Carnival Sunshine Review - April 24-29 2016

[Familyforever]

Great review so far!:)

[mibarron]

Great review so far! We're on Sunshine in 3 months...

 

 

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[Therobielyn's]

Stayed at the exact same hotel in Coco Beach a few years ago prior to the cruise. We LOVED the location, the proximity to the beach and pier.

We did have an issue with cockroaches (only a couple) in the rooms though.

The rooms were clean enough but in Florida it seems common that roaches get in (at least that's what we were told by locals).

We found that the doors didn't quite seal on the bottom, so they were sneaking in under the doors.

We simply stuffed the bottom of the doors with towels.

All in all, the hotel really was a great choice and we would stay there again.

[cruzin Phillis]

We shall be sailing out of PC next year on the Magic. It will be my then 3 year old second and third cruise. I would like to drive the distance form texas but I am not sure how he will act. :eek: What kind of car seat do you have for your DD?

[topofE]

Love it so far! About 6 months till we go on the SUnshine so i love reviews with the details about the part before the cruise too!

[*Cassie*]

I'm finishing up putting together the embarkation day and hope to have it ready to share soon.

 

 

I am enjoying your review. Your kids are so cute!!!

 

Thanks so much! :)

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review! Loving it!

 

Thanks for reading!

Edited May 9, 2016 by *Cassie*

[*Cassie*]

Enjoying your review!

 

Great review so far!:)

 

Thanks for reading! :)

[*Cassie*]

Great review so far! We're on Sunshine in 3 months...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Thanks and you're going to love it! Enjoy!

 

Stayed at the exact same hotel in Coco Beach a few years ago prior to the cruise. We LOVED the location' date=' the proximity to the beach and pier.

We did have an issue with cockroaches (only a couple) in the rooms though.

The rooms were clean enough but in Florida it seems common that roaches get in (at least that's what we were told by locals).

We found that the doors didn't quite seal on the bottom, so they were sneaking in under the doors.

We simply stuffed the bottom of the doors with towels.

All in all, the hotel really was a great choice and we would stay there again.[/quote']

 

I agree, we'd definitely stay there again. Even with the couple minor things, it was a great stay.

[*Cassie*]

We shall be sailing out of PC next year on the Magic. It will be my then 3 year old second and third cruise. I would like to drive the distance form texas but I am not sure how he will act. :eek: What kind of car seat do you have for your DD?

 

Both of mine are in Graco MyRide 65 seats. They're a little bulky, so if you're at all limited on space that could be an issue, but otherwise we've had great luck with them. And yes, the long drive with little ones is not exactly fun, but thankfully with the things I brought for them (and well, mostly the DVD player in Sophia's case) they stayed pretty content. Sophia more so than Landon. But that's also just the age I think. Good luck to you if you go for it!

 

Love it so far! About 6 months till we go on the SUnshine so i love reviews with the details about the part before the cruise too!

 

Thanks! :)

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[cruzin Phillis]

Both of mine are in Graco MyRide 65 seats. They're a little bulky, so if you're at all limited on space that could be an issue, but otherwise we've had great luck with them. And yes, the long drive with little ones is not exactly fun, but thankfully with the things I brought for them (and well, mostly the DVD player in Sophia's case) they stayed pretty content. Sophia more so than Landon. But that's also just the age I think. Good luck to you if you go for it!

 

 

 

Thanks! :)

 

Thanks for your response. I have a SUV but I would rent a SUV to save on mileage. My son is good with is tablets that they make for toddlers and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I can however, see him getting antsy after about 6 hours in screaming get me out of here. :( Like you I may break the drive up into a scenic trip. I have about a year of planning!!!

[*Cassie*]

Thanks for the review.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Thanks for your response. I have a SUV but I would rent a SUV to save on mileage. My son is good with is tablets that they make for toddlers and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I can however, see him getting antsy after about 6 hours in screaming get me out of here. :( Like you I may break the drive up into a scenic trip. I have about a year of planning!!!

 

Yes, the tablet definitely saved our sanity many times during the trip! :D Feel free to ask away if you come up with any other questions.

