wonderful ports, disappointed ship!

Carnival Sunshine Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 52

Overall rating:

4.2 out of 5
Carnival Sunshine

8 Night Southern Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 24, 2018

Ship: Carnival Sunshine

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 6375

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

Very disappointed in the ship itself. It's tired and in need of repairs. Congested pools areas and seems to small for the amount of people it cruises with.

Embarkation

2 out of 5
Port Canaveral is the most congested, unorganized port we have ever been to. It is certainly not set up for 20,000 people all trying to get to their ships, with one entrance way and one exit. The ground people directed our bus twice to the wrong lanes and wrong directions. It took us over an hr to get off the bus once inside the port authority.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
Food is always excellent!

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5
we didn't do any. no button to say N/A

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
More so our stateroom. We had ab aft balcony on the 6th floor. When we arrived, there was this musty smell coming from the bathroom. Visible mold on the caulking in the shower and come to find out, each time you shower the water ran over the lip an onto the floor because the shower curtain was about an inch too short. Constant wet towels and floor. Service from our steward was excellent at replacing the towels several times a day. Our balcony was dirty with toothpicks and food particals when we arrived and was never cleaned up. Water seem to run the wrong way on the balcony as each morning we stepped into puddle that collected at the door instead of running off the end. The adult pool - was the reason we booked this ship. It was EXTREMELY busy and not enough lawn chairs to accommodate the cliental, so that meant getting up at 5:30 to put towels and personal items on the chairs, as 6 am seemed to be too late. Very disappointing. Leaving for lunch, we returned to a sticker on our chair saying there were unoccupied and would have our stuff removed in 45 mins. Unacceptable. They need to purchase more chairs or figure out how to resolve that problem.

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
see my notes up above regarding room.

Ports of call

Oranjestad, Aruba

5 out of 5
Beaches are amazing here and the shopping is second to none!! Get your wallet out!

Bonaire, Netherlands Special Municipality

5 out of 5
beautiful - water taxi to Klein Bonaire was amazing snorkeling. A must go if that's what you enjoy,

Grand Turk Island

5 out of 5
Jack's Shack!! Enough said!

Disembarkation

3 out of 5
Arrived in port at 7am and we didn't get called to disembark until 9:40. you decide.
Was this review helpful? 52

10 Comments

tjturner    6 years ago

Love the Sunshine, my favorite so far

yankandbrit    6 years ago

Sunshine is one of our faves and we'll sail her again someday. We all have our likes and dislikes...funny we were underwhelmed by the Vista and going back to our lovely Elation. Different strokes...makes the world go round! Better luck on your next cruise!🛳️

IkeDeb    6 years ago

Sorry about the ship!😉😉

2OldPlayers    6 years ago

Sorry to read a disappointing review about Sunshine. Will be sailing in her in 3 days. Will wait & form opinion once on board. We have never had problem at PC either, but as above we eiter took shuttle or drove.

dixie1    6 years ago

Sorry for the confusion at PC it is one of the best ports you can use never used bus always drive from entering port till on Ship usely less than 30 min

debbiew57    6 years ago

The Sunshine was a beautiful ship! The lack of lounge chairs was definitely a problem, especially on sea days! The Serenity pool was great...has a waterfall...would definitely sail on the Sunshine again....we went on her last year in May. We cruised on the Conquest in May 2016..it definitely needs to be updated!! But we still had a blast and enjoyed our cruise!!

onlysail    6 years ago

Chair hogs are a pain

sopha    6 years ago

That's to bad. I sailed her twice as the Destiny, and then it had a complete overhaul. Even adding an additional deck. I'll be sailing it in January, I guess I'll see.

roseron    6 years ago

I too thought the pool areas were congested and small.... We didn’t even get in.

zanderboi85    6 years ago

I'm excited to sail in it

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