Sunrise - October 28th Halloween Cruise

[tw67]

I wanted to write this up earlier, but I have been so busy since I got home!  I won't go into a lot of detail.  Before we cruised "mlshum" did a great long post, and it was great!  

 

We booked ourselves on this sailing because the price was to good not to.  October 28-November 1, 2021. Out of Miami, HMC and Nassau were the ports.  We only booked it about 3 weeks before.  We were paying off our January cruise, and my travel agent (who is a really good friend) knew we were getting jealous of all the cheap deals out there, and knew our anniversary was coming up.  Our cabin was 5304.  It was just my husband (Ron) and I.  We are 55 & 54.  We did get the senior rate since my husband is 55.  I think it was my 19th cruise, 11th on Carnival.  Our youngest just started his freshman year at college, so we finally are at the point where we can do things last minute, and not worry about life being upended!  If it wasn't for the whole working thing, it would be great!  

 

We live in NJ.  We got cheap flights out of Newark airport for Wednesday night, October 27th.  Since I always over pack we did each have one bag, we flew on Spirit Airlines.  We stayed at the Miami Airport Marriott.  This Marriott has a free shuttle from the airport.  We only had to wait about 15 minutes for the shuttle.  I had booked it on my points.  This stay at Marriott put me to Platinum for the next year, so I was excited.  When I told them at check in that I was almost there, they were excited for me and threw in Concierge Lounge, so that was great to get breakfast the next morning.  We flew in late, so pretty much went to check out the lounge, then to bed.  I woke up early because, well, I can't help myself and it was CRUISE DAY!!!!  We had breakfast in the lounge, then checked out and waited for our ride.

 

Marriott does have a shuttle for I think $10 pp to the port.  We chose to get our own transportation.  The shuttle wasn't leaving until 11, and we had a 10:30 check in.  Another option could have been to take the Marriott Shuttle to the airport and grab the Carnival transport, or a taxi, or uber!  So many choices.  "mlshum" had used Doral so I contacted Rafael at Doral a few days before we arrived.  Right at 10 am he was at the Marriott to pick us up.  $15 pp.  He was great.  There was another couple on the van already.  They were great, and we were all excited to be cruising again.  I totally recommend Rafael@Doral to anyone who is looking for transport.  We also used him for the return trip, more about that later.  

 

I will continue in another post.  Please ask questions.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, even though I swore I was going to!!  

[tw67]

We arrived around 10:20-10:25.  We had a 10:30 check in.  We could walk right into the building.  No real line, never stopped until the first person to check our paperwork.  We had all out and ready to go.  Oh, I need to back track a little to our testing...you know those best laid plans...well..

 

So the testing was something that had me losing sleep.  We were visiting my in-laws the weekend before, had a flight home to NJ late Monday night.  I had to work Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had ordered the test kits, planned to do it right after midnight (that would be Tuesday morning), but we had appointments at lunchtime for a CVS.  If all went well with the testing kits, we would have canceled those appointments.  Well I will save you all the details of our flight, but it left 12 hours late.  That Monday night flight was now a Tuesday morning flight, and Spirit had put us up at a hotel.  We might have gotten 3 hours of sleep, but hey, at least it was this flight, and not one 2 days later.  

 

We arrived at the airport and headed right to CVS.  My husband called them and said a chance he might be late, but his wife was the next appointment and we would be there together.  He was told that he has only 10 minutes grace period or he would be removed from the computer....ok...he got there with 2 minutes to spare....they tested us both at the same time.  We drove home and about 5 minutes later we got the negative results.  Whew....  I did have a small breakdown over all of this...but it worked out fine.  

 

So back to the port.  The paperwork was reviewed, and even though it was quick, I did feel like they really looked and compared names.  Put carry on's through the scanner.  No line, just kept going.  We waited for maybe 15 minutes, and we were boarding.  What a great feeling this was!  

