Great Cruise, Bad Ship
Carnival Sunshine Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean
12 Night Mediterranean (Barcelona Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 29, 2013
Ship: Carnival Sunshine
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 12017
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 11 years ago
Review summary
Look, the cruise was great, the ports were wonderful, the excursions were ridiculously expensive, as usual, and the food was great. Just AVOID THIS BOAT. Carnival Sunshine supposedly came out of dry-dock a completely revamped "just like new" ship in May, 2013. It is not "just like new" and I went on the Carnival Spirit when it was pretty new, so I have some camparison. We had an inside spa cabin. I HIGHLY recommend the spa cabins, the additional pampering you get and the access to the thermal suite is 100% worth it. However, our a/c never worked and we complained about it a couple times, but they kept saying that it was normal when they tested it. Well, if normal is 75 degrees at 8am, then yes, but it only got hotter from there. FINALLY they gave us a fan, but there was no apologies, no explanation, just "there's nothing we can do." The movies started late several times, and the sound was too low, so you couldn't watch from the hot tub, then a couple days it was too low to hear the dialog at all. Speaking of the hot tubs, they were not hot. At all. And staff passed the buck, on-deck staff said to contact customer service, customer service said to contact on-deck staff. There is certainly not enough deck space, and the "no saving chairs" policy is not enforced. I saw a group almost come to blows over 4 folks trying to reserve chairs all day, even though they left for an hour and a half for breakfast! I wanted to rumble with another group, but my husband's cooler head prevailed and we were eventually able to find two chairs together in the sun. The water slides were super fun, I could have gone on them all day! I'm not sure why the ropes course always seemed to be closed while we were in port and then closed due to wind while we were sailing. They're on deck 12 or so, it's gonna be windy up there! Either open up in port or remove it so there's more deck space. Overall, cruising the med is a fabulous vacation, just find a difference ship!Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Get to the theater early. People start lining up about 30 minutes before shows start, and then push and shove to get the good seats. About half of the seats are bad, so that you can't see half the show. From the balcony, the lights are in the way of the movie screens, which are used in some shows