping my toes in.

 

 

 

We decided there was too much direct sunlight at the sun beds, so we grabbed our belongings and headed to the bar for a morning pick-me-up. Cheers to not being at work on a Monday!

 

 

[Nicole721]

Satisfied with our fill of Vitamin D for the morning, we headed inside to Ocean Plaza for some trivia. We found an empty table but were ousted by a girl who insisted it was saved for her friend. Why two girls need two tables is beyond anything I can comprehend, so I guess Ocean Plaza table hogs are a thing, too. First up was coffee trivia, which we lost miserably.

 

 

Second was the one we were convinced we would win – Name that 90s Tune. This kind of trivia is made for us. My best friend tells me she’s convinced my musical aptitude ended in 1999 and, not to brag, but I’ve earned five stars on the Best 90s Album, 90s Boy Band, 90s FUN and 90s Love Songs Song Pop challenges. I was confident in our all but four of our answers. I even got technical with my punctuation (the artist is Snap!, for the record. With an !.). Alas, we lost by a couple of points. Apache Indian? Come on!

 

We’d grabbed a quick lunch of salads from the Taste Bar in between rounds of trivia, but we headed upstairs to the Lido deck for dessert. Tiramisu Cheesecake – my favorite!

 

 

[Nicole721]

After dessert, we headed back to the room to figure out our next move. There was an announcement made that we’d face some strong Gale Force winds throughout the afternoon and evening, so we decided to stay in, watch a movie (The Vow was running on repeat on one of the movie channels, and I’m always down for a good RomCom) and take naps.

 

 

I woke up from a thoroughly satisfying nap to room service that Mom had ordered us. The Sunshine has some new(er) room service menus with a mix of old standards that are available for free and a list of new items that are available for a nominal charge. I got to try the new Philly Cheesesteak sandwich ($5) and while it was decent, it was far from the best I’ve ever had. She also ordered me my longstanding mainstay: the veggie sticks with blue cheese dressing. Unfortunately, they changed the offerings and eliminated my two faves (the carrot and zucchini sticks) and they changed the blue cheese dressing they use. Downgrade, but still free.

 

Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich

 

Chicken Quesadillas

 

BLT Sandwich

 

Chocolate Cake

[Nicole721]

There wasn't a ton to do with the motion picking up again. We walked around the ship, scouting out the activities, people watching and generally meandering. We were pretty full from our late snack, so we decided to skip dinner, opting instead to take it easy and attempt to distract ourselves from the rockiest sea day we’d ever had to date.

 

 

 

It was obvious pretty quickly on that many people had kept to their rooms for the evening. We headed up to the Taste Bar around 6:30 pm and it was pretty empty. The line for Anytime Dining seating was non-existent, the bars were quiet and it was almost eerie.

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

We took in the early seating of the Latin Nights show and found primo seats pretty easily. The show was great (even if the animatronic screens continue to make me want to claw my eyes out and miss the days of yore with actual sets) and to be honest, the fact that the dancers were able to go on and perform despite the heavy movement was a respectable feat.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

After the show, we grabbed a late dinner up at the Lido Marketplace. Soup and salad felt like the perfect antidote to the heavy motion of the seas. As my luck would have it, they were serving a delicious tortilla soup (one of my favorites!), and it didn’t disappoint. Stephanie struck up a conversation with one of the ship’s officers, who dropped this nugget of hope: “Yeah, we call voyages like this one a seasickness cruise.” Apparently my wishes for rocky seas were heard loud and clear by the ocean Gods and it was too late to ask for a do-over.

 

 

 

After dinner, we went back to the room to unwind a bit. The motion was getting to Mom, so she decided to turn in for the night while Stephanie and I flipped on a Saturday Night Live holiday special.

 

 

It was getting late, but we couldn’t sleep. Stephanie decided that the best vantage point to watch the waves was on my bed, surrounded by the blackout curtains. You know the intro to the show Revenge? She said the waves were like that.

 

Edited January 29, 2016 by Nicole721

[Nicole721]

So it’s getting pretty late and we can’t sleep because of the motion. We feel fine, physically, but laying in bed punctuated the motion we were feeling, and there’s only one solution for that: booze. So we headed out to the piano bar.

 

 

 

The ship was pretty empty but there was a nice sized crowd in the piano bar, and a couple of drinks were the perfect distraction from the angry seas.

 

 

[Nicole721]

We kind of wandered around a bit after we left the bar and the ship was empty in most of the public areas. Oddly enough, though, the motion sickness bags were never put out. I kept an eye out for them because we’ve seen them put out on many cruises in far smoother seas and figured when they were put out, **** was really getting real.

 

 

 

The first deck party was supposed to take place tonight but we couldn’t imagine they could pull it off. We popped upstairs to confirm that the deck party had, indeed, been cancelled.

 

 

The chips and salsa was placed out in an empty Lido Marketplace. We grabbed a plate (and a couple of green apples for Mom, in case she needed them during the night to help aide any sea sickness) and headed back to the room.

 

 

In 18+ cruises and over 100 days at sea, I had never experienced seas so disruptive. It wasn’t as bad when we were out and about, but when I was laying in bed, the motion was like being on a ride that I was so ready to get off of. The next day was a morning at sea followed by an afternoon in port in Aruba and I couldn’t wait to step foot on solid ground and leave the motion to the ocean for a few hours.

[KatieCharlotte]

For those who may be reading this and worrying about facing seas like that, I thought I'd share the experiences and advice of my 11-year-old DD who is prone to seasickness and managed to get through this same cruise without getting sick and without needing the meds that she hates taking. What helped her most was going outside as much as possible, no matter the weather. Most evenings, she would settle on a lounger under a blanket with some dry, salty popcorn and cold water, watching the early movie. The night that the OP is currently describing, she left dinner before dessert to get outside in the wind and mist. After her stomach had settled, she was relieved that the deck party was cancelled and happily went to bed early, looking forward to getting off the boat in Aruba but not too sick to sleep.

[mbrownferrier]

Loving the review but unable to see the pics you posted last night

Edited January 29, 2016 by mbrownferrier

[teacher32]

I can't see the photos either.

I clicked on a photo and it carried me to photobucket with a message that they were down for maintenance.

[kmk01s]

Great review. My family and I will be on Sunshine the week of February 13th going eastern Caribbean. Looking forward to reading more about yours. [emoji122]🏻[emoji1360][emoji120]🏾[emoji847]

 

 

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