Long Review - NCL Sun to Alaska

[wiselindag]

This is a description of our Alaskan cruise on the NCL Sun, August 5-12, 2007.

 

Who We Are: We are a family of three. I am a retired educator approaching 60 and my husband is in his 60’s. Our 18 year old son accompanied us on this cruise. I have taken 22 cruises; husband and son have taken five, and we selected NCL because our son prefers freestyle.

 

Embarkation

On Sunday, August 5th after a lovely evening at the Pan Pacific in Vancouver, we took the elevator downstairs to the cruise terminal and checked in with NCL -- easiest registration in history! Gave the guy our bags, stood on a short line for immigration/customs, went to the Latitudes check-in (no one in line), got our cards and walked onto the ship. Amazingly, although it was just about noon, the cabin was ready and we were able to go straight there and leave our carry-on luggage. Another surprise awaited us -- we got a bottle of champagne and a note that we were being given the Honeymoon/Anniversary package (even though we were celebrating neither!). Included were champagne, strawberries, special canapes on Monday evening, two free specialty restaurant cover charges, and some discounts on computer minutes, purchases, etc. (pretty much duplicating those in the coupon booklet we already had) and an invitation to the Honeymoon/Anniversary party with a free picture to be taken there. We didn't make it to the party, but we did enjoy the Specialty Restaurant freebie (in Le Bistro) and the champagne and strawberries. Apparently the “goodies” were part of our booking.

 

For lunch, we went down to the main restaurant (Seven Seas) where a crew member standing outside did his best to encourage us to go up to the buffet for lunch. We politely told him that we much preferred the restaurant and went in for a lovely meal with lots of attention since the place was mostly empty. A few other stalwart passengers joined us while the rest of our fellow cruise-goers jostled each other in the too-small buffet upstairs... why does NCL offer lunch in the dining room and then try to discourage people from eating there?? (We had a similar experience on the NCL Spirit six months ago).

 

After lunch we went up on deck and tried out the hot tubs and the pool during sail-away. A big poolside barbecue was taking place and it appeared that many cruise-goers were on line for that. I think the barbecue accounted for the small numbers in the dining room when we later went to dinner. This was the one night we tried the Four Seasons restaurants mid-ship on Deck 5. Since we had the wait staff almost to ourselves, service was great and the dinner was excellent. Later in the week we heard some people say they thought the service wasn't as good in the Four Seasons as it was in the Seven Seas, but on this one occasion, it was stellar.

 

The Staff

This first day set the tone for the cruise. All in all, this was a lovely cruise -- excellent service all over the ship and very congenial fellow cruisers. The food and service were very good in the dining room. The two guys who did our cabin -- Jeoffrey and Michael for Cabin 9049 were terrific (couldn't be nicer or more responsive) and the cabin was kept in excellent condition.

 

Entertainment

The cruise staff was very capably led by Linda Minnikin. For me, she was the perfect Cruise Director. She was upbeat without overdoing the schmaltz. She did a few jokes, introduced the talent, did the appropriate thank-you’s and got out of the way. Everything ran like clockwork (always a tribute to the cruise director). When she had a moment to chat with passengers, she was friendly and engaging. On the Sun, the entertainment was great in the showroom and around the ship. We especially enjoyed the Cats’ Pajamas (an a cappella group which performed in various venues), a very humorous magician, and Whit Haydn. All of the Jean Ann Ryan singers and dancers were terrific and there were three excellent production shows for this seven night cruise, so we were very well entertained.

 

The Ship

The NCL Sun is very well decorated and maintained, but I didn't like this ship's design or layout. I am accustomed to ships the size of the Sun (having sailed many times on Celebrity Century class and Royal Caribbean Vision Class ships among others), but have never before been on a ship this size that felt this cramped. The cabin (we had a balcony) was on the small side, but the bathroom must win the contest for smallest bathroom on a cruise ship! I have never seen a bathroom this tight (much less used one for a week)! That said, the bathroom was functional (I missed a storage cabinet, but there were six shallow shelves on which we could place our toiletries). The cabin was tight, but it was large enough to accommodate us – both storage and desk space sufficed. Although many people have complained about NCL beds, we didn’t think they were too firm and slept well (we had discussed the possibility of egg crates, but decided to try the beds without them first – no problems!) I liked the arrangement for the third bed (they made the couch up as a single, perpendicular to our queen, so we didn’t have to trip over our son when moving around the cabin).

