brilliantseas

9 hours ago, NYHartChapp said:

Great review, and agree with your final assessments (we were aboard in May and will be again in December).  Will be sad to lose our 15-minute Uber ride to port in 2024. 

With the loss of Charleston as an option, I'm hoping they base a ship in Norfolk year-round. Baltimore is a high-yield city limited by the capacity of the port facility and the bridge. Jacksonville also holds its own with a Fantasy-class ship, although time will tell if it can retain service once Elation and Paradise are retired. Without Charleston, the only suitable cruise port in between is Norfolk. I'm sorry that it won't be a 15-minute ride for you, but at least it is an option that isn't a 15+ hour drive for us in the Midwest. 

Overall, our cruise onboard the Carnival Sunshine was a mix of surprises, both positive and negative. Here are some of the highlights:

Positives

We were pleasantly surprised by the condition of the public areas of the ship. The lounges and deck furniture were in great shape. 

Zach Daniels in Piano Bar 88 was a highlight of the cruise, and one of the top two piano bar entertainers I've encountered. 

Loved the three story Serenity area, even if the pool was almost always too busy to use. 

Dinner at JiJi Asian Kitchen was the highlight meal of the cruise. 

This is the first Carnival ship I've found with an automated roulette wheel with $3 minimums. I'd love to see these expand fleet-wide as they feel less cramped than the traditional roulette tables, and the $3 minimum bets are a bonus for those who don't want to meet $5 or $10 minimums. 

Although the ship was busy, the crowd levels weren't quite as bad as I expected given other reviews. In fact, I found it to be less crowded than the Sunrise. 

Negatives

Unfortunately the condition of our balcony didn't match the condition of the public areas. Rotting wood railings, peeling tint film on the glass, dirty floors, and broken lounge chairs limited our enjoyment of this space. 

MDR food quality and service were both hit-or-miss. 

Frozen rather than fresh cut fries at Guy's Burgers. 

Cruise Director TJ's abrasive personality. He was a great host for activities once he got past his intros and outros, but he really needs to tone down the PA announcements. 

Limelight Lounge's small size and faulty design makes it hard to get a good seat for the comedy shows, even if you are in line 30 minutes prior to showtime. 

RedFrog Pub was disappointing not only due to lack of entertainment, but also the elimination of the embarkation day happy hour specials. Without live entertainment, the Pub was nearly always empty and seemed like a waste of space. 

Ports

Although the embarkation process and parking situation in Charleston are less than ideal, I'd still consider sailing out of Charleston again before the city re-develops the cruise port at the end of 2024. Access from the highway was easy enough.

Half Moon Cay remains one of my top beach destinations, along with Harvest Caye and Roatan. No need for a shore excursion, just enjoy the white sand beach and shallow, rock-free waters. 

We also had an enjoyable time in Nassau, although it still isn't high on my list to repeat if it can be avoided. The Margaritaville Beach Resort looks nice, and I might consider the Fins Up Waterpark for a relaxing pool/lazy river day. Just beware that the water park is pricey for the amenities. 

Our small zoo of towel animals will be remaining onboard. 

We have to say goodbye to our double length balcony. 

Charleston welcomed us back with a great view of the Custom House. 

Debarkation was efficient. Given the early arrival time into Charleston at 7am, they offer "silent debarkation," a first for me on a Carnival ship. Rather than forcing everyone into lounges or onto the Lido Deck to await a call over the PA, this debarkation was done almost entirely via the stateroom TVs displaying which decks and zones were eligible to disembark. As  Platinum self-assist, we were able to get off at any time of our choosing. We headed down to the lobby and found a short line to disembark, but were off the ship shortly after 8:00 AM, just about 10 minutes after leaving our stateroom. 

Interestingly, guests who are disembarking have the option to walk back to the parking lot rather than riding the shuttles, which makes sense given that everyone now has luggage in hand and the logistics of loading all of that baggage into the shuttles would prove to be a nightmare. They were prepared with additional luggage trailers for those who opted for the shuttles, but the process appeared to be very slow moving and had a line. We opted to walk. Google Maps shows it as 0.7 miles, or 10-15 minutes, depending upon your walking space. It is quite a haul if you have multiple bags in hand. Even with one bag a piece, we were quite sweaty by the time we reached our car. 

Time to say goodnight. In the morning, it is time to disembark in Charleston and head back to reality. 

Wrapping up the night with our last drinks of the cruise, a Caribbean Tea and a Rye & Ginger. 

Final tunes with the Sunshine Rock Band at Ocean Plaza. 

We spent most of our last evening onboard kind of where we started, in the piano bar with arguably the best entertainer onboard, Zach Daniels. 

The artwork in one of the elevator lobbies captured our eye. 

