Our Carnival Sunrise B2B to Bermuda?? & New England / Canada (with pics) – 9/16/2019.

[Jamman54]

Here are some views of historic Charleston as taken from Serenity, starting with the United States Custom House…..

 

 

Looking up north and south Market streets at the City Market buildings…..

 

 

Here is a view looking at historical downtown Charleston. The church steeple on the left belongs to the Hugeunot Church, and the steeple to the right belongs to St. Philips…..

 

 

Here are a couple of views of Waterfront Park…..

 

 

 

Here is another view of St. Philips.....

 

 

Here are a few views of Carnival’s Waterworks…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Since it was getting close to time for our sail away, we moved all the aft on Deck 10. In the distance is the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge…..

 

 

Over at Patriots Point, the USS Yorktown is now a museum…..

 

 

Castle Pinckney is on an island in Charleston Harbor…..

 

 

Here’s a view looking up at the Sports Square…..

 

 

Pretty much right on time, the Carnival Sunrise pushes away from the pier…..

 

 

 

Here are a couple more views of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge…..

 

 

 

That’s the pier we just left from…..

 

 

Goodbye Charleston! We hope to visit again some day. (But not on a Bermuda cruise!

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[tandemcruzr]

Enjoying your review. In your last post there is a photo with Aqua Tunnel. What's that?

[Jamman54]

Here are some views as the Carnival Sunrise sailed from Charleston Harbor…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

As we head back to the cabin to get ready for dinner, we pass DJ Saxy entertaining the folks on the Lido Deck…..

 

 

Down in the Atrium Lobby people are enjoying the Caribbean Sounds by Brent…..

 

 

Soon it was time for dinner, so we hopped onto a mid-ship elevator, went down to Deck 3, and entered the Radiance Restaurant from the back way since our table is back there, Here are tonight’s menus…..

 

 

 

 

Patti starts with a Caesar salad, then has the seared tilapia for her main….

 

 

 

I start off with the vegetable spring rolls and the seared pork rolls, then have the Portobello mushrooms for my main…..

 

 

 

 

We both had the apple pie for dessert…..

 

 

Yoki has come to the table to bring us our (almost) nightly shots…..

 

 

 

Cheers everyone!

 

 

 

Entertainment tonight is pretty sparse. There are no comedy shows tonight. In the Liquid Lounge tonight they will have Hasbro the Game Show, The Gender Showdown, Love & Marriage Show, and finally Carnival Quest.

 

The Black Diamond Electric Violins were performing in the Atrium Lobby…..

 

 

Shortly after leaving dinner we noticed that the ship was starting to rock pretty good. The severity of the rocking would increase greatly as the night wore on. Patti went to Pixels to pick up our pictures and then went back to the cabin to read.

 

I went to the Skybox Sports Bar to hang out for the evening. As the night wore on the rocking, which was more front to back then side to side, got so bad that Stefan the bar tender, had to secure all the bottles in the well. I went back to the cabin around 10:30 pm.

 

Thankfully Patti and I don’t get seasick, but I’m sure a lot of people were. Even in bed you felt at times that you had to hold on for dear life, making it difficult to sleep. On top of that, at 1:15 in the morning, the smoke alarms in our section of cabins went off. As everyone stepped out into the hallway to see what was going on, security and maintenance converged on the scene. You could tell from their walkies that they were talking to the bridge.

 

It was apparent pretty quickly that there was no fire or danger, but the bridge was having a problem getting the alarm reset. Those alarms blared, and they are ear piercing, for over an hour before they were finally silenced. So for us, between the alarm and the ship rocking, there would be little sleep tonight.

 

Coming up next: Bermuda bound! Or are we?

[Jamman54]

28 minutes ago, tandemcruzr said:

Enjoying your review. In your last post there is a photo with Aqua Tunnel. What's that?

 

Thanks for reading! The Aqua Tunnel is a water slide in the Waterworks. 

 

45 minutes ago, pirate4me2 said:

Haha not to hijack your thread but that pic of the dog outside the fire department brought back so many memories for me from past trips to Charleston/Folly Beach with my old dog, Maya. We had to snap a pic of her next to “Sparky”

 

Never a hijack when you're involved. As I said, the Charleston segment has developed a life of it's own! What a great picture. Glad it brought back a lot of good memories. Thanks for sharing! 

Edited October 17, 2019 by Jamman54

[Amadawn1]

23 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

Coming up next: Bermuda bound! Or are we?

