Review of NCL Sun Dec 11-19 (Pretty Long)

Yes, I have been known to ramble....

Name: Nancy Zupancic

Age: 35

Occupation: Systems Analyst

Number of Cruises: 15 (4th cruise on NCL)

This was a pre-Christmas family trip we decided last July to book it. We thought this would be an excellent way for us to get away on vacation and also have family time. We agreed we would go on the cruise as a Christmas gift to ourselves and not have a gift exchange. There were eight people in my family group and we have all previously sailed on NCL.

I am not a fan of the freestyle atmosphere, I do prefer more traditional cruising. Since we had such a diverse group of people we felt this might be the best way to go. In regards to mealtime, my brother does not like to dress up and we had no idea what time would be best for my nephew to eat etc, so freestyle it was.

To give you some background the family group is made up of my brother Mark, his wife Cathy and 11 year old son Nicholas. My two sisters Paula and Lisa, and the two gems of the clan, my mother, Claire and her sister, Mary. My father passed away a few years ago and he got us started in a long cruising career in 1984. We all felt him there in spirit. I think he somehow leads us to those great itineraries. The western Caribbean was especially of interest to me because I love to scuba dive and of course, these are all diving ports.

PRE-CRUISE

TORONTO TO MIAMI THURSDAY, DECEMBER 09, 2004

If there is one piece of advice I could give anyone, it would be to ‘stay pre and post cruise’. If at all possible, this has always been the best decision we have ever done. We used to embark the same day we flew in and left right after the cruise and we always felt so tired and rushed. Doing the pre and post cruise stay just adds enough time to extend the cruise and make it so much more enjoyable. So we made this 7 day cruise a 10 day by staying in Miami.

I love Miami! It has a lot to offer. If you didn’t stay pre or post cruise you would miss out on a beautiful port city. It is so diverse, you can go to the beach, experience the nightlife of South Beach, walk around downtown, or even go to the everglades.

Again, since we have a diverse group of all ages, we decided to stay centrally downtown at the Miami Hyatt Regency. We all liked the location because it had a lot of options for things to do.

We left Thursday afternoon from Toronto and arrived at the Miami airport just around 6pm. We decided to eat at the BK right there at the airport so we could get to the hotel and relax. We were aware to not take too long to get to the baggage carousel so our bags wouldn’t be left unattended.

When we got to the carousel there was an NCL counter right there, so you can ask them about tours when in Miami or how much/how long it takes to get to the various hotels or the pier. We found this very handy. He told us it would be $25 to go to the Hyatt per car and for 8 people with luggage we would need 3 cars. So we were looking at $75 for our group. It is 8 miles from the airport to the Hyatt, you can find directions on the Miami Hyatt website.

At the baggage carousel all the claimed bags had been picked up by their owners, some of ours were lying around – and some weren’t! We noticed some were still outside on the conveyor belt. We quickly went over to the lost luggage counter to ask them to start up the belt. By absolute chance we came in contact with this wonderful porter, his name escapes me. He got the belt started, got his big cart and loaded the luggage on. He then said he knew a great driver we had to call him but we could all fit on the same bus. We liked this idea and he said he would help us contact him. We loved the fact we could all go together in the same bus. So we wanted to wait for him to come pick us up vs. taking the available transportation.

We spoke to the porter he told us of a bunch of things we could enjoy while in town and then Edgar arrived with the bus. We thanked the porter for helping us with the bags as well as the new contact. We gave him his payment and we were on our way to the Hyatt. This is one of the things I just love about traveling is the variety of people who come into your life. Some not so good and others that really make you to feel good about the human race again.

Edgar Herrera of FLORIDA TRANSTOURS really made our stay in Miami extra special. He offers tours and transportation for groups of 6 to 26 or more. He did everything for us and he was really reliable. He gave us his cell phone number in case he was held up or in if we wanted to change our plans. He always arrived with a smile on his face.

He picked us up at Miami international Airport and took us to the Hyatt. We also arranged for him to pick us up and take us to the pier after our pre cruise stay. Then he picked us up from the pier after the cruise and took us on a tour of the Everglades and then back to the hotel. At the very end of our stay he picked us up once again and took us back to the airport. You can see where meeting him really streamlined our stay.

