First time cruisers heading to a wedding on the Carnival Sunshine - June 14-19 review

[Techman360]

Since this is our first cruise I thought I would do a little write up for people to read. This won’t be as detailed as some of the ones I read on here but I figured I would share my experiences on what was just an awesome experience that I want to have again real soon.

 

Background

My name is David (42) and this is my family voyage on the Carnival Sunshine. This trip was also joined by my wife Renee (40) and our two boys Tyler (14) and Nathan (10). There were much more of us including my brother and his fiancé, my sister and her family, my Mom, my aunt and uncle on my Mom side, my aunt from my Dad side, family friend and her daughter, and my brother fiancé family including her sister and daughter. I believe there were 25 of us in total on this trip. We left from Norfolk, VA which is our local port that is only 15 minutes from my house though a few of our party did have to travel from central VA and NYC. Being the local port sure helped with the costs though we did park our car down there for the week instead of taking a taxi or Uber. Being local I knew the traffic would be a mess at the cruise terminal that day so the options were to drive our own car and park, take an Uber or taxi and just wait in the traffic with the meter running, or take the Uber and taxi and have the driver drop us off blocks away and we walk to the cruise terminal with all of our luggage in tow. The parking lot won even though we were paying 75 dollars to park 15 minutes from our house.

 

For my direct family, this would not only be our first time on Carnival but also our first-time cruising in general. This would also be the first big trip that we have taken together since our honeymoon in 1999. My wife and I actually thought about a cruise for our honeymoon but ended up doing a week down in Orlando and Disney World. Usually as a large family, we will rent a beach house in the Outer Banks and spend a week on the beach. This has been a family tradition that was started back in the early 90’s when my Dad took us down there to visit our relatives that have been doing the beach house rental thing for years. Now we live in Virginia Beach, VA so why travel to OBX when you already live at the beach? Well honestly, we never do the beach up here as it is such a tourist trap filled with lots of rules of what you can and cannot do. If we do go to a beach it is with my mom to the military beach which is much nicer than the VA Beach strip. The city has never been very friendly to residents with little parking or discounted parking for residents that already pay more in taxes to live in a “resort” city. I think that has changed some in more recent years but down in OBX you do not have the same rules and can just sit on the beach and relax. Over the years the tradition has staggered to every few years as the family got larger so we had to start looking at the larger homes which of course make the week more and more expensive to pull off and logistics of feeding everyone harder to fulfill.

 

Fast forward to last year when my brother told us he finally proposed to his girlfriend of many, many (5 years at that point I believe) years when they were on a cruise over Spring break. They are both school teachers and will generally cruise when they have their breaks. At that point he told us they wanted to get married in the Bahamas and if we did a cruise to get there, would we all go? Of course, the answer was not just yes, but hell yes. I guess the Sunshine is actually one of their favorite ships so the fact they sailed from Norfolk at a date that worked for everyone was perfect. From there we spent the next year and few months watching lots of YouTube videos and just getting more and more excited for the day this trip would come.

 

Embarkation

Since this was our first cruise we really had no idea what to expect. My first mistake looks to have been not picking our boarding time until after we received our passport card vs. when they were first available to be selected. Lesson learned but we didn’t have to wait too long in the day as we were able to choose 1:00-1:30 which means we would be leaving the house around noon. Even though we live in the area I decided that we would still pay to park so that we had our own car down there vs. waiting on an Uber or Taxi. 15 minutes later we were at the parking lot where we waited and waited to get up to the tent to pay. This was not our first experience of disorganization for a local event in this area so I was not surprised it was not that organized. We think the entire issue stemmed from the people taking the payments not asking if cars had or did not have luggage. This resulted in lots of cars swapping lines near the bus loading area which just slowed things down.