Jeff, thanks so much for another fantastic review.  And Patti's pics are amazing.  I have now added sailing from Charleston to my cruise bucket list.  Oh, I so hope you all made it back to Bermuda!   We booked Bermuda after reading your review when you sailed with your friends.  We sailed 9/28 on the Magic.  The storms had already passed by the time we were headed in there, as our first stop was Grand Turk.  I am anxiously awaiting the next installment.  Thanks so much for sharing another great adventure!

[NCTribeFan]

I've been known to read 4 novels on a 7-night cruise (and didn't stay on board on port days).  I need a book exchange and am disappointed that Carnival thinks everyone on their ships is so into have FUN FUN FUN with all the activities that some books aren't needed.  Luckily, since I'm driving to port next week, I can pack several books.  But what am I going to do for 25 days on the Legend Med/TA next year?  Sure, I can download books to the Kindle on my phone, but I like to read books with paper pages.

 

I stayed at the Andrew Pinckney Inn a couple of years ago.  Got a fantastic rate but haven't had any good offers from them since.  I'm not going to pay close to $300 for a small room and then also pay to park at the pier.  But loved the ambiance and their wine & cheese happy hour on the veranda.

 

Staying at the Sleep Inn on West Ashley next week.  Not quite the same level of accommodations. 😉

 

Hmmm.  May have to get a Mason's lobster roll instead of searching for Shrimp & Grits!

Edited October 17, 2019 by NCTribeFan

[SenatorsFan]

Another "thank you" for the wonderful Charleston pictures! They brought back fond memories of our visits there and walking along the waterfront, taking ship pictures (in our case it was Fantasy), going to the Market, wandering the cobblestone streets and eating shrimp and grits at the Charleston Crab House and ribs at Sticky Fingers. 😃We've never cruised from there, but just might have to one day.

Heather

[deedle7544]

I love Charleston, so pretty

[Jamman54]

3 hours ago, Amadawn1 said:

Jeff, thanks so much for another fantastic review.  And Patti's pics are amazing.  I have now added sailing from Charleston to my cruise bucket list.  Oh, I so hope you all made it back to Bermuda!   We booked Bermuda after reading your review when you sailed with your friends.  We sailed 9/28 on the Magic.  The storms had already passed by the time we were headed in there, as our first stop was Grand Turk.  I am anxiously awaiting the next installment.  Thanks so much for sharing another great adventure!

 

Thanks for following along again. You'll have to tune in tomorrow to see if we made it to Bermuda. 😀

 

3 hours ago, SenatorsFan said:

Another "thank you" for the wonderful Charleston pictures! They brought back fond memories of our visits there and walking along the waterfront, taking ship pictures (in our case it was Fantasy), going to the Market, wandering the cobblestone streets and eating shrimp and grits at the Charleston Crab House and ribs at Sticky Fingers. 😃We've never cruised from there, but just might have to one day.

Heather

 

Thanks for continuing to follow along. Glad the pictures brought back some good memories. 😀

 

2 hours ago, deedle7544 said:

I love Charleston, so pretty

 

We did too! 😀

[slyman17]

Jeff,

 

Thank you for another great review! My wife and I will be boarding the Sunrise on October 20th and can't wait. I noticed the nuts, cheese and olive plate you had at the Alchemy bar and it looked awesome. Did you order it from them, is that on the Alchemy menu? Thank you, and looking forward to the rest of you review!!

[tandemcruzr]

5 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

 

Thanks for reading! The Aqua Tunnel is a water slide in the Waterworks. 

 

Thanks . Is that only on the Sunrise? We don't do slides, but don't remember seeing one with this name in our 45 cruises on Carnival.  🙂

 

[Jamman54]

1 hour ago, slyman17 said:

Jeff,

 

Thank you for another great review! My wife and I will be boarding the Sunrise on October 20th and can't wait. I noticed the nuts, cheese and olive plate you had at the Alchemy bar and it looked awesome. Did you order it from them, is that on the Alchemy menu? Thank you, and looking forward to the rest of you review!!

 

Thanks for reading! Those snacks were complimentary. Enjoy your cruise on the Sunrise. 😎

 

10 minutes ago, tandemcruzr said:

Thanks . Is that only on the Sunrise? We don't do slides, but don't remember seeing one with this name in our 45 cruises on Carnival.  🙂

 

 

I believe so, though I'm beyond using the slides at Waterworks. 😀

[tandemcruzr]

38 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

I believe so, though I'm beyond using the slides at Waterworks. 😀

Me too -- Thanks -- 🙂

 

[Jamman54]

Day # 4  -  9/19/19  -  A Very Rocky Day at Sea!!

