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Hello Sunshine!!!

Carnival Sunshine Cruise Review

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 28

Overall rating:

4.8 out of 5
Carnival Sunshine

4 Night Bahamas (Charleston Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 03, 2023

Ship: Carnival Sunshine

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 1471

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

For our 1st cruise it was a great experience! Our cruise director Leon was Hilarious! We loved all the activities on the ship and the dining options! My fav thing was the thermal pass to the spa!!!

Embarkation

5 out of 5
I was really intimidated by the embarkation process, this was my first cruise. We were herded into a warehouse like cattle in the beginning. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly and efficiently things moved. The entire process from the moment we arrived til we stepped foot on the boat may have taken an hour and that was being shuttled from the warehouse to the actual customs check in and boat.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
Something I was so excited about! I had heard such wonderful things about the food and was not disappointed!!!! Honestly we did not have one bad thing in the dining room and absolutely loved Blue Iguana, Guys Burgers and the Pizza Buffet!!! The Lido Buffet was pretty good too! The only thing that was a little lackluster was the JiJi Asian at lunch, not terrible at all but just not up to the hype.

Lido Marketplace

4 out of 5

Pretty decent for a quick bite! Loved the fresh fruits, salad bar and dessert! Also a lot of things from the main dining room show up here.

Ocean Plaza

5 out of 5

Great place to hang out and chill! Live music, karaoke, games and trivia! We loved the trivia and even won a few games!

Guy's Burger Joint

5 out of 5

Super fun! Menu looks limited but the toppings bar more than makes up for it!!! Very tasty burgers!

Sunset Dining Room

5 out of 5

Tea time and the sea day brunch were both delicious!

RedFrog Rum Bar

5 out of 5

Amazing bartenders and great drinks!

Main Lounge Bar

5 out of 5

Fun place where something is always happening! Killer Bahama mamas!

BlueIguana Cantina

5 out of 5

Holy tacos! Could have eaten here every meal!!! That toppings bar !!! I loved all the tacos , and burritos were excellent !!! The watermelon and Jicama salad was my fav!

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Sunshine Casino

3 out of 5

The atmosphere was very fun in the casino but it is a very quick place to lose some money! We did enjoy playing a few slots, and met some great people at the quarter games. We enjoyed hanging out and having drinks

Hot Tubs

3 out of 5

Again we never got to really experience this because they were packed out the entire time.

Serenity Pool

4 out of 5

It was a beautiful pool with waterfall and not crowded! We tried to get in but it was freezing lol but it was nice to lounge by it with out such a crowd

The Fun Shops

5 out of 5

Had a great time at the fun shops! All the different deals were and promotions were great!! Pay attention to specials each day!

Serenity

5 out of 5

We LOVED chilling in the lounger on the serenity deck! We also loved the adult only appeal! We were on hour 10yr anniversary trip so it was a nice place to be kid free lol

Pixels Gallery

3 out of 5

Was disappointed we never could find all of our pictures and basically had to drag info out of the individual. I had a coupon for a free gift and had to find someone to even figure out what it was. I thought it might be a discount on pictures, no it’s basically an unbound album. I wish there were more digital options

Beach Pool

3 out of 5

Can’t really say much about the Beach Pool. It was way smaller than I thought and covered up with kids so we never even got to get in

Entertainment

5 out of 5
Ok so the stage show the first night was kind of corny. The next night was a Motown show so we were excited about that. Well some technical difficulty prevented them from actually performing so the cast was just sitting on stools singing. It was like being in a weird episode of Glee. The final night was the Epic Rock show that we heard about the entire time. Well again due to technical difficulties it was canceled. HOWEVER the other things on the ship were more than enough to get a great review! The Duo Blue Velvet played at several different places around the ship and were great! On top of that our cruise director Leon was a fab host for Deal or No Deal, Love and Marriage and the showdown game! All of these were great!

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Honestly everyone we met was great and so nice! Our room steward Muli was the absolute sweetest! We did your time dining so we had different servers and only one was a little bit different as in held out his hand for a tip when we left. I thought that was a little odd. I never mind tipping extra for exceptional service, but dude was nothing special.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5
Was incredibly impressed with the cleanliness of the ship and our room daily

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Ocean view, king size bed and small couch. Was actually a little larger than I expected

Ship tip

Get the thermal pass to the spa! This gives you access to 2 different saunas, aromatherapy shower and the thermal suite heated beds! As someone with chronic pain this was worth the $115!!! Get involved! There are so many fun things to do!

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Princess Cays (Cruise Line Private Island)

4 out of 5
Ok so I wouldn’t say this was disappointing, but maybe a little underwhelming. First of all the Bahama blue water was beautiful and we only waited about 45min to board the tender and it was a fun 15 min ride. When we arrive we follow signs to the left and walk ALL the way to the end of the beach for our clam shell rental, only to be told they were sold out. After a few heated words as in I paid for this months ago she told us we would have to got to the OTHER beach to the right. I was a little ill and then they offered to shuttle us. We get to the other side and it was less crowded and I see a lunch pavilion close by so I’m like eh this will work out it’s fine. The water was amazing and unlike anything we had ever seen . Lunch time comes and instead of having both pavilions open they only had the one. On the other side we here we had originally started . So here we go walking all the way back and the line was literally a mile long. So we said screw it we will just go back to the shop a little early for lunch. Some folks next to us said they stood in line for an hour for cold burnt hot dogs. It’s just seemed like nothing was well organized on the island. It also seemed like the island was run down. . Again we loved the ocean and the beach, the island just kind of wasn’t what is advertised.
Thumbs Up

Charleston, South Carolina

4 out of 5
Really not much to see or do at the port itself but charleston is absolutely beautiful! I would love to go back and tour a little more!
Thumbs Up

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
Super easy. We chose to leave at the early time ( we had quite a drive home) so we didn’t have to wait on a group and carried our own luggage. We had early breakfast in the lido market place and grabbed our luggage and left. It’s was very quick and easy
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6 Comments

javawoody    1 year ago

Glad you enjoyed your first cruise
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FondaLogic    1 year ago

Leon is wonderful! He made a friend in our 4 year old, remembered her name when we saw him various places around the ship! Loved his bar dances!
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AuntPinkie    1 year ago

Welcome to the wonderful world of cruising. Appreciate your details. I enjoy seeing a cruise through fresh eyes. Glad you thoroughly enjoyed your cruise.
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Gwbigdog    1 year ago

Thanks for sharing
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Mmjay    1 year ago

We were on the Sunshine about a week ago and also went to Princess Cays for the first time. We had rented an air conditioned Cabana with two lounge chairs on porch and two clam shell lounge chairs on sand which I believe made the whole experience great for us. We were provided snorkling gear, floats, soda drinks, fruit tray with dip and vegetable tray with dip. We hung out there until the food line was shorter. Hopefully if you go again, you will have a better time at Princess Cays. Thank you for your review.
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NanMarie    1 year ago

Thanks for your review. We also were on the Sunshine in Jan. Jiji's used to be better. You could pick your own veggies, meat or shrimp and sauce. You put it in a bowl, then hand it to them. Then they would cook it for you for lunch. Now it has changed and you can only order from the paper check off menu. I asked when that changed and was told at the begining of the year. It was the old way in Dec when we also cruised on the Sunshine. We never ate there on our Jan cruise because we didn't like the choices. More veggies the old way. Sorry it has changed because we loved jiji's. Glad you had a good time. We love the ship.
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