He speaks multiple languages Spanish, Italian, French, German and eloquent English. He will organize any tour you are interested in whether it is to the Everglades, a driving tour of the Miami neighborhoods or on a boat cruise of the waterways. We really liked him and we loved the fact our family had our own private bus when we otherwise would have been split up in different cars. His rates we very reasonable and not only were we together but it even turned out to be cheaper to go with Edgar than it would have to take separate cabs to our destinations.

Florida Trans Tours

http://www.floridatranstours.com.

E-Mail ftt@floridatranstours.com

Phone 786-423-8560

Miami Hyatt Regency

400 South East Second Avenue

Miami, Florida, USA. 33131-2197

Telephone: +1 305 358 1234

http://www.hyatt.com

The staff at the hotel was very friendly. I don’t have many negatives other than it was really busy. We expected this because it is attached to the convention centre and the hotel has 612 rooms. You must plan check out and getting your luggage downstairs accordingly. There was this woman absolutely freaking out at the elevators because it was taking so much time to get the bags downstairs. I don’t know who she thought she was ragging at because none of us cared she was late. This is a real pet peeve of mine, that people call the bell desk 10 minutes before the bus leaves and think they are the only ones that are checking out.

It was the ship hotel for both Carnival and Royal Caribbean. While we were there on the weekdays there was also a huge conference. Keep this in mind when making your decisions, it is not quiet nor quaint. It is a downtown location with downtown noise. The staff is great and it is very convenient.

I saw some complaints regarding the rooms on previous posts and I thought they were very comparable to a hotel that size and the price they are charged at. We stayed pre and post cruise at the Hyatt so we stayed in two separate locations of the hotel. Most rooms if not all the rooms have balconies, which I really liked. We had a room overlooking the convention center, the huge Bank of America tower and the front of the hotel the first time. The second time we had a view of the pool, the Miami river and way in behind we could even see some ships in port. Obviously the higher the floor the better. We requested a higher floor both stays but it seems the non-smoking rooms are on the lower floors so you must ask accordingly. If it were up to me I would have put up with the smell of hotel room stale smoke for a great view. Of course, this is not up to me since many of my family members have allergies to smoke. I felt the staff tried to accommodate our requests of a nice view and all of us being on the same floor together. The room configuration with the king size bed was really nice, we had three in our room so we had to have two double beds.

One of the most convenient thing I felt was the ability of the Metro Mover public transportation system. It had three main routes (that I noticed), the Omni, Brickell and the Inner loop that serves most of the downtown core and we used it all the time. It was free and the inner loop operated 24 hours a day. We took it a few stops to the Bayside Marketplace the station was called ‘College/Bayside’. We also used it for getting out for meals and shopping. There was a station beside the Clarion Suites & hotel adjacent to the Hyatt and there was a station across the street from the Hyatt in the Knight Center. The Hyatt was connected to this station you didn’t have to go outside. Between the Bayfront Park station and the 1st Street station there was a Walgreens across the street from a Marshalls in an area of Little Havana that offered a lot of small cafes and cheaper food alternatives that looked great. Just out front of the Bayfront Park station there was ‘Ross’ and a City Bank with an ATM. I think the Metro Mover might have been my nephew’s favorite part of Miami. We were always in a group so we were quite comfortable using it, but after 11pm I may have been a bit more cautious. We did find that most of the ‘tourist area’ stations had uniformed security or police visible. I must add they were a really great bunch as well. So we weren’t too concerned. If we were coming home from a Nightclub later on in the wee hours I would take a cab.

The Intercontinental, the Hyatt Regency and the Clarion Suites were all hotels I saw right on the Metro Mover line. The Sheraton was across the river from the Hyatt could also be handy to the MM.

