Sunshine 9/13 Review - w/pictures - will be long!

A week ago today we sadly disembarked from our wonderful week of Carnival Cruising on the Sunshine!! We had been planning this cruise for over a year and totally looking forward to the whole family - all 12 of us - cruising together. I have been waiting to get all my photos uploaded to Flickr to start my review so I can add lots of pictures!!

So - we started our cruise vacay on Friday, September 12th - we left around 10 a.m. to head up to Port Canaveral where we would all enjoy some time at the Radisson at the Port. This is an awesome hotel - we had stayed here before and it's a great Cruise Pkg deal - We booked a King Suite for 4 of us and it included the parking for the week in their special cruise lot - and the shuttle to the port in the morning!

I hope that picture comes into the message - I haven't done it through Flickr before!!! So I'm going to post this now and see if it works and then come back and continue the review tonight!! If it doesn't come through - any guidance on how to do this would be appreciated!!

Can't wait to relive the cruise through the review!!

ughhh - picture didn't come through - any tips on how to post them from Flickr???

Here is a thread about what you need. Hope it helps.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2030879

Keep trying...I've had problems in the past with photobucket.

OK - so I figured it out! Thanks everyone for your help!!! So here's the Radisson at the Port - like I said, a great hotel to stay out to spend the night prior and to keep your vehicle safe - they have a great cruise n park pkg where you stay the night and it pays for you to park while you cruise!!

One thing I really like about the Radisson is that they have Sleep Number beds!! My daughter and I had fun raising and lowering the numbers and then the guys took over the bed lol! fun times!

We had the King Suite, so we had a livingroom area with a pull out bed!

We spent most of the day at the pool - sorry, but I didn't take my camera to the pool - but we love the pool! It was so refreshing and we love the water fall! The hot tub was HOT - but felt good, but could only sit in it for a short time! We decided to eat cheap and the pizza place next door was the answer - the pizza was really good! Good choice!

Now an FYI - when you book at the Radisson at the Port - you also have to call the hotel itself and reserve your spot on the shuttle to the airport - they start shuttling over at 10:30. We reserved our spots the day we booked - HOWEVER - when we checked in, they had no shuttle reservation for us. They are good customer service and honored our reservation by calling our own taxi to shuttle all 12 of us over - good call, Radisson!!

I was starting to feel congested, and sniffly so I turned in early, but woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed - after all.....IT'S CRUISE DAY!!! My son-in-law woke up at 5 a.m. and actually went down to the port and watched the Sunshine come in to port! He said it was pretty cool to be there watching it! My husband woke up early also and went to McDonald's across the street - you can see the ships from the road! Great way to start the day! I was dressed, hair done, bags rearranged and ready to go!!

Not sure if you can see on my shirt - I embroidered shirts for us that say - Carnival Sunshine is my Destiny!! They turned out pretty good!!

We were all ready to go - all our bags ready to be loaded up and we were ready to go - my son-in-law guarding the bags!

The ride to the port was brief and before we knew it, we were parking and unloading luggage! - we were at the port by about 10:45 - no line whatsoever!! We went through security and we were at the counters getting our S&S cards! Our son, Justin, was excited this cruise as he became a Gold Card!! lol!

Annnnd!!! How excited were we to get Zone 2 for embarcation!!!

This was the fastest embarcation!! Port Canaveral is our favorite port! Always quick to embark and debark as well (although not so with debark this cruise, but not the port's fault!). I wasn't watching the time, but I know we were boarding before 11:30!!! And our first stop always is to have a drink at the Atrium bar!! AHHHH YES - FUN SHIP SPECIAL!!!! We are Cruisin!! i have to admit - I sure do miss the drinks in the hurricane cups!!

That's it for tonight! I'll continue tomorrow!!

Love your shirt! Great start to your review.

Subscribing!

Going on the Sunshine in Feb, so can't wait for the rest of your review. Subscribing!

when in Feb Mackatty? We have a group of 12 Feb 7

baf

We will also be sailing in February. We are doing the 5nt on 2/15. Looking forward to you review!

Danielle

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We will be cruising on the Sunshine in January. So excited to read the rest of your review.

I noticed above I posted a picture twice! I just have to share that all important Zone card!! When you get that low of a zone, it's worth posting! Lol!

Getting ready for church this morning, but will post more when I get back!

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I noticed above I posted a picture twice! I just have to share that all important Zone card!! When you get that low of a zone, it's worth posting! Lol!

 

 

Getting ready for church this morning, but will post more when I get back!

 

 

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Great start to your review. We have a group going on the Sunshine next August. Can't wait to see and read the rest of your review.

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In 26 days we'll be traveling down to start our Sunshine cruise. We're also staying at the Radisson, stayed there last Nov for our Dream Cruise. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

I am considering Sunshine for our next cruise. Looking forward to the rest!

