Took this ship so we could see Aruba. We knew the ship was older, and were prepared to not be awed. Few things that were troublesome. We had a suite on the back of the boat. Cabin 5340. Our drains drained really slow. water in tub was ankle deep after shower. Very creaky and shuddered a lot where we were. More than i have ever experienced before. I talked to an officer and he told me the run to Aruba is always rough. Open sea 11k feet deep. Wind was blowing 55 knots across bow first 2 days. On way back after Curacao ocean was like a lake. Just know it will be rough if you go to Aruba. Forget the internet and chat on carnival hub app. Bought the social media and chat options. Neither worked hardly at all. By day 3 we gave up and got refunds. Of note is on the new ships the app and social media work like high speed internet. It's an old ship so not overly upset. Went to a few shows they were as expected. Got to get their early to get a seat. Slides were good kids loved them. The Rum Frog bar was dominated by the teens. Couldn't get in there to play shuffle board or fooseball they were always there until all hours of the night. Couldn't even sit there and play cards due to all the noise from the teens. Carnival should address this as it seems to be a common theme. The lido pool area was crowded as was expected. My major problem is that from 8 am until 10:30 am they have the ship talk show on the screen. Rather annoying and loud. I'm on the boat to relax play some music. If i want to watch 3 people talk about mundane and dumb topics I can stay home and watch the view. Play some music. Then when they finally play music it's crap techno stuff. I don't mind some but one can only take so much. Play some variety. When they played some classic rock it got the best reaction. I mean really Journey or Brittney Spears it's a no brainer. The different bands throughout the ship were ok at best. Too many 1 or 2 man entertainment. The best was the band 5 aft. They played classic rock. Yes i am older and a child of the 80's, but they packed it in when they played. Seems that is what people want. Give them more! The sports bar is a mess. Majority of the they had cricket on the TV. We are mostly americans. Where was the US open golf or a baseball game. Then it didn't open until 2pm. Makes no sense. right next to casino, and forget ordering wings. They had to come from room service took over an hour and were cold by the time we got. The Casino gets an A+. Besides the smoking, which was choking me out at times, the tables were open and the staff was awesome. The new way they take care of the players is more like a vegas feel. I played enough to get my free drink card by day3, but they were always buying us drinks I only paid for 3 the first 3 days and still had plenty while playing. Super nice. lots of giveaways etc etc. At the end of the day the cruise was as expected on an older ship. My advice is stick to the new ones. Read Less

First esthetics... Pretty cool job on the refurbishing. Our cabin was tidy everyday and our Stewart made sure we had more than we needed in our room! Great job with a clean, comfortable feel! Public bathrooms were clean. However, our balcony windows were dirty along with balcony itself and chairs. We noticed a lot of the chairs on the Lido deck were extremely dirty and needed to be replaced. The metal siding on the chairs appeared rusted and cloudy. The chairs being dirty bothered me because it’s a simple fix. We notice paint chipped often on the Lido deck as well. The beach pool sign was painted sloppily which demonstrated a lack of care by the maintenance staff. Service... Mikey was enthusiastic and entertaining. We loved the energy he exuded. The morning show was broadcasted to basically its entirety on the Lido deck. Big buzz kill. If I wanted to hear their conversation or presentation I would’ve gone. It interrupted the jams by the pool. There were never enough bar tenders. On the Vista they walked around and were readily available but not so much on the Sunshine. The dinner service was slow and nobody refilled our drinks freely. It had a very unorganized feel. At one point we ordered a vodka rockstar, received the vodka on the rocks and the rockstar arrived separately 15 minutes later. Either the sea was super calm or our Captain was the king of the ocean. We never felt the ship move. It seemed to glide along and never felt rough. It was absolutely incredible! Security- ugh! There was an incident in the main pool where a kid was bullying in a very obvious manner. He shoved several kids under. He grabbed my son by the neck. The life guard blew his whistle. My man had to tell the kid to stop. Then another man actually jumped into the pool after he observed the kid spitting in the faces of 3 other kids. The man pulled the kid out by his life vest. Yeah entire crowd clapped and cheered as security did very little to help. It was totally pathetic. That mans vacation was inconvenienced because the parent or security team basically sucked. The food—- omg! It was pretty good when you could find some! How about there’s no food available in between the lunch and dinner change over. The Guys Burger joint was the only thing open and if you didn’t want a burger... you could try the deli or pizza place. You can imagine the lines for either of those, so you’re somewhat forced to do room service. There was very little open and they’d close one of the buffets... so that line was stupid long. In short- you need more food options available at all times during the daytime. The cool thing about a cruise is making your own itinerary. So that was frustrating. The Mongolian bar was awesome if you had 40 min to wait for your meal... I was not impressed by the food options or service to say the least. Read Less