The Bayside Marketplace was a worthwhile stop for some casual shopping and eating. One side is more the casual chains such as Sketchers, Foot Locker, The Gap, Guess, Bath & Body Works and the Sharper Image and similar. The other end was more like a stationary market that sold souvenirs and costume jewelry. In the middle there was Hooters, Bubba Gump’s, Hard Rock Café and a food court. We went to Bubba Gump’s and it was enjoyable and reasonably priced. The appetizers were large enough to be meal and there was something for everyone. The following dishes were enjoyed by my family; penne and seafood pasta, the ‘bucket of trash’, calamari, there was an appetizer that you could get either with chicken or shrimp that came with a mango salsa that was fabulous! The Caesar and the ‘Run Forrest Run’ salads were really good as well.

EMBARKATION

Edgar picked us up at the hotel and we embarked on Saturday about noon and it was very painless. Miami may be the largest cruise ship port in the world but they have a lot of infrastructure and everything down to a science. The other ships in port with us were the Carnival Triumph, Voyageur Of The Seas, Navigator Of The Seas.

CONFISCATION OF ALCOHOL

Yes they will take your alcohol when boarding the ship. You may go pick it up on the last day of cruise. We aren’t big drinkers but we do like to enjoy our time away. I like to have drink at the pool and wine with dinner, of course, this is purchased from the cruise line. The other thing I like is to have Bailey’s on the balcony either with my morning coffee or after a shore excursion or sail away. In the pre-cruise documentation they do say no alcohol is allowed on board and I had had prior warning from the CC boards. Every cruise line I have been on notes this in the documentation yet none of them seems to act on it. We figured we would take our chances and take the Bailey’s. Yes, they took it right away. And we felt like children at summer camp more than adults going on a cruise. They claim they do this to control the intake of liquor on board which is an absolute falsity! I saw more drunk people on this cruise than any of my prior 14 cruises. They just want you to buy the alcohol from them and this is fine – just admit it. On Royal Caribbean & Celebrity you may buy bottles of liquor to be consumed in the staterooms on board and NCL should do this. I have read on the CC boards (which I wish I had read before I left) that you can pre-order a bar set up for your room. I love this idea. In fact I don’t mind buying the liquor from NCL, I actually find it bothersome to drag it with us in our carry on bags. I would just wish they would mention this in the documentation and not pretend it is to control the drinking on board. The number you can use to NCL to order your bar set up is 1-866-625-1159 - they will charge your card about a week before you sail. I got this from the very helpful CC boards after I already was back home, so I cannot comment on it. But I will be using it in the future as I think it is an excellent idea.

DISEMBARKATION

NCL has this idea of freestyle disembarkation. I didn’t find anything freestyle about it. Yes, you could choose the time you wanted to leave of the choices available, if, there were any tags left. They will give out as many colored tags as you need for the time slot you choose, this can be nice except for the fact that once the tags are gone, so is the timeslot. So others are out of luck. Go early and get the time slot you need but only take the number of tags you need.

Once we were outside the pier area and we were waiting for Edgar in our pre-arranged spot. I looked down and on the ground blowing at the curb was a computer report of every passenger name, country of nationality, stateroom number, PASSPORT NUMBER for our sailing. There it was all our information and everyone else’s blowing in the wind. I was livid!! My sister marched it over to the security to inquire why of our information was lying around. You could tell the head of security was surprised when my sister produced it. She had the audacity to blame it on the porters saying they need to match the passenger names to the staterooms. I felt this excuse was garbage. How dare she pin it on them and secondly, why do they need a report with our full names, nationality and passport number. They make us give that to them and promise they have secure measures then I find this!! Then the woman tried to make light of it and said she has to give her social security number to doctors for insurance purposes, I’m from Canada and we certainly do not do that. But I’m sure the doctor’s you must give it to keep it secure.

THE SHIP

The ship was wonderful and had a good layout. The décor wasn’t flashy and not overdone just beautiful. I can’t even think of anything that would be negative, everything regarding the ship was positive. The kids Korner and kiddie pool I thought was pretty cool, NCL certainly caters to kids and the needs of your kids.

We had two cabins with balconies on the 8th deck and one ocean view room on the 5th deck. They rooms we had were all the generally the same. The rooms were very well laid out I found it a bit too cozy for three but it was functional. Obviously, I just packed too much!

