Carnival Sunshine Review
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Carnival has continually made cutbacks and no longer offers a good vacation for a good price. Carnival has lost a loyal customer who grew up cruising with their family. The Carnival Sunshine is a rust bucket. It truly is rusting and falling apart; even though it was "renovated" only a few years ago. The teak decks are splintering, the paint is peeling, the water pressure is not enough for showers, etc, etc. You should seriously consider going on another ship (or more importantly different cruise line). Carnival is cheap, but remember, you get what you pay for.
Funship 2.0 Makeover: I went on the Destiny as a kid and it was not as crowded before the renovation. Funship 2.0 means remove public areas and add more cabins. There are lines everywhere and for everything. There is also one less pool and way less deck space to lay out because of the waterworks slides. I have been on a couple Destiny-class ships and never felt too crowded; the renovations were horrible. They cut the ship up weird and took away entire show lounges and entire floors of others.
Entertainment: If you eat the late dinner, you can't make any shows but the comedy club. If you don't get to the comedy shows and wait in line for 30 minutes you won't get a seat and they won't let you stand at the bar. Twice we had to leave because we were too late to see the show. The only entertainment on the ship was the cruise directors dancing on the bar in the atrium. There was only one deck party. The ship has one live band that only played twice. The rest are DJ's playing tired party songs by KC and the Sunshine Band. Sad.
Cabin Review
Spa Balcony
The cabin was clean and ready when we arrived. The spa is a total waste of time. The extra money for a spa balcony is not worth it. The spa has two steam rooms. That's it. The windows were so dirty you couldn't even sit back and watch the ocean. There is no mineral bath or anything like that. No whirlpool.
If you feel so inclined to cruise with Carnival, just get a regular balcony room. The room also seemed smaller than most Destiny class ship.
The 11th floor can only be accessed by only 2 of the 6 elevators in the front. It can be a long wait to get an elevator.
Just know that the 10th floor balconies protrude from the ship so the 11th and 12th floors can look right down into them. It really made the 11th floor not feel very private.
Port Reviews
Half Moon Cay
Very relaxing. The was the best day on the cruise. Don't get an excursion. Just have a nice beach day.
Freeport
This place is so gross and dirty it shouldn't be a port. Freeport is an industrial yard that smells like gasoline from the refinery. The water is just not pretty on Grand Bahama. This port looks like a bunch of coal power plants by the ocean. Tourists really have no business going to this island. It is very disappointing that Carnival would take guests here.
We did an excursion at this port.
Nassau
We went to the haymarket and walked around. Nassau is nice right around the cruise port. But don't venture too far; Nassau has a higher murder rate than Detroit.
Port Canaveral (Orlando)
Customs moved pretty quickly.