Sunshine (revisited) 02/13/16 Exotic Carib review

[jimbo5544]

Thanks a lot Jim.... appreciate it

 

My pleasure

[Luke Saint Joe]

My view is W I D E too.

[pcvtmom]

I absolutely LOVE your reviews! In fact, your description of the Carnival Sunset Cocktail excursion in Aruba (from your earlier Sunshine cruise report) encouraged me to book the excursion for our cruise at the end of this month. Now TWO "Jimbo Sunshine reports" later...I can hardly wait. Thanks so much for taking the time.

[tandemcruzr]

My view is W I D E too.

 

Ditto. I have to go to the bottom of my screen and place my mouse over the scroll area and slide it to the right in order to read every line.

[jimbo5544]

Ditto. I have to go to the bottom of my screen and place my mouse over the scroll area and slide it to the right in order to read every line.

 

Huh, I have no idea why that is. This PC has a wide screen (maybe that's it), the posts from last night, not true. Are all the screens like that or just some?

[jimbo5544]

My view is W I D E too.

 

There were some posts where I picked large pictures (wrongly, normally post smaller ones), which might account for it.

[jimbo5544]

I absolutely LOVE your reviews! In fact, your description of the Carnival Sunset Cocktail excursion in Aruba (from your earlier Sunshine cruise report) encouraged me to book the excursion for our cruise at the end of this month. Now TWO "Jimbo Sunshine reports" later...I can hardly wait. Thanks so much for taking the time.

 

Thank you very much! That excursion is a top 10 of all time for us (and we have done more than a few. I have an excellent video I took on a gopro that I have been unsuccessful to post. Some day.............

[Virgincruiser510]

Somewhere along the line my page started opening W I D E also.

[jimbo5544]

Somewhere along the line my page started opening W I D E also.

 

 

When I posted the large pics?

[Virgincruiser510]

When I posted the large pics?

 

That's a good possibility.

[jimbo5544]

That's a good possibility.

 

But it happens on all posts now i.e. posts without pics?

Edited March 3, 2016 by jimbo5544

[jimbo5544]

Think I figured out why it went to wide screen. We will see...

We had decided to have our grand kids sleep over that evening and let their parents enjoy the ship. We all decided to go to dinner, we would leave early from dinner and go to the Captains Diamond reception and then pick the kids up from Camp Carnival. Camp Carnival is located on 10 aft on the Sunshine. We both had sign out for the kids. For the record, they loved CC.

 

The Diamond reception was held in the Piano Bar at 7. We had pretty much finished dinner but that time anyway. It was right upstairs from dining room. Carson had finished his dinner long before and was ready to move on from dinner, so we took him with us.

[jimbo5544]

There were 34 diamonds on this sailing, which was the most we have ever been with. The piano bar was pretty full and we picked a small table where the three of us sat down. They came around with drinks, snacks and desert things and we talked to a few different people. At our first Diamond event we met a couple we are still very friendly with, the evening is a very relaxed affair with most of the senior staff in attendance. we did know two senior staff people on our last visit, but they were both off contract for this sailing.

 

The captain came around talked for a bit and then needed to excuse himself to take care of the ill passenger transfer in San Juan. He was very nice to Carson and asked him how long he had been a diamond level passenger, Carson said since he was 2:eek::), The hotel director came over a bit alter talked to us and Carson and took off his pin that said "I am Carnival" and gave it to Carson telling him he was now part of Carnival. He wore it every day.

[jimbo5544]

As we were leaving the diamond event we ran into the rest of the crew and walked with them up to CC and dropped the kids off. We went down to the Red Frog and then Oceans Plaza until 10 and then picked up the kids and headed back to the cabin. They both were out in about 5 minutes, I spent some time out on the balcony catching up with emails and called it a night.

 

Next up St Maarten

[Virgincruiser510]

Think I figured out why it went to wide screen. We will see...

 

No more wide screen at the moment. You may have fixed it.

[jimbo5544]

No more wide screen at the moment. You may have fixed it.

 

It might be this PC (the one I use during the daytime).

[jimbo5544]

We had to wait until our sleepover guests woke up and then headed up to breakfast (no Gym for this day). Because we were a couple of hours late we had the whole morning by the pool.

 

Our plans for the day were going to be a little different and something that the better half and I would probably never have tried if it were not for our son in law wanting to do it. This was to go over to Maho Beach and watch some of the planes fly in and out.

 

On other cruises where we have stopped in St. Maarten, we have taken the water taxi over to the close by beach (can't remember the name and shopped and enjoyed the beach there). For those who have not done that and want a more leisurely way of doing something, it is something I would recommend.