 

We eventually parked and made it on a bus. 10 minutes or so later we were on our way to the cruise terminal. Once there we had to sit and wait some more as there was already a bus unloading people and luggage. There is no denying this cruise terminal was just wedged in a small corner amongst other facilities which means you really don’t have a dedicated space for these buses to pull up and porters and equipment to easily move around in a quick fashion. Once the bus pulled out, we still had to wait for the workers to move around the luggage holders which was another 15 minutes or so. We were finally able to get off the bus, collect our luggage and meet up with the rest of party who were already waiting for us to get there to go into the terminal

 

The rest of the process didn’t seem that bad to me but since this was our first time, we really had nothing to compare too. The security line was fast and nowhere at the TSA level at the airport. The security guy looked at our bottles of wine and that was it. I did have to take my laptop out like at the airport which I did not think about. Not even sure if someone was watching the metal detector when you walked through but we collected all of our belongings and headed for the seats to wait for the rest and use the restroom. My mom’s bag did get flagged for a search but security thinks it was the curling iron that was detected. After people that wanted to use the bathroom did, we all got in line to check in. This line was not that fast moving but it did move and soon enough we were done and on the way to board. We had our youngest, Nathan with us as our oldest, Tyler, was with his grandmother and in her cabin. Nathan was so excited walking up the gang way. He has never been on a plane or train so this was his first trip in something other than a car.

 

Like I said above, we all have watched lots of YouTube videos and I have read so much on forums so we kind of knew what to expect when we first walked on board. The Atrium was so much nicer in person than it was in videos with one thing… I thought it would be bigger. I guess the camera adds about 10ft, especially the people that use the action cameras with the wider-angle lens. Regardless, it was such a great experience which was interrupted by the crew member who scanned Nathans S&S card interrupting that special moment because his brand-new S&S card was not registered and it was saying he was not checked in. So, the 20 minutes in line where the nice lady just handed us his card and it was messed up already. Quick and easy fix with the crew member next to him but still, first time cruisers marveling at their first experience boarding a cruise ship and it is interrupted by the first issue kind of kills that moment… Ok it didn’t as we were still just in awe of actually being there after all those videos and all those months of waiting for this day. Since it was after 2pm we were able to go right down to deck 2 and get into our cabin. The majority of us were on deck 2 in ocean view rooms with some of our parties higher up in balconies. We acquainted ourselves with the cabin and then headed up to deck 5 to meeting up with other family members who were enjoying the BBQ buffet.

 

The Cabin

We stayed in cabin 2144 and for the most part this cabin was fine with one exception for my wife, the squeaking window. It looks like it was attempted to be fixed before as there was a few shims and a screw in the upper part. We just lived with it though I did not feel it was anything to get worked up over anyway. I will say I thought I read this cabin had a pull-down bed when I was looking at deck plans when ordering as I figured the 10 year old would rather sleep on the bunk instead of on the couch. The pull down would leave the couch for sitting and such too as one thing I hate with hotel rooms is generally there is no place to just sit but in a crappy office chair. But I discovered about a week before sailing this one cabin did not which was not a deal breaker in the least but I did have to break the news to my son.

 

Now again, we watched a lot of videos and such so we kind of knew what to expect out of our cabin. We had already known that there would be no fridge for our drinks and we would just get ice. As I was looking around and such when we first got in there, I just happen to turn at the right moment to see this black box sitting on the floor… It was a fridge!!! Someone must have asked for one in the last cruise for medicine or something and it was still there. No one else in our party that was on deck 2 had a fridge so I doubt it was a sign that more and more rooms were getting them. The install looked temporary with the power cord just coming up and around the counter to plug into the 220v outlet.

 

We made good use of that fridge and threw some drinks in there right away so they wouldn’t just come and take it away from us before getting under way or during the first day or so. It did stay the entire cruise though the last sea day I noticed it was unplugged after lunch so I plugged it back in since we still had half of a day left and a lot of soda that we needed to drink, or haul off the ship. I did mean to unplug it that last night but I forgot to.

 

 

The Experiences

I know the ship staff offers a lot of different activities and shows that you can do. We did not attend any of the comedy shows and only made it to one main show, The Epic Rock Show, the last sea day. Other nights we took in a Dive In movie, Piano bar with Roddy, Red Frog Pub, or ended up just hanging out around the ship with others from our party just having a good time. The Red Frog Pub was a lot of fun and the bar staff entertained my youngest when he was in there along with the adults. Even though the Pub is really for adults, having staff that know people will have families with them, it was nice to see Carnival have staff that can also cater to kids tagging along making things much more fun for everyone. We also attended some of the atrium events like the 80’s music trivia which were enjoyable as well. Elegant night in the dining room was fun and I can see how people would miss the dining room not having table clothes every night, but it did lend to the more special night feeling since most people no longer dress to the nines in tuxedos and evening gowns.

