lovingretirement

When we docked in Long Beach, we were not allowed to get off the ship for several hours.  We had a shuttle waiting on us to take us to a hotel near LAX.  We never found out why they were not allowing us off the ship, but were so glad we were not trying to make a flight out that day and our shuttle waited for us.  I wouldn’t want to spend my cruise hoping we could make it to the airport in time to make our flight.

47 minutes ago, nwcruiselover said:

On the Miracle they had people in the boarding area when we first got on the ship, sending people directly to their muster stations.  Once 12-15 people were they they went through a very brief demonstration of how to don a life vest, told us about the emergency signal, and took our cabin numbers.  That was it.  A quick 1-2 minute muster.

Good to know!  Thanks for sharing!

Has anything changed relating to muster call?  Are they still calling everyone to their muster stations?

We did a cruise on the Legend out of Dover and loved the cruise and the ship.  We used the National Express Bus from London to Dover for about 5 pounds each.  There were a number of people on the bus headed to the cruise terminal in Dover.  I talked to the driver, and he took  us to the port.  We didn't have to touch our luggage, and the bus was so comfortable.  Of course, we gave the driver a good tip.  It saved us a taxi ride from the station to the port.  Hope you enjoy your cruise on the Legend as much as we did!!!

We did this just before a cruise when the couple in the middle had to cancel.  We contacted our PVP on Carnival and she made the swap for us without a problem.

It worked well with us on the January Panama Canal cruise on the Splendor. We used FB messenger and could message back and forth without any problem. We used our iPad. It was easy to send pictures and messages. I only remember one message taking a while on the 13 day cruise. We were well satisfied.

What menu were the fried oysters on? You were talking about the best breakfast menu and then mentioned oysters. ...on the breakfast menu? I sure don't want to miss them. I had heard they were on the new steakhouse menu but does Splendor have any of the new menus.

The fried oysters were on the appetizer menu in the dining room one night. I wished I had ordered three servings. Sorry, we didn't try the steakhouse.

My husband received the survey a couple of days after we returned from our cruise. I thought it strange that he was the one to get the survey since I booked the cruise and everything was in my name. Guess they didn't want my opinion???

I was on the 13 day cruise through the Panama Canal on the Splendor that docked in Long Beach on Jan. 27. I can't help with the Mexican Riveria, but I can tell you some things about the ship. The pink didn't really bother me. The thing that did bother me was the poor condition of the seating in the buffet area on Lido. Most of the seats sunk almost to the floor when you sat on them. If you sit in the chairs, you will be fine, however, they badly need to do something with the padded seating. The seating in the dining rooms is crowded, making it difficult for the waiters to maneuver, and leaving little room for getting around. The breakfast in the dining room was great! That was the best meal of the day to our group. Don't miss the fried oysters on the appetizer menu! We were quite disappointed in the entertainment onboard. I realize it might appeal to some, it just didn't appeal to us. Ice cream and pizza are fantastic!

Don't forget the hot chocolate!

We stayed at the Hilton Diagonal Mar Barcelona. It is just across the street from a large mall, and there is a sea view. They gave us the royal treatment. You can get a HOHO bus just across the street, and can purchase your tickets from the hotel desk. Not sure if they still have rooms available, but I would highly recommend it. We loved Barcelona and hope to go back. We wanted to do the April cruise on the Horizon, but have another long cruise booked soon so will put it off for another time.

This happened to us. We had three couples going, and the one in the middle had to cancel the day before the cruise. We had insurance. We just called our cruise consultant and she took care of everything. She switched the other couple to the middle room so that our balconies would be together. She also handled the insurance claim. The couple that cancelled had their money back before we returned home. There were no fees charged for this change.

We were in 8339 which is directly across from the laundry. We heard doors slamming and people talking at all hours of the night. We had friends in 8341, and they weren't bothered as much. It certainly didn't ruin our cruise, but I would have preferred to be in a quieter location. We have been across from the laundry before without a problem because they weren't open all night. I guess they leave them open on the Vista because of the itinerary. People are too busy during the day to make it to the laundry.

