Matt & Ashley's Carnival Sunshine Review (Canada, Pictures, FunTimes)

[Ziggy7]

Awesome review! Thanks for sharing!!!:D

[Meari]

Thank you for including Governors Island in your sail away pics! I grew up there while it was a Coast Guard base and can't help but try to pick it out in media regarding NY Harbor!

[jimbri]

Looking forward to the rest of your review and photos!

[gaap master]

Thanks for the review. My wife and I went on this itinerary on the Sunshine last October and had a great time. Your detailed review is bringing back good memories!

 

 

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[DCCruiser1013]

Thanks so much! Especially enjoyed the room pics. We had an aft wrap on the Splendor awhile back and I've been wanting to do another.

 

The room on the Splendor was a little bigger I think but the Sunshine balcony looks bigger and that's what it's all about anyway

 

We have done the NY sail away a number of times and it never gets old. It's always so awesome.

 

When you emailed the maitre d did you get a response? We would love to also have a table for 2 in the aft dining room and I hate to wait until we board and stand on the line.

 

Thanks also for the menus. My husband says I'm the only one who plans meals [emoji12]

 

Looking forward to the rest!

 

 

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Interestingly enough, as you know, this corner room is in the balcony corner, and I've only seen it on other ships as a suite, which might explain why the actual room is smaller. Obviously you'd know better than I if that's the case on the Splendor. I agree, the balcony is the real selling point anyway.

 

Yes, I emailed the maitre-d when I knew the Sunshine was already a couple days into the sailing a couple voyages before ours. He responded the next day acknowledging my request. He didn't come out and say specifically that he would accommodate it, but we were very happy with our table. He also came by on the second night to say hi and he had a nice surprise for us.

 

Awesome review! Thanks for sharing!!!

 

Thanks for following along!

 

Thank you for including Governors Island in your sail away pics! I grew up there while it was a Coast Guard base and can't help but try to pick it out in media regarding NY Harbor!

 

Oh I'm glad you enjoyed it! Believe it or not I probably posted less than half of the pictures we took during sailaway, so I got 3 or 4 of Governors Island but they all look pretty similar.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review and photos!

 

Thanks for following!

 

Thanks for the review. My wife and I went on this itinerary on the Sunshine last October and had a great time. Your detailed review is bringing back good memories!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I'm glad we're able to bring back some great memories! This was a very fun itinerary.

[Synderela]

Thanks so much for the review. We are doing 7 night in Sept. Can you tell me the best place to watch for the Statue of Liberty as we sail away. We have a port balcony. Thanks

[toddtimes5]

following... going on the Sunshine June 2018

[FLSteve11]

Great review, looking forward to reading the rest of it. You have to just love aft wrap balconies (though man, they need to paint that door or something :) ) We've only gotten it a couple of times on our cruises, as we book fairly late most times. You can't beat the views from there. That one was nice and long too.

 

Haven't sailed the Sunshine, but I don't like the theatre setup either. We do like the shows on ships generally, so we would use it quite a bit. It's small too for that size of a ship. Carnival shows are generally mediocre, but they're certainly entertaining enough for us to see them. The Serenity on the other hand always looks fantastic on the Sunshine when I see it. They did a great job with that part of the ship.

 

On a side note, is there a reason you drive all the way up to the GWB and back down in Manhattan, instead of just going through the Hudson tunnel? I always found that much easier for going into the city from the south (I grew up on Staten Island).

 

I love baseball as well, so fun reading up on your extra link.

[estillcrew]

DC Cruiser,

Awesome review so far! Can you tell me what email address you used to email the maitre d for your request?

Thanks!

[DCCruiser1013]

Thanks so much for the review. We are doing 7 night in Sept. Can you tell me the best place to watch for the Statue of Liberty as we sail away. We have a port balcony. Thanks

 

Sure. When you are leaving New York, the Statue will go by on the starboard side, so your balcony probably won't be the best place. If I were you, I'd stay on the balcony as you pass Manhattan. Once you get past Manhattan either go topside to be able to see everything, or go to the exterior promenade on the starboard side of deck 3. If you go topside, you'll still easily be able to see Manhattan as you sail by the Statue, but it will probably be crowded (assuming the weather is good). If you go to deck 3, I would imagine it isn't too crowded, but you're limited to what you can see on that side of the ship.

 

following... going on the Sunshine June 2018

 

Thanks for following along! I hope you have a great cruise in June!

