NinaandGus

We r on the Sunshine in 21 days:D same itinerary! Was wondering about weather and things to do. Thanks so much for your review.:cool:

I would have loved to have explored St.Johns more! The rain and cold wind just made in unbearable after we got half soaked! A very calm place and I would suggest walking around, as there is some beautiful architecture.

Thanks for your review. I'm looking forward to trying out Sunshine soon. Waterslides! woohoo!

 

This Italian restaurant you mention--is it an upcharge or included-in-cruise-fare eatery?

 

 

Hi! The Italian restaurant is an upcharge restaurant. We got a free meal due to my birthday. In my opinion, the food was just as good as any other meal on the ship.

I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures, but hopefully a verbal review will be enough :)

We took the 4 day cruise from NYC to St.John with my mother over the 4th of July weekend and just returned yesterday. I am married and pregnant and my mother is visually impaired. This was a birthday cruise for me, first cruise for me on Carnival and a first cruise on a big ship for my mother. I am in my 30's and my mother is in her 50's.

Embarkation was slow and for a pregnant lady, the standing was awful. However, I have no complaints otherwise, as our cabin was ready when we arrived and we loved it! We had booked cabin 6106, which is a handicapped cabin, great for my mother, who needed clear space to move. We had a window to the front of the ship and there was a nice little deck, that we liked sitting in a few times, enjoying the privacy and the ocean.

Muster drill was a disaster... Once again we had to stand in one place and wait for a bunch of people to arrive. People were crowding us and little kids would not stay still (understandably so). Either way, once that was done, we set to explore the ship, which by the way didnt leave until around 7-7.30pm if I remember correctly.

After muster we were hungry and went up to lido to get some pizza (one of the only options available at that hour). The pizza was delicious! It was made in tiny thin pies and had the perfect amount of cheese and sauce on it. We did not expect much of it, but were very pleasantly surprised!

The pool deck had gotten crowded and we decided to go indoors to explore. People had their kids running around and bumping into people... again, not very safe for a pregnant lady or a lady, who cannot see well. We did not end up spending much time on the pool deck, due to the fact that it was crowded. There were teenagers in the adults area as well.

One bad thing we noticed with the layout of the ship, is that in order to get to the back, where one has to sign up for anytime dining, you have to walk through the Casino. Not pleasant. Luckily we figured out after the first time that you could walk through the cabin hallway on the 6th floor directly to the back of the ship, so that did not bother us much after.

As I mentioned above, we had anytime dining and decided to get some more food around 6pm. We had a very nice waiter, Dalmacio from the Philippines, who serviced with a smile and humor! We enjoyed him very much! The food was good. We both had the salmon the first night and my mom enjoyed her favorite: shrimp.

We ended up spending the first night shopping and exploring and attended the battle of the sexes show. The people in charge of it were hilarious. I wish I remembered their names. It was a team made of a British girl and an Australian boy.

Thursday was sea day. We started the day with a pre-breakfast, as we were up and ready to go at 7am. We went to lido to get some coffee, juice and pastries to start the day off with and the sun deck was nice and calm in the morning. We sat at an empty deck bar and watched as people slowly got up to the deck.

After our pre-breakfast we went to brunch (yes, we ate a lot during this cruise). We ordered some omelettes and the sit down service was very nice. I recommend trying the brunch!

We ended up doing some more shopping and attended the art auction. No finds there. Later in the day we found some gifts from Carnival and a personalized message wishing me happy birthday on our state room mirror by our cabin steward, Omar. He greeted us every time we passed him in the hallway and seemed to be always in a good mood.

My mother absolutely loved the towel animals and the elephant she found in our room Thursday made her scream! Elephants are her favorite animals.

We attended the Studio VIP show, which was a dance show featuring 70's music. It was alright. We enjoyed it and most of the singers were very good.

Saturday we arrived in rainy St.John. We had ordered breakfast to our room, as we planned on eating it out on our "private" deck. It was wet, so we ate while watching TV instead! There was not much to do in St. John, but as we had never been to Canada before, we enjoyed seeing something different. We bought a Canada umbrella and started walking towards the market. The mall had shops aimed for tourists and we did not see much we wished to buy. We did find an amazing food place! There is an Ale house when you first walk into the mall on the ground floor. I have never had an avocado sandwich that tasted so good!! After eating, we explored a bit more and purchased a beer for my husband as a gift from a brewery down the street. It was very cold, so we headed back to the ship around 1pm.

