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Cruises…we’ve taken a few.
Summer vacations, spring breaks, birthday trips. In recent years, these occasions are when we have opted to travel via cruise ship. Never, however, had we taken a cruise during Christmastime.
Christmas on a cruise ship seemed so exciting to me…decorations throughout the ship (that I didn’t have to put up), the cruise director leading Christmas carols, Christmas dinner being cooked, served and cleaned up and my whole family spending time together lying in the sun while we traveled from port to port.
After convincing our children that this was a much better idea than traveling to cold-weathered Europe and having to figure out where our Christmas dinner was going to come from, we booked our rooms and packed out bags.
Despite the long drive from Virginia to Port Canaveral, we were in high spirits when we boarded the Carnival Sunshine. The weather was warm and as we sailed out of the port, we called our families and wished them an early Merry Christmas.
Though not one of the largest ships we had been on, the Sunshine was still much bigger than the ones used for the shorter 3, 4 and 5 day cruises we had taken in the past.
The Carnival Sunshine, was christened the Carnival Destiny in Venice, Italy in November 1996 and was the first passenger ship ever built to be over 100,000 tons. After sixteen and a half years of service, she received major renovations to be classified as one of Carnival’s Fun Ships and became the Carnival Sunshine on May 5, 2013 with her rechristening in New Orleans on November, 17, 2013.
Checking out our rooms, as we boarded the ship, we discovered nothing more than we had anticipated. Our boys’ room was outfitted with two twin beds plus a third pull-down bed from the ceiling and our room was rearranged into a king bed. Happy to find it clean and neat, we were thrilled to meet steward, Alexis, who did a wonderful job at accommodating two of our children’s late sleeping habits in his attempts to clean the room daily. He and the entire staff always had a smile and treated us with amazing towel animals!
Initially, our time was spent exploring the ship, discovering where the things that interested us were located and attempting to enjoy some relaxation. It was nice to see the ship decked out for the Christmas holiday and we even added to the spirit of things by bringing our own Christmas trees, stockings and door decorations.
As with any cruise, however, there can be some challenges as with good times.
Food I must say that we were quite impressed with most of the food offerings on the Carnival Sunshine. For breakfast, we enjoyed both the buffet and the omelet stations at the rear of the ship in the Havana lounge. Most people did not see the breakfast bites located on the side of the bar, but these were Cuban inspired pastries and were absolutely divine! We also enjoyed the breakfast burritos from the Blue Iguana located poolside. Though only open from 8:00 am, we could only enjoy these on days we were not leaving the ship early. Our lunches were mostly taken on the pool deck. We loved the Guy Fieri Burgers and the tacos and burritos at Blue Iguana (the freshly made tortillas were awesome), but also enjoyed the Italian restaurant, Cucina del Capitano, which was by reservation (and surcharge) at night, but open for lunch on days at sea. We enjoyed the Dine Anytime option and only waited a short time on a couple of nights. The waiters worked very diligently each night and most of the food options were good, offering many choices, though I never thought the desserts were worth wasting calories on.
Drinks Initially deciding to purchase the drink package for both myself and my husband, we investigated the details and after some thought, decided against it for me. Since my husband and I were officially booked into two different cabins, we were able to purchase the package for only one of us. If we had been booked in the same cabin, we would both have had to purchase the package, which allows 15 drinks per day, spaced at least five minutes apart. Not wanting the pressure to reach the 15 drink goal per day, I decided only on the soda package. Since we don’t drink much during the day, it would have been hard to reach the 15 drink limit, starting in the evenings, not making the purchase price worth our while. Eventually, my husband started to figure out how to work the system, by going to the bar early on and saving the screw top beers (Coors Light) for later use in the room fridge.
Entertainment My children really enjoyed the outdoor activities located on the uppermost deck; miniature golf, basketball court, large-size chess, ropes course and water slides, pool tables, ping pong. I do have to say that because it was a Christmas cruise, there were many children and this area was always extremely busy, sometimes incurring waits in order to enjoy some of the activities. The pool deck area had a large outdoor movie screen and movies were shown nightly, although we never took the time to enjoy this feature. The Punchliner Comedy Club showcased some hilarious comedians and the themed shows held in the Liquid Lounge were much better than we anticipated and quite entertaining. There were many trivia contests, bingo nights and other competitions held throughout our eight-day cruise, including beer pong and lip-sync battles. We never did make it to the disco that was set up in the Liquid Lounge on most nights, however, there was a Deck Party held in the pool area that everyone seemed to enjoy with line dancing and a Bon Voyage party to say goodbye to Grand Turk and the adjacent docked Carnival Glory, where everyone congregated on the leeward deck, danced and waved goodbye.