 

Great review, looking forward to reading the rest of it. You have to just love aft wrap balconies (though man, they need to paint that door or something ) We've only gotten it a couple of times on our cruises, as we book fairly late most times. You can't beat the views from there. That one was nice and long too.

 

Haven't sailed the Sunshine, but I don't like the theatre setup either. We do like the shows on ships generally, so we would use it quite a bit. It's small too for that size of a ship. Carnival shows are generally mediocre, but they're certainly entertaining enough for us to see them. The Serenity on the other hand always looks fantastic on the Sunshine when I see it. They did a great job with that part of the ship.

 

On a side note, is there a reason you drive all the way up to the GWB and back down in Manhattan, instead of just going through the Hudson tunnel? I always found that much easier for going into the city from the south (I grew up on Staten Island).

 

I love baseball as well, so fun reading up on your extra link.

 

Yep, the Welcome Aboard Show was really the only productionish type show we went to. The singers for the show were actually decent (and certainly better than me!), and we weren't totally opposed to the idea of going to more, we just opted to do other things.

 

Good question re: our route to the ship. To be totally honest, the idea of driving on the surface streets of Manhattan intimidated me. I considered taking the Lincoln Tunnel and going uptown a little bit, but going up a little further to the bridge, taking the parkway back down the river, and simply exiting into the terminal area just sounded so much less stressful. Plus, my GPS said it didn't add much more time. It ended up working out great. We did end up taking the tunnel on our way home, though.

 

DC Cruiser,

Awesome review so far! Can you tell me what email address you used to email the maitre d for your request?

Thanks!

 

 

Sure, shmaitred@carnival.com. The "sh" before "maitred" in the email address is the two letter code for the ship. If you're trying to reach the maitre-d on another ship, you'll need to change that code to the appropriate one.

[Bunkie103]

Enjoying your review of the Sunshine. As a native New Yorker I loved your sail-away pictures especially lower Manhattan as I worked on Wall Street, and the Verrazano Bridge since I remember when it was built.

 

We sailed on the Sunshine in February of 2016 and I must admit we weren't thrilled but decided to give it another try over Christmas of this year. Hopefully we will be prepared for the crowds and deal better with it. We did love Cucina del Capitano.

[estillcrew]

Thank you so much for the email address! I will take care of that right now!

 

Sure. When you are leaving New York, the Statue will go by on the starboard side, so your balcony probably won't be the best place. If I were you, I'd stay on the balcony as you pass Manhattan. Once you get past Manhattan either go topside to be able to see everything, or go to the exterior promenade on the starboard side of deck 3. If you go topside, you'll still easily be able to see Manhattan as you sail by the Statue, but it will probably be crowded (assuming the weather is good). If you go to deck 3, I would imagine it isn't too crowded, but you're limited to what you can see on that side of the ship.

 

 

 

Thanks for following along! I hope you have a great cruise in June!

 

 

 

Yep, the Welcome Aboard Show was really the only productionish type show we went to. The singers for the show were actually decent (and certainly better than me!), and we weren't totally opposed to the idea of going to more, we just opted to do other things.

 

Good question re: our route to the ship. To be totally honest, the idea of driving on the surface streets of Manhattan intimidated me. I considered taking the Lincoln Tunnel and going uptown a little bit, but going up a little further to the bridge, taking the parkway back down the river, and simply exiting into the terminal area just sounded so much less stressful. Plus, my GPS said it didn't add much more time. It ended up working out great. We did end up taking the tunnel on our way home, though.

 

 

 

 

Sure, shmaitred@carnival.com. The "sh" before "maitred" in the email address is the two letter code for the ship. If you're trying to reach the maitre-d on another ship, you'll need to change that code to the appropriate one.

[DCCruiser1013]

Enjoying your review of the Sunshine. As a native New Yorker I loved your sail-away pictures especially lower Manhattan as I worked on Wall Street, and the Verrazano Bridge since I remember when it was built.

 

We sailed on the Sunshine in February of 2016 and I must admit we weren't thrilled but decided to give it another try over Christmas of this year. Hopefully we will be prepared for the crowds and deal better with it. We did love Cucina del Capitano.

 

We're glad you liked the sailaway pictures! It would have been great if the weather was nicer but at least it wasn't pouring on us! You may find the Sunshine to be crowded still, but we handled it by not being dead set on doing one specific thing. If we went to something and it was packed, we just went somewhere else that was less crowded. Enjoy your Christmas cruise!

