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Why all the Carnival Sunshine hate? Should I avoid it?


dulcemariamar
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We just got off the Sunshine on Saturday. Quite honestly, we really enjoyed the ship. Is it a bit choppy? Yes, but I'll credit them, we really enjoyed a lot of the new areas, and once you got used to the layout, it was fine.

 

 

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We were on Sunshine 13/11/15 and loved it :), it was our 1st time on a carnival ship, we would love to go on her again.

The food, cabin and staff were great. we had so much fun.

 

Congrats on your 1st post on CC, glad you had a wonderful cruise.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Or maybe the "bashers" have better things to do than argue with strangers on the internet about something that is a matter of personal preferences. I personally prefer not to have the carpet in my cabin soaked with water during my cruise but maybe others don't mind. It's not worth arguing over IMO.

 

Funny that when people who sail the ship come on and post their positive comments the Bashers disappear. Go figure.
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We just got off the Sunshine on Saturday. Quite honestly, we really enjoyed the ship. Is it a bit choppy? Yes, but I'll credit them, we really enjoyed a lot of the new areas, and once you got used to the layout, it was fine.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Any hints on the layout?

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Or maybe the "bashers" have better things to do than argue with strangers on the internet about something that is a matter of personal preferences. I personally prefer not to have the carpet in my cabin soaked with water during my cruise but maybe others don't mind. It's not worth arguing over IMO.

 

 

All of which begs the question, have you sailed on the Sunshine?

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We sailed in the Med on Sunshine shortly have she came out of renovations.

There were still some issue caused by the construction (a leak here and there), a slide that wasn't yest open.

None of that bothered us in the least. We've lived with our own construction issues enough (both at work and home) to know that not everything goes smoothly or on schedule.

 

Aside from that type of problem, we totally enjoyed our cruise. Would that have been the case if our reason for booking was the ship rather than the itinerary? Couldn't say, since that's not our criteria. I know that everything else was fine, for us. We never made reservations and I don't remember having any issue with waiting to be seated for dinner (we had more waiting on a recent Princess cruise), but then, what's the big deal having to wait a few minutes? It's rare to not have to wait at a busy land restaurant.

I can't address anything related to the poo, since we avoid ship's pools like the plague.

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Or maybe the "bashers" have better things to do than argue with strangers on the internet about something that is a matter of personal preferences. I personally prefer not to have the carpet in my cabin soaked with water during my cruise but maybe others don't mind. It's not worth arguing over IMO.

 

I wanted to follow up again on your post, commenting on mine. First of all, commenting on each others posts and experiences here is what we do and a big part of why this site works. Of course, we are all strangers (at least the vast majority of us). I do not view it as arguing but open, frank discussion. Bashing, not so much so, and it was to that I was making reference to.

 

My comments were in reference to people who have never sailed on the ship bashing it, most of which have an agenda in doing so. I was commenting that the vast majority of people who have sailed the ship, enjoy it, so much so that if you look at the main page, the Sunshine is listed in the top ten large cruise ships.

 

We have sailed her, several times when she was the Destiny (once the largest ship at sea) and again this past August. I can tell you she far exceeded our expectations and of our group as well who at times can be picky. Does the Sunshine have faults? sure she does every cruise ship does. That being said, she most certainly has many assets. I can tell you that we felt no more crowded on her than any other Carnival ship.

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I sailed on her last year. I had a good cruise but I didn't like many of the renovations. In particular the addition of the cabins on deck 3 forward, it results in the Lobby area being dead. There is no access to the theater, so no reason to hang out there.

 

I didn't like the removal theater seating on deck four and replacing them with moveable chairs. It's impossible to get a bar waiter and if you do there are no tables to put a drink on.

 

I don't see the point of having a Red Frog pub on any ship that can't produce Pub Grub.

 

I wouldn't sail on her again unless it was free.

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I was just on the 11-night Journeys sailings from Port Canaveral to San Juan, Carnival cruise #24. Yes, it took a little getting used to the layout. I kept forgetting that we could actually go forward to aft on Deck 4, which was a nice change!

 

I didn't find the public areas to be any more crowded than any other ship. Granted, there were very few kids on the ship, so I imagine we weren't at max capacity (although we were technically sold out). I don't typically "do" the regular buffet but didn't find any of the mass food venue to have longer lines than any other sailing.

 

I don't go to comedy shows so can't comment on crowding. The one show I attended (Marcus Anthony) wasn't full, and he's very good.

 

This was a Premier casino cruise and the casino wasn't even as crowded as it was on Splendor to Bermuda on 10/23.

 

The internet was plenty fast enough, although I wasn't trying to stream music or video, just internet browsing and uploading photos.

 

Would I sail her again? Yep. I don't sail for the ship. I sail for the itinerary. So, if I found an itinerary at a price point I was willing to pay on Sunshine, I would certainly book it.

 

I write reviews of all my cruises (currently trying to finish up my Sunshine review). I try to be objective. I'm a pretty particular person, but I do my best to relax and not freak out over every little thing that might not be perfect on my cruise. People were having meltdowns the first night because they couldn't apply their gift cards to their S&S (it was fixed late that first night). I just waited until the next day. No big deal. I certainly wasn't going to stand at the service desk and shout at the people who were doing their best to help. Life is too short.