 

Throughout the ship the hallways seemed narrow. The area in the middle of the ship where the glass elevators are located was extremely narrow. The public bathrooms were absurdly small. Even the bathroom outside the main show room (which since it was one flight up from the dining room also served this area) was so small that if three women were in there at the same time you had to do an intricate dance to move around and avoid each other and the opening/closing doors!).

 

The show room was horribly designed with pillars blocking sight lines and virtually no rise in the seating area to ensure visibility. The front half of the main floor has moveable chairs that were always tightly jammed making it tough to move into a "row" (which wasn't really a row!) since the chairs ended up drifting away from each other and the back half had banquettes with high backs which made it tougher to see since the rows didn't rise much as you moved back! In the balcony there were more pillars to avoid.

 

All the public rooms were crowded and there was a general lack of walkways. There was no way to walk from the middle of the ship to the back without going through the photo gallery on deck 6 and they also used this area for "sidewalk" sales, so it was often congested in the evening, especially when the shows were over. On deck 7 you needed to walk through the rooms where events were taking place (i.e.. the Dazzles nightclub, which was the venue for many performances and games) and the Windjammer, where the piano bar and other activities were going on. The library/game room area was cramped and not inviting. My last two NCL cruises were on the Spirit and I didn’t notice this problem on that ship.

 

Last but definitely not least, the buffet is very problematic. For one thing, it's much smaller than on other ships because the deck space usually devoted to the buffet is given over to several Freestyle areas including the Sports Bar and the Pacific Heights Restaurant. In the morning they do waffles (adequate, but they should learn from Celebrity how to do really good breakfast waffles!) in Pacific Heights and omelettes upstairs in Las Ramblas. We learned that it was best to get food somewhere and then carry it to the Sports Bar, where we were able to get a table. Trying to find a table in the buffet area is frustrating and no one offers to help you with this (unlike other ships where they do carry your tray and find you a place to eat it). On the Sun, if you ask for help, they will assist you, but in my experience you have to ask first even if you are overloaded and looking frustrated, which I often was!) With the food spread out and no trays, it's necessary to run back and forth from your seat to the buffet and the various areas. While this helps with the exercise program, it is far from relaxed eating and if I could have avoided the buffet completely, I would have. Unfortunately on an itinerary with very early docking and early departures in Alaska, we either didn't have time to go to the dining room or didn't get up in time (on sea days) to get there before they closed, so we were forced to use the buffet for breakfast. Another thing I didn't like was that they often didn't have smoked salmon in the buffet area. When I asked a supervisor about this, she sent one of the staff members down to the kitchen galley to get me a plate of smoked salmon, cream cheese and a toasted bagel (very nicely done and my thanks to Milagros and Maribel), but they should always have smoked salmon available somewhere on the buffet in my opinion. I also had a negative experience in the omelette line. When it was my turn, I asked for eggs over easy and had to wait for the one pan with which they do non-omelettes (in use by the other omelette maker at the time!) Then they didn’t have a proper spatula for fried eggs and as a result, the yolks were broken. Lots of room for improvement in the breakfast areas!

 

Food: The food on the Sun is the best freestyle food I have had to date. As indicated, breakfast was barely adequate but could have been much better, but lunch and dinner in the dining rooms were quite good. I, too, am a fan of the cold soups served on NCL and on this ship they appeared on both the lunch and dinner menus… always good! Among the lunches I sampled and enjoyed were the following: a Tturkey Club Sandwich, Fried Chicken from the grill, Fried calamari, Greek Salad, Beef Udon, and Fish and Chips. Cheeseburgers could definitely use improvement. Dinners were uniformly good. Among the dishes I enjoyed were: Salad with Roquefort and Candied Walnuts, Pappardelle with Ragu, Seafood Cocktail, Pumpkin and Ginger Soup, Lobster Tail, Black Bean Soup (delicious!), Spaghetti Carbonara, Broiled Salmon, Prime Rib, and Roast Turkey. Desserts were excellent and on various nights I had Soufflé with Grand Marnier, Crème Brulee with Chocolate, a Cappuccino/Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate/orange mousse, a parfait, and a very nice cheese plate. We also sampled dinner in Le Bistrot – very good and tapas in Las Ramblas. I hadn’t expected such a large selection! On the night we were there they had Fried Sardines, Crudites, Celery with Artichoke Dip, Grilled Chorizo Sausage, Pork Empanada, Fried Scallops and Almond Dip, Egg with Tuna Mayo, Mozzarella Balls, Olives, Pickles, Artichoke Hearts, Stuffed Grape Leaves, and Eggplant with Garlic and Tomato… and then I went to dinner!! I didn’t try to eat Tapas again, but I did visit Las Ramblas for drinks on the last night and was interested to note that they had a different selection of goodies in the cases. In all I gained three pounds!

