Carnival Sunshine Cruise March 4-12, 2017

[moondog73]

This may a be a bit long but it accurately highlights our trip.

A group of 9 of us just returned from the Southern CaribbeanSunshine cruise from March 4-12, 2017. We had ports of Aruba, Curacao, and Grand Turk. We drove from KY and arrived the night beforein Port Canaveral. We stayed atResidence Inn at the Port and used their shuttle service to/from the ship. Everything worked smoothly.

Embarkation day:

We took a 10am shuttle to the port. Traffic was backed up from several large tourbuses unloading. Our shuttle driver madethe decision to drop us and our luggage off in the garage. She said it would save us at least 30minutes. Off the shuttle we went and upthe ramps into the terminal. We had11-11:30 check in time also with Faster to the Fun (FTTF). There really was not a line so check in wasvery quick. The terminal was packed. Not sure why we had to choose a check in timeif they let everyone in no matter what time they chose. We had to wait until around 12:30 toboard. Once on board, the wives and kidsheaded to the Havana Bar to get lunch. The guys dropped luggage off at our rooms, hit the excursion desk toorder Behind the Fun Tour, and then to guest services to inquire aboutalternative muster station for my parents since they have some health issues. I got my first drink using the Cheers packageat the atrium bar. All went off withouta hitch.

Room & Steward

We had room 9124 (others in our party had 9122 and9111). If you don’t know these are theScenic and Grand Scenic Ocean View rooms above the bridge. They did not disappoint. The entire back wall was one largewindow. It had an electric shade that wecould lower. Most nights, we left theshade up so we could see out. HavingFTTF, all of our rooms were ready. Oursteward, Mr Z, did a great job all week making sure our room was clean. He did introduce himself and had us choosemorning, evening, or both for servicing the room. We chose morning. No need in having him come twice a day. A lot of people complain about this. I just do not see the big deal. Maybe if most people weren’t slobs, theywould not need the room cleaned multiple times per day. Our room did have a small refrigerator. We kept the closet door propped open slightlyso it kept drinks nice and cool.

FTTF

All 3 rooms had FTTF. I know lots of people like to complain about this. Some say it is great, others say it is a wasteof money. The ones who say it is a wasteare probably too cheap to buy it. Theyare the ones who get deck 1 interiors. To us, it was well worth the price. Priority embarkation, rooms ready upon boarding, priority Guest Servicesline, and priority debarkation are all included. We were pleasantly surprised when we receiveda letter in our cabin the night before Arubatelling us to be in the Lime Light lounge at 3:45 for VIP disembarkation. They took the whole group down todisembark. We heard people complainingabout letting us off first. All I cansay is you should have bought FTTF.

Cheers Package

My wife and I ordered the Cheers package since this was an 8day cruise with 5 sea days. Cheers is afavorite for complainers also. Here aremy experiences. The total cost was$919.08. We used Verizon gift cards soit saved us 10%. We actually only paid$827.12. We enjoyed using it and triedlots of new drinks we would not have tried if we had to purchase themindividually. I NEVER had an issue witha bartender waiting on me. I tipped anextra dollar each time we ordered something. Several times, I approached bars that were crowded with people wantingto order drinks. The bartenders wouldcome immediately to me. They knew I wastipping and most of the other cheap people weren’t. I took care of the bartenders who waited onme quickly. I made sure to go back tothem whenever possible. Would I purchaseCheers again….probably not. We startedout great but by mid-week, we started slowing down. It was still a great program to try and I amsure it works for some. We will justbudget for drinks in the future. I kepttrack of everything we purchased and we came out about $175 under the cost ofCheers. And for those of you whocomplain 15 alcoholic drinks is not enough, all I can say is you must be analcoholic.

Ship

We had previously cruised on the Sunshine so we knew what toexpect. I know lots of people complainabout the Sunshine but it is completely unfounded. I will address some of those complaints.

Complainers say the ship has a chopped up feel and you can’tget from front to back easily. Well, allships have a galley and those decks are never accessible from front toback. The Sunshine is not hard to figureout. Our rooms were on Deck 9. We either used 9 or 5 as our decks oftransportation. It is very simple. Know where you want to go and how to getthere.

Complainers say the Sunshine is too crowded due to the extrastaterooms added after its overhaul from the Destiny. None of the ships I have been on have seemedany more crowded than the others. I knowfor a fact there were 3,588 passengers on board. We learned this from a sign on the bridgeduring the Behind the Fun Tour. Yes,certain times & places seemed crowded but we would just avoid those areasat those times. Lunch at noon willalways be crowded. We would go at 1:00instead. We never waited in line atGuy’s Burgers, Blue Iguana Burrito Bar, or the buffet. Pizza always seemed to have a line due topeople taking whole pizzas at a time.

