Thoughts on our recent Sunshine cruise

[ajtaylor29]

We've been home a week, thought i would share some random thoughts from our trip. We had a great cruise - our third one, 3 different ships, loved them all. (i don't understand all the complaining and criticism...what's NOT to like on a cruise anyway?!? I suspect those are the folks who complain about everything at home, too. ;) ).

 

anyway - the ship was lovely. It was spring break, and i think the ship was totally booked, so yes there were a lot of people, and we had some trouble one day finding chairs (but we did after a short search), but i never felt it was that crowded anywhere, including all the dining places (and there were lots of choices!)

 

My husband and I only ate twice in the MDR, but our 18 year old son and his 2 friends ate there almost every night. We like the food there, just sometimes don't feel like having a long dinner. The nights we did eat there it was very good. One night we ate in the steakhouse - yum!!! One night we ate at the Sushi restaurant - also yum! (It is on the 4th floor across from the steakhouse and it is an extra charge, but we had a really nice dinner w/ saki and i think our bill was about $25 - that's cheap for good sushi imo!) Had Guys hamburgers a couple of times, thought they were great, and they stay open all afternoon (12-6) which i liked. One day we got back from our excursion and were starving, so we had a hamburger at 5 (hence why we didn't go to the MDR that night). Breakfast - had the burritos a couple of times before getting off the ship; one day got an omelette, and every day we order room service coffee and fruit which always arrived on time. We never got a chance to try either the italian or Ji Ji's (but i know our guys had Ji Ji's at lunch (when it's no extra charge) and they said it was great).

in summary, we don't really cruise for the food, but it's nice to count on good quality food when you want it. We try to avoid the buffet because, well, buffet food ANYWHERE is going to be just so-so, imo, and on a cruise ship is no different. Often it's been sitting out for quite a while and it just doesn't age well. :) We did eat in there a couple of times and it was ok, pretty good salad bar.

I honestly don't see how anyone could fail to find something they like on a Carnival cruise ship. It's everywhere, it's plentiful, and most of it is pretty good.

 

We had an ocean suite on the 7th floor, our boys had an inside cabin nearby. The main differences in the suite from a regular balcony room is a larger balcony and a larger bathroom. To us it was worth the extra $$'s, to some it might not be. We spend a lot of time on our balcony so it was nice having the extra space out there. The bathroom has a separate dressing area which was perfect for us, and because there's a bathtub (which we didn't use) it makes the shower larger than the normal rooms. Our porter, Joey, was terrific!

 

The inside cabin for our 3 boys/grown men was small but it worked for them (hey, they were on a free cruise so what's to complain about, right?!?!)

 

We spend a lot of time in the casino, had a lot of fun in there. The staff was great, they took very good care of us (i got the free drink card on the 2nd night).

 

We aren't big show people so we weren't too concerned with making many of them, but i will say when we did it was crowded in the lounge, so i would suggest you go early if you're going to a show. We saw the magician who was very entertaining, and part of the Epic Rock show (standing up in the balcony) it was also very good. 2 times we tried to go to a comedy show and went close to show time and there were no seats at all so we didn't stay.

 

Went in the piano bar one night, didn't get a good vibe so we left. It might have turned out to be a great place to hang out (we enjoyed it on our cruise last year on the Freedom) but we didn't go back.

 

Played bingo a couple of times.

Enjoyed sea days out on the pool decks.

Loved all the ports (Roatan - beach day, Belize - Mayan ruins, Cozumel - beach day).

The only bad weather was the morning coming into Belize, it was raining and dreary. We decided to cancel our plans to go out to Caye Caulker, and instead booked an excursion to the Mayan ruins, which we all really enjoyed - and lucky for us, even tho it stayed cloudy all day the rain stopped that morning so it was very comfortable walking around.

 

We never saw buckets. A couple of times we did get a passing whiff of the sewer smell but nothing serious at all.

