Review: Carnival Sunshine Journeys Cruise 11/28-12/9

Carnival Sunshine Journeys Cruise

November 28th-December 9th 2015

Port Canaveral, Grand Turk, St.Thomas, Tortola, St.Kitts, Dominica, St.Lucia, Antigua, St. Croix, San Juan

In the past I’ve gotten very detailed with my reviews, but since I’m a few weeks late and there’s already a few reviews from the same sailing out there, I will try to keep it somewhat brief. I’m happy to answer any questions you have if I miss something.

We are a couple from central Connecticut in our mid 30’s, and this was our 7th cruise, 5th on Carnival. This was our first time on the Sunshine, I was pretty excited because it was very different from all the other ships we had been on, but also nervous since I had read so many reviews saying it was over crowded. As it turns out, the Sunshine is my favorite ship so far! We didn’t feel the ship was crowded at all. I think the layout of the buffet area and all the different dining options available, kept the lines to a minimum. I never waited in a line longer than 4 or 5 people for any of the the food. The weather wasn’t so great on the two sea days, but we never had any problems finding loungers by the pool either. Since this was a longer cruise, the crowd was on the “older side” compared to other Carnival cruises we’ve been on. There were a lot of platinum and diamond guests, and something like 500 people doing the back to back for a 21 day cruise! Yikes, we are not retired or independently wealthy so we had to get back to work after 11 days.

Since the weather can be unpredictable this time of year, we flew down to Florida a day early, which for this trip was “black friday”. I was expecting the airport to be a complete nightmare with endless lines and chaos, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! We arrived several hours early and had little to no waiting anywhere, it was amazing. The flight down went smooth and we arrived on time. We had reservations to stay at the Comfort Inn at Cocoa Beach, the same hotel we stayed at in March. We did a fly, snooze and cruise package customized for us, it included a shuttle from the airport to the hotel, the hotel stay and a shuttle to the ship the next morning. The shuttle picked us up a few minutes after we gathered our luggage and the drive was about an hour to the hotel. This time we had a room in the taller building in the back of the property, it was a bit of a haul with all the luggage, and we were on the 4th floor. The room was like a little suite. It had a “living room” when you first walked in with a couch, tv and desk, then the bed is through a little hallway in the back and then there was a balcony off the bedroom. The hotel is older, and the room had been updated but still felt a little dingy. The front sitting room had a very strong musty smell, but the bedroom was fine. We got the room around 830pm and walked down the street to the Sandbar Beach Bar for some food and a few drinks to start off vaca. We did the same thing in March, its a nice little routine! We were assigned the 915 shuttle to take to the port the next morning, which went pretty smoothly and we arrived to the port super early. We bought FTTF again this time so we wanted to make sure we were able to take advantage of early boarding. We had to wait for a wedding before they let us board, and FTTF was called after diamond and platinum, I think we were on board just after noon. I felt the boarding process was a little unorganized, people were cutting in line and refusing to sit down when workers asked them to, they were all hovering around the doorway trying to be the first through the gate, which agitated other people and more and more people were rushing the door. We boarded pretty early, so i’m not sure how ugly it got behind us.

Once on board we headed to the red frog pub hoping to be the first, but some of the people (later found out they are very obnoxious “diamonds”) who were refusing to sit in the terminal and hovering around the door, beat us. Go figure. We were pleased to head straight to our room and drop off our carry ons since we had FTTF. We then purchased the Cheers! package and went to find some lunch. We opted for La Cucina del Capitano since it was brand new to us. You fill out your menu checklist and hand it to the hostess, they give you a beeper and you wait. It took maybe 10 minutes to get our food which was quite yummy even though I’m not a huge pasta person. We explored the ship after lunch, did the muster drill routine and then raced up to the lido to watch sailaway. We were supposed to sail at 4pm but we still hadn't even started our engines by 530 so we headed back to the room to unpack and get ready for dinner. I’m not sure what time we actually left but I guess were delayed because we had to load so much extra stuff due to the longer sailing.

[/img]

[/img]

We had balcony room 6316 towards the aft, which was right above the alchemy bar. It was very convenient to everything except the comedy club, main theater and the pool (all in the front). We never heard any noise from other passengers or the ship but the overhead vent in the room was pretty loud all the time which made it so we didn't need our “white noise” fan at night. Some other things of note was, the room had a huge shower, no refrigerator and NO full length mirror (gasp!) It also had a very strong greasy smell on and off each day the entire length of the cruise, which was almost nauseating to me at times. I don’t think it was just our room though, later in the week I realized it seemed to be the whole back third of the ship, I could even smell it on the outer decks further back also.

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

As I said before, we really enjoyed the Sunshine and tried to partake is as much as she had to offer.

-The piano bar was moderately busy, the singer (Russell Blues) was fun and enjoyable.

-The main show lounge doubles as the dance club at night which we stopped in a few times and there was never more than 8 people in there just sitting around.

- The only show we saw in the main show lounge was the epic rock show which was 70s and 80s music, it was really great except we got there late and the seats were full! We had to sit on the side of the stage.

