2nd timers back from the Sunrise - Trip Report

[jjsparkles]

5 minutes ago, Maraprince said:

How did you find the temperatures in the public rooms/lounges -- on the cooler side?  Would you say that a sweater is definitely needed?

 

MARAPRINCE

We all needed something extra in the Sunshine dining room. With the exception of one night it was cold for us all in there. We may have been under a vent though because we sat in the same area most nights. 

 

I didn’t notice it cold anywhere else really, just a nice temperature. 

 

The comedy club was really hot though, even the comedian commented on it. 

[mikayla73]

Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip. Glad you got to spend some time with your son too. 

[jjsparkles]

21 hours ago, mikayla73 said:

Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip. Glad you got to spend some time with your son too. 

 

Thank you, we had a wonderful time and were so happy to see him 😀

[CI66774]

What a wonderful review! You seem like such a lovely family. I’ve visited Scotland several times and really love the friendliness of the Scottish people and the abundance of some of the world’s best whiskey! I lived in NYC for several months (on a long term work assignment) and, at first, thought the people were incredibly rude. Once I got to know some of them, I determined much of that is lack of sunshine in the city and downright loneliness. People live on top of each other but remain anonymous to each other. After I made friends, they would call me up at midnight,etc. to see if I wanted to grab a latte, etc. thank you again for such a detailed and well-written review.

[clearwatergirl]

Thank you for a fantastic review!  Truly enjoyed and felt I was on the "ship" with you and your family. 

 

I would agree with your assessment of the Liquid Lounge having sailed on the Sunshine.  We too had difficulty finding the Comedy club.  Your review would make me shy away from booking on the Sunrise for the same issues.

 

Glad you enjoyed your time in NYC too.  Great city! 

 

Thank you again.  Visiting Scotland is on my bucket list!  My roots can be traced to Glasgow and plan on visiting some day. 

 

 

[Mike A]

What a great review 😊. You are very blessed to have such a wonderful family  !!!

As a native New Yorker who has lived here my entire life (60+ Years), I must say that you were able to see almost all the sites there are to see. Your pictures from the top of the Empire State Building and Times Square at night were just breathtaking!!! There is nothing like the “Great White Way” at night. 

I promise you most of us New Yorkers are not like the ones you experienced in the shops or especially the TSA(Security) agent you encountered at Newark Airport (EWR). FWIW, the TSA agents are, for the most part, like that at the majority of the airports the US. Your choice of the word “dour” was perfect. 

My family sailed on the maiden voyage of the Triumph 20 years ago. At the time it was the largest cruise ship in the world. It was beautiful then and it appears to be even more-so now. I clicked on your review because I am considering the Sunrise for a retirement/65th birthday cruise with my family in 2020. After reading this I may do so. If I do I will look for your son if he is still performing on the ship. Finally, thank you again for the wonderful review and I hope you have the opportunity to return here in the future to see more of NY up close and personal, especially the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. 

[jjsparkles]

On 8/5/2019 at 12:10 AM, CI66774 said:

What a wonderful review! You seem like such a lovely family. I’ve visited Scotland several times and really love the friendliness of the Scottish people and the abundance of some of the world’s best whiskey! I lived in NYC for several months (on a long term work assignment) and, at first, thought the people were incredibly rude. Once I got to know some of them, I determined much of that is lack of sunshine in the city and downright loneliness. People live on top of each other but remain anonymous to each other. After I made friends, they would call me up at midnight,etc. to see if I wanted to grab a latte, etc. thank you again for such a detailed and well-written review.

 

Thank you  Happy to hear you enjoyed your visits to Scotland. Thanks for reading along, glad you enjoyed it. I'm sure there are lots of lovely people in NY - maybe just not working in the shops we visited 

 

On 8/5/2019 at 7:07 PM, clearwatergirl said:

Thank you for a fantastic review!  Truly enjoyed and felt I was on the "ship" with you and your family. 

 

I would agree with your assessment of the Liquid Lounge having sailed on the Sunshine.  We too had difficulty finding the Comedy club.  Your review would make me shy away from booking on the Sunrise for the same issues.

 

Glad you enjoyed your time in NYC too.  Great city! 

