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

[Nicole721]

When it came time to check in for our dinner, Mom had asked the hostess at the Taste Bar check in table for a different table than the evening before (which she had found uncomfortable). Unfortunately, this meant a new set of servers and this evening’s servers were not to par with our servers from the evening before.

 

Shrimp Cocktail

 

Michigan Pasty

 

Flatbread

 

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[Nicole721]

Flat Iron Steak

 

Beef Wellington

 

Orange Rosemary Cake

 

Bitter and Blanc

[Nicole721]

To their credit, though, our meal was paced perfectly and we were on our way to the early show of the evening’s headliner show, Latin Nights. The early shows were significantly less busy than the later shows, which meant we could show up later and get better seats, all good things in my book.

 

 

 

 

We had plans to go out after the show. Change shoes and go upstairs to watch a movie, or down to the piano bar, maybe sing along to a terrible song at the deck party, but we settled in to end our evening with the premiere of The Bachelor. What can I say? This is how we vacation.

 

[gsephil]

Excellent review of your vacation. Your pictures are right on reminds me at Disney World and the sunshine when I was there

 

 

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[mamiamjo]

Great review! Love your photos, what camera do you use?

[Nicole721]

Excellent review of your vacation. Your pictures are right on reminds me at Disney World and the sunshine when I was there

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Thank you!!

 

Great review! Love your photos, what camera do you use?

 

Thanks! All of these are shot on either my Nikon D7000 or my iPhone :)

[Nicole721]

After three days of rocky seas, we were more than ready for our first port of call in Aruba. But we wouldn’t dock in Aruba until the afternoon, and we had an entire morning to fill.

 

And it rained. All morning.

 

We started the day upstairs on the Lido deck for a leisurely breakfast, noticing dark skies in the distance despite the sun that was peeking in and out. We were out decently early (maybe around 9:15 am) and we noticed stickers on many of the deck chairs. Upon closer inspection, they were notices that property had been removed from saved chairs that hadn’t been attended to in 40 minutes. These stickers were all over the poolside chairs. The pool attendants weren’t fooling around with chair hogs this week.

 

 

The skies opened up while we were finishing our breakfast and didn’t clear up until the early afternoon. We were hoping to go out to the promenade on deck 3, but those were completely shut down, as were all upper decks outside. The rain wasn’t terrible, but the winds and high seas were becoming a safety hazard. Apparently.

 

 

 

With anything outdoors off limits, we headed to Ocean Plaza for a few rounds of trivia and coffee. Did you know that there are 206 bones in the adult human body? Neither did we. Now we all do. You’re welcome.

 

[Nicole721]

We napped in the room, we walked around the ship and we were hopeful that the rain would let up as we grabbed a quick lunch from Guy’s Burger Joint, but it only got heavier as we approached the island of Aruba. The forecast showed promise for the afternoon hours, though, and Cruise Director Chris said just about the same: that there was a lot of liquid sunshine in Aruba right now, but that it would clear up within an hour or two of our arrival. So we enjoyed our burgers while the Sunshine was docking about a half hour early -- the gangways were open by 12:30 pm.

 

 

 

The evening prior, there was a note in our stateroom that, as Platinum guests, we could take advantage of priority debarkation in Aruba, giving us a time and a meeting place. We’d only been offered priority debarkation in tender ports previously, and we were intrigued by this new option. But our plans for Aruba were not thrilling enough to warrant early debark: our plans were contained to walking around, stocking up on Aruba Aloe products and getting a really big iced coffee at a Starbucks that we’d hoped would have faster wifi than the slow-crawling premium service we’d purchased on the ship. What can I say – we aim high. Regardless, we had no need for a priority service here, though we certainly appreciated the option.

 

 

Instead, we took our time getting ready for our time in port because I couldn’t miss the afternoon trivia session of Name That Musical. Broadway shows are my jam. Total guilty pleasure. I have Broadway in Chicago season tickets, I listen to a ridiculous showtunes Spotify playlist when I’m at work and I’ve been driving Stephanie crazy singing showtunes around the house (and in the car) since I was 11. I wasn’t missing this. Showtunes trivia? This is my moment.

 

Earlier in the day, Stephanie joked to me that I should have brushed up on my Miss Saigon – I’ve never seen Miss Saigon and there’s always a Miss Saigon question that I always miss. She wasn’t kidding: there was one song I didn’t recognize, but she did because of course, it was from Miss Saigon. There were 20 questions plus a bonus, for a total of 21 total points. We took the win, the glory and a plastic piece of gold ship with a score of 20.

