Carnival Sunshine: Curacao, Aruba and Grand Turk short review

[crusinpsychRN]

Food in MDR was hit or miss. Great prime rib last sea day. But the baked potato wasn't hot. The panko covered bass was horrible.

 

No butter knife, only a fork and a knife! No spoon unless you got soup or asked for one. My water carafe always sat in a thing to stop the dripping all over.

 

Playlist shows audio was off and no lighting on the singers so they stood in the dark.

 

Finding Limelight was not easy. Very small. Ocean Plaza was freezing! Fun trivia.

[nc2sc]

Food in MDR was hit or miss. .

 

That was my take as well. I think we would still be chewing the first night's calamari today if we didn't give up and spit it out. I had a couple of fried items throughout the week, and decided that they were just not able to do those well.

 

There were also odd presentation problems, like a shrimp shell on a dessert plate.

 

For the most part, however, the dishes were great. The salmon and mahi were great. Any beef dish I ordered was excellent. Most of the side veggies were enjoyable as well.

Desserts were mostly good. A couple of nights, the menu conspired against us, and we ordered banana splits or cookies off the kids menu.

[crusinpsychRN]

Prime rib the last night was very good. Too bad I couldn't eat it since I was one of the many who got the cold/flu symptoms. I was with a group of over 240 fb friends and a majority of us are sick now.

 

Waiter told me he has 32 seats in MDR to care for.

[bubbles4ever]

Just off Sunshine as well, not real impressed, they did a makeover -- (2.0 conversion) ... guess that was ok, but from I have read before sailing, it was revamped to hold more people ... not a good thing ... We was on the 8 day sailing, with 3 ports, 4 cruise days , only 2 small pools, 1 hot tub on serenity deck, the other 2 hot tubs continually filled with children, very small lounge for the comedy club, ( this is one of our favorite things on other ships) . This ship is not meant for this sailing with 4 seadays .. ( they didn't have seaday brunch on 1 day)... live and learn i guess.. a 7 day with 4 ports may do well on this ship .. ports were nice, and sun off the coast of Venezuela is real hot ..

Our take is it seemed way to crowded, we had our time dining with a check in at the Taste bar, ( they had you wait there if needed ) which is a good thing, instead of waiting out front by elevators, They should post the menu there, and then you can decide if it is there, or another restaurant ( Italian is the best ) ..

Buffet is way sub-par to any other carnival ship, deli is good as always, pizza was always burnt on bottom, table cloths only on formal nights, when they serve dessert, by then there is sweat rings from ice water, sodas, etc, then they put your silverware for dessert on a dirty table .. not a good thing..

Sunshine was our least favorite Carnival ship

Took the words out of my mouth, I feel they sacrificed public space to add more cabins. Also whatever you do DON"T book a cabin on deck 6 foward...you're above the Liquid lounge and turns into a nightclub that goes until anywhere from 1 am-4am. So unless you're a night owl or very heavy sleeper this is not the area for you. Offered an upgrade from deck 2 to this deck and didn't know about the night club thing. After 2 am I went down to guest services and asked about a possible move. They moved us back to our original cabin, I'm glad they were able to because I wouldn't have been able to handle that for the next 8 days.

[cruiser fanatic]

Glad you had a good time. I agree with you on the food on the Dream. The food was lukewarm and didn't taste good every night. Sunshine and Freedom have the best food in the fleet IMO.

[chewie8008]

Yeah. Which seems weird to me. You would think all the ships food would be similar. Kind of like, McDonald's is McDonald's etc etc. Huge difference between the food quality on Sunshine and Dream.

 

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[tkabrk]

My husband and I were on this sailing as well. We felt it was one of the best cruises we have ever been on and we have been on quite a few. The ship, our room, the food, the itinerary and the great group of friends we met made for a fantastic experience.

 

 

 

Prime rib the last night was very good. Too bad I couldn't eat it since I was one of the many who got the cold/flu symptoms. I was with a group of over 240 fb friends and a majority of us are sick now.

