My Sunshine at Christmas mini review

[Laurin612]

My family and I were on the Carnival Sunshine for the Christmas cruise. It rained heavily probably half the time and thankfully there were periods of sun. Despite the rain, we had fun and made the most of our cruise. On a positive note, we didn't run out of sunscreen and didn't get burned! :p Here are some comments about our cruise.

 

Embarkation: A. We had FTTF and had the fastest, smoothest embarkation we have experienced yet.

 

Room: A. We had a balcony room on the Lido deck (9217). Great central location for easy access to Lido, and no elevator noise at all!

 

Service: B-. With a few noteworthy exceptions, service was just “meh” and not very friendly. The ship was jam packed with over 3700 guests (according to announcements made by Jaime the CD) and it was obvious the staff was having trouble keeping up.

 

MDR food: B/B-. Food was pretty decent in the MDR, but not 5 star dining or anything. We had YTD and service was spectactularly slow—until we found a really great waiter team and requested them for the rest of the nights. Kudos to Attila Romeo, Dannko and Viyat!

 

Breakfast buffet: B/B-. Adequate, but a lot of duplication, and I never did find the omelet station. Turns out it was in a different room entirely (Ji Ji Asian Kitchen)!

 

Dinner buffet: D-. Probably the worst buffet I have ever seen in my life, and believe me, I have seen my share of buffets! Very limited, very poor selection. I kept thinking I was missing an entire section of the buffet, but, nope, it was really that small and limited. We did not eat at Lido for dinner any of the nights, but checked it out on several just to see what they had. Felt sorry for those choosing to eat dinner in there.

 

Specialty restaurants: B. We ate at the Steakhouse and it was good, but not as good as our steakhouse experience on the Magic. We loved Guy’s burgers and the Blue Iguana Cantina and ate lunch at one of them every day. Wanted to try Ji Ji Asian Kitchen, but never got around to it.

 

Layout: C. I did not like the layout at all near Guy’s Burger Joint. The aisle was way too narrow for people to be waiting in line while others were squeezing through just to walk by and to have a drink station and ice cream station jammed in there was just nuts. Constantly clogged with people.

 

There were too many floor changes required to walk through to areas like the Limelight Lounge and the Sunrise dining room (Go up to 5 to cross through to the back of the ship, and go back down to 3). The Liquid Lounge (the main showroom) is quite small compared with other ships and as a result seating was limited. Seating in the Limelight (home of the Punchliner Comedy Club) was downright ridiculous. You had to get to the comedy show 30-45 minutes early to get a seat! IF you got in before they closed the doors due to max capacity, you had the pleasure of standing and watching the comedian on a TV screen.

 

Entertainment: B. We went to the Punchliner comedy show every night except the last night and it was great (apart from having to arrive so early to get a seat!) Comedians were very funny. Our favorite was Willie Barcena. We saw part of the Playlist Productions Latin show in the Liquid Lounge and ended up walking out and going to the comedy show. It just wasn't our thing. However, Epic Rock show was fantastic! DH and I both highly recommend it and won’t miss it on future Carnival cruises. We missed having a live band on deck, but maybe they weren’t out there because of the rain? Not sure.

 

Kids club: A. Our kids are in Circle C (12-14) and Club 02 (15-17) and both really enjoyed hanging out with their respective groups and going to their organized activities.

 

Ship: C-. The ship itself is indeed beautiful, but we found lots of problems. I found it completely unacceptable that the elevators up to the Serenity decks were down 90% of the time, and said so to Guest Services. I would have been really mad if my room was up there (which it originally was—we switched from a Cloud 9 Spa balcony to the regular balcony when we learned there was no thalassotherapy tub). I resented having to walk from Deck 14 down to Deck 9, but glad that I am physically able to. Felt sorry for a man on a scooter was was waiting up there for a really long time. The elevators in the aft section of the ship were frequently down, as well, causing a major clog of people outside the Sunrise restaurant. You often had no choice but to take the stairs up a few flights to be able to walk over to the atrium elevators. The ADA would have a field day with this ship! Public areas of Deck 4 near the atrium/photos smelled like sewage much of the time. Yuck! Thankfully the smell didn't continue to where the steakhouse and sushi place are. Re the frequently mentioned buckets--I didn't see any.

