Carnival Sunshine Review

Some Tips and Tricks and Lessons Learned

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Carnival Sunshine
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TracyLane72
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Jun 2016

I chose this cruise because my family was going on it and I was looking for something to give my daughter in the way of a vacation after her graduation from high school. The overall experience was very positive, but there were some issues. The parking area for the cruise was extremely understaffed which resulted in a long wait to get into the parking lot and get to the ship. I ended up missing my scheduled embarkation time because of waiting over an hour to park. It didn't seem to matter though as the embarkation was a little disorganized. Once on board the cabin was amazing. My Steward, Dadan, was exceptional and remembered my name for the entire cruise. We were more than an hour late pulling out of the port and I had booked a reservation at the steak place for dinner. Due to the delay in leaving I missed the leaving party. The dinner was good and I enjoyed it very much. That first night the activities were scattered and I didn't have any time to really enjoy them. Mostly I tried to learn my way around the ship. I found myself in a lot of places accidentally. The next day was our day at sea. The main attraction of the ship, the onboard water park, was closed due to heavy winds and rough seas. We had very rough water the entire cruise. I was able to find quite a bit to do, but my daughter (18) and her best friend (17) did not. There were little to no activities they could do together due to her best friend not turning 18 until 2 days after the cruise. Even without that disparity, however, the cruise seems geared to younger children or adults missing that between area completely. Due to the water park being closed there was only 2 onboard pools. One was for 21 and over leaving just one small pool for them to enjoy and 3000 guests. As you can imagine that was not an attractive activity for them. I did excursions both days in the Bahamas. One was a dolphin swim on a private island, which I paid 149.99 per person for. I was upset by 2 things in regards to that excursion. The cost of food for 4 people cost me 88.00 ADDITIONAL to the cost of the actual excursion and while our time in port was extended due to late arrival (I did not get to my 12pm excursion until after 2pm more than 2 hours late) when we got back all the shops were closed. We got NO time to shop in Nassau. I was very upset by this. Then in Freeport, the transportation to pick me up from the Bohemian house, was more than an hour late and then they took a bribe from one of the passengers to stop at a liquor store on the way back to port. This ate up all of our time in that port. So while I planned on both excursions leaving me time in the port to enjoy some shopping I did not get to enjoy any of them. That was more than disappointing. When we left Freeport we finally had decent weather and sea conditions but the cruise still did not open the water park. No one seemed able to tell me under what conditions it WOULD open. Understanding that we are on the OCEAN it needs to be built in such a manner as to not be so delicate that it has to be closed unless you are in a port standing still. I was more than a little angry at that. So in all, while I had a very enjoyable time, my daughter and her friend sat in the cabin watching television the entire cruise. I could have saved my money. No one has addressed the concerns I have had in relation to the excursions and the transportation (they were disorganized for this) or the lack of availability of the water park on the cruise vessel. Lesson learned: Never book an excursion if you want to shop and never take an 18-20 year old on the ship. The service on the ship was great and I met several staff members (Autumn and Emma specifically) that were a joy to be around. I enjoyed the cruise very much and am already looking to book my next one. The issues above are for awareness and will in no way discourage me from taking another cruise. I just will never bring as many people with me. I will attend the next one alone.

Cabin Review

Port Reviews

Norfolk

As I covered in my earlier review the parking was severely understaffed and the entire process seemed very chaotic and disorganized.

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