I had a hair appointment in the afternoon, as I had received a $50 gift voucher for the spa. The spa personnel had informed me that I would not be able to get any of the spa treatments due to my pregnancy (not even a foot massage, which was news to me), so I got a shampoo and style, as it was my only option. The hair came out nice, but to be honest, if it wasnt free (excluding tip), I could have done it myself. The stylist however was very professional and pleasant.

At 5.30pm we had a birthday dinner at Cucina, the Italian restaurant. I did not like how it was situated right next to the buffet and people kept passing by in their robes and swimwear. This fact took away the feeling of being in an Italian restaurant (or in a restaurant at all). Our server was great and the food was good too. We also received a complimentary bottle of wine, which my mother had a glass of and the rest we donated to the next table.

After dinner we attended the Hasbro game show, which they advertise as an amazing experience... it was not as expected. They hyped about it on TV with life-sized board games and we looked forward to that. They did not do those games and due to all the hype we got disappointed.

Later at night we did go see the love and marriage show, which was very funny and truly enjoyable. I do have to comment on it being 18+ and people still bringing their children to watch the show.

Overall a very nice birthday day!

Sunday was another sea day and we took this day more laid-back. We started with brunch and found ourselves at tea in the afternoon. The tea service was a disappointment, as they gave us one salmon finger sandwich and one cucumber finger sandwich, not more. They also used the same pliers for the fist and the vegetarian, which could be very bad news for someone allergic to fish!

We did another art auction and my mother was one missing person away from winning "guess the price". We then had some more pizza and went to sing karaoke. Karaoke was only an hour long, so not everyone got to sing. I suppose they offered it every night, but it was at the same time as the shows, so we did not attend previously (however would have loved to, but had to make a choice). Sunday was an early night for us and as I said, we mostly just relaxed and walked around.

Disembarkation on Monday was a disaster on the 3rd floor. It was jam-packed with rude people, trying to tell you to get in the back of the line, when you are just exiting an elevator. It's not like the ship is not going to let you off and give you a free cruise! Everyone will be getting off the ship.

After getting pushed around off the ship, the rest was a breeze and we were walking at a good pace to the taxi line, which also moved quickly.

Overall I give this cruise 4/5 stars. My mother and myself enjoyed the (mostly) friendly staff and the atmosphere on the ship.

Positives:

Staff, Programming (things to do), Food, Cleanliness, Awesome cabin at an awesome price.

Negatives:

Rude people, people hanging out in swimsuits at the buffet, lack of vegetarian food options during lunch, Programming (everything fun scheduled at the same time).

Feel free to ask any questions.

Dear all,

Has anyone booked this cabin before? I will be traveling with my legally blind mother and this seemed like a good option for us. Any pictures out there? Experiences?

Much appreciated!

No meet & mingle option for Carnival Sunshine June 30th cruise. Any chance this could be fixed?

We would be driving and taking ferries to Northern Europe. Germany would be closer, but if the ship does not take the pets there, then Southampton would be our only choice. The issue with our dog is that he resembles a pittbull, is mostly mixed with mastiff and boxer as far as we know, but as he came from a shelter, there is no way of knowing if there is a hint of pittie in him. I would be more than happy to keep him muzzled (he is so dangerous that he "attacks" people by trying to give them hugs and kisses haha). Anyone here have experience cruising with a pet on QM2? I have read some blog posts, but would love to hear more.

If this is the case, anyone know how strict the UK is with letting dogs off the ship if they resemble a pittbull?

Hello!

Does anyone have experience in taking the transatlantic trip with pets? We will be moving to Europe in the future and have a dog, who would get very anxious in a plane cargo (he has broken a steel crate before when alone, but is calm when with other dogs as he came from a shelter). We are looking to take the transatlantic, but would love to hear people's experiences. We have a Boxer/Mastiff mix (smaller than a retriever, 70lbs). Our one concern is that he sometimes gets mistaken for a pittbull and I know this breed is banned in the UK. We are looking to cross all the way to Germany, but not sure if a stop in Southampton prevents us from taking the dog onboard as mixed breeds even with a tiny amount of pittbull are banned in the UK. Obviously there is no way of knowing all of the dogs breeds. Do the breeds need to get verified by a vet? Anyway, would love to hear some experiences :)

Demonyte, yes, I am indeed a pescaterian. Personally I dont like to use that word since I rarely eat fish and the only seafood I do eat is salmon. Sorry if I confused anyone!

