Sunshine 11/28/15 11-night Journeys/Premier Review

[LaCal]

Great review.....Glad you had such a fun cruise....we have to wait till March 🙈

 

Please don't forget your premier casino recap 😜😜

[Bimmer09]

This is a great read and thanks also for the crisp photos.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Norris

[NCTribeFan]

I'd been to St Croix for the first time last year on the Splendor repo. We had about seven van-loads that day for an island tour that included a stop at the Cruzan distillery. It was fun, but not something I needed to repeat. When I booked as a solo, I thought I'd probably make it another beach day, knowing I'd be pretty tired by the last few days.

 

But cabin-mate has a friend who lives and works in St Croix, so we were treated to an all-day tour around the island. His wife also took the day off to join us. They met us in the little park under the bell tower. Off we went to his Jeep and headed straight to Sandy Point Beach. It was absolutely gorgeous. It's in a National park, so there are no facilities. It's also a turtle nesting ground.

 

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We drove back through Fredricksted and north along the beach, passing the party beaches and heading inland through the rain forest. It was a little early for drinks, but we had to stop at Mt. Pellier Hut Domino Club. Sadly, they had no Johnny Cake, but did have plenty of the homemade MammaWanna (rum with secret ingredients (honey, spices, etc)). So, we each got a drink, bought our cans of non-alcoholic beer, and went up to see the pigs. I use the word "pigs" lightly since these were actually very large hogs. Jim was the only one thirsty this morning, so he got them all.

 

 

On through the rain forest, up to the north coast, past Salt River Bay, and on to Christiansted. We had a delicious lunch at Cafe Fresco, then strolled down to the waterfront and along the boardwalk. We were going to stop at the brewpub for a pint, but apparently their taps were out-of-commission. Boo!

 

Buck Island

 

If you zoom in, you can see the Buck Island snorkeling boats on their excursions; view from Point Udall

 

Back in the car, we headed along the East End Road to the eastern most point in the US, Point Udall.

 

 

[NCTribeFan]

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Another view from Point Udall

 

Back in the car again and down along the south coast on Rt 60. It was very windy and much more rugged than I was expecting to see. But it was beautiful!

 

 

This pic is now my background on my phone.

 

The last leg of the tour took us down along the now-closed Hovensa refinery. I knew they had one, and that it had recently closed, but had no idea it was so huge.

 

It was getting late, so we headed back to Fredriksted. It was so great to have "locals" to take us around and show us sights that the average tour doesn't visit. It was a great way to end a long cruise.

 

 

It was probably close to 5 by the time we were back on the ship. Of course, we had to pack! Ugh! Still, much easier to pack to go home when most of your clothing has been worn. You can just throw it all in the cases and cram everything wherever it will fit.

 

Last dinner, trying to leave, didn't see our waiter, wanted to give him an envelope. I thought he was just OK and probably wouldn't have given an extra tip, but cabin-mate is big on tipping.

 

Then it was off to the casino. Of course, being the last night, I was winning. I guess that's better than having won all week and then blowing it all the last night, right? We were waiting for the 11 pm drawing for the free cruise, then, had to go cash out all those black chips and S&S card, and the line was very long. Rushed down to the cabin, where the crew had the luggage racks at the elevators and the hallway was cleared. One guy was saying "last call" as he walked by! No! Wait! We have luggage!!! Ran in the cabin, put a #1 tag on the handle, forced it to zip shut, and stuck it in the hallway, hoping they'd be back one more time. Whew!

[SenatorsFan]

Such beautiful pictures of St. Croix. You were lucky to have locals to take you around! :)

Heather

[NCTribeFan]

Sigh. How can an 11-night cruise go so quickly? Well, lots and lots of port days makes a difference!

 

Our flight wasn't until 1:25 (we were on the same flight to BWI, where cruise-mate lives and I had to continue on to RDU). I was all for waiting to be some of the last people off the ship. After breakfast, we went back down to clear out the cabin and allow the steward to get on with her work (had to hunt her down to give her an envelope as she'd already finished most of the cabins in our area). Took our remaining bags up to Lido, had some more caffeine, but got a little bored, so decided we'd just go ahead and depart.

 

What a mess! We had #1 tags, which were all the way at the front of the terminal, but we were then supposed to drag them back to the end of the line(s), but couldn't because there was a steady stream of people trying to get to their bags and no where for anyone to go. Of course, they had the porter line on the left, and we couldn't even get through that to get into the regular line. There were people screaming at the porters. There was a bunch of people in front of me who'd purchased airport transfers and they were livid that Carnival hadn't done anything to get them to their luggage and onto their bus. Screaming at the porters didn't help. Not their job. Young man taking video with his phone of another guy screaming at a porter, and I told him that cameras/phones/video weren't allowed in the terminal (and he just looked at me like I had two heads). He put it away when someone official yelled at him about it.

