Carnival Sunshine Review - April 24-29 2016

[meatloafsfan]

Great review.

 

You have such adorable kids.

 

You should record your daughter saying she doesn't need a nap and play it for her when she's a teenager and sleeping until noon. :p

[lovestocruise19]

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.

 

 

That's my room! DH and I will be in that room for our B2B on the Sunshine! Did you find it to be noisy at all being so close to the lobby?

[skrufy]

Reading your wonderful review and am curious. We are here in northetn Il, and drive to central Florida for all our cruises out of Florida. We have driven through Atlanta and also down through South Carolina. Where were the lots of tolls, we have never paid a dime to get to Florida.

[*Cassie*]

Enjoying your review and pictures! We can't wait to sail on the Sunshine in September. We remember sailing with our boys when they were little. They were 5 and 3 on their first cruise. Such precious memories! Enjoy them while they are young as they grow up so fast! :)

 

Yes even though this age can be rough, I know this stage won't last forever and before I know it they'll be grown. Thanks for reading, enjoy your time on the Sunshine!

 

Please share how to make the frozen lemonade:) I have enjoyed reading your review.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

It's really easy! Like I said, I made it twice and different ways each time. The way I recommend is lemonade first, rather than ice cream first. So fill up one of their cups half full with lemonade, then add the vanilla ice cream until the lemonade reaches probably an inch or so from the top. You'll need to mix it well, so you don't want it too full. Enjoy!

[*Cassie*]

Thanks so much for your review! We are on the Sunshine for 10 days soon!! Can not wait!!!!

 

So close to the single digit dance! Enjoy!

 

Great review.

 

You have such adorable kids.

 

You should record your daughter saying she doesn't need a nap and play it for her when she's a teenager and sleeping until noon. :p

 

Thank you! And that's brilliant. Yes, I keep telling her one day she'll beg to be able to have nap time. Too bad that doesn't work right now.

[*Cassie*]

That's my room! DH and I will be in that room for our B2B on the Sunshine! Did you find it to be noisy at all being so close to the lobby?

 

Ooh I'm jealous you get to do a B2B! Overall, not terrible. After the first night, my husband said he did wake up once from hearing a loud group all singing together. I didn't hear anything. But the last night we did both have some trouble sleeping through what I assume was the "Guess that 80's song" going on in the lobby. Lots of very loud group singing going on. But, we were in bed early each night to get our LOs to sleep, and I think those things were still not terribly late, so it might not be an issue for you.

 

Reading your wonderful review and am curious. We are here in northetn Il, and drive to central Florida for all our cruises out of Florida. We have driven through Atlanta and also down through South Carolina. Where were the lots of tolls, we have never paid a dime to get to Florida.

 

Just in Florida, mostly around Orlando. On our way back though, we went up through Jacksonville instead and were able to skip all of them! So next time we'll have to plot our route out first and see if we can get around them again.

[lilylight]

Great review and pics! Loved the felt dolls you made for the ride down *off to pinterest for a tutorial*

[*Cassie*]

Almost done with my Nassau report. Be back soon!

[*Cassie*]

Great review and pics! Loved the felt dolls you made for the ride down *off to pinterest for a tutorial*

 

There are so many cute ones! I wasted so much time looking through them all and debating on it.

 

Here's the one I used:

 

http://racheldenbow.blogspot.com/2010/12/dress-up-felt-board-tutorial-and.html

[BattyL]

Enjoying your review, and your children are beautiful! Can't wait to read the rest... Great pictures too.

[skrufy]

I could not figure out where the toll roads were on your journey. Yes there are a lot of tolls in the Orlando area. When we are in the Orlando we never use them. The route we are planning to use takes us down the South Carolina coast on I-95. If you would like it I will email it to you. Its 1300 miles from here in northern Il., its about 50 miles longer than through Atlanta. Anytime you can bypass Atlanta its a good trip.

[*Cassie*]

Enjoying your review, and your children are beautiful! Can't wait to read the rest... Great pictures too.

 

Thank you! :)

 

I could not figure out where the toll roads were on your journey. Yes there are a lot of tolls in the Orlando area. When we are in the Orlando we never use them. The route we are planning to use takes us down the South Carolina coast on I-95. If you would like it I will email it to you. Its 1300 miles from here in northern Il., its about 50 miles longer than through Atlanta. Anytime you can bypass Atlanta its a good trip.

 

Aha! Yeah, it took us for-ev-er to get through Atlanta on the way down...

[*Cassie*]

Nassau

 

 

And breakfast time again, yay! :)

 

 

I tried some kind of apple pastry this morning. It was pretty good as well.

