Carnival Sunshine 5 day review

[mikem1977]

Just got off the Sunshine last Friday and it was an amazing cruise. Our best family vacation ever :D. Most of our pictures are of the kids so I will just post highlights:

 

Raddison Resort at the port- Excellent hotel for pre-cruise, however just a word of caution. Do not turn the jets from the Jacuzzi tub on before the tub is filled. Our youngest did and needless to say our entire room turned into a waterpark.

 

Cabin room- 2181 and 2185. Decent cabins and our Room Steward was excellent, especially considering he had to deal with one cabin with 4 kids. There is definitely a Stale urine sewage smell in the bathrooms though that we could not get rid of. Nothing that would ruin a vacation, just had to keep the lid down on the toilet.

 

Aft sunrise restaraunt- Stay far far far away from if you have any form of motion sickness. We ate there the first night and were put in the far back of the room by the windows and didnt make it through dinner. Even my oldest who has never had any motion sickness got sick. We ended up switching our dining to the midship sunset and had no issues.

 

Guys burgers- Amazing.

 

Blue iguana- Great breakfast burritos and lunch burritos however some of the watermelon that they put out was definitely past its shelf life so make sure to look at the pieces before eating.

 

Ji Ji's asian kitchen- Excellent food and service. Only food that wasn't excellent was the Fried potatoes and the Singapore chili shrimp. Sake Sangria was amazing.

 

Cucina Del Capitano- Meh, don't waste the money. Same kind of "italian" you would find at Fazolis or Old Spaghetti Restaraunt. We ordered the Carbonara and it came with only three very small and thin slices of Proscuitto for the meat, all the rest was spaghetti and alfredo sauce. Not worth the extra charge.

 

Faranheit 555 steakhouse- Well worth the money. Every bite was amazing and the Cheesecake was heavenly.

 

Dining room food- Just ok this cruise, nothing great which was why we ended up eating at specialty restaraunts.

 

Limelight Comedy Show- Only went to one but get there really early. We got there 35 minutes before the show and only seats available were in the way back, even though there were "reserved" open seats at the bar. Also they left the doors open for the whole show so people were walking back and forth through the lounge during the show, was a little annoying.

 

Piano Bar- Definitely a good time, especially when the piano players husband came in to do duets.

 

Red frog rum pub- A cool spot to hang out but was barely used during the cruise.

 

Ocean plaza- Great 80's cover band to sit and listen to at night.

 

Alchemy bar- Great drinks but not a good place to hang out unless there is a show at ocean plaza.

 

Taste bar- Nothing great at night but good location for breakfast snacks.

 

Dive in movies- Great time but blanket was definitely a plus at night.

 

Serenity- Holy chair hogs, wow. Both sea days we were up at Serenity by 8 am and around 99 percent of the chairs, clamshells, loungers, etc... had towels on them but very few people. We sat and watched two prime loungers with towels only on them for 2.5 hours. Even though it is the largest serenity area it was always packed on sea days.

 

Anytime dining- Disaster, the first night we had a 40 minute wait for a table of 6. On elegant night there were people waiting almost an hour (luckily we were on scheduled dining this night after switching dining rooms)

 

Havana bar- Did not see it used much at night for dancing

 

Epic rock- Awesome show, just get there early.

 

Camp Carnival 9-11 area- Very kiddish, our two youngest went for one night and never went back again.

 

Circle C- Great program, our two oldest made great friends and barely ever came back to the room except to sleep.

 

Grand Turk- We did the ultimate snorkeling adventure which was hit, the kids are still talking about how they got to pet a nurse shark.

 

Nassau- We just went to Junkanoo beach for a couple hours and then came back on the ship.

 

FTTF- Did not seem like it was needed as we arrived at the port at 11 am and they were already boarding priority 9. However for guest services it was very nice as there were many times the regular line was 10-20 people deep.

 

Debarkation- Wow, they are ready for you to get off the ship, by 8 am they were already calling deck 2 self assist.

