Carnival Sunshine - Why the low approval rating ?

[Vagnaard]

Hi!

 

I am looking for a cruise for this year's vacation and found out that the activity offered by the Sunshine looked good.

 

Then I naturaly went to see the article on the ship on Cruise critics and found out that the reviews are 4 stars and that the "approval rating" is at a low 62%.

 

What's wrong with this ship ?

 

Thanks.

[JRock59]

IMHO it's because they took away public spaces and added more cabins the "new" public spaces are smaller than before. This means it can feel very crowded at times. As my husband said "it's a mid-size ship that is trying very hard to be a big ship and failing completely". She is beautiful, Serenity is very nice and JiJi's is excellent. Go have fun a cruise is what you make it not what others say. We are glad we tried the Sunshine but not sure if we'd sail on her again.

[EZ4]

Carnival has said that they will not do any more conversions like the Sunshine. I think that speaks for itself. That said, there were howls of protest when the ship first came out of drydock, but lately most everybody speaks pretty well of the ship.

[crazyboutdisney]

We sailed on the Sunshine in February. We had a great time and I wouldnt hesitate in sailing on her again. We never felt crowded and while yes, the flow of the ship is not the best, it never ruined our vacation or made us miserable. We were on vacation after all :)

[jhs6672]

Well I will be sailing on the Sunshine next week. I will let you know if I come across any negatives. I really don't expect to have anything to complain about. Ill be on boat with drinks going to beautiful islands. I won't be at work. So Im not sure any negatives about a cruise ship could prevent me from having a good time!!

[okgirl]

I think that rating is still being influenced by the low rated reviews when the ship first came out and had so many problems with smells and leaks and unfinished area's.

 

I didn't care for some of the public spaces on the ship this past February, but I didn't see any area's of disrepair or any odors.

 

I would sail on her again if the price is right, but it would be lower on my list of favorite ships.

[Vagnaard]

Thanks everybody!

 

This is exactly the kind of information I was look for.

 

Thanks again. It's nice to see a pleasant community like you guys!

[Green4me]

Hello there , I am a week away from sailing tomorrow on the Sunshine and will be sure to post our review when we return. DW and I are Platinum and have also sailed Royal, Disney, Celebrity and Princess.

 

I expect to have a fantastic cruise and would be very shocked if I had negatives to post, but if I do I will.

 

Best, :)

[debee1015]

I'm sailing on the Sunshine in 6 whole long days. I'm going with a cruise newb, so I will be sure to get her reactions to it.

 

I think sometimes on here the reactions of seasoned cruisers impact the overall experience since they compare it to positive past cruises.

 

Either way I'll post pictures (hopefully while still on the cruise, I understand there is from free wi-fi spots in Freeport) and let you know my honest opinion. :D

[skyeman27]

I will not cruise on the Sunshine until the rating on Cruise Critic gets above 75%, have to give the ship some time (may be a long time) to recover from its extremely bad roll out as a new ship. The ship is still getting some very bad recent reviews. Not happy with the Sunshine replacing the Dream. I don't think the Sunshine was booking well in New Orleans, but should do better in Port Canaveral...

[Pine Bluff]

Hi!

 

I am looking for a cruise for this year's vacation and found out that the activity offered by the Sunshine looked good.

 

Then I naturaly went to see the article on the ship on Cruise critics and found out that the reviews are 4 stars and that the "approval rating" is at a low 62%.

 

What's wrong with this ship ?

 

Thanks.

 

Basically because they took an old ship and tried to cram every 2.0 feature onto it. Some like it, and a lot think its too crowded and noisy. Their diversification attempt at distributing the crowd just didn't work.

[huntm]

There was so much backlash about the ship being redone.

 

I am so thankful I decided to see it for myself. We had a wonderful cruise on the Sunshine and I would go again in a heartbeat!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gregg204]

I will not cruise on the Sunshine until the rating on Cruise Critic gets above 75%, have to give the ship some time (may be a long time) to recover from its extremely bad roll out as a new ship. The ship is still getting some very bad recent reviews. Not happy with the Sunshine replacing the Dream. I don't think the Sunshine was booking well in New Orleans, but should do better in Port Canaveral...

 

 

1st you do realize that over 95% of people that cruise never even heard of Cruise Critic and 2nd you are way off the mark on the New Orleans bookings. Carnival is bringing a larger ship to Nola because of its strong bookings. Thankfully I don't go by the reviews. I would have missed out on a wonderful vacation on the Sunshine.

