Almost Live - Carnival Sunshine June 6-11, 2022

[cruisewiththekids]

If you don't park your car at the port, will Uber/Lyft/taxi drop you right at the ship, or is there still a shuttle involved somewhere?

[wgeddings]

A rideshare (or friend dropping you off) uses a different entrance.  They drop you at the first building so cuts out the shuttle/walk from the parking lot.  You still have the other stages and a shuttle from check-in to security/boarding area.  
 

‘Coming back, you can avoid the shuttle from security to parking lot but it is still quite a walk to get to an exit where you can meet a rideshare.  

Edited June 15, 2022 by wgeddings

[BoozinCroozin]

Just curious because another poster stated it in another thread: how many times did you wait at any food venue for 45 minutes or more on the Sunrise? They stated they waited 45 minutes or more for food at every meal including MDR.

[momin05]

We just got off Sunshine yesterday and had a most fantastic time. Overall, our experience was not affected by the cutbacks. I will say that of our group of 22, we are up to 4 who have tested positive for Covid since we disembarked yesterday. 🥲 And others are likely to follow.
 

 I don’t want to hijack this thread, but I will give our experience related to some of the things mentioned so far in this thread, in hopes that others can benefit (as I appreciated the information I received here.)

Embarkation: we were among the folks in line waiting for parking to open Saturday morning. We had a 930 appointment and arrived at 935. They opened the parking around 950 and things went smoothly from there. All the checkin steps were easy (I was worried about my dad’s positive test at 11 days out, but it was not an issue.). Everyone was pleasant and helpful.  They definitely scrutinize the drinks you carry on but that has always been the case in Charleston. We were on board well before 11 because I had to wait for Shore Excursions to open at 11 to choose my cabana. By 11:03, I had chosen my cabana and was texting a picture of my first drink at atrium bar to my cruising mates who were behind us. (I agree, the bartender there was impossible to hear.)

 

Room service: I would call at night and order our breakfast for the next morning and give them a time. They were always punctual, usually early. One night I didn’t call until the next morning and it arrived in just a few minutes. I agree they have made it harder to figure out. What I learned is that the QR code on the desk differs depending on what time of day you scan it (breakfast, day time, after hours). Also, on the very last day, my husband saw where you could order even the free items off the hub app. I saw it for myself, so I know it was there. Again, it likely depends on when you check it. 
 

Bar service: we didn’t have any issue with slow bar service. Red Frog pub was almost always deserted and you could walk up and get a drink any time.  Casino bar also never very busy. Atrium wasn’t busy but the bartenders there tended to be slower. Alchemy was easy to get to. Even the roaming waiters in the casino were pretty punctual. After what I had read, all of this surprised me. And we put it to the test. We all mostly had Cheers and some maxed out on multiple days. Andre Williams in Red Frog was the bomb. We didn’t hang out on lido so I can’t say how that was. 
 

Main Dining Room: we had 6pm dining. We ate there every night. Our wait staff was personable and very quick. If anything, they were rushing us to order and food came lightning fast. No problem making it to 730 comedy, even getting there by 715 to get a seat. We had two tables, a 14 top and 8 top. The food was good. I was worried about this, but the food really was good. The salmon was dry the first night but someone had it just about every other night and at brunch and it was good. We did sea day brunch both days. The first day was a disaster.  I think every table was full and we couldn’t get a waiter, drinks, food, anything. We had arrived maybe around 11. My daughter wanted to go to HP trivia at noon and I had to finally chase down a waiter and ask him to please bring her an order of French toast and then come take our order. He did oblige and she did make it. By around 1130, the place had pretty much cleared out. So we learned our lesson and on the second sea day, we went around 1130. It was mostly empty and we had good service and a nice, relaxing experience. I didn’t do steak and eggs but others did and said it was fine. It obviously wasn’t the filet, but it was certainly edible. 
 

The ship barely rocked.  But we did have some movement our first night. They cleaned windows on our balconies the first sea day and said it was because of the rough seas on the previous voyage, so I guess that experience was unusual. 
 

I guess I will say that there wasn’t as much going on as in the past. One night there was honestly nothing going on. The cruise director actually said something like “we will resume activities tomorrow”. That part was disappointing. Because we had a large crowd, we made our own fun. We could just hang out on Red Frog and play games, yuck it up with Andre, etc.  I definitely missed the live music there. Of course, it probably would have been crowded if there was music, so…

And the musicians in atrium and ocean plaza were just not very good. The playlist performers were pretty good and we enjoyed the shows (epic rock, Latin nights). 
 

Thank you again for the information provided before our trip.  I hope I have paid it forward in some small way. 

[momin05]

I forgot to mention disembarking. It was also very easy.  Because we were not in a hurry, we went for a leisurely breakfast in the dining room. I didn’t keep an eye on any of the times. But when we finished, we headed to the atrium, down the elevators (no crowd) and into the line getting off the ship. In the terminal we grabbed our bags and hailed a porter. The porters jump the line so we were on a bus in no time and off to the parking lot. My husband went and got the car and pulled it around and a nice porter loaded all the suitcases into the back of the car for us. I think from dining room to car could not have been more than 20 minutes. My daughter started feeling bad as we walked into the terminal building, so I know it was all very short because she was miserable for those 15 minutes. Maybe we were luckier than others, and I can see if you time it wrong with being first on the shuttle or something, it could be longer. I am glad it worked this way for us, as I thought my daughter might pass out!

[wgeddings]

On 6/15/2022 at 3:41 AM, BoozinCroozin said:

Just curious because another poster stated it in another thread: how many times did you wait at any food venue for 45 minutes or more on the Sunrise? They stated they waited 45 minutes or more for food at every meal including MDR.

Sorry I did not respond sooner and hope it is not too late.  First, we were on the SunSHINE, not the SunRISE and they are very different ships.  i will assume you meant the SunSHINE out of Charleston. 

 

To answer your question, we never had to wait more than 10 minutes at anything other than peak demand times.  MDR never a wait and buffet no waits.  Pizza, deli and Mongolian Wok wait would depend on exactly when you went and sometimes there was a line, sometimes not.  But those are always busy on every cruise I have been on at peak times.  Pasta bar, Guys Bugers, and the Taco/Burrito places were all pretty quick.