 

I never touched a pool or hot tub but my kids had a good time in them. Pools were usually too cold for me and I cannot really enjoy hot tubs with some medical issues. My niece and nephew loved the splash area in the back and the beach pool as well. My kids eventually did the large slides and sky course once that opened up. We did some putt-putt and overall just had a great time with all the activities that were up on sports deck. The back section was definitely noisier and more crowded but seriously, who would venture back there expecting to relax in peace and quiet anyway? This was the family zone so to expect anything else would have been plain silly.

 

I do have to say I don’t get the location of the smoking area and why it is located in the pathway that leads to this area and the kid camps. Smoking is what it is and if someone decides to smoke, then I won’t tell you why you shouldn’t but at the same time, I don’t want to smoke either first hand or second hand, and definitely do not want my kids to either as they are moving around to a location that is geared towards them. At the same time, I know there really is no other good place on a ship to put the smoking area and you would lose out on the smoking customers if you made a ship smoke free so it was what it was. It’s just an odd location to me.

 

The chair vultures were circling a lot in the back there since the seating was so limited. I did not notice any of the chair hogs I read about as generally most of the seats had someone in them or if there was just stuff, the person would venture back to the seat after a while so the seat never sat hogged for two long. I am speaking for the back and the Serenity area only as we never sat along the beach pool area. If we sat out there it was on deck 10 along the edges where there was generally seating available.

 

Serenity was a great deck for those of us that were of age. The last sea day we did get up early and ventured out for the coveted seats around the pool area and took the first two rows next to the shower and men’s room on starboard. Around 11:30am I just happened to look up and see the pool was suddenly covered in people all of a sudden like a flock of birds that suddenly found a nice bird bath to perch around. A good bunch of them were not 21 but they looked the part and weren’t bothering anyone just sitting along the edge of the pool. My wife recognized a couple of them who were on the bus from the parking lot with us that were on a high school graduation trip. At this point of the day we were all getting cooked from the sun and hungry for lunch so most of us gave up those coveted seats and ventured down for some food. All in all, finding a seat on the upper decks was not impossible to do

 

 

Food

We did not make it to the main dining room for dinner on the first night as we wanted to see sail-a-away since this was our first cruise. We were still full anyway from the BBQ that was on deck 5 after we boarded which was a late lunch around 3pm. Even though we live in this area there is still something about seeing familiar landmarks from the upper decks of a cruise ship that just make it all new again. Well actually some of it was new as we had not seen much of Waterside since it was redone and the cooler part is the Scoutmaster in our oldest son’s Boy Scout troop works for the company that did all of the signage on and around the building. It was neat to see what he had been working on the last few months while he wasn’t able to make meetings. After the ship turned around, we were under way and just started to roam the upper decks checking things out. We made our way up to the sports deck where the kids played a game of checkers and we just watched our home town just move away in the distance. It started to thunder and lightning before sail away started but the skies didn’t really open up until the kids were finishing playing checkers. At this point were started to make our way back in side to find the buffet and get something for dinner.

 

I am not a huge buffet person in the least. Generally, I don’t see much on buffet lines that appeals to me or looks good to eat. I also have a digestive system that doesn’t agree with a lot of stuff on buffets as it is usually greasy or just sits a long time in juices. That night was no different but I did pick a few things out to try and they were pretty good. I have never seen shrimp straightened out before like the ones on the buffet were so that was odd. Now the one thing that I failed to notice was the Deli and the pizza joint, Pizzeria Del Capitano. When my youngest and wife came back to the table with a Reuben and Corn Beef sandwich, I had to ask where they got those. They both pointed over my shoulder as it was just behind me the whole time. I pushed my plate of whatever’s away and quickly got in line for a Reuben sandwich of my own. I must say the one thing I would have liked to see with dining in this area is that they keep Guys Burger or the Blue Iguana Cantina open during dinner at least a few nights as another option. I think that would add a little more to dinner down there but for us, the rest of our nightly meals were in the main dining room with the exception of Friday night which our whole group, minus kids, had an adult only dinner at the Cucina Del Capitano restaurant.