I found we could always find a chair at the pool. They seemed to keep the ‘chair hogs’ at bay. They mentioned you could not keep a lounge chair saved for more than 20 minutes unoccupied and after that you could remove the belongings or they would be removed. I never even saw others removing people’s belongings because there seemed to be somewhere to sit. This was the first time I felt there was enough chairs especially on a Caribbean cruise.

Of course, there is never enough time. I didn’t get a chance to check out more of the ship’s offerings or enough of the specialty restaurants or the shows and activities. I only made one show and it was very good. The Jean Ann Ryan Company always does an excellent job.

RESTAURANTS & FOOD

Overall the food served was very good. I found that there was a lot of choices offered and I could always find something of interest. I also found they tried to add a little extra than the regular North American fare such as selections from India and other parts of Asia and the Caribbean. They had an Indian station at the buffet that many people seemed to be enjoying.

Generally I avoid buffets, even at home I don’t really enjoy them. If I feel the area is well taken care of I am comfortable with the offerings. Usually the problem I have is selecting the correct portions and take options that are healthier vs. what I want to eat. NCL provided hand sanitizers around the buffet areas and there seemed to be staff manning many of the areas and it was very appetizing. I had no problem with the cleanliness of the buffet areas. I only ate at the Garden Café once, right after embarkation and the selections were good. Sometimes for a late lunch after getting back from the shore excursions we ate at the Great Outdoor Café and they had great snacks, hot dogs, burgers and NCL really makes good pizza.

We usually went to the Seven Seas Restaurant vs. the Four Seasons mainly because it was closer to our rooms and we also felt it was less busy. The notable servers we had were Servette and Jennifer in the Seven Seas and Crispin in the Four Seasons.

As I mentioned before at breakfast lunch and dinner there were many choices much more than on Princess. Another thing I liked was that they offered cappuccino, espresso and a selection of great teas. All of these tasted excellent. It’s the little touches I like such as they bring a full pot of tea when you order tea, not a cup with a bag or those horrible metal containers that spill when you pour. I also love that they offer cappuccino and that they sprinkle cinnamon or chocolate on the top. When Princess started charging for espresso and when you order earl grey or china black tea you got regular orange pekoe but not on NCL and I really liked it.

I didn’t get to try as many specialty restaurants as I would have liked. I read some poor reviews of the Pacific Heights on the boards before I left but I would have tried them anyway. The décor was very subtle and I thought very comfortable looking and enjoyable. I heard good things of Il Adagio. Las Ramblas looked wonderful and I love the idea of tapas. We always intended on going and never got up there. The week flew by very fast.

Ginza, the Japanese restaurant on board with the cook tables and sushi bar also looked great. The night we went to Le Bistro we checked out Las Ramblas, East Meets West and Ginza and I would have like to have gone to them all. They were not busy at all so even if you think you should make a reservation and haven’t try to get in anyway. They were taking people just walking in. I think Le Bistro needs a reservation, it seems very busy throughout the night we were there. This was hands down our favorite meal on the trip and well worth it. The menu in Le Bistro is very similar to the formal night menu but it seems to be served and presented 'the way it should be'. Treat yourself and get the lobster. Other excellent items were escargot, caesar salad, the spinach salad was even better and of course, the chocolate fondue. My mom’s favorite was the sea bass. She said it was melt in your mouth and the sauce complemented it well.

I want to make this clear for the specialty restaurants you need to make reservations. However, if you didn’t make them and feel like trying them out, with the exception of perhaps Le Bistro, the specialty restaurants were not as busy as I would have expected. We were onboard the week before Christmas and the ship was full. Give these restaurants a try!

We usually enjoy room service for breakfasts on days we are in port as well as for snacks or late lunches after coming in from port. NCL was consistently on time and food was excellent. If you ordered room service from the breakfast menus the night before they always made a wake up call when it was on the way and it was consistently on time. The sandwiches and pizza were really good. For breakfast we usually had coffee, orange juice, melon. Bagels were not on the menu but I asked for one each time and they brought it I also really liked the muffins they had.

