Nicole721 Takes on the Carnival Sunshine (...Again)

[Nicole721]

As we were finishing dinner, Stephanie texted us that she was starting to feel better, so we headed back to the room to grab her so we could head to the early showing of the evening’s headliner show: a Playlist Production of Motor City.

 

 

We arrived at the Liquid Lounge just after the pre-show was beginning and easily found some primo seats. Either dinner time or rough seas seemed to keep the theater from filling up, but we weren’t complaining. The show was high energy and we enjoyed seeing the new cast put their spin on a show we’ve seen many times before.

 

 

 

 

After the show, Stephanie headed upstairs to the Lido deck to grab a quick dinner and we settled out on deck for a showing of Me Before You at the late night Dive In Movies.

 

 

With a cup of tea in hand, we headed back down to our room for bed, crossing our fingers that our next sea day would bring some smoother seas.

[MissNJ2ATL]

Excellent blog!

[Nicole721]

Excellent blog!

 

Glad you like it! :)

[slotsbg]

W

 

 

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[KPfromCT]

WooHoo!!!! Another awesome review by YOU!!!:')

Cannot wait for more. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Sounds like it was another epic cruise for you three!!!!

[As You Wish]

I'm loving your review! It was great to see how Carnival celebrated Hannukah. I've never seen pictures of that before. The New Year's Eve party looked amazing. I can't wait for the rest of your review.

[MandyMooToo]

Following! Awesome review!

[1cruisingal]

I'm really enjoying your review! Thanks so much for sharing!

[oneboysmom]

Excellent review so far!

[crusinpsychRN]

A kilt up on the bar could be dangerous!

[mabones]

Loving your review. We just got off the Sunshine the beginning of April. Had a wonderful time. Couldn't get loungers in Serenity all week!

[meatloafsfan]

Great update. I hope the seas calmed down for you.

 

How did you find the Art of Tea selections? Was it good tea? Which flavours did you have and what did you think of them? So few people seem to report on them that I'm looking for any information I can. My mother loves a good cup of tea (which liptons is not) and for myself, I would prefer one of the fruit flavoured teas as well.

 

I was debating on bringing our own tea bags or trying the Art of Tea selections. Price isn't my consideration - good tea is.

[crusinpsychRN]

Enjoying the review and pics. Thanks for all the hard work.

[RuthieandTony]

What a fantastic review. I especially enjoyed the menorah lighting ceremony - what a nice touch.

[Nicole721]

W

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

:D

 

WooHoo!!!! Another awesome review by YOU!!!:')

Cannot wait for more. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Sounds like it was another epic cruise for you three!!!!

 

Thanks for reading along with me again!

 

 

Save

[Nicole721]

I'm loving your review! It was great to see how Carnival celebrated Hannukah. I've never seen pictures of that before. The New Year's Eve party looked amazing. I can't wait for the rest of your review.

 

We'd never seen a Hanukkah celebration on a cruise ship, either, but Carnival definitely did it right!

 

Following! Awesome review!

 

Thank you!

[Nicole721]

I'm really enjoying your review! Thanks so much for sharing!

 

 

Thanks for following along!

 

Excellent review so far!

 

Thank you!

[Nicole721]

A kilt up on the bar could be dangerous!

 

 

Ain't that the truth.

 

Loving your review. We just got off the Sunshine the beginning of April. Had a wonderful time. Couldn't get loungers in Serenity all week!

 

Seems to be the Sunshine's biggest flaw: when they removed public spaces for extra cabins, the passenger to space ratio went down. If the ship is anywhere close to capacity, it's a foot race for one of those loungers.

[Nicole721]

Great update. I hope the seas calmed down for you.

 

How did you find the Art of Tea selections? Was it good tea? Which flavours did you have and what did you think of them? So few people seem to report on them that I'm looking for any information I can. My mother loves a good cup of tea (which liptons is not) and for myself, I would prefer one of the fruit flavoured teas as well.

 

I was debating on bringing our own tea bags or trying the Art of Tea selections. Price isn't my consideration - good tea is.

 

Unfortunately for us, they just got progressively worse throughout the week! Our last night onboard was a doozy -- our cabin was on deck 2 and the waves were so bad that the ship would rock up and slam down, and our window would touch the water line at some points :o Did some terrible damage to the shops and bars, too.

 

I thought the tea was decent. Definitely better than the Lipton's, but not quite as good as the loose tea I brew at home. I had the Chamomile and found it better than the Bigelow they used to offer at tea. It's inexpensive enough to give it a shot!