After 3 previous Carnival cruises on smaller ships (4,5, and 7 day) we chose an 8 day itinerary on a large ship with plenty of activities for children. We have always experienced excellent service on deck, in room, dining, etc. This ship, while having an incredible cruise director (Mikey) and activities, had much to be desired in the way of service. After 8 days of spending at least a few hours lounging on deck ... not a single person asked if Id like a drink. The dining room was super slow and while very personable, they never quite got it all together. Our room steward was okay ... but nothing like previous cruises. All that aside, however, there was one MAJOR drawback to the Sunshine. There were ZERO areas for lounging with an open view of the ocean. Either walls of glass in Serenity area (blocking air flow), solid walls with rails on decks, or a view to the inside towards the pool. On last day I did find the jogging track had a few chairs set up facing the water for a few hours. I look forward to the views all year long, so for me this was absolutely the worst scenario. Other than that ... a good cruise! Read Less

First, this is not my first Carnival Cruise; so, I am not comparing Carnival to another line or Carnival to some fantasy of what a Cruise should be. Second, the Memorial Day cruise seems to be a popular graduation gift. There were a lot more families, and a lot more 18-20 year-olds than usual. There were very few of the 20s-30s dating/newly wed passengers. In short, the cruise had a very different personality than a usual Carnival Cruise. The Bad: The internet was atrocious. Paid nearly $100.00 for the middle plan. Facebook could take up to 5 minutes to load. I never could access Messenger or Notifications. Often the body of an email would never load. It wasn't any faster to use their computers. Kept getting messages to upgrade to the most expensive plan for an additional $44.00. I really felt this was a bait-and-switch. The food was really mediocre (again compared to other Carnival cruises). Again, I felt this was a bait-and-switch to encourage dining in the specialty restaurants. The food court was limited. One half was a mirror image of the other. The hot food station was heavy on carbohydrates and fried food. Often it seemed that the same thing was just renamed from day to day. Often what was at the hot food station would be on the dining room menu as well, which really lowered the appeal of the dining room. The desserts were unexceptional and tended to be variations of the same thing. There was not a lot of variety. Warning: anything with a mousse will be made with so much gelatin that it will be like chewing rubber bands. The Mexican food station was mixed. The burritos were good, but we threw out the tacos because they were so bad. Perhaps the burrito was good because I did not add a meat. The dining room was a huge disappointment both in food and service. The majority of the waiters are Indonesian. The do not understand English well. Example: I ordered the malted chocolate cake. I even pointed to the menu. I was served the molten chocolate cake instead. Every meal had a similar mess up. Most annoying was that a member of my group is named Sally. The waiter insisted on calling her "Shelly" the entire cruise. Weirdly, the waiter refused to serve a frozen margarita. He argued back and forth until the person at my table relented and had it on the rocks. The best kept secret as far as food is the food station on deck 5. The selection is more limited than the food court, but they have some unique things such as fresh wraps and chips & salsa. The salad bar also has fresh ingredients instead of starches floating in carbohydrates. There are no deserts as it is next to the specialty coffee shop. The breakfasts of deck five are also good. The production shows were terrible. In the past, the formula was to have a male singer, a female sing and six to eight dancers. This cruise had eight men and eight women who were expected to sing *and* dance; consequently, the dancing was quite limited. I do mean limited. The waiters in the dining room did more complex choreography. Instead of choreography, we got a lot of posing and strutting... and bumping, grinding, and twerking which was probably not appropriate for a family cruise. What *really* was not appropriate was the male strip. Granted the guy only went as far as a pair of square cut briefs, but the movements were pretty strong. There was an announcement before the show that their would be a "Magic Mike Moment", but it seemed clear that many parents had no idea what that meant. Also, however brief, the dry humping during the Epic Rock show was out of place. As to the singing, well when the male singer blows his voice out during Bohemian Rhapsody and has to speak-sing the rest, there is a problem. Others had such pitch problems that I actually looked forward to the recorded vocals. The sets consisted of an LED grill, projection screens and a metal platform. The same arrangement was used for all for shows and it was really boring. The use of computer graphics might have been interesting in 1999, but it is nothing that one has not seen at the local shopping mall. The graphics themselves looked like something from the 90s as well. The one exception was the Epic Rock show where the graphics and the actors were synced so that it look as if the actors were actually affecting the images, e.g., breaking glass, throwing fireballs, etc. The cafe musician/singers seemed low energy. It was as if they dragged them off street corners in Seattle and offered them a free cruise. Hasbro seemed to be sponsoring the games. Clue would have been fun had the clues been where they were supposed to when they were supposed to and if "Mr Green" had not decided that his character was a jerk and not been rude to the players. The disembarking was hell. I wish I could bold and underline this. The reason was that people were jumping the line. The entertainment director flat out said that they would do nothing to stop us if we did the same. We left the cruise with a very bad taste in our mouth. We had a car full of angry people all the was to the airport. If you follow the rules, you are penalized. If you break the rules, you are rewarded, We did not take any shore excursions this year. The ports have the usual array of made-in-China/India crap that masquerades as local crafts and the usual jewelry stores. Caribelle Batik in St. Kitts has quality clothing and accessories made locally. It isn't cheap- a man's shirt is $50.00, but it is quality. Sint Maarten is the most authentic port. Yes, you will be approached be some aggressive street vendors, but it really is a minor annoyance. There is a really nice gelato shop with a beautiful garden. The Good: I admit that I have rolled my eyes at the Las Vegas Baroque of Carnival Cruise ships as much as anyone. This ship has none of that. It is designed in a modern and simple way. There are some fun choices. The doors to the cabins look like cabanas and the banquets in the food court have striped awnings above. The problem with simple; however, is that is shows everything and hides nothing. The ship was looking a bit shabby, but is is going into dry dock in October and hopefully will get a bit of a make-over. The Cruise Director, Mikey, is a half-pint, South African, Tasmanian Devil whirling around the ship at all times. He was really the only thing that made the cruise bearable, though he is oddly fond of twerking, which is not a pretty sight. Read Less

