herb

Well written and thorough. A fair balance of good and bad. I was also on the same sailing as you. 

On 8/17/2019 at 9:30 PM, Stick93 said:

What are your thoughts on the ships redesign/refurb?? Could you tell theses areas were redone?? 

Public spaces within ship were nicely appointed 

By adding cabins in place of 2 lounges during refurbishment of Sunrise think it adds up to more than just an extra 200 passengers. 

Last year family and friends ( approx. 40) made the decision to take a cruise out of NYC. I was definitely looking forward to this and enjoyed spending quality time with them, especially since this was my first vacation without my wife who passed away last year.

Carnival Sunrise was marketed as a newly refurbished ship costing millions of dollars. What they did was get rid of the old Vegas glitz as well as remove 2 lounges in the back of the ship to add many more cabins = many more people!

Check in, (as well as disembarkation) in NYC was quick and efficient. Upon entering ship you immediately noticed that all the previous "Carnival Look" was changed to muted colors. My cabin was fine and kept neat and clean. Our dining room waiter was very pleasant and cordial. The lounges were all very eye pleasing.Yes, they still do the waiter shows at every dinner. Pretty much wear for dinner what you want. No one at door that stopped anyone, they just said hello.  We had opted for early seating.

Ports: Grand Turk: we walked to Jack's Shack to enjoy the water … great day

           Puerto Rico: we waked around Old San Juan … fun exploring and doing some shopping

           Amber Cove: a duplicate of Margaritaville in Grand Turk with different signage … pool was refreshing

We had beautiful weather all week … sunny and hot.

What I didn't like …

1. The unbelievable crowds everywhere. The lido buffet where the food didn't look very appealing as well as the pool food options, which were good, always had very long lines. Never even bothered trying to get on the Deli line. I basically didn't eat what I wanted, I opted to eat wherever I found the shortest line. For breakfast we decided to eat in the dining room, lunch was a "free for all", dinner in dining room.

2. The only indoor area where smoking is permitted on the whole ship was the casino. I smoke, but I felt bad for the people who had no choice but to pass through the casino (it was a blue cloud) to get to the other venues, … unless you wanted to climb up and down staircases.

3. The lounge where they had the Punchliner comedy shows at night was stifling throughout entire cruise. I only went once, couldn't wait for show to be over. When my cousin found an officer who happened to be in the lounge and complained, she looked at her as if she was making it up. No response.

4. Lido Deck area … PACKED is an understatement! On the 4 sea days I never saw the water in either of the 2 pools, only bobbing heads. Never saw such a crowded pool area in my life. The bussing staff was overwhelmed by the amount of plates, glasses etc. they had to remove. It was very hard for them to keep up.

5. Guest behavior - I love having a good time and laughing; and our group did do that, but the amount of screaming vulgar language used by adults as well as unsupervised children running rampant was appalling. It wasn't uncommon to be woken up way after midnight by kids running up and down the cabin hallways as well as adults having loud screaming arguments right outside cabin doors as guests were trying to sleep.

6. Thankfully I was not one of many who had toilet plumbing issues in their cabins, thank God!

We've cruised many times on many different cruiselines including Carnival … but unfortunately this cruise has left a very bad taste in my mouth regarding the Carnival product.

2 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Hey Herb! I've got no info for you but just wanted to say hello. Hope all is well with you and the family.

Hi Jeff...

Nice to "see" you again after a long time. Still keep in touch with a whole bunch of past C@ posters on FB. I'm leaving on the Sunrise in August and of course all this nonsense in the DR has garnered my attention. I'll be sailing with a group of approx. 40 people; friends and family.

I originally did not want to go since my wife JoAnn passed away suddenly last August and this will be my first vacation in 38 years without her. Everyone talked me into going so I'll try to make the best of it. Hope all is well with you...

Is Carnival giving guests any guidance or precautionary statements regarding food and beverages before they disembark in DR ports?

thanks for the heads up..

We certainly don't wait until we're on board to pick excursions just wasn't sure whether they would accept the booking without final payment being made.

