Let me first start by saying for the past 8 years I have done a cruise a year and our only experience with Carnival prior to the Sunshine was on the Legend in Feb of 2013. We booked a cruise on the Sunshine for September 13th 2015 leaving from Orlando. We chose the Sunshine for this special cruise since it was my 30th birthday on September 11 and I proposed to my fiancé on my birthday. We arrived at the Orlando airport the day of the cruise. We purchased the bus pass round trip through Carnival online. When you get to the airport you will need to check in at the Carnival desk located downstairs of the airport before they will let you on the bus. There were no signs or anything. Just ask someone who works there on the bottom floor and you should be good. Bus run about every 45 min. We loaded the bus and the driver loaded our luggage.

After a 45 minute ride you arrive at the ship. The driver takes care of your bags and you go through the cruise terminal to check in and receive your sail & sign card. Everything went very smooth getting on the ship. We got on board and went directly to our room. It was about 14:30 when we arrived at our room. The room was clean and set up for us already. My fiancé surprised me with having the room decorated for my birthday and having beer waiting in the room for me. Here was my first disappointment. The beer was in a clear plastic bag on the counter in the room. There were 4 beers in total. The beers were warm and I would have figured they would of had the beer on ice and a glass to drink them in. We then tried to find the room steward to request a bucket of ice for the beer so I could have them later that night. No luck could not find the room steward. We were located on deck 8 towards the back of the ship in a upgraded balcony.

We decided to go to the spa and take a tour since she wanted to be pampered to start the cruise. We went to the Spa and Gym which looked very nice and clean. All the staff in the Spa were very nice and helpful (we later found out that the Spa employees do not work for Carnival but for another company that Carnival hires) Completed the tour and she booked treatments for that night. We then went to the lido deck and grabbed a slice of pizza and a deli sandwich. Pizza was so-so but I enjoyed the deli and ended up eating there frequently. Walked on the lido deck and higher until we were leaving port. As she was in the spa I decided to grab a beer and explore the ship and try to have it figured out before she was done. Decks 3,4 & 5 are where most of the common spaces are. The major problem with the layout is on decks 3 & 4 you cant walk from one side of the ship to the other. You have to at some point have to go to deck 5 and walk through the Casino which can be filled with smoke to get to the other side. I found the Liquid Lounge, Punchliner club, EA Sports Bar and shops to be very small for the amount of people who are on the ship. Read more