We love cruising - we love Carnival. Every major vacation has been a Carnival cruise - including our honeymoon. They've always made us feel like we were special and important and living the high life - if only for that one week before going back to reality again. We just sailed (2 weeks ago) on the Carnival Sunshine - the newly refurbished beautiful boat promising to make us forget our cares and have a great time.....well, that's not what happened. Before I say any more....the shows were REALLY GREAT.

Embarkation and Debarkation were the easiest they've ever been. Those were the only things we just loved and made us feel special. The boat itself is beautiful, clean and pretty much what you'd expect. I can tell you they didn't refurbish the beds....our bed had deeply worn spots in the mattress. We had sore backs just about every day. THE FOOD IS JUST TERRIBLE IN THE DINING ROOM. I had food dropped on my dress once. I remember a Carnival where the food was insanely good. That is no more in the Dining room. The only meal I enjoyed a little was the first elegant night when I got a lobster tail - other than that everything was just awful. It tasted canned, prepackaged, etc...definitely not fresh. The service was so much worse than it's ever been. The waiter never asked if we wanted tea, coffee, anything...they just poured water and walked away....had to ask for it EVERY time. I never got a hot meal - seriously. Do you remember when they would just remember all of your little nuances? Well - that didn't happen. We felt like the herd (Get 'em in, get 'em fed, get 'em out) The lido deck food tastes about as appetizing as my middle schooler's lunch offerings - and it was always cold. It had the culinary appeal as your local and poorly managed Golden Corral. We at breakfast there twice - cold and tasteless. Apparently there was a chocolate buffet at some point but it was never advertised and not in our daily schedule they give you each day....the only things you'll find there are opportunities to buy art, attend a sale in the shops, or learn how to buy a cruise....Our "free" drink voucher could only be used in the dining room before 1 pm....really. So enjoy that margarita at 9 am grandma! Expect to pay gratuity on EVERYTHING YOU BUY. This cruise was all about what they could sell me - or I felt like what they could bleed from me.

The ports were really terrible - all specifically designed for the ships and if you want ANY local experience you have to buy an excursion. Expect the same stores and junk at each one...and all those exclusive diamonds international one of a kinds that really aren't. The beach at Isla Roatan is man-made and there were two boats docked there that day, so if that happens to you, you'd better leave the boat as soon as it docks if you want a chair. There were TWO boats of guests sharing a beach that was so obviously meant for only one boat at a time. We literally had people drooling over our chairs. Then the towels came out and then it was very interesting climbing over everyone to get to the water. After a couple of waves you had to watch out for the concrete wall hiding under the man-made sandy beach. (No I'm not kidding) Read more