First of all, the internet isn’t the best on Carnival Sunshine. Keep that in mind before you buy it. I cannot get pictures to load, even onto Facebook. I’ll add pictures to all of my blogs after I get home next week. Pin this and check back later.
I have to admit that I was a bit nervous that first night on Carnival Sunshine. We’d been hearing stories about the problems she was having, including water leading from floor to floor. Also, she has listed to one side on her last cruise, so I was worried about that. However, we got through the night unscathed, with no listing to be felt.
Breakfast
We got up pretty early, got ready, and headed to the Sunrise Dining room for the SeaDay brunch. We always love the SeaDay brunch. It’s a lot easier than navigating the crowds in the Marketplace Buffet, and the food is good. I always get the Huevos Rancheros. It’s a tortilla with chicken inside and eggs over easy on top. It’s served with some delicious salsas. He got eggs over easy with all the extras.
We saw the couple that we’d sat with at dinner the night before, and they joined us. I love meeting people on a cruise, it’s half the fun. I have to say though that this day the service wasn’t spectacular. It took quite a while to get our meals, plus, we had a hard time getting refills on our coffee. When the food was served mine was good, but the other lady’s eggs were cold. There didn’t seem to be enough waiters, and we wondered if maybe some of them were hurt when the ship listed last week, or if maybe some left because of it.
Fun Ashore and Onboard show
I need to say a word about Mikey, our Cruise Director. He is great. He is from South Africa, and he’s got so much energy. I had the privilege to meet him, and he’s so nice. You’re going to love him!
So, I went to the Fun Ashore and Fun Onboard show just to see if I could win a prize. I wasn’t so lucky this time, but I did enjoy listening to Mikey tell us everything we needed to know about Carnival Sunshine. There were some glitches in the show. His slideshow would not come up on the screens. So, professional that he is, Mikey went on to make do with what he had and had audience members demonstrate what was supposed to be going on the screen. He’s so funny! You definitely want to cruise with Mikey. He also seems to love kids, and has welcomed them in the two shows that I’ve seen them do. By the way, there don’t seem to be a lot of kids on this cruise. Haven’t seen many at all.
Internet and blog
This was the most frustrating part of my day. I had been informed that I’d get the internet code after departure yesterday. It didn’t come, so I ended up going to the customer service desk for help. I got a wonderful girl, Katerina, to help me, and she was great. I’ll be sure to let Carnival know how helpful she was. She got me on the internet and I went up to the Ocean Plaza area to work on my blog. This is where frustrating began. It took at least ten minutes to actually get my blog site to open, and then every time you clicked on something else it was about five more minutes to open. Then in the middle of my blog it disappeared.
So, please bear with me in these blogs. I’ll add more content and pictures when I get home. If you do decide to get the internet onboard, be aware that it’s very slow and you may not be able to put pictures on facebook. I’m still waiting for some to upload that I posted yesterday. Royal Caribbean’s internet is much better. It took far too much of my day trying to get my blog and pictures done. I’m working on the computers in the shore excursion area today and it is faster, but noisier.
Relaxation and lunch
Today was a day at sea, and to me, a day to relax as much as possible. Time to forget about work and do nothing if that’s what you want. Or a day to explore the ship and get some sun. The cruise is what you make it. So, after the Fun Ashore show, we went to the Lido deck to get a light lunch. Breakfast was pretty filling, but we wanted something to get us through to dinner. We ended up finding a table in the Havana Bar area and eating Cuban food. It was really good. They actually have a tiny buffet of the Cuban food at the bar. In the area is also the Mongolian Wok where you can get Mongolian BBQ cooked fresh. And that area is so much more relaxing than fighting the crowds in the Marketplace buffet area.
Elegant night
After we ate we walked around a while to explore. It’s not a huge ship, so there really aren’t a lot of areas to see. After that we went back to the room to get ready for dinner. For elegant night, if you want to eat in the main dining room, you’re supposed to dress up. I don’t think that they’re really strict on that on Carnival Sunshine. We saw men and women who weren’t all that dressed up, but we do enjoy dressing up for elegant night. The opportunity doesn’t come up all that often at home.
