just what the VayCay Doctor ordered

Carnival Sunshine Cruise Review

Bonny99

Contributor Level: Second Mate

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 20

Overall rating:

4.7 out of 5

5 Night Bahamas (Charleston Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 28, 2022

Ship: Carnival Sunshine

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

The Sunshine is an older ship and she shows it but the crew works hard to keep her as clean and looking nice as they can. The serenity decks ate great, but there are a lot of chair hogs and holding. Peoe slept in the clay shells overnight to se ure them for ne t sea day. I thought that was a little ridiculous but to each their own. Then, it ended up raining at 9 am and continued to downpour entire day so..... There was talk about rowdy youngsters running amuck all over the ship but we never saw it, luckily. I tried the 24hr pizza place one night and that became our late night snack al.oat every night. Tip the guy a couple dollars because the pizza makers are some of the hardest working of all the food service workers.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Extremely smooth and efficient. I used the Verifly app for the very first time and we sailed through all the checkpoints. I was only asked to show my passport and my boarding pass, along with the Berifly app on my phone.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Pic if the Baled Alaska dessert we had on the last night of our cruise in the MDR. Food was good, not excellent, but hey! I wasn't cooking or trying to figure out what to make so I was happy! We had Sushi for lunch one afternoon and that was very, very good. If you like sushi, you will not be disappointed.

Sunrise Dining Room

4 out of 5

Service was excellent, food mediocre. We ate all of our breakfasts and dinners here. I was disappointed with the selections, but I found foods to eat every meal. We heard a lot of hype about the sea day brunch so we tried that too. Food was overcooked and hard (biscuits), dried out (chicken). But other food selections were good. Hot or miss.

Bonsai Sushi

5 out of 5

If I could give this 10 stars I would. We had a California Roll and a tempura seafood roll. Absolutely delicious.

Guy's Burger Joint

5 out of 5

The pig patty was really good. Husband had the ringer. I loke my burgers well done and they were. My husband likes a medium rare burger but he finished his burger just the same.

RedFrog Pub

5 out of 5

This was great. My goto drink is a hurricane and they serve a really good tropical hurricane here. They got to know me, as this was our go to bar to get drinks.

Piano Bar 88

5 out of 5

Scott was a lot of fun and got us all involved with the songs. Very entertaining.

Java Blue Café

5 out of 5

We had the cheers pkg, which also included coffees at the Java Blue. They were very good. We only had the "ship coffee" the last morning on debarkation day. We got spoiled!

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

My husband and I both went down the water slides and did the ropes course. Denise and Nate at the ropes course were awesome! We played mini golf and that was fun although it was very windy up on the top level decks.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

The performers were ok in the 70's stage show. They really did well in the Rock show, although the best performance was the guitar player at the very beginning- he warmed up the audience! There were 2 comedians. Kojo eas meh. I didn't find him that funny in the only show I saw him in. We did enjoy the comedy of Dan Mengini and saw 4 of his shows.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Always with smiles on their faces and really came across as wanting to make sure we had a really great cruise, which we did.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ship tip

At present, after a show in the Limelight Lounge, they usher you out the back doors. They tell you to go up one flight and walk to aft stairway and back down to get back in line for next show. Just go through back door and go out the double doors as if you are going to Muster station C. Walk until you see another set of double doors and go back in. You'll be right where you need to be very quickly.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Nassau, Bahamas

5 out of 5

We walked to Junkanoo Beach and stayed for an hour or 2. Then made our way by foot to the Fish Fry area. We ate at Curly's. Food was very slow getting to us and just warm. Bit it was good. Ealkwd back and checked out the straw market. Al.ost identical items sold at each of the stalls and very high priced, even with bartering was still too much. Walked to a souvenir store and found same things in there fore fraction of price (magnets, plaques to hang on wall, shot glasses, etc). Buy the hand made items at the straw market and get the test of the stuff at a store. Stretch your dollars.

Thumbs Up 0

Bimini, Bahamas

4 out of 5

We took the free tram and got off on 3rd stop to rent a golf cart. Paid $60 for all day. We drove around and found a beach to stop at for awhile. Ate Scorch combo at Stuart's. Talked to the gentleman harvesting the conch right there. It is very good!

Thumbs Up 1

Charleston, South Carolina

5 out of 5

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

We went to breakfast at 7 am. Went back to our room about 8 and grabbed our bags and walked right off. Little to no wait for the elevators and line moved right along. We had a shuttle back to our hotel, so just walked straight to the pick-up area. Easy peasy.