Matt & Ashley's Carnival Sunshine Review (Canada, Pictures, FunTimes)

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

We watched the sunset and the Queen Mary 2 started to pull alongside us. It was built specifically for the transatlantic routes, so it travels a little faster than our ship.

We hung out on the balcony until about 9:20, when we headed down to line up for the 10:00 comedy show. We weren’t quite as close to the front of the line as the day before, but still had no issue getting seats. The comedian this evening was J.R. McCollom, and he is now one of my favorite comedians that we have seen on Carnival. Very funny.

Same angle, different heads.

After the show, Ashley wanted to get ready for bed, so while she was in the shower I went down to the casino and played craps. The table ended up being really hot. I had a great time, and at one point the box lady ordered a round of drinks for the table. The dealers seemed pretty new, and I was happy to help them practice their payouts. After the table seemed to cool down a little bit, I decided to call it a night after winning $300, and headed off to bed at around midnight.

Coming up tomorrow - Our last day at sea!

BroadwayGirl · August 16, 2017

Thanks for the Halifax review. DH and I are doing a September Canada cruise and planned on grabbing a cab to the Citadel first thing. Taxis weren't difficult to get at the port then? That was his concern. We heard you could spend about 2 hours there and it sounds like you guys did.

Also my husband has now planned on wearing his Flyers gear and taking a picture making a finger gesture with the Crosby sign if we can find it to send to friends of ours who love the Penguins....lol.

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

Thanks for the Halifax review. DH and I are doing a September Canada cruise and planned on grabbing a cab to the Citadel first thing. Taxis weren't difficult to get at the port then? That was his concern. We heard you could spend about 2 hours there and it sounds like you guys did.

Also my husband has now planned on wearing his Flyers gear and taking a picture making a finger gesture with the Crosby sign if we can find it to send to friends of ours who love the Penguins....lol.

Not hard at all to get a taxi. There's a little area right in front of Pier 21 where they were lined up ready to go. And yes, you can easily spend 2 hours at the Citadel. I would actually call that the bare minimum.

Crosby is from the area so you won't have trouble finding stuff about him - he's everywhere, it's a nightmare. Ashley and I even thought certain locals looked a lot like him. I thought about wearing my Capitals jersey if the Caps had broken the DC sports curse and won the Cup this year, but they of course lost to Crosby and the Penguins in the Conference semi-finals. Again. I didn't want to look like a bitter, salty hockey fan, despite the fact that I am.

Edited August 16, 2017 by DCCruiser1013

SenatorsFan · August 16, 2017

I'm really enjoying your review and all the great pictures, especially from Saint John. Looks like you had some beautiful weather for your port stops.

And, as a Senators' fan I feel your pain. Double OT and we still couldn't put the Penguins away. :(:loudcry: Let's hope we both have better luck this season! :D

Heather

SenatorsFan · August 16, 2017

Thanks for the Halifax review. DH and I are doing a September Canada cruise and planned on grabbing a cab to the Citadel first thing. Taxis weren't difficult to get at the port then? That was his concern. We heard you could spend about 2 hours there and it sounds like you guys did.

Also my husband has now planned on wearing his Flyers gear and taking a picture making a finger gesture with the Crosby sign if we can find it to send to friends of ours who love the Penguins....lol.

I support your husband, lol! :cool:

Heather

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

I'm really enjoying your review and all the great pictures, especially from Saint John. Looks like you had some beautiful weather for your port stops.
And, as a Senators' fan I feel your pain. Double OT and we still couldn't put the Penguins away. :(:loudcry: Let's hope we both have better luck this season! :D

Heather

You are correct, the weather was absolutely perfect for both stops. It made up for the crappy weather on the way up.

The geography nerd (and Caps fan) in me was really hoping for a capital city showdown for the conference finals, but the curse lived on. Congrats on a great season for the Senators! Here's to better luck this year :beer-mug::beer-mug:

SenatorsFan · August 16, 2017

You are correct, the weather was absolutely perfect for both stops. It made up for the crappy weather on the way up.

The geography nerd (and Caps fan) in me was really hoping for a capital city showdown for the conference finals, but the curse lived on. Congrats on a great season for the Senators! Here's to better luck this year :beer-mug::beer-mug:

I like the sound of a "capital city showdown"; that would have been a good series to watch! Thanks and we'll see what this season brings us. :)

Heather

sjn911 · August 16, 2017

Thanks so much for a wonderful review. Love NYC and any pictures there and yours were fabulous and also loved the tour of the ship, cabin and this part of Canada, Love how you work it all in and share how you go with the flow on this more crowded ship and still get mostly all your goals met. Just fabulous shots and review. My distant family took that Masdam one half way last year and it was not at all like the loved the Eurodam in Alaska the year before..their start of cruising.....the ship disappointed them. It was so fun to see and hear about Queen Mary II as well. I am so glad this is proving to be a fantastic cruise in a fantastic cabin, and you have had some great winnings. The places and sights on this short cruise seem so calm and beautiful up there, I love Canadians...well thanks again...Sarah.

