Carnival Sunshine hasn’t had it easy recently, with a technical issue impacting one cruise and a heavy listing impacting another. Hopefully, the ship, which is operated by Carnival Cruise Line, will not encounter any more surprises. All this after the ship just recently completed a 2-week dry dock.
Mechanical Issue
It all started when the Carnival Cruise Ship suffered from a mechanical problem on the October 21 sailing from Port Canaveral, Florida. During a scheduled port of call in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the ship stayed beyond her 4:00 PM departure due to an unspecified mechanical or technical problem.
As a result, guests onboard were informed by the captain that because of the delayed departure from San Juan, the call in Grand Turk would no longer go ahead. Carnival Sunshine was expected to sail to the popular cruise destination on October 26 so this didn’t go down too well with passengers.
The problem was eventually fixed by engineers onboard, but the itinerary was still affected. The ship headed back towards her homeport in Florida. At least guests on the next sailing wouldn’t be impacted by the same problem – however, something else came up!
Also Read: A Simple Guide on Carnival Ships by Size
Heavy Listing
Carnival Sunshine departed Port Canaveral on her October 28 sailing, putting all the port cancellations and delayed departure from San Juan behind her. Unfortunately, passengers were surprised on the evening of October 28 with a heavy listing.
The ship suddenly leaned over to one side, causing alarm and shock for many passengers. There was some minor damage to things like plates and other items falling from shelves and racks.
The captain ended up sending out a letter to guests stating what happened and apologizing. Another technical issue was an electrical switchboard malfunction. The problem then impacted the use of the ship stabilizers, which help reduce rocking in bad weather.
The 5-night cruise, which is currently happening now, was not impacted, and the scheduled port of calls at Amber Cove today and then Grand Turk tomorrow are going ahead as normal.
And So…
Carnival Sunshine is not the perfect ship and there have recently been posts on social media mentioning various issues. After a major 2-week dry dock, which was completed on October 20, there will be questions as to why these issues occurred.
Carnival Cruise Line has kept everyone updated and provided compensation for both sailings. For the October 28 sailing, guests were given a $50 of onboard credit added to the Sail & Sign account due to the listing on the first evening of the cruise vacation.
Recently, it has been full of cruise ship problems, starting with Carnival Victory’s technical difficulties last week. Navigator of the Seas also had to divert to port for an urgent fix in Vigo, Spain. Just yesterday a Celebrity cruise ship broke free from her moorings in Italy.
Carnival Sunshine is a 102,800 gross-ton ship with a guest capacity of over 3,000. The next sailing will last for 8-nights and depart Port Canaveral on November 2, let’s hope all goes well.