-We spent most of our late nights in the punchliner comedy club, and the lines for those shows made up for the lack of lines everywhere else for sure! You really need to be in line 30 min before the show to get a seat for the 830-1030 shows. They empty the theater after each show and make you walk up and around and back down to get in line for the next one, meanwhile the line has already started forming before the end of the previous show. The theater fits more people than you’d think and we never got turned away.

-The alchemy bar was our favorite bar, Daniel, Mario and Aleksander were our best friends the entire time! I’m not sure about the other bars but Alchemy was frequented by the same people each night, it felt like our own little community!!

- This was a premier casino cruise so the casino was pretty busy every night, I did manage to dump about $50 in the slots and didn't spend anymore time there.

- We participated in a few bean bag toss tournaments, played a round of mini golf, and BARELY made it down the water slides the last day, which were so much fun I wish we had done them all week. They also had a beer pong tournament in the red frog pub which we watched but did not participate in.

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

Weird spin bikes in the gym

[/img]

[/img]

No full length mirror in the room but the elevators were ALL mirror!!:eek:

[/img]

[/img]

First time seeing orange loungers... Neat!!

[/img]

[/img]

Is there a cost for the orange juice in the Havana?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Throwback Sea Day

So since this was a Journeys cruise, we had a throwback sea day on the second day at sea. It was a rainy dreary morning which made it easier for me participate in some of the day’s events since I’m normally a sun worshipper. In the morning they had the “roll the dice horseracing” hosted by John Heald and Jamie Dee the cruise director. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was actually pretty cool. After the horse racing we played throwback bingo, which was just bingo without the computers. Later in the day they had some throwback pool activities as well. They had a knobby knees contest which was similar to the hairy chest contest, and the super popular frog racing. Seth and I each purchased a $5 frog and entered the contest. This event was very chaotic, and probably needs some tweaking to make it run smooth but it was fun overall. There were so many participants it had to be broken down into 5 rounds or so. The wind and the motion of the pool from the ocean caused the frogs in the first round to not really move, so John Heald had everyone grab their frogs and start over. This time you were allowed to “splash” your frog across the pool. Seths frog never even swam, once it hit the water it just died!! I went in a different round and my frog started off strong and quite possibly would have won, but they so brilliantly had THREE people (Jamie Dee, videographer, photographer) in the pool so every time they moved, they caused the water to swirl and it swirled my frog around and it started going the wrong way. I know carnival needed to get their all important advertising video but geesh...not really fair!! Anyway, we failed miserably and took our froggies home to keep as pets. Hehe. They were playing 80’s music on the lido for a bit and the crew was dressed in traditional 80’s gear, tutu’s, legwarmers and headbands. The evening part of throwback day was the Captain's white glove cocktail party. They had two sessions, 5pm and 7pm. There were waiters walking around with a choice of drinks (I had a few whiskey sours) and some h’orderves like mini quiche, pigs in a blanket, fried shrimp etc. I had a taste of each but didn't want to fill up before dinner. We got our picture taken with the captain, but by the time we got to him he seemed a little tired and over the whole picture thing. They had a little ceremony where they introduced the senior officers and then we headed to dinner. That night was also the night they had the Midnight Gala Buffet. We headed up there around 1230 I think and the line was still ridiculously long to get in, we waited forever and it was pretty picked over by the time we went through although most of food didn't seem that appetizing to me. I think it was more about the carvings and decorations than anything, which is why it took so long to get through is because everyone, myself included, was taking a million pictures. I think it took us almost 45 min to get through and I only tried a little piece of pistachio cake. It was all incredibly beautiful but I couldn't help feeling bad over how much waste there was.

Throwback Capers

[/img]

[/img]

Is there a cost for the orange juice in the Havana?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes unfortunately, see bottom left

Captains cocktail party

[/img]

[/img]

I got to meet John Heald too, some people hate him but I think he's funny!

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

We tried each of the dining options at least once with the exception of the Mongolian Wok at lunch.

-Guys burgers has the second best burgers I’ve had,very juicy but a tad salty and tasty fries- we had 2 or 3 during the week

-Blue Iguana Cantina, I tried a shrimp burrito with rice, which was good and very filling. Chicken tacos were good too but the pork I found a little fatty

-La Cucina del Capitano,we had the pasta bar lunch which was average, and we also ate there for dinner one night which turned out to be my favorite specialty restaurant this sailing, and italian is usually my last choice.

-Ji-Ji was my least favorite meal on the cruise, everyone raves about it but I just didn’t care for anything except the shrimp dumpling appetizer. All the meat was fatty and had spices on it I didn’t care for. I would not eat there again

- Steakhouse, this was our 4th time eating in the steakhouse on Carnival, the menu is always the same. In the past I wanted to try the lobster ravioli but always got talked into steak, this time I stood my ground and got the ravioli and... it was terrible. I think a good ravioli has a nice light pasta shell, but these were more like dumplings or pierogis. Very thick heavy outer shell and the seasoning and sauce mixed with the lobster completely overpowered the lobster and the dish in my opinion was terrible. I should have sent it back but I wasn’t starving anyway so I didn't see the point in ordering another meal I wouldn't finish. Everything else we ate in the steakhouse was very good and I still left plenty full.