Edited August 16, 2017 by sjn911
spelling

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

Thanks so much for a wonderful review. Love NYC and any pictures there and yours were fabulous and also loved the tour of the ship, cabin and this part of Canada, Love how you work it all in and share how you go with the flow on this more crowded ship and still get mostly all your goals met. Just fabulous shots and review. My distant family took that Masdam one half way last year and it was not at all like the loved the Eurodam in Alaska the year before..their start of cruising.....the ship disappointed them. It was so fun to see and hear about Queen Mary II as well. I am so glad this is proving to be a fantastic cruise in a fantastic cabin, and you have had some great winnings. The places and sights on this short cruise seem so calm and beautiful up there, I love Canadians...well thanks again...Sarah.

Thank you for following along! I'll have a few more NYC pictures for you later today when I cover disembarkation, and the weather will be nicer. The Queen Mary II fanfare was quite a sight to see. I was a little annoyed that we had to dock at Pier 31 but if we hadn't we wouldn't have seen any of that. The ports were indeed very calm and beautiful - and the locals, as always, were very friendly.

pghsteelerfan · August 16, 2017

Walking down Carmichael Street

Boooooooooo!!!

I think we can agree to disagree on this one. ;) I'm still enjoying your review and pictures & glad you had good weather in both ports.

SenatorsFan (Heather)...I noticed your post and tried to "quote" in this reply, but for some reason it would not let me. :( Anyway, no smack talk from me about our hockey teams. I'm commenting because I remember when I did my Liberty review you were asking about a little hut in St. Maarten near the cruise center that had cocunut smoothies (think it was coconut smoothies). You asked if it was still there and I could not remember, and I didn't have any pictures of that area to confirm. I saw a review a couple of months ago and I forget which one it was, but there was a picture included that I think I may have seen that little hut you were asking about. Have you been to St. Maarten since and if so, it's it still there? I hope so. :)

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

I think we can agree to disagree on this one. ;) I'm still enjoying your review and pictures & glad you had good weather in both ports.

I thought you might take issue with that, but I figured you can just go console yourself with your two consecutive Stanley Cups. :mad:

Thanks for continuing to follow along, and yes it was very nice how the weather cooperated while we were in port. It was almost like the fog was waiting for us to leave St. John before it decided to roll in.

cakewoman6 · August 16, 2017

Love your review! Im going with husband NYE and this will be the first time with him after 20 some years! What I mean by that is I don't have to think will he be home by midnight this year... Beautiful pictures! Can't wait!!!!!!

JaniceB · August 16, 2017

Wow what an awesome day you had in Halifax. What a cool thing to see the Queen Mary and all the fanfare.

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

Love your review! Im going with husband NYE and this will be the first time with him after 20 some years! What I mean by that is I don't have to think will he be home by midnight this year... Beautiful pictures! Can't wait!!!!!!

Thanks for following along, and enjoy your New Year's cruise! It's a great experience.

Wow what an awesome day you had in Halifax. What a cool thing to see the Queen Mary and all the fanfare.

Yep, very cool sights to see all day. I had to do some research when we got home to figure out what exactly was going on.

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

Day 5 - Friday, August 11 – Fun Day at Sea

I woke up at 5:15 for the sunrise. It was pretty gorgeous this morning. There were dolphins following us in the wake, but I wasn’t able to get a good shot of them because they were too far away and it was hard to tell when they were surfacing.

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

I went back to bed and we got up at 7:20 and got breakfast. I realized I hadn’t gotten many pictures of the Havana Bar, buffet area, or main pool area so I took a couple before we got our burritos.

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

We ate our breakfast in the back of the Havana Bar.

If you get a table in the back you can see the wake behind the ship.

We decided it was nice enough to lay out at Serenity and maybe go for a little swim, which we did. First we got towels from the bar right behind our favorite spot

We hung out around 9. It wasn’t crowded at all. The water was a chilly at first but we got used to it. Also, while we were laying out we spotted a few more dolphins alongside the ship.

Then we returned our towels after drying off a bit and headed back to the room. Still not crowded

By this point we were about 200 miles east of Nantucket.

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

We took our showers and then went down to the shops to get t-shirts and candy (to eat on the drive home). We decided to head back up to our favorite spot for a bit and enjoy the weather. The Serenity area was starting to fill up a bit.

