The Sunshine Dine! May 29 - June 3rd dining review

[meatloafsfan]

Desserts weren't our favourites tonight. Not too much of a hardship though - we each still found something.

 

My dad asked for ice cream, whipped cream and strawberries. He got ice cream and whipped cream, and then some strawberry garnish on a separate plate.

 

 

 

My mother had the passionfruit flan but she only had a couple of bites. She found this one to be too sweet.

 

 

I was going to order the coconut lime cake but then I realized that this was only 1 of two chances to order a melting cake so that's what I went with. It wasn't cooked enough for my liking (I prefer them more cooked) so I ate the cooked edges.

 

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[meatloafsfan]

We were up at a decent hour the next morning so we decided to do the dining room for breakfast. This was our Freeport stop and none of us were eager to get off.

 

My mother got the waffles with the strawberries. The strawberry compote was amazing - filled with large pieces of stewed strawberries with just the right amount of sweetness and a good consistency (not too runny, not too gelatinous). The server brought her 2 side cups of it so she had one with her waffles and my dad had the other.

 

 

I had the ham and cheese omelet with a side of corn beef hash and hash browns. The omelet was cooked perfectly (through and through - no runny egg bits) with a sufficient amount of ham and cheese. The hash browns and hash were awesome as usual. Our server also brought us little side cups of ketchup.

 

 

My dad had an "anything, everything" omelet so he ended up with ham, peppers, spinach, cheese and probably more stuff that we've forgotten. He also had bacon, sausage and hash browns.

 

 

The breakfasts were all served piping hot - even the waffles which have been hit or miss in the past - and whatever cook was in the kitchen this morning was serving up his A game. Breakfast on cruise ships has been hit or miss for us (sometimes fabulous, sometimes terrible) - on the Sunshine, it was hit after hit.

[meatloafsfan]

For lunch today we decided to try Cucina's (made to order pasta bar). My dad placed his order and I placed orders for my mother and I. We got our pagers and sat down. I decided to check out the Cuban bites for a pre lunch appetizer. I came back with a bit of a selection. We had pork pasties, chicken empanadas, and a Cuban sandwich.

 

We weren't too impressed with the empanadas (seemed very dry) but the pasties and Cuban sandwich were good. The pork was shredded and mixed with spices; the pastry used on these was not a traditional meat pie crust but more of a egg-y pastry. And the Cuban sandwich was great - love the combination of meat, melty cheese and crisp pickles!

 

 

Our pagers went off so we went to collect our pastas.

 

My mother had bowties with Alfredo sauce, garlic shrimp and a variety of vegetables - zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms and onion.

 

 

I had penne with a butter sauce, garlic shrimp, and sausage. I also had a Caesar salad and a roll. These are the softest white rolls on the ship. They are a wonderful, dense white bun which melts in your mouth.

 

 

My dad got bowties with meat sauce, shrimp and a whole bunch of other stuff. Plus he got a roll and the beef lasagna. The lasagna isn't traditional - it's made with shredded beef and has other vegetables like butternut squash and spinach in it. It tasted very good with all of the various flavours melding together. If you go in expecting "regular lasagna" you'll be disappointed; if you go in expecting a layered pasta dish, you might find yourself enjoying more than expected.

 

[meatloafsfan]

Later that afternoon my mother laid down for a nap so my dad and I got kicked out of the cabin because we were making too much noise.

 

I went down to the ocean plaza and got a spiked milkshake from Shake Spot - the kicked up island delight made with Rum, pineapple juice, coconut and vanilla ice cream. This was very rich and I would recommend splitting it. You couldn't really taste the alcohol and I was left feeling like that part was a waste of money - I could have just gotten the island delight shake and been happy (and saved a couple of bucks).

 

 

My dad and I ended up going to see the 6pm comedy show (which was surprisingly 18+). It was funny but not laugh your butt off funny. The room wasn't even half full so if you see an early comedy show, know that you won't have to line up early for it.

 

I took pictures of the drink menu in the Limelight lounge and they also had a paper you could fill out for your drink. They were really pushing the pitchers of drinks (especially the punchliner - they were walking around with full pitchers of those on their trays).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[meatloafsfan]

and the beers

 

[pirate4me2]

Great review so far! I love the Sunshine, I have sailed her twice now and have 2 more sailings booked on her. The food and entertainment on that ship are top notch (or have been when I have been on her). I can't wait to sail again on her in October!

