Carnival Sunshine Review - April 24-29 2016

[nicole9s]

Love your report, thanks so much.

 

I especially appreciate the Camp Carnival info for that age group, very helpful. When we cruise next year on the Sunshine, DS will be 4.5. Do you think, based on your daughter's experience, that he will be comfortable, or do you think that group tends to skew towards the younger side of the age group?

 

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[KJENN]

Loving this! We will be on sunshine in 2 wks with our 4 and 6 yr olds...i'm nervous bc this is the first cruise they won't be in the same age group for camp carnival. Its so helpful to see the activities!

[Elmo31]

Can't wait for more......we sail 3 weeks from today on a 10 day on the sunshine. I can't wait

[*Cassie*]

Love your report, thanks so much.

 

I especially appreciate the Camp Carnival info for that age group, very helpful. When we cruise next year on the Sunshine, DS will be 4.5. Do you think, based on your daughter's experience, that he will be comfortable, or do you think that group tends to skew towards the younger side of the age group?

 

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I would think he'll be fine. Sophia only ended up going twice, an hour or so each. One of the times they actually had her go over to the bigger kids room since they had them all together watching something. Then when I picked her up she was back in the other room. I guess it depends on what he enjoys doing. I know she did some coloring each time as well. She wouldn't really tell us too much about it.

 

Loving this! We will be on sunshine in 2 wks with our 4 and 6 yr olds...i'm nervous bc this is the first cruise they won't be in the same age group for camp carnival. Its so helpful to see the activities!

 

Glad I could help! :) I was also a little nervous leaving Sophia since this was the first time she's been left with anyone other than her grandparents. She did great, though!

[*Cassie*]

Can't wait for more......we sail 3 weeks from today on a 10 day on the sunshine. I can't wait

 

Thanks for reading! And I'm jealous you get to do such a long cruise. Enjoy! :)

[cruzin Phillis]

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

 

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.

 

 

For our second cruise me and DH got our passport cards. We did not want to carry birth certificates. Now we use them as a second form of ID. I think i will get my DS son his...if only he can sit still ling enough to take the picture

[cruzin Phillis]

So loving your review. Other than the beach, did you notice if there were other things to do in PC? I heard that it is not a scenic place but the ship we booked is sailing from it and it is a new embarkation port for us so I am looking forward to it.

[*Cassie*]

For our second cruise me and DH got our passport cards. We did not want to carry birth certificates. Now we use them as a second form of ID. I think i will get my DS son his...if only he can sit still ling enough to take the picture

 

I thought it was a good idea, but after sharing in a post on here that we got the cards, I got called out for having wasted my money. Oh well, it worked out just fine for us!

 

So loving your review. Other than the beach, did you notice if there were other things to do in PC? I heard that it is not a scenic place but the ship we booked is sailing from it and it is a new embarkation port for us so I am looking forward to it.

 

Thanks! There's really not much, no. It's all outdoorsy things. So the beach, pier, there were several parks, then all the outdoor sports activities. If our kids were a little older, I would have loved to drive over to the Kennedy Space Center.

Edited May 12, 2016 by *Cassie*

[*Cassie*]

Day at Sea

 

Sorry, my scanner wand isn’t quite long enough for these Fun Times. I didn’t want to do multiples of each one, so I got as much as I could.

 

 

I think each morning the kiddos had us up by 7:30, which with the time change would be our usual 6:30 wakeup time at home. It was so nice to be able to peek out our window in the morning and see where we were! It was also very nice to have the crib in the room to keep Landon contained while we were getting ready.

 

 

One minor thing, it would be nice if the ship had a kids channel like Disney or Nick Jr. The only cartoons were Cartoon Network, so not always exactly little kid appropriate. Thankfully Andrew had put some Curious George episodes on his tablet before we left.

 

Then it was time for my favorite meal on the ship, breakfast! Most of the lunches and dinners from the buffet I find to just be average, a few things I really liked, but most were just ok. The breakfasts, however, I love it all! So yummy and what I miss most once we get back home.

 

So I went through first to get the kids some food (right) and Andrew got his food (left).

 

 

Then I was able to get my food. I love the little indulgence of chocolate milk on vacation, but the guava juice was also super yummy! Oh, one nice thing I don't remember if they did our last cruise or not, but they had workers walking around with a drink cart and would give you refills or a cup of coffee or juice if you wanted one. An especially nice perk for parents not wanting to get up to make yet another trip!

 

 

Andrew also wanted to try the Blue Iguana arepas. They always had really juicy watermelon slices in their toppings bar section as well.

 

[*Cassie*]

He’s got a full belly, now he’s ready to go play!