 

Thank you again.  Visiting Scotland is on my bucket list!  My roots can be traced to Glasgow and plan on visiting some day. 

 

 

 

Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed reading along. Hope you find your way to Scotland one day 👍

 

On 8/6/2019 at 4:04 AM, Mike A said:

What a great review 😊. You are very blessed to have such a wonderful family  !!!

As a native New Yorker who has lived here my entire life (60+ Years), I must say that you were able to see almost all the sites there are to see. Your pictures from the top of the Empire State Building and Times Square at night were just breathtaking!!! There is nothing like the “Great White Way” at night. 

I promise you most of us New Yorkers are not like the ones you experienced in the shops or especially the TSA(Security) agent you encountered at Newark Airport (EWR). FWIW, the TSA agents are, for the most part, like that at the majority of the airports the US. Your choice of the word “dour” was perfect. 

My family sailed on the maiden voyage of the Triumph 20 years ago. At the time it was the largest cruise ship in the world. It was beautiful then and it appears to be even more-so now. I clicked on your review because I am considering the Sunrise for a retirement/65th birthday cruise with my family in 2020. After reading this I may do so. If I do I will look for your son if he is still performing on the ship. Finally, thank you again for the wonderful review and I hope you have the opportunity to return here in the future to see more of NY up close and personal, especially the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. 

 

Thanks so much for your kinds words. I hope I haven't sounded too harsh on my view on some of the people we interacted with. I know not everyone is like that and we definitely come across some ill mannered people here too, it just seemed to be more noticeable than anywhere else we've been. The hotel staff and all wait staff were absolutely fine. Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island is somewhere we really wanted to visit but just didn't find the time. We knew we'd be sailing past and got a fabulous view from the ship, so settled with that. If we return Ellis Island is top of our list. I hope you and your family have a lovely cruise if you decide to go on the Sunrise 

[Cafedumonde]

Lol.  Love your take on NYC.  Dh and I have been there many times and I lived there at one point and yes, in general the people are very, very rude!  But I kind of like it, maybe because I do not live there anymore, but I like how honest New Yorkers are— nothing fake or superficial about them.  I find in some parts of the US there is a fake “niceness,” hard to describe, but that drives me crazy.  But I really wanted to post and thank you for your review.  Your family is beautiful.  Great to hear a positive cruise experience.  I have the same feelings you do about most everything on the ship, or Carnival ships in general because I have not been on the Sunrise yet.

[jjsparkles]

8 hours ago, Cafedumonde said:

Lol.  Love your take on NYC.  Dh and I have been there many times and I lived there at one point and yes, in general the people are very, very rude!  But I kind of like it, maybe because I do not live there anymore, but I like how honest New Yorkers are— nothing fake or superficial about them.  I find in some parts of the US there is a fake “niceness,” hard to describe, but that drives me crazy.  But I really wanted to post and thank you for your review.  Your family is beautiful.  Great to hear a positive cruise experience.  I have the same feelings you do about most everything on the ship, or Carnival ships in general because I have not been on the Sunrise yet.

Thank you for your kind comments, glad you enjoyed reading along

[cbtengwife]

On 7/18/2019 at 3:25 PM, jjsparkles said:

Friday 28 June

 

We had another long lie today (well, we were on our holidays, ) and had said we’d try the sea day brunch today. We left the timing up to the kids and I wanted to get some laundry done so took a wee trip down the corridor and managed to figure out the washing machine easily. I had brought a few washing liquid pods and laundry sheets from home. The only thing missing from this room is that nothing tells you how long it takes for the washing to finish. I asked Mark and he said his takes about 30-40 minutes so I went back to the cabin whilst waiting for it to finish. When I went back to move the stuff into the dryer there was a lady trying to get the machine to work. I helped her out and used my card as hers didn’t seem to work. In the end we worked out it was because she had it attached to a lanyard and it wouldn’t push all the way in. Anyway, I was glad to help.

 

I also paid for the middle package of wifi for 24 hours as I need to check some emails about some stuff that was happening at home. The cost was $16 and it worked very well. 

 

Mark knocked the door when he was ready. I think it might have been about 12ish. The Sunshine dining room wasn’t busy and we were seated straight away. The menu looked fantastic.

 

I had the eggs benedict with salmon, delicious. The hash brown wasn't great though.

