Carnival sunrise. The worse ship ever

[KmomChicago]

14 minutes ago, thesmiths said:

 

Some people just like to hear themselves complain, no matter who they are talking too.

 

A lot of that around here too.

 

 

Yup. They aren't going to go back and undesign it now. They're not going to change the Radiance plans. This is based on what they felt, on balance, worked on Sunshine which has been in service for many years, many cruises, carried many thousands of passengers. If you don't like this ship, there are plenty of others that you can go complain about!

[ProgRockCruiser]

2 hours ago, cruzeluver said:

Sounds like the same list of complaints as when Sunshine debuted. Swore we would never sail that ship until a great deal on a Journeys cruise fell into our laps. We are not Carnival loyalists, we sail multiple lines. And to date Sunshine is by far our favorite Carnival ship. The only one we have sailed twice and now have a third booked for October. Always managed to find somewhere to sit at Serenity. Arrived to shows maybe 15-20 minutes early and manages to get good seats. Love all of the dining venues with Jijis being our favorite. Also prefer the more muted decor over the tacky, ode-to-the-80's designs found on the older ships.

 

Heh, regarding the bolded part: exactly our impressions/experiences too.  (Not sure if we have a favorite dining venue...they were all very good, IMHO.  Well, OK , I love Guy's Burgers!)

[mredandchis]

On 6/23/2019 at 8:47 AM, PhillyFan33579 said:

Sunshine is my least favorite of the 11 Carnival ships I have cruised on. It sounds like the crowding issues we experienced on Sunshine are happening on Sunrise too based on reviews I have read online and YouTube videos I have watched. I can understand Carnival’s perspective on adding cabins to increase revenue, but they need to also factor in how much public space is available. I can understand some parts of the ship bring crowded based on what event or special is going on, but when the majority of the ship is always crowded, which was our experience on Sunshine except during the day on port days, that is not appealing in my book. 

I also just got back from the 10 day Sunrise cruise. And like you I didnt care for the Sunshine but I would sail on her again, the Sunrise is now the ONLY ship in ANY line that I will not set foot on even for a half price ticket.  Sunshine is the better of the two.  

 

I am also a smoker and even I headed for deck 10 to light up.  I stood in the smoking section and watched the smoke and it headed into the elevator shaft area.  And those people were force to walk right by the smokers to go anywhere on deck 5.  So this time I felt for the nonsmokers.  Sunshine had the same issue i believe,

 

[luvsboozecruises]

11 hours ago, thesmiths said:

 

Some people just like to hear themselves complain, no matter who they are talking too.

 

A lot of that around here too.

 

Diamond desk does listen !! 

[kwokpot]

I'm on the Sunrise as I type this (docked in Bermuda). I have been on the Sunshine twice, which I liked a lot, and I can now say that I definitely DON'T LIKE THE SUNRISE. The Sunshine looked liked a brand new ship(I've sailed the Vista when it was less than 6months old and sailed the Horizon twice when it was less than a year old) when it was relaunched, in the same design scheme as the Dream or Vista class. I can say that the Sunrise looks an old a ship that had been renovated.

There are some design decisions that makes the Sunrise a crowded, small ship. On Deck 4,they did not take out the upper level of the midship dining room. Instead they kept half of the dining room and the other half as the steakhouse;therefore, you can't walk through deck 4,rendering deck 5 basically as the only through public deck. On the Sunshine they did away with the midship dining room on deck 4 and created a public thoroughfare with restaurants and clubs, mimicking the layout of the larger dream & /or Vista class ships. The fitness center on the Sunrise is on a different deck than on the Sunshine and its smaller. In the spa locker rooms on the Sunrise they did away with the complementary saunas (previously there are free steam & saunas; on the Sunshine they did put in free saunas which is the same as the Dream & Vista class). Curiously there's a medium size sauna that's apparently co-ed right when you walk into the locker room hall area, but they never turn the heat on and usually the security door is closed, so you don't even know it's there(obviously they want you to pay for the thermal suite). 

