Oletruckdude

Glad to offer some insight. She's unique among the carnival fleet. We especially enjoy the Serenity and the Havana areas. Have a great cruise!

Just got back from an 8 Day on the Sunshine. It was our 7th cruise on her, 20th cruise with Carnival. We love the Sunshine. She's our favorite Carnival ship. We will miss her when she moves to Norfolk. Quick list of pros and cons. Pros: 1) Guy's burgers are still fab, and they are again serving the Guy's seasoned fries which are delicious. 2) Blue iguana tacos/burritos still fab. Love the fish tacos. 3) Pizzeria also still fab. 4) The 3 pay restaurants are all fab, we especially enjoyed the Italian. 5) the omelette bar at Jiji's in the mornings still has the made to order omelettes with all the separate veggies. 6) The Havana area is still our favorite place to hangout and relax. It takes the masses a few days to discover, and even then there's almost always tables available. And in the Havana area every day is a free pasta bar, free Asian bowls, and free Cuban snacks. 7) Serenity area is the best. 3 levels with a waterfall pool and it's own bar. 😎 Our room steward was excellent. Took great care of our needs all 8 days. The same with every staffer we interacted with. All smiles and always helpful. Cons: 1) Still no sauteed mushrooms on the Guy's condiment bar. 2) Deli premade sandwiches are not good. They sit on a shelf until thrown in a toaster or steamer. However, the made to order sandwiches are very good. Tuna, BLT, chicken wrap. All good. 3) Bacon with breakfast still only every other day. Italian sausage cut into pieces is not link breakfast sausage. 4) The lido buffet quality of food just keeps declining. I found very little that I enjoyed. The salad bars were great. The prime rib was like eating my shoe. Seriously hard to chew. 5) MDR portions keep getting smaller and quality there is declining also. We had lobster on 1 evening and it was about the size as a jumbo shrimp. Not kidding. 3 small bites. 6) Non smoking area of casino is as smoky as the smoking area. My eyes are watering after about a half hour and I have to leave. 7) Chair hogs are still a huge problem. Especially on serenity. By 8am, especially on sea days, every shaded chair has folks belongings thrown all over them with barely anyone there. My DW and I walked all 3 levels of serenity twice and couldn't find an open chair in a shaded area. This will always be a problem because Carnival will never enforce the rules concerning this. That's our quick list. Like I said, we love the Sunshine. But everything has room for improvement. No vacation is perfect, but we accept the bad with the good and still enjoy our Carnival cruises very much.

👍 Still, sometimes an old question finds new life. Jfire16 asked what's in the sugar cookies... The answer is molasses.

My DW and I love what Carnival labels as "sugar cookies" on the sweet spot on the lido. They don't taste like regular sugar cookies so we asked a server. She said they are made with molasses. Delicious 😋

My DW and I have taken 22 cruises with carnival. We always buy the premium WiFi plan for one. When she wants to be on she logs on and it automatically kicks me off. And vice versa. Easy peezy. The WiFi is cheaper if you purchase it before boarding day. Also, and this is Sunshine specific, the WiFi works great on lido, spotty with a lot of disconnects on decks 1 and 2. So we do our surfing on lido. Hope this is helpful.

Two cruises in the last month on the Sunshine. No sauteed mushrooms on either. From what I've read in these forums the sauteed mushrooms at Guy's Burgers have been gone for a couple of months now. I asked a server why they were no longer in the toppings bar and he said too many people loading up plates full of the shrooms and they couldn't keep up with refilling them. So they just removed them. I wonder if Guy Fieri is aware, or even cares? Same with the fries. One day it's the original delicious seasoned fries, the next day it's standard buffet fries with salt only.

What Oldsweets said is correct. Just got off a cruise where the wife and I had free drinks in the casino. Her first drink was charged to her sign and sail account. After explaining to the bar server it was credited back to her account. Best to tell them up front you have free drinks to avoid the hassle.

On the Sunshine twice in the last month. The burgers are great as always. My fav is the Ringer with Guy's BBQ sauce. The fries are inconsistent. One day you get the great Guy's seasoned fries. The next day it's bland lido buffet plain fries with no seasoning. And, FYI you don't have to stick to the Guy's menu. You can order a double cheeseburger or even a veggie burger with whatever fixin's you want. The toppings bar has lots to choose from except sauteed mushrooms which are now gone for good.

On the Sunshine 2 weeks ago they had 2 channels on stateroom TV's with all day movies. No upcharge. They also had the cookies at the sweet spot whenever it was open. The round cakes were for looking. The sheet cakes were for eating. FYI, bacon every other day with a server doling it out 2 slices at a time. Also, the "pig patty" at Guy's burgers had 2 slices of bacon broken in half on top of the burger. It's still very good but when Guy's first opened on Carnival there was an actual patty of bacon on it. And confirmed, no sauteed mushrooms at Guy's anymore. I asked a server why they were removed. He said too many people were stopping to load up plates full of the shrooms and they couldn't keep up with refilling them.

What mz-s said is correct. My wife loves the pasta bar for lunch. The Havana bar also serves some tasty Cuban pastries and hot Cuban sandwiches at lunchtime. Delicious. And since most people are rushing to the Buffett the Havana bar area is mostly empty. It takes folks a few days to discover it on every cruise. It's our go to place to sit, eat, relax on the Sunshine. We leave Sunday for our 19th cruise, 6th on the Sunshine. Enjoy!