And there are photographers everywhere. It’s a great place to get a good shot of you. They post them all in the Pixels area on deck 4, and you can buy what you like and throw away the rest. They are expensive, but photos are expensive everywhere and this way you get what you want.
We’re really not that fond of the way that you check into Your Time Dining on this ship. We’ve never done it this way before. You go to deck five in the Ocean Plaza area to stand in line. They give you a slip of paper with your table assignment on it, and then you go to the Sunrise restaurant on the third floor and stand in line again to get shown to your table. It could be because there isn’t a lot of room to stand in line outside the restaurant.
Our waiter
We had liked our waiter, Nyoman, the night before and asked for the same table. We were told that the table was already taken but they’d give us a table in Nyoman’s area. Well, they didn’t. We got a new waiter. He was good, but not as personable and didn’t ask for our names. We also ended up sitting alone, we prefer to get to know other people when we cruise. I really like sitting with the same waiter all the time and getting to know the people. Next cruise we will not get Your Time dining.
Since it was elegant night they had lobster and prime rib. He got both, I’m not fond of lobster tail so I just got the prime rib. It was good, but had an awful log of fat on it. I ended up cutting off one huge fatty piece. For appetizer I got fried oysters, which were good. I loved the sauce. For dessert it was Hazelnut chocolate cake. Very good. And while we were sitting there we were treated to a beautiful rainbow behind the ship. Yes, it’s been pretty rainy during this cruise so far, but better now than in port later this week.
Entertainment
After dinner we walked to the Limelight theater on the fourth floor. The same comedian that did the first show yesterday was on so we grabbed a seat. The theater was actually pretty empty. I kind of felt bad for him. But he was funny, and we enjoyed the show.
Then it was time for the Motor City show…Motown songs. I saw Mikey in the theater, the Liquid Lounge. I went up to him and asked if I could get a picture with him for the blog. He’s such a nice guy. And then there were three guys in Bellhop costumes walking around the theater. One sat next to me and high-fived me. Let me tell you about the entertainment staff. There are three guys and four girls, and they are excellent. Carnival Sunshine finally has more original entertainment then some of the other ships we’ve been on. The Motor City show was excellent, and very enjoyable. They get the audience involved, and they are great singers and dancers. It was one of the more enjoyable Carnival shows that we’ve seen in some time.
End of the first full day on Carnival Sunshine
After the show we walked around a bit, then we ended up in the Guys Burgers area. We got some ice cream and some decaf coffee, and just relaxed for a while. They were playing Mission Impossible on the big screen on deck, and everyone was just enjoying the pleasant weather. After that we went back to our cabin to relax, and what did we find? A bottle of champagne, a bowl of fruit, and chocolate covered strawberries! No note on it, but I’m assuming my media guy, Vance, is responsible. Thanks so much! So, we enjoyed some chocolate covered strawberries and watched TV for a while. And I don’t think I ever got outside all day.
So far the only glitches that we’ve seen have been minor. You can smell sewage in parts of the ship sometimes. I could smell it a bit at the Fun Ashore show in the Liquid Lounge. You can smell it in the hallway on deck a bit. It’s not unbearable, and it’s not unusual. Also, someone was complaining that their AC was jacked up all the way and their cabin was freezing. Our AC on deck one is fine.
The ship is sailing pretty smoothly, just the normal noises that you normally hear on a cruise ship. And the normal bumps and shimmies that you normally feel. You can hear the engine noise in the rear cabins on deck one. I brought earplugs. You can feel the vibrations. There has been no more listing, and I’ve heard nothing about leaks. I’ll keep my ears open and let you know if I hear anything at all.
By the way, the TV channels are horrible, but you probably won’t be watching a lot of TV either. And that’s the end up our first day at sea.
The Quiet Cruiser 