The other major design flaw is the serenity area on deck 14. On the Sunrise Deck14 on the starboard side is only half decked, with a railing overlooking the lower deck. There's no men's or women's rest rooms on that deck (unlike the Sunshine, which had space for a bar too!) 

I will create another thread when my cruise is over but I can say that although I'm having a fun time on this cruise, I don't like this ship and won't choose to sail this ship again. 

Edited June 27, 2019 by kwokpot

[thesmiths]

10 hours ago, kwokpot said:

 On Deck 4,they did not take out the upper level of the midship dining room. Instead they kept half of the dining room and the other half as the steakhouse;therefore, you can't walk through deck 4,rendering deck 5 basically as the only through public deck.

Can you not walk outside around the Steakhouse and Dining Room to get forward or aft?

[jimbo5544]

11 hours ago, luvsboozecruises said:

Diamond desk does listen !! 

My recollection is that the Diamond desk is not involved in ship planning...... I might be wrong, listening and taking action upon that are two different things.

[kwokpot]

2 hours ago, thesmiths said:

Can you not walk outside around the Steakhouse and Dining Room to get forward or aft?

While technically you can do that what they should have done was fill in the atrium space of upper level(Deck 4) midship dining room which would have given them much more floor space to create a normal hallway to traverse that entire deck. That's what they did on the Sunshine. They cheaped out on the Sunrise conversion. Besides, why should you have to go outside to get to another part of the ship? It's also not setup for you to use those tender corridors for assess. If you look at Carnival's own plans for the Sunshine and Sunrise you will see that the tender corridors are wheelchair accessible on the Sunshine but NOT on the Sunrise, which means that they spent the money on the Sunshine to make them wheelchair accessible where on the Sunrise they did not. 

Edited June 27, 2019 by kwokpot

[thesmiths]

8 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

While technically you can do that what they should have done was fill in the atrium space of upper level(Deck 4) midship dining room which would have given them much more floor space to create a normal hallway to traverse that entire deck. That's what they did on the Sunshine. They cheaped out on the Sunrise conversion. 

Thanks, just wanted to make sure as I am trying to get my bearings down before I board.

 

Where in Philly are you from?

Edited June 27, 2019 by thesmiths

[kwokpot]

2 hours ago, thesmiths said:

Thanks, just wanted to make sure as I am trying to get my bearings down before I board.

 

Where in Philly are you from?

I'm sorry if I'm coming across as overly negative. As I said I'm having a great time, it's a cruise and I'm away! The staterooms are all new as are the bathrooms. The aft pool is a nice place to hang out. Sit down breakfast is definitely a calmer atmosphere then the buffet. Guys burgers excellent as usual. The new Asian Bowl counter is a nice new concept but not quite a substitute for the Mongolian wok stir fry. The bowls are more soup noodles style than noodle/lo mien style. So a different concept. I wish they mixed in lo mein type bowls in with the soup noodles bowls. I'll see if it changes during the week. 

Going to try the pizza today for lunch (guy's Bar-B-Q not open on port days). 

They offer nice cakes at the buffet during lunchtime, similar to what's being offered on the Vista & Horizon. Have not try the deli counter yet-it gets busy. 

 

thesmiths:I'm originally from NYC but moved to Center City Philly 13 years ago. Are you on the Philly area? 

Edited June 27, 2019 by kwokpot

[thesmiths]

16 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

I'm sorry if I'm coming across as overly negative. As I said I'm having a great time, it's a cruise and I'm away! The staterooms are all new as are the bathrooms. The aft pool is a nice place to hang out. Sit down breakfast is definitely a calmer atmosphere then the buffet. Guys burgers excellent as usual. The new Asian Bowl counter is a nice new concept but not quite a substitute for the Mongolian wok stir fry. The bowls are more soup noodles style than noodle/lo mien style. So a different concept. I wish they mixed in lo mein type bowls in with the soup noodles bowls. I'll see if it changes during the week. 

