Mitsugirly's extensive back to belly sun & sky review

[Chesneygirl]

GREAT review with photos!!

It takes a certain kind of talent to put something like this together and you've definitely got it!! Thank you for taking the time to put it all together!! :)

[Laszlo]

I think Mitsugirly and Chesneygirl should open a travel review company. Our cruise on the Sun is only 73 days away

Edited November 27, 2014 by Laszlo

[Name Of The Game]

Another awesome review!

 

I've only sailed on Carnival. I LOVE the looks of that ship. Unfortunately, next year the Sun only sails to the Caribbean in March and April.

[mitsugirly]

Happy Happy Happy

 

Now you have the "Happy" song stuck in my head. :p

 

I am LOVING this review! DH and I sailed on the Sun last year on a 10-night S Carib cruise in a suite for my 40th b-day, and fell in love with her and her crew. I loved the Sun so much that my mom and I are sailing on her in January. Just FYI, based solely on your review of Almaplena, Mom and I are now booked for our day there on our cruise. :) Looking forward to the rest of the review - you have a true talent for this!

 

I really hope to do a longer Southern Caribbean cruise some time in the future. After doing these 2 back to belly cruises, I felt that 2 weeks away was just too long, but 9 or 10 days would be just about right for me. Maybe some day.

 

I hope you have a wonderful day at Almaplena. It's just beautiful there. Once you have visited that place, and you decide to return to Costa Maya, I have another place that is beautiful as well....coming up in this review. :)

[mitsugirly]

GREAT review with photos!!

It takes a certain kind of talent to put something like this together and you've definitely got it!! Thank you for taking the time to put it all together!! :)

 

Aww, shucks...thanks so much. :o :)

 

I think Mitsugirly and Chesneygirl should open a travel review company. Our cruise on the Sun is only 73 days away

 

Now that would be fun! I have thought about starting a blog...but so far, there hasn't been enough hours in the day for it. :eek: :D

[mitsugirly]

Another awesome review!

 

I've only sailed on Carnival. I LOVE the looks of that ship. Unfortunately, next year the Sun only sails to the Caribbean in March and April.

 

 

I hope to get back on Carnival again soon. I loved the Dream when we were on it last year and we are always in port with some Carnival ships that look for enticing. :)

[retiring soon]

Hi again!

 

mitsugirly ~ loving your pictures! :D You might just get me to go on the Sun as it looks lovely & does a cruise I'm interested in. Just need the $$$.

 

You should try the Carnival Breeze. I loved it enough to do twice (once when Gambee was onboard & he also loved it). Try a cove balcony, they're the greatest especially if you're not a sun worshipper. I also loved the Dream, my 1st Carnival ship.

 

Looking forward to more.

 

Happy Thanksgiving folks, enjoy your families & turkey.;)

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[mitsugirly]

Hi again!

 

mitsugirly ~ loving your pictures! :D You might just get me to go on the Sun as it looks lovely & does a cruise I'm interested in. Just need the $$$.

 

You should try the Carnival Breeze. I loved it enough to do twice (once when Gambee was onboard & he also loved it). Try a cove balcony, they're the greatest especially if you're not a sun worshipper. I also loved the Dream, my 1st Carnival ship.

 

Looking forward to more.

 

Happy Thanksgiving folks, enjoy your families & turkey.;)

 

~ Jo ~ :)

 

Thanks so much.

 

I would LOVE to do the Breeze. I have been eyeballing it for awhile now. (Also the Magic). Hopefully some day I'll get on her. Too many ships I wanna sail and too little days in the year. :D

 

I have done a cove balcony before and absolutely LOVED it. I am a sun worshiper, but when it comes to the balcony, I would rather be covered and relaxing (since the water is a little too far away from me to jump in and cool down) :eek: :p

[mitsugirly]

Up next is something I found interesting and odd (or at least from what I can remember).

 

Usually when you come out of the rooms/stairs section, the elevators are along the wall in front of you. On this ship it was actually around the corner longways.

 

Here's the steps and hallway (in the back of the picture) that you come to.