 

Ports: This ship docked in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway and sailed up the Tracy Arm to the Sawyer Glaciers on the afternoon after our departure from Juneau. We tendered in Ketchikan (apparently NCL has been taking turns with the other cruise lines for docking privileges and it was our turn to dock, but Princess needed the dock space to take on water since it's water production wasn't keeping up), so we tendered. This wasn't a problem for us because we didn't have big plans in Ketchikan. By the time we finished breakfast they had dispensed with tender numbers and it was open tendering so we just went down to the tender deck (3) and hopped on ... quick and easy in both directions. We walked into town, strolled along Creek Street, and walked up to the fish ladder to watch the salmon trying to make it up the rocks.

 

Juneau is a great port and in the past I have taken a plane ride over the glacier to a salmon bake and loved every minute of it. For this trip we followed the advice of many cruise critic users and took the $6 Mendanhall Express Bus. Although the MGT line is recommended, we discovered that they had a driver out and they sent us to their competition -- Juneau City Transit. which was excellent. They run express buses every half hour and we had a great driver with a comedic spiel from town to the glacier -- very funny, friendly and efficient. Once at the glacier (they let you out in the parking area) we walked over to the moraine path, which took us to a little beach with excellent glacier viewing and chunks of glacial ice to explore. On the way back we stopped on a bridge to watch a struggling red sockeye salmon. It turned out we weren't the only ones watching -- a mama black bear went after the salmon (which made a valiant effort to get away!) and then once she had it in her mouth, she proceeded to feed it to her cubs (also conveniently located just below us in a wooded area just below our bridge). Even my jaded 18-year- old son, who had been uninspired by the glacier, got a thrill from the drama below us and took endless photographs of the encounter.

 

The Tracy Arm part of this cruise is always a big question mark. If it's foggy, you can't see the glacier. If the ice is too thick in the water, the ship can't get close enough... if the timing is wrong, it gets dark before you get all the way up the glacier, so we weren't sure what to expect. As it turned out, this was a perfect Sawyer Glacier afternoon -- we sailed far enough up the fjord to see the South Sawyer glacier quite well and get a glimpse of the north glacier... lots of pieces of ice in the water, but apparently not big enough to deter the captain. It was a beautiful day with stunning scenery. We left the balcony and went up on the deck two levels above the pool for the approach to the glacier, and greatly enjoyed the views.

 

Skagway is also an interesting port. Having done the train ride last time, we opted for a rental car drive up to Carcross and Emerald Lake with a full day of stops along the way to take photographs using Murray’s Guide to explore all the wonderful scenery. This was a lot of fun and a great deal less expensive than any of the excursion options.

 

Debarkation: Freestyle debarkation is the best! We received lime tags for our luggage. When I checked, I learned that the last color to be called would be pink (independent travelers; the difference between lime and pink was the deck level). Since we were staying on in Vancouver and in no hurry to leave the ship, we elected to be last off and were given pink tags for a 10 a.m. “last call.” We left our carry-on luggage in the cabin while we breakfasted in the dining room, went back, finished up and took everything out so the guys could get it ready for the next occupants. We waited for 10 o’clock in one of the public lounges, which wasn’t crowded since most of the passengers had departed earlier. We could have elected to carry our own bags off whenever we wished with Express Debarkation, but chose to have our bags offloaded during the night so we wouldn’t have to drag them around.

 

Over-all Assessment: This was a very nice cruise, (not great, but very nice) which we enjoyed. Although I have been slow to embrace freestyle, I am warming to the concept. This is because on this ship the service in the dining room was excellent (a far cry from my first freestyle experience three years ago!) We also found it convenient to eat when we pleased. On the Sun, there was never a wait (even on lobster night!) I am always eager to share tables with other cruisers and this is tough to do with freestyle. We were able to sit at tables for two next to other tables for two and engaged in friendly conversations with people on both sides on several evenings. I was pleased to see they were able to set up “sharing tables” for lunch a number of days (and even one for dinner!) and really enjoyed the opportunity to meet people this way. I think NCL is making some progress in this area and hope they will continue to facilitate opportunities for communal dining for those of us who enjoy it.

