Family 2016 Sunshine Cruise

The cruise was nice.  The rooms were not so nice. We booked a balcony and an interior for the six of us.  I have been on many cruises before and booked the same way without any trouble.  We arrived to an interior room that smelled horrible of smoke.  My daughter has asthma and my son's girlfriend was recovering from bronchitis.  Needless to say I could not allow them to sleep in this room.  In fact it was causing me to get nauseous just being in it.  The second thing was the "trendelbed" it was a roll up cot with a 4 in mattress and springs poking through.  I would not even let my dog sleep on this!  I asked the housekeeper for another mattress to sleep on top of the roll up bed and we moved the girls into the balcony room to sleep.  It was extremely upsetting to crawl over 2 beds and almost kill yourself because we had to place 4 people in a tiny room because the interior room was inhabitable. My parents were in a balcony and my sister in another interior. Each of those rooms had trendlebeds which is crazy to think our room which needed the extra bed did not have a trendlebed!!!!  My daughter had to use her inhaler for coughing throughout the cruise just to prevent wheezing! Carnival brought in a "Ozone" cleaner each day which was somewhat effective as soon as it was done but as soon as we turned the air conditioner on the smoke smell was back.  We asked carnival to switch rooms but they stated none were available. The shower head fell off in this room and the drain was blocked the first time I took a shower in it.  Crazy to think your on vacation with all these problems. 

Enough of the inside cabin issues. On to the dinners- They were fantastic.  Out service was fantastic!!! the dining room food was wonderful!!!

The buffet was good too!  I think Carnival really tries to make it good, but with so many people it is difficult. I loved the omelet station and the pizza station! The waiters in the lido deck dining were very nice too.

The cruise director was adorable and lovely! 

The pool was always too crowded for me, the hot tubs were always too filled too. The chocolate station on one day was wonderful!

The guest service people were always grumpy! I kid you not the lines there were 1-hour waits.  I do have to compliment them though when I lost my cellphone and realized I set it down and forgot it, the guest service people had it safely within my 30 minutes of panic.

The comedian shows were overwhelmingly crowded on the last 3 nights.  It was frustrating to have to save seats and wait 30 minutes prior to the show to see it.

The first Comedian- "Happy" was my favorite!  Mike the comedian was not so funny but rather sarcastic.  Tony was very funny also.

The "Epic" show was absolutely my favorite.  Such talented people and well done. The 70's show was also wonderful.

The bartenders in the Blue iguana and Red Frog seemed like they did not like their job, there was so many people and it was non stop serving so I do get it.

I purchased a soda card and wine package as soon as I got on the ship and later found out that I got charge the "tax" on it because we were not in international waters.  Crazy!!!

I must say when I asked for a soda I got a glass full of ice and a bit of soda, then I asked for the can and some ice in a glass and was told several times that Carnival is not allowed to do that, so they then gave me 2 glasses one of ice and one of soda. 

Room service was great for the times my kids wanted to have some cookies or a sandwich before bed and not go to the buffet.  It was quick and fresh.

The pictures taken on my cruise are excellent and I will enjoy them forever.  I did spend $220.00 on them but I also got the jump drive to be able to share them with family. 

My sister was promised on board ship credit and never got the total promised.

The ports of call:

Saun Juan- Why do we get off so late at night when most shops are closed?  It is a beautiful island but we got to port at 3pm and was able to get off around 3:30pm so daylight was so minimal plus where the ship docks is a little scary.

St. Thomas- We docked at 7am(no shops opened then)  Crazy right.  We had an excursion "Miniboat" which was excellent!  but never really got to see much of St. Thomas either as we had to be back by 2:30pm.

Grand Turk- So commercialized-  they allowed us off at 2pm and back on at 7pm, Marti Gra pool was so crowded I could not even see water in the pool!!! By the time I got to the beach all the spots were taken or reserved and people were smoking everywhere as the quarters on the beach were so tight I felt like a sardine in a can.  In the beach area the shallow water is not walkable without water shoes and the algae is all over the rocks so when you get up out of the water the algae is there.  The shops were fun and got a lot of souvenirs there but the onboarding process was a nightmare as the computer system went down and we had to wait in line just to get on for about an hour. 

All in all the food was wonderful, the dining staff awesome, and the shows were memorable.  I do think a cruise was a fabulous way for my family to all get together and have fun as there was 20 of us on this cruise.  Carnival needs to consider having extra rooms for when unexpected issues occur as this could have made our cruise so much nicer.  Also I will consider getting a smoke free room as this is a medical concern to me and my family for future cruises.