 

We did not like that the only pool not teeming with dozens of splashing kids was the waterfall pool on Deck 12 of Serenity. It was freezing cold at all times, so no one was ever in it other than to take a quick dip to cool off or dangle their legs. I think removing the adults only aft pool and putting in the Havana Bar was a bad idea.

 

The water slides and ropes course were open on a very limited schedule, but luckily my son and husband got their fill of them by the end of the trip. Re Serenity, I am so glad my husband is a very early riser! He was able to snag one of the “front row” clamshell loungers on Serenity 2 out of 3 sea days. We did not hog the chair, though—between the two of us, one of us was on it at all times from 7 AM to probably 3 PM on it and it was heavenly. Much of the Serenity area (including where our clamshell chair was) was not very serene. Loud music from the pool area blasted into Serenity, as well. That said, DH assures me that the back of Decks 12 and 14 Serenity area were indeed quiet and serene.

 

Overall

 

DH and I both agreed that we'd grade this cruise a B-/C+. We had a nice time on this cruise but it would have been much nicer if the weather had been better. Not Carnival’s fault, obviously, and that does not reflect our grades here. We will continue sailing with Carnival, but we probably won’t take a Christmas cruise again (at least, not out of the Gulf of Mexico) and we won’t be cruising on the Sunshine again unless significant infrastructure repairs are made.

 

We were disappointed that many of the Christmas activities mentioned by John Heald did not happen. No caroling. No snow in the atrium. No "gifts for every child." Luckily, I did not tell my children about these activities so they didn't miss them. They had a Mardi Gras party (?!) in the atrium area on Christmas. No holiday trivia. No Christmas movies on the Dive In Theater. Very strange. Except for the decorations in the atrium and egg nog available in the Lido, it didn't seem very Christmas-y.

 

I'm not a "cheerleader", but I never thought I'd agree with the folks here who said that fixing up Destiny and turning her into Sunshine was "putting lipstick on a pig," but now that we have sailed on the Sunshine I have to agree with that assessment. Sunshine is bright and shiny, but there are too many underlying infrastructure problems that probably didn't get a passing thought in the "Sunshining" of the ship.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Laurin612

[Georgiagolfer]

Thanks for your comments. DW and I had considered Sunshine at 1 point, but due to all the negatives posted, have decided she is not a ship we would enjoy. I realize that reviews are peoples opinions, and 2 can cruise the same ship, same week, with different opinions, but Sunshine does not appear to be the best fit for us.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Georgiagolfer
spelling

[skyeman27]

Thanks for your comments. DW and I had considered Sunshine at 1 point, but due to all the negatives posted, have decided she is not a ship we would enjoy. I realize that reviews are peoples opinions, and 2 can cruise the same ship, same week, with different opinions, but Sunshine does not appear to be the best fit for us.

Exactly my thoughts also. I will greatly miss the Dream. At least I will have the Liberty to cruise on. One concern regarding the Liberty is that I think it will be more popular and fares will reflect that. It will be interesting to watch the competition between the Liberty and Sunshine

[thebsinmiss]

Sorry to hear about the disappointment regarding the sunshine. I am sure the fact that Carnival jammed 3700 guests on to a 3000 guest boat played a big factor in many of your issues.

 

We are booked on the April 19 cruise and I am having concerns regarding mobility and my mother in law. She walks extremely slow and is unsteady but insists on not using a walker. From the sounds of things with the elevators and need to go up/down via stairs this may be a bad first cruise experience for them specifically. Maybe Carnival will get its act together and have the elevator issues worked out by April 2014 !

 

We are booked on the Spa deck so the one upside might be that she likes to sit in quiet areas and read. If she can access a quiet spot in the serenity area she will likely enjoy the trip. My kids (13 and 11) are looking forward to the kids club/ropes/waterpark.