 

We were up at 7 am to a 74 degree beautiful sunny day. The seas are still very rough, but a tad better than last night. The pools are netted to prevent people from using them, and the water is sloshing out all over the place. Don’t know why they just didn’t drain them. Anyway, here are today's Fun Times…..

 

 

 

 

I pull out my laptop and check out the Bermuda webcam.. It is a beautiful sunny day there with just a hint of a breeze and the water was pretty calm. However, I did not see any sign of life at the Dockyard where we would be docking. We didn’t find out until much later that many parts of the island didn’t have any power, but right now I’m thinking we just might have a shot.

 

We both went to today’s Morning Show which today featured Pablo, Mikey, Diego (who I misidentified as Miguel earlier in the review), and Tyler…..

 

 

 

Mikey has some fun with the people out on the Lido Deck…..

 

 

Raeden is back to promote today’s shopping bargains…..

 

 

While in Charleston yesterday, Tyler had picked up some VERY hot salsa, which he wanted the crew to taste test. The name of this salsa was “Death by Salsa”

 

 

They were all going to try it…..

 

 

They all sample it and are now waiting for the reaction….

 

 

The reaction…..

 

 

 

Pablo’s Mexican so he has no problem going for more…..

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

After the Morning Show I make my way up to the Red Frog Rum Bar. Patti is planning to browse in the shops, but first a couple of views of an empty Liquid Lounge…..

 

 

 

While enjoying a few Thirsty Frog Wheats, I sat watching the water slosh out of the pool and all over the decks…..

 

 

 

 

The Captain came on the loudspeakers to announce that because of the high seas they had to slow the ship down to operate safely, and because of that they lost so much time that getting to Bermuda would not be possible, and that we were turning north and heading back to Brooklyn. You could hear the groans. Then he proceeded to say that because of this, everyone would receive a 100% future cruise credit (FCC). The entire Lido erupted into cheers and applause. Here is the letter from the Captain that we received later in our cabin…..

 

 

At this point I’ll share some of my thoughts. Like everyone else, Patti and I were disappointed about not going to Bermuda, but understand that safety comes first. We will book another Bermuda cruise somewhere along the line, and besides we still had the New England / Canada cruise next week to look forward to.

 

I felt bad for those who were only doing this cruise, and knew how really disappointed they had to be. There was one couple that we met who flew to New York from Charleston, and wound up with a cruise back to home. How ironic! I was very proud of the vast majority of my fellow passengers who understood why this happened, gladly took their 100% FCC, and made the best of their time on board.

 

Carnival had tried to give us at least one day in Bermuda and lost big time. We were not going to visit a foreign port so Carnival was in violation of the Jones Act. Talking to the Captain and Mikey later, it turns out that Carnival had to pay a hefty fine. My first thought was that our government should have given Carnival a break in the name of safety, but in reality it was Carnival’s fault that they got fined. They could have chosen to go north to Canada, or made a run to Nassau, but they tried to give us Bermuda and got burned.  These decisions were made at Fleet Operations in Miami and not by Captain Renda, who had enough on his mind just keeping us safe.

 

Now I want to talk about the crew. They were ALL simply awesome! Because we never made it to Bermuda, none of them got a chance to get off the ship and have some time off for themselves. Sea days are when they work the hardest, and this cruise wound up with two extra sea days. They never complained, just smiled, and gave us all great service. We made sure to take extra care of our guys and gals for their over the top performance!

 

Also, kudos to Mikey and the entertainment staff who had to work very hard to schedule more activities because of the two extra sea days. Thank you all so much!

 

Patti came up to the Red Frog Rum Bar to collect me so that we could go to the Sea Day Brunch again. It was great, just like the first sea day. Here is the Breakfast Grill menu…..

 

 

No more cereal boxes. These are the new cereal dispensers…..

 

 

Barf bags are readily available. They were needed as the ship would be sailing in rough seas all day…..

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

After brunch I entered the blackjack tournament. After two tries I didn’t qualify for the final table. I stayed in the casino for a while and played regular blackjack and lost my buy in pretty quickly. I decided to step out as I still wasn’t feeling “it”.

 

Here is today’s towel animal…..

 

 

Patti was going to check out Seuss a Palooza, then stay for the Pirate Bingo. On the way she stopped in the Atrium and took a picture of the skylight…..

 

 

The blue Atrium with “The World” mural is left over from the Carnival Triumph…..

 

 

Patti has made it to Seuss a Palooza. I didn’t think there were that many kids on board this week…..

 

 

Mikey tells the story of Horton hears a Who…..

 

 

 

 

 

After my failure in the casino, I join Patti for Pirate Bingo…..

