Live Review: NCL Sun out of N.O.!

Fun times in New Orleans so far, been a lot of waiting around, but here I am to tell you about it. Also, look for CC’s information that will be updated sometime after today’s sailing.

New Orleans Airport

We got in today at 8:30 AM and headed out to claim our baggage. Due to the proximity to a local swamp I’m going to assume that the airport was flooded at least in part, however the cleanup looks like it’s going pretty well. The only thing I noticed is a mildew smell in the basement area (baggage claim). Really though, other than that you’d never know that this place had been flooded. Right now (when I’m typing this… not when this is going to be posted) we’re sitting in a bus waiting area right outside the airport. We booked up an NCL transfer bus from the airport to Julia Street. You don’t have to register online beforehand, we purchased our passes here right outside the baggage claim for $30/pp round trip. Only bad part is we’ve been sitting around from 9:00 AM ‘till now (15 after 10) waiting because the first bus doesn’t leave until 10:30. Other than that it’s a good deal, we don’t have to worry about the luggage, it’s already checked in, and as soon as we get dropped of we’ll be doing a little looking around the French Quarter. **Update at 11:15** Well… we haven’t left the airport yet, something about customs held up the bus for too long, so we’re sitting here (in the front row… I’m ready to go!!!) waiting to leave. So, we decided that even though we paid for the round trip ticket, we’re only going to use the NCL transfer for the ride TO the ship, not FROM. We’ll figure something else out next Sunday.

Ride to Pier/checking in

New Orleans really doesn’t look like a city coming back from a devastating hurricane, for the most part everything is rebuilt. We did pass by a few buildings that are just hulls of what they once were, but thirty seconds down the road, things looked like the old New Orleans. Anyways, once we got to the pier we wated on the bus for another half hour, until an NCL rep came and spoke with us. We then made it to the line at 12:20, finally making it unto the ship at a little before two. It seemed that the system was efficient and fast, but I had nothing to compare it against, being my first cruise and all…

First Day on the Sun

First thing we did was check out the casino and sign me up for my players card. I spent a little time in the casino (actually I just got back), I enjoyed the three dealers that worked my table, (I really liked the one that gave me the blackjacks so many times), and there seemed to be a large assortment of slots and other things of that nature. The only negative thing I noticed was the Texas Hold ‘Em room, there was a waiting list of about 15 people to get into the cash game. This wasn’t just a $.25/.50 game, it was a $5/10 game, with a $100 minimum buy in, and still the table was full with the waiting list. I really think the NCL should expand to a second table, maybe with lower limits? It doesn’t really matter too much to me however, I hate prefer tournaments over cash games.

Moving on, we went and made reservations for Le Bistro tonight, Teppanyaki on Wednesday, and finaly East Meets West on Saturday. Very easy to do, but it didn’t look like anyone else had really made reservations yet, so not really required. We then jumped up to our cabin to check it out, we noticed it had already been made and was ready to go (two and a half hours before departure). I was kinda bummed because I wanted to meet our steward, but I survived. The balcony we have has to be one of the largest B class balcony’s available, its right on the corner of the ship so I think we have about double the space of a regular BD class balcony… it’s nice, I suggest if you want one book 9275 or 9075. The room is nice sized, and the bed is pretty comfy. Next stop was the internet café, very easy to set up an account, we did so in about 2 minutes, here’s hoping we win the extra internet time…

Jumped over to the Garden Buffet to grab a quick bite. I must say, anyone who complains about the poor quality of the food, obviously hasn’t eaten there lately. While it was no five star restaurant, I thought it was better than your local Golden Corral.

After that we went and…. Slept… in the cabin for a bit until the drill, then back to the cabin (newlyweds), until our 7:15 reservations at Le Bistro. Alright, lemme tell ya… it was GREAT. Becky and I Both had the filet minion, the inside was PERFECT, the outside was a little crisp, but again the inside more than made up for it. Before the main course Becky had the French onion soup, which she loved, and I had the Beef something or other soup, also quite good. We shared a plate of crab-legs as an appetizer, but quickly realized that we had no clue what the little fork was for, we felt kinda stupid just poking at the meat hoping we were doing the right thing, but I really don’t think anyone noticed. Finally was desert, Becky went with the fondue while I went for the Crème Brule (sp?). I’m not a huge fan of dark chocolate, so I didn’t enjoy her fondue, but I must say the Crème was amazing, it was better than eating candy! Becky also wants me to mention that she loved her Fondue, and my opinion of dark chocolate is inconsequential.