 

I saw your post re the T pool and both my wife and I were bummed out about that not being part of the retrofit. Our cruise agent dropped the ball a bit on this booking as we were fairly specific in what we wanted. Did you try the "pods" mentioned in other posts ?

[cruizinisthebest]

Sorry to hear about the disappointment regarding the sunshine. I am sure the fact that Carnival jammed 3700 guests on to a 3000 guest boat played a big factor in many of your issues.

 

We are booked on the April 19 cruise and I am having concerns regarding mobility and my mother in law. She walks extremely slow and is unsteady but insists on not using a walker. From the sounds of things with the elevators and need to go up/down via stairs this may be a bad first cruise experience for them specifically. Maybe Carnival will get its act together and have the elevator issues worked out by April 2014 !

 

We are booked on the Spa deck so the one upside might be that she likes to sit in quiet areas and read. If she can access a quiet spot in the serenity area she will likely enjoy the trip. My kids (13 and 11) are looking forward to the kids club/ropes/waterpark.

 

I saw your post re the T pool and both my wife and I were bummed out about that not being part of the retrofit. Our cruise agent dropped the ball a bit on this booking as we were fairly specific in what we wanted. Did you try the "pods" mentioned in other posts ?

 

Will your mother-in-law use a cane? Perhaps that will help. And I really dislike when I go to public places and the elevators/escalators are out of order. Very annoying and I don't have mobility issues (thankfully). They need to make sure ALL of the elevators are working on the Sunshine. Especially when the ship is at capacity.

 

Sorry your cruise wasn't better OP. I would have been a little upset as well if the Christmas theme wasn't alive and thriving on a cruise during Christmas. And bad weather just simply sucks even though there's not a thing anyone can do about it.

[wrigley80]

We were on the Sunshine on December 8-15 and you should consider yourself fortunate that you at least got to see the playlist production shows. Every show on our cruise was cancelled for various reasons. That was extremely poor service.

[Laurin612]

We were on the Sunshine on December 8-15 and you should consider yourself fortunate that you at least got to see the playlist production shows. Every show on our cruise was cancelled for various reasons. That was extremely poor service.

 

WOW. That's awful! They could have at least had guest talent shows or something like that. I'd write a letter to Carnival about that.

[Laurin612]

Sorry to hear about the disappointment regarding the sunshine. I am sure the fact that Carnival jammed 3700 guests on to a 3000 guest boat played a big factor in many of your issues.

 

We are booked on the April 19 cruise and I am having concerns regarding mobility and my mother in law. She walks extremely slow and is unsteady but insists on not using a walker. From the sounds of things with the elevators and need to go up/down via stairs this may be a bad first cruise experience for them specifically. Maybe Carnival will get its act together and have the elevator issues worked out by April 2014 !

 

We are booked on the Spa deck so the one upside might be that she likes to sit in quiet areas and read. If she can access a quiet spot in the serenity area she will likely enjoy the trip. My kids (13 and 11) are looking forward to the kids club/ropes/waterpark.

 

I saw your post re the T pool and both my wife and I were bummed out about that not being part of the retrofit. Our cruise agent dropped the ball a bit on this booking as we were fairly specific in what we wanted. Did you try the "pods" mentioned in other posts ?

 

I suspect the elevator issues may have been because the ship was at such an (over) capacity. And possibly the odor on Deck 4, also. That many more people, that much more, um...waste.

 

I hope they get the elevator issues fixed, too. I actually have severe arthritis in my knees and was pretty mad about the elevator issues. I am able to do stairs, but not without a lot of pain. :(

 

I did not try the "pods". I didn't use the spa or gym at all.

[DKF97]

My family and I were on the Carnival Sunshine for the Christmas cruise. It rained heavily probably half the time and thankfully there were periods of sun. Despite the rain, we had fun and made the most of our cruise. On a positive note, we didn't run out of sunscreen and didn't get burned! :p Here are some comments about our cruise.