 

 

 

Then you'll go into this hallway where the elevators are.

 

 

On these elevators, you will need to push BOTH SIDES to call either side. If you push one side, it's the only side that will come. So, if you don't want to wait around for awhile, step over and push them both.

 

 

Or, you can walk on down the hallway and you'll come to 2 of the glass elevators on one side, or walk around the open atrium area and the other 2 glass elevators are on that side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are going up to deck 11 for all the fun and activities around the pool or the buffet. Once you exit the elevators, you will need to walk around the open atrium area.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

You will follow the sign that says "Swimming Pool", which leads you yet into another hall.

 

 

 

 

 

This area is also where the fitness center is located and also where you will find the blinds closed because the lady does not want you watching her exercise.

 

 

 

Now I only decided to mention this because even though the Sun and the Sky are basically the same ship, the Sun is enclosed and the Sky is all open and beautiful. I really liked the Sky better in this area and you'll see why in my next review.

[mitsugirly]

Next I will discuss the Internet and packages. We have NEVER purchased this before, but did purchase it this time around. My hubby owns his own business/store and he still has sales going on when we are on vacation and needs access to the Internet to complete orders and put in shipping for items to go out back home. We have always just used the Internet at whatever port we were in (but anyone that has read one of my previous reviews to Rose Hall in Jamaica and how that day went, you'll know why he tries to not stay on the Internet too long now).

 

So, we figured that this time around, we would give it a shot just in case there wasn't access at the places we had planned on using it.

 

Now I know that everyone on here has complained about how slow the Internet on the ships are. I mean after all, you are in the middle of the ocean in the middle of nowhere. It has been described at "as good or worse as the old AOL dial up back in the day". "Taking 5 minutes just switch from page to page" I'm here to tell you....it was NOT slow and was pretty darn fast in my book!!!! The pages loaded pretty quickly and there was no lag. We were pleasantly pleased with the service and will be using it again on our cruises. It was not slow by any means and kept up pretty darn good.

 

I want to apologize ahead of time for the pictures you are about to see. They are HORRID!!! I'm not sure why my camera was not focusing when I took them. In the screen viewer on the camera, they looked fine. Obviously they were not and they ended up blurry. So sorry, but you'll get the feeling for the Internet anyhow.

 

Once again, here are the packages they offer. We did not sign up on the first day so I have no idea what the "specials" were and how many minutes it included for signing up that day. We also used our own laptop and accessed the Internet from our room instead of using the ships computers. I can tell you that our PHONE service in our rooms while still in port was non-existent. So, this "could" indicate that also using our computers in our room might have been slower than using them up on the deck.

 

 

 

 

When you go to connect, it will ask you if you are a current user or new.

 

 

 

Once you click "new" you are able to register. It will ask you your name, cabin number and you will create your own password to use for signing on each time. Then it will ask you which plan you want. We chose the 250 minute plan just because we didn't know what to expect from this service.

 

 

Each time you use it, it will show you how many minutes you have remaining on your plan.

 

When you are ready to start...just click connect.

 

 

 

Once you are connected, you have a "main page". On that page you will have several things. There is a Google search (which I suggest using that page to do it because every time we tried to just go to another page or use the address bar, it did something crazy and we weren't able to get to where we needed. Using the page they have provided worked well (then again, it could have just been us lol) Then it will come up on another screen (with the homepage running in the background on another page).

 

 

 

Down below that page, it had tons of links provided that most people use. Just simply click on what you needed and away you go.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

While you are online, you could always bring up the home page, which showed your counter ticking away at the time you are using.

 

Once you are done you HAVE to click to log off. Otherwise you will still be counting down your time. Don't forget to do this.

 

Once you have disconnected, it will tell you how much time you have been online and how much time is remaining still on your plan.

 

 

It also gives you an account history of your usage and dates along with the $$ used to purchase.

 

 

 

It's just that easy to use. Anyone who has been scared to use it because it's so slow and you won't be able to accomplish anything...I say go for it. We had an excellent experience on both the Sun AND the Sky.