 

(Side comment: since smoking is another hot topic on here i will add my personal thoughts. I am a smoker, but I try to be sensitive to those around me who might not like it. I try not to smoke out in the public areas in case im going to bother someone. So for me, my balcony is a great spot where i can smoke, hopefully in peace. I mean - we're outside, there's a stiff breeze blowing, does it really bother people next to me that bad or do they just like to bitch? Anyway - as far as i know, i never bothered my neighbors, no one complained, or huffed and puffed and slammed their door. I didn't smoke out there all day and night (as i've read from some of the complaints, really?!? Occasionally i got a whiff of smoke from another balcony nearby but it sure didn't seem to be bothering anybody in that general vicinity, and for me it certainly added to my pleasurable cruise).

 

Our whole group had a great time and of course now i'm starting to think about booking our next cruise! I would definitely sail on the Sunshine again, for me it's more about dates and itinerary. After 3 cruises, i'm convinced that i'll love any ship i step on! :)

[ammoore36]

We've been home a week, thought i would share some random thoughts from our trip. We had a great cruise - our third one, 3 different ships, loved them all. (i don't understand all the complaining and criticism...what's NOT to like on a cruise anyway?!? I suspect those are the folks who complain about everything at home, too. ;) ).

 

anyway - the ship was lovely. It was spring break, and i think the ship was totally booked, so yes there were a lot of people, and we had some trouble one day finding chairs (but we did after a short search), but i never felt it was that crowded anywhere, including all the dining places (and there were lots of choices!)

 

My husband and I only ate twice in the MDR, but our 18 year old son and his 2 friends ate there almost every night. We like the food there, just sometimes don't feel like having a long dinner. The nights we did eat there it was very good. One night we ate in the steakhouse - yum!!! One night we ate at the Sushi restaurant - also yum! (It is on the 4th floor across from the steakhouse and it is an extra charge, but we had a really nice dinner w/ saki and i think our bill was about $25 - that's cheap for good sushi imo!) Had Guys hamburgers a couple of times, thought they were great, and they stay open all afternoon (12-6) which i liked. One day we got back from our excursion and were starving, so we had a hamburger at 5 (hence why we didn't go to the MDR that night). Breakfast - had the burritos a couple of times before getting off the ship; one day got an omelette, and every day we order room service coffee and fruit which always arrived on time. We never got a chance to try either the italian or Ji Ji's (but i know our guys had Ji Ji's at lunch (when it's no extra charge) and they said it was great).

in summary, we don't really cruise for the food, but it's nice to count on good quality food when you want it. We try to avoid the buffet because, well, buffet food ANYWHERE is going to be just so-so, imo, and on a cruise ship is no different. Often it's been sitting out for quite a while and it just doesn't age well. :) We did eat in there a couple of times and it was ok, pretty good salad bar.

I honestly don't see how anyone could fail to find something they like on a Carnival cruise ship. It's everywhere, it's plentiful, and most of it is pretty good.

 

We had an ocean suite on the 7th floor, our boys had an inside cabin nearby. The main differences in the suite from a regular balcony room is a larger balcony and a larger bathroom. To us it was worth the extra $$'s, to some it might not be. We spend a lot of time on our balcony so it was nice having the extra space out there. The bathroom has a separate dressing area which was perfect for us, and because there's a bathtub (which we didn't use) it makes the shower larger than the normal rooms. Our porter, Joey, was terrific!

 

The inside cabin for our 3 boys/grown men was small but it worked for them (hey, they were on a free cruise so what's to complain about, right?!?!)

 

We spend a lot of time in the casino, had a lot of fun in there. The staff was great, they took very good care of us (i got the free drink card on the 2nd night).

 

We aren't big show people so we weren't too concerned with making many of them, but i will say when we did it was crowded in the lounge, so i would suggest you go early if you're going to a show. We saw the magician who was very entertaining, and part of the Epic Rock show (standing up in the balcony) it was also very good. 2 times we tried to go to a comedy show and went close to show time and there were no seats at all so we didn't stay.

