Review of the fantastic 10 day Sun cruise - Nov. 25 to Dec. 5

I'll add my official review to the site, but thought, since I took so many pictures, I would post it here with some pictures first. If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them if I can. This was our fourth and best cruise yet and I can't wait for our next one!

We just returned from the 10 day sailing of the Norwegian Sun (November 25 – December 5). I'll write my review and try to be objective although it would be difficult for me to find much to criticize on The Sun. This was our 4th cruise (2nd with NCL) and by FAR the best we have been on. We loved every minute of it. Most of my review will be about The Sun rather than the ports – we cruise for and enjoy the actual cruise the most. The ports are nice extras for us, but we love the ship and actually 'cruising'. We didn't do any excursions and just went around on our own for a bit at each port.

This will be a longish review so if it is too long – the short version is that we would HIGHLY recommend The Sun and NCL. The crew, cruise director, cruise director staff, entertainment and officers were all wonderful – the best we have sailed with. As before, we loved freestyle cruising.

We are in our mid/late 30s. Being a 10 day sailing out of Florida, most of the passengers were somewhat older than us. We enjoyed this and enjoyed talking with many of the passengers and it was a very relaxing cruise. Our first 2 cruises were 7 or 8 day cruises. Last year we took a 10 day and that is our preference. I find that (for us) – on the last couple days of a cruise we are sad that it is almost over, so we truly enjoy more days on a longer cruise than a shorter one! I don't know if the ship was sold out, but it never really felt crowded anywhere (except for maybe the buffet!).

I almost didn't book this cruise. We only booked approximately 2 weeks prior to the sailing. Compared to other ships, I didn't find tons of info in the message boards about The Sun (although most of what I did read was positive). I did read it was a smaller and older ship and hesitated to book at first, but am so glad I went ahead. After this cruise, we now have a preference for smaller ships. You see the same passengers more frequently and get to know them. In addition, the staff and crew are better able to get to know the passengers on a smaller ship.

We spent 2 days in Miami prior to boarding The Sun. We took a taxi from the airport to The Intercontinental. $32 plus tip. Being from Canada, we don't convert a lot of money to U.S. dollars. Our currency is at par or fairly close to it (one way or the other) most of the time right now, but changing our money to U.S. costs more due to bank conversion fees. We take a little U.S. cash for the ports but mainly use a specific credit card that doesn't charge the typical 2.5 conversion fee. Surprising (to us) the taxi driver did not accept credit cards, nor use a meter. I'm not sure if that is typical, but next time I'll look into before our trip to make sure. She was nice and friendly but sat in the taxi as my husband loaded and unloaded the luggage, but did get out after he was finished to collect the fare.

We stayed at the Intercontinental and took a day trip to South Beach. It was a quick and easy $2 bus ride with the stop almost just outside our hotel. The beautiful weather that day at the beach continued throughout our entire trip.

Sunday morning was the day we had been waiting for. It was time to head to The Sun. We got there around 10:30 a.m. I would estimate. There was a bit of a line to get into the terminal for the security inspection but after that things moved very quickly. There were only a couple people in the regular line and the Latitudes line was empty. We soon had our ship cards and were assigned #2 for boarding.

I believe we boarded around noon or slightly before. We headed to Four Seasons which was open for lunch (this was the only day Four Seasons had lunch – the other sea days and every other port day it was Seven Seas that served lunch). We find the restaurant much more relaxing than the buffet the first day. It wasn't very busy the first day. The menu was the same each day (which we were aware of) and we loved the Vietnamese Spring Rolls as well as the Portobello Mushroom appetizers. I really enjoyed the Milk Chocolate Mousse for dessert. We had a variety of entrees and always enjoyed them. I don't find we are 'picky' food people. We've enjoyed the food on the ships and have no complaints.

A big part of what makes The Sun so wonderful is the crew. We noticed this from Day 1 in Four Seasons and it continued throughout our entire cruise. They are all so friendly and helpful and really helped make The Sun our best cruise yet. Next time I cruise, I will begin writing down names from Day 1 for the staff recognition cards. We always had different wait staff for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They were all fabulous and worthy of recognition. From the hostesses to wait staff – the entire Sun dining staff were the best.