 

Embarkation: A. We had FTTF and had the fastest, smoothest embarkation we have experienced yet.

 

Room: A. We had a balcony room on the Lido deck (9217). Great central location for easy access to Lido, and no elevator noise at all!

 

Service: B-. With a few noteworthy exceptions, service was just “meh” and not very friendly. The ship was jam packed with over 3700 guests (according to announcements made by Jaime the CD) and it was obvious the staff was having trouble keeping up.

 

MDR food: B/B-. Food was pretty decent in the MDR, but not 5 star dining or anything. We had YTD and service was spectactularly slow—until we found a really great waiter team and requested them for the rest of the nights. Kudos to Attila Romeo, Dannko and Viyat!

 

Breakfast buffet: B/B-. Adequate, but a lot of duplication, and I never did find the omelet station. Turns out it was in a different room entirely (Ji Ji Asian Kitchen)!

 

Dinner buffet: D-. Probably the worst buffet I have ever seen in my life, and believe me, I have seen my share of buffets! Very limited, very poor selection. I kept thinking I was missing an entire section of the buffet, but, nope, it was really that small and limited. We did not eat at Lido for dinner any of the nights, but checked it out on several just to see what they had. Felt sorry for those choosing to eat dinner in there.

 

Specialty restaurants: B. We ate at the Steakhouse and it was good, but not as good as our steakhouse experience on the Magic. We loved Guy’s burgers and the Blue Iguana Cantina and ate lunch at one of them every day. Wanted to try Ji Ji Asian Kitchen, but never got around to it.

 

Layout: C. I did not like the layout at all near Guy’s Burger Joint. The aisle was way too narrow for people to be waiting in line while others were squeezing through just to walk by and to have a drink station and ice cream station jammed in there was just nuts. Constantly clogged with people.

 

There were too many floor changes required to walk through to areas like the Limelight Lounge and the Sunrise dining room (Go up to 5 to cross through to the back of the ship, and go back down to 3). The Liquid Lounge (the main showroom) is quite small compared with other ships and as a result seating was limited. Seating in the Limelight (home of the Punchliner Comedy Club) was downright ridiculous. You had to get to the comedy show 30-45 minutes early to get a seat! IF you got in before they closed the doors due to max capacity, you had the pleasure of standing and watching the comedian on a TV screen.

 

Entertainment: B. We went to the Punchliner comedy show every night except the last night and it was great (apart from having to arrive so early to get a seat!) Comedians were very funny. Our favorite was Willie Barcena. We saw part of the Playlist Productions Latin show in the Liquid Lounge and ended up walking out and going to the comedy show. It just wasn't our thing. However, Epic Rock show was fantastic! DH and I both highly recommend it and won’t miss it on future Carnival cruises. We missed having a live band on deck, but maybe they weren’t out there because of the rain? Not sure.

 

Kids club: A. Our kids are in Circle C (12-14) and Club 02 (15-17) and both really enjoyed hanging out with their respective groups and going to their organized activities.

 

Ship: C-. The ship itself is indeed beautiful, but we found lots of problems. I found it completely unacceptable that the elevators up to the Serenity decks were down 90% of the time, and said so to Guest Services. I would have been really mad if my room was up there (which it originally was—we switched from a Cloud 9 Spa balcony to the regular balcony when we learned there was no thalassotherapy tub). I resented having to walk from Deck 14 down to Deck 9, but glad that I am physically able to. Felt sorry for a man on a scooter was was waiting up there for a really long time. The elevators in the aft section of the ship were frequently down, as well, causing a major clog of people outside the Sunrise restaurant. You often had no choice but to take the stairs up a few flights to be able to walk over to the atrium elevators. The ADA would have a field day with this ship! Public areas of Deck 4 near the atrium/photos smelled like sewage much of the time. Yuck! Thankfully the smell didn't continue to where the steakhouse and sushi place are. Re the frequently mentioned buckets--I didn't see any.

