Overview
About
Passengers: 3,006 | Crew: 1,040
Passengers to crew: 2.89:1
Passengers to space: 34.2:1
Launched: 1996
Decks
- Deck 1
- Deck 2
- Deck 3
- Deck 4
- Deck 5
- Deck 6
Additional decks
Deck 1 layout
Cabins
Interior Upper/Lower (1A)
Interior (4A)
Ocean View (6A)
Porthole (PT)
Interior (4B)
Ocean View (6B)
Cabins
Balcony
Cabin size: 185 - 185 sq. ft.
Connected rooms: 12
Accessible rooms: 5
Maximum passengers: 4
Number of cabins: 508
Reviews
Traveller rating
- 51
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- 26
- 21
- 18
Time of year
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Over crowded, tiny cabins, the food wasn't great. I wanted to cancel my trip but there was a $600 cancellation fee even though I was still 6 months from my sailing date so my attitude wasn't the best, but I tried to enjoy myself anyway. The lines were just too long, the ship had too many people on it.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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Cleanliness: Let me start off we found a USED broken razor blade under our bed (room 8032) in addition to TONS of trash underneath. We notified customer service, which was supposed to be superior as paying “Faster to Fun” but it was not great. On the few occasions we had to call or go in line, it took much longer than the other lines with little resolution or satisfaction. Our steward cleaned the room again and we STILL found 2 food wrappers under our bed. They sent 2 supervisors up, but they didn’t do anything except order the room to be recleaned. After recleaning, we found a slim jim wrapper and a juice box under the curtains! Customer Service, especially paying the extra for faster to fun, was worthless. After the whole debacle with our dirty room and the razor blade then to find out they disposed our brand-new wine bottles ($100) without notifying us before they took our checked bags in the parking lot. They sent someone up to speak with us about the room and we informed them about the wine but they didn’t remedy either situation at all. Apparently this is NOT disclosed on any emails, signs at check in (until AFTER you give them your bags), or on your boarding pass but in your ticket contract (who reads and retains all of that fine detail? I think Carnival hopes for that). Customer service called and asked if I would like a bottle of champagne as a gesture of apologies for our dirty room. We don’t drink champagne so they offered wine, which was nice and would have been great BUT then called back to save they could not offer wine and offered us items already available on the buffet (cheese, etc.) They sent some waters which we didn’t need, and I was still not loving the customer service experience. Internet/chat: Our chat feature NEVER worked that we paid for on 3 phones. I have multiple screen shots showing my airplane mode on, connected to carnival app but then error messages saying it could not connect. We showed customer service all of the unsent messages and our settings. Nolu told me to call down if it still wasn’t working well the next day and we did as we were still experiencing issues (so paid $35 for 24 hours of internet) but the other female platinum services asked me to come down. I told her I couldn’t because my son was napping and she wouldn’t help me. Instead, she interrupted and said “you’re welcome” and hung up. The internet we tried to use day 1 never worked to send messages or call. None of my family has social media so it was useless and we requested a refund—we only got it the last day to hopefully make a call about the storm and our car in port. However, my phone company charged me $57 for using the ship’s network even though I was supposed to be on the internet I paid for. Only my husband and I could text each other. Therefore, we wasted $107 ($57 from Carnival cell network, $15 on chat, $35 on one day of internet) that was never taken care of. The SMELLS: Our bathroom REAKED of urine, always! Like always! You could NOT have the toilet seat up as all you smelled was sewage. The worst part was the frozen yogurt machine smelled the same!! That was scary to think there is sewage either going to the frozen yogurt machine or close enough to contaminate it. It was so strong that after the first day, I couldn’t eat it again. It also was watery and not good. Real ice cream would have been nice. Pool. The pool was tiny and always dirty. The splash park and slides were great but not a lot of seating for adults and no shade. Food: Besides the frozen yogurt being watery and the machine and surrounding area reaking of urine, the food was bland and no unique or healthy options. If you are a vegetarian, you are going to be pretty miserable (like my kids were). Again, if you wanted something good, you had to pay and couldn’t even try more than 2 tiny entrees (and they were TINY) without paying extra. The pasta and Mongolian lines were great, but they were only offered for short times during lunch, so we only got to take advantage once. The omelet station had no vegetables other than onions and diced tomatoes so it also was not ideal or good (no mushrooms, spinach, etc). It was egg and processed cheese. Lines for pizza took upwards of 45 minutes and wrapped around to the elevators, as did the sandwich shop. You would think Carnival would account for that and offer a larger or duplicate venue. They did have a vegan menu at dinner which (positive) and we appreciated this to try different things but the sit down never had entertainment when we went like they used to so we stopped going to it. Only drinks available if you didn’t want to use your Bubbles and wait in line for a bartender, then feel obligated to tip on top of the included tip (like what is the purpose in signing for nonalcoholic drinks??) were lemonade (not real lemonade), fake juices, and watery coffee. They didn’t even have flavored cream so we had to get creative with syrup. Entertainment: Everything on the entertainment schedule was for Carnival’s financial gain, and not for your fun. They kept promising things like bracelets or a giveaway to a cruise, etc. but they were hour long + sales pitches, then to find out it was just a raffle at the end or an entry that goes into another larger drawing at an unforeseen date. Even the first day we were pushed over and over by multiple people to try to get us to buy a $30 drink in a souvenier cup. It became quite annoying. Everything on Carnival is a sales pitch. We paid $50 for Deal or No Deal tickets and then won Bingo tickets (which we had to pay $50 more for) at a chance to win $5,000 but they didn’t disclose that they would only give out 39 balls to win that (and the computer knew no one was going to win, which was deceiving and a waste of money. I actually won $100 credit to the spa but apparently it wasn’t good on any specials and when I called to cancel my appointment (because my son was sick) and the Spa manager threatened to charge me for 50% of the amount