We had all our breakfasts in Seven Seas. Other than the first lunch, which we had in Four Seasons, we had lunch in Seven Seas each day it was open (each sea day and every other port day – it was open 2 port days). Seven Seas was also open until 8:30 a.m. on debarkation day with a slightly smaller menu.

For 2 of the other 3 port days, we went to Moderno, as it was less busy than the buffet, and it

had a pizza and pasta bar. The other port day – the last one - we had lunch in the buffet. Other than that, from time to time we would pick up a few snacks or fruit in the buffet but (unlike other cruises) did not spend a lot of time in it. I did visit the ice cream area several times that seemed to be open from noon until 9:30 p.m. There was also a self serve soft serve ice cream machine in The Great Outdoors that I saw and used a couple times. We would have dinner in Four Seasons (the more casual of the 2 restaurants for dinner) and often had a late night snack in The Great Outdoors (which was open until 11:30 p.m.)

We enjoyed the food and had no complaints. On the last 2 cruises (one with NCL and one with Royal Caribbean) we did visit a speciality restaurant once. We didn't get around to it this time and didn't feel the need anyways. We would usually go to dinner early (between 5 to 5:30 p.m.) We never had a wait and were often there early enough to get a window seat. Dinner was always served quickly and we were done usually within 45 minutes. This was great as we always had plenty of time after dinner to walk around the ship and decks and make the 7:30 p.m. early performance (the other was at 9:30 p.m.).

For the first time I had booked directly with NCL. It was just over 2 weeks out from the cruise and the price looked good. They were offering an OBC but we didn't get any as the Latitudes offer was more money off than the OBC was so they gave us that instead. Usually I would have gone through an online travel agency to get onboard credit. In this case, I was concerned the price was going to jump up so booked right away with NCL despite the lack of OBC. Turns out I could have waited and gone through an agency to get OBC as the price for the guarantee balcony actually dropped $50/person shortly after we booked (down to $719/person in the week prior to the cruise was the Latitudes offer). However, we were happy with the price and it is always a gamble and could have gone either way. Had I booked through an agency and gotten OBC we would have been more likely to spend money on board, but the price overall was great for a 10 day cruise in a balcony. I had purchased a future cruise certificate during our last cruise so having $250 to apply to the cruise is always nice (and of course, we bought another one on board this time).

Our rooms were ready fairly early the first day – by about 1 p.m. We had booked a BX balcony guarantee and were assigned a B2 family balcony. It was on deck 8 and we were just a few doors down from easy access to the elevators or stairs and a few decks away from anywhere we needed to go (either up or down).

Our room steward was fabulous. One of the few drawbacks of our first NCL cruise was a not so perfect room steward. I hate to criticize anything as they all work so hard. In any event, our room steward on this cruise more than made up for any issues with our last steward. We didn't see a lot of him in the beginning as he was so good at getting in and getting out and getting everything done whenever we stepped out. He was always busy and we got cute towel animals each night. On the last night, when we tipped him extra, he genuinely seemed surprised and very grateful. On the last morning, he was hard at work as usual when we left our room for the last time. We thanked him for everything and said we hope to see him on a future cruise and he said the same.

We left Miami at 4:00 p.m.

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For sail away, we went to the pool deck and the cruise director and staff as well as the entertainment performers were there. We then found out the cruise director was JC Sanchez and got the first glimpse of him and his cruise director staff. They were the absolute best. JC Sanchez was the best cruise director we have had. We felt that he and his staff really took the time to get to know the guests and interact with them and they were all entertaining. Kristine was the assistant cruise director. Eddy, Alvin, Daria, Jojo, Sara and Gabi were other cruise director staff and they were all great. Alvin remembered our names after asking only once, which really surprised us, as he interacted with so many guests.

We went to the show in The Stardust theatre each night at 7:30 p.m. We enjoyed all of them. There were 3 production shows, a comedian, a hypnotist, acrobats, a magician, a singer and a singing group. We would get to the theatre early as they only opened it 30 minutes prior to the show and there was usually a line up.