We chose this cruise because of the itinerary of Aruba and Curaçao and also because the number of sea days. I will never again sail on the Sunshine and I’m leaning towards never sailing Carnival again. This was my 7th Carnival cruise, and it seems like they are charging more and providing less of the special service that the used to provide, and that hooked us on cruising. We had early dining and in two occasions waited 45 minutes for appetizers, while everyone around us already had dessert. We missed several functions because of the slow service. The ship was to crowded for the space available. Couldn’t find lounge chairs during the day nor seating at night for comedy shows. The condition of our cabin was disgusting. Bar service while playing slots was almost non existent. We paid almost $5000 for two cabins and came home miserable. Worst vacation ever. Read Less

Itinerary was Southern Caribbean (Aruba, Curacao, Grand Turk). Had heard a lot of things both good and bad about Sunshine but the ship surprised me from the beginning. The Carnival website shows the aft-facing balcony cabins on Deck 7 as NOT having a sofa or minifridge in the cabin. Not only did we have the sofa but also a minifridge. The Havana Bar area is unique to the Sunshine being the home for not only the bar but also for JiJi's Asian restaurant and Cucina del Capitaino restaurant. We could always find a seat in that area for breakfast & lunch. The Italian restaurant (Cucina) is pretty much the same as on other Carnival ($15 upcharge). I was a little surprised to get only one meatball when I ordered the Nona's meatball appetizer as I usually get three on other ships. I also deviated on the entree for this cruise choosing the sea bass. To be honest, the sea bass had little flavor and had me wishing I had stuck with the chicken parm. We also ate at Cucina for lunch (which is free) and my usual fare was on par with other Carnival ships. JiJi's had good and adequate fare. The duck and rib appetizers were excellent but, IMO, the entrees were just ok. Now for the real highlight of the cruise. The crew was absolutely outstanding! I have been pleased with Carnival crews in the past but this group was exceptional IMO. Our cabin stewards took very good care of meeting our needs even working to find a little longer shower curtain so the shower didn't throw water onto the floor of the bathroom. We were fortunate to see a hostess (Dijana who we knew from several Magic cruises) in the Cucina on embarkation day. When asked for the best waiter in anytime dining, she suggested Neil and his crew (Dexter & Nilo). I cannot say enough good things about those guys. They gave us great suggestions to enhance our dining pleasure throughout the week. Read Less

