Shadowmeboy's NCL Sun 12-Night Christmas New Years Caribbean Cruise Adventure

[shadowmeboy]

 

Veggies

 

 

 

Scallops and Shrimp for Susan

 

 

Shrimp to start for me

 

 

There is the beef! Steak and shrimp!

 

 

Dessert

 

 

 

Mudslide!

 

 

Harry O' - The Irish Guy - was preforming in the Theater tonight

 

 

 

 

He sang and told stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He was very good! We enjoyed his show!

 

We went to the bliss lounge to listen to the band.

 

 

 

 

Some dancers and some watchers

 

 

Susan got pulled out to the dance floor.

 

 

We grabbed something from the Garden café then headed across the pretty but deserted pool deck. Maybe its because its only like 50 degrees?

 

[AKR2011]

Welcome back, Matthew and Susan! I'm excited to follow along again. Did you finish your last review? I think I missed the conclusion. I love The Sun, and I love that Brian Walters is still running the ship. Love Harry as well! I can't remember if it was The Sun or The Dawn that I last caught him on ❤️⚓️

[shadowmeboy]

On 5/7/2024 at 6:46 PM, AKR2011 said:

Welcome back, Matthew and Susan! I'm excited to follow along again. Did you finish your last review? I think I missed the conclusion. I love The Sun, and I love that Brian Walters is still running the ship. Love Harry as well! I can't remember if it was The Sun or The Dawn that I last caught him on ❤️⚓️

 

Yes, I did. See post one of this one for the link to it. 

 

Brian has been on the Sun for close to 25 years. 

[shadowmeboy]

December 23rd, 2023

Sea Day

Location: Atlantic Ocean - Somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle sailing between the Chesapeake Bay and San Juan, Puerto Rico

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 10 by shadowmeboy

[shadowmeboy]

I  was a bit lazy this morning and slept in.

 

 

Before leaving the room, we got the laundry bag ready to hand off to housekeeping.

 

Then it was off to breakfast. First Stop was Starbucks!

 

 

Then it was off to breakfast through the Casino on deck  7.

 

 

 

 

 

Past the shops

 

 

Seven Seas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone is not awake yet! Drink that coffee!

 

 

 

Mimosa's were on the menu for this morning! Its not like were driving!

 

 

Fruit Salad

 

 

Sliced Banana and cottage cheese

 

 

Ham & Cheese Omelet

 

 

 

Eggs Benedict

 

After breakfast, we returned to the room to grab a tripod for the Floating Hotel Presentation. Here is the atrium display from Deck 6.

 

 

[shadowmeboy]

 

 

 

Finally it was time for How to Run a Floating Hotel with Cruise Director JC Sanchez!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then they had a Q&A with the Executive Chef, Food & Beverage Director Hassan, and the Guest Services Manager.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shadowmeboy]

It was finally time for the Art Auction!

 

 

Since we preregistered before the cruise, we got assigned Bid Card 101 for the entire cruise!

 

 

 

We saw and got this piece from Matt Breyer. Susan cried when she say it because of the fact her dad and brother both served.

 

 

I grabbed another Starbucks after the Auction, and we headed to the Great Outdoors for a late lunch.

 

 

Susan found a tiny duck!

 

 

Not so nice clouds

 

 

 

better this way!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pizza, Mac & Cheese, & a Mystery Dog with Chili! 

 

 

Lunch set up in Moderno as overflow to the buffet. Also where the pizza and Pho is.

 

 

oh no!

 

 

Making more!

 

 

Pizza time!

 

 

I also made myself a double burger with all the fixins!

 

 

with a salad and fries

[shadowmeboy]

We got back to the room and it started to rain and get a bit rougher.

 

 

a view out our window

 

 

So the chocolate covered strawberries and water for our latitudes perks finally showed up. This is the only downside to late upgrades. The latitudes stuff gets lost in the shuffle. We did get larger waters though. Not that we needed them as the Aqua Panna was far superior and readily available down the hall!

 

 

The Bartender at the Atrium bar made me a special drink for this evening, the Grinch!

 

 

 

 

Here is the other piece we picked up at the morning art auction!

