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Live! Brilliantseas on the Carnival Sunrise - February 12-17, 2022

brilliantseas

By brilliantseas,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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brilliantseas

brilliantseas

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Hello everyone!

Welcome to another "live" report from @brilliantseas, onboard the (hopefully) beautiful Carnival Sunrise. In case you missed my last "live" report from Carnival Legend in December, you can catch up at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2817044-live-solo-from-the-carnival-legend-december-5-12-2021/

 

We're just a few days away from our first trip onboard Carnival Sunrise! After leaving my significant other behind due to work commitments on the Legend sailing in December, she made the very last minute decision (as in 5 days before the cruise) to burn some vacation time and come along for what will be her very first cruise. 

 

Check out this itinerary:

Saturday, February 12 - Depart Miami

Sunday,  February 13 - Day at Sea / Super Bowl at Sea

Monday, February 14 - Amber Cove, Dominican Republic / Valentines Day

Tuesday, February 15 - Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

Wednesday, February 16 - Day at Sea

Thursday, February 17 - Back to Reality / Miami

 

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brilliantseas

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I wasn't sure if this cruise was going to happen or not.

My last sailing on Carnival Legend set sail right as Omicron was beginning to take off in the United States. We had a nearly full ship on that sailing, with approximately 1,800 passengers onboard. Legend's capacity is 2,124 passengers, so we were just shy of the 85% mark. I didn't personally see anyone coming or going from the quarantine section, however there were reports in our sailing group reported anywhere from 7 to 15 cases onboard or ill immediately upon return. 

I started shopping for cruises almost immediately after getting off of the Legend and had been aiming for the last week of January for another cruise. As days passed and Omicron surged, it was clear that it wasn't the best time to be planning a cruise, so I pushed my vacation time back a few weeks and started looking again in the second week of February. 

 

Carnival Legend was in contention as I had a great time with the crew and entertainers that were on the ship in December and want to get back to the Legend again before they sign off in April. Baltimore is also my closest home port, and is an easy 6.5-7 hour drive. I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to a 7-night sailing on the off chance that I were to have to quarantine onboard, and the weather in February in the North Atlantic is even worse in February than it is in January. Ultimately, I ruled out the Legend... at least for this vacation. 

 

Norwegian Breakaway out of New Orleans was another intriguing option, especially after the price dropped by about 50% at the 14-day mark. I could get a balcony on the 7-night Western Caribbean sailing with free drinks package, two free specialty restaurant meals, free wifi, and a free $50 shore excursion credit for about the same price as the Grand Scenic Oceanview Cabin (more on that in a minute) on the 5-night Carnival Sunrise sailing. As a bonus, this sailing has a stop in Harvest Caye, Belize, which is my current favorite private island/beach destination. I love NCL's specialty restaurants, and the ships definitely feel more upscale than Carnival. This one came really close to getting booked, but I ultimately talked myself out of it for two reasons. #1: I hate cruising out of New Orleans. I don't care for the city and my last embarkation experience in NOLA was among the worst in all of my cruises, second maybe to Galveston. #2: I still wasn't sure I wanted to commit to a 7-night sailing on the off chance that I were to have to quarantine. 

 

Carnival Sunshine out of Charleston on the 5-night to Nassau and Princess Cays seemed like a reasonable compromise. It was only 5-nights instead of 7 (see #2 above), and was within a day's drive to get to the port. I've been intrigued by the Sunshine class for a while after actively avoiding the Destiny/Triumph and Conquest classes for years due to the (IMO) poor layout of the upper decks. I find them to lack the uncrowded feel of the Fantasy and Spirit classes, while also lacking the extra features of the Dream and Vista classes. They are like the "worst of both world" ships in my book. The transformation seems to have addressed the "new features" part to an extent, and with recent sailings being in the 50-70% capacity range, I'm willing to overlook my previous experiences and give the new "Sunshine class" a try. Princess Cays would be a new port for me, even if it seem to review as positively as Half Moon Cay.

 

Ultimately, the opportunity to combine work and play pushed my cruise search further south as I have a work excuse to visit a few of the Orlando theme parks for some research if I find my travels taking me to the general area, so Charleston was ruled out and I shifted my search to Florida. As an annual passholder at both Disney and Universal, I'll never pass up the chance to visit the parks if I am in the area, and a project I'm leading at work provides an excellent excuse for me to make a quick stop at both parks prior to returning to Ohio

 

Carnival Horizon's 6-night sailing was appealing for the sole fact that it was on Horizon (my favorite Carnival ship), and it was dirt cheap. But it was a 6-night sailing, which was longer than what I was looking for, and also wouldn't align with my work excuse to visit the theme parks as it is pressing up against another obligation back in Ohio. I'd have to drop the theme park visits if I chose to book this sailing for my vacation.

 

Carnival Elation was appealing as it was a 5-night cruise, even less expensive than the already cheap Horizon sailing, and was visiting Grand Turk and Amber Cove, the latter of which I have never been to. Port Canaveral is convenient to Orlando and saves me another 200 miles of driving in each direction, but the Monday to Saturday dates were going to conflict with my stopover in Orlando. 

 

MSC Meraviglia nearly won out. I must have started the booking process at least 3-4 times for the 4-night sailing, which was priced below $50/night before upgrades for a balcony cabin. The dates worked with my schedule and it sails out of Port Canaveral. Ocean Cay sounds like a decent private island destination, and the unique overnight stay with nighttime beach party sounded unique. Plus, it is a new cruise line! I just couldn't get myself to pull the trigger. Why? Because recent reviews of sailings with 600-800 passengers (Meraviglia holds 4,500) talked about closed venues, lack of entertainment, closed beaches and amenities on Ocean Cay, and mixed reviews of food outside of the Yacht Club. Maybe I'll come back to MSC and give them a try once things return a little closer to "normal" for them, but I'd hate to give them a try after reading the negative reviews and walk away with a bad first impression of MSC when the line shows promise in the long-term. 

