Overdue review of the Sunshine.

[schazzy]

Hello everyone, I've been wanting to post a review of our cruise on the Sunshine we took back in April, but with coming back to a mess at work, subsequently changing carrers and other life stuff, I've been too busy/exhausted to do so. 

 

So, now that I've managed to catch my breath, I'm going to start working on my review over the next few days.

 

I apologize for the delay, I've been wondering if I should even do a review at this point, but hey, better late than never I guess 😀

[NCTribeFan]

Sure.  Sailing in a couple of weeks and I love reading reviews to see what others thought about their cruises.

[Jamman54]

Bring it on schazzy! Love reading reviews. 😎

[Joe817]

8 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

Bring it on schazzy! Love reading reviews. 😎

I do too! Never to late to learn of someone's cruise experience! 

[puppycanducruise]

Looking forward to reading your review.

[grandmarnnurse]

Following. 

[Butterbean1000]

You know how us CCer's love a good review!

[schazzy]

Well, let's get started. We drove down from South Carolina to Daytona Beach the day before the cruise and stayed at the Residence Inn by the Daytona Speedway,  and since there wasn't anything going on at the speedway that weekend, we got a great rate on a 2 bedroom suite that we shared with my In-laws who were also cruising with us. I can recommend this hotel, it was clean, comfortable and serves a pretty decent complementary breakfast.

 

We departed for PC the next morning and arrived around 11:00, a bit too early for our 1:30 check-in time, my father-in-law insisted we get on the road early to "beat the traffic" and that we sure did, so we had lunch at Fishlips to kill some time. Later we arrived at the port a little after 1, got unloaded, parked, checked-in, boarded and were in our cabins by 1:45. The process was pretty painless and much better than the last time I cruised out of PC many moons ago. 

 

Unfortunately, I have discovered today that the SD card with our embarkation day and Grand Turk photos on it is corrupted. So that's just perfect, hopefully I'll be able to find some way to fix it. But until then, I guess I'll just have to use the thousand words instead of the pictures. 

 

I'll go ahead and go over the cabin real quick since it was our first stop. We had an ocean view cabins on deck 5 and we loved it! It was a great location, and surprisingly quiet being so close to Ocean Plaza. Speaking of which, we spent a good bit of time in Ocean Plaza, we loved having the little breakfast area and the coffee bar right there for in the morning, then having the Alchemy bar, Red Frog Pub and live music there at night. Back to cabin, we had a comfy bed, plenty of storage, a mini fridge and our amazing room steward Apollo kept it nice and clean. DH said he wanted twice a day cabin service and Apollo said no problem and took great care of us. 

 

Well, after we put our stuff down in the cabin, and since we had already had lunch, we went to explore the ship. The layout was very different from what we've been used to since we've only cruised on Fantasy and Spirit Class ships before, and it took a little getting used to. After that, it was time for the muster drill, and since my mother-in-law has mobility issues, we were directed to the Limelight lounge for the guests with disabilities muster. It went pretty quickly and then we went up top to watch as we sailed away from PC. After that, we went back to the cabin and our luggage had arrived, so we spent some time unpacking then got ready for dinner. 

 

Well, it's bedtime, so I'll pick back up tomorrow evening. Until then!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Qchell]

When we were on the Sunshine we spent the majority of our evenings in the Ocean Plaza as well.  Great music and drinks every evening.  We had the Cheers package so had great fun trying out all sorts of different drinks at the Alchemy Bar and it was easy to just turn around to sip drinks and enjoy the music.  

[NCTribeFan]

I like Ocean Plaza, too.  I was surprised when I looked at the deck plans for Sunrise and saw that they had the piano bar there instead!  It's a nice place for that "quick" breakfast and, on rare occasions, you can even sit and read in a somewhat peaceful setting (so hard to find on Carnival ships).

 

To me, all of Carnival's ships (other than Spirit-class, which have much nicer layouts and so much better space ratios), are just variations of what I refer to as The Floating Shoe-Box Design.  The have the 2 MDRs with the result that the galley blocks a deck or two and causes much confusion to many passengers.  Theater up front, shops around the atrium, casino, scattered bars.

 

I forgot that Sunshine was still based in FL when you sailed.  I'm on her out of Charleston (one of my favorite places).

[schazzy]

Well, a bit later than I planned, but I'm here as promised to add a bit more.

 

On to dinner, we had YTD and checked in at the desk at Ocean Plaza, got a table assignment right away and proceeded down to deck 3 to the Sunrise dining room. We were seated at a table right by the window and almost immediately greeted by our head waiter Ronaldo, who by the way was a great waiter that we ended up requesting every night. Service was quick, food was good, the ussual Carnival standard cusine,  and we actually enjoyed every night we went, unlike our last cruise that almost put us off going to the MDR.  

 

Now, we did skip going on the Elegant nights, we just aren't fans of them or the lobster, so we chose to do Cucina del Capitano on the first one. We really enjoyed it, well worth the $15 per person fee.

 

We had the burata and salads to start, which I guess we didn't get pictures of or I can't find them, for our entrees: 

 

I had the Tomahawk Pork Chop with a side of the roasted potatoes.

 

 

DH had the Chicken Parmesan with a side of spaghetti.

