pb19

We have been on the Sunshine twice. Not crazy about the theater ( unusual seating..we miss the traditional seats with tables) or comedy club ( too small). However, we really enjoyed the serenity decks ( three levels) and the adult pool. Also, it has a nice choice of restaurants .... We are Sushi junkies...

 

We are sailing on the Valor again in May. We chose it for the ports.( Aruba, Curaçao and the Turks ).

 

Each ship has its pros and cons. Choose your cruise for ports and price. You will enjoy either ship.

I'm still a cruise newbie...been on the Sunshine twice. Theater took a little bit of standing in line. Wasn't a big deal to us but maybe it was because we didn't know any better. We loved The Sunshine and would do it again in a skinny minute if the ports were right. LOL

Enjoy!! Take good care of my room!! :)

 

I'm quite excited about it being close to a bow deck... Even though I suspect it may feel as though it is far from everything.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

So you know about the "secret" (or not so much) deck right out the front doors, correct? I think that will be a nice plus to being on the front of the ship. As far as being so far away from everything else...I don't mind. I am going to need to work off the extra food and desserts I eat on the ship that are so out of the norm for me. I need to circle the ship at least twice before I'm allowed to get to any of the food. LOL

Good morning,

 

Just looking for someone who has stayed in 7211 or 7212 on the Valor (or any Conquest-class ship with similar deck plans).

 

This is a balcony room, second from the front, right underneath the bridge. A couple of related questions:

 

1) Is the bridge overhang directly above this balcony? Or in front of it?

2) Does the bridge overhang cast a shadow on the balcony?

3) Can you see into the bridge from the balcony? (or vice-versa?)

4) Are there balcony lights issues from being so close to the bridge?

5) Is the bridge fairly quiet to be under? Or do those officers make a lot of noise up there? :)

 

Thanks for any insight!

I've not read anything negative about this room anywhere. Everything I have read says it is one of the best rooms you can have. I have heard they will control your balcony light at night to make sure it is off but I'm not sure why that would be a big deal.

We will be in this room (Valor 7211) leaving Sunday. So I'll try to remember to get back with you to answer any questions you may have.

Wow Denise, we certainly have the same taste in cruise itineraries! I just noticed you're doing the Valor cruise in a few weeks... I'm doing it in March!! Great minds think alike :) It's always so fun when cruise critic friends cross paths again!

 

For Barbados, I'd recommend a beach day on Carlisle Bay... if you're up for a party vibe, the Boatyard is great. For a more low-key day, Lobster Alive gets lots of good reviews.

 

Definitely check out the port of call boards as they offer lots of advice! Hope this helps and have a great cruise :)

HI Dana, I've still been following your reviews. When I saw you were doing the Southern Caribbean I was hoping we'd be on the same cruise again. We originally had it planned for April but had to move it up to February. Guess we would have missed you either way. Hope you do a cruise review when you return in March so I can RELIEVE my trip through your review. I just recently finished a 42 page "memory book" (from Snapfish) from our Med trip. Took me over a year to decide on the pictures and the captions! I had too many to choose from. I finally finished it when they were having a 60% off sale. (WHEW!) It is wonderful to look back at now!

Nate, so glad you joined the roll call! Hope to meet you on board!

Denise

I went to this link and typed in the ports that I would be in....and the type of phone I have. It told me San Juan was fine to use just like being in the US. Free voice, text and data.

St. Thomas was $1.99 per call but free text and data! All of my other ports I'd have to pay $25 international fee for that month to use text and data.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/tripplanner/tripplannercontroller

Hi Nate. We're on the same cruise. Check out our roll call thread. There are a lot of good suggestions on there. Some people are still looking for people to join private excursions. You might be interested in some of those options.

As for the drink package, NOPE, every adult in the cabin over the age of 21 has to purchase the Cheers package. Doesn't seem worth it to me on this cruise since we are so port intensive. We don't plan on being on the ship much on port days...and can't drink 30 drinks from 5PM till bedtime...at least not and get up and function the next day for an early tour. LOL

Please join us on our roll call. We are all planning to meet during the Superbowl. Would love to have y'all join us!

