We debated and debated on where to go this Spring. We finally settled on a cruise but deciding on what cruise line took me sweet forever. I'm the vacation planner in the family. Todd could care less where we go, for how long, etc. I just plan it and he goes with it. We normally stick with Disney Cruise Line but decided to try Carnival this time. Carnival had an insanely good deal with Todd's discount so we totally took advantage of it.
Deets:
Carnival Sunshine
8 nights
St. Thomas, Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Maarten
This girl has been on so many cruises in her short life. She loves it.
We convinced my sweet Grandma to go with us this time. She enjoys cruising and loves being with the littles.
One of my favorite activities was tea time during the day. This cute girl enjoyed it. Being the way way picky eater she is, she wanted nothing to do with the food or tea really but she enjoyed pretending.
Dress up night
One of my favorite ports was Grand Turk. The boat docks right at a public beach. If you get off the boat early, you can snag the free beach chairs. I could have stayed there for days.
Carnival did have fantastic kids activities. You totally can't compare it to Disney Cruise Line but our kids really enjoyed it. They spent at least 4 hours a day in the kids area, Camp Carnival, by choice. It was a super small space but jam packed with scheduled activities. Lauren and I would look at the activity list the night before and highlight all of the ones that she and Connor would enjoy.
Connor had Camp Carnival activities one day so this cutie wanted to play putt putt. She loves it. I need to enroll her in golf lessons.
Oh St. Thomas. How I loved this shopping area. Beautiful stores like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and great boutiques line this area of town. After doing some damage shopping, we stopped for some yummy gelato. I would totally go back and stay in this area.
Taking a break from shopping. Todd is a good sport.
My Cubs kiddos ready to take on San Juan.
In St. Maarten we took a taxi to a pretty resort area, Little Bay. It was only $5/person each way so around $40 and we got to enjoy a beautiful beach for the day. I was a little terrified that the taxi driver would kidnap us. When we get off the boat, there were 8 bazillion cab drivers with some sort of agreement with the cruise lines. They wanted to charge a dang fortune to take us to Little Bay. We were told by a security guard to walk outside the gates and get a normal taxi and it would be cheaper. That's what we did and it worked out well. St. Maarten is known as the "friendly island" and that's totally true.
I've never seen water so beautiful in all my life. You could see the bottom of the ocean and just float for hours. It was amazing and so worth the trip over from the cruise terminal.
"Special drinks" were a highlight for the kids. They thought it was so fun to go to the bar and order a fun fruity drink.
On the last morning of the cruise, we got tickets for the Dr. Suess breakfast. Lauren and Connor are so into Dr. Suess.
Verdict:
We had a great time. I would definitely go on a bigger Carnival ship next time. The kids activities were great but it was pretty boring for adults. If you don't feel like drinking and gambling every single night, there really wasn't much to do. If you've experienced Disney Cruise Line before, you just can't compare the two. We went into the trip just not even comparing and truly had an open mind. We had a great great time. The ports were my absolute favorite on this trip and it gave us an idea of where we'd like to spend a whole week on our next vacation.
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