 

I found fellow passengers on this cruise to be delightful. There was a large contingent from Great Britain (most of whom had booked a three week Rocky Mountain train ride, Vancouver, Calgary, NCL Sun combination) and many Canadians. I was interested to note that this cruise had a much larger percentage of first-time cruisers than usually encountered, and many of them were from British Columbia… all very nice and friendly people. We also enjoyed meeting our Cruise Critic Roll Call mates and managed to compare notes throughout the week. It was especially nice to be able to share a rental car trip up to Carcross and through the Yukon with friends met online.

 

For our 18 year old, freestyle continues to make sense. He found it a little tough going without the usual teen club, but managed to get to know most of the people his age and hang out with them whenever he could. They spent lots of time in the hot tub and heated pools, in the game room, on the basketball court, in karaoke activities, in the buffet and Sports Bar, and in the balcony, watching the show… at least those are the spots I know about! Because the ship sailed from Vancouver, there were many Canadians, and he managed to fill his free time when we returned to the city visiting with some of his new friends. Before we went on this ship I had worried about his chances of finding congenial ship-mates, but it turned out to be no problem at all.

 

So, based on this cruise experience I would recommend NCL and freestyle. I haven’t yet sailed on the Pearl or Gem and hope to find them more spacious than the layout on the Sun, but that would be my one caveat. For excellent service and friendly crew/staff the Sun is a winner. I hope you find this review helpful. Please feel free to ask questions!

[bbaileyfamily]

Hey, thanks for posting the review. We sail on the Sun on October 27 out of Miami. We have never done freestyle dining and are somewhat worried about it. It sounds like you didn't have any problem on the Sun and that makes me feel better.

 

Did I understand you correctly when you said the dining room was open for lunch on embarkation day? I'd love to do that rather than the buffet.

 

Also, how was the Las Ramblas restaurant?

 

I'm a little worried about the pool setup. I wish the Sun had an adults only pool like the Solariums on RCCL. Or the private little pool by the spa that the Caribbean Princess had.

 

Thanks again for the review. Your description of the ship and the stuff on it was a lot more relavent to us than the shore reviews since we are doing a slightly different cruise than you.

[wiselindag]

Dear Baileys - I hope you have a wonderful cruise on the Sun. Yes, NCL does offer lunch in the dining room on embarkation (a fact I learned on this website). I wish all cruise lines did the same, especially when you're trying to lug your carry-on luggage around. It's a very civilized way to start the cruise. Beware, though. On the Spirit the dining room lunch was not in the Freestyle Daily and the folks greeting people only mentioned the buffet, so you had to be "in the know" to go down to the main dining room. On this cruise the dining room was mentioned in the Freestyle (Seven Seas (- not the Four Seasons which was closed - 12:30-2:30 pm... note the hours), but then they posted this guy outside to tout the virtues of the buffet (mainly the variety of offerings upstairs).

 

The tapas in Las Ramblas were good, but not in my opinion as good as the dinner in the dining room.

 

On an Alaskan cruise the pool set-up was not a problem. There are two pools and four hot tubs on the pool deck. Because it was cool, the pools and hot tubs were never crowded. Since the pools were heated, it was possible to swim, but there were only a few folks sitting out on the lounge chairs. I know what you mean about the Caribbean and I would imagine that there will be serious competition for seating near the pool -- there's lots of space on the deck above, however if you don't mind the sun. You might try using the pool later in the afternoon. Lots of families with children eat early and once the dinner hours start the pool area tends to get a lot emptier.

 

I didn't check on your ports, but after 20+ cruises I have been to most of the Caribbean ports and would be happy to help with beach questions.

 

Have fun!

[snorklinbarb]

Thanks for the interesting review. Didn't realize the tapas menu was so extensive and one could probably make a meal from what you described.

 

Great place to meet in the evening for a drink w/friends. They've expanded the offerings since we were on 3 yrs ago.

 

We'll be joining Brad and others on the Halloween Monster Mash cruise. Almost all of us say they're dressing up for the holiday, too so the costumes should be fun.

