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Awesome trip, wouldn't change a thing!!

Carnival Sunshine Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 3
Helpful Votes: 130

Overall rating:

5 out of 5
Carnival Sunshine

8 Night Eastern Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 09, 2017

Ship: Carnival Sunshine

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 2125

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

We loved our cruise very much. From start to end it was amazing & we really can't say enough good things about it. The ship was amazing & our ports were beautiful. We had gorgeous weather every day & were sad when it was over. Would absolutely sail on the Sunshine again & highly recommend it.

Embarkation

5 out of 5
Embarkation from Port Canaveral went very smoothly. Our time slot was 1130-12pm & we were on ship by 1230pm at the latest. We had to arrive at port earlier than scheduled due to a shuttle mix up but we were lucky & there was only a couple people ahead of us so we were through the check in process quickly & then it was just a matter of waiting to be called to board.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
We ate in the main dining room 6 of our 8 nights, the other 2 we had the Lido Buffet. The food was delicious, a nice variety. For breakfast each day we ate at Lido & there was always a big selection to choose from.

Sunset Dining Room

3 out of 5

The food was good however our server wasn't the best. He was friendly but pushy. He appeared very annoyed any time my 8yr old ordered chicken nuggets for his meal or if we didn't order something he recommended. Often he would bring our food & then bring the recommended item that we had said no too. If we didn't order it, then we would prefer it not to be brought to our table. Most times it was a case of we weren't overly hungry but on occasion it was an item we didn't like (shrimp) but he brought it anyways. It was also rushed, our dining time was 6pm, on more than on occasion we were done all 3 courses & left the restaurant in 30-45mins max. While I realize there is a 2nd seating time, it isn't until a few hours later. We should be given a minimum of 1hr or even 1.5hrs to eat. Most times we were given the menu by one server & as he walked away, the next came to take our order before we had a chance to look at it & our dessert menu was always given to us in the middle of our main course.

Lido Marketplace

5 out of 5

We had breakfast here daily & dinner on 2 occasions & we really enjoyed the food as well as the variety.

RedFrog Pub

5 out of 5

Friendly staff, drinks were great

BlueIguana Cantina

5 out of 5

Food was really good!

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5
There was so much to do! My kids very much enjoyed the waterslides, the various games on Sports Square & the ropes course.

Carnival Waterworks

5 out of 5

The waterworks area was wonderful! There are 3 big water slides for people who enjoy them but also a smaller water slide & some other things like buckets that fill with water & tip over. My kids both enjoyed it a lot.

Beach Pool

5 out of 5

The pool was great, never overly crowded.

Entertainment

5 out of 5
The entertainment staff on the Sunshine are spectacular!!! We took in a variety of shows & loved them all. We saw the Latin Show, the Epic Rock, the Magician Jackson Rayne, Tammy Drake's comedy show in the Limelight Lounge was hilarious & Keith in Piano Bar 88 is so much fun!!

Liquid Lounge

5 out of 5

The shows & entertainment held here were awesome. There was a full house every night we went. It is a beautiful venue!

Sunshine Atrium

5 out of 5

Spent a lot of time in the Atrium singing/dancing with Lee our Cruise Director for various themed nights. There were holiday sing a longs, an ugly sweater contest, Santa visits, 70s & 80s trivia evenings etc.

Children's Programs

5 out of 5
My kids, ages 8 & 14, both enjoyed the camps. My son went to Camp Carnival a lot over the week, often there 3hrs or more at a time. He enjoyed both the structured activities (crafts, karaoke etc) & the free time (played video games or assorted other games). He got to take part in the final holiday show & made some great friends. My daughter went to Circle C whenever an activity interested her. She enjoyed the karaoke, the holiday party, participating in the holiday show, playing the games & she met a few other people. Highly recommend these camps!

The Warehouse Video Arcade

5 out of 5

A nice variety of games & twice during our 8 day cruise, the game prices were half price.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Our state room steward was wonderful. He came by every morning to tidy our room, every evening to bring our fun times & sometimes we got 2 towel animals a day. We had asked him the first day to keep ice in our cooler all week (we gave him a cash tip when asking) & he checked our cooler not once but twice a day. He was friendly, greeted us by name whenever we saw him & he asked how we were enjoying our day. We found all other staff we encountered to be equally as friendly. They always said hello when we would pass them around the ship.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5
We loved this ship, it was easy to get around. Like any ship, it days a day or so to figure out where things are but after that we had no issues finding things. It was very clean & well maintained.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
We really liked our cabin. We orig booked interior but when offered an upgrade on an oceanview we took it. There were 4 of us so having the extra space helped a lot & my son enjoyed his sofa bed vs a cot. We also enjoyed the view from our window. It was so fun to look out every morning to see where we were & at night we often saw other cruise ships passing by. The beds were comfortable & our room steward did a wonderful job keeping it clean/tidy. There was never a short supply of towels!