[*Cassie*]

Embarkation Day

 

In the morning we grabbed breakfast in the hotel and then back to our room to finish packing up. We still had some time to kill though, which was brutal since we were so ready to get to the ship! Is it time yet, is it time yet?!

 

 

Ugh, still not? Landon started to get crabby, so I settled him down for a quick cat nap since I didn’t know for sure when he’d get a nap in later.

 

Finally it was time to go, so we brought the rest of our stuff out to the van and checked out of the hotel before heading over to the port. It’s just a short 3 miles from the hotel to the port, so before long we got our first sighting! Get excited!

 

 

As we got closer, we realized it wasn’t the Sunshine, though.

 

 

There she is!

 

[*Cassie*]

The one we saw first was the Victory (the ship we had sailed on our last cruise). The Disney Magic was also in port.

 

 

As you pull in, there were porters all over the place directing traffic into parking spots. Then someone will help you get your luggage from there. Super easy!

 

 

 

From there you move on to the parking garage. It was slightly confusing since there are two, but no signs and there was no one to follow at that moment. We went to the left and once you go around the back we saw the line of cars. Now the parking voucher from the hotel said something about it must be used in the cash lane, but the two lanes here both said credit card. However, the guy took the voucher and our card without any issue at all.

 

So we found a spot in the garage, got the rest of the things out of the van and then it’s just a short walk over to the building. Now our past two cruises we travelled with just our birth certificates. We debated and debated and finally decided to go ahead and get passports. But, we apparently made the noob move and got passport cards. Oh well, it worked. We made it through the security area just fine and on to get our sign & sail cards and our boarding zone.

 

I believe we were given zone 11 and at the time they were calling zone 6, so we went to have a seat and wait. The kids didn’t like that idea, however. So I told Andrew I would go walk the stroller around with Landon, and Sophia said she wanted to come too. So we walked up and down the aisle a few times.

 

 

It wasn’t too long of a wait though, and they soon called zone 11! Here we go! We had arrived to the port around 11:30 and I forgot to look exactly when we were called, but I believe the whole process took about an hour.

I guess one nice thing about having a stroller and needing the elevator was not needing to stand in the next line. We gave them our s&s cards and then on to the boarding ramps. Getting close!

 

[*Cassie*]

And the cruise has officially begun!!!

 

 

We headed right up to the Lido for lunch. Before going out onto the Lido deck though, we saw the table for the Dr. Seuss breakfast. We went ahead and got signed up for that so I wouldn’t forget to do it later. Since we had the stroller along, we first needed to find a spot to sit. The buffet area seating was pretty crowded, but we found a big enough spot for us in the back area. I then went to grab some food from the buffet for the kids to share. Now, my daughter is pretty picky and as much as I was hoping she’d try some new things with the big buffet selection, you might soon notice repetitive things with each meal. They’re thankfully both big fruit lovers, just like their mom, so we all loved having a big bowl of fruit with every meal. Cheese cubes are another staple with both of them.

 

 

Andrew then went to grab a few things from the buffet and then later got some Blue Iguana tacos.

 

 

[*Cassie*]

I already knew I wanted to go straight over to the Cucina del Capitano pasta bar for the first lunch. I had heard it can be busy on sea days, and I’m a big Italian food fan, so I was excited to try it out. If you haven’t seen this before, they have the menus sitting on a little stand that you fill out with what you’d like. I know I took a pic of it, but it seems to have disappeared, so this isn’t my pic but one I found with a quick search.

 

 

I selected the farfalle (bowtie) pasta with alfredo sauce, topped with grilled chicken strips and spinach and then the salad and bread. They gave me a little buzzer that would go off when it was ready. While I waited, I took a couple pics of the back area. You can see the pasta bar there on the left and then JiJi’s on the right. These become the made to order omelette bars at breakfast.

 

 

And then the Havana bar is in the middle, with seating all around. I loved all the palm trees!

