Last weekend, I set sail onboard Carnival Cruise Line’s oldest cruise ship, Carnival Sunshine. Although my last three cruises had been onboard Carnival’s newest Excel Class ships, I wanted to see what it was really like to sail on the cruise line’s oldest ship.
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Two years ago, I sailed on the oldest and smallest ship in the fleet at the time, which was Carnival Ecstasy. The 31-year-old cruise ship was built in 1991, making her one of the oldest passenger ships sailing for any mainstream cruise line.
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Sailing from Mobile, Alabama, this cruise on Carnival Ecstasy was more fun than I expected. That sailing was dirt cheap at $600 for two people in an interior cabin. After this positive experience, I thought I had realistic expectations for sailing on Carnival Sunshine.
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Formerly known as Carnival Destiny, this 28-year-old Carnival Sunshine ship has quite the history. When she first debuted for Carnival Cruise Line in 1996, she was the biggest cruise vessel in the world. Carnival Destiny was also the first cruise ship to exceed 100,000 gross tons - a monumental feat.
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In 2013, Carnival Destiny underwent a massive $155 million renovation. At the time, the cruise line said it was the most ambitious ship conversion to date. During the refit, Carnival Destiny was expanded and significantly remodeled before being renamed Carnival Sunshine.
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While the ship has lived many lives over the last 28 years, she currently holds the title of Carnival’s oldest ship. Compared to the newest mega ships, Carnival Sunshine still represents a more traditional era of cruising.
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For this cruise, my sister and I paid around $1,700 for a 4-night sailing aboard Carnival Sunshine. This is around $425 per night and included pre-paid gratuities, taxes, and port fees.
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I was surprised by the cost of this cruise, as Carnival Cruise Line typically has some of the cheapest sailings in the cruise industry. However, we booked this cruise two months before sailing and demand must have been high.
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My sister and I flew to Charleston, South Carolina to board Carnival Sunshine for our 4-night cruise to the Bahamas and back.
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We booked an interior guarantee cabin for this sailing, meaning we wouldn’t get to select the location of our stateroom. We typically book guarantee cabins to save money, and it's not unusual to receive a less desirable stateroom because of this.
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For this cruise, we were assigned an accessible cabin on Deck 6 of Carnival Sunshine. Although we did not request or need an accessible cabin, we were randomly assigned cabin 6314.
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After a 2-hour boarding debacle, we made our way to the stateroom to drop off our luggage. We were disappointed to smell the obvious use of drugs in the hallway, especially after every bag was drug sniffed during the boarding process. Marijuana is strictly forbidden on any cruise ship under federal law, but that doesn't seem to stop some cruisers.
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Because this cabin was an accessible stateroom, it had some non-standard features. For example, we noticed right away that the door was much wider than a typical stateroom door. This allows those in wheelchairs to enter and exit the stateroom without issue.
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Our cabin configuration was also notably different than other interior staterooms we’ve stayed in. Instead of entering on the far end of the cabin, the door was placed perpendicular to the long side of the stateroom.
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In this way, it was more of an “L” shape. When walking into the cabin, you would turn left to find the beds. On the right of the entrance was the large bathroom. Each wall had its own closet while one side of the stateroom had the vanity.
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We requested the beds to be split rather than a king configuration. My sister and I each had our own twin bed essentially. While I prefer to have the beds together, my sister will not compromise. I don’t mind the twin beds, but I find the bed more comfortable and less cramped in the king configuration.
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On the first night of our cruise, I quickly realized our room was extremely noisy. In fact, it might be the noisiest cabin I've ever had on any cruise ship. Throughout the night, I could hear loud bangs and thuds.
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Even with my white noise playing from my sound machine and my cell phone, I could still hear the thumping all night. To say I was seething would be an understatement. I was finally able to fall asleep with white noise playing through my wireless headphones (which only worked until they died at 3am).
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The following morning, I went to investigate the loud noises when I realized our cabin shared a wall with the elevator shaft. The elevator was running up and down all night, leading the wall to shake.
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Although Deck 6 was a great location on Carnival Sunshine, I was half-tempted to request a different cabin because of the noise. Unfortunately, our cruise was completely sold out so there would likely not be an option.
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Instead, my sister and I switched beds on the second night since she is a deeper sleeper than I am. This definitely helped with the noise, although the cabin was still noisy in the evening from the elevator.
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Vacation is meant to be relaxing and rejuvenating, so feeling sleepy all day was frustrating. The hallways were also noisy during our cruise, with many drunk cruisers and loud kids running up and down the halls.
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Even still, the beds were quite comfortable. My sister and I both noted how the mattresses were not too firm or soft - if only we could get some peace and quiet to actually sleep!
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We also noticed our cabin did not have a nightstand for us to use, which is unusual. It was odd to see an empty space between our beds. I have never been in a cruise cabin without a nightstand!
