It's always sunny...just off the Sunshine

Well, we are at the airport and our flight has been delayed for five hours at least..so I guess I will start a review....

Before we leave

Just a couple days before we are scheduled to fly to orlando my hubby fell in our attic and cut his knee in the precise spot where it actually bends...off to an urgent care center and a bunch of stitches later and we are lamenting the fact that we are planning four snorkeling adventures while on our cruise.

After talking to several docs (hubby is a nurse, he has lots of doctor friends) we are assured that if he babies his knee for the week before we hit Cozumel and if he uses special dressings and waterproof bandages we should be able to snorkel. So, babying his knee becomes priority number one, I call the airline and arrange for wheelchair assistance as walking across the airport will cause the wound to open and weep, even with stitches.

We leave a few days early and after a faster than scheduled but uneventful flight, complete with assistance at boarding we arrive in. Orlando, get our rental car, and are off to visit hubby's awesome dad and his wife. We have a lovely walk around the town of Celebration, followed by lunch, and the we are finally able to check into our hotel where we take a long nap as we had to leave for the airport at 4 am. The days pass up eventfully as we visit with the in-laws and wait for Saturday and finally it arrives....

Embarkation Day

We arrive at the port on a shuttle from the rental car drop off. The shuttles are not allowed to begin dropping us off until the port calls and tells them to start bringing in passengers. So around ten thirty or so we are on the first shuttle and we arrive at the port. We immediately find a Carnival representative and as I am unsure of how arduous the walk will be to get on board I secure a wheelchair for hubby, he is none too pleased but my reminding him that if he wants to be snorkeling by Monday he must baby his knee seems to quiet him and make him more or less compliant. By noon we are on board the Sunshine and our escort tells us to go ahead up as our deck is pretty much ready...we arrive only to find that our cabin is the last one being done and they are shampooing our carpet so we cannot drop off our carry-ons. We figure we might as well eat. We find a table near a window out on the pool deck and I sit with the luggage while hubby gets a burrito from Blue Iguana. He return in a matter of minutes with a big smile and an even bigger burrito and some beverages for the two of us. I decide to also try the burrito..a wonderful option so fresh and tasty..and we have lunch, text home to check on the house, the pets and the family, and enjoy the beginning of our week. We explore some more. Hubby nibbles here and there and we end up siting for a short time near the Havana bar one of the best spots for air conditioning while eating on the Lido deck. By one fifteen the rooms are ready and we head up to drop off the bags we have with us and put some things away. We are in a spa balcony on deck 11. I will offer some pros and cons on this cabin in the coming days...the biggest pro for us is that there is no untoward odor in our cabin, it actually smells like some of the spa toiletries and is pleasant and comfortable...a big plus over our last ordeal, I mean cruise, well, I mean ordeal really.

Hubby was beyond thrilled..."no bad smell!" He repeated it and grinned multiple times. Luggage would be up shortly they said so we went off and explored the ship. She is a beautiful vessel. There are some issues with the flow as many floors are sort of chopped up and you can only get across the ship in certain places and at certain times...more on that later as well.

It was approaching three with the muster drill coming up so I went back to the cabin to grab our gift for our little meet and greet which would be just after. We were lucky enough to be in the group that meet in the theater so while muster drills are boring necessities at least we did not stand packed like sardines on the hot deck. Off I went to meet with some wonderful people from CC..you all know who you are...YAY Sunshiners!! I had lost hubby as he wanted to get some pictures as we sailed away. He ended up texting me, so up to the top serenity deck I went and we spect a leisurely hour and a half, cold tropical drink in hand chatting and watching the clouds and relaxing on one of those glorious circular loungers with a clamshell for shade. We returned to our cabin, unpacked, took a short nap and headed to the main dining room for dinner after checking in by the taste bar. We had Your Time Dining and a table for two was ours within a minute of checking in...this seems like it will work nicely for us so far. After dinner we went to a comedy show for adults, he had us laughing really hard. Then to the piano bar where Sonya was a real pleasure, very entertaining, pretty good singer and pianist...we had a lot of laughs, did some sing a longs and just had fun. Around midnight it was back to the Lido where we grabbed some iced tea and ice water. We headed back tour cabin and were quickly asleep. At around 3:15 someone announced a name and said something that woke most of us on the ship...I had trouble getting back to sleep....eh, it happens, right?

More to come........

Very excited... 22 days and counting!