 

Went in the piano bar one night, didn't get a good vibe so we left. It might have turned out to be a great place to hang out (we enjoyed it on our cruise last year on the Freedom) but we didn't go back.

 

Played bingo a couple of times.

Enjoyed sea days out on the pool decks.

Loved all the ports (Roatan - beach day, Belize - Mayan ruins, Cozumel - beach day).

The only bad weather was the morning coming into Belize, it was raining and dreary. We decided to cancel our plans to go out to Caye Caulker, and instead booked an excursion to the Mayan ruins, which we all really enjoyed - and lucky for us, even tho it stayed cloudy all day the rain stopped that morning so it was very comfortable walking around.

 

We never saw buckets. A couple of times we did get a passing whiff of the sewer smell but nothing serious at all.

 

(Side comment: since smoking is another hot topic on here i will add my personal thoughts. I am a smoker, but I try to be sensitive to those around me who might not like it. I try not to smoke out in the public areas in case im going to bother someone. So for me, my balcony is a great spot where i can smoke, hopefully in peace. I mean - we're outside, there's a stiff breeze blowing, does it really bother people next to me that bad or do they just like to bitch? Anyway - as far as i know, i never bothered my neighbors, no one complained, or huffed and puffed and slammed their door. I didn't smoke out there all day and night (as i've read from some of the complaints, really?!? Occasionally i got a whiff of smoke from another balcony nearby but it sure didn't seem to be bothering anybody in that general vicinity, and for me it certainly added to my pleasurable cruise).

 

Our whole group had a great time and of course now i'm starting to think about booking our next cruise! I would definitely sail on the Sunshine again, for me it's more about dates and itinerary. After 3 cruises, i'm convinced that i'll love any ship i step on! :)

 

Thanks for the review. We sail on her Aug 9th. I love Carnival and have sailed with them many times I can say I was a little worried by the reviews but I also am easy to please. I am now even more excited since you posted this review. If you have any pictures you can share, I would love to see them.

[Plumbers wife]

Thank you for posting this review. We get to spend 11 days on her next month. This review makes me that much more excited.

[TheBubbs]

I'll be right there with 'ya! woo hoo! almost time to do the single digit dance :P

[ajtaylor29]

Thanks for the review. We sail on her Aug 9th. I love Carnival and have sailed with them many times I can say I was a little worried by the reviews but I also am easy to please. I am now even more excited since you posted this review. If you have any pictures you can share, I would love to see them.

 

I'm so glad you liked it! I know before we went i didn't read too many favorable reviews so i was a little concerned, but i tend to look for the good reviews anyway so the ones i found put my mind at ease too.

The only photo i took ON the ship is looking across the pool deck on one of the sea days, and it looks absolutely PACKED! You don't want to see that one?!?! I really had to laugh when i was looking through our pictures - really, that's the only one i took on the ship?!? Most of my photos are of us, and a few excursion photos that i could probably share. Are you doing the same itinerary?

You'll have a great time!

[TheBubbs]

We are on the repositioning cruise, its ending in Orlando. We will be visiting Aruba, Curacao, st. Thomas, and Jamaica. 11 wonderful days with 6 sea days spaced nicely in there

[cruizinisthebest]

Nice review. Glad you had a great trip!!

[ajtaylor29]

We are on the repositioning cruise, its ending in Orlando. We will be visiting Aruba, Curacao, st. Thomas, and Jamaica. 11 wonderful days with 6 sea days spaced nicely in there

 

I'm so jealous. I would love to do that itinerary AND 11 days!!!! Our youngest goes off to college this year, after that we can cruise whenever we want!!!

[cruisin'rose]

We're on that repo 11 days, too! So excited!

