Carnival Sunshine Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We have been cruisers with Carnival for over 25 cruises. This cruise was the very best in all aspects.,The friendliness of all the crew even the maintenance people working on the decks was exceptional..  Everyone had a greeting and smile everywhere we went on board.  The food was spectacular and the wait staff was superb as well.  They went far beyond what was expected of them.  Always greeted us by name, even with a full ship.  We had open seating which was really liked at mostly table 371.  I would recommend this ship and crew to anyone. 

We did the Rain Forest in San Juan which left a lot to be desired, would not recommend that to anyone.  We loved Jimmy Buffet's pool and beach in Grand Turk which was right at the end of the pier. I would recommend the snorkeling excursions there as well.  Beautiful reef with very vibrant colors there.

My husband and I were lucky enough to get a great deal on the Captain's suite for this cruise. Loved it! I may never go back to an interior cabin again! We experienced a few problems with some broken things in the room, but they were taken care of right away. The food choices were very good. We especially liked the Italian restaurant (extra $) for dinner. We've had the steakhouse before and loved that also. You really didn't have to spend money to eat, though. The marketplace had plenty to choose from. As far as the ship itself goes, we were disappointed in the layout. Talking with other guests, they also found it to be confusing trying to get to the dining rooms, and having to go through a smoky casino wasn't very pleasant.The room stewards, wait staff and cruise directors were wonderful! Jaime's Veteran's service was a great tribute. Our biggest complaint would be the music in the liquid lounge and the piano bar was way too loud! Maybe that's our age showing, but although the music was good, it took away from it, and we found we had to leave. Overall, a good experience.

The wonderful carnival sunshine ship! its a bautiful ship it has been recently remodeled and the decor is amazing! From the time you come aboard the ship your in awe of all the beautiful shops, restaurants, bars pools serenity areas for adults only is three stories yes thats right three stories ! YOU HAVE cabanas  chairs hammocks, your on bar and the wait staff catier too your every welm you need! you want a towel, or a drink or a ice food, wait did i say food!! omg!! the food was too die for, make sure you try it all! the specialty restaurants especially !! yum yum!! they have a italian restaurant, steak house ,aisan restaurant , guys burger shake shop , taco /burrito bar  then in the evening by the pool they have a movie night they play and yes pop corn is provided . two red frog bars one inside one outside. they have the best of the comedians, and put on the best live entertainment. But just wait the best is yet too come because your going to the most amazing ports. You will love the ports and very friendly staff to help with all your questions. 

My husband walks with a cane ,  from the moment we were in line to board until we departed the ship Carnival put us to the front so he didn't have to stand and wait.  The staff, food and shows were great.  

As always we loved our Carnival Cruise!  The ship was awesome, food and service were exceptional.  Onboard activities were great.  Ports were the best ever!  Our only gripe as it is with every Carnival cruise we go on is the night shows.  There is very little variety and what they do have is Vegas style production shows where the apparel of the dancers leaves MUCH to be desired!!  We knew to stay away from the shows because of our past cruises with carnival, but we heard nonstop from the other members of our travel group how indecent and un-family-friendly the dancing and costumes were.  We attended the magician show, and it was great.  We also tried about 10 minutes of the 70's rock show and left after the clothes started coming off.  When women are wearing bras and thongs, we are out.  We were told by the others in our party that the show only went downhill from there.  It ended with a strip tease style dance that was done on a platform in the audience right in front of a young family with children.  By the end of the dance, the male dancer was in tight, sheer, shorts that apparently left nothing to the imagination.  Again, we loved everything else about our cruise, but time after time on a Carnival ship with this type of entertainment, we are looking into other cruising options. 

My overall experience was OK. I was disappointed with the ship. All the hoopla about the remodeling, I thought it would be a little more festive. The ship was smaller than I thought as well but there's nothing wrong with that. I didn't like the shows compared to other cruise lines. My excursions were great but the 2 I booked though Carnival could have had better departure times so you would be able to enjoy more of the port. The times were in the middle of the day and a lot of time was wasted. The 1 I booked through Vacation Outlet was amazing! I will admit, when we pulled up to the "excursion site", I was a little concerned but I judged that book by it's cover. We just happened to be the only people that had booked that particular time for our excursion and we had the whole time to ourselves. If you've never had a monkey sit on your shoulder and play in your hair, you've not lived!!  The ship was clean, the food was abundant and the staff were all friendly. I got a tan and came home rested.

This was my first cruise and it was awesome!!  The ship was always clean, the staff was always pleasant and helpful!!   I am already looking into my next cruise!!  The food and drinks were very good!!  Loved every minute!!