 

[shadowmeboy]

 

Dinner tonight at Cagney's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crab Cake

 

 

 

Wedge Salad with ranch and no blue cheese; They loaded up the bacon!

 

 

Caesar Salad

 

 

 

Steaks and all the fixins!

 

I got a Porterhouse and Susan got a filet.

 

 

 

Dessert Menu

 

 

 

 

Seven Layer Cake

 

 

I got the Cheesecake with out the Caramel Topping.

[QuattroRomeo]

The photo of you with Susan, and your Grinch- that's a keeper!!

[shadowmeboy]

16 minutes ago, QuattroRomeo said:

The photo of you with Susan, and your Grinch- that's a keeper!!

exactly! It did make the Final Cut of 25 pictures out of the nearly 300 we took on this cruise!

[NikiPinkston]

Hi, Matthew,

I always enjoy your reviews, especially those on the Sun because we'll be sailing her in a few weeks. (And I'm always happy to hear you say that she's your favorite ship!)

I have a couple of questions that I hope you can help me with. Is there a place to drop off a carry-on bag once you get onboard? Do you recall which MDR is open on embarkation day? And, last but not least, is Seven Seas MDR accessible by elevator, or stairs only?

We always have our embarkation day lunch in the MDR and, since we'll have a carry-on, I'm trying to figure out if we'll have to lug it up and down stairs. Thank you so much for your help!

NIki

[shadowmeboy]

7 hours ago, NikiPinkston said:

Hi, Matthew,

I always enjoy your reviews, especially those on the Sun because we'll be sailing her in a few weeks. (And I'm always happy to hear you say that she's your favorite ship!)

I have a couple of questions that I hope you can help me with. Is there a place to drop off a carry-on bag once you get onboard? Do you recall which MDR is open on embarkation day? And, last but not least, is Seven Seas MDR accessible by elevator, or stairs only?

We always have our embarkation day lunch in the MDR and, since we'll have a carry-on, I'm trying to figure out if we'll have to lug it up and down stairs. Thank you so much for your help!

NIki

 

Niki,

 

I have never looked for a place to drop off the bag on embarkation day, so I don't know if the Sun has one. Sorry 😞 

 

Seven Seas is the Aft MDR and open for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. It will also be the MDR open when you board the Sun. The aft elevators are in the open area across from Seven Seas, so no need to lug your suitcase down stairs. 3 of the 4 elevators stop at deck 5 and one goes down to deck 4, so there are two sets of buttons. Keep that in mind.

 

Decks 6 & 7 are your pass through decks. These are the decks you can go from the forward to aft or vice versa without going outside or going down hallways of staterooms. Decks 11 and 12 are pass through decks but you have to go outside to go forward to aft or vice versa. 

 

Hope that helps!

 

Matthew

[shadowmeboy]

Sorry for the lack of progress the last few days. Last week was candidate filing week. Additionally, this past weekend we had to go out of town, because it was my Niece's 2nd Birthday Party. Miss Aribella loved opening up her gifts!  

[shadowmeboy]

 

After dinner, we headed down to the Theater for the Comedy show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JC closing out the show. The comedian was good but she did have a card to keep her on track, which was a bit distracting. 

 

After the show, we headed to the Sports Bar to watch some football. Buffalo was playing the LA Chargers that night.

 

 

 

 

The crowd on this sailing loved its professional football games. The Sports Bar was always packed.

 

--

 

I will do some more tomorrow

[NikiPinkston]

1 hour ago, shadowmeboy said:

 

Niki,

 

I have never looked for a place to drop off the bag on embarkation day, so I don't know if the Sun has one. Sorry 😞 

 

Seven Seas is the Aft MDR and open for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. It will also be the MDR open when you board the Sun. The aft elevators are in the open area across from Seven Seas, so no need to lug your suitcase down stairs. 3 of the 4 elevators stop at deck 5 and one goes down to deck 4, so there are two sets of buttons. Keep that in mind.

 

Decks 6 & 7 are your pass through decks. These are the decks you can go from the forward to aft or vice versa without going outside or going down hallways of staterooms. Decks 11 and 12 are pass through decks but you have to go outside to go forward to aft or vice versa. 

 

Hope that helps!

 

Matthew

Matthew, 

Thank you so much for all of the great information! You are the best!