 

Thank you so much for the email address! I will take care of that right now!

 

No problem, have a great cruise!

[DCCruiser1013]

Day 2 - Tuesday, August 8 – Fun Day at Sea

 

 

We got up at around 7:15. It wasn’t quite as rainy, but it was still pretty gray outside. The seas were pretty rough until mid-afternoon so the ship was rocking quite a bit.

 

 

We decided to take our official photo tour of the interior of the ship while it was relatively empty before we headed up to Lido to get breakfast

 

We started by heading down the stairs one flight to deck 5.

 

 

That put us right in the Ocean Plaza area, which included the Alchemy Bar.

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

Just forward of the Alchemy Bar is a little seating area. The future cruise desk is the wooden looking one against the wall, and the desk where YTD diners check in for a seat is just forward of that.

 

 

The Taste Bar is also in the Ocean Plaza area. They had breakfast and lunch setups on a few days, and on embarkation and sea days they had hors d'oeuvres set up before dinner.

 

 

There was a stage area that had several activities and entertainers booked throughout the day, with a seating area around it. Trivia games were usually here during the mornings and afternoons, and a band or singer was here in the evening.

 

 

And a walkway into the Red Frog Pub, with some booth tables along the right hand side. Ashley and I played a lot of cards in these tables.

 

[DCCruiser1013]

The RedFrog Pub was just adjacent to Ocean Plaza. They also had a lot of singers booked in the evenings.

 

 

 

 

They had a few fun pub games in the back.

 

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

Some more RedFrog Pub

 

 

 

Moving forward of the Ocean Plaza area, past the Taste Bar, along the Promenade is Java Blue and the internet cafe. This is where you'll get your specialty coffees and milkshakes. We recommend the black & white milkshake!

 

 

[lmf24lmf]

I'm greatly enjoying your review and photos. Looking forward to sailing the sunshine next spring :)

[DCCruiser1013]

Continuing forward brings us to the Casino and Casino Bar.

 

 

 

 

Most of the blackjack tables were $6 minimums, and blackjacks payed 6:5 unless you wanted to move up to the $25 table. This was disappointing but sadly it's the way the casino industry is moving.

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

Proceeding forward delivers us to the top of the atrium.

 

 

To the starboard side of the atrium is the Warehouse Arcade.

 

 

 

 

And adjacent to that is the Cherry on Top store, which sells chocolate, candy, flowers, and other stuff.

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

Wrapping up the starboard side of deck 5's atrium are some of the shops. Sea Breeze sold the higher end stuff like jewelry and perfume.

 

 

On the port side, and acting as an indirect way to go from the atrium to the casino is the SkyBox Sports Bar

 

 

 

Then the shop with the more souveniry stuff like magnets and t-shirts, as well as your duty-free liquor is just forward of the sports bar.

 

 

The atrium is very nicely decorated.

 

 

[DCCruiser1013]

Moving down to deck 4, surrounding the Atrium is the Pixels Gallery, where you can pick up the pictures that the onboard paparazzi has taken.

 

 

The Library Bar overlooks the Atrium. It looks like there used to be a full-service bar in here at one point, but now there's just a wine dispensary.

 

 

 

 

 

Moving abaft from the Atrium on deck 4 brings you through the Mezzanine, which has the side entrance to the Library Bar, and a few other points of interest as well.

 

[DCCruiser1013]

...Like the Piano Bar. This felt like a smaller, more intimate Piano Bar than on the Pride. The bar was smaller but the staff was better about going around taking drink orders.

 

 

 

 

Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse is also located on the Mezzanine

 

 

And Bonsai Sushi is right across from the Steakhouse

 

[DCCruiser1013]

Beyond the steakhouse and sushi restaurant is the Limelight Lounge. This is sort of an infamous venue because it hosts comedy shows (which are a popular draw) and it's very small.

 

 

 

 

The stage sort of juts out into the middle of the room, and consequently there are pretty large sections of the room that don't have a view of the stage. Carnival put TV's on the side of the wall for people who showed up late enough to be relegated to these areas.

 

[DCCruiser1013]

Aside from the dining rooms, the only interior public space on deck 3 is the Atrium.

 

 

 

 

There is an exterior promenade area on either side of deck 3. This doesn't wrap around in any way, so the promenade areas are totally separate from each other and are usually deserted.