 

[Nicole721]

After we dropped our ship on a stick back at the room, we headed down to deck zero to disembark. A hearty wind had pushed the rain out and kept the temperatures manageable, but it was mega humid as we walked down the main street, stopping to peruse the merchandise at the souvenir huts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

We walked down to the Renaissance mall, grabbed some venti iced coffees at Starbucks (which DID have faster wifi than the ship, but not by much) and then walked back on the other side of the road, stopping in the other mall to buy as much Aruba Aloe as we could carry back. If you stop in Aruba, check it out – they have two locations (one in the mall, one at the terminal) and we swear by their after sun and aloe products.

 

 

 

 

As we were walking back, we started talking about how we wished we had booked an excursion for this port – it was our fourth time in Aruba in four years and we’ve seen and done most of the island’s must’s, but there is so much more than shopping at the port in an island as beautiful as Aruba is. We love the Southern Caribbean routes – so much so we’ve done it yearly for the past four years – but in that, we’re starting to miss those other ports that we haven’t visited in a few years, especially now that we’re cruising the Caribbean once a year instead of twice.

 

 

 

We reembarked the ship and checked the dinner menus posted in the lobby, but nothing looked particularly good. Thankfully, they could squeeze us in for a 6:00 pm at JiJi Asian Kitchen, so we dropped our bags off at the room and headed off to watch a spectacular sunset before heading upstairs for dinner.

 

[Nicole721]

JiJi is one of our favorite dining experiences on the seas, across all of the ships we’ve ever sailed on. It isn’t available on every ship – only the Sunshine and the Vista (and all indications are that it will be on the Horizon, as well) – and it doesn’t get the same attention as Fahrenheit 555, Carnival’s signature dining experience, but at $15 a person, it’s a steal for the innovative Asian fare. The dishes aren’t just delicious, either – they’re presented as meticulously plated artistic masterpieces that are almost too beautiful to eat, every edible flower or swath of sauce plated with precise purpose. We have our favorites: Stephanie swears the Chicken and Cilantro soup is the greatest thing ever, I could have a bite of the pork belly every day and never tire of it and Mom can’t get enough of the Kung Pao chicken. If you’re on a ship with a JiJi onboard, put it on your must do list, order the pork belly and thank me later (but seriously, let me know what you think!).

 

 

Crisps and Dips

 

Chicken Spring Rolls

 

Chicken & Cilantro Root Soup

[Nicole721]

Slow-Braised Pork Belly

 

Chairman Mao’s Master Stock Pig

 

Peppered Beef

 

Steamed Jasmine Rice

 

Kung Pao Chicken

 

Hakka Style Noodles

[Nicole721]

Caramelized Crepes

 

Rose Crème Brulee

 

Fried Wonton

 

Fortune Cookies

[Nicole721]

With the ship docked until the late evening, there wasn’t a Playlist Production show for the evening. Suicide Squad would be on the big screen, but not until 10:00 pm and one of our favorite shows, Liars Club, was on the late night schedule in the Limelight Lounge. Stephanie and I decided to hit the hot tub up on the Serenity deck, but it was packed. Like literally packed. At 8:30 pm. And the two hot tubs on the Lido deck were just as full. The Serenity pool was too cold to swim in, so we just laid out and stared at the stars for a little bit, discussing how while we like the Sunshine, on weeks like this one where the ship is near capacity and there’s nearly twice as many sea days as port days, it would have been nice to be on a ship like the Breeze or the Vista with more public spaces (and a lanai with all of the hot tubs!).

 

 

 

The Sunshine left Aruba at 10:00 pm on the dot, and we watched from the deck 3 promenade. We wandered around Ocean Plaza for awhile before settling in for the evening with a movie in our room, hopeful the short distance to our next port in Curacao would lend us some smooth seas and a restful night’s sleep.

[Crusin Karen]

LOVING your review....about JiJi's: I am assuming dinner menu is not the same as the lunch menu? I am "not into" Asian food. AT ALL. I will eat a few things: chicken and pepper steak and an occasional shrimp toast and fried wanton, fried rice. DH loves "all that stuff." Wondering if you think it would be worth it for us to go. And WHAT does pork belly taste like? I don't like it just because of the name. :eek::o We will be on Sunshine in September.