Niki

[YVRteacher]

@NikiPinkston hi Niki 

since going to once a day room cleaning and reducing the number of room stewards on board (meaning cabins aren’t ready until after 2:30pm) every NCL ship has luggage storage on embarkation day. It is on the same deck as the boarding deck, so either deck 6 or 7. Just ask when you board.

Edited May 14 by YVRteacher

[NikiPinkston]

10 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

@NikiPinkston hi Niki 

since going to once a day room cleaning and reducing the number of room stewards on board (meaning cabins aren’t ready until after 2:30pm) every NCL ship has luggage storage on embarkation day. It is on the same deck as the boarding deck, so either deck 6 or 7. Just ask when you board.

Thank you, Yvonne! I so appreciate your answering my question. Hope that you're feeling better. I love reading about your adventures. You rock!

[shadowmeboy]

December 24th, 2023

Sea Day/Evening Arrival into San Juan

Location: Atlantic Ocean - Getting closer to Puerto Rico! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shadowmeboy]

 

What a gorgeous morning!

 

 

We still have close to 12 hours of sailing until we reach San Juan and the natives are getting restless. The kids on this ship cannot wait to get off and touch dry land. I have enjoyed the Sea Days, plus this was the first morning I didn't have to bring my sweatshirt out! We finally got to the warmer waters!

 

Baltimore was our coldest sailaway ever at 38 degrees.

 

 

Look a rainbow!

 

 

Do you know who didn't see the rainbow? Sleeping Beauty! I mean Susan. Plus about 95% of the rest of the ship!

 

 

 

1st breakfast!

 

 

Washy Washy Crew singing Washy Washy Christmas Carols!

[shadowmeboy]

Time for (2nd) breakfast in Seven Seas

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my rant. I miss the deep fried hashbrown coins. I liked them. I feel the breakfast potatoes now are often inconsistently seasoned, have way too many onions, and don't offer that crunch factor I want. I find to make the potatoes palatable, I have to dunk them in a little yellow mustard. Something about the mustard makes them taste better. I know, I know, I'm weird. Ok Rant over.

 

 

Fruit Salad with Cottage Cheese

 

 

Yogurt with granola

 

 

I decided to make a DIY breakfast sandwich this morning. Eggs to order with Cheese and ham and/or bacon on a full bagel (no cream cheese - trust me they always want to bring cream cheese). Suggestion if you do this, make sure to get the eggs over medium and make sure the eggs yolk is fully popped or you will be wearing the yolk! 

 

 

Waffle with Bacon and Ham

 

[shadowmeboy]

 

Susan did a massage in the spa this morning after breakfast.

 

 

She did one of the combo special packages.

[shadowmeboy]

 

A bit later, it was a Gingerbread House decorating demonstration! Eric, the chef, was on the encore last year with us! He did the same thing on the Encore the year prior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric is very talented.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Completed Masterpiece!

 

Video from Eric's presentation:

--

[NikiPinkston]

8 hours ago, shadowmeboy said:

 

What a gorgeous morning!

 

 

We still have close to 12 hours of sailing until we reach San Juan and the natives are getting restless. The kids on this ship cannot wait to get off and touch dry land. I have enjoyed the Sea Days, plus this was the first morning I didn't have to bring my sweatshirt out! We finally got to the warmer waters!

 

Baltimore was our coldest sailaway ever at 38 degrees.

 

 

Look a rainbow!

 

 

Do you know who didn't see the rainbow? Sleeping Beauty! I mean Susan. Plus about 95% of the rest of the ship!

 

 

 

1st breakfast!

 

 

Washy Washy Crew singing Washy Washy Christmas Carols!

I LOVE this, Matthew! Washy Washy Christmas Carols and a rainbow? Score! You have inspired me to get up and out early in the morning.😊❤️🌈

[shadowmeboy]

5 minutes ago, NikiPinkston said:

I LOVE this, Matthew! Washy Washy Christmas Carols and a rainbow? Score! You have inspired me to get up and out early in the morning.😊❤️🌈

I see the most whales in Alaska in the mornings. Plus some of my most favorite photographs have been taken during the quiet times early in the mornings. 
 

I definitely encourage people to get up and embrace the mornings on a cruise ship!