Carnival Sunshine Review
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We left out on a Sunday, Feb. 15th on the Sunshine. There was 4 of us in our family. Myself, my husband, and our 2 children (ages: 16 & 6). 1st off when we got to the port to board it went SO smooth that it was kind'a scary. Honestly....this was our 5th cruise and we did not have to wait in any line to board. Every station we had to stop at was a stop and go. We were on the ship by noon this cruise!! When we got on the ship we went to the guest services station and set up our cash account. Easy! Then went and got our children the Soda Program package, again Easy! We then went to see if our room was ready....it was! It was like 1:30 by this time. We got 2 interior rooms this cruise. 1 room for us, and the other for our children. We had a connecting door in between our rooms, that was nice! We did pay a little extra for this but So worth it! We were in Cabins #6195 and #6197, these are interior rooms in the Middle of the ship, they are bigger interior rooms, Very Nice!! If you don't mind interior rooms, like we do, than I'd highly suggest this type of room! We then all went to Guy's Burger and ate. It was packed! Line was long, and hardly any seats for seating. But we made the best of it! We sailed away at 4pm. Went to the sail away party on the Lido Deck, did some dancing, always a must! Then time to explore our home for the next 5 days! We went and visited Camp Carnival for our daughter. By the way she Loved Camp Carnival and wanted to go everyday! We visited the waterpark area. It's a small waterpark area, considering we just had been on the Breeze about 6 months ago, and on the Breeze the waterpark area is Huge! The sports zone was nice. There is only a half of a Basketball court on this ship. Again, on the Breeze they have a Full Basketball court. There was a Ropes Course. (We never got to do it because the wind was Bad everyday of our cruise, honestly I don't think hardly anyone got to do the Ropes Course on our cruise.) It was okay with us though, we did it before on the Breeze. The Serenity Area which is 3 Decks on the back of the ship, is Very nice!! My husband and I did get to take advantage of the area some. There is a waterfall there with an adults only pool. This ship only has 1 swimming pool (very small) for kids near Guy's Burger. There were a ton of chairs and lounge chairs! Note: this ship is a remodeled ship only, they did not make it any bigger. So, this is a small ship and we did feel a lot a movement the whole trip. Still a great trip but don't think I'd do the Sunshine again especially after being on the Breeze and knowing what it offers and has! Honestly I would tell anyone this, pay the extra money and go on the Breeze!!
Ports: We went to Nassau, Bahamas and Grand Turk. We have been to both before.
In Nassau, Bahamas we did an excursion through Carnival at Balmoral Islands, the dolphin encounter, stingray encounter, and beach day package. This was the BEST thing our family has EVER done! I had and still have been hearing negative and positive things about Balmoral Islands, but to each person their own experience! Our Experience was Awesome and Amazing!!! We had about 1 and a half hour to swim in the ocean and then the rest of the time there was with the dolphins and stingrays. We had about 35 to 40 mins. with our dolphin, Dixon. They did not allow us to take our own pictures, we had to buy their pictures if we wanted pictures. We did buy all the pictures on a disc for $75, so worth it!! Pictures were amazing! The stingray encounter was okay, we've swam with them before in Grand Caymans so this wasn't new for us. A lot better experience in Grand Caymans with the Stingrays I have to say. The foods and drinks here on at Balmoral Islands were ridiculous!! I DO NOT recommend getting any drinks or foods here!! A coke, sprite, dr. pepper, etc. was $5 EACH!!! And when it came to their foods. They only offered 4 different kinds of meals and they were $12.99 EACH (plus tax). We did end up getting some foods and a couple of drinks but I recommend eating before you come here! All in All Balmoral Islands was a Wonderful Excursion for us! We'd do it again in a heartbeat!!
Cabin Review
Interior
We had 2 cabins. On the 6th deck. In the middle of the ship. Rooms #6195 and #6197. We had a room and our children (ages: 16 & 6) had their own room. We had a King Bed, while they had twin sized beds. We each had our own bathroom, Very nice!! We each had our own TV's, again, Very nice!! We had plenty of space!! These rooms on the middle of the ship. Interior Rooms but in the Middle. We still felt a lot of movement each night in these rooms. These rooms are bigger than a regular interior room. We had a connecting door in the middle for us in between our rooms, Loved that!! These were Very Nice Rooms! Highly recommend them!!