Bingo prices were a bit too high for my taste, but I am used to playing $5 bingo! I believe the cheapest package for 3 boards was about $40, $60 for 6 boards and $80 for 9 boards. They played three games: regular bingo, four numbers bingo and the one where you have to fill your whole board to win.

The last sitting hour for dinner said 9.30pm, but they told us they would not seat anyone after 9.15pm, so you should get there by 9pm if you want to eat, just to be safe. O´Sheehans dinner goes until 11pm, but the atmosphere is more pub like.

We were sailing the Breakaway on December 8th, with my husband and are both in our late twenties. We enjoyed this cruise very much. I was worried at first with so many bad reviews, so I did not set high expectations to begin the trip with. We booked Rock of ages, Burn the floor and Cirque in advance and figured that we would decide on the ship whether to attend or not (with the exception of Cirque as we paid for it).

Sunday:

We live in New York City, so getting to the ship was not a problem. I had read from many other reviews that embarkation was a breeze, but this was not the case for us. I have cruised on many smaller ships in Scandinavia and there are no huge airport like lines anywhere. Security check was fast, but then we had to get into another line, which did not go as smoothly. It was very slow as we got to the port a bit after 11am and werent on the ship until after 1pm.

Once we were on the ship, I noticed the hot dog cart on the way to the cabin and told my husband to get his hot dog now or he might not be able to get one as other reviews have started, the cart moves around the ship the whole time. Husband enjoyed the hot dog! We did not encounter the cart again before disembarkation day.

Our cabin was a Spa Balcony, right next to the elevators in the front. I specifically chose this location as I did not want to do corridor shuffling and liked that we had easy access to the spa. Honestly, I only wanted the spa room, because I liked the colors of the room more, but I did end up enjoying the spa and dont think I could sail a week without a spa cabin again! Bed was next to the closet as I preferred and we had no space issues with the room. Did not really use balcony, yes it was small, but we mostly just kept the door open or fresh sea air :) Room attendant Andro was a sweetheart and came to introduce himself almost immediately after we got to the room. He always greeted us with a smile. He still kept the room spotless and re-made the bed twice per day. We never had the "clean room" light on. I originally wanted to book the Haven spa suite, but feel like I did not miss out on anything as the room and the service were great.

We walked around the ship exploring for a bit and took pictures with Spongebob and the gang at the kids pool. It started snowing as the ship left and NYC looked beautiful from the pool deck.

We had a Cirque reservation for our first dinner and I had read from reviews that you should be at least half hour early for the shows to get a good seat. We got there early and got a pretty nice seat. I did not like the fact that we had to share a table of six with four complete strangers, but it was fun to chat with some new people before the show started. I think they should tell you that parties of two do not get their own table. The show itself was good. It was a bit difficult eating and looking at the same time. Since I am a vegetarian, I got the eggplant parmesan. Not good. It was just two slices of fried eggplant with no other veggies or anything else... and it was cold. Husband enjoyed the steak. Dessert was pretty good, except that they did not realize that gelatin is not vegetarian and I could not eat one of the desserts as I realized it has got to be made with gelatin to look like jello!:D Husband ate it from my plate.

After Cirque we saw people heading to the Theater and saw that the Welcoming show was on. Most of the acts were already done, but we got to see Sinan, the cruise director and the cruise band. We bumped into Sinan a few times throughout the cruise and he was a funny guy.

We joined the Newlywed game, but did not get to participate. I enjoyed watching the show and after all the questions, was glad we weren't chosen to take part in it!! Very PG-13.

Tuesday:

This was a sea day and we decided to start the morning with breakfast at Taste. They had a buffet and I was happily suprised with the fruits and Scandinavian pastries I found! Being Scandinavian myself, I could not get enough of those danishes and cinnamon buns! I must have gained some pounds on this trip, just because of my breakfast items. Delicious. Coffee was served to the table and the restaurant was not crowded at all.

