Should I be nervoius about the Sunshine, the reviews are bad! What to do?

[paulgraff]

I am getting worried about my Sunshine cruise coming up in June, the reviews are bad all over the net about her! What to do?

 

My vacation time and money are few and far between....

 

I am starting to think I should cancel, but hate to lose the deposit. Can I get my money back without losing my deposit?

 

Thank you,

 

PG

[uniondiva]

I am leaving on the Sunshine this Sunday, 1/5.. I will promise to let you know how great my cruise is...

[NeCruiseFan]

I think a cruise is all about what you make of it. We are headed out on Victory later this week and there are negative ones or there too. But we know we can't afford anything better at this time. You have to do what you feel is best.

 

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[NeCruiseFan]

Also you can login in to your Carnival account and when u pull up your cruise, you can click on can I cancel or something like that and it will tell you what you will get back.

 

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[golfadj]

I wouldnt cancel but many people think it will be one very crowded ship while saiing summers in the Caribbean.

 

Lots of families with kids adding to head count.

[keywest1]

We are booked on the Sunshine for 9-13-14. We intend to have an awesome cruise. I wanted to cancel my cruise on the Ecstasy when I started reading a lot of negative reviews, but we went and it was fantastic! Was it perfect? No, but I can't think of anything I want to complain about. If you didn't book early saver, you can cancel without penalty up till final payment date. With early saver it's 50pp penalty. If you are truly apprehensive, you may be better off cancelling. If you can go with the flow, you will most likely have a wonderful time.

I would like to see reviews of the 4J cabin on Lobby deck. I have heard speculation about excessive noise from the Liquid Lounge. They look like awesome cabins, so unless I hear some real negative reviews, I think we'll take our chances.

Good luck with your decision!!

[pasto5]

We sailed the Sunshine this past June to Italy etc. We loved it and had a great time. It was everything we expected and more. We are not picky and can overlook minor issues. I am not sure what the negative reviews are all about but we would not hesitate to sail her again.

[heatherbelle]

Honestly the ship is lovely. The only problems we had back in July was very slow service in the dining room and warm/cold food which I complained about and was put right. Plus a couple of buckets, which have now gone.;)

 

All public areas of the ship were lovely. Below deck everything was lovely and clean and looked new.

 

A cruise is what you make it.

 

Yes the upper decks were busy and crowded on sea days, but that happens on all ships.

 

Top tip in the buffet. Grab your food and then go to the back of the boat into the Havanna Bar and Ji,Ji's for a table. That is where the omelette stations are. Far less crowded here.

 

I would happily sail on the ship again.

Edited December 30, 2013 by heatherbelle

[Salt Wind]

Don't sweat the small stuff. A few days on the Sunshine will sure beat the heck out of work.

[gregg204]

Absolutely would not cancel. We were on the Sunshine last month and loved every second of it. The Sunshine did get off to a rough start but a lot of the issues have been resolved. We had great service and could not find the famous buckets. I do wish they would have left the theater as is and not added those rooms but in no means would that prevent me from booking her again. Beautiful ship.

Edited December 30, 2013 by gregg204

[Pkbryant]

I was on the Sunshine December 15th and had a blast! Loved the ship, loved the crew members, loved the dining room staff, loved everything except having to get off to come back to reality. I would sail her again in a heartbeat!

[konalover]

We were on the Sunshine December 8-15 and had a wonderful time, it was my 20th cruise and yes, they are still working out a few things but they were minor and did not affect our having a great vacation.:)

[wrigley80]

no don't be nervous. We were on the Sunshine earlier this month and the ship is wonderful. Of course there are a few things that need to be worked on but that is understandable. I am doing a photo review from our cruise right now so check it out

[Laurin612]

I just got off the Sunshine yesterday. We had a great time despite lots and lots of rain. Sure there were a dew negatives, but the good far outweighed the bad.

 

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[welldone60]

If you are concerned, call Carnival or your travel agent and see about changing ships. If you are booked early saver it will cost you $50, if not, it should only cost the difference in price of cruise.

[KPfromCT]

The Breeze didn't have fabulous reviews, either, when she made her grand debut, but let me tell you, it is the best cruise we have been on. It will be what you make of it. Everyone's outlook on cruises, or life in general, for that matter, is different. If you look for every little issue, yes, you will probably find it. If you are going into this cruise with a positive attitude, I am sure you will have a great time!!!! I have heard more good than bad about the Sunshine. Go, and have a great time!:D

[krismas_tina]

I was very skeptical of the Sunshine too. We sailed her in July and while there were some things that I did not like, such as the small showroom and comedy club, there were many more things that I absolutely loved. The ship is beautiful, the Serenity area is gorgeous, and the waterslides and ropes course are fun even for adults.

