Before every cruise, I try to set realistic expectations of what to expect during my sailing. Having realistic expectations ensures that I usually do not leave my vacation feeling disappointed. Each cruise will be undoubtedly different depending on the itinerary, ship, and cruise line. No two cruises are ever the same!
For instance, sailing on the oldest ship in Carnival’s fleet for a weekend getaway is vastly different than my previous cruise this summer on Celebrity Apex, a new ship from a premium cruise line. While Carnival Cruise Line is known for having lively crowds with young cruisers, Celebrity Cruises is more tame, upscale, and refined. Moreover, cruising to the Bahamas over the weekend will attract a very different crowd than a Norwegian fjord cruise.
Recently, my sister and I flew to Charleston, South Carolina to board Carnival Sunshine, which is the oldest vessel in Carnival’s fleet. Debuting in 1996, the 28-year-old cruise ship has an interesting history.
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When Carnival Sunshine was first built, she was originally named Carnival Destiny as the first ship in Carnival’s Destiny Class. The ship was revolutionary at the time, as she was the first cruise ship to measure over 100,000 gross tons. Carnival Destiny was actually the world’s largest passenger vessel for a few years.
In 2013, Carnival Destiny underwent a multimillion-dollar refurbishment during a 49-day dry dock. The original Carnival Destiny was gutted and nearly demolished to the hull. With an almost blank canvas, Carnival Cruise Line rebuilt most public spaces onboard during this massive transformation. More dining and bar options were added, along with more staterooms and redesigned cabins.
The transformation was so extensive that Carnival Destiny received a brand-new name: Carnival Sunshine. It was considered one of the biggest refurbishments in the cruise industry at the time. Since 2013, few changes to the ship have been made other than basic maintenance and a new paint scheme a few years ago.
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With the retirement of Carnival Ecstasy back in 2022, Carnival Sunshine is now technically the oldest ship for the cruise line. Even with her unbelievable makeover, the bones of Carnival Sunshine are just as old as mine! After cruising on Carnival’s newest Excel Class ships recently, I was eager to compare these experiences with Carnival’s oldest ship.
I’m no stranger to old and small ships, as I’ve cruised on plenty of ships that are anywhere from 20 to 30 years old. Although new ships are packed with top-of-the-line attractions and amenities, I can appreciate the more traditional style of cruising offered on older ships.
However, I found my expectations for sailing on Carnival’s oldest ship this summer fell short of my preconceived notions. Unfortunately, not everything went as planned on our 4-night cruise to the Bahamas. Here are five things that I wasn’t prepared for when sailing on Carnival Sunshine.
1. Long embarkation in the heat
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Although my sister and I have cruised extensively, neither of us had ever cruised from Charleston. Coming from Florida, we flew into Charleston the night before our cruise, spending the night at a nearby airport hotel. We were well-rested and ready to board our ship the following morning!
We made our way to the cruise port for embarkation, which was around 20 minutes from our hotel. We left our hotel around noon and didn’t step onboard Carnival Sunshine until 2:30pm. Nothing could have prepared me for this embarkation process!
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First, our Uber driver was directed to drop us off in a nearby parking lot. After walking through the parking lot in the heat and dreadful humidity, we joined the first of many lines. We weaved around the outside of a tent before making our way into the tent itself. More lines awaited in the stuffy, hot tent. Even with fans running, it was miserable as we waited to board.
Eventually, we made our way to the front of the line to have our bags sniffed and inspected for drugs by police dogs. Every person in the boarding line had to place their luggage in a straight line to be sniffed. Once all the luggage was placed on the floor, the drug-sniffing dog ran up and down looking for drugs. Because this was intensive, it took quite some time to sniff everyone's bags.
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Following this ordeal, we were shuffled into another tent for the boarding process. We were not entirely sure why there was a tent-within-a-tent. There was a little bit of air conditioning in here, but it wasn’t enough for most of us. At this point, we had already been at the terminal for well over an hour. At this point, I began to regret my decision to not eat anything for breakfast. We also had emptied our water bottles, too.
Unfortunately, my online check-in did not register on the cruise line's end, so we had to wait even longer in this line to get it sorted out. As if the process couldn’t be worse, everyone had to board coach busses or shuttles to be transported from the parking lot tent to the cruise ship.
Read more: What not to bring on a Carnival cruise
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Once we arrived closer to the ship, we had to wait in one more line. Everyone had to go through the typical security scanners and bag checks. This felt like it would never end!
Finally, we could board the ship after about two hours of line shuffling and standing in the heat. My sister and I were both hot, tired, and hungry by this point. It was one of the worst embarkation experiences I’ve ever had - and certainly not the best start to a cruise!
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Since we had never cruised from Charleston before, my sister and I were worried that disembarkation would take just as long. Luckily, disembarkation was more efficient and less painful at the end of the cruise. We were able to walk right off the ship and into the ride-share pickup area before heading to the airport.
2. Noisy cabin
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After the terrible boarding experience in the heat, we were eager to drop off our luggage in the stateroom and grab some food for lunch.
For this cruise, we wanted to save money and decided to book the cheapest cabin available, which was an interior guarantee. Because of this, we did not get to select the location of our cabin and were randomly assigned a stateroom close to the sailing.
We were assigned to cabin 6314 - an accessible stateroom located on Deck 6. My sister and I have stayed in dozens of interior cabins on cruise ships, so we anticipated the cabin would be outdated.
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Although we were initially excited for a mid-ship location, the cabin was one of our least favorite parts of this cruise. While we didn’t expect a pristine, modern-looking stateroom, we were not prepared for this bad experience.
Much to our surprise, our cabin shared a wall with the elevator shaft. All night, we could hear thumping and clunking as the elevator went up and down. I'm not sure why the cruise line would place a cabin next to an elevator shaft. No amount of white noise could drown out the deep thudding of the elevator.
