Just off the Sun - 1/5 sailing - review

[MonaCK]

Hi folks!

 

I will start this review off by saying that overall, we had a wonderful time. There were a couple of issues that I would classify as minor in scope, and I will try my best to outline everything here. Remember - anything that I talk about is my opinion, and my opinion only. I am fully aware that there are folks who will have had a different cruise experience, and I can't speak for them, I can only speak for myself.

 

I do have copies of all of the Freestyle Dailies. I am still in Miami, but will do my best to scan them in for everyone over the next week. I have a freelance job that will keep me out of the house, but will do my best to scan stuff in during the evening. I also have pictures that I will get uploaded to my flickr account as soon as possible. I will have pictures available from everyone in my group, so that will give people a large variety of perspective, I think, as at times we all did some very different things.

 

First off - a little bit of background. We are a group of friends who do theatre/singing together here on Long Island. We know how to make our own good times, and we genuinely enjoy spending time together. We have been looking forward to this cruise for about a year now. There ended up being 13 of us in total.

 

Precruise & Embarkation

 

We flew down a day early, and were settled in our hotel room (La Quinta Airport West) by 3 in the afternoon. I love getting in a day early - it allows me time to relax before heading to the ship the next day. We were pretty much destroyed, but still went out to grab some dinner at Bahama Breeze, and spend the evening at the apartment of my inlaws, who live just outside of Ft. Lauderdale. We rented a car from Alamo. We travelled with one other couple who went in with us on the car, and also stayed with us at the hotel that night before.

 

The next day, we were out of the hotel by about 10am, and headed for a breakfast at Dennys. Cheap, but filling. And then, we headed back to Alamo to drop off the car. There was a pretty long line of folks heading to the seaport, but the line moved pretty quickly. As a bonus, because the Sun berths at terminal B, we were the first drop off.

 

I believe we were at the terminal by 12:45. We were on the ship, and headed to our stateroom by 1pm. The staterooms were ready. I don't think that I have ever had embarkation go that smoothly!

 

Stateroom & Cabin Attendant

 

We headed into our stateroom (7004 - a Cat J Outside Cabin). For those that were wondering, the beds are situated under the window, and the cabin is one of the smaller ones. It was fine for our needs -- we didn't exactly spend that much time in the room anyway. Once we found our cabin attendant, we gave him some extra "incentive money" to take care of us, and he did. He pushed the beds together, and put the eggcrate that we had brought with us on the bed for us. Throughout the week, we felt that the service was great - he wasn't that generous with the towel animals, but I was more than happy with the cleanliness of the cabin. Indeed, when we first came into the room, there was a bit of a musty smell, but by the second day, the smell was gone - without us even having to say anything.

 

Entertainment, Amenities, Activities

 

There never seemed to be a lack of anything to do. There was a ton of activities, and we found we didn't have time to take in all of them. We only saw a couple of shows - Mr. Producer was REALLY good - others saw the others shows, and did not find them to be very good. We did Quest... and I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. The casino was good to us - we came home with as much money as we left with, and you can't ask for much more than that.

 

I did not use spa services, but those in my group who did, loved it. They felt it was a really good value for the dollar. My husband got a haircut on board, and felt they did a great job on his hair.

 

Ports of Call

 

Roatan I'm not a fan of this port. I have a sneaking suspician that the next time we are on a cruise with this port, we will likely stay on the ship. I just did some shopping in port. Others in our group went on a city tour excursion, and to play with the dolphins. They reported back that they hand fun.

 

Belize[/b] We were originally not going to do more than do some shopping near the pier, but our friends convinced us to go on the Jungle River and Altun Ha excursion. We enjoyed it, but it was probably about 2 hours too long. We were sorry that we didn't have time to do any shopping at the pier, but the bus literally got us back to the pier with 20 minutes to spare for the last tender going back to the ship. We decided we are going to try to spend more time in town next time we come here.

 

Cozumel AFter the fast paced port day the day before, we were happy to just chill near the pier this day. We bought t-shirts and tequila. Clearly, we have our priorities straight. ;)

 

Great Stirrup Cay To us, the out island day is another at sea day, but only with a third of the people on board. To our amusement, the radios we had gotten to keep in touch with the group worked while they were on shore, and we were on the ship.

 

Food

 

I honestly don't remember where we ate every night. I can tell you this - while there were dishes that were downright bad, I would have to say that the good far outweighs the bad. I'm not even sure what people were complaining about regarding the buffet. We even managed to find good food on the buffet during both breakfast and lunch. Some of the steak was the best we've had in a while.