Dining

We chose Your Time Dining (YTD) for this cruise and wethoroughly enjoyed it. It is a littledifferent from other ships but it is a good different. You check in on deck 5 by the taste bar. You are either given a ticket to proceed todeck 3 or a pager. YTD dining started at5:15 which is 45 minutes ahead of the early seating. We would arrive and get in line at 4:45 everyday. While one or two of us waited inline, others would get drinks at the Alchemy Bar or sit at the tables in the Ocean Plaza. This seemed to work great for us. By our second night we found a table and waitstaff that we kept requesting. Mostnights we were finished in about an hour and a half. This left the remainder of the night to dowhatever activity we wished. Weespecially enjoyed having Jana as our server at table 370. The American Table/Feast menus are not nearas good as the old menus. We did not gohungry, but the choices most night were really not that good.

My group did go to the steakhouse on embarkation night formy brother’s birthday. It was well worththe $35 per person. We all had eitherthe 18oz cowboy sirloin or the 9oz filet. Food and service was excellent.

General food was quite good as well. Blue Iguana was great for breakfast andlunch. Guy’s was great too. We generally sat in the Havana Bar forbreakfast. The buffet had the same thingevery morning so most of us opted for Blue Iguana or the omelet station forbreakfast.

Aruba

We were scheduled to arrive in Arubafrom 1pm -10pm. Due to severe high windsand rough seas, we arrived are 4pm and stayed until 11pm. Winds the whole way down were generally 50+knots with one night at 60+ knots. Seasat one point according to the captain were 17-20 feet. The captain did a great job at least gettingus to Aruba. We were not all that impressed. We grabbed a cab and headed to Palm Beach specifically De Palm Pier. The beach and water was really not all thatpicturesque. We got a couple of drinksat Bugaloe Bar on the pier and watched the sunset. We then headed up to the main street parallelto Palm Beach. It was full of stores and restaurants. Most of us headed back to the ship around8pm. My wife and I walked to The WestDeck Bar & Grill for a drink and snack. We originally had a dinner reservation but did not make it because the shipwas late. It was about a 15 minute walkeach way. We felt perfectly safewalking. Drinks and snacks were great. We tried the Funchi with Dutch cheese andreally liked it. We boarded around 10pm.

Curacao

We arrived in Curacao onschedule. We caught taxis to Mambo Beach. Having small kids in our group, this beach,although man-made was idea suited for small children. We arrived very early and were one of thefirst there. We paid $3.50 per personfor admission and settled our stuff onto our chairs for the day. 3 of us caught taxis over to the CuracaoDistillery. We quickly walked throughthe self-guided tour and purchased several bottles of Curacao. We made it back to Mambo and stayed untillunch time. We then had a taxi drop usoff downtown at the floating market. Wewalked around the shops until we decided to head back to the ship. All we had to do was walk across the Queen Emma Floating Bridge. Curacao wasvery picturesque with its colorful buildings. We had a very nice time in Curacao.

Grand Turk

We arrived on time to Grand Turk. Once again, we were the first people on thebeach to claim our chairs. 4 of us leftto go snorkeling with Blue Water Dive Shop. We had made arrangements before we left to snorkel along the wall. The Wall is basically where the continentalshelf drops off from 35-40 feet to 7,000+ feet. We made 3 stops and had a great time. We were back at the beach by 11:30 and boy was it crowded. The CarnivalConquest had arrived while we were snorkeling. A couple of us walked to Jack’s Shack to get jerk chicken for all ofus. We were not disappointed. It was excellent. We finished the day walking around the portshops.

Disembarkation

Once again, having FTTF was a great help. Debarkation morning went extremelyquick. We met in Lime Light lounge at7:45. At 8:00 am, ship personnel came upto get us. We were off the ship in notime. We grabbed a porter and collectedour luggage. We by-passed the longcustoms line by using the porter. Wewere second in line to get through customs. We grabbed a shuttle and got to thehotel and were on the road at 8:40 am. We left lots of folks in our dust!!!!

My Observations

1. There were somewhite trash in the steak house the night we went. We were told by Carnival the dress code forthe first night was the same as the others. No shorts, jeans or t-shirts. Well they were not dressed according to what we were told not towear. They were loud and obnoxious andcontinually cursed. The steak house issupposed to be classy and they sure did not fit the bill.

2. The Chogs (chair hogs) were out in force. Keep in mind for 3 days it was 50+ mphwinds. The first sea day as we walkedacross the lido to breakfast, a ton of chairs were saved by towels, books,shoes etc. You know with the crappyweather they never showed up. I thinkCarnival should do the following. 1person present can save one seat (1 they are in plus one other). If you want 8 seats, 4 people must bepresent. If you are not present, youritems are immediately removed.

