Windy, but wonderful!

Carnival Sunshine Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 43

Overall rating:

5 out of 5
Verified Review
Carnival Sunshine

8 Night Southern Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 31, 2016

Ship: Carnival Sunshine

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 1531

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

Our cruise started with an amazing New Year's Eve party by the pool, it was such a great way to start off our vacation!  Overall, the cruise was wonderful, but very windy most of the time.  That caused a few rough nights and days at sea, so if this is your first cruise, I might recommend an itinerary that sticks closer to land or does close island hopping.  The Carnival Sunshine is a beautiful boat.  We had an Ocean View room and I must say, its one of the bigger rooms we've had on a cruise ship, even the shower was bigger than most!  We also really liked the way the pools were set up, where the adult pool was outside and still part of all the action happening on the Lido deck, yet separate enough where you didn't have the screams or splashes of kids.  We also loved all the dining options so at lunchtime it didn't feel like complete ciaos at the buffet.  There were also options in the Havana bar and the burger and burrito bars by the pool.  This really helps spread of the crowd out and really makes a difference in your dining experience.  We also had the best service staff in the Sunset dining room. We especially loved Yuli from Indonesia and Jayson!!  Overall, this was one of the better cruises we taken and we've tried many of the competing cruise lines.  Thanks again, Carnival, we've really seen their service and experience improve in recent years!! 

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
The main dining room food could still use a bit of work, but its pretty comparable to all other cruises. The number of dining options especially for breakfast and lunch was awesome! I will note that there was a huge opportunity to better plan wine, beer and liquor, however. The day we arrived they were already out of a few wines by the glass and the boat never restocked, so by the end of the trip there was little wine and limiting liquor options. We did mention this to the staff and they were great about offering up alternative options that would count under our beverage package.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5
There didn't seem to be quite as much variety as other ships we've been on. The comedians were great, but that was the main option for most of the nights.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Yuli from Indonesia and Jayson in the Sunset restaurant worked their butts off and made our experience great. We think they both definitely deserve promotions! We hardly saw our head waiter so these two definitely went above and beyond!

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Our stateroom was so spacious and very well-kept. Great sized window with a great view, even though we mostly saw water. :-) We also really enjoyed the awesome towel animals each night!

Ship tip

With this itinerary there are more days at sea than most. The boat travels quite a distance to get from Port Canaveral to Aruba so it was pretty rocky most of the time and we experienced some very windy weather. If you are prone to sea-sickness, you might want to choose another itinerary.

Ports of call

Port Canaveral, Florida

3 out of 5

Oranjestad, Aruba

5 out of 5

Willemstad, Curacao

5 out of 5

Grand Turk Island

5 out of 5
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4 Comments

kcb22002    7 years ago

I was on the same cruise. The party on the lido deck was a great way to kick off the new year!

cruznjan    7 years ago

Jayson was one of our waiters. He's great!

glomarrone    7 years ago

Someday i hope to take a cruise on the Sunshine.  I'd also like to take a cruise over New Year's Eve - someday it will happen.  Glad that you had such a wonderful cruise except for windy weather.  Thanks for posting. 

BonMike    7 years ago

Thanks for posting. We are even more excited to be going on the Sunshine in March.

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