My family of 4 including a 14 and 16 year old went on this cruise. We chose this cruise because of the ports Aruba and Curacao. Embarking and disembarking went very smoothly. In and off the ship in no time. This ship was filled to capacity. It had many children and teens. The ship was way too small to accommodate the amount of people on this ship. There was one very small pool on Lido and a very small pool on serenity for 3000 people. We never got in the pool or hot tub because they were always full of children or teens. This cruise is definitely not for someone looking for relaxation! The dining room stayed full. Many nights it took over 2 hours to complete our meal and we missed shows. The service was definitely lacking. Our order was messed up more than once, and the wait times were ridiculous. The staff also seemed very rushed and the dining room was so loud! The food was good as always though! Our cabin was actually bigger than expected. We always get a balcony but this time chose a ocean view room. The room was much more spacious than the balcony rooms especially for 4 people. The beds slept really good also. The only bad thing about the room was the shower did not drain properly, other than that it was ok. We also had another couple that went with us and was a few doors down. Their neighbors children were really loud including crying ALL THE TIME. Carnival was made aware but it continued the whole trip and the option of changing rooms wasn't available because the ship was at full capacity. They said after this ship they would never cruise on Sunshine again. The entertainment was great but you had to get there early or you would be standing. Even though it was great, it was a repeat from a previous cruise so we had already seen it before. The ports were great, no problems noted. Did not do shore excursions. We always take a taxi to whatever we decide to do. Another thing about this boat was it rocked and swayed really really bad for almost the whole cruise. Everyone was complaining about it. I'm not sure if it was the ship or the weather though. They did let us stay in Grand Turk an extra hour because of this though. Our kids loved it but did say there wasn't enough to do. I would go again but definitely not on the Sunshine.The ship is definitely outdated and small. Read Less

This was my 5th cruise with Carnival and I dont have a lot to complain about. The ship was Nice, way more up to date then past ships. Mikey the cruise director was just wonderful!!! He was always around, no matter the time, early or very late he was around!!! He and his crew are the best!!! Our cabin was smaller then past cruises but it was always clean and we always had extra ice and what ever we asked for! The food in the dining room was always great... Food in the common area was good as well. Always a varity. The staff was wonderful except one lady in customer service, she was very rude and unpleasent not at all helpful; however i can not remember her name. You will know her as soon as u encounter her..... The Havana Bar was always a nice place to cool down and have plenty of seating. I do have a few complaints, #1 the WI-Fi, it was horrible! #2 the pool, Horrible WAY TO SMALL for a ship of that size. The Serenity Pool was nice with the water fall but it was AWAYS to crowded as well! The Lido needs another pool!!! #3 was the tv channels. I know u may say why complain about the TV but, while ur getting ready and late night u are in ur cabin, and at these times i like to watch tv. Channels are VERY limited and the movies on the movie channel where a few movies that played over and over :( I love Carnival and I will continue to cruise with them!!! A vacation is all u make it!!! U can either complain over everything or just relax and have a wonderful time!!! I choose to have a wonderful time!!!! Some people u just cant satisfy no matter what !!! Until next time my friends keep the drinks coming, the sun shining, and memories being made!!!!!!!! Read Less

Good cruise I was a little nervous because of all the bad reviews but they seem to be improving. We had the best cruise director Mikey Gibson and it was his first cruise on the Sunshine he moved from the Fantasy so glad we had him he is great, according to him he will be there for at least 2 years. Most all the staff we saw and talked to were great. Food was great. We tried your time dining for the first time we loved it, never had to wait to be seated and will never go back to assigned seating. The first night was slow service (we only had this wait team once) but each night after that we had great and fast service. I see all the complaints about the main show room and the comedy club but we just showed up early and always got a good seat. Now I will say it is ugliest Main show room that I have seen on Carnival and I found the chairs on the floor that they move each night not to be comfortable but we just sat up in the balcony. Now there were a couple of negative things one is the movement and rocking of this ship it moved more than any ship we have been on. And second was the Lido deck and serenity decks it was next to impossible to find chairs on sea days and we only needed 2 together but they were either taken or saved with towels I know this is a problem on all ships but not this bad. I would cruise the Sunshine again as a matter of fact I may be booking her for next year on the Southern route. Read Less

My husband is deploying soon. We decided to take a trip for the holidays we will miss together. That was a mistake. Carnival is a scam. The ship is so out dated. The room was filthy, the staff was super nice but that is the only good thing I can say. The casino charges you money if you insert cash, then if you win, take a look at your final bill... you really didn't. The food is great if you like the same options every day. The pools are so small you can't get in them and then when the crowds of people are gone, it closes. Called room service 3 times during the five days and no answer, it rings busy. The excursions were great but keep in mind... they were off the ship. Next time we will use another line or take a plane, hotel and car rental. Also... calling customer service after the cruise- is useless. The answer in a nut shell... sorry you feel that way. Wow. Read Less