[Jamman54]

Trisha, we just LOVE your food reviews and your segment on JiJi's brought back such great memories. That was the best meal I ever ate on a cruise ship! :D

[CBuick]

I realized that I had a couple of photos from my Sunshine Cruise. Though the Wagyu at Ji Ji's is a good choice. I remember the Peppered Beef being very tasty. It comes with a little "Bird's Nest" pastry on top. We also got the wide noodles, which are good, but not as wide as they thought they would be - like the Pappardelle that they have for brunch.

 

 

 

Speaking of which I always try to grab the Pappardelle at least once for Brunch in the MDR. It seems the announcements the Italian Captain's make always put me in the mood for rich Italian food. I can't help myself.

 

 

If one doesn't try the Steakhouse, I have to at least recomend going to the cooking demo. One of my favorites is the Mushroom Capuccino. I will say I thought the crew member on the Pride - Matey was the best at leading the cooking demonstration. The Sunshine Demo was still good though.

 

 

Even though I didn't give 555 a try, I did do a steakhouse selection. It was a short trip, and I felt like Lobster. I also had some fries - because why not? I'll try to be healthier next cruise. :halo: I'll try the String Beans Side.....with Bacon.;).

 

 

This is only a small sampling of the great meals I had on the Sunshine. Though I liked the Sunshine, my next trip is booked on the Pride in the fall.

[Crusin Karen]

I am the same way. I eat chicken and nice steak (filet mignon), then pasta and veggies. Not a fan of pork or seafood, but I tried JiJi's given the prices was very reasonable and my husband loves Asian food. For for the first time in my life, I ate pork belly (well, I only ate the really lean meat on the bottom with the sauce) and it was my favorite. Duck, no way right? it was very good and did not taste much different than dark meat chicken and it too was yummy. So, in the end, I feel like I was very outside my comfort zone and found it to be an amazing experience I will do again. Have a great cruise.

Thank you for that vote of confidence. I have visions of sitting at the table with my eyes rolling around in my head and my stomach doing unnatural things when each dish is served! I think I will put my big girl panties on and try it! ;)

[Ethel Henderson]

Lol I love all this food PORN!!!! Lol I hope they don't take me to the NAUGHTY ROOM now!!!!! Lol

 

Now where is that darn like button????

[meatloafsfan]

Great review so far! I love the Sunshine, I have sailed her twice now and have 2 more sailings booked on her. The food and entertainment on that ship are top notch (or have been when I have been on her). I can't wait to sail again on her in October!

 

 

I find the Sunshine to be a great ship (outside the accessible washrooms). It really does offer the best of Carnival on a small sized ship.

 

Trisha, we just LOVE your food reviews and your segment on JiJi's brought back such great memories. That was the best meal I ever ate on a cruise ship! :D

 

Thank you! And yes, JiJi's is most certainly the best meal at sea (on any cruise line we've sailed on - and at a fraction of the price of other specialty restaurants).

[meatloafsfan]

This is only a small sampling of the great meals I had on the Sunshine. Though I liked the Sunshine, my next trip is booked on the Pride in the fall.

 

I love the Pride too (I think we now consider that our "home" ship). On the Pride I recommend taking a look a Chopsticks each day to check out their offerings. I've had some very tasty dishes from there. Now I kind of wish that instead of Bonsai Sushi, it was a JiJi's on the Pride though :cool:

 

Lol I love all this food PORN!!!! Lol I hope they don't take me to the NAUGHTY ROOM now!!!!! Lol

 

Now where is that darn like button????

 

I'm glad I could provide you with a healthy dose of food porn. I have a bit more coming up. Bow-chica-bow-wow......

[meatloafsfan]

Tonight was our second (and last) night in the MDR. On the last night I had pre-booked Cucina's.

 

Here is our bread basket for tonight - after we'd made our selections :o

 

 

I like that they basically alternate between 2 sets of choices so it's not the same old, same old each night and that you get a few chances to eat those yummy cranberry bread rolls (or dark rye) - those two are my favourites.

 

For appetizers we all ordered the fried shrimp. These things are so good when they are served hot and fresh (and these were). A plump little shrimp in fish'n'chip breading, deep fried to perfection. I would prefer regular shrimp sauce instead of the aioli but that's a small issue. (and I could probably get regular seafood sauce if I remembered to ask or didn't dig in right away popping those things in my mouth).

 

 

We all ordered a second appetizer as well.

 

I had the salad - it was a nice, fresh, basic salad. Nothing fancy but served chilled and with dressing on the side.

 

 

My mother ordered the ham which comes with gingerbread underneath. The gingerbread is very flavourful and I wish they had that as one of the desserts!

 

 

My dad had the beef barley soup which was served piping hot. It had lots of vegetables and a few chunks of beef.