I wouldn't cancel, but I would go with an open mind, not expecting things to be perfect.

I hope you have a great time, whatever you decide to do!

[Lerin]

Here on cc Sunshine has a 59% approval rating. Pretty low, but 41% liked her. Also the average is 4 stars out of 5, which is fine. Value, public spaces, and excursions scored highest.

 

Remember people are much more inclined to review things when they are angry than when they had a good time.

I know when I have a crummy vacation/meal/hotel stay/ etc... I hop online asap to tell the world how much it stunk. However it sometimes will take months or even years before I'll get around to posting about something that was wonderful.

 

Go on your cruise and enjoy yourself. :cool: Nothing to be nervous about.

[nwo4life]

We really liked the Sunshine, no crowding problems at all. The design with food and entertainment venues spread out works really well and no area is crowded. People are spread across many areas at all times.

[StrangeBrew]

I am booked for the 11 night re-positioning , I like the fact there will not be hardly any kids ( do not dislike them just do not want to sail with a whole lot of them ):). Other than that , I plan on having one helluva enjoyable time , do not care one way or another what someone else did or did not like , I will make up my own mind .

Food is food , if you have eaten some of the things I have in some of the countries I have been in , you would come to see Carnival fare as not bad at all .

Planning on enjoying Aruba and Curacao as I have never been to either , as well as sleeping in quite a bit ;).

The only negative I see is the fact that it is still 97 days away , I am keeping an eye on the Sensation for pack-n-go's to help me get over the long wait :D.

[seabrookcruiser]

We were on the Sunshine for 37 days for the European and Transatlantic cruises. It was a wonderful cruise for us. The ship is light and airy and looks great. We sailed on the ship when it was the Destiny years ago. You would never know this ship was the Destiny. The transformation is great. The crew was fantastic, our meals and service in the MDR were wonderful. We loved the new Playlist Productions. We both love the 2.0 features that are on the ship. Also, we had one of the best cabin stewards ever!!! The casino was fun. The only thing I didn't like after 37 days was having to get off the ship! We enjoyed it so much we are returning beginning January 5, 2014 for 28 more days. Both of us are looking forward to being on the Sunshine once again.

[tallyho8]

Forget the reviews because they are usually just written by people with gripes.

 

I read very many bad reviews about the Carnival Valor in Puerto Rico and the Norwegian Pride of America in Hawaii and was quite worried before I took those cruises. They turned out to be 2 of the best cruises I have ever had.

[hawaiibound24]

I have decided that for some people, if you gave them $1000, they would complain it was not $1001. Go on this cruise and have a great time. We are going in January and I am looking forward to staying in a brand new cabin.

[okiebaugh]

Background- Hubby and I are in our mid 40's and have cruised 30 times on various lines including Celebrity, Disney, RCCL, Carnival, Princess and NCL. We traveled with our two kids, DD 16, DS 6 and 11 other family members ranging in age from 5-72. We are easy going and believe any day at sea is better than a day anywhere else.

We just got off the Christmas sailing of the Carnival Sunshine (which my kids nicknamed the Rainstorm because it rained every single day of the cruise- not all day, but everyday). There were parts of the Sunshine we really liked- The adults only Serenity deck is wonderful and the new color schemes were great (I don't care for some the loud color schemes Carnival has used in the past). The downside was our cabin location, balcony cabin 6142, turned out to be right over the liquid lounge and we were kept awake by loud bass/music until 2 am each night. When a show was going on we could hear the voices of the singers or the cruise director talking. You would think they could put some insulation between the decks, but apparently not. We did not complain about this as there is nothing that could be done, just our bad luck in cabin assignment.

 

The other thing I wish I had known was that the couch that was the 3rd bed in our cabin was literally only 4 ft long. My 5'6" teenage girl was not happy or comfortable all week. The ship was sold out as this was Christmas week, so the ship had 3700 passengers on it which is too many for this size ship. We did experience some slow and unfriendly service issues in the dining room (and we are a fun-loving group that tries to joke around with our servers). The first night we chalked it up to being the first night, but the second night was just as bad so we let the restaurant manager know (in a nice way). Turns out our waitress had 48 people to serve, and after he got her an additional assistant waiter things improved dramatically, although still a bit slow. Food is so subjective so I won't review that, but I will say we didn't go hungry and the beef every night seemed to get raves from those in our group of 15 that ordered it.

 

Overall I would say don't cancel your cruise, but go in with an attitude of not everything is going to be perfect but I will make the best of it! And relax on the serenity deck!!

[nitro2448]

Where are you reading all these bad reviews ?

 

Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things, you'll have a great time

 

 

GO MIZZOU!!!!!!!