Carnival Sunrise POSITIVITY POST!!!!

[Treyatl2006]

As a person who's been on a few cruises and been a member here for a couple of them... Do not let the negativity of a few posters on here bring you down. This place can be toxic sometimes. I was in your shoes at one point on past cruises. I read comments on here and I was terrified that I was going to have a bad cruise. But I ended up having a wonderful time. Vacation is what you make of it. If you focus on the negativity then you will find yourself looking for negative things instead of enjoying the positive and living in the moment. I'm booked on the Sunrise this December and I have no worries!

[Maraprince]

On 7/4/2019 at 4:30 PM, bjfitz0703 said:

I was on the 6/24 sailing.  If you search you can find my post yet for sure there were some challenges yet we adapted and managed it.  Overall I gave it a B.  Trended upwards because we had fun yet simply too many people on the ship for its common areas.  The additional cabins have an impact.

 

Seemed like as the 8 days went by others figured it all out too.  There were some smells but they went away.  I am an early riser so I would get some fruit on Lido like 630 and then hit MDR breakfast like 9.  Then did lunch like 2 to 3 pm and lines were non-existent by then.  We had 8:15 dinner so all of that worked really well actually.

 

The Cruise Director was a blast.  Think he is on there until January.  All the staff were super.  We have sailed a lot and felt that the cabin guy was just ok yet all other folks were really great and nice.

 

Pizza - one night we went to get pizza and the line was silly long.  We went to the room and ordered one and for $5 and after 30 minutes we got one delivered.  Perfect.

 

Lido does have lots of omelet stations:  Italian place; seafood shack; Lucky Bowl; taco/burrito place - never a line at these that I saw.

 

Deck loungers - disaster on sea days.  People just save them and are never actually in them.  I have sailed other cruise lines which actively manage this problem.  Carnival gap for sure. My advice is go to Lido early and throw stuff on them. Find ones that are more "hidden".  Everyone else does so when in Rome.....wish this wasn't necessary yet there is no management of this issue.  Also Deck 3 has some for a great nap like area.

 

Guys burgers can get long sometimes yet as the afternoon goes on, it goes down.  BBQ place is good too and on deck 10.  Opposite side of the ship from the smokers.

 

On Grand Turk day, the Lido breakfast was the worst I saw all week.  We just hit MDR and no line.  On Sea days MDR brunch line seems to get longer later in the morning.

 

Comedians were super.  Get there like 15 minutes early and i should work.  Never had a problem finding a seat in the Liquid Lounge

 

One thing I learned was Deck 1 OV cabins are larger.  We booked late so this was what was available and now would consider it again given the cabin size.  Also Deck 1 works well for port days and for the restaurants and night life activities.  Plus Deck 1 is one of the first decks off the ship at the end of the cruise.  Usually we stay higher on the ship yet might do deck 1 again at a good price point.

 

You will have fun.  Just adapt.  All items are manageable and it is the fun ships!  This lived up to that!

Are you saying that the MDR was open for breakfast on port days?

 

MARAPRINCE

[bjfitz0703]

42 minutes ago, Maraprince said:

Are you saying that the MDR was open for breakfast on port days?

 

MARAPRINCE

MDR was open for "breakfast" on each port day and "brunch" on each sea day.  Breakfast times shifted yet something like 7-9 am.  Brunch on Sea Days was 830 am to 1pm.  MDR was also open for debarkation day like 6-8 am or so.

[sassy~one]

I just did a b2b2b on the Sunrise.  The first 3 sailings that is.  There are good points as well as bad.

 

Loved the new Sea day menu.  Loved the CD Chris.  His show was amazing as was the other one i saw.  Very cool.  The new ports for cell phones were great.  

 

Not enough bad and i'm booked again b2b in Oct.  Norfolk is my home port.  

[travelhound]

I was also one of those cruisers on June 24th going to Bermuda and Grand Turk. This was our 37th cruise, 6th on Carnival, but it's been 10 years since we've been on Carnival. We were on the Sunshine when it was Destiny and new in the late 90s and didn't remember it being so crowded. If it's true that 1000 more people have been added, as one pp mentioned, that would account for the crowds. The kids' club told us there were over 1000 kids on our 8 day trip.

 

But....op asked for positive things!

 

First, your questions:

Casino smoke - not that bad and you can avoid if you walk up to 6.

Sewage smell - I did smell that around our elevators and a bit in our hallway (deck 2 aft) a couple of times but it was never in our room, it wasn't constant, and was by no means ship wide.

Food lines - yes, the buffet is crazy, but there are many ways to work around it. In 8 days, I only went through the buffet line once and it was when we came back from an excursion in Bermuda and I don't think most people were on the ship. That said, there are sooo many other options and good options. For breakfast there are two small stations that have oatmeal, grits, ,milk, fruit, scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, and sausage. You can walk right up to those with no line. The two buffet lines meet in the middle where there are breads and fixings with no line. This is where I got walnuts or almonds for my oatmeal. I'm not sure what more you need to stand in a huge line. If it's an omelette, as pps have said, there are many other places to get them. Walk out the back door of Lido and go to the seafood bar. No line and they make omelettes.

 

For lunch, upstair pasta bar is free (charge for dinner), Guy's Burger Joint, Pig and Anchor BBQ, and Blue Iguana are all great choices and IMHO, better food than the buffet line. Blue Iguana also has breakfast. Note that Pig and Anchor is only open from 12-2:30 on port days, but worth the effort to get up there. Also there are nice umbrella tables up there and usually easy enough to get. In the same place where the oatmeal is in the morning, there is an awesome cake bar for lunch. Regular sized, beautiful cakes that are sliced to order. YUM!

 

We had Your Time Dining in the Sunshine dining room. If you have this, I highly recommend getting the Carnival app before you leave for the ship. You connect to it via the free onboard wifi, so you don't need an internet package. To request a table for Your Time, you simply open the app and request it. It will tell you how much time and it you track it to know when to head to the dining room. It even tells you what table you are assigned and you just tell them at the host stand and walk right in. If you don't use the app, you have to go to the 5th floor (dining room on 3rd) and get a paper ticket and pager to bring to the dining room. Pain in the ass. My app didn't work the first night until after dinner and we had to do the pager.

 

Try to make the production shows, there were great. Went to two comedy shows and they were fine but the venue is far too small and you need to get there very early. For the large theater we sat in the chairs on the main floor. I loved it and it gave us an upclose view.

 

This was one of the best embarkation experiences ever. Disembarkation was pretty good too.

 

By far and away, the best thing about the Sunrise is the Cruise Director, Chris the Flying Scotsman. Out of 37 cruises, he was the best I've ever seen. Very engaged, energetic, attends everything, amazing talent. Not sure if he ever sleeps. If he's running the show or party - just go!

 

There are many things that could be complained about, most are true for many cruises - too many people in a small space, lines, no deck chairs, blah, blah, blah, but we had an enjoyable week and steered clear of the things that create the most stress.

 

Have a great time and don't worry about anything!

 

Teri