Back July4th SUN to Alaska

[darlong]

Well here I am. Sorry I did not post during the cruise. I had my MAC with me, but the satellite net service was spotty and went down at some points.

 

I'm doing this post by the numbers.

 

1. The ship is wonderful. Clean and meticulously kept. There was a warmth and comfort factor I have not found on other cruises.

 

2. We had a big family group of 8...kids, 13, 18, 19, 21, DH (34) and myself (43) and DH's parents (59 and 60) DH's dad has a chronic health issue and is a very picky eater to boot. My daughter is the pickiest eater I know. We had 3 cabins on deck 11 forward. They were mini-suites 1013, 1009, and 1004. Wonderful. Enough room for 3 or 4, the bathrooms have a great walk in closet/dressing area with a dressing table and mirror and of course a full tub and shower.

 

Fruit basket with the best grapes in the world, champagne and a stem of orchids graced our cabins.

 

3. Service. having read the CC boards for these past 6 months I was prepared for some issues. What i was not prepared for was the kind and professional service I saw from nearly everyone. If I had something that was not being resolved I would politely go to a different crew member and explain. Usually things turned out to be a simple language barrier and things were quickly cleared up.

 

4. Teen program. My daughter loved it. She made friends and took part in many of the activities. She also hung out with other kids and visited some of the other kid programs. She has a pile of email addresses from other kids and they hung out. She brought her own PS2 and her DDR dance pad and game and the kids had a blast.

 

5. It rained and misted and fogged, but we were well prepared and did not mind the weather at all.

 

6. The food.

 

I gained 4 Kgs. Anything on the menu could be ordered plain without the fancy sauce, topping, etc. The buffets offered good basic food as well as a few great touches. The outside buffet on the aft deck was a great place to grab a burger, ribs, terrific pizza or make your own tacos and watch for whales. We saw some orcas, humpbacks, some dolphins, eagles, seals and ravens.

 

WE ate in Pacific heights (quite good for low fat and low salt)

as well as the 7 seas and Four seasons. The food ranged from good to exceptional. Yes there were some things that i would have done differently but that is a matter of taste. If you are looking for white glove service and haute cuisine this is not your cruiseline.

 

If you are looking for a less regimented, more relaxed kind of cruise with a wide variety of food and activities...you should like this.

 

This was the first time I actually hated to leave a ship. Everyone felt the same way. My daughter hugged the cruise director (Colin), and the Captain with whom she had struck up an ongoing conversation when he visited the teen program and other ship areas.

 

I'll post a full review later including areas needing improvement (front desk, pre cruise registration, internet manager, art show manager) and answer any questions.

 

Alaska? Spectacular. Over 1000 digital pics taken, 4 digital video tapes worth...and it still does not even begin to capture it.

 

At one point I was looking at the fjords rising above me, waterfalls and glacial ice and alternating between staring in awe and peering through my camera I was muttering WOW softly over and over again. There are simply no other words...

[yellownovawife]

Welcome Back Darlong. Thank you for posting your review. I am so glad to hear that you had such a great time. We will be on the Sun Aug. 22 and can only hope for such a great experience. Were young people allowed to audition for the Star Seekers Show? Did you see the "Northern Lights?" Looking forward to hearing more!

[shoreguy]

Welcome ashore, glad you enjoyed the Alaska. I can't wait until August when we get our second chance to cruise on the Sun. The ship does not get alot of press but I think it is the best ship with the best crew in the NCL fleet. Not flashy but warm and comfortable.

 

I also enjoyed the great outdoor cafe much better then being stuck inside at the traditional buffet for a quick breakfast, just didn't know if we would get much use out of it in Alaska.

 

Maybe the reason we don't here alot on CC is because there are so few complaints. :cool:

[ute_fan]

The main problem with the Great Outdoor Cafe is that it is COLD at breakfast time. We ate up there one morning when we slept in too late for the regular restaurant. I hadn't taken a sweatshirt or jacket, and I was pretty chilly before I was done eating.

[darlong]

Well one good thing about being from Canada...it puts a different perspective on cold. : )

 

Because as our beloved Captain said "In Alaska, weather is everything", we expected every day to be misty, cool, windy and rainy. The sunshine when it came, was a welcome bonus. Nobody(in our group) went anywhere without their jacket or fleece (or binocculars and camera). Unless it is a steady rain you can dress to accomodate the weather and enjoy a nice leisurely breakfast outside with the best view for whales. There was always a table available...even when the inside was crowded. The inside buffet was nice very early (5:30 am-7:00) where the same people would get tables by the window and wake up with coffee, tea and sweet rolls. The crew and staff would often stop by to wish people a good morning and it was quiet.

 

I looked for examples of tables filled with dirty dishes, line ups etc...but nobody in our party of 8 (and we had 3 who ate almost exclusively at the buffets, not just the kids) found this to be the case.

