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Carnival Sunshine - Loved The Captain's Suite - Won't Be Back!

Spaniel Lover

By Spaniel Lover,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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2 cruzen

2 cruzen

Posted
Posted

WHY I WON'T BE BACK...

 

Up until now, I've focused this review on all the things I enjoyed about our cruise . I put all that stuff first because I want to be sure that you understand that we enjoyed our cruise and that there was much to like! Really, is it possible to have a bad cruise in the Captain's Suite? I don't think so! In addition to the great suite we were in, there was the best possible Cruise Director, a beautiful newly-refurbished ship, and three great shore excursions in three beautiful Caribbean ports of call. So, really, it was a fine cruise.

 

However, with all that said, I don't think we'll be cruising on the Carnival Sunshine again. Ever. Let me explain why...

 

To understand the situation, I have to explain one thing I don't like about Carnival cruises... and why it's never been a problem for me, until now.

 

I'm sure you've heard Carnival referred to as "The Fun Ships". It's something they take great pride in. They don't want to bore anyone. There's always supposed to be something fun going on. The epicenter of all that fun is usually the mid-ship pool area on Lido deck. This is where it's one big party, most of the time. All of your sail away parties, deck parties, dance parties, hairy chest competitions, ice carving demonstrations, and mixology contests take place here. If there's not live music going on, there's a DJ spinning party tunes.

 

It's LOUD and rowdy at the mid ship pool. The music is often painfully loud and obnoxious. The people are often drunk. The pool is filled with obnoxious little kids. In short, I absolutely hate it at the mid ship pool! It's simply not for me. If you're 25 years old and looking for a party, the mid ship pool is probably a little slice of heaven for you. I'm 56, and looking for some quiet relaxing time in the sun or in the water... with no noise and no craziness. I'm looking for serenity. So, the mid ship pool area simply doesn't work for me. But on most Carnival ships, that's OK... because there are quiet alternative places to relax. My go-to relaxation place on the Fantasy-class ships is the aft Serenity retreat. On the Dream-class and Conquest-class ships, it's the aft pool and Jacuzzi area.

 

CarnivalBreeze-IMG_6807.JPG

The very quiet and relaxing aft pool area on the Carnival Breeze.

It was my favorite hang out, and I spent hours and hours here.

 

The Carnival Destiny did have a quiet aft pool area. But when they did the $155 million transformation in to the Carnival Sunshine, they ripped out the aft pool and replaced it with the Havana Bar and the area that includes Cucina Del Capitano and JiJi's Asian Kitchen. Those are all worthy additions, but without the aft pool area, there's no quiet outdoor place for this old guy to sit and enjoy the sun or to take a quiet swim. You'd think the Serenity Retreat at the front of the ship would be my new go-to place for relaxation... but there's a big problem with that. The Carnival Sunshine's Serenity Retreat is located directly adjacent to the mid-ship pool area. In fact, the gigantic speakers that blare loud music almost all day long are pointed directly at the Serenity Retreat! Believe me, it isn't serene!

 

Thankfully, we did have the big Captain's Suite and the large balcony that goes with it... so that was our quiet retreat for the week. If we hadn't had that, I'm sure I would have gone crazy during the week. I truly missed the aft pool area that I've come to love on most other Carnival ships. I missed it so much, that I'm pretty sure I won't be coming back to the Carnival Sunshine.

 

There was one other thing about our cruise that was far less than perfect... and that was the dining situation. In 20 Carnival cruises, I've never had so many bad dining experiences in one week. Let's start with the steak house. I've dined at Carnival steak houses many, many times before and never had a bad experience. Until now! Here's the steak I had...

 

CarnivalSunshine-IMG_0077.JPG

 

This was simply the worst steak I've ever had in my entire life. Period. The best way I can explain it to you is to enhance the picture with a little diagram that shows the area of the steak that was actually lean meat...

 

CarnivalSunshine-SteakDiagram-IMG_0077.JPG

 

Everything else outside of that yellow area was full of fat. Look carefully at the lower left part of the steak and you can pretty much see what I mean. It's all fat! Everything outside of that yellow area was completely inedible. And I paid $35 for that!