 

Cucina Del Capitano was good and the atmosphere was fun. We were a large group so it was family style where they just bought out different appetizers and such and we chose what we wanted for our main. The sides were also family style and a few were just bought out to our tables. Our waiter was the best part of the experience. As I said in the background the point of this cruise for us was my brother’s wedding in Freeport. It was discovered the day before that our oldest son did not have his black dress pants for elegant night nor his white button-down shirt for the wedding. We had left both of those items at home which really had my mother mad at us for the next 36 hours or so. I had talked about going to guest services to see if there was anything they could do as we struck out in Nassau in our quest to buy once as we did not get back to the port area until after 5:30pm and most places were closed. So, my wife decided to ask the waiter if he had a white button-down shirt for my son to use which erupted into lots of fun at the table and trying to pick others in the restaurant and Havana bar area that might have a shirt that would fit my sun. The fun continued until the end of the night and luckily brother in law had a spare light blue shirt which went better with the tie than a white shirt would have. As a plus, my son got to wear his VMI cufflinks which made him feel more important.

 

Guys burgers were good but I can’t say that I have never had a better burger anyplace else. I would rank them around the same area as Five Guys Burgers honestly which is not a bad thing in my book. We have a few really good burger joints in the area but I have not been to any. The toppings bar is where the fun happens though as there are so many options to make that burger whatever you want it to be. I kept it simple though with lettuce, onion, and bacon with ketchup and mustard. Blue Iguana Cantina was really good too and I am kicking myself for not getting over there until the last sea day. In the AM, I got a breakfast burrito with the Mexican eggs from there that was just crazy good. At lunch, I got two chicken tacos and topped them with stuff I liked from the toppings bar. I wish I would have gone there a few more times especially at breakfast vs the buffet in The Marketplace. The Pizzeria Del Capitano was good too and I did do that one a few evenings as a late-night snack. I had read many different opinions of the pizza joints on Carnival ships but I think the consensus was the Sunshine had one of the better ones in the fleet since it was not the Pizza Pirate. Now I don’t live in NY or NJ, or any place that is renowned for great pizza. Sure, the Hampton Roads area has people that have moved down from those areas that have opened places so we do have some good pizza joints, but I can’t say this is just as good as any of those. I have been to a local joint in NJ and that pizza was really good. Everything was fresh and tasted very good for a pizza place at the back of a cruise ship in the Atlantic ocean and if you are hungry around 11:30, and can tolerate the wait, it cannot be beat honestly. We did order a Hawaiian from room service the last night which is not the same pizza and was not as good. Part of that could have been that room service was swamped that night so it was not fully cooked

 

Ports of Call

 

Nassau

In Nassau, we already had an excursion planned at the RIU resort located next to Atlantis. My brother and his soon to be wife found this resort years ago and have been going since when their cruise itinerary takes them to Nassau. So far be it for us to argue with them so the majority of our party booked it as well based on his suggestion.

 

The cab ride to the resort was one of the more interesting things I have experience in my life. We don’t live in an area where taking a cab or ride share is something you do often so my experiences are limited. But there was something about a cab ride, with the driver on the wrong side of the car, driving on the wrong side of the road, that was just a little nerve racking enough without adding the terrible driving from everyone else around us into the equation. We did make it there and tipped him for getting us there in one piece. The resort check-in was very slow but finally we were all checked in and hit the buffet lunch that was included with our fee. The food there was ok with the usual fare such as burgers and dogs and some other items as well. I didn’t really venture to far into the buffet as I wasn’t feeling too hot at that time. Then my mom started talking about this amazing grouper that was up there so I had to go investigate. It was fried right there at the buffet and it was just so good and that was how I ended my lunch experience at RIU.

