revdb Cruise Review on Carnival Sunshine on Apr 27, 2019

Carnival Sunshine Cruise Review

revdb

Contributor Level: Purser

Reviews: 4

Helpful Votes: 49

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

8 Night Eastern Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)

Sail date: April 27, 2019

Ship: Carnival Sunshine

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

OVERALL REVIEW Cruising is what you make it. This was our 14th cruise. For the most part, we have been there and done that when it comes to what the ship offers. This was not a bad cruise. I would have given it 5 stars except our dinner service was inconsistent the whole time. Beside the dinner problems I will discuss below, the only real problem we noticed was the smell on Deck 4 before you go into the Limelight Lounge. This was the 1st time in our cruising experiences we have had anything this bad. You will have certain smells around a ship most days but never had one like this. I do not know what it was but it was there the whole cruise. Mikey is the best cruise director we have had (this was our 2nd time with him). He goes far and above the call of duty. With the tragedy of losing a crew member at the beginning of the cruise, Mikey did all he could to make sure the rest of the cruise was not affected by whatever happened. My prayers go out to the crew members family and friends. EMBARKATION We flew into Orlando and used the shuttle service from the airport. For the most part, everything went smoothly except for a large family contingent on the bus who did not realize we were not on the ship yet. They fought and loudly discussed whatever came to their minds. The folks behind us moved to the back of the bus to get away from them. Once at the pier from the moment we got off the bus until we went straight to the room to drop off our carry-on luggage, it was maybe 10 minutes. Port Canaveral did a great job getting us on the boat. SHIP EXPERIENCES We had sailed on the Sunshine once before. We found the ship easy to navigate. The serenity deck was a great place to unwind unless you got some drunks who did not realize the meaning of the word serenity. People saving chairs and not showing up was always a problem that Carnival does not seem to want to address. FOOD AND DINING Usually, the dining room service is impeccable. This cruise for the first time, it was disorganized and lacking. The food was good when you got it on time. My wife is on a special diet and had preselected her food choices. It was either there waiting on her or later. We had only one service out of the 8 nights where everyone at our table received their appetizers, entrees and desserts together. Every other night, we got our plates at different times. On 2 nights in a row, I did not get my appetizer until after everyone else at the table had gotten their entrees. One night, I did not receive a menu to place my orders. I had to borrow one from across the table. We could not figure out the problem. 3 nights in a row, my appetizer was served with my entree. This is the reason the overall rating is not a 5 star. Guys, Blue Iguana, Mongolian Wok (long waits though), and the Pizzeria were excellent. This was the best pizza we have had on a cruise. ENTERTAINMENT The cast and crew of the productions did an excellent job. We had watched Motor City and Epic Rock before. Studio VIP and Latin Nights were good. We enjoyed the Dive In Movies also. That is a good idea. The newest thing for us was the increased lineup of movies you could watch in the room. We watched several in the room and that was a welcomed change from cruises before. Mikey doing the 70’s and 80’s party in the atrium was great! The Love and Marriage show was as good as always. SERVICE AND STAFF Our room steward Arnold was super. There was nothing we needed because he always was there to help us and take care of anything we needed. Many others were helpful as always. SHIP QUALITY Except for the smell on deck 4, everything else was excellent. Sunshine will need some more updating soon but we had no issues with the ship outside of the smells. CABIN/STATEROOM We had an interior room. It was larger than any we have stayed in before. The shower and bathroom was roomier than any other we have had. It was not as cold as I wanted it at night but it was not really a problem. DEBARKATION Best one for us yet. We got to the Liquid Lounge at 7:30 am and were off the boat and in the bus by 8:15 am. This was much better organized than other cruises. PORTS OF CALL Grand Turk - this was my favorite. We snorkeled at the beach right off the ship. San Juan - We did the rainforest drive and it was good. Our tour guide Carlos was great! He kept us entertained and safely got us around. The little store we stopped at coming back to the ship tried to rip us off but we did the math with them and got them to understand what money they owed us. You just have to be careful. St. Kitts - We did the 10 best of St Kitts tour. It was good and the tour guide was a little hard to understand. The fort stop and the Palm Garden stop was worth the time there. St. Maarten - We did the 10 best tour here. This tour was extremely too long. The highlight was Maho Beach and getting to see the planes land and takeoff. There is a taco place there in the parking lot that is worth the money spent. Food was excellent! This was our least favorite overall because the island was brown everywhere. They have not cleaned up much from the hurricane 2 years ago. The tour guide was hard to understand.

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