Carnival Sunshine Trip Journal: Part 5 – Sea Day #1featured

After the late night fun ringing in the new year and with the two and a half sea days ahead of us on our way to Aruba, we didn’t exactly rush out of bed when the alarm went off.

In fact, Stephanie hit snooze for a solid 45 minutes. So we were up later for us, but we were still up relatively early by conventional standards. When we headed upstairs for breakfast around 9:00 am, I was hoping most of the ship would still be sleeping. I guess we were the late risers because the Lido deck was bustling by the time we got outside.

We opted for a quick breakfast from the Blue Iguana Cantina, where the arepa man took one look at me, pronounced Arepas! and started plating my breakfast before I could wish him a good morning. He was on our last Sunshine cruise, and it was nice to see a familiar and friendly face.

Arepas from the Blue Iguana Cantina

Satiated on arepas (me) and breakfast burritos (rest of the fam), we headed up to the Serenity deck in search of loungers. When the Destiny transitioned into the Sunshine, it lost a pool (the aft pool became the Havana Bar, Cucina del Capitano and JiJi Asian Kitchen). With only one main pool and a very full ship, the Lido pool was the last place we wanted to be, and the Sunshine has a beautiful three-level Serenity area – an adult-only oasis featuring plush loungers, a waterfall pool, hot tubs and no splashing kids.

Our first sea day brought us some perfect lounging weather!

Unfortunately, the only thing it didn’t seem to have was many free loungers – all three stories were packed before 9:15 am and the chairs that didn’t have bodies in them had towels on them. Luckily, we found a couple of loungers on the third level and settled in for a few hours of sun time.

Most loungers were unoccupied but saved

We bathed in the warm sun for a good three hours and I marveled to myself over how difficult I generally find it to be in one place doing nothing for more than a few minutes, but how peaceful it was to lay back and zone out. Time passed by so slowly, ticking away to the Throwback Thursday playlist I’d downloaded off Spotify. It was every bit the relaxation I’ve needed, and as fun as I’m sure a New Year’s cruise on the Oasis would have been, I surely would have been running around the ship ziplining and walking through Central Park and wave riding (…okay, just maybe on the last one) and I wouldn’t have sat still long enough to relax and let the sun just wash over me.

The only four things I need for a morning in the sun

Nothing better than a day on the open sea

Before we headed back to the room, we grabbed a quick lunch from Cucina del Capitano, which transforms into a complimentary pasta bar during lunch hours. You fill out a paper slip with hundreds of possible combinations of pastas, sauces and toppings and a chef will prepare your pasta dish fresh to order and a server will bring it to your table within minutes.

So many options, and there’s really no way to go wrong with any of them

A half portion of pasta

After lunch, we headed back to the room to rest up, shower and get ready for the rest of the afternoon. The seas were starting to swell, so we moved a little slower, rested a little longer.

We skipped the one hit wonder trivia to finish a movie in the room, heading out when it was time for tea time. Tea time has been one of our favorite cruise-time activities for years now, a relaxing time to enjoy some tea and sweets and reflect on our day, the things we learn, the people we meet. The past few years, there have been lines to get in for tea time, it’s popularity growing from the first few years when it was a hidden gem of a secret. This time, we walked right in and had our choice of tables.

It’s been a few years since we’ve seen tea time so empty

We chose a table next to the windows, and the winds were causing high waves and heavy motion, forcing a noticeable vibration in the aft dining room. A server quickly came over to offer us our choice of teas from a chest and then asked for our Sail and Sign cards. As quickly as I was marveling over the new choices in exotic teas, I realized we’d be charged for these selections. I didn’t say anything because it was $1.95 and I would have opted for the fee-oriented selections over the free options of Lipton Green or Black anyways, but the server really should have explained that these options were not complimentary and we had a choice between the complimentary options or the for cost ones.

Pinkies out

A server yielding a platter of smoked salmon and cucumber finger sandwiches appeared, offering us our choice as another came around to pass out tea pots filled with hot water. The cart of cakes, scones and other sweet treats came next, along with another server bringing around milk and cream, and the service was quite nice. The missing piece was the music – live or otherwise. Tea Time used to have a live string quartet, and then music over the sound system. Now, it seems there’s no music, which leaves more room for conversation, but was missed nonetheless.

Carnival’s Tea Time is one of our favorite sea day activities across all the lines we’ve cruised on

By the time we’d finished off a few pots of tea, I couldn’t sit upright anymore. I don’t get seasick – a trait I inherited from my sea-loving grandma, I’m convinced – but choppy seas make me very sleepy. And these seas were nearly as bad as the ones we’d sailed through in similar waters the year before and those were the worst we’d ever sailed through. I went back to the room, drew the blackout curtain on the window and put myself to sleep for a few hours. I woke up when Stephanie was trying to get a patch on and find the upset stomach meds – the seas were causing her severe nausea. Mom put a seasickness patch on before we boarded and couldn’t even feel the motion.

Stephanie couldn’t get out of bed without feeling like the room was spinning, so Mom and I headed off to dinner alone. The waves started to subside while we were dining on a meal of strawberry bisque and steak (for me) and an iceberg wedge salad and brisket (for Mom), a small blessing for all of us.

Bread Basket

Orange and Grapefruit Fillets

Strawberry Bisque

Heart of Lettuce

Beef Brisket

Flat Iron Steak with Garlic Fries

Carnival Melting Chocolate Cake

Cheese Plate

As we were finishing dinner, Stephanie texted us that she was starting to feel better, so we headed back to the room to grab her so we could head to the early showing of the evening’s headliner show: a Playlist Production of Motor City.

The first Playlist Production show of our cruise was Motor City, a tribute to Motown

We arrived at the Liquid Lounge just after the pre-show was beginning and easily found some primo seats. Either dinner time or rough seas seemed to keep the theater from filling up, but we weren’t complaining. The show was high energy and we enjoyed seeing the new cast put their spin on a show we’ve seen many times before.

After the show, Stephanie headed upstairs to the Lido deck to grab a quick dinner and we settled out on deck for a showing of Me Before You at the late night Dive In Movies.

We frequently end our evenings at sea at the Dive In Movies

With a cup of tea in hand, we headed back down to our room for bed, crossing our fingers that our next sea day would bring some smoother seas.