Carnival Sunshine: Family Activities – Fun for All! #sunshineportcanaveral

by Carrie with Children with 18 comments

My girls are three and five years old and I thought it would be years before we took them on their first cruise. But when, Carnival Cruise Lines invited us to sail on Carnival Sunshine’s inaugural voyage from Port Canaveral, Florida – I just knew we had to go.

Carnival Sunshine Family Activities
In the days leading up to our trip, I was a little nervous about whether there would be toddler activities – and boy, did Carnival prove me wrong! The ENTIRE ship was toddler-friendly and my girls had a blast! (I’ll share the scoop on the awesome Camp Carnival soon in a separate post!)

Carnival Sunshine Playground

Here are just a sampling of activities you can enjoy with your family on the Carnival Sunshine –

SportSquare – You don’t want to miss seeing this fantastic, suspended ropes course 150 feet above the seas. My girls loved playing Twister and mini-golf. Maggie likes to think she’s a pro-mini golfer and there’s no better place to play than on the 10th floor of a cruise ship! In SportSquare, we also found tons of families playing fooseball, basketball and even outdoor chess!

Carnival Sunshine SportSquare

Hasbro, The Game Show – This is the one event I wished we had been able to squeeze in during our trip. It’s a live game show with larger-than-life adaptations of Hasbro’s popular games and participants are chosen from the audience. An oversized Yahtzee game? Yes, please!

Carnival Sunshine Hasbro Game Yahtzee Resized
Dive-in movies –  Maggie was literally speechless when she noticed Gru from Despicable Me 2 was the dive-in movie of the night. She couldn’t believe that we were outside watching a movie – on a cruise ship. Talk about best of all worlds – she was in heaven.

WaterWorks – The squeals of excitement coming from WaterWorks was contagious! The 334-foot-long Twister water slide – the longest in the fleet – was the highlight, there is a height restriction of 42inches. For the little ones,  my girls loved the smaller slides and splash areas for toddlers. Beware of the splash bucket that dumps out water!

Waterworks Carnival Sunshine
Sweet Treats – The Shake Spot served up great milkshakes (including spiked ones for parents!) and SeaDogs near SportSquare served up tasty hot dogs. Of course, there’s always soft-serve ice cream and yogurt available on the Lido deck too – 24 hours a day! Inside, Cherry on Top was the ship’s candy store – the selection of gummy treats was overwhelming (in a great way) and there were plenty of treats to bring home as gifts too.

This is just a small sampling of the activities families can experience on the Sunshine Carnival. In the coming weeks, I’m going to share even more about our cruise – dining, kids club amenities and even our shore excurision in Freeport, Bahamas. I’ve got all the scoop – stay tuned!

What activity would your family like to experience? 

 

** My family and I were invited guests of Carnival Cruise Lines. Thoughts and opinions here are 100% my own. ** 

    Comments

  • Carrie This Home


    I have young kids too so it’s nice to see that bringing a toddler on a cruise ship is possible! Looks like you guys had a blast!

    • Carrie with Children


      Oh Carrie, it is definitely possible! We had an absolute blast on our trip – my girls are ready to go again!

  • Lauren (Lolo)


    This looks like a total blast! My son would love the Mr. Potato Head and water slides!!

    • Carrie with Children


      That Mr. Potato Head was too cute – he greeted kids as they arrived at Camp Carnival! So much fun!

  • diane


    Ok, my kids would LOVE that water park area. Looks like they have a ton of fun ways to keep kids busy…would definitely love to experience that!

    • Carrie with Children


      My kids were in heaven – they couldn’t decide what to do first each day. Kids loved the waterslide, but the adults did too! 🙂

  • Shelby Barone


    What a fun way to travel with kids. I have never taken a cruise, and can’t wait to experience it for the first time with my kiddos.

    • Carrie with Children


      It was a really great experience. I hope you have the opportunity to sail with your kids soon!

  • Jennifer Chidester


    We’ve been researching cruises for summer and that looks like a blast! I’d never get my boys off the water slides!

    • Carrie with Children


      You should give Carnival a try, we were really impressed with all of their amenities and activities – including the water slide

  • Chrysa


    Wow! What a bunch of fun activities to choose from! That water slide look super super fun!

    • Carrie with Children


      We had such a fun time, just wish we had more time to experience it all! Thanks for reading, Chrysa!

  • cori


    Wow, this looks like a lot of fun! I’m counting down to my cruise early next year!!

    • Carrie with Children


      Thanks, Cori! I hope you have a great time on your cruise!

  • Candy Cook


    Wow! So Cool. My boys have been wanting to go on a cruise so I’m soaking up all the info. Thanks for sharing.

    • Carrie with Children


      Thanks for reading, Candy! Let me know if you have questions or need help!

  • Melissa


    Oh my goodness, so much to do! I love how family friendly it is.

    • Carrie with Children


      It was SO much fun! The girls were in heaven!