 

After watching the ship dock, we decided to wait for the mass exodus to occur for everyone trying to get off the ship. This sometimes happens, especially after two sea days.

[jimbo5544]

Again for those who have never traveled here, there are two countries, dutch and french, spelled differently, one currency and a pretty unique place.

 

About an hour after we had docked we headed down and then off the ship. We were at the new pier, there was another ship at the old pier. We made our way out and two the taxi area where we hooked up with another couple who was going to Maho as well. For those who don't know, St Maarten is known for having a fairly unique airport. There is a runway which basically starts at the water (actually water then a narrow beach then road then fence then runway and ends at the base of hills and a small mountain. Flying into St Maarten is never uninteresting, that is for sure. If you have not seen it, go to youtube and search for maho beach where you can see vids of planes landing and taking off.

[kindatravelsavy19]

Ah, vs assigned dining. Thank you very much. Makes sense. If it's set up for assigned dining whatever those letters are, can you do the YTD anyway or are you tied to the assigned dining? Since we're a group of 17, it might not even come up, but I'm wondering if I might have that option or even the option to just grab a bite on the Lido deck somewhere. How strict are they in the dining room?

 

Jimbo, sorry to be getting off-topic. Kindatravelsavy19, thanks for your help.

 

I second Jimbo on recommend assigned seating for a party that large.

[kindatravelsavy19]

We had to wait until our sleepover guests woke up and then headed up to breakfast (no Gym for this day). Because we were a couple of hours late we had the whole morning by the pool.

 

Our plans for the day were going to be a little different and something that the better half and I would probably never have tried if it were not for our son in law wanting to do it. This was to go over to Maho Beach and watch some of the planes fly in and out.

 

On other cruises where we have stopped in St. Maarten, we have taken the water taxi over to the close by beach (can't remember the name and shopped and enjoyed the beach there). For those who have not done that and want a more leisurely way of doing something, it is something I would recommend.

 

After watching the ship dock, we decided to wait for the mass exodus to occur for everyone trying to get off the ship. This sometimes happens, especially after two sea days.

 

We did exactly the second option you mentioned and took the water taxi over to the near by beach. I thought this was really easy and convenient. The next time we go to St Maarten I would like to venture up to Orient beach maybe the water is less cloudy...?

[jimbo5544]

We did exactly the second option you mentioned and took the water taxi over to the near by beach. I thought this was really easy and convenient. The next time we go to St Maarten I would like to venture up to Orient beach maybe the water is less cloudy...?

 

 

The beaches in St. Maarten are fairly steep which makes for the cloudy (and Surf) at Maho. We have done a land trip to St. Maarten and have stayed on West Beach. It was a little cloudy as well.

 

We have never been to Orient so I can't comment.

[jimbo5544]

We did exactly the second option you mentioned and took the water taxi over to the near by beach. I thought this was really easy and convenient. The next time we go to St Maarten I would like to venture up to Orient beach maybe the water is less cloudy...?

I do have to say that the shops in the area you were at, and the little bars there have the cheapest drinks (save for Mazatland) that we have ever found while cruising. I am pretty sure beers were 2 bucks and mixed drinks 4

[jimbo5544]

The beach at Maho is unique, fairly narrow crescent moon shaped with the room right behind it and the the airfield. On the far side where we were dropped off, there are restaurants and bars and it was hopping. Our drive over had told us they and cruise ships every day except Wednesday. We spent about 3 hours there before heading back to the ship.

[griz400]

The beach at Maho is unique, fairly narrow crescent moon shaped with the room right behind it and the the airfield. On the far side where we were dropped off, there are restaurants and bars and it was hopping. Our drive over had told us they and cruise ships every day except Wednesday. We spent about 3 hours there before heading back to the ship.

 

 

 

Nice review, and the other Sunshine review as well, here is a webcam they recently added to the ptztv link of the ports webcams

http://mahobeachcam.com/

 

We sail the Sunshine in 5 weeks ... hope you didnt break the self serve beer tap !!! :) lol

[jimbo5544]

Nice review, and the other Sunshine review as well, here is a webcam they recently added to the ptztv link of the ports webcams

 

http://mahobeachcam.com/

 

 

 

We sail the Sunshine in 5 weeks ... hope you didnt break the self serve beer tap !!! :) lol

 

 

Thanks! Nice add with the webcam. I did give the beer tap a workout. Not sure how much people used it, never seen a many people there.

Edited March 5, 2016 by jimbo5544