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We also enjoyed the crew show (very talented crew) the afternoon of the last sea day with the usual NCL Fountains performance. Since you could video record or take pictures, I recorded the Fountains, JC Sanchez's performance as well as the cruise in review video which will be nice to review to remember the cruise. JC Sanchez is also a fabulous singer. He sang a song or two with the band (Exotique) in Dazzles a few nights as well.

Most nights we would go to the main show at 7:30 p.m. in the Stardust theatre and then watch whatever was taking place in Dazzles. There was often a game show (The Perfect Couple, Not so Newlywed game, etc). I remembered Dancing with the Pearl Stars from The Pearl and was happy that it was still taking place at NCL. There was a 2 part Dancing with the Sun Stars (passengers paired up with a dancer or cruise director staff). The winner of the first part competed with the winner of the second part near the end of the cruise. One of the waiters, Pasquale, took part in the 2nd competition and he was an amazing dancer. He also took part in the crew show and has a lot of talent.

There were different themed nights (e.g. 50s nights, 70s night) and of course, The White Hot Party. A band, Exotique, played most nights in Dazzles and they were great. This was their last date on The Sun and they will be on The Star from December 9 until March. They used to be with Princess for approximately 14 years and apparently no longer are due to cut backs. Princess' loss is definitely a good thing for NCL as they are great and a huge asset to NCL.

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The original captain was Ronny Borg. In Barbados, he went on vacation and Tommy Stensrud is now the captain. Ronny Borg was the captain at the Latitudes cocktail party (which was split across 2 days due to the large number of latitude members on board). Tommy Stensrud was the captain that took part in the question and answer session which I enjoyed. Steven Jacobsen, the hotel director, also took part. Steven Jacobsen was an excellent hotel director. He was very visible on the ship. We'd often see him in the restaurant talking to passengers. We remembered him from The Pearl and briefly spoke to him one morning just mentioning that we remembered him from The Pearl. He asked if everyone was treating us well and I said everyone on the ship was amazing and things were great. He had asked what room we were in. Imagine our surprise that night when we went back to our room and found a bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries compliments of Steven Jacobsen. We were SO surprised and very grateful. It was so unexpected and added to an already perfect cruise.

The ports – as I mentioned, we only briefly visited the ports on our own and bought small souvenirs everywhere except Barbados.

St. Thomas – the only port where we tendered (as there were already 3 ships at the dock). Tendering was well organized and quick. It was our third time in St. Thomas. The tender dropped us off in the downtown area. We found the store owners very aggressive. Couldn't walk a few steps without being ushered into a store. Since we weren't looking for jewelry, we took a walk to the area we'd been dropped off in before (we wanted to buy a Powerball lottery ticket and knew there was a place there to buy – unfortunately we didn't win the almost $600 million jackpot:) ). It was a nice walk and we saw an iguana.

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Dominica – again, we got off the ship and walked around a bit on our own. I also saw a turtle swimming near the ship from our balcony.

Barbados – the day we were in Barbados was Independence Day, so most things, other than right at the port were closed. We walked around a bit but an incident occurred that made us decide to go back to the ship. I know it could have happened anywhere, but it turned us off Barbados that day and we returned to the ship. As we were walking, a man came towards us and shook my husband's hand and wished him Happy Independence Day. The man had the appearance of a homeless person. My husband is friendly and shook his hand. After this, he realized, the man had put a bracelet in his hand when he shook it. My husband is the type of person that often gives his spare change to people on the street asking for it. He said no thank you and handed the bracelet back to the man. The man tried to put the bracelet on his arm while saying it was a gift. Again, he said no thank you but gave him a dollar bill. Again, the man tried to put the bracelet on his arm. As we started to walk away, he demanded $60 for the bracelet (a cheap type that you could buy for a dollar or two). Tried to block our path to prevent us from passing and made us feel threatened. Although he wasn't a big guy, we had no idea if he had any weapons. He insisted that it was Barbados, the bracelet was $60, if you touched it, it was yours and said a bunch of other stuff. We eventually got past him and saw a couple other tourists walking towards him (who he was making his way towards with the bracelet – probably something he does all day) and we advised them to avoid him.

