Sunshine on the Transatlantic Review

[Scrap Addict]

Now that I’ve got the laundry done and my mail sifted through, I thought I’d jot down some of my impressions from my recent transatlantic cruise on the Sunshine. My dh and I went on the cruise to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Being that it was a 17 day sailing, it wasn’t your typical Carnival cruise. For example, the average age of the cruiser? 65 years old. Number of children on board? 59. Yep, a mere 59 youngens. It felt more like a Holland America cruise. :-) And it seemed like everyone on board were Platinum. Me? I’m merely Gold (and 51) and felt like a noob.

 

Service

I feel that on this cruise, overall, Carnival really stepped up their service from past cruises. Our dining room staff in particular (5:30 dinner, Table 525, Sunrise) were outstanding. They kept the water glasses filled, promptly served the meals and in general really hustled. Our dinner bartender, Gavinne, was also really on the ball. The stateroom attendants were fine too, but perhaps a little slower.

 

Cabin

We were in an Oceanview Cabin on the main deck (# 1561). It was a good location - with the laundry room only a few doors down. The room was OK. I did bring Clorox Wipes to do a quick wipe down prior to settling in and picked up quite a bit of grime from the counters. The A/C worked fine, there were 3 power outlets (Yes!) and plenty of storage. The bed was comfortable. The water pressure was variable - the 1st few days of the cruise it was endemic, but then picked up just fine. The shower did however fluctuate a little bit between hot and cold, but was totally bearable. There was a constant low rumble, but I liked it - the white noise helps me sleep.

 

Ship Overall

Not too sure about the overall flow, it seemed to take me about a week before I finally figured out which elevator banks to use for which destination. I knew there were some I definitely wanted to avoid due to extreme smoke levels and other odors. I gotta believe that a smoker did the redesign. I mean, really, what kind of knucklehead would put a smoking section directly under the sports track? Every time I made a lap past the pools, I was inundated with smoke wafting up one deck. It didn’t matter what time I went to the track - morning, afternoon or after dinner, there were smokers there puffing away like crazy and all of the smoke just drifted right up to the sports track. It made for a nasty section of the walk/run.

 

Another less than brilliant design feature was the location of the smoking bar in the Casino. Based on the elevator set that we used to get to Ocean Plaza on deck 5, we had to make a sort of U-turn all of the way around the Casino Bar. This was a favored smoking spot for many - and I mean many. Yuck! Unfortunately, the Ocean Plaza tasting area was our favorite place for a light breakfast and lunch, so we had to pass that area………

 

There were a few buckets around on various nights of the cruise. Most didn’t bother me at all - only one had me pause in concern….. On deck 1, starboard, forward as you moved from the stairway/elevators, there was a leak coming out of the recessed ceiling light canister. The leak didn’t bother me, but I was a little concerned about a possible electrical short or fire.

 

Smell

It seemed that as the cruise progressed (17 days is a long time), certain areas began to develop some odors…. Deck 4 by the lifeboats, it was really stinky. Fortunately, other than the lifeboat drill, there was no need to go there. Some of the bathrooms had “fumes” and our stateroom bathroom seemed to develop some odor about a week into the cruise. The good news? I always pack an air freshener spray can for my dh to use! :-)

 

Food/Dining Experience

In general the food was good. Not very flavorful, but good. The menu choices were nice, but when cooking for so many people, I feel like they had a tendency to “dumb down” the flavor profile of the food. We tried both JiJi and Cucina for dinner. My preference by far was JiJi’s. Yummy! Bonsai Sushi was open during the cruise, but we didn’t try it. Since we had so many days at sea, I don’t see how the seafood could stay at top sashimi quality. But, the menu did look good.

 

Except when dining in the restaurants, it was not always easy to find a seat. Even the Havana Bar was crowded at lunch/breakfast times.

 

Like I mentioned earlier, I preferred to take breakfast and lunch at the Ocean Plaza, but did make a effort to try all of the dining venues.

• The Blue Iguana was good - I preferred the tacos to the burritos, and the breakfast Huevos Rancheros were delish! The watermelon was always fresh and available (lunch & breakfast).
  
• Guy’s Burgers. Were okay. I’m not an American Cheese fan (it’s not really cheese in my book), so the 1st burger wasn’t that good. The next time, I ordered it without cheese, and liked it better. But still, only so so. The fries, though, were yummy if fresh.
  
• Note - the drink locations next to both Blue Iguana and Guy’s was in a terrible spot - right outside the door in the path from the buffet. Big design flaw in my opinion. It really hurt the flow of traffic.
  
• Marketplace/Lido. Okay
  
• Pizza. Good but slow.
  
• Deli. Good
  
• JiJi’s at Lunch - super crowded. Seriously.
  
• Cucina de Capitano at Lunch - Good. Liked that they handed out pagers. It would’ve worked great too, if they hadn’t given our pager number to someone else’s meal! Loved the pasta though.
  
• Havana Bar had yummy lunch treats. Definitely search it out for a small lunch.
  

Entertainment

Okay, this part shocked me from prior cruises, but I really enjoyed the shows on this cruise! All of the performers did an awesome job! And, in contrast to past cruises where I usually find the cruise directors to be an annoyance, I enjoyed Jaime! And her staff were fun too. Wally, our trivia guy, was great.

 

We also tried to use most of the amenities on the ship. The water slides were fun and the sky course scary. We shot some hoops, played foosball, and battled it out on the mini golf course. The arts & crafts were fun, but the crowd was insane. Talk about a bunch of pushy women!!! I just grabbed the craft and went to a quieter spot on the ship to be creative (and quiet spots on the ship are hard to find). We joined a Super Trivia team (the Snow Owls) and took 1st place after a 7 day trivia extravaganza.