Our final dinner in the MDR. It takes on a totally different look and feel once the sun goes down and the focus shifts from the panoramic views to the beautiful chandeliers. 

We both opted for shrimp cocktail appetizers. For entrees, GF had the jerk pork loin, while I ordered the enchiladas. The enchiladas are normally one of my favorite Carnival entrees, but these were missing enchilada sauce and were very dry. GF's jerk pork had a nice flavor. 

For dessert, GF had one last "Mickey-style" WCMC, while I had the Baked Alaska. 

Smooth sailing as we get ready for dinner and showtime! We opted for the early showing of Epic Rock!

Reasonable crowd for Big Bang Theory Trivia. 

After the call, I grabbed a few "top deck" photos of the busy Lido Deck area and Serenity Pool.

On our last sea day, we started with early morning trivia before the WAVE morning show.

We followed trivia with an early Sea Day Brunch in the MDR. I'm incredibly sad to say that this may have been my last chia seed pudding as I understand Carnival has removed this treasure from the menu.

I also had an omelet, while GF had the yogurt parfait, skillet cake, sausage, and hash browns. 

After brunch, it was time to get some sun. I spent the late morning finishing Shut Up and Listen! By Tillman Fertitta, CEO of Landry's Restaurants and the Golden Nugget casino chain, and starting Work in Progress by Michael Eisner before an early afternoon conference call. Can I tell you how wonderful it is to take work calls while sitting on the deck of a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic!? It also speaks highly of Carnival's Premium WiFi package that I was able to participate in a video call without any challenges. 

After our day in Nassau, we watched one of the comedy shows in the Limelight Lounge and then stopped at Bonsai Sushi for dinner. We were fortunate to get in when we did as the Bonsai location on Sunshine is hidden in the hallway across from the steakhouse on deck 4 and only has around eight tables. We arrived when they had two tables available and another group immediately followed us in. They actually turned away a few parties exiting the comedy show, which I've never seen at a Bonsai Sushi before. My only complaint was that we were at the table next to the hallway and the line for the next show quickly filled in that space, creating for a very noisy dining experience. 

We ordered a total of three rolls to split, as well as the ginger salad, which is a must-have every time I dine at Bonsai Sushi. 

After dinner, we headed to the Liquid Lounge for the late showing of Latin Nights. This was my least favorite of the three Playlist Productions shows on Sunshine, although there is one segment that utilizes the platforms pictured in front of the large booths to the left and right of the stage. If you happen to sit in one of these booths, or in the chairs immediately next to them, you're in for a special surprise! 

We wrapped up our night watching the Sunshine Band in Ocean Plaza. 

19 hours ago, Ralphinsc said:

 

The thing that is so tough for Charleston is that the terminal is right in the middle of one of the priciest historic districts in the country. That is part of the reason why that terminal space is going away. The real estate is just so valuable that the city would rather sell it. It's almost impossible to find a hotel down there within any kind of distance from the terminal for a good price. 

Agreed regarding the hotel prices. They were all over $300/night in the historic district, or around $120 for a Hilton Garden Inn out by the airport. I run into the same challenges when trying to book a hotel in Savannah. 

10 hours ago, momof3cruisers said:

Great review so far! I appreciate all the pictures. Did you happen to take any of the water park?

Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of the water park itself. Check YouTube as there are a few good video tours on there. Here are two that I'd recommend watching. 

On 9/23/2022 at 10:52 AM, Ralphinsc said:

Loving this review! We are on this same itinerary in three weeks. Might have to swap our Cucina dinner reservations around for JiJi's or just hit that up as well from your review of it. 

If you like Chinese food, don't miss JiJi's. I almost always skip the MDR on days 3 and 4 because we don't care for the menu. Unfortunately, I didn't take screen shots of the menus from this sailing, but it may be worth doing some research to determine which nights are best to book specialty restaurants. We did JiJi on day 3 and Bonsai Sushi on day 4 on this sailing. 

Photos from the walk back to the ship and departure from Nassau Harbor. 

View of Margaritaville from the Harbor. 

While we couldn't go into the water park, we did walk around the exterior. From what we could see, it looked uncrowded and very well kept. Highlights are the lazy river and the surfing machine. They have a few small body slides, but not quite enough for me to call it a full size water park. Would we pay $80 for it? Time will tell, but it did look like a very well equipped pool and lazy river area to relax for the afternoon. Those looking for a variety of thrill rides and water slides may be disappointed. 

Check-in for the water park is at the yellow ticketing building. You then proceed under the "Fins Up" sign and through the gates. 

The hotel itself is a beautiful tower on Nassau Harbor. 

Along the waterfront is Junkanoo Beach. The yellow umbrellas are "private," for Margaritaville guests and those with water park wristbands only. The public beach is just beyond the yellow umbrellas. The water park itself is built on a raised deck between the hotel and the beach. It has a secondary gate with a staircase down to the beach. 

