Searching For Sunshine...Feb. 28 thru March 7 Photo Review

[Crusin Karen]

Just saw a video of one of the corner aft suites on deck 5 on YouTube. OMG...:eek: if I win the lottery I am definitely booking one of those "cabins."

[trixiegal]

Very interested in your review. We are on the Sunshine in June. I'm on the fence about the steakhouse since we didn't have the best experience in the one on the Breeze last summer. Nice to hear you enjoyed the steakhouse on the Sunshine.

[pirate4me2]

For those that like pictures, today is going to be a let down for you...I didn't take any! Sorry. :( I was kind of lazy, to be honest...

We slept in until 9. Can I just say that interior cabins are EXCELLENT for sleeping? With no natural light I had no idea it was that late! If our cabin had been on a floor with cabins above and below it, I hate to think how late I would have slept!

We decided to do the Sea Day brunch for breakfast. It was delicious! I got the Caesar salad (soooo good!) and Huervos Rancheros (I know I didn't spell that right, sorry...they were delicious!). Hubby got the Mac and Cheese with chicken in it and said it was really good. I do not know how he ate Mac and Cheese at that hour...

Now, for a downside to the Sunshine. It was now 11:30, and I decided to try and find a deck chair to relax in. I didn't care where I was, if I ended up in Serenity, by the pool, on a deck away from it all, near the smoking area...I didn't care. I just wanted some sun and to read my book. Unfortunately, at least on this cruise, open deck chairs are almost nonexistent on sea days. I walked on all the open top decks twice and couldn't find one. I saw lots of chairs with items in them but no people, and I was tempted to move a pair of flip flops that was reserving 2 chairs for both my laps of the upper decks, but I decided to be nice and leave them. I finally found a chair just as a lady was getting up to leave right next to the smoking area. I am not a smoker and really can't stand the smell of it, but I grabbed the chair. No way was I going to complain!

I stayed in my precious lounger until about 2:30 (sorry roll call...I slept thru our meet and greet!) and finally decided to do something. Why not try the water slides? I went and changed into my swim suit and ran up to Waterworks. I climbed the stairs and...wait, what is that I see? We are passing Cuba! I stood in line (the lines were quick moving by the way) and decided to try the blue racing slide. Holy cow, it was fast! I beat the guy I was racing, and I decided to give Twister a try. It was OK, but not nearly as fun as the racing slide. I went back down the blue racer and decided to find DH and see what he was up to.

Tonight's production show was Motor City, which we had seen on the Breeze and enjoyed, so we decided to get changed into our dinner clothes and hit the 7:15 show. We wandered the Fun Shops and went into the theater to grab a seat when they opened the doors. I had read to get there early for a seat, and we managed to grab a seat right on the top floor balcony, center stage. It was a great seat location! The show was as good as we remembered, and at the end of it the dancers took the party out into the atrium where everyone danced more.

We went to the Sunrise dining room for our late seating dinner. We had table 603, and the head waitress was named Letisha. The service tonight was OK...I am not sure if it was because we had not been the evening before or what the deal was, but our drinks went dry twice and the service just seemed rushed and impersonal. We got a table for 2, which I was kind of disappointed in. I wanted a big table with tablemates to try for a change, but it turned out OK. The table for 2 was so close to other tables that we did chat a little bit with our neighbors over the course of the week. Tonight I had the Caesar salad, which was really, really good, the stuffed mushrooms (not as good as I have had on other ships), a taste of DH's alligator fritters (they were good, but I was weirded out by the thought of eating gator), spaghetti carbonara (it was good) and WCMC with 2 ice creams (aka Mickey Mouse, and it was cooked PERFECTLY!).

After dinner we hit up the Piano Bar again. There was a good crowd, and we hung out for a while. At 10:30 I decided to call it a day. I know, I know, I am not much of a partier. But hey, I had Cozumel to look forward to tomorrow!