 

For speciality restaurants, we ate at Le Bistro and East meets West. We very much enjoyed both.

 

I have no complaints about the food. Seriously. :)

 

Other stuff

 

To the negative, we only had one issue. We realized last night that we were charged 6x for our shore excursion, instead of only 2x. The folks at the front d3esk told us that they couldn't fix it until the shore exccursion manager got there this morning. Which is ridiculous in my book. Regardless, they did fix the error, and we had the correct amount charged to our credit card.

 

And the only other negative? I wish there was somthing they could do about the smoking in the casino.

 

Oh - and getting a head cold on Thursday sucked - but that certainly was not the cruise lines fault.

 

Conclusion

 

Would i sail NCL again? In a heartbeat. Would i sail NCL with a group...? Well, while there wasn't a problem getting reservations in the main dining room, coordination for specialty restaurants were a bit of a problem. So was coordinationg for that many people every day.

 

Traditional dining wins in this year. Also, I sort of like hving my waiter every night know that I want my diet coke... and sometimes it was a bit of a problem getting the bar staff to be attentive in order to get our diet sodas. But again - that would not necessarily turn me off from trying NCL again.

 

Oh - also -- it was great meeting Browniegirl (Leah and her lovely DH Brian), Bearwife (Pat and her family - and her son is a really funny comedian!) -- as well as others who's usernames I have forgotten. We had the honor of being present while Browniegirl and her hubby renewed their vows on Sunday, and it was a really special ceremony. :)

 

Any questions? I'm sure I've forgotten to mention something, but will happily answer any questions you may have :)

[newmexicoNita]

Hi folks!

 

I will start this review off by saying that overall, we had a wonderful time. There were a couple of issues that I would classify as minor in scope, and I will try my best to outline everything here. Remember - anything that I talk about is my opinion, and my opinion only. I am fully aware that there are folks who will have had a different cruise experience, and I can't speak for them, I can only speak for myself.

 

I do have copies of all of the Freestyle Dailies. I am still in Miami, but will do my best to scan them in for everyone over the next week. I have a freelance job that will keep me out of the house, but will do my best to scan stuff in during the evening. I also have pictures that I will get uploaded to my flickr account as soon as possible. I will have pictures available from everyone in my group, so that will give people a large variety of perspective, I think, as at times we all did some very different things.

 

First off - a little bit of background. We are a group of friends who do theatre/singing together here on Long Island. We know how to make our own good times, and we genuinely enjoy spending time together. We have been looking forward to this cruise for about a year now. There ended up being 13 of us in total.

 

Precruise & Embarkation

 

We flew down a day early, and were settled in our hotel room (La Quinta Airport West) by 3 in the afternoon. I love getting in a day early - it allows me time to relax before heading to the ship the next day. We were pretty much destroyed, but still went out to grab some dinner at Bahama Breeze, and spend the evening at the apartment of my inlaws, who live just outside of Ft. Lauderdale. We rented a car from Alamo. We travelled with one other couple who went in with us on the car, and also stayed with us at the hotel that night before.

 

The next day, we were out of the hotel by about 10am, and headed for a breakfast at Dennys. Cheap, but filling. And then, we headed back to Alamo to drop off the car. There was a pretty long line of folks heading to the seaport, but the line moved pretty quickly. As a bonus, because the Sun berths at terminal B, we were the first drop off.

 

I believe we were at the terminal by 12:45. We were on the ship, and headed to our stateroom by 1pm. The staterooms were ready. I don't think that I have ever had embarkation go that smoothly!

 

Stateroom & Cabin Attendant

 

We headed into our stateroom (7004 - a Cat J Outside Cabin). For those that were wondering, the beds are situated under the window, and the cabin is one of the smaller ones. It was fine for our needs -- we didn't exactly spend that much time in the room anyway. Once we found our cabin attendant, we gave him some extra "incentive money" to take care of us, and he did. He pushed the beds together, and put the eggcrate that we had brought with us on the bed for us. Throughout the week, we felt that the service was great - he wasn't that generous with the towel animals, but I was more than happy with the cleanliness of the cabin. Indeed, when we first came into the room, there was a bit of a musty smell, but by the second day, the smell was gone - without us even having to say anything.

