Twice on the Breeze...now on the Sunshine. My thoughts...

[SportsMomof4]

The last 2 New Years our family of 6 sailed on the Breeze. This year due to the same itinerary we have done, we decided to change it up & go on the Sunshine for New Years.

 

I have to be honest, I was really hesitant about this ship after I booked it based on so many reviews here on CC. But I decided not to cancel it, go have a good time & form my own opinion. And that, I did. So, now that I cruised on it & I am back to tell some of you who are not sure whether to sail on the Breeze or Sunshine what I think.

 

I will start by saying it does NOT compare to the Breeze. Just to let you know that I had not 1 complaint about the Breeze. I heard people complain about the crew members, the food, the lines etc....I can't say 1 bad thing about anyone or anything on that ship. I don't have any major complaints about the Sunshine, just some cons but nothing bad.

 

The cons:

1) It looks smaller (I know it is) & it definitely feels smaller.

2) Our balcony, the window & the door were salt water corroded. This really disappointed me since we could barely see out of them. They did clean them on our last sea day which happened to be our last full day so we didn't benefit from the cleaning. Plus it really didn't help.

3) We were disappointed we didn't have a refrigerator as we like to keep water bottles in it. Before we cruised I inquired about a refrigerator. I could not get any straight answers as to which rooms have them & which don't as it is very random. I was in balcony room 9200, my girlfriend in balcony room 9186, my twins in interior room 9168 & none of us had a refrigerator. My son & his friends in interior room 9209 had one. Very random & scattered.

4) My 16 yo son was disappointed that the basketball court was a 1/2 court. Breeze has a full court.

5) Comedy club is definitely smaller.

6) 1 pool with 1500 kids not good!

7) The main lido deck is way too small. By 7 am on the last sea day EVERY single chair was taken around or near the pool. I never paid much attention to the chair hog policy but I guess Carnival doesn't follow thru with it? Because some chairs were "taken" but left empty for hours. I heard people complaining for hours about not being able to find lounge chairs.

8) Twice when we were at the lobby bar, someone (I would assume a kid) up above from deck 9 spit down & it landed on the bar right next to us. The bartender was very upset about this because she said it happens ALL the time & aside from keeping a security guard up there 24/7, nothing can be done about it.

 

The pros:

 

1) The serenity area is beautiful.

2) Waterworks is amazing.

3) The crew & especially our dinner staff were AMAZING (Elbert, Jimmy & Ernie in the Sunset dining room!)

4) Sportsquare

5) Epic Rock production show was great!

6) It's a Carnival cruise :)

7) The hand washing machines!

 

All in all, we had a fantastic time. We were on a cruise so how could we not? There was nothing major that would've ruined the trip but we will not be sailing on the Sunshine again. Too small & too crowded for us.

[Topo Gigio]

The last 2 New Years our family of 6 sailed on the Breeze. This year due to the same itinerary we have done, we decided to change it up & go on the Sunshine for New Years.

 

I have to be honest, I was really hesitant about this ship after I booked it based on so many reviews here on CC. But I decided not to cancel it, go have a good time & form my own opinion. And that, I did. So, now that I cruised on it & I am back to tell some of you who are not sure whether to sail on the Breeze or Sunshine what I think.

 

I will start by saying it does NOT compare to the Breeze. Just to let you know that I had not 1 complaint about the Breeze. I heard people complain about the crew members, the food, the lines etc....I can't say 1 bad thing about anyone or anything on that ship. I don't have any major complaints about the Sunshine, just some cons but nothing bad.

 

The cons:

1) It looks smaller (I know it is) & it definitely feels smaller.

2) Our balcony, the window & the door were salt water corroded. This really disappointed me since we could barely see out of them. They did clean them on our last sea day which happened to be our last full day so we didn't benefit from the cleaning. Plus it really didn't help.

3) We were disappointed we didn't have a refrigerator as we like to keep water bottles in it. Before we cruised I inquired about a refrigerator. I could not get any straight answers as to which rooms have them & which don't as it is very random. I was in balcony room 9200, my girlfriend in balcony room 9186, my twins in interior room 9168 & none of us had a refrigerator. My son & his friends in interior room 9209 had one. Very random & scattered.

