Live from Carnival Sunrise B2B 9/2-9/11

[jam19872016]

1 hour ago, sanmarcosman said:

Thank you for taking us along, it was fun and I learned a few things. Are turkey patties only available at Guy's for breakfast or can you substitute a turkey burger at lunch instead of a hamburger? Thank you

 

I think it is only at breakfast but I did not ask to know that for sure. 

 

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

🤞

🙂

 

[jam19872016]

12 minutes ago, Virga said:

Thanks so much for your live review!  We're booked for next week and I have been sooo curious about how things are going.  I've really enjoyed following along with you!

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[jam19872016]

The elevators were a mess this morning. I walked past the first set when I saw the crowd waiting.

 

The second set had 1 working elevator out of four. The others were stopped on a deck and not moving.

 

I didn't bother with the back set I took the stairs. I couldn't understand why 7 flights of stairs left me so out of breath. I decided to ponder it over a burger and a bowl of ice cream.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by jam19872016

[jam19872016]

And just like that the cruise was over. Thanks  everyone for reading. I will post some final thoughts once I get my computer we fired up.

[beachesanywhere]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. We are on Sunrise next week and can’t wait!!

[ontheweb]

Thanks for sharing and answering questions.

 

And better luck next time winning at least one ship on a stick for trivia. Having done it before, I'm sure you know the feeling. I know on my last Carnival cruise in which there was some good competition, when I finally won my first, I was strutting down a hallway with it waving it around when a photographer came and snapped my picture. I would have bought that picture, but never saw it displayed.

[jimbri]

Thank you so much for your review.

[princess76021]

9 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

And just like that the cruise was over. Thanks  everyone for reading. I will post some final thoughts once I get my computer we fired up.

thanks for letting me tag along on your cruise!  i had a wonderful time 😄

hugs

nicki

[anyone4cruisin]

On 9/10/2021 at 9:26 AM, jam19872016 said:

Well it is official, sleep is not my friend this cruise. I don't really feel tired so I guess I am getting all the sleep I need.

 

The Lido was super busy this am.  Felt like embarkation day and i did have trouble finding a spot without taking a large table just for myself. I can't imagine what this ship looks like at 100% capacity.

 

The bowls were the same so I went to guys. This is the prime time turkey.

 

 

This grew on me the more I ate and was pretty good 👍 I still prefer the plain Joe I had the other day.

 

There was a small buffet and omelet station at the seafood shack that was not being used. There were no issues with lines inside but when this ship is full I bet this would be a great spot to go that is not busy.

 

Pizzeria was serving breakfast pizza. It didn't look appealing and honestly the pizza here is something I eat after too much to drink not first thing in the am although I do love a good breakfast pizza.

Just noticed you had “Prime time Turkey” at Guys. I didn’t realize they were now serving turkey burgers. That’s great!

[HeyJut]

So nice to be able to follow reviews again. I always enjoyed yours in the past and enjoyed this one too. Will be reading your Royal ones that you did next.

 

And I also find fatty foods don’t agree with me either-definitely make me fat(ter)!

[jam19872016]

On 9/12/2021 at 12:48 AM, beachesanywhere said:

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. We are on Sunrise next week and can’t wait!!

Enjoy! Its a great ship (while at lower capacity)

On 9/12/2021 at 6:53 AM, ontheweb said:

Thanks for sharing and answering questions.

 

And better luck next time winning at least one ship on a stick for trivia. Having done it before, I'm sure you know the feeling. I know on my last Carnival cruise in which there was some good competition, when I finally won my first, I was strutting down a hallway with it waving it around when a photographer came and snapped my picture. I would have bought that picture, but never saw it displayed.

Lol that's funny.

 

I'm hopeful next time will be my turn. 

 

Thanks for following along.

[jam19872016]

On 9/12/2021 at 7:14 AM, jimbri said:

Thank you so much for your review.

 

On 9/12/2021 at 8:52 AM, princess76021 said:

thanks for letting me tag along on your cruise!  i had a wonderful time 😄

hugs

nicki

Thanks for reading along 🙂

 

[jam19872016]

23 hours ago, anyone4cruisin said:

Just noticed you had “Prime time Turkey” at Guys. I didn’t realize they were now serving turkey burgers. That’s great!

Its only at breakfast and only on ships that serve guys at breakfast. I hope they will roll it out to other ships. I think it's a wonderful addition.

20 hours ago, HeyJut said:

So nice to be able to follow reviews again. I always enjoyed yours in the past and enjoyed this one too. Will be reading your Royal ones that you did next.

