And sea day number 3…
Today was our third sea day on Carnival Sunshine so there’s not as much to tell. Mostly, we wanted to take a day to relax between ports. We’ve been going non-stop since day one of the cruise.
We started out at our favorite breakfast place, the Seaday brunch in the Sunrise Dining Room. Seaday brunch is complimentary, and has some of our favorite food. We’ve found that the Marketplace buffet is pretty limited in breakfast offerings. I ended up with what I always get…Huevos Rancheros. I’ll probably never try anything else at the brunch because I like the Huevos Rancheros so much. We sat we the same couple that we ate dinner with on night number one. It turns out that they’re also our next door neighbors on the ship.
Gotta write the blog!
After that I ran to the Shore Excursions area to write out my blog. Since it was a sea day, the internet was horrible. I’m assuming that’s because everyone on the ship was checking their Facebook and emailing home. It took me two hours just to get the blog written and published, and I couldn’t get Facebook to work at all. I finally gave up and figured I’d publish my blog on Facebook from my phone. If I have a least favorite part of Carnival Sunshine, it would have to be the internet. Royal Caribbean’s internet is much better.
Our cabin…some thoughts…
I got back to the cabin at about 11:30 am, and took a break. The smell that we’ve been getting on deck one was a bit better that it has been. Also, they’ve taken out the fan that was blowing on the crew deck below us. Our cabin does not have a mini fridge. It would be great if it did, but our steward has been good about bringing ice to us when we need it. I can’t say enough how good Myat has been. He’s so friendly and nice. The crew on the Sunshine is some of the best crew that we’ve met on ships.
A couple of the things that I don’t like about our cabin is first, that there are no magnifying makeup mirrors in the bathroom. We’ve had them on every other Carnival ship that we’ve sailed on. Also, Carnival needs to do something about the shower curtains. The showers are so nice and big on this ship. However, you end up with water all over the bathroom. When you turn the shower on the shower curtain is pulled towards you. When you shut off the water, the water on the shower curtain gets everywhere. I’ve tried holding it in to keep the water in the shower, but it doesn’t help. There is a drain in the bathroom floor, but I’d rather not have water all over the floor in the first place. They need to get longer shower curtains and put magnets on the bottom to hold them closed.
Lunch
He decided to go to the Ocean Plaza’s little buffet for lunch and ended up with beef stew. I went and then decided that selections were far too limited, so I ran to the Marketplace Buffet. The Marketplace Buffet food was very limited also. I think that maybe they should have different selections in each little kiosk. I really didn’t see anything that I liked and ended up with a Guy’s Burger again. In my opinion, Guy Fieri has the best food in the Lido area. All the food is good, I just wish there was more to choose from on the buffet.
After that we went to deck three outside to relax a bit. It was so cool…there was a large flock of sea birds. They may have been Terns, but I’m not sure, but they were not seagulls. The birds would stay with the ship, flying close to us, and then dive bomb straight into the water to catch a fish. As they dove down, you’d hear them all squawking. Guess they were saying “the fish are there!” We watched them for at least half an hour.
Serenity deck
After lunch he decided he wanted to try the waterslides. I didn’t want to hurt my back, so I went and sat on the Serenity Deck. I love the Serenity Deck on this ship. It’s got three layers to it. On the bottom layer is a pool with a waterfall pouring down into it. I sat on the edge for a while, and then got luck enough to find a deck chair under a shady palm tree. The perfect place for a quiet cruiser to totally relax. I love the sound of water.
Of course Mikey was in the background playing some kind of trivia music game, but the music was good and I enjoyed it. The Serenity deck does get crowded on a sea day, so get your chairs early. But of course, don’t save them all day if you’re not there so that no one else can sit down. I saw a lot of chairs with beach towels on them with no one in them the entire time I was there. And I saw a lot of people who needed chairs.
Nap time
This week finally caught up with me, so I went back to the cabin to grab a short nap. That’s the beauty of a ship. You can do as little, or as much, as you want. We had been invited by the Maitre d’, Marcin, to go to a food tasting at 5 pm. It was time to get ready for that. And I have absolutely no idea on why we got the honor of going to the food tasting.
Food tasting…what an honor
At 5 pm we went to the Fahrenheit 555 restaurant on deck four midship. We were shown in, along with another couple, and asked to sign a form stating that we were not ill with a cold, etc. Then we met Chef Sydney, who had us use Purel so no germs could get into the Galley. He then took us down an escalator from the restaurant into the spotless Galley for a short tour. I’ll bet you didn’t know there were escalators on a cruise ship. We were then shown to a table with plates and glasses of water and met the head chef, Joaquin (I may have to fix the spelling of that later). One by one, the appetizers, entrees, and desserts, on the night’s menu were brought to us to taste. Oh my goodness, so much food. And it was all so good.
We had chicken tenders with sweet chili relish, honey roasted ham on gingerbread with pineapples, and escargot. My favorite was the fried shrimp. Entrees were Penne Mariscos, a seafood pasta and chicken Millanese. My favorite from the entrees was the braised short ribs. They were incredibly tender. You’ve got to try them! For dessert it was cheesecake. So good! It was quite an experience.
We’ve seen a ship’s galley before, but were never treated to a tasting. It’s amazing how many meals a day that they serve on a ship. I think that he said that they serve 1200 entrees just for the early dining time. And the great thing is that you can have whatever you want, and as much as you want. I want too much, I think. I vowed that I’d limit the sugar consumption on this cruise…it isn’t working. But I want to thank the Maitre d’, Marcin, and the head waiters, Joaquin and Sydney for this incredible experience. I’ve met some incredible people this cruise. That’s the best part. When you cruise, make sure to take some time and talk to the crew!
And dinner…we were stuffed!
We did decide to go to dinner after all that food at the tasting. Probably a mistake. We asked for I Nyoman and he did have an open table, so we got to say hi to him and I Made. The fried shrimp and braised short ribs was what we ordered, but in retrospect, we probably should have shared one plate. We just couldn’t finish the food, and we didn’t even try ordering dessert. But it was delicious! Especially the short ribs. So tender!
Comedy, this time PG
After we stuffed ourselves we decided to find a seat at the Limelight Lounge and wait for the comedians at the Punchliner Comedy night. The first show started at 7 pm, and the comedian was Russ Nagel. Russ is a biker dude, and was very funny. This was the family friendly show, so he kept it clean, and I did enjoy it.
The second show was also family friendly, and was Just June from the night before. This time she came out dressed as Moms Mabley. I don’t know how many people remember Moms Mabley, a comedian from way back, but Just June did her good. It was an enjoyable show. Warning, if you don’g want to be called upon or embarrassed, sit in the back of the theater.
Both of the shows were standing room only, so come early to the comedy shows if you want a seat.
Afterwards
After the comedy shows we ran up to the Lido deck to get some dessert. We had a little room left by then. Oh my goodness, I’m eating way too much this cruise. Then we decided to make it a night since we were in Grand Turk early the next morning. We went back to our room and there were even more treats in our cabin from Executive Chef Joaquin. Wow! I’ve never been treated this nicely on a cruise ship before. This ship is definitely growing on me! And I guess I had more to say than I thought!
The Quiet Cruiser 