 

While the first thing I wanted to do was get a drink, we decided to find our muster station.  We didn't have our cards yet, they would be at our cabin, and not accessible until 1:30.  But that was fine, they wrote down our cabin numbers.  Drill only took a few minutes, and then we were done.  Typically when I get on the ship I go to Guys Burgers, but this time I didn't.  I wasn't hungry yet, so headed up to Red Frog Pub.  I got to meet the couple who was first in and got the free beer!  We met some new friends there.  We had a very active FB group, so it was cool to put names with faces.  After awhile we left to go eat.  Decided on Cucina Del Capitano for lunch.  We were joined by another couple we met in the bar.  So many people have no idea that this is open for lunch.  The lunch menu is much different than the dinner menu. 

 

After lunch we took off for our cabin.  in 2002 we had been on Triumph out of NYC to Canada.  Sunrise is the old Triumph.  I was pregnant on that 2002 cruise (child who is a freshman in college) and with the pregnancy brain I had, I am not sure I remember a whole lot.  My husband pulled up the old deck plans, because  he swore that where our cabin was, there had not been cabins,  He was correct.  These were new.  We loved our location.  Only thing missing was the balcony and air conditioning! But for the price, we were happy in the ocean view.  Being on the 5th deck, just 2 cabins in was a great location, especially when we were going to Sunshine Restaurant or coming back to our cabin at night.  Our cabin was very warm.

 

Our travel agent had our cabin decorated for our anniversary.  I thought that was really nice.  She is a good friend who we originally met on a cruise.  We met Lucy, our cabin steward.  Our room was hot.  Like OMG hot...air was up as much as it could be, I asked Lucy for a fan.  She provided a big box fan and we were soooo thankful.  We have always asked for twice a day service in the room, but knew that now we could only have one.  We picked evening.  Next time I will pick morning.  We do Anytime Dining, so had no set schedule at night.  A few times when I wanted to get ready Lucy was cleaning.  So i just came back later.  Didn't really bother us, we were pretty chill on this cruise, and I know if I had to be somewhere Lucy would have come back later.  She offered, but I know they have so much more to do, so I let her finish up.  

 

A cake was delivered from our travel agent.  That was good, but a lot of cake for just 2 people!  

 

We unpacked for a bit and then went up to the deck party and watched us pull out of Miami.  I have to say that everyone I met on the ship was happy to be cruising.  Ok, well who isn't, but honestly, so many of us were having our first cruise back since Covid and you could tell they were happy to be on the ship!

 

Eventually we went back to our cabin and got ready for dinner.  Lucy had written on our mirror a Happy Anniversary wish, and I thought that was so cool!  It was such a nice touch.  

 

We had Anytime Dining.  We made our reservation on our app, and never had to wait long for our table.  We just headed down to 4th or 3rd (pay attention to your app, it will tell you to go to 3rd or 4th deck).  Every meal we had took way less than an hour.   Service was quick.  We always chose to sit by ourselves.  We couldn't believe on how quick we were in and our of dinner.  No problem getting bar service, ordered what you wanted, and was encouraged if trying to decide between 2 items, to get both.  

 

I was excited to have my Chocolate Melting Cake.  It had been so long!  

 

 

[tw67]

Most nights we saw the comedians.  They were really good.  We kept away from most of the shows, no other reason than we just wanted to be doing something else at the time.  We did watch the Love and Marriage Show.  That is always a good laugh!  

 

One night we ate at Cucina Del Capitano.  The meal was good, but very warm where we sat.  When we got up to use the restroom and walked to the other side of the restaurant to go down the steps, the other side was much cooler!  The food was really good, and for just a $15 up charge, it was worth it.  For dessert Carnival had a cake for our anniversary, so that was a nice touch.  

 

All other nights was Anytime Dining in Sunshine.  Dinners were good, I wouldn't say anything was so great that it stood out.  I felt that in the dinning room you had a lot of room between tables.  Lots of spacing.  Masks were mandatory until you sat down.

 

Masks...honestly wearing a mask inside never bothered me.  Wore them inside, in bars you were told to sip and cover.  

 

I did notice that there were late night buffets, but we never made it to one.  I am an early riser, and at my age,  I can't do both!

 

I had promised myself that when I would wake up I would go for a walk.  The only problem with this was that there wasn't daylight yet when I woke up!  So in the mornings I got dressed for my walk, and waited until 6:30 when Java Blue Cafe would open.  Rahayu was working there, she was great.  I would stop in for my coffee in the morning, and then again in the afternoons, and she always remembered my name.  I would sit down, have my coffee, talk a little bit to Rahayu and then head out for my walk.  I am sure my husband appreciated this since he isn't the morning person that I am.  Joy was also working in there later in the day, she was also great!

