nmyorkiemom

Connect to the ship’s wifi.

But if you connect to the ship's wifi, wouldn't you have to first purchase a wifi package for each device you would be using for imessage? New to this. thanks!!

My confirmation for 5/21 says 100 CUC for 2 people in hardtop

We just returned from Havana last week and received 150 CUC for 200 CAD, so .78 and a 3% fee.

So you actually got less than if you had exchanged USD directly? $200 USD - 13% = $174, but $200 CAD(@.78) - 3% = 151

WOW!!!! Everyone always says that you come out a bit ahead with the CAD. Gotta decide what to do.

I’ve heard that you get .78 CUC for 1 CAD. But US gets .87. However, I get more CAD per USD which I guess is what, in theory, makes it a bit better to exchange to CAD. I’m not a money nor math person......so confusing!

trying to get some current info on what CAD exchange rates are at the port Cadeca. I’ve gotten some conflicting numbers. Thank you!

We are driving in for the 1st time ever and I am pretty certain given meds that I will need to get rid of some coffee before I go through security. Are there bathrooms outside of the port or inside before Security? Or do I need to make DH stop somewhere close before entering the port?

I wrote them yesterday morning and heard back last night about our May trip needing ride from HI EXP Seatac to Amtrak, then from pier 91 back to same.

for 4 people was $75 +20% gratuity.

Gonna check their reviews now and likely book.

can't get pic to post....oh well

nmyorkiemom, thank you for taking the time to do your review. I know a lot of time goes into doing them.

 

I do have a question. Do you remember what time self assist passengers were able to leave the ship upon returning? We have friends that need to book a flight home, and knowing the time of debarkation will help a lot.

 

We sail Sunshine next February with your exact itinerary, and again next October to Bermuda.

 

Thanks for your response!

Self assist were off about 7:30. There was some slight issue that made it a bit delayed, or so they said, but I have no clue what it was, and it didn't seem delayed to us.

Thanks! Our recent AFT was just so odd, we wanted to check since AK is a bucket list cruise.

DH doesn't like walking much, so he loves the smaller ships - which usually translates older ships/not as much of the new stuff. I LOVE to walk, do a lot of stairs, and like the newer stuff. So, sunshine is a good compromise. The TV issue and the no chair was a pretty important thing to him as he spends an unexplainable amount of cruising time in the cabin watching TV, playing on his kindle, on the balcony smoking a cigar(last time for that, tho).

Rain in the ports wasn't horrid. I actually loved it as I live in a high desert where we get under 8" a year. It was sad we didn't get to tour with Trikes Aruba as they were really nice people and the trikes were amazing. Hopefully we can another time.

Embarkation was the easiest ever and we were amazed they let us in before 10 a.m. Debarkation was 'clunky' as Priority Debark (Zone 2) met in Limelight lounge, then were led down the stairs, through a dining room to the atrium to leave. But it was pretty fast, and customs, once you found your luggage, was quick and easy.

We had rented a car from National for our drive back to my sister's before Monday flight. The porter dropped us where they pick up, then took my DSis & her hubby all the way to her car. Very accommodating, and tipped well. However, When national pulled up, they pulled in between 2 Mears busses at the opposite end of where they are supposedly supposed to park, and we didn't see them. By the time they passed us they were full.. Waited another 30 min for another one to come by that had room for 1 person. That driver said there would be another in about 15 min, but they were coming from Disney Dream & Freedom of Seas first, so probably no room. This was correct. I called national and they finally sent another to Sunshine first - total wait for a shuttle almost 2 hours. Then it was quite a zoo at their location as well, but they did have a separate line for people picking up, so it went a bit faster than expected.

One thing we learned right before we left was that all rental agencies in PC have an agreement with the Cruise Port to not use their shuttle to take passengers to the port until 11 a.m. So, if you are wanting to get to port before that, you need to arrange a taxi from the car rental to the port. I think they said it would be about $15.

More later as I think of it.....

We were definitely on Sunshine....I have pics of the rust areas I mentioned and will post if I can figure out how. The water drips were all on 7 both port and starboard and ion either side of the rear elevators. Not constant, but at least one of us got a drip or 2 each day.

I would assume aspirin would be for some type of chest psin. I found it odd they would need to get it from gift shop and that it was guests in line who deciphered what security wanted. Serenity on this shipboard the best there is....I love it, but inside matters most to DH who dislikes sun and humidity. A cruise gives us both things to do! We're tom & julie from nm.

Just off sunshine where I had aft 7324, the end aft before the suite, and a bit worried about our planned Alaska cruise on Legend as we both have those rooms.

Mine was the quirkiest, smallest, worst arranged Aft ever and had little storage space. This could almost be a deal killer for Alaska - DH & DSis need a chair in the room, winter clothes take up more room, and the bed was next to the TV, not across from it - they tried putting bed on other wall on the cruise before us, but it left about a foot space to get around to the balcony - very odd.