 

After lunch, we all decided to hit the beach. I suppose this beach can be known for great swimming days and days that are very rough and un-swimmable. Today would be a great swimming day, though there was a slight under tow, as the water was just so clear and the waves were very low. We found some loungers and settled in before heading down to the water. As soon as you got near the water you could see just how clear it was when a school of fish just swam right by like you were looking in a fish tank. Walking on the sand in the water you can see the grains just “poof” around your step as you walk, it was just amazing! As I said in the background, going to the beach is nothing out of the ordinary for any of us. The sand in our beaches is nowhere near this nice and soft and our water is so brackish it is nothing like this at all. The closest thing I have ever seen to clearer water on the east coast was down in Cape Hatteras which is further east and closer to the gulf stream. The odd thing with the sand at the RIU beach was you could walk on the upper sections bare foot which you cannot do at home as the sand is usually very hot. We spent most of our time at the beach just swimming around in the water or lounging up on the beach. The extra salt content started cramping my legs so I eventually made my way to the bar to partake in the beverages, in this case lots of water. We did not do any of the extras that were trying to be sold along the beach.

 

Eventually we did make our way up to the pool area that was at the resort which was nice as well and had a swim up bar. Everyone was partaking in the free drinks that were part of the resort package and about 5pm we started packing up to get taxis and head back to the pier. The ride back was a little more enjoyable as traffic was pretty nonexistent. While we were there an MSC ship that was already docked was leaving and when we got back to the pier, the Carnival Liberty was just pulling lines so I assume that is why traffic was light. The driver pointed out some interesting facts for my oldest son as he will be starting in an International Studies program as a freshman in high school this fall. He gets to do a write up of his experiences out of the country as credit towards this program. As I said in the food section the next task was to try and find a shop that sold a dressy kind of white shirt for the wedding tomorrow as we left my oldest son shirt at home. We had no luck as most of the larger shops had already closed up for the day by the time we made it to the port area. We did some looking in the smaller ones across from the pier and the kids bought some souvenirs hats and such. We had to get back on the ship though so we could get dressed for our dinner at Cucina Del Capitano. The lines to get back on board were so long and just really didn’t move much at all. Both gangways were open and taking passengers on but things were just so slow moving that it took some time to make it on board.

 

Freeport

As I said in the background, the whole point of this cruise was to transport us to the wedding location in Freeport so that my brother and his fiancé could get married. They are big cruisers so they we were introducing all of us to something that they love to do to in order to be with them on their big day. It was also a way to put everyone in one location and a good way to get to know each family. I think that worked well honestly as my wife and I had not met his fiancé family until this cruise. I woke that morning before 6pm and the skies were cloudy and gray. It was towel animal day on deck 9 so I woke up my youngest and we headed up to check things out. He loved all of it and spent the next few days telling our room steward that he wanted a big alligator right in the middle of the floor. She did tell us that she could not do an alligator and it would be a lot to ask her of when she has so many rooms. He ended up with a wolf and a monkey on the last sea day instead. While we were up there it did start to rain some and by the time we got back to our room, it was just pouring and we sat in the cabin eating breakfast and watching the staff remove all the towel animals from the deck cam on the TV. Lightning and thunder soon started and it was a full storm as we were pulling into the port. We all finished our breakfast and started to get ready for what was looking to be a rainy ceremony.

 

We finally were off the ship and it was still a little rainy out but not pouring anymore. The plan was that my brother and the rest of the family and guests were to get off and take a bus over to Xanadu beach. The bride and her mother would be about 15 minutes behind us to make sure my brother did not see her before the wedding. Well the 10-12-minute bus ride turned into 35-45-minute bus ride as the hair appointment and such ran long and the bride was not ready yet. I also think it started raining again at the port so they had to wait to get off the ship. The more we drove around Freeport the more it started to just rain harder and harder. The roads were not in the best of shape in the areas it was raining the most so I can only imagine what this island was like when hurricane Matthew hit last fall. Our area in VA was only grazed by the storm and we still had a lot of rain out of it. The area was still showing the effects from the storm with many trees snapped in half and lots of houses that were destroyed and sitting vacant. It was heart breaking to see the shape the island was in.

 

It was finally time to head to Xanadu beach for the ceremony. The rain started to let up and the skies were even getting brighter the closer we got. When we did get to the beach location it was still drizzling a little but nothing that was a deal breaker. We waited about 15-20 more minutes and then we all got out to take our places as the rain had stopped. Once the ceremony started the skies started to show some blue and at one point the sun actually peered out from the clouds and things just got so much better for the next hour or so.