 

We did not like that the only pool not teeming with dozens of splashing kids was the waterfall pool on Deck 12 of Serenity. It was freezing cold at all times, so no one was ever in it other than to take a quick dip to cool off or dangle their legs. I think removing the adults only aft pool and putting in the Havana Bar was a bad idea.

 

The water slides and ropes course were open on a very limited schedule, but luckily my son and husband got their fill of them by the end of the trip. Re Serenity, I am so glad my husband is a very early riser! He was able to snag one of the “front row” clamshell loungers on Serenity 2 out of 3 sea days. We did not hog the chair, though—between the two of us, one of us was on it at all times from 7 AM to probably 3 PM on it and it was heavenly. Much of the Serenity area (including where our clamshell chair was) was not very serene. Loud music from the pool area blasted into Serenity, as well. That said, DH assures me that the back of Decks 12 and 14 Serenity area were indeed quiet and serene.

 

Overall

 

DH and I both agreed that we'd grade this cruise a B-/C+. We had a nice time on this cruise but it would have been much nicer if the weather had been better. Not Carnival’s fault, obviously, and that does not reflect our grades here. We will continue sailing with Carnival, but we probably won’t take a Christmas cruise again (at least, not out of the Gulf of Mexico) and we won’t be cruising on the Sunshine again unless significant infrastructure repairs are made.

 

We were disappointed that many of the Christmas activities mentioned by John Heald did not happen. No caroling. No snow in the atrium. No "gifts for every child." Luckily, I did not tell my children about these activities so they didn't miss them. They had a Mardi Gras party (?!) in the atrium area on Christmas. No holiday trivia. No Christmas movies on the Dive In Theater. Very strange. Except for the decorations in the atrium and egg nog available in the Lido, it didn't seem very Christmas-y.

 

I'm not a "cheerleader", but I never thought I'd agree with the folks here who said that fixing up Destiny and turning her into Sunshine was "putting lipstick on a pig," but now that we have sailed on the Sunshine I have to agree with that assessment. Sunshine is bright and shiny, but there are too many underlying infrastructure problems that probably didn't get a passing thought in the "Sunshining" of the ship.

 

We were on this cruise also and your review is perfect, our experiences exactly. We however never eat in the mdr and yes the buffet was exactly as you described. Still not worth sitting for hours in the mdr for us, so we just dealt with it.

 

We did come across some buckets catching leaks and one leak near our room on lido port side that had no bucket but the spot on the carpet grew throughout the cruise, never saw a drip, just an increasingly larger spot on the floor. There was apparently another leak (hubby said they were fixing a leak, didn't ask how he knew) in our hall as there was drilling and a ladder set up outside our door for awhile. Not a huge deal, but since the links have become a topic....

 

We never noticed any sewer smells anywhere.

 

We never got a seat in Serenity, we just aren't into the chair race in the morning. The one time we thought there might be open seats and headed up there, the chairs were sopping wet.

 

I think our biggest complaint was the service just wasn't the same as on our 2 other cruises. We did seek out Alberto in the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar for our drinks. He was very friendly and frankly the only bartender that made drinks consistently good. We got the Cheers program and even though we didn't come close to breaking even, I'm glad we had it because it gave us a chance to try some new drinks, plus we had quite a few drinks that we just didn't drink because they were just not made correctly.

 

The layout on the Blue Iguana side was just as ridiculous. The line for Blue's goes down an aisle leading to the lido marketplace. Its just wide enough for 2 people, but with people standing in line it makes it a real pain for traffic coming in and out. I don't know how they could have thought that was an ok design. Just doesn't make sense.

 

While it might not sound like it, we still had a great time and we didn't let these issues ruin our vacation. But we will never sail the Sunshine again. Hoping the Dream will suit us better in September.

[OCruisers]

Lauren .... Thanks for your time to tell us about your Sunshine cruise.

DKF97 .... Also for your thoughts.

 

Seems most of the Sunshine reviews have been more negative than positive.

Like both of you, they've been by people who tried to be fair ... but were disappointed....

 

LuLu

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