Sunshine 8 Day Aruba, Curacao, Grand Turk - May 18, 2018

This is be a short (no photos) review of the May 18, 2018,8 Day, Sunshine Sailing out of Port Canaveral.

Itinerary: Aruba, Curacao, and Grand Turk. This sailing had 4 sea days. This was our experience and opinions of thiscruise.

This was our tenth cruise (all on Carnival) and the firsttime on the Sunshine (or Destiny.)

Pre-Cruise

We flew into Orlando the day before the cruise. Since our second cruise, we have always flownin the day before. This trip it paidoff. Our flight departure was delayedabout 2 hours for an issue with the A/C duct making a very loud pitched noiseon the flight before. The Captain madethe call to have it repaired. Once wearrived at MCO, there was a lighting storm which delayed any workers from gettingbaggage from any aircraft. The luggagedelay was a little over an hour.

We had an 11:30AM reservation with Cortrans for a shared shuttle to get to our hotel in Cocoa Beach. We knew the last shuttle was 12:30PM and would also miss that shuttle,even if it had seats available.

As soon as the airplane touched down, Jaime (owner of Cortrans) called to tell us there would be a driver waiting for us in the baggage claim area. He would have a sign with our name. At that moment we were relieved we had a ride and didn’t really put together a shuttle driver waiting inside the baggage area.

We found the driver and now had to wait for ourbaggage. While talking with the driver werealized this wasn’t a Cortrans driver.

Jaime went above and beyond. With the delays, Jamie scheduled with another private driver to pick us up. This driver waited with/for us the entire baggage delay.

Additionally there was another party Jaime made this arrangement for but they got nervous as they were not arriving a day early, and grabbed a taxi and went to the port w/o all their luggage.

I can say we will definitely use Cortrans again for any shared shuttle services and Jaime really took care of us.

Additionally if we were ever in the need for a private car, we would use the company Jaime arranged for us.

Hotel

We stayed at the LaQuinta Oceanfront Cocoa Beach. This was the first time we have stayed at any LaQuinta Hotel. The hotel was right near Cocoa Beach Pier. All the room doors were exterior and it only had one elevator which was slow. Staff were pleasant. Nice room, everything clean. Breakfast was included.

Only negative thing to say was there was a group of 80 college grads staying during our stay. There was some noise.

All that said, we would stay here again.

We ate dinner at Grills. Food was excellent. We took ataxi and it was $10 each way.

Check out time was 11:00 and that is when we checked out. We had the front desk call a mini taxi for thefour of us. Taxi was $25 flat fee.

Note: The hotel did offer a shuttle, but we prefer a taxi if/when the cost is close to the same.

Embarkation

Typically we arrive early to port and try to be among the first to board. This was our first Platinum cruise and our friends had FTTF. This time we decided to time it to arrive closer to when boarding was starting. Hoping to just walk right onboard. We were a little late in this plan but boarding time always varies.

We arrived at Port Canaveral about 11:45 (approx.) and wentright thru security and right onboard. They were actually already calling zones. We forget the zone number they were on. Maybe zone 4 or 5.

Cabin

All four of us went straight to our cabins. All were on Empress Deck. Our cabins were ready. Our Sign & Sail cards were waiting at our cabin.

Cabin Steward stopped by and asked us if we wanted our cabin serviced AM, PM, or Both. And if we needed anything let him know. Our only additional request was ice daily. Cabin Steward was great all week.

Muster

Muster was on the outside decks. For the second cruise now Carnival staff was using a tablet to scan Sign & Sail cards to account for everyone. Last cruise there were several people that had their names called to report to the naughty room, but this cruise not one name announced. Although we didn’t time it, seems muster went fairly quickly. Maybe 20-30 minutes.

Food

Food is so subjective. For us…

Breakfast – We usually have all breakfast meals in the MDR. But for this cruise, MDR opening times for breakfast and port excursion times didn’t work out on two days. So those two days we had breakfast at Lido

We found something every day we liked for breakfast. The first day breakfast service we got lucky and had a great team and requested their section the remainder of the cruise when we had breakfast in the dining room.

Although we went to Sea Day Brunch, we aren’t fans. Not so much the menu as it is the 8:30 opening time. We both get up early and eat breakfast by 6:00AM. It is hard to wait until 8:30AM, which really becomes 9:00AM by the time you actually get food.

