My mom has always said, “If you can’t have fun on a cruise, there’s something wrong with you!” Even when a vacation isn’t perfect, I can usually find the positives amidst the few hiccups. But after 47 cruises, I found myself counting down the days until disembarkation.
Sailing on Carnival Sunshine - the oldest ship in Carnival Cruise Line's fleet - was one of the worst cruises I’ve taken, unfortunately. There is nothing worse than spending time and money on a vacation that falls short of your expectations. While we made the most of the situation, the hot, noisy, and crowded cruise ship isn’t one that I will be booking again.
Carnival Sunshine is almost 30 years old, as she was originally built in 1996. Age isn't everything, though. There are plenty of old cruise ships that sail for many of the major cruise lines. When Carnival Sunshine first set sail, she was named Carnival Destiny and held the coveted title of biggest passenger cruise ship in the world. She was also the first ship to measure more than 100,000 gross tons. At the time, Carnival Destiny was the latest and greatest in terms of innovation and ship design.
In 2013, Carnival Destiny underwent one of the biggest renovations in cruise history, costing $155 million. The ship was basically gutted down to its hull for refurbishment. The retrofit was part of Carnival Cruise Line’s 2.0 Fun Initiative, which looked to enhance the customer’s cruising experience with expanded dining, entertainment, and onboard activities. During the process, 182 cabins were added to the ship, along with a new reconfigured layout, expanded decks, and a new partial deck addition.
Over the years, I’ve sailed on many of the oldest ships in the industry. This includes some of the oldest ships from Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian Cruise Line. I won’t scoff at an old ship if the itinerary is a good fit, and I am certainly not a cruise snob. In fact, I just booked a cruise to India for next year on Celebrity Cruises’ oldest ship, Celebrity Millennium!
For this cruise, my sister and I were looking to book a quick getaway vacation at the end of July. We have been wanting to sail from Charleston, South Carolina for many years, so we were excited to see Carnival Sunshine sailing from here. If we wanted to cruise from Charleston, we would need to do it soon; cruises are scheduled to stop by the end of the year.
Additionally, my sister and I sailed on Carnival Destiny with our parents in 2011 for a spring break cruise. We thought it would be special to set sail on the same ship more than one decade later to see how it compared to our prior experience and before refurbishment.
Looking to have a fun sister weekend, we booked a 4-night cruise to Nassau, Bahamas for the end of the month. The weekend sailing was pricey at $1,700 for an interior guarantee stateroom. However, this was the only time we could cruise together before the end of the summer. Presumably, the sailing was in high demand considering this inflated price!
Our vacation might have been doomed from the start, as we struggled to arrive in Charleston as scheduled due to the global IT outage that impacted the airlines. Luckily, we arrived at our port of embarkation the night before after scrambling to find new flights at the last minute.
Read more: The costly cruising mistake newbies make planning their first cruise
I was hoping this would be the most stressful part of our vacation, but our cruise continued to go downhill. Although I thought I had realistic expectations for what to expect on Carnival Sunshine, many aspects of the cruise left us disappointed and frustrated. Here’s why I won’t be sailing on Carnival’s oldest ship again.
After arriving at the port in Charleston, embarkation took nearly two hours in the heat
Typically, boarding a cruise ship is a streamlined process of checking documents, going through security, and confirming your reservation. Embarkation can take as little as 20 minutes at some ports, in my experience! However, this embarkation experience in Charleston was unorganized and chaotic.
Upon arriving at the terminal in Charleston, we found a long line that extended outside the building into the parking lot. After making our way inside, we discovered more lines weaving around a hot, stuffy tent. The large fans couldn’t circulate enough air to keep us all comfortable.
Read more: The extra step you should take so you aren't delayed getting onboard a Carnival cruise
Our bags were eventually investigated by drug-sniffing dogs before moving into another line for documentation checks. The drug sniffing took the most time, as every bag was investigated by a police dog. We were then shuffled into a tent-within-a-tent, which appeared to have barely functioning air conditioning. Everyone was sweating and tried - the tension in the hot air could be cut with a butter knife!
