Bring me Sunshine

[28SAC]

Having had a week to recover from a very hectic port intense cruise on the Carnival Sunshine i thought it was about time i aired my views.

Firstly the ports of call were all fantastic apart from Messina which i thought was a dump.

I would advise anyone to avoid the city and take a trip out if you want to get off the boat that day.

The Ship was great from the first day to the last day, yes a few minor snags that i will mention later but first the good stuff.

We arrived at quayside at 11-45 and joined the very small queue to leave our bags, as our bags were labelled correctly with coloured deck labels

we were told to just go straight to the front as all the other people had not bothered to label their cases with the coloured deck labels, there was

only about 20 in front of us but it meant we then went straight into the boarding area.

Within 15 minutes doing the various checks we were going up in the lift to board the ship.

We had our photo taken at security and boarded and was on deck 12 Serenity before 12-15 where our suite was ready.

This was by far the easiest boarding we have had on any of our previous cruises.

Our suite 12024 was immaculate inside with everything that we needed, decent size balcony with good soundproof balcony doors.

The a/c - heat control was very easy to use and worked fine all 12 days, you can leave any sort of card in the electric slot rather than your sail and sign card.

The TV was a good flat screen although on a couple of occasions we did loose the signal for Sky TV, no big hardship though.

The 3 Serenity decks were always busy but we always found 2 beds on one of the 3 decks and on 4 out of the 12 days managed to get a Cabana which was nice.

You still have the crazy people that get up at 5-30 to reserve the Cabanas and not once did i see anyone's towels moved from them even though it was well past 10am when they returned

to use them. We were also able to get the big double sun beds on deck 14 quite easy as they were not shaded and quite quickly became too hot to lie on.

If you are looking for peace and quiet you are not really going to find it on the lower Serenity decks as you can hear what is going on on the Lido deck, the only really quiet place was at the very front of deck 14. It was actually quite nice to sit on deck 12 Serenity and overlook the lower areas to watch the games and other activities during the day.

The hot tub on 14 was a fantastic meeting place and we made a lot of friends from all over the world.

The boat was about 80% Americans with quite a few Canadians (who all made it clear that they were Canadians and not USA)

A fair amount of British and a mix of Russians and Eastern Europeans.

It really was one big party boat, there was always something going on to keep you occupied.

We had some good nights in the Comedy club and also some terrible nights as some of the American comedians were intent on telling Political jokes from a certain area of the USA

that even had fellow Americans looking at each other in disbelief, there seemed to be a very strong undertone between the north and south which did not go down too well.

Other American comedians were great along with the 2 British ones that were on the boat for 2 nights.

There were some good shows on in the Liquid lounge, one of the best was a Hypnotist from the UK, The David Knight show had everyone in stitches.

We went to the Red Frog pub most nights but the Air Con in this area was very severe and a bit over the top for us, some good singers and groups on though.

We had any time dining and always requested a table for 2 as we wanted to dine alone. Most nights we were given a pager which was no great problem as we just walked along to the Piano bar for a drink while we waited, the worst wait was 15 minutes although having to go up a deck and then down a deck to get to the Piano bar was a pain due to staff blocking the doors to the comedy club to stop people

walking through while shows were on.

Overall we found the food to be average and sufficient but nothing to rave about, we ate in Sunrise 3, the Lido buffet where we always found a table easily and the Pizza joint most of the time.

We never encountered any large queues in the buffet area at any time.

Staff were clearly told to be friendly and to call you by your first name if they met you on a regular basis.

On our deck and at the Serenity bar that we used daily the staff were great and could not do enough for us, in other parts of the ship it was clear that certain staff were unhappy and did not want to be on

the ship.

The 2 guys serving at the Lido Red Frog Rum bar were the rudest that we met, they really did not want to be there and they showed it, there were quite a few people talking about them while the Blue Iguana

bar the other side of the deck was a very happy place.

A lot of the waiting staff were Eastern European and some of them were struggling with the work load and we witnessed a few tears from a couple of the girls in the Sunrise some nights as the Managers pressurised them.

I am sure this happens on any boat so not just the Sunshine.

It was quite funny and worrying one day when security called my mobile as i was sitting on Serenity deck and asked where me and my wife was, i told them on Serenity but they said that that had to find us as we were not checked back on to the ship after a shore visit.

They came and checked our I D before sailing, so if you are returning back on to the boat make sure the card machine beeps when you put your card in as this happened to several other people in different ports.

One other area worth a mention is the Piano bar, really nice easy going atmosphere and worth a late night visit, there was a young girl making quite an exhibition of herself on a few nights in there but it added to the fun even if after a while she got very embarrassing.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful cruise, made some great friends and gave our Livers a pasting, even got a $270 OBC against port taxes which was a nice bonus on our final bill.

If i wanted to be really negative about the boat i could say,

Deck 12 was very noisy at 6am when the chairs were put out around the deck 14 bar,

The 6am Cabana brigade let the outside doors slam without any consideration to others.

Children were allowed on Serenity deck every day, there were no signs from the Lido deck to Serenity informing them of adults only.