[goLC]

We just cruised on the Sunshine this time last week --- and I miss it terribly! I never felt any more crowded than on any other ship. The serenity was the best ever. No complaints -- and I would book it again in a heartbeat!

[Strmwatch]

I will not cruise on the Sunshine until the rating on Cruise Critic gets above 75%, have to give the ship some time (may be a long time) to recover from its extremely bad roll out as a new ship. The ship is still getting some very bad recent reviews. Not happy with the Sunshine replacing the Dream. I don't think the Sunshine was booking well in New Orleans, but should do better in Port Canaveral...

 

 

Swapping the Sunshine and the Dream really bothers me as well. I love the cove balconies, so now I have to head down to Miami on the Breeze if I want that type of cabin again. Did the 6 day itinerary and honestly disliked it so much I won't do it again. I loved the ship, just hated the ports.

 

The 7 day Eastern on the Dream was fantastic, my favorite to date.

 

Seems weird that a smaller ship was not booking well so their "answer" was to send a larger ship?

[Jana60]

Carnival has said that they will not do any more conversions like the Sunshine. I think that speaks for itself. That said, there were howls of protest when the ship first came out of drydock, but lately most everybody speaks pretty well of the ship.

 

I just sailed on the sunshine in February and I always enjoy a cruise but I would say that the sunshine is my least favorite carnival ship. All of the public areas where tiny and they had cancelled over half of the karaoke which is one of my favorite activities because there was no place to have it.

 

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[ATHENA3]

The Sunshine was the Titanic of Carnival… they will never do that again.

[gregg204]

Seems weird that a smaller ship was not booking well so their "answer" was to send a larger ship?

 

It's weird because it's 100% false. Over the years New Orleans has gone from the 2700+ passenger Triumph to the 2900+ Conquest to the 3000+ Sunshine and now to the 3600+ Dream because of strong bookings.

[jedreyling]

We had a great time and I wouldnt hesitate in sailing on her again.

[dolfndreams]

I followed the whole process during dry dock because we were doing a Med sailing on the Sunshine and truly have not seen such a backlash. I'm so glad I decided to chance it and go anyway. I think the low rating is a holdover from that. It definitely had major issues in the beginning and I was glad we weren't on the first few months sailings.

 

Our experience was wonderful and I would definitely sail her again. Loved our 12 day on her. Lovely ship, can see that the public areas might be crowded, however I have had crowds on other ships also.

 

One trend I noticed on the Sunshine is the number of negative comments from people who actually never sailed on her only were absolutely OUTRAGED that she was remodeled and not a new ship. If I had a dollar for every "lips on a pig", "she isn't new" comments I could take a nice 3 day cruse. Still confuses me but whatever.

 

I'm hoping over time the positives will start compensating for those early days; she may never be many peoples favorites and definitely there were valid concerns, and for many still some concerns on public spaces and theater that would make them chose another ship.

 

I'd sail her again in a minute if I liked the itinerary. She is a lovely ship, none of them are perfect as all cruise reviews show:D,

[SkyMaster]

I will not cruise on the Sunshine until the rating on Cruise Critic gets above 75%, have to give the ship some time (may be a long time) to recover from its extremely bad roll out as a new ship. The ship is still getting some very bad recent reviews. Not happy with the Sunshine replacing the Dream. I don't think the Sunshine was booking well in New Orleans, but should do better in Port Canaveral...

 

Why would "Sunshine" do any better at Port Canaveral than out of New Orleans? Seems to me, if anything, it would do WORSE because many folks, (like me) are accustomed to a GREAT cruise on a GREAT ship, like "Dream", and will REALLY notice the difference that the "Sunshine" cruise offers. :eek: I probably won't book "Sunshine" again. (Did the last Med Cruise, B2B with the Trans Atlantic) I'll book the Conquest Class ships out of Port Canaveral instead. ;)

 

"SKY"

[thebsinmiss]

We sailed on Dream 2 years ago from Port Canaveral. Family of 4 with preteen kids. Sailing on the Sunshine next Saturday out of Canaveral.

 

I am a little worried about the sunshine based on the number of negative postings on CC. I realize that the nature of posting boards means someone with a bad/negative experience is more likely to post than a "happy" customer. My concern is that sunshine seems to have a disproportionate number of posts versus ships like the Dream.

 

I will keep in mind that a vacation is what YOU make it but it will be interesting to compare the two ships after next week. This will be our second cruise so we have no other experiences to reference against except the Dream.

 

Either way I'm away from work and watching the world sail by.