Any help of info on the layout/contents of Cabin 6262 & 6331 from post refurm on Legend would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

One last thought - the last night at dinner there was a 'Bright Star' announcement - someone needed medical help.

Later on, DSis & I were in the line at the gift shop picking up rum, and a security guy ran in out of breath looking for something, that he couldn't pronounce, that turned out to be Bayer Aspirin, that was needed "Immediately. by medical" and he took off running with it.

So,it seemed REALLY REALLY ODD that Medical would need something as basic as Bayer Aspirin from the gift shop.......We then waited while the gift shop manager instructed the cashier on how to charge it to the Medical bill.

I'll leave you with that thought as I'm still puzzling that one.....

I'll try to answer any questions - I didn't keep the fun times, but I read them.

All in all, it was a good cruise, but not sure I would purposely choose to sail Sunshine again just for the ship.....

This was a laid back cruise for us.

Aruba we were to do a tour with Trikes Aruba, but it rained, so we cancelled and just walked around, shopped a bit, got Starbucks and got back on ship.

Curacao, we just walked around, shopped and then it rained, again, so we got back on.

Grand Turk - we've been to before - DH and I walked the 'wrong' way on the beach to the conch graveyard and around the bend up that beach area gathering coral/shells. We then cut back through the island to the port - and got attacked by mosquitos.

Hung out at the Margaritaville pool a bit & used the internet until it was time for my massage, then got back on the ship.

Not much shopping in GT, and many shops had gone out of business. I was glad to see that the locals are getting more involved with 'excursions, etc'. There is now horseback riding along the beach and more things coming.

I always get one of the best massages EVER from Oceanscapes Massage in GT - right on the beach just outside the Carnival owned land. The owner is wonderful and she has a website, is on FB as well as in every trip advisor type site/blog. I'm a massage junkie & she is one of the best!

Serenity has the 1 pool and 1 hot tub. Both were usually quite busy. Love the waterfall and pool area on serenity. The cabana type chairs and other special seating goes quickly on Serenity, but there were typically loungers available up top til about 9 each day.

The main pool and 2 hot tubs got a lot of use and I was surprised that on some nights, the water was open til 3 a.m.

The water slides are fun - yellow is SLOW. I made the climb the first time and was told I couldn't go because I have glasses - I always take them off and tuck them in my top. Went to find Dsis to come watch my stuff and went back up, and every person over about age 12 in line had on glasses of some type. When I got to the attendant, I asked why he told me I couldn't have mine & they could even wear then down, I was told that mine were 'real' glasses. I pointed out that there's could very well be 'real', also, and the possible danger of glasses doesn't change just because the lenses are prescription, and that many sunglasses are more expensive than prescription and can be prescription. Was very frustrating.

The deck area around the water slides was pretty empty most of the time, and a lot of shade due to the slides - a good area to sit when others are crowded.

I didn't take any classes, or go to the spa, but the gym is nice. It was a bit warm, but the people were friendly and helpful and it was clean.

I miss the live music on the ships. More of the DJ/canned music for my taste, but it's ok.

We went to the Magic & Juggler show, as well as Epic Rock. Tried another, but it was so hot in there we couldn't stand it and left.

Magic & Juggler were both very good. Epic Rock was good, but the guitar/pre-show was a bit long and not that great. The guys went to the comedy shows a couple of times & said they were good, but very crowded/warm.

Seuss at sea - seems to be a big hit with the kids and adults. The photo time was WAY more adults than kids - us included. (really, who can resist the Cat in the Hat?)

Seemed to have more tables than the norm. And, this cruise had a large number of 'elite casino members' and you could tell. They got what they wanted, when they wanted it. Casino staff would hold their machines while they went to lunch/dinner, put up a sign and stood by their machines when they went to the bathroom, go get things for them, etc.

I'm not now, nor will I ever be one of them, but I do drop a good amount in the casino on cruises. I understand they contribute a lot. They were all on 100% free cruise - one lady said this was her 7th free this year and she still has 3 more she needs to take - totally free.

But, I'm a paying customer, and I'd like the service I pay for - drink service, machine service when needed, etc. It was almost as if we normal customers were a 'nuisance' this cruise. And I wasn't the only one with that opinion - I talked to at least 3 others - 1 of whom was on this free from a land casino poker player - and they all had the same impression.

Muster drill - was the first I've done where part of the 'line up' is in an enclosed area at end of ship - not a breath of air, and someone vomited all over - and apparently kept it up as they were walking out. It was NASTY!!

Pursers desk - was ok - they didn't keep the platinum/diamond part available - every time I went down, I had a line of non-platinum+ to wait behind there.

