Sun review from first time cruiser

There is just one major problem with that cruise, IT’S TOO SHORT!!! We’re just back and boy did we like cruising. It’s our first cruise so I can’t compare with another ship, but we really liked the experience on the Sun. The staff was great, our cabin (balcony room deck 9AFT) was exactly as the picture in the catalog; we never felt cramped for space, the storage space was more then adequate and wow, to open our eyes in the morning and be facing the sea, what a feeling.

OK, I’ll try to do this in order.

Embarkation: was real easy, they sure know how to move 2000 persons around. We left our Miami hotel at 11 :10 in the morning and at 1pm we were in our cabin. Everything was clear and done in an orderly manner. We had been waiting for 8 months for this cruise, walking on the ship was like a dream come true.

Cabin : as I said before, we were in a balcony room on deck 9, AFT (rear) section. We really liked the location of the room, we were near the AFT stairs and two levels up we were on the pool deck and a couple of decks down, we were near the Stardust lounge, Seven Seas restaurant, etc… Our stewardess was great; our room was always done rapidly and perfectly. She did some charming animals with the towels. The balcony was awesome, we often took a drink at night and just sitting there in the morning and looking at the see was… perfect.

Meals : we ate almost all the time (breakfast and dinners) at the Seven Seas. We had planned on trying le Bistro and II Adagio but every morning we would check the main dining rooms menu for the night and were delighted with the selection. We were never deceived, the quality and taste of the food was excellent. So we can’t give you clues for the specialty restaurants, we ended up never going. The chocolate buffet was absolutely decadent… We had room service on a couple of mornings, there were always a little ahead of time (about 10 minutes) and since they call when they leave the kitchen, it makes a wake-up call at the same time. The food served was excellent; the toasts were hot and crispy.

Entertaiment : some for every taste. We went to most of the shows and they were very good. Bobby at the piano (Windjammer lounge) was a nice place to sit back and relax. We danced a couple of time at Dazzles. Nights were never boring. During the days, we were mostly off the ship so I cannot express an opinion. On the last day at sea, we went to a presentation on « behind the scene » look of how things are done on the ship. It was a commented slide show, very informative and entertaining. The chef gave out some statistics, if my memory is good, during our cruise, we ate 3500 dozens of eggs…

Excursions : we took one excursion with NCL and were very happy with it (Lamanai and the safari river). Next time, I think we might book more, it makes the logistic so easy. We did do Captain Marvin in Cayman and were very happy with it. In Roatan, we had reserved with Bay Island Beach Resort it was not bad but I think not for us. I would recommend it more for divers and experienced snorklers. In Cozumel we just went shopping and came back on the ship to relax by the pool (very calm on port days).

Debarkation: on the last sea day, there was an information session on how it was done so we were well prepared. On board, we bought bus tickets to take us from the port to the airport. On debarkation morning, we had to pickup our passport (we are not US citizens) and after that had breakfast at the Seven Seas and went back to our cabin and just relaxed until our color was called. We did have to go to the desk to have one correction done on our invoice; they had charged us two beach towels that we had returned when coming back to port. It was easily done, even if I did not have my receipt (we had packed all of our paperwork in our luggage the night before). After debarking, we went to pickup our luggage. We could not find one of them in the orange area, I inquired to a lady from NCL and she came with me to a section where they had the luggage that had lost their tags and there it was.

All that was left to do was weep because our dream week was over.

If you have any question, I’ll be glad to try and answer. I’m sure there are things I still don’t know on the Sun, one week was just not enough…

Aloucha

Thank you for the excellent review. We will be leaving for the Sun on 3/5 and are really looking forward to it. We'll be on 8th deck aft. I know what you mean about 7 days not being long enough...our last cruise was a back-to-back on the Sky. They did a different itinerary each week, so it was really great. Think about doing that your next time out (you'll save on plane fare by only traveling once for 2 cruises).

Can you describe your Lamanai/New River Safari trip? We're very interested in doing that one, also thinking of doing Xtreme Cave Tubing and possibly kayaking/snorkeling tour in Honduras that I read about online.

The Lamanai River safari is a rather long excursion. We had to be in the Stardust lounge at 8 in the morning. We were on the first or second tender. We were then on a bus for about on hour. Our tour guide used that time to give us a lot of info on the country and there were a lot of interesting questions asked and answered.

After the bus, we board the speed boats (don't fuss with your hair that morning, everybody has a bad hair day after the speed boat). The tour going up the river is about an hour because they stop when they see something interesting on the side of the river.

We then get to the Lamanai site. We first have a very good lunch buffet and then the visit. The visit lasts about 1 hour and a half (very nice site, lots of ruins to see). Our guide was VERY knowledgeble.

Then we take the speed boat for an express return (about 40 minutes) and the bus back to the peer. We got back to the peer at 4:10h and the last tender was scheduled for 4:30h. So don't expect much time to shop.

We liked the tour very much, and since it's far away we liked the idea of being on a NCL tour to make sure they would wait for us if we had a delay.

Don't hesitate to ask if something is not clear !

Aloucha

Aloucha - Thank you for your review! We leave on the Sun in 4 months for Alaska, and like you, are on deck 9 aft. It is good to hear you enjoyed your cabin location! :)

glad to hear that you liked the Sun. We were on her in Dec and had a great time.

