We chose this cruise because of the destinations it was going to and the dates of sailing and return. It was a perfect week for me, as it gives me 1 week home before returning to work the day after Labor Day. We have been on Carnival cruise ships before and never had a complaint. I have to say that it's been at least 10 years since we sailed on Carnival and unfortunately things have changed. As avid cruisers, we have seen a change on the cruise lines in general but we found The Sunshine to be changed quite a bit.
The Carnival Sunshine was born from The Carnival Destiny. As we had sailed on The Carnival Destiny back in the early 2000's, we were under the impression at the ship was completely redone. This is not the case at all. The Buffet for example was the first thing we noticed that hadn't changed at all. While the improvements of the ship added additional cabins and 2 new decks, the buffet was not expanded. Although 1,000 more passengers are on it, the limited seating was immediately noticed. Additionally the choice of food was extremely limited. Two stations of food, both with the same items. On every cruise we've been on, there has been nightly entertainment, as well as musical choices around the boat. On Sunshine - the first night there was a show and every night after that, you listened to a music venue - a DJ playing Motown tunes for dancing, a person playing Piano in the Piano Bar, a Punchline Comedy show that you could never get seats at nor was there enough air conditioning to keep anyone cool. There was one musical duo called The Musical Nomads who were by far the best of any entertainment on the Ship. The Cruise Director - Emma was a nice woman but with an irritating voice - EVERY TIME she spoke - it began by "Hello Lovelies" Yes, she's an English woman and that might be a common greeting but when you are hearing it over the loudspeaker over and over again, it gets annoying. Many people were walking around the ship saying it.
Food: Buffet very limited. Dining Rooms - decent breakfast, dinner, etc. Specialty Restaurants - worth every dime - make your reservations early.
the cabin had new carpet and new furnishings. The bathroom was the same as when it was The Destiny and the balcony was also the same as when it was The Destiny. No updating done in those two parts of the cabin. Everything else was updated and very nice. We had a wonderful room steward and wanted for nothing. Not all cabins have mini refrigerators and we didn't know that until the night before we left, so we asked if there was one available when we got on the ship and were told that there weren't any. We mentioned this to the room steward and within 10 minutes time he returned to our cabin with a mini fridge for the entire length of the cruise.