Gym/Spa The gym area was well equipped and was not extremely busy when I visited. I did notice some classes that were offered, however, by the second morning, all spots had been signed for and only waiting lists were available. A walking track was also available on the upper deck, however, most people on this level did not seem to pay attention to the fact that some were trying to exercise, pulling chairs onto or walking aimlessly on the track. The Spa was located just before the gym and though we did not utilize any of their services, the waiting area seemed to be quite busy.
Sun Decks Being that it was winter, one of the things I so looked forward to was the ability to lay in the sun and relax with a book. Carnival has a rule that chairs may not be reserved and if vacant for forty minutes, personal belongings will be removed. I never saw anyone enforcing this rule and unless you reserved a chair early in the day, by putting personal belongings on it, you were out of luck for the rest of the day in finding one spot, much less two or three (or five) together. The Serenity Adults Only Retreat is touted as a quiet haven where only adults are allowed to enjoy peace and quiet. On only one day were we able to find a spot in this crowded area, due to another patron reporting teenage cruisers using the loungers. When this group left, we were able to secure two of the chairs. With such a busy cruise (capacity of 3002), I was disappointed to see that more chairs were not made available, especially on the Fun Days at Sea, even though I spotted stacks of chairs still chained up.
Communication One of the challenging parts of being on a cruise is that you can’t use your cell phone to check in with your party…until now. Carnival developed a great app, Carnival Hub, for this purpose. After downloading the app, everyone can sign up and pay $5, for the entire trip, to use the app’s messaging system. After working out, it was awesome to just send a message to my husband to find where they were hanging out, instead of wandering aimlessly, hoping to find them. The other plus about this app is that there is no checking the paper schedules each day. Although they did still deliver these to your room (a huge waste of paper), I would imagine that the app will one day eliminate the paper schedules. At any time of the day, you could check the app for the planned activities and even see what meals were being served and where. The app also offered maps of the ship and access to your on board sail and sign purchases so that you could monitor them regularly instead of at the end of your cruise. Way to go Carnival!
Ports The itinerary for this cruise was Port Canaveral (departure), At Sea, Grand Turk, At Sea, St. Kitts, San Juan, Amber Cove, At Sea, Port Canaveral (arrival). We enjoyed our Christmas Day in Grand Turk laying in the sun on the beach. Looking forward to our arrival in St. Kitts, we were disappointed when, island in sight, we were informed that the winds were too high and current to strong to make it into port safely…yet, there were two other ships already docked. Our initial thought was that Carnival was not being truthful, especially when we heard that five ships were due in port that day, a number that seemed quite high. Eventually, our suspicions were validated when we were told by many of the staff that the port had been overbooked. Most disappointing, since St. Kitts was the one of the primary reasons for booking this particular cruise. Not sure what to expect from San Juan, since the serious devastation by Hurricane Maria, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the beautiful Old Town is recovering and happily receiving tourists again! Our last port, Amber Cove, appeared to be a wonderful place to spend time with its water park and amazing shopping. Since we had booked an excursion and were late to arrive back in port, our only glimpse of Amber Cove was upon our arrival from the boat and when we disembarked to meet our tour guide.
Punctuality The boat departed on time, however, we felt that we were always a bit late into port. This was very disappointing, especially when we were only in port for short periods of time and our late arrival cut into plans for the day. The worst part of the cruise was when we were informed that we would be arriving into port late on our last day due to failing engines. Many people were inconvenienced with departing flights, especially since it was New Year’s Eve and guests were trying to make it home for plans that evening. The ship did not do much to assist in the order of disembarkation, with the whole process becoming a bit of a free-for-all.
When all was said and done, it was wonderful to be with my husband and children during Christmas in a festive atmosphere (and I didn’t have to cook and clean!). Maybe next time, we will try another cruise line.
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Carnival Cruises
Grand Turk
St. Kitts
San Juan
- https://sanjuanpuertorico.com/
Amber Cove