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All of which begs the question, have you sailed on the Sunshine?

 

I have and he is dead on. We had our toilet overflow two nights in a row (both times after midnight when we returned to our stateroom to turn in for the evening) and discovered numerous others were having plumbing issues.

 

Another guest ended up getting the entire carpet in her stateroom replaced while ashore in San Juan because a pipe burst and flooded her stateroom.

 

There were buckets in the hallways constantly. No need to decorate your door to remember where your stateroom was - just look for your bucket.

 

Many people have had bad experiences with the actual ship, not the features, not the staff, and not for any of the silly reasons we see people post that "ruined" their cruises. Relaying plumbing, air conditioning, layout, and other issues are things that people probably need to be aware of before they board and therefore are prepared if they encounter some of these same issues.

 

We absolutely adored all the new features and will miss a great many of them on our next cruise as the Valor has not had the 2.0 upgrade yet. However, we will not consider sailing on the Sunshine again until she is put in drydock and gets her plumbing and air conditioning upgraded. I'd rather have a cruise sans Alchemy Bar, Guys, Havana Bar, etc. than to have to deal with many of the issues we dealt with on the Sunshine.

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I sailed on the Sunshine in Sept 2014, and I had a great time. And I would sail on the Sunshine again, I just would choose a different cabin location. The cabin itself was nice, and everything was in good condition, just the location was not as good for me.

 

We had a spa balcony on deck 12. There are only two elevators that service decks 11 & 12, and the wait can be rather long. I've had knee surgery, otherwise I would have taken the stairs, but doing so would have caused too much pain.

 

I would go on the Sunshine again without hesitation!!

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I have and he is dead on. We had our toilet overflow two nights in a row (both times after midnight when we returned to our stateroom to turn in for the evening) and discovered numerous others were having plumbing issues.

 

Another guest ended up getting the entire carpet in her stateroom replaced while ashore in San Juan because a pipe burst and flooded her stateroom.

 

There were buckets in the hallways constantly. No need to decorate your door to remember where your stateroom was - just look for your bucket.

 

Many people have had bad experiences with the actual ship, not the features, not the staff, and not for any of the silly reasons we see people post that "ruined" their cruises. Relaying plumbing, air conditioning, layout, and other issues are things that people probably need to be aware of before they board and therefore are prepared if they encounter some of these same issues.

 

We absolutely adored all the new features and will miss a great many of them on our next cruise as the Valor has not had the 2.0 upgrade yet. However, we will not consider sailing on the Sunshine again until she is put in drydock and gets her plumbing and air conditioning upgraded. I'd rather have a cruise sans Alchemy Bar, Guys, Havana Bar, etc. than to have to deal with many of the issues we dealt with on the Sunshine.

 

How long ago did you sail the Sunshine? I'm hoping they have these issues straightened out. :(

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How long ago did you sail the Sunshine? I'm hoping they have these issues straightened out. :(

 

 

You'll be just fine summer. We did the inaugural New Orleans cruise on her and earlier this year out of PC. The bucket thing, which did exist after her transformation was non existent on both cruises. We had a very large group and no one experienced any plumbing issues. Enjoy your cruise. Beautiful ship!

Edited by Podna's
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Or maybe the "bashers" have better things to do than argue with strangers on the internet about something that is a matter of personal preferences.

 

LOL:D You've been using the internet at least since 2007 so you know this is far from the truth. Who you foolin'?

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You'll be just fine summer. We did the inaugural New Orleans cruise on her and earlier this year out of PC. The bucket thing' date=' which did exist after her transformation was non existent on both cruises. We had a very large group and no one experienced any plumbing issues. Enjoy your cruise. Beautiful ship![/quote']

 

Thanks for the reassurances :D We're really looking forward to it!

 

What's funny is that even for the Queens of Cunard there are those who cannot be pleased :D (and yes .... before some of you folks' fingers hit the keys in reply .... plumbing and AC are valid problems should the occur on any ship ) ;)

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The Sunshine is currently my favorite ship, and we sailed when she was in Europe and supposedly had all kinds of problems. If I had to choose between two ships going on the same itinerary during the time I wanted to go and one of them was the Sunshine, I would almost assuredly choose Sunshine over another ship.

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That can be easily answered by looking at my signature.

 

I looked at your signature and found not only have you sailed on the Sunshine (current approval rating of 60%, down from 63%)

but you wrote a review and posted some very nice pictures. I too have signatures turned off but I know if I click on a user name, then click on view public profile I can see signatures, just 2 easy clicks...

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I looked at your signature and found not only have you sailed on the Sunshine (current approval rating of 60%, down from 63%)

but you wrote a review and posted some very nice pictures. I too have signatures turned off but I know if I click on a user name, then click on view public profile I can see signatures, just 2 easy clicks...

 

 

I think I understand the way it works, but thanks for the lesson. Nice to know that we all try and help each other. Also interesting that while down a few points overall her approval rating is not bad, in fact good. Huh, again go figure and I did not see mention of Huddersfield of buckets that you could claim as your own as mentioned. Makes me wonder........

Edited by jimbo5544
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