Carnival Sunshine - Reviews

Not my first cruise and cetainly not my last. I enjoyed myself, up until I began to have breathing problems.

See summary above for review. Overall we enjoyed our cruise.

Overall, for this being my first cruise - I would say, it was awesome. From the entertainment to the activities, from the food to the drinks, from our stateroom to the ports of call - it was fantastic. There are things moving forward that I would do differently such as not purchasing a data plan (as that did not work 4 to 5 out of the 7 days), purchasing a little larger room, and getting up to the pool decks earlier (as there were guest holding chairs for upwards of a couple hours). All of the staff were polite and courteous, they made sure we were well taken care of and they never missed a beat! Any questions or inquiries we had , were addressed and answered in a timely fashion. Thank you, Carnival.

Great cruise. Recommend reading the insurance carefully. It basically only covers illness and weather that cancels the cruise and not other family emergencies. We had a issue arise with our family that compromised our cruise but thanks to the work of Carnival's staff we were able to have one of our family join us mid-cruise.

It was so much fun. I would definitely go on this ship again. The staff was very friendly and welcome back like family. The port of calls were beautiful and lots of interesting places to see. Enjoy the local people. It was an awesome vacation. Thank you, Carnival Sunshine.

in general this was a great family vacation, I will recommend this ship to everybody

This was our 1st cruise and I cannot wait to book my next one...I loved the boat, the staff and Mikey definitely makes all the difference in the world...he is like an Energizer bunny...always on the go and getting the guest pumped....Ali the lead waiter was on point, we even got to talk about Snow where we live and he told us about the land slides from his country....also we got to talk about his kids...he really touched my heart.

I had a really relaxing cruise. I wasn't expecting that many kids aboard, but this didn't bother me. The special guest they had in the comedy club was very funny.

This was an amazing vacation. The ship was great, service was top-notch & shore excursions were terrific. We’re already planning our next get-away with Carnival!!

I would say a ship is as good as the cruise director, and Mikey is awesome!!! We did Vista last year but I would still say Sunshine is my favorite. This is our second time on this ship and Jamie was also great. Our family are not into beaches and exploring ports of calls, we cruise to enjoy what the ship has to offer, so cruise activities are more important to us and Sunshine did not fail us. We still set foot on the shore and we do excursions that we feel we really care for but nothing in this cruise attracted us, it's either not interesting to us or something we like but our kids are too young for it.

Cruise overall was great. There was some issues with bad kids running up and down the hallways late night, there should be some sort of curfew. Kids were messing with elevators. Loved Mikey the Cruise Director, loved the PG comedy shows, enjoyed the Lip Sync Battle and other shows as well. Food was good, could use some improvement here. Venues were small but we always got there early. Loved our room steward, Pong Pong... kept room clean, always got us anything we needed. Towel lady on Lido Deck was super nice. Spent most at sea days on Serenity Deck but had to get there at 6:30 am to get a chair and then spent the day making sure we didn't spend much time away to get breakfast and lunch. Drinks took a long time to get on Serenity Deck. We will be cruising again on Carnival! Thank you to the staff who made the experience great.

First cruise. It was our honeymoon. We really enjoyed the food and people that we meet on the cruise. The staff and crew were great. The only downside was getting off the boat due to long wait.

The cruise was great. Staff was exceptional and Mikey the Cruise Director was memorable and super charismatic.

We were on a mother/daughter sweet 16 birthday cruise. We had an amazing time. A lifetime of memories were made. The whole trip was memorable. Port were gorgeous. The weather was awesome. The crew went above and beyond.

I thought the check in process was very smooth. Food on the ship was good quality. Mikie did a great job - a lot of energy. We ate in the dining room several times and found Elpedio, Team Headwaiter from the Philippines, to be exceptional and the best we had on the cruise. At our first seating he knew everyone's name and service was exceptional. I enjoyed the comedy shows and saw all 4 comedian's acts. Really like RJ Brow followed by Dan Mengini. It was great to see how thoroughly the burger and taco bars were being cleaned daily and how quickly tables were cleared for the next guests. Getting off and on the ship at ports went smoothly. I enjoyed the evening Lido deck movies. I was disappointed that the comedians did not have more material for the mid-cruise late night event in the Liquid Lounge on 18 March, as much of the material was recycled from prior acts. I believe the comedians should have more than a half hour of clean and one hour of 18+ material to get through the cruise without recycling material. I would have enjoyed more time in San Juan, which was our shortest day. I recommend publishing tv movie schedules in the daily flyer or on the HUB. I recommend having an option to watch the evening outdoor movies indoors when the weather is cold, windy or raining in a theater or available in staterooms. I did not find the Express keep your bags and check out to be all that quick. Being in a higher floor we waited a long time. The soloist in the Sunshine Atrium was pretty awful and I felt bad that guest services had to listen to him every evening. The singing at the Epic Rock performance in the Liquid Lounge was rough, but the dancing and performance quality was good. Additionally, given much of the performance was not out on the front of the stage, those seated on the sides of the stage could not view much of the show. Perhaps those seats with very limited viewing should be roped off or change how the show is performed.

dont know if i would do the sunshine again, think it need a refurb again, needs lots of paint, very noisey, we were on deck 2 forward and lots of banging and could hear the waves hitting the ship and we have rough seas every day

My parents are avid cruisers and convinced me to go on this trip, my first cruise ever, which I mistakenly chose to experience with Carnival. After hearing the great stories that I had always been told about the experiences, the staff, etc., it was completely eye-opening to me how little Carnival cares about the satisfaction of their customers. Carnival was more than happy to take my money for the trip but were very slow in taking care of my very valid concerns - which were never fully resolved or addressed. Overall, for the amount I spent on this trip, I could have gone to a lovely resort for the same period of time, spent much less, and not had a room with sewage stained carpets that smelled like rotten eggs for half of my first vacation in over 2 years. To top of the already bad experience, on the 4th or 5th day we were served with a letter threatening to fine us for smoking in our room because someone up the hall had obviously brought a large quantity of marijuana onto the ship (you could smell it all over the place when the rooms were being cleaned.) I'm pretty sure they knew it wasn't us, but they just wanted to add insult to injury I guess. The way I witnessed the wait staff being treated is great cause for concern regarding the well-being of the team members - if Carnival even considers them such. There were children running wild on the ship, through the dining rooms, through the casino, and through the adult-only areas of the ship with no repercussions. I had been told that there were dress codes and elegant evenings, for which I prepared. Yet, on both elegant evenings the majority of the diners included people wearing swimsuits, shorts, and flip flops. Now I certainly don't mind eating dinner in my swimsuit as I live in a beach town and do so often, but if you advertise a dress code one would expect it to be enforced. It honestly seems like the experience Carnival advertises is a bait-and-switch, as it turned out to be nothing like what is outlined on the website. Overall I was so disappointed with my trip and my parents felt awful for convincing us to join them.

Disappointed. Ship was very crowed and kids running everywhere, even in the casino. Food was mediocre. Dining room staff not very responsive. Guys Burgers was not what expected. Condiment area was filthy!

Overall me and my wife enjoyed this cruise for our anniversary although we wished the ship was a little bigger. We compared it to the last Carnival Ship we were on and it stated it was bigger from the specs but it did not feel bigger at all.

This was an amazing time of fun and relaxation. The ship was nice ship, the staff was great and the entertainment for the trip was top notch. We enjoyed all the ports we stopped at, some more than others, but all were worthwhile.