We loved Carnival Sunshine and would do it again. Hopefully we will have the same good time and good weather!
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Sorry to say it was kind of a disaster. Not the actual embarkation once we got inside the building, but apparently they changed the location of how they drop off at the ship. Our uber driver was having fits trying to drop us off, and was given apparently wrong directions and we ended up in the line to park the car. Absolutely no one seemed to know how to direct people! It took us nearly an hour in line just to be directed to a different line at the end for drop off. We had signed up for the earliest embarkation time, but that was a joke because of the delays we were way past the noon time. Once we got to the building with our carryons, everything went fairly smoothly except one of the machines was having trouble reading my son's passport. He was directed to a different line and that fixed the problem.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Every single thing we had on the ship was fantastic- this was by far the best food we've had on a cruise ship. We did not go to any of the specialty restaurants for dinner, but had great selections at our your time dining restaurant. Our favorite buffet was at Ocean plaza, food was hot and varied. We all loved Guy's burger joint, but were surprised that it closed for the day at 6pm. Some times the pizza line was pretty long, but my son was able to get that as much as he wanted. My only disappointment was when I tried to go to the afternoon tea. I had heard that there were great dessert items to have, but the selection I saw was not enticing at all so I left without having tea. As to the your time dining, this was definitely the right choice for us. All the wait staff were excellent, and it didn't really matter to us not sitting at the same table or having the same staff. The flexibility was most important to us. One other thing about the drinks- the pour your own beer station was closed at several times throughout the cruise, and when it was open there was often a shortage of glasses to be used. That could be improved I guess.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
I only went to one bingo session and I had forgotten how they are done on the ship. Definitely not my speed- took so long to purchase cards and then each of the 3 games took so long to play- it was more of an entertainment show with jokes and such in between calls- that all I could do was think about how I would rather be outside than inside. Of course, had I won it might have been different:) But I didn't go to any more bingo after that. We enjoyed playing one session of trivia with my family, would have probably played more but the times didn't work out for us. The casino was fun enough, we were able to play the slots for a while before ultimately losing:) We mostly enjoyed being on the serenity deck during the day, even if we couldn't get a lounger just sitting near the bar or soaking in the pool were wonderful. We did have the best weather, so that certainly helped. We also enjoyed the movies at night with the popcorn, plenty of seating for everyone.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
The only entertainment we went to were Mikey's reviews of the 70's and 80's in the atrium. He was so much fun!
Children's Programs
No children were with us
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Everyone was friendly and welcoming. We had your time dining and never had to wait for a table. We used the HUB app to request a table and had one waiting for us right away. The only thing was we had 5 in our party and when it was busier they seated us at a booth for 4 with a chair on the end which normally isn't a big deal, but when you are ordering numerous appetizers and entrees it can get a little crowded. Still, we enjoyed every bit of each of our meals and the staff made sure to clean dishes away quickly. The dishes were not cleared all that quickly from the lido buffet area, but we didn't spend much time there anyway. But staff were cleaning, sweeping, everywhere we went.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
We loved the ship's design. We took our time learning the layout and got pretty good knowing the best way to get from here to there. The upper decks for games were not very useful, though, due to wind and movement. Pretty impossible to play pool (which didn't have very good equipment anyway) or mini golf, but the kids seemed not to mind.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
The cabin was spacious enough and the bathroom had a nice large walk in shower. I didn't really need the over the door shoe container for stuff, there were several small shelves to use and my toiletries bag hanging on the door would have been sufficient. The beds were very comfy and we slept great. We used tea lights as nightlight which worked well, and were glad to have the power strip for plugging in devices.
Ship tip
It's true that the loungers on deck get taken up early, but later in the afternoon they open up. We found that the HUB app was very useful, and the chat feature took a little time to get going but was also very useful to communicate onboard. The only thing was that there didn't seem to be a notification feature so you had to look at your phone frequently to see if someone had tried to reach you.
This was our first time visiting Charleston, and we stayed a couple of days after the cruise to explore. We did our own walking tours and we did the Boone Plantation tour which was extremely educational and enjoyable. The weather got quite hot the days we were there, so we had to pace ourselves, but really enjoyed the city. It was nice that they had free buses to see the city, 3 different routes you could take, so if you were just tired of walking or wanted some air conditioning, you could hop on one of these. It was a little difficult figuring out the bus stops, but we eventually got it. They have the best travel information center which was right by our hotel, so I recommend checking it out.
We got a rather late boarding number to take the boat to the beach, but we were not in a hurry so it was OK. There were plenty of lounge chairs on the beach either in the sun or shade, so we found a place right away. It is always so fun to be in the ocean paddling around and seeing the different blues of the sea. We bought some blow up noodles to float around in and they did take a while to inflate but worked well enough to lazy around in. We also used our snorkel gear to look at some fish down on the far left side of the beach. Not too many varieties, but it was fun to do anyway. The barbecue lunch was good and the line was long but went pretty quick. Enjoyed some beers from the bar and before you know it, it was time to return to the ship. Just wish we had left a little sooner to avoid the crowds getting back to the ship- we were in line around 3pm and it was CROWDED!
No problems here- we decided to take our own luggage out and we were glad with out choice. There were some long lines to disembark, but once they started moving everything went smoothly.
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