Just off the Sunshine on Sunday (Aruba, Curacao, Grand Turk) - Ask me anything!

Just got off our Sunshine Cruise (Feb 10th out of Port Canaveral) Overall we had an amazing experience because of the people we met. The ship was not my favorite but it was only my 2nd cruise, first was the Glory in 2011! However, I definitely had a much better experience overall on the Sunshine. Here are the good and bads:

Good:

SERENITY DECK! I loved it up there. However the top deck was closed half our our cruise due to high winds, but that's not the ship's fault.

Spa - we had spa cabins so access to the spa all week. It was amazing! I sat in the heated chairs every night before getting ready for dinner. Never too crowded either.

Cruise Director - Emma was great! We liked her a lot

Staff - We had Krume in the Sunshine dining room and Marija as well - they are both SO sweet and very friendly! I highly recommend you request either of them.

Ports - I loved all of our ports, they were fantastic. My favorite part of the entire cruise was our $32 sunset sail via Jolly Pirates. Not through Carnival but definitely a highlight of the trip. Our carnival excursion in Grand Turk was canceled with no explanation but we enjoyed just sitting on the beach there.

Alchemy Bar - best drinks on the ship by far. Definitely go there, can't remember the 3 bartenders' names but they are also so great!

FTTF- Definitely worth it. Embarking and Debarking were a breeze, but the regular lines looked long

Behind the Scenes tour - very interesting, but LONG. I think it could have been great at 1.5 hours instead of 3.

Bad:

We never met our room steward. He never introduced himself to us! Strange since our friends 2 doors down said he came and went frequently from their room. That was disappointing

DINING: Omg the dining situation was a disaster. We had YTD and got Krume the first night. We requested him every night after that and didn't get him until the last 2 nights.

Nights 2-5 the dining room was basically empty when we got there, however, without fail, they sat us in the WORST seats possible. Next to kitchen doors, a chair jutting out by stairs, etc. They were terrible seats! I never ever complain at restaurants but I had to go to the front and make them move us 3 days in a row. I didn't understand why they could never get it right.

Food - the food was ok. My prime rib was very fatty and just in general I wasn't super impressed by everything.

Ship - the ship seems very small. It wasn't too crowded though, but it's just a strange layout.

Shows - the shows fill up fast and the seating is odd.

HUB APP - My texting didn't work at all, I need to call to get me $5 back. Some of my friends had it flawlessly working, others were spotty.

Concerning the HUB app - do you have an iPhone or an Android device?

Sorry to hear about the YTD weirdness with seating.

We sail on the Sunshine in Dec of this year (8-day Eastern Carib). I would really like to do a Southern Carib eventually. Did you pick the Aruba/Curacao combo specifically over Aruba/Bonaire, or did the dates drive the selection? (Personally I want to go to Curacao just because I like the liqueur named after it.)

How was the casino in terms of smokiness? This seems to be all over the place.

More Qs when I think of them...

Concerning the HUB app - do you have an iPhone or an Android device?

 

Sorry to hear about the YTD weirdness with seating.

 

We sail on the Sunshine in Dec of this year (8-day Eastern Carib). I would really like to do a Southern Carib eventually. Did you pick the Aruba/Curacao combo specifically over Aruba/Bonaire, or did the dates drive the selection? (Personally I want to go to Curacao just because I like the liqueur named after it.)

 

How was the casino in terms of smokiness? This seems to be all over the place.

 

More Qs when I think of them...

The HUB texting did not work at all on my iPhone 7Plus 256gb or my friend’s Samsung Galaxy 8. It worked well on my friend’s iPhone 8 and spotty on another friend’s iPhone 7.

We picked Curacao over Bonaire simply because of dates. I did like curaçao a lot though! Never been to Bonaire.

The Casino was pretty smoky. The bar is at the end of the casino near the hallway that leads to the coffee shop and then alchemy bar. Since the casino bar is smoking, you always have to walk past the smoke to get to the other side of the ship. Didn’t really like that.

gardn198, what port was the Jolly Pirates excursion? We are doing this itinerary in May and looking for options outside of Carnival. Can you share more information about that excursion?

gardn198, what port was the Jolly Pirates excursion? We are doing this itinerary in May and looking for options outside of Carnival. Can you share more information about that excursion?

It was out of Aruba! We arrived in the afternoon so we did the sunset sail from 5:30p to 7:30p which was $32pp and included an open bar! It was SOOOOO fun! They have other longer sailings that leave earlier in the day for ships that arrive in the morning. We had a blast! Just took the local bus up to the Marriott stop, hung out on the beach near MoomBa bar where you board. Then we went to the bar after

It was out of Aruba! We arrived in the afternoon so we did the sunset sail from 5:30p to 7:30p which was $32pp and included an open bar! It was SOOOOO fun! They have other longer sailings that leave earlier in the day for ships that arrive in the morning. We had a blast! Just took the local bus up to the Marriott stop, hung out on the beach near MoomBa bar where you board. Then we went to the bar after

Thanks, I'll check it out. We were in Aruba in 2016 and did Trikes Aruba, which was amazing, but expensive. This time we are in port later and looking for something like this.

Also our first time on Sunshine so I've been reading every review I can find. Looking forward to a new, to us ship, and it's Serenity deck. Just off the Magic and we didn't like the location on the Dream class. A hassle to get to and then frequently closed due to high winds.

We have reservations for JiJi's did you eat there?

Would you kindly share a little more about the spa balcony? What deck were you on? I see it has a whirlpool vs hot tub, did you use it and what were your thoughts? DW and I have a Deck 5 OV down the hall from the bar but for $540 more we could get the spa balcony. I'm trying to determine if it is worth the price to upgrade? Your thoughts?

