Back From Sunshine 10/26/19 To Bermuda

[cruzeluver]

This will just a a brief recap of highs and lows.

 

So you know where we are coming from, this was our third time on Sunshine. We are not loyal to any line and all else being equal Carnival would normally be our third or fourth choice but this was an opportunity to go to Bermuda from our home port of Charleston so it was too good to pass up.

 

The Good

 

Our last time on Sunshine was in 2016 and she is still in very good shape. Outside of the expected wear and tear we thought she looked lovely. Dining at Fahrenheit 555 was excellent as was Jiji's Asian Kitchen which I maintain is still the best dining bargain at sea. Absolutely wonderful service, presentation and the food was fantastic. Bonzai Sushi was also very good. Our first port was Princess Cays and we enjoyed it far more than we expected. The beach had more than enough places for everyone. We had booked a bungalow and would do it again. Very comfortable. It included soda, bottled water, fruit and veggie trays, chips, salsa and guac. They also provided us with snorkel gear and floating mats all for $199 total. Not bad! But the highlight of the trip was of course Bermuda, We plan to return and stay longer. We took the first ferry to St George's where we did a self-guided walking tour and had a light lunch. Then took a bus (clean, easy and cheap!) to Hamilton for more touring. Then we had dinner at The Hogpenny. Fantastic! Then caught the last ferry back to Royal Naval Dockyard. Only had a few hours in Bermuda the next day so just strolled around the dockyard. All in all a great time in Bermuda! The Halloween deck party was a lot of fun and there was a lot of participation.

 

The Fair

 

Dinner at Cucina del Captano was a bit hit and miss. The food overall was good but the service was just odd. We waited nearly fifteen minutes after being sat before someone came to take our order. Then salads and apps were served together followed by a long stretch before the entrees showed up. We had requested a large table in the main dining room (late seating) which we got (a ten top) but only one other person showed up which was one man which mad it really awkward (hence why we ended up hitting all the specialty dining restaurants). The one dinner we had in the buffet was  ok, but not anything to get excited about. Our second dining room breakfast was a fiasco. I asked three times for extra cream cheese and never got it. I was brought the wrong omelette and when the correct one finally arrived it had two pieces of ham diced so small they were nearly invisible. Bacon arrived 10 minutes after the rest of the food. Overall service was what we have come to expect from Carnival, very friendly but inconsistent and not very polished. The shows were just fair. The performers did there best but between the pre-recorded music, amateur staging and very dated style of the shows they could only do so much.

 

The Ugly

 

As seems to be the norm now, the worst thing I can say about this cruise was the behavior of some of our fellow cruisers. We met some truly lovely, fun people and enjoy that aspect. But too we had run ins with some notorious IDGOM's ("I Don't Get Out Much) who haven't a clue how to behave in public. For example, one gentleman (and I use that term loosely) chose to wear clothing that announced his religious and political beliefs throughout the cruise. We had the unfortunate experience of sitting next to him and his equally trashy wife at one breakfast where we were treated to a loud, inappropriate political discussion that included a list of all the people who will be going to jail once our leader gets enough prisons built, including apparently my husband and I (we are a gay couple and one of the groups this person was going off about). At another meal I heard a man repeatedly being disrespectful to the wait staff, calling the waiter "boy" and instead of asking fro things would just bark "bring me a coca cola" or " bring some more of that there bread". Some people should really just stay home. A couple was sat next to us at Cucina who were not dressed even remotely appropriately. She had on a swimsuit coverup and he was in a shirtless t-shirt and swimsuit, both in rubber flip-flops.

 

The Incident

 

Six hours after leaving Bermuda we felt the ship make a sharp turn. We were at the Atrium Bar at the time and some glassware did slide around. A short time later an announcement was made that we were returning to Bermuda as a guest needed urgent medical care. They did a great job of keeping us informed. The next morning we were told our arrival back to Charleston would not be until about 4:00PM. They scheduled additional activities and kept food service open the entire time. But because of the late arrival, the nature of the port of Charleston and again the crappy behavior of some, disembarkation took a very long time. We had group 7 tags and were not called to the gangway until nearly 7:00. Despite repeated announcements from the CD, those who thought the rules we for others continued to crowd deck three. He must have asked at least 20 times that people not proceed there till called but some would not listen. I think Carnival handled the situation as best they could.

 

Any questions/ Feel free to ask!