They exchanged my bathroom bags for a coffee mug & a set of tumblers no problem. Addressed the room steward issue.

Shops - over sold some of the alcohol the first night. I asked if they still had Christmas ornaments - was told they discontinued by 3 different people on 3 days, yet the last night I was waiting on Dsis to pick up alcohol & found 4 on a previously empty rack. Other people in line said they had been there most of the week. My Dsis also asked several times/people about the price of Captain Morgan's & got a different answer each time - even within an hour of each other.

Photos - are still everywhere - I'm pretty sure price has gone up again, but not positive.

Bar Service - good and bad. Was good if you went to them. At Brunch we always order a beer at the end and ask to have it unopened so we can drink it later. This time, the first bar waiter came over & we said we wanted it at the end and he said fine. A few minutes later a lady came by and we said the same thing & she told us we had to get it right then, or they would be 'too busy' to get it for us. Not acceptable. In the casino, I had the free drinks - 20 min to find a bar waiter & another 20 to get the drink - almost consistently to the minute. I don't like to stay on one machine long usually, and I don't drink much, so it was irritating that when I did want a drink, it took forever.

We ate at the steakhouse the first night. It was, as we had heard, wonderful. Good service, good food, and worth the price, although I wouldn't do it every cruise.

We ate in the main dining room on reserved seating every night except the first. It was still the old menu. While the everyday choices are good, many of the 'today's choice' were not appealing, at least to our group. Desserts were the usual, and good.

Service was very good, food was ok - some of it hit or miss - the shrimp cocktail was on the warm side all but one night, some steaks ok, others really tough. I usually like their grilled chicken breast, but the night I ordered it, it was extremely dry. Love the new steamed vegetable side choice. The melting cake was good one of 3 nights - 1 night was totally soup and the other was rock hard.

It seemed like the lunch buffet food was pretty repetitive. We didn't try the italian place, but the 'mongolian wok' was still very popular as were the deli and mexican.

The layout of lido is awkward and doesn't seem well thought out - in my opinion. The 2 squares in the middle of the room, which are the main buffet, are weird and people seem to have no clue how to make a line at them. They also only had 1 of them open for most of each meal time which was not good.

There are only 2 ice cream stations on Sunshine, and it seemed at least 1 of the machines at 1 were empty or closed almost all the time. And they were always very messy! The drink stations were always crowded as there are less of those as well, and Lido actually ran out of coffee one morning.

We didn't try the taste bar,or the Shake spot/coffee bar, but putting Shakes on the ship was a smart idea - lots of revenue - as they were always busy.

I made Dsis go to tea once - it was, as always, very nice.

The floor in Lido is the slickest I've experienced....almost all the time. Dsis slipped first day, in front of an employee, and spun 3 times trying to catch herself, the employee laughed and said nothing. He DH grabbed a wet floor sign from in the open employee entrance door and put it there and told the employee he should have.

Although we didn't have anytime dining, we experienced the lines every day. They have them line up to sign up on deck 5 - in the hallway red frog and it could easily stretch all the way through the casino. Would be a pretty miserable wait.

On more than one occasion, we observed guys with no shirts or shoes eating at the buffet and in the havana bar/ji ji's area, and women in bikini's only. Also saw a 'wife beater' eating in the main dining room one night. Just pretty gross around food.

This was the biggest thing that got my attention.

When we were waiting to board, we noticed what looked like duct tape on the outside of the ship. It was rust. I have many pictures of rust all over the exterior - looking over the aft, rust everywhere, rust on our balcony, rust in the new pool on serenity. Every outside surface, and some inside. Not what I've ever seen on any ship we've sailed, and not what I expected on this one so recently out of dry dock. I understand that underneath, it's an old ship, but the serenity pool is a totally new area, and it was pretty bad.

At least once a day I got dripped on somewhere on deck 7 or 5. I never saw buckets, but we got dripped on.

None of us smelled any bad odor, but we did smell bleach smell one morning on deck 7 and on deck 5, and also STRONG cigarette smoke smell on deck 7 by a hallway opening. We were the last cruise allowed to smoke on balconies, and someone was enjoying it with their balcony door open, or in their room.

We were in Aft 7324 and Dsis was in 7326. Not noisy, good location to get around.

7324 was quirky at best, and I really couldn't recommend it. When we opened the door, the bed was on the opposite wall where it was intended - the bed lights, switches etc, were opposite it. This was because the TV was installed to be right next to the bed instead of at the foot of the bed.

Being able to watch TV would be good, but with the bed in that position, there was a SMALL (about 1/2 airplane aisle) walk way between the corner of the 'desk', the end of the bed and along the full side, to access the balcony door. Plus very limited space on the open side of the bed.