Ok, this is getting long and its getting late. Y’all have fun wherever you are, you can live your live vicariously through us for the next week.

More tomorrow

-Matt

DAY 2

Started out acting like a kid and going out on the balcony to watch the waves…. The result? I had to send my wife to reception to get meclizine. I’ve been up about 2 hours and I’m still not feeling to well. What a way to start out? I’m thinking that I’ll be heading up to midship so I can stabalize out a little better, plus the reason I didn’t post this until today is the wireless internet on the ship doesn’t reach my cabin aft.

To bring you up to date, I finaly got over my seasickness (kind of) I'll survive!

Hi Matt,

I'm glad your enjoying the ship, and had a great meal at Le Bistro. The best place I've found on any ship to avoid seasickness is in the Casino...for some reason it just takes your mind off the rocking motion.

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.:D

Sounds great. Don't forget to try some tapas from Las Ramblas. One night I thought they were so good I just stayed and had a dinner of appetizers! Think I pretty much tried some of them every evening as a pre-dinner snack.

Hi Matt:)

Good review. How was the wedding?

You will be fine. Keep taking your meds and there will be no problem;)

Yeah, but how was the wedding? We all want to know.

Hey, glad the Sun is looking good. We will be in 9078 in December. See if you can take a peak. Thanks for doing the review. Sounding good so far. Let us know about the excursions. What night is lobster night and if you can do dailies and menus,that would be great. Enjoy.

Congrats on your wedding...I am looking forward to reading your daily review, as I hope to sail out of N.O. sometime next year, and I am wanting so bad to do a Western Caribb. cruise. Waiting for your details on each port.

Linda

So glad you guys are having a great time Matt.

She doesn't know me from Adam, but give Becky my best and my congrats to both of you!

-Monte

Have a ball and as others have said, take the meds. Enjoy yourselves and the ship and all that makes a cruise a cruise. Remember pictures:D for when you get back.

Thank you for taking time from your honeymoon to indulge us all. I can't wait to hear about it all. Enjoy yourselves--we can't wait to go to NO for our trip on the Sun at Christmas!!

Hi Matt,glad your enjoying the Cruise we leave soon as in 12 more sleeps,cant wait to here the rest of the review,have a fun week and congrats.to u and your Bride...Phil:)

Congrats to the newlyweds and thanks for the post! We will be boarding the Sun this coming Sunday...my screen name says it all. My question is, who is the current cruise director on the Sun? Hope you have a wonderful week...

Thanks so much for the review! Us Sun fans will certainly be living through you this week. She's our favorite ship with a great crew. We're going again in Feb. Congrats on the wedding & have a great trip!

I found out I was not the only one getting sick, I went to the casino for a few minutes this afternoon on the suggestion of my steward (Armondo- he is possibly the best in the world!!!), and I noticed they were cleaning up some residue (gross right?), there were also special white bags all over the ship.

Anyways, not much to report today, Becky and I stayed in and slept through most of the day (really I promise, I was sick feeling, and she was tired!) and hung out on the balcony a bit. As far as freestyle dailies and menu's go, I'm going to bring the dailies back home and scan them here, but the menu's will be a problem. I can't seem to get Becky's camera to take a good picture of them.

Tonight was lobster night, so here's how my dinner worked: Started out with some Crab Luis salad, which is completely different on ship than it is on land (not an actual salad on the ship), still it was great, while Becky went with the fruit minestrone (they also had a cold soup in the main dining room yesterday, so they may be doing this every night?), which she said was to die for. I went on to my clam chowder, which was also quite good. Main course for me was, naturally, the lobster... I didn't really enjoy it, not saying thats NCL's fault, I'm not a seafood fan to begin with (mostly shrimp and and a little crab is all I will eat), so I wasn't too surprised that I didn't enjoy it. Becky had a flounder dish, which she said was amazing, I didn't try any due to my disposition to seafoods ;) . Deserts were creme brule for her and chocolate something cake for me, we loved them both. We ate in four seasons, at about 6:15, there were no problems with service at all, in fact is was incredibly fast until people started coming in at about 6:45, then things started to slow down on the service end. That being said, our drinks NEVER got below 1/4 full, and our next course always came out within five or so minutes after finishing the previous, which is all we really need. In my sick feeling stage, we did order room service, I went for the pizza, which I didn't really like, I prefer a crunchier pizza, this was not really soggy, but microwaved, still good just not my favorite. The big bright spot was the chocolate yogurty stuff I decided to gamble on, we may order daily room service just for that!