 

Any idea how long Linda will be on as CD? We've sailed with her twice and have to say she was the most aloof one we've ever had. Good to hear she was more interactive on your cruise.

 

I'm one of them who gets up early enough to make it to the DR for breakfast. Don't like buffets for the most part though the new Action Stations on the Pearl (and Gem and other newbuilds) is very impressive with lots of fresh delicious food. (no trays though)

[Catamount71]

Enjoyed your review. I got the same feedback from a guy I work with who was on the same cruise. They raved about Cats’ Pajamas. Felt they had some of best food of any cruise. They found the Itailian restaurant with a great menu late in cruise and ate there 2 times anyway. Loved the staff. Tracy Arm they took an excursion on a smaller boat that got all the way to the glacier.

[anthk333]

We were on this cruise (Hi Linda) as well, and she summed everything up perfectly; it was very nice, but not great.

 

At lunch every day the Tapas bar turns into a sandwich bar which most people on board never knew. I think we ended up there 4 times during the week, and it was very good.

[wiselindag]

Hi Tony - Thanks for the compliment. I never knew about the sandwiches!

 

Barb - The monster mash cruise sounds like great fun. I hope you enjoy it.

I don't know how long Linda will be on the Sun. I'm not sure what you mean by aloof. We chatted with her for about 15 minutes during the Longitudes party and she was quite friendly. I thought she did a great job at the Liars Club (quite funny) and in hosting the various shows. I'm glad to hear the Pearl and the Gem have better buffets. One of these days maybe we'll get a chance to try them.

 

Catamount - We also heard the Italian restaurant was very good. If we hadn't enjoyed the dining room so much we would have sampled it. It's funny because on the Spirit (where we had 12 days and got to sample all the specialty restaurants) the Italian one was the only restaurant we didn't like. The food on the Sun was definitely not the best food we've had on any cruise (I much prefer the food on Celebrity), but for NCL, it was good.

[mbisson]

Great review! We've sailed the Sun both to Alaska & the Caribbean and it's one of our favorite ships.

 

Isn't Alaska Great!

[Globaliser]

Entertainment

The cruise staff was very capably led by Linda Minnikin. For me, she was the perfect Cruise Director. She was upbeat without overdoing the schmaltz. She did a few jokes, introduced the talent, did the appropriate thank-you’s and got out of the way. Everything ran like clockwork (always a tribute to the cruise director). When she had a moment to chat with passengers, she was friendly and engaging.

Thanks for the review - it was great to read.

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head about Linda. She is a superb manager, even if she isn't the most effusive cruise director. And manager is the CD's primary role. What a pity that so few other passengers seem to appreciate what she does and how good she is at it.

[ponte]

Thanks for the review.

 

We just got home from the September second sailing to Alaska on board the Sun. I have a little trepidation about now posting my review, we liked the free style dining but found quite a few contradictions vis a vis your review.

 

We certainly agree the cruise was pleasant but not over the top great.

 

I will pluck up courage to post a review later but some of the responses in other threads tend to be a tad vitriolic if one has any negativity towards a certain cruise line or cruise ship.

 

Again thank you for your review - it was a very interesting and enjoyable read.

 

ponte

[Moo_Cruiser]

Thanks for the review.

 

We just got home from the September second sailing to Alaska on board the Sun. I have a little trepidation about now posting my review, we liked the free style dining but found quite a few contradictions vis a vis your review.

 

We certainly agree the cruise was pleasant but not over the top great.

 

I will pluck up courage to post a review later but some of the responses in other threads tend to be a tad vitriolic if one has any negativity towards a certain cruise line or cruise ship.

 

Again thank you for your review - it was a very interesting and enjoyable read.

 

Hi Ponte

 

I for one would be keen to see your review...it's great to get different perspectives on things and it is after all, your take on your own experiences.

 

What do others think?

 

Reading a variety of reviews helps us future cruisers be open minded about what to expect. This will be our first ime with NCL and we realise it will be different to our first cruise, which was with Carnival. As I see it, every cruise is likely to be different to previous one!

 

For those that did the Alaskan cruise on the Sun, can anyone tell me what the piano bar is like? Is is similar to Carnival where it is a "singalong" setup where they involve the crowd or is it more of a lounge bar type thing?? And does anyone know the name of the piano man??

 

Thanks again for your review Wiselindag.