 

 

One part where I have to say we found the cruise to not be super little one friendly, was we sometimes really struggled to find a high chair for Landon. The first couple days we’d just find a worker and ask them for one, when after walking all over without finding one anywhere, and sometimes they’d know where to go and other times they needed us to ask someone else. After watching them, Andrew finally discovered that they keep them back here. Looking at this picture now, I noticed you can see a couple sitting there. So this back area became our go-to sitting area for breakfast and lunch.

 

It wasn’t too long of a wait before my buzzer went off and they handed me my food. It was good, but I might have had too high of expectations. I thought the chicken was delicious, though. The pasta itself was alright. The salad was also ok, but the bread was yummy. It hit the spot!

 

 

Then Sophia and I went to pick out some desserts for all of us to share. Now, as much of a sweet tooth I have, I am not a huge fan of the buffet desserts. I find most of them to look better than they taste. There were a few over the week that I really liked, though. I’ve seen the cake pops get mixed reviews on here, but we all wanted to try one and we all agreed that we really liked them. I also really liked the caramel cheesecake. The other cake was some kind of apple something or other, but it was super dry and bland. And Sophia picked out the cookie, which I tried a bite of and it was really good, too.

 

[*Cassie*]

It was now around 1:00. Although we were told at the sign in that rooms would be ready at 1:30, one of the papers we were handed at some point said that rooms would be ready at 12:30, so we thought we’d just go ahead and check. And they were! Our previous two cruises we just had interior rooms, which we were planning on doing this time as well but then I noticed that there was an option for an interior with obstructed view that was just barely more. Although I was excited to get a window this time, I mostly loved the fact that it would give us a little more space with the sofa. We chose room 3131.

 

 

 

Although it’s an obstructed view, we still had a great view and really enjoyed having the window. We’ll definitely try to get similar rooms to this on future cruises. Here was our view at sea:

 

 

There were three closets; one with shelves and two with hangers. I brought along an over the door organizer to help keep the counters clear (don't count the number of shoes I overpacked for my daughter...).

 

 

And the standard small bathroom.

 

[*Cassie*]

I tried getting Landon to take a nap, but that definitely wasn’t happening. He was too excited to be down out of the stroller and able to run around the room. So we just took a look at the fun times and made our plan for the rest of the afternoon.

 

 

We decided to head up to Camp Carnival to get the kids registered. On our way out we happened to run into our room steward. We asked him if we could get a crib added to the room. He said yes, that would be no problem. Perfect! We weren’t sure exactly where the CC entrance was. We first came upon the playground, so we stopped there for a few.

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

There was a door out in the playground area to go into CC, but it was locked. So we walked around the deck and discovered the entrance to all camps is on that side. Sophia saw the Mr. Potato Head right away (which is what she ended up calling CC the rest of the trip) and ran right to him.

 

 

There was a little bit of a wait, but we finally got the kids registered. They then said we could walk through to check it out.

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

Here’s the info they gave us:

 

 

 

 

 

There isn’t a whole lot for the under 2 group, which would be for Landon.

 

[*Cassie*]

We thought we’d go back to the room and see if Landon was now ready for his nap. I had hoped to get that done before the muster drill. Before heading back in though, I quickly ran up to snap a quick pic to make everyone on FB jealous! :D

 

 

However, my little man had other ideas in mind. He was just took excited to be down and started running back and forth around the room like a maniac and climbing on everything in sight. He’s such a ham!

 

 

So I gave up. We just let them run around for a bit and before long they started the muster drill announcements. Now, lucky for us, our muster station ended up being the liquid lounge. It was definitely nice to be able to sit down through that with the kiddos. It took about 45 minutes total. And of course Landon chose this time to fall asleep!

 

 

Part of this muster station though requires that you walk past the lifeboats to know where they are. So they first had to release everyone else and then row by row they move everyone from the lounge and have them walk out onto the deck and then you’re free to go.

 

Once we did that, we headed up to the Lido for the sail away party. I had no complaints with Port Canaveral, but boy it sure doesn’t quite have the view that Port of Miami did for our last sail away.

 

 

[*Cassie*]

I think we mainly ended up hanging out on deck 10.