GRAND CAYMAN, CAYMAN ISLANDS MONDAY, DECEMBER 13TH 2004

480 Miles south east of Miami. ARRIVE-ANCHOR 8AM TO 3PM

We arrived at 8am and the other ships in port with us were Carnival Imagination, Carnival Inspiration, Splendour OT Seas & Veendam. The day was pleasant at 80 degrees and partly cloudy. All the scuba diving was cancelled. The excursions through the ship as well as anything through the dive shops. Nobody was quite sure why, it didn’t look that bad. I guess there may have been a heavy surge or something.

In the main town of Georgetown, there was not much visible damage from hurricane Ivan. They had a sign at that said “Ivan has gone but we are still here”. That made me a little emotional. The main centre where obviously there is a lot of money and they have re-built very fast was business as usual. But once you traveled away from Georgetown the damage was evident. Anything that had a tin roof was pulled and turned like a can of opened sardines or torn off completely. Strip malls I remembered from before were gone or looked like they were just being constructed. Debris and piled up bushes and brush were all over areas that were very manicured before.

We were all going on the ship’s stingray city tour. Normally I would not go on the ship’s tour I would book a private excursion. In this case, we did not even know if we were going there for sure so I didn’t want to have to contact the tour company and cancel. This way if the ship wasn’t going our booked excursion would be booked by them. The other factor was we were also no there a full day so since we had to be back on a tender at 2-2:30pm and stingray city is fairly fair I didn’t want to worry about this. The ship’s tour was fine there actually was not as much of a cattle boat as I was expecting. We had plenty of time with the stingray’s and the 2 handlers on our boat made sure everyone who wanted to feed or hold the stingray’s got to. Actually hardly any people actually did feed or hold them. Some people didn’t even get off the boat. One of the handlers, Ed bought my nephew back to boat because he was terrified by the stingrays so my sister and I somehow became in charge of the stingray feed. These stingray’s recognize the bucket the food is in and they all came running, or should I say swimming. I had been there before but they did not let us feed them, this time I was feeding those stingray’s all kinds. At some point I would have two climbing up my front and one climbing on my back! I just love sea creatures so I was not worried about them harming me I was worried to not hurt them. I think they are marvelous and I love stingray city.

But the fact still is that you pay more for the ship tour and they are more crowded. But if you feel more comfortable with the ship’s tour only take it vs. missing out on the stingrays. I did notice one big catamaran called ‘the Buccaneer’ from my research. That one looked good and it was a nice vessel. There were even many stingray tours being offered at the pier so you could go last minute if needed. You must make sure if you want to go to the area that is only 3-4 feet of water that is called the ‘sandbar’ there are areas of stingray city that you can snorkel or scuba dive and it is in about 15 feet. My boss went to the later area on a last minute trip booked on the pier and they just snorkeled while the handlers feed the stingrays. So keep this in mind so you get what you want. The other thing I was told from our tour operators are the stingrays are more relaxed as the morning goes on because they are feed more – makes sense. They are still hungry but earlier in the morning they may be more aggressive. So again, which ever you prefer. We went on the 10am tour so they were already very well feed, they were still very hungry but they were not aggressive by any means. I am wondering if that was why the last time they wouldn’t let us feed them because I remember it was very early in the morning. The sandbar is very crowded so much more than the last time I went, but I was pleasantly surprised that there were so many stingrays, more than enough to go around.

We had enough time do some shopping before we went on the excursion. The only thing I had to get was Tortuga rum and my brother and his wife love the run cake. If you buy the rum approx $7.95 or 8.95 or buy it with a cake for approx $20-$25. They will deliver it to the ship. If you are just buying the run cake you must bring it on the tour with you. There were quite a few rum cakes coming to stingray city.

As for the rest of the shopping, depending what you are interested in they offer all the regular duty free shops of the Caribbean and they are all around the pier area in Georgetown.