Dinner – Always in the MDR. We had the assigned, early dining in the Sunrise Dining Room, upper level. We had a great location by the aft windows. Each night we were the first table seated. The first night went great. The second night was just the opposite. Every other table in the section came at least 20 minutes late. Seems the wait team tried to catch them up and forgot us. We actually ended up being the last table to get dessert and leave. Trust me we don’teat slow or linger. Rest of the week everything was great.

The Sunshine has the American Table menu. The American Table menu was just OK for us. There were 2 days where we felt we“settled” as there was just one entrée that appealed to us. So basically no choice on those days, except that one entrée.

For everyone at the table, any time a steak/primerib/filet was ordered it came well done regardless of what you ordered.

Any pork dish ordered by any person at the table all week was over cooked.

Other than that everyone at the table enjoyed their meals.

Lunch – Most cruises we usually eat a salad and pizza ora salad and ½ a deli sandwich. But this cruise (and partly due to the Romaine Lettuce issues) we did something different everyday. Burritos, Guy’s, Chix tenders, pizza. Everything we ate was good.

We always found something to eat and by no means went hungry.

Entertainment

Production shows

We usually always go to all the shows. We definitely prefer the old style over the new digital playlist productions. The(non-guest participation) shows for the cruise were: Motor City, Latin Nights, Studio VIP, and Epic Rock. We have seen Motor City, Latin Nights, and Epic Rock.

Early in the week we decided to go see Studio VIP (as this was a new show we haven’t seen) and Epic Rock as our friends never seen this show.

Studio VIP - The show itself was good. The biggest issue we had and this isn’t so much about the show was the lead male and female singers were too loud. Either their mics were adjusted too high or they just tried to be twice as loud as every other performer. So much so we all decided to skip Epic Rock two nights later.

Music

Not our previous cruise (2017), but the two cruises prior to that we had really good bands. 2016 Six Appeal and 2015 Run for Cover.

We all agreed the band on the Sunshine, Caught in the Act (CIA), was the best band we have seen on Carnival. They played in the Ocean Plaza most nights. By the third night of the cruise, the Ocean Plaza was packed with guests wanting to hear CIA.

We tried the Piano bar one night. This is the second cruise in a row the Piano Bar player just wasn’t working for us. All four in our group felt the same way.

Comedy

We went to one adult comedy show by Tommy Drake. He was pretty funny and didn’t need to use the F bomb every other word to be funny.

Bingo

We usually play a couple of times each cruise but this cruise we didn’t play at all.

Casino

We aren’t big gamblers. Never any tables games. Usually we spend a little on slots. But no casino play for us this cruise. The casino was mostly busy when we went thru. And it was smoky. Not to start a smoking/non-smoking debate, just an observation.

Cruise Director

The Cruise Director for the Sunshine was Mikey Gibson. We never read anything about him nor heard of him prior to the cruise. He had a ton of energy and was quite entertaining especially during his music trivia. Also a plus, not too many announcements.

Ports

Aruba (1PM – 11PM) – This was our first time here. Our original plan was to go to Eagle Beach just north of Amsterdam Manor. Which we did get this far. We did find a spot just south of Passions on the Beach but it wasn’t exactly the spot we were intending on going too based on research prior to the cruise. But we had dinner reservations for Passions so we decided to stay in this spot.

The change in plans came started the evening before onein our group had a dental issue and with this being the first port decided tosee a dentist if possible. When we got off the ship, we stopped at the port information desk and they called a local dentist. The dentist office was closed until 2PM for lunch.

The dentist was the office of Dr. Ho-Kang-You. This office takes walk ins and many guests from the cruise ships as it is within walking distance of the port.

At 3PM, we (the DH (with dental issue) and DW) went to Passions and called the dentist. The dentist could see DH at 5PM. At 4:30PM dental issue couple left for dentist and the other couple stayed at the beach and kept the dinner reservations at Passions. No sense for everyone’s plans to get messed up.

The dentist was great, Dr. Lindsey Tromp. Unfortunately the temporary fix didn’t last the entire cruise. No fault of the dentist and the dentist explained this up front. If ever in a similar situation would go back to this dentist.

Curacao (8AM – 4PM) – This was our first time here and was our favorite port. We hired a private driver for the day. Andy, owner of AroundCuracaoToursdotcom. He was great and we will definitely use him again when/if back in Curacao.

First we went to Shete Boka National Park. Andy took us to about 6 Bokas. They were magnificent. We could easily tell which Bokas the large tour buses visited and which Bokas the smaller groups visited by the amount of people at some of the Bokas.

