Carnival Sunshine Review
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I booked this cruise back in March before the maiden voyage of the Sunshine and was extremely excited to go on this ship that was supposed to be completely overhauled and redone.....until I started reading the reviews. As I'm sure you've read, the reviews are less than appealing and I have to say that I seriously considered changing my reservation to a different ship- but after taking this cruise, I'm glad I didn't. Here's my complete review of the ship- the good, the bad, and the indifferent.
First- the good. The redesign of the ship is really cool. The water slides (I was told, I didn't actually go on them) were awesome, the rope course on the top deck (sports square) was a blast and we ended up doing it 3 times in a row, and the serenity deck is absolutely gorgeous! The waterfall going into the pool is definitely a selling point not to mention all of the comfy seating on the 3-story serenity deck. The havana bar, Jiji Asian Kitchen, and Cocina Del Capitano were great as was the redesign on the 5th floor aft. I seriously wish that we had an Alchemy Bar here- their specialty drinks were incredible! Try the cucumber sunrise and you won't be disappointed. it was one of the most delicious drinks I've ever had!
I went with three friends (all of us are in our 20's) and we had connecting spa balcony cabins. The use of the spa was wonderful! The three different steam rooms/saunas were fantastic and so were the heated stone recliners. The cabin itself was very nice- not the typical carnival style. It had slightly muted colors and wasn't overdone. The balcony was a very good size and we were able to open the partition between our two cabins to make it even bigger. Our stateroom steward and housekeeping staff were wonderful but the best experience we had with employees on the ship was in the dining room. Our waiting staff- Oli, Adina, and our assistant waiter (I forgot his name) were all three incredible! We got to know them and they got to know us really well. I've been on 7 cruises and this was the best experience I've ever had with the wait staff in the dining room during dinners.
Cabin Review
The spa balcony had a great redesign- the colors were slightly more muted than traditional Carnival decor which I enjoyed immensely. The one BIG problem with the spa rooms (only the 11th and 12th deck) was that there are only 2 elevators that go to those decks and they have some kind of weird issue that they sometimes just pass by those decks and don't stop. This is fine if you can take the stairs, but if you are not able to walk a flight or two of stairs every time you want to go to a different deck, I would suggest not staying on the top two decks.