 

 

And honestly I do not remember what these desserts were called, but both were very good.

 

 

We left full and very satisfied, I fully recommend going!

 

I'll be back sometime tomorrow with more on dining.

[NCTribeFan]

I have Anytime dining this time (which I'm not really all that crazy about) but I'll see if Ronaldo is still on the ship and request a table in his section.

 

The Chicken Parmesan looks like a pizza!

[jimbo5544]

Looks great to me, nice start to your review.

[schazzy]

1 hour ago, NCTribeFan said:

I have Anytime dining this time (which I'm not really all that crazy about) but I'll see if Ronaldo is still on the ship and request a table in his section.

 

The Chicken Parmesan looks like a pizza!

 

He might still be, I can't remember how long he said he had left, but I do remember he said he'd be on the Sunshine when it went to Charleston, which he was looking forward to seeing.

 

Oh the portions were huge, DH couldn't finish it, not for lack of trying though! 😂

[eagletwo]

Love the tomahawk chop! Some of the best service and food on the Sunshine.

[meggymay]

I'll be on the Sunshine in less than a month (yay!). Did you find the ship to be way overcrowded? I've heard that it is, but I hope going in off season might thin the crowds out a bit *fingers crossed*

[rs45thompson]

On 10/11/2019 at 1:07 PM, NCTribeFan said:

forgot that Sunshine was still based in FL when you sailed.  I'm on her out of Charleston (one of my favorite places).

I live in South Carolina so Charleston is going to be very convenient. Quick question since I’ve never sailed out of Charleston Does faster to the fun make the process go Any quicker?

[marci4tony]

Question - how was the layout?  Was it more friendly going from the front to the back of the ship?  Some of these ships make it a maze to get around?  Thanks in advance!  Love the foodie photos!

[PhillyFan33579]

39 minutes ago, marci4tony said:

Question - how was the layout?  Was it more friendly going from the front to the back of the ship?  Some of these ships make it a maze to get around?  Thanks in advance!  Love the foodie photos!

Sunshine is worst than most Carnival ships (maybe all of them) when it comes to going from the front to the back of the ship. Like most ships, except Spirit class ships, the kitchen galley between the MDRs breaks up deck 3. But Sunshine takes it a step further and deck 4 is frequently blocked when the Limelight Lounge is used. So if you are on deck 3 fwd and want to go to the aft of the ship, you have to walk up to deck 5.
 

The other thing, at least to me, is Sunshine feels very chopped up, for lack of a better word/phrase. There are a lot of things I like about Sunshine, but the “flow”of the ship is a little different than most Carnival ships.  

Edited October 16, 2019 by PhillyFan33579

[summersigh]

Is there a link to the current room service menu - one that will be functional thru December when we sail the Sunshine? I've searched but can't find any I can "trust" after that snaffu over room service back in January. DH has mobility issues and sometimes just enjoys eating room service lunch out on the balcony. Thanks

[schazzy]

23 hours ago, meggymay said:

I'll be on the Sunshine in less than a month (yay!). Did you find the ship to be way overcrowded? I've heard that it is, but I hope going in off season might thin the crowds out a bit *fingers crossed*

 

We found it to be pretty crowded at times in certain places, especially the Lido deck and the casino. But then again, we were on an Ultra cruise and the ship was sold out. Oh, and if the CD is doing something in the atrium, forget being able to get through there.  

[meggymay]

1 minute ago, schazzy said:

 

We found it to be pretty crowded at times in certain places, especially the Lido deck and the casino. But then again, we were on an Ultra cruise and the ship was sold out. Oh, and if the CD is doing something in the atrium, forget being able to get through there.  

 

Yeah that's what i've been hearing. I just picked that one because i'm in SC too and it's a fairly easy drive to the port.

[schazzy]

22 hours ago, rs45thompson said:

I live in South Carolina so Charleston is going to be very convenient. Quick question since I’ve never sailed out of Charleston Does faster to the fun make the process go Any quicker?

 

Well, we sailed out of Port Canaveral on the Sunshine, but we have sailed out of Charleston on the Ecstasy a few years ago and didn't have FTTF and while there was a long line, it moved fairly quickly and we made it on board in good time.

[schazzy]

3 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Sunshine is worst than most Carnival ships (maybe all of them) when it comes to going from the front to the back of the ship. Like most ships, except Spirit class ships, the kitchen galley between the MDRs breaks up deck 3. But Sunshine takes it a step further and deck 4 is frequently blocked when the Limelight Lounge is used. So if you are on deck 3 fwd and want to go to the aft of the ship, you have to walk up to deck 5.
 

The other thing, at least to me, is Sunshine feels very chopped up, for lack of a better word/phrase. There are a lot of things I like about Sunshine, but the “flow”of the ship is a little different than most Carnival ships.  

 

This was our impression of the layout too, it had a few good points, but like you said, it did feel chopped up and didn't flow well.

[schazzy]

I'll be continuing later, I haven't had much time to get back on here the past days, but I know I'm going to have time Friday night to continue.

 

Sorry this is taking longer than I intended, thought I had the free time last weekend, but alas...

 

Oh, feel free to keep posting questions, I'll do my best to answer them 😀

Edited October 17, 2019 by schazzy