Sun aft 8078 April 5-12

[CruisenGoddess]

This was our 7th cruise with NCL and by far the most challenging. Stateroom 8078 aft cabin

(check out my webshots in my signature – if you view individually you’ll see the captions, but not in slideshow version)

We did a pre-cruise stay at AmeriSuites/Hyatt Place Miami, Fl. They offered a cruise package that included one night stay, car parking, hot breakfast and one-way transportation to the port for $165 plus tax.

This hotel is being renovated and turned into Hyatt Place. Directions for this hotel site was a bit confusing as we were coming I95 from the north and it said to take Palmetto South 826 East – hah – no east from I95. We took west and low and behold a ways down it turned into east. Once on the right course the hotel was easy to find.

Driving up to the hotel it had a nice, clean impression. Once inside the lobby it was definite that this hotel was remodeling. The check-in desk person was somewhat.

We were pleasantly surprised when we entered the room. Appearance wise the room far exceeded our expectations. The set-up was more suite-style. To the right was a nice big comfy sectional sofa with an ottoman. To the left was a wet bar with small refrigerator and across from that an office desk. The TV is a 42” LG with a very clear picture that swivels for viewing either in the sofa section or from the bed. The bed was so comfortable, nice pillow top mattress and the pillows were very nice. The sheets were ok, a little scratchy but not bad. The bathroom was very nicely done (granite counters) and very clean. Toiletries were nice. The soap had a ginger sent to it although there was no body lotion. Water pressure in the bathroom sink and wet bar sink did not have great pressure, adequate I suppose but very lukewarm water. The shower did have hot water and the showerhead was a bit low for my husband as he’s six foot, he had to bend down. It was fine for me being short an all. A new blow dryer was nice.

Other amenities were an iron (new) and ironing board (new cover, but the stand portion kind of yucky. The coffee maker is different than other hotels, has special pods that we’ve never seen before and makes 1 mug at a time.

The only downside to this room was that the air conditioner was a bit loud and cool luke warm water in the sinks and Internet connection speed like dial-up.

I definitely would come back to this hotel in the future. The hotel used Doral Transportation and we were told return would be $10 per person. Jump to the end of the cruise – we couldn’t get a Doral employee to take us back to the hotel unless he had a van full, two other employee’s separately told us “take a cab”. We ended up taking a cab back at a cost of $40.

Embarkation:

We arrived at the port about 12:40 pm and were on-board by 12:55 p.m. just as we stepped off the elevator the announcement that rooms were ready so we arrived just at the right time and missed all the lines earlier in the day. We set our luggage in the room and noticed it was quite warm, so we went to Seven Sea’s for lunch. Amazingly not many people realize they offer lunch on embarkation and so service was very quick in the restaurant and you could have a pleasant conversation with your tablemate.

Our room stewards are Crame Aquilino & Mario Rufo; their work hours are from 8:00 a.m. to noon and 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. I wrote them a note telling them that we like to have lots of coffee and to leave extra’s of coffee, creamer and Splenda. Rick had noticed on his side of the bed that the duvet seamed to be stained that made him uncomfortable.

The room is still very hot, no air so we tried calling reception and they wouldn’t pick up so we went down to reception. They promised they would get on it ASAP.

We came back to the room and was sitting on the balcony and our next mishap took place. The chairs on the balcony have suet in the mesh! Rick’s pants were a mess, so I called reception once again and told them of the situation and the gentleman said he would talk to his supervisor and leave a message on our phone as we were going to dinner.

Today they offer an early bird dinner special in of 2 for 1 in East meets West, Le Bistro & II Adiago. We made reservations for East Meets West for 6:15 p.m. our server informs us they only offer the 2 for 1’s the first two nights of the cruise.

After we were seated I noticed that the white plate chargers had black smudges all over them (picture is somewhat cleaned after I cleaned off some of the plate with my napkin, but you can see the black marks) – was unsettling and the silverware was spotty. I pointed out to the waitress about the chargers and she acknowledged them but didn’t replace them. The food was good, however that being said it took forty-five minutes to get our entrée after we had finished our salads. We had asked for sour cream and butter for our baked potatoes and it wasn’t delivered with the meal. After another 20 or so minutes we asked the Maitr’d to get us some – that took time and by the time we got it the meal was over and the potato was cold.