[scpirate]

I've got a cruise on sunshine in February 2021.im pretty much dreading it.but we wanted to cruise out of our HomePort also one time.for me carnival is at the bottom of my list.i had gift cards that needed to get used.anyway did the ship feel crowded? Was the comedy club hard to get into.? It's still a long way off and I have another cruise to prepare for before then.thanks for the review.

 

[cruzeluver]

Crowding was not bad. Now there were a couple of things on this sailing that contributed to that. Due to time of year there were very few children. Also it was an Ultra cruise so the casino was packed night and day, but the pool decks and other venues were easy to get seating. We don't go to the comedy club but in general the recommendation is to get there 30 minutes early if you want a decent seat.

[gopackgo21]

    My husband and I were on this cruise as well. I couldn't agree with you more on the patrons of this cruise. I saw multiple adults barefoot, shirtless, etc. While dishing food onto their plates at the buffet. It was truly disgusting. 

 

  I was pleasantly surprised by the ship itself. It was clean and the crew were great for us. 

[MJSailors]

cruzeluver

     You have posted an interesting review of your recent cruise.

While you noted that Carnival is not your first choice of a cruise line, I can understand your choice of this cruise as it sailed from your home port. 

     Bermuda is a lovely place to visit and you seemed to have gotten so much out of the time you spent there. My DH and I have visited Bermuda thirteen times over the past thirty- five years. It is a a place of very kind,helpful and dignified people.

      Such a contrast to the fellow passengers on the cruise who you reported to have  displayed boorish behavior. At the risk of irking some readers of this thread, I would like to suggest that the demographics you found on this cruise could be a case of you get what you pay for,IMHO.

     In the past, cruising was an expensive vacation that was reserved for people who could well afford such a vacation or saved for a good amount of time for a cruise of a lifetime. I recall seeing notices ,many years ago, in the New York Daily News of people who were going on a cruise. The notice was similar to a wedding  announcement. The description of the person and the cruise they were taking was often accompanied by a photo of the person on the deck of the ship. The 

appearance  of such newspaper notices shows how special a cruise vacation was about fifty years ago.

     Now, cruise fares are such on Carnival, many people can afford the fares. If you compare a seven day cruise on Carnival to other cruise lines, there are very affordable fares,especially for interior cabins and short cruises. The IDGOM individuals that you saw on the cruise are people who are taking advantage of these reasonable fares. Years ago,when fares were more expensive ,these people would have been priced out of such a vacation.

    Also,dress codes have dramatically changed in the last fifteen years or so. In the past, people were expected to come to dinner in a jacket and tie or cocktail dress. Dinner was in the MDR. There were no specialty restaurants and the buffet was not an option for dinner. Formal nights found the majority of passengers dressed in formal wear. Gentlemen wore tuxes or white dinner jackets and black trousers. Ladies wore gowns. Needing such articles of clothing would deter a number of people from considering a cruise vacation because such clothing was not part of their lifestyle.

       I may suggest that you select cruises on Princess or Celebrity. These are our preferred cruislines. People on these cruises generally are affable and well mannered. I have not seen t shirts with tacky sayings or those promoting a certain political or religious view on the cruises that we have taken. Our last being on the Celebrity Summit this past Summer. Generally people respect the dress code for dinner and do not come to the dining room wearing  swimsuit cover-ups or rubber flip flops as you described in your post.

    You may also consider Azarama,Oceana  or Regent for a more up-scale cruise experience. It is your vacation and you should be comfortable not only with the accommodations and amenities offered by the cruise line,but also with the fellow passengers that  are sharing your cruise vacation.

      

[cruzeluver]

MJSailors - I won't quibble with any of your comments and we knew what we were buying into when we selected this particular cruise.

 

We very much enjoy Celebrity and Royal Caribbean where we are Elite and Diamond respectively. We also have one cruise with MSC which we found surprisingly enjoyable. I believe this was our sixth or seventh cruise with Carnival so we were already familiar with the product and actually like Sunshine quite a bit (Magic was also pretty good). Carnival certainly fills a nitch and does many things quite well.

[NCTribeFan]

I've started a "short" review.

 

This was my first as Diamond and I knew there would be lots of Diamond and Platinum on this sailing.

 

I had a brief word with someone flaunting their political beliefs in the MDR during the first Sea Day brunch. 😠 I'll post that in my thread.

 

I was disappointed to find this was an Ultra Casino sailing as the casino was absolutely packed the entire time and the smoke was even worse than usual.

 

Was mildly surprised at the number of scooters!  Seriously, there were more than on my HAL sailings which definitely draw an older demographic.

