Our visit on the Sunshine

Hi,

We just got off the Sunshine today and want to share our thoughts. First some background, we are Elite on Princess and have sailed twice on NCL during those cruises. Our son got married on a Carnival cruise, our first on Carnival, and we have only sailed them since and our next cruise will put us up to Platinum. We have heard all the comments about the Sunshine, you either love it or hate it, we loved it. We can get more specific in the next coming days, but we just got back home a short while ago and we are exhausted.

I have headed that people love or hate the Sunshine too. Would like to hear more comments. We are booked for the January Journey Cruise Jan. 2019.

I am also booked for the Sunshine Journey cruise in January and keep going back and forth , looking forward to reading your review ..

We loved the Sunshine. Sailed on it in May, 2017 and will be back on it again in February, 2019. Best Serenity deck in the fleet. Really looking forward to our Southern itinerary out of Port Canaveral in February.

Looking forward to our return to Sunshine, hopefully for the Southern run before she leaves Canaveral.

We sailed the sunshine over the 4th of July holiday in 2015 and we were not huge fans of the boat. Don’t get me wrong, the boat itself is beautiful and has a ton of stuff to do on it, but it’s just not big enough for everything that it has. We felt very cramped the whole time (impossible to find chairs on deck, long lines for everything, and just crowded walkways where you couldn’t move sometimes). This could have definitely been because we sailed it over the holiday period, but I have seen many other stories of the same instance on non holiday sailings. Nonetheless we still had a great cruise and still love carnival and sail them at least once a year, but that being said we will probably not sail sunshine again. We really like the Glory and he Dream. Those have been some of our best cruises!

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My family (Me, DH, DS-18, and DD-15) were on the Sunshine in August 2017 to Canada and absolutely loved it. It was weird weather but we had a great time and didn't have any problems with crowds at all. Would do it again!

Any cruise ship will feel crowded if you cruise when school is not in session. I have sailed twice on the Sunshine and it never once seemed overly crowded. But then again, we sailed while kids were in school.

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We flew in 2 days early and took the Smart-Two shuttle from the airport to Laquinta Oceanfront. We have used this shuttle service several times and they are very prompt and professional. There are cheaper options, and more expensive options, we used them once and have ever since. this was our 4th stay at this hotel and we always book an oceanfront room. We were excited to see that there was a rocket launch scheduled for Friday afternoon, but found out it got postponed. As always we loved our stay and anxiously waited to board the ship on Saturday. We used a shuttle service provided at the hotel to get to the ship.

We booked this cruise over a year ago, and have been really looking forward to it, but we were afraid of all we heard.

We were aware of all the issues including crowding in areas and problems with deck chairs. We only experienced the crowding a couple times, but it was never a problem. We used to always get up early to get a chair on deck, but this cruise we decided to just take it easy and enjoy it without all the extra planning. When we went to the deck, we never had an issue finding a chair until the 2nd day, but that was because Serenity was closed due to a light falling and broken glass everywhere. It opened in the afternoon and we were excited to get a couple chairs by the pool with an umbrella. Then the rain came, like before our towels were even down. After sticking it out for some time, we called it a day as far as the deck goes. After that we only used the area 2 more times and found the pool to be too crowded to worry about finding a spot there. We actually enjoyed the regular pool area better (2 pools are not enough) mostly because it is closer to the bars. We have always had Cheers since it was offered, and another drawback to the adult pool is the bar is 2 flights up or the other pool bars are 2 flights down. These flights of stairs are also scattered around which is an inconvenience. While there was random bar service available, I am happy to get the drinks myself and enjoy interacting with the bar staff. I have to say, the bar staff on this ship was the most attentive and personal of all the cruises we have been on. The only exception is the Casino Bar (just no sense of urgency) and the Alchemy Bar which I guess just insn't our thing.

We had anytime dining which we have had on all cruises since it became available. We really like being able to eat whenever we want. The personal service usually found with assigned dining was also obtained on this cruise with anytime dining. The key is to find an area where you like the servers and just request them each night. We found our ideal staff on the first night, but didn't realize it until being seating somewhere else on the second and not being as happy. We asked for them every night after and only had to wait about 5 minutes twice. They remembered everything we liked after the first night and we felt like we did when we had assigned dining. We did eat in the buffet area once at dinner time just because we didn't feel like dressing "casual" and I wore shorts and a T-shirt. I know other people dress this way in the dining room, just not my style.

Sailing on Sunshine in Nov so looking forward to more of your review.

Following

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Sailed on the Sunshine November of last year, loved her so much I am sailing her again in September of this year!!

Thanks for the review. We'll be on the Sunshine 12/1/2018.

Did you play Trivia? See any of the shows? Thank you for taking the time to write this review.

Sailing the Sunshine next month. Looking forward to more of your review.

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We had anytime dining which we have had on all cruises since it became available. We really like being able to eat whenever we want. The personal service usually found with assigned dining was also obtained on this cruise with anytime dining. The key is to find an area where you like the servers and just request them each night. We found our ideal staff on the first night, but didn't realize it until being seating somewhere else on the second and not being as happy. We asked for them every night after and only had to wait about 5 minutes twice. They remembered everything we liked after the first night and we felt like we did when we had assigned dining. We did eat in the buffet area once at dinner time just because we didn't feel like dressing "casual" and I wore shorts and a T-shirt. I know other people dress this way in the dining room, just not my style.

We are on board on Friday, would love to know the name(s) of your wait staff as we are ATD and hope to find good servers. We usually ask when buying the wine package and have had amazingly good results, but it never hurts to ask on here.

Booking tonight for January 2019 Southern so look forward to following your review.

I took one of the first few Journeys cruises on the Sunshine. I expected to hate it but I was pleasantly surprised and I'd sail on her again.

Is the new deli menu served on the Sunshine? What about the new steakhouse menu?

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We did not use the Deli or the Steakhouse. We wanted to go to the Steakhouse just for drinks, but never made it there. We are not much into shows, but did see a Magician that was OK, especially for kids. We went to a few of the Comedy shows, and never waited and always found a seat. They were also just OK, we never made plans to attend, but just went when we were looking for something to do when they were going on. We have the names from the dining room, I will post them when I find them. We were in the section that included tables in the 420 range, but there is always a possibility that could be moved to a different location. It was in the Sunset Dining Room in the back. We went to the hostess on deck 5 by the Ocean Plaza and got our assignment and then went down to deck 3 to get our tables.

I mentioned earlier that we had Cheers again and can't imagine cruising without it. But, we do have a tough decision ahead as we are going on a 14 day Journey cruise in January. I'm sure we'll just get it, we can save some money purchasing it early and using gift cards which will save us 10%. Our favorite bars and staff were at both the inside and the outside Red Frog. The regular bar tenders were always very social and quickly learned our drinks and we were quickly served. Even when they are busy, they always acknowledged us while they were tending to other customers. We did tip them and other bar tenders throughout the cruise and decided where to get the best "drinks" and service. . I did get caught by one of them near the Tequila Bar and he wanted to know why I was over there. I told him that is where I take our empty glasses (which was true), and then we get new ones at his bar. We both had a good laugh. The only real complaint with the bars is the times they are open. Most of them are closed at or before midnight leaving the Casino as the only option. I learned this after the second day and stopped going from bar to bar trying to find one open. After midnight the Casino bar was it. The service there was good and they remembered what we were drinking, but there was never a sense of urgency. It was if they were in slow motion, but we got what we wanted.

We have sailed on Sunshine twice from New Orleans and really enjoyed it more the second time when we had one of the new cabins in the Serenity area. Friday we will board her again for the southern route which will be totally new for us. There is so much we like about this ship that the few drawbacks such as the small comedy club do really bother us.

Here are the names of the waitstaff we loved from the Sunset ATD.

Team Headwaiter Mudiantara

Team Waitress Marija

Asst. Team Waitress Jiraporn

We hope you are able to find them, they were the best.