When we came back from dinner, the air was working and no message on the phone. So we called reception again. This time we had to physically take the pants to reception to show them and they would give us a complimentary cleaning. Later we found out from a room steward in the hallway that they have no intention of replacing the chairs and probably will clean them and/or leave extra beach towels to use on the chairs. By 9:00 p.m. the room steward still had not turned down the room for the evening. Laying in bed and all of a sudden loud vibrations start from the music in the Stardust Lounge! It was louder than I anticipated; thankfully it was only for a few hours we’ll see how it is the rest of the cruise with later shows. The bed is somewhat comfortable but the pillows are flat and the linens are awful. There is plenty of storage in this stateroom. The closet has slit hanging shelves, which is nice, and there is also a light in the closet. The bathroom is quite tight and storage is ok – not great. The mirror shows its age with silver from the mirror missing all across the bottom and up the sides and there is a huge rust stain on the shower wall.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

 

Our next mishap came when we plugged in the coffee maker only to discover it wasn’t working! So we decided to try the other outlet but it was difficult to unplug the coffee maker. When Rick was able to get it unplugged the coffee maker toppled over and water was everywhere. After cleaning that mess up we tried another outlet to no avail, thus another call to reception. Again saying they would contact housekeeping ASAP. So we went up to The Great Outdoors to have our coffee. Smoking is only permitted on deck 12 and the ashtrays were filled to over capacity and when asked to have the ashtray emptied the crewmember asked was not happy. The eggs were horrible, dry and powdery tasting. Yuck! This was the one and only time we ate there. (FYI the food warmers in the Great Outdoors as well as in the Garden Café are very, very hot, so hot it fogged up my glasses and too hot to pick up the serving utensil.) Oh well - came back to the room and no new coffee maker nor any messages. Then I decide to type up my notes and discover that the outlet that my laptop is plugged into doesn’t work and I’m typing on battery power, so another phone call to Reception. But this was my own fault as my husband discovered I didn’t plug in the cord to the power adapter – laugh was on me, but the coffee maker still didn’t work.

Today they offer an early bird dinner special in of 2 for 1 in Le Bistro & II Adiago. We made reservations for II Adiago for 5:30 pm.

Guest services called to see if the air was working properly – great they are following up. Only problem is you have to keep the drapes closed in order for the room to be comfortable.

When I layed down under the duvet the room stewards had put it on up-side-down with the open end on the head of the bed – discovered a huge rip in the duvet (see picture).

Dinner in II Adiago was very nice. Service was prompt and attentive and the meals were elegantly presented. The chicken I had was very good, Rick’s meal “Ossobuco” to me was a tough chew, but tasty.

To finish off the night we went and saw “Hey Mr. Producer” by the Jean Ann Ryan Company. The singers were awesome. This production was a tribute to the shows of Sir Cameron Mackintosh (London’s biggest theatrical producer) Cats, Les Mis etc.

We then retired for the night and low and behold the room stewards turned down the room and did a towel animal. However – the sheet duvet was awful – I turned the duvet over to put the opening at the foot of the bed and when I did there were huge big yellow stains all over it. Our pants from laundry were returned and they are cleaned with no stain residual.

Tonight there was no sound noise from the Stardust Lounge – Hallelujah!

Monday, April 7, 2008 - Roatan

 

We got off the ship and walked over to the Fins and Flippers dock. There were only twelve reservations for the day. This place is like paradise. We went over to the pier to snorkel. Even though it was high tide it was still very difficult maneuvering through the coral to get to the wall drop-off. Beer’s were $2 and we had the Nacho’s – very good. It’s hard to believe that more CC’ers haven’t discovered this paradise.

We went to Shore Excursions and spoke with the attendant about #626 Shark Ray Alley Snorkel & Ambergis Cay, she said that there were two snorkel stops and when asked how many were on the excursion she said only 29 because it’s such an expensive excursion. We decided to purchase the excursion because of two snorkel stops.

The description:

Approximate 7 ½ hours $104 per person

Board your speedboat for a one-hour journey northeast to Hol Chan Marine Reserve and famous Shark Ray Alley. Snorkel and enjoy the crystal-clear waters and spectacular colors of Belize’s Barrier Reef. Reef fish like snappers and jacks mix with graceful stingrays and brown nurse sharks. Afterwards, you’ll be transferred to the town of San Pedro for refreshments and lunch. You’ll even have time for a little shopping and walking the sand streets of Belize’s most popular tourist mecca.

Now, if you will please tell me what you think the above description means and then tomorrow I’ll post what it actually was.