 

One morning I slept a little later and Rahayu noticed that I was later!  

 

We did have some rain, so that one morning I walked around the middle of the ship.  I loved being up early and seeing so few people out and about!  

 

Next post I will be writing about HMC.

[tw67]

The first port was Half Moon Cay.  This was my first time there, and I was very excited.  I wanted a mat and just lay in the water....well...the water was rough...  no mats allowed...

 

Before the cruise we had rented a clam shell and the mats to lay on.  In the morning we heard an announcement that all excursions were cancelled.  Water was way to rough.  We had rather a long wait to get on the tender.  The tender was really moving!  Was a quick ride HMC.  We found out that cancelled excursions included mats.  So we went to get our clam shell.  Found someone rather quickly who led us to the open ones, just as the sky opened up.  The clam shell kept all of our stuff dry, so that was cool.  Rain didn't last long, and rest of the day was nice.  Pretty quickly the drink person was there.  My husband ordered the cooler with beer in it.  I wasn't ready to drink yet.  

 

HMC is beautiful!!!!  The water was rough. I am used to NJ beaches, and this was much different.  I didn't really notice the waves breaking, but while out in the water you were bobbing up and down a lot.  I kind of compared it to a wave pool at a water park.  Unfortunately I get vertigo from wave pools.  I did spend sometime resting in the clam shell.  I know people complain about them being hot, but find a stone or use something you own to lift the back up, and you have air flowing through.  I am really, really pale, and I feel that it is worth the money for me to have one.  

 

Interesting note...during the day the first row of chairs were pretty much in the water.  On one trip to our clam shell, I was fishing flip flops and water bottles out of the water!  Not sure if this happens a lot, or if it was just because the water was rough.  

 

We didn't walk around the island at all.  I went to the buffet to get lunch.  I had part of a burger and German potato salad.  Potato salad was really good.  I brought my husband back a hot dog.  

 

I don't know when we decided that we had enough, but headed back to the tender. There was a very short line.  It was again a little rough, but it was a quick trip.  The stores on HMC were all closed.  I don't know if that was because it was because of the weather, or just they haven't reopened.

 

We ended up heading to the hot tubs in the adult tides pool area.  We stayed in this area until we went to get ready for dinner.  

 

Next post...day at sea...

 

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by tw67
wrong word

[tw67]

Sea day.  I woke up to rain.  I had to do my morning walk around inside the ship.  The rain didn't last all day.  

 

I am a big fan of Sea Day Brunch.  Typically when we travel with our two sons, the older one is a foodie and joins me, while my husband and my younger son roll out of bed at some point and head to the Lido.  Since we didn't have kids with us, my husband promised me that he would go with me on this trip.  So this was his first Sea Day Brunch, and he wasn't disappointed.   I really think he liked it, and maybe on our next cruise I can get him to go one of the 3 days!  

 

We had a slot pull planned with people from our FB group, so we headed to the casino.  On this cruise we found a number of people who had $25 balconies with the casino rate.  We don't gamble enough!  

 

We hung out in the casino, walked around the ship a bit, and headed to the Tides pool later in the afternoon when the weather was better.  It was really windy out, and a bit crowded in the hot tub.  I did sit in a lounger and chilled for awhile.  

 

Next day was Nassau.  

[tw67]

I had most of my Nassau post written and BLIP it is gone.  I think that means I need a break, and will type up the rest later.  I apologize for it being so long!  I hope that if you have gotten to this point you are enjoying it!

[mondello]

You're doing great, love how easy it is to follow along on your anniversary adventure. Would have been something if your cabin was 5554 to match your ages.

[tw67]

1 minute ago, mondello said:

You're doing great, love how easy it is to follow along on your anniversary adventure. Would have been something if your cabin was 5554 to match your ages.

