MJKennedy

Not sure where to post this but had to say it somewhere. We went on an NCL cruise in January 2015 on the Sun and booked an excursion for the family through the ship for X-Caret. Our guide was Ernesto who we met after getting off the ferry in Playa Del Carmen.

This guy walks SO fast. If you didn't power walk, and jog at times, he would be gone and you would be lost. We stayed as close to him as possible on the way to the park.

We got to the park and he led us straight to the underground rivers. Everywhere he went he was power walking. He was waiting for us when we got through, and guided us toward the Jaguars because that is close to the restaurant he suggested for lunch. We lost him. The map to the park was so confusing and he gave us an old version, so the numbered venues didn't match anymore. We finally ran into him and found the restaurant. After that, with what little time we had left, he said to head to the sea turtles and back down to the meeting point near the entrance. Well, we were 4 minutes late because the map was so confusing and we had 2 very young and tired children. Our group was nowhere in sight. I stayed at the meeting point with the kids while my husband went looking for Ernesto. He finally finds us and we RUN to get the bus, that he is not sure will wait for us. The entire bus trip back to the ferry is FULL of comments about us being late, and having to run, and tipping him and the driver extra for waiting and the running.

THEN when we got off the bus and had to walk back to the port, he lost half of his group because he was walking so freakin fast and didn't account for traffic crossing streets. And he never looked back to check. We were in that group. Thankfully one woman fell back to show the rest of her group the way back, and we just followed her. We got back to the ferry boarding area still missing several people from our group and Ernesto was complaining that they were slow people. They were probably just lost asking for directions. He never went back to look for them. They made it, after I don't know how long. We make it to the ferry back to Cozumel.

The park was nice, but I wouldn't do it as an excursion again. There was just not enough time to see most of the park.

Ernesto was just an awful guide. He had some helpful suggestions for the park. But I wouldn't be surprised if people missed their ferry, and then ship, because of him.

Following

My kids are 2 & 4. On the Sun the pullout sofa was plenty of room for them. It seemed larger than a twin. I am too nervous to put the oldest in a pullman though. Thanks everyone. I never would have thought that a balcony might be cheaper than a family room.

Thanks, I should have mentioned that we would probably book an oceanview.

Our next cruise will probably be on the Breakaway or Getaway and we will have 2 young children with us. On the Sun we had a pull-out sofa and a pullman (for sleeping up to 5 ppl). Our kids are too young for the pullmans, but the sofa was perfect.

Are the sofas available in rooms that sleep 4, or are they usually only pullmans?

Thank you for this information. I will refer to it next time I book. I have an observation about KSF though. I heard this was such a great deal, so when I got an email the other day that there was a one day special for KSF I quickly went to check it out. Well what I found was that for 2 adults in a room it would have been about $450pp. But when I tried it with 4 people in a room (2 young children, and it was specifically marked for the KSF promotion), the 2 adults showed up with a price of $899pp and the children were $0. Well, I don't know about you, but that seems to me like you are really paying for the kids.

Now I didn't speak with anyone from NCL, I just used their online booking system. Now has anyone noticed this before, or was I doing something wrong?

Hi Kim, another question: can you control the temperature in your stateroom? I had heard it can get cold in the ship and I am trying to figure out what kind of pajamas to pack for the kids, especially.

We are getting on the Sun as you are getting off. As a first timer, I love reading these reviews from different perspectives.

kids sail free on royal was in may for my birthday last year. b1g1 rates. awesome. it was $800 after tax for 4 people.

Where did you go and for how many days?

Yeah, that's what I imagined when you mentioned it in your review. But I was reading a review from another cruise line and they gave them phones. That sounded really good, and made a lot of sense if they want to have contact with you at a moments notice.

I have another question for you, Kim. Regarding the kids club: You mentioned a few times that they wanted to know where you were and if you changed locations. How would you tell them that you changed locations? I don't plan on using my cell phone on the cruise for anything but pictures.

Practicing a little tilt shift...it doesn't work as well on the land as when you are high up looking down.

 

 

 

Sakari's treat never came and neither did my cheesecake. I decided to walk up to the restaurant and ran into Roberto. That's when he explained that he was the head chef. So, he was not only running and taking orders, but he was going back and cooking them as well. At that point I felt sorry for him. They need more help obviously. He apologized for the wait on the desert and said he would have it right out.

 

Sakari loved the swings at the bar.

 

 

 

She finally got her icecream and it was a special ice cream...

 

 

 

My cheesecake arrived too. It was good, but not out of this world. It had somewhat of that "foamy" texture that I really don't care for. I'm more of a New York Style cheesecake girl. But, it was good enough for me to eat it all I can tell you that.

 

 

 

A bird sat in the trees and sang to us while we finished our treats. These birds have such a beautiful voice. So different than the ones back home.

 

 

 

 

It had been a beautiful, perfect day that we didn't really want to end. However, it seemed like a very long day too and we kept looking at the time thinking it should be close to time to go and it never would be. I loved that.

 

 

 

We decided that we wanted to take a walk down the malecon before we left and Roberto came over and we settled our bill. It only came to $48 for all 3 of us for the entire day!!! Wow! We felt like we were eating and drinking all day and this was a pretty darn cheap day for the 3 of us. I gave him a very nice tip. He told me that the cheesecake was on him since he forgot to bring it back to me.

 

I ask him about getting back to the port and he said whenever we were ready, he would call a cab for us and they would be there to pick us up within 15 minutes.

 

I ask if we were allowed to store our things in the lockers and he said he would give us the lockers for free for buying so much food and drinks. That made me think that just maybe this is a hidden gem and since no one really knows about it and since it's located kinda away from the other places on the malecon, maybe they don't get a lot of business. Nice for us, but I guess not for them.

 

We put our things in 2 lockers and away we went for our walk along the malecon.

 

 

I am so enjoying your review. I have been reading it for days now prepping for our cruise on the Sun on the 11th.

I have a couple questions about Blue Kay:

Do they take USD? Credit cards?

The taxi ride back to the port was only 5 minutes? How much were you charged.

Thanks! I like to be prepared... And this review is certainty helping me with that.

I talked my DH into going to LFK instead of Maya Key because of your review of it.

Thanks for your help, and for clarifying that.

Thanks. I just talked to my DH and he would rather book through the cruise line for structure because we are bringing 2 small children and don't want to wing it when we get off the boat. And we certainly wouldn't want to be stuck in that situation either if we missed the boat.

This our first ever cruise, very excited. Question about the excursions: is it better to book them ahead of time or on the ship? I heard somewhere that the ones from the ship always provide transportation to/from the ship, but if I book them through the agent they often don't. Is this true?

And is there a difference in price?