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

[armwinder]

Diann,

 

Thanks for the gifts, the mug sure came in handy for the 2 for 1 drinks.

[Karysa]

Thanks guys, now looking even more forward to this cruise.:)

[seagypsea]

Diann,

 

Thanks for the gifts, the mug sure came in handy for the 2 for 1 drinks.

 

Ha! You're welcome... Can you believe we never made it to one Happy Hour??? I've never been on a ship that had 2/1 drinks EVERY day. This may be my new favorite cruise line. There must have been something else going on at that time that made me forget about this!

 

BTW, my review has posted today. I'm having a hard time getting used to the new home page, but if you go to Community and then Member reviews you can pull up the Sun, but then you have to go back again to look at the Port reviews. The good news is when you type in one port (like Barbados) all the ports in my review come up.

[2boyzmom]

I heard there were only 90 children on our Sun Thanksgiving cruise this year. We hardly saw any, and the kids activities are so great that the parents we met said that their children would rather be there than with them. :D

 

I have two kids and this is another reason I love a longer cruise. The amount of kids are cut in half (at least) and they receive lots more TLC in the kids club :)

[nana&poppy2526]

DH and I will be sailing out of Miami on the Sun on December 26th, for an 11-day Southern Caribbean cruise. Your review did not help temper my excitement whatsoever! Thanks so much for the wonderful review and pictures. I plan to do a review (my first) when we return, especially if I'm as happy with it as you are!

 

Thanks bunches!

Bonnie

[Rochesterboatingdotcom]

We were on this cruise last week and had a good cruise, our first time on the Sun, we would go back. Our experience in the Italian restaurant was good.

 

We've sailed 5 NCL ships and done the Italian restaurant on all - the Sun's was the best by far. Service was awesome and the location tucked away on deck 5 was perfect. My wife likened it to a romantic railroad dining car, as it was long and narrow. We ended up doing two dinners there. LeBistro on the Sun was our least favorite, service was terrible, over one hour to get served. They did end up giving us another dinner for free which was nice.

[CarolRoy]

TBN Hubby here...

 

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.

 

We are sailing the Sun in March 2013 on the 10-day itin. This will be our first cruise on NCL. We also booked an inside cabin on Deck 8. Did you have a "sideways" cabin? Was that why it seemed large. This is the first time we will be doing an inside cabin. Usually do an ocean view.

[Cupcrazy]

Thanks for the review and the great pictures!

[cmdchiefthom]

Thanks for your extensive review and photos. It confirms my decision to book the Sun for ten days in October. ;)

[signora]

Sailing the 10 day Sun itinerary next Xmas (2013) and looking forward to interested folks posting on our Roll Call! This will be the first 10-day for DH and me and we can't wait. On that 7th day we'll be partying, not disembarking!

[tinybabynurse]

TBN Hubby here...

 

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.

 

We are sailing the Sun in March 2013 on the 10-day itin. This will be our first cruise on NCL. We also booked an inside cabin on Deck 8. Did you have a "sideways" cabin? Was that why it seemed large. This is the first time we will be doing an inside cabin. Usually do an ocean view.

 

No, wasn't the sideways cabin. Was about in the center of the aft group of cabins. 8133 I think. Anyway, had the normal bed, enough space to easily walk on both sides and a nice size couch and plenty of storage space in the room. I did have the 'phone booth' round shower and limited storage in the 'head' but adequate...

 

This as opposed to our normal inside cabins that have the bed, and almost enough room to walk sideways between the room and the bed

[sonicbuffalo]

Thanks for the review....pictures were great!

[tocruzagain]

How early did you have to be back onboard before sail away on port days? I saw on the NCL web site where it said you do not debark the ship until 2hrs after docking and must be onboard 2hrs before sail away. This would cut your time in port in half???? We have sailed on Carnival and RCCL and had to be onboard 30mins before sail away.

[jdvmd]

How early did you have to be back onboard before sail away on port days? I saw on the NCL web site where it said you do not debark the ship until 2hrs after docking and must be onboard 2hrs before sail away. This would cut your time in port in half???? We have sailed on Carnival and RCCL and had to be onboard 30mins before sail away.

 

This is not correct. It applies to your point on embarkation only. You need to be back no later than 30 minutes prior to sail away.

[mickanddoe]

thank you so much for posting the video of the sun.. 16 more days and we will be there sailing away..

[tocruzagain]

Thanks for the clarification!

[DorothyB]

Thanks! I'm going on the Sun in May to Alaska.

 

You mentioned an "ice cream station" different than the soft serve ice cream? Where was it? Good ice cream? What flavors? Toppings?

 

Thanks again!

[Canagirl]

Thanks! I'm going on the Sun in May to Alaska.

 

You mentioned an "ice cream station" different than the soft serve ice cream? Where was it? Good ice cream? What flavors? Toppings?

 

Thanks again!

 

The ice cream area is in the buffet. It is staffed and they serve you - you tell them what you want. They have soft serve there, but also have the non-soft serve. From what I remember they had chocolate, vanilla & strawberry (can't remember if they had anything else). They have a variety of toppings/sauces/sprinkles, etc and you let them know what you want. They also have some little desserts there such as brownies, etc. that you can take yourself. The hours that this area is open are listed in the Freestyle Daily but I think it closed around 9 - 9:30 most days.

[Mrs. Squirrel]

How early did you have to be back onboard before sail away on port days? I saw on the NCL web site where it said you do not debark the ship until 2hrs after docking and must be onboard 2hrs before sail away. This would cut your time in port in half???? We have sailed on Carnival and RCCL and had to be onboard 30mins before sail away.

 

I saw the same thing on the web site before our first NCL cruise last February on Epic. We have since been on the Sky and getting ready to go on the Sun next week. I was very worried about this. Trust me, NCL handles port time the same way as all the other cruises we have ever done with Celebrity, RCI, and Carnival. I don't know why the web site says this but wonder how many potential cruisers are turned off by this while searching for a cruise!

[time2cruise1]

How early did you have to be back onboard before sail away on port days? I saw on the NCL web site where it said you do not debark the ship until 2hrs after docking and must be onboard 2hrs before sail away. This would cut your time in port in half???? We have sailed on Carnival and RCCL and had to be onboard 30mins before sail away.

 

The 2 hrs is for embarkation from Miami. They need to send the final manifest to Homeland Security at least 1 hour before they can sail. If its late the ship can't leave until an hour have they have confirmation that Homeland Security has the document. Like every other line all aboard is 30 minutes before sail away at the ports you visit.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - Jim

[put me on a ship]

We're on the sun in December for the 11 day, and your review just has me MORE excited to try this ship (and NCL)! I have a feeling we are going to like it a lot!!!! Thanks for the review and pictures.

[cruzndiz]

I see you have been on a number of Carnival ships... I had, too, until I switched over to NCL. Hopefully you will love the change as much as we did! The Sun is an awesome little ship - you should have a great time :D

[put me on a ship]

I see you have been on a number of Carnival ships... I had, too, until I switched over to NCL. Hopefully you will love the change as much as we did! The Sun is an awesome little ship - you should have a great time :D

 

I think we will LOVE NCL! I just wished they offered more sailings out of FL in the late spring/summer months. I know the Getaway will be year round out of Miami in 2014, and I've already been looking at that, and also looking at booking the Pearl in December 2014! So, yeah, I haven't even stepped foot on an NCL ship yet, and I'm already a convert!

[Arzeena]

Canagirl, thanks, it was a great review. We are on the Sun this October 9.

[gelo7]

Great review.