 

Waiter told me he has 32 seats in MDR to care for.

[chewie8008]

My husband and I were on this sailing as well. We felt it was one of the best cruises we have ever been on and we have been on quite a few. The ship, our room, the food, the itinerary and the great group of friends we met made for a fantastic experience.

I was beginning to think I was the only one. Although I understand some of the crowding complaints with Sunshine, it was still one of my best experiences. I've been on two older Royal Caribbean ships (monarch and sovereign) and two "newer" carnival ships, sunshine and dream. I don't feel like there are many differences in the companies but I feel like(in my experiences) that Royal excels in the MDR and Carnival excels in overall entertainment (not necessarily shows, just overall activities). Royal seemed to be asleep by 8pm and Carnival was still active at 11pm

 

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[Micahs Grandad]

Prime rib the last night was very good. Too bad I couldn't eat it since I was one of the many who got the cold/flu symptoms. I was with a group of over 240 fb friends and a majority of us are sick now.

 

Waiter told me he has 32 seats in MDR to care for.

 

Wow 32 seats. Unless their section is right outside the galley know way service could be good.

[Micahs Grandad]

Took the words out of my mouth, I feel they sacrificed public space to add more cabins. Also whatever you do DON"T book a cabin on deck 6 foward...you're above the Liquid lounge and turns into a nightclub that goes until anywhere from 1 am-4am. So unless you're a night owl or very heavy sleeper this is not the area for you. Offered an upgrade from deck 2 to this deck and didn't know about the night club thing. After 2 am I went down to guest services and asked about a possible move. They moved us back to our original cabin, I'm glad they were able to because I wouldn't have been able to handle that for the next 8 days.

 

Everyone says comedy club is way too small and you have to get there way early to find a seat. Luckily lots of other ships in the CCL fleet.

[chewie8008]

Wiki lists the capacity of Sunshine at 3,006. People that I was with said they heard the announced count as 3,700 ppl onboard. That seemed unrealistic so I asked Donkey and he did say there was 3,600 onboard. That's a lot of people over the max. Only thing I could think was that the 3,006 count is passengers only capacity and the 3,600 was counting crew members also?

 

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[kay1864]

Wiki lists the capacity of Sunshine at 3,006. People that I was with said they heard the announced count as 3,700 ppl onboard. That seemed unrealistic so I asked Donkey and he did say there was 3,600 onboard. That's a lot of people over the max. Only thing I could think was that the 3,006 count is passengers only capacity and the 3,600 was counting crew members also?

Carnival's site lists Sunshine pax capacity is 3002 and 1040 crew.

 

No way can they have 3600 pax on board, it would violate Coast Guard regulations. He must have been including the crew.

[bobsfamily]

Everyone says comedy club is way too small and you have to get there way early to find a seat. Luckily lots of other ships in the CCL fleet.

The couple of times we have tried the comedy club (on other Carnival ships) it just did not fit with us... either it was just vulgar (late night) or I guess just being rude/cussing is supposed to be funny? Not funny, not enjoyable so for us the "small" comedy club will be no problem!

[chewie8008]

Carnival's site lists Sunshine pax capacity is 3002 and 1040 crew.

 

No way can they have 3600 pax on board, it would violate Coast Guard regulations. He must have been including the crew.

Yeah, that makes sense.

 

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[Micahs Grandad]

The couple of times we have tried the comedy club (on other Carnival ships) it just did not fit with us... either it was just vulgar (late night) or I guess just being rude/cussing is supposed to be funny? Not funny, not enjoyable so for us the "small" comedy club will be no problem!

 

You ought to try the family shows. The adult ones can be very funny. The better comedians can be adult without being vulgar.

 

However when so many of your customers cannot get in to see the shows something is very wrong.

[luv2trvlnow]

Carnival's site lists Sunshine pax capacity is 3002 and 1040 crew.

 

No way can they have 3600 pax on board, it would violate Coast Guard regulations. He must have been including the crew.