We are sailing on the Sunshine on April 14 going to Aruba, Bonaire, and Grand Turk. I have looked at the sunset sail twice but didn't book. We are traveling with two teenagers. Wondering if the open bar resulted in lots of drunk people? Not really the atmosphere we want with teens. Of course, it could happen on the ship too!

Would you kindly share a little more about the spa balcony? What deck were you on? I see it has a whirlpool vs hot tub, did you use it and what were your thoughts? DW and I have a Deck 5 OV down the hall from the bar but for $540 more we could get the spa balcony. I'm trying to determine if it is worth the price to upgrade? Your thoughts?

We had a spa interior! I’ve never had a balcony since I’m rarely in my room. Having spa access was SO WORTH IT but you can purchase a week pass to save money if you don’t want a spa cabin.

We didn’t get a chance to try Jiji’s!

Are they using the new menus (American Table & breakfast) on the Sunshine now? Or still using the old menus? Thx

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We are sailing on the Sunshine on April 14 going to Aruba, Bonaire, and Grand Turk. I have looked at the sunset sail twice but didn't book. We are traveling with two teenagers. Wondering if the open bar resulted in lots of drunk people? Not really the atmosphere we want with teens. Of course, it could happen on the ship too!

It's only 2 hours, and nobody got too rowdy. It was a really nice group!

Are they using the new menus (American Table & breakfast) on the Sunshine now? Or still using the old menus? Thx

 

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I'm not sure about breakfast, can you tell me what the difference is? I'm pretty positive they were using American Table. No table cloths either except on formal nights.

One other thing I didn't like was the hot tube on serenity, due to winds I got water blowing in my face! It was not like that in the Lido hot tubs. Also none of the hot tubs were hot enough. And I wish there were more of them! I only saw 3 total?

Awesome

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Did you keep copies of FunTimes and Entertainment Schedule? If so could you scan? Can't find them for this ship/itinerary and doing this last this year.

Thanks

The HUB texting did not work at all on my iPhone 7Plus 256gb or my friend’s Samsung Galaxy 8. It worked well on my friend’s iPhone 8 and spotty on another friend’s iPhone 7.

 

We picked Curacao over Bonaire simply because of dates. I did like curaçao a lot though! Never been to Bonaire.

 

The Casino was pretty smoky. The bar is at the end of the casino near the hallway that leads to the coffee shop and then alchemy bar. Since the casino bar is smoking, you always have to walk past the smoke to get to the other side of the ship. Didn’t really like that.

Thanks for this. Interesting about which phones it worked well on.

In general, did you leave the HUB chat app up as the current app when you locked your screens? I have heard that it doesn't function well when it goes into the background, it needs to be "large and in charge" - worse on Apple products, but may not be good on Androids either.

Going on Sunshine at the end of June. What nights were elegant nights? Thank you the information and your review!!!!

Did you keep copies of FunTimes and Entertainment Schedule? If so could you scan? Can't find them for this ship/itinerary and doing this last this year.

 

Thanks

Unfortunately not. My cabin mate was saving them but then our 3rd cabinmate accidentally through them all away :mad::mad::-(

Thanks for this. Interesting about which phones it worked well on.

 

In general, did you leave the HUB chat app up as the current app when you locked your screens? I have heard that it doesn't function well when it goes into the background, it needs to be "large and in charge" - worse on Apple products, but may not be good on Androids either.

I'm not 100% sure because the texting feature never worked for me, but I think they meant that you just cant close the app like you can't swipe it up to actually close it? It just needs to be running but you can use other apps and keep it in the background

Going on Sunshine at the end of June. What nights were elegant nights? Thank you the information and your review!!!!

It will depend on your route but on our 8 day cruise our itinerary was this:

Day 1 Saturday - Sail away

Day 2 Sunday - Sea Day 1 - 1st elegant night

Day 3 Monday - Sea Day 2

Day 4 Tuesday - Aruba

Day 5 Wednesday - Curacao

Day 6 Thursday - Sea Day 3 - 2nd elegant night

Day 7 Friday - Grand Turk

Day 8 Saturday - Sea Day 4

Day 9 Sunday - Debarkation

It will depend on your route but on our 8 day cruise our itinerary was this:

 

Day 1 Saturday - Sail away

Day 2 Sunday - Sea Day 1 - 1st elegant night

Day 3 Monday - Sea Day 2

Day 4 Tuesday - Aruba

Day 5 Wednesday - Curacao

Day 6 Thursday - Sea Day 3 - 2nd elegant night

Day 7 Friday - Grand Turk

Day 8 Saturday - Sea Day 4

Day 9 Sunday - Debarkation

Fantastic. Thank you so much!!!! Now I can schedule the other restaurants.

We had a spa interior! I’ve never had a balcony since I’m rarely in my room. Having spa access was SO WORTH IT but you can purchase a week pass to save money if you don’t want a spa cabin.

 

 

 

We didn’t get a chance to try Jiji’s!

Which Spa interior room were you in? I’ve been looking at the deck plans and worrying about 10118 being under to pool.

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Thank you for your report.

Keith

We had spa interior staterooms11004 and 11010 on the Sunshine in 2016. Both of the cabins were great during the day but 11010 backed up to one of the entertainment staff's cabin and they played tecno music that started around midnight and went until the wee hours of the morning one night. I didn't want to complain as I kept thinking it would stop at any moment. This was my fault for letting it go on as long as it did.

The good was that the cabins were super close to the spa and the Serenity area on deck 11. The hallways always smelled amazing and the upgraded soap, lotion and shampoo were nice. Robes are also a bit of an upgrade from the standard Carnival robe and they were in the cabin without having to ask the steward for the robes if you like to use the robes. Cloud 9 slippers were provided but in a one size fits most.

How was Grand Turk, and what did you do there?