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Good review so far. I am really interested in the Sunshine might sail her next year.

Did anyone know why they called Sierra teAm that night they also called it on the believe day around noon. Had great time on the ship too nice smooth sailing

Very excited to read your review. We will be on the Sunshine in a deck eleven balcony cabin in sixty-nine days.

Thanks for the report!

Looking forward to your review. We are cruising on the Sunshine in 2 weeks. My first cruise was on the Destiny back in 2010 and I am curious to see what is new and different.

Oh, and I want me some Guy's burgers too.

Good start, looking forward to the rest and to see how snorkeling went for your hubby!

Nice start!

Looking forward to more as we are on the Thanksgiving week sailing. :)

Thanks for the report!! We'll be on her next Saturday!!!

More Please. Great so far!

Day 2 Fun Day at Sea

No sooner were we awake than room service was knocking..we always order two glasses of juice each for the fridge for the day. I heard through the grapevine that not all Sunshine cabins have a fridge, spa balconies do, we were fortunate. We showered and dressed and headed to the dining room for the punch liners sea day brunch. We love the sit down breakfast and so do others as it was bit busy. We were in line about five or six minutes and we had struck up a conversation with a couple from our general area of the country. We decided to share a table and had a perfectly lovely breakfast together..I indulged in steak and eggs..hubby had the smoked salmon starter and a freshly made egg white and veggie omelette. Breakfast was really, really good.

After breakfast we went to get aquainted with the spa as we have access to the thermal suites included with our cabin.. We were given a tour and some sugar scrub and we decided tomorrow when we get back from snorkeling in Cozumel we will spend some time enjoying that area of the ship. Then we went up to deck 14 again to read in a comfy lounger...there were very few available anywhere and certainly were none that were in a shady area. We found something I could live with and we tried to read or talk or just relax but the winds were at least 25 mph and we were just not comfy. Back to the cabin where we sat on our balcony and read and relaxed for quite some time. Then we joined in a game of sea feud and played a bit of trivia. Lunch was some pasta that we shared from the pasta bar that the Italian restaurant offers at lunch and some tacos from the Blue Iguana Cantina...delicious...everyone should try the watermelon and jicama salsa...absolutely delicious!! We must be getting older because we opted for some alone time and a nap...that three AM announcement had taken it's toll. After napping I ironed hubby's shirt, we dressed for formal night...went to the Latin beats production snow which was just alright...but then I am not a production show type. then we went to get our dinner ticket for our Your Time Dining....oops, tonight was not such an easy or short wait.....apparently one of the hostesses that was checking people in was not doing things correctly. There was a big snafu and after forty minutes we approached the table and were told we could only share with others, no table for two...which made no sense because if we were sharing why would there have been such a wait? When we went down to the dining room there was no one to share with and about a dozen tables for two were available. The food was pretty good, the lobster tails were as small as the shrimp but they were a tasty bite or two. Service was quite good every night in the dining room and we always found something we really liked on the menu. After dinner we headed to the one of the late comedy shows...get there a good 25 minutes early if you want a seat and even then you might be located in an area where you have to watch the show on a monitor. While the crowd and waiting in line was not fun...the comedian was terrific! When we were done laughing until our sides split we headed to the piano bar again to enjoy some fun and laughs with Sonya. Then these two oldies grabbed an iced tea and some ice water and went off to their cabin...we need the nightly beverages in order to take our nightly medication...we are getting old...sigh.....

I will post more after I get some sleep.....thanks for the kind comments everyone....if I don't answer your questions after I finish the day to day review and give a quick summary please ask...I will try to be helpful.

So glad to hear a a Sunshine review with this itinerary! Thanks for sharing! We leave in 34 days!

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Did anyone know why they called Sierra teAm that night they also called it on the believe day around noon. Had great time on the ship too nice smooth sailing

From what I have read on other boards it means stretcher team. Did they give a location/cabin number when they called it out?

Here are other posts about "codes" they use. Hope not to hear any of them on our upcoming cruise on sunshine in 26 days.

From what I have read on other boards it means stretcher team. Did they give a location/cabin number when they called it out?

Here are other posts about "codes" they use. Hope not to hear any of them on our upcoming cruise on sunshine in 26 days.

Forgot the link http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=840725

Sadly two years ago I got a MRSA infection that had to be cleaned out my first day in Maui. I was so pissed. Of all the times to pop up! Doh. Couldn't get in the water as my arm had a wick to let the nastiness drain out. Yuck. I had to watch my sister jump off the boat in Lanai where she was still able to snorkel. I had fun on the boat. But sure wanted in the water. Doh.