Going to try the pizza today for lunch (guy's Bar-B-Q not open on port days). 

They offer nice cakes at the buffet during lunchtime, similar to what's being offered on the Vista & Horizon. Have not try the deli counter yet-it gets busy. 

 

thesmiths:I'm originally from NYC but moved to Center City Philly 13 years ago. Are you on the Philly area? 

Thank you,  Was trying to get my bearing that is all. Like to know the lay of the land before I go.

 

Appreciate it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2019 by thesmiths

[Maraprince]

2 hours ago, thesmiths said:

Thank you,  Was trying to get my bearing that is all. Like to know the lay of the land before I go.

 

Appreciate it.

 

 

 

Do they have minature maps of the ship with the location of the public rooms, decks, etc. at Guest Services?

 

MARAPRINCE

2 hours ago, thesmiths said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[thesmiths]

30 minutes ago, Maraprince said:

 

Do they have minature maps of the ship with the location of the public rooms, decks, etc. at Guest Services?

 

MARAPRINCE

 

I'm not sure?

I just study deck plans before I go.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/carnival-sunrise-deck-plans/dp/?shipID=1336&deck=4

I make notes as well on my to do list with itinerary.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2019 by thesmiths

[shof515]

1 hour ago, Maraprince said:

 

Do they have minature maps of the ship with the location of the public rooms, decks, etc. at Guest Services?

 

MARAPRINCE

 

yes. they are on the counter..you can pick it up 

[thesmiths]

Wow, 16 hours and no complaints about the Sunrise.

 

 

[Wombservice]

We got off the Sunrise on Monday, and we enjoyed our cruise!  My hubby and I cruised with our two adult sons and granddaughter, and it was a first cruise for one of my sons, so I really wanted him to enjoy it.  I was on the Horizon last year and thoroughly enjoyed that ship, never felt crowded at all - in fact, there were a few times I looked at my husband and said, “Where are all the people”!!!  This ship felt a little more crowded, but nothing crazy - but as others said, we tried to avoid the buffet by eating breakfast and dinner in the MDR.  We had absolutely amazing waiters (and waitress!); we all had tears in our eyes with hugs to go around after our last meal there 😢

 

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the previous posters about some of the more negative aspects of this ship and cruise.  We got off to a little bit of a rocky start when embarkation was delayed, apparently due to the ship inviting TA’s to view the rooms before we could board.  When the initial boarding started, we were among the earlier groups, having purchased FTTF.  The TA’s were still looking at rooms and one on the list was ours!  For the most part they were gracious about not insisting they come into our room once we arrived, but there were a few who still wanted to view our room asking if they could come in (which we allowed) and one man was downright nasty about it when we said we wanted privacy.  My hubby suggested he take it up with the captain, as we had paid for our room and had already allowed a few to view it 😉.  So it was a chaotic start.

 

There was definitely a foul odor near the aft elevators every day (our room was a balcony on 7 aft), but apart from having to walk through the casino to get from point A to point B, I didn’t notice cigarette smoke much.  We were discouraged seeing the rust on our balcony and how dirty the balcony glass was  - come on, the ship just came out of a huge renovation not even two months prior to our cruise!  It was obvious they hadn’t touched the outside of those balcony rooms, even the deck flooring looked beat up.  But our room was very nice, and we still enjoyed sitting outside for some peaceful time.  Speaking of peaceful time, this cruise must have attracted many who could’ve cared less about keeping peace!  Obviously not Carnival’s fault, but it will give me pause in the future about picking cruises.  And the funny thing was, there weren’t a ton of kids on this ship - it was actually the adults who were acting out.  We witnessed a fight that was happening in the buffet area; we were eating at the Lucky soup station, when we heard a woman screaming - we thought maybe someone was choking or a child was drowning.  A few passengers jumped up to run to help, but turns out it was a massive fight between family members in the buffet area, with tables and chairs being overturned.  And I’m seeing there were other outbreaks of fights on the ship for that cruise.  Not good!  It definitely put a damper on our day when we witnessed that happening...... 