 

[mitsugirly]

Well this is probably all that I will get to do on the review today. Thanksgiving dinner is just about done and the kids and grandkids are on their way over...then on to the shopping spree to pull an all nighter like me and my daughter always does.

 

I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and be safe and blessed. I have managed to lose 7 pounds since I returned from my cruise. I'm pretty sure I'll gain that back today...all in 1 day...on one of the biggest "eating" days in the year. :D

 

[All-ready2cruise]

Happy Thanksgiving! :D

 

Hope you have a wonderful family get together.

 

Thanks very much for your wonderful review and all your hard work posting so many beautiful pictures including your invaluable insights.

[griz400]

Hello Kim and family,(wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving ), we had a good time on the Sun as well with you all, here is a pic of a "good lookin couple" in the Observation Lounge , I'm sure you have better pics than we have ... :)

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/slideshow/AlbumID=14859902014/PictureID=763601735014/a=130099243_130099243/otsc=SHR/otsi=SPIClink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

 

We enjoyed cruise with all of you, we have a few pics to share as well, maybe later in your review ... :)

Edited November 27, 2014 by griz400

[griz400]

Sorry, guess you did post pics of observation lounge, must have missed em, home today drinking some of the rum we bought in Belize .... :)

 

did you take any pics from the meet and greet ?? also the poolside BBQ ??

[jethrojam]

I'm looking forward to Bermuda as well. I'm just really concerned now about the weather and whether or not it will be warm enough to swim in the ocean and snorkel.

 

 

 

 

I might be cool. But certainly not too cold to do anything in the water. The water certainly will be colder than the Caribbean, but it's like that always. Either way, I am going in...water will be warmer than the ocean at home!

[Bra_BE2014]

Every time we decide to cruise, my daughter and I make a "countdown" for her to hang on the refrigerator in order to help her understand how long she has (truth be known, I get tired of having to answer the question "how much longer? Is it tomorrow?").

 

We normally just do a "rings" counter (like the one you see people make for Christmas), but thanks to a neat little thread on this awesome forum, we decided it was time to switch things up a little. She was really excited about doing something new.

 

What we (I) came up with was a big sheet of construction paper, found a "ship" picture online, made copies, then made a picture out of it. She would rip off a ship each day until she made it to the "big" ship. She enjoyed it and I didn't have to answer any questions. (I only got a report on how many more we had to go).

 

 

 

I also decided that this would be the first time that we made a door sign for our cabin door. (Can you tell I have a lot more time on my hands now that I'm finished with 4 1/2 years of school???) LOL

 

Here's what we came up with....3 suns with our names on it. (Sakari really liked that daddy's name was rolling eyeballs that looked a little crazy at times).

 

 

 

 

We counted down the days...until this...

 

 

 

 

Then we knew we were almost there.

 

We were flying out of Ohio (which was pretty decent weather when we left) on a Saturday. For some reason, mommy decided to have everyone's appointments during the week of our departure. Doctors appointments, dentist and the hubby a ENT appointment. He has had problems with his hearing and his ears leaking since he was 16 years old and never had it checked out.

 

His ear appointment on Friday ran a little longer than expected when they decided to send him to an audiologist for a hearing test right after his ENT appointment and then on to some contrast scans after that. (They determined that he has a hole in each ear, causing the leaking and a pseudomonas infection and he has no ear drum according to the ENT and will need to be rebuilt). So...I guess he's actually excused all these years for "ignoring" me...or so I thought.

 

Since we had all these test this day I COMPLETELY forgot that at 11am I was to "check-in" on Southwest to get our boarding positions. I didn't remember until almost 3pm. YIKES! By then, we ended up with the "C" category at the VERY end. Sigh. I was completely bummed and knew what this meant...we were not sitting together and would be fighting over a spot. Thank goodness I had booked a straight flight to Tampa instead of a connecting one.

 

I did do some research on Southwest at that point (frantically searching for another solution) and found that they would allow you to pay for an upgrade (for $40 a person!!!!!!) to board during A1-A15. I guess this was an option if I wanted the day to be hassle free and would consider it.

