SUNSHINE 8/31/18 SAILiNG...with a different kind of food porn

This won't be a review, per se, but more of my thoughts on what I liked, didn't like and other observations. There will be also included a slightly different kind of food porn. These will be my thoughts and opinions. I am sure some (or many) of you may not agree with me, and that is fine. This will be done in parts, sorry about that.

A little background, if you don't mind...

Our last cruise was in September 2016 on the Valor. That was our first good cruise, unfortunately. I say that because all others previous were great. There were a whole bunch of little things that kept that one from being great...but I repeat, that was still a good cruise.

We were booked on the Triumph last September. Not long before our sail date, I suffered a stroke. The doctors assured me I was good to travel. The cruise was still on. Three days before the sail date, I was back in the hospital having possibly suffered another one. Not knowing how long I'd be there, we ended up cancelling. BUY INSURANCE, PEOPLE!!! I'm glad we did. I did not have another stroke, but symptoms that mimicked one.

Earlier this year, we booked the Sunshine for an 8-day. The itinerary:

Sea day

Sea day

Aruba

Curacao

Sea day

Grand Turk

Sea Day

If you're still here, I thank you. And I'll be back. For now though, I'll leave you with this exchange with a gentleman on the first sea day, which I found some humour in. We're on the elevator going from deck 1 to deck 9, and the elevator stops at deck 3. The door opens and a guy is on the landing. We have this exchange:

Him: How do I get to deck 10?

Me: Get on the elevator.

I'm really interested in this review - it's an itinerary that I keep coming back to over and over.

Following, we are scheduled to be on the Sunshine on January!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Following

Following also, we are considering booking a second cruise in 2019 and the Sunshine is on the short list.

Him: How do I get to deck 10?

Me: Get on the elevator.

Lol! Can't wait for the rest!

I'm following too. Have a family and friends cruise on Sunshine November 2.

Having cancelled for health reasons, I feel for you. Looking forward to the rest of the review!

Attention, man overboard port side. Attention, man overboard port side.

This is not what you want to hear the Master of your cruise ship say at 10:15 pm EDT. These words rang through the PA system. This was Tuesday night (in Curacao that day). The second show in the main theatre had just let out and folks were filing out into the atrium.

I can't even begin to describe the sense of fear and concern in every passenger I saw just after the announcement. I don't want to use the word "panic", but that's pretty close to how it was. Families not all together at the time wondering if it was their father, mother, son, daughter, friend...

The ship slowed. The ship turned. And we turned in for the night. There was nothing we could do that the crew couldn't, except possibly be in the way on deck. What I could do was hope and pray the person would be found and safe.

On the way to the cabin, I spoke with a lady in an elevator who said she was next to a man on Lido who fell...not overboard...just fell. The deck was wet, as it had been raining. His face hit the deck and he looked like he was having a seizure, she said. Somehow that turned into an overboard call. The next day, I heard people talking about a child running on the wet deck and jumping from lounger to lounger, when the child fell. Two different scenarios, not sure which is correct, if either. I wasn't there to witness it first hand.

Regardless, in actuality, there was thankfully no person who went overboard. The official word came from the bridge abut an hour after the original announcement.

Ok, so here is the slightly different food porn I promised. This was the first night (embark day) in the MDR. So what would you have?

Photos are not showing up for me... anyone else?

Ok, so here is the slightly different food porn I promised. This was the first night (embark day) in the MDR. So what would you have?

That was filling :)

These were the starters the first night. Hopefully you can see them.

Looking forward to your review. I've recently considered this ship/itinerary for next year but worry it will be too many sea days for me. Ideally I would like at least one more stop similar to the routes on the Horizon and Conquest but I'm not sold on either of those ships. I think I've resigned myself to just taking a land based trip to Aruba instead, but then I won't be able to get to Curacao easily. Oh well, first world issues. Thanks for sharing your experience!

Thanks for the report.

Pics aren't showing for me either =/

No photos...

Apologies to those who couldn't see the pics. I'll try again with the MDR menu from embark day. I hope this works.

Television. Let's talk television.

TV channels available in the cabin (other than ship's channels) were: CNN, CNN International, CNN in Spanish, HLN, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, TNT, TBS, TCM and Tru TV. It seemed they didn't show what is normally shown here in the US. What was shown were shows that has appeared on those networks at some time in the past. No Law & Order all day long like on regular TNT. No Big Bang reruns most nights like on regular TBS. Most, if not all commercials were in Spanish. I believe the available networks are the Latin American feeds.

Saturday afternoon, 1;00 pm, the first Saturday of the college football season, and the sports bar isn't open. It is open in the sense that you could go in there and watch what was showing on the TVs, but the bar itself was closed. The TVs are showing cricket, women's tennis and one college football game. This was a major fail.

Just my opinion, but if they were trying to save money by not paying for the major networks, the plan is backfiring on them. I can only imagine the revenue they would have generated had the bar been operational and more college football on the screens.

Oh cool! Do they post menus to the App now?

Following

This won't be a review, per se, but more of my thoughts on what I liked, didn't like and other observations. There will be also included a slightly different kind of food porn. These will be my thoughts and opinions. I am sure some (or many) of you may not agree with me, and that is fine. This will be done in parts, sorry about that.

 

A little background, if you don't mind...

Our last cruise was in September 2016 on the Valor. That was our first good cruise, unfortunately. I say that because all others previous were great. There were a whole bunch of little things that kept that one from being great...but I repeat, that was still a good cruise.

 

We were booked on the Triumph last September. Not long before our sail date, I suffered a stroke. The doctors assured me I was good to travel. The cruise was still on. Three days before the sail date, I was back in the hospital having possibly suffered another one. Not knowing how long I'd be there, we ended up cancelling. BUY INSURANCE, PEOPLE!!! I'm glad we did. I did not have another stroke, but symptoms that mimicked one.

 

Earlier this year, we booked the Sunshine for an 8-day. The itinerary:

Sea day

Sea day

Aruba

Curacao

Sea day

Grand Turk

Sea Day

 

If you're still here, I thank you. And I'll be back. For now though, I'll leave you with this exchange with a gentleman on the first sea day, which I found some humour in. We're on the elevator going from deck 1 to deck 9, and the elevator stops at deck 3. The door opens and a guy is on the landing. We have this exchange:

Him: How do I get to deck 10?

Me: Get on the elevator.

I'm curious how much "earlier this year" you took this cruise on the Sunshine? Or was it the itinerary that left on 8/31? Regardless, we did this same itinerary for mostly the second time back in May of 2018, loved it again!! and 4th time on the Sunshine. I believe back in May you could not view the MDR menu's on the Hub App, a nice addition.

Oh cool! Do they post menus to the App now?

Yes they do, and they look exactly like what I posted...or tried to post.

A few random thoughts:

Number 1...Playlist shows...meh.

I say this only because I'm a strong proponent of live music. The shows used to have a live show band. Now the music is prerecorded. As a native of and life-long resident of one of the world's top music meccas, I have a hard time accepting anything short of actual musicians performing their craft.

Number 2...Speaking of live banks...

The CIA (Caught In the Act) band was good. We enjoyed listening to them. The girl singer was fine, but the male lead singer was fantastic. The musicians were quite good as well.

Number next one...Serenity Deck...

The Serenity Deck overlooks the Lido area where most of the party type activities happen. I'm guessing their definition of 'serenity' is different from mine. I'd asked the Brand Ambassador about this before and was told something about there was nowhere else to put it. I can't agree with this. I think if they tried,. they could have put it away from the loudness of Lido.