We haven't gone to either of the shows, we just have no desire to. So I can't really comment on that, currently though I am sitting in the internet cafe on my laptop while listening to the band in the windjammer. They're pretty good for a cover band, just not the kind of music I listen to, if you're into late eighties early ninties then check them out, i think they have been there both days.

The CC meet and greet went pretty good this morning, we met in the Bali comference room, and had a turn out of about 15 or so, they provided some light snacks and coffee, neither of which I tried. They had told us there would be officers there to greet us and talk to us, but we didn't have any, which I was fine with being sick and all :D .

Ok, now to answer the big question:

The wedding went great, Becky went through the whole ceremony only tearing up once (never really crying)... me though... I lost it as soon as they started "here comes the bride." Oh well, I'm just a sap I guess! Besides me not being able to control my emotions, the ceremony was great... It flew by, though someone told us the ceremony actually lasted 25 minutes, it felt like five.

Ok, tomorrow is Costa Maya day, we'll be going to Chac Chi and joining the whole in the fence club! We plan to spend a few hours there and do a little shopping in port, so my report on that is something to look forward to. We may book Il Idalgio tomorrow, it all depends on how we feel (going for the fully freestlye day I guess!).

Any question's feel free to shoot them my way, I'll be back tomorrow.

Until then have fun!

-Matt

Oh! PS! Thank you everyone for your well wishes!

Thanks Matt. I love hearing about your cruise while I anticipate my upcoming Dawn cruise.

I have been on a bunch of cruises and have never ordered room service. A few years ago, my kids discovered the chocolate mousse through room service and have since ordered it several times a week.

Funny how the women get the bad rap for the emotions during the wedding. It sounds like you were just like my brother.

Enjoy your cruise, but when you get back you may need to join the 12 step CC anonymous group.

Matt, your review is fabulous & I am enjoying reading it. Hope you

have a great time in port....can't wait for your next review.

Congrats to you & your bride...may you be blessed with many

years of health, happiness & cruises!!!:D

Patti

Newleywed--can you tell me how big the whole in the fence is? We have one person going with us who is rather large and want to know if he will fit through. Thanks again for the updates!!! By the way, I got married 2 weeks ago--I teared up, he cried!!! But how my emotions crept up just as I walked down the aisle. I guess it must have been the same for both of you men.

Oh--and one more question, I know you have spent some time in your cabin, so my kids are hoping you can tell us if there are a couple of movie channels.

Congratulations...we are going to be on the Sun for our honeymoon in February. Reading your review is making me very anxious! 4 more months...woohoo!!:D Again, congratulations to both of you!

I am jealous, jealous, jealous & I admit it!! Can't wait to hear the next episode. Have a great time!!

We will be on the Sun in March and I love hearing every detail. Thanks so much for the posts!!!

Find some ginger, drink ginger ale, keep taking those meds, and most of enjoy. Be a man stop crying go up on deck and have a cigar;) :D

Thanks for posting

You are getting me excited about the Sun, so I am cancelling my reservations on the Fantasy and will go out on the Sun on March 11!!

There may be no crying in baseball, but as a Minister who has officiated at over 100 weddings, I can tell you that there is crying in weddings....and normally it happens with the couples that are most in love...so congrats!!

I live for Karaoke on board...can you tell me anything about Karaoke on the Sun?

I look forward to hearing about your shore excursions!!

Have a great trip!!

JaBee

You are getting me excited about the Sun, so I am cancelling my reservations on the Fantasy and will go out on the Sun on March 11!!

 

There may be no crying in baseball, but as a Minister who has officiated at over 100 weddings, I can tell you that there is crying in weddings....and normally it happens with the couples that are most in love...so congrats!!

 

I live for Karaoke on board...can you tell me anything about Karaoke on the Sun?

 

I look forward to hearing about your shore excursions!!

 

Have a great trip!!

 

JaBee

You won't be sorry about changing to the Sun. It's a great ship with a great crew!

newlywedcruisers

Congrats on your nuptials and thanks for taking the time to post. It's always great to read live blogs.

newlywedcruisers

 

Congrats on your nuptials and thanks for taking the time to post. It's always great to read live blogs.