Sunshine Review Western Carib 6/7/14-6/14/14

[Kristi Williamson]

I love reading cruise reviews and hope this one helps others on their trip, or at least makes for good reading. It's also a way to relive my own vacation and get over the cruise blues I always experience once we're back on land.

 

The cruise fellows: Me, my DH, my DS, my two DD's and our friends Syndee, Gregg and their two DD's. Syndee is my dearest friend, as well as my 1st cousin, so we were thrilled to be able to take our families together. This is our 22nd cruise and Syndee's family's 3rd.

 

This review will be balanced and, hopefully, show a true picture of our trip: The good, the great, and the not as great. (most of it's great, though!!)

 

We drove down Friday for our Sunshine cruise leaving Saturday!

 

We started our vacation at the Country Inn and Suites in Port Canaveral, where we've stayed many other times. This cruise may be our last there, though. We enjoy the location and the great breakfast they serve, but the shuttle service is always late (almost an hour behind sometimes) and the female driver is the rudest person we encountered the entire trip. Her husband, Duane, is always great, but each time we've ridden with her, she's hateful to the porters at the terminal and speaks to them like they are trash. Something about that just rubs me wrong.

 

This time, she refused to lower the baggage lift and told the porters they could lift the bags off if she could lift them on (she didn't lift them on...the men who would be riding on the shuttle lifted the bags to her and she shoved them in a corner of the shuttle) and she didn't have time to mess with them. She had money to be making. Raddison at the Port, here we come.

 

Here's a picture of the shuttle you ride over from the hotel:

 

 

The hotel pool and hot tub:

 

 

 

The breakfast at the hotel was awesome, as usual, and they have great beds, too!!

 

The night before we boarded the Sunshine, we hit up Fishlips, which is within site of the cruise terminal. We'd tried to get to Port Canaveral early enough to wave off the Friday ships, but we missed them by about an hour.

 

If you've never tried Fishlips while you're in Port Canaveral, they're great!! The fish and chips are yummy and they always have wonderful entertainment and service. You can see the dolphins playing in the ocean there, too. My kids always go out to the deck after we eat to watch for them and have rarely been disappointed. We saw three playing after we ate Friday night.

 

Here's a picture of us passing Fishlips as we left on the Sunshine!

 

Edited June 15, 2014 by Kristi Williamson

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Kristi Williamson]

Since there are some great reviews with tons of ship pics, I'm not going to post many of those. We thought the ship was in very good shape and were pleased with the refurb. We did smell the infamous smell a few times on decks 3 and 4, but nothing that was awful and not every time we were on those decks. We've smelled it on other ships, too, so it's not just the Sunshine. We never saw any buckets for drips, but did see a drip that was being cared for on deck 6 one night. Again, nothing of concern and it was gone by the next morning.

 

The biggest thing we noticed about the Sunshine was that she rocks a little more than what we're used to. Understandable, since she's older. Our last cruise was on the Breeze and that may also color our perception. The Breeze rides like she's on glass, even having a rough night at sea one night. Again, no big deal for us, as we don't get sea sick. (so far!) :D

 

Service was hit or miss on the Sunshine. Our room steward, Mark, was AWESOME!! We had ATD, and the service was great for us there, too. The casino staff acted like they'd rather be anywhere but where they were and the bar staff was hit or miss.

 

If you've never tried the Alchemy Bar, you should! The bartenders are incredible and they made me a "chocolate covered strawberry" that was the best drink I had all week!! Tell them what you like and they'll make you something that tastes like it, even if it's weird stuff. My husband likes BBQ and they made him a drink that tasted like grilled vodka! He loved it.

[JackieH]

Enjoying your review .. We won't be on it until aug 2015.. But so fun to read in the meantime :-)

 

 

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[Kristi Williamson]

Sunday: First Sea Day

 

I have little to report here. We played in the waterworks, which is wonderful, ate a lot, drank a little and basically relaxed all day. :o:)

 

Monday: Cozumel

 

We've been to Chankannab and Nachi Cocum, so we decided to try something different. We went to the taxi station and told our driver we wanted somewhere remote and beautiful. He priced us at 20 bucks a person that covered everything except food and took us to Playa Palancar. This included snorkeling equipment for 9 and two seater kayaks for the day. Our driver also walked us to nine chairs far away from the crowds and plopped our stuff down in them for us. We were just in front of the hammocks and two tables for eating lunch. We think we got the best seats on the beach. It was heaven!

 

Our waiter brought us a menu and was very attentive through the day!

 

This huge drink was 9 dollars. It took two of us to drink it:

 

 

Our view for the day and the two loungers we had in the sun:

 

 

The water was clear and there were spots of reef with tons of fish. Our kids snorkeling the day away:

 

 

My husband's sand art:

 

[Kristi Williamson]

The view down the beach at Playa Palancar:

 

 

Chillin' in the hammock:

 

[billys mom]

can't wait for the rest of the review!