After leaving the National Park, we drove down the Western side of the island hitting many beaches. We originally planned to stay at a beach for the rest of the day, but Andy did such a wonderful job we just wanted to see more of this beautiful island.

Grand Turk (8AM – 4:30PM) – We all have been here before. We went down to Jack’s Shack and spend the day on the beach there.

Disembarkation

We had a 12:25 flight out of MCO, and wanted to get tothe airport ASAP. We did self-disembark. This required us to meet at 7:30AM. We usually eat the final breakfast in the MDR. But the MDR didn’t open until 6:30 andnormally that last breakfast in the MDR is packed with a line waiting to getin.

We decided the Lido/Omelet Station would be out last breakfast. We were done breakfast and back at our cabin by 6:50AM.

We arrived at the designated area at 7:10AM and disembarkation started shortly afterward (early). If we had to guess we were perhaps the 40ish person off the ship. Like embarkation, disembarkation was very smooth.

There was no wait at customs. We had reservations with Cortrans for return shuttle back to MCO. All the guests with reservations with Cortrans was early and the shuttle left the port 15 minutes early.

A couple of final thoughts

Weather was great. No rain. However the ship was rocking the whole way down to Aruba. Not sure if this is the norm going that far south or it was the Sunshine.

The band CIA was great. Went to listen to them almost every night.

At the Diamond/Platinum party, the CD mentioned the production shows will slowly start bringing back live music and introducing some new shows. This comment was also made while discussing new ships. So we were a little confused if all ships are going back to live music and/or new production shows or just the new ships. We really enjoy the production shows (pre playlist) and hope it is all ships.

We did save and scan all the FunTimes and Entertainmentschedule.

All the crew we encountered were smiling and workinghard.

And of course we had another great cruise and looking forward to planning the next one.

thank you for taking the time to write a review. We are on the same cruise in 3 weeks.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We're on this sailing in August.

Are you going to post the Funtimes?

Thanks

Excellent, detailed review, thank-you.

What is a boka??

Are you going to post the Funtimes?

We don't belong to any of the photo storage websites.

If you provide an email I will gladly send them.

What is a boka??

We perhaps could have described a little better. According to the Shete Boak National Park... Shete Boka means 'Seven Inlets' named for a series of picturesque coves that are carved out of the limestone.

The water crashes into these coves and makes thundering booms and the water shoots into the air.

Fla97@aol.com

Thanks

Fla97,

Would you consider posting the FunTimes?

Thanks

Yes I will be happy to

Thx for the review. Seems to be more and more reviews commenting on the movement of the ship. Perhaps because it is older and doesn't have the latest technology. I'll ensure DW has plenty of dramamine.

We don't belong to any of the photo storage websites.

 

If you provide an email I will gladly send them.

Can you send them to me?

elladuchien@gmail.com

Thanks!!

Thank you for posting this review. Going on the same cruise June29th.

We have dinner reservations at Passions as well when in Aruba. How was the meal and what did you order, if you don't mind me asking?

Thx for the review. Seems to be more and more reviews commenting on the movement of the ship. Perhaps because it is older and doesn't have the latest technology. I'll ensure DW has plenty of dramamine.

We were on this same cruise. The ride from Port Canaveral down to Aruba was pretty bouncy, but I attributed that more to the 45+ knot winds and 12-14 foot swells than the age of the ship. The ride gradually smoothed out from Aruba, to Curacao...then up to Grand Turk. The last sea day back to Port Canaveral was relatively calm. We sailed the Sunshine TA from Barcelona to New Orleans...6 days across the Atlantic....some of the smoothest cruising we've ever done, but, sea was remarkably calm during the crossing.

Fla97@aol.com

Thanks

Done

Can you send them to me?

 

elladuchien@gmail.com

 

Thanks!!

Sure, done

Thank you for posting this review. Going on the same cruise June29th.

 

We have dinner reservations at Passions as well when in Aruba. How was the meal and what did you order, if you don't mind me asking?

Aruban Seafood Soup, Grilled Mahi Mahi topped with Scallops, special of the day which was Grouper & Lobster. It was all great.

The atmosphere, being on the beach.... was also great.

In case you missed it, there is a menu on their website we found prior to our cruise.

Could you send the fun times to us also.

redd53@sbcglobal.net

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Could you e-mail them to me? Thank you in advance.

Amberteka@aol.com

Would like to see funtimes and any other papers u have... will be on the ship July 20, 2018

Please send to y7anks3@aol.com

Thanks in advance