Called Reception and asked about self-serve laundry – said they didn’t have one but would send an iron and ironing board – never came. The room steward did change the duvet; this one was ripped as well and also took the extra beach towels for the chairs. We did receive a platter of chocolate covered strawberries. The strawberries were not ripe, more green than red.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - Belize

 

Woke up and made coffee and stepped out onto the balcony at 6:10 a.m. and got plopped with suet on my face and back. Suet was all over the balcony. Called reception and spoke with Bridget asking if there was any other stateroom available because this one is a nightmare. No - none available – offered to have someone come clean it immediately, no concern about the suet in my face.

Got back to the stateroom and the room steward did not turn down room.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - Cozumel

 

We tendered to the downtown pier, which worked out fantastic for us, across the street from Palmeras. We just walked through the Plaza and down a block to find Isis Car rental. Margarita was very nice. All of a sudden we remembered we forgot our credit card as we were going to pay cash, so we didn’t have anything to place as a deposit on the car rental. Margarita was kind enough to accept our NCL Sun cards as a deposit. We rented a VW convertible for $35 including insurance. It was actually easy to drive downtown Cozumel and we just headed south. We drove to Palanacar – very nice place but the water was rough and couldn’t snorkel, so we headed back towards town and went to Corona Beach. Freddie was our waiter and very nice. We snorkeled for over an hour then had a few Corona’s and some Guacamole and chips – yummy! We decided to snorkel again in a different area and afterwards Rick had pork tacos with Achiote sauce – oh man was that yummy! I had chicken tacos and they were very good as well. Freddie wrote out on a napkin the name of the spice and told us where the grocery store was, so on the way back to town we stopped and got some Achiote. We made it back to Isis with no problems and walked back to the pier and got on the tender.

Back in the stateroom, Rick went to the pool and I took a shower. Guess what – no bath mat, but hey we have clean towels, ratty edges and all but at least they are clean! At least they did pick up the room but did not clean the balcony any better than before, suet still smeared all over. Nor have they left any lotion, no extra coffee, creamer or splenda. You would think they would be more attentive and see that there wasn’t any. These room stewards just aren’t attentive to anything.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

 

Woke up to more suet on the balcony.

This afternoon we went and saw the Crew Show & “Fountains” in the Stardust Theatre. There were some funny parts, some not so good. The Sanitation Chief sang “Delia” and was very good. The Staff Captain told a ‘behind the scenes’ about the Chefs – string and spoon – was too funny and then the finale “Fountains” was over the top. Denny was like the water king and it was a great finale.

Friday, April 11, 2008

 

Today was the private island. We tendered over and went to the far side to snorkel. Water was very clear, a little cool and we saw a lot of fish. This was the first time in all of our NCL cruises that we made it to their private island and I must say I was disappointed in the appearance and the BBQ was ok. Other cruise line private islands we have been to were far more impressive.

Summary

 

Overall, the ship itself was in good condition and clean. We noticed that so many of the wait staff seemed robotic. We usually always eat in the alternative restaurants this time only twice and the food in the dining room was very good at least what we had. One exception was the Beef Stroganoff – didn’t like, but other than that we enjoyed what we ate.

We had many challenges but kept our sense of humor and enjoyed being away. That being said, it was really disappointing to have finally secured a prized aft cabin and not to be able to use it. Keeping the drapes closed during the day and not being able to use the balcony because of all the suet and not being cleaned was like being in an inside cabin and most definitely having a room steward like we did, surely did not enhance our vacation in a positive way. Both my husband and I felt like a Motel 6 stay was improvement over being on the Sun in 8078. The bedding and towels were just awful. It got to the point where there was so much I could have taken pictures of negatively that I decided I had enough. You’ll see through the pictures – they captured a room steward not doing his job. I didn’t mention before, but you will see dust on the shelves – never dusted – how could he when he took care of the room so sporadically and the pictures of the mirror on the back of the closet door was from embarkation, so he didn’t thoroughly clean the room before we got it. We still favor NCL and even though this experience was not positive we did buy two future cruise rewards.

Also, they said 2.0 was going to be in affect this week on the Sun. When we were disembarking it surely didn’t look like the linens were in a better condition than what we had. AND they are no longer doing the customer comment cards. Reception told us they are only going to be sending them out to those passengers that NCL has their email address for and then it will be at random.