 

[meatloafsfan]

For entrees my mother went with the everyday pork chop served with green beans. In the past my dad has ordered this and found it over cooked but my mothers was not - it was still juicy and cut easily. For the first time in forever, we had a server come over and offer to cut up my mother's meat (she can only use one hand) when he saw me doing it. That's a big part of what I consider good service.

 

 

My dad went with 2 entrees - the chicken Milanese and the flat iron steak. He likes the chicken because it's fried and crispy and the steak because, well, it's steak. The server ensured that tonight the steak was cooked properly before she left the table.

 

 

 

I ordered the Vegetarian Indian Food. Unfortunately something went wrong with my appetite and it just disappeared. I had a bite of each dish (which tasted great) but I just couldn't eat. I ended up not staying for dessert (I literally needed to get out of the restaurant because the food smells were just too much). I wasn't sick or anything, I just couldn't be around food.

 

 

Sorry for the blurriness of the side stuff:

 

 

My parents also decided to leave without dessert so once they were done eating, we left.

[meatloafsfan]

Our last sea day dawned bright and early - mostly because of the thunder. It had rained during the night and in the early morning we were awoken by a thunderstorm. Smooth seas but very noisy.

 

We headed to the dining room at 8:30am to enjoy our last seaday brunch.

 

My dad started with Frosted flakes:

 

 

While my mother went with the fruit and cottage cheese (no kiwi because she's allergic).

 

 

For entrees my dad had the mac n cheese (and this was a stellar example of that - he has this every single trip and this was by far the best one he's had - it was loaded with cheese both ontop and throughout and the bacon was nicely placed on top instead of chopped up).

 

 

And then he had the steak and eggs - sans eggs.

 

 

I had the funniest French toast coated with frosted flakes.

 

 

While my mother had eggs benedict - no English muffin and hollandaise sauce on the side. And no potatoes.

 

 

 

I don't want to comment too much on this morning's breakfast because I didn't eat much of anything. I thought the French toast tasted off (stale cereal, weird bread) but my mother had a few bites and she said it was fantastic. I think whatever my issue was last night, continued into this morning.

 

Food was just not my friend (and usually we're besties).

[meatloafsfan]

I know for lunch my dad and I hit up the buffet and Cucina's. It appears that we didn't take any pictures though.

 

For our last dinner I had made reservations at Cucina's. I had been wanting to try this since it first came out on the Breeze. We love Italian food (and eat it often). This restaurant serves some very good dishes and had we not had JiJi's earlier, we would probably have been raving about this place (as much as I've been raving about JiJi's).

 

To start they give you toasted bread with roasted garlic, goat cheese and blistered tomatoes. This is a pleasant way to start the meal. Just a little something to munch while you peruse the menu.

 

 

The server told us that appetizers were served family style if we ordered more than one of anything and that sides were also served family style. We decided to just make the whole meal family style and I was in charge of ordering.

 

For appetizers I had originally wanted to try the eggplant parmesan but the server said he "really didn't recommend it." It apparently comes out very oily. He was pushing the capresse salad (which we eat all the time at home - it's not difficult - tomatoes, mozzarella, oil, vinegar) but we really didn't want that.

 

We settled on double orders of the meatballs and the arincini. Both of these were very flavourful. They were also served so hot (temperature wise) that we needed to wait to try them (which rarely happens on a cruise ship).

 

 

 

And the amount of cheese just between these two dishes is phenomenal.

[bankofdad]

Absolutely LOVE this review!!! The biggest problem with it is that I have 344 days before I board Sunshine so it's killing me to see all of these great pics and descriptions!!!! I had already requested a JiJi reservation for one of the evenings, and you review makes me even more excited to try it!

 

Question for you on the BBQ you had on embarkation day. Do you know if they did the BBQ on sea days as well? The family enjoys the Cucina after we board on embarkation day, and it would be a tough sell to get them to agree to BBQ instead..

 

Thanks again for taking the time to put this together!!

[meatloafsfan]

Absolutely LOVE this review!!! The biggest problem with it is that I have 344 days before I board Sunshine so it's killing me to see all of these great pics and descriptions!!!! I had already requested a JiJi reservation for one of the evenings, and you review makes me even more excited to try it!

 

Question for you on the BBQ you had on embarkation day. Do you know if they did the BBQ on sea days as well? The family enjoys the Cucina after we board on embarkation day, and it would be a tough sell to get them to agree to BBQ instead..

 

Thanks again for taking the time to put this together!!

 

It was only on embarkation.

 

The pasta bar is open every day for lunch though so maybe that's a selling point?

[meatloafsfan]

Entrees were actually an easy choice.