 

It was a great cruise, I only wish I had as much energy on the cruise as Jamie Dee the cruise director. It seemed like she was always hopped up on red bull but it made the Lido Parties fun.

 

Any questions feel free to ask.

[CruisingwithAutism]

Did your kids enjoy the Waterworks and Sports square areas?

Did you try Bonsai sushi?

Sea day brunch- was that in the aft dining room that you felt all the motion in?

Thanks for your review- we are cruising the Sunshine in May!

Merry Christmas,

Kelly

[mikem1977]

Hi Kelly,

The kids only did waterworks twice because the water was really cold but they said they really liked it and the speedway slides were fast.

 

Our youngest was always up on SportsSquare playing basketball and it seemed there were always teens up there hanging out or playing the games.

 

Bonsai Sushi was the one place we did not try. Kept saying we wanted to but never got a chance.

 

Seaday brunch is in the AFT dining room so we didn't go but the Dr Suess brunch is in the midship dining room.

 

The dining room I would have to say was the most dissapointing, I wish that Brunch (not the pay Dr Suess) was offered in the mid ship dining room for those that are a little queasy in the AFT.

[CruisersNC]

Our son was on that cruise and said the Bonsai Sushi was excellent!

[TomsKim]

Thank you for the review. I'm getting ready to sail on the sunshine, leaving on January 3rd. Really looking forward to it!

[firsttimecruiser9876]

Hi! I recall that you said you sailed Fascination and you were scheduled to sail Sunshine, so I was interested in your quick comparison of the two....

[normanb]

We are doing the 5 night next month. Do you have the Fun Times for that cruise by chance? Thanks

[pirate4me2]

Thank you for posting a mini review, sounds like you had a great trip!

[daniella1279]

We are doing the 5 night next month. Do you have the Fun Times for that cruise by chance? Thanks

 

 

Are you going on the 2/15 sailing?

 

 

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[normanb]

Yes, we are doing the 2/15 sailing.

[daniella1279]

Yes, we are doing the 2/15 sailing.

 

 

And your from RI? That's where we live! I would say come join our roll call but not much is going on over there.

 

 

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[mikem1977]

Hi! I recall that you said you sailed Fascination and you were scheduled to sail Sunshine, so I was interested in your quick comparison of the two....

 

Hi there,

Sorry for just getting back to you now. Been a busy week. Below is a quick comparison of the two ships:

 

MDR Food- Fascination was better, sunshine dinner was not that great

 

Lido Deck- Sunshine way better, more activities plus the Big Screen TV

 

Bar choices- Sunshine blows the Fascination away

 

Food other then MDR- Sunshine obviously takes the cake here with all the extra food choices

 

Serenity- Sunshine has a nicer serenity but it was more crowded than Fascinations

 

Cruise Director- Jamie Dee hands down, she made the sunshine fun

 

Shows- They both have the same shows except for Sunshine has Epic Rock which was Epic

 

Piano Bar- Sunshine was much better

 

Thats all I can think of right now. The Fascination was an "ok" ship to start out with but the Sunshine is much nicer. If price was a comparison I would probably say I would be ok paying between 100-200 dollars more per person for the Sunshine over Fascination.

[mikem1977]

We are doing the 5 night next month. Do you have the Fun Times for that cruise by chance? Thanks

 

I will look in our suitcases tonight and see if we kept them.

[normanb]

Yes, we are from Newport RI. We have a group of 18 going on the Sunshine on Feb. 15th. Can't wait!

[daniella1279]

Awesome Normanb! Hope your groups has a great trip. We are from Warwick.

 

Would you happen to know when elegant night is on our trip?

Danielle

 

 

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[LV0110]

Sailing on Sunshine Jan 31 - thanks to everyone for all the great info.

[normanb]

I don't know which is the elegant night on the five night cruise. We were wondering the same. We were also looking for the Fun Times.