After breakfast we had the Cruise Critics meeting after which we went to do a slot pull. We ended up winning half our money back and had a good time.

We headed to the spa for the afternoon to see what it was all about. We just changed in our room, walked up one flight of stairs in our robes and there was the spa! The spa felt very relaxed and I loved how clean it smelled. We tried the sauna and I was pleasantly surprised to see a rope that you can pull to add water to the stones. Thats what a real Finnish sauna is all about! I ended up adding a lot of heat to the sauna when no one else was there and absolutely loved it. We tried the salt room and liked it. It was more enjoyable when you had chatty people in there with you as it can get boring sitting in a cold room and not talking in my opinion. Steam room smelled bad, so could not stay there. Husband did not notice anything, but I am more used to it smelling like eucalyptus and not like a toilet. Ended up not using it, but husband went a few times. Thermal pool was nice and we liked the rain showers in the spa. Did not get to experience the heated loungers as those were always taken or someone had used a towel to reserve them, but I don't feel like I missed out on anything.

After the spa we went to O´Sheehans for an early dinner as we did not eat lunch. Husband got Chicken wings and a burger, was pleased with the value. He said it was good for free food. I had the salmon and enjoyed it. The iceberg wedge could have been smaller as a lot seemed to go to waste, but the salmon was very good. I got an appetizer of nachos and spinach dip, but it wasnt my thing. For dessert we had the Brownie Sundae, which I was not that into, but figured that the cold brownie would taste better and ended up getting a few of those as snacks throughout the cruise. We did some bowling afterwards and it is $5 per person per game, not bad. Used our keycard to pay for it. We went to see the shopping opportunities afterwards, but did not end up buying anything.

We weren't sure if we wanted to see Burn the floor, but had booked it for the night. We ended up enjoying the show very much and are glad we went! Amazing dancers and excellent band. I was a bit more disappointed with the audience, when some people just stood up and left when the show was over, without clapping for the performers. Very rude of them.

For dinner we dressed up as it was dress-up night. We went to Savor for a late dinner and enjoyed it. Excellent service, excellent food. Amazing dessert! I am a big fan of dessert and they were mostly delicious. The only dessert I did not like, were the Chocolate cake from room service.

There was supposed to be a party at H2O, but it was moved to Bliss due to high winds. We went to Bliss and danced a little bit before going to bed.

Tuesday:

We got a nice view as we arrived to Florida and took pictures of Pelicans. There were plenty and I had never seen one before. Had breakfast at Taste once again, very good breakfast and good service. Had excursion to Universal Studios. Got off the ship without crowds and got on the first bus to Universal. On the way to the park, the bus ended up braking in the middle of a highway and we ended up loosing about an hour of park time. We took a few pictures by the road as we thought it was still an interesting experience, but did not like the fact that the bus that ended up picking us up was going to go to the airport first and had a loud movie playing the whole way there. Universal Studios was a lot of fun and we took one of the first buses back as it looked like the weather was getting bad, but it just got cloudy and dark and there ended up being no rain. We went to the customer service desk after getting back on the ship with a few other passengers and they said they were going to give us a 20% discount, since the bus broke. I would have been fine with a bottle of wine, but the discount was nice!

My husband went rock climbing that evening and we tried the ropes course. I was wearing my wedge sneakers, not a good idea! I got so scared when the wind started blowing that I could not do it. Husband did the whole course and went on the zipline, which got stuck in the middle. This happened to a few other passengers as well. It was a fun picture moment!

After the ropes course we went to O´Sheehans for dinner as we had missed the last seating due to our adventures on deck 16. Good food yet again. We were wondering around the ship and did not have anything to do, when we saw the line for Second City. We decided to try and see if we could get in and we did! We are not particularly fans of stand-up comedy, but it was a nice show and we enjoyed it.

Wednesday:

We were not that interested in Great Stirrup Cay, but figured we would go and see what it was all about. We gave ourselves the morning off and slept in. Of course breakfast was done when we woke up and the only place that was open was the Garden Cafe. We were hungry, so we went up there to eat before heading out to the island. I must say that this was the worst food I experienced on the ship. I was ok with it being lunch time, but there was barely anything vegetarian to eat. I ate a loaf of baguette with cheese and butter on top and a pecan pie dessert, which was not good at all. All other desserts were none-vegetarian. The buffet was full of greasy, unhealthy food, which I am not fond of. Husband ate pasta and thought it was ok, but nothing special.