So, we asked the room steward if he could move it - he never did, so DH moved it. Much better, except for TV. The other quirk was that there was no chair or couch, so you had to sit on the bed the whole time - but they had a full size 'coffee table' full of propaganda. I asked for a chair since DH with his back can't sit on the bed well. We eventually got one from the red frog area.

I also asked the room steward for ice, ice bucket, and ice in our small cooler (DH drinks Dew). DBil finally gave up and got his own from the pantry for their room. I resorted to going to purser and asking. I was told that they no longer put ice/ice buckets in rooms unless asked. I explained that I asked, I left notes (and wondered if he read english). After that, we had ice. I also told them we had to move bed ourselves....response....'thank you, the room stewards are always very busy'. OK...

The desk/counter/drawer area in this room is about 1/2 the size of other Afts we've had, and there was no 'end' piece that has a very flat wide lower cupboard and some shelves. We had the 3 drawers - top had hair dryer - and the open area where the bench is. That's it. And they were almost exactly 1/2 the width of the ones in my DSis room - even our mirror over it was 1/2 size.

The bathroom had a continuous loud running water sound, but the showers are larger (rectangular, not rounded), although it is odd that when using the toilet, one leg is in the shower.

The room temperature was ok. At night it seems they might shut it down as it always got really stuffy - even for DH who is always cold. My thermometer on my new clock, however, read pretty consistently around 65, but it never felt even close to that. Not sure why it was reading that as it seemed accurate at home.

Balcony had a lounger, a chair, and a reclining chair as well as the small table.

Closets were different inside. In our cabin, 1 had the very high short shelf over the full hangar bar - this had the 2 robes in it. Closet 2 had a bar at top and bottom with 1 shelf dividing the closet in half. Closet 3 had 2 shelves - life vests and entire set of bedding on lower shelf, safe (keypad, not cards) on middle shelf, and an open shelf above.

All in all, this cabin lacked space to unpack everything in an organized way, and have any room to put purchases, purses, etc.

Closets in DSis room had only the 1 bar in the closet with the robes. The other closet was all shelves. A happy medium would be nice, at least for us, but not sure how this would work.

The quick summary is that this was a good cruise, the ship is just OK, the service varied from good to bad, and if things were exactly the same - price, cabin, ports - I would almost 100% choose another ship over sunshine.

So, this may take awhile, but I'll try to be semi-literate this morning, and break it up into smaller posts.

Embarkation:

We drove a rental car from my DSis house in Lakeland, FL, and they drove their own car. DBil and DH dropped DSis and I at port with luggage (early - 9:30ish) and they were to return the rental. They dropped us at the sign for Priority Check in (seems logical, right?). As we finished unloading (DSis has BAD sciatica and can't carry anything at present), a porter comes by and tells us that we are in the wrong spot, we need to be all the way at the other end. I pointed to the sign, and he muttered many 'kind' words about the port people always putting it in the wrong spot. He was, however, gracious enough to load our 8 bags and take them to the other end of the building for us - yes, I tipped him well.

After we got the luggage where it was supposed to be, we were told to go stand by main entrance. The guard there said to just go inside and our hubbies could simply show ID and join us when they arrived. So, we were in the priority lounge before 10 a.m. and they were already checking people in. VERY smooth!

The DHs arrived within about 20 min, had no problem getting in, and they never even opened either of their soda/water bags, simply asked what was in them.

We were onboard I think just about 11 - at this point I was done 'clock watching'. DH and I were first in the Red Frog, so each started with a free drink (although I'm still looking for the pic on FB so I can copy it). We went directly to our rooms, then to Lido for lunch.

Luggage arrived early/mid afternoon, and none of our bags had been opened.

Just off Sunshine and had this cabin. Wouldn't recommend it.

Love the AFT, but this room was odd and lacking.

When we arrived, the bed was on the opposite wall where it was intended - because the TV was next to the bed instead of opposite it. With this configuration, you had only about a foot winding path to get around bed to balcony door. There was also no chair or couch of any type in the room, and the 'desk/counter/drawer' area was about 1/2 the size of a normal cabin.

We asked room steward to move the bed to where it belongs - he didn't 'get to it', so DH moved it. Also asked for a chair & ended up with one from the pub area. DH has a bad back and just can't sit on the bed all week long.

We also had a loud running water sound in the bathroom continuously, and our toilet frequently 'sucked air' and was devoid of water. A/C was tolerable in days, but worse at night - very stuffy. But I had a thermometer and no matter where I put it, it read 63 - 65 degrees. Not sure why.

Sister had 7326 and it was normal cabin, just fine, and COLD.

Very interested in seeing your review.

We would love to have copies of the fun times - We are sailing 8 days in October.

Can you please email them to 1960pamc@gmail.com

 

Thank you

What date are you sailing? We're on 10/4