I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our experience and what you think our one excursion purchased was. Would you write corporate if you experienced what we did? Anyone have an email address for Colin Veitch?

[MikeandAmy]

Wow I dont know what to say, would you take NCL again? Were you getting the suet because your room was aft of the ship?

[CruisenGoddess]

Yes, I really like NCL, but I would be more cautious in reserving an aft cabin. I think if I were to ever consider an aft it would have to have a deep balcony with more protection than this particular one offered- that's for sure. From my understanding the suet is from a buildup that gets blown out - I could be wrong.

[granger]

I'm confused how did you get suet on your balcony? Do you mean soot?

[CruisenGoddess]

yes, I guess I spelled it wrong

[MikeandAmy]

Dont feel bad so did I, but I knew what you meant :)

[exstasie]

I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our experience and what you think our one excursion purchased was. Would you write corporate if you experienced what we did? Anyone have an email address for Colin Veitch?[/font]

 

This was my first cruise so I have nothing to really compare it too. However it does seem like you had some bad luck.

 

Now personally, I am not very picky about certain things, but that may just be me. Our room was perfect, always had fresh towels and bath mats and our turn-down service was always on time (except there was 1 day where we didn't get our chocolates!).

 

The AC also was very nice in our room. Always kept our room cold and we always looked forward to stepping into our room after a hot day outside!

 

Our bed sheet did seem like it didn't fit the bed properly as it always ended up coming off as soon as I got into bed, and it revealed a little blood spot which seemed like it came from a bloody nose. It probably could've bothered some but I know how difficult it is to get a stain like that out and I didn't think it was a big deal.

 

I didn't really pay attention to much to the cleanliness of the other restaurants but didn't notice anything bad, but then again i've stayed in some pretty rough spots.

 

Don't get me wrong though, I do appreciate cleanliness and great service. We stayed at this beautiful 5 star hotel (Marriott Hollywood Beach) on the boardwalk and it was absolutely amazing! Such a beautiful hotel!

 

 

 

Now about your excursion. I know which one you went on because I was looking at going on the same excursion. I actually did, but I did it via an independent company - Coral Breezes Tours. It came to $69.00 per person which was about $40.00 cheaper per person then booking it through NCL.

 

We pre booked the tour to ensure we had a spot and found them on the pier. We waited about 30 minutes before everyone finally arrived. Because NCL is horrible at tendering, majority of the people in the tour had already left on a different boat, which actually worked out because our tour consisted of 10 people, all of who were from our ship.

 

After a 45 minute boat ride to Ambergris Caye (sp?) we anchored and snorkeled around the barrier reef for about 45 minutes. We were guided around by our tour guided and he pointed out the different fish and coral to us. We then got back on the boat for about a 5 minute boat ride to a new spot, Shark Ray Alley, where we were able to snorkel with Sharks and Sting Rays. They website stated that the Sharks and Rays were dependent on the conditions as sometimes they didn't come. But we ended up swimming with about a dozen sting rays and feeding them and touching them! IT was very cool! There weren't any sharks however and the driver of the boat explained how the Rays had been taking all of their food so there hadn't been many sharks lately.

 

We then docked at Ambergis Caye where they took us to this restaurant for a local Belizean Lunch. It was an extra $6.00US (Total $75.00 if you added the meal) for a Belizean style chicken, rice and vegtables plate plus a bottle of water or pop. The meal was excellent for the price and tasted great! Very well seasoned :D

 

We then had about an hour and fifteen minutes to walk around town and do some shopping. It was a very cute little town which lots of nice stores and markets. We went to the beach at the end of the street and had a great time.

 

They then took us back to the Port. Our tour guide was excellent and such a nice guy!

 

I'm not sure exactly what your tour was like, but I imagined that it should've been something like I described.

[BeachBumMama]

I was thinking it was birdseed all over your balcony until I saw the pictures.:p Sorry you were disappointed. And I don't know what your excursion entailed, but like the above poster I've booked mine through Coral Breezes before, so don't know about the ship tour. I'm assuming you were disappointed in it.

 

Have fun wherever you go next.:)

[NEW 2 CRUISIN]

I'm confused how did you get suet on your balcony? Do you mean soot?

 

 

HAHAHA!

 

She had me wondering too! :D

 

Suet is bird seed. Soot is ashes.

 

I couldn't figure out why there would be so much birdseed on the ship, and why it fell on to the balconies!

 

Now that I've seen the pictures, I know what they are talking about!

 

Oh well...enough semantics....

