Detailed Photo Review of Carnival Sunshine 12-Night Mediterranean Cruise 9/8/13

[deladane]

Dubrovnik is a beautiful old city and is very well preserved. Everywhere I turned, there was something else that was interesting to see and photograph. I wish we had docked earlier in the day so we could have spent more time enjoying the city, but instead, we had to quickly walk through town and along the Stradum because we wanted to have enough time to enjoy walking the city walls as well. Here's a few highlights from Dubrovnik...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DEERINH2O]

Love it can't wait to read more. Thanks!

 

Kathy

[MrBanana1240]

Beautiful pictures! Loving it!

[deladane]

Love it can't wait to read more. Thanks!

 

Kathy

 

Beautiful pictures! Loving it!

 

Thank you! I'm glad you are enjoying it and I plan to post more soon :)

[dane225]

Loving your review!!!!:)

[cruizinisthebest]

Loving all the pics and commentary about Europe. Soo nice! I would love to take a trip like this one day; especially on a cruise!

[Doug910]

...Thank you for your review. Great pictures! I originally looked at this review to see some more Sunshine pictures, as we are sailing the Caribbean on her in February. But now, I'm really enjoying ALL the pictures! Great Job!

[jlajr]

Hello Dana. Allow me to add my thanks for your review. I hope you've fully recovered from your cold.

[randyj266]

This makes me miss Europe. I lived in Sicily for three years and bounced all around Europe. I have always wanted to take my wife on a trip over there, just don't have the money quite yet:(

[mississauga]

Dana, what a wonderful review. Love all the details and tips.

 

I was always apprehensive about flying into Venice to start a cruise but you make it all sound so easy.

 

Keep up the great job and thank you for taking the time to do this review.

[cjammer]

I am loving your review. We are on the same itinerary in Oct. Can't wait. I have a question for you. On embarkation day, is there a specific time that you need to check-in? Since the ship is over-nighting in Venice, I would like to spend the day in Venice and not show up to the ship until dinner time or later. But I don't want them to give away my room if I'm not there by a certain time.

 

Thanks,

Cari

 

Keep the review coming, it's the first thing I check for when I get up in the morning.

[deladane]

Loving all the pics and commentary about Europe. Soo nice! I would love to take a trip like this one day; especially on a cruise!

If you can find the time and the funds, I highly recommend it! Seeing Europe from a cruise ship is totally the way to go because the ship takes care of your transportation and you just get to show up in a new country every day! It's my favorite way to travel :)

 

 

...Thank you for your review. Great pictures! I originally looked at this review to see some more Sunshine pictures, as we are sailing the Caribbean on her in February. But now, I'm really enjoying ALL the pictures! Great Job!

Thank you! I think I have a few more Sunshine photos to share, but definitely tons more Europe photos!!

 

 

Hello Dana. Allow me to add my thanks for your review. I hope you've fully recovered from your cold.

Thanks! And sadly no, I STILL can't get rid of this pesky cold :( I'm much better than I was, but still have a nagging cough... not exactly the souvenir I would have wanted to bring home with me, but I'll get better eventually!

 

 

This makes me miss Europe. I lived in Sicily for three years and bounced all around Europe. I have always wanted to take my wife on a trip over there, just don't have the money quite yet:(

Wow, where did you live in Sicily? I spent a lovely day there when we docked in Messina... what a beautiful island!

 

 

Dana, what a wonderful review. Love all the details and tips.

 

I was always apprehensive about flying into Venice to start a cruise but you make it all sound so easy.

 

Keep up the great job and thank you for taking the time to do this review.

Don't get me wrong- staying IN Venice is not so easy... it was just easy because of how we decided to do things by staying in Mestre and using lots of taxis when dealing with our luggage. Either way, Venice is a very unique city and worth visiting

 

 

I am loving your review. We are on the same itinerary in Oct. Can't wait. I have a question for you. On embarkation day, is there a specific time that you need to check-in? Since the ship is over-nighting in Venice, I would like to spend the day in Venice and not show up to the ship until dinner time or later. But I don't want them to give away my room if I'm not there by a certain time.

