Carnival Sunshine Review, Part 8: Christmas Evefeatured
The ship was still dancing over the waves when we woke up, but the sun was shining and the Fun Times for the day was loaded with stuff to do, so we hopped out of bed, had a quick breakfast up on Lido and went to find some chairs to soak in that morning sun.
Even though we’d finished our breakfast before 9:00 am (which, by all of the other 18 or so cruises we’d been on, should be plenty early to find a lounger), it was impossible to find any chairs. Not even just three together. It was impossible to find a lounge chair. And it’s not like the deck was full of people getting their tan on. It was a deck filled with empty chairs that had random towels and errant flip flops on them. I’ve never experienced the kind of chair hogging that went down on the Sunshine this week.
Thankfully, the winds were slightly lower, which meant the three-level Serenity deck was open, and we were able to find three chairs near the front of the bottom level for a few hours of sun time.
When the SPF 50 wasn’t enough and our skin was starting to pink, we headed back to the room to shower off and get ready for the afternoon. We grabbed a quick lunch from the salad bar in Ocean Plaza (where they also serve some of the hot dishes they serve up on Lido, as well as a couple of soup options) and ate lunch while we played a rousing round of Hunger Games trivia. Seriously. Hunger Games Trivia. Ignoring the glaring omission of Musical Theater Trivia this week, the entertainment staff onboard the Sunshine was on top of their trivia game. They had new and different trivia sessions multiple times a day.
The first Christmas activity kicked off at 2:15 pm, with a Christmas show in the Limelight Lounge. We grabbed seats early and were lucky we had the foresight to do so – it was packed to standing room only within ten minutes of the start time. Jaime took the lead on this one, hosting and narrating the show, which featured carols from the production singers and dancers, special performances from the Camp Carnival kids and a moving singalong to Silent Night, led by the Captain and members of the crew representing the various nationalities onboard the ship. Both Jaime and the Captain mentioned how difficult it was for the crew to be away from their families on Christmas, and it was something we took to heart, so we made an effort to be extra jovial to the crew we encountered, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and leaving extra tips on our tabs.
We headed to tea time after the show and found ourselves in a long line to get into the Sunrise restaurant. Tea time has long since been a favorite cruising activity of ours and it’s been increasingly more popular onboard the past few years, but I can’t remember seeing it so busy. Service was spotty due to the large influx of people, but the treats were A+ (especially the mocha cake!). Christmas carols played softly on the speaker, but the only thing I really found myself missing were the live music they used to play during tea time.
With Sunday’s debarkation approaching quicker than we were ready for, we needed to figure out how to get to the airport from the port. It’s not close or easily convenient to get to MCO from Cape Canaveral. It’s about 40 minutes by car. You can take a taxi, but that’ll run you $100+. Arranging a private car will cost you nearly the same. I’m sure there are private transfers but we didn’t have the time or inclination to research those, so we booked the ship transfers to the airport and checked that one last thing off our lists. And since the rocking of the ship had slowed a bit, the outer decks were open on deck 3, and we headed out to the promenade to watch the water.
Sitting on a quiet deck and taking in the vast waters around us is, single handedly, my favorite cruising activity. Boring, maybe. Mundane. But there’s something about staring at the water, observing the delicate dance of the waves to the music of the water crashing against the ship. There’s nowhere I find greater peace than I do in those moments sitting out on deck.
We went back to the room to get ready for dinner and when we left to go watch the sunset, it was storming and the ship was starting to roll again so we headed up to the Taste Bar before dinner.
The dining room was surprisingly empty when we were seated. We weren’t sure if it was due to the winds (which were heavily more pronounced in the aft dining room) or if was because it was Christmas, but either way, we had excellent service and an excellent meal.
Where is everybody?!
Bread Basket
Corn Chowder Maryland
Shrimp Cocktail
Penne Siciliana
Chilled Creamy Bing Cherry Soup
Caesar Salad
Green Bean and Roma Tomato Salad
Roasted Half Spring Chicken with Gravy
Chateaubriand with Sauce Bearnaise
Baked Alaska
Cheese Plate
Amaretto Cake
We went to watch Jurassic World at the Dive In Movies, but a rain shower forced us to take shelter at the Blue Iguana for most of the movie.
Earlier that morning, during The Morning Show, Darnell had mentioned that fans of musicals should head to the Red Frog at 9:00 pm sharp for a special surprise. And when Stephanie mentioned that to me, I immediately understood: “December 24th, 9:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time. From here on in, I shoot without a script.” It was Rent day! So we headed to the Red Frog and grabbed some drinks and waited for our special surprise. It never came. Lies lies lies. But we were treated to a nice acoustic set from a really fantastic singer. I really enjoy the live music in the Red Frog on the ships we’ve sailed on that has the pub onboard. It’s completely unplugged and raw, a nice change of pace from the backtracks that have filled the production shows and piano bars since the 2.0 changes.
There was a late night deck party, but I’m pretty sure we completely slept through that. But we woke up just in time to grab a snack from the pizza shop, watch Crazy Stupid Love on the TV in our cabin and enjoy the fact that six nights into our cruise, we were finally hitting some smoother seas.