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Cozumel

We slept pretty well but we were still up quite early. Room service delivered our juices right on schedule. Our good captain had us docked ahead of schedule and we went out on the balcony to take some pictures. Now, we are on deck 11, one of the Serenity decks, it is very quiet. The spa balcony cabins appear to be more or less the same as other balconies. Although we did have a refrigerator and all spa balconies are already no smoking. I assume because there is a premium to be paid and that being near the serenity deck is of little interest if one has small children, there were few if any in our area. It was very quiet. We took our pictures and had a little chat about our day. We decided to be gross and wait to shower until we came back from snorkeling. So we threw on our beach clothes...we both wear appropriate cover ups...and off we went to the dining room for breakfast but we did peek in on the buffet on the Lido deck. The buffet was highly unappealing which surprised us as again, on the Pride, 11 months ago it was markedly better. The regular breakfast menu in the dining room was good and we had a quick meal that would hold us as we swam ad had some fun.

Back to our cabin we headed. The wait for an elevator to eleven is ridiculous. Keep in mind, deck 11 is a split deck so first one must go across the ship from the aft dining room to the forward elevators...this cannot be done on deck three where we were eating so up to five we go, then we head forward, once there we have a choice of two elevators that actually go all the way up...the rest go to ten and one can then use the stairs to eleven..which is what we did most of the time. I have a really messed up knee and there were times both coming in or leaving the cabin that I wished we had more elevator options or that the ones that did reach our deck were programmed to allow them to be called by those on 11 or 12 with some sort of priority. Also, often one of the elevators, because it serviced all decks would be used as a service elevator by maintenance, housekeeping etc..leaving one to service the two decks. No one could figure these elevators out. Push down and wait..it goes down past you and does not stop..it goes back up, back down, back up and then finally stops....we would often be standing there with others...sometimes elderly people who really could not do the stairs at all...wondering what was going on? For those with mobility issues, staying on deck ten or below might be a better solution, although on nine or ten one must walk accross open areas around the pool to get across the ship on their own decks, which were generally treacherous and wet at all times..many people slipped and fell or had near misses on these wet decks, even with tennis shoes or water shoes on their feet.

Ok, back to our day...in our cabin we decided to apply our reef safe dive and snorkeling sunscreen. We never used it before...stuff is thick and gross and very white and does not really rub in all of the way. We looked strange to say the least. We also applied the waterproof bandages to hubbies knee...they would not stay on..oh, no!!!! We were about to give up when he remembered a doc friend had also given him some liquid bandage. We applied a thick coating of it..it blocks out water, let's in air...we were praying he wouldn't get some disease but he was determined to snorkel. The stitches had now been in a full week and the cut looked fairly well closed. We were going out with much trepidation, but we were going..he was not missing this opportunity.

We had decided to just grab a cab and head to Chankanaab on our own. With printed coupon for a couple of bucks off in hand, we walked to the taxi area and grabbed a cab. Thirteen dollars in total with tip and we were literally there in record time...the cabbies drive like made men in Cozumel. Chankanaab was beautiful. We found chairs under a palapa one row back from the water and very close to the stairs for entering the snorkel area. Before I could even double check his knee hubby and his underwater camera were off snorkeling. I decided to read for a bit. We threw most of our stuff in a locker for the day so we did not have to keep an eye on our things. It was not quite ten AM and our waiter was already there asking about food or drink....I told him to give us an hour or so and then head back over. I walk around a bit, the lagoon is quite pretty and worth a walk around. Then I was warm and headed in to snorkel as well. Hubby is much more adventurous than I am and was way out there free diving and all...me, I swam a little ways out from that ladder. The fish were very very plentiful, quite colorful, and seemed to not be disturbed by all of the swimmers in the least. I stayed in the water far longer than the hour that I had given our poor waiter. Hubby finally swam over and we explored together for a bit. We got out water logged and very happy so far. Order a beer for hubby, he gets one a day when we are away from home..he loves to try native beers, but his diabetes prevents him from more than that. I had a virgin piña colada...I just cannot drink early in the day, even in Mexico...lol. And hubby was feeling a little bit like his sugar was lower than he would want it if he was going to swim more, so chips and guacamole it is...and that was some mighty fine guacamole might I add.