 

Thanks,

Cari

 

Keep the review coming, it's the first thing I check for when I get up in the morning.

When we originally booked the cruise, they told us we had to check in by 5pm on Sunday, even though the ship didn't sail away until Monday. When we got back to the ship after dinner on Sunday night, it looked like they still had a few check in desks open, but I can't be 100% sure because there weren't any guests actually checking in at that time so it could have just been port workers getting things organized or something. We were checked in, dropped our carry on bags in the cabin, at lunch, and back off the ship by noon, and then we had the entire rest of the day to explore Venice, so you might want to try things that way and not worry about missing check in time. I was worried about not having any full days to see the city, but we ended up seeing everything on our to-do list so I guess it didn't matter after all. Have a great cruise and come back to let us know how it went!!

[mississauga]

 

Don't get me wrong- staying IN Venice is not so easy... it was just easy because of how we decided to do things by staying in Mestre and using lots of taxis when dealing with our luggage. Either way, Venice is a very unique city and worth visiting

 

 

 

LOL.....the operative words were " you make it sound so easy". Like I said, I am apprehensive about cruising out of Venice but you made it work so if we follow what you did, it will make it easier. Thanks for your how to do it method.:D

[lovetravel88]

I stumbled across your reviews last night and am so glad I did! We depart on this cruise next week beginning in Barcelona and ending in Venice. Your reviews have been so helpful already and I can't wait to read more! Especially since the end of your cruise (Barcelona) is where we will begin!

We have booked tours with different companies in each port except for Dubrovnik and Venice. We thought we could do those on our own and after reading your reviews I think we can! We had planned to visit Murano. Did you actually visit or take a tour of the glass factory or did you just buy the glass candy on the island?

I know it takes lots of time to post the reviews and I'm sure I'll be reading every one I can up until the day we leave! Your information as been so helpful! Thanks again!

[swim4lifekac]

Dana,

 

I didn't realize that you got a cold on the cruise. I got bronchitis by the time we were in Sicily (Sunday) and asked for a prescription at a pharmacy and they gave it to me. I still had a bad cough last week. This week it is better, not as deep, but still coughing. I wonder if something was going around on the ship. I have heard of others with a cough/cold as well.

 

Kathy

[Silent Penguin]

It's been wonderful following you through your trip so far. Lots of Wow factor for me since I've never been to Venice (or any part of Italy for that matter) or Croatia.

[luvcdays]

Awesome review! Keep it coming...

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Love the great pics you have posted. Sunshine looks great.

[deladane]

I stumbled across your reviews last night and am so glad I did! We depart on this cruise next week beginning in Barcelona and ending in Venice. Your reviews have been so helpful already and I can't wait to read more! Especially since the end of your cruise (Barcelona) is where we will begin!

We have booked tours with different companies in each port except for Dubrovnik and Venice. We thought we could do those on our own and after reading your reviews I think we can! We had planned to visit Murano. Did you actually visit or take a tour of the glass factory or did you just buy the glass candy on the island?

I know it takes lots of time to post the reviews and I'm sure I'll be reading every one I can up until the day we leave! Your information as been so helpful! Thanks again!

I had originally planned to take a tour of the glass factory, but by the time we got to Murano, it was already somewhat late in the day so we decided to skip the tour and just look at the window displays and do a little shopping because we wanted to get to Burano before those stores all closed. It would have been fun to see them make the glass, but I really didn't know where to go or which stores would let you watch without forcing you to buy something, so window shopping was a good compromise :) I hope you have a great trip! I doubt I will get to the Barcelona part of my review before you leave, but but it was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip!

 

 

Dana,

 

I didn't realize that you got a cold on the cruise. I got bronchitis by the time we were in Sicily (Sunday) and asked for a prescription at a pharmacy and they gave it to me. I still had a bad cough last week. This week it is better, not as deep, but still coughing. I wonder if something was going around on the ship. I have heard of others with a cough/cold as well.

