Carnival Sunshine Pictures

Hi all,

We're back from Carnival Sunshine's inaugural cruise (5/5/13 - 12 days from Venice to Barcelona). We had a total blast although the ship wasn't totally ready (but that's another story).

I'll just say that we got a refund of about $800.00 for all the problems we got in our room and the missing attractions on the ship for almost the entire cruise.

Ok. Now the fun part: I've just uploaded 119 pictures. They're all mixed up and many are similar. I only wanted to show you as many different angles as possible.

http://s494.photobucket.com/user/marclepine345/library/Carnival%20Sunshine?sort=9&page=1

Enjoy!

Marc

PS. For those of you who are curious: yes, I will cruise with Carnival again but not on an inaugural...! LOL

Hi all,

 

We're back from Carnival Sunshine's inaugural cruise (5/5/13 - 12 days from Venice to Barcelona). We had a total blast although the ship wasn't totally ready (but that's another story).

 

I'll just say that we got a refund of about $800.00 for all the problems we got in our room and the missing attractions on the ship for almost the entire cruise.

 

Ok. Now the fun part: I've just uploaded 119 pictures. They're all mixed up and many are similar. I only wanted to show you as many different angles as possible.

 

http://s494.photobucket.com/user/marclepine345/library/Carnival%20Sunshine?sort=9&page=1

 

Enjoy!

 

Marc

 

PS. For those of you who are curious: yes, I will cruise with Carnival again but not on an inaugural...! LOL

Love to here more about the cruise and the problems and how they were addressed. Thanks for the pics.

Nice pics! Glad you had a good time.

can't wait to view the pictures and here more about your cruise

Thank you for the pictures. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, but I'm sorry things were so bad you had to be refunded 800.00.

Thanks for posting the great pictures!

Thanks very much for posting you photo's so glad you enjoyed the cruise despite the issues you had, Roll on 28th July :)

Thanks for the pictures. Glad you had a good time and love the attitude!!

Hi all,

 

We're back from Carnival Sunshine's inaugural cruise (5/5/13 - 12 days from Venice to Barcelona). We had a total blast although the ship wasn't totally ready (but that's another story).

 

I'll just say that we got a refund of about $800.00 for all the problems we got in our room and the missing attractions on the ship for almost the entire cruise.

 

Ok. Now the fun part: I've just uploaded 119 pictures. They're all mixed up and many are similar. I only wanted to show you as many different angles as possible.

 

http://s494.photobucket.com/user/marclepine345/library/Carnival%20Sunshine?sort=9&page=1

 

Enjoy!

 

Marc

 

PS. For those of you who are curious: yes, I will cruise with Carnival again but not on an inaugural...! LOL

Marc,

Great pics!

I'm looking forward to sailing her.

BTW, that's the BIGGEST and LONGEST foosball table I've ever seen!

Wow! Amazing pictures! This is making me so excited for our BDay cruise!!! I am thinking of booking a Cloud 9 spa Balcony and was wondering what you enjoyed most about your cabin and the cloud 9 spa amenities! :)

BTW, that's the BIGGEST and LONGEST foosball table I've ever seen!

I know right, I have never seen one for more than 4 players. I bet it is interesting and fun to play! :D

This is pretty cool! However I noticed that the tile (marble) parts of the floor are exactly the same as Destiny! I figured they would have replaced those as well.... Not trying to be nit picky I Did not know what to expect from the remodel and it looks like the kept bits of her in tact!

Wow! Amazing pictures! This is making me so excited for our BDay cruise!!! I am thinking of booking a Cloud 9 spa Balcony and was wondering what you enjoyed most about your cabin and the cloud 9 spa amenities! :)

Glad you enjoyed the pics! We have always had interior cabins in the past so the balcony is what we have enjoyed the most. I wish you a great cruise!

This is pretty cool! However I noticed that the tile (marble) parts of the floor are exactly the same as Destiny! I figured they would have replaced those as well.... Not trying to be nit picky I Did not know what to expect from the remodel and it looks like the kept bits of her in tact!