We were on the second cruise and had long shore excursions booked for every port. We only made it to the dining room twice, and only went to one show in the theater, and that was on our one sea day. It was just so handy to run to the buffet or Guy's when we got back on ship. We checked the menu in the dining room each day, but found that most of the selections are offered on the buffet. We felt more comfortable going to Lido after a busy day off the ship.

It was open 24 hours a day on our cruise (May 14), including embarkation day. I know because our room was directly across from the laundry on deck 8.

We just returned from a European cruise on the Vista and had the Social Medial plan. We sent messages using FB Messenger and it worked great for us. We were quite surprised at how fast we could message back and forth. I don't know if it works as well on all the ships, but we were sold on the plan. We will do this in the future rather than rely on our cell phones for texting.

We took a taxi from the port to our hotel, Hilton Athens, and the driver charged 20 Euros. Our friends followed us in another taxi and their driver charged 25 Euros. We paid in cash. I think most of the taxi drivers will only take cash. The taxi fee from our hotel to the airport was a set fee of 38 Euros. I was really surprised that the rate from the port to the hotel was that cheap. It is definitely the most convenient way to go!

From talking with others in the laundry, I understand that they are different on each floor. The laundry on the 8th floor had three washers and three dryers. There was one iron and board, and a sink with running water.

We just returned from our cruise on the Vista. We were directly across from the laundry in room 8339. The laundry was open 24 hours a day. Although it was convenient for doing laundry and ironing, doors slammed all night. I mentioned this to the lady who came to inspect the laundry, and she said they might have to start closing it at a certain hour. At the present time, I can attest to the fact that it is open 24 hours a day.

An earlier post said the laundry is directly across from room 8339 on deck 8. That is the room we have booked. We have been directly across from the laundry before and had no problems. We found it quite convenient.

Deck 8 does have a laundry across from room 8339:

 

https://help.goccl.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/787

Looks like the laundry will be convenient for us in 8339. Hope it doesn't cause too much traffic or noise. I think we have been across from the laundry before, and I don't remember any problems.

Do you remember the names of the Wait team you had in YTD??

They were Horacio and Samuel from Guatemala. Another good choice is Wassana from Thailand. They treated us royally!

I was on this same cruise, so let me give a few thoughts......from a Diamond perspective.....

 

This was our 15th Carnival ship and our 32nd Carnival cruise.

 

The layout of the Sunshine and really all ships since the Destiny 1st came out is essentially the same with regard to not being able to go from the front to the back on all decks due to galley's and/or lounges. For me this is a non issue and I use the Promenade as my major route.

 

If I'm in my cabin which is usually deck 6 midship and want to go to the aft dining room or even up to the Lido, I usually walk to the aft deck 6 elevators to go up or down. When coming out of the dining room I usually go to deck 5 to traverse the ship.

 

I thought the ship was very pretty, but I've never been bothered by the old Farcus design, so these new more subtle tones are okay too....

 

We had an inside cabin 6196. It was by far the smallest cabin I've ever had on a Carnival ship and we've even sailed in PT's on deck 2. The bathroom was so small that you had one foot in the shower when on the toilet. There was probably 18" less counter space around the sink. The door opened into the bathroom so you had to step to the side of the toilet to have room to open the door.

 

We had 3 closets but not one that had shelves and with the safe in the closet that really reduced our usable space. We normally use 2 as hanging space and divide the shelves between us to have our folded cloths......this was workable but we did have to ask for more hangers.

 

No mini-fridge and no cans of soda's or anything, they could be ordered from room service though. There was a hair dryer in the vanity drawer and I wasn't expecting that. Our cabin was kept neat, and the cabin team was friendly and efficient.

 

The new design of the main show theater (Liquid Lounge) is small and awkward. The chairs on deck 4 are very close together without walkways in between the rows and no tables. The bar service is very hard to obtain because they can't get to you and you can't get out to them. I don't know how it functioned as a nightclub because I didn't go there then.

 

The Limelight Lounge where the comedy club is has a stage that extends out into the room, so that some of the seats are actually behind the performer. They have mounted TV's so the people in those seats are just looking at his back, but that's weird too.