 

All in all, we had a wonderful cruise. Well done Carnival.

 

Enough for now…. As I think of more stuff, I’ll post it.

 

Cheers!

[golfadj]

Heard there was major noro epidemic on the TA. Did you know about it/

[cruizinisthebest]

Thanks for such detail. Having her booked for next year, I read everything Sunshine related! How did you get back into the rhythm of everyday life after such a long trip? I would love to take a TA someday.

 

Can't believe there are stillllll buckets! And I'm not to thrilled hearing certain areas of the Lido Deck were really crowded during mealtimes. Glad you enjoyed your trip overall. ;)

[nowendy]

My sister in laws were on that trip too. They said they had a wonderful time and the ship was nice.

[Scrap Addict]

Heard there was major noro epidemic on the TA. Did you know about it/

 

My dh did experience what we believe to be a small bout of food poisoning 2 nights before we disembarked in NoLa. We made the mistake of going to the Med Center for some Imodium AD. They then proceeded to quarantine him for the last night of the cruise. But, I don't think it was noro. He had no fever or other symptoms...... :-) I was fine. And we really think he had food poisoning, not noro.

 

Lessoned learned? Always pack your own Imodium.....

[fuddrules]

Thank you for the review.

 

I have to ask as a few of our esteemed posters insisted the Sunshine was going to "list" on the transatlantic, like this below. Was that not the case? Could you walk straight?

 

Thanks again.

 

[Scrap Addict]

Thank you for the review.

 

I have to ask as a few of our esteemed posters insisted the Sunshine was going to "list" on the transatlantic, like this below. Was that not the case? Could you walk straight?

 

Thanks again.

 

 

No list what so ever. In fact, one of the smoothest cruises I've been on. It's kind of funny, my dh was expecting the transatlantic to have Titanic type weather. But, our water was smooth, the weather warm and humid. And, the ship sailed beautifully.

[fuddrules]

No list what so ever. In fact, one of the smoothest cruises I've been on. It's kind of funny, my dh was expecting the transatlantic to have Titanic type weather. But, our water was smooth, the weather warm and humid. And, the ship sailed beautifully.

 

Thank you for the response.

 

There are going to be a few extremely disappointed posters when they read there was no list on the Sunshine TA.

[cruizinisthebest]

Thank you for the response.

 

There are going to be a few extremely disappointed posters when they read there was no list on the Sunshine TA.

 

Yup. You know scrap addict must be lying......or a cheerleader....or both.

 

Glad to hear it was a smooth ride. That's a long trip to have anything but.

[nowendy]

how was the entertainment on the Sunshine? Did you enjoy the new shows? Also did they have the solo entertainers by the casino like they usually have, live bands etc.... I find that Carnival has been cutting down on this and I really enjoy this part of cruising.

[bar1068]

Heard there was major noro epidemic on the TA. Did you know about it/

 

Major noro epidemic you say...What defines a MAJOR outbreak? 50% 70% 80% of passengers? Having also been on the Sunshine TA...I and the others I cruised with neither were struck by this, or saw any signs of it during the 16 day cruise. Seems odd we'd not be aware of such a major health issue while sailing.

[Scrap Addict]

The big shows in the Liquid Lounge were all much better than I anticipated. I thoroughly enjoyed them. However, the bands around the ship were not as plentiful as in the past. There was usually a duet (girl singer, guy on on guitar) in the Ocean Plaza in the evenings. Or a guy on a guitar in the lobby. But nothing like the small bands in the past. And no live music around the pool - they used DJs there.

[miataman19]

The big shows in the Liquid Lounge were all much better than I anticipated. I thoroughly enjoyed them. However, the bands around the ship were not as plentiful as in the past. There was usually a duet (girl singer, guy on on guitar) in the Ocean Plaza in the evenings. Or a guy on a guitar in the lobby. But nothing like the small bands in the past. And no live music around the pool - they used DJs there.

 

I'm thinking that the hiring of Bernie Dillon from Hard Rock as head of live music for Carnival (not sure of his actual title) will put more live music back on the ships:D. Especially on Lido deck. Those DJ's just don't do it for me. Sometimes they're good but most of the time UGH!:(

[nowendy]

I'm thinking that the hiring of Bernie Dillon from Hard Rock as head of live music for Carnival (not sure of his actual title) will put more live music back on the ships:D. Especially on Lido deck. Those DJ's just don't do it for me. Sometimes they're good but most of the time UGH!:(

 

i hope so the music has been really lame lately. Last cruise a few months ago they didn't even have the show band performing in the lounge for elegant night before dinner. We like to get dressed early and go listen to the music and have a few drinks before dinner. Then one night the band didn't start until 10 PM. Good for the younger set, but 8 PM would be nice for us "older" folks

[dane225]

Thank you for posting your review!! We will be boarding the Sunshine on Sunday can't wait!! :D

[kcwingwalker]

Many thanks for posting your fair and balanced review and glad you had a great cruise:)

[howcaniexplain]

Only one person on the TA supposedly had noro. They quarantined that passenger and that was that. There was a nasty head cold going around, but it was definitely not noro.

 

The weather was fabulous and the sailing was smooth. Despite minor things like leaks and the super smelly smoking areas, the trip was great :)

[cjknox]

Thank you for your honest and frank review. Greatly appreciated.