Yep, we noticed that to. When you'll be onboard, you'll notice that several tiles are pretty worn out and some of them are even unstable. Nothing to worry about though...

Great pics! TY for taking the time to post. Beside the cabin problems, and some facilities not being ready, did you run into any other major glitches? I have been hesitant to book Sunshine (cruised her when she was Destiny) due to the additional cabins/people they put in. Did it feel crowded?

Marc,

 

Great pics!

 

I'm looking forward to sailing her.

 

BTW, that's the BIGGEST and LONGEST foosball table I've ever seen!

Paul, that is laugh out loud funny. Was just coming to post the exact same thing.

Love the new cabin color. Orange not my favorite, but anyway what did they do with the safe in the room?

Love to here more about the cruise and the problems and how they were addressed. Thanks for the pics.

Ok. Are you ready for a novel..?

I'm going to explain everything that happened in details but first, note that we're not picky people at all. We enjoyed our cruise even with all the problems we had.

We checked-in the cruise terminal on May 5 around 1:30 PM. We were told our cabin would not be ready until 5:00 PM. No problem. We got a complementary lunch at the Farenheight 555 Steakhouse (wine included). Only this worth around about $100 for two.

We arrived in our Cloud 9 Spa Balcony cabin #11016 on deck 11 around 5:30 PM. I had ordered a dozen of red roses for my wife on Carnival's website about two months ago to surprise her (after all, it was going to be the trip of our lives). The roses were on the table in a vase without water in it. Still, they were in good condition so we simply added water in the vase ourselves. End of case. I'm not being picky, I'm just writing everything in details so you can realise that everything was done at a crazy pace.

I went immediately to the balcony as it was the first time we had a balcony on a cruise. As soon as I turned around the bed, my feet were soaked. Our carpet was flooded about 25 square feet (from the patio door to halfway underneath the bed).

I tried to call guest services but our phone wasn't working. I went down to deck 3. There was a one hour line-up. A couple crew members were wandering through the line taking notes trying to help people. One of them finally came up to me. I explained him our issue. He told me he would forward the info to the authorities ASAP.

When I came back in our cabin, my wife told me the toilet wasn't flushing and that the safe and TV weren't working either... ok... so we went down to Promenade deck 5 and found "public" bathrooms. What we didn't know at this point is that we would have to use these for 2 days.

We took showers (yes, the shower was working! LOL) We went for our dinner at the Sunset Restaurant - Late Dining 8:15 PM. Awesome dinner and great service! We went to see the show in Liquid Lounge and came back in our room around 11:30 PM. We noticed that nothing had changed in our room. Our carpet was still soaked-wet, the toilet didn't flush, the phone, safe and TV didn't work...

Also, surprisingly, we didn't get any turn-down service... no towels changed, no clean-up, no towel animal... our stateroom stewards never showed up! (???). We went to bed.

When I woke up I tried to call guest services. Of course, the phone wasn't working. I went down to deck 3 and waited in line. Another crew member came to me. I explained him our issues. He told me he would forward the info to the authorities ASAP. Sort of déjà-vu...

When I came back in our room, I saw one of our cabin steward in the corridor. I politely told him that he had forgotten our room the night before. He said that he was really sorry and that this was because he was really tired yesterday. I couldn't believe it... but I didn't argue with him as we had bigger problems than that at the moment...

We went to get breakfast. Then, we went to visit the ship and noticed that the main pool (Beach Pool) and that the Sportsquare & Waterworks were closed. There was a panel saying "we're doing the finishing touches and doing our best to get these sections operational as quickly as possible".

We came back in our room around 1:45 PM as the ship was leaving Venice at 2:00 PM. We wanted to see it leave from our balcony. When we arrived in our room, no change... carpet soaked, toilet, phone, safe and TV still didn't work... Ok, now that was just too much for me and I was starting to boil inside (at this point, you must agree it's understandable). I went to get a bunch of Cloud 9 Spa towels myself (the big and thick yellow ones) on Serenity - Deck 14. I put them on the carpet and jumped over to absorb the water from the carpet as much as possible as it was starting to smell (humidity). We really enjoyed the vision of Venice's Grand Canal from our balcony (no kidding).