[Kristi Williamson]

Belize: We'd planned to go cave tubing, but one of the members of our party chickened out, so we all rallied together and decided on a family day on board. I was disappointed, but the day turned out to be wonderful. We played at Waterworks, enjoyed some adult time at Serenity (which is FABULOUS on the Sunshine), played trivia (won a thingy on a dinghy!!) and just enjoyed time with people we love. We'll get to cave tube one day!

 

We love Belize, so I know we'll be back. Here's few pics of dinner that night and random shots.

 

Me and my kiddos just before dinner. (we were in two balcony cabins: 7111 and 7117, so if you have questions, just ask)

 

 

The towel animal that night and our Ship on a Stick:

 

 

Tim, the ship magician, performing tricks for the kids before dinner. They loved him!

 

 

The Glory docked with us in Belize and a tender huffing it to land:

 

[Kristi Williamson]

Roatan: We spent the day on the beach and hung out around port. Victor Bodden is the way to go here, folks! We liked the beach but it is crowded. With only us and Glory in port, there were no chairs for many. We got there early and got great loungers in the shade less than three rows back down near the private cabanas, but many were wondering up and down trying to find chairs for a while. It cleared out early, though, since Glory left at 2pm.

 

We also visited Bonsai sushi this night and it was very good!! We got California rolls for 4 dollars a piece and enjoyed every bite before dinner.

 

All of us in front of the Mahogany Bay sign. (my man and his swim style...)

 

 

The ship in Roatan:

 

 

We got back on the ship for lunch because a BLT plate was 13.95 and that's too rich for our blood. We ate at the Blue Iguana and the lunch burritos are super!!

Edited June 15, 2014 by Kristi Williamson

[Kristi Williamson]

With so many worries about Tropical Storm Boris before we left, one of our biggest surprises was the weather. We had a few nights of pretty serious wind, but otherwise, the weather was perfect! Sunny, warm and tropical. We couldn't have asked for better.

 

Last stop, Costa Maya, was no different. Beautiful, sunny day!! We just shopped here, even though it was our first time stopping at Costa Maya. We are super pale skinned, and with three straight days of sun, we knew we'd reached our limit if we wanted to even step outside on our last sea day.

 

We did find a neat shop that hand carved your name into a sterling silver ring and we got each of the kids one of these. It took less than 15 minutes and they LOVE them. His sign said 20.00 dollars, but we got three for our family, so we haggled and got them for 15.00 a piece.

 

Here's India's with her name on it:

 

[Kristi Williamson]

The last sea day was very relaxing, but as always, left me feeling a touch sad that our time was over. The kids participated in the Groove for St. Jude's fun and we read, ate and enjoyed our last day on board.

 

Groovin':

 

 

 

I don't know what this is, but we always refer to it as the sexy Koala towel animal:

 

 

Rayna is sad to leave (and so was her Mom!)

 

 

The platinum gift this time: (We love these, by the way!)

 

[Shaded Lady]

We started our vacation at the Country Inn and Suites in Port Canaveral, where we've stayed many other times. This cruise may be our last there, though. We enjoy the location and the great breakfast they serve, but the shuttle service is always late (almost an hour behind sometimes) and the female driver is the rudest person we encountered the entire trip. Her husband, Duane, is always great, but each time we've ridden with her, she's hateful to the porters at the terminal and speaks to them like they are trash. Something about that just rubs me wrong.

 

Have you mentioned your issues about the shuttle, especially the attitude of the female driver to hotel management? If everything else at the hotel is to your liking except the shuttle, maybe letting them know might help for you and for others... maybe not much can be done about the lateness, but the rudeness of the driver is something that can be dealt with right away!!! And if they want to cater to cruisers, they should be interested in fixing both problems!

[Kristi Williamson]

Things we liked:

 

The lunch served at Ocean Plaza is a great plus for Sunshine, in our opinions. There is a fabulous salad and four selections from the buffet to choose from, as well as tea/lemonade/water. There is almost never more than 10 people there. We ate there three times and there was zero line and hot food. It's not for someone who wants tons of food or a loads of selection, but a quick lunch or pick-me-up and this is perfect.

 

The Havana Bar is the bomb! Almost always empty, plenty of tables, even on sea days and they also have a little section of foods that most people seem to know nothing about. My husband fell in love with their pulled pork pot pies. (they are labeled as something else, but they look like tiny pot pies, so that's what we called them) He mixed the two tomato based sauces they provide and he ate those almost every single day at some point.

 

The pasta bar was almost empty on embarkation day. We had huge bowls of pasta the first day and it was delicious. (it's free for lunch, for those that may not know)

 

LOVE the lido set-up on Sunshine. Having the center stations is so much better than a long line against the wall!! Wish those center square stations were on all ships!!