I'm also trying to figure out the difference between ship time and island time on a few ports. We are doing the Southern Caribbean route on the Valor next month. Most tours have given me a time but didn't specify ship time or island time. St. Kitts and St. Lucia didn't specify...St. Martin said Island time NOT ship time. SO I'm a little confused. I can contact each company again to ask and may still do that. I was just curious about what you all have experienced on these islands.

I'm bringing this thread back up to see if anyone has any updated info they'd be willing to share.

We'll be in Barbados in early February...just a couple of weeks. WHOOHOO!

We're planning on taking it easy this day. No formal tours...probably just rent a taxi (four of us) and head over to the Bathsheba/Cattlewash area. We don't plan to do any snorkeling or swimming at this port. We also aren't interested in a lot of history. We just want to see some pretty scenery. We wouldn't mind seeing any lighthouses if they are on the way to Bathsheba. We're also considering the Mount Gay Rum tour. Does anyone have any hints or suggestions? Any updates on what we should expect to pay for a taxi for this kind of tour?

Well then I guess we'll be trying this out before you do. I'll have to let YOU know how things go when we get back. HA HA

Thanks for the reply! Have a wonderful trip...I know we will!

My wife and I (along with another couple) are looking to have a quiet beach tour day. Our plan is to hire a driver (outside of the cruise terminal; which we did the last time we were in Barbados) and go to Bathsheba and Cattlewash for some photo-ops. From there we would like to go to Crane Beach and just take some more photos, have lunch and relax (only looking to dip our feet in the water) until it is time to get back to the ship. We are in port from 8am-5pm. I would appreciate any suggestions as to whether this is logical.

 

P.S. Oh yea, I definitely want to be able to get a good flying fish sandwich as well.

We want to do almost the same thing. I see you didn't get any answers on this thread but I am curious did you end up doing this or not? If so did you just grab a taxi and go? Any suggestions for us?

Hi Brianna. Your name was mentioned on another thread with your extensive reviews and I came over here (although we have already done the Dream and loved it). I was wondering if you did an extensive review on the Sunshine from last December? If so, can you point me in that direction? That's one of the ships I'm considering for next year.

 

Thanks in advance and sorry to interrupt your review. Back to your normal scheduled program....:D

Not to interrupt your interruption just giving you a head start in case Bri doesn't get on here tonight. The links used to be next to her trips in her signature. Wonder where they went? Try this...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=41080288#post41080288

Thank You but you don't have to lurk. Tell me if you are enjoying it or not :) :p

Well shucks, if you insist! Hi, my name is Denise and I'm a lurker. HA HA! I always watch for your reviews as well. Always love them but don't usually post unless I have a question. We did the Sunshine repo from NOLA at the same time you did the Dream repo to NOLA. It would have been nice if we'd been on the same cruise. I would have loved to have seen "my" cruise from your viewpoint! Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the info. Now I just have to decide what I want to do...that's the hardest part of the trip. LOL

Has anyone been on this tour recently? How was the trip?

I don't see their prices listed anywhere on their website. Is it still $110 per person?

We will be snorkeling at St. John/Trunk Bay (for the first time) the day before we get to Barbados. I'm just wondering if the snorkeling will be any better (or much different) in Barbados.

Any info would be great!

I'm so jealous, I'd love to be doing another long cruise on the Sunshine.

We've been on her twice (12 day Med cruise in 2013 and 11 day repo cruise this past April) and I really enjoyed both cruises.

We are already booked on the Valor for a Southern Caribbean next year. It's only 7 days. Honestly, I'm a little concerned that I'm going to be slightly disappointed in the cruise. Don't take that the wrong way, I'm sure it is going to be FABULOUS! The ports are all awesome! I can't wait. I'm just afraid I won't enjoy the Valor as much as I did the Sunshine AND I'm afraid the cruise will feel way too short. LOL! I love the longer cruises.

