Sunshine review 5/13/18 ..5 day cruise to grand Turk and amber cove

I am going to at least get this started. Came home to lots of rain and flooding in my laundry room.

Back ground: this was my 16th carnival cruise and had never been on the sunshine or to amber cove before. Usually we go with kids and grands but this time was just me and hubby.

We left on Saturday morning for port Canaveral, only a 1 1/2 drive but we went a day early to stay at the holiday inn resort nearby. I was wanting to have a beach day before we left, but that didn't work out with the crappy weather. Oh well, just as long as the weather is nice on the cruise i'll get over it.

We are priority so went to the port at 10:15....hubby had ants in his pants. We parked the car and then took the bags to the porter area. We were alittle confused as a lot of people were leaving and no one but us coming in yet.

No biggy we went back for a second trip to get the carry on bags. Walked up to the entrance and they sent us straight through to the priority line....well not much of a line anyway. We walked up the stairs and sat in our area for about 30 minutes then walked on board. They did not do a boarding picture (bummer). Then we went straight to our room and the sailandsign cards were in the message holder at the door. Room was all ready done and they were delivering my orders to the room. We bought the advance bottle of alcohol and soda. Also the water package. And a bunch of other junk lol.

So we dropped our carry on stuff and headed to the alchemy bar of the 5th floor rear. They have barbecue up there on sail away day only. Was very good ,but not warm enough for me. Pulled pork potatoe salad was my favorite. We were the first to arrive there and people were very slowly showing up. Next we walked around and explored the ship. Main pool area was hopping at this time.....guys burger line was getting long. Headed back to the room to unpack my carry on bags and see where we needed to be for muster. Our room was 10103 on the 10th floor spa room. I went in and did the spa tour but wasn't really interested in doing any treatments. They don't have the spa tub like the other ships so that was alittle disappointing. We did make good use of the hot lounge chairs though.

Now about the room:

i was surprised how small it was for the extra money a spa room cost. The balcony rooms on the other floors were bigger. Believe me i went and looked at them to see lol. Oh well lesson learned .....no spa room on sunshine! Also a 400lb person must have been in our bathroom, the floor was very scary ...i thought it was going to cave in on me. But got used to it and got over it anyway. I am also used to the closets being three ( two hanging and one with shelves ) this only had a small hanging and the shelves. I over packed of course ...next time i will do better.

So all in all i was not at all impressed with the room. Even our hallway was lacking compared to the lower floors. I know they added on the spa floors, but they must have used cheaper materials.

At 3 pm we went to our muster station in the liquid lounge. Did the usual wait for everybody to show up. Wasn't bad .....went back to the room for sail away. Figured we'd avoid the crowds and watch from our balcony. Our luggage arrived yeah ....so I unpacked as we sailed away. I always stress till my bags get there. They did send out a letter on the last day with a pic of someone's missing bag. Yikes! We did get a lot of bags at our door that belonged elsewhere so we just took them to the proper door. One was even from the 12th deck....jeez!

We went ahead and did the dinning room for the first night and were at a table with 4 couples total. That night only 3 of us couples showed up. Nice conversation ....i ordered chicken and it was cold..oh well...i was tempted to ask if they have a microwave lol. Hubby got some shrimp thing. We were at a round table in the middle...much prefer the window but oh well. After dinner we did the casino i won $74 on the blackjack machine. I did notice that it gave out on the first and last night and took money the rest of the cruise. This first night was a bust with rain all night ..some people struggled watching the movie on the big screen in the rain. Not for me!

We played bingo in the liquid lounge and then stayed for the first show.....was good. Just good! So much for a raining first night ......we are old and went to bed early lol.

Day 2......fun day a t sea. Well for starters the weather was much better overcast in the morning but sun did come our later in the day. Not really many chair hogs at this first fun day. By afternoon had picked up some. I ate lunch in the back at the the cucina del capitano area. They have awesome chicken Alfredo. You fill out the order paper ...i picked linguini noodles, alfredo sauce, and chicken. Then they give you a beeper and you can go sit and wait. Very fast. Some people didn't quit get the idea of go sit and the beeper will let you know when its ready...they would stand up there in the way and wait ugh! I ate this everyday but one ...was my favorite thing on the ship and very much not crowded!!!

On this night we had prebooked the steakhouse for dinner.....i am forever ruined....never will i ever get another steak that good!! They gave us a free bottle of wine for booking the first funday at sea. I ordered the onion soup for the appetizer....was delicious! Also did the filet mignon med ...perfect is all i can say!!