ROATAN, HONDURAS TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14TH 2004

ARRIVE-DOCK 9AM ANCHOR 11AM-LAST TENDER AT 5:30PM SAIL AWAY AT 6PM

353.6 nautical miles from Grand Cayman

The other ships in port with us were the Seaborne Legend and NCL Sea. We docked at the pier until about 11am when the NCL Sea comes into port. Then the Sun went out and used the tenders for the rest of the day. The Sea goes to Roatan year round while the Sun only goes during the main winter tourist season.

While in Roatan the thing to do is to get out and enjoy the island. The port town of Coxen Hole is interesting but not very picturesque. I would imagine it is the worst part of Roatan. It is fairly poor and there are a few houses but mostly poverty housing complete with open sewers. If you go on any tour you will get a drive through Coxen Hole so you won’t miss out.

We all took ship excursions this day. My mom and aunt went on a half day island tour. They seemed to go all over the place. It was probably over priced as most (all) shores excursions are, but they got out and saw a lot of areas including going out on a boat to see a ship wreck and they enjoyed it. My brother and his wife and son went to swim with the dolphins in the morning and then to Tabyana beach in the afternoon. Paula went on the Tabyana beach party and snorkel. Tabyana reminded of me very much of the beaches and offerings you would see on a cruise ship private island. A very nice beach with countless beach chairs and a barbeque. The dolphin swim was at Anthony’s Key Resort. All of them really liked their day.

My sister and I went scuba diving everyday except Cayman. The question is always “to go or not to go with the ship’s excursion”. After finding out that the ship used AKR (Anthony’s Key Resort) we decided to go with the ship. I would like to go to Roatan on a dive trip and AKR is somewhere I would like to stay so I wanted to check it out. On the excursion there was 24 people from the ship going on this excursion. They transferred us to the resort on a bus then we boarded two boats The Stingray and The Albacore. We were on the Albacore, they didn’t have a system of who went on what boats it seemed those of us at the front of the bus went on the Albacore. They were both beautiful Pro 48s. The albacore had 9 and the Stingray had about 15. The dive groups were about 4 or 5 people each. The ocean was rough the day we were visiting so all the regular reefs usually visited were not that good so they took us on the other side of Roatan on the same side where the ships were but we did not dive near the ships. The water on that side was like glass.

The first dive site was Pablo’s Place at about 80 feet for 30 minutes. It had beautiful corals huge sponges, a few huge lobsters and a very tame french anglefish that spent the safety stop with us. The second dive site was called Keyhole named after the formations in the reef. This was a drift dive over a beautiful reef. It was an easy 70 feet for 45 minutes. The main draw for me was a large grouper, again some great coral and sponges. This area was gorgeous. I am eager to make a return trip to see the other side of the island where the main dive sites are located. Once we finished our dives we went back the ship and we were tired and hungry so we just relaxed and didn’t go back into Coxen Hole. We watched the sunset and just after that the ship set sail for Belize.

BELIZE CITY, BELIZE WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15TH 2004

ARRIVE-ANCHOR 8AM LAST TENDER LEAVES AT 4:30PM SAIL AWAY AT 5PM

353.6 nautical miles from Roatan (interesting how that was the same figure given from Cayman to Roatan! I’m now questioning their validity)

Belize has a lot of reefs along the coast. It makes up part of the second largest barrier reef in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Therefore when the ship is at anchor, you can barely see Belize. Huge speed boat type tenders whisk you in and it still takes about 20 minutes.

These factors made the decision to choose the ship’s excursion easier. Again we took the certified scuba excursion. They pick you up right at the ship and you are then on your way to the dive shop. We also knew the ship used Huge Parkey’s Belize Dive Connection and we really enjoyed it. The excursion was to the Turneffe Atoll which was an hour boat ride from the ship. The weather wasn’t completely cooperating as a cold front came into Miami the day we left and seemed to follow us for the entire cruise. If the weather was better the boat ride to the Atolls would have been glorious, but for us it was windy but fun!

Just as the day before we had two boats (pro 48s), they were big, fast and very comfortable. It was the kind of dive day I love. Lots of crew looking after you a beautiful, comfortable boat with lots of space for everyone and everyone’s stuff. They even put on your fin’s for you when you approached the platform with your tank on…I loved that!

