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Sun Review - October 9th - Southern

sonicbuffalo

By sonicbuffalo,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Karysa

Karysa

Posted
Posted
I am just going to start this review by saying it was the best cruise we've ever had. I will post pictures later today, but still in the process of downloading them.

 

We went to Cartegena, Columbia; Aruba, Curacao, St. Martin, and St. Thomas. I will go over what we did and the fanatstic couples we met and enjoyed our dinner, shows, and excursions with.

 

Just give me a little more time and I will get started. I have tons of pictures.

 

Love the SUN and understand that you remain on Caribbean time after a relaxing 11 days on this most wonderful itinerary! :D

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Arzeena

Arzeena

Posted
Posted (edited)

We were on this cruise too. Will chime in after reading the main review.

But let me put my two cents on the pre cruise hotel and the port:

 

Double Tree Grand Biscayne Bay: Nice hotel for overnight stay. Comfortable and clean beds and bathroom, big room. A little dated, but that's not a negative. In downtown area, cab and public transport available, very close to the port, about 5 minutes by cab. Walking distance to Publix, other shopping, restaurants, full deli, convenience/grocery store, hair salon, in the building complex attached to the hotel. Walking distance to a bay side park. Service at the reception was exceptionally great! Ate at Tony Chan's...nothing to write home about and their service was Ok.

 

Port of Miami departures: Chaos. Makes Bayonne look very good! Ground staff did not know where to send who. There was a lack of seating in the waiting area and very long lines inside and outside the building. Many got soaked in the downpour while waiting in line outside.

 

Will chime in with more tid bits later.

Edited by Arzeena
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Sabiney

Sabiney

Posted
Posted
We were on this cruise too. Will chime in after reading the main review.

But let me put my two cents on the pre cruise hotel and the port:

 

Double Tree Grand Biscayne Bay: Nice hotel for overnight stay. Comfortable and clean beds and bathroom, big room. A little dated, but that's not a negative. In downtown area, cab and public transport available, very close to the port, about 5 minutes by cab. Walking distance to Publix, other shopping, restaurants, full deli, convenience/grocery store, hair salon, in the building complex attached to the hotel. Walking distance to a bay side park. Service at the reception was exceptionally great! Ate at Tony Chan's...nothing to write home about and their service was Ok.

 

Port of Miami departures: Chaos. Makes Bayonne look very good! Ground staff did not know where to send who. There was a lack of seating in the waiting area and very long lines inside and outside the building. Many got soaked in the downpour while waiting in line outside.

 

Will chime in with more tid bits later.

 

What time did you arrive at the port? I really want to avoid those lines if possible.

 

Pat

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SuzyLovesNCL

SuzyLovesNCL

Posted
Posted

LOL at the number of comments and views on this thread already, with no review content yet!!

 

Does anyone have any dailies they could share?

 

Any 2-for-1 early bird specialty restaurant nights?

 

Counting (rather impatiently) the days until I board the Sun ...

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Beachgal528

Beachgal528

Posted
Posted
LOL at the number of comments and views on this thread already, with no review content yet!!

 

Does anyone have any dailies they could share?

 

Any 2-for-1 early bird specialty restaurant nights?

 

Counting (rather impatiently) the days until I board the Sun ...

 

Lol.... I thought the same thing :) can't wait to hear all the details!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

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nyjustus2

nyjustus2

Posted
Posted
We were on this cruise too. Will chime in after reading the main review.

But let me put my two cents on the pre cruise hotel and the port:

 

Double Tree Grand Biscayne Bay: Nice hotel for overnight stay. Comfortable and clean beds and bathroom, big room. A little dated, but that's not a negative. In downtown area, cab and public transport available, very close to the port, about 5 minutes by cab. Walking distance to Publix, other shopping, restaurants, full deli, convenience/grocery store, hair salon, in the building complex attached to the hotel. Walking distance to a bay side park. Service at the reception was exceptionally great! Ate at Tony Chan's...nothing to write home about and their service was Ok.

 

Port of Miami departures: Chaos. Makes Bayonne look very good! Ground staff did not know where to send who. There was a lack of seating in the waiting area and very long lines inside and outside the building. Many got soaked in the downpour while waiting in line outside.

 

Will chime in with more tid bits later.