 

I don't know how long it took me to get out (friend had jumped on a porter with someone else and vanished long ago). But, finally, I was out to the walkway, joined up with friend, and we headed out to the street to get a cab. It isn't far to the airport. We were there quite early, and although you aren't supposed to check in more than 4 hours before your flight, they let us go ahead since it was almost time, anyway.

 

Went over to a food court, grabbed a table and bought a cup of coffee. Sat and killed a little time, got a little pizza and split it, then on to security.

 

No TSA pre-check for me this time! I got to stand in the security line for 37 minutes. Maybe it was a good thing we hadn't waited a whole lot longer to disembark. Between the mess in the port terminal and the long security line, I might've gotten a little nervous. But we had loads of time. On to the gate area to sit and wait some more.

 

Of course, being used to eating about every 2.5 hours, we were hungry again, with a long flight coming up, so got some more food and drinks to take on the plane. Buddy had A boarding pass, so she boarded and went near the back to get us a row to ourselves. Thankfully, plane wasn't full, so we had an empty seat between us. Uneventful flight (I read), and landed in Baltimore on time.

 

Goodbye to buddy, then off to another terminal to find my gate to Raleigh. Saw a guy who had been at the Roulette wheel and talked about our experiences, then I was off to find a beer.

 

Boarded the plane and in the row in front of me were two women, who obviously knew each other, sitting in the window and the aisle seats, who bellowed across the empty seat the ENTIRE FLIGHT. Seriously, people. Planes are loud. If you want to talk to each other, then sit next to each other. I finally pulled out my phone and earbuds and plugged in for some white noise to try to drown them out.

 

Off the plane, got my new bright red luggage (love how easy it is to spot it on the carousel!), grabbed a taxi, and was home in no time.

 

I'm going to wrap this up soon and post a list of all the things we didn't do!

[jimbo5544]

A couple of comments: I was going to comment on the quality of your pictures until I read that you used your cell phone....wow is all I can say. That could be used as a commercial for Galaxy. The second is that we have only been to St. Croix once on a cruise and id was not one of our most memorable cruise days. Seeing you pictures and the recounting of events has me rethinking that. Thanks again for the review.

Edited December 30, 2015 by jimbo5544

[NCTribeFan]

I love the photos from this phone! And not having to carry around a P&S camera really is nice. Of course, bigger SLRs with zoom lenses will give better photos, but I'm really happy with what I get with the phone.

 

Having the CellGrasp and feeling a lot more secure taking photos was nice, too. I'm considering upgrading a few months early and getting an S6 before the Vista Inaugural. I'll have to check it out and see how the cameras compare.

 

I know St Croix has a fairly bad rep. We were approached a couple of times by people begging and our hosts simply said something about "not when we have visitors" and they backed off immediately.

 

Friend said when she sailed there many years ago, they docked in Christiansted, which I think is more interesting than Fredriksted. But if I were staying on the island, I'd want to spend some time wandering around Fredriksted. I imagine it's a rather quiet place when no ship is docked.

 

And if I were staying for a land vaca, I'd definitely spend time on Sandy Point. What a beautiful beach! I typically prefer the "rough" vistas, though, so really liked the eastern & southern sides of the island.

 

But, yeah, what a difference it makes to have someone drive us around all day and show us all the things that you don't see on a typical tour. It was great.

 

I honestly could see spending a week there and renting a car (note that the vehicles are all US vehicles but you drive on the left; do NOT attempt to pass since you cannot see around the vehicle in front to check oncoming traffic; had that problem in France when we took a car from England over on the ferry. That was an experience! :eek: ).

[jimbo5544]

We will def look at doing a cruise to her again. Some of your pics def make you want to see those sights. We did the same thing with a driver showing us the island in Barbados a couple of years back which gave us a totally different flavor of that island as well.

[fbe2228]

Thanks for your information on St. Croix. We are staying on the island for a week in February and renting a car, so we'll have the ability to explore.

[NCTribeFan]

fbe - would love to hear your thoughts when you return. Where are you staying? There aren't a lot of resorts, but I imagine there are plenty of rentals.

 

You definitely should check out the Domino Club and the MammaWanna rum concoction. Just be careful driving home on the winding, bumpy rain forest roads!