 

1. Steak.

 

 

2. Shrimps (grilled).

 

 

3. Chicken Parmesan.

 

 

All 3 were very good with the shrimp being the standout (large shrimp, perfectly grilled). The chicken parmesan was crispy and smothered with cheese - I liked that it was pounded thin, my dad said he would have preferred it thicker. The steak was good but in hindsight, I should have chosen a pasta entrée. It was cooked perfectly medium (how we ordered it), but it was "just a steak". Even my dad agreed that next time, we skip that for something "more Italian".

 

I apparently didn't snap pictures of our sides - broccoli, spaghetti and grilled zucchini. The zucchini was the stand out of the 3. Grilled so it was still firm (but cooked), with a little seasoning. I would recommend not ordering the spaghetti because it was well, just spaghetti (spaghetti with a red sauce - nothing to write home about and frankly, it tasted the same as if you added jarred spaghetti sauce to cooked, cheap, store bought pasta).

 

Desserts were a hit with us.

 

My mom ordered the cannoli (and we shared between her and I). The shells were very good - so many times the shell is hard as a rock - these ones were tender and cracked when you took a bite. The filling was very rich with just a slight undertone of the alcohol flavouring.

 

 

I ordered the Apple tart with hazelnut cream (and shared with my mother). We both really enjoyed this - the crust was tender and the crumble topping was just sweet enough. It is served warm with a small scoop of the hazelnut cream on top (it's not ice cream - more like whipped sweet cream). The only thing that could improve this is a healthy scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream.

 

 

And my dad ordered the Tiramisu which he enjoyed. He does prefer a higher cake to cream ratio but appreciated that the alcohol flavour wasn't overwhelming (and frankly - after dining at Portofino's on Royal and ordering the soup they call tiramisu, my dad doesn't tend to complain too much about tiramisu as compared to that one).

 

[meatloafsfan]

That concludes our dining adventures.

 

Overall the food on this ship matched what we've experienced on the Pride.

 

The day time activities were plentiful and the staff were great. I loved how close everything was to the next thing and we actually made it to a comedy show on this cruise.

 

I still find the beds on Carnival some of the best at sea and same with the bedding and pillows.

 

And although this was my second cruise as a Platinum member, it was the first cruise I actually used any of the perks - priority embarkation, priority debarkation, 2 bags of laundry, and my free drink at brunch. We also received the fold up backpack. While it's not the nicest gift I have every received, there are some medical supplies that we travel with that fit perfectly into it so it is very usable for us. Still didn't go to the Platinum party.

 

My parents turn Platinum on our next cruise (14 nights Journey cruise on the Pride) so I have high hopes for making the party on that one - secretly though, I'd trade my Platinum party invite for the Gold coupon for the free drink from any bar on the last night :eek: because I would always use that (even if it's for vitamin water for the trip home which is what we used my parents coupons for).

 

This cruise was just a great reminder of why we like Carnival - good cabins, good service, good food, good fun.

[E@syPe@zy]

Thank You So Much for a wonderful review! Really, really enjoyed it!

I would love to go on the Sunshine and just maybe if everything works out will try for late fall or very early spring.

Thanks again!

[MissKIA]

Great review Patricia! I'm happy to see another review from you, I've always enjoyed yours. I'm glad you mentioned in your last post that your parents will be platinum next cruise. I was surprised and a bit confused to see your Dad wearing a Gold card on his lanyard in one of the pics, I thought for sure they must be platinum by now! Do you ever travel with your Goddaughter any more?

[CBuick]

I love the Pride too (I think we now consider that our "home" ship). On the Pride I recommend taking a look a Chopsticks each day to check out their offerings. I've had some very tasty dishes from there. Now I kind of wish that instead of Bonsai Sushi, it was a JiJi's on the Pride though :cool:

.

 

I liked Chopsticks okay, but nowhere near as much as Ji Ji's. I can understand why they have Bonsai, as Sushi is really popular with everyone else but myself. I saw an expanded Bonsai Menu that included noodle bowls, tempura and skewers. Probably a good choice for wimps like me that don't eat sushi. ;)

 

Also, I would like to see Carnival go full time in NYC. One of my most memorable trips was sailing out of NYC on the Splendor during a snow storm. It was cool sitting in the hot tub as the snow flakes fell.

[Raxter54]

Thanks for the review. DW and I are going on the Sunshine in February and are looking forward to it. Looks like I may be doing breakfast at either the Seaday brunch or the Taste Bar. And those empanadas and Cuban sandwich from the Havana Bar look great...if I ever get tire of Guy's :-)

[JTBCruiser]

Thank you for the great reviews and the food pictures. I hope it tastes as good as it looked. Will be sailing in Nov 2018 but enjoy reading the reviews in anticipation of the cruise.