 

I had been packing all week and was a lot more prepared for this cruise than last time around. I was also a lot more excited this time around as well.

 

I went to bed early and set my alarm for 7am and hoped for the best to get some rest.

 

Hi, I love your reviews! I hope you will forgive me but I have to say pink is not the best color for the review - it is a bit tiring on the eyes after a few lines. Oh well, I will read it anyway :D

[FreestyleNovice]

Hi, I love your reviews! I hope you will forgive me but I have to say pink is not the best color for the review - it is a bit tiring on the eyes after a few lines. Oh well, I will read it anyway :D

 

I agree but using a different color makes it easier to spot the review parts in the thread which I really like. Looking forward to the Sky part of your review Mitsu! :)

[moopig]

Just back from the Sun and I am loving your review! I am seeing places I didn't even know existed on the ship! Your review is the closest thing to being on a ship that I have ever read---thanks for posting this!!!!!!

Edited November 28, 2014 by moopig

[mitsugirly]

Happy Thanksgiving! :D

 

Hope you have a wonderful family get together.

 

Thanks very much for your wonderful review and all your hard work posting so many beautiful pictures including your invaluable insights.

 

Thanks so much for your kind words and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. :)

 

Hello Kim and family,(wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving ), we had a good time on the Sun as well with you all, here is a pic of a "good lookin couple" in the Observation Lounge , I'm sure you have better pics than we have ... :)

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/slideshow/AlbumID=14859902014/PictureID=763601735014/a=130099243_130099243/otsc=SHR/otsi=SPIClink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

 

We enjoyed cruise with all of you, we have a few pics to share as well, maybe later in your review ... :)

 

Hey Griz! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too. Glad you had a good cruise and thanks for sharing your picture. :) It was so nice to meet you both.

[mitsugirly]

Sorry, guess you did post pics of observation lounge, must have missed em, home today drinking some of the rum we bought in Belize .... :)

 

did you take any pics from the meet and greet ?? also the poolside BBQ ??

 

Yep, plenty of pictures of the Observation loung, but you are welcome to still share any of yours.

 

How's the Rum from Belize? We were suckered into buying some of their cashew wine once before (and we even got to taste test it), but I swear when we got home and drank it, it did not taste the same. We ended up throwing it out. :eek:

 

I might be cool. But certainly not too cold to do anything in the water. The water certainly will be colder than the Caribbean, but it's like that always. Either way, I am going in...water will be warmer than the ocean at home!

 

Thanks for the info. I'm just really worried about it, but since I have never been there, I have nothing to go off of.

[mitsugirly]

Hi, I love your reviews! I hope you will forgive me but I have to say pink is not the best color for the review - it is a bit tiring on the eyes after a few lines. Oh well, I will read it anyway :D

 

Thanks so much and I completely agree about the color. I have never done the color change or the font change or size change before, but it was brought up once and people stated that they would much rather read a review like that because it's easier to spot the review itself without having to read everyone's comments and replies but scrolling until they found the color. When I did my first post, I tried various colors and there just really wasn't anything that made it easier to read.

 

If anyone has a more "friendlier" color that they feel is better, I will change it up on my NEXT review, since this one is already started, I don't want to confuse anyone if they have already began scrolling.

 

I agree but using a different color makes it easier to spot the review parts in the thread which I really like. Looking forward to the Sky part of your review Mitsu! :)

 

Thanks so much. :)

[mitsugirly]

Just back from the Sun and I am loving your review! I am seeing places I didn't even know existed on the ship! Your review is the closest thing to being on a ship that I have ever read---thanks for posting this!!!!!!

 

 

Thank you so much for the compliments. I'm glad you are enjoying it. :)

[hpecorari]

Hi, I love your reviews! I hope you will forgive me but I have to say pink is not the best color for the review - it is a bit tiring on the eyes after a few lines. Oh well, I will read it anyway :D

 

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I don't really care what color it is (I've gotten used to the pink now and look forward to seeing it).

 

The different color helps me when I'm in a rush to easily spot the review itself. I think it was a GREAT idea!

 

Harriet