 

We thought the food was delicious and, all in all, we very much enjoyed our cruise!  But I’d have to say that I definitely preferred the Horizon over the Sunrise, and probably wouldn't book the Radiance knowing what I know now, even though we prefer to cruise out of the northeast.

 

[jimbo5544]

15 hours ago, Wombservice said:

We got off the Sunrise on Monday, and we enjoyed our cruise!  My hubby and I cruised with our two adult sons and granddaughter, and it was a first cruise for one of my sons, so I really wanted him to enjoy it.  I was on the Horizon last year and thoroughly enjoyed that ship, never felt crowded at all - in fact, there were a few times I looked at my husband and said, “Where are all the people”!!!  This ship felt a little more crowded, but nothing crazy - but as others said, we tried to avoid the buffet by eating breakfast and dinner in the MDR.  We had absolutely amazing waiters (and waitress!); we all had tears in our eyes with hugs to go around after our last meal there 😢

 

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the previous posters about some of the more negative aspects of this ship and cruise.  We got off to a little bit of a rocky start when embarkation was delayed, apparently due to the ship inviting TA’s to view the rooms before we could board.  When the initial boarding started, we were among the earlier groups, having purchased FTTF.  The TA’s were still looking at rooms and one on the list was ours!  For the most part they were gracious about not insisting they come into our room once we arrived, but there were a few who still wanted to view our room asking if they could come in (which we allowed) and one man was downright nasty about it when we said we wanted privacy.  My hubby suggested he take it up with the captain, as we had paid for our room and had already allowed a few to view it 😉.  So it was a chaotic start.

 

There was definitely a foul odor near the aft elevators every day (our room was a balcony on 7 aft), but apart from having to walk through the casino to get from point A to point B, I didn’t notice cigarette smoke much.  We were discouraged seeing the rust on our balcony and how dirty the balcony glass was  - come on, the ship just came out of a huge renovation not even two months prior to our cruise!  It was obvious they hadn’t touched the outside of those balcony rooms, even the deck flooring looked beat up.  But our room was very nice, and we still enjoyed sitting outside for some peaceful time.  Speaking of peaceful time, this cruise must have attracted many who could’ve cared less about keeping peace!  Obviously not Carnival’s fault, but it will give me pause in the future about picking cruises.  And the funny thing was, there weren’t a ton of kids on this ship - it was actually the adults who were acting out.  We witnessed a fight that was happening in the buffet area; we were eating at the Lucky soup station, when we heard a woman screaming - we thought maybe someone was choking or a child was drowning.  A few passengers jumped up to run to help, but turns out it was a massive fight between family members in the buffet area, with tables and chairs being overturned.  And I’m seeing there were other outbreaks of fights on the ship for that cruise.  Not good!  It definitely put a damper on our day when we witnessed that happening...... 

 

We thought the food was delicious and, all in all, we very much enjoyed our cruise!  But I’d have to say that I definitely preferred the Horizon over the Sunrise, and probably wouldn't book the Radiance knowing what I know now, even though we prefer to cruise out of the northeast.

 

Thanks for the comments on your cruise.  I was one of the TA’s that got onto the ship before you.  For the record, the embarkation delay (and it was substantial) had nothing to do with the TA’s getting on for a ship inspection.  There were a lot of them (us), but the delay caused by letting us get on was maybe 10 minutes.  The reason was the debarkation of the previous cruise which had an extremely large number of cruisers that required assistance, that dragged on for almost an hour before embarkation began.    