 

Entertainment, Amenities, Activities

 

There never seemed to be a lack of anything to do. There was a ton of activities, and we found we didn't have time to take in all of them. We only saw a couple of shows - Mr. Producer was REALLY good - others saw the others shows, and did not find them to be very good. We did Quest... and I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. The casino was good to us - we came home with as much money as we left with, and you can't ask for much more than that.

 

I did not use spa services, but those in my group who did, loved it. They felt it was a really good value for the dollar. My husband got a haircut on board, and felt they did a great job on his hair.

 

Ports of Call

 

Roatan I'm not a fan of this port. I have a sneaking suspician that the next time we are on a cruise with this port, we will likely stay on the ship. I just did some shopping in port. Others in our group went on a city tour excursion, and to play with the dolphins. They reported back that they hand fun.

 

Belize[/b] We were originally not going to do more than do some shopping near the pier, but our friends convinced us to go on the Jungle River and Altun Ha excursion. We enjoyed it, but it was probably about 2 hours too long. We were sorry that we didn't have time to do any shopping at the pier, but the bus literally got us back to the pier with 20 minutes to spare for the last tender going back to the ship. We decided we are going to try to spend more time in town next time we come here.

 

Cozumel AFter the fast paced port day the day before, we were happy to just chill near the pier this day. We bought t-shirts and tequila. Clearly, we have our priorities straight. ;)

 

Great Stirrup Cay To us, the out island day is another at sea day, but only with a third of the people on board. To our amusement, the radios we had gotten to keep in touch with the group worked while they were on shore, and we were on the ship.

 

Food

 

I honestly don't remember where we ate every night. I can tell you this - while there were dishes that were downright bad, I would have to say that the good far outweighs the bad. I'm not even sure what people were complaining about regarding the buffet. We even managed to find good food on the buffet during both breakfast and lunch. Some of the steak was the best we've had in a while.

 

For speciality restaurants, we ate at Le Bistro and East meets West. We very much enjoyed both.

 

I have no complaints about the food. Seriously. :)

 

Other stuff

 

To the negative, we only had one issue. We realized last night that we were charged 6x for our shore excursion, instead of only 2x. The folks at the front d3esk told us that they couldn't fix it until the shore exccursion manager got there this morning. Which is ridiculous in my book. Regardless, they did fix the error, and we had the correct amount charged to our credit card.

 

And the only other negative? I wish there was somthing they could do about the smoking in the casino.

 

Oh - and getting a head cold on Thursday sucked - but that certainly was not the cruise lines fault.

 

Conclusion

 

Would i sail NCL again? In a heartbeat. Would i sail NCL with a group...? Well, while there wasn't a problem getting reservations in the main dining room, coordination for specialty restaurants were a bit of a problem. So was coordinationg for that many people every day.

 

Traditional dining wins in this year. Also, I sort of like hving my waiter every night know that I want my diet coke... and sometimes it was a bit of a problem getting the bar staff to be attentive in order to get our diet sodas. But again - that would not necessarily turn me off from trying NCL again.

 

Oh - also -- it was great meeting Browniegirl (Leah and her lovely DH Brian), Bearwife (Pat and her family - and her son is a really funny comedian!) -- as well as others who's usernames I have forgotten. We had the honor of being present while Browniegirl and her hubby renewed their vows on Sunday, and it was a really special ceremony. :)

 

Any questions? I'm sure I've forgotten to mention something, but will happily answer any questions you may have :)

thanks for the memories: I felt like I was back on her for the third time and she is one of our favorites. Yes, the cabins aren't huge; both times I cruised the Sun we had a balcony, it does make a difference. One comment and this shows how we all have different ideas, is your opinion of Roatan. We love the island and the people plue the snorkeling is awesome. We are not fans of Belize....for sure. You are right about the river cruise, we thought it was donwright boring, way too long.

 

Again thanks for the review.

 

Nita

[Bigdog49]

thanks for the memories: I felt like I was back on her for the third time and she is one of our favorites. Yes, the cabins aren't huge; both times I cruised the Sun we had a balcony, it does make a difference. One comment and this shows how we all have different ideas, is your opinion of Roatan. We love the island and the people plue the snorkeling is awesome. We are not fans of Belize....for sure. You are right about the river cruise, we thought it was donwright boring, way too long.

 

Again thanks for the review.

 

Nita

 

Just to prove why we need all reviews. Everyone has different opinions. I loved the river cruise in fact I have done the tour twice. Sure better then spending the day in a grungy town. :D

[jetskier]

Do you remember who the Hotel and Cruise directors are currently on the Sun?