Then, we went visit the ship again. When we came back in our room, someone had came to suck the water off the carpet with a "shop vac" and a big and noisy blower was drying the carpet! Yahoo! Finally! Toilet and safe were also fixed!

Two days later, carpet was dry so I unplugged the blower in the afternoon. I left everything there hoping they would put everything back in place (bed was move further from the patio door to help the drying).

When we came back in our room around 10:00 PM, nothing had changed so I removed the blower myself. I put it in the corridor. I replaced the bed where it's supposed to be and we had to use the towels we had left on the floor as our cabin steward didn't show up again... unbelievable!

I saw him in the corridor the next morning and made it clear to him it would be in is interest to not forget us again as I would do a complaint. Everything was OK for the rest of the cruise, without towel animals but I didn't care... all I wanted is clean towels and a room done.

3 or 4 days later, still no phone. That's minor, but I was too curious... so I decided to remove the drawers from the desk were the phone was. I checked under and there were unplugged wires coming off the wall and the phone wire was hanging below... Ha-ha! The AT&T guy didn't do his job! LOL! So I went to guest services and told them what was the problem. They fixed it 3 days later.

Sportsquare & Waterworks opened 2 days before the end of the cruise...

In details, here are the refunds we got:

- Because our room wasn't ready when we arrived : $230 ($115 / person)

- Because Sportsquare & Waterworks we're not ready for almost the entire cruise: $150 ($75 / person)

- Because of all the problems we got in our room (20% off our cruise rate): $368 ($184 / person)

- We don't know why: $32 ($16 / person)

Total: $780.00

We also got a complementary lunch at the Farenheight 555 Steakhouse worth about $100

We think the refunds we got are reasonable and we are happy. Carnival did "everything possible" to resolve the problems we had. It took quite some time because there were problems all around the ship and some far more worse that ours (entire cabins flooded, toilet not working for the entire cruise, no shower, no water, luggage lost etc.)

We think that the Destiny/Sunshine transformation should have taken at least a couple more weeks in order for the ship to be 100% ready. They didn't have enough time to test it. Also, the crew were totally exhausted and overwhelmed. There were also many inexperienced crew members. This is not what you usually expect on a cruise especially when you pay big bucks for it...

Nevertheless, we will cruise with Carnival again as this is the best and funniest cruise line, but never again on an inaugural...

I hope reading this was informative/helpful and for those of you who will be on the Sunshine shortly, don't worry. I'm sure everything will be back to normal very quickly.

Enjoy your cruise!

Marc

Great pics! TY for taking the time to post. Beside the cabin problems, and some facilities not being ready, did you run into any other major glitches? I have been hesitant to book Sunshine (cruised her when she was Destiny) due to the additional cabins/people they put in. Did it feel crowded?

Yes, we got a few problems... you can read the longest post I have ever written below for details. Even with the additional cabins/people, the ship didn't feel crowded at all... do not hesitate to book on the Sunshine but if I were you, I would wait a couple months to be 100% sure all is ready.

Great Attitude!! Sorry for all of the difficulties you encountered, at least you made memories!

I enjoyed reading your report. Sounds like you took things in stride for the most part. Your "boiling" was more than justified.

I can't believe the steward told you he was too tired to take care of your cabin!!

Thank you so much for your pictures and written review (very well written by the way). I really appreciated it. We are sailing on July 7 and I have been so worried about the state of the ship and all the bad press. I considered cancelling quite a few times but didn't, due to wishful thinking. I feel much better after seeing your photos and reading your review. Did you happen to see what Level 1 looks like ? My husband was worried that it might be too dark and like a dungeon being on the lowest level.

WOW! Your pictures are S T U N N I N G!

Finally someone who knows how to take pictures that don't look like postcards.

thanks for the pictures and the info!

Cruise lovers...Thanks for the detailed honest review. You have a great attitude. Hopefully you'll get to try it again soon with everthing working correctly.