5 things to love about the revamped Carnival Sunshine

ABOARD THE CARNIVAL SUNSHINE — Like other cruise lines, industry giant Carnival regularly refreshes its ships every few years in dry dock. But what it did this year to the 17-year-old Carnival Destiny — now renamed Carnival Sunshine — was different.

Originally unveiled in 1996, the 3,006-passenger vessel was taken out of service for several months for an unprecedented, $155 million makeover that saw huge swaths of its public areas gutted and rebuilt — an overhaul so complete that, in many ways, it makes it a whole new ship.

Thinking about giving the newly revamped Sunshine a try? Here, five things to love about it (for a more expanded view of its many features, look for a Cruise Log photo tour coming in the next few weeks):

1. WaterWorks. You don’t have to be a child to appreciate the appeal of this new sprawling water play area — one of the largest at sea. Looming above the rear of the ship, WaterWorks offers three water slides that rival anything found at a land-based resort: The scream-a-minute, 334-foot-long Twister, and dual racing slides that together are called the Speedway Splash. There also is a splash zone aimed at the littlest tots and a 150-gallon “dump bucket” that sends water cascading over a wide area when you least expect it. In short: Prepare to be soaked.

READ MORE: 5 things to love about the revamped Carnival Sunshine

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New Carnival cruise ship, Breeze, to debut this weekend

Industry giant Carnival today took delivery of its newest cruise ship, the 3,690-passenger Carnival Breeze.

Under construction for nearly two years at the Fincantieri shipyard near Trieste, Italy, the 130,000-ton vessel is scheduled to set sail on its maiden voyage on Sunday — a 12-night Mediterranean sailing out of Venice.

With its addition, the line will have 24 ships at sea.

Read More: New Carnival cruise ship, Breeze, to debut this weekend

Carnival Breeze joins the Carnival Cruise Lines fleet

Carnival Cruise Lines got its hands on its newest ship, the Carnival Breeze, in a ceremony at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy.

The 130,000-ton, 3,600-passenger sister ship to the Carnival Magic and Carnival Dream becomes the 24th cruise ship in the line’s fleet. It will now head off on its inaugural cruise from Venice on June 3, sailing Mediterranean itineraries until this fall when it repositions to the Port of Miami.

“Carnival Breeze represents the continued evolution of our product, offering a huge array of branded experiences for our guests and inviting public spaces each with its own personality and character, all enhanced by the spirited fun that makes a Carnival cruise so memorable,” said Gerry Cahill, Carnival president and CEO.

It begins year-round six- and eight-day Caribbean cruises out of Miami beginning Nov. 24, making it the largest Carnival ship to sail out of a South Florida port. The six-day sailings will visit Grand Turk, Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Nassau, The Bahamas. The eight-day sailings will alternate between a southern Caribbean itinerary featuring Grand Turk, La Romana (Dominican Republic), Curacao and Aruba. An eastern Caribbean route will visit St. Thomas/St. John, Antigua, Tortola and Nassau.

Read More and watch virtual tour: Carnival Breeze delivered: New Carnival Cruise Lines ship to make debut

 

 

To plan your trip today:

All About Travel
6104 Northwest 63
Oklahoma City, OK 73132
info [at] allabout-travel.com
405.384.3880

About All About Travel

Opened in 1978, All About Travel is located in the Oklahoma City area.  We are a family owned and operated company that has strived to provide our clients with the highest quality of service for more than 30 years.  Our agents can arrange all your travel needs from the individual hotel and/or car reservation to an around the world cruise.  Nothing is out of reach.

We can help plan your honeymoon, your destination wedding or the much needed getaway for two.  Don’t forget about your business, we can handle all the travel needs for your company as well.  Anything from an airline flight and hotel for a meeting or all the planning needed for your next company-wide seminar.  We can arrange hotel space for all attendees and meeting rooms for all purposes.

Our agents travel to many destinations on FAM trips (Familiarization trips) these trips are designed by tour operators and cruise lines to make certain that travel agents are up-to-date on popular destinations and cruise ships.