 

We've cruised plenty of times before, so I know to expect that there will always be mis-steps. I can roll with the best of them, and overlook a lot. But what irritated me about the dining experience on the Carnival Sunshine is that instead of having mostly good experiences and then every now and then having a bad one... we had mostly bad experiences and every now and then a good one. The steakhouse was far from the only bad dinner experience we had during the week. One night we had a table that was crammed so close to the table next to it that it was awkward and uncomfortable. One night we had a waiter that was so strange it was awkward and uncomfortable. And one night we just had the full combination of horrible dining elements... a bad table, a bad waiter, and bad food served way too slowly. This is why on a lot of cruises, we just eat our dinner in the buffet. But Jeff likes to dress up and have dinner in the main dining room... so that's what we did most nights on this cruise. He looks pretty good all dressed up, doesn't he?

 

CarnivalSunshine-Jeff-IMG_3549.JPG

By the way, ladies... he's single.

 

 

 

Well, my beautiful blonde daughter is 28. :D

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  • 2 weeks later...
MDSue

MDSue

Posted
Posted
ISo, there I was... hanging out in the Captain's Suite... and I had gotten in to my camera backpack to get something for shooting a photo. I decided to move the camera backpack over to the bed for a minute. I lifted the backback with one hand, but didn't have a very good grip on it... and to MY TOTAL HORROR the $1500 lens slid out of the backpack and fell approximately two feet to the floor. There was instantly a horrible sound of breaking glass, and as I looked down at the carpet I saw little bits of broken glass everywhere around where the lens had landed.

 

At that moment, I had visions of $1500 going down the drain. That is a feeling you do not want to have!

 

Well, it turns out that when I purchased the lens I made a very smart move... I bought a neutral-density filter for it. That's basically a clear piece of glass that you attach to the front of the lens to protect it from damage. When I dropped the lens to the floor, it was the neutral-density filter that hit the floor first... and that's what shattered. A $50 protective filter! Boy, was that a great lesson on why you protect a $1500 lens with a $50 filter. No damage at all to the lens... just shattered the filter.

 

Whew!

 

I can so relate to this story- I did the same exact thing to my expensive Canon lens. I was getting out of my car to pump some gas and thought I had the strap of my T3i wrapped around my arm. Apparently, I didn't and I watched in horror as my camera dropped lens first onto the pavement. I was hoping against hope that the lens cover protected the lens. No such luck, because I hadn't put the cover back on.

At first, I thought the lens survived until I saw the shattered glass! I thought for sure the lens was a goner- Thank goodness for lens filters. I couldn't manage to unscrew the lens filter as I guess the fall jammed it on, so I stopped at the local hardware store for help and ended up having to tap the rest of the glass out of the filter. The main lens was unscathed!

 

I'm loving your review and feel the same way about the loud music ruining the Lido deck. We sailed the Freedom this year and there seeemed to be nowhere on the Lido Deck to escape the noise. I've become a Princess fan and love their adults-only pool on the back of their ships.

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DarthGrady

DarthGrady

Posted
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Wow, what a great review! You hit everything one would need to know before cruising on her. I really enjoyed seeing the pictures of the new Captains Suite. That area above the bridge used to be one of my favorite spots on that class to hang out and enjoy the ocean views.

 

I totally get what you're saying about the changes done to the pool deck. I felt the same way about the Evolutions of Fun "upgrades" to the Fantasy Class ships. Sure the water slides are nice, but they came at the cost of the awesome aft pool (formerly one of my favorite spots on that class). Now those ships have only one pool and it becomes the exact same crowded, kid filled nightmare you've described. Proper lido area design is a lesson CCL could take from RCI. Royal's Voyager and Freedom class ships have the best pool decks on the ocean.