The other cruises we have been on had a Caribbean deck party during the later evening. This time it was at the sail away the day we were in Barbados (I think think it went until about 7:30). I am guessing but am not sure, with the older age group on the ship, it was thought an earlier deck party might be preferred. I believe that night they had a Caribbean themed night in Dazzles as well (with the pool band – Titanium).

St. Lucia – another nice day.

St. Maarten – we had been here before and enjoyed it again. A highlight was seeing several dolphins swimming and jumping by the ship during sail away from our balcony. I wasn't able to get a good picture (they were way too quick), but I was happy to see them.

Before we knew it, we were at our last 2 sea days and then came debarkation day. We had the best cruise so far, continue to love NCL and freestyle cruising and are already dreaming of our next NCL cruise!

Great review! 10 days sounds so perfect to me (well, I could easily handle 30 days but that might be unrealistic :) ).

So glad you had a great time! Thanks for sharing! Alvin and Johnny Cash Sanchez are great members of the cruise staff!

Nice review, thanks for sharing....

Our first cruise was on the Sun and I would love to sail on her again. The atrium has an awe factor about it that the newer ships just don't have anymore.

Love looking at the photo's makes me more anxious for my cruise! I can't wait. :D

Hopefully we don't have snow in Toronto on January 25th to stop my flight from leaving. I am so paranoid about that. Going down a day early but still worried about a huge storm hitting. :(

Thank you for your very interesting and informative review.

We are considering the Sun's 11-day itinerary next year. From your pictures, it appears the ship is in good shape ... is it? How about your cabin? The furnishings?

:)

I see you had a balcony. Was the furniture in good shape? Comfortable? I remember the furniture on the balconies on the Sky were awful.

Did you go to the casino? Was there a variety of newer slot machines? Do you recall the table games?

Thanks again!

Thank you for the review. Getting more excited to get back on the Sun for the 3rd time after many years. Can't wait until 1/27.

My husband and I are so excited...we are on the Sun for an 11 day in Feb. We were on the the Dawn last Feb. and we totally agree with how wonderful NCL staff and crew are!!! Can't wait to meet the folks on the Sun. That trip converted us to NCL:) Does anyone know what theme nights are on an 11 day...probably the same? Gotta think about packing after Christmas:)

Thank you for your review.

I was on the Epic the day you were in St. Thomas. I watched your ship sail into the harbour just as we were backing up to the dock. I was just sitting there on my forward starboard balcony and all of a sudden, from around the bow of the Epic, comes the bow of another ship. It surprised me, but made me smile as I quickly realized it was the Sun. It also surprised me how close the two ships were at that particular point. Your ship motored in there quite quick too...quicker than I figured it would. It was interesting to watch them drop the anchor and then gently back up to dig it into the bottom to set it tight.

I stared at the Sun almost all day. She's lovely and I think next November I'll be doing the same southern Caribbean cruise on the Sun that you just did.

(If you have any long shots of the Sun with the Epic in the background you just might see me on my Haven balcony. I didn't leave our ship that day and spent a great deal of time just laying around on the balcony.)

Great review and photos. Glad you had a great cruise!

Thanks for the review!

Thanks for the review and photos!! We have been considering the Sun 10-day in 2013 or 11-day for 2014, but like you I have not seen many recent reviews, comments, or photos. The comments I have seen were so hit or miss - some loved it and said she was still in great shape, others have said she is "tired". So, I have been a little uneasy about it, but everyone has their own opinions and I think attitude is everything!

Thanks again for taking the time to give a review! :)

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the review. I always search for reviews before my cruises and love reading them, so I enjoy writing my own when I come back.

waverley7 - hopefully there is no snow when you leave Toronto. I'm always worried about that too, so just like you are doing, I also would never fly in the day of the cruise (even if I was going in the summer - I'd be too nervous about missing the cruise)!

Thank you for your very interesting and informative review.

We are considering the Sun's 11-day itinerary next year. From your pictures, it appears the ship is in good shape ... is it? How about your cabin? The furnishings?