 

 

After we finished eating, we went out to the deck to get a glimpse of Nassau.

 

Atlantis, where we would be heading to visit the aquarium:

 

 

And the port area:

 

[*Cassie*]

Then back to the room to get the stroller and we were ready to go. There were several other ships in port with us throughout the day. We were directly next to an NCL ship.

 

 

We made the short walk up the port and through the security building. Once you walk out there are tons of little stands with souvenirs and different vendors. Some of them get very pushy. At one point I had a lady following me, asking over and over if she could braid Sophia’s hair.

 

 

There are also tons of taxi drivers working together everywhere. One asked to take us on his tour, but we said we wanted to go to Atlantis so he called over to a lady and said she would bring us there. She had a small van, so we had to wait a few minutes for her to find another family to ride over with us.

 

They had lots of horse and carriage rides and Sophia got the biggest giggle each time she’d spot one on the ride over.

 

 

The drive didn’t take long at all and before we knew it we were dropped off right outside Atlantis. We had to first go over to the left side to buy our day pass. We did the aquarium adventure. My kiddos were free admission! While waiting in line, I took some quick pics of the marina area there.

 

 

I love the bright colors!

 

[*Cassie*]

They then directed us to take a left and go through the casino. Now, I had no idea just how huge Atlantis is! There was just so much there. We definitely want to go back another time just to stay Atlantis and spend time at the waterpark. But there are also tons of shops. And lots of very high end shops. We of course didn’t get to stop at a single one of them. We made our way through and before entering the casino, they had the big Atlantis chair, so we had to stop for a photo.

 

 

Sophia said she needed a picture by herself, as I was getting down, and then she kicked back to relax! :D

 

 

Then on through the casino. I was also shocked at how huge their casino was! Once through there, they had steps down to the aquarium. Since we had the stroller, we were sent off outside to find the elevator. Right outside they have the huge tank that is the top view of what we would later see down below.

 

 

 

Oh how I love palm trees!

 

 

We walked all around the side out there, no elevator in sight, until we realized when we walked out that door originally we should have just looked to the right and it was right there!

 

 

[*Cassie*]

So down the elevator and it enters into the beginning of the Digg. There was a tour starting, so we walked around them back out to the main lobby area. The whole side here has floor to ceiling aquarium views and was decorated like the lost city of Atlantis. It was really neat!

 

 

I wasn’t sure how Landon would like it, but he just loved watching the fish!

 

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

Then we walked back through the Digg. Before we could get up to this tank, we waited on a couple that were trying to take a picture in front of it. Once they finally got their photo, Sophia went running up and turned around, posing just like they were, waiting for me to take her picture! haha

 

 

 

 

 

They also had a touch tank. She said she wanted to try to touch a star fish, but changed her mind as soon as her hand went into the water.

 

[*Cassie*]

The Digg then opened up to the outside. Now, I didn’t see the sign that Andrew later said he saw saying the aquarium passes ended there. There were no workers there either to direct us anywhere. So I think we probably weren’t supposed to walk out there, but I wanted to check out the rest of the grounds, so we walked around a little bit.

 

Walking directly out from there, is the beach area.

 

 

 

Going to the right, there were tables set up all over the place. I’m not sure if they were setting up for something or it had already ended. Walking past them we found this beautiful waterfall. I’m not sure what was up with Sophia, but she insisted on holding her hand up in the air. Ok then. :D

 

 

Then walking back and to the left, we walked past a pool.

 

 

[*Cassie*]

Then we saw the leap of faith slide and stopped to watch for a bit before turning back.

 

 

 

There was one other area we were able to enter with our wristband, the Predator Lagoon. It’s a little complicated figuring out how to get over there with a stroller. This way and then that way, take this elevator and then walk back around this way. But, we finally found the right spot! On the way over you walk under this waterfall that you’ll see the front view of soon.

 

 

Then as you continue walking it brings you up to the area you see in the back of the previous picture.

 

 

[*Cassie*]

And there’s the front view of the waterfall.

 

 

On the opposite side of the sting rays was another swimming pool.

 

 

Then finally we made it to Predator Lagoon.

 

 

 

Check out those teeth!

 

[*Cassie*]

We had now seen everything and were getting hungry. I’m thinking it was probably around noon now. Andrew wanted to go back to the ship for lunch, so we went out to find a taxi back. We again had to wait for another couple to join us and were then on our way. Now this guy took a different way back to port after crossing over the bridge. He went through a residential area and I hadn’t really been paying attention until I heard the other couple say something about this being the poor area, and was a little shocked to see thick barbed wire over a high chain link fence in someone’s backyard. There was also a business with barbed wire as well.