[Cruise life]

Where did you do your beach day -at Mahogany Bay? What about the Mayan ruins? Did you do the ship tour of the ones close (about an hour drive?) Thanks for your review about the overall feeing and the smell, buckets. We aren't leaving until January, but those two port issues are ones we will have to resolve. I think our boys are old enough to learn about the ruins as long as it's not a super long drive back and forth. We have only been to Mahogany Bay once as we missed the port last time, but we had fun right off the ship. May consider going somewhere new just to be different. Any comment on the sports deck, ropes course, etc? We tend to use that area quite a bit. Glad you had fun, agree about those that complain tend to complain. Jamaica is on our future cruise port wish list as we went there for our honeymoon, it has been a LONG time. We loved Dunns River Falls. I know a lot of people don't like Jamaica, but for some of us it's a great time. We hired a private van and drove to the Grotto, saw a beautiful church inside and out, and climbed the falls with a super guide that took tons of photos. We probably would not climb again due to physical requirements of that haul uphill in slippery water. Hope you get to go there some time and have as much fun as we did. Thanks again!!

 

 

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[tess2cruz]

I'm on the next sailing of the Sunshine, March 30! Now that I know what the next itinerary is I am not going to get off her! Lol. Been on her twice before when she was the Destiny, loved her then, except the copper walls, which I hear are still there. Thanks for the good review.

[John F]

Hi ajtaylor29, you said you did not care for your stop in the Piano Bar. Do you know how was playing and why you did not like your time in there??

Many thanks for any response. John F :)

[ajtaylor29]

Hi ajtaylor29, you said you did not care for your stop in the Piano Bar. Do you know how was playing and why you did not like your time in there??

Many thanks for any response. John F :)

 

I'm sorry, I can't remember his name. Last year on the Freedom, Marty was in the piano bar, and he was funny and engaged the audience to participate. This time, he was just singing and playing, not that much interaction....I don't know, we just didn't get "hooked" but like I said we didn't really stay long enough to judge, he might have been terrific and was just warming up! YOU go while on your cruise and report back to me that I was WRONG!!!! :)

[ajtaylor29]

Where did you do your beach day -at Mahogany Bay? What about the Mayan ruins? Did you do the ship tour of the ones close (about an hour drive?) Thanks for your review about the overall feeing and the smell, buckets. We aren't leaving until January, but those two port issues are ones we will have to resolve. I think our boys are old enough to learn about the ruins as long as it's not a super long drive back and forth. We have only been to Mahogany Bay once as we missed the port last time, but we had fun right off the ship. May consider going somewhere new just to be different. Any comment on the sports deck, ropes course, etc? We tend to use that area quite a bit. Glad you had fun, agree about those that complain tend to complain. Jamaica is on our future cruise port wish list as we went there for our honeymoon, it has been a LONG time. We loved Dunns River Falls. I know a lot of people don't like Jamaica, but for some of us it's a great time. We hired a private van and drove to the Grotto, saw a beautiful church inside and out, and climbed the falls with a super guide that took tons of photos. We probably would not climb again due to physical requirements of that haul uphill in slippery water. Hope you get to go there some time and have as much fun as we did. Thanks again!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

None of our excursions were ship excursions. SO - in Roatan we went to Little French Key. It's a small private island (a short bus ride then a 5 minute boat/barge ride out to the island. It was gorgeous! We had lunch, lounged on the beach, swam, snorkeled (you can snorkel right off the shore or they'll take you out a short distance to the reef in a small boat, that was maybe a 2 minute ride). They have a zoo out there, our boys got to hold the monkeys, and they also offered a "swim with the jaguar" (for extra $$) that the boys did. They thought that was VERY cool! There are a couple of different packages, we chose the full package which included lunch, snorkeling and 2 drinks. Had a great day, everybody really enjoyed it. We got back to port with plenty of time to shop a bit.

In Belize, we booked with Island Marketing (after we got off the tender) for the tour of the closer ruins (Altan Ha). We had a great guide, he drove us around Belize City (not much to see, but interesting!) then about a 45 van ride to the ruins. Don't know how old your boys are? Ours (all 18) enjoyed this tour and we weren't there that long so even for younger kids I think it would be interesting. There's a little area of shops (of course) as you leave to get back on your bus, and our guide made the drive back and forth interesting. We got back with plenty of time to shop at the port.