This was offered on our Sunshine cruise 2 weeks ago. I didn't try them because they didn't seem appetizing to me. Also, I asked for a pepperoni pizza with mushrooms and extra cheese and was told "no problem". Delicious and no upcharge.

Still happening. I get casino offers and when I try to book I get the red error. Tried on 2 different computers with different browsers, and 2 different android devices (cell and tablet). Get the same red error on all 4 until the offer disappears. So frustrating. If they're trying to limit the number of guests that can accept the offer then they shouldn't sent it out to more then they are willing to accept. 😬

We've done 17 Carnival cruises, mostly Caribbean. Half Moon Cay is great, as are all of the cruise lines' private islands. after a couple of times in Nassau and Freeport we don't even get off the ship there anymore. We enjoy the ship while all the crowds are ashore. Nassau had lots of shopping and the Atlantis resort. They're worth doing at least once. Freeport has some minimal shopping shipside, but to see anything more requires a 10 mile bus ride into town. In both Nassau and Freeport I highly advise you to STAY IN THE TOURIST AREAS. Don't venture out of the tourist areas on your own. Don't wear expensive jewelry or high end designer handbags, etc . The straw markets are fun and you can haggle with the vendors (they expect it), but be aware of your surroundings. The straw markets are a maze of booths and corridors. We really enjoy Grand Turk, St Thomas, St Marten so much more. Have fun!

It IS getting to be too common of an occurrence on Carnival. We have a 5 day scheduled in April. Most of our 17 cruises have been 5 days. A 5 day cruise always worked best for us with our PTO allowances. If our April cruise has any issues that detract from our enjoyment we will be switching back to other lines. Just an "FYI", if you need any reference to what is going on just go to YouTube and search " Carnival fight". It's an eye opener.

As I read through this topic I will throw in my 2 cents worth. As Platinum with 17 Carnival cruises under my belt I must say the perks are so minimal I never even consider them. For me Carnival has always been about price, price, price. We've done other cruise lines and had just as much fun. What keeps us coming back to Carnival are the casino offers. We don't spend a lot of money in the casinos, but it's enough we get their offers. When there isn't a great offer on the table we look at other lines. And sometimes they have better deals so we go with those. Carnival's Platinum rewards are minimal, and won't buy my loyalty. The casino offers on the other hand will. Kind regards

Thanks everyone for your input. I was trying to determine if bottomless bubbles might be worth the $ now, but it sounds like unless we're on one of the new ships it's still the same process... stand in line and wait for a small glass of warm flat soda filled with ice. Two sips then wait 5 minutes and repeat. Not worth the $100 for the wife and I. Full, cold cans might be worth it IMHO, but not as it is now. Kind regards

Will the bartenders give whole cold cans for bottomless bubbles, or is it still small glasses from open cans? Thanks for any and all insight!

Hi and thank you Elaine5715. We were on Sunshine and Elation recently and they didn't have the self serve machines. We're going on Paradise soon and wondering what to expect. So some of the ships now have self service soda machines. Good to know. I hope they will roll them out to all ships. Kind regards.

Ok, tried 3 times to use the search function but just get an error message. Searched Google but didn't find anything recent. Sorry if this had been recently answered, but here goes: We've done a lot of Carnival cruises and tried the bottomless bubbles last about 5 years ago. We were disappointed in that the bartenders would only serve us a small glass of soda from open cans on the bar. No full cans, no cold sodas. For nearly a hundred dollars we were disappointed to say the least. We have an upcoming cruise and are wondering if things have changed any and if it might be worth reconsidering. So wish carnival would put self serve soda dispensers on all of their ships. Thanks in advance!

Yep. They're finally back. Unfortunately we already booked our next cruise on NCL. Maybe next year. 🙄

Same here. We generally get weekly offers for $50 deals, but none since the new website was revealed. We're Platinum and have 17 Carnival cruises so we're hoping to see some more great casino deals.

Looking forward it! Thank you! Have an excellent time!

We've done 17 carnival cruises, 4 on the sunshine. She is our favorite. We've tried the mega ships and prefer the smaller. less people, shorter lines, better attention from staff. We've never known Sunshine to be dirty, but the windows are going to get dirty from salt spray. Things do rust, but we constantly see staff grinding and painting on every ship. We love the Serenity deck on the Sunshine. It's unique and has lots of space for adults only. We love Guys burgers and Blue Iguana tacos and burritos. Also we enjoy the Pizza Pirate and the deli. Some of the buffet foods are not to our liking, but we always find plenty we do like. No cruise is perfect, but if you go in with a positive attitude you will enjoy it so much more. Happy cruising!

We were on a Carnival cruise about 10 years ago when we heard the couple in the cabin next to us having a loud argument. The next thing we knew a woman was climbing around the partition between our balconies. She asked if she could exit through our cabin. She said her boyfriend was mad at her and wouldn't allow her to leave their cabin. I told her how dangerous what she did was. She said he wouldn't let her use the phone to call security so she had no choice. She said she was on her way to get security. Security came and asked us about what happened. Never saw either of them again after that day. I assume they were disembarked at the next port. Wildest thing we've seen in 17 cruises.

On the Elation now. First sea day. Self serve for everything except bacon. Staff serving bacon cafeteria style. 2 pieces at a time. Just a bad look for Carnival. Seems like desperation. And no more edible tortilla bowls for taco salads at blue iguana. Server said they were discontinued. Also, no more sauteed mushrooms for Guys burgers. 17 cruises with Carnival and we're ready to try something new. Just too many recent cutbacks. Just cancelled our 2 Carnival cruises for 2023.