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Thanks for the review! Looking forward to more. We cruise with my in-laws in April. :)

Great start, we are heading out on her for an 8 day in a few weeks and cannot wait :)

It will be our turn in February for Aruba, Curacao, and Grand Turk, and again in October 2015 to Bermuda. I subscribed to your thread to follow your review. Am very excited to know your thoughts on the Sunshine!

Thank you for doing a review!

OK - a few catch up pictures!!! I found a picture my daughter took of the waterfall at the pool at the Radisson!!! We love it here!! Love going under the waterfall - it's like a massage!!

And a couple fun pictures my son took with his GoPro camera - this one as we waited to embark: We weren't waiting long!!!

And one he took once we were on on the ship - the view was from the Serenity Deck!!!

loving your review and pictures! we sail in a few short weeks!

Marsha

OK - let's finish Day 1 - embarkation day!!!

After enjoying our first Drink of the Day - our plan was to go eat!! Thanks to the great tips here on Cruise Critic, we headed straight back to the Havana Bar!!! Great idea!! Totally skipped the busy buffet area and we ate at the lunch time Cucina de Capitan!

Both the Cucina and JiJi's is open for lunch back in the Havana Bar! It's a wonderful place to sit and eat - not as loud as the Marketplace area and all the way in the back is a lovely view of the wake!! This is also where the omelets are made in the mornings!

For lunch at the Cucina, you get a menu paper to create your own Pasta dish. I chose fetuccini alfredo and shrimp!! deeeeelicious!!! And at the Havana Bar they had a few snacks - including Beef empanadas and coconut empanadas!! Again - deeeelicious!! The are located on the side of the bar and they go fast!!

Or bellies now happy - it was time to go see if our cabins were ready! We were especially excited as we had been upgraded to a Spa Balcony cabin on deck 10 - so we were anxious to check it out!!!

Great start to your review....

Almost forgot!! The Sunshine has handwashing stations located around the ship! We used these on the Disney Dream, so it was cool to have them now on a Carnival ship! Too bad they don't dry your hands too!

So now, with our bellies happy, we were excited to go check out our cabin!! It was just a short walk up one flight of steps to Deck 10 Forward - cabin 10103 - our daughter and her husband in 10105 (our son in 9159 - smoker! lol)! Spa Balcony cabins are seriously not much different than other balcony cabins - different color scheme, but not much else other than a few amenities. One thing we did like was that the Spa Balconies have sliding doors to the balcony!!

One of the amenities was a selection of Elemis products - soap, body wash, shampoo and conditioner and body lotion! I loved the shampoo and conditioner!

And we got slippers!!! Quite comfortable and cute!! And we got to keep them!!

But there was something missing......OUR ROBES!! This is where we realized there were a few issues with our cabin! Immediately on entering and setting our stuff on the counter, we noticed it was covered in dust - you could write your name in it, my husband went into the bathroom - the toilet seat was broke, and most important - the AC was not working...... ughhhhhh...... I have say - out of 8 cruises, we have NEVER had to complain about anything to Guest Services. But we wanted to relax in our cabin a bit and the AC needed to be on.....OHHHH BOY - what a nightmare. The line at Guest Services was horrendous. I stood in line over an hour - only to be told they would send up a fan..... REALLY? I said that is not an option - I need to have this fixed or move us. We let them know we would walk around a bit and enjoy Sail Away so they could fix. So we did just that and happily, when we returned, the AC was fixed, the toilet seat was fixed, we had our robes, but the counter still dusty.....ughhh. If it wasn't so obvious it wouldn't be a problem - we seriously did not understand how it could be so dusty and overlooked!! This was the first of 3 trips to Guest Services in 2 days....something I've never ever had to do..... I was worried!

After a smooth sail away - including a great rally of ship horns with the Liberty and the Disney Fantasy - it wasn't long before it was time to go to dinner! We had Your Time Dining and it is handled very strangely on this ship. We had to go down to Ocean Plaza on Deck 5 and sign up for dinner - they then give you a beeper like at a restaurant - and when your number is up they buzz ya and you then go aft and down to Deck 3 to the diningroom. Very confusing! I personally don't like YTD - but because of the group we had, it was just the easy thing to do. I miss the fun you have with the same Serving team each night and the relationship you have with them for that week. But - like everything, we make the best of it!!

One nice thing was while you wait for your number to come up - they have a Taste Bar there and this night they had a taste of Cucina Del Capitano with Nonna's Meatballs and bruschetta! I really like the meatballs!! We already had reservations for there on Belize night with the whole gang!

Here's the Taste Bar:

We had a good dinner - can't remember what I had. My husband had the Fried Chicken and he said it was good, our daughter got the pan fried steak and said it was excellent! But I do remember dessert!!! lol! I always look forward to the Creme Brulet which is on the first night only, and of course the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake! This was my son's dessert! I only had the Creme Brulet!

And then the surprise comes! My birthday was the week before and my daughter had the servers come sing Happy Birthday!! Always a fun moment!!