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  • 2 weeks later...
fabkab1

fabkab1

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Excellent in depth information and pictures. Me and my wife were on the Christmas cruise right after the OP's and he is spot on with the review. The fast food was better than the dining room most nights and that is too bad for sure. I would disagree with the take on the Serenity area however. I thought it was great that it was away from the splash zone and actually found it to too quiet most of the time. That of course is all a matter of prospective and opinion though. I haven't read one post or review saying that they liked the comedy club. Small and awkward, like it was an afterthought and had to be put in last minute. And the shows were only 40 mins long including intros; is that typical? Seemed very short. The bartender pictured from the Alchemy bar was indeed awesome. Her and Daniel were great and made the best drinks I've probably ever had. We stopped before and after dinner every night. I found the staff in the Serenity area to be stellar as well. We went up to the upper bar in the rain the first afternoon and they knew our names and numbers the rest of the cruise. The Sunshine definitely has its hits and misses but we booked again for Nov. mainly because of a great Eastern Caribbean iteniary:)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

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cookiejarvis

cookiejarvis

Posted
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Spaniel Lover: Thanks for your review. We (total o 10) just booked the Sunshine and your review and pictures gave great insight on what to expect....although quite envy of your cabin. One question, was the serenity area crowded and were the chair hogs prevalent? Loved the videos

Cookie

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fabkab1

fabkab1

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If I may answer; on sunny sail days the Serenity area does fill up fast. As the OP pointed out, losing the aft pool means a little less usable sun areas because the top of the Serenity has a lot of covered lounging space. I did also witness many chairs that were left with towels on them while people went to breakfast or perhaps back to bed. There are several postings on the walls about not leaving a towel for more than 40 mins I believe. On our very first sail day in fact I came out at about 8:30 and sat down between two chairs with towels and started reading. Once it had been 40 mins I moved the towels and took two spots for me and my wife. It was literally 2 hours before whoever has put them came back. While not talking directly to me they were being a little salty about it, but everyone around knew they hadn't been there. If you want prime real-estate you will definitely want to be out by 8 AM on sail days, but if someone isn't there don't be afraid to ask the folks around how long they've been gone. Also if your not an early riser you might have good luck catching spots at lunch time.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

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pcrum

pcrum

Posted
Posted

 

One word of caution about this shore excursion...

You absolutely MUST book this months in advance of your cruise. As I said, it's limited to just 16 passengers out of the thousands on the cruise. It's a great shore excursion with excellent word-of-mouth, and it books up fast. We were very lucky, as I booked our tickets for this shore excursion months in advance of our cruise... and I got the last three spots. If you wait until you get onboard the ship to try to book this shore excursion, you will almost certainly not get tickets.

 

 

 

Is this book through Carnival or privately? It looks wonderful!

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pcrum

pcrum

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Is this book through Carnival or privately? It looks wonderful!

 

Sorry, meant to ask if the Cozumel excursion was booked through Carnival or privately? It certainly looks great. Also, wondered if the excursion included transportation or did you have to take a cab?

 

Someone mentioned a travel blog you have... Would you post the link? I enjoyed your photos and review and would like to read more, especially about New Orleans.

 

Thanks again.

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sailincajunns

sailincajunns

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Thanks so very, VERY much for the review. I tried to be thorough in reviewing the posts and links........ did I miss if you posted the MDR menus or a link to them within the review. For some reason, I've not had any luck finding those, although I am certain they are out there, somewhere. SHOULD you have them, or have a link to them posted, I'd sure appreciate some help finding that information.

 

Thanks again!

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susar

susar

Posted
Posted (edited)

Thanks for the great review. I may re-evaluate going on the Sunshine as my next cruise. I've been admiring the Serenity deck since they made it!!

I went on the Coral Princess to Alaska and wanted to recommend an excursion in Ketchikan-the Deadliest Catch excursion. It was on a converted crab boat from the show and was great! There were crab pots pulled up, Eagle watching and feeding and was really good.

Edited by susar
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Spaniel Lover

Spaniel Lover

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Someone mentioned a travel blog you have... Would you post the link? I enjoyed your photos and review and would like to read more, especially about New Orleans.

 

I'll include my signature in this reply, and in the signature you'll see links to the various reviews I've done... which is what someone was referring to when they mentioned my "travel blog".

 

If you go to the September 2013 and December 2013 cruise links, you'll find some New Orleans information there.

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hotburner

hotburner

Posted
Posted
These pics are absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for sharing. The Sunshine looks good. And that suite! I can understand your need for serenity. I'm not 25 but the mid ship pool noise doesn't really bother me. I rarely use the Serenity deck, but it seems quite ridiculous that the speakers would point directly to it. And I've heard this before about the Sunshine Serenity. Too bad that's the case.

 

I didn't know you were on this forum... Funny I had shared the link on our roll call since I thought the pics and video were awesome.:cool:

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