So the next time you need to, or better yet, want to travel…Let us help, it’s what we do.

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Carnival: Sea trials for new cruise ship, Breeze, a success

The construction of industry giant Carnival’s next cruise ship passed a major milestone in recent days as the vessel successfully completed sea trials off the coast of Italy.

The 3,690-passenger Carnival Breeze, which will be one of the line’s biggest ships ever when it debuts in June, hurdled a battery of standard tests while sailing under its own power in the Adriatic Sea, the line says. A contingent of officers, technicians and engineers were aboard the vessel.

The 130,000-ton Carnival Breeze has been under construction for nearly two years at the Fincantieri shipyard near Trieste, Italy.

Read MORE: Carnival: Sea trials for new cruise ship, Breeze, a success

 

To plan your trip today:

All About Travel
6104 Northwest 63
Oklahoma City, OK 73132
info [at] allabout-travel.com
405.384.3880

Cruise ship review: Carnival Cruise Lines’ Carnival Spirit

What’s it like to sail on a Carnival ship? USA TODAY’s new cruise review site, VacationCruisesInfo.com, offers a glimpse this week in a new in-depth review of one of the line’s vessels, the Carnival Spirit.

Courtesy Carnival Cruise Lines

At 65 pages, it’s the most extensive appraisal of the 10-year-old Carnival Spirit ever to be posted online, and it includes more than 1,000 photos showing nearly every interior and exterior space of the ship.

Click HERE to go directly to the review, which was written by one of the site’s in-house, anonymous reviewers. As with all VacationCruisesInfo.com reviews, the reviewer traveled on the vessel incognito and at USA TODAY’s expense.

Overall, the reviewer gives the recently refurbished Carnival Spirit high marks, noting it “largely delivers good value for money,” though not everything about the ship drew praise. One complaint: There’s too much of a hard sell.

Read More by Gene Sloan: Cruise ship review: Carnival Cruise Lines’ Carnival Spirit

 

All About Travel
6104 Northwest 63
Oklahoma City, OK 73132
info [at] allabout-travel.com
405.384.3880

About All About Travel

Opened in 1978, All About Travel is located in the Oklahoma City area.  We are a family owned and operated company that has strived to provide our clients with the highest quality of service for more than 30 years.  Our agents can arrange all your travel needs from the individual hotel and/or car reservation to an around the world cruise.  Nothing is out of reach.

We can help plan your honeymoon, your destination wedding or the much needed getaway for two.  Don’t forget about your business, we can handle all the travel needs for your company as well.  Anything from an airline flight and hotel for a meeting or all the planning needed for your next company-wide seminar.  We can arrange hotel space for all attendees and meeting rooms for all purposes.

Our agents travel to many destinations on FAM trips (Familiarization trips) these trips are designed by tour operators and cruise lines to make certain that travel agents are up-to-date on popular destinations and cruise ships.

So the next time you need to, or better yet, want to travel…Let us help, it’s what we do.

• Travel Tidbits – World’s Most Mysterious Destinations

• The Claremont Hotel, Club & Spa – Spa treatment giveaway!

• Making all her dreams come true, yours too with extreme adventure and travel

Carnival unveils first George Lopez comedy club on ship

By Gene Sloan, USA TODAY

Carnival Cruise Lines’ new partnership with comedian George Lopez kicks off today with the opening of a Lopez-branded comedy club on the Carnival Miracle.

By Bill Kostroun, Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Cruise Lines' new partnership with comedian George Lopez kicks off today with the opening of a Lopez-branded comedy club on the Carnival Miracle.

The Punchliner Comedy Club presented by George Lopez, as it’s being called, is a concept that eventually will go fleet-wide as part of the line’s massive “Fun Ship 2.0” overhaul announced late last year.

Carnival announced in October that it had tapped Lopez as its new “curator of comedy” in a partnership that will see the comedian involved in vetting and hiring comedic talent for Carnival ships.

