Recent family trip-Carnival Sunshine 2015

My family and I recently went on our third cruise. We were introduced to cruising three years ago and have loved it since. For us, you cannot get a trip that includes different countries, food and entertainment at the price you can go on a cruise for.
With that being said, our family has become partial to the Carnival Cruise line.  This year we went on the Carnival Sunshine. This boat was at one time the Carnival Destiny, but it has since been completely redone. I am hoping in blogs to come to share about our trip.

This year we went to St. Marteen, St. Kitts, San Juan and Grand Turk. Beautiful destinations without a doubt. We did an 8 day adventure with our kids and my in-laws; who by the way cruise all the dang time!!

On the day of departure, we left from Port Canaveral. While in the parking lot unloading our luggage, my feisty 8 year old daughter made a friend in the parking lot, whom she got to hang out with on the boat a few times. When we got into the terminal, we were directed to one on one check in. For those who have never cruised, checking in for a boat is almost similar to checking in for a flight. Only difference is showing a passport or birth certificate, oh and you don't have to strip nearly naked to go through the metal detectors:)

 After being checked in and cleared, it was onto the ship!!! After dropping off our carry ons to our rooms, it was time to go to the Lido deck and get some lunch. We had been in a car for 6 hours and we were STARVING!! The buffet offered many different food options, plus there was a pasta bar and hibachi grill. The dining area we sat in every morning had huge windows and fake trees. Very relaxing to sit. This first picture shows the weather we are leaving

After lunch it was off to explore our home for the next 8 days. This ship had so many things for people to do. There were water slides, sky walk, outdoor sports area, pools with a theater screen. And this was just on the outside of the ship.

After exploring it was off to the safety class. This is where everyone, and I mean EVERYONE on the ship has to gather at a designated area and learn what to do if the ship goes down. Look, you can tell everyone all day long that in an even of an emergence (aka we are going down) everyone needs to stay calm. That is not going to happen. But anyway, we could not take photos during this time because they wanted all electronics put away so they could have our undivided attention. I did take a picture of our designated meeting area in the event this should happen. Imagine this area with hundreds of people.

Once the safety class is over, its usually onto the main deck of the ship to have a sail away party, but it was pouring rain.

This pretty much sums up departure day of the trip.