We took a walk around the botanical gardens and replica Mayan ruins and statuary area that the park had. It was a pleasant walk...toyed with doing the tequila tasting, but hubby had his beer already and we have to worry about his sugar, and honestly, we really wanted to snorkel more...back to the water we went...I stayed in for a short time, hubby was in a good bit longer. We were water logged and it was after two o'clock and we decided to head back. On the way I stopped in a little shop and bought a magnet. We have a magnet board in our hallway that we use strictly for magnets we buy when we travel....we do not buy a lot of souvenir type items but these little mementos make us happy when we look at them and reminisce..besides we are getting older...we need them to jar our memories about where we have been and what we have done.

We grab a taxi and in even greater record time we are back at the port. Oh, I should mention on the way out of Chankanaab a jewelry place was giving out free goodies...we got two pair of silver earrings...perfect..one for my daughter and one for my sons girlfriend. Turns out when we get home, daughter says they really are silver...she is an artist and has a background in precious metals...who knew? On the way through the duty free shop we grab three shot glasses..our boys had a fascination with them when they were younger and get one every time we or they travel..also got one for the older sons girlfriend who does not have pierced ears....

Quickly back on board and hubby needs to eat...all of the swimming was enough to drop his sugar...the blue Iguana, guys, and the buffet are all open. The buffet was just not looking good and the line for guys was quite long and not moving rapidly. Blue iguana wins!! A delicious shrimp burrito that was so big it was crazy and some water for hubby and tea for me...lunch. Now, I must comment here on something that was frequently discussed on the ship....this ship was warm...the air conditioning was either not able to keep up or was just not turned sufficiently cool enough. The dining room, which we often found to be chilly on our other cruise was at best comfortable. The interior eating areas on lido...warm...and frankly I often thought the buffet area was too warm and wondered about food safety. The comedy club was downright hot, and the theater was so so.....many people wanted their cabins cooler but it was not to be...ours was at times warmer than we would have liked, but never really uncomfortable

We had intended on going to the spa, but instead took showers in our cabin, had some alone time...and then went up to 14 where we watched the stragglers running back to the ship and then we sailed away. We enjoyed the company of several other cruisers for a while as we all chatted and just relaxed. What a nice start to the evening it was!!

Our nightly routine was to dress for dinner, head to a show or some activity, head to dinner around 8:30 and then hit a comedy show. Sometimes we went to the piano bar, sometimes we walked around the various public areas...we usually stopped to see if we liked the pictures from that day in the pixels area..we often would stop and listen to a song here or there as well. Always ending the night by grabbing water and some tea. Tonight was the Motor City show...I like Motown music...I enjoyed the show...one of the male singers was particularly gifted with an amazing voice and huge vocal range...his name is Andy..he belongs on Broadway!!!

We enjoyed the day again, no wait for a table...no problem with a theater seat...a long line and a long wait and we were stuck watching the comedy show on the monitor...but the guy was so funny I nearly slid out of the chair laughing!

My first ever non ship excursion went off without a hitch....I was happy.

The liquid bandage seemed to have work. Hubby's knee looked fine...we were both happy. On to Belize tomorrow!!

Chankanaab, is this a private beach like Nachi Cocom or a public beach that happens to have bar service?

Very excited... 22 days and counting!

 

 

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Jennifer, you must be on the 8/31 sailing? So are we!!! 21 days and counting! lol

Chankanaab, is this a private beach like Nachi Cocom or a public beach that happens to have bar service?

You have to pay admission, so it's not public.....

http://www.cozumelparks.com/eng/chankanaab.cfm

Jennifer, you must be on the 8/31 sailing? So are we!!! 21 days and counting! lol

Yes, so excited! It's our 20yr anniversary and it's been 3yrs since our last cruise. Ready for 5 days or complete laziness.

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Yes, so excited! It's our 20yr anniversary and it's been 3yrs since our last cruise. Ready for 5 days or complete laziness.

 

 

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20 years! That is awesome! I'm sure it will be an amazing time!

Looking forward to more posts of this review.

From what I have read on other boards it means stretcher team. Did they give a location/cabin number when they called it out?

Here are other posts about "codes" they use. Hope not to hear any of them on our upcoming cruise on sunshine in 26 days.

yes one to a room and one to the buffet by around the pizza area

Still loving the review. Thanks again for posting!!

Loving the review! Will be on the Sunshine in 75 days ourselves!