Carnival Sunshine Review
Carnival delivers again; expectations met and many exceeded.
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Faster the fun and on the ship quickly. Port Canaveral is pretty smooth running. Connecting rooms for adults and two teen boys. Lobby level. First impression of the ship was great. Walking on into the lobby and we see nice décor. Clean. Greeted by friendly smiles at every turn. Dropped our carryon bags in the cabin and off we went to the Lido for lunch. No crowds yet and scoped out our spot. Everyone had something different and the food was great. I did the burrito at Blue Iguana and had some great sauces and fresh fruit with it. Yum. Son had pizza to order (first of about 20). Wife had Guy's. Other boy had pasta from Capitano. We sat poolside at first and decided to move aft to the Havana Bar. Great meeting place. Nice tables. Large windows looking aft. Bar in the center. Capitano's and JiJi on either side. Overall one of my favorite places on the ship. Got our Endless Bubbles from a cool cat bartender from Myanmar. Relaxed, read the FunTimes and planned our night. Overall a great embarkation that could not have gone better.
I have been on Breeze, Dream and Liberty and this was my sixth Carnival cruise. Also have done Disney and NCL. I found the Sunshine to be a smaller version of the Breeze. Island club décor. Soft, muted colors. Relaxing. The ship seemed in great shape from what I saw. I have read reviews where people were unhappy with this or that. I found no evidence of maintenance issues other than normal wear and tear that can be expected when several thousand people come on board each week and live it up. Certainly nothing that would detract from my enjoyment. The public areas were all every organized and clean. We constantly saw people cleaning, sweeping, mopping, dusting, vacuuming, clearing tables. I had no issues with the condition of the ship. In fact, I thought it was a very nice refitting that was done. The ship looked nearly new to us. Sure there are places that get worn quickly, but for the most part, things looked as they should. We saw no evidence that there was lack of regular maintenance (which is probably a 24/7 operation on an ocean vessel, right?).
I want to talk about our cabins, the entertainment, smokers, kids, room attendant and our restaurant staff. Entertainment: excellent. Some of the best we have had ever. Music was everywhere. Comedians were great. Went to the family friendly shows only and had a great time. Can be crowded, so get there early. Smokers. Well, they were there and smoking in the casino. But, no problems anywhere else. Kids were not a problem. Most were well behaved and not too loud. The kids clubs are up on 10 and 11 and aft, so a lot of the action for them is out of the other areas. For a Spring Break sailing we found that we were not too crowded and the kids were fine. Our room attendant was good. Did all we asked of him. Our wait staff was superb. They treated us like royalty and we loved them. We have them more gratuities than normal and they really appreciated that. Food was very good in the main dining room. We had late seating for the first time and it was fine. Dining on a ship in the dining rooms is a compromise of sorts. Even any time dining has pros and cons. We wanted to have the same wait staff every night, so we took the late seating. Worked out great for us. Early would have been our first choice, but we were ok with the late and it ended up being great.
Cabin Review
Interior with Picture Window (obstructed views)
Our cabin was on the lobby deck. We had 2 connecting. Gave the adults some space and the teens their own. Worked fine. Cabin was just as we have experienced on prior Carnival Cruises. Clean, well maintained, comfortable. Bathroom was small as usual. Room attendant was very polite and friendly. We didn't ask for much. Didn't need ice or special needs. Just a clean cabin to mess up and then come back to find all clean again!! Right? This is an awesome part of cruising. We love not cleaning or cooking and just having fun. Our cabins were close to the Excursion Desk. That's fine for us and we liked it. Some might find it a bit to busy. Noise was a minor issue. We heard footsteps above and deck chairs being dragged around outside, but nothing was sustained or very loud. Just a few noises. At night things were very quiet. Overall, really liked the room and the attendant. No problems for us. We had a window, but there was a deck outside and lifeboats above. Very few people were ever on the deck though. The window was large and we mostly kept the curtain closed except to peek out when coming into port or going out. We didn't spend a lot of time in the cabin. I've had balconies and found the same. We just don't spend that much time in the cabin. We're out doing things.
Port Reviews
Costa Maya
Costa Maya seemed like a nice port. Very unspoiled nature around it. We slept in until noon and the ship was scheduled to leave at 2, so we didn't see much beyond the pretty well developed port area. Lots of shops selling Mexican goods. We stocked up on gifts for friends. Haggled a bit with the sellers. There was a large pool, bar and restaurant that we would have used, but we slept past that opportunity. Oh well...maybe next time!
Port Canaveral (Orlando)
We came in from Orlando in a rented car. Worked fine. Dropped it off and took the shuttle to the port. No problems. Carnival terminal is easy to navigate. We were through the lines and then on the ship pretty quickly.