Sunshine family cruise - just got back!

[myacuna]

Hey there! Just got back from sunshine yesterday and here are my thoughts.

 

Background - I’m 36, husband is 38, son is 3. We’ve cruised many times over the past 10 years and pop between carnival and royal. I’m not loyal to either and tend to cruise based on ship, ports, and price. My husband prefers royal. We were originally scheduled for elation in a few weeks but had to switch to sunshine very last minute due to some issues with the people we were supposed to travel with. I won’t get into that here but please be careful when you choose travel mates...

 

For the first time ever, I booked with an independent travel agent. He was a smidge cheaper than carnival and gave me $75 cruise cash. We did not get insurance. On January 1, things got very bad with our travel companions and we no longer felt comfortable sailing with them. I called my TA and explained my predicament and we talked through options. We would have been penalized $600 for cancelling. I asked if he could move us to sunshine as that fit my schedule just as well. He had to fight to have us moved but it worked out for carnival in the end as they were booking the same rooms for $900 and we had paid $1250. We overpaid for our room but it was well worth it to move. I’m so glad I didn’t have to fight carnival on this one and really appreciated having a TA to do the dirty work.

 

Pre cruise -

We drove down from Charlotte on Saturday morning, leaving around 6am. We always stop at the Chick-fil-A in Pooler GA and this time we made it for breakfast. This allows the kid a little bit of time to run out his sillies. Made it to our hotel near Sea World around 3pm (total travel time - 9 hours), freshened up, and headed to Disney Springs. Got the call from carnival around 4 letting us know that the ship would be arriving late and to add 1 hour to our check in time (12:30 now).

 

Had drinks at dockside margaritas, another at the hanger bar, and dinner at Raglan Road. We love DTD for what it is - fun love music, decent drinks, good food options. Headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.

 

Weather was fine for embarkation day. Stopped at target for nicer shoes for our son and we were at park and ride by 11am. They have a great organized valet/shuttle service and we will continue to use them.

 

Embarkation - guess the appointment time doesn’t really make a difference when anything goes wrong. Ship had docked at 9:30 and I saw people with a variety of appointment times all get through the line. Take that for what it’s worth. Maybe if they were on schedule they would have actually followed check in times. We got on line at 12:40 and we were on the ship by about 1:30 (zone 18, we were called very quickly once we got our S&S cards). Went straight to our room and dropped off carry ons. Luggage arrived quickly (around 3:30).

 

Room - 2266. We had an outside. Setup and location was perfect for 3 of us - king bed and couch was made up as a single bed. It was perfect for my toddler and more comfy than the regular bed. Husband and I actually took turns sleeping in his bed and the other shared the big bed with the kid on many occasions. Big bed was uncomfortable, room steward tried to make it a little better. Steward was Rony and was great. He asked which service we wanted and even though we chose PM he seems to have come for both. He always called us by name and asked how our day was.

* for families - we had our britax b-agile with us. We tucked it under the desk when not in use but getting it through the doorways is a challenge. Hallways are fine. Some public spaces were hard to maneuver.

 

Muster - royal 100% wins the muster situation. With our fail, my son always falls asleep at muster and holding a 40# dead-weighted child for 30+ min outside on a deck packed in like sardines is ridiculous.

 

Food - for the most part, we liked everything we ordered. When on lido, we could almost always find seating in the Havana area. Blue iguana burritos were awesome for both breakfast and lunch, and salad bar is a go to for me. We had dinner here once as well.

 

Dining room - We were scheduled late dining so we skipped night one. We were able to move to my time dining for night 2. Service was good but realized that dining rooms are not good for toddlers so he ate with camp carnival the remaining nights. We returned the the dining room on night 4 and service was awful. We were forgotten about and we could tell that our server didn’t want anything to do with us. She was sour and grumpy and didn’t offer drinks, baked potato toppings, etc. Menu was meh this night and I almost just walked out to grab lido instead.

 

Italian restaurant - did this night 3 sans toddler. IMO it was absolutely worth the $15pp. Service was great. Food was awesome, and it was nice to be away from the crowds. Only negative is that you share space with Havana and it can be a little loud.

 

Steak house - did this night 5 without the kid again. Great way to end our cruise. Again, food was fantastic and way too much! Took about 2 hours from start to finish. No complaints from me there either.

 

Spa - had a couples hot stone massage utilizing the port special in Freeport. It was about $300 for us including tip. I know I pay a premium on the ship and that’s ok.

 

Ports - missed HMC (insert many cries here) and docked in Nassau a night early instead. I was happy to have the rocking stop for 24 hours. Nassau was cold and windy. Headed to Junkanoo for some drinks and sand time. Kid built sand castles and popped into the ocean a little. He napped while we drank and internetted at the bearded clam (love this place). In Freeport we got off, walked around, had a drink at senor frog, and got back on. Used the empty ship time to enjoy waterworks and the pool.