 

 

So pretty much the only free thing to do for the under 2 crew is the open play on the sea day morning. You’re able to take your little one in and play. You have to stay with them, though, which we were definitely fine with. Sophia was also able to come in and play. This was open from 8:00-10:00am. I believe we were there from around 8:30-9:30 and it was just us the whole time.

 

 

They had a little tub of baby toys sitting out, but there were also some tubs and this shelf with things that Sophia enjoyed playing with.

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

The kids (well, mostly Sophia) were starting to get bored and Andrew realized he was starting to feel a little queasy. He, for whatever reason, had decided not to take any Dramamine and it was starting to hit him. So he wanted to go back to the room to get those and I decided to take the kids out to the playground.

 

Sophia was happy to finally have some kids to play with.

 

 

 

Once Andrew got back, and they were starting to get played out, we moved on. I wanted to attempt to get that bench picture again. Still not the most cooperative, but it’ll have to work!

 

 

Then back to our room so Landon could take his morning nap. We had a nice surprise when we walked in. Sophia’s bed was ready!

 

[*Cassie*]

Once I got Landon to sleep, I snuck out to take some pics around the ship (and enjoy a little quiet time!). I’m sure these pics are nothing new, but I’ll go ahead and share them anyway.

 

A couple of the atrium area first:

 

 

 

The library. There was another room behind this, but it was full of people at the time. If you didn't know, there are several kids board games in there. We were going to check it out once, but we never did make it over.

 

 

The Bonsai sushi restaurant. The steakhouse is directly across from it. I didn't get a pic since there were several workers right there getting it ready and I felt weird taking a pic of them! haha

 

 

Piano bar:

 

Edited May 12, 2016 by *Cassie*

[*Cassie*]

A couple of the shops:

 

 

 

 

And the Liquid Lounge:

 

 

[*Cassie*]

Some slot machines in the casino:

 

 

The café. I’m not sure if I just didn’t go at the right time, but I never saw all the big yummy treats out on display that they had on our past cruises.

 

 

Red Frog Pub:

 

 

Then out to the Lido deck:

 

[cruzin Phillis]

I thought it was a good idea, but after sharing in a post on here that we got the cards, I got called out for having wasted my money. Oh well, it worked out just fine for us!

 

 

 

Thanks! There's really not much, no. It's all outdoorsy things. So the beach, pier, there were several parks, then all the outdoor sports activities. If our kids were a little older, I would have loved to drive over to the Kennedy Space Center.

Some people opinions will make you laugh. Like u it works for us. I didn't view as a waste. I may just drive down 2 days before to visit. Thanks for the info!!

 

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[*Cassie*]

When coming out to the Lido deck, the Blue Iguana is to the right and Guy’s Burgers is to the left. So, let’s go to the right first. Here’s BI.

 

 

 

Then continuing on into the buffet. The nice difference here from the Triumph and Victory was they have little stations, rather than just one long line on each side. In the middle there are two sections with the main food choices, with two lines on each. It’s all the same food. Then there is a bar behind and in front of those that has salad, side salads, cheese, and fruit. One side has two sections with desserts. And the other side has the deli on one end and pizza on the other.

 

 

And then back out to Guy’s.

 

 

Both Guy’s and Blue Iguana had lots of seating. This was our go-to area for dinner. We found that the extra noise from the pool area drowned out our noisy kiddos!

 

[*Cassie*]

And then to check out the outdoor fun.

 

 

 

 

 

But first, let me take a selfie!

 

[*Cassie*]

And the water area:

 

 

 

And that was it for me. I hurried back to the room to make sure my little guy wasn’t awake and freaking out that I wasn’t there. Thankfully he was still sound asleep!

 

Once he was awake, Sophia wanted to go do something fun. We decided to check out the mini golf.

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

Once we finished that up, it was lunch time. Sophia again wanted pizza and I picked up a hot dog for Landon, which are made at the deli. (bad camera shadow, whoops!)

 

 

I wanted to try a Guy’s burger for lunch. I apparently picked a terrible time, though. The line was pretty long. Oh well, it would be worth the wait.

 

 

Not the best angle here, but you can see they have several options. This first time I ordered a “Straight Up”, but learned for next time that they have all of those plus more at the toppings bar, so that way you can just get the “Plain Jane” and add exactly how much you want of each thing. And I can’t believe I somehow missed the bacon crumble my first visit…

 

 

Yuuuuuuuum!

 

 

None of the desserts looked especially good to me, so I made us our own creation. I grabbed a few of the chocolate chip cookies and then topped it with some chocolate ice cream. It was really good! Once I crumbled up the cookies it was almost like a cookie blizzard.

 

[*Cassie*]

After finishing up lunch, we went back to the room. Now I knew we wanted to do the Dr. Seuss parade at 2:30. Of course this is right during our usual afternoon nap time. So I really wasn’t sure how this was going to go. Neither of them had any interest in napping at this point, of course, so we just relaxed in the room until it was time to go.

