Carnival Sunrise Review
4.0 / 5.0
SupernovaEyes
2-5 Cruises • Age 30s
Rating by category
Cabin
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Value for Money
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Additional details
Sail Date: Dec 2023
Cabin: Interior
We chose this cruise for the price (which was cheap) and the ports (Grand Turk, Nassau, and Half Moon Cay), and the fact it was a 5 night cruise- anything less than 5 nights tends to feel like a booze cruise to us. The last cruise that we were on was Carnival Freedom, which is very similar to this ship. We had an amazing time on this ship, not a lot of complaints. We will say that the service at the Main Dining Room on the Carnival Freedom was much better - on the Carnival Sunrise, while the staff was exceptionally friendly, they seemed to forget one of our parties meals almost every night, and even at breakfast on debarkation day. The breakfast in the MDR was amazing, though, would do again. After eating meals at the main dining rooms we rarely ate at the buffet! Everything was amazing and most enjoyable, surprisingly, was the soup! Every single soup we ordered was amazing. Highly recommend. I would say that I prefer the layout of the Carnival Freedom much better then the Sunrise- the comedy club appeared to be extremely difficult to remember how to get to- and was very small and therefore very crowded. You had to walk through the side of the casino near the bar and go downstairs to get to it. You had to stand in line to get into the comedy club, and it got full the night we tried to go in. The other thing is that the comedy club and the nightclub are the same venue, so unlike the Carnival Freedom it felt like the nightclub didn't start getting going until almost midnight every night because it didn't begin as a nightclub until 11pm, since they were clearing out the chairs from it being a comedy club. The ladies I cruised with didn't seem to mind the layout of this ship, but I was not fond of it. We went to the gym every day, and the gym on this ship appeared to be smaller than the Carnival Freedom as well. Additionally, in the Carnival Freedom we would go to the sauna every day after the gym and did so for free, but in the Carnival Sunrise they wanted $142 per person in order to use the dry sauna/wet sauna, etc, which was unfortunate. We didn't actually make it to any of the shows- but we went to the comedy club one night, which was fine. There was one comedian that appeared to be more popular than the other one- and we were unable to get in to see the more popular comedian. We would love to go on another Carnival cruise in the near future- we appear to like going the first week of December every year- it seems to be less crowded- less children on board!
Cabin Review
Interior
Our group of girls don't spend a ton of time in the cabin so we don't mind getting an inside cabin. Our cabin was perfect for our needs- two girls in their 30's. The bathroom was good size, and the bedroom was fine as well. The refrigerator was not a full size mini fridge- it was only deep enough to keep cool a bottle of wine, and a few cans of sparkling water, side by side. Our room steward, Sunny, was AMAZING. She is from Ukraine and told us that she won employee of the month while we were there- which is absolutely deserved! She was able to provide us with anything and everything that we could possibly need while we were there, and was by far the friendliest employee on the ship. I hope we see her on another ship one day. I will say that on Carnival ships our room stewards have been one of the absolute highlights of our trips with that cruise line.
Port Reviews
Grand Turk
Had been to this port last year, went on a catamaran excursion. This year we did not plan an excursion and we spent time laying on beach chairs on the beach and then hanging out in the pool at Margaritaville. The beach is nice but it has large rocks that blend in with the sand - our friend broke her toe on one of the rocks because she did not see it. Margaritaville was nice but it was BUSY. As soon as the second ship pulled into port all of the chairs were taken. I think I was asked 10 times if I wanted my hair braided- there were a bunch of tents on the beach with people selling hair braiding, glass boat photos with drones, parasailing, etc. It was a fine port, but it was very busy.
Half Moon Cay
Had never been to Half Moon Cay. Did not have any excursions planned. Our plan was to lay on the beach and be lazy with some drinks, and that's just what we did. The fact that it is a tender port is still somewhat obnoxious, waiting for the boat to take you to the beach- we did not get to the beach until 11am or so since we were in group 24. They served a complimentary lunch on the beach and it was nice- the jerk chicken was fabulous. Drinks were expensive- $16 for a Pina colada in a plastic cup- $14 for a refill. It was fine- need to get there early in order to get a chair- they went really fast. We got up to go into the water and watched someone steal one of our chairs- so make sure you guard them as well!
Nassau
Last time I was in Nassau was 2006- it is quite a bit more built up since that time! We went to the Swimming with the Pigs excursion, so we did not spend much time at the actual Nassau port. The excursion was fabulous- would definitely recommend. It was nice to have a bit of time at a more secluded island. Nassau itself was extremely busy- our ship was one of 6 docked in port at the time- so there were people everywhere. Went to the straw market- also very busy, but the prices were good- every single vendor had about the exact same items- was able to haggle prices.
Miami
Spent the night before in Miami - loved it- but it was extremely expensive! We had dinner at American Social and it was AMAZING, but very expensive- then hit up some of the clubs around the area including Rosa Sky, The Dirty Rabbit, Pilos Tequila Garden, and Brick. We partied a bit hard the night before. FYI- hotels in Miami right next to port were very expensive as well, we found one for $300 per night and that was about the cheapest we could find.
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