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

[TennesseeTater]

That's about it for the pictures so I'll try to wrap it up with some random odds and ends.

 

I stated earlier how crazy Embarkation was and it seem to take a couple days for things to finally establish a rhythm. A perfect example of this was on night one at 11:15 there is a knock our door and somebody says "Room Service!" We were already in bed and I open the door and a lady is standing there with the plate of Chocolate covered strawberries that Platinum and Diamond guests get. I tried to be polite but I'm pretty sure something to the effect of my kids are asleep and why on earth would you think delivering this at 11:15 at night is a good idea.

 

The next night around 9:30 they tried to deliver a Happy Birthday Cake to our room. They had the last name right, the first name was wrong, and the right cabin number, but it wasn't anybody's birthday. We declined the cake.

 

Also on the first day if you tried to order a drink you got several answers such as "we don't have that yet" Because the ship had been in dry dock not everything had been delivered to the correct places.

 

One bartender, Clark up at Serenity Bar, mentioned that they were short staffed and 200 employees signed on during the Freeport day. Not sure if that's true but it would explain a few things.

 

That being said I'm pretty sure those few things, with the nightmare of embarkation, are the only negatives we had. The staff was fantastic and really did go out of their way.

 

I'll wrap everything up in my next post.

[crusinpsychRN]

Saw parents with a very small child standing at the railing. The little girl was holding onto the top white rung and both feet went through the bottom railing. Parents did absolutely nothing. Several others told them she could fall overboard in an instant. Scary.

[TennesseeTater]

We stayed on the ship the whole cruise. Camp Carnival has baby sitting hours from 8-12 on port days for kids under 2 so we dropped the kids off and had a few hours to ourselves both days so I can't comment on the Ports. Although I'm pretty sure everybody knows about Nassau and Freeport so really no comment needed.

 

We had a spa balcony but never had time to use any of the spa amenities. I did go to the gym everyday and it was your standard modern cruise ship gym.

 

Debarkation was much better, although it's never easy leaving the ship. Having Priority Debarkation we met in the mid ship dining room around 6:15 and were off the ship and in the car heading home by 7 o'clock.

 

So what are my final thoughts on the Sunshine? I loved it. The ship definitely is not perfect and maybe if we had been by ourselves and tried to do comedy shows or stay up late my opinion may have been different. Yes there are lots of people onboard, no the ship isn't perfect, but would I book the ship again absolutely!

 

Thank you for reading my ramblings, if any of you are left. I'm happy to answer questions and until my next cruise in September on the Magic I can only look forward to seeing this again...

 

 

[TennesseeTater]

Saw parents with a very small child standing at the railing. The little girl was holding onto the top white rung and both feet went through the bottom railing. Parents did absolutely nothing. Several others told them she could fall overboard in an instant. Scary.

 

Unfortunately not every parent deserves parent of the year. Luckily our little guy wasn't interested in climbing the rails.

[tandemcruzr]

Have sailed the Sunshine out of Port Canaveral several times.

 

Nice review. Enjoyed your review. Great looking family. We know the problems out of Charleston. :(

[ttrmom]

keep going! leave on June 25 and loving all info!

 

Mikki

[TennesseeTater]

keep going! leave on June 25 and loving all info!

 

 

 

Mikki

 

 

I'm done but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. I don't see a lot of reviews on cruising with the younger kids so I wanted to contribute!

[luvs2beachit]

Thank you for posting your review. I didn't see it until today. Nice pictures and adorable kids. We leave on the Sunshine in 5 wks so really appreciated

all your comments and pictures.

[lovestocruise19]

Loved the picture you took behind the waterfall on Serenity deck. I'll have to take a picture like that myself! DH and I are going on a B2B on the Sunshine in January.

[TennesseeTater]

Thank you for posting your review. I didn't see it until today. Nice pictures and adorable kids. We leave on the Sunshine in 5 wks so really appreciated

 

all your comments and pictures.

 

 

Thank you. I really enjoyed the Sunshine and I hope you do as well!