Thanks,

Dave

[jetskier]

Do you remember who the Hotel and Cruise directors are currently on the Sun?

Thanks,

Dave

[newmexicoNita]

Just to prove why we need all reviews. Everyone has different opinions. I loved the river cruise in fact I have done the tour twice. Sure better then spending the day in a grungy town. :D

Well we did spend the day in town our second cruise, we tendered in, walked around, bought a couple of cheap trinkets from the venders behind the main street and returned to our ship to enjoy the rest of the day. The time we did the river tour we may have had a tour company different from yours. I usually remember the names, but this time I do not. Without going into too much detail; the little boat was supporsed to hold 10 people but they squeezed allowed 13 letting 3 sit on the ice cooler. The motor on the boat was so loud we couldn't hear anything, but that was ok, cause the guide could barely speak English. We didn't see one wild life creature except for the Doves when we sailed past Dove Island. One of the kids on the cruise had to use the bathroom so the guide took us to, what he called a resort: it was his home, on stilts and he parked the boat several feet from shore. So the 8 year old kid and his daddy had to wade through the water that was also the sewer system or seemed to be. We finally asked to be taken back to ship the quickest way: he did and will just drop it there, awfull experience but our group laughed about it the entire rest of the cruise. If nothing else, we started as just tourists and ended up friends.

 

Nita

[Lib0007]

Thank you for your quick review. I'm happy that you and your friends enjoyed your cruise. While I was apprehensive about our upcoming cruise on the Sun after reading so many negatives, I had to make a decision last week before our final payment whether to change our reservation or not. I decided to go forward with our Sun cruise and actually look forward to it very much. We have cruised about seven times and have loved each and every one of them for different reasons.

 

I'll be in cabin 7003 so your comments were appreciated. I know the cabin is small - we were in a teeny cabin (RCL) over Thanksgiving and managed fine. One of our best friends will be traveling with us and it will be his first cruise. he will love it, I know.

 

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences.

[MonaCK]

Just to clarify on our jungle river cruise -- we overall had a good time, but about an hour and a half into it, we had seen one too many iguanas, and were ready for the tour to get back on land. ;) Our guide was -wonderful-, and we really liked him.

 

The cruise director is Linda Mellikin (sp?) - I don't remember the hotel manager, but it is probably somewhere in the papework that I have, and I will try to look it up for you when we get back home.

 

Linda sure likes to hear herself talk. ;) That being said - while at our cruise critic meet and greet, all the department heads came an introduced themselves to us, which we thought was a really nice touch.

[jetskier]

Just to clarify on our jungle river cruise -- we overall had a good time, but about an hour and a half into it, we had seen one too many iguanas, and were ready for the tour to get back on land. ;) Our guide was -wonderful-, and we really liked him.

 

The cruise director is Linda Mellikin (sp?) - I don't remember the hotel manager, but it is probably somewhere in the papework that I have, and I will try to look it up for you when we get back home.

 

Linda sure likes to hear herself talk. ;) That being said - while at our cruise critic meet and greet, all the department heads came an introduced themselves to us, which we thought was a really nice touch.

 

 

Trying to remember, I believe she was the CD when we were on the Sun last January. Older lady compared to most CD's. Was the comedian Bud still onboard? He has a routine where he has an oversize t-shirt with his knees pulled up inside that very funny.

 

We will be going back on the Sun for the third time next month.

 

Dave

[MonaCK]

The comedian's name was Jeff Harm - we only caught one of his shows, which was the one where the floor is opened to fellow guests to tell jokes - so I'm really not sure if he was any good or not.

 

Oh - another not to miss show is the staff talent show. Not because of the staff talent... but because the finale had me in stitches I was laughing so hard. I laughed almost as hard as I did during quest. Almost. ;)

[samdham]

We saw Bud on our Majesty cruise last year. Looooooved him! We also saw him at the airport after our cruise. I think he gets around. I would love to see him again.

[jetskier]

We saw Bud on our Majesty cruise last year. Looooooved him! We also saw him at the airport after our cruise. I think he gets around. I would love to see him again.

 

He was on the Majesty at that time because the Sun was in drydock. We were on the first sailing after drydock Jan 23rd, 2007 and he was on her. What was funny was Bud was also on our cruise on the Sun in Oct 2005.

 

 

I just did a quick check and I see Bud Anderson is playing at JR's Last Laugh Comedy Club in Erie, PA tonight.