 

 

 

Patti has her card and a mocha chocolate getaway…..

 

 

 

The winner of the last game gets to choose a pirate chest for their prize….

 

 

Here Bingo Host “Bubba” (Tyler) is calling out the numbers. He doesn’t call the right ones however as Patti and I don’t have any winners once again…..

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Tonight is the second Cruise Elegant night so we get dressed early as the Diamond event with the Captain is at 5:15 pm in the Limelight Lounge…..

 

 

 

Here are some views of the Limelight Lounge…..

 

 

 

 

The party is just getting started…..

 

 

Our first round of drinks has arrived…..

 

 

I’m enjoying one of the many snacks provided…..

 

 

Here are some more snacks…..

 

 

 

Here we are with Captain Renda…..

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

After the Diamond Event we went right to dinner. Here are tonight’s American Feast menus…..

 

 

 

 

Here are Patti and I at the American Feast Dinner…..

 

 

 

We both started off with the Chesapeake crab cake…..

 

 

I also had an order of stuffed mushrooms…..

 

 

For our mains we both had the teriyaki salmon fillet. This was really good!

 

 

Yoki has delivered tonight’s shots…..

 

 

Bottoms up!

 

 

For dessert Patti had two scoops of butter pecan ice cream, while I had the amaretto cake which was dry and not very good…..

 

 

 

Again tonight, and for the rest of this cruise, there would be no comedy shows. The second set of comics were supposed to fly in and meet the ship in Bermuda, but of course that didn’t happen.

 

Tonight’s Playlist Production Show in the Liquid Lounge was Vintage Pop, but because the ship was still rocking heavily, the cast performed the show minus the dancing and set changes. I was not there but I heard several people rave that the cast sang the show and knocked it out of the park. Wish I would have seen it.

 

Electric Violins with Black Diamonds performed in the Sunrise Lobby, and the Hip Stars performed at the Red Frog Pub. In Piano Bar 88 Dizzy would be leading a sing along.

 

Patti went back to the cabin to read, while once again I hung out with my buddy Stefan at the Sports Bar until about 11 pm.

 

Coming up next: bouncing our way back to Brooklyn!

[Saint Greg]

53 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wonder if the captain needs a booster seat to see over the wheel.

[Jamman54]

2 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

 

Wonder if the captain needs a booster seat to see over the wheel.

 

Now that's funny! 😁 He is a great guy though.🛳

[jjsparkles]

Following along and enjoying your fantastic photos! Looks like a great time so far :)

[Jamman54]

3 hours ago, jjsparkles said:

Following along and enjoying your fantastic photos! Looks like a great time so far :)

 

Glad to have you following along! Just want to say that your son Mark is a very talented musician. We listened to them several times during our time on the Sunrise and enjoyed them very much. I wanted to say hello to him, but for some reason it never worked out. Will he be doing another contract, and if so what ship? 

[Jamman54]

Day # 5 – 9/20/19  -  A Little Bit Calmer Day at Sea.

 

We woke up at 8 am to a beautiful sunny day. It’s a chilly 54 degrees right now, but it’s supposed to warm up into the mid 70’s. The seas are still a bit bouncy today, but nothing like they were the past few days. Here are today’s Fun Times…..

 

 

 

 

We decided to skip breakfast today, and have lunch later on. There isn’t a Morning Show today so I decide to stay in the cabin for a while and work on the pictures.

 

At 10:30 am there is a shopping event that Patti wants to check out, so I decide to grab the camera and head upstairs to take some pictures.

 

One of the major complaints about the Sunrise is the tightness of the passageway by both the Blue Iguana Cantina and Guy’s Burgers which creates a bottleneck. It’s really difficult to navigate through if you are in a wheelchair, or use a scooter. The following pictures show just how tight this is…

 

 

 

This problem has existed since Guy’s and the Cantina were installed on the Triumph. This should have been corrected during the refurbishment. And to make matters worse, there are drink stations on both sides in that passage way……

 

 

They are still serving breakfast at the Blue Iguana Cantina…..

 

 

 

Though it is chilly, the kids don’t mind and they are enjoying the pool…..

 

 

Since it is still breakfast time, the deli is being used as an omelet station. In addition, Lucky Bowl, Seafood Shack, and Cucina del Capitano are also being used as omelet stations, and they also have breakfast meats and potatoes. This alleviates some of the crowds at the buffet lines…..

 

 

Here’s a view of one of the buffet lines and seating in the Market Place for breakfast…..

 

 

Of course you can have pizza 24 hours a day  …..

 

 

To be continued…..

Edited October 19, 2019 by Jamman54