 

A little more background, we have been one member short in our family for over 13 years now. We lost our dad to a heart attack one night before Memorial Day weekend in 2004. I was 29 at the time and my brother and sister still in their mid 20’s so we were all still young and not ready to lose the corner stone of our family just yet. You always want to believe that person is watching over you but in the back of your mind you do say how is that really possible. I am religious but something like that can shake up your beliefs and to this day, I still question why on a lot of things. I will say this though, the moment the sun shone through those gray clouds was at the exact point in the ceremony where the officiant said my father’s name aloud as a loved one that was not able to be with us today for this moment. I know for me this shook me a little and for one of the few times in my life, I had to choke back tears because of what had just happened. I say that day our Dad was looking down on us and joined us there for the ceremony as that timing was just to perfect to be anything else. The rest of the ceremony was perfect with lots of gray clouds out in the distance that just stayed away from us during the entire time and some blue sky and sun over us on the beach. The couple were even able to get pictures in on the beach before we all got back on the bus to head back to the pier. Carnival works fast and all of the pictures came out looking great when I saw the album and USB drive of pictures on debarkation day. You would never have known it was storming just hours earlier if all you did was look at the pictures of this perfect event.

 

Once back at the pier the rest of the party had some time to go around the little shops but not any time to do more than that as we had a reception on board at 12:30 in the Liquid Lounge. We did a little more souvenir shopping and made our way back on board with a few hats and such. This time there was only one gangway in operation and still a long line that only got longer behind us. Standing out there in a monkey suite sure made for a hot experience! Finally got onboard and into some AC with 45 minutes to spare before the reception to go freshen up in the cabin.

 

All in all, I would go back to Nassau in a heartbeat as RIU was really nice. Freeport on the other hand I could skip even though we did not do much but the wedding. If we did not have the wedding, we probably would have just stayed on the ship and enjoyed what it had to offer an additional day.

 

Final Words

I think the final words are we all had a great time and we are all addicted and want to do another! I found myself looking at some of the options that are out there for 2018 but I think summer of 2019 would be a better option for us so I will have to keep a look out for those schedules to come out. Leaving from Norfolk was very convenient but it sounds like Norfolk’s cruise days have come to an end once again with no Carnival ship being scheduled after this October. It is a shame but I will drive south as far as Port Canaveral if I have to. Miami would be a long drive but not out of the question either though it would probably have to be broken up as I am no longer in my 20’s and do like to sleep these days. Having the entire family there did make it a lot of fun but I have no doubt we would have just as much fun if just our family went. I did hear ramblings from a few family members they to want to do another so maybe cruising will take the place of yearly trips to OBX. The food was good and the staff were friendly and fun too. We did not do to many shows but the ones we did do were good.

 

The wedding even was good though I do not know how much of that was setup by Carnival. I think all of it was as if the rain didn’t let up, the backup was to get married on the ship which I do not think would be an option if it was a local place that set it up, but I do not know for sure. The photography was from Carnival and like I said, they processed the pictures and albums on board which is pretty impressive considering the project they produced. The photographer had two different cameras so you had 5x7’s and 8x10’s. You can tell a different camera was used for the 8x10’s as the depth of field effect on those were just spectacular. The couple was so in focus and sharp they really did a great job for a cruise ship photographer. I don’t know much about photographers on the ships and if they are trained or schooled but I was impressed.

 

The Sunshine itself was a really nice and clean ship. I know she had a refit in 2013 and a lot of public space was removed for cabins and more people. This ship was pretty full and I think almost all sold out from what I read on the social media site group for this sailing. There was a lot of people but outside of trying to find a seat in The Marketplace or Havana Bar, I honestly did not notice huge crowds. Maybe if we did more of the shows or comedy clubs we would have but it was never something that bothered me and I do not like being in large crowds as I get uneasy. Deck two wasn’t too bad and 2144 was far enough away from the stairs and elevators to not hear too much noise. The squeak was the worst of it all but like I said, it was livable. Temperatures in the ship were never an issue for us including our cabin which was always just cool enough. We never heard anything from the deck above though I guess now those are cabins vs. on the Destiny when that would have been the theater. My mom and oldest were in cabin 2162 which was closer to the stairs and elevator and my mom did complain of a lot of noise coming from those area. My oldest son probably didn’t care. There was as shouting match at 1am the last night that all of us heard in the cabins on the port side, but it didn’t last too long and that was the only such occurrence I recall

 

I am glad we decided against the soda package for our family as that would have been a waste of time. We all took on a 12 pack and by the last sea day, we had so much soda left that I spent most of the last sea day drinking the diet ones so that we did not have to carry them off. If Carnival had fountains or the Freestyle machines, I might have gotten the package for my oldest and myself, but they don’t so we made do with water, tea and lemonade just fine. I did not think a place could have worse coffee than my employer but I was proved wrong. But it had caffeine and did its job for the days that we were there. I never did hit the coffee bar but my kids did do a few milk shakes.

