Triumph born again into the Sunrise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 12

Helpful Votes: 275

Review summary

Carnival Sunrise Cruise May 6-12 2019 (6 Days, Bahamas) I am writing a very detailed review so people can evaluate the experience that my wife and I had on this cruise. We first booked this cruise over a year ago on carnival.com. They offered us a balcony stateroom at an interior stateroom price as we were in the process of booking. Needless to say I grabbed it up immediately. We needed a fully accessible stateroom as my wife has mobility issues and uses a medical scooter. We were assigned to stateroom #6207 (Handicap Balcony) and a check in appointment time of 12:30pm to 1:00 pm on embarkation day. We arrived in Norfolk, Virginia at 11:00am and paid the parking attendant ($15 per day $105 for 6 days). She directed us to the handicap area witch was very close to the shuttle bus area. We unloaded the car and went over to the staging area. A porter took our checked luggage and showed us where to wait for the shuttle. We needed to wait for the third shuttle as that one had a lift for a scooter. The driver was most helpful and friendly. As a matter of fact all the folks were helpful, friendly and very polite. Our shuttle was about 1 mile from the port and due to traffic it took almost 50 minutes to get there. Upon arrival we exited the shuttle and walked into a much disorganized mess. Having 6 cruises with Carnival, we are familiar with the embarkation process. This was just a hot mess. They had us line up, walk up the entry ramp to Nauticus, then back down, then they moved the gates around, changed the line, ignored questions and had no clue how to move passengers from one point to another. More lines going nowhere, people starting to get angry, including folks who were platinum/diamond cruisers? We finally reached the elevators when a carnival associate ran up and was yelling to stop the lines. Waited some more and finally entered the elevators. Once on the second floor we process seamlessly through check-in and security and boarded the ship. This whole process took almost 3 hours since our arrival at the parking area. We boarded the ship via Deck3 forward and were greeted by a most friendly crew. All hellos and welcome aboard for everyone. We were invited to the Lido deck for lunch, music and fun! We had arrived at our cruise! The muster drill was pretty disorganized as the crew directed handicap passengers to the wrong place and the wait for the briefing did not being until about 40 minutes after we arrived at our muster station. First sea day was fantastic! Explored the ship and found a very new vessel with many different things to do. Extremely impressed that they have an ADA lift and we were able to play mini golf for the first time in our 6 cruises with Carnival. We played shuffleboard, foosball and I even climbed the rope bridge course. The serenity deck was only ADA accessible for the bottom level. We enjoyed the gigantic hot tub. Lunch included Guy’s Burgers and was fantastic as always. We had a port call in Nassau. This is a city we have been to over the years on all 6 cruises. The city is much cleaner and safer than it was years ago. They are trying to make it handicap friendly buy still have a way to go. We also had a port call in Freeport. We only visited the port shops as the island still has much damage from the hurricanes of 2016 and 2017. Everything is handicap friendly, including most of the shops (They installed ramps). Half Moon Cay was our other port call and this was our second lifetime visit. Just as beautiful as ever! Carnival set up a picnic type bar-b-que lunch that was delicious. The tender operation was well run and that is a huge improvement over our last cruise with the tender to Princess Cays. There were many choices for entertainment during the cruise. We attended the Punchliner Comedy Club twice and saw Tim Young (Very funny) & Roman (Well he tried). We saw a magician by the name of Mark Bennick who was amazing. Love and Marriage Show was great! Playlist Productions did a roaring 20’s show that was also amazing! The music of Tim Lucas, Marc Anthony and the Electric Violins was enjoyed immensely. The Military Appreciation Tribute was the second one I have attended and brought a tear to my eye. Carnival really does appreciate our veterans and I was so proud to be there with all the other vets and their families. Simply amazing! Our stateroom was attended to at least twice daily (Even though I told them we only needed once daily). Our cabin steward was Ilham who took very good care of us. Only 2 issues were: The refrigerator was wired to work only when the mirror light was on (Had to turn off at night to sleep, not a big problem but we stored Insulin in the fridge) and there was no closet to hang clothing (Other than a very small area where the lift jackets were) Debarkation was well organized and moved along schedule. Trip back to the parking area was also expedient and safe. Special recognition is due to our Cruise Director Chris Williams (The Flying Scotsman). Chris is not only a very talented man but one who truly loves his work and treats us like family. You can tell he is sincere and not just acting. He became very emotional during the veterans appreciation gathering. I would like to recognize two other team members that gave superior service. Both are on the entertainment team and took time with my wife and I to make this a very special cruise for us. A young man named Houston, entertainment team member and a young lady named Sammie B, also of the entertainment team. We found the entire crew of the Sunrise to be professional, fun, energetic and full of life, making our cruise fantastic! Lastly we would like to thank our Captain for a safe voyage and a great cruise #7 for us. We are so pleased with Carnival we just booked our first Journey’s cruise on the Sunshine out of Charleston SC December 3rd 2019. Thank you.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Norfolk, Virginia

Nassau, Bahamas

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island

Disembarkation

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