On our boat there was about 15 divers plus the crew so we went out with three groups of six. Our dive leader ‘Phil’ was excellent and very excited about showing us good stuff.

The first dive site was called Jojo’s split named after a favorite spot of Hugh’s son Jojo. This was a big wall drop we went 75 feet for 45 minutes. At the end of the dive there were three huge black grouper feeding in the currents.

They let us stay down as long as our air allowed and we didn’t all ascend when the first person ran low, they went back to the boat alone. However, we did one who sucked up air really fast (there’s always one) it seemed just a few minutes into the dive he was already at 1500 psi. Phil was a little pissed because he wanted to take us further down to this coral formation and we had to stay closer to the boat them expected, but this was safer and was not the fault of the dive op. I am commenting on this because I know there are a lot of questions regarding does the whole group have to ascend when the first person runs out of air and Hugh Parkey’s dive op DMs would swing around to the boat when someone was running low but the others still continued.

The second dive was named after a woman who was the wife of a resort owner her name was Lee Ellen. They told us she returned from a trip ‘enhanced’. The dive site was called ‘LeeEllen’s melons’ this was because there were numerous round barrel sponges. OK guys – very funny!

This dive was 60 feet for 45 minutes. We saw a southern stingray in the sand. This dive was also along a beautiful wall drop.

Hugh Parkey's Belize Dive Connection

PO Box 1818

Belize City, Belize, Central America

Tel: 501-223-4526 Toll Free: (888) 223-5403 -Fax: 501-227-8808

E-mail: hugh@belizediving.com

After our great dives and a nice (but windy) ride back to the ship, we had just enough time to at least take the tender in and back. We dumped off our gear and headed for the tenders. It was great, we were the only passengers going into town. Belize was the gem of the trip. I loved it so much I would seriously consider living there. The people were warm and friendly and they seemed to say ‘comeback to Belize and stay for a longer vacation’ that seemed to be their national slogan, but it was very welcoming. We bought some t-shirts and the requisite trinkets right there at the small market at the pier. Belize City looked like a nice size and I thought the pier and bay area was very pretty with a lot more tourist infrastructure than I was expecting. Of course the outer islands, cays & reefs are the real jewels of Belize. The other ships in port with us were the Carnival Legend, Splendour Of The Seas & NCL Sea.

COZUMEL, MEXICO THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16TH 2004

ARRIVE-DOCK 8AM ALL ON BOARD 6:30 SAIL AWAY AT 7PM

211 nautical miles from Belize and 528 nautical miles from Cozumel back to Miami

I read countless positive posts on the great service provided with Eagle Ray Divers so we booked our day in Cozumel with them. They are so many dive ops to choose from in Coz that this would be an example where we would not book with the ship. I contacted Chellie at Eagle Ray and we organized a day where Lisa and I could dive and Paula could snorkel. This way we could all go together and Paula can see where she needs to get certified, because diving is so much better than snorkeling. Unfortunately, Chellie did not prove this point that well since Paula was the only snorkeler and she had the most beautiful model-esque snorkel guide all to herself. After meeting Oscar on the boat I wanted to snorkel too! That day I’m not sure if the true beauty of Cozumel was under the water or above the water.

Our first dive was a wall dive at the Palancar Caves. We went to a max depth for a few minutes at 102 feet to see this huge eagle ray that gliding below us. Then most of the dive was about 85-90 for 44 minutes. We went through some amazing ‘caves’ (more like swim thrus). This was probably the best dive site I have been to for both animals and topography. It was like a playground (jungle gym) for divers.

We went through many caverns and beside the eagle ray, we saw lobster, crabs, banded coral shrimp, hawkesbill turtle and a lot of grouper.

The second dive Las Palmas was 60 feet for 50 minutes, excellent dive over a sandy bottom spotted with patches of coral. Excellent, excellent!! So many animals. We saw five really cool toadfish that are endemic to Cozumel. We saw jewfish, huge anemones, small nudibranchs, big anglefish, trunkfish & really colorful coral. We saw one eel that was out and swimming along the reef, Benjamin couldn’t resist picking it up. We saw almost everything on the fish identification card!

