Carnival Sunshine May 21st...Veteran cruisers first cruise with kids

[TennesseeTater]

10 years ago two young college grads decided to get married. 10 years later, after many cruises they decided to book a private anniversary trip for two aboard the Norwegian Getaway in a lovely spa balcony cabin with the all inclusive drink package. Now, as you can see by the title, that didn't happen. Due to circumstances beyond our control we had to cancel that cruise because neither of the grandparents could watch the children and finding a solid week for confirmed baby sitting was proving difficult. So doing what any husband would do in order to keep his cruising addiction alive said something to the effect of "lets take the kids, we started our family 10 years ago just the two of us, now let's celebrate with the 4 of us!" Most of that was a true statement, but maybe just a small part was just wanting to make sure a cruise happened :)

 

So there it was, our family Me, 31, DW 32, and our boys 6.5 and 19 months booked aboard the lovely, and often debated, Carnival Sunshine.

 

Due to the fact the kids kept us busy, I don't have a ton of pictures, and this won't be a detailed review, but I'll post some pictures, let you know our experience with the ship, and answer any questions that are brought up.

 

[TennesseeTater]

If you have ever cruised from Charleston you know that it's a...unique...port. This time was no different. The Sunshine was fresh off a 2 week dry dock, so we knew there were no passengers onboard when the ship arrived into Charleston. I'm originally from Charleston, and my family lives there so we are lucky enough to have a place to stay and somebody is able to drop us off. We woke up early on cruise day, checked the web cams (don't judge) and saw that the ship had arrived around 6 AM. Around 10:30 we decided to start the drive to the port and arrived around 11:15 and we waited..and waited...and then 12 o'clock hit...then 12:15. At this point thoughts of we don't have snacks for our kids (parent fail). At this point mild panic and frustration. Our 19 month old usually eats around noon and then goes straight down for a nap, we have no food, and there is no napping happening in the car.

 

Finally, around 12:50 they allow ship boarding but in Charleston you get out of your car, and get on a shuttle. Well it took us almost 20 minutes before we were on a shuttle, then we sat on the shuttle for almost 40 mins, then when we got off the shuttle there were about 150 people waiting to get into the building. Luckily they asked if anybody had Priority boarding, and bc we are Platinum I said we did, and they let us skip the line. We were through security and onboard around 2:30. I would like to say luckily there was an Angel on the shuttle and she saw us with our kids and gave us a huge serving of Goldfish crackers to give to the kids to help them. Parent fail for not having snacks but I never anticipated waiting 4 hours from the time we left the house to being onboard the ship!

 

After we got onboard we fed the kids and then nap time.

 

[TennesseeTater]

We had a Spa Balcony Cabin, 11026. For the most part the cabin was fantastic. we had a pull down bunk, the room steward made the couch into a bed just in case, and we also had a crib for the 19 month old. The cabin was only 4 doors down from the Serenity Deck pool, which was very nice. The only complaint was there was some sort of machine across the hall that made loud noises. The first three days of the cruise it was a non stop noise, and then the last few days I didn't notice it as much. It was just a loud hum/buzzing noise. It was very loud in the hallway, but just barely noticeable at night with the door closed. This cabin is also an adjoining cabin. I'd recommend this cabin and would book it again, but would caution anybody who is a light sleeper in case that loud machine noise is an issue.

 

We did have a mini fridge, but it was not emptied and still had alcohol/soft drinks. To my knowledge they are supposed to be emptied.

 

 

[TennesseeTater]

The Dining was, surprisingly, fantastic. My last few experiences in the dining room the food has been ok/good. Nothing to complain about but nothing wow'd me. This cruise was an exception. We chose Any Time dining and had the same table everynight. Our table was right next to a little staircase that the waiters all used. Every..Single...One of them would stop and spoil my 19 month old. He would stand in the booth and face them and they all would high five him, stop to talk or get a free hug from him. That alone was worth the price of the cruise seeing the crew's face as they interacted with him. All of our meals were served quickly and were very hot. I went with the Port of Call option and was impressed several nights with how delicious the food was.

 

They also spoiled him with extra dessert. One night they brought him brownies and I have never seen a human being physically devour food that quick.

 

 

 

 

 

[TennesseeTater]

I believe my 19 month old ate better than everybody else.

 

 

[TennesseeTater]

I'll touch on a few different subjects here. The first being Camp Carnival. Our Oldest Child absolutely loves Camp Carnival. This was his third cruise, but he calls it "boat school" He can pretty much go all day, everyday and be happy. Our 19 month old could only go a few times throughout the cruise and when he did go we were charged a "baby sitting fee" Our oldest child loves it so much he was in tears the last night when we picked him up because he didn't want to leave. The staff on the Sunshine were fantastic we could not have asked for anything different.

 

With that being said, when the kids were in Camp Carnival we were at Serenity. I'm sure everybody has seen the pictures of Serenity on the Sunshine and indeed it is as awesome as the pictures make it appear.

 

 

 

[TennesseeTater]

I'm going to make this a stopping point as at this point I don't know if anybody is following along. If you are, please let me know! If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer.

