A cruise ship bathroom is unlikely to be the highlight of your vacation. However, a disappointing stateroom experience can certainly be the lowlight of your cruise.
Regardless of which stateroom category you book, whether a cheap inside cabin or a luxurious suite, you’ll have a full private bathroom in your cabin. Of course, the more expensive cabins and suites will have the nicest and most spacious bathrooms. Some suites even have more than one bathroom!
However, the smallest cabins will have everything you need for a comfortable cruise. Although bathrooms on cruise ships are compact, most are well-designed to maximize the small space. A cabin’s private bathroom will always include a shower, toilet, sink, and mirror. Some cabins might include a bathtub, but these are most likely to be found in suites.
Older cruise ships tend to have the worst cabin bathrooms in terms of size and design. It’s not uncommon to find cabins with tiny, capsule showers and clingy shower curtains. With barely enough room to navigate, these older cruise ship bathrooms are usually nothing to write home about.
Comparatively, newer cruise ships have focused on improving the cabin bathroom experience with better design and more space. You’ll have more space to shower without worrying about the curtain clinging to your skin. For example, Carnival’s newest Excel Class ships have completely redesigned their bathrooms to be modern and functional with more allocated space.
Nevertheless, during my last cruise onboard Carnival Sunshine, I encountered the worst bathroom I’ve ever had on a cruise ship. My sister and I booked the cheapest stateroom available for our cruise, which was an inside guarantee cabin. The bathroom in our cabin was the biggest disappointment during our 4-night sailing to the Bahamas.
My sister and I were shocked by the lack of maintenance and overall poor design of the cabin’s bathroom. With a rancid smell and a shower that flooded the entire bathroom floor, we found ourselves actually avoiding the bathroom in our stateroom!
Cabin overview
In recent years, my sister and I have sailed on five Carnival cruises together. We always have a fantastic time onboard these lively cruise ships - even when the fun becomes a little rowdy! Our most recent cruises have been onboard Carnival Jubilee, Mardi Gras, and Carnival Celebration - the three newest ships in the cruise line’s fleet.
Looking for a quick getaway, my sister and I booked this 4-night cruise on Carnival Sunshine a few months prior. We had never cruised from Charleston, South Carolina before. Additionally, we wanted to see what it was like sailing on Carnival’s oldest ship.
Carnival Sunshine was built in 1996 and sailed as Carnival Destiny before undergoing one of the cruise industry’s biggest renovations in history. We had actually cruised on Carnival Destiny with our parents about 12 years ago, so this was a full-circle moment to be back onboard.
Read more: I spent $425 per night to sail in the cheapest cabin on Carnival's oldest ship
Age is simply a number, especially if a cruise ship is well-maintained and received amplification with more modern amenities. I’ve sailed on many of the industry’s oldest ships, so I thought I had realistic expectations for what this cruise would be like.
Unfortunately, our cabin and its bathroom were among the worst I’ve ever experienced on a cruise ship. We spent $1,700 to sail in this stateroom, and it wasn’t worthwhile given the stateroom’s condition.
My sister and I were randomly assigned to cabin 6314 because we had booked a guaranteed cabin. This means we would not get to select the specific cabin we would sail in. Instead, Carnival Cruise Line would assign us a stateroom as the sailing date approached. This can be a great way to save money, but you might be left with an undesirable cabin.
To our surprise, this stateroom was an accessible cabin, as the room was designed to accommodate someone with a mobility disability. I should note that we did not request or need an accessibility cabin; this was assigned to us. As such, we had never stayed in a cabin designed this way.
This cabin was designed as an Ambulatory Accessible Stateroom, according to Carnival’s website. These cabins are meant to be used by guests who do not require the regular use of a wheelchair or scooter, instead relying on the use of assistive devices (like a cane or walker). Ambulatory Accessible Staterooms also provide other accessible features like grab bars to assist with balance. The entryway is also larger to accommodate mobile assistive devices.
Overall, the cabin was comfortable with two beds, a vanity, two closets, and a TV. However, the stateroom was extremely noisy. The cabin shared a wall directly with the Deck 6 elevators, creating loud thuds and clanks throughout the day and night. However, the bathroom was even worse than the cabin’s location.
Bad first impressions
After we spent nearly two hours in the heat at the cruise terminal during embarkation, we were eager to get settled into our home away from home for the next four nights. We made our way to our stateroom on Deck 6 with our luggage in tow.
Upon entering the stateroom, we sat our bags down and looked around the cabin. The stateroom was very plain in terms of design with outdated decor, but that did not bother us. However, nothing could have prepared us for the cabin’s bathroom.
After opening the door to the bathroom, we were hit immediately by a foul smell. The bathroom reeked, overtaking the stateroom with this rancid stench. It filled the air of the entire stateroom. Truly, it stunk to high heaven!
Looking around, we tried to find what was causing the smell to be so horrid. Instead, we found evidence of poor maintenance by the cruise line with loads of rust and gunk in the crevasses of the bathroom. The amount of work this bathroom needs is far beyond what's expected of the cabin steward, in my opinion.