The new Carnival comedy club will offer five 35-minute shows on multiple nights during each voyage, with at least two comedians performing each night. Two early-evening shows will be aimed at families with later performances featuring saltier, adults-only comedy. The shows are accessible to cruisers at no extra charge.

READ MORE: Carnival unveils first George Lopez comedy club on ship

 

To plan your trip today:

All About Travel
6104 Northwest 63
Oklahoma City, OK 73132
info [at] allabout-travel.com
405.384.3880

About All About Travel

Opened in 1978, All About Travel is located in the Oklahoma City area.  We are a family owned and operated company that has strived to provide our clients with the highest quality of service for more than 30 years.  Our agents can arrange all your travel needs from the individual hotel and/or car reservation to an around the world cruise.  Nothing is out of reach.

We can help plan your honeymoon, your destination wedding or the much needed getaway for two.  Don’t forget about your business, we can handle all the travel needs for your company as well.  Anything from an airline flight and hotel for a meeting or all the planning needed for your next company-wide seminar.  We can arrange hotel space for all attendees and meeting rooms for all purposes.

Our agents travel to many destinations on FAM trips (Familiarization trips) these trips are designed by tour operators and cruise lines to make certain that travel agents are up-to-date on popular destinations and cruise ships.

So the next time you need to, or better yet, want to travel…Let us help, it’s what we do.

• Travel Tidbits – World’s Most Mysterious Destinations

• The Claremont Hotel, Club & Spa – Spa treatment giveaway!

• Making all her dreams come true, yours too with extreme adventure and travel

Carnival Cruise Line’s New Smoking Policy

To My Valued Partners,

Based on feedback from our travel partners and our guests, we have now changed our on board smoking policies. Please read important details below and refer to the attached letter…

ON BOARD POLICY CHANGE: SMOKING
As part of our ongoing commitment to keep in line with the personal preferences of our guests, we will be changing the smoking policy across our 23-ship fleet. The feedback received from recent surveys indicated the overwhelming majority of our guests prefer a smoke-free environment. In fact, nearly 90 percent of our guests are non-smokers, with only less than five percent opting to smoke in their staterooms.

Our new smoking policy will align our ships with most other contemporary cruise operators. Two of our sister lines, Holland America and Princess, have recently announced new smoking policies very similar to Carnival’s.

Decisions like these are never easy and we realize this change may impact some of our guests. However, we sincerely hope this won’t affect their ability to have a fun and memorable cruise vacation. In fact, we are hopeful guests will see this as an enhancement to their on board experience and have an even better time sailing with us. Carnival is committed to providing a clean and healthy environment for all our guests.

Booking confirmations, edocs, booked guest emails and our web sites will also be updated to reflect this policy change.

The new smoking policy will be rolled out in two stages:

• Effective June 15, 2011, cigarette smoking in public venues will only be permitted in Carnival’s dance clubs as well as in designated areas within the casino and casino bar.

Smoking (including cigars) will be permitted in designated exterior open deck areas (port side) of all our ships. Additionally, smoking will also be allowed in the jazz clubs of the following ships: Carnival Destiny, Carnival Triumph, Carnival Victory, Carnival Spirit, Carnival Pride, Carnival Legend, Carnival Miracle, Carnival Conquest, Carnival Glory, Carnival Valor, Carnival Liberty, Carnival Freedom, Carnival Dream, and Carnival Splendor.

• Effective December 1, 2011, smoking will be prohibited in all guest staterooms. Guests in balcony staterooms may smoke (including cigars) outside on their balcony. However, Spa suites and staterooms, inclusive of the balconies, will remain an entirely smoke-free environment.

Guests who smoke in their staterooms will be assessed a $250 cleaning and refreshing fee on their Sail & Sign account. Information on this fee is included in Carnival’s ticket contract.

Please make sure you share with your Carnival guests.

Thank you!

Marci Neu
Business Development Director
Carnival Cruise Lines