1.  Entertainment was not as good as other 4 Carnival Cruises we have taken

2.  Food was not as good

4.  Staff were excellent

5.  Room - service was excellent

The Sunshine's modernization is  awesome for kids. Regarding our room, the Liberty put this room to shame. We had a sick passenger, which required a return to Nassau (our first port).  That screwed up the remainder of our cruise. Grand Turk (never got there), and we arrived in Puerto Rico so late that most excursions were canceled.  Every passenger I spoke with or overheard, preferred stopping at Grand Turk and skipping Puerto Rico. Nice flat screen TV, but reception was often unavailable.  Sorry, I can't recommend this ship.

The itinerary was the main selling point for us on this cruise. Cozumel and Isla Roatan did not disappoint. Cozumel had forty plus excursions to choose from, both land and water based. There was something for every age group. While Isla Roatan was more limited in number, there was something to accommodate a wide range of tastes. We opted for the Pirates, Birds and Monkeys exhibit. This was a highly interactive tour, capped off with first a macaw, then a Capuchin monkey perched on our shoulders. The monkeys were characters, one clinging to my daughter's hair, another trying to find his way into my son-in-law's small back pack. Meanwhile, another grabbed a water bottle from someone and headed up a tree. Isla Roatan also has an amazing private beach area steps away from the pier. We had the opportunity to utilize the beach fro a couple hours prior to our excursion.

Belize was not a great port. We didn't purchase an excursion, as the majority of these required 3 hour round trip transportation. After similar experiences at both prior ports, we were looking for something a little closer to no avail. We did tender in and were disappointed that there was not much aside from a couple of crowded shops. Costa Maya was a step above Belize. If you chose not to participate, you could still watch the dolphin swim from the end of the pier. There were several shops available as well.

The ship itself was a small step down from the Norwegian Breakaway. I preferred the layout of the Breakaway with its more open feel. others may prefer the more compartmentalized feel of the Sunshine. Jamie Dee was a very good cruise director, though a small step down from Sinan on the Breakaway. The food choices and quality on the Sunshine were outstanding. My son loved Guys Burger Joint. My son-in-law loved JiJi's Asian and the burrito bar. The dining room has a fantastic chocolate melting cake. The four chocolate eaters in our party were hooked from day 1.

As far as entertainment, comedian Al Ernst was outstanding. We saw his act three times on consecutive days. Each performance was 100% new material. The Primetime cast was exceptional. We saw their Motor City Review, Latin Nights and Epic Rock. Unfortunately, the fourth show (disco/soul train era) was canceled for safety concerns. The winds were extremely heavy, the Sunshine rather tipsy.  The best of these was Epic Rock. While Rock of Ages on the Norwegian Breakaway was somewhat better, I take nothing away from Epic Rock. Unlike the cast of Rock of Ages, the Primetime cast must be able to sing and dance...and they wer excellent on both ends.

I would take this same cruise again. I would also take the Sunshine on a different itinerary. My personal recommendation would be to add a second day at Cozumel and eliminate either or Costa Maya.

Stayed in a "spa stateroom" for the first time and loved the easy access to the Serenity deck. I would recommend booking shore excursions in the ports - we had a blast in all four. 

JUST RETURNED AND HAD A WONDERFUL TIME--FOOD WAS GREAT--LOVED GUYS BURGERS AND FRIES AND THE PIZZA FOR IN BETWEEN MEALS!!  GREAT STAFF WHO WERE PLEASANT AND HELPFUL AND MADE IT A POINT TO KNOW OUR NAMES.  THE ONLY DOWNSIDE IS THAT IT ENDED AND REAL LIFE BEGAN--PLANNING FOOD AND MAKING MY BED!!!  I WILL TRAVEL CARNIVAL AGAIN!!!

Very nice Ship.  Excellent wait staff!  Great activities planned throughout by the cruise director Jamie and her staff.  Great tasting food and Fahrenheit 555 well worth the extra 35.00 per person great tasting food.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Beautiful overhaul of this ship it is contemporary decor is Awesome and the shows are first class the food and staff are Awesome too!!! After 13 cruises this was one of the best! Loved this cruise and will do it again soon :) <3.....

Overall the cruise was very nice.  Our room steward was very efficient & for the most part the food was good, except we were disappointed  with our  dinner on Christmas Day.  My girlfriend & I ordered ham & was served 3 small chunks of ham & a hard square of something, which was suppose to be bread pudding. Along with that, we were served mixed vegetables which consisted of 3 green beans, 2 waxed beans & 2 kidney beans!  Our husband's both ordered the turkey dinner & neither of them cared for the turkey, but said the sweet potatoes were good.

We took the water taxi in St. Maarten to a shopping area, walked around in St. Thomas & in San Juan we took the free trolley to the fort. There was a $5 entrance fee to go inside, but we really enjoyed exploring & the view looking out over the water was beautiful!  We didn't get off the ship in Grand Turk. 