[pirate4me2]

Just saw a video of one of the corner aft suites on deck 5 on YouTube. OMG...:eek: if I win the lottery I am definitely booking one of those "cabins."

 

They look amazing!

 

Very interested in your review. We are on the Sunshine in June. I'm on the fence about the steakhouse since we didn't have the best experience in the one on the Breeze last summer. Nice to hear you enjoyed the steakhouse on the Sunshine.

 

No doubt, the steakhouse on the Sunshine wins hands down over the Breeze and the Liberty for us. It was fantastic. I left stuffed. The only items that I didn't care for were the banana desert portion on the Chocolate Sampler and the Tirimisu (or however the heck you spell that dessert!) portion of the Chocolate sampler. But the brownie part and the cake part...oh my gosh, they more than made up for it! The main courses and salads were delish.

[pirate4me2]

Ok everyone, I am taking a break to cook dinner and then I will try and post Cozumel tonight! I took a bunch of pics there and finally got them uploaded, so I will work my way thru that later!

[Crusin Karen]

I hate to keep butting in, but I see you like the WCMC (who doesn't??) and since you have another cruise booked, I will give you advice I have given many times. Order it with STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM. Ohhhhh.....SO GOOD. Strawberry and chocolate belong together! ;)

[pirate4me2]

I hate to keep butting in, but I see you like the WCMC (who doesn't??) and since you have another cruise booked, I will give you advice I have given many times. Order it with STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM. Ohhhhh.....SO GOOD. Strawberry and chocolate belong together! ;)

 

Oh, that does sound good! Thanks for the advice!

[pirate4me2]

Fun Times for Cozumel:

[pirate4me2]

Alright, who's ready for some fun in Cozumel? Before we get started, let me show you our door decoration that we always hang each cruise. By day 3, it looked like this:

I always think it is fun to see what others write on the board. :)

We had booked the Underground River and Famous Fifth Ave Shopping tour thru Carnival. It sounded like a fun, different excursion. We didn't get into port until 10, so we slept until 7:30 and got up to find some breakfast. I opted for a breakfast burrito from Blue Iguana. Yummy! DH opted for the Lido buffet and got bacon, beans, and some cereal. I think my breakfast was better. :D

We met at 9:30 in the Liquid Lounge. They led us out onto the pier and to a ferry that would take us to the main land for our excursion. The ferry ride took about 30 minutes.

Sunshine in port

Our neighbors for the day

I love whale tails!

[pirate4me2]

Other ships docked close by

A pretty fountain in downtown

 

Alright everyone, CC was down for a bit tonight and I have got to get up for work tomorrow. I will try and get the rest of Coz posted tomorrow and start on Roatan!

[pirate4me2]

We took a motorcoach to the Underground River site. The air conditioning in the bus worked great, and our tour guide Andy was great. DH and I agree that he is by far the best tour guide we have ever had. When we got to the site, he gave us a little history lesson on the Mayans, and then it was time to get wet! For the first portion of the tour we went to one area that we didn't have to have any life vests or hard hats, and then for the second portion we had to have them due to the river depth (35 feet) and some low hanging rock formations (I forget their correct name, sorry!). All together we were in the river for about 2 1/2 hours, and it felt great. The water was about 60 degrees, and it was so crystal clear.

Pics from the excursion:

 

 

 

 

 

[pirate4me2]

 

 

Sorry for the water drops on the camera lens...

 

 

 

[pirate4me2]

 

 

 

 

 

[Crusin Karen]

Absolutely beautiful pictures. No way I would ever do something like this, (I am CHICKEN!) so thank you for letting me experience this thru you! What is that, a "bonfire" in one of the pictures?

[pirate4me2]

Last pic from the underground river:

 

After we finished in the water, we were fed a traditional lunch of chicken tacos, tamales, rice, beans, and either water or coke. It was a pretty good lunch! Then we were taken back into town for an hour of shopping.

 

Saw this downtown, and guess what?