 

I really just hope to make another cruise happen in the next year or two especially before my oldest graduate’s high school. Thank for reading

[bury me at sea]

Thanks for your lovely, detailed review. And welcome to your new addiction.

[Fern Crest]

Great writeup, thanks for posting it. Congratulations on the new family member!

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[LaCal]

Thanks for your review

 

We're on the Sunshine in December 😜🍹🍹

[easyboy]

Great review! Thanks.

 

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[Drazil65]

Nice review of your journey and welcome to the cruise club, it is a hard argument against the cruise vacation once you experience it. Unpack once, settle into your cabin and let someone else cook, clean, bring you drinks, entertain you and drive you around to exotic ports/islands for a week...can't beat it most years!!!!

[bankofdad]

Great review! Happy sailings on your next one!

[woodman]

:cool: Enjoyed your review and we love the Sunshine. It made me want to be on it and sailing the open water. An added note we had a similar exp. with the sun coming out from behind clouds as we visited a grave site for the last time. We just don't know do we?:ship:

[angiem0217]

I really enjoyed your review. I teared up when you talked about your dad. We have been cruising for many years and will do our 11th in September. My kids are 20 and 10 and they have both been on 5 cruises. It's a great family vacation. I hope y'all get a chance to cruise again soon.

 

 

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[Techman360]

Thanks again for reading. I generally don't post on forums as I do more reading than participating, but this trip was just to much fun not to write something up. I have already been looking at itineraries and prices for future cruises. I think summer of 2019 is the best bet for us which means I need to wait longer to see what those schedules will be.

[tlc64]

did your kids do the kids clubs at all??

[Techman360]

I didn't even think of the kids clubs when writing that but I don't really have much to share unfortunately. Both my sons went to their prospective clubs and the 10 year old even went to the pay for bash the first sea day night. They both like the clubs though my 10 year old was not happy at the bash as they had soda on display, but never offered it to the kids. He also wasn't happy that I picked him up about 45 minutes early as they had just gotten to use the PS4's. One of the things I have liked to have seen, especially for the bash, was just a general outline of when they might do what. If i would have known his age group would not get to play PS4 until 12am, I would not have gone to pick him up. We did allow him to check himself in and out vs. having us pick him up during the day time club hours. He was also good about setting an alarm on his watch to know when to come meet us at the predetermined location. I do not remember him doing any crafts or such as that might of been for the smaller kids only. He also did the build a bear workshop and got a dog with the carnival shirt and shorts. Sometimes he acts so much older I forget he is still a kid and wants to do stuff like that.

 

The 14 year old was actually in his grandmothers room so we did not see much of him other than in the morning, maybe at lunch, and at dinner. He said he went every day except the last two days and the night after Nassau I saw him watching a movie on deck that night. Freeport was the wedding day so we were all busy that day until dinner time. The last sea day he just hung around the sports area, slides, and pool. He did say he got together with some of the other kids he knew from the club off and on. I would rather see him around the ship enjoying what it had to offer with other kids than sitting in a room playing video games and such to be honest. He too did the first night meet and mingle event so if you have older kids, encourage them to go to that.

 

The clubs looked clean and the staff were nice. The location... man, I know I would of had a headache if I worked there all day! We were all in there for the build a bear workshop and there was just this loud pounding the entire time. It suddenly hit me the sports court was right above us and the noise was coming from the basketball court. This was in the smallest age groups club so not sure how it was in the other two though it is all in the same area.

 

I wish I had more details to share but both my boys had a good time regardless if they were in the club or just out and about with other kids. Both of them are outgoing and social, complete opposite of me, and can make friends easily. They also did some stuff together which I hope was without arguing and fighting but chances are, they had some moments.