 

Didn't get home until about 1 yesterday.  My only issue was that I think they should've at least offered people an hour or two of free internet so we could make needed changes to our travel plans.  I had a 5-1/2 to 6 hour drive home and with poor night vision, felt it would be unwise to do that on Saturday night.  I simply wanted internet access to find a hotel outside of Charleston so I could at least make a start on my drive.  I politely asked about this at the service desk and was simply told it wasn't going to happen.  I stayed the night at the hotel where I'd stayed the night before we boarded.  I'll submit the expense to my travel insurance but expect it will be declined since it was my decision to not drive.

 

Anyway, I don't dislike the ship (my 2nd on her).  I've sailed from Charleston many times (and the sailings from there are not cheap given that there is no competition) but I'm not a fan of the crowd they seem to be drawing these days.

[eroller]

On 11/3/2019 at 4:17 PM, cruzeluver said:

 

 

The Ugly

 

As seems to be the norm now, the worst thing I can say about this cruise was the behavior of some of our fellow cruisers. We met some truly lovely, fun people and enjoy that aspect. But too we had run ins with some notorious IDGOM's ("I Don't Get Out Much) who haven't a clue how to behave in public. For example, one gentleman (and I use that term loosely) chose to wear clothing that announced his religious and political beliefs throughout the cruise. We had the unfortunate experience of sitting next to him and his equally trashy wife at one breakfast where we were treated to a loud, inappropriate political discussion that included a list of all the people who will be going to jail once our leader gets enough prisons built, including apparently my husband and I (we are a gay couple and one of the groups this person was going off about). At another meal I heard a man repeatedly being disrespectful to the wait staff, calling the waiter "boy" and instead of asking fro things would just bark "bring me a coca cola" or " bring some more of that there bread". Some people should really just stay home. A couple was sat next to us at Cucina who were not dressed even remotely appropriately. She had on a swimsuit coverup and he was in a shirtless t-shirt and swimsuit, both in rubber flip-flops.

 

 

 

 

Enjoyed the review, although this part is disturbing and not what I want to experience on vacation.  I fear I might have been thrown off the ship if I were present!  LOL.  

 

I know it's a stereotype that Carnival attracts the trashiest people, but it's true based on my experience.  Yes there are trashy people on every mass-market line (and even premium/luxury on occasion) but never to the degree I've experienced on Carnival.  There are things I really love about Carnival, but the trashy behavior of what seems to be more and more of the passengers is a major turn off.  Enough to prevent me from returning.  I'm going to give the new MARDI GRAS a try and hope for the best, but for the most part I've outgrown Carnival and moved on.     

[jimbo5544]

15 minutes ago, eroller said:

 

 

Enjoyed the review, although this part is disturbing and not what I want to experience on vacation.  I fear I might have been thrown off the ship if I were present!  LOL.  

 

I know it's a stereotype that Carnival attracts the trashiest people, but it's true based on my experience.  Yes there are trashy people on every mass-market line (and even premium/luxury on occasion) but never to the degree I've experienced on Carnival.  There are things I really love about Carnival, but the trashy behavior of what seems to be more and more of the passengers is a major turn off.  Enough to prevent me from returning.  I'm going to give the new MARDI GRAS a try and hope for the best, but for the most part I've outgrown Carnival and moved on.     

Never miss a chance and off topic to boot. 

[eroller]

4 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Never miss a chance and off topic to boot. 

 

 

Quit stalking me and get a life.  Stop trolling the Carnival boards.  You are not the moderator.  

 

Just for you I'm going to start posting a lot more ... on all your favorite Carnival topics!  

Edited November 5, 2019 by eroller

[jimbo5544]

23 hours ago, MJSailors said:

cruzeluver

     You have posted an interesting review of your recent cruise.

While you noted that Carnival is not your first choice of a cruise line, I can understand your choice of this cruise as it sailed from your home port. 

     Bermuda is a lovely place to visit and you seemed to have gotten so much out of the time you spent there. My DH and I have visited Bermuda thirteen times over the past thirty- five years. It is a a place of very kind,helpful and dignified people.

      Such a contrast to the fellow passengers on the cruise who you reported to have  displayed boorish behavior. At the risk of irking some readers of this thread, I would like to suggest that the demographics you found on this cruise could be a case of you get what you pay for,IMHO.

