Just off the Sunshine: 8 Day Southern Caribbean!

[thehappierhomemaker]

Hello again friends! We are just off the Carnival Sunshine 8 day Easter cruise visiting Aruba, Curaçao, and Amber Cover Dominican Republic. I've saved my Fun Times and Kid's activities flyers and hope to share lots of pics and thoughts, but if you have any questions please ask and I will do my best to answer them!

 

Overall thoughts:

• we were on the Sunshine last October on the last sailing before the dry dock and also many years ago. The only noticeable difference was the addition of some sliding doors on the Lido that you have to push a button to open. No biggie but saw many people walk up and stand there assuming they would open automatically.
• We had Mikey as cruise director just like last October and he was awesome as always. Very entertaining and approachable!
• Overall the ship didn't seem crowded at all which was a pleasant surprise, even when we had a rainy first day and everyone was inside. 
• Debarkation was not great, lots of people from upper floors coming down early and waiting in crowds, surprising as our last debarkation in October was so smooth. Embarkation was perfect, we arrived at our reserved time and walked on the ship in minutes!
• Dinner seemed longer than we remembered in the main dining rooms but not because of service, just a lot of time between courses. We had anytime dining and it seemed the later we got there (we eat early usually) the longer the total dinner time. The wait staff was awesome!

 

More to come.....

[thehappierhomemaker]

Our embarkation day was a battle against the weather. We live near Savannah, Georgia so had about a 4 hour drive to the port. No rain but very windy and a huge storm system was coming in. We were a little worried about how they were going to handle it as the water looked rough as we approached the port. We had a 1-1:30 arrival time booked which was perfect for us with the drive (although I love getting there earlier, I don't like waking so early!)

We, unfortunately, had to park on the top, uncovered level of the parking garage which I didn't love, especially with the impending storm. The embarkation process, however, was very smooth and fast. There was a long line for those early or late to arrive so make sure to get there when you reserved!!

 

Because we knew the rooms would be ready close to our arrival time we chose to hand carry our luggage on. It was a bit cumbersome with three kids but we managed just fine. 

 

And for background info....we are a family of five, our three boys are 7, 10 and 12. We had two connecting oceanview rooms on deck one for our trip (we always book low and middle)

[thehappierhomemaker]

Muster is literally one of the worst parts of the cruise on the Sunshine. I personally absolutely HATE standing in packed crowds like that. I much prefer the muster on larger ships like the Breeze or Magic where you can muster in the dining rooms .

 

After muster, we had our sail away party in the atrium as the weather was windy and rainy. It was still a blast and we had a great time. The kids joined us in the dining room for the first night's dinner as the camp wasn't available yet. Our first night we had head waiter Subandono and he was fabulous but our table was right next to the kitchen doors (not his fault!) so on subsequent nights we sat in a different section.

 

[PhillyFan33579]

Following. Love Mikey Gibson. 

[thehappierhomemaker]

The first evening our oldest (12) went to the Circle C mixer. We had seen that suggested here as a way to meet new friends for the week. Unfortunately, he didn't really click with anyone and spent the cruise missing his Camp Ocean days. He enjoyed the scheduled activities and didn't love that Circle C activities were only afternoon each day. Miss Chocolate, a Camp Ocean counselor who had been on our last cruise, recognized the boys and even sent them a handmade card to our stateroom welcoming them back and inviting our oldest to stop by and say hi. It was so sweet of her!

We had two sea days before our first port and as I mentioned, the first day was pretty rainy and windy outside. Camp Ocean was open from 10 so the younger boys were off to play video games and meet new people. My oldest explored the ship and took video to edit into a YouTube video about the ship. We took advantage of the many activities planned and generally enjoyed being on vacation despite the weather!  The boys enjoyed the arcade this day as well.

 

By evening the rain had stopped and we had a wonderful dinner. It was elegant night which I always love as it gives me an excuse to dress up! We requested a different table tonight and lucked out and sat at a table for two at the very back of the ship by the window. It was perfect and our waitstaff team of Jovan, Yasa, and Jhon were exceptional. We would sit with them each night for the rest of our trip.

 

We finished the evening at the piano bar and thought Jeff true Jones was very entertaining!

 

(I'm attaching the day's Fun Times)

2019-04-28_143709.pdf

Edited April 28, 2019 by thehappierhomemaker
clarifying

[thehappierhomemaker]

Oh! I wanted to add that the Cruise Critic meet up was this day. We had been SO looking forward to it but unfortunately, the invite was put under the door of the room my kids were in (as that one had my name on it) and they didn't tell me. I never saw it until I was packing the last day. We were totally bummed out, I had thought it would be in the Fun Times but it was a separate invite.

 

This also happened with some of our shore excursion tickets so lesson learned! If you have connecting rooms and three unorganized boys who don't bother to show you documents they find under the door, be aware! 😂

[tonyhb12]

17 hours ago, thehappierhomemaker said:

We finished the evening at the piano bar and thought Jeff true Jones was very entertaining!

 

We were on the same cruise and enjoyed Jeff all week.  He was very entertaining!!  

[JaniceB]

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[Kls721911]

How early did you have to go to the comedy shows to get a seat in the limelight lounge? I heard that was one of the few issues with Sunshine and trying to plan in advance!