Review of Carnival Sunshine, 2/7/15

[galimeyer]

We are thinking about booking the Sunshine in August. Is the Guys Burger extra? If so how much extra?

[Crusin Karen]

We are thinking about booking the Sunshine in August. Is the Guys Burger extra? If so how much extra?

Guys Burgers are not extra charge. They are THE BEST!

[gamecock411]

Hello everyone we are looking forward to sailing on the Sunshine but am very concerned about the poor reviews . We are not experienced cruisers so maybe it will be ok. Hope we meet some great people during our cruise. We are flying to Philadelphia before cruise and then after a few days flying down to Orlando.after cruise we have a week in Kissimmee before flying back to Orlando. We are both celebrating special birthdays and have planned this for ages just hope it all works well.

While I did not care for this ship, a cruise IS what you make of it. I still had a good time. Just go and enjoy

[gamecock411]

Wednesday we docked in Curacao. What a beautiful town! However, we did not find them very friendly. Our friend saw a man with an iguana and took out his phone to take a picture. He started yelling at our friend and told him to put his phone away!

 

The female security guard at the pier was hysterical. We must have spent 10 minutes speaking w/her. We rented a motorized scooter for my dad at the pier ($15/hour which we thought was reasonable). We were trying to locate a restaurant called "El Gaucho." I had the phone number and we asked numerous people for help but they refused. I was finally told to go into a store and get a phone card for about $3 which I could use at the pay phone. It was a local call. I went into the shop and the cashier told me she would make the phone call if I would give her $1. I was quite taken aback but went ahead. The restaurant did not answer the phone so we just dropped it. We walked around for a few hours and went to the "fish market" where the locals eat. Unfortunately, we were not hungry but the food options were "interesting" to say the least. We did some shopping and headed back to the ship. The floating pontoon bridge was neat and the buildings were very colorful.

 

When we got back to the ship, we each had a questionnaire about Curacao waiting in our cabin. I wonder if perhaps Carnival is thinking of dropping this port of call from its itinerary???

 

Dinner was again very enjoyable. Waitstaff was sometimes slow and our soda refills were extremely slow but we were in no hurry. Food was very good and especially the melting chocolate cake. Oh my!!!

 

The only thing we did after dinner was walk around or go to the spa. I got the popcorn on the movie deck a few times and it was good.

 

Thursday was another day at sea and formal night. This was the night the ship got VERY rough. Our friend had to go back to the cabin because the motion was so bad at dinner. She ended up getting sick but she's prone to motion sickness anyway. None of the rest of us got sick and it didn't make me queasy, but it did make me nervous because the ship was rocking so bad!! People were really having trouble walking that night. We spoke w/someone who was in the Navy and he said when they re-designed this ship, they added a few decks and the ship was not wide enough to really handle this so it kind of become top-heavy. Not sure how true that is, but the seas were not rough enough to warrant this rocking.

 

Again, it didn't make me sick - just nervous!

[7leagueboots]

Any cruise is what you make of it. Don't worry about the bad reviews..I'm sure you can find some good ones too. Epic Rock is the best Playlist show I've seen!

 

So true!

[gamecock411]

On Thurs night I checked with the excursion desk and found out the ATV tour was sold out. Horseback riding in the ocean was too. However, I had been reading some reviews of the horseback riding and decided I did NOT want to do it. While it sounded like fun to ride your horse in the ocean, the majority of the reviews stated that the horses start pooping when you get in the water and you end up riding through this. No thanks!

 

We got off the ship and it's a beautiful area around the dock. We went to the ATV kiosk but were told it was sold out. Another Carnival ship came into port so they made the Sunshine folks wait about 15 minutes before they could get off. I went to the desk one more time and found out they did have a few openings on the next tour so we snapped up 4 of the 5.

 

Funtastic ATV tour was awesome!!! I love to ride 4 wheelers and we went pretty fast. We rode on the road and the beach. They took us to several spots and they were more than happy to take pics for us. Their van would stop traffic so we could cross the road so they made sure we were safe. I would book with them again.

 

After our tour, we walked around the port some but when you've seen one Diamonds International, you've seen them all!!!

 

Saturday was spent lying out in the sun and packing up. We had a good time but would not cruise this ship or Carnival again. It just was not our cup of tea. I don't like the constant bombardment of noise, major chair hogs, not enough seats for as many people as they have on board, and not much to do (in my opinion). There was just nowhere to get away from the noise and have a conversation or enjoy a book.

 

Disembarkation was chaotic but we were able to get off quickly. Our Melbourne Express was waiting for us and we made it to the airport in plenty of time.

 

I have to say that Carnival had great photographers. We will be going back to Royal Caribbean or Disney.