 

And I also find fatty foods don’t agree with me either-definitely make me fat(ter)!

Thanks for reading along. I have the ultimate dining plan this week so I see lots of fatty foods in my future. 🙂

 

[jam19872016]

Shameless plug for my next review.

 

 

 

[misguy]

How was the bandwidth on board?

[misguy]

It is interesting that I will be creating videos on the Sunrise and then two days later I will start filming videos on the Symphony of the Seas.

[jam19872016]

Speed was good I had some issues but I think they were all related to my phone and not the quality of internet.

[ontheweb]

18 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

 

Lol that's funny.

 

I'm hopeful next time will be my turn. 

 

Thanks for following along.

Yes, win that ship on a stick, better yet multiple times.

 

You're welcome, Thank you for all your effort.

[jam19872016]

I finally fired up the old computer, this was too much to type up on my phone lol. Here are my wrap up thoughts on Carnival Sunrise.

 

Summary:

 

Dining:

 

The Sunrise has a lot of choices for dining options that I have not seen before on Carnival. 

My favorite of these was Lucky Bowl. Instead of Mongolian Wok they had a stand alone counter in Lido with three different choices of noodle bowls for lunch. Of the three I tried two were amazing and one was so so but that was more likely a bad choice on my part. It is a little weird to eat hot soup on a hot day but it was still very good. It would be perfect on a cold weather cruise. They also had breakfast but the options did not seem to rotate daily.

 

Another favorite at breakfast was Guy's Burgers. I really didn't expect much here. A greasy burger at breakfast sounds like too much but this was actually pretty good. They were not too greasy and really tasted more like an egg sandwich with a burger patty than a burger with an egg patty. The turkey burger was probably the best turkey burger I've ever eaten (although I have not eaten very many lol).

 

The preplated salads were a nice touch and probably the only time I would eat a salad at a buffet.

And of course they had all the Carnival staples for lunch such as Guy's BBQ, Guy's Burger, Blue Iguana, Pasta Bar, Deli, Pizza, and probably more that I am not thinking of. Most of what I ate was not as good as it was on other ships and I hope that is not going to be a trend we start seeing. The deli was still pretty good.

 

The food in the MDR was not as good either it seems since the restart. The portions are also smaller but of course you can always just order more items. The service was outstanding.

 

The steakhouse would be the one miss on this cruise and it was a huge miss. The food was OK at best overall and the dining experience took over 3 hours.

 

If you want to do a specialty restaurant, hands down pick Cucina del Capitano. The food and service were both excellent and the price at just $15 was quite a bargain.
 

[jam19872016]

Public Spaces and Cabin:

 

I know I am in the minority, but I enjoy the wild and crazy interiors of the Farcus era. This ship was very bland in appearance. Of course that did not impact my enjoyment of the cruise or my decision to book it again, but I did miss the wild look Carnival used to be known for (for better or worse).

 

The ship was spotlessly clean. Everywhere you looked the crew were hard at work keeping everything clean. 

 

I stayed in two different rooms. The first was an interior on deck 3. It was the closest room to the lobby but I had no trouble with noise from that area. It was right next to a crew area. I suspect it was a supply closet based on the constant banging early in the morning, but I could also hear a toilet being flushed from time to time. I never did walk past when the door was open I would like to know exactly what was back there.

 

My next room was 2207 a 1A on deck 2 very far forward. I had no noise issues with this room like I expected with it being so close to the waterline and front of the ship. The only noises I encountered were the anchor being dropped in Half Moon Cay. That is a noise that will scare you out of a deep sleep.

 

The other noise was the hallway. I did not have many neighbors this far forward so it wasn't a big issue, but my door had no soundproofing. I could hear everything perfectly. Announcements came through crystal clear and one day I even heard what I thought was my neighbors fighting in their cabin. When I stepped outside I realized it was just a loud group. But I should not be able to hear that across a hall and through two doors.

 

Despite those issues, for the price I would not hesitate to book this room again.

 

Despite the geographic different, I had the same room steward both cruises. He was a great steward but i would not think that if I didn't know his rooms were so spread out as I never really saw him once I was on deck 2. I saw him once when I locked myself out, and again as I was leaving on disembarkation day.

 

Entertainment:

 

Entertainment was, if I'm being honest, a bit of a let down. They had less variety of music than other ships. A Latin band, a guitar player, and a steel drum. Most nights the Latin performers were in the Red Frog Pub which does not really make sense at a pub but whatever. The guitar player was typically in the lobby which was nice to listen to, but seating is very limited in the atrium. I did manage to get a seat a couple times, but had we been full capacity good luck.