 

I don't have anything booked after Vista and keep thinking it's time for a land vacation. Thing is, every time I start looking at prices, I decide I can cruise for less and see more places.

 

But I really think I need a change of pace. As much as I love cruising, those 7 ports were exhausting, although I'd been to most of them. Next cruise is 13 nights with 9 ports (all new) and only 3 sea days, with all day excursions. I really think I need a relaxing land vacation next fall.

[pghsteelerfan]

I love the photos from this phone! And not having to carry around a P&S camera really is nice. Of course, bigger SLRs with zoom lenses will give better photos, but I'm really happy with what I get with the phone.

 

Having the CellGrasp and feeling a lot more secure taking photos was nice, too. I'm considering upgrading a few months early and getting an S6 before the Vista Inaugural. I'll have to check it out and see how the cameras compare.

 

 

I have an S6 that I brought along on our most recent cruise but did not use it as my main camera, I just used if for some pictures to test it out. I used the DSLR for most of my pictures. I have to say that the pictures I got with my S6 came out even better than those I got with the DSLR. In defense of DSLR, I'm still learning on it and those pictures did come out nice but not like those from the phone.

 

The S6 did great for night shots of our ship, nighttime ship exterior deck pictures, interior pictures from the ship, and also landscape pictures of beautiful scenery where I wanted everything in focus. They looked nice in the phone's display but the true test was once we returned home and viewed the pictures on the computer. All I can say is that I LOVE this phone camera! The colors were also true to what things really looked like. So here's a vote for the S6.

 

I really enjoyed your review and have enjoyed your past reviews as well. You're pictures are beautiful. Thank you for taking the time. I would love to do a Journey cruise to the southern Caribbean one of these days to be able to see more beautiful islands in that area.

Edited December 31, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[fbe2228]

We are staying in a condo just north of Frederiksted that we found on VRBO (vacation rentals by owner). We've done this the past two years in St. Thomas and decided that we wanted to do something different and explore St. Croix this time. The VRBO rentals really are the way to go since we get a whole residence with a full kitchen instead of a hotel room/resort. We do like to eat out while on vacation, but it's nice to be able to buy your own food and make a quick meal rather then having to go out all the time. There are VRBO rentals all over the world, so the possibilities are endless.

We like to do (at least) one cruise per year and (at least) one land-based vacation. When I say "at least", I mean that there's always room for a bonus trip. We are suckers for deals. We like both for different reasons. Price-wise, you really can't beat the price of the cruise (especially when you compare it to the cost of a land vacation in the USVI), but we will continue to do both.

[NCTribeFan]

On St Croix morning, when we arrived on Lido to go for breakfast, we saw that it was Towel Animal morning. It must take a great deal of time and effort for them to make these things!

 

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Before we headed off the ship, we loaded up all the things we weren't going to take home and gave them to our hosts: bottle of red wine that friend carried on board and we hadn't opened; 3 or 4 bottles of the 12-pack of water we'd pre-ordered online and hadn't opened; the 2 Platinum mini-journal gifts; and the large Premier Casino journal gift.

 

The fact that we didn't even open one of the 2 bottles of wine we carried on is amazing. True, friend wasn't feeling well for a lot of the cruise and we got the free drinks in the casino. And I got the bottle of Champagne from the casino as well (which we didn't even finish). The DOU card really makes a difference, spending-wise. Sure, you have to be in the casino spending money, but occasionally, we were actually winning.

 

Between the cash the casino gave me, the gift cards I applied to my S&S, the balance I had at the end, and the cash I brought home, I think I probably broke even. That's "winning" for me, since I budget a certain amount to lose. ;)

[NCTribeFan]

This is pretty much ancient news by now, so I should probably wrap it up! :p

 

General thoughts...

 

Ship - I rather liked her. I'm not a "newer/bigger/more-bells-and-whistles" cruiser, but it was interesting to see some different venues. I had a little bit of trouble remembering that you can actually go bow to stern on Deck 4, since you can't on most of Carnival's ships. I thought the decor was nice. I liked the cabin. We only went to one show and the size of the room wasn't an issue. I did miss not having anywhere to put my drink, though.