Our boat was the ‘estrelle del mar’ (star of the sea) is was very charming and comfortable. It looked like a converted fishing boat, it had plenty of room for all our stuff and to lounge around. We had a full boat that day and it was busy. I read some posts about Coz being not that good anymore. Well I don’t know what it used to be like but I will put it at the top of my list (tied with Bora Bora) and that is a tough act to be compared to.

Chellie was a pleasure to deal with and they offer snorkel trips (you may luck out and get Oscar) and discover scuba. They would be a great bunch to do your first dives with. The other boat they had was doing discover scuba that day and we spoke with a guy who has been ‘discovering’ scuba with them about 6 times.

http://www.EagleRayDivers.com

Chellie and Antonio Castellanos

chellie@eagleraydivers.com or antonio@eagleraydivers.com

011-52-987-872-5735 phone/fax

The other ships is port were as follows: Carnival Miracle, Navigator Of The Seas, Grand Princess Splendour Of The Seas were docked four beside each other at the International Pier (newer one) Voyageur Of The Seas was there but I can’t remember if it was at anchor or not. The Veendam, Sea Dream II and us (NCL Sun) were at the Punta Langosta Pier the Carnival Sensation was at anchor next to us. The Punta langosta Pier was very close to downtown. This pier had big pavilion offering tons of shops, Senor Frogs, Carlos ‘n Charlies, it seemed after our day on the turquoise sea we only had time to go to the shops near the pier and that is all we needed. We usually go get everything at Cinco Soles they have everything we need and it is very conveniently displayed. It may be more expensive but I never find anything really over priced. My favorite purchase was a silver chain with a scuba diver pendant.

I will say I was not happy with finding the report with the passenger list and all of our personal passport information. But that will be a matter I will take up with NCL.

I have been on three previous cruises with NCL. Two prior to freestyle cruising and now two with freestyle. Freestyle is not my favorite and I’m not sold on it, however, for this family trip we felt it would work best and it did. Everyone enjoyed themselves and NCL gave us a fine product. I must admit there are things I like about more traditional cruising and NCL has been at the bottom of our list. Well I feel a lot different after this cruise on the Sun. Freestyle works very good on these ships that were designed with freestyle in mind. The staff is so friendly and makes you feel important, they want you to enjoy your holiday. I love how they all get up on stage at the last show and sing for everyone. That is a nice touch. I noticed a lot of nice touches. They gave a vase of flowers on the breakfast room service tray, the complementary espresso, cappuccino and teas at every meal in the main dining rooms. I do not like that Princess makes you pay for these I feel that is nickel and diming. When you ordered tea NCL gave a nice big pot and the specialty coffee was excellent.

Regarding the shore excursions I must say I have never had a complaint on the NCL excursions. Something that was very thoughtful was the day in Roatan someone in our party went on the Tabyana Beach Party and snorkel excursion. She got some money back because the snorkeling wasn’t good because of the weather. Now we know going in they cannot control the weather and I would never complain to the tour operator based on bad weather. The fact that NCL just gave a credit for some of the amount paid to reimburse for the snorkeling I found they stand behind their product. I have been on both Celebrity and Princess shore excursions where the excursions didn’t even go as advertised (the tour boat on Princess broke down and we had to come back and on Celebrity we didn’t have a tour guide on a tour to a museum in Russia). Both times the cruise line couldn’t have cared less and they had our money and that is all they cared about. But I really feel NCL stands behind what they offer now more than ever. NCL has moved up in the ranks of our favorite cruise lines after this voyage. I think everyone going on the NCL Sun would enjoy it. They really offer a good vacation to a varied demographic. I really felt they cared which is very important to me when spending my travel dollars.

I have all the freestyle dailies I cannot scan them in to make documents, but if you have a particular question I can look up something for you. Post a reply on this thread if you want.

Thanks for a great review. We did this cruise in March of 2002, shortly after the Sun started sailing this itinerary, and to date it remains one of our favorites!

Thanks for the lovely detailed review! I was on this cruise also and I thoroughly enjoyed myself .l