Also, my online check-in for this cruise somehow failed, so I had to meet with one of the supervisors in another waiting area. After confirming my documentation and reservation, my sister and I were moved to the shuttle area. We boarded a rundown shuttle that transported us to yet another line to wait in. Here, we completed more security checks before finally boarding the cruise.
It was the worst embarkation I’ve ever experienced, likely because the city has no incentive to invest in a better boarding process with the suspension of cruises in the coming months. Even still, I would be turned off from cruising altogether if this was my first and only embarkation experience!
Once we were finally onboard, my sister and I made our way to our stateroom to cool down, but our cabin was just as disappointing as embarkation
Although embarkation was terrible, I was ready to put that experience behind me and enjoy the remainder of the cruise. Because we didn’t want to spend too much money on this vacation, we booked the cheapest cabin available.
Instead of selecting our specific cabin, we booked a guaranteed interior stateroom. Because of this, we wouldn't get to select the cabin. It's definitely a gamble! You might end up with a great cabin or be left disappointed - the latter is most likely, in my recent experiences.
As the sailing date approached, Carnival Cruise Line assigned us to cabin 6314, which is located on Deck 6. To our surprise, this was classified as an ambulatory accessibility cabin.
This accessible cabin was designed to accommodate a guest with limited mobility, providing extra grab rails and space for an assistive walker or cane. My sister and I did not request an accessible stateroom, so we were surprised to be assigned this cabin.
The cabin itself was fine, nothing about the decor or design left a lasting impression. A little wear and tear on an old ship, along with an outdated design, doesn’t bother us. As long as the cabin is clean and comfortable, that’s all that matters.
In fact, an outdated cabin is what we expected from a 30-year-old cruise ship. When Carnival Sunshine received her massive refurbishment in 2013, staterooms were revamped to include more modern decor. However, further enhancements have been minor for staterooms since 2013.
However, the worst aspect of our cabin was the bathroom. First, we were greeted by an overwhelmingly foul smell. The rancid stench couldn’t be ignored, even if we wanted to. The source of the smell could never be pinpointed, yet it continued to linger.
Although we hoped for the smell to subside, this didn’t seem to be the case. For the remainder of the cruise, our bathroom had a horrid smell that deterred us from wanting to even use the restroom altogether.
That was just the start of our issues with this bathroom, as the shower would flood the floor anytime it was used. While the bathroom itself was quite large, the drainage system did little to nothing to drain the shower water. The clingy shower curtain hardly contained the running water from the shower, leading to a flooded floor each evening.
The bathroom floor remained flooded throughout the first evening, requiring us to use all the towels to clean up the shower water. Even after cleanup, the floor was cold and wet until the cabin steward serviced the room.
Moreover, the ship was extremely noisy throughout the sailing, including in our cabin
During the first night, we realized our cabin would not be a quiet place to retreat to. Throughout the evening, we were kept awake by loud thuds and clanks. At first, I wasn’t sure where the noises could be coming from. Even with wearing earplugs and blasting white noise, the loud thuds would rattle the wall my bed was nestled against.
No one wants to go on vacation and struggle to sleep for four nights! I was so frustrated that I was nearly brought to tears, contemplating if I should ask for a different cabin. The following morning, I discovered what all the ruckus was: the elevator.
Upon further inspection of the deck plans, it appeared our cabin shared a wall with one of the elevator shafts. Our stateroom faced perpendicular to other staterooms surrounding us, aligning perfectly with the elevator. Anytime the elevator would go up or down, we could feel the wall shake and hear the clanks.
Read more: 5 things I was unprepared for when sailing on Carnival's oldest ship
The noise didn’t stop there, as our cabin’s location seemed to welcome the noise from other guests running and yelling up and down the hallway. The noise was so loud, you could have assumed these people were literally in our cabin with us. Into the late hours of the night, people were screaming and running.
Even more, this sailing was filled with cruisers ready to celebrate and have a good time. I’m all about having fun on a cruise, especially when cruising with Carnival! However, this meant our hallway was especially noisy with an extra lively crowd onboard. The crowd was so lively that a fight broke out on the last night of the cruise, which was recorded and posted to social media!