:)

 

 

I see you had a balcony. Was the furniture in good shape? Comfortable? I remember the furniture on the balconies on the Sky were awful.

 

Did you go to the casino? Was there a variety of newer slot machines? Do you recall the table games?

 

 

Thanks again!

We found the ship to be in excellent shape. There was a little rust here and there, but other than that nothing at all would indicate the age of the ship. I know they did some refurbishing to the suites and public areas during a 12 day dry dock back in 2011, but I'm not sure how extensive it was other than that. There are probably others on the board that know a lot more about that.

There was one day we did see a drying machine further down the hall on our floor, so it appeared there may have been some sort of leak they were drying, but I've seen that on other ships as well.

The furniture in our cabin was in good shape. One day we saw a balcony chair being taken away by the steward (from another cabin) as there was a big rip in it so I assume they were replacing or repairing it. The cabin did have a really old looking TV, but it worked fine and other than that, there was nothing that would tell us the age of the cabin if we didn't already know! As for the balcony furniture being comfortable, I would say it was average and acceptable. I didn't find it uncomfortable, but there is no padding and of course the balcony chairs don't recline at all (which would make it easier if you wanted to nap). I didn't think it was uncomfortable when I was using it and did spend a lot of time on the balcony.

As for the casino, unfortunately I don't have any info on that. Being non-smokers, we don't go into the casino.

Here are a few pictures of the cabin and balcony:

Thank you for your review.

 

I was on the Epic the day you were in St. Thomas. I watched your ship sail into the harbour just as we were backing up to the dock. I was just sitting there on my forward starboard balcony and all of a sudden, from around the bow of the Epic, comes the bow of another ship. It surprised me, but made me smile as I quickly realized it was the Sun. It also surprised me how close the two ships were at that particular point. Your ship motored in there quite quick too...quicker than I figured it would. It was interesting to watch them drop the anchor and then gently back up to dig it into the bottom to set it tight.

 

I stared at the Sun almost all day. She's lovely and I think next November I'll be doing the same southern Caribbean cruise on the Sun that you just did.

 

(If you have any long shots of the Sun with the Epic in the background you just might see me on my Haven balcony. I didn't leave our ship that day and spent a great deal of time just laying around on the balcony.)

That was interesting to hear...I was getting ready in the morning, so didn't watch the ship as it pulled in an anchored.

I looked through my pictures from that day and I don't have any really close up shots of the Epic (as it was so big!) but here is one. It would probably be hard to see yourself even if you zoomed in if you were there since it is from a distance, but looking at ship pictures is always nice. I think it was taken around 11:30 a.m.

Thanks for the review and photos!! We have been considering the Sun 10-day in 2013 or 11-day for 2014, but like you I have not seen many recent reviews, comments, or photos. The comments I have seen were so hit or miss - some loved it and said she was still in great shape, others have said she is "tired". So, I have been a little uneasy about it, but everyone has their own opinions and I think attitude is everything!

 

Thanks again for taking the time to give a review! :)

Like you, I didn't find a lot about the ship. We talked to quite a few people on the ship. Most seemed happy. However, you can't please everyone. There was one particular person we saw often in the restaurant who frequently had problems with the way her food was prepared and seemed to be complaining whenever we saw them. Someone else said they thought the music in the shows were too loud, etc. We didn't have any of these concerns, but with a few thousand people on board, there will never be 100% satisfaction. I know I would love to sail on The Sun again!

Thanks for thorough review and pics. Counting the days to Jan. 6 departure on the same cruise.

Canagirl.... We were on the same cruise, stayed at the Intercontinental as well, and were on the same floor on the ship!! Sorry we didn't meet up.

How you described the cruise and staff was exactly what we found. The Hotel Manager (right title??) Stevan was amazing as was the Cruise Director - JC. Both were all over the ship meeting people and helping the crew where needed. I suspect this helped with the crew attitudes.

Shows were good to great.... esp liked the Motown trio from Detroit, just can't remember their names.

The water leak was in the room next to us and they suspected the air conditioner leaked onto the floor. Our friends in that room had no AC that day, but the staff were quick to come and try to rectify the problem.