Other families just brought their kids up with them and used the area.

The external finishing around serenity was very poor and constantly being worked on, i noticed it because that is my trade but the workers never got in peoples way and were conscious of passengers.

At one end of the Serenity hot tub there are steps but at the other end nothing and quite a few people had a dip sooner than they expected when entering when they thought a step was there only to find a 800mm drop.

I could have spent 12 days looking for faults but we went to enjoy ourselves and boy did we do that.

We used self disembarking in Barcelona and it was a dream, we were call at 8-45 got in the lift and walked straight of the ship into a taxi, not even 10 minutes from our call.

I feel sorry for the people that endured the first couple of cruises but most of the problems seemed to have been ironed out now and any minor faults now could happen on any ship or cruise line.

To sum up

Fantastic service overall,

Wonderful ports of call.

A chance to meet some good characters.

Some great memories.

We would have no hesitation in booking Carnival again.

28SAC

[drewlin]

Thanks for the review and nice to hear positive remarks about the ship as we're going on her in October. Can't wait now.:)

[pcvtmom]

We were on the same cruise, and I agree with just about everything you said! It was a fantastic cruise, with very few things to complain about. Anyone booked on the Sunshine has a treat in store for them!

[fuddrules]

We had some good nights in the Comedy club and also some terrible nights as some of the American comedians were intent on telling Political jokes from a certain area of the USA

that even had fellow Americans looking at each other in disbelief, there seemed to be a very strong undertone between the north and south which did not go down too well.

 

LOL, if those jokes didn't go well, it sounds like they should've started in on the Canadians (or upper midwest, same thing) with the Sven, Ole & Lena jokes.

 

 

Sven & Ole come into a bar and they buy drinks for everybody in the place. They were celebrating and whooping it up, slapping everybody on the back. So the bartender says, "What are you whooping it up for? What's the occasion?" Sven said, "We just finished a jigsaw puzzle and it only took us two months!" The bartender said, "Two months! What's the big deal? It shouldn't take that long to do a jigsaw puzzle!" "Oh yeah?" says Ole, "On the box it said 2 to 4 years!"

[mirp]

Thank you for your review. We are on sunshine 19 July from Barcelona to Venice.

 

so Messina is a dump -- hear of anyone who had a good excursion?

 

I'm a bit concerned about Marseille -- what did you do in that port.

 

The boat sound good -- as this cruise is so port intensive I'm hoping to get a swim everyday, eat dinner and to bed early. Nice to know there are some entertainment options.

[Glitterini]

Thank you for your review. We are on sunshine 19 July from Barcelona to Venice.

 

so Messina is a dump -- hear of anyone who had a good excursion?

 

I'm a bit concerned about Marseille -- what did you do in that port.

 

The boat sound good -- as this cruise is so port intensive I'm hoping to get a swim everyday, eat dinner and to bed early. Nice to know there are some entertainment options.

 

Messina was actually one of my favorite ports. We did the Godfather tour which was AMAZING. You go up two mountains on winding roads, the views are fantastic and the food...to die for. I have never eaten a cannolo as good as the one I had there and I'm Italian.

 

Naples was the dump city for me. I'd go to Capri or Sorrento.

 

Marseille, we went to Chateau d'If and couldn't really do much more than that. I'd probably go somewhere like Aix en Provence instead of staying in Marseille.

 

Oh yes and the boat was awesome. We enjoyed it especially our nights at Havana Bar.

[28SAC]

Hi,

Everyone we spoke to that went on excursions away from Messina had a good time so the port has it,s use.

However some of us just decided to do our own thing, we got of the boat and was surrounded by so called taxi drivers offering us trips around the town for €25, they were very intimidating.

We found the office for the Ho Ho bus very easy as directions were in the cruise terminal, the bus was crowded but we managed to get on the first one.

From the of nearly every main building was covered in graffiti, the streets were dirty and unkept and I just felt that this place is just a ferry port.

We then went to the main square to see the roaring bell tower and while eating a Cannolo in the bar next to the tower was literally dive bombed by pigeons taking the food off our plates.

Not a nice experience, so I am sure there are some great places to see from the port but my experience of the city was not good.

Marseille was not on our itinery.

I agree about Naples but we got the jet boat over to Capri and had one our best days of the cruise.

28SAC

[Cruisingcrew13]

We did a shore excursion in Messina. Taormina and beach. We had a great time. The little city of Taormina is charming. The beach was fine. It felt a little strange at times because there are vendor trign to sell you all kinds of things while you are lying on the beach. Other than that nuisance, we liked Messina. Oh, and the cannolis were great.

[JaniceB]

Thank you for your cruise review on the Sunshine. It sounds like a great ship!

[gailjen]

Loved your review, Thank you, off on Sunshine on the 28th July

[Tiggertastic]

thanks for your review, having never done this cruise line, you have certainly got me thinking about this ship - sounds like my type of cruise

[WildWind]

Thank you for the review! I am looking forward to our cruise in August. Cannot wait!