 

 

Enjoying the review and pics. Thanks for all the hard work.

 

So glad you are enjoying it!

[Nicole721]

What a fantastic review. I especially enjoyed the menorah lighting ceremony - what a nice touch.

 

Us, too! Unexpected, but we enjoyed it very much!

[Nicole721]

There’s a comfort in the formulaic way we approach sea days.

 

We wake up, we grab breakfast, we find loungers and we sit out for hours, soaking in the sun as much as each other’s company, but often in silence. We have lunch, we take a nap, we play a round of trivia, we drink some tea, we get ready for a party or a dinner, we see a show, we go to bed. I’ve kept this blog of trip journals for, what, seven or eight years now? Every cruise sea day feels like it keeps close to this.

 

There’s not a lot of excitement there, but there’s a lot of comfort. But you know what gets me about cruising, even after all of these years? There’s always something new somewhere. That thing you discover, that thing that just completely entrances you and consumes you in the moment.

 

We’ll get to that. After I tell you that we woke up, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the Blue Iguana Cantina (where, once again, my amigo with the arepas had a plate ready for me as soon as he saw me approaching) and we grabbed loungers up on a crowded Serenity deck.

 

 

Today it was so bad that people were putting down towels on the ground to lay out on. I love the Sunshine. I don’t love the lack of space for sun soaking.

 

[Nicole721]

We laid out, not until the sun reddened our shoulders, but until we couldn’t bear the wind anymore. I thought the seas we encountered last year were a terrible anomaly, some untimely and unlucky winds that were the exception, the story you tell about that time you couldn’t walk in a straight line on a cruise ship because the forces of gravity kept pulling you towards the nearest wall. At this point, the motion of the ship was just as bad, if not worse, than it had been the year before and it was too unlikely for this to be an anomaly. Maybe the waters are always angry and turbulent in the winter time heading down to the Lesser Antilles. We pondered this over a sea day brunch, seated in the back of the aft restaurant with motion so heavy, our plates were nearly sliding off the table.

 

 

Flamin’ Tomatoes Soup

 

Fresh Fruit Platter with Cottage Cheese

 

Popovers

[Nicole721]

Mac n’ Cheese

 

Pappardelle “Principe di Napoli”

 

Steak-n-Eggs

 

Double Chocolate Brownie

[Nicole721]

After brunch, that’s when we discovered our thing. Mom headed back to the room to shower and Stephanie and I decided to test our luck and see if the promenade on deck 3 was open. We found a sign warning of high winds and requesting we kindly keep out on one door, but across the ship on the other side, there was no sign. We went outside, but the brilliant sunshine and fresh ocean air were marred by the constant barrage of salt water blowing in off the wake of the bow. As we headed inside to the lobby, we noticed a passenger bypass the keep out sign, and then another. We took a peek outside and noticed a group of smokers sitting out – the port side was the smoking side – and a bit more shade, but plenty of crisp ocean air blowing the wake in the other direction, away from the ship. It was completely mesmerizing to watch, but when we realized that the act of the wake hitting sunshine was causing vibrant, fleeting rainbows that danced over the waves and disappeared nearly as quickly as they appeared, we knew we found something special.

 

 

We spent over an hour sitting outside, marveling at how the size and vibrancy of these rainbows would differ depending on how far back the wake would travel after a wave would hit the bow of the ship. It was fascinating and inspiring. I lost myself in a thought spiral, the act of carefully watching for colors to appear enough to entrance me into deep thought.

 

 

 

Stephanie needed to get some work done, so we returned to our cabin to grab her laptop before heading up to Ocean Plaza to gauge the wifi signal. After two days, we still couldn’t figure out the best place to get the best wifi signal. Sometimes, it was on deck 14. Others, it was in our room. Regardless of where we were, the wifi wasn’t terribly fast, but it wasn’t unbearably slow, either.

 

[Nicole721]

The VPN she was using to connect to her work server wasn’t working, so we ditched Ocean Plaza for the Sunshine Dining Room and tea time. Tea time was quieter than the day before, but this time, they had music playing. Service was beyond attentive and we enjoyed the quiet time to enjoy a quick cup and reflect on what we wanted to see and do this evening.

 

 

 

Stephanie wanted to see if she could get a decent wifi signal on the Lido deck (big no on that one, too), so our foray upstairs only lasted a few minutes before we headed back to the room to take a nap and start getting ready for formal night.