The bathroom had some unique features, such as assistive grab bars near the toilet and shower. The sink area was bright blue, accented by the mute blue tile on the floor - this was certainly a reminder of the ship’s age. You only see these color designs on older ships, as most modern cruise ships have designed bathrooms to be white with more subdued accents.
Overall, the design of the bathroom reminded me of a hospital with a cold and unwelcome ambiance. I am not necessarily looking for a cruise ship bathroom to feel like home, but this one resembled a public restroom.
The smell was unfortunate, as the bathroom was actually quite spacious for a ship of this age. To accommodate a guest with mobility disabilities, the bathroom was designed larger than a standard cabin. With this, the bathroom was probably double the size of other inside cabins on Carnival Sunshine.
As you might imagine, our first impressions of the cabin fell flat given the unwelcome scent from the bathroom. I hoped that my nose would grow accustomed to the bathroom’s smell, allowing us to not notice the stench as much.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. The bathroom’s smell continued for most of the cruise. There did appear to be some improvement on the final day of the cruise after our cabin steward serviced the room. There was a stronger smell of bleach, which perhaps masked the rancid smell for the time being.
Flooded bathroom floor
The bathroom’s smell was bad enough to cultivate a disappointing stateroom experience for us on Carnival Sunshine. However, the experience only deteriorated as time went on. The shower in the bathroom itself was large and featured a dingy shower curtain. Because we were assigned an ambulatory cabin, our shower also featured a fold-down chair for those who need mobility assistance.
Before using the shower, I had my suspicions that the water would get all over the bathroom floor. Without any sort of lip in the shower floor, it would be hard to contain the shower water, especially with a shower curtain.
Read more: Is the tap water safe to drink on a cruise ship?
As suspected, the bathroom floor was completely flooded after using the shower just one time. I used my foot to collect water around the floor, attempting to aid the draining process. Although there were two strips of drains, it simply wasn’t enough.
I warned my sister to be careful because the shower might flood, hoping that a little bit of effort could mitigate the flooding. Unfortunately, nothing could control the flooding when the shower was in use.
While we hoped the water would eventually drain, this didn’t seem to be the case. During the first night, the water was still covering the bathroom floor. Our feet would slosh through the cold shower water anytime we needed to use the bathroom. After the first evening, we started to use our towels to wipe up the residual water so the floor could hopefully dry throughout the night.
Not to mention, the drains were covered in rust and surrounded by other darkly-colored gunk. The drains were in dire need of replacement and appeared to show the cabin’s age more than anything.
I can only imagine the mold that could probably be found under our bathroom floor due to the poor drainage system. Although we didn’t see any mold, I would bet there was mold somewhere in this cabin. Considering the humidity of cruising to the Bahamas and the amount of moisture in this cabin, you’re just asking for a mold problem.
Avoiding the bathroom
Considering the smell, ambiance, and flooding situation, my sister and I actively avoided using the bathroom in our cabin. Typically, this is a space where you can freshen up after a long day in the sun, at the pool, or lounging on a sandy beach. Instead, we would dread having to go back and use the shower, knowing it would result in a flooded floor and necessary cleanup.
I never truly felt clean while using this bathroom, which was a real shame. Even after we used all of the towels to clean up the flooded floor, the bathroom tile still felt cold and wet throughout the night. You could feel the sloshing between your toes anytime you would need to use the bathroom.
Read more: Woman in viral TikTok cleans every inch of her cabin before her cruise begins
Because my sister and I both travel with hanging cosmetic organizers, we didn’t feel the need to unpack our belongings in the bathroom shelving. Each side of the sink had two shelves for storage, but they remained empty during our cruise.
This was the only storage available in the bathroom, which was surprising. Typically, even older cruise ship bathrooms have storage under the sink.
However, we didn’t want to risk our cosmetics falling onto the gross floor of the bathroom if we encountered rough seas. Because of this, we both kept our belongings hanging on the back of the door.
Normally, I don’t mind sailing on an older ship as long as the vessel is well-maintained. I was surprised by the poor condition of our bathroom considering many of the public areas on Carnival Sunshine seemed to be in fairly good condition
Compared to other old cabins we’ve sailed in, our bathroom experience on Carnival Sunshine was the worst we’ve ever had on a cruise. From the awful smell to the flooded floor, the unfortunate experience was extremely disappointing.
My sister and I agreed this cabin needed maintenance beyond what our cabin steward could do during his daily cleaning service. I would argue that our steward did the best he could by trying to keep this bathroom clean, as the lack of maintenance was the true problem. The cabin steward was simply putting lipstick on a pig!
In the end, I'm not sure how to prevent something like this from happening again. Booking a guaranteed cabin always has its risks, and choosing your cabin location can prevent getting an undesirable location. Had we paid extra to choose our room, we would not have picked this cabin due to its proximity to the elevators. But, unless you can find reviews from someone who stayed in your exact cabin, you could still end up with a terrible cabin bathroom.
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.
