So we're back.
Here are some absolute highlights of our 5 nights on the Carnival Sunshine:
Boarding Day - BBQ at the Taste Bar for lunch. To take some pressure off of the lido Marketplace, they opened up the taste bar with a compliment of BBQ food (pulled pork, beef brisket, bbq chicken along with sides of potato salad, coleslaw, mac n cheese, buns, and probably a couple of things I'm forgetting - oh, plus 3 different sauces to add to your meats). This is the same stuff as Fieri's Pig and Anchor and so good. They also had a cart with tea, lemonade and ice water (along with coffee and hot tea). Made for a relaxing first meal and we didn't have to rush with the crowd up to the Lido deck.
JiJi's Asian Restaurant - by far and away the best specialty restaurant we've ever dined at on a cruise ship. It's only $15 per person and honestly - the flavour explosions were phenomenal. The portions are for sharing and don't look very big but trust me, you'll leave stuffed. This isn't your typical Chinese food restaurant; it's an Asian experience.
Daytime Activities - In addition to the number of trivia contests throughout the day, Carnival has really strengthened the ties to Hasbro. They had team trivial pursuit (including giant pie pieces) on both sea days, plus Giant Jenga (called Carnival Tower), Cranium, connect 4 tournaments, Win Lose or Draw, Reverse Charades (HeadBandz), and maybe 1 other that just escapes my memory. They also had family magic shows as well as a show which demonstrated a couple of magic tricks (taught you how to do them).
Cabins - these cabins were redone in the last big drydock and they are really nice. Lots of light wood, blues and greens, comfortable beds (that split apart), a very cold fridge (no cooling box - it kept our soda ice cold). We had one of the new cabins that were added to deck 5 and it was very convenient to everything. We were close to the aft elevator which quickly led us up to the lido deck (pool and buffet area), we were steps from the Ocean plaza where they had many of their daytime activities and live music at night, the alchemy bar, taste bar, and the coffee shop were just a few steps past that and then then casino (which yes, we do like to play the slots).
Choice of evening activities - From comedy shows, to Hasbro the game show, to playlist productions, to the love and marriage game, to the casino, to live music in 3-4 places around the ship, the Sunshine has it all.
Service - our cabin stewards (main one and his assistant) were excellent. Even though we filled out the form for evening service and not both, they were regularly in the room through the day to just "tidy up" (empty the garbage, replace towels, clean the bathroom). It was only the beds that got made once a day. They also helped with a few issues we had (not due to the ship but our issues). Our dining room servers were excellent - fast paced and efficient. One night my dad's steak was over done and he was going to just eat it but our server wouldn't allow it. She literally snapped her fingers at the assistant waiter and said, "Get him a new steak - make sure it's medium rare!" and not 5 minutes later, it arrived hot and perfect at the table.
Platinum Perks - this is my second cruise as Platinum and the first time I really took advantage of any perks. We had priority boarding, priority debarkation, separate line at guest services, 2 bags of free laundry for a 5 night cruise, chocolate covered strawberries to the cabin, a free drink at brunch, a backpack, a special party on the last night and a free 1.5 litre bottle of water.
Now there were a few downsides (as with any trip):
We sailed out of Charleston and I won't do that again. It's 3 steep ramps up to the ship, and you have to take a bus from the parking lot to get to the ship. Debarking was easy but expensive. We tipped the wheelchair pusher from the ship to the end of the 3 ramps ($5), the port wheelchair pusher who went from the end of the ramps, down through the luggage place and through port and security and out to the buses ($5), tipped the first porter who picked up our luggage at the inside terminal and took it the bus ($5), tipped the bus driver who operated the wheelchair lift and drove the bus (he was really good $5), and then another porter when we got off the bus to take the luggage from the bus drop off to the car ($5). I don't mind tipping and always get a porter, this just seemed excessive. This is a port issue though, not a Carnival one.
The toilet in the accessible cabin was on an angle. On day 1, due to this my mother missed her wheelchair and ended up on the floor. She had a stroke previously and can't use her right arm or leg so she can't stand up on her own. We had to call medical and the nurse came, confirmed she was okay and then they brought in a bunch of guys to help get her back into her wheelchair. Thankfully they had a commode chair available otherwise I don't think we would have been able to stay on the ship. We didn't find a single good accessible toilet on the ship (they were either too low, awkwardly placed, too much stuff in the bathroom or the grab bars weren't in the right place). For this reason, we won't be sailing this particular ship again. This doesn't impact most people but accessibility is our number 1 concern for any vacation.
Service in the Casino - again, may not impact most people but the bar servers didn't seem to want to serve whatever drink I asked for - they kept trying to get me to order something different.
Frankly, it was just odd. I did get enough points for a "Drinks on Us" card and for cookies to be sent to the cabin.
Anyways, in case you can't tell, I really enjoy sailing on Carnival. I think they have great food (MDR, MDR breakfast and brunch, Guys Burger, Pasta Bar, Mongolian Wok, Cuban bites, Taste bar for the taste bar and they had breakfast there everyday), a nice variety of daytime activities (especially for those who are sun adverse such as myself), comfortable cabins with lots of storage space and just a comfortable, fun environment. The majority of cruisers seemed very relaxed and I didn't notice any "bad behaviour"; what I did notice was a ton of families, couples, singles, large groups, small groups and just the regular walk of life.
on that cruise for me.
Our first cruise was supposed to be on Disney Magic but I had to downsize the cost and we ended up on Carnival Liberty. We got bit by the cruising bug and have yet to actually get on a Disney ship. Maybe someday!