Thanks for your help.. :)

Can you book shore excursions before final payment is made or do you have to wait until you've made full payment for cruise?

Thanks ..

Thank you for the quick responses. Mind set at ease :)

It's been awhile since sailing HAL.

Are there still 2 formal nights on 7 night Alaska sailings?

Would a gentleman be denied entry to dining room wearing dress pants and button down shirt?

Thanks for update...

On your Bermuda cruise did you notice any difference as to how guests dressed on elegant chic nights vs. other evenings in Dining Room?

We had a wonderful time on our Viking Rhine Cruise this past summer. We were very impressed with the ship as well as service.

Our church is hosting a Christmas Market cruise for Dec. 2016 and they are using GCT as their river cruise company. We are contemplating joining them.

question: is GCT comparable to Viking? Will we be disappointed with their product or will we be awed by their superior product compared to Viking. The ship we'd be sailing with is the River Aria... (on Viking we sailed on one of their longships)...

Thanks for any input... :)

definitely a blessing in disguise... Bermuda is BEAUTIFUL! :) ENJOY :D

While we were eating they announced that the cabins were ready (around 1:00pm) so we went down to check out our cabin and drop off our carry on bags. We booked cabin 3112, which is one of the new OV cabins that were added when the Summit went through Solticization (is that right?). This bank of cabins have larger windows and because of the layout 3112 is a little larger than the rest. The door is perpendicular to the hull rather than parallel to it. The deck plans don't show this so I modified that area to show the configuration...

 

 

The cabin was very nice. We enjoyed the location and it was generally quiet. There was a banging noise during the day when we were at the dock in San Juan and St. Croix, but it was very windy those days, and the dock was on that side of the ship, so it was most likely something using during docking that was swinging in the wind. Overall the cabin was smaller than the cabins that we have had in the past on Carnival ships, but there enough room for us and our stuff. Here are some pictures of the cabin...

 

PC070218 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

PC070219 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

PC070220 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

PC070221 by rclewen, on Flickr

thank you for posting those pictures. We will be in this cabin when we sail on the Summit in July 2016 :)

Great cabin! We've been in it twice.

 

Just a recommendation- as soon as you can get into the cabin, close the curtains so the sun doesn't heat it up! You'll feel better sooner!

 

Enjoy.

thanks for the heads up :D

Thank you for this great thread... because of it we were able to snag 3112 on the Summit for July 2016 :D

just curious ... if you've sailed on either of these itineraries (Romantic sailing from Nuremberg, Waltz sailing from Passau) ... what was the deciding factor in your decision... Thanks .. :)

We paid the $50pp custom air fee when we made our reservation so we will have control over our flights. Worth it to me.

we also used Viking custom air... no problems... we were given a choice of airlines/times and then asked to pick out our seats.. worked well :)

I was looking up pre-cruise options for Viking Danube cruises Passau to Budapest and was surprised that even though the cruise begins in Passau with a flight to Munich, Munich was not offered as a choice for a 2 night pre-stay... they offer Prague... I'm wondering why not Munich, since you land there anyway...

Thank you so much for your VERY informative review, with pictures. We are leaving this Saturday (July 18, 2015) for a 2 night pre-stay in Lucerne and then on July 21 we will board the Viking Hlin for our Rhine Getaway cruise from Basel to Amsterdam.

Your in depth review definitely answered any questions/concerns we had. We hope to enjoy the cruise as much as you did.

our friends are on this sailing... glad to hear they finally got going and are on their way to Bermuda.. :)

oh well :(

oh well :(

Does HAL offer any cruises to Caribbean during the summer months? Sailed HAL once, enjoyed it ... but since we can only sail during the summer we were hoping tha HAL offers some cruises to that region..

Does Princess ever offer cruises to the Caribbean during the summer months? We sailed Princess twice during the summer out of NYC a while back and were impressed with her service/food. We can only sail during the summer and would love to sail to Caribbean islands on their fleet..