Guy's burgers were great & we liked spending time at the Havana Bar area in the mornings where you could get omelet's or eggs fixed to your liking plus you then could get sausage, bacon, potatoes, etc. without having to get in another line somewhere else!  They did serve biscuits & gravy, but although the taste of the gravy was good, it was water thin & it was better over toast, the biscuits were very hard!

A big negative was SOME of the kids on board! One night (early morning) we were woke up at 3:30 am because of kids running up & down the hallway & stairs, what were they doing out at that time?  These were not older teenagers either!!!!  Another instance was when my husband was in an elevator with a couple boys, he guessed 11-13 years old, who were pushing & shoving each other & when they fell into him, he had enough & told them to knock it off...of course they just laughed at him, they showed no respect, not even a "sorry"!

On the other hand we met some kids who were very pleasant & polite!!   

This was our 4th Carnival cruise, and it was fantastic! The embarkation process, which I had dreaded, went incredibly smoothly. From the time we walked into the terminal to the time we were on board was no more than 15 minutes. (We arrived to the terminal at about 11:45.) I couldn't believe it! (Debarkation was another story, as there were 5 ships in port trying to unload and reload, but that wasn't Carnival's fault. We waited over an hour for our prepaid shuttle, and we weren't the only ones, and it wasnt just the company we were using, TraveLynx. Lots of people were waiting and complaining, and they were using different companies. Just be prepared. Do your research ahead of time, and if there will be multiple ships arriving and departing when you return, get off the ship as early as possible.) When we arrived to our room, our cabin steward met us, shook our hands and asked for our names (4 of us). For the duration of the cruise, he called each of us by name. The same thing happened with our dining room staff. They called us by name, too. The cruise director on this ship is Jaime Dee, and she is the best cruise director I've seen yet-- fantastic personality, excellent communication skills, and a positive, fun entertainer. We attended a service on Christmas morning, which she co-hosted with another of the crew, and she did an outstanding job, which was impressive because she is Jewish (which we had discovered earlier in the cruise through a personal conversation). Because of Jaime's role in the service, I was thinking what a happier place this world would be if we could all respect one another's beliefs. Anyway, that's a side note, but I found it to be personally meaningful. For the first time, we stayed on the lido deck. It was not noisy in the room, but I wouldn't recommend the last room on the hall (on the pool end) because the door to the pool is always opening and that's where the noise originates. The entertainment was great as well. The nightly shows were well done with fantastic choreography. They warned that one of the shows was rated PG13 due to the costumes (I'd say due to some of the dance moves, too), but we loved it, and so did our teenage kids. It was not my favorite ship, due to the layout (e.g., all seats in the comedy club can't see the stage so there are tv screens, which doesn't make since to go watch a live comedy show but then have to see it on a screen). Also, there were several restaurants that cost extra (e.g., the sushi bar costs on this ship, but it didn't cost on the last ship, the Fantasy, and there was an Asian restaurant that cost extra); however, the ship was clean and well maintained, and we had a marvelous holiday trip!

The staff was nice.  However, the food in the dining room was less than acceptable.  Prime rib was grizzly.  Prawn dishes were not prawns...only shrimp and not prepared as advertised on menu.  Food just had little taste.

The cruise was good but I am I guess the bigger ships. Too many people for the help to keep up with. The rooms for the shows were not big enough to fix all the people that wanted to see the shows. Had to stand in a long line to get into them. Also cleaning people in buffet area couldn't keep up with keeping the tables cleaned up. I had to sit at a dirty table every day, which is not what I encountered on my previous Carnival crusies. But I price was very good, swo guess you get what you pay for. It still was a nice cruise.

This was a first cruise for my boyfriend, so we were hoping for a stress-free, calm cruise experience, and we got it.  The staff of the Carnival Sunshine were super efficient, and all the services and scheduled excursions went smoothly.  We were never bored for a moment.  We especially enjoyed the trivia games on the Promenade, and the sing-alongs in the Piano Bar.  The food was spectacular!  I can't say which we enjoyed more: trying new flavours at the 4-course formal dinners, or scrounging for yummy bites at the countless food stations at the buffet!  Our stateroom with balcony on Deck 6 was very comfortable, and my boyfriend was really impressed with the spaciousness.  If you are looking for a cruise that's very hip, or edgy, or luxurious, the Sunshine may not be the perfect choice.  However, this time I really wanted comfort, ease, peace, and great service, and that's what I found with Carnival.  Thanks for a lovely time!

Enjoyed the cruise. Service was excellent. Staff very friendly.

Did not like ~  the food in the buffet only luke warm. Good selection however not warm enough.

However the food in the dining room was excellent.

Entertainment could have been more variety....too many comedians.