NCL Sun review with comparison

[Naismith]

I am posting this to both the NCL and HAL boards, since I am doing a comparison review.

As background, we are not dedicated cruisers.  We have been on five lines, and might do a cruise every other year or so; most of our vacations are land-based self-driven road trips.  And the cruises are based on itinerary not ship. 

As fate and deals worked out, we were on Nieuw Amsterdam in December 2022 and then on the Norwegian Sun in April 2023, just a few months later. 

Both of those ships accommodate about 2,000 pax, and both cruises were a bit undersold.  Both times we had an Oceanview on the lowest passenger deck.  So it should be a fair comparison.  A few stark differences that I noticed:

1.       THE APP.  The HAL Navigator just worked.  From the time we booked, it was full of information, with no drop-off in quality on our cruise.  We did not purchase a wifi plan on either ship.  The NCL app worked only when on ship’s wifi, which took at least three tries to get on, and regularly fell off.  The HAL Navigator included free access to the New York Times website, and a free messaging app.  NCL charges $10 for their messaging app; I am guessing that would also stop working when one fell off the network. 

2.       On the NCL Sun, menus for the MDR were available outside the main dining room, if one wanted to take a hike.  The menus on the HAL NA were available for both the MDR and buffet on both the television and app, with a clear explanation of where items could be found in the buffet, which is larger and less crowded on that ship.  Indeed, ship menus were available on the Navigator before our cruise, which helped me realize that some theme meals might be served on our cruise, and we watched for them and adjusted plans as needed. 

3.       The gym on the NCL Sun is wonderful, with a separate fitness center that allows one to do floor exercises and stretching when a class is not going on.  It is well equipped with balance balls and foam rollers and all kinds of equipment.  This really helped my back.  It was open until 11 p.m.  On the HAL NA, the gym was closed at 9 p.m., and the limited floor space was often claimed by other events.

4.       The food on the buffet on the NCL Sun was excellent; they are known for the Indian dishes, but they also had a lot of great Mediterranean choices every day:  lentil salad, hummus, baba ghanoush, and so on.  They did not have much Southeast Asian food, and none very spicy, whereas HAL NA had great lunchtime Asian choices including sushi. 

5.       The soft-serve ice cream was broken on the HAL NA when we were on, and there were two on the NCL Sun. 

6.       The buffet on HAL NA was much more hygienic, with most serving by crew.  But the NCL Sun had two sinks for handwashing, which I always did before eating.  Norovirus is not eliminated by hand sanitizer. 

7.       NCL Sun had much more outside seating available, which was important to us having come from a place where Covid and flu are still a thing.  We ate most meals outside on deck. 

8.       HAL NA had free room service when we were there, which was nice when returning from a strenuous excursion.

9.       NCL Sun had three big production shows: a Bachrach tribute, rock & roll, and world stage.  They were good if you like that kind of thing.  But too loud (I could mitigate with earplugs) and too many flashing lights (hate lights in my eyes).  I missed the simple elegance of Lincoln Center Stage. 

10.   We were really there for the ports that we were visiting; the ship was NOT the destination.  But both cruises did have some sea days to fill; HAL had incredible multi-media shows on sea days.  I really enjoyed the ones about radio and writers in the Caribbean, etc.  Although people who cruise a lot with HAL find them to be repetitive.  NCL Sun was lame by comparison.  I did enjoy the class on Filipino language, but when I went to the one on Serbian language, it was a waste—he had no handouts or powerpoint and just told stories, and even said that Albania was part of Yugoslavia, which it was NOT.  And while we are not trivia people, we did go to the “landmarks of the world” trivia.  But the pictures were hard to see, taking up only a fraction of the screen, and the questions were in illegible outline text, with a moderator who was too busy cracking jokes to actually read the questions well. 

11.   Both ships had TV news available from BBC, MSNBC and Fox.  But the HAL NA had a whole catalogue of on-demand movies, that kept track of where you stopped viewing so that you could spread a movie across a few nights.  NCL Sun had 4 channels of entertainment, but no guide as to when movies began and ended, so it was not very satisfying.  On these port-intensive cruises, we were sometimes tired when returning from port and just wanted to veg.

12.   Drinks.  We don’t drink alcohol, but might enjoy a Coke Zero in the late afternoon.  On the HAL NA, there was a 2-for-1 happy hour in the Ocean Bar from 4-6, where we were given two cans of soda and a container of peanuts.  The NCL Sun served a glass of soda with mostly ice, which we were not going to pay for.  We were not interested in a package, because a friend who had it earlier complained that she drank so many calories that she did not enjoy the cruise as much, and also because our travel agent confessed some other pax did not think it was worth the cost of the required gratuities.  As it happened, we did have a Coke Zero most afternoons, but on shore before returning to the ship.  One sea day there was a reception for veterans and so we had a glass there (I almost didn’t go because I feared that I would be the only female vet there, but about 7% were women). 

13.   On NCL Sun, even the “sailaway/guarantee” room came with a $50 excursion credit, which could be used to book in advance for one ship excursion we needed (the trip would take us far enough away that I would not do a non-ship excursion).  This credit was more flexible than waiting for onboard credit to book an excursion, a dilemma that I had faced before.

[tompeter]

Thanks for the comparison.

[RMLincoln]

Appreciate your time in sharing your experiences. Have been on both ships though not recently, so not familiar with NCL app… we’ve thought the HAL app was not great, not as easy as Carnival’s which is my only comparison so I’m surprised NCL isn’t as good. We might be cruising NCL more again, maybe out of NY which is a lot closer than Florida… I think I’m done with the drive from Maryland to FL. And without Lincoln Center Stage we’re not as drawn to HAL  
m—
 

[HappyInVan]

On 4/27/2023 at 1:20 PM, Naismith said:

9.       NCL Sun had three big production shows: a Bachrach tribute, rock & roll, and world stage.  They were good if you like that kind of thing.  But too loud (I could mitigate with earplugs) and too many flashing lights (hate lights in my eyes).  I missed the simple elegance of Lincoln Center Stage. 

 

 

Surprise. Same pax capacity, and NCL runs three production shows!

[Naismith]

2 hours ago, RMLincoln said:

Appreciate your time in sharing your experiences. Have been on both ships though not recently, so not familiar with NCL app… we’ve thought the HAL app was not great, not as easy as Carnival’s which is my only comparison so I’m surprised NCL isn’t as good. We might be cruising NCL more again, maybe out of NY which is a lot closer than Florida… I think I’m done with the drive from Maryland to FL. And without Lincoln Center Stage we’re not as drawn to HAL  
m—
 

Of course the ships embarking NYC tend to be larger, which is a whole 'nother experience than these smaller ships.  But NCL is now sailing out of Baltmore (with an expansion in the next year), which might be an easy option for you.

 

I am not sure if I mentioned that about 25% of pax disembarked in NYC, while the rest of us stayed through to Miami.  So if you can catch a train or short flight or whatever home from NYC, flying one-way to Europe and taking the cruise back to NYC is a great option.  It was such a relief not to be facing the long flight at the end, and to be able to buy more stuff along the way because we didn't have to worry about number of bags.