 

The air temps (I wrote them down) were as follows: 24C (Vancouver) 20C, 15C, 14C, 12C (up by the fjord), 14C, 15C, 16C...One day we had gale force winds...it felt cooler. When we had sun it felt warmer. When it really rained (1 day only) it felt cooler.

 

Prepare for the weather...get a decent water/wind proof coat that breathes take a polar fleece, you will be set.

[Casshew]

Hey... great to read your review, we sail Aug 8th.

 

Thanx as well for your help with my picky eater.

 

Will you be posting any of these 1000 digital pics?? If so I would love to see them.

 

Thanx, Cassie

[Casshew]

Hi again ~ sorry to double dip with my posts :D

 

But... I was watching the bridge cam all week and in Skagway there was a cool looking ship docked in front of The Sun.. do you know what she is called? She is much smaller with Arches and a double stack.. kind of old fashioned looking.

 

Also in Skagway - do you have to walk to the trains or do they transport you over?

 

It looked rainy and icky that day, foggy... could you see the mountains??

[darlong]

Hiya Cassie...when I get the best of the pics formatted on a site I'll post a link. As to Skagway...the trains pull up right beside the dock, and if you book through NCL they will transport you by bus (especially if you are booking the best of Skagway or Train up bus back tour) to the train station...which is only a couple of short blocks from the dock anyway...

 

Yes, we had horrible fog in Skagway, so thick you could not see your hand in front of your face. Then it rained... : ) But we endured and had a blast. WE missed out on a lot of the scenery because of the dense fog. Even when we crossed the pass and boarded the bus to take us back...the visibility was poor. I stood out on the deck of the train car and got some very interesting pictures of the other side of the track and some cool video.

 

It was a different experience than what we expected, but weather is weather. We were dressed for it and took what we could get.

 

Of all the tours this is one we would not do again...we enjoyed it but look forward to doing something different next time.

 

Hope you have better luck with the weather!

[blindone]

Glad you had such a good time. Did you find out if you can download your digital pictures onto a disc at the end of the cruise? We are on the April 16th repo next year thru the Panama Canal. Thanks.

[darlong]

If you do not bring your own laptop, you are at the mercy of the internet cafe PCs which are great but I did not see the software on them to burn the pics. If you have software I might bring it and try to do it. The internet manager was not very approachable and really wasn't helpful as far as asking questions, I found checking with other crew members to be more helpful. We ended up buying another memory stick and using that.

[travelling fools]

You did say you were on the Sun this past week-July 4th?

Because the weather was not as bad as you make it sound.Skagway-There was a little fog in the morning and then it lifted.The pool deck was filled with sunbathers and swimmers all afternoon-nice and warm!Same as Wrangell lots of us by the pool in swimsuits.It was overcast and cool Saturday coming back to Vancouver.A little shower in Ketchikan and overcast for awhile but it never poured.

It was windy in Sawyer Glacier but most times it is as you go throught the fiords

Juneau-no jackets for us at Mendehall Glacier.Nice sunny weather.

I do agree the ship was great. Colin the cruise director was the best!For those who are going to the Sun he will not be there as he is going to the Dawn.

We had a fantastic trip!The only things we did not like - boarding was long and the photographers we found was pushy and miserable.

[darlong]

I was on the Sun from June 27 until July 4th. I did not make the weather sound worse than it was. I reported actual air temps, (14C) and by noon in Skagway we still could not see out the train window. I have a wonderful and eerie selection of photos of the fog even at 4pm. I also have pics of us in our Goretex coats with hoods (as it was raining) during our Liarsville stop as the kids panned for gold.

The Captain said during the crew farewell that ALaska is all about weather...and we certainly had some interesting days. But we were well attired and loved every minute of it.

The pools had people in them on some days, but only our embarkation day and parts of our last day at sea saw many people in the swim suits relaxing around the pool.

I heard the weeks before us had temps of up to 90 degrees, so you really do have to be prepared for anything.

 

I'm going to put my "Alaska Weather" photos on a page and link them. I'm from Ontario, although I am a Maritimer originally so I am well used to fog. With temps of -40 in the winter I am well used to the cold.

[travelling fools]

When you said July 4th I thought you were getting on.You must have been getting off as we got on.The weather changes quickly in Alaska.We heard the week before was cold,rainy and windy alot of the time llike you said.

The water was nice and calm all week which was good as my friend was a little nervous as she had never cruised before and was expecting the worst.

 

Isn't cruising a great way to see the world.

[snoopy_leogirl]

I am so happy to hear that you had a great cruise! BTW, where did your cruise start and end? We're on the NCL Spirit, round-trip from Seattle.

[darlong]

We were round trip from Vancouver. We saw a lot of the other Alaskan bound ships...except for the bad fog day when we watched the enormous Saphire Princess disappear before our eyes as the mist rolled in. What a weird experience. : )

 

Alaska has its own beauty...regardless of the weather.