Cruise #17 with Carnival

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 12

Helpful Votes: 275

Review summary

My review of the Carnival Sunshine 10 day Journeys cruise from Charleston South Carolina (4-14 December 2023). We booked this cruise about a year prior to sailing on the Carnival website. This was our 4th journeys cruise and 17th overall with Carnival. We arrived at the port at our scheduled time and was issued our parking pass (Handicap is free). We pulled up to the luggage area and the porter took our bags. We walked a short distance to building #24, where we were checked in by Carnival. We boarded a transport bus over to the terminal and were processed by security. We boarded the ship about 40 minutes after we arrived. It should be noted that the police were present with drug dogs and they searched the carry on luggage. We went directly to the muster station and conducted the safety drill and then onto our cabin (#1609). That cabin is ADA with 32 inch doors, both at the entry and bathroom. A very spacious inside cabin with plenty of turn around room for a wheelchair. We were able to drop our luggage and headed to the Lido deck for some Guys Burgers lunch. The crew was amazing, constant cleaning everywhere and everything. They were professional and personal to us at all times. The 4 sea days had more activities than we could do. We did attend 6 comedy shows in the Limelight lounge. They were funny and worth our time. We saw 5 Playlist production shows and they were all fantastic! Patrick the one man variety show was excellent, Vincent Yee was the characteristic and he drew an excellent souvenir picture of my wife and I. There was no cost for his services but he was grateful for the tip we gave him. Carnival had some retro throwback stuff that was a blast! Horse racing, ship building, ping pong bikini, ice carving, food demonstrations and frog racing in the pool. Our port days included Saint Thomas, Saint Martin, San Juan Puerto Rico, Grand Turk and Amber Cove Dominican Republic. Every port was fantastic. We had the most fun at San Juan as we had never been there before. We did book a handicap tour on line several months before but Carnival cancelled it and we received a refund (No explanation given). Note that Amber Cove has a Nathan’s hot dog stand near the pool (Excellent!). Grand Turk has a Margaretville restaurant (Also excellent). Also Grand Turk had police and drug dogs conducting baggage searches on the way back boarding the ship. Glad to see that they are trying to reduce the drugs onboard the ships! The cruise director was James Love. This was our first time with him and he was very good at his job. Full of energy and very personable! I was extremely impressed that he played taps on his trumpet at the military appreciation event instead of using the taped edition of Taps. What went good: Almost everything. This was a very nice cruise, probably rates up in the top 3 cruises for us. We had been on the Sunshine a few times and had always written in our reviews that the pendant lights in the Lido marketplace were too low and folks were forever banging their heads. We saw that Carnival had corrected that and replaced the down rods with shorter ones. They do read your reviews so keep writing them. What went not so good: The main dining room. Service took way too long. The menu selection was hyped by Carnival as new and improved but we found it to be pretty bad and boring. Out of 10 days we used the MDR just 3 times. Alternate entrée is always grilled chicken breast or strip loin steak. Had there been more choices we may have used the MDR more. Carnival may want to switch things up, maybe ham steak, or hamburgers or pork chops. Debarkation was a breeze! Very smooth, thank you. Crew members that made our cruise fantastic: Joanna (Ship Officer) She remembered us from our previous cruise about 8 months ago. She recalled us from a specific problem that we had and how she assisted us. I had written positive comments in a review but she said that she had never received recognition from that review? She made us feel like family not a customer. Janet (Food Service) An extremely professional and personable crew member. She immediately jumped to our assistance on the first day to help us find handicap seating in the Lido marketplace. She continued with superior customer service every time she saw us. Adding a very personal touch with stories of her homeland and life there. Cara (Animator) She was extremely helpful with handicap assistance in the piano bar. She was a real pleasure to have on our cruise. The Captain: Thank you for a safe journey!!! Overall this was a wonderful cruise. We love Carnival and currently have 4 more cruises booked (2 for 2024 and 2 for 2025)

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Charleston, South Carolina

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Amber Cove (Puerto Plata), Dominican Republic

Grand Turk Island

Disembarkation

Other reviews of this sailing