 

Kathy

Hey Kathy,

Yes, unfortunately I was sick from Izmir (Friday) until yesterday (two and a half weeks better). Today was the first day I didn't cough, so fingers crossed that it is finally out of my system!! I saw a ton of people who had coughs and colds on the ship, so someone must have brought it on and passed it on to everyone else. Not fun, but I guess that was better than a stomach bug! haha I hope you are feeling better by now though :)

 

 

It's been wonderful following you through your trip so far. Lots of Wow factor for me since I've never been to Venice (or any part of Italy for that matter) or Croatia.

Thank you! We had lots of wow factor in seeing everything in person hehe

 

 

Awesome review! Keep it coming...

Thanks! I'm glad you are enjoying the review and I hope to get more posted soon. I have been super busy with other things so I haven't had much time to work on it yesterday and today, but I promise I won't keep you all hanging for too much longer if I can avoid it!

 

 

Love the great pics you have posted. Sunshine looks great.

Thank you :) The Sunshine was a beautiful ship and it was lots of fun spending 12 days on board!

[fuddrules]

I stumbled across your reviews last night and am so glad I did! We depart on this cruise next week beginning in Barcelona

 

Barcelona - taken from a tower at Sagrada Familia.

 

[pb19]

I wish I could go back a few weeks and have a do-over for this trip. I ended up with a cold halfway through and I'm just getting over it three weeks later. Ugh, not fun.

I love all the picts. I would go back on The Sunshine in a minute if given the chance....she was an awesome ship and we had NO problems. I'd love to go on her again when she leaves out of New Orleans. We did not get to enjoy her because of the port intensive cruise out of Venice. We did good to survive the trip from day to day, but we did not have time to enjoy the ship. Thanks again Dana for your review!!!

[deladane]

Ok, I'm back with a little more of my review!

 

Sorry, I couldn't narrow it down to just 6 photos, so here are a few more photos from walking along the Stradum... Let me know if this is overkill and I'm posting too many photos! haha

 

 

 

 

 

I had heard about a great candle store on the Stradum called Candle Kingdom, so I knew I wanted to check it out. The candles were beautiful, and they made them in every different color combination!

 

 

They were kind of pricey, but I decided to buy a small one to take home. They list the prices in Euros, but apparently they only accepted payment in their local currency of Kunas, and they did not take credit cards. I had not exchanged any money for Kunas, so the sales lady offered to take my Euros to the exchange place and get the Kunas for me. I think I probably came out ahead by doing it this way because I avoided paying any fees to exchange the money, and I didn't have to do the running around haha It took her a long time, but she finally came back and I left with my new pretty candle:

 

[deladane]

The Stradum isn't very long, but there are also lots of stores lining the side streets. Once we reached the end of the Stradum, we found the Pile Gate where we could enter the top of the city walls. While I was buying my candle, mom and our friends bought some gelato, and they were still eating it when they went to pay for their tickets to the city wall. Apparently it is considered very rude to eat while conducting a transaction like buying your tickets because the guards scolded them! They said that we would find it rude if they were eating when we came in to buy our tickets, so why is it ok if we eat in front of them? Point taken! Everyone quickly finished paying for their tickets and finished their gelato.

 

After we bought our tickets, we hiked up 87 very steep and narrow stairs to the top of the wall. Literally the minute we got up to the top, the skies opened up and it started pouring! There was no where to seek cover, so we took out our umbrellas and tried not to fall on the wet slippery stone of the city walls.

 

 

Luckily, the rain only lasted for about 10 minutes. Bands of dark clouds came and went all day, but this was our only period of heavy rain. It took 1 hour to walk slowly from the Pile to Ploce gate with many stops along the way to take photos. The beautiful red roof tiles contrasted with the blue water, and the views over the cliffs were breathtaking!

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

While we were talking the walls, I spotted both Buza Bars along the water. We opted not to spend our limited time in port searching for the entrance to the bars, but it was cool to see them from above.

 

 

 

Here are a few more photos from walking the walls...

 

 

 

 

[rhinomike]

No. You are not posting too many pics. If anything I want to see more. I love your post. I check two or three times a day for updates. It is a big help while planning our trip. Thank you. It is greatly appreciated