 

Once back to the port, we made our way back past the pushy vendors and into the security line. I’m not sure exactly how long we waited, but we of course picked the slower of the two lines. Our guy was wanting to talk to everyone, so that slowed it down.

 

Before getting back on the ship, I really wanted to get a picture of the four of us in front of the Bahamas sign. Of course Sophia was now hungry and cranky and was being a little butt refusing to cooperate for a picture. So this was the best we could get… Oh well.

 

 

 

Once back on the ship, we went straight up to the Lido to grab lunch. I had wanted to try Blue Iguana, so I talked Sophia into getting a taco so we wouldn’t have to wait in multiple lines. Now the BI menu only lists chicken, fish, or pork tacos, but they have beef burritos so I had asked if it would be possible to get a beef taco and he said yes, no problem. I got a beef burrito and some watermelon slices for us, but you can probably guess who claimed those.

 

 

So it turns out the beef is a steak rather than ground beef, so Sophia didn’t like it. I wasn’t a huge fan of my burrito either. I’m thinking it might have been the rice. I don’t know, something just had a flavor I wasn’t crazy about. So once Andrew got back with his Guy’s burger, as much as I hate wasting food, I opted to try out the pizza instead. I had thought I read that the pizza on the Sunshine is different than the kind we had on our last two ships, but it seemed the same to me.

 

 

Then Andrew grabbed some desserts. I requested a red velvet cupcake. It was good! I’m not sure what the other two desserts he got were.

 

 

After lunch, we went back to the room to drop off the stroller and see what we wanted to do. Landon had taken just a short nap in the stroller while we were at the aquarium, so he was ready for another one. Once he was awake again, Sophia decided she wanted to play at Camp Carnival. So we grabbed our stuff and went up there. I honestly wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to do. She’s never been left with anyone other than her grandparents, but she’s not shy so I figured she’d probably do just fine. And as soon as we checked her in, she took off and never looked back! I mentioned to the worker that it was her first time and she asked if we had received one of the phones, which we hadn’t, but after seeing how well she went it she just kind of waved it off and said she thought she would be fine. Ok then. I was a little nervous just leaving her without a way of contacting us, but I knew we wouldn’t be gone for too long and she’d be fine there.

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

We still had Landon of course, so we found ourselves thinking hmm, now what do we? We checked out the view from there on deck 10 for a while.

 

 

Here you can see the start of the bridge:

 

 

And then the other side:

 

 

Parked next to us was the Luna, which after looking it up at home we discovered is the 2nd largest expedition yacht in the world, owned by a Russian businessman!

 

 

And zooming in on the house back behind it, it’s for sale! My future vacation home?! :D

 

[*Cassie*]

 

Landon was getting heavy on my back, so we grabbed a snack and sat down in the buffet room. Landon was being a little crazy man, though, so we couldn’t sit still for long…

 

 

It had been around an hour after dropping Sophia off and was getting close to sail away time, so we thought we’d go ahead and get her because we wanted to watch out on the deck at sail away. So we picked her up and asked her what she did. She wouldn’t give us many details other than she colored and had fun.

 

So we found a spot back in the water works area. Of course, even though it said sail away at 5:00, it was close to 5:30 before we actually started backing away.

 

Here we go!

 

 

Looks like lots of construction going on over here:

 

 

[*Cassie*]

The Carnival Ecstasy had taken off shortly before us.

 

 

There was someone sitting up there in the lighthouse waving at us.

 

 

These guys stopped to wave bye to us, too.

 

 

 

[*Cassie*]

And there goes our pilot boat:

 

 

We were now hungry, so made our way over to grab some dinner. I didn’t get a pic of the kid’s plate, but I’m pretty positive it was yet again pizza for Sophia and a grilled cheese for Landon. I wasn’t crazy about my dinner tonight. I’ve never had veal parmesan, but gave it a try. Can’t say I’m a big fan. The lamb was ok.

 

 

Dessert was yummy tonight, though! I believe it was some kind of cherry cake, which was really moist and tasty, and even better with some ice cream.

 

 

Then back to our room, where our towel animal was waiting for us! Sophia just loved these towel animals.

 

 

Tonight I wanted to attempt going to a show. It was the Hasbro, The Game Show, so I figured it would be a safe one to try out. We still made sure to find a seat in the very back with easy escape access if the kids got cranky. Which, they of course did. But we made it through probably half of the show!

 

 

And that was it for us for the night.

 

 

 

 

Coming up… Freeport!