 

It made me buy this:

 

But guess what? I couldn't get it open. So, I did a bad thing. I rolled it up in my wet swim suit and towel and I put it in my bag. We were taken by ferry back to the ship, and as I sweated bullets about getting in trouble, my bag went thru the scanner. Nothing happened! I took my bag and went up the stairs to the room. Where I promptly set out to find a knife to open the bottle.

 

 

[pirate4me2]

On the ferry ride back to the ship we got to see our fellow whale tales sail away. I love to see ships sail off. Now, funny story...every time DH and I are in port, we see the ship we are sailing on next. On our Breeze cruise we saw Liberty sail off the day before we did, and on our Liberty cruise we saw Splendor in Grand Turk and Sunshine in PC. On our upcoming Splendor cruise we will be in port with Pride. DH and I have been saying we want to sail Magic one day if she comes to PC (which was confirmed by a few employees on this sailing) and guess who happened to be in Coz with us?

 

 

 

Bye Magic, we will see you hopefully in 2017!

 

Now, on our Breeze cruise we also saw Glory, and we saw her again on our Liberty cruise. She also kept following us this time! I told DH that it's my old horse, who's name was Glory, that passed away 2 years ago telling me from Heaven that I need to sail on the ship with her name!

 

 

 

Back on board was at 5:30, and we were the last people to be getting back on. Our excursion boat was pulling up beside the ship at 5:30, and people were on their balconies calling to us and clapping. We all just laughed and waved. It was a Carnival excursion that ran late! We got onboard and DH and I decided to try out Cucina for dinner tonight. We went at 6:30 and didn't have a reservation, which was no problem. Let me just tell you this: if you are thinking of trying the Italian, DO IT! It's wonderful! I had the Risotto balls, which were kind of blah, but DH's meatballs were EXCELLENT. DH had the steak for his entrée, which was delicious. I wish I had ordered it, and I am not a big steak fan! I ordered the chicken parm, which was also delicious, and DH wished he had ordered my main course. Haha. Both entrees were huge. DH got the cannoli for his dessert, which was just OK, but my tiramisu was to die for. I mean, it was EXCELLENT. The chef also came by to see how dinner was, and he asked what desserts we had chosen. DH told him he had debated between the cannoli and the apple tart, and the chef told us to hang on and he gave us an apple tart to go! It was totally unexpected and not necessary, but it really put the experience over the top. Since we were both stuffed, we chose to have the apple tart for breakfast the next day. Guess what? It was incredible! It made a fantastic breakfast. :cool:

After dinner we went to the Red Frog Pub to hear live music. The guitar soloist named Brian is really, really, really good. I mean, he is super talented and can play anything. He played Taylor Swift, Darius Rucker, Jimmy Buffet, Johnny Cash, CCR, Beatles, Eagles, and a bunch more. He took requests and he always had a crowd, sometimes he even had dancing going on! The man can sing.

That wraps up our day in Cozumel. I will see you all tomorrow evening for Roatan!

[pirate4me2]

Absolutely beautiful pictures. No way I would ever do something like this, (I am CHICKEN!) so thank you for letting me experience this thru you! What is that, a "bonfire" in one of the pictures?

 

I am a chicken too, and this was somewhat out of my comfort zone (I worried about snakes, but then we were told there are not any in the underground river) but let me just say that our Belize excursion was TOTALLY out of my comfort zone. The only critters in this river were catfish, which still freaked me out but they left me alone. :) Oh, and there were bats too, but they didn't bug us.

I don't know what that was in the pic...maybe my camera flash?

[A&Jfamily]

Hi Pirate!