 

Wiki lists the capacity of Sunshine at 3,006. People that I was with said they heard the announced count as 3,700 ppl onboard. That seemed unrealistic so I asked Donkey and he did say there was 3,600 onboard. That's a lot of people over the max. Only thing I could think was that the 3,006 count is passengers only capacity and the 3,600 was counting crew members also?

 

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Oh yes there could be 3600 passengers. Because that 3006 is double occupancy. Carnival always lists double occupancy and Wiki uses that. There are cabins that can hold more than 2. So there could be more onboard. According to this site double occupancy is 3006, but the maximum occupancy is 3758, with a crew of 1040:

 

http://www.cruisetimetables.com/cruise-ship-carnival-sunshine.html

[chewie8008]

Considering we had 5 in our room, you're probably right lol

 

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[bobsfamily]

You ought to try the family shows. The adult ones can be very funny. The better comedians can be adult without being vulgar.

We've tried both on several occasions, we are not prudes and love good comedy, I just don't think the acts on Carnival are worth any wait. Basically if I happened by and it's available I might sit for a bit but most likely not... to many other fun things to do... again to each to his own.

 

But in our case they could take out the club and add casino space, or an indoor pool/adult area... maybe something completely different. Maybe a 100 seat movie theater?

Edited April 19, 2016 by bobsfamily

[LMaxwell]

Oh yes there could be 3600 passengers. Because that 3006 is double occupancy. Carnival always lists double occupancy and Wiki uses that. There are cabins that can hold more than 2. So there could be more onboard. According to this site double occupancy is 3006, but the maximum occupancy is 3758, with a crew of 1040:

 

http://www.cruisetimetables.com/cruise-ship-carnival-sunshine.html

Correct. That's why a ship can be sold out and feel empty and other times there could be empty cabins and the ship is elbow to elbow, because of so many 3rd and 4th berths filled. Typically maximum occupancy is around 112% of full dbl occupancy but nowadays they are pressing it to 120% and more.

[Jimmy Geegitz]

We love the Sunshine. Going again in 10days. The crowds can be avoided by adjusting the times to avoid the crowd. Hit the lido deck after 1 pm. Early Comedy etc.. We also thought the food was great. Lots of choices.

[lauren0309]

Just got off the Sunshine as well. Here is my take on it.

 

We didn't feel it any more crowded than any other ship we've been on. It was only crowded in the main area when there was something going on in the main atrium. There were always seats to find in the pool area. We enjoyed the comedy shows, and Epic Rock and the Motown show. Stage was dark though and lighting bad. We played a lot of trivia in Ocean Plaza but I was always freezing in there. The cruise director Donkey was great. Had a lot of energy!

 

Food was just o.k. No more tablecloths on the tables and other posters mentioned, and also a lack of silverware. While there were plenty of eating stations besides the buffet, we found the buffet lacking in choices of food.

 

A lot of times we noticed a sewer smell in the hallways.

 

A large amount of our FB people came home sick with flu symptoms so there is something going around the ship making all these people sick. Also a lot of complaints of fume smells in some cabins. Glad I was one of the lucky ones that didn't get sick.

 

Out of all the ships I've been on, this one impressed me the least. Still my favorite ship was Oasis class ship, Allure of the Seas on Royal Caribbean. It was like no other ship I've ever been on.

Edited April 19, 2016 by lauren0309

[chewie8008]

Working on pictures :(

 

Edited April 21, 2016 by chewie8008
Trying to figure out best way to post pics

[chewie8008]

Working on pictures :(

 

Not sure what I'm doing wrong. I've tried clicking the "insert image" icon and inserting a link within that from both Flickr and Imgur.

I get this...

 

 

I've tried 1024x768 and 800x600 with no luck.

 

I've tried just simply posting the direct image url in the message and it just gives a link.

 

What am I missing?

[chewie8008]

 

 

 

 

Automatic hand washing machine. Never seen one of those before...

 

 

[chewie8008]

Piano Bar

 

 

Liquid Lounge

 

 

Cruise Director, Donkey

 

 

 

 

Up-charge. Never ate there, but it looked nice.