Carnival Sunshine Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,418 reviews

Definitely not a Fun Ship

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Sunshine
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5starchick
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

Rating by category

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Value for Money
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Entertainment
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Additional details

Sail Date: Nov 2016
Cabin: Balcony
Traveled with children

We normally cruise with Royal Caribbean, but we didn't want to drive to Florida with our toddlers. We've never been to Dominican Republic,so we chose this cruise. We heard negative things about Carnival, but we like to see for ourselves. I'm going to start with the GOOD: Although, this was an older ship, it was very clean and our babies enjoyed camp carnival. It was a very kid-friendly area.

Now for the BAD: We sat in line for embarkation for over an hour even though we had a supposed check in time at 12pm. The parking area for our vehicles was a bus/shuttle ride away from the ship. Once we got to check in, it was chaos. People were everywhere. No one knew which lines they were supposed to be in. Even though I had already checked in online, the guy going over our paperwork still took 30 minutes and even asked if we wanted to donate to St. Judes. We love taking the first picture on board, but the only area to take a picture wasn't even on the ship. We boarded the ship and quickly noticed that the floorplan of the ship doesn't flow well at all. Some areas of the ship had no thru access, and we had to either go up or down another floor to get to another side. We went to the gym, but it was closed (get this) because of spa tours.The spa didn't have a spa atmosphere, it felt more like a doctor's office. We booked a balcony stateroom # 7290. Great location. The room was nice with a lot of clothing storage but only one electrical socket. I brought a few multi outlet adapters but they were useless because they didn't fit, we couldn't insert them vertically. The mini fridge blocked 2 sockets. There was only 1 socket in the bathroom but it was only for straight plugs. I didn't like that the balcony door was not a sliding ocean view door, and the bathroom was so small only one person could be in there at a time. When sitting on the toliet, your feet were in the shower.

Food was horrible in the lido marketplace. The only other free dining option without going to the dining room was Guy's burgers but they closed at 3pm. We don't eat red meat so that's no problem for us. The food at the lido was less than hospital grade food. There was no variety, they served the same foods every night at all 3 buffet stands. Whatever was left over after lunch, they served it for dinner. There were no kid friendly options AT ALL!. There was a pizza stand but the pizza was just dough, little sauce, and a few sprinkles of cheese. Very similar to the pizza's we made in home ec. in middle school. Little Caesars is much better! There were no vegetables except broccoli and a hard baked potatoes. The salad bar,very basic, no extras that people prefer on a salad. They didn't even bother to dice nor chop the tomates, or olives. It only had ice berg lettuce, no spinach.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin 8B

Rooms were nice and a decent size. I didn't like the door to the balcony, because it felt more like an ocean view, We prefer the sliding glass doors. The bathroom was very small. Only room for one person at a time. When sitting on the toilet, your feet are in the shower. The shower was a nice size though. It was long and narrow.

Port Reviews

Half Moon Cay

I'm giving this island a high mark because it was very beautiful, and I loved the way it was set up with the beach chairs and the cabanas. I wish the weather had held up so we could have spent more than 15 minutes there

Grand Turk

Reminded me of the Grand Caymans, just a lot of expensive shopping

Amber Cove (Puerto Plata)

Typical visit to another country not as privileged as the USA. People selling jewelry and hand made trinkets for money

Charleston

Embarkation was terrible! Its a long slow process, full of chaos and confusion. Disembarktion was no better. We had to take a bus ride back to our car, but we had to walk several blocks back to get to our car holding our toddlers whom were tired from the long slow process. Charleston itself is a wonderful city. We visit every chance we get. I love the history behind the streets and buildings. The restaurants are phenomenal!

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