[Jana]

HAHAHA!

 

She had me wondering too! :D

 

Suet is bird seed. Soot is ashes.

 

I couldn't figure out why there would be so much birdseed on the ship, and why it fell on to the balconies!

 

Now that I've seen the pictures, I know what they are talking about!

 

Oh well...enough semantics....

 

I couldn't figure it out either considering that suet is actually FAT, not bird seed. It's used to make a cake for birds with birdseed, but suet itself is the hard fat around kidneys of beef and sheep!

 

I have to admit that I was very impressed that they managed to get the fat stain out of the pants!

 

(I figured it out when I saw the photo of the OP's face. LOVELY!!!)

 

Yep, I'd have been irritated too, not over the soot so much because that is what it is, but at the lack of consistent housekeeping. I admit that it really does bug me to get into a room that hasn't been dusted or where there are fingerprints and smudges all over everything. It sounds like you kept your sense of humor about the whole thing though!

 

Jana

[sailaway211]

CruisenGoddess - You must have had the same cabin steward we had when we sailed the Sun years ago!! She threw the bedspread over my folded clothes so there was a big bump in the middle of the bed. She was awful - her supervisor was screaming at her daily. We couldn't communicate with her because she spoke no English. The Sun was actually our worst cruise until we sailed Costa.

[salty dingo]

The OP did not mention the cabin location until the end, but reading it, I knew it had to be an aft balcony. It's pretty well-known that those decks are subject to soot from the funnel, and I am surprised the OP was not expecting that.

 

I would love an aft balcony, and would adjust to the soot. Just remember not to leave anything outside overnight, wipe down the surfaces, especially the chairs before use.

 

The OP seemed to think this cleaning should be the responsibility of the staff, but I personally would not think twice about tidying up the balcony a bit - I really do not think it would be difficult to do. Plus, the steward is not responsible for cleaning outside the cabin, are they?

[Ms belp]

Dont feel bad so did I, but I knew what you meant :)

 

Suet is what we put in our bird feeders. I thought you were nicely saying you had bird "poop" on your deck!:)

[CruisenGoddess]

The OP did not mention the cabin location until the end, but reading it, I knew it had to be an aft balcony. It's pretty well-known that those decks are subject to soot from the funnel, and I am surprised the OP was not expecting that.

 

I would love an aft balcony, and would adjust to the soot. Just remember not to leave anything outside overnight, wipe down the surfaces, especially the chairs before use.

 

The OP seemed to think this cleaning should be the responsibility of the staff, but I personally would not think twice about tidying up the balcony a bit - I really do not think it would be difficult to do. Plus, the steward is not responsible for cleaning outside the cabin, are they?

 

Well Salty, guess your eyes are as bad as my mis-spelling of soot. Aft was mentioned in the title and the first sentance. I did search about aft cabins, but as you probably know the search was down for quite a while so no I wasn't aware that I'd be wearing soot for makeup or on my feet or in my clothes.

 

As for cleaning up the balcony every other room steward picks up ie: coffee cups, sweeps why is the balcony any different? Haven't you ever left a coffee cup or something on the balcony and they pick it up? The crew's solution was to use a towel, but they took them! I guess I just never thought I'd have to hunt for something to sweep and clean the balcony myself let alone a wire brush or something to get it out of the mesh of the chairs, good grief! Thanks for the packing tip of taking along cleaning supplies - not! Maybe we should hire you, then you'd be in an aft and happy cleaning!

[greywillow]

Soot was not a problem, for some reason, in a stern BA on our Jewel trans-Atlantic. Did get an occasional sweetener wrapper blown down from The Great Outdoors, but not a problem.

 

Lots of soot on our deck 12 Sky Suite balcony on Celebrity's Galaxy. Just starboard rear of the stack and very little cover over the balcony area. Great balcony, though, so it was a minor inconvenience.

[salty dingo]

Well Salty, guess your eyes are as bad as my mis-spelling of soot. Aft was mentioned in the title and the first sentance.

Indeed my eyes must be needing some rest.

[travelmatron]

We were in cabin 8077, next door, on the same cruise. The soot is a wind direction thing, and if it rains, more falls on the balconies. The first night of the cruise, the cabin stewards came to our cabin to clean the balcony of soot. At that point, we didn’t have any so they left. In retrospect, I’m sure they just had the cabin numbers wrong, and should have good next door. These particular cabin stewards were not, however, as good as any we’ve had on more than a dozen cruises. I rather expect to be in awe of how quickly and efficiently the stewards do their job, and on this cruise, I was amazed at how hard we needed to work to get simple things done.