We had spa balcony cabin 11027 both times on the Sunshine. Our balcony was covered, unlike deck 10, we could see right down onto their balcony. It looks like most of the balcony cabins on Deck 12 were also uncovered.

Yes, we had the Elemis spa products and they replaced them as often as needed during our cruise. (I've read here on CC that they don't always replace them but I know they did for us both times. Maybe because it was a longer cruise.) We also had the bathrobe, slippers (ours to keep) and a Scrub Kit for use in the Thermal Suite.

Our location on deck 11 was great. It was very quiet. No noise from outside in the hallway and we didn't hear noise from anywhere when we were outside on our balcony. We were also very close to the elevators, only had to walk past two cabins and around a corner to get to them and the inside staircase. Only two elevators go up to the spa area and they were very slow so we didn't use them often. We usually walked down the hallway the opposite direction (past four cabins) and right out to the Serenity adults only pool. From there we could enjoy the pool or attempt to find a seat facing the Big Screen or the DJ on the Lido Deck. (The areas around the front of the ship were more quite if you like quiet.) It was also a very easy walk down two staircases to the Lido deck/Guy's Burgers/Blue Iguana Cantina etc...we usually walked down those outside staircases to get to the food on the Lido deck.

If we were going to dinner and I didn't want my hair messed up we'd walk down one flight of the inside staircase and then it was only a short wait (if any) for one of the six elevators right there. (Four regular ones and the two glass ones that overlook the atrium.)

So now back to your original question... sorry, I got sidetracked. We did a cabin crawl and saw one of the spa suites on Deck 12. I think it's a personal preference but I'd NEVER pay an extra $1,000 for that cabin. It was nice but certainly not THAT much nicer than ours and I loved our location on Deck 11. I'm not sure I would have traded even for the same price. But everyone is different when it comes to their likes and dislikes.

I'm sure you'll enjoy your trip no matter what you decide.

Have fun!

We loved 11027 on the Sunshine. Our balcony was covered unlike deck 10 where we could see right down onto their balcony.

The location was great. We just walked down the hallway a few doors and right out to the Serenity adults only pool. It was great. It was also a very easy walk down two staircases to the Lido deck/Guy's Burgers/Blue Iguana Cantina etc...

We've been on the Sunshine twice and had Your Time Dining...we were aft in the Sunrise Dining room. So you should be forward in the Sunset Dining Room on Deck 3.

THANKS! I just looked at the cabin, it seems O.K. Gotta get used to the fact that there is no balcony. Hopefully it is not a noisy location. I am not in the cabin much, so for the price I chose an inside cabin. Can't wait to go!!

I'm almost positive those pictures are from when it was the Destiny. We did a cabin crawl in April and the cabins we saw on Deck 9 looked NOTHING like that. Totally different color scheme, new flat screen TV and different cabinets.

Sorry I can't help with the noise issue. Not sure if you'll be under the gym or the sauna area. Hopefully it's the sauna area. I'm not sure I'd want to be under the gym.

Minibar on Ships: Sunshine (suites and staterooms on decks 3/5/10/11/12 and select staterooms on deck 9)

From: https://www.goccl.com/~/media/Files/Irman/bookccl/the_fleet/sunshine/sunshine.ashx

I've been on the Sunshine twice and we did cabin crawls which allowed us to visit a bunch of different rooms. This sight seemed to be very accurate.

Just an observation....

 

Right now this thread has over 5000 views yet only 72 posts, including both my own, comments, and replies that only comes to 1.42% of posts to views.

 

It just seems odd.....:confused:

Some of us are just lurking and enjoying!

We're planning for Alaska in 2015 and some of our ports will be the same so I'm soaking up all the information I can get from your review.

