How could it be that our cruise on Carnival Sunshine in March was better then this second time on Golden? That was my thought throughout most of this short 3-night sail on the Golden. Our first time on Golden was in 2008, and felt it was an unfriendly ship with rude staff and poor experiences ... staff changes, but the overall experience stays the same. Like this ship is haunted with ghosts of grumpy sailors.

First, the food experience in main dining room was slow, lacked some better seafood options, not much variety at lunch, and the steaks on the Carnival Sunshine were way better in main dining then on this ship. Portions were sized nicely, generally good quality - but some things like my salmon was overcooked, eggs benedict over done, tea service was inconsistent with lazy tray passes, lunch in main dining was slow and unfriendly and my ny strip at dinner was not a new york strip but rather some sirloin disguised as a ny cut. The buffet was better then in the past, the cooks seemed less stressed, enjoy what they are cooking and deliver a nice variety every day (and the authentic Indian food was great!)

Mainly, this ship needs a new cruise director - the activities were poorly scheduled, overlapped and activity staff was not very welcoming. One morning, I was told by an activity staffer that my 13-yr old daughter was not allowed to attend the craft with me because it was mainly for adults only (didn't say that anywhere) and he was totally rude ... this was his comment to me "Maybe you do not want to do the craft then, and then you could spend more time with your daughter elsewhere on the ship ..." Uhh, it would be nice if I could spend time with my daughter helping me to do the damn craft ... idiot. Read more