[Nicole721]

LOVING your review....about JiJi's: I am assuming dinner menu is not the same as the lunch menu? I am "not into" Asian food. AT ALL. I will eat a few things: chicken and pepper steak and an occasional shrimp toast and fried wanton, fried rice. DH loves "all that stuff." Wondering if you think it would be worth it for us to go. And WHAT does pork belly taste like? I don't like it just because of the name. :eek::o We will be on Sunshine in September.

 

During lunch hours, JiJi is the stir fry bar (which is 100% complimentary!). I think there's enough at JiJi that you'd like (they have a dish that's similar to pepper steak, rice sides, fantastic noodles, etc). It's honestly one of my favorite dining experiences on any of the ships we've sailed on, and the price is low enough ($15/pp for a multi course meal) to make trying it worth it.

 

And Pork Belly tastes like bacon but soooooo much better. When it's cooked properly, it will melt in your mouth.

 

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[Nicole721]

If you asked me to name my favorite Caribbean islands, Curacao would be towards the top.

 

To be fair, if you asked me if any of the Caribbean islands were my favorite, I’d likely tell you yes – I have a hard time choosing favorites. I’m completely indecisive like that. There are places like St. Maarten, which we’ve visited more times than I can count and has such a fun story behind it’s history. There are places like St. Lucia, which we’ve only visited once but whose beauty is imprinted in the forefront of my memory as if it were yesterday. And there are places like Curacao, with it’s Dutch influences in every detail and corner turned on this small island, with it’s grandiose bridge and streets lined in colorful buildings.

 

 

The Carnival Sunshine was docking at the Mega pier in Willemstad as we were waking up, an early arrival after a late departure only possible because of the short distance between Aruba and Curacao. We didn’t have a full day here: we docked at 8:00 am and back onboard was called for 3:30 pm, but it was plenty of time for what we had planned.

 

 

As we caffeinated and ate breakfast, we talked through what we wanted to do: both of our previous visits to the island brought us in the late afternoon for evening visits, and we did the same excursion both times (a boat ride to Seaquarium Beach – highly recommend it, by the way). This was the first time we had any real time in Curacao while the stores were still open and we had hours of free time to fill however we wanted.

 

 

I knew I wanted to find the floating market. I saw a vlog about it on YouTube and thought it would be fun. Mom wanted to go shopping and Stephanie just wanted to get back to the ship as soon as possible to get in some pool time. So once we finished our breakfast, we took some pictures up on deck 10 to get an idea of the direction we needed to head through before heading down to deck 0 to disembark.

 

 

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[Nicole721]

The first thing you’ll notice about Curacao is the colors. It’s impossible to ignore. The island is swathed in a bright array of colorful hues that coat just about every surface. The second thing you’ll notice, though, is that unlike many of the other Caribbean ports of call, Curacao is quiet and extraordinarily well developed. When you leave the secure area at the pier, you won’t be hounded by taxi operators hocking tours or women wanting to braid your hair. Shop owners won’t follow you down the street to haggle prices and when you peruse the merch at the shops, you’ll generally be left alone. Tourism isn’t the main standard of industry in Curacao. It’s a large industry in Curacao, no doubt, but the island isn’t dependent on tourism for it’s jobs and revenue, so a visit to Curacao is a little different than a visit to, say, the Virgin Islands or Nassau.

 

 

After we disembarked, we followed the path from the ship to downtown, a popular route that’s easily marked to find. The path goes through the Renaissance resort and into a shopping area that was built around Fort Rif, a fort built in the mid 1800s to protect the St. Anna Bay and surrounding area. Curacao is a Dutch territory and you’ll find the European influence throughout the island in European cafes, porcelain shops and photo stops in wooden clogs.

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

We climbed up a flight of stone steps to the top of Fort Rif, which offers some nice views of the water and access to more shops.

 

 

 

 

The Queen Anna Bridge the Punda neighborhood isn’t far thereafter – a few hundred feet past a series of souvenir booths that line the street. Christmas decorations were still hung along the roads. This little island has a lot of holiday spirit!

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

We made it to the bridge just as it had opened to let boats pass through, so we had a 30 minute wait before we could cross. If you’re on the bridge when it closes, you’re SOL – you’re standing on that bridge until it closes again. If you are in a time crunch (or just don’t want to wait), you can take a ferry across the water for a dollar.