 

 

All sorts of fun to be had.

 

 

 

 

Sophia saw a group of kids playing the Twister game, so once they left she had to go attempt to try it out.

 

[*Cassie*]

Me: “hey Sophia, guess what?”

Sophia: “what?”

Me: “the ship is moving, we’re officially cruising!”

Sophia: “yeaaaaaah!”

 

 

Some better shots of the Victory and Magic as we sail past:

 

 

 

Off we go!

 

 

On our last cruise we discovered the “secret” deck up front was a nice, quiet spot. Since the kids were getting a little antsy, we decided to go check that area out. On the way out, we walked past the dance party getting started on the Lido deck.

 

[*Cassie*]

I believe we went to deck 6. It was as we had hoped, completely empty. So I let Landon down to run around a little bit. He was very happy to have some freedom!

 

 

And we had managed to make it up there in time to sail past the beach.

 

 

There were some benches up there that had the Sunshine name on them and after getting a cute photo of Sophia sitting on one during our last cruise, I thought it would be a nice tradition to get one of them sitting on the ship’s bench for each cruise. So I attempted to do that, but of course no-nap Sophia was not going to cooperate for me. (but it’s ok, I managed to get one the next day!)

 

We spent some time there and then decided to see if our luggage had arrived yet. Yes, all 3 of our bags were at our door. So we brought them inside and started some unpacking.

 

It was now getting close to dinner time. On our last cruise, Sophia was the same age Landon was on this one, we only ate in the dining room the first night and realized she was just a little too noisy for that environment and we stuck with eating at the buffet the rest of the nights. This time we didn’t even attempt it. I have to say I do miss the dining room dinners, but I guess that’s part of cruising with little ones.

 

Before going up to the Lido deck, we stopped by the taste bar first. Tonight was food from the Bonsai Sushi place. They had a yuzu custard with sake cured tuna and a spicy salmon roll. I’m not a seafood fan at all, so I passed but Andrew wanted to try them.

 

 

 

Another little ones tip, whenever we were out and about we always had a little notebook and a few crayons along with us. If Sophia was getting antsy, we’d pull them out and she’d happily sit still with those for a little longer.

 

[*Cassie*]

Then it was on to the buffet. Another tricky thing with little ones, since they no longer have trays, getting food for all of us is quite a task requiring multiple trips. What we discovered worked best for us, was to have me carry Landon in the Ergo carrier on my back and I would get food for the kids while Andrew would get his food and go on to find a table and high chair. Then while I was getting them settled he would go get drinks and then I could go get my food. So unfortunately we didn’t end up spending much of our meals eating together, but we made it work.

 

Tonight Sophia said she wanted a pizza (which ended up being the food she ate most of throughout the week) and I picked a few other things off the buffet for them to share. Andrew also grabbed this and that from the buffet.

 

 

Nothing on the buffet really looked that great to me tonight, so I grabbed a corned beef and pastrami sandwich from the deli and some fruit. Yummy!

 

 

Andrew got some desserts for us to try. I wasn’t crazy about any of them. The one in the dish had pudding under it. It was pretty good.

 

 

Sophia was just begging for ice cream. Her first of many cones to come! In fact, if you ask her what her favorite part of the cruise was, she will say “ice cream!”! haha

 

 

She really surprised me with how long she sat there and just watched us cruise on. She was just loving it! Future cruise addict?!

 

 

At this point it was almost 7:30 and the Minions movie was getting started out on the deck. I’m sure Sophia would have loved to watch it, but without a nap and so much new stuff to take in, we knew she needed to sleep. So we went back to our room and the room stewards were still working on the rooms. We were still without a crib, so we asked him again. Apparently he put it in the room next door! So he got that moved over and then asked if we were wanting the pull down bed or the sofa bed. We said the sofa bed. He said he’d fix it up once we left again, but we were definitely done for the evening. He seemed very overwhelmed and then asked if we’d be ok with the one bed and crib for the night and he’d fix it up tomorrow. We were fine with that and got our kiddos to bed as soon as possible.

 

 

 

Coming up… day at sea!