 

Shows - walked out of all except epic rock. The others weren’t our thing. Epic rock was

great. Caught 2 comedy shows but the limelight lounge is awful.

 

Pools - loved water works! My son spent hours at the splash pad and my husband and I each did the blue slide. Pool was perfect when empty. Hot tubs were disgusting and packed beyond capacity at all times (many kids/teens). The water was literally over flowing and brown). We didn’t try serenity for the hot tub since it was packed but did enjoy sitting up there a bit. Top level was very windy.

 

Camp carnival - my 3 year old loved it except for the first night of night owls. He refused to go in. It was loud and not really good for his age group. He did stay for later night owls when they weren’t having dance parties. All in all we loved the staff, my kid seemed super happy, and the dinner option with them was perfect for his age group! Shout out to Stephanie and Jalina who kept him smiling.

 

Final notes - there was a helicopter rescue on night 2. Not sure what was up, but it was loud and woke me up (between the announcements and blade sounds, I couldn’t sleep. I sincerely hope the person is ok.

 

- CD Lee is hilarious, as was Ty the money guy. Fun staff was fun. Would definitely cruise with Lee again.

 

- Drink service was hit or miss. One night in MDR we got served, the other we didn’t at all. Red frog pub service was awful at best, as we had to ask the bar tender to come over to us. And it was not busy. At other bars, bar tenders served people who came up after us first. Irwin at the outside red frog was amazing though. He made his signature drink that knocked me out for a bit! All I all, none of this impacted our cruise. We didn’t get cheers this time and came out ahead.

 

- Public spaces are ridiculous. People stood in line to see comedy shows nearly an hour in advance. Limelight was like a steam room. Not pleasant. Bad choke points on lido bear the drink/frozen yogurt machines. Pools were packed and as stated above, hot tubs were a no go.

 

- Getting off the ship was nice and easy. Self-debarked at 8, was in the car by 9. Park and cruise had my car pulled up and ready to go before we even got off the shuttle.

 

Will I cruise sunshine again? Yeah, why not? Once she’s in Charleston it’ll be hard to pass up, especially if she goes to places other than the Bahamas. I still don’t mind driving to Jax or PC. I think I prefer fantasy class ships as there was always a quiet place to sit and read, whereas there was nothing on sunshine other than the library. I think I still prefer royal, but chose carnival because our friends kid isn’t potty trained. Came to be a moot point as we didn’t cruise with them.

 

So that’s it. We’re back in chilly Charlotte and don’t have any future cruises planned at this point...

 

Feel free to ask questions!

 

 

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[myacuna]

 

Hope this works! Fun times for 2-5 year olds. Nothing for the first day except open play and night owls.

 

 

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[erikaem86]

Thanks for the review.

[jordanaire]

Good review. We'll be sailing on her in 61 more days!

 

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[PNVA28210]

Thank you for your informative review. We also live in the Charlotte area and do the driving thing to get to ports. your assessment is very similar to our experience on the Sunshine in 2016. It is kind of sad that they not found any kind of solution to same bottlenecks you were stating as were the same on our sailing in 2016. We are going on the Breeze 2019 out of PC and selected an early seating in the MDR. Again as you stated MDR is sometimes difficult for the young ones... we have 3. But, they are a little bit older. We had YTD on the Sunshine and first formal night we waited 2hrs to be seated. Needless to say our kids fell asleep at the table waiting for there food. As I mentioned before your review was spot on. We would sail on the Sunshine again as well and look forward to her moving to Charleston as the home port. Thank you again.

[lmf24lmf]

Thanks for the review and fir posting kids club schedules.. we are looking forward to the sunshine cruise in a couple months. How difficult was it to make dining reservations for the specialty restaurants? Trying to decide what night to make reservations but we want to see the menus for each night before deciding.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for the terrific review.

Keith

[spealex]

Thank you for your review. You seemed content with the parking option you choose. Can you share the name of the company you utilized? Would love to save some money on parking, but worried about regretting that decision on debarkation day.

[myacuna]

Thanks for the review and fir posting kids club schedules.. we are looking forward to the sunshine cruise in a couple months. How difficult was it to make dining reservations for the specialty restaurants? Trying to decide what night to make reservations but we want to see the menus for each night before deciding.

 

 

 

Not hard at all!! Times were pretty wide open daily for Italian and more limited for the steakhouse since it takes 2 hours. Italian was 6pm on day 3 and steakhouse was last night at 8. Both were easy to make!

 

 

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[myacuna]

Thank you for your review. You seemed content with the parking option you choose. Can you share the name of the company you utilized? Would love to save some money on parking, but worried about regretting that decision on debarkation day.

 

 

 

Yes! Very happy!

Park cruise dot com

No spaces!

It was just over $70 for the 6 days. You pull up, unload, and they take your car and park it. In return they have the cars ready for you. They are a fantastic company. Drive to port is like 5 min.