Ship tip

When you go to the Lido Marketplace to eat, immediately go find a table in the Havana Bar. We never had trouble getting a table there when the rest of the Lido tables were full. Even during the evenings when the Havana Bar were taking dinner reservations they will let you eat in there at the bar or any table without a table cloth.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Port Canaveral, Florida

5 out of 5
We didn't get to explore this port much or do an excursion, it was just our embarkation/debarkation port but it was beautiful & everything went smoothly.
Thumbs Up

Grand Turk Island

5 out of 5
LOVED Grand Turk so much!! The aqua colored water was as warm as bath water & we saw fish! We didn't do an excursion, we swam to the left of the pier for a few hours then we had lunch in Margaritaville before making our way to Jack's Shack which is about a 15min walk up the beach.
Thumbs Up

Basseterre, St. Kitts

5 out of 5
We thoroughly enjoyed Basseterre! We did a Carnival tour, Brimstone Hill Highlights & our tourguide Bertgrum was awesome. He was extremely funny & very knowledgable. He went out of his way to add on a little extra to the tour just so we had the full island experience. I highly recommend a tour while here.
Thumbs Up

San Juan, Puerto Rico

5 out of 5
San Juan is stunning!! We explored on our own & made our way to the San Juan National Historic Site to explore one of the 2 Forts on site. The view from the top of the fort is amazing! We then made our way to a beach that was only a mile up the street from the Fort, directly across from the Capital Building. The beach was Playa Pena, a small private beach right off the side of the road. No lifeguard supervision here, it is use at own risk but it is worth it. It is gorgeous.
Thumbs Up

Amber Cove (Puerto Plata), Dominican Republic

5 out of 5
Loved this port, the pools area is gorgeous & we had so much fun relaxing in the pools. My daughter & husband also enjoyed the zipline which is a flat rate of $20/day so you really need to go a few times to make it worth it but they said it was a lot of fun.
Thumbs Up

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
It went very smooth, once our # was called we were off the ship, had our bags & through customs within 30mins.
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8 Comments

GMJoyce    6 years ago

@Sharawade my son didn't mention playdoh nor was it in his schedule. I also didn't see it in the room when we visited. But he was in the 6-8yr group. Maybe they have it in the 2-5yr camp. I can ask my son tomorrow to confirm. I know they had free play daily and had computer games and just dance etc for those times.
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sharawade    6 years ago

Can u tell me of Camp Carnival had a Play-Doh type theme in one of the rooms? I saw it on a video from 2014 and was wondering if it was still there.
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AuntPinkie    6 years ago

The Forts in San Juan have become our must do, no matter how often we go there. Glad you did that and enjoyed it. We haven't been to St.Kitts in years and your review helped remind us of it's beauty. We will be there next month. It is wonderful that you squeezed the most fun out of your adventure (the best way to cruise...IMHO). What is next?
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Travelwizard1    6 years ago

Enjoyed all the photos and review!
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LWLillie    6 years ago

That was cool!
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GMJoyce    6 years ago

LWLillie I had to pay for it but it was cheaper than when I orig looked at the time I booked. Back on March it was 300.00USD/wk more for Oceanview so we took interior but in Oct we got offered the upgrade for 80.00USD flat rate. In total it cost us 132.00 nd we had Carnivals insurance & for some reason that added on a little more but since it was still half the orig price we took it. However not everyone was offered an upgrade.
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LWLillie    6 years ago

Beautiful pictures! Question: when they offered you the upgraded room, did you have to pay the difference or just was given to you? Thanks!
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levine    6 years ago

I looked at all those pictures on this app and I can tell you were real busy and having fun. I'm always sad to go home too. Who wants to go back to reality?? I always hated that. Every last day at sea I'm so bummed out and sad that I can't even enjoy myself on this last day. However I'm going on the Sunshine Apil 6th so I can't wait. It's a sixteen day cruise so I won't have to go home too soon. Glad you had fun and I really enjoyed looking at your pictures.
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