Our sailing on Carnival Sunshine was sold out, leading to big crowds and long lines
When my sister and I sailed on Carnival Sunshine back in 2011, she was still known as Carnival Destiny with her original design. We were reminiscing about that cruise, and one of the few things we both remembered was waiting in long lines everywhere on the ship!
This cruise was sailing at capacity with nearly 3,000 guests onboard. This wasn’t my first time sailing on a cruise that was near capacity; however, older ships are not designed as well to accommodate large crowds. Because of this, we encountered more long lines than we were hoping! At least these lines were not as long as we remembered.
For instance, Carnival added multiple new restaurants throughout the ship that helped spread out passengers. This alleviated some of the crowding in popular areas like the pool deck and Lido Marketplace buffet.
Regardless, we encountered long lines for most of the popular events and restaurants. I avoided Cucina del Capitano for pizza and the panini sandwich shop in the buffet because the line was usually out the door. Luckily, there wasn’t any shortage of food on this cruise, and rest assured I did not go hungry!
The pool deck and adults-only Serenity were also crowded during both sea days. Even if we wanted to go for a dip in the pool, the number of people cramming into the pool area was unappealing to us.
In the evenings, we found long lines for the dining room if you didn’t eat right at 5:30pm when the restaurant opened. As such, most evenings we planned for an early dinner and witnessed the long line of guests trying to get a table around 7pm while leaving.
The Punchliner Comedy Club was also crowded most evenings with long entry lines. I think the cruise line should have moved the comedy shows into the larger theatre, as the small Limelight Lounge was always packed in the evenings for shows.
To our surprise, the shows in the main theatre were never packed! Normally, these shows require you to arrive 30 minutes early to snag a spot. This was unexpected considering how busy the ship was. Perhaps most guests were not interested in the entertainment like we were.
While we did have fun on this cruise, the negatives are enough to deter us from booking this ship again
Not everything on Carnival Sunshine was subpar, such as some of the dining options, activities, and entertainment. While the food was more inconsistent than I’ve experienced on other Carnival cruises, the majority of our meals were very good.
We found the main dining room to have quick service and mostly tasty offerings - except for SeaDay Brunch, which had slow service and hit-or-miss entrees. Guy’s Burger Joint and BlueIguana Cantina were both excellent with fast service and delicious food options.
As with most Carnival cruises, the Lido Marketplace buffet left us disappointed with the lack of variety. Even though the buffet was expanded during the refurbishment, the food stations continued to serve the same meals.
Furthermore, my sister and I really enjoyed all of the entertainment and activities offered aboard Carnival Sunshine.
The main Playlist Production show was Epic Rock, which was one of the best shows I’ve seen on Carnival’s smaller ships. The entire audience was singing along, with some even standing up and dancing like a concert!
Also, activities were plentiful onboard and we enjoyed gatherings like SpongeBob Squarepants trivia and Taylor Swift trivia. There was always something happening onboard it seemed. We ran out of time to try everything available on Carnival Sunshine! For an older ship, she had so much to do for entertainment and activities that it would be hard to get bored.
However, it was hard to enjoy much of the cruise because I was so tired from not sleeping due to the location of our cabin. It’s hard to seize the day when you’re kept up all night with the sound of an elevator shaft. I wasn't able to nap either, as the elevator runs all day and night on a cruise.
Of course, we could blame ourselves because we were too cheap to book anything other than a guaranteed cabin, but I would argue that cruise lines shouldn’t place cabins that share a wall with an elevator!
Finally, the terrible bathroom in our cabin was disappointing. Having to clean up the standing water each evening from the shower was frustrating and the rancid smell was very off-putting. Overall, the bathroom’s condition was the worst we’ve ever experienced on a cruise ship.
Read more: Pros and cons of sailing on an older Carnival cruise ship
In the end, I wouldn’t spend my money to sail again on Carnival Sunshine because the experience was too inconsistent. This won’t be my last Carnival cruise, as I’ve had many other positive experiences with the cruise line. However, I will probably prioritize sailing on newer ships unless I get a killer deal for one of Carnival’s older and smaller ships.
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.