-Lido Marketplace ( buffet) we only came here for breakfast and it was super quick and easy, I loved that there were no lines! I realized halfway through that the omelets at the omelet station were super amazing. Im very fussy about my omelets not having any brown on them and they made the perfectly without me even asking every time. I would also go over to the havana bar to get my morning mimosa and grab a couple of the “breakfast bites” they had out. The croquettes were so yummy!!

-The Deli,Seth has a slight obsession with the turkey wraps here, he had at least 3 for late afternoon snacks but I don't care for the kind of deli meat they use there. I would have liked to try a different kind of sandwich but just never did.

-Bonsai Sushi- I tried a shrimp tempura roll there and it was really good and hit the spot except that I specifically checked the menu and it said it came with cucumber and didn’t list avocado but sure enough there were huge chunks of avocado which i don’t care much for. I still enjoyed it but I wish they’d make it they way they advertise it.

Main Dining Room- We had “your time dining” like we usually do and had a table for 2 each night. A few nights we had to wait 15 min or so for a table, but it worked for us because we always stopped at the alchemy bar to grab a drink to take with us since drink service is usually slow in the MDR. As far as the food, it was the old menu’s still which I was happy about since we didn't care much for the American Table on the Liberty. I guess we’ve become snobby foodies in the last few years because the food in the MDR was subpar at best. My favorite meal was the chicken pot pie and I also really liked the Chateaubriand.

-Taste Bar, we had to check in to dinner across from the taste bar each night, so we grabbed a bite there each night they had it. I think they had it 6 night, each a small sample based on a specialty dining restaurant within the carnival fleet. Everything was delicious, but some of it is hard to eat beacuse they don't give you any utensils.

[/img]

Chateubriand

[/img]

[/img]

Cucina del Capitano

[/img]

Risotto balls

[/img]

Chicken Parmesan

[/img]

Ji-Ji

[/img]

Duck appetizer

[/img]

Shortribs

[/img]

Bonsai sushi

[/img]

Steakhouse

Purple gazpacho compliments of the chef

[/img]

Strange Cesar salad

[/img]

Lobster Ravioli

[/img]

Some of my favorite drinks

Pomtini

[/img]

Spicy pineapple martini

[/img]

Can't remember but something amazing at the alchemy bar!

Great review and photos. Thanks

Ports of call:

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

St. Thomas- This was our 5th stop here, we were debating between staying on ship to save some money or going to Magens Bay which we hadn’t seen yet. We decided to just get off the ship for a little shopping around the port. We bought two big gallon jugs of water to refill our water bottles with and had no problem taking them back on the ship. We enjoyed a leisurely day on board without a majority of the passengers, it was nice. As it turns out we found out later Magens bay was closed due to bacteria in the water so I guess we made the right decision.

Tortola- This was our second trip here, in March we did the “must see” baths which is what a majority of people seemed to be doing. This time I had wanted to see Jost Van Dyke via Catamaran. I booked with Aristocat Charters months before and recruited the minimum amount of people we needed (10) on FB groups and Cruise Critic. This was the day I was most excited for, but the morning we boarded the ship I had gotten an email from Stephen at Aristocat that “due to circumstances out of his control he had to cancel our trip”. I was almost in tears! He offered an alternative trip to another island but I need to contact my group to see if they all wanted to join us (minimum number) and since it was travel day for most people or they were already on board it was impossible to reach everyone before I had to shut my phone off before sail away. Anyway, I ended up getting in touch with everyone but two people to notify them of the cancellation. We were in St. Thomas the day before and I tried to make arrangements with another tour company but everything was already booked. I was defeated, and not able to visit Jost Van Dyke this trip. I got off the ship early to try and meet the two people I hadn’t been able to reach about the tour cancellation, but after 30min of walking back and forth, we couldnt even find the meeting spot we had set up!! The port is still under construction so the sign we set to meet up at wasn’t there. I felt so bad but I had to give up. It was well past the meeting time anyway and I figured they’d probably moved on as well. We ended up taking a taxi/bus to Cane Garden Bay beach. The taxi ride was $8pp each way, it's a very twisty and hilly ride, hold on tight! The beach was beautiful, we rented chairs and an umbrella for $15. We had a few delicious drinks that were only $5 each and also walked down the beach a bit and had some lunch at Myetts Garden and Grill. I ordered the conch fritters and a bushwacker, Seth ordered a jerk chicken panini I believe. The food was very good, I’ve had good and some very bad conch fritters and I thought these were delish. The view was pretty too, I recommend trying this place. We didnt feel like snorkeling but I don’t think it was that great here anyway, I did hear that Brewers bay was much better for snorkeling.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v197/Spork92/image.jpg1_4.jpg' alt='image.jpg1_4.jpg'>[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

She made some fantastic drinks

[/img]

Bushwacker or painkiller not sure which but both are delish!

[/img]

A walk down the beach to get some lunch

[/img]

Conch fritters

[/img]

Lunch with a view

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v197/Spork92/image.jpg14_3.jpg' alt='image.jpg14_3.jpg'>[/url

This place rented water sports equipment I think I have a pic of the prices if anyone is interested I'll look for it[/img]