[Clarea]

Very nice photos, following.:)

[firstlady@22]

Please don't stop your review! We are leaving June 15th and need my cruise pre planning addiction fed! BTW your little guy is super cute so I can see why the crew enjoyed spoiling him!

[nicole9s]

Definitely following! Cruising on the Sunshine with a little next year, so I'm eager to hear more about the kids' experiences.

 

I see your son (both are adorable, btw) had mac and cheese in the one pic. Do you know if that was available every night in the MDR?

 

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[TennesseeTater]

Very nice photos, following.:)

 

Thank you. I guess I'll keep going!

[TennesseeTater]

Please don't stop your review! We are leaving June 15th and need my cruise pre planning addiction fed! BTW your little guy is super cute so I can see why the crew enjoyed spoiling him!

 

Thank you! We made "friends" with several bar waitresses and crew members that never would have normally had any interaction with us other than they wanted to see our kids. There were a couple bar waitresses that had different sections of the dining room but because of our table being where it was, would stop and talk to us several times during the course of dinner. It was really fun to see them with him. I've read from other reviews on Cruise Critic in the past about how great the crew is with the kids and it really is true. Many of them may have children at home that they don't see often so when the see the little ones onboard they really do go out of their way to spoil them.

[TennesseeTater]

Definitely following! Cruising on the Sunshine with a little next year, so I'm eager to hear more about the kids' experiences.

 

I see your son (both are adorable, btw) had mac and cheese in the one pic. Do you know if that was available every night in the MDR?

 

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I'll go into more detail about the kids experiences, but overall could not have asked for anything better...other than embarkation. I don't think it was listed on the menu every night but I'm pretty sure at least one ordered it every night and they brought it so if they want it, it will be delivered.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review and photos.

[csharp419]

Following. We leave on the sunshine June 15. We have a 7year old and a 4.5 year old.

 

 

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[meatloafsfan]

Great start to your review.

 

your kids are adorable!

 

One question about the shuttles at the port - did you happen to notice if they were wheelchair accessible? I am assuming they are but......:o

[reerun25]

Really enjoying your review so far!! We were on the same sailing, so nice to see another perspective and opinions!

[crusinpsychRN]

Sailed early April. There was so much I missed.

[beacha]

Following...thanks for the report. Sailing Sunshine June 10

[TennesseeTater]

Great start to your review.

 

your kids are adorable!

 

One question about the shuttles at the port - did you happen to notice if they were wheelchair accessible? I am assuming they are but......:o

 

Thanks! Most of the shuttles that I saw this trip were the big Coach style buses. In my past experience in Charleston they had the smaller buses. I did see a few of the smaller ones this time but mostly coach buses. I can't confirm if the smaller ones are wheelchair accessible but they would be easier than the larger Coach style ones.

[TennesseeTater]

Really enjoying your review so far!! We were on the same sailing, so nice to see another perspective and opinions!

 

Please feel free to chime in if you have anything to add on your experience. I also like to hear the other side :D

[TennesseeTater]

Ok, thanks to all who have commented, now that I know I'm not talking to myself I'll keep the review going.

 

We spent a lot of time out on the open decks. Our 19 month old couldn't go to Camp Carnival, except for a few times, and he's not potty trained so he couldn't go into the pools or to Water Works. We spent a lot of time on the sports square area playing putt putt and just walking around. We also bribed our 6 year old, because we are good parents and bribery works best, into doing the ropes course. He says he will never do it again.

 

 

 

 

[TennesseeTater]

Even though we probably didn't get our money's worth we had signed up for the new Cheers Package. We weren't planning on this being a wild and crazy cruise with the kids being with us, but we definitely enjoyed the new options. We had coffee from the Havana Bar every morning, visited the coffee shop near Ocean Plaza a few times, had some drinks throughout the day and loved being able to grab a bottle of water if we needed them.

 

Not that this is relevant but my favorite drinks are Thirsty Frog Beer, the Twilight Zone, The Basil drop from Alchemy and I just discovered the Deal Closer from Alchemy. My wife also found out she loves ginger beer and rum. If you haven't had these drinks before please do yourself a favor and try them on your next cruise.

 

Our favorite places to visit were the Lobby Bar, alchemy, and the red frog pub. Red Frog was very family friendly and we had no problems bringing the kids in there.

 

 

 

 

Also, if you are wondering why I mostly have pictures of my little one and not my older one. It's not that I don't love my older child, he was just at camp carnival as much as he could and he just wasn't around as much. He also hates his picture taken and wants us to delete any and all evidence when we take his picture most of the time.

Edited May 30, 2016 by TennesseeTater

[TennesseeTater]

We signed up and attended the Dr Seuss Breakfast. My wife and I had tried it before on our last cruise (without the kids) but we wanted to try it with the children. Our little guy pretty much didn't care and just enjoyed his breakfast. Our 6 year old loved it, loved taking pictures with the Characters and getting their "autograph"

 

 

 

 

[TennesseeTater]

For those cruising with kids on the Sunshine there is a small playground that can be used for any age. It has a pirate ship that kids can climb all over, a see saw (or teeter totter depending on where you're from) and a slide.

 

 

Edited May 30, 2016 by TennesseeTater