Dinner takes about 2 hours but is so perfect in every way. After dinner we walked around a bit and went to the late show.....then once again early to bed (old people)

I'm going to add a couple pics to this and will pick up on day 3 (amber cove) later.

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filet mignon

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. Italian alfredo

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Good stuff....keep it going!

sail away ....ugly weather!

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Some additional notes about the ship. I heard all the bad things about the sunshine and didn't notice a lot of the issues. Like the sewage smell....never smelled it anywhere. The rocking....not anymore then any other ship I've been on. Another thing about the balcony in the 10th floor spa room...there is not a cover over top. I had heard this but not a problem for me...i am not a big sun worshipper on cruises, but it was a great balcony if you want to lay out. I used my hammock and it worked great. The pool in the middle is, yes indeed, very small! Mostly kids in it. The pool in the adults only area has zero entry all around...which would have been nice except for the pool hogs ..... so chair hogs are not alone!

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Did the Steakhouse have the new menu?

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Thanks for the review.

Did you say you used a hammock on your balcony? How did you attached it to,hang it?

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Great review so far! Can't wait to read more.

Did you say you used a hammock on your balcony? How did you attached it to,hang it?

 

 

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Looking forward to your review.

Did the Steakhouse have the new menu?

 

 

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Not sure, was the first time we did the steak house.

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Day 3: amber cove.....beautiful island, i think i took a million pictures of the sail in. We had the perfect view from the balcony. We preordered an excursion on both ports here it was La Casa En la Playa. Beach house....all you can drink and lunch included.

They didn't call the excursion to debark first...i thought that was alittle strange. So we were with everyone else trying to debark down the crowded stairs. Our excursion was to start at 10 am and we got in port at 9:22. After we got off we walked the long ramp and went though a port shopping building (smaller then the one at Cozumel ) when we popped out they had signs and stations for all the different excursions. We waited about 20 more minutes for everyone to show up and then walked to the buses. Our bus was late ....so waited a few more minutes. Mama was wonderful she also said that we would stay alittle longer since we had a late start. I was hoping to have some time in the port before re boarding, but that wasn't going to happen. Had to be back on board by 5pm. While we were waiting we met a nice couple on their honeymoon. We hit it off and hung with them the whole time at the beach. This was a pretty great group of people. Not the case on our excursion in grand turk.

We drove though some very poor area on the island and mama did the tour talk all the way. She said they don't have much on the island but everyone shared what they had and loved the life they lived......would be a good lesson for us Americans. Not many places have power or water. They truly live off the land.

The house was nice ....not as fancy as the pictures showed but i loved it. They had a big porch on the back and the beach was beautiful. Mama introduced all her helpers and the bartender. They had umbrellas and chairs all set up. I had brought my snorkel gear, but they did have snorkels you could use and they had paddle boats. After sitting and enjoying the sights ....oh and drinking rum punch...i put on my snorkel and fins. Ha ha that was funny...drinking and trying to walk to the water in fins don't mix. One of the helpers ran and assisted me into the water. Was amazing ...i didn't even have to go out much and saw lots of fish. After a bit they served us up some lunch ....chicken, pork, beans, salad etc. was very good....but my hubby didnt want to eat. Big mistake. He ended up getting alittle too tipsy....drinking and no food! I spent the rest of the day and all evening on board shishing him. Lol......and much to my dismay he never did get sobered up that night. Oh well....next day he is cut off.

When we were walking to the ship, lost my hubby after going to the bathroom. I had his ID so i was thinking he couldnt get past the check point. After looking everywhere i asked the guards if he would be able to pass without id and they said he only needed the sail and sign card. I finally found him up at the ship waiting to board. Grrrrr

We had dinner in the dinning room this night ....i am not impressed with the dinning room food. I dont eat seafood so my choices are very limited. Got a noodle casserole thing and it was really good. And it was warm so that helped. Only one other couple came to dinner and it was the missing couple from the first noght. They were from sc near were we lived in nc......before moving to florida two years ago. Super nice couple... i have to say carnival does good at seating strangers on board. After dinner i put hubby to bed for the night....sun and drink did him in lol. I went and watched in the casino and back to bed by 10pm.....was a great day!

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. The back porch

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lovely beach

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paddle boats

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view of the house

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my dinner...was very good

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Grand turk is next.....i have to work today so should get back to this tomorrow .....i have to hurry or I'll forget things lol.

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Great review! Looking forward to more! I’m looking st this itinerary for next March. Did you notice any more crowding than any other ships?

Not sure, was the first time we did the steak house.

 

 

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Was the Table Art an option for dessert? That’s part of the new menu.

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Do you know if the deli has the new menu too?

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