Thank you!  We are very excited when we can go without our kids!  For our 20th anniversary we also went on a cruise, and the work involved in getting a friend to stay with our kids, drive them to and from activities (one was an ice hockey player the other a competitive Irish Dancer), the notarized letters for anyone who was filling in for us, we knew that it wouldn't be until they were over 18 and in college until we could go away again!  We already have a cruise planned for our 32nd anniversary!  5554 would have been a really cool cabin #!  Maybe we would have done better in the casino if our cabin matched our ages!

[MPH711]

Thanks…enjoying reading your story! What was the passenger capacity of your cruise? Did it feel crowded or was it a sparse crowd?

[tw67]

1 minute ago, MPH711 said:

Thanks…enjoying reading your story! What was the passenger capacity of your cruise? Did it feel crowded or was it a sparse crowd?

Thank you!  I never found out the exact capacity.  I was told anywhere from 75-80%.  I never felt like I was in a crowd, but casino, bars, they had people, I just didn't feel crowded.  I was going to discuss the Piano Bar.  Typically on a cruise I spend every night in the Piano Bar.  That was a pretty crowded room, and I never made it in.  I spent a lot of time watching the Sunshine Band,  They were great, and in more open areas.  In the piano bar you can't sit at the seats by the piano, and when watching the Sunshine Band, they made sure that you couldn't go up to the stage.  Those who did were told very quickly to move further away.  

 

I did feel that I didn't want to go into the crowded hot tub.  When I was in it, it wasn't as crowded.  In the hot tub you are maskless, and it wasn't a place I wanted to be with crowds.  

 

The restaurants weren't crowded when we went, they did a great job of distancing tables.  While using the app, you don't need to crowd in front of the restaurant waiting for your table!  

 

Thanks for reading along!

[tw67]

Nassau

 

I am not a Nassau fan, but I am not going to turn down a cruise just because it is a port.  Currently the port area is under construction.  It was also a Sunday, so some places that have reopened after Covid, were closed because it was a Sunday.  We didn't have any concrete plans for the day, but knew what we wanted to do.  We started with a breakfast in the Sunshine dining room.  For breakfast you make a reservation in the app, just like you do for Anytime Dining.  

 

We left the port and headed right.  Passed by the closed Senor Frogs (no idea how to get the ~ on my computer, I apologize!) and paid our respects.  One rainy day we spent the day here, and it still sticks out as one of my best cruise memories.  Oh, and we were the only ship in port that day.  

 

We kept walking until we got to the new Margaritaville Resort.  The water park part is open, but the other half, from what I can see is called One Particular Harbor isn't open yet.  I need to research this place more.  You could do day passes to the water park.  We could walk around and it looked like the beach area was right next to the public Junkanoo Beach.  

 

We have always thought of going to Junkanoo Beach with our kids while in port at Nassau, but I never knew what to expect so we didn't.  We sat at the Tiki Bikini Hut and had a drink.  If we had decided to do the beach 2 chairs and an umbrella were $25.  So maybe our next trip we will.  

 

Next we went walking to John Watling's Distillery.  We did a quick tour, did rum tasting, and had an awesome pina colada.  My husband has been having back issues, so he asked about a cab back to port area.  They called someone but was told it would be 20 minutes.  We decided to start walking, but found a cab rather quickly.  We had the cab bring us to Pirate Republic Brewing.  As we got out of the cab we found our friends were already upstairs watching people return to the port.  So we joined them.  We used the internet and checked into our flights for the next day.  We also did a flight.  I have no idea what the beers were, but one I couldn't even drink.  I think it was a bourbon beer.  

 

Then we headed back to the ship. 

 

Next post will be the sad one, when the cruise is over and back to reality!

 

 

[tw67]

We chose to self carry our our luggage.  I saw the ship pull into Miami pretty early in the morning.  We were out of our cabin before 8:30 (that is the time you had to be out of your cabin by) and we went to Lido.  I wasn't feeling great.  Ever since HMC I would go through periods of having vertigo issues, and this morning was not great.  I had some coffee and lots of water.  My husband ate and then we made our way to get in line to get off the ship.  We couldn't hear the dismissing of groups, but they were dismissing by muster stations.  Before we went to Lido they were at the one right before ours, so we felt pretty safe that ours was called.  Line took a few minutes, but we did fine.  We had nothing to declare (besides maybe a few extra pounds!), so were done quickly.  