[Wombservice]

26 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Thanks for the comments on your cruise.  I was one of the TA’s that got onto the ship before you.  For the record, the embarkation delay (and it was substantial) had nothing to do with the TA’s getting on for a ship inspection.  There were a lot of them (us), but the delay caused by letting us get on was maybe 10 minutes.  The reason was the debarkation of the previous cruise which had an extremely large number of cruisers that required assistance, that dragged on for almost an hour before embarkation began.    

  

 

Thanks for for that clarification!  It was a little bit of a chaotic mess, wasn’t it?  To make it even a little more chaotic, our kid’s room right next door was also on the viewing list, so TA’s were being turned away from both rooms - they were not happy campers! 😬

[jimbo5544]

Just now, Wombservice said:

  

 

Thanks for for that clarification!  It was a little bit of a chaotic mess, wasn’t it?  To make it even a little more chaotic, our kid’s room right next door was also on the viewing list, so TA’s were being turned away from both rooms - they were not happy campers! 😬

It was the worst I have ever seen for one of these.  The TA’s will get over it..... usually they are done viewing before rooms before anybody gets on.  

[Thebosn1]

Completely agree.  It was the ONLY carnival ship that I actually had problems with.  The serenity area was a JOKE.  So overcrowded and small that you could never get up there, even in the morning.  The lido area was even worse.  They added places to GET food to took away the spaces to EAT it.  I won't sail on her again. 

[CruisinPandora]

On 6/23/2019 at 3:50 PM, newpherchris said:

Check out some pics I took  - hopefully, you'll agree that many pictures reflect a shiny, polished ship that isn't overstuffed to the brim with too many people. You can ALWAYS find someplace quiet if that's what you're looking for. Here are the pics.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

Amazing photo's! Thanks so much for sharing. We'll be on the Radiance next year, this gives us an idea of what to expect.

[Rach257]

On 6/29/2019 at 7:34 PM, Wombservice said:

We got off the Sunrise on Monday, and we enjoyed our cruise!  My hubby and I cruised with our two adult sons and granddaughter, and it was a first cruise for one of my sons, so I really wanted him to enjoy it.  I was on the Horizon last year and thoroughly enjoyed that ship, never felt crowded at all - in fact, there were a few times I looked at my husband and said, “Where are all the people”!!!  This ship felt a little more crowded, but nothing crazy - but as others said, we tried to avoid the buffet by eating breakfast and dinner in the MDR.  We had absolutely amazing waiters (and waitress!); we all had tears in our eyes with hugs to go around after our last meal there 😢

 

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the previous posters about some of the more negative aspects of this ship and cruise.  We got off to a little bit of a rocky start when embarkation was delayed, apparently due to the ship inviting TA’s to view the rooms before we could board.  When the initial boarding started, we were among the earlier groups, having purchased FTTF.  The TA’s were still looking at rooms and one on the list was ours!  For the most part they were gracious about not insisting they come into our room once we arrived, but there were a few who still wanted to view our room asking if they could come in (which we allowed) and one man was downright nasty about it when we said we wanted privacy.  My hubby suggested he take it up with the captain, as we had paid for our room and had already allowed a few to view it 😉.  So it was a chaotic start.

 

There was definitely a foul odor near the aft elevators every day (our room was a balcony on 7 aft), but apart from having to walk through the casino to get from point A to point B, I didn’t notice cigarette smoke much.  We were discouraged seeing the rust on our balcony and how dirty the balcony glass was  - come on, the ship just came out of a huge renovation not even two months prior to our cruise!  It was obvious they hadn’t touched the outside of those balcony rooms, even the deck flooring looked beat up.  But our room was very nice, and we still enjoyed sitting outside for some peaceful time.  Speaking of peaceful time, this cruise must have attracted many who could’ve cared less about keeping peace!  Obviously not Carnival’s fault, but it will give me pause in the future about picking cruises.  And the funny thing was, there weren’t a ton of kids on this ship - it was actually the adults who were acting out.  We witnessed a fight that was happening in the buffet area; we were eating at the Lucky soup station, when we heard a woman screaming - we thought maybe someone was choking or a child was drowning.  A few passengers jumped up to run to help, but turns out it was a massive fight between family members in the buffet area, with tables and chairs being overturned.  And I’m seeing there were other outbreaks of fights on the ship for that cruise.  Not good!  It definitely put a damper on our day when we witnessed that happening...... 

