rdevine10

for a mere 2400 I could upgrade to the presidential suite. I passed.... I could do a whole 2nd cruise in a very nice balcony room (as I have now) for that price!

Thanks for thinking of me though Carnival!

I was just looking at the type of cabin you booked for this cruise. I have never considered the obstructed oceanview before... I have always been concerned we would feel too much movement being that far forward.

Can you comment on if you felt motion here (how much) and if anyone if you group is sensitive to it? thanks!

I appreciate the time you took to write this positive and honest Sunshine review! We head out in April and its got me very excited!

I have only sailed on the RCCL enchantment. I know its the only 4 day cruise you listed. We really enjoyed this ship. We went as 2 adults (no kiddies this trip). We loved the Solarium on this trip. The entertainment at night was also wonderful. I would sail her again in a heartbeat! And I love the location as you can add a day or 2 or 3 in Orlando where there are tons of themeparks, etc.

 

Although she doesn't have any siblings close in age, she does have my grandson (which is the same age and only 3 months younger than her) and my granddaughter (same age and 7 months younger than her)...then another grandson and granddaughter who are both a little over 1. Trust me, she gets her fill of kids her age around here. :D :p

Sorry- I know based your reviews your daughter is a social butterfly :) I meant on this cruise as I dont think your other children/grandchildren are going she will enjoy the kids club for the kids!!!! Glad to hear about the movement not bothering her. Its one of the only things holding me back from booking the Pride (based on our Legend experience). I LOVED everything about the ship but the movement (which as I mentioned we had relatively rough seas, which you cant predict!). Great size ship and the people to space ratio was AWESOME! Pools never felt crowded and my kids could easily swim for hours in them! Cant wait to see your review!

We had 2 issues with Camp Carnival on our Legend cruise. I only mention as one could be the same on the Pride (since its a nearly identical ship).

Camp Carnival is very forward on the ship and our kids really only went on sea days. Unfortunately for us our 2 sea days had us going through some choppy seas and both of my kids (who didnt feel sea sick in other areas of the ship) felt VERY nauseated in the club due to the location. The both refused to go back for this main reason. In fact, since we got no phones (they were 7 & 10 at the time), we actually got overhead paged on the ship and told to go pick them up. AWESOME. Younger daughter was crying as she felt sick.

2nd complaint is even though we went during spring break, our week is not a prime week (which I love). However, there were not a ton of kids and they combined the age groups. Older daughter was NOT happy at ALL.

So much so, on our last cruise they REFUSED to even step foot in Camp Carnival and told me not even to bother to register them as they were NOT going. No biggie for us- its a family vacation- and honestly we are there to spend time together so it was fine.

Our next cruise Im curious if older DD will ask to be registered- she will be in the teen club now. But she is old enough to babysit now (which she does at home) and we will be able to keep in touch especially since we can buy the social media package on the sunshine and use our Iphones/Itouches to text each other if there is an issue.

Your daughter seems very social and she has no younger/close in age siblings to keep her amused. Im sure she will love camp. My girls hang with each other ALL of the time and are good at entertaining each other so they didnt care about the camp stuff!

I think it varies on what you think the definition of cool is. Here in New England the summer ocean temperature is only in the low 70s. We swim in that fine. Those from a more southern area never would! I have only been in April and August to the bahamas. In April is was a great temperature and August it was like bath water- Not sure why the PP said it was never warm!

We have done 3, 4, 6 and 7 night cruises. Honestly they were all wonderful. The 4 night felt short as we were on the Disney Dream and rushed to try everything the ship offered. The 3 night was our anniversary cruise (it was all that fit our childcare and days off schedule). It was beyond amazing even though it was very short. The 6 day didnt feel very different from the 7. I would do a 5 night cruise if that was all that fit into my schedule!

Loving the review! We sail the sunshine in 59 days!

Buffet seating was by far the best on our last cruise on the Carnival Freedom, which is a conquest class ship.

We have cruised the Disney Dream too and the buffet seating was terrible! Legend was not quite as bad but still tighter. On the Freedom we NEVER had an issue finding a table for our group of 4. Hoping it will be the same on the Sunshine!

Just commenting on the falls. We took our kids last year at 8 and 11. The 8 year old (who is petite) DID have a tough time. We had to walk one section of the falls and meet back up with our group. Overall it was a great experience but I would not consider bringing younger kids there.

We did enjoy Mystic Mountain as well. Not very suitable for the younger but was awesome for my kids.

I would look into a resort day pass at this age.

Roatan is one of my absolute favorite places in the Caribbean. One of the deciding factors on our upcoming cruise is that is goes back to Roatan! Cozumel is awesome and as others have siad there is lots of choices for Belize too. We love the huge choices of activities in the western Caribbean. My kids are not huge beach people so there are a lot more activities to choose from with a mix of some beach time for mom & dad! perfect! I wouldnt second guess this choice. You will have a great time!