 

This is a good or bad thing based on your perspective. In the casino instead of having all the smoking machines in one area back by EA sports bar, they are scattered around the entire casino. So there is a "pod" of smoking machines right next to a pod of non-smoking machines........the bad part is some of the smoking machines are right on the isle, so anyone walking by is subject to the smoke.......the good part is the air scrubbers seem to work better and I didn't feel like there was an overwhelming odor of smoke......the end of the casino bar is still smoking, so just as I've experienced before, it can be difficult to get bar service at the non-smoking end.

 

Other than Serenity (which is not very calming given the big screen going all the time) and the midship area of the Lido, there isn't much outdoor space. The entire aft area of the Lido is enclosed and has dark tinted windows, so it feels a bit dark and just doesn't have that come sit here for awhile. There are very few places to just sit and watch the ocean, though deck 3 does have loungers.

 

I found dining room service to be just okay. We have YTD which was upstairs in the aft dining room. We didn't have the same server every night which is our norm, but nobody seemed very friendly or conversational. I couldn't tell the difference between the head waiter and the rest of his team....Food was good and service was adequate. We're not high maintenance so I was fine with everything.

 

The bar staff in the Lobby were a real highlight for us and we spent a lot of time visiting with them.

 

I didn't eat at Bonsai Sushi this time because it's tucked away on deck 4 and I just forgot about it. I did have lunch in the Steakhouse for our Captains reception with all the Diamonds and it was really nice, but was a special menu, so I won't comment on the Steakhouse in general.

 

Overall, we had a great time sailing with lots of old friends. And there were no hugely negative issues, but it just wasn't the ship for us. We really like the larger ships and will continue to sail on the Magic as our homeport ship. I wouldn't say we'll never sail on the Sunshine again, but it would have to be something really special to get us back.

 

Oh......the one real negative I had an issue with was elevators.........they are so slow as to almost be worthless........they also don't always have lights telling you what floor they are on, and many of them don't ding or give an announcement when the doors open.

We were on the Sunshine two weeks ago, and I agree with your observations. We cruised with two other couples, who don't read posts on Cruise Critic. I was careful not to tell any of them about the negative reviews before we sailed. We have all cruised extensively, and they ALL agreed that this was their least favorite ship. Our favorite place on the ship was our balcony. Thankfully, the weather for our cruise was perfect, so we spent hours during the day and night on our balconies, two of which opened up to accommodate our six chairs.

The positive for this cruise was the dining experience. The food was very good, and we discovered a great team of servers on our first day. We requested them each morning and evening on our YTD plan. We enjoyed going to breakfast each morning in the dining room. The ice cream was great, so we enjoyed taking a bowl to enjoy while visiting on our balconies.

Another disappointing factor on the Sunshine was the lack of entertainment, and the poor quality. We were spoiled on our European tour on the Legend in September, so the Sunshine entertainment didn't measure up. It could have changed on all the ships, but we saw a drastic difference in the quality.

We have NO desire to sail on the Sunshine in the future! We had a nice time, but the same itinerary we took on the Conquest last year was superior to what we experienced on the Sunshine. JMO

Thank you for the responses. Replies cover both ends of the spectrum, so I will tell my aunt she will have to wait and see.

We were on the Sunshine week before last, and there were no refrigerators in the balcony rooms on deck 8. The description for those rooms said there were refrigerators, but there were none in the three rooms we had. Also, the balcony rooms were smaller than on other Carnival ships we have been on. Make sure you are familiar with the layout of the ship before you board. It is quite confusing to try to get from one area to another. You have to go up or down a floor to get through. It was also crowded in the common areas. The dining staff, however, is fantastic!

I got off the Sunshine yesterday. I did not see any buckets, or smell any sewage smells. I thought the food was very good. The layout of the ship, however, leaves much to be desired. There were too many people for the common areas on the ship. I was quite disappointed in the POOR quality of entertainment on the ship. Our group was made up of senior adults, and there was no entertainment that appealed to us. We enjoyed out balcony, and spent much time watching for UFOs (unidentified floating objects), and eating ice cream.