At the far end of the water park is a beachfront bar that does not require a wristband to access. We stopped for a few drinks and some great views. 

The Kalik Radler is only 2% alcohol and contains 195 calories. You might as well drink a guava soda. It was way too sweet for my liking. 

GF had a frozen margarita, made with blue curacao. I don't recall the name, but she enjoyed it. 

The second round of drinks consisted of a mango daiquiri and a Sands Lager. The Sands was much more drinkable than the Kalik Radler. 

Views from the bar

After Queen's Staircase, we made our way back to the waterfront. 

We noticed that the British Colonial Hilton has dropped the Hilton affiliation and is now just the British Colonial. 

We decided to make our way to the new Margaritaville Resort for some drinks and to get a first-hand view of the water park. We had originally made reservations for the water park, but decided to cancel as we were not sure it offered enough value for the $80 price tag.

The Queen's Staircase is literally right next to Fort Fincastle, and is free to visit. 

After breakfast, we headed ashore to visit Fort Fincastle and the Queens Staircase. 

I was able to capture this photo of the newly painted Carnival Sunshine as we walked down the pier. 

Just across the street is this small plaza with pink government buildings. 

From the port, Fort Fincastle is around 15 minutes on foot. Be aware that only a portion of this path has sidewalks. We found ourselves walking on a busy street and along broken curbs as we got closer to the Fort. 

If you have an internet package, I recommend loading Google Maps before you exit the ship. It will load all of the local streets and you can use the navigation features even without an internet connection while ashore. 

Construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Nassau will partially block the view of the port from Fort Fincastle. 

Day four started as we pulled alongside the pier in Nassau, which is still under construction, but making quick progress. The covered walkway canopies are now going up and they are currently working on the new duty free store and security terminal building. 

We grabbed a quick breakfast in the Lido Marketplace before going out to explore. I had an omelet, a waffle with blueberry compote, some banana bread, and a slice of melon. 

After dinner, we were able to grab seats for the Love & Marriage Show. For those who have not sailed on a ship with the Liquid Lounge set-up, be aware of the reduced capacity and how fast this venue can fill up, especially for the special programming such as Love & Marriage or Comedy Showcase. I would recommend arriving at least 15-20 min early to get a seat, earlier if you want the best sight lines. 

After the show, we grabbed a glass of wine and a bourbon and coke ahead of the Punchliner Comedy Showcase. 

The Comedy Showcase is a special "main stage" adults-only comedy show, featuring both of the Punchliner headliners on stage, each performing a shorter, 20-minute set. It is an opportunity to see them in a larger venue, which is a nice change vs. fighting for a seat in the Limelight Lounge. 

Dinner on our third night was at JiJi Asian Kitchen, and was the highlight meal of the cruise. I've had JiJi twice onboard Carnival Horizon, and although the JiJi restaurant onboard Sunshine is little more than a corner of the Lido Marketplace separated by some curtains, it did not disappoint! 

The symbol on the table is the Chinese character for "lucky". JiJi means "lucky, lucky". 

Your order is placed by marking a black chalkboard with a paint marker. The waitress tells you how many items you can order from each section of the menu based upon the number or people dining. For the two of us, we were able to choose two appetizers, two entrees, two sides, and two desserts. All except the desserts are served family style, which makes it a fun meal for larger groups who want to share and sample a bit of everything. 

We started off the meal with a pair of saki sangria cocktails, which are also available at Bonsai Sushi on every Carnival ship. It is a mix of saki, pineapple, and citrus. We both enjoyed them, although I came to the realization on a previous cruise that this cocktail smells exactly like the restroom air freshener on Carnival ships and now I can't get the thought out of my head. 

Every table receives an amuse-bouche, compliments of the chef. This is a panko-breaded ball of potato and cheese, served with sweet and sour sauce and another sauce that escapes my memory. 

For appetizers, we ordered the duck and the jade shrimp dumplings. The duck was perhaps my favorite dish of the entire meal, with a crispy skin and sweet glaze. The dumplings were served with three different sauces to try. 

Our entrees consisted of sweet and sour shrimp and kung pao chicken, along with sides of fried rice with chicken and hakka noodle. The chef even prepared the kung pao chicken as "not spicy," per GFs request. I've never had kung pao chicken without the chilies before, but it was still quite flavorful. GF enjoyed the sweet and sour shrimp, while my preference was the kung pao chicken combined with the hakka noodle. 

The portions are larger than they appear; they were just served with very large serving spoons. 

For dessert, I had the lycee-filled wonton in a coconut milk and tapioca cream. GF had the caramel crepes. Both were delicious. 

For $18 per person, I consider JiJi Asian Kitchen to be one of the best value premium restaurants onboard any cruise line. The food and service were superb.