 

Food - I didn't have any real issues but travel buddy wasn't impressed with some of her dinner items. I was so looking forward to some "new-to-me" menus and was fairly underwhelmed with them. With so many port days, we weren't on board at lunchtime very often. I don't "do" the regular buffet, so can't comment on the selections. I enjoyed breakfast from both the omelette station and Blue Iguana. The biscuits and gravy were inedible, imho. I don't like or dislike the brunch. It's just OK to me. Steakhouse was good. I didn't think it was Super Fantastic, but they were good meals. Enjoyed Guy's more than I had the past few cruises. People complain because Splendor doesn't have Blue Iguana, but the Burrito bar is pretty much the same food and it has chips, you don't get at BI. Afternoon tea is a joke. I'm a tea drinker, and Carnival just doesn't get it. You sit and wait and finally get semi-warm water (you need boiling water for proper tea). They come around with the sweets (and didn't even have scones). If you wait long enough, you may get the tray of savory items. I've decided I'm not giving up 30-45 min of my limited sea days in the future to attend.

 

Entertainment - the guy playing the acoustic guitar was entirely too loud the entire cruise. Sheesh, guy! It's supposed to be acoustic, not heavy metal! You don't need the guitar and mic volume so loud. Didn't go to the variety shows or comedy. Enjoyed the guys who did the various trivia games, especially Darnell. I wasn't a fan of Jaime Dee. But I'm not a big fan of most of the CDs. The personality one must have to do that job is not something I particularly enjoy being around. I'm an introvert and just have a hard time with people who are so full-on, in-your-face, over-the-top 100% of the time. Whew. Wears me out just thinking about them! ;)

 

Service - overall good. I don't expect perfection and I don't want someone fawning over me, anyway. That's not my idea of good service. To me, good service should be as invisible as possible, not intrusive.

 

Itinerary - great! Exhausting, though. I could've used another sea day, especially since we didn't have great weather on the two we had.

[NOSaints1]

So what was different about a Journey cruise to a regular cruise, I didn't see any mention of the different food items.

[NCTribeFan]

I'm going to go through the FunTimes and note all the things we did NOT do! Note that I'm missing the ones from Sunday, 11/29, our first sea day.

 

Did not do the spa tour or visit the spa or gym at all

Did not play Bingo

Did not attend any sail away parties

Did not attend any comedy shows

Did not visit the piano bar

Did not attend the dance classes

Did not attend the Academy of Fun sessions

Did not attend any of the Throwback activities other than the Captain's Party and a little bit of 80s music trivia that night

Did not attend karaoke

Did not go to the Liquid Lounge dance club

Did not spend time in the Red Frog Pub

Did not attend any production shows

Did not play beer pong

Did not have a cigar under the stars

Did not play Quest

Did not Groove for St Jude

Did not ride a waterslide, or get in a pool or hot tub

Did not visit the Alchemy Bar

Did not attend the debarkation presentation

Did not attend the Bathrobe Bash

 

There were other things we didn't do!

 

Honestly with only two sea days, and this being a Premier Casino sailing, there just wasn't time to do much of anything other than get up, have breakfast, go ashore, get back mid-afternoon and have a snack, shower, get ready for dinner, stop in the casino, have dinner, back to the casino, then to bed!

 

I'm guessing that the Vista sailing will be much the same (without the Premier activities). I'm not a fan of Your Time Dining, but having late dining really curtails what you can do after dinner (when you need to get up early the next morning to head out).

 

Overall, I really enjoyed the cruise. I always do. :D

 

Here's the link to my Flickr album if anyone wants to see all the photos.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nctribefan/albums/72157659957482334

[NCTribeFan]

Honestly, the whole Journeys thing was pretty underwhelming, too. Again, with so many days in port, there were probably things going on that I didn't even notice because I wasn't on the ship!

 

There was at least one "Authentic Eats Cooking Demo" that we didn't attend. I'm pretty sure there was a chef on board from St Kitts, but there were no specialty items on the evening menus that I noticed.

 

I think the Journeys idea would be much better suited to itineraries that are less port intensive. I think some of the Hawaii sailings are Journeys, with many more sea days, assuming they are actually doing unique things on those days!

[AmberTeka]

This is pretty much ancient news by now, so I should probably wrap it up! :p

 

General thoughts...

 

Ship - I rather liked her. I'm not a "newer/bigger/more-bells-and-whistles" cruiser, but it was interesting to see some different venues. I had a little bit of trouble remembering that you can actually go bow to stern on Deck 4, since you can't on most of Carnival's ships. I thought the decor was nice. I liked the cabin. We only went to one show and the size of the room wasn't an issue. I did miss not having anywhere to put my drink, though.

