I haven't written a review in a while but thought I'd take some time today to write about out trip on the Carnival Sunshine last week. First off, Port Canaveral to us is one of the easiest ports to get in and out of. We are Platinum members and find everything clearly marked as far as where to enter the terminal, check in and board the ship. We've never had to wait in a long line, and the people there are always friendly and helpful. With that said, it was an easy boarding process to get on the ship arriving at about 12:30pm. Our room was ready for us so we went to put our carry on bags down and headed to the Lido deck for some lunch. The elevators were very quick and honestly, we never had to wait long to catch and elevator the whole trip. I love that they have a few of them marked to go to the upper decks (sports, waterworks and cloud 9 spa) so that you never have the problem of hopping on an elevator that doesn't go all the way to the top decks (unless of course you don't use one that is marked to do so).Now, for lunch time. The Market place is a pretty open area but, uses two "island" style buffets. By that, you have a square with plates on one end, and two sides with the same foods on them with different food items on the other end of the square. Easy right? Not! It's all good until you get to the end and you have two lines merging together to get to the items on the far side. The pizza and Deli are at the corners of the Market place as are the desserts and the beverages. The beverage area is a disaster area. It's on a corner and there was always a line to get a cup of water, tea or lemonade, and I do mean a long line. One which blocks the flow of traffic trying to get out of the buffet area. I must say, once you get out of this mess, there are plenty of seats available along the sides of the ship as well as in the aft which is where the pasta bar and the Asian wok is located - again, with long lines blocking the flow of traffic trying to get form point a to point b. The food was good, the usual buffet menu for those of us who have cruised Carnival before. After getting through he maze of people, we made our way to our muster station. If you're lucky, you'll have muster station D or E so you can sit in the Liquid Lounge instead of standing outside! With that though, we were the last to be dismissed from the safety briefing. So, while I'm on the topic of the Liquid lounge, I'll note it is very small but I'll mention that later in my review. After the safety briefing, we went back to our room to enjoy our balcony. Our luggage didnt' arrive until very late (just before dinner at 6:00) which we thought strange since we are platinum members but it wasn't' an issue. Our room was very nice, the a/c worked wonderfully from day one, beds are comfy, etc. Note though, if you have four adults, the person who sleeps on the sofa bed has to be the short one! My daughter who is twelve was too long for it! Now, for the not so good, the location of our room at night while the liquid lounge was in use for music, was awful. The music was so loud, it kept us up. The schedule for the music was 10pm-late so it seemed to go on forever. Please note that this was not our original choice for cabins. We originally had an aft ocean view cabin sandwiched between two decks of cabins to avoid the noise but had received an upgrade to a balcony which we accepted prior to looking at a deck map.(never again will I do that) Other than the noise, the cabin was outfitted with two closets for hanging clothes, a closet with two shelves and two small cupboards in front of the bed along with the usual drawers. Plenty of room to store clothes, etc. also, we found that this cabin had more than the usual plugs found on other ships we sailed. In face, there were three total (one behind the tv and two on each side of the mirror - not including the one in the bathroom. The bathroom was set up the usual was with the shower being larger than most other ships we've sailed on. The only issue we had with the bathroom is now, the shower is located on the longer wall of the bathroom making the sink area smaller (not a real issue) but, they have the smaller shower curtains on the shower rod so there is about an 8 inch open gap between the curtain and the wall so the floor outside the shower gets soaked. Other than that, the room is fine.

We had dinner in the Sunset dining room. It is in the middle of the ship, very small and hard to get around in. Our server had two helpers yet he did most of the work. I'm not going to mention names but he did not have the usual friendliness of others we've had. He never asked us how our day was or made any kind of small talk at that. Our service was just ok. We always had to wait a while for drink refills (water and tea) in fact, I had to ask twice for a tea refill and were never offered any seconds on bread. Prior to our cruise, I had called TWICE to mention it was my daughters birthday and was told they "had it noted" that they would sing to her at dinner time. Well, that didn't happen on her birthday so I went to the maitre d podium but there wasn't' anyone there. I then went to the guest services desk to let them know, they said they would sing on the last formal day (because my daughter had made some friends and they were going to eat together at the buffet until then). On the last formal day, they made announcements for birthdays, anniversaries, etc, and again, didn't mention her name. Finally, when their showtime singing and hoopla was done, they came over to sing to her. Unfortunately, most of the dining room had cleared out by then. Now, on to the pool area... yes, it was crowded with lounge chairs every where making it a single file line to walk anywhere on deck. Finally, we found a spot, got into the pool for about 15 minutes and were then asked to get out of the water because the pool chemicals were out of balance so they had to super chlorinate it. This happened four times! The pool was closed on two of the port days and twice during sailing! Thank goodness for the water park area which was very fun for the little ones and those that like slides, etc.

As far as showtimes were concerned, we didn't' see but one comedian (Allan) who was very funny. Be prepared though, you will need to wait in line at least 45 minutes before the show in a narrow hallway with no air circulation. Seriously, someone finally propped one of the outer doors open because it was so hot. Once again, a small space with a million guests waiting in a line. The Punchliner club is tiny with 5 rows of chairs in front of the stage. If you sit on the sides of the stage, you will watch the comedian on a tv - no, I'm not kidding, just another area too small for the amount of people on board. Once you leave the Punchliner, if you want to see the next show, there's only one way out of the club, you then have to go one floor up and back down and around to get back in line to get in again - CRAZY! The same with the Liquid lounge where the main shows are. Instead of the long couch type seating used on other ships, there are individual chairs for the floor seating and stadium seating for the upper seating. Again, too small for the amount of passengers. Oh, one more thing about the Liquid Lounge, they close the doors before the show and only open them up about 15 minutes prior to showtime which creates yet another long line to which you can't get through to reach the elevators or the photo walls to find your photos. Why they close the doors is beyond me. It's just another road block we had to get through to get anywhere on the ship. Other entertainment was as usual. I'm a fan of trivia which was fun. Shannon does a great job of entertaining while playing the trivia games, etc. My only beef with that is she at one point didn't' have enough trivia cards for the board game trivia so if you want to take part in that, sit up front or you wont get to play if you're in the back of the plaza. Read more