4) My 16 yo son was disappointed that the basketball court was a 1/2 court. Breeze has a full court.

5) Comedy club is definitely smaller.

6) 1 pool with 1500 kids not good!

7) The main lido deck is way too small. By 7 am on the last sea day EVERY single chair was taken around or near the pool. I never paid much attention to the chair hog policy but I guess Carnival doesn't follow thru with it? Because some chairs were "taken" but left empty for hours. I heard people complaining for hours about not being able to find lounge chairs.

8) Twice when we were at the lobby bar, someone (I would assume a kid) up above from deck 9 spit down & it landed on the bar right next to us. The bartender was very upset about this because she said it happens ALL the time & aside from keeping a security guard up there 24/7, nothing can be done about it.

 

The pros:

 

1) The serenity area is beautiful.

2) Waterworks is amazing.

3) The crew & especially our dinner staff were AMAZING (Elbert, Jimmy & Ernie in the Sunset dining room!)

4) Sportsquare

5) Epic Rock production show was great!

6) It's a Carnival cruise :)

7) The hand washing machines!

 

All in all, we had a fantastic time. We were on a cruise so how could we not? There was nothing major that would've ruined the trip but we will not be sailing on the Sunshine again. Too small & too crowded for us.

 

Breeze is also my favorite Carnival ship. However when I sailed on the Sunshine last January, there were not so many kids on the ship and I think that it makes a huge difference. I still remember my Thx Giving cruise on the Dream with 1300 of them onboard. Last year I sailed the Eurodam over Thx Giving week and there were around 25 very well behaved kids/teenagers onboard.

[k2excursion]

Thanks for your report. It's nice to see a balanced & well thought out comparison of the 2 ships. How do the waterworks of the 2 ships compare? Are they pretty much equal, or is one better than the other?

[Frank12]

You are making me appreciate my decision of Breeze over Sunshine this spring!

[loveysbydesign]

Thanks for the comparison, we cruise on the Breeze in Nov. but I had also been looking at the Sunshine. We LOVED the Breeze as well, no complaints here!

[susieq76]

I love the Breeze as well- and we are on the Sunshine in March (basically because we only had one week off and we liked the itinerary). Glad to read your honest report.

[loveysbydesign]

Thanks for the comparison, we cruised on the Breeze in Nov. but I had also been looking at the Sunshine. We LOVED the Breeze as well, no complaints here!

oops should have said cruised in Nov.

[wareaglefan]

We head out on the Breeze in 10 days! I am so excited for this cruise, new class of ship for us and this is making me almost giddy! :D

[detroitlions]

Breeze is also my favorite Carnival ship. However when I sailed on the Sunshine last January, there were not so many kids on the ship and I think that it makes a huge difference. I still remember my Thx Giving cruise on the Dream with 1300 of them onboard. Last year I sailed the Eurodam over Thx Giving week and there were around 25 very well behaved kids/teenagers onboard.

That is what I tell all the people that cant stand kids on there cruise to go on HAL it is deffinaly for 70 and older crowd. I rather deal with kids personaly than old people they complain too much.

[CruisingSoon88]

We have sailed on both the Breeze and the Sunshine as well. The Breeze is our favorite ship mostly because of the spa. The kids also loved the theater. It is bigger and we do love our cove balconies. I will say that the Sunshine is our 2nd favorite. We had one of the new 2 room OS suites that used to be aft wraps and it was just the best room that we have ever had on any ship. We also LOVED Ji Ji's. The food was incredible. Overall the food on the Sunshine was the best of any of our cruises. Oddly the food on the Breeze was the worst. Hopefully our experience with the food will be better next month when we sail the Breeze for the second time. The Sunshine just never felt crowded to us. It may have been different since we were on an 11 day repositioning, but we just never encountered crowds any different than any other ship. We would not hesitate to go back on the Sunshine again.

[youagain]

Party of 9 going next NYE cruise . Do you get free champagne when you start the cruise and NYE too? Anything else special about NYE cruise? THANKS!

[golfb4cruzing]

To me Sunshine = Destiny and the Destiny was our worst cruise ever. Also it might seem small but a fridge is a must. Who heard of a balcony room without a fridge? Luckily our kids are grown and don't have to cruise to their schedules.