 

The MDR was hit or miss. Lobster night was pretty good, but the food is never piping hot, or in our case, it wasn't. Service was fine. We are fans of ATD and we liked checking in on Deck 5 before making our way to Deck 3 for dinner. This kept the lines moving and never backed up. We never waited more than 5 minutes and we ate every meal between 5:30-6:30pm.

 

Sea Day Brunch: LOVE THIS!!!! The hours are extended, so breakfast in the MDR doesn't have to be at 8:30 am anymore. We ate here both sea days and had a leisurely, relaxing breakfast with Mimosas and delicious hot food at 10am one morning and 10:30am on the last sea day! Service here was great both times. My DH's steak and eggs was cooked to perfection and my omelet was still giving off smoke signals!

 

One big complaint that we've all heard is true, though: The pool is the size of a thimble. Seriously. It's the smallest pool I've ever seen on a ship. I know there's one in Serenity and to add the Havana area for seating, they had to leave just the one, tiny pool. It's still too small, though.

 

Movies Under the Stars was awesome. They played great movies, served hot popcorn and we loved it! We watched movies together four different nights and sang along to the Frozen Sing-Along one night. Our kids really enjoyed this just before bed treat and so did the adults. :D

 

We had a blast and think the Sunshine is a great ship! Is it the Carnival Breeze, NCL Epic or Royal's Oasis class? No. It's not supposed to be. It's got it's own charm and it's own perks. We loved it and would definitely sail on her again. As a matter of fact, I wish I was on her right now... :):(:cool:

[Kristi Williamson]

Have you mentioned your issues about the shuttle, especially the attitude of the female driver to hotel management? If everything else at the hotel is to your liking except the shuttle, maybe letting them know might help for you and for others... maybe not much can be done about the lateness, but the rudeness of the driver is something that can be dealt with right away!!! And if they want to cater to cruisers, they should be interested in fixing both problems!

 

 

Not yet, but we plan to speak to them tomorrow. I think the lateness may not be so much the problem as giving people times they know they can't meet. The first shuttle for Sunshine was supposed to leave at 11am, with meeting times at 10:45. We left the hotel at 11:45, so we sat in a room with 50 people and all their luggage for an hour. Not fun and they have to know they can't transport and pick up in those time frames. They need more shuttles to meet their guest numbers.

 

The rudeness is the biggest issue for me. She is just so hateful to the porters and that's actually why we're going to get in touch with management. She, literally, speaks to them like they are dogs. The porters try to be nice, but she just continues to talk down at them and even called them names once. Not cool for me.

[sjcruiser]

Love the review and photos!!! Thanks for posting!!:)

[Kristi Williamson]

The things we didn't like as much: Carnival has GOT to up their entertainment. The shows are duds. Seriously.

 

There's one entertainment area they are excelling and that's the comedy club. We went the first sea day for family comedy and that lady had us crying! She is hilarious. If only all Carnival's entertainment met those standards.

 

Overall, we had a fabulous trip and hope that others give the Sunshine a chance.

 

Final grade: A :D:D:D

[Kristi Williamson]

When we came home, this guy helped chase the cruise blues away:

 

 

:D:D:)

[tinyrose]

Thanks for the review. We are looking forward to our trip on her in November.

[PurpleMonkey]

Thank you for this detailed review!! We are going on the Sunshine in September and it will be my first cruise. I'm so excited and, as I've nothing to compare it to, It sounds like I'm just going to love it. We are going to Chankanaab in Cozumel and have booked Victor Bodden for Roatan :)

 

 

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[Kristi Williamson]

Thank you for this detailed review!! We are going on the Sunshine in September and it will be my first cruise. I'm so excited and, as I've nothing to compare it to, It sounds like I'm just going to love it. We are going to Chankanaab in Cozumel and have booked Victor Bodden for Roatan :)

 

 

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We loved Chankanaab a few years ago and Victor in Roatan!! Hope you have a wonderful trip!

[daniella1279]

What do you mean by checking in on deck 5 before heading down to deck 3?

 

 

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[srb2cruise]

Thanks for the review! We are cruising on the Sunshine Labor Day and can't wait!!

 

 

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[PathfinderEss]

Nice review and wonderful pictures. Love the name rings, what a great idea.

[glassman352]

When we came home, this guy helped chase the cruise blues away:

 

 

:D:D:)

 

What a cutie :), We'll be on the sunshine in a couple weeks and will miss our black pug Angel. they are the best pets!!:D

[Kristi Williamson]

What do you mean by checking in on deck 5 before heading down to deck 3?

 

 

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For Anytime Dining, you go to the Ocean Plaza on Deck 5 and they get your room number(s) and number of guests dining. They give you a little slip of paper with your info on it and then you head to the left, past the Alchemy Bar, and walk down two flights of steps (or take the elevators) to Deck 3. There, directly in front of you, is the ATD dining room. It's not as cumbersome as it may sound. It's actually very easy and keeps the lines and wait times down to almost nothing. Even when we ate right at 6pm, we waited less than 5 minutes. (this was also lobster night!)