Aloucha --

Great review! The Sun was our 2nd cruise, but to Alaska last summer, and I felt the very same way. We enjoyed our 1st one (the Sea) so well that we're going again in May, but the Sun is definitely a much nicer ship.

We're planning on the Lamanai excursion also, with our 2 basically grown children. Any special hints to make it even better? What was the weather like for your trip to Lamanai?

What cabin # number did you have? Were you in an AF,AE,BA? We will be on the 4-2-05 sailing. We have sailed on the Sun before in a forward facing cabin. It was a little windy, but great none the less. Thanks for the review. AFT CABINS ARE THE BEST! Hope that is what we end up with.

Thanks, Aloucha, for the info on the shore excursion. I appreciate it.

For Lamanai, I can't find anything to say to make it a more plesent day. It is VERY windy on the speed boats so even if it was a hot day, I did miss my light wind jacket.

For the cabin number, it was 9262 (I think a BB cabin). It was on the right side when you're looking to the front of the boat. We were not on the sunny side for the first and second morning, but after that, I think I saw the sunrise every morning.

When we got to bed the first night back home, I was trying to get to sleep and I could of sworn I could still feel the light rocking of the boat. I thought it was kind of crazy untill my husband said outloud: "wow, I still feel the boat rocking". Ahh, if only it was true...

Aloucha

Aloucha,

I am so glad that you had a wonderful first cruise :) :) .

Thanks for all the info, Aloucha! Sounds like a fab trip!

It was interesting to hear how NLC handles getting everyone one and off the ship!

On our last trip (Sun Princess May 2002 Alaska) - embarkation was a nightmare - 3 hours in a serpentine line-up... inching your way on... it was anything but organized and people were so po'd! I realize now that perhaps they were oversecuring after 9/11. Once onboard, it was all quickly forgotten. Disembarkation - also pretty bad. We weren't allowed to wait in our cabins, we had to be in a public area. So people were sitting all over the floors and it was just a mess.

We're taking the NCL Sun through the Inside Passage in a few months - it'll be interesting to see the differences in the two lines!

Thanks again!

France

Starbuck1 --

We were on the Sun last summer to Alaska -- wish I was going again. Just a little heads up on the embarkation/debarkation process.

We are latitudes members, and as such, we went through the latitudes line rather than standing in the regular check in lines. We waited no more than about 10-15 minutes before we were checked-in to the ship and had our key cards. What did take time, however, and I think it is beyond NCL's control, is clearing customs prior to boarding the ship. We waited in the waiting area at Canada Place for about 30-45 minutes before our number was called to go through customs. NCL did provide some sort of drinks and/or treats, forget exactly what, for waiting passengers, but there was definitely a wait.

Even worse was the debarkation -- again, not getting off the ship, but clearing Canadian customs prior to leaving the pier. We had rented a car and driven from Seattle to Vancouver, and as such, were considered "independent travelers" and were in one of the last color groups to be called for disembarkation. We waited in our room, watching TV for most of the time, but then felt guilty as we knew the stewards were waiting to clean the room. They didn't ask us to leave, or really put any pressure on us, but we just felt like we were impeding their cleaning. We moved to the internet cafe, and waited about 30 minutes prior to leaving the ship.

After getting back into Canada Place, we located our luggage after about 15 minutes, and then waited in line for about 45 minutes before we cleared customs. We went to the rental car booth, and arranged for a shuttle to the off-site car rental agency, and noticed a very long line of people waiting for cabs. The rental car agent said it looked like it would have been about a 1 1/2 hour wait for a cab. Again, none of this was NCL's fault -- just a factor of having 3 ships disembarking at the same time.

All that was left to do was weep because our dream week was over.

Same response I had after my first cruise :D (and most of the others since:p )

Aloucha (and any anyone),

What time is it when you actually are finished with everything (luggage pick-up, customs, etc) after disembarking in Miami?

We will be on the Sun Easter week. Our cabin is on Norway deck, forward. We won't have any priority status or anything- we'll just be one of the mob.

I'd like to know if it's likely that we'll be on our way to the parking lot by 11.

Warmblooded,

We were on the bus to Miami Airport by 10 o'clock, maybe even earlier. We were the Orange group, we were supposed to be called around 9:30 but we were called at least 15 minutes earlier. We lost about 10 minutes in the process because one of our luggage was not in the Orange area, it was in the "lost tag" section.

I really think you will be out by 11. There is what they call "express disembarkation" where you can walk off the ship between 7:45 to 8:15: to do that, you must carry all your luggage yourself and be a US passport holder.

You would probably be "dark green" (late independant travelers) and they are scheduled to be called by 10:05. One hour is plenty of time to be out by the parking lot.

Note that the color tags seemed to be done on a "honor system". We picked up the color that correspondeded to our situation, no one seemed to double check if we took the right color or not. With our orange tags, we appreciated the time we had in the morning to have a good and complete breakfest at the Seven Seas.

If you would like, give me your e-mail adress, I can scan the "Disembarkation" instruction sheet we received on the boat. It gives the whole schedule and instructions.

To speed up the process in the morning, next time I will get a print out of our invoice the day before disembarkation to have corrections made if necessary. We received the official invoice when we got up on the last morning, there was a mistake on it and there was a line at the front desk to have it corrected.

Hope you have a great trip, I wish I was going again...

Thanks Aloucha. That was very complete and helpful. Is there a way to PM you?

You can email me at

aloucha83

@

hotmail.com