3. Old people playing cards and dominoes in the lidobuffet seating area at prime lunch time. Why would they do this? A little common sense goes a long way. Seats are at a premium and this should not beallowed. They need to go to the Ocean Plazato do this and not the lido buffet area during prime eating hours.

4. People in the YTD dining line thinking they can makereservations for dinner. The first nightwe dined in the Main Dining Room (MDR), a lady was behind me complaining aboutstanding in line on deck 5 and not at the MDR door. I asked what the difference was since youeither get a slip of paper to be seated or a pager. She said she wanted to eat at 6:30. I said why are you in line then at 5? Would you do that on another ship? She said no and kept complaining. Do a little research!!

5. Having FTTF we got VIP disembarkation in Aruba butCuracao or Grand Turk. I wonder why?

6. When we arrived in Arubathere were zero taxis waiting for passengers. We were towards the front of the line and had to wait about 30 mins fora taxi. Every other port had ample taxiswaiting when we arrived.

7. People, in general, on this cruise had their heads uptheir behinds. We watched several ACCtournament games in the sports bar. While sitting at the pub tables, people would randomly wander in towatch. They had no respect and wouldstand right in front of us. Finally, wejust started telling them to move. Ofcourse, we got the look like we were in the wrong.

8. People would fill their tervis cups up at the ice/waterstation. Instead of moving to the side,they have to mess with trying to get the lid on right there in the way. Move over dummy!!!

9. American Table/Feast menus not near as good as the oldmenus. We always found something to eat,but it just did not seem as good. Oh andnot having tablecloths was not as big a deal as the complainers make it tobe. Who cares?

10. Menusseemed to state only some of the ingredients. For instance: I orderedCannelloni as an appetizer one night at dinner. It specifically stated ricotta cheese in a creamy cheese sauce. I get it and it is full of nothing butspinach!!! I hate spinach and would nothave ordered that. Another was BBQ Chickenflatbread. It specifically stated pulledchicken, bbq sauce and Montereyjack cheese. Of course it shows up fullof mushrooms. Again, I hate mushroomsand would not have ordered it.

11. Staggeredcheck in was a joke. We chose 11-11:30but had FTTF. We took the 10am shuttlefrom the hotel so we arrived around 10:30. Upon entering it was packed. Weknow for sure not all these people had FTTF. Plus I highly doubt that many people had 11-11:30 check-in. If you are going to institute a policy, thenstick to it.

12. Ouralcohol purchased in the ports was not delivered to us the last night per theCarnival FAQs. We had to retrieve itfrom 6-8am on debarkation morning. Wearrived at the aft dining room at 5:40 and there was not a line. I wish they would get this straightened out. Per Carnival’s website “all alcohol purchased inports will be stored for safekeeping until the end of the voyage. The retaineditems will be available for collection in a designated lounge on the morning ofdebarkation for cruise durations 5 days and less; for cruise durations 6 daysand more, alcohol will be delivered to guest staterooms after 7:00pm, theevening prior to debarkation (some exceptions may apply).” I guess the Sunshine was an exception.

13. Wemade it to the comedy club four times and the main theatre twice. We waited in line once for maybe 5minutes. Usually we arrived early so wecould get decent seats and order a drink. The complainers like to arrive at show time and sit in the bestseats. That will never happen anyplace. There were usually 4-5 comedy shows and 2main shows a night so everyone who wanted to see the shows had access.

Overall we had a great cruise. The weather wasn’t very good at first by nofault of Carnival but we made the best of it. A lot of the complaints we read about were really unfounded by us. If you go into a cruise with a bad attitudeexpecting the worse, of course you will not have fun. Any crew we encountered smiled and saidhello. We would not hesitate to sail theSunshine again if the itinerary fits our needs.

[sapphire_407]

I enjoyed that. I'm very curious about the cabins over the bridge. Any pics you could upload?

[Clarea]

Thanks for the very detailed, and not too long, report.:)

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[easyboy]

So you know now how to deal with bartenders:)

Thank you for your feedback.

[RTRMom]

We were on this sailing as well and we had a great time. Thanks for the review and I am glad you guys had a good experience as well.

[2xsin12mths]

8. People would fill their tervis cups up at the ice/waterstation. Instead of moving to the side,they have to mess with trying to get the lid on right there in the way. Move over dummy!!!

LOL....I love your list of observations........especially #8. You said what many of us think but don't have the nerve to say:')........me and husband will be cruising Sunshine first week of May. We also got a scenic OV room. Had one last cruise and LOVED it! This is our 10th year cruising and our 20th anniver. I'm sure it will be awesome just like every other Carnival cruise was.

Thanks for the candid review.