 

We had also arranged Doral Transportation for our ride to the airport.  He told us he would be there after 9.  While waiting there was a couple we had met on the ship, and were having a problem with their uber app.  I texted Rafael to see if he had room for them, and he did.  So when he arrived the other couple we had shared the ride with to the ship got on, and the other couple we had met.  It worked out really well, and next time we need to go from a hotel in Miami to the port we will use him.  

 

We had a few hours until our flight.  We flew Spirit and had to juggle our luggage around so that we had less than 40 #'s in each bag, but we made it work.  Eventually while waiting for the flight I had a bagel to eat and some more coffee.  I started to feel a bit better.  I am pretty sure I was just wanting another cruise and wasn't ready to go back to work!

 

If you have gotten to this point, I hope you have enjoyed my review.  We have a cruise in January with my boys.  It is a make up from a cancelled Covid cruise.  That one is 8 days, and it has been way to long since I was on a week or longer!  

[runnerinn]

Thanks for posting your detailed review!  We are cruising on the Sunrise next month with our 3 kids, so I’m reading everything I can about the ship in preparation.  We’ll be in Nassau on a Sunday as well, so I’m trying to figure out what would be fun to do.  How far is the walk to the Margaritaville resort and Junkanoo beach? The day passes to the water park at the resort are not nearly as expensive as Atlantis, but still may be more than I want to spend.  Did you think the beach was nice for swimming and lounging for a few hours?  Our kids (ages 8-15) are pretty happy swimming and playing in the sand :).   Thanks for any info you can give!

[tw67]

I think the walk was less than 15 mi minutes.   It is a pretty easy walk.   The water park looked nice,  but I totally understand trying to not spend that much money.    The beach there isn't spacious, not a lot of waves (think protected so waves don't break there,  calm water).  If your kids just want to hang on the beach,  it might be a good plan.   There are also resorts that you can do for the day that include food.   Once we went to Breezes on a day pass.   

 

I am posting the picture of the sign by Tiki Bikini Hut for the beach.   If going to Junkanoo I would recommend going here.  They seemed to have activities going on. 

[tw67]

Cabin decorations and anniversary celebrations.

[tw67]

Construction at Margarittaville Resort

[runnerinn]

17 hours ago, tw67 said:

I think the walk was less than 15 mi minutes.   It is a pretty easy walk.   The water park looked nice,  but I totally understand trying to not spend that much money.    The beach there isn't spacious, not a lot of waves (think protected so waves don't break there,  calm water).  If your kids just want to hang on the beach,  it might be a good plan.   There are also resorts that you can do for the day that include food.   Once we went to Breezes on a day pass.   

 

I am posting the picture of the sign by Tiki Bikini Hut for the beach.   If going to Junkanoo I would recommend going here.  They seemed to have activities going on. 

Thank you for that info!  I think we’ll check it out when we’re there.  

[MPH711]

Thanks much for your review. Much appreciated. 

[mlshum]

Great review!  I’m so sorry to hear you had lousy weather on your first trip to HMC.  It’s such a beautiful island!  Hopefully it will be better the next time you go.

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to write this and Happy Anniversary!

[Cruise, J.D.]

You mentioned mask and sip. Are they requesting that at all the bars?

[tw67]

The rule is to wear a mask inside.  So inside bars.   Outside no masks.

[tw67]

10 hours ago, mlshum said:

Great review!  I’m so sorry to hear you had lousy weather on your first trip to HMC.  It’s such a beautiful island!  Hopefully it will be better the next time you go.

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to write this and Happy Anniversary!

Thank you!  The day itself on HMC wasn't horrible.  Rain in the morning, but passed quickly.  The water being so rough was really the hard part, but we still really enjoyed it and I can't wait until I book another cruise that goes there.  The next two that we have booked aren't going there, so that is an incentive to book another one!!  

[mlshum]

3 hours ago, tw67 said:

Thank you!  The day itself on HMC wasn't horrible.  Rain in the morning, but passed quickly.  The water being so rough was really the hard part, but we still really enjoyed it and I can't wait until I book another cruise that goes there.  The next two that we have booked aren't going there, so that is an incentive to book another one!!  

I agree 100%!  😀