     In the past, cruising was an expensive vacation that was reserved for people who could well afford such a vacation or saved for a good amount of time for a cruise of a lifetime. I recall seeing notices ,many years ago, in the New York Daily News of people who were going on a cruise. The notice was similar to a wedding  announcement. The description of the person and the cruise they were taking was often accompanied by a photo of the person on the deck of the ship. The 

appearance  of such newspaper notices shows how special a cruise vacation was about fifty years ago.

     Now, cruise fares are such on Carnival, many people can afford the fares. If you compare a seven day cruise on Carnival to other cruise lines, there are very affordable fares,especially for interior cabins and short cruises. The IDGOM individuals that you saw on the cruise are people who are taking advantage of these reasonable fares. Years ago,when fares were more expensive ,these people would have been priced out of such a vacation.

    Also,dress codes have dramatically changed in the last fifteen years or so. In the past, people were expected to come to dinner in a jacket and tie or cocktail dress. Dinner was in the MDR. There were no specialty restaurants and the buffet was not an option for dinner. Formal nights found the majority of passengers dressed in formal wear. Gentlemen wore tuxes or white dinner jackets and black trousers. Ladies wore gowns. Needing such articles of clothing would deter a number of people from considering a cruise vacation because such clothing was not part of their lifestyle.

       I may suggest that you select cruises on Princess or Celebrity. These are our preferred cruislines. People on these cruises generally are affable and well mannered. I have not seen t shirts with tacky sayings or those promoting a certain political or religious view on the cruises that we have taken. Our last being on the Celebrity Summit this past Summer. Generally people respect the dress code for dinner and do not come to the dining room wearing  swimsuit cover-ups or rubber flip flops as you described in your post.

    You may also consider Azarama,Oceana  or Regent for a more up-scale cruise experience. It is your vacation and you should be comfortable not only with the accommodations and amenities offered by the cruise line,but also with the fellow passengers that  are sharing your cruise vacation.

      

Now that the op has your recommendations on which cruise line to sail on,I am sure everyone is relieved.  Funny people here claim that Carnival is often now not the price leader, which makes me wonder why us sludge sail on these ships then.

[jimbo5544]

17 minutes ago, eroller said:

 

 

Quit stalking me and get a life.  Stop trolling the Carnival boards.  You are not the moderator.  

 

Just for you I'm going to start posting a lot more ... on all your favorite Carnival topics!  

I was making note of a review and a post, if do not like my posts ignore them.  You basically call the growing majority who cruises Carnival The sludge of cruising, and that you are moving on, then recant that. I cruise this line that you disparage all the time. I hope your sailing of the Mardi Gras, hopefully on one of my sailings, I feel we have grown so close.😉  Stop calling me names, I stalk no one, I post here all the time on many threads (how about you?) and really prefer not to be attacked.  I do have to say, this is the first time anyone referred to me as a moderator.  I would enjoy the discourse if You post on my posts, obviously that is not a two way feeling though.  

Edited November 5, 2019 by jimbo5544

[jimbo5544]

Op, thanks for the review,, do you know how the medical event turned out?

[eroller]

28 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

I was making note of a review and a post, if do not like my posts ignore them.  You basically call the growing majority who cruises Carnival The sludge of cruising, and that you are moving on, then recant that. I cruise this line that you disparage all the time. I hope your sailing of the Mardi Gras, hopefully on one of my sailings, I feel we have grown so close.😉  Stop calling me names, I stalk no one, I post here all the time on many threads (how about you?) and really prefer not to be attacked.  I do have to say, this is the first time anyone referred to me as a moderator.  I would enjoy the discourse if You post on my posts, obviously that is not a two way feeling though.  

 

 

"the sludge of cruising"?  Your words.  If the shoe fits.  

 

Oh I hope you're on my MG sailing as well.  I will really enjoy that!  

 

Attacked?  Thats a laugh.  You attack anyone that dares to write anything negative about your beloved Carnival.  No we are not disparaging your wife, kids, or family.  It's a company.  It doesn't have feelings and you don't have to come to its rescue any time something negative is said about it.   

 

Refer to you as a moderator?  Hardly.  I wrote you were NOT a moderator.  You could never be one.  You don't have the self control nor are you unbiased.  You are about as far from a moderator as one could get.  

 

I do hope to keep you busy as I plan to frequent the Carnival boards much more often.  It's such fun, just the like Fun Ships!   

[rainbowflag]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, OP. There are jerks everywhere and it sounds like you and your husband were more than up to the challenge and took the high road and didn't roll in the mud with bigots. 

[Theosprey247]

Funny the worst behaved people I’ve ever had the misfortune of encountering was on a Regent cruise.