 

We thought the food was delicious and, all in all, we very much enjoyed our cruise!  But I’d have to say that I definitely preferred the Horizon over the Sunrise, and probably wouldn't book the Radiance knowing what I know now, even though we prefer to cruise out of the northeast.

 

 

What cabin were you in? We are in 7430 next month....I'm having a really hard time getting excited with all the negative reviews, that's for sure! But I'm stuck now, so it is what it is. I'd love to see pics if you had the same cabin we'll be in!!!

 

[Organized Chaos]

23 minutes ago, Rach257 said:

 

What cabin were you in? We are in 7430 next month....I'm having a really hard time getting excited with all the negative reviews, that's for sure! But I'm stuck now, so it is what it is. I'd love to see pics if you had the same cabin we'll be in!!!

 

 

I haven't been on the Sunrise, so I can't speak from experience on that ship in particular, but overall, it's what you make of it. We were on the Glory last year. I had read a lot of comments that were overwhelmingly positive about the Glory. Far more good than bad. We went, had a great time, and enjoyed the ship. We'd have no problem sailing it again someday if it comes to that. We knew what to expect from a Conquest class ship, we knew the layout, and I found the Glory's decor, which is much more subdued than the Conquest, to be more to my liking. A month or so ago, a thread popped up from someone who had just been on the Glory and hated it. It was their least favorite ship, etc. Then that thread started filling up with mostly negative comments about Glory. A lot like what you've seen here. In all the time I had been on CC, I had literally never seen so much negativity about the Glory until that thread. Since then, I've seen a few negative comments about it here & there, but nothing like that thread. I don't know what it was, but it was like one person opened the negative floodgates, and the rest started flowing. I guess the moral of my story is, try not to let the negativity about a single ship influence how you feel before you actually experience it for yourself. Because only you can decide for yourself.

[Rach257]

You are right @Organized Chaos ! And I'm usually pretty good with filtering out the negative but whoa is there a LOT right now so it's kind of overwhelming. Ultimately, I think we will have a better time than if we were at work, so that's still winning...I hope to come back feeling like all these Negative Nellies are nuts!

[Joanne G.]

5 hours ago, Rach257 said:

You are right @Organized Chaos ! And I'm usually pretty good with filtering out the negative but whoa is there a LOT right now so it's kind of overwhelming. Ultimately, I think we will have a better time than if we were at work, so that's still winning...I hope to come back feeling like all these Negative Nellies are nuts!

As someone who may be considered a Negative Nellie based on my initial report about our Sunrise cruise, I want to explain why I posted it.   On these boards, common advice is  to "do your homework" before booking a particular cruise.    If we all only posted glowing reports about only the good things, there wouldn't be much useful "homework" to read.  

 

I tried to be clear about what I didn't like and why I didn't like it.  For example, I didn't like that over 100 cabins were added, and I didn't like it because it made the ship feel more crowded in some of the public spaces and made for long lines getting on and off the ship.   I didn't like the new passageway though the casino because of the noise and the smoke smell.  These things may not bother someone else, and if they do bother you, there are ways around the issues.   But I felt it was useful information to share.  

 

I can add a positive note - on our 10-day cruise, we did not notice any of the bad odors that others have mentioned.  Our cabin was an aft corner, so we frequently used the aft stairway and elevators, which is where others noticed the smells.  

 

We booked our cruise before the announcement of the transformation, and even though we suspected cabins would be added at the expense of public spaces, we never considered canceling.  We worked around the things we didn't like as much as possible, and we had a good time.  And I hope everyone else booked on the Sunrise has a good time.