 

Sophia just loved hanging out here, looking out our room window.

 

 

She was in for a little surprise when Andrew snuck out of the room and then suddenly appeared right in front of her! :D

 

 

[*Cassie*]

The Dr. Seuss Parade meets in the Red Frog Pub area. They had lots of little props set up in front.

 

 

She asked for all of the kids to come up to the front. They first played Simon Says, which turned into singing “head, shoulders, knees and toes” (both the kids singing to the parents and then the parents singing to the kids). Then they played red light, green light. Then they gave each of the kids some kind of noise maker and handed the props out to the older kids and adults.

 

 

Finally Donkey, our cruise director, and the characters came out and we were ready to start our parade!

 

 

We all marched from there, through the casino, to the lounge shouting “Dr. Seuss is on the loose” and making as much noise as possible.

 

[*Cassie*]

Once we got to the lounge, they invited all the kids to come sit up on the stage for the story.

 

 

Sam I Am and Thing 1 & Thing 2 left right away. They then started picking a few volunteers from the group, both kids and adults.

 

 

The volunteers were brought backstage for a few minutes. Cat in the Hat then appeared briefly.

 

 

Our volunteers came back with their props and then Cat in the Hat left and the story began. Donkey read the Cat in the Hat story while the volunteers acted it out.

 

 

Landon wasn’t too interested in sitting still for this. I tried to keep him happy by letting him stand down in front of our seat, but he kept trying to run off so I just brought him to the back of the room and let him wander a bit.

 

 

I’m glad they had this for the kids. It was really cute!

 

 

[*Cassie*]

It was now 3:00, so we went back to the room to see if they were ready for naps. Thankfully they both did! In fact, they both slept so long we had to make the fatal error of waking Sophia up… She’s always extra cranky when we wake her, so I really didn’t want to, but it was getting close to 6:00 at this point and we were all hungry.

 

On to dinner. Sophia wanted pizza. Yes, again. But since she was already in a mood, I wasn’t going to argue with her. Although, I made an error. Apparently I was given a different one this time when asking for cheese. She preferred the margherita over the quattro formaggi, so she didn’t eat much of this and I agreed I liked the other one better. I picked up a grilled cheese for Landon, which they ended up splitting.

 

 

Then to get my dinner. The selection today was better than the night before. Unfortunately I can’t remember exactly what the meat was. I'm thinking it was prime rib. I ended up with a better piece than Andrew, though. I guess the person cutting it for him didn’t ask if he wanted rare or well, so he didn’t care for his. Mine was good.

 

 

And if you’re wondering what my drink is, I made a frozen lemonade (thanks to posters on here!). It was so good and yes, just like Chick-fil-a’s! Andrew gave me the weirdest look when I was mixing it up, but I made him try it and he was surprised and said it was really good. So if you haven’t tried it, do it! I will say though that I tried it again once later in the week and I didn’t get the ratio quite right and that one wasn’t quite as good. The first time I filled the cup half way with lemonade and then added in the ice cream. The second time I did ice cream first. So I suggest doing the lemonade first.

 

I didn’t take a pic of dessert, but I’m thinking I was again unimpressed with the buffet selection and stuck with an ice cream cone.

 

After dinner we told Sophia she could use some of our OBC in the arcade. So she played a couple games, enough to give her just enough tickets to pick out a prize from the machine. She chose a little raccoon spinning top.

 

 

And our last stop before calling it a night was to stop by the taste bar. Tonight, although the Fun Times said it was JiJi Asian Kitchen, it was Cucina del Capitano. It was Nonna’s Meatballs and Hand Whipped Ricotta Bruchetta. It was yummy!

 

 

Sophia was so excited to see the surprise waiting on our bed when we walked in! Since we had come back to our room early the night before, our room hadn’t been turned down so there was no towel animal. She just loved it!

 

 

 

 

 

Coming up… Half Moon Cay!

 

[Salt Wind]

Once we finished that up, it was lunch time. Sophia again wanted pizza and I picked up a hot dog for Landon, which are made at the deli. (bad camera shadow, whoops!)

 

 

 

None of the desserts looked especially good to me, so I made us our own creation. I grabbed a few of the chocolate chip cookies and then topped it with some chocolate ice cream. It was really good! Once I crumbled up the cookies it was almost like a cookie blizzard.

 

 

 

I sure love hot dogs and ice cream, too, Cas!!!! :D What time should I be there??:p hahahahaa Loving this review! :) You're beautiful, girl!!:)

[Mutumbojimbo]

Great Review! I think the Dr. Suess parade looks really fun, too bad my little guys aren't so little anymore!