Carnival Sunshine Review, Part 5: Sea Day #2featured

Today started with promise. The sunlight streamed in through our cabin window, so we were already a step ahead of where we were the morning before, and the movement had seemed to die down a little.

That alone put a little extra pep in our step, as we headed upstairs to breakfast on the Lido deck. Finding a table hasn’t been a problem and lines were virtually non-existent at the food stations, so we settled in with a quick breakfast (oatmeal for Mom, a breakfast burrito for Stephanie and arepas with salsa verde for me).

We were finished with breakfast before 9:00 am and headed out to find loungers, but for the life of us, could not find three together. We also couldn’t find bodies in the loungers that were saved with errant flip flops, copies of old Harlequin romance novels and even copies of the Fun Times (…I’m serious). The chair hogs were already out in full effect on this cruise. We found some empty sun beds up on the second level of the three-deck Serenity area and settled in.

It got really hot pretty quickly and after an hour or so, Stephanie and I headed down to the pool to cool off. The pool wasn’t too crowded, but there were some floaty bits (read: used bandages) lurking in the water, so I settled for dipping my toes in.

We decided there was too much direct sunlight at the sun beds, so we grabbed our belongings and headed to the bar for a morning pick-me-up. Cheers to not being at work on a Monday!

Satisfied with our fill of Vitamin D for the morning, we headed inside to Ocean Plaza for some trivia. We found an empty table but were ousted by a girl who insisted it was saved for her friend. Why two girls need two tables is beyond anything I can comprehend, so I guess Ocean Plaza table hogs are a thing, too. First up was coffee trivia, which we lost miserably.

Second was the one we were convinced we would win – Name that 90s Tune. This kind of trivia is made for us. My best friend tells me she’s convinced my musical aptitude ended in 1999 and, not to brag, but I’ve earned five stars on the Best 90s Album, 90s Boy Band, 90s FUN and 90s Love Songs Song Pop challenges. I was confident in our all but four of our answers. I even got technical with my punctuation (the artist is Snap!, for the record. With an !.). Alas, we lost by a couple of points. Apache Indian? Come on!

We’d grabbed a quick lunch of salads from the Taste Bar in between rounds of trivia, but we headed upstairs to the Lido deck for dessert. Tiramisu Cheesecake – a favorite!

After dessert, we headed back to the room to figure out our next move. There was an announcement made that we’d face some strong Gale Force winds throughout the afternoon and evening, so we decided to stay in, watch a movie (The Vow was running on repeat on one of the movie channels, and I’m always down for a good RomCom) and take naps.

I woke up from a thoroughly satisfying nap to room service that Mom had ordered us. The Sunshine has some new(er) room service menus with a mix of old standards that are available for free and a list of new items that are available for a nominal charge. I got to try the new Philly Cheesesteak sandwich ($5) and while it was decent, it was far from the best I’ve ever had. She also ordered me my longstanding mainstay: the veggie sticks with blue cheese dressing. Unfortunately, they changed the offerings and eliminated my two faves (the carrot and zucchini sticks) and they changed the blue cheese dressing they use. Downgrade, but still free.

Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich

Chicken Quesadillas

BLT Sandwich

Chocolate Cake

There wasn’t a ton to do with the motion picking up again. We walked around the ship, scouting out the activities, people watching and generally meandering. We were pretty full from our late snack, so we decided to skip dinner, opting instead to take it easy and attempt to distract ourselves from the rockiest sea day we’d ever had to date.

It was obvious pretty quickly on that many people had kept to their rooms for the evening. We headed up to the Taste Bar around 6:30 pm and it was pretty empty. The line for Anytime Dining seating was non-existent, the bars were quiet and it was almost eerie.

We took in the early seating of the Latin Nights show and found primo seats pretty easily. The show was great (even if the animatronic screens continue to make me want to claw my eyes out and miss the days of yore with actual sets) and to be honest, the fact that the dancers were able to go on and perform despite the heavy movement was a respectable feat.

After the show, we grabbed a late dinner up at the Lido Marketplace. Soup and salad felt like the perfect antidote to the heavy motion of the seas. As my luck would have it, they were serving a delicious tortilla soup (one of my favorites!), and it didn’t disappoint. Stephanie struck up a conversation with one of the ship’s officers while they were perusing the offerings, who dropped this nugget of hope for us: “Yeah, we call voyages like this one a seasickness cruise.” Apparently, my wishes for rocky seas were heard loud and clear by the ocean Gods and it was too late to ask for a do-over.

After dinner, we went back to the room to unwind a bit. The motion was getting to Mom, so she decided to turn in for the night while Stephanie and I flipped on a Saturday Night Live holiday special.

It was getting late, but we couldn’t sleep. Stephanie decided that the best vantage point to watch the waves was on my bed, surrounded by the blackout curtains. You know the intro to the show Revenge? She said the waves were like that.

So it’s getting pretty late and we can’t sleep because of the motion. We feel fine physically, but laying in bed punctuated the motion we were feeling, and there’s only one solution for that: booze. So we headed out to the piano bar.

The ship was pretty empty but there was a nice sized crowd in the piano bar, and a couple of drinks were the perfect distraction from the angry seas.

We kind of wandered around a bit after we left the bar and the ship was empty in most of the public areas. Oddly enough, though, the motion sickness bags were never put out. I kept an eye out for them because we’ve seen them put out on many cruises in far smoother seas and figured if and when they were put out, shit was really getting real, though at this point, I couldn’t imagine shit getting more real.

The first deck party was supposed to take place tonight but we couldn’t imagine they could pull it off. We popped upstairs to confirm that the deck party had, indeed, been cancelled.

The chips and salsa was placed out in an empty Lido Marketplace. We grabbed a plate and headed back to the room.

In 18+ cruises and over 100 days at sea, I had never experienced seas so disruptive. It wasn’t as bad when we were out and about, but when I was laying in bed, the motion was like being on a ride that I was so ready to get off of. The next day would bring a morning at sea followed by an afternoon in port in Aruba, and I couldn’t wait to step foot on solid ground and leave the motion to the ocean for a few hours.