 

Food - I didn't have any real issues but travel buddy wasn't impressed with some of her dinner items. I was so looking forward to some "new-to-me" menus and was fairly underwhelmed with them. With so many port days, we weren't on board at lunchtime very often. I don't "do" the regular buffet, so can't comment on the selections. I enjoyed breakfast from both the omelette station and Blue Iguana. The biscuits and gravy were inedible, imho. I don't like or dislike the brunch. It's just OK to me. Steakhouse was good. I didn't think it was Super Fantastic, but they were good meals. Enjoyed Guy's more than I had the past few cruises. People complain because Splendor doesn't have Blue Iguana, but the Burrito bar is pretty much the same food and it has chips, you don't get at BI. Afternoon tea is a joke. I'm a tea drinker, and Carnival just doesn't get it. You sit and wait and finally get semi-warm water (you need boiling water for proper tea). They come around with the sweets (and didn't even have scones). If you wait long enough, you may get the tray of savory items. I've decided I'm not giving up 30-45 min of my limited sea days in the future to attend.

 

Entertainment - the guy playing the acoustic guitar was entirely too loud the entire cruise. Sheesh, guy! It's supposed to be acoustic, not heavy metal! You don't need the guitar and mic volume so loud. Didn't go to the variety shows or comedy. Enjoyed the guys who did the various trivia games, especially Darnell. I wasn't a fan of Jaime Dee. But I'm not a big fan of most of the CDs. The personality one must have to do that job is not something I particularly enjoy being around. I'm an introvert and just have a hard time with people who are so full-on, in-your-face, over-the-top 100% of the time. Whew. Wears me out just thinking about them! ;)

 

Service - overall good. I don't expect perfection and I don't want someone fawning over me, anyway. That's not my idea of good service. To me, good service should be as invisible as possible, not intrusive.

 

Itinerary - great! Exhausting, though. I could've used another sea day, especially since we didn't have great weather on the two we had.

 

I am not a fan of Jamie Dee either. Other than being hyper active.........I don't see what she does. Trivia is always fun. the people you meet always great. I agree with you about Darnell. Trent with his challenge for extra points by telling Trivia contestants to get on the floor and writhe like worms........flew all over me. One it was an audience of mostly elderly people. Second........it was crude. Not funny. embarrassing to watch. Third...someone could have been injured. LAW SUIT. seems like a good C.D. would reign in that sort of nonsense. And make an attempt to stop the "savers" who send their kids in to hold blocs of seats in the Theater, etc and instruct them to "'fight back"" if challenged. Totally Wal Mart of the Seas behavior. NEVER seen it on Carnival ship before like that and we are Platinum on Carnival and Princess. and have several on HAL.

For A beautiful ship, with a great staff...................left a bad taste in my mouth. I am booked on RCI and Princess. After those cruises............I will be over it and book on Carnival again, God Willing. But NEVER again the Sunshine.

 

WOULD love to see a guest get up and ask an activities staff member who has told people to get on the floor and writhe like worms..HOW DARE YOU! I AM GOING FOR THE CAPTAIN NOW. bet that would stop that sort of juvenile showing my rear end to the old folks behavior.

Edited January 4, 2016 by AmberTeka

[NCTribeFan]

A ship on a stick is not something I'm going to get all worked up over winning or not winning, so if writhing on the floor is the deciding factor, someone else can have the piece of plastic. But if others are willing to do that to win, that's their decision.

 

One thing I neglected to mention - this was my 14th cruise as a Platinum. I'd never, ever used the free laundry. I don't wear a lot of cotton clothing. Most of what I wear is washed at home on delicate cycle and air dried, so they aren't items I'd typically want washed in their gigantic machines at extremely hot temps.

 

But, somehow, I managed to neglect to pack more than one white camisole. I wear them under everything. After a couple of days, it needed to be washed. So happens, it was the oldest I have, so I figured that since everything I was putting in the bag had been washed many times, there wouldn't be a problem.

 

We both sent out bags at the same time, but all the clothing came back together. Except there was a bag with a note on it saying they'd tried but couldn't remove the stains. Sure enough, if was my one white cami. :mad:

 

It had heavy pink blotches all over it. Obviously, something red was washed with it and bled. I was still able to wear it under other clothing, but it rather annoyed me. I suppose next time (and I'll need it on the Vista sailing), the only solution is to put only lights in one bag and only darks in another on separate days. If it happens again, I'll request some minor compensation, just on principal. They offer free laundry, so you should be able to use it without them ruining your clothing.

 

Good news is that when I got home, I soaked it in oxy clean and re-washed it and almost all the stains came out. Still, not a good experience. It was exactly what I feared would happen and why I'd never used the laundry before.