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Luckily, we noticed an unused side table under the vanity that we moved near our beds. We utilized this as our nightstand for the remainder of the cruise, and it was perfectly sufficient.
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Each bed also had its own personal light to use, along with light switches that controlled the cabin.
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Our accessible cabin also featured emergency buttons - I was afraid of accidentally pushing these! I was also bummed these lights did not have any USB ports to use for charging devices.
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In fact, the cabin had very few outlets to use. When we first entered the cabin, we only saw one main outlet on the vanity, which was a European outlet being used to run the cooling fridge. We were thankful that my sister packed a European adapter with USB outlets.
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We were convinced the cabin must have more outlets but struggled to find other places to charge devices.
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Eventually, we discovered two additional US outlets behind the large phone on the vanity. This cabin phone was possibly the largest I’ve ever seen in a cruise cabin!
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This cabin’s vanity was large, featuring a mirror, television, and three drawers for storage. The vanity lacked any sort of chair or ottoman, which was a disappointment.
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Most cabins have some sort of additional seating, whether this is a couch, loveseat, or chair. It’s rare to not be provided with anything!
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I received a complimentary bottle of water for my gold loyalty status with Carnival. I appreciated having this large bottle of water, and I enjoyed it in our stateroom throughout the cruise.
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In terms of storage, this cabin had plenty, especially for a 4-night cruise. The top drawer is where we found the hair dryer, which is typically provided in cruise cabins. My sister used these drawers to comfortably unpack for the cruise.
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Along with the drawers, our cabin had two full closets for storage - one with drawers and one with hangers.
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As always, I used packing cubes to save space in my suitcase and easily unpack into the closet’s shelves. This closet was more limited in space because of the life jackets and safe taking up room.
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One of the worst aspects of our cabin was the bathroom. Of course, the bathroom showed the ship’s age with dated design and functionality. This bathroom felt more like a nasty public restroom than a comfortable cruise bathroom.
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Immediately upon entry, we could smell a very rancid stench coming from the bathroom. The unwelcome smell made us hesitant to use the bathroom. Although the bathroom didn’t seem dirty per se, it felt poorly maintained by the cruise line.
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The frustration with our bathroom continued when using the shower. Although it was a large shower, there was not any sort of lip on the bathroom floor to control the water flow.
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I realize this was designed to be accessible, but the drainage system was insufficient. After each shower, the floor of the bathroom would be soaked for hours - even with drains.
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We would have to use multiple towels each evening to soak up the shower water. Our feet would squish through the cold, damp water throughout the night. Even if we tried to contain the shower water, it still seemed to flood the bathroom.
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Speaking of the drains, these were rusted excessively with major corrosion. It looks like the cruise line has given this bathroom very little attention in terms of maintenance. The unsightly drains were off-putting, to say the least.
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The perk of the bathroom was its size, as it was designed for accessibility purposes to accommodate a wheelchair. Otherwise, older ships like Carnival Sunshine normally have tiny bathrooms.
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I also appreciate how Carnival Cruise Line provides body wash and shampoo in their cabins. In comparison, Royal Caribbean only provides a hybrid product in standard cabins. Even still, I always pack my own shampoo and conditioner while using the provided body wash when cruising.
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Storage in the bathroom was minimal, although the shelves were clean during our sailing. My sister and I opted to use our hanging cosmetic organizers instead of storing products in the bathroom. Again, we wanted to avoid using the stinky bathroom as much as possible.
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Although your cabin bathroom is certainly not a highlight of cruising, I would argue it could still be a lowlight. We dreaded having to use this bathroom because of the bad smell and the wet floor from showering.
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Finally, I was impressed with the cabin’s air conditioning. I had read online that many others struggled to keep their staterooms cool, especially in the evening while sleeping. However, our room stayed fairly cool throughout the sailing.
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There was a temperature control screen that we were eager to use, as it seemed particularly high-tech for this stateroom. Alas, the screen never worked or turned on.
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We tried to insert a cabin card to see if that would activate the control - to no avail. At least the temperature was set as cool as it could go, although I am not sure the purpose of this screen is supposed to work to simply have a static, black screen.
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Carnival Sunshine's overall condition was more impressive than I anticipated. However, our bad cabin experience left so much to be desired. Moreover, the price was quite high considering this was Carnival's oldest ship on a 4-night sailing.
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Without updating and maintaining these cabins, I won't be planning a future cruise on Carnival Sunshine. Ultimately, not sleeping for four nights is not my idea of an ideal vacation!
Allie Hubers
Allie Hubers has been cruising since she was a tiny toddler. What started as a yearly vacation with family quickly turned into a passion for travel, cruising and adventure. Allie's been on over 45 cruises all over the world. She even studied abroad on Semester at Sea, sailing the world on a ship while taking courses for college and visiting 4 continents.