In Cozumel, we booked Mr. Sancho's private beach resort and all loved that as well. Mainly beach time, all the food and drinks included, plus I booked jetski's for the guys which they loved. It did get pretty full (5 ships in port that day) but we didn't feel uncomfortable or overcrowded. We did go early so we could stake out a good table/lounge chair area so that worked out well (a lot of people didn't show up until around noon and they had a harder time finding chairs. Enjoyed the day here, then back to the port area for a little shopping and back on the ship!

As far as the sports deck/ropes course, it looked like a lot of fun but I didn't personally go there! My boys all did and said it was awesome, they really liked the slides!

They also worked out several times in the gym, the only time I was in there was for a yoga class one morning on a sea day.

I also forgot to mention that I thought the staff all over the ship was great!!! We tipped extra to bartenders, porter, specialty restaurant people, we felt pampered and well taken care of all week.

Enjoy your cruise!

[John F]

The Piano bar entertainer might have been Barry Meijer. Does that sound about right. We are not going on the Sunshine. We are going on the Liberty in about 3 weeks and heard that the scheduled Piano Bar guy (Seth Gibson, really good) is be replaced by Barry Meijer. Major Bummer!!! By, the way we love Marty too!!! We have been Piano Bar junkies for many years

on Carnival. Thanks again. John F :)

[cruizinisthebest]

What did you think of the public space on the Promenade deck? Did you check out the EA sports bar?

[ajtaylor29]

What did you think of the public space on the Promenade deck? Did you check out the EA sports bar?

 

Well, we spent a lot of time in the casino and liked it there! The sports bar was nice, we just walked through. There weren't a lot of people in there but if there had been an event I wanted to watch it felt like a good place to hang out! We stopped by the Ocean Plaza one night, there was a band playing and a pretty good crowd in there. The alchemy bar is right next to the Ocean Plaza, it always had quite a few people hanging out. You walk through the Ocean Plaza to get to the Red Frog Pub. We sat in there one evening and had a drink, I think there was one other couple in the whole place....

That's one thing that's kind of puzzling to me. There are so many different public venues around the ship and they were either packed or empty. I'm not sure how much value there is in having so many options if nobody uses them...? My observations were that the piano bar, the Havana bar, the Red Frog Pub, and the Sports Bar rarely had many people in them, but the Liquid Lounge, the Limelight Lounge and the casino were crowded. The deck parties had good turnout. The ocean plaza usually had a good crowd when there was a live band playing. The late night disco (in the Liquid Lounge) had a pretty good crowd on 2 evenings when I walked through there. So it seems to me there are more than enough places for people to spread out but not all of them are that popular...

[cruizinisthebest]

Well, we spent a lot of time in the casino and liked it there! The sports bar was nice, we just walked through. There weren't a lot of people in there but if there had been an event I wanted to watch it felt like a good place to hang out! We stopped by the Ocean Plaza one night, there was a band playing and a pretty good crowd in there. The alchemy bar is right next to the Ocean Plaza, it always had quite a few people hanging out. You walk through the Ocean Plaza to get to the Red Frog Pub. We sat in there one evening and had a drink, I think there was one other couple in the whole place....

That's one thing that's kind of puzzling to me. There are so many different public venues around the ship and they were either packed or empty. I'm not sure how much value there is in having so many options if nobody uses them...? My observations were that the piano bar, the Havana bar, the Red Frog Pub, and the Sports Bar rarely had many people in them, but the Liquid Lounge, the Limelight Lounge and the casino were crowded. The deck parties had good turnout. The ocean plaza usually had a good crowd when there was a live band playing. The late night disco (in the Liquid Lounge) had a pretty good crowd on 2 evenings when I walked through there. So it seems to me there are more than enough places for people to spread out but not all of them are that popular...

 

Interesting. Thanks. That's why I asked, because it looks like a nice deck to hang out, have a drink, shop, etc. but even in all the youtube videos and reviews, the Promenade deck isn't really mentioned. Other than the casino that is. Can't wait to try a drink at the Alchemy Bar.