momin05

Does anyone have a picture of the toiletry bag?

It is not a typical terminal, but a makeshift terminal. They operate it very efficiently, though. Have your tag out and they will wave you through without paying. Then porters will take your luggage right out of the back of your car before you park. Be sure to have your carry ons separate with all your documentation and medicine. You will drive around the parking lot in a little maze but the people waving you on will see your tag and wave you to the right spot. There aren’t spots specifically marked handicapped. You will walk or take a little shuttle or tram that is roaming the lot if walking is an issue to a warehouse where you check in. Once checked in you will take a bus to the terminal. It is a short distance but you must take the bus. Here you will go through security and then get on the ship. You must walk up a ramp several flights. If walking is an issue, request a wheelchair when you get to the warehouse check in place. You will see signs. They will wheel you through the check in warehouse to the bus and will have another ready for you at the terminal that will get you through that process and into a special elevator entrance to the ship. Hope that helps

If you take your wine bottle into any dining venue, they will charge a corkage fee, even if you have already opened it and pour it yourself. Just had this happen on Sunshine. The way around this is to pour yourself a generous glass before going to dinner and walk in with the glass. This is our usual routine, but forgot before dinner one night and after we were seated at the table, I ran to the room and just grabbed the open bottle. The waiter was chasing me down as I made my way back to the table to let me know there would be a corkage fee.

We have sailed Sunshine many times, twice in 2023, most recently in October on the first sailing with the new menus. I think the new menus are an improvement, but maybe I was just ready for something new. JiJi’s was also very good. It sounds like you are into classic rock, and if so I HIGHLY recommend seeing Epic Rock. Someone said it was loud…well, it’s rock. I always take ear plugs to concerts but I didn’t notice this show being too loud. It really is their best show with lots of nice effects. Go early to hear the guitarist pre-show. Ocean plaza has a band every night and it is a chill place to sit and listen to music. Enjoy!

Same with me on Sunshine. My husband was occupied with something so I went with my parents. When I got there, they scanned me and checked off my husband. I asked if he still needed to come and they said no.

It used to be you could get 2 drinks before muster. In October, we could only get 1 before muster. So…go muster!

Since this got bumped back up, I thought I would report back from our Oct 19 sailing. I didn’t find it dirty at all. There were people cleaning all the time. I even saw one lady wiping the walls on promenade between the casino and the coffee place. Wiping the walls! The casino was especially clean, with people cleaning the machines constantly. Ocean plaza, red frog, all clean. Even the public restrooms were clean and sometimes they seem to struggle on ships. It also seemed like the hallway on our deck 6 was constantly being vacuumed. Every time I went to the room, someone was vacuuming somewhere. I am not sure what more they can do.

It’s funny…I went out to dinner tonight and had crème brûlée for dessert and it was much better than the MDR version! It’s almost like you don’t know what you are missing until you have better!

You are welcome. I think you will enjoy having some new choices.

Sure thing! And those are two great choices!

Haha, I understand! You are welcome.

Enjoy!

I agree. It isn’t 5 star restaurant quality, but it is solid.

It all seemed like it was higher quality.

Sure!

Good! Duck is not something I would normally order in a restaurant, so this was a good opportunity.

You are welcome. Hope it helps!

We only had one port stop, Bimini. I was excited to go somewhere we had never been. We rented a golf cart and went to the casino, which was very nice. Complimentary drinks if you are playing. Different machines than on the ship, more like what we saw in Vegas in June. Then we headed out to find some beachfront bars and conch ceviche. We were successful with both! We really enjoyed the island. To the left of the port is all resort-y. To the right is all local. We ended up at Joe’s Conch Shack and it was phenomenal. We got to meet Joe and talked with him about his trade. Everyone was so nice. Then to radio beach which had lots of beachfront bars and much more of a beach than I expected. We enjoyed our short cruise. The ship was so different than August…it felt like it was only about half as full. I am sure it was more, but it was so different without all the kids.

That’s all for food. Overall, very pleased with the menu. And no worries about it being the rollout cruise. We don’t frequent the Alchemy bar often because it is usually so crowded, but in the last night it was not crowded. We had some excellent drinks there. This is the “give me something chocolaty” and the remedy.

For entrees, we had fried Mississippi catfish, chicken Parmigiana, pepper steak and BBQ pork spare ribs. I only got pictures of the catfish. I liked it but others thought the cornbread breading was too much. The other entrees were very good, with the spare ribs winning the night. for dessert we had tiramisu and it was better than the old version. Very light. Sorry I didn’t get a picture. oh, I got a fruit plate one night and it was delicious. also, on elegant night, someone ordered the panna cotta. We didn’t really know what to expect. It looked pretty, but I don’t know how good it was! It’s a no added sugar dessert so I guess you can’t expect much.

Back to night 3. The issue here is our 4-night menu did not match what JH posted for the 4-day menu. I didn’t take screenshots of the menu while we were on the cruise because I had already taken screenshots of his posts. From an online search, our night 3 is the equivalent of night 5 of the 8-night menu. We had French onion soup that was very, very good. Somehow I didn’t get a picture. We also had stuffed mushrooms (good) and linguini and clams. I was impressed with that app. It needed some salt or something, it was a little bland, but it was full of clams and a nice surprise.

I forget to say, the roast duck was very good. That glaze was amazing. It was sweet, which I wasn’t expecting. The leg portion was a little dried out but the thigh portion was perfectly cooked. And here is the banana split!

For entrees on night 4 we had coffee glazed roast duck, the barramundi, braised beef brisket and Asian chopped salad with chicken. As I mentioned before, the braised beef brisket was really surprisingly good. Tender and delicious. It looks like I didn’t get a picture of it, but I did of the rest. The barramundi was over cooked. It would have been good if it wasn’t dried out.

On Night 3, we had frog legs, penne mariscos and parched pig ale and cheddar soup for starters. The frog legs were better than in August. The penne mariscos was the biggest surprise. This used to be one of our favorite menu items but it went downhill so much these past few years that I refused to order it. My mom ordered the appetizer portion and it was so much better than the recent past. Full of seafood and the seafood was cooked well. It had previously been tough, overcooked and not fresh. This seemed fresh and was cooked well. Also, we often had shrimp cocktail each night and it was the same as always. Oh and we had fried tomatoes this night. The menu doesn’t say they are green, but they are. And they were nice and tangy and very tasty. Actually, I see I am out of order. This was night 4. I will come back to night 3. pictures up next.