 

There was a piano bar entertainer. Even at lower capacity I was never able to get in unless I wanted to stand. The soundproofing between the piano bar and Red Frog Pub was very good though.

 

I did not take in the playlist performers. The first week they only did concert versions of their shows but by the second leg they did do the full performances. The shows were Soulbound, Latin Nights, and Celestial Strings. Of those, Celestial Strings is the only one I would watch again.

 

The comedy shows were good and hands down Carnival's best asset for late night entertainment. With lower capacity there was always room to get a good seat although it did still come close to filling up.

 

The CD was Philipe. Oh boy. After 9 days onboard I never saw him around the ship. I sure heard him though. I remember in the early days of my cruising (like 2016-17) CDs were constantly overhead. That has not really been an issue lately and even on the Horizon in August I did not find Donkey to make an excessive amount of announcements. Phillipe did. I think every 30 minutes during the evening he was on the overhead going over the nights activities. It grew tiresome very quick.

 

There was one time I thought I saw him. It was during a game up on the pool deck. But then I heard him making an announcment about all the things going on around the ship. I wonder if it was a recording, it would explain how he made so many announcements lol.

 

Again, I would not say any of these things would sway me in any way to not book this ship again. I just don't feel like Carnival brought their A game on this ship entertainment wise. YMMV.

 

Service:

 

Service was very good on this ship. But....I just got off the Horizon less than two weeks before and they really  stepped it up. Probably the best crew I have ever had the pleasure to sail with on Carnival. They set the bar very high so while this crew was the normal amazing crew we all know and love, it was hard to not notice a difference. 

 

The exception I would say was in the MDR. They were absolutely amazing even with a couple different wait teams. 

 

The only service I would say did not live up to expectations would again go to the steakhouse. That was a very disappointing experience taking three hours to finish our meal. I would not say it was an issue with the staff, they were doing the best they could, but an issue with the staffing levels.
 

[jam19872016]

Masks:

 

I did not want to risk derailing my thread with a mask debate, so I waited until to now post about the experience I had onboard with masks and masking.

 

Carnival's mask policy is that masks are strongly encouraged except in certain designated locations. Thank you for encouraging me but if its not a mandate, I won't be wearing it.

 

Then a couple days before the cruise Carnival sent out an email that due to an outbreak among the crew on this ship, masks would be required indoors except when eating or drinking. Bummer.

 

I suspected a heavy handed enforcement of this new policy onboard and was all masked up when I boarded Thursday for my Thursday-Monday weekend cruise. 

 

Signing had been updated from what I saw on Horizon. It no longer said strongly recommended, but did in fact say required. Despite this many people did not bother wearing their mask and there was no enforcement that I noticed except at the arcade and the Lido buffet. So I took mine off as well and had a great time.

 

If that is something that you are uncomfortable with, and I mean this sincerely and in the nicest possible way, I would not recommend sailing right now if you can cancel without penalties.

 

Next it was Monday and a new group was boarding for a Monday-Saturday weekday cruise. I was still walking around without my mask and the crew continued to not say a word. But as I looked around, I was the only one without a mask on. So I put my mask back on and had a great time.

 

If masking up is something you are uncomfortable with, and I mean this sincerely and in the nicest possible way, I would not recommend sailing right now if you can cancel without penalty.

 

I think what I'm saying is, the compliance will likely be different sailing to sailing and if you are not ready to go with the flow whatever the scenario may be (including protocols changing literally days before sailing) then cruising is just not right for you right now. And that is okay.

 

I tell people all the time right now at work because they know I cruise a lot and are interested in going, cruising is just not right for you right now. Its a different experience and I think it is really just for those who love cruising and don't mind being flexible. It won't be like this forever.

 

Thanks again everybody for reading along for my review of the Carnival Sunrise. Until next time, Bon Voyage!

[Megan_Strick]

On 9/5/2021 at 5:54 PM, jam19872016 said:

I just got paged to guest services. I had to go to the medical center for a covid test. Strange that there was no notice of that in my b2b paperwork but I am glad to see that being done on board now. It shows that they are working to adjust protocols based 8n feedback. Great job carnival 

 

On a side note, I have had several tests done now for travel and this lady was rough. Ouch. Fingers crossed for good news I have three more cruises in the next 14 days. 🙂

 

 

I'm so glad that I found you. I'm reading all of your reviews. I'm being nosy. What do you do for a living to be able to cruise so often? You are my spirit animal lol