 

 

When the bridge was back in place, we made the quick walk into Punda. Punda is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Curacao, known for the brightly colored buildings with classic Dutch accents that line the streets. Once you cross the bridge, you can make a quick left to walk along the street that follows the water path and you’ll find the floating market. The floating market is just as it’s named – a market on the water, where farmers from nearby Venezuela will bring their crops and produce to Curacao and sell it on the water, right from their boats. The trip distance from Venezuela is just under 50 miles, and the trip takes four hours each way. You don’t even need to eat the fruits and vegetables to know how fresh they are – you can smell it from the sidewalks. We couldn’t buy anything – customs laws prohibit bringing fresh produce back onboard – but we found many locals buying fruit by the bag on the sidewalk, some even from their cars (the vendors would bring it from their stands directly to the car window!).

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

We continued our walk through downtown along the colorful side streets, stopping in a few boutiques to buy some sun dresses and souvenirs and admiring the bright hues around us.

 

 

 

 

[Nicole721]

The walk back felt quicker than the walk there. A direct walk to and from downtown should take no longer than 15 minutes (20 if you’re really taking your time). When we got back to the Renaissance Casino area, we detoured into the Tiffany & Co. at Little Switzerland so I could see if they had a bracelet I’ve been looking for (…they did not) before making one last stop at Starbucks for some very large, very iced beverages. We lingered more than we planned on – the wifi at Starbucks was lightning speeds compared to the crawling wifi back onboard – before making our way back to the port and taking a few last looks into the shops before reboarding the Sunshine.

 

 

 

 

We dropped our bags at the room and changed into our swimsuits, grabbing a quick lunch on Lido deck before settling in at the Serenity pool for a few hours.

 

 

[Nicole721]

As we approached back onboard time, we headed down to the promenade on deck 3 to watch the pier runners. Back onboard was 3:30 pm. As we got closer to 4:00 pm, it was so interesting to me to see how many people would take their time in shopping along the pier. There was a family that got out of a taxi at 3:45 pm and stopped in every shop along the way. When a member of the entertainment staff asked them if they knew they almost missed the boat, one of them said that they didn’t think they were serious about that. The ship didn’t leave anyone behind today, but more than a handful cut it very close.

 

 

 

We headed back to the room to rest and relax for a few hours. I woke up from my nap just in time to catch the sun start to set before we headed out to dinner (where the S’mores Parfait might be my favorite new item on the American Table menus).

 

[Nicole721]

Cannelloni

 

Heart of Iceberg Lettuce

 

Red Beet Carpaccio

 

BBQ Pork Spareribs

 

Grilled Beef Tenderloin

 

S’mores Parfait

[Nicole721]

We sat out on the promenade for a bit after dinner, walking off the heavy meal and enjoying the fresh air, before heading in. We strolled the shops and looked through all of the merchandise as if we hadn’t perused these shops a dozen times before. Our walk through deck 5 came to a stop at Ocean Plaza, where we enjoyed some of the live music and entertainment. Live music is one of the most underrated parts of cruising, and I really hope Carnival continues to embrace it. Throughout the ship – in the lobby, in Ocean Plaza, in the Havana Bar, in the Red Frog Pub – there’s live music every evening. Every bar, club and lounge has a different genre on stage and there’s something for everyone to enjoy (my personal favorite is the unplugged, acoustic sets played in the Red Frog Pub).

 

 

 

 

It’s been awhile since we enjoyed the piano bar, so we headed in that direction…and got sidetracked at karaoke. I can’t even remember the last time we sat in on karaoke and I’d totally forgotten how fun it is. It really just becomes one really big sing-along. After the fourth or fifth song, Stephanie and I checked the Fun Times to see if we’d stepped in on country music night, but no such thing – turns out our fellow cruisers just really enjoy country tunes!.

 

 

And as the night drew long and we headed back to the room, we walked past the piano bar. It was closed for a private function anyways. Next time. There’s always next time.

 

 

And on that note, I'm heading off to Copenhagen in the morning for a few pre-cruise days before we board the Norwegian Getaway and head off to cruise the Baltics! I'll still be updating here (hopefully every day!) while I'm gone until this Sunshine review is finished, but I'm at the whim of international and onboard wifi :) And if you want to follow along with our Baltics cruise, you can follow on Instagram (nicolesonthego) or Facebook (Sunglasses and Umbrella Drinks) and I'll be live journaling our cruise there before starting a formal review on the NCL board! :)

 

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