You will love the pride! I sailed her sister the legend and i love the size of the spirit class ships! Such a great ship! Looking forward to your review of her upgrades!!!!

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Booked deck 7. Safer to know what you are dealing with!!!!

Clearly I need another cup of coffee! Yikes! Wrong room- I meant room 6270. Thanks!

Looking at possibly booking room 6198 on the Sunshine. It shows its over gray space on deck 5. I think thats ocean plaza. Any comments on what is there and if this would be a noisy location?

Can pick deck 7 also, just prefer to go as low as possible (unless really not a good room!).

Thanks in advance!

Love love love your pics!!!! We'll be cruising on the Sunshine , In April, 69 more days!!! Woohooo!! And gotta say your pics are some of the best I've seen so far!!! Thanks so much for sharing!!!

Im laughing as I just read your signature. We get off the sunshine the day you get on and apparently we are going to disney at the same exact time. Great minds think alike! :D

OP- thanks for linking all of the awesome pictures!

Sunshine has a smaller sofa , think love seat, than the rooms on other ships I'm short 5 foot and my feet did wind up in Mom's face some mornings, did not have them pull out the bed just had then make up sofa for bed as is.. They will pull out from one side of it so the bed part is out length wise of the bed and its a regular size then. Sofas are the same size, Love Seat, in all of the rooms on Sunshine that I saw when passing by. Also no frigs. in most rooms. Go with the Balcony ..you will be glad you did.. for the extra space! ;)

thank you- that is exactly what I needed to know!!!!!

Sorry to be more clear- we have always travelled as a quad cabin with our kids. In the past our rooms all had the standard bunk beds (with the bottom sofa being the bottom bunk and a pull down).

In the videos- it seems like the width of the sofa is much smaller than the what would be needed for a bed.

And yes- you are right the cushions remove! :) thanks!

Also to add we have stayed in a balcony cabin before of the Legend and from the video the sofa on the sunshine seems much smaller.

So we are considering upgrading to a balcony for our upcoming sunshine cruise. I have seen some pictures of the oceanview (which we currently have booked) and some pictures of the balcony cabins.

We will have our 2 daughters with us in the room. Oldest DD would prefer to sleep on the bottom "bunk" sofa. I was just looking a video and the sofa seems very small. Does anyone know if this is pretty close to a standard size bed in length? Oldest DD is not hugely tall but she does need a close to normal size bed.

The sofa in the oceanview rooms does look bigger. HELP!!!! If the sofa is smaller we might just stick to our original room!

Thanks!

Our last cruise we booked the Freedom the week before dry dock and peopleon cruise critic kept saying it was going to be a bad week- things would be closed etc.

Ultimately it was an awesome cruise- nothing was closed. Ok our waiter wasnt the best we have ever had but he wasnt awful. (and I cant really blame that on a dry dock!)

A vacation is what you make of it. We are booked on the Sunshine too. My kids picked it over Freedom of the Seas. We CANT wait!

Are you sure? I'm really confused now then. I thought we sailed out of port canaveral on our Dream cruise. We flew into FLL and stayed at Ron Jon right there and could actually see the ships coming and going. :confused:

 

So then wait, if one is closer to orlando and we should be flying into there...maybe I need to check the rates on that. However, we stayed at a hotel that offered free shuttle to everglades this past november and we were in FLL.

:confused:

Port Canaveral does have the Ron Jon Resort near by but you likely flew into Orlando. We fly in out and out of FL all the time as we have family there. The Conquest sails out of Fort Lauderdale, the Glory out of Miami and the Valor is out of Port Canaveral. HTH!

So is port everglades and port canaveral the same or no? We took the Dream out of port canaveral and loved it.

 

The Magic is making this really hard on me!!! I love the cove balcony!!! It's my favorite. :D

Port Canaveral is closer to Orlando- its about 3 to 3 1/2 hours from Port Everglades. Typically if you sail out of Canaveral you fly into Orlando. If you sail out of Port Everglades you could use Fort Lauderdale, Miami or even West Palm.

Yes, I was noticing that I could get an OV on Glory for only $10 more than an interior. Excellent deal.

 

The Conquest dropped prices today by $50.

 

The Magic is still the cheapest and I can actually get an OV DELUXE for the same price as an interior on it OR get a cove balcony (which I love) found almost the same price as an interior on any of the others. :eek:

 

At this point, I know that Pride is just out of my range. Valor is property out of my range as well.

 

Magic is such an awesome deal and hard to pass on.

 

Glory and Conquest is a toss up with both having the 2.0 upgrades and everything I'm looking for and only about $100 difference in price. So if I pick one of those, I think it will come down to the fact that Glory sails from Miami (meaning cost involved in transportation from FLL down there) and the Conquest sails from Port Everglades, which I have never been to before. (This is not the same as port canaveral right?)

Port everglades is Fort Lauderdale- not too far from Miami. Same general area (if you are coming from Ohio!). Too bad about the Epic. I agree Magic would be tough to pass up if you are willing to go western again. Cove balcony sounds awesome!