Did the same thing last year with your Med cruise. We followed a similar path on the Sunshine in Sept 2013. By the way, I cried through those first few post with you telling about how you surprised your wife. My hubby would look at me like I'd lost my mind so I'd read it to him and he'd continue to look at me like I'd lost my mind. HA HA. I recognized you both as soon as I saw the photos on this thread. I've been enjoying following along. Thanks for sharing!

Denise

Thanks so much! You are right there is very little information :( I think I will just stick to a deck 11 spa balcony. I would love to have the additional leg room but a covered balcony is more important to me. I also don't want to spend spa suite money without getting all the bells and whistles!

If you are interested I posted pictures of our spa balcony cabin on

cruise line rooms . com (leave out the spaces) and look under Carnival Sunshine cabin 11027 (Sorry they won't let me post the link)

You go up to Deck five by the taste bar and sign in. We didn't have to wait at all. Much less chaotic IMO than having everyone sign in at the MDR doors.

That would not have been a problem for us at all. Our cabin was up front on Deck 11. We usually took the elevator down to Deck 5, walked through the casino (yuck) past the Taste Bar then downstairs to the Sunrise dining room. It would have just been a matter of making the stop at the Taste Bar along the way. Easy enough!

What restaurant is used for any time dining on the sunshine? Is it the aft restaurant or the more forward one? Also for someone who has sailed recently is it true that everyone who does ATD has to go somewhere other than the hostess desk and get a buzzer and then go to the restaurant?

This is different than what we did on the liberty last time.

Both times we sailed on Sunshine we had ATD and it was in the aft Sunrise dining room. We enjoyed it very much. We sailed in Sept 2013 and April 2014 and did NOT have to get the buzzer from another deck. But from reading all the recent reviews on here it looks like that changed at some point after our April cruise. Wouldn't have been a big deal to us. There is probably a larger area to wait in the place where they give out the buzzers. We only had to wait one night when we went to dinner around 7PM. All the other nights we went earlier and walked right in without a wait.

FYI- For those interested in a spa cabin, deck 10 would be the best. There are only two elevators that go to decks 11 and up. I had a balcony on deck 12 and it got frustrating having to wait for those elevators. It is nice and quiet up there, it also took longer than normal to get back & forth to my cabin.

I agree partially but then also disagree...depends on the person. Deck 10 balcony cabins have no coverage. We were on Deck 11 and looked right down onto deck 10. Our balcony on deck 11 was covered. If you don't want shade Deck 10 could be awesome...but if you want a little privacy you won't get it on deck 10 spa cabins. Since we were on deck 11 we most often just took the elevator to deck 10 and then took the stairs up to deck 11. We had no real issues with stairs so this worked well for us. I figured I could have dessert if I had to climb the stairs from deck 10 to deck 11. LOL, KIDDING! Sorta! The Spa Balcony cabins were awesome. We walked right out to the Serenity adults only pool...and there was NO through traffic on our deck. It was SOOOOO peaceful....

We were in 11025...it was a lovely cabin. Yes, we had an array of the small Elemis bottles and our steward replaced the ones that we used up mid week. I did not check to see about opening the dividers. It was a very peaceful area of the ship. We really, really liked the Sunshine. She's not perfect...no ship is...but we had a lovely time. I did a review on here when we returned....

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2084270

I think almost all of those balcony divider doors can be opened with permission from both sides. We had 11027 and our friends were in 11029 and we had the door between them open all the time. But I remember one morning hearing a commotion outside and it was window cleaning guys coming through opening all the balcony doors and stacking chairs and tables so they could clean. Scared me a little as I had our curtains open and was not expecting to see someone looking in at me at 6AM. Technically he didn't really look in, he was moving too fast in the attempt to get the windows cleaned. Still shocked me just a tad. LOL! It looked like one guy was going straight down the balconies opening all doors and stacking chairs so another guy could go right down the balcony "hallway" behind him, so to speak and clean. They did it all from the outside. That made me think all the balcony divider doors (at least on deck 11) could be opened.

FYI, We also had shampoo products replaced as needed.