Excellent ship, wonderful crew and a great experience.

Thank you for the wonderful review . . . we sail on the Sun for 11 days on Jan. 16th. Absolutely cannot wait! We have been on 14 cruises and have LOVED everyone of them! So I just know we will have a blast! :D

mali06 - I'm am SURE you and anyone else sailing on The Sun will have a great time:)

Canagirl.... We were on the same cruise, stayed at the Intercontinental as well, and were on the same floor on the ship!! Sorry we didn't meet up.

How you described the cruise and staff was exactly what we found. The Hotel Manager (right title??) Stevan was amazing as was the Cruise Director - JC. Both were all over the ship meeting people and helping the crew where needed. I suspect this helped with the crew attitudes.

Shows were good to great.... esp liked the Motown trio from Detroit, just can't remember their names.

The water leak was in the room next to us and they suspected the air conditioner leaked onto the floor. Our friends in that room had no AC that day, but the staff were quick to come and try to rectify the problem.

Excellent ship, wonderful crew and a great experience.

Wow! What a coincidence - plus we're both from Ontario - you weren't on the Westjet flight out of Miami at 2:50 p.m. on the Sunday were you? Most of the flight was full of cruisers.

The Motown group was called Horizons and we also enjoyed them. I didn't go to see their second show on the evening in the Observation Lounge though as we were watching whatever was going on in Dazzles.

It is nice to know what the leak was!

Like you, we loved the crew, the staff and the ship. This has set the bar pretty high for our next cruise as I don't think it can be beat.

mali06 - I'm am SURE you and anyone else sailing on The Sun will have a great time:)

 

 

 

Wow! What a coincidence - plus we're both from Ontario - you weren't on the Westjet flight out of Miami at 2:50 p.m. on the Sunday were you? Most of the flight was full of cruisers.

 

The Motown group was called Horizons and we also enjoyed them. I didn't go to see their second show on the evening in the Observation Lounge though as we were watching whatever was going on in Dazzles.

 

It is nice to know what the leak was!

 

Like you, we loved the crew, the staff and the ship. This has set the bar pretty high for our next cruise as I don't think it can be beat.

Wish you had joined our roll call -- then we would have met for sure!

Janette

Wish you had joined our roll call -- then we would have met for sure!

 

Janette

Yes, I know. We booked so last minute I didn't get to do a lot of the things I would have liked to have done with getting ready to go on the cruise:)

TBN Hubby here...

We did the Southern Caribbean about 6 weeks ago and agree that the Sun was one of our most relaxed vacations. This was our third NCL cruise and we chose it for the new to us stop in Colombia. We are Diamond on RCCL and Elite on =X= but found that we really enjoyed the Sun, particularly on this itennairy because we like to stay on the islands as long as possible and 'Freestyle' removes the pressure to get back and get ready to eat.

Unlike the OP we ate at several of the specialty restaurants and at the buffet in the evening. Ate in the main dining rooms one night each, and these were just fine, but our timing at the buffet was such that it was not at all crowded and we found the selection to be nice. Food not gourmet but neither are the other lines, now. Of the specialty restaurants, we rank the Bistro (??) and the Churrascateria good choices with very good food. Liked the tomato bisque and wings in the sports bar. The only dissapointment was the Italian restuarant that was definately NOT good and was not worth even the nominal $10 up-charge on our visit. Maybe it was just an off night for them but the food was very bad.

The freshly grilled burgers and other stuff on the deck each day were great and were by far the best burgers we have had on a ship (possible exception -- Johnny Rockets but that is a different story).

We were also at the opposite end of the room scale from the OP. We rarely are in our cabin and, as usual on the Caribbean, we had an inside cabin. On deck 8 but we were very impressed with the size -- much larger than most of the cabins we have been in over the years.

If you need skating rinks, rock walls, or merry-go-rounds, this smaller ship is probably not a good choice but The Sun has definitely entered our list of choices. Hoping to repeat this cruise next year to fulfill our future cruise we bought on board..

Thanks for the great review! We're on the cruise in Feb. 2014 that I just know CruisinTexan is going to book! I love your pictures and all of the details.