Finally, Carnival Sunrise appeared on my radar. It wasn't a ship that I had considered initially. I wasn't a fan of the Triumph or Victory, and I was hoping not to drive all the way to Miami. Sunrise is also lacking the JiJi Asian Kitchen that is present on the Sunshine, and JiJi was a favorite of mine from the Horizon. I placed it behind Sunshine and Elation in my early consideration. So what happened?

First, the dates aligned. The Saturday to Thursday itinerary worked better for my schedule than a Monday to Saturday sailing. Amber Cove will be a new port for me, but I already knew that I enjoyed Grand Turk. Both ports have plenty to do in the port area without the need to take a long taxi ride or excursion. With this vacation, I am really looking for warm weather and sunshine more than lots of activities. I'll get to those in Aruba and Curacao on my Horizon sailing in November...

 

The deciding factor, and what finally got me to pull the trigger on Sunrise was when I saw last minute availability pop up for one of the two Grand Scenic Oceanview cabins on the ship. These unique forward-facing cabins are located on the corner angles directly above the bridge, adjacent to the Captains Suites, and feature two floor-to-ceiling windows and 345 sq. ft. of space, or about twice the size of a standard cabin. Having never experienced the Grand Scenic Oceanview cabins on any ship, and knowing how hard they are to get due to the fact that only certain classes have this room type and there are only two per ship, I had to jump at the opportunity! 

 

Premium Wifi is already pre-purchased, so be sure to follow along for lots of "live" photos from the Carnival Sunrise, including rare photos of the unique Grand Scenic Oceanview cabin, shortly after we board on Saturday! I look forward to sharing the experience with you. 

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brilliantseas

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3 hours ago, SuperCatMom2 said:

Super Excited to read your posts this weekend! I'm coming from SoCal where it is currently 87 outside. I hope you have a great time!

 

 

It was a balmy 43 in Central Ohio today. It might as well be considered a heat wave. 

 

Boarding passes are printed, luggage is tagged, and I'm headed south as soon as I finish pass my COVID test in the morning. Stopover in Columbia, South Carolina tomorrow evening, and then headed to South Florida on Friday. 

 

We're staying at the Hampton Inn Hallandale Beach / Aventura on Friday evening, which was pricey for a Hampton Inn, but seems like a steal compared to the rest of FLL/MIA this weekend. 

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brilliantseas

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I experienced a little hiccup with my COVID test at Walgreens this morning. I made my appointment on Monday and had a confirmation for an ID NOW rapid test. I showed up at the drive thru pharmacy lane as scheduled and provided my name and DOB. Out comes the test kit. I complete the test and send it back through the window and out comes a paper with a reference code number and a URL to log in to check my results. This should have been a red flag as I've never taken a rapid test that had a third party lab URL to access the results. Sure enough, I enter the reference code and it tells me that samples are overnighted to the lab and are typically processed in 24 to 72 hours. 

 

The pharmacy tech messed up and gave me a laboratory PCR test instead of an ID NOW rapid NAAT test. The earliest I can expect my results is tomorrow afternoon. I'll be anxiously awaiting that email...

 

Thankfully, I have a proctored Binax test kit from Optum in the trunk, just in case I don't receive the Walgreens result on Friday. 

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brilliantseas

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4 hours ago, jerseyjjs said:

 

 

            I was looking at this sailing, but I wasn't to enthused about 3 other ships being in Amber Cove that day with the Sunrise and then another ship in Grand Turk.   

 

The port schedules show HAL Nieuw Amsterdam in port with Carnival Sunrise at Amber Cove, and no other ships in port with us at Grand Turk. Both ports are only equipped with two berth piers, so a third ship would require tendering. Where did you see four ships in port at Amber Cove?

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Red Forg Pub has the Happy Hour special going on from 12:00 to 2:00. Half price on all beer and cocktails on the rocks that don't contain Ting. They also have a $15 fish bowl special (regularly $34.95), but are reducing it to $9.95 because they are running low on fish bowls.

 

This giant cocktail was only $9.95 + tax and gratuity!

 

 

20220212_131435.jpg

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LuvCruiSun

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Thank you for your live review! The scenic grand is amazing! We had it on Splendor a few years ago and didn’t miss the balcony at all. We have it on Freedom to Alaska in August, but it’s looking like we may have a ship change to Spirit which doesn’t have that cabin. Have a great cruise!

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1 hour ago, LuvCruiSun said:

Thank you for your live review! The scenic grand is amazing! We had it on Splendor a few years ago and didn’t miss the balcony at all. We have it on Freedom to Alaska in August, but it’s looking like we may have a ship change to Spirit which doesn’t have that cabin. Have a great cruise!

 

I was commenting this afternoon that this would be the perfect cabin for Alaska! I'll keep an eye out for it if I decide to book Alaska for 2024. 

 

Regarding Spirit replacing Freedom, I'm curious where that rumor keeps coming from. I can't imagine Carnival wants to cut capacity by more than 1,000 passengers with the smaller ship in Alaska when Freedom sailings are selling at a premium to Princess on the same itineraries. I would find it more likely that Spirit would operate in addition to Freedom, rather than replacing it on the Alaska sailings. 

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