Dave

[samdham]

I wonder if we had all the Sun's entertainment, then. We saw all of the entertainment people at the airport after our cruise--the comedian, the singer, and the magician. :D

 

Where did you find where he is? I have been googling him periodically and have never found anything with his performance schedule.

[jetskier]

I wonder if we had all the Sun's entertainment, then. We saw all of the entertainment people at the airport after our cruise--the comedian, the singer, and the magician. :D

 

Where did you find where he is? I have been googling him periodically and have never found anything with his performance schedule.

 

It wasnt his schedule per se, it just so happened to be on a listing for JR's that pulled up on my Google search. It just showed he was performing there Jan 10-12th. I have not found anything else showing a performance date. I guess you could call JR's and see if they might know where he is going to next.

Dave

[newmexicoNita]

Thank you for your quick review. I'm happy that you and your friends enjoyed your cruise. While I was apprehensive about our upcoming cruise on the Sun after reading so many negatives, I had to make a decision last week before our final payment whether to change our reservation or not. I decided to go forward with our Sun cruise and actually look forward to it very much. We have cruised about seven times and have loved each and every one of them for different reasons.

 

I'll be in cabin 7003 so your comments were appreciated. I know the cabin is small - we were in a teeny cabin (RCL) over Thanksgiving and managed fine. One of our best friends will be traveling with us and it will be his first cruise. he will love it, I know.

 

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences.

WHich RCI ship? I have sailed them twice and their cabins were smaller than the Sun. As for bad reviews, there really are more positive ones than negatives. I will say one thing, I think the cabins need redocorating. The needed it from day one. Maybe the decorator had too much to drink the day the decision was made to use the spreads and carpet they used. LOL

 

Don't forget to get tapas at Las Rambles. I have only heard one person complain about them: she thought they were just too many fatting fried ones and the selection wasn't as good as in SPain: give me a break, it is a cruise ship not the plaza in Madrid.

 

Nita

[MonaCK]

Loved the tapas at Las Rambles! We made sure to get there twice during the cruise.

[Lib0007]

WHich RCI ship? I have sailed them twice and their cabins were smaller than the Sun.

 

Nita, it was the Enchantment of the Seas. We booked rather late and had an OV instead of a balcony; it seemed very tiny compared to Carnival's cabins which is what we had sailed on the last few cruises, but it was fine!

 

On the Sun, we will be in an OV on deck 7; I'd rather have a balcony but got an excellent deal on two cabins that I couldn't pass up!

[MonaCK]

I will tell you - our OV on the sun was maybe only a foot or so bigger, if that, than our inside "upgraded" cabin on our carnival valor cruise this past february. If anything the Sun was laid out a little bit better, which caused a loss of closet space, but a little bit more room to move. And the bathroom was definitely bigger on carnival.

[NEW 2 CRUISIN]

Thanks for the great review, MONACK!

 

We're excited about our first cruise on the SUN in March!

 

:)

[AngelinaM]

Thanks so much for the review and can't wait to see those pictures and dailies!!

[newmexicoNita]

Nita, it was the Enchantment of the Seas. We booked rather late and had an OV instead of a balcony; it seemed very tiny compared to Carnival's cabins which is what we had sailed on the last few cruises, but it was fine!

 

On the Sun, we will be in an OV on deck 7; I'd rather have a balcony but got an excellent deal on two cabins that I couldn't pass up!

the two we were on: The Majesty of the Sea (that was just too small) we had an inside, the one and only time: the other is an RCI ship that is no longer: great cruise, fair food, nice people, BAD ship....

[MonaCK]

I'm going to try to get the dailies scanned tonight - but no promises. I've actally hd to work this week to pay off our charge account from the end of this cruise. ;)

[jetskier]

I'm going to try to get the dailies scanned tonight - but no promises. I've actally hd to work this week to pay off our charge account from the end of this cruise. ;)

 

I found out who the Hotel Director was, Rosita Schandy. She is another person who was on our Jan 23rd cruise last year. What is also ironic is the new Group Coordinator (Jeanine) on the Sun was the Group Coordinator who was on our Repo cruise on the Spirit this past November. So it is going to be a nice surprise to see these folks again.

Dave

[AngelinaM]

Mona,

Did you notice any 2.0 changes yet? Less than a month and a half for me!

[MonaCK]

No direct notice, other than the food being -really- good. When the folks from the cruise staff came to our cruise critic meeting, they acknowledged Freestyle 2.0, and said that they would be rolling out changes. My guess is that things are only going to get better from here :)