[sailingwithfriends]

Prior to boarding the Dream, I read some reviews on her that gave her low scores. Some people said there were lots of bad smells, the staff was unfriendly or rude, the food was horrible and it was too crowded. My experience on the Dream was wonderful. I realize that some people might smell a bad odor once or twice and say the cruise is a disaster or they had a meal they didn't like and they rate all the food horrible. I do know that sometimes people do have bad experiences on any vacation, but I don't believe that everyone that cruises the ship has the same experiences. I have read reviews from passengers on the very same sailing that have complete opposite views of the trip. I hope you have a great vacation on the Sunshine. I will be on her in May and am getting very excited.

[debee1015]

The Sunshine was the Titanic of Carnival… they will never do that again.

 

OMG!!!

 

The Sunshine hit an iceberg in the Caribbean and sank?

 

When did that happen?

 

I think a more apt comparison would be The Sunshine is Carnival's New Coke versus a tragedy that killed many people.

[Spaniel Lover]

The biggest problem with the Sunshine is that they removed the aft pool and used that space for the Havana Bar, JiJi Asian Kitchen, and Cucina Del Capitano. The reason this creates a big problem is that now there's no quiet pool area for people looking to spend some time in or around a swimming pool without listening to all the noise and craziness that happens around the mid-ship pool.

 

If you've ever been on a Conquest-class or Dream-class ship before, you know the mid-ship pool is usual crazy. There's LOUD music, lots of kids, and often there's activities such as the hairy chest competition where some member of the entertainment staff will be on the PA system talking loudly trying to excite the crowd. In short, it's not a place you want to go for some quiet time in and around the pool.

 

[YOUTUBE]ra3geKqSJ5Y[/YOUTUBE]

 

But that's usually OK on the Conquest-class and Dream-class ships... because you can simply go to the aft pool and find a totally different, very relaxing experience. The aft pool is usually a great place to just sunbathe and relax... no craziness. Unfortunately, the Carnival Sunshine simply does not have one.

 

This might still be OK if the Carnival Sunshine had a Serenity Retreat that was actually serene. But, unfortunately, most of the Serenity Retreat is in the direct line-of-fire of the speakers from the mid-ship pool area... so all that loud music and all the hype from the entertainment staff can be heard over most of the Serenity Retreat. There's a small portion of the Serenity Retreat up at the very front end of the ship that is far enough away from the mid-ship pool that it is actually serene... but that's a pretty small space. The vast majority of the Serenity Retreat is not serene. If serenity is what you are looking for, be sure to bring an MP3 player and some noise-cancelling headphones to drown out the noise from the mid-ship pool.

 

 

There are also some odd quirks in the way they designed the new public spaces in the Carnival Sunshine. For example, about 20% of the seats in the comedy club do not have a view of the stage! They had to install TV monitors so that passengers in those bad seats could see the comedians. The comedy club is also WAY too small for a ship with this many passengers. I am not exaggerating when I say that we arrived 30 minutes early to a comedy show and it was already standing room only.

 

Another weird design choice is the way they've set up the serving stations at the breakfast buffet. They made an attempt to disperse the crowds by setting up multiple serving stations with different items... so that rather than having to go through one long line to fill your tray with breakfast items, you would now find these items at multiple serving stations which would presumably have smaller lines. And yes, if you are only looking for ONE item, you probably will find a smaller line at that one station. But for a guy like me that LOVES breakfast above all meals... and wants to get an omelet, some potatoes, some pastry, and a glass of orange juice... that meant going to FOUR different serving stations to get those items... and that was FOUR lines to wait in. It didn't work very well for me.

 

 

Along the same lines, it's weird how they put the omelet stations at JiJi's Asian Kitchen and Cucina Del Capitano. These are literally hidden in a completely different room than the rest of the breakfast buffet. In looking around the breakfast buffet, you would never even know that omelets were available.

 

So, there are some unusual issues like this on the Carnival Sunshine. I've been a big Carnival cheerleader in the past... but I just don't see myself sailing on the Carnival Sunshine again. I totally LOVED Jaime Dee, the Cruise Director, and I loved the suite we stayed in, but the other things were problems for me.

 

The Captain's Suite on the Carnival Sunshine

 

I'd recommend the Carnival Breeze, Carnival Glory, Carnival Conquest, Carnival Liberty, and Carnival Triumph as being Carnival's best ships. Stick with those.

 

For my full review of the Carnival Sunshine, including lots of pictures and videos, head over to http://www.jimzim.net/CarnivalSunshine.html

Edited April 12, 2014 by Spaniel Lover