Sadly, this kept us awake for most of the night during the cruise. I was half-tempted to ask for a different cabin, as it was nearly impossible to sleep comfortably.
Read more: I spent $425 per night to sail in the cheapest cabin on Carnival's oldest ship
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If the elevator wasn’t noisy enough, the hallway outside our cabin amplified the ruckus even more. Other guests were yelling while running up and down our deck.
It seemed to be noisy in the hallway regardless of the time. I was surprised by the lack of consideration from other guests, especially in the early morning hours. It was so noisy that I would have guessed people were standing inside our stateroom talking.
I normally feel rested after a cruise vacation, but that was not the case this time. I also love to sleep in during my cruises and usually take an afternoon nap. Unfortunately, I was not prepared to feel sleep-deprived on my cruise vacation. Between the cabin’s thin walls and an especially noisy crowd onboard, we hardly slept during our cruise.
3. Unpleasant smells
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It is not uncommon for cruise ships to have strange smells every once in a while. I typically don’t bat an eye at the occasional stench on a cruise ship. However, Carnival Sunshine had some of the worst smells of any cruise ship I’ve been on - including our own cabin bathroom!
We noticed almost immediately that our stateroom's bathroom had a horrid smell coming from it. The smell was overpowering, almost to the point where we avoided using the bathroom altogether. I’ve never had a bathroom smell this bad on a cruise ship before, even when the cabin steward had cleaned it.
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I would bet there was mold somewhere in the cabin, as our shower would flood the bathroom floor every time we used it. The shower curtain did very little to contain the shower water. This forced us to clean up the standing water with towels each evening. Otherwise, the water wouldn’t drain properly and our bathroom floor would stay wet.
Other areas of the ship were very stinky too, especially at the poolside entrance of the Lido Marketplace. As you walked through the buffet toward the pool deck, the unpleasant smell would start to get stronger. I couldn't stand this horrible smell. It was so bad that other people were posting on our sailing's Facebook group, so I know I wasn't alone!
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I’m not exactly sure what this rancid smell was, but it was almost unbearable. Unfortunately, one of the few ice cream machines onboard was located in this area as well. Because of this, we hardly ever had the urge to make ourselves an ice cream cone.
Finally, there was a terrible smell near the Alchemy Bar onboard the ship as well. We would find a table for trivia in Ocean Plaza near the bar only to get an unwanted waft of something stinky. The bad smells were certainly distracting during our cruise, and I wasn’t prepared for the constant battle to hold my breath.
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In the end, these unpleasant smells were a turnoff during our cruise. These experiences made us question the overall maintenance and condition of Carnival Sunshine, especially considering her age. I have never been on a ship quite as stinky as Carnival Sunshine!
4. Inconsistent food
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Indulging in delicious food is one of my favorite aspects of cruising with Carnival Cruise Line. In my opinion, Carnival has some of the best food in the industry with its quick, casual eateries onboard. I never feel the need to splurge on specialty dining on a Carnival cruise. Moreover, I have always been impressed with the dining options available even on the cruise line’s oldest ships.
However, our food experience on Carnival Sunshine was very inconsistent. For example, my sister and I tried out the pasta bar for lunch after boarding. We both placed our individual orders, but only my sister received her order and the restaurant was closing! The servers luckily made my order, albeit not exactly what I requested. The bread also didn’t taste right, and I never turn down bread!
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There were a few other instances throughout the cruise where the food quality was inconsistent. For example, the chicken cordon bleu was dry in the Main Dining Room, and the ranch dressing tasted sour at Guy’s Burger Joint. We also tried the stir fry bar at JiJi’s Asian Kitchen but found it lacked flavor.
SeaDay Brunch is another favorite of ours when cruising with Carnival. My sister and I dream of the 12-hour French toast, topped with a peach compote. We were so bummed that the French toast was not the same, and it was no longer advertised as being soaked for 12 hours! While it was still tasty, it certainly wasn’t the much-awaited French toast we were looking forward to.
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Finally, the ice cream from the self-serve machine tasted off. This was a big disappointment for both of us, as we love the self-serve ice cream onboard Carnival cruises. Normally, the ice cream on Carnival is perfect - but not this time.
Overall, the food was still very good, but not as consistent as prior experiences. For instance, Guy’s Burger Joint was one of the highlights, and The Ringer burger was one of the best I’ve had at sea. Of course, I was pleased to find Carnival’s signature chocolate melting cake was baked perfectly each evening!
5. High price
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Cruising continues to be one of the most affordable ways to vacation, even as prices have continued to rise with soaring demand in recent years. My sister and I cruised on Carnival Ecstasy back in August 2022 on a 4-night cruise to Cozumel and back. The last-minute sailing was only $600 for both of us to sail on Carnival’s oldest ship at the time.
I was shocked to see the price of this 4-night cruise was more than double what we paid two years ago. This 4-night sailing on Carnival Sunshine was $1,700 for two people, including gratuities, taxes, and port fees. In fact, this is actually closer to triple the cost of what we paid two summers ago!
Between airfare and hotel costs, my sister and I spent close to $2,360 total for this entire cruise. Considering this was the oldest ship in Carnival’s fleet on a less-than-stellar itinerary, I would consider the price to be too high. However, this sailing was completely sold out, so clearly demand is driving up costs for weekend Carnival cruises.
Read more: Why Carnival's cruise prices keep rising
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Once onboard, my sister and I refrained from spending any additional money because the cost of the cruise was so high. Because we both work remotely, we had to purchase the premium internet package, which was $100 each.
Other than the internet, we did not spend any money onboard Carnival Sunshine during our cruise. Not one drink was purchased during our cruise! I also cut back on specialty coffee, instead opting for the free drip coffees.