 

 

John's cheese and ham omelette with a side of sausages

 

 

Mark's burger

 

Lewis' omelette, sausage, bacon and hash brown

 

 

Mark was happy because there was a dessert he’d tried whilst in dry dock, the banana cake, which he said was fantastic. I had it too and it was amazing....

 

 

I think this was Abbey's or John's

 

 

When this is available, why on earth would anyone go to the Lido for breakfast? We quickly worked out that if you’re having a later start to the day then this is absolutely perfect because we wouldn’t need anything else to eat until dinner. And even if we did, we could grab something from the Lido when it had quietened down. After this we were all completely full up and agreed we'd definitely be back. 

 

We played cards in the Red Frog Pub for a bit.  

 

 

 

Then went off to the liquid lounge and had a wee game of bingo. We didn't win, but had lots of fun taking part. We did win $5 on the card pull things (used to be called pontoon when I was a kid) so we went up to the casino to cash it in and then had a wander around the shops.

 

 

Lewis got some sweets from Cherry on Top and John got some nice new sunglasses. 

 

John was feeling a bit tired now so he headed back to the cabin to put his feet up, whilst Lewis, Abbey and I had a wander around the deck upstairs. We found that the back of the ship, deck 10 to be quiet. We grabbed an ice cream on the way. 

 

 

 

It was so windy...

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back to our cabins now for a bit of a rest before dinner. We all liked the TVs and the selection of free movies. Even though we'd seen most of them before there always seemed to be something to watch. I liked that when you switched the TV back on half way through a movie, it kept your place.

 

Soon it was dinner time ( all we seemed to do was eat...) Mark came to get us around 6pm tonight I think.

 

 

Some of our choices tonight in the Sunshine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back again to the room and this wee guy was there

 

 

Settled in at the Red Frog Pub we enjoyed an evening with the band

 

 

 

 

We'd had another great day and were all looking forward to tomorrow....Grand Turk 

 

Question about laundry. If I read this correct, you pay with your sail and sign card?  I have heard that it is coin operated. So just checking so I will know what to expect. 

Thanks!

[jjsparkles]

22 minutes ago, cbtengwife said:

 

Question about laundry. If I read this correct, you pay with your sail and sign card?  I have heard that it is coin operated. So just checking so I will know what to expect. 

Thanks!

 

Yes, you use your sail and sign card to operate the laundry. Instructions are very straightforward - think there might be a youtube video about it too.

[gatour]

On 7/13/2019 at 4:34 PM, jjsparkles said:

John and I were in 2219 and the kids were in 2215 - next door to each other on the starboard side. ****quick question...why do we not call the front and back of the ship the bow and stern, but instead refer to them as forward and aft?****

 

Think of the the bow and stern as particular parts of the ship.  While forward and aft are directions from your current location.

 

Think of a restaurant in your town, named  "Bow Restaurant".  Now imagine someone approaches you on the street asking to get to a place that is near "Bow Restaurant".  You would say go North X number of blocks.  Saying "North" would be similar to saying "go forward" onboard a cruise ship.

[thesmiths]

We were on the Sunrise 9-4 / 9-12 and spent alot of time in the Red Frog Listening to the band which were excellent!!!!

Your Son plays great and is an awesome part of that team!

 

 

 

 

 

[Maraprince]

On 8/21/2019 at 8:17 AM, jjsparkles said:

Thank you for your kind comments, glad you enjoyed reading along

I must second that opinion regarding your son and his spectular guitar playing with every group he played with!  What a talented young man who could play any type of music and make it his own!  Really enjoyed listening to him playing in the Red Frog.

 

MARAPRINCE

[Darwal]

Great review, love your outlook, thank you for taking the time to write the review.  Did I miss the ‘more later’ part about the Eric Clapton guitar?

[jjsparkles]

On 9/16/2019 at 11:31 AM, thesmiths said:

We were on the Sunrise 9-4 / 9-12 and spent alot of time in the Red Frog Listening to the band which were excellent!!!!

Your Son plays great and is an awesome part of that team!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much! Glad to hear you enjoyed it. I’ll pass on your kind comments 😊

 

15 hours ago, Maraprince said:

I must second that opinion regarding your son and his spectular guitar playing with every group he played with!  What a talented young man who could play any type of music and make it his own!  Really enjoyed listening to him playing in the Red Frog.

