Carnival Sunrise Review

Understaffed and Not Forthcoming with Port Information Prior to Booking

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Sunrise
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Windsor17
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Feb 2023

I recently sailed on the sunrise, leaving miami fl on 2/25 with stops at grand turks, half moon cay and nassau, then returning to miami on 3/2. my husband and i sailed with 5 other couples, our first trip together with this group and the first cruise ever for 2 of the couples.

We were all shocked & livid to find out during the check-in process a few days before the cruise, that 7 of the 12 of us would not be permitted to get off the ship in grand turks because we were not vaccinated. the grand turks stop was the reason we selected this particular cruise. we did our due diligence prior to booking and looked through the covid protocols for carnival cruise lines on their website to ensure we wouldn’t have any issues. nothing in the information we saw indicated we were going to have an issue at any of the ports and there were no notes on the itinerary stating that unvaccinated individuals would not be permitted on the island. it was also undisclosed that at half moon cay the only way to reach the island is by water taxi. that process takes several hours so the time we got to spend on the island was limited. they did provide food but the drink package that we spent a lot of money on, wasn't usable on the island, even though carnival owns the island and they provided lunch.

Along with this issue, it appears (disclosed by employees on the ship) the ship was 1/2 staffed. the staff worked so hard to keep up but it was blatantly obvious that there weren’t enough of them to provide the service and cleaning up that the cruise industry has been known for. getting a drink was an endeavor and clean up in the lido eatery in particular was very slow. we went to the piano bar twice and both times there was 1 server trying to keep up with drink orders and no clearing of dirty glasses was done either night. tables were loaded with empty glasses and some glasses moved to the floor under the tables because there wasn’t room on the tables. this is unacceptable and no fault of the crew working. if there is only have 1/2 staff, carnival should not be selling out a cruise to full or near full occupancy.

Cabin Review

Port Reviews

Half Moon Cay

The water taxi process to get to and from the island takes forever so time is limited on the island. Carnival provided lunch which was decent but even though they own the island, the drink package that we purchased wasn't permitted to be used on the island. Lounge chairs were limited

Nassau

Nassau wasn't what I expected at all. The locals and shop workers harass the heck out of you while you're trying to look around. Our group hired a private boat for the afternoon and that was AMAZING! We snorkeled and saw so much incredible sea life. He even tied up at a beach so we could hang out for a while before heading back to the ship.

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