[purplephenom]

On 11/3/2019 at 6:00 PM, scpirate said:

I've got a cruise on sunshine in February 2021.im pretty much dreading it.but we wanted to cruise out of our HomePort also one time.for me carnival is at the bottom of my list.i had gift cards that needed to get used.anyway did the ship feel crowded? Was the comedy club hard to get into.? It's still a long way off and I have another cruise to prepare for before then.thanks for the review.

 

 

 

I love the sunshine- but yes the comedy clubs are difficult to get into.  I don't even like the comedy clubs and it just bugs me that some seats face the wall, and you get to watch a monitor of the comedian.  If I were you, I'd line up for comedy (people do this, you won't be alone).  Should you have to?  Of course not.  But you really dont want one of the silly facing the wall seats. 

 

I sailed in February, and other than comedy, the ship really didn't feel crowded to me.  We enjoyed hanging out in Ocean Plaza- the Alchemy Bar is right there, as is the Red Frog Pub.  So if either of those places got crowded, you could hang out at Ocean Plaza.  At night, they usually had a band going, and it was pretty low key but they were good. 

 

If you don't want to deal with Lido, deck 5 has some breakfast/lunch buffet options.  Its not everything that's offered, up on Lido, but its significantly less crowded. If you're going to lido, I suggest the Blue Iguana taco salad- you can customize, load it up at Blue Iguana/Guy's toppings bars, and take it somewhere peaceful to eat.

 

I usually love the Serenity area, but i was disappointed on this ship because the top deck or 2 was usually closed due to wind.  We were sailing the Southern Route, so that may have made the difference- you may not experience that. But, if we went up a deck from Lido, we were always able to find chairs, even in the middle of the day.  We sometimes went back by the waterslides too.  A lot of families claim a couple chairs but then go with their kids on the slides/play area so its surprisingly quiet back there. 

 

For shows, people did line up on our cruise, but we found that wasn't really necessary.  If we got there 15 or so minutes before the show started, doors were open, and we could go in, relax with a drink or just talk to people, and wait.  I found the theatre nice and cool, so, at least twice, I used that time for a quick cat nap.

 

The piano bar looks crowded from the door, but when we walked in we were ALWAYS able to find seats without being squished.  I'm not sure if its the layout or the darkness, but if that's your thing, give it a try- it's really not as crowded as it looks. 

 

I don't know if they do the Michael's craft sessions anymore, but these looked crowded.  However, we always found a seat (these happened in Ocean Plaza), and we always had the supplies we needed.  So they were prepared for a large group.  On our particular cruise, they were pleading with people to let kids go first so they could pick the colors they wanted.  I'd say 90% of people respected this, but there's always a few who needed to beat the kids to pick out supplies.  That slowed everything down, but in the end, wasn't a big deal.

 

I'm focusing on crowds, because you mentioned it, but like I said, the ship really didn't feel that crowded to me.  We ate at off peak hours, and started our days fairly early.  I'm sure there are certain times of day where parts of the ship feel crowded, but we were able to avoid them without any extra effort.  My BF might be the most impatient person in the world, and I didn't hear any griping about crowds outside of craft sessions (and I always do if we have to wait), so either we sailed on a lucky week, we did a good job avoiding the crowds, or we were having too much fun for it to matter.

 

 

[peppergal]

Wow, I'm beginning to wonder if this ship is cursed out of Charleston.  I was on the cruise immediately before yours, and there were multiple medical emergencies, including one that required us to return to Amber Cove to deliver the patient to an ambulance. 

[cruzeluver]

Regarding the medical emergency : on Thursday (the day we left Bermuda), we had been sailing for approximately 6 hours when we were informed that we were returning to Bermuda so a passenger could receive urgent medical care. Our CD Mikey stated we would be told the next morning of the impact to our arrival in Charleston. At around 9:30 Friday morning we were told that we expected to be in port Saturday at approximately 4:00PM which did turn out to be the case. A new Fun Times with several activities (mostly trivia and passenger-participation games) were added and food service was provided until just before we docked.

 

Disembarkation was long and slow. We were one of the first groups to be called after "express disembarkation" and were not called till after 6:30. At the port of Charleston, those arriving cannot be allowed in to park until the previous passengers have left, so traffic was gridlocked. Fortunately, we live only about 20 minutes from the port so we were luckier than most.

 

I thought Carnival handled the situation as best they could. Mikey must have made 20 announcements about not waiting on deck three yet the entitled folks continued to ignore him which slowed things down.