As with most cruises, I loose track of the days, but it did rain one night and the next morning we too had a lot of soot on our balcony. Our cabin was a Penthouse Suite with an exceptionally large balcony. The balcony was one of the reasons we chose the Suite. Soot happens, and I knew it was a possibility with an aft cabin. Personally, I have no problem wiping the railing so I can lean against it, and/or putting a beach towel on the chairs ‘just in case’. But this particular time there was so much soot we couldn’t walk on the balcony without tracking great black blobs into the cabin. We asked the cabin stewards to clean the balcony. They didn’t. We asked our butler to intercede on our behalf. They swept the balcony leaving long black smears. We talked with the concierge and I told her if they would just bring a bucket and squeegee I’d do it myself. Finally, the balcony was cleaned. Since soot happens from time to time, I would have expected that they would have some sort of procedure to take care of it. I was amazed that it took so long.

Our air conditioning must have been better than the cabin next door because we were never hot inside. We did close the curtains when we left the cabin if the sun was coming in, but we always opened them when we got back. There was one afternoon when the sun was on the balcony, and the ship was blocking the wind that it was just too hot to be outside. The rest of the days, we were able to get good use of the balcony and enjoyed it a lot. Because our balcony was so long, and on the corner of the ship, we may have gotten a better breeze than next door.

We were also surprised at how much noise traveled from the Stardust lounge to all the aft cabins on the 8th deck. You could hear it in the hallways. Fortunately, it all ended by 10:30, so for us it didn’t create a problem. A couple of days there was some afternoon practicing, but again, the duration was short. We were on a Princess cruise several years ago where our cabin was directly above the speaker in the disco. The bass ‘thump’ nearly drove us nuts, lasting long into the night, and starting early in the afternoon for dance classes so we couldn’t even nap to make up for lost sleep. We were very relieved that this vibration never began to approach our issues with the disco speakers, and in fact, gave my husband a clue as to when I would be coming back to the cabin after attending a show that he didn’t want to watch. We laughed that it gave him a moment to get rid of all the dancing girls that had followed him to the cabin. :D

[Carnac767]

Nice to see a post by a fellow Golden Islander. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Sorry you had such a bad experience. We were on the Sun last month and had a wonderful cruise.

 

Carnac (Glynn Academy class of a long time ago)

[CruisenGoddess]

Nice to see some other posts. I wouldn't have opposed to wiping the railing, but the only towels we had were the ones we had to use over and over again for bathing, so needless to say I didn't use those towels. After getting hit it the face once was enough. I couldn't relax out there not knowing if and when I'd get hit again. It was a pretty big chunk that hit my face and the back of my neck. Thankfully the soot wasn't real heavy, but I was dazed by it.

 

As far as the excursion went, we booked it the night before and spoke with an excursion rep and she told us there would be 2 snorkel stops and that there were only 29 going on the excursion because it was so expensive.

 

Board your speedboat for a one-hour journey northeast to Hol Chan Marine Reserve and famous Shark Ray Alley. Snorkel and enjoy the crystal-clear waters and spectacular colors of Belize’s Barrier Reef. Reef fish like snappers and jacks mix with graceful stingrays and brown nurse sharks. Afterwards, you’ll be transferred to the town of San Pedro for refreshments and lunch. You’ll even have time for a little shopping and walking the sand streets of Belize’s most popular tourist mecca.

 

But in actuality it turned out to be one snorkel stop for 45 minutes and then we were taken to AC for three hours. In the description it said 'a little while' - how does that translate into three hours? After we got back we went to the excursion desk and told them that the tour was not as described nor what the other rep told us. This rep kept trying to blame the tour operator then went and spoke to his supervisor and came back and said that they were going to get in touch with the operator to see if anything was different. We told him it wasn't the tour company as we had spoke to one of the guides and they informed us they hadn't done two stops in over three years - the problem was NCL's description. So then he says well "corporate writes the description". Well there description is not accurate. Freddie then handed a card with corporate customer service phone number. We didn't argue and he said they would be in contact with us. It was apparant that they were going to try to blame the operator. A few days went by still no call from the manager so we went down again and the same rep said the manager would be in contact with us. Later that night they put a letter on the door stating tour was as described.