We headed to Stirrup Cay after lunch and it looked a bit too commercial to me. We wanted to get away from the crowds and started walking along a path we found. We got tired half way through, but luckily the tram stopped and picked us up. The driver was very nice and pointed out two iguanas to us, so that we could get pictures. The tram took us to the Lagoon, which was much quieter and also had lunch for the hungry, but no lines. We were not hungry, but I got a drink, so I could wait on a lounger while my husband went for a swim. He swam a good while and then we decided to head back to the ship. I would say that the island is not anything special, but if you like to be in the sun by the water, you might like it.

After tendering we went into our cabin to change and decided to try the ropes course again. I wore my sneakers this time, but did not get very far as the memory from the night before hit me and I just could not do it! I felt like a chicken. Husband wanted to try to walk the plank, but could not in the end. We played minigolf for a bit before going to dinner.

We had made a reservation to Moderno for the night and really enjoyed the food. Husband enjoyed all the meats and I ate plenty from the salad bar. Excellent service and very nice experience. After dinner we went to H2O to watch a movie. The sound was off at first, then the picture was off and they were definitely having some technical difficulties during the first 15 minutes of the movie. I had seen the movie before, so it did not bother me. It was fun watching a movie outside. We went to sing karaoke afterwards, because I thought the Glow party was going to start at midnight, which it didn't. It was pretty much over once we got back to H2O and we ended up chatting to a fellow passenger for about an hour, so never got back to Bliss before getting tired out.

Thursday:

I woke up and looked out the balcony. I saw a giant sea turtle swimming in the port and could not believe the water was so clear. Got a good picture of the turtle.

We did not want to repeat the previous day and went to Savor for breakfast. This time breakfast was served to the table, but the items were still the same as at the buffet breakfast. Enjoyed the fruit and pastries before heading out to Nassau.

Walked along the main tourist street in Nassau and did not want to wonder off after everyone telling us how unsafe it is there. Atlantis was not our thing as we dont really do pools and waterslides, so we did not feel like paying for it. Found a local shop and got a bracelet and bought some Maracas as a souvenir. We wandered around the port for a bit, taking pictures.

Had a reservation for Rock of Ages and thought it was a good show. Some actors were great, some not so great, but overall enjoyed it. Some people walked out and we did see children in the audience. Definitely not for little kids.

Had dinner at Taste and food and service was very good once again. We were tired from all the sun and decided to stay in the cabin that night to watch a movie.

Friday:

Breakfast at Taste and afterwards we headed to the spa. Friday was a slow day for us. We played Bingo and won nothing and saw the liars game show. We took the day easy and for some reason neither of us can recall much from that day. We did do karaoke again and ended up winning a bottle of wine from the lottery raffle. Got room service later that night and enjoyed the greek salad and brownies.

Saturday:

Breakfast at Savor and did some more Bingo as we had gotten "win a cruise" raffle tickets the night before. Did not win at bingo or the raffle, so we headed to the spa. The spa was very full on this day and it just did not seem as relaxing to me. Husband went in the thermal pool, but I couldn't because it was so crowded. We were going to try out dinner in the Manhattan room that night, but there was a huge line at the door as it opened. I figured I wouldnt miss anything if I did not eat there as the three main restaurants share a menu. Went to Taste instead and it felt very crowded. This was the first time we had to wait for a table during the whole cruise. They ended up having no vegetarian options or fish on the menu, so I had a potato and broccoli. Not the best meal, but still better than Garden Cafe. Husband did not enjoy his meal as much as he would have wanted to. It felt like everyone was in a rush and maybe a speacialty restaurant would have been a better choice for the night. Husband cought a cold and was feeling worse at the end of the day, so we went to karaoke and ordered room service after.

Sunday:

Disembarkation was very fast. We woke up at 6.45 and noticed that we were already at the pier with people walking off. We had ordered room service for breakfast, so we ate and left. We were home by 9am.

All in all a good trip! I would sail Breakaway again and preferably in the same stateroom. I would have not minded another stop in Florida on the way back though!

If anyone has questions, I would be happy to answer :)