 

The day we left there were 3 ships in port leaving at the same time. The wait for self park at the port was ridiculous. I was happy not to have to deal with that.

 

 

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[CoasterGuy]

Thanks for the review.

[dorchrislen]

I really enjoyed your review. I remember how crowded Punchliner and lido were. We could find not one chair on a sea day anywhere from lido back to and around waterworkds. Crazy!

 

We are going again in March and I am just planning on taking my patience and good attitude. It also helps that we have a balcony for this one so I can just grab a drink and head to my own ocean view chair!

[EllaDuChien]

Thank you for your informative review. We also live in the Charlotte area and do the driving thing to get to ports. your assessment is very similar to our experience on the Sunshine in 2016. It is kind of sad that they not found any kind of solution to same bottlenecks you were stating as were the same on our sailing in 2016. We are going on the Breeze 2019 out of PC and selected an early seating in the MDR. Again as you stated MDR is sometimes difficult for the young ones... we have 3. But, they are a little bit older. We had YTD on the Sunshine and first formal night we waited 2hrs to be seated. Needless to say our kids fell asleep at the table waiting for there food. As I mentioned before your review was spot on. We would sail on the Sunshine again as well and look forward to her moving to Charleston as the home port. Thank you again.

 

Lots of us Charlotteans here! We actually sailed on the Sunshine in October from Charleston while she was re-positioning to PC. Really enjoyed it and can't wait for her to come back even though I think she is still only going to do Bahamas runs.

 

We are driving to PC in July to cruise her for our annual family vacation. Grandparents, adults, teens, and one little one (6 years old). So far, she is my daughters favorite ship of the 4 that shes been on.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the excellent review and scans.

[siestakeys04]

Good review, we are leaving for Port Canaveral from Winston Salem, and I thought about staying near Disney Springs for family who has never been to Orlando.

[JTBCruiser]

Great review with lots of detail, Thanks!

[ProgRockCruiser]

Thanks for the review! We're going on Sunshine out of PC in Dec for an 8-day Eastern Carib. The crowd bottlenecks are something I had heard about, I guess we'll just avoid some of those areas - we do like plunking ourselves down onto barstools and hanging out all afternoon or evening at one spot, but I guess we'll have to see whether the comedy club is worthwhile the hassle one night, maybe.

[myacuna]

Thanks for the review! We're going on Sunshine out of PC in Dec for an 8-day Eastern Carib. The crowd bottlenecks are something I had heard about, I guess we'll just avoid some of those areas - we do like plunking ourselves down onto barstools and hanging out all afternoon or evening at one spot, but I guess we'll have to see whether the comedy club is worthwhile the hassle one night, maybe.

 

 

 

It was easier to get in on the last night. I’d think with an 8 nighter you’ll have more chances

 

 

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[erewhon]

Thank you for reviewing your cruise.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[missholly24]

Thank you for the review! I feel exactly the same as you re: Sunshine. Loved it but ridiculously crowded in places. Also love Royal. Its great to mix it up.

[crazyboutdisney]

I am currently booked on Brilliance of the Seas, having never sailed on RCL. I have sailed on the Sunshine and am considering canceling my BOTS and booking the Sunshine.

I see you have sailed on BOTS. Can you compare the two for me in your opinion? Food? Activities? Pool area? etc I will be taking my 14 yr old daughter on her first cruise.

Thank!

[Bobrunner]

Yes, thanks for the review. But it does not make me feel this this will be a fun 8 days when we go this May. We have been sailing on NCL the last 6 times and thought we would give Carnival another chance. Might of been a mistake.

 

I usually do the self park at terminal 10 (NCL) and had no problems. Was going to do the same for terminal 5 (Carnival). Another concern for me after the review.

[AmberTeka]

Thank you for taking the time to write a review.

[myacuna]

I am currently booked on Brilliance of the Seas, having never sailed on RCL. I have sailed on the Sunshine and am considering canceling my BOTS and booking the Sunshine.

I see you have sailed on BOTS. Can you compare the two for me in your opinion? Food? Activities? Pool area? etc I will be taking my 14 yr old daughter on her first cruise.

Thank!

 

 

 

Hey!

I am so sorry I am just now seeing this.

It’s been quite awhile since i sailed brilliance but I think we’re going back on her in September. She’s a beautiful ship with a good amount of things to do for kids. I can’t comment on how a 14 year old would like it. I think sunshine would offer more. I find food on carnival to be slightly better than RCCL (base food, some specialities like wonderland are out of the world amazing). But I’ve never starved on either.

 

I usually compare itineraries of Charleston, Jax, P.C., and Tampa. For our fall cruise we want to do Disney so it was actually between P.C. and Tampa and we only considered RCCL this time (husbands choice). Brilliance won for itinerary and ship!

 

 

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