We then went down to play some cards and participate in TV Theme Trivia at 11:15. Not sure how many Chinese Ten players are watching this – but this was one of my hands. Not good. I lost this game.

Christian ran the TV Theme Trivia, and he made it tough on us. He would start playing a song, and as soon as someone knew what it was, they yelled stop and he would stop it. There were 22 songs played, we knew 11 of them. Maybe that’s a good thing?

After that we went to get lunch. Our original plan was to eat on the balcony but Rery was still cleaning our room so we popped back down to Ocean Plaza to watch the last bit of Trivial Pursuit while we ate. Our lunch was a feast! We both got tacos from BlueIguana.

And I went over to get a plate of fries from Guys

When we got to Ocean Plaza Ashley walked over to the Taste Bar to get us some extra goodies including a few chicken tenders (which were delicious!) and chips. While she was doing that I got us some drinks from the Red Frog Pub, which was right next door.

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

After we ate we headed back to the room

And sat on the balcony as we planned our evening. The clouds were starting to get thicker.

Eventually it started to rain.

Ashley wanted to take a nap, so I went down to the casino for one more round of blackjack. My luck had indeed run out the night before, because I lost $100 pretty fast (at a $6 table!). No worries, I was still up for the trip.

I came back to the balcony to relax a bit, and I noticed more dolphins following us. They are so hard to get pictures of! I woke Ashley up and we stood out and watched quite a few dolphins jumping through the wake. Seeing dolphins alongside the ship is easily one of the best parts of being on a cruise.

At around 4:15 we went down to Ocean Plaza to share one more black & white milkshake. This one I got a picture of.

Ashley did Harry Potter trivia while I provided moral support. This was by far the most popular trivia that we attended. People – stop yelling out answers when they first ask the questions. Don’t even say them relatively out loud. Just whisper among your team. Ashley said this version of HP trivia was a lot harder than it was on the Pride. Also, she didn’t want to find a crowd of people to get a paper and pencil, so she just opened a note-taking app on her phone and used that to write down her answers. Beautiful and smart!

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

After the madness that was Harry Potter Trivia we went to the arcade to cash in the tickets that Ashley had earned. This was the bounty we collected.

Like I said before, these will be used as prizes for her classroom this year.

We went back to the room and sat on the balcony and watched the fog/clouds thicken until 5:45, when we went down to the Taste Bar to sample the Comfort Kitchen hor d’oeuvres.

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

And then we headed to our final dinner at 6:00.

Ashley started with the caprese salad. Her entrée was the ricotta ravioli with a side of bacon mac and cheese. Her dessert was the bread pudding. She really loved the caprese salad. The ricotta ravioli was good, but the portion size was pretty small, so it’s a good thing she also got the mac and cheese.

I started with the shrimp cocktail and was very happy to be able to have the prime rib again as my entrée. For dessert it would have felt wrong not to have the chocolate melting cake, which was fantastic this time. Ashley and I also split a carrot cake.

We said our goodbyes to our wait staff, and headed back to the room to start packing. While we were eating, Rery made a little surprise for us.

I’ll be honest, this scared me a little bit when I first walked in, but we loved it.

We packed until about 9:30 when we headed down for the 10:00 comedy show. On our way we chatted with Rery and said our goodbyes to her, thanking her for everything. The best steward we’ve ever had was on our first cruise, and no one else had come close until Rery. She was always friendly and stopped to chat with us, and we were more than happy with our room services.

DCCruiser1013 · August 16, 2017

We were first in line for the comedy show, and I think that was probably because of the 9:15 Epic Rock show that was going on in the Liquid Lounge. We were thinking about going to that instead but we liked the comedian (J.R. McCollom again) so much the night before that we decided to skip Epic Rock for the comedy show. While I waited in line, Ashley went back to the Piano Bar to use her free drink coupon for a Ragtime. I used mine in the Limelight Lounge for a beer.

Here’s another shot from our spot, with no one in front of us yet.

The show was great. One woman was pretty eager to make herself part of the show, then got mad when the comedian picked on her. I also want to point out one small thing that annoys me a little. When they list the comedy shows in the FunTimes, they list the comedian and the show that they are performing. Often times the FunTimes will imply that the comedian is doing the same show twice by listing the name of the show twice. Then when the comedians are performing they come out and say that the next show they are doing is completely different. I think this screwed up some people’s planning. It’s totally fine for the comedians to be doing new material, but the FunTimes shouldn’t be implying that the shows will be repeats.

After the show we walked around the top decks for a bit. On deck 9 between the pool area and the forward elevators they have a nice collection of plaques and other commemorative items paying tribute to the Sunshine’s previous life as the Carnival Destiny.