 

Hi Arzeena! I don't remember any rain on embarkation....we got to Port of Miami at 11. There was major chaos as the Coast Guard came on board just as priority boarding started. This caused almost a 2 hr delay in boarding. I actually felt bad for the people working in there. People were getting very nasty. This inspection also caused the cabins to have a delayed opening as well. Once on board, there was a mad rush to the buffet. After seeing and hearing a few very obnoxious passengers, we ate lunch in the MDR which was much more civilized. The rest of our trip was wonderful! Disembarkation was the easiest we've ever had.

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nyjustus2

nyjustus2

Posted
Posted
LOL at the number of comments and views on this thread already, with no review content yet!!

 

Does anyone have any dailies they could share?

 

Any 2-for-1 early bird specialty restaurant nights?

 

Counting (rather impatiently) the days until I board the Sun ...

 

I have the dailies for all 11 days, but no clue how to post them here. If you send me an email to risa361@aol.com, I will happily scan and email them to you.

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hpecorari

hpecorari

Posted
Posted
Hi Arzeena! I don't remember any rain on embarkation....we got to Port of Miami at 11. There was major chaos as the Coast Guard came on board just as priority boarding started. This caused almost a 2 hr delay in boarding. I actually felt bad for the people working in there. People were getting very nasty. This inspection also caused the cabins to have a delayed opening as well. Once on board, there was a mad rush to the buffet. After seeing and hearing a few very obnoxious passengers, we ate lunch in the MDR which was much more civilized. The rest of our trip was wonderful! Disembarkation was the easiest we've ever had.

 

Yep, what she said! You took the words right out of my mouth!

 

Harriet

::waving hello::

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DMH15

DMH15

Posted
Posted
I'm thinking Sonicbuffalo was teasing us with the mention of doing a review and posting pictures. :)

 

I can remember returning from the Sun last March and being SWAMPED at work. Dirty laundry. Mail to open. Email to read. Life. Desire to write a review can be trumped by exhaustion.

 

I remember feeling so relaxed at the end of the cruise. Returning to reality was like whiplash.

 

Hopefully in a few days he will get back to us. :)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

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cj'smom

cj'smom

Posted
Posted
I have the dailies for all 11 days, but no clue how to post them here. If you send me an email to risa361@aol.com, I will happily scan and email them to you.

 

Save your files when you scan them. I'd love a copy too and am guessing others will as well. Will send you an e-mail. We sail on the 20th of next month - just a few weeks now!

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debnjoe1438

debnjoe1438

Posted
Posted
I can remember returning from the Sun last March and being SWAMPED at work. Dirty laundry. Mail to open. Email to read. Life. Desire to write a review can be trumped by exhaustion.

 

I remember feeling so relaxed at the end of the cruise. Returning to reality was like whiplash.

 

Hopefully in a few days he will get back to us. :)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

 

Your words are soooooo true:)

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sonicbuffalo

sonicbuffalo

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Posted

Sorry for the delay.....had lots of stuff to do before I could start posting. This morning, I have to take my wife to the Dr. and the dog to the groomers. I did manage to upload my pictures (all 646 of them to photobucket last night) before we went to a free movie....so I will promise to get some of the first days pictures up today. The hard work has been done. I want to thank all of you for the encouragment. Just be patient. I do have things I need to do after being gone for 2 weeks. Once I start I promise a good review. I don't scan the dailies, or post food pictures since we don't eat in the specialty restaurants.

 

My review will include our excursions and we highly recommend Claudia Vidal's tour of Cartegena. I organized the excursion under ports of call and our price went from around $80 to $40.00 per person with only 1 seat left on the 23 person bus. She was an excellent tour guide and used a portable microphone that strapped around her waist but provided great sound. The secret to Claudia's tour is to sign up as many as you can from the roll call, and she lowers the price accordingly. It was a very nice acir conditioned bus.

 

Hope this is enough to get you folks started, and I promise pictures later today. Thanks for being patient.

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sonicbuffalo

sonicbuffalo

Posted
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Posted (edited)

DSC_3121_5942.jpg

 

The couple with the man with the dark shirt and his blonde wife with the flowery prints ended up being at our dining room table the first night and we became instant friends for the entire cruise. They were so much fun, and we enjoyed each others company a great deal. This shot was taken before we got to know each other and was the line inside the terminal before we got on the ship. Mike and Donna were from St. Louis, and they didn't know us either at that time. I thought it was neat that when I started looking at our pictures, I saw them before we had actually met.

Edited by sonicbuffalo
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