it was supposed to be even though I was not aware of it or signed anything about this. I was in tears and so upset. Even before the cruise we had a bad experience which should have been a sign. I called to book my cruise and the agent promised to hold it 24 hours while I tried to figure out how to use my new carnival mastercard that had not arrived, and decide on a room. She just pushed and pushed to close the sale so I needed some time. Within 2 hours the reservation was dropped/invalid and the room was gone!!!! I didn’t think I would rebook—I was so upset with this agent; however, I called and spoke with Monike who was excellent thorough and if it wasn’t for her being so good and booking me, I would have never sailed. Embarkation/Debarkation. If you don't get the Faster to Fun, you will be waiting a long time. As mentioned previously, there was NO mention of where to put your wine and when we saw the signs inside, it would have been way too late as they take your luggage in the parking lot. Embarkation briefing: I appreciated that we could get this out of the way immediately but they ONLY went over where you lifejackets may be and how to put it on. They told us nothing about lifeboats or ANY other safety information. Debarkation was a MESS!!! They had people standing in lines outside the theater and offered no information. Then they told a select few that faster to fun and platinum could come into the theater (when it turns out everyone in that line was in the same category so you looked like a jerk skipping the line). Then once we got into the theater we put our bags down and sat as instructed, then had us all go AT THE SAME TIME so it was chaotic, dangerous and really inefficient. They wheeled all the wheelchairs to the back of the theater then those ended up having to wait and go last. There were some positives, not many. The rooms had plenty of closet space and hangars. The bunks were perfect for children. Even though there were no longer chocolates at turndown (disappointing), they still did the towel animal but only one per room, so the children fought over them. The duck finding was nice and fun for the kids. Most importantly the captain kept us informed during the Tropical storm and kept us safe. That is a big improvement from what I read happened during the last Charleston storm and Carnival cruise. There's a reason Charleston kicked out the Sunshine and it's now coming to my town, which no one is happy about. It doesn't have to be smelly, dirty, and have sub par service-- these are all the things that could have been improved. We will never cruise carnival again, unless it is a completely free cruise. In fact, we are dumping our CCL stock and are working with Norwegian to book with them and jump ship.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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This was our first cruise post-Covid. I expected more sanitizing/handwashing stations. As always the food was excellent, and the customer service was amazing. Ariel was particularly attentive and friendly--always remembering our names and our schedule. One of the dining room gestapos wasn't particularly agreeable. I asked her a question and didn't receive a reply. After the third time, she spoke a bit loudly and impolitely, "YES, MR. MICHAEL, I HEARD YOU!" I'm not sure if this is the proper place to review an excursion, but here goes anyway. My wife, granddaughter, and I went to Pig beach. My granddaughter and wife loved it. I wanted the beach and waiting area to be a bit cleaner than it was. But. Alas, it was a pig beach. When we went back to the other island beach, the area was extremely clean and relaxing. FYI: There was no water trampoline. AND. The employees there were obviously not trained by Carnival. They were rude and came across as hating their jobs. The food was delicious, but their service and attitudes were not. Even the barmen were more "whaddaya want" than "may I help you" kind of people. All in all the trip was great. The Sun Cay people didn't ruin it. The bright spot of the Sun Cay service representatives was Donya, very affable and friendly.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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The special thanks to the all ship team members including The Decks and Pool Supervisor Mr Ali and The Dinner Team Leader Mr Ferhat and The Room Attendant Mr Budi! Good job!
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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We cruised on the Carnival Sunshine 3-8 Feb 2024. As a welcome and taste of things to come, we were handed rum punch in a water bottle that we could keep when we boarded. Then we were told they were $26. We handed them back. Our Stateroom Attendant, Komang, was fantastic. Very nice, and even remembered his assigned guests by name. I use a CPAP, but there wasn't an electric outlet by the bed. Carnival provided an extension cord that still had the tape on it from its last use, so it was sticky. I ran it to the TV's outlet at night. My CPAP has a pretty good reach, never thought I would need an extension cord in a cruise ship cabin. Bottled water was waiting for us in the cabin. ...for $4.25 a bottle. One of our favorite things was perusing the vegan menu. Lots of fish, bacon, and cheese. We had some good laughs with the vegan crowd, then we found out on the 2nd to last day that it actually was vegan bacon, fish, and cheese. I would have thought that would be specified, but hey... Our stop on Princess Cays was cancelled, so we spent that day at sea. It felt like being stuck in an old folks home during a hurricane. Gave me a new appreciation for people stuck on cruises during the early COVID days. Carnival refunded us $25.12 (I suspect that was some sort of port fee that we had been charged, but I'm not sure) We did have one excellent food server: Cloudious. Very personable, very professional. Other servers, not so much. Requests for sauteed veggies produced raw veggies, some side dishes never came, inattentive coffee service, the sorbet came as a sherbet (dairy vs non-dairy is an important thing to get right, and they didn't). We were told that sherbet and sorbet are the same, so take care if your lactose intolerant. We had our granddaughter with us. Frustrated when we had to go through the smoke-filled casino to get places, and the only good place we found to change a diaper was in the casino. (There may have been others that we couldn't find) Smokers disregarded the rules for cigarette smoking, so it was tough to avoid the smell. There was a really fun-looking water area with cool slides, and a rope course. I was told that it had been open while we were in port at Nassau, but we never saw it open. I've cruised on Princess (5+ stars), Uniworld (5), American (solid 5), and now Carnival. I'll be nice and give Carnival 2 stars.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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