 

MARAPRINCE

 

Thank you, happy to hear you enjoyed it. I’ll pass on your kind comments 😊

2 hours ago, Darwal said:

Great review, love your outlook, thank you for taking the time to write the review.  Did I miss the ‘more later’ part about the Eric Clapton guitar?

 

Thanks for reading along, glad you enjoyed it. The Eric Clapton guitar turned out to be at the exhibition we went to at The Met on our last day. 😀

[dawnrae]

Thanks for the review.  Will you son still be on the Sunrise for the September 29th departure?  I think you said he was leaving sometime in October.  Looking forward to this cruise. Thanks.

[jjsparkles]

2 hours ago, dawnrae said:

Thanks for the review.  Will you son still be on the Sunrise for the September 29th departure?  I think you said he was leaving sometime in October.  Looking forward to this cruise. Thanks.

Yes, he will still be there 😀 They sign off before the move back to Norfolk, I think 13/14 October. 

[dawnrae]

That’s great that he will still be onboard.  We really enjoy the live music.  Tell Mark we are coming soon!  LOL

[pacruise804]

We were on the cruise the 16th to Bermuda (became Charleston).  Your son is very talented, and he looked happy and healthy - from one long distance mom to another 😉 

[jjsparkles]

On 9/27/2019 at 8:50 PM, pacruise804 said:

We were on the cruise the 16th to Bermuda (became Charleston).  Your son is very talented, and he looked happy and healthy - from one long distance mom to another 😉 

Thanks so much, hope you had a great cruise despite the change to itinerary. We’ve really missed him recently but not long to wait now, he’ll be home next week 😁

[Mira28]

Hi just saw and read your review. Thanks so much! I almost felt I was taking the journey with you!  

  I lived I NYC when I was younger and my son (actor/playwright/musician) still does. It’s certainly a vibrant and beautiful  place, but I agree that brusqueness (and even rudeness) are prevalent. I can take it in small doses! There is a personal coolness about many people here in NY (even upstate where I now live), which may be off putting to those from other places.

  We are going on the Sunrise next September to Bermuda, so I was pleased to see your review and all the great pictures. (So many negative reviews here on CC, I almost felt scared booking the ship)!

  Your family is lovely! Hope you get to come to the U.S. again. I’d so love to visit Scotland. One day...

 

 

[pacruise804]

On 10/6/2019 at 6:40 AM, jjsparkles said:

Thanks so much, hope you had a great cruise despite the change to itinerary. We’ve really missed him recently but not long to wait now, he’ll be home next week 😁

 

Overall it was a good cruise - Charleston was beautiful and I had time away from daily responsibilities and got to enjoy it with my husband.  The motion was worse than most cruises we've had, but at least we learned that meclizine works 🙂 

 

Glad to hear your son will be home soon.  Our daughter started college this year several states away and we won't see her (apart from face time) until late November.  Enjoy family time ❤️ 

[CoasterGuy]

YAY!!!

 

*Bumping an old thread*

 

I was looking around at reviews on here yesterday, and I randomly remembered you and your family specifically. You cruised once on conquest with your son and I was wondering if you ever went on another cruise. Had to use google to find your conquest review again. And you did!!! Looks live you've had even more reviews since. 

 

Thanks for the review of sunshine and pics. I've been to Grand Turk and your pics there were nice. Also happy you had a nice time in New York.

[jjsparkles]

10 hours ago, CoasterGuy said:

YAY!!!

 

*Bumping an old thread*

 

I was looking around at reviews on here yesterday, and I randomly remembered you and your family specifically. You cruised once on conquest with your son and I was wondering if you ever went on another cruise. Had to use google to find your conquest review again. And you did!!! Looks live you've had even more reviews since. 

 

Thanks for the review of sunshine and pics. I've been to Grand Turk and your pics there were nice. Also happy you had a nice time in New York.

Lol, thank you, glad you enjoyed the review. We’ve still only been on two cruises. We had planned on the Horizon for this summer but obviously that hasn’t happened. I’m looking forward to another cruise when circumstances change 🙂