 

You never showed at our meet and greet! I hope you had a good cruise. And if you don't mind, I will chime in from time to time on your review, because we were both on the same ship. And, I can say that in some areas, it already looks like we had different experiences. We were on a balcony Aft deck 7 and LOVED the location - rooms above and below so no unnecessary noise. Also, we were so conveniently located to the Havana bar (two decks up) where we had delicious Cuban Iced teas (think long island, heavy on rum plus lime) as well as the treats (the breakfast croquettes, and guava and cheese pastries are particularly good with an early morning cup of coffee). Two floors down was the Alchemy bar (and yes Maja ("Maya") was wonderful and helped us drink our way through all their specialty martinis. Plus you had the benefit of the live band most nights in the Ocean Plaza. For the kids, Camp and O2 were up 3 floors and the sport square/walking track up 4. We are not serenity deck people because we have our balcony but it was lovely.

 

As for service, particularly in the MDR (ES Sunset Deck 3 mid-ship) was the best service we have ever had from Sergey and his assistants. Amith (maitre d) was very funny and was by our table every evening talking with us. Plus, Darwin, a waiter, with an amazing voice sang 1-2 songs every night.

 

Sunshine has been our favorite ship so far. Havana bar is almost NEVER crowded unless you go at peak lunch times. And the Guy's burgers and Bonsai sushi are great. We ate at JiJis first night and had the free saki sangria which was a nice treat; but the food was the best Asian we have ever had. Well worth a try!

[pirate4me2]

Hi Pirate!

 

You never showed at our meet and greet! I hope you had a good cruise. And if you don't mind, I will chime in from time to time on your review, because we were both on the same ship. And, I can say that in some areas, it already looks like we had different experiences. We were on a balcony Aft deck 7 and LOVED the location - rooms above and below so no unnecessary noise. Also, we were so conveniently located to the Havana bar (two decks up) where we had delicious Cuban Iced teas (think long island, heavy on rum plus lime) as well as the treats (the breakfast croquettes, and guava and cheese pastries are particularly good with an early morning cup of coffee). Two floors down was the Alchemy bar (and yes Maja ("Maya") was wonderful and helped us drink our way through all their specialty martinis. Plus you had the benefit of the live band most nights in the Ocean Plaza. For the kids, Camp and O2 were up 3 floors and the sport square/walking track up 4. We are not serenity deck people because we have our balcony but it was lovely.

 

As for service, particularly in the MDR (ES Sunset Deck 3 mid-ship) was the best service we have ever had from Sergey and his assistants. Amith (maitre d) was very funny and was by our table every evening talking with us. Plus, Darwin, a waiter, with an amazing voice sang 1-2 songs every night.

 

Sunshine has been our favorite ship so far. Havana bar is almost NEVER crowded unless you go at peak lunch times. And the Guy's burgers and Bonsai sushi are great. We ate at JiJis first night and had the free saki sangria which was a nice treat; but the food was the best Asian we have ever had. Well worth a try!

 

Hey, yes, I slept thru our meet and greet. It was held the day I had to fight to get my deck chair, and I woke up at 2:30. Ooops! I sure got my use out of that chair though!

I don't mind you chiming in, the readers deserve to hear about the Sunshine. I'm glad you all had a good cruise!

[Crusin Karen]

I love the "sign on" board on your door. I always decorate our door with some pictures and also our cruise history like in my signature. I'd love to do something like that, tho. How did you attach it? Was thinking of getting a chalk board...

[pirate4me2]

I had some really, really good sticky putty stuff. I forget where I got it from, an office supply store I think. I tried to use it one time and it didn't, but this time it stuck well.

[jbhcw]

enjoying your review.:):):) great pictures!

[LPGA Golfer Gal]

Quick question to the cruisers that have returned from the Sunshine: the snacks and breakfast/ lunch nibbles at the Havana Bar- are they free? Are they only available for certain times of the day? Thanks in advance.

[pirate4me2]

Quick question to the cruisers that have returned from the Sunshine: the snacks and breakfast/ lunch nibbles at the Havana Bar- are they free? Are they only available for certain times of the day? Thanks in advance.

 

I cannot comment on this, as we never made it to the Havana Bar. It was on my to do list, but I never made it. :(

[pirate4me2]

Fun Times for Roatan: