Carnival Sunshine: the good, the bad and the ugly.

[fragilek]

One thing crosses my mind- If these EU sailings are as JH has said are sold out (not full due to not been able to use cabins or needing cabins for contractors) then why did carnival pull the EU sailings for 2014. I thought they had cited travel costs preventing the ships filling up. Now they can't have it both ways.

[Aplmac]

Bring back the Destiny!

Bit late for that now, innit? :confused:

 

/

[heatherbelle]

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1606173&page=42

 

 

Here is a follow up post from those people bumped by Carnival. Their cabin was on deck 6:eek:

 

So there are not only issues with the new decks, but also the old ones.

 

The third cruise is about to set sails and there are still issues. As for the ships being sold out that's a load of rubbish. If the fish site is to be believed some of them are just under 65% full. That of course may not be accurate. But when I look at my sailing there is still loads of availability of rooms for two especially on the Spa deck and some for three.

 

The cabins may be ear marked for construction workers and crew.

 

Edit old ones, I wrote new ones twice.

[christopher]

As Diamond cruiser on Carnival, if i found out one thing on and off the ship. A vacation is what you make it. Its a floating hotel with great food and entertainment. It may take up to a couple weeks to get things finished up. If you have ever cruised before you know they are constantly painting in every port and work on the ship to keep it up. The salt water takes a toll on the whole ship and then you have people flushing things down the toilet that they are not suppose to which clogs the lines and creates a mess. I for one have been on Princess, RCL, NCL Holland America, Celebrity, I always come back to Carnival. The value, fun, my kids like the Pizza and Ice Cream better on CCL, the entire staff is always there to help you.

 

P.S. If you don't like Carnival that is your choice. Hope you find something better.

 

Chris Reynolds 6/28/2013 Deck 8 on the back of the ship. Can't wait.

 

Relax, enjoy and stop worrying about things you can't control.

[christopher]

As Diamond cruiser on Carnival, if i found out anything on and off the ship. A vacation is what you make it. Its a floating hotel with great food and entertainment. It may take up to a couple weeks to get things finished up. If you have ever cruised before you know they are constantly painting in every port and working on the ship to keep it up. The salt water takes a toll on the whole ship and then you have people flushing things down the toilets, that they are not suppose to which clogs the lines and creates a mess. I for one have been on Princess, RCL, NCL Holland America, Celebrity, I always come back to Carnival. The value, fun, my kids like the Pizza and Ice Cream better on CCL, the entire staff is always there to help you.

 

P.S. If you don't like Carnival that is your choice. Hope you find something better.

 

Chris Reynolds 6/28/2013 Deck 8 on the back of the ship. Can't wait.

 

Relax, enjoy and stop worrying about things you can't control.

[dclark]

As Diamond cruiser on Carnival, if i found out anything on and off the ship. A vacation is what you make it. Its a floating hotel with great food and entertainment. It may take up to a couple weeks to get things finished up. If you have ever cruised before you know they are constantly painting in every port and working on the ship to keep it up. The salt water takes a toll on the whole ship and then you have people flushing things down the toilets, that they are not suppose to which clogs the lines and creates a mess. I for one have been on Princess, RCL, NCL Holland America, Celebrity, I always come back to Carnival. The value, fun, my kids like the Pizza and Ice Cream better on CCL, the entire staff is always there to help you.

 

P

 

Oh come on, enough with these tired cliche's! "A cruise is what you make of it"? Really, I mean, REALLY? If you have a cabin that is locked into freezer mode, non functioning tv, bathroom that smells like sewage, then I got news for you- you have a bad room! I wouldn't tolerate that at a Motel 6, but at least at Motel 6, you can leave and go somewhere else, you are not TRAPPED!.

Hallways that smell of solvents, constant construction, closed pools, amateur entertainment, sorry, but that is the stuff that bad cruises are made up of. Sure, you can try to rationalize it all away, much like you could float down a river in an inner tube and if you were drunk enough, it would seem like a good cruise, because "that is what you made out of it".

You say it is a floating hotel with great food and entertainment. Really? Where is this "great food"? Where is this "great entertainment"? Care to explain how the spoon string thing is great entertainment or the marriage game? If you consider that great entertainment, what do you think of the water show, ice show or Broadway shows on RCL? Junk?

Along with all these problems, people have reported it to be super crowded. If you don't care that the food is bad, that there is little entertainment, that you don't care that the pool is closed, guess what? You are happy to be on a ferry that goes from port to port. Take away a good room, good service, good food and good entertainment, what you are left with is not a cruise ship, but a ferry.

When I pay for a cruise, I expect a cruise, not a ferry. I expect a room with tv, no stench bathroom, and proper temp control. I don't want to have to smell possibly hazardous chemicals or hear construction going on .I expect food that is better than cheap cuts of meats and starches, entertainment that uses professionals, not cruisers hoping to get their 15 minutes of fame. You would say that this unreasonable. I say nonsense, if I paid for a cruise, I should get it. I don't cruise CCL anymore because they don't give it.

The Sunshine has been in the 'making" for months, look up my posts and you'll see that I warned that it would be an overcrowded disaster, which it is.

[tiggerman101]

Here is my thoughts as I just got home from Barcelona and off the ship today. I will say this was my 27th cruise overall and my 18th with Carnival. This crusie was taken by myself and a close friend. It was his first cruise:

 

First off, this was a very port intensive cruise. It was 9 days with only one sea day. Being Europe, we were off the ship almost all day every day. This meant we did not use the ship like we woul;d have if it was the Caribbean. We were also pretty much in our room early every night. We did not go to any shows and really did not go out in the ship at night much. We did use the top decks a lot at night (which were basically empty).

 

I don't think they will get a full understanding of what does and does not work with the new designs until the ship hits the Caribbean. Europe is just a whole different type of cruise.

 

I had cabin 6346 (Aftr Wrap) and it was fine except no refridgerator. The bathroom did flood a bit one time, but it was no big deal. I think a drain backed up. We never called about it and it never happened again.

 

The ship itself looks great. They did a good job in decor and it is very tasteful all around.

 

We did receive a credit of $50 each for the pool not working, etc. We also got a $70 per person credit for some tax mixup or saomething that I never understood. I should note that I had no idea we had the credit until someone else on the cruise told me. I never got a letter or anything.

 

The Serenity area is nice and very large. The pool and waterfall looks great in person. For some reason the pool was closed on our only sea day, but open the rest of the time. I spent a couple late nights in the hot tub at the top of the waterfall and it was large and relaxing.

 

The waterslides are awesome. I will say that they are not at all kiddie slides. These things are very fast. The yellow Twister slide will get you going, but the two racer slides are even crazier. I think it caught most people off guard when they went down. It was fun to see peoples reactions when they hit the bottom though. Seriously, they will take you for a ride if you lay down and get some momentum going.They are also very tall with lots of steps going up.

 

We played around on Sports Square a few nights. It is fun up there. The pool tables could use a wind guard and some better construction (the bumper rails were very loose), but they did have the ping pong tables blocked from wind which was nice. The Rope course is not as good as the one on the Magic, but it is nice. They use a different system to attach you which runs a lot better then the "metal track" on the Magic.

 

The marketplace is a MUCH better concept now. They went with "islands" (like RCCL) instead of the long buffet lines. This makes it easier to get in and out with what you want. I will say that all the food up there was very good. I liked the pizza place better here then on the other ships. I never tried the Pasta or Asian at lunch. The whole back area where the aft pool was is open for seating during the morning and afternoon. This helps a lot. Honestly, when I first saw the Marketplace I thought it would be a zoo, but it was fine the entire cruise.

 

The steakhouse was fine, but my staek was not the best. I always get the 7 spice ribeye Med Rare and it was overcoooked this time and seemed like a bit of a bad cut. The rest was fine though and the service was outstanding.

 

Ji JI was very, very, very good. We loved it. We went twice. Just about everything we had was outstanding. We loved it so much the second time we went we wanted to pay for three people so we could get more dishes. They let us do it, but when the bill came they only charged us for two meals. I felt kind of bad about that. The service was fantastic and hats off to the manager who went out of her way to welcome us and make sure all was well.

 

I also really liked the Shake Spot. The workers there were great (they do both the milkshakes and the coffee bar). The shakes were great and they would do about anything you could come up with. The best part is that they have a "coffee card" and a "shake card" (they are seperate). You buy six shakes, or coffee, and the next is free. They let the two of us use one card and they would just punch a new one if we forgot it and combine them later. We went through about two cards of both the coffee and shakes.

 

The bad:

 

The ship is just not done. It might not be huge things (except the pool and putt putt corse), but the more I was on it the more we noticed. Flooring wasn't complete. Stairs on Lido were not fully stained and marked. Some stuff was slapped together (pool tables above). The TV functions did not work at all (the interactive stuff). There were many workers onboard doing various things. All the hot chocolate machines were broke after a day or two. Drink machines were broke here and there, etc. Elevators were down here and there. Again, all in all, nothing really major, but after awhile it added up.

 

The customer service line was pretty long the whole cruise. There was no "Platinum" sign up and when I went to the spot I was immediatly helped. I did get "questioned" by a couple people in line about it though. Oh well.

 

I did not receive a lot of my Platinum papers (welcome letter, debark info, past guest party, etc). Not a huge deal, but it was overlooked.

 

The big one for me and the one that will create a lot of back and forth, is that in my opinion, the ship is indeed crowded. The times I did walk around at night, I really felt the crowds. The one sea day the Lido deck was very crowded. I can't personally imagine this ship in the summer in the Caribbean. I will not be on it.

 

I dont understand the Havana Bar. It takes up a huge space and is good for the additional seating during breakfast and lunch, but the bar itself seems like a waste to me. Who knows, maybe it will be popular in the Caribbean, but for now it just seemed like a empty hole.

 

Gone are the nice spa changing rooms with the saunas and steam rooms. This one is very small with a tiny sauna and two showers.

 

We went to the dining room the first two nights and never went back. Part of this was because of the itinerary, but the food was just alright. We enjoyed the buffet much better. I am not a fan of the MDR menus these days either.

 

Overall, we had a great time mainly due to the ports. The ship was fine, but not my favorite. I have no real issues with it, but I wouldn't personally go back on it unless it was doing some outstanding itinerary that I just couldn't miss. I do like some of the new concepts that Carnival is trying out, but other directions the company is taking is driving me elsewhere (mainly putting more and more people on there ships).

 

That is about all I can think of right now. I am pretty tired, but feel free to ask any questions.

[BeachChik]

Oh come on, enough with these tired cliche's! "A cruise is what you make of it"? Really, I mean, REALLY? If you have a cabin that is locked into freezer mode, non functioning tv, bathroom that smells like sewage, then I got news for you- you have a bad room! I wouldn't tolerate that at a Motel 6, but at least at Motel 6, you can leave and go somewhere else, you are not TRAPPED!.

Hallways that smell of solvents, constant construction, closed pools, amateur entertainment, sorry, but that is the stuff that bad cruises are made up of. Sure, you can try to rationalize it all away, much like you could float down a river in an inner tube and if you were drunk enough, it would seem like a good cruise, because "that is what you made out of it".

You say it is a floating hotel with great food and entertainment. Really? Where is this "great food"? Where is this "great entertainment"? Care to explain how the spoon string thing is great entertainment or the marriage game? If you consider that great entertainment, what do you think of the water show, ice show or Broadway shows on RCL? Junk?

Along with all these problems, people have reported it to be super crowded. If you don't care that the food is bad, that there is little entertainment, that you don't care that the pool is closed, guess what? You are happy to be on a ferry that goes from port to port. Take away a good room, good service, good food and good entertainment, what you are left with is not a cruise ship, but a ferry.

When I pay for a cruise, I expect a cruise, not a ferry. I expect a room with tv, no stench bathroom, and proper temp control. I don't want to have to smell possibly hazardous chemicals or hear construction going on .I expect food that is better than cheap cuts of meats and starches, entertainment that uses professionals, not cruisers hoping to get their 15 minutes of fame. You would say that this unreasonable. I say nonsense, if I paid for a cruise, I should get it. I don't cruise CCL anymore because they don't give it.

The Sunshine has been in the 'making" for months, look up my posts and you'll see that I warned that it would be an overcrowded disaster, which it is.

 

You know most of the time I think your posts are to the extreme but this one I actually agree with. The comment a cruise is what you make of it is pure nonsense. And I agree that some if these things people wouldn't accept if they were staying in a hotel but some here think that just because you are on a ship that you should overlook everything.

 

From reading the posts of the people that were on the first cruise IMO the ship should not have sailed. All carnival did by sailing with so many issues is create more bad feelings about their brand.

[Cruizinman]

Here is my thoughts as I just got home from Barcelona and off the ship today. I will say this was my 27th cruise overall and my 18th with Carnival. This crusie was taken by myself and a close friend. It was his first cruise:

 

First off, this was a very port intensive cruise. It was 9 days with only one sea day. Being Europe, we were off the ship almost all day every day. This meant we did not use the ship like we woul;d have if it was the Caribbean. We were also pretty much in our room early every night. We did not go to any shows and really did not go out in the ship at night much. We did use the top decks a lot at night (which were basically empty).

 

I don't think they will get a full understanding of what does and does not work with the new designs until the ship hits the Caribbean. Europe is just a whole different type of cruise.

 

I had cabin 6346 (Aftr Wrap) and it was fine except no refridgerator. The bathroom did flood a bit one time, but it was no big deal. I think a drain backed up. We never called about it and it never happened again.

 

The ship itself looks great. They did a good job in decor and it is very tasteful all around.

 

We did receive a credit of $50 each for the pool not working, etc. We also got a $70 per person credit for some tax mixup or saomething that I never understood. I should note that I had no idea we had the credit until someone else on the cruise told me. I never got a letter or anything.

 

The Serenity area is nice and very large. The pool and waterfall looks great in person. For some reason the pool was closed on our only sea day, but open the rest of the time. I spent a couple late nights in the hot tub at the top of the waterfall and it was large and relaxing.

 

The waterslides are awesome. I will say that they are not at all kiddie slides. These things are very fast. The yellow Twister slide will get you going, but the two racer slides are even crazier. I think it caught most people off guard when they went down. It was fun to see peoples reactions when they hit the bottom though. Seriously, they will take you for a ride if you lay down and get some momentum going.They are also very tall with lots of steps going up.

 

We played around on Sports Square a few nights. It is fun up there. The pool tables could use a wind guard and some better construction (the bumper rails were very loose), but they did have the ping pong tables blocked from wind which was nice. The Rope course is not as good as the one on the Magic, but it is nice. They use a different system to attach you which runs a lot better then the "metal track" on the Magic.

 

The marketplace is a MUCH better concept now. They went with "islands" (like RCCL) instead of the long buffet lines. This makes it easier to get in and out with what you want. I will say that all the food up there was very good. I liked the pizza place better here then on the other ships. I never tried the Pasta or Asian at lunch. The whole back area where the aft pool was is open for seating during the morning and afternoon. This helps a lot. Honestly, when I first saw the Marketplace I thought it would be a zoo, but it was fine the entire cruise.

 

The steakhouse was fine, but my staek was not the best. I always get the 7 spice ribeye Med Rare and it was overcoooked this time and seemed like a bit of a bad cut. The rest was fine though and the service was outstanding.

 

Ji JI was very, very, very good. We loved it. We went twice. Just about everything we had was outstanding. We loved it so much the second time we went we wanted to pay for three people so we could get more dishes. They let us do it, but when the bill came they only charged us for two meals. I felt kind of bad about that. The service was fantastic and hats off to the manager who went out of her way to welcome us and make sure all was well.

 

I also really liked the Shake Spot. The workers there were great (they do both the milkshakes and the coffee bar). The shakes were great and they would do about anything you could come up with. The best part is that they have a "coffee card" and a "shake card" (they are seperate). You buy six shakes, or coffee, and the next is free. They let the two of us use one card and they would just punch a new one if we forgot it and combine them later. We went through about two cards of both the coffee and shakes.

 

The bad:

 

The ship is just not done. It might not be huge things (except the pool and putt putt corse), but the more I was on it the more we noticed. Flooring wasn't complete. Stairs on Lido were not fully stained and marked. Some stuff was slapped together (pool tables above). The TV functions did not work at all (the interactive stuff). There were many workers onboard doing various things. All the hot chocolate machines were broke after a day or two. Drink machines were broke here and there, etc. Elevators were down here and there. Again, all in all, nothing really major, but after awhile it added up.

 

The customer service line was pretty long the whole cruise. There was no "Platinum" sign up and when I went to the spot I was immediatly helped. I did get "questioned" by a couple people in line about it though. Oh well.

 

I did not receive a lot of my Platinum papers (welcome letter, debark info, past guest party, etc). Not a huge deal, but it was overlooked.

The big one for me and the one that will create a lot of back and forth, is that in my opinion, the ship is indeed crowded. The times I did walk around at night, I really felt the crowds. The one sea day the Lido deck was very crowded. I can't personally imagine this ship in the summer in the Caribbean. I will not be on it.

 

I dont understand the Havana Bar. It takes up a huge space and is good for the additional seating during breakfast and lunch, but the bar itself seems like a waste to me. Who knows, maybe it will be popular in the Caribbean, but for now it just seemed like a empty hole.

 

Gone are the nice spa changing rooms with the saunas and steam rooms. This one is very small with a tiny sauna and two showers.

 

We went to the dining room the first two nights and never went back. Part of this was because of the itinerary, but the food was just alright. We enjoyed the buffet much better. I am not a fan of the MDR menus these days either.

 

Overall, we had a great time mainly due to the ports. The ship was fine, but not my favorite. I have no real issues with it, but I wouldn't personally go back on it unless it was doing some outstanding itinerary that I just couldn't miss. I do like some of the new concepts that Carnival is trying out, but other directions the company is taking is driving me elsewhere (mainly putting more and more people on there ships).

 

That is about all I can think of right now. I am pretty tired, but feel free to ask any questions.

Thanks for a fair and honest review, I have said in the past when Destiny /Shine / SunDes returns to the Caribbean people will be surprised with how crowded she feels :eek:

[firefly333]

Im anxious for Sargent Schultz to get home and see what he has to say.

[spencercoop]

Here is my thoughts as I just got home from Barcelona and off the ship today. I will say this was my 27th cruise overall and my 18th with Carnival. This crusie was taken by myself and a close friend. It was his first cruise:

 

First off, this was a very port intensive cruise. It was 9 days with only one sea day. Being Europe, we were off the ship almost all day every day. This meant we did not use the ship like we woul;d have if it was the Caribbean. We were also pretty much in our room early every night. We did not go to any shows and really did not go out in the ship at night much. We did use the top decks a lot at night (which were basically empty).

 

I don't think they will get a full understanding of what does and does not work with the new designs until the ship hits the Caribbean. Europe is just a whole different type of cruise.

 

I had cabin 6346 (Aftr Wrap) and it was fine except no refridgerator. The bathroom did flood a bit one time, but it was no big deal. I think a drain backed up. We never called about it and it never happened again.

 

The ship itself looks great. They did a good job in decor and it is very tasteful all around.

 

We did receive a credit of $50 each for the pool not working, etc. We also got a $70 per person credit for some tax mixup or saomething that I never understood. I should note that I had no idea we had the credit until someone else on the cruise told me. I never got a letter or anything.

 

The Serenity area is nice and very large. The pool and waterfall looks great in person. For some reason the pool was closed on our only sea day, but open the rest of the time. I spent a couple late nights in the hot tub at the top of the waterfall and it was large and relaxing.

 

The waterslides are awesome. I will say that they are not at all kiddie slides. These things are very fast. The yellow Twister slide will get you going, but the two racer slides are even crazier. I think it caught most people off guard when they went down. It was fun to see peoples reactions when they hit the bottom though. Seriously, they will take you for a ride if you lay down and get some momentum going.They are also very tall with lots of steps going up.

 

We played around on Sports Square a few nights. It is fun up there. The pool tables could use a wind guard and some better construction (the bumper rails were very loose), but they did have the ping pong tables blocked from wind which was nice. The Rope course is not as good as the one on the Magic, but it is nice. They use a different system to attach you which runs a lot better then the "metal track" on the Magic.

 

The marketplace is a MUCH better concept now. They went with "islands" (like RCCL) instead of the long buffet lines. This makes it easier to get in and out with what you want. I will say that all the food up there was very good. I liked the pizza place better here then on the other ships. I never tried the Pasta or Asian at lunch. The whole back area where the aft pool was is open for seating during the morning and afternoon. This helps a lot. Honestly, when I first saw the Marketplace I thought it would be a zoo, but it was fine the entire cruise.

 

The steakhouse was fine, but my staek was not the best. I always get the 7 spice ribeye Med Rare and it was overcoooked this time and seemed like a bit of a bad cut. The rest was fine though and the service was outstanding.

 

Ji JI was very, very, very good. We loved it. We went twice. Just about everything we had was outstanding. We loved it so much the second time we went we wanted to pay for three people so we could get more dishes. They let us do it, but when the bill came they only charged us for two meals. I felt kind of bad about that. The service was fantastic and hats off to the manager who went out of her way to welcome us and make sure all was well.

 

I also really liked the Shake Spot. The workers there were great (they do both the milkshakes and the coffee bar). The shakes were great and they would do about anything you could come up with. The best part is that they have a "coffee card" and a "shake card" (they are seperate). You buy six shakes, or coffee, and the next is free. They let the two of us use one card and they would just punch a new one if we forgot it and combine them later. We went through about two cards of both the coffee and shakes.

 

The bad:

 

The ship is just not done. It might not be huge things (except the pool and putt putt corse), but the more I was on it the more we noticed. Flooring wasn't complete. Stairs on Lido were not fully stained and marked. Some stuff was slapped together (pool tables above). The TV functions did not work at all (the interactive stuff). There were many workers onboard doing various things. All the hot chocolate machines were broke after a day or two. Drink machines were broke here and there, etc. Elevators were down here and there. Again, all in all, nothing really major, but after awhile it added up.

 

The customer service line was pretty long the whole cruise. There was no "Platinum" sign up and when I went to the spot I was immediatly helped. I did get "questioned" by a couple people in line about it though. Oh well.

 

I did not receive a lot of my Platinum papers (welcome letter, debark info, past guest party, etc). Not a huge deal, but it was overlooked.

 

The big one for me and the one that will create a lot of back and forth, is that in my opinion, the ship is indeed crowded. The times I did walk around at night, I really felt the crowds. The one sea day the Lido deck was very crowded. I can't personally imagine this ship in the summer in the Caribbean. I will not be on it.

 

I dont understand the Havana Bar. It takes up a huge space and is good for the additional seating during breakfast and lunch, but the bar itself seems like a waste to me. Who knows, maybe it will be popular in the Caribbean, but for now it just seemed like a empty hole.

 

Gone are the nice spa changing rooms with the saunas and steam rooms. This one is very small with a tiny sauna and two showers.

 

We went to the dining room the first two nights and never went back. Part of this was because of the itinerary, but the food was just alright. We enjoyed the buffet much better. I am not a fan of the MDR menus these days either.

 

Overall, we had a great time mainly due to the ports. The ship was fine, but not my favorite. I have no real issues with it, but I wouldn't personally go back on it unless it was doing some outstanding itinerary that I just couldn't miss. I do like some of the new concepts that Carnival is trying out, but other directions the company is taking is driving me elsewhere (mainly putting more and more people on there ships).

 

That is about all I can think of right now. I am pretty tired, but feel free to ask any questions.

 

Thank you for posting your honest and balanced review of the ship!

[Cruizinman]

tiggerman101 ,did she feel top heavy to you, " no pun intended" .

[sumguy1]

Im anxious for Sargent Schultz to get home and see what he has to say.

 

i read his thread and i think he will say that it was the best cruise he has ever had

[tiggerman101]

Thank you for posting your honest and balanced review of the ship!

 

No problem. I cruise different lines and for various reasons. I picked this cruise purely for the price and the ports. My friend had never been to Europe and you just couldn't come close to the value with any other ship over there right now. I knew this was going to be port intensive no matter what cruise we choose, so the ship had little to do with our decision.

 

tiggerman101 ,did she feel top heavy to you, " no pun intended" .

 

I am not sure, but it did rock quite a bit. Of course there are many factors involved that could cause that and we did hit some rough seas a few nights. However, the rocking was pretty significant at times. It was much more so then most of my other cruises.

 

Again, I didn't dislike the ship, I was just not "wowed" by it. Throw in the repairs, etc going on and it just wasnt the best experience. However, it was not horrible and we did have a great time overall. Yes, a lot of people I talked to were not real happy overall. I am sure someone will slam me for that....

[Cruizinman]

No problem. I cruise different lines and for various reasons. I picked this cruise purely for the price and the ports. My friend had never been to Europe and you just couldn't come close to the value with any other ship over there right now. I knew this was going to be port intensive no matter what cruise we choose, so the ship had little to do with our decision.

 

 

 

I am not sure, but it did rock quite a bit. Of course there are many factors involved that could cause that and we did hit some rough seas a few nights. However, the rocking was pretty significant at times. It was much more so then most of my other cruises.

 

Again, I didn't dislike the ship, I was just not "wowed" by it. Throw in the repairs, etc going on and it just wasnt the best experience. However, it was not horrible and we did have a great time overall. Yes, a lot of people I talked to were not real happy overall. I am sure someone will slam me for that....

 

Thanks , I'm curious about that, hopefully no one will Slam you for that ;)

[MATHA531]

Well as noted, this indeed is a port intensive itinerary, includes the stop in France, Croatia and doesn't return to Barcelona but substitutes in a way Venice. I pick my cruises by itinerary and price but not ship. Sorry about the pool but it is not overwhelmingly important to me..too old for the water slides.

 

Seems like they are indeed getting most of the kinks ironed out. Hopefully all will be well. I'm on the 07 June sailing.

[Jenna1983]

It doesn't surprise me about the ship rocking. I've only been on one ship that rocked like crazy on the way back from Cozumel: Destiny.

[Brg21]

My goodness that doesn't sound good at all. What cabin no. were you in. We have 11035 and at this point are hugely concerned about our sunshine cruise in 12 days !!

 

We were in 11025. I know other people on that floor had some issues and did see workers on our floor frequently as well as in the spa trying to fix everything.

[CDNseekingheat]

tiggerman101

 

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience.

I really appreciate what you had to say.

Hopefully, your friend enjoyed his cruise and will come back for another adventure cruising. Sounds like you both enjoyed yourselves.

Great post, thank you again.

[ATHENA3]

If people are complaining about crowds and lines now, wait until she sails the Caribbean with younger passengers than Europe cruises has now. More cabins mean more people and very small theater equals fewer seats, but the new shows are nothing to see to compare to the shows before the cutbacks. Time will tell... But Wednesday is pool day for the Sunshine, that’s what JH is saying.

[4FanTrashCan]

My wife and I sailed on the May 17th cruise. We were scheduled to cruise with friends that were bumped 2 days before setting sail.

 

To follow up on my earlier post, the ship certainly was not finished and in my opinion it is likely our friends were bumped from their rooms to make room for the contractors. I have been told both overbooked and to make room for contractors by Carnival directly. You decide.

Carnival did take care of our friends and they are satisfied with the arrangements and compensation, but nothing for us.

 

We were on the new Deck 12 and the balcony is absolutely worth it especially to escape the sewage fumes. If you don't mind grinders, saws, hammers, and drills going all day long starting at 0800 every morning right outside your door, then this is a great floor to stay on. We certainly didn't care for it on the days we stayed on the ship, but obviously it was not an issue when we were off the ship. The water to the toilet, sink, and shower were all shut off one of the evenings, of course right at the time my wife was soaped up taking a shower. They certainly had and still have plenty to finish on this ship.

 

The ports are outstanding and made the vacation wonderful and given the fallout of our other traveling companions that had our excursion reservations, we decided to venture on our own and are certainly pleased with all that we were able to experience. Most stops had some kind of Carnival shuttle that took you to the end of the pier or even into town. Most times we grabbed a taxi to the train station. Most ports were pretty easy to navigate via train like Le Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence and Rome. For some we grouped up with others and shared a taxi or rented one by ourselves for the day such as Pompeii and Amalfi Coast or Mt Etna or Drach Caves in Mallorca. I certainly recommend getting a SIM card with a 1GB data plan from TIM when you get to La Spezia if you want to use your phone to look up train schedules or navigation. I think it was $20EU.

 

While I was already aware to ask for upfront pricing such as for taxi fair, I certainly did not imagine I would have to use this knowledge on the ship, but such was the case for the Cloud 9 Spa. I along with 5 other individuals that I spoke with received a price for a massage (massages or manicures/pedicures for others). Once the service was complete an outrageous bill was presented for payment. In our case we booked a couples massage for two for a quoted total of $279. Upon completion, we were both presented individual bills of $195 each for the 1-hour massage. Upon request for clarification they "forgot" to include a $-36 special discount. Hmmm still equals $318. Only explanation is that their system must be screwed up and also ensured to state that tips were not included. If you are still planning to get a massage, I would recommend that you request a room that is no where near the main entry door as it slams shut every 1-2 minutes with people traveling in and out. Not very relaxing. Perhaps the rooms will also get vent covers in the ceiling soon too so they don't have to use towels to cover the exposed holes and falling insulation directly over the massage tables.

 

We did have access to some of the Cloud 9 Spa amenities such as the steam rooms as part of our room package. This was certainly worth the upgrade even though not all of the functions like the Hot/Tropical/Fresh showers worked yet. It was interesting to watch the staff try to sell this unusable feature to potential, unsuspecting new customers. The heated stone chairs were great after a long day of hiking and we enjoyed this feature quite a bit.

 

MDR food was Ok, staff was outstanding, Guy's burgers was very good when it was open, the entertainment was very, very good both the headline shows and the comedians. The Market Place buffet food was definitely closed way more often than we had anticipated.

 

If you are on Deck 12 expect to hear all of the Deck 14 chairs getting moved every night around 12:30. Took us a while the first night to figure out what the heck was going on.

 

If you are planning to cruise on the Sunshine, expect to have the smell of sewer on most of the decks. We were greeted with it every time we returned to the ship on Deck Zero, always smelled it on Deck 3 and 4, and always smelled it on our Deck 12. I don't recall smelling it on Lido or in the MDR however.

 

The Fun Day at Sea wasn't much fun since the main pool was closed, the Serenity pool was closed, the Serenity hot tub was closed, and when we checked in the afternoon, the water slides were closed and the high ropes course was closed. The latter wasn't even scheduled to be open until 3PM???

 

The evening photos were nice and the photographers were fun even at $22 a piece plus the 20% Value Added Tax (recoverable in Barcelona). The Candy shop is almost $9 bucks a pound for just about everything. The Liquid Lounge is certainly suitable for their evening shows as well as DJ'ed night club. The DJ's were excellent. Also props to a Mr. Price that was buying hundreds of shots each night for everyone in the club. I think at least 1,500 or more over the course of the cruise.

 

We didn't fork out any additional for the Italian, Asian, or Steakhouse, but did hear excellent reviews of the Steakhouse and Ji Ji's. Poor reviews for the Italian place. I thought it odd that the potential steakhouse scenery out the huge windows provides only an outstanding view of the life boats.

 

Certainly Carnival had a business decision to make regarding staying in port to finish the ship or get it out to sea. The later was most likely a cheaper business decision, but certainly not a great impression for our first experience with Carnival. Obviously thousands of folks have had good and bad experiences on their cruises, but this was ours. It will likely be our only experience with Carnival.

[Ship's Wake]

My wife and I sailed on the May 17th cruise. We were scheduled to cruise with friends that were bumped 2 days before setting sail.

 

To follow up on my earlier post, the ship certainly was not finished and in my opinion it is likely our friends were bumped from their rooms to make room for the contractors. I have been told both overbooked and to make room for contractors by Carnival directly. You decide.

Carnival did take care of our friends and they are satisfied with the arrangements and compensation, but nothing for us.

 

We were on the new Deck 12 and the balcony is absolutely worth it especially to escape the sewage fumes. If you don't mind grinders, saws, hammers, and drills going all day long starting at 0800 every morning right outside your door, then this is a great floor to stay on. We certainly didn't care for it on the days we stayed on the ship, but obviously it was not an issue when we were off the ship. The water to the toilet, sink, and shower were all shut off one of the evenings, of course right at the time my wife was soaped up taking a shower. They certainly had and still have plenty to finish on this ship.

 

The ports are outstanding and made the vacation wonderful and given the fallout of our other traveling companions that had our excursion reservations, we decided to venture on our own and are certainly pleased with all that we were able to experience. Most stops had some kind of Carnival shuttle that took you to the end of the pier or even into town. Most times we grabbed a taxi to the train station. Most ports were pretty easy to navigate via train like Le Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence and Rome. For some we grouped up with others and shared a taxi or rented one by ourselves for the day such as Pompeii and Amalfi Coast or Mt Etna or Drach Caves in Mallorca. I certainly recommend getting a SIM card with a 1GB data plan from TIM when you get to La Spezia if you want to use your phone to look up train schedules or navigation. I think it was $20EU.

 

While I was already aware to ask for upfront pricing such as for taxi fair, I certainly did not imagine I would have to use this knowledge on the ship, but such was the case for the Cloud 9 Spa. I along with 5 other individuals that I spoke with received a price for a massage (massages or manicures/pedicures for others). Once the service was complete an outrageous bill was presented for payment. In our case we booked a couples massage for two for a quoted total of $279. Upon completion, we were both presented individual bills of $195 each for the 1-hour massage. Upon request for clarification they "forgot" to include a $-36 special discount. Hmmm still equals $318. Only explanation is that their system must be screwed up and also ensured to state that tips were not included. If you are still planning to get a massage, I would recommend that you request a room that is no where near the main entry door as it slams shut every 1-2 minutes with people traveling in and out. Not very relaxing. Perhaps the rooms will also get vent covers in the ceiling soon too so they don't have to use towels to cover the exposed holes and falling insulation directly over the massage tables.

 

We did have access to some of the Cloud 9 Spa amenities such as the steam rooms as part of our room package. This was certainly worth the upgrade even though not all of the functions like the Hot/Tropical/Fresh showers worked yet. It was interesting to watch the staff try to sell this unusable feature to potential, unsuspecting new customers. The heated stone chairs were great after a long day of hiking and we enjoyed this feature quite a bit.

 

MDR food was Ok, staff was outstanding, Guy's burgers was very good when it was open, the entertainment was very, very good both the headline shows and the comedians. The Market Place buffet food was definitely closed way more often than we had anticipated.

 

If you are on Deck 12 expect to hear all of the Deck 14 chairs getting moved every night around 12:30. Took us a while the first night to figure out what the heck was going on.

 

If you are planning to cruise on the Sunshine, expect to have the smell of sewer on most of the decks. We were greeted with it every time we returned to the ship on Deck Zero, always smelled it on Deck 3 and 4, and always smelled it on our Deck 12. I don't recall smelling it on Lido or in the MDR however.

 

The Fun Day at Sea wasn't much fun since the main pool was closed, the Serenity pool was closed, the Serenity hot tub was closed, and when we checked in the afternoon, the water slides were closed and the high ropes course was closed. The latter wasn't even scheduled to be open until 3PM???

 

The evening photos were nice and the photographers were fun even at $22 a piece plus the 20% Value Added Tax (recoverable in Barcelona). The Candy shop is almost $9 bucks a pound for just about everything. The Liquid Lounge is certainly suitable for their evening shows as well as DJ'ed night club. The DJ's were excellent. Also props to a Mr. Price that was buying hundreds of shots each night for everyone in the club. I think at least 1,500 or more over the course of the cruise.

 

We didn't fork out any additional for the Italian, Asian, or Steakhouse, but did hear excellent reviews of the Steakhouse and Ji Ji's. Poor reviews for the Italian place. I thought it odd that the potential steakhouse scenery out the huge windows provides only an outstanding view of the life boats.

 

Certainly Carnival had a business decision to make regarding staying in port to finish the ship or get it out to sea. The later was most likely a cheaper business decision, but certainly not a great impression for our first experience with Carnival. Obviously thousands of folks have had good and bad experiences on their cruises, but this was ours. It will likely be our only experience with Carnival.

 

Thank you for sharing your cruise experience with us.

 

I would have been very upset if I cruised on an unfinished ship.

 

Sounds like Carnival made this a memorable vacation for you, but not memorable in the most positive way, unfortunately.

[steve34609]

...or it could be the Suntiny. I wouldn't mind having a cruise on it. :D

 

 

Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be MU-tiny! We're sailing 6-7.

[HoganUK]

It doesn't surprise me about the ship rocking. I've only been on one ship that rocked like crazy on the way back from Cozumel: Destiny.

 

I was last in the Med onboard Norwegian Jade, it rocked like crazy sailing up the spanish coast from Malaga to Barcelona, then again from Barcelona to Monte Carlo.

[Chief yak]

Here is my thoughts as I just got home from Barcelona and off the ship today. I will say this was my 27th cruise overall and my 18th with Carnival. This crusie was taken by myself and a close friend. It was his first cruise:

 

First off, this was a very port intensive cruise. It was 9 days with only one sea day. Being Europe, we were off the ship almost all day every day. This meant we did not use the ship like we woul;d have if it was the Caribbean. We were also pretty much in our room early every night. We did not go to any shows and really did not go out in the ship at night much. We did use the top decks a lot at night (which were basically empty).

 

I don't think they will get a full understanding of what does and does not work with the new designs until the ship hits the Caribbean. Europe is just a whole different type of cruise.

 

I had cabin 6346 (Aftr Wrap) and it was fine except no refridgerator. The bathroom did flood a bit one time, but it was no big deal. I think a drain backed up. We never called about it and it never happened again.

 

The ship itself looks great. They did a good job in decor and it is very tasteful all around.

 

We did receive a credit of $50 each for the pool not working, etc. We also got a $70 per person credit for some tax mixup or saomething that I never understood. I should note that I had no idea we had the credit until someone else on the cruise told me. I never got a letter or anything.

 

The Serenity area is nice and very large. The pool and waterfall looks great in person. For some reason the pool was closed on our only sea day, but open the rest of the time. I spent a couple late nights in the hot tub at the top of the waterfall and it was large and relaxing.

 

The waterslides are awesome. I will say that they are not at all kiddie slides. These things are very fast. The yellow Twister slide will get you going, but the two racer slides are even crazier. I think it caught most people off guard when they went down. It was fun to see peoples reactions when they hit the bottom though. Seriously, they will take you for a ride if you lay down and get some momentum going.They are also very tall with lots of steps going up.

 

We played around on Sports Square a few nights. It is fun up there. The pool tables could use a wind guard and some better construction (the bumper rails were very loose), but they did have the ping pong tables blocked from wind which was nice. The Rope course is not as good as the one on the Magic, but it is nice. They use a different system to attach you which runs a lot better then the "metal track" on the Magic.

 

The marketplace is a MUCH better concept now. They went with "islands" (like RCCL) instead of the long buffet lines. This makes it easier to get in and out with what you want. I will say that all the food up there was very good. I liked the pizza place better here then on the other ships. I never tried the Pasta or Asian at lunch. The whole back area where the aft pool was is open for seating during the morning and afternoon. This helps a lot. Honestly, when I first saw the Marketplace I thought it would be a zoo, but it was fine the entire cruise.

 

The steakhouse was fine, but my staek was not the best. I always get the 7 spice ribeye Med Rare and it was overcoooked this time and seemed like a bit of a bad cut. The rest was fine though and the service was outstanding.

 

Ji JI was very, very, very good. We loved it. We went twice. Just about everything we had was outstanding. We loved it so much the second time we went we wanted to pay for three people so we could get more dishes. They let us do it, but when the bill came they only charged us for two meals. I felt kind of bad about that. The service was fantastic and hats off to the manager who went out of her way to welcome us and make sure all was well.

 

I also really liked the Shake Spot. The workers there were great (they do both the milkshakes and the coffee bar). The shakes were great and they would do about anything you could come up with. The best part is that they have a "coffee card" and a "shake card" (they are seperate). You buy six shakes, or coffee, and the next is free. They let the two of us use one card and they would just punch a new one if we forgot it and combine them later. We went through about two cards of both the coffee and shakes.

 

The bad:

 

The ship is just not done. It might not be huge things (except the pool and putt putt corse), but the more I was on it the more we noticed. Flooring wasn't complete. Stairs on Lido were not fully stained and marked. Some stuff was slapped together (pool tables above). The TV functions did not work at all (the interactive stuff). There were many workers onboard doing various things. All the hot chocolate machines were broke after a day or two. Drink machines were broke here and there, etc. Elevators were down here and there. Again, all in all, nothing really major, but after awhile it added up.

 

The customer service line was pretty long the whole cruise. There was no "Platinum" sign up and when I went to the spot I was immediatly helped. I did get "questioned" by a couple people in line about it though. Oh well.

 

I did not receive a lot of my Platinum papers (welcome letter, debark info, past guest party, etc). Not a huge deal, but it was overlooked.

 

The big one for me and the one that will create a lot of back and forth, is that in my opinion, the ship is indeed crowded. The times I did walk around at night, I really felt the crowds. The one sea day the Lido deck was very crowded. I can't personally imagine this ship in the summer in the Caribbean. I will not be on it.

 

I dont understand the Havana Bar. It takes up a huge space and is good for the additional seating during breakfast and lunch, but the bar itself seems like a waste to me. Who knows, maybe it will be popular in the Caribbean, but for now it just seemed like a empty hole.

 

Gone are the nice spa changing rooms with the saunas and steam rooms. This one is very small with a tiny sauna and two showers.

 

We went to the dining room the first two nights and never went back. Part of this was because of the itinerary, but the food was just alright. We enjoyed the buffet much better. I am not a fan of the MDR menus these days either.

 

Overall, we had a great time mainly due to the ports. The ship was fine, but not my favorite. I have no real issues with it, but I wouldn't personally go back on it unless it was doing some outstanding itinerary that I just couldn't miss. I do like some of the new concepts that Carnival is trying out, but other directions the company is taking is driving me elsewhere (mainly putting more and more people on there ships).

 

That is about all I can think of right now. I am pretty tired, but feel free to ask any questions.

 

David thanks for your very honest review. Confirmed what many of us were thinking.