 

We don't normally do ship tours but this one was an all day and we've never been to Belize before so we weren't sure. As it turned out it was a good thing we were on a ship tour because they said it would take 45 minutes to get back and it actually took 2 hours and 15 minutes and we just barely made it back by 4:30.

[petalpalz]

Hi fellow cruiser, my husband and I were on the same cruise last week but we were in a mini-suite on the pool deck. I'm sorry to hear about your housekeeping experiences!

In June 2007, we had the aft room next door to yours which was a mini suite and had NO problems with soot. However, if it was buildup that was blowing out, that could explain that. I loved my aft cabin and had a fabulous housekeeper, however, I wondered about the upkeep of the balcony as well. All through our Alaska cruise the floor of the balcony was soaking wet with puddles. I wished I had a broom to try to sweep it away as there was always a big puddle. I didn't mention it to the room steward as I figured when you are in a wet climate which is overcast all the time, you can expect puddles. On the rare moments of sunshine, I would run outside in my stocking feet all excited and ... errr... soaked my socks. It was a small inconvenience, not at all to be compared to soot all over everything. So sorry to hear about that!

I too was disappointed about the upgrades not happening on the Sun for this cruise.

I'm off to write a trip report.

[wibeachbum]

We sailed on the Sun in March and we also had some housekeeping issues. We had a balcony cabin on deck 8.

 

There was dust on the shelves and some marks around the bathroom shelves that I was able to easily wipe off.

 

There was a very noticeable odor in the room. When I bent down to push a suitcase under the bed, I realized it was coming from that area of the carpet. My husband called reception and they sent someone up to take care of the carpet. They found the carpet to be wet. We left the room to let them clean but when we returned we found the odor to still be there. We called reception again and this time they sent a supervisor. They pulled up the carpet and cleaned. The odor went away.

So, they did correct the problem but it took two tries and I wish they would've done it before we were allowed to check into the room. The odor was very noticeable and they shouldn't have let passengers in a room in that condition.

 

There were also rips in the lining of the drapes on the balcony door. When we were waiting to disembark on the last day, we had a knock on the door and it was someone coming to replace the drapes. Too late for us.

 

We had four people in our cabin but never had more than two hand towels and two washcloths. We always had four bath towels.

 

We had a great cruise and found the public areas to be clean but I have to say that the cabin stewards weren't the best we've experienced.

 

I don't like hearing that they are doing away with the comment cards.

[newmexicoNita]

We sailed on the Sun in March and we also had some housekeeping issues. We had a balcony cabin on deck 8.

 

There was dust on the shelves and some marks around the bathroom shelves that I was able to easily wipe off.

 

There was a very noticeable odor in the room. When I bent down to push a suitcase under the bed, I realized it was coming from that area of the carpet. My husband called reception and they sent someone up to take care of the carpet. They found the carpet to be wet. We left the room to let them clean but when we returned we found the odor to still be there. We called reception again and this time they sent a supervisor. They pulled up the carpet and cleaned. The odor went away.

So, they did correct the problem but it took two tries and I wish they would've done it before we were allowed to check into the room. The odor was very noticeable and they shouldn't have let passengers in a room in that condition.

 

There were also rips in the lining of the drapes on the balcony door. When we were waiting to disembark on the last day, we had a knock on the door and it was someone coming to replace the drapes. Too late for us.

 

We had four people in our cabin but never had more than two hand towels and two washcloths. We always had four bath towels.

 

We had a great cruise and found the public areas to be clean but I have to say that the cabin stewards weren't the best we've experienced.

 

I don't like hearing that they are doing away with the comment cards.

I don't know if it is true but I have heard they will be doing on line comment cards. I prefer that and hope it is true. I hate not having any cards, but have never thought the current comment cards give enough room for real comments anyway.

 

NIta

[wibeachbum]

Nita,

 

I would welcome the opportunity to give my comments online. You're right, there wasn't much room for comments on the cards we filled out in March.

[CruisenGoddess]

Well according to the clerk at the Reception desk he told us that the comment cards were only going to those that NCL had their email addresses and of those not everyone would get one - would be random selection. I also agree that the comment cards did not have enough space, but do understand the space limitations for printing. I just hope I get one of those comment emails.

 

I guess overall we've done well in our 20+ cruises to have one really bad room steward, but have to say having those 2 guys not doing their jobs did impact the enjoyment of the stateroom and it wasn't the NCL experience that we've enjoyed previously.