Just Back from Alaska on the Sun

[riggins]

Hi Everyone-

We just returned from a great week in Alaska aboard the Norwegian Sun (6/14 sailing). I thought I’d take a moment and share some of our thoughts about the cruise, since everyone else’s reviews were so helpful to me when planning. For background, DH and I were with our 6 and 7 year old daughters, along with my parents, and 8 year old nephew. With the exception of my nephew, everyone had cruised several times before, but no one had ever sailed on NCL. The only cruise line my kids have ever sailed is Disney, but DH and I have also sailed RCI.

Ship

Overall, I thought the Sun was very nice and well maintained. It was stylish, without being too stuffy or overly garish. My only complaint about the ship itself was that it has a really dysfunctional traffic flow. We were on Deck 9 aft and it seemed difficult at first to get anywhere without having to cut through a restaurant or casino. After a couple of days, we figured it out, but it’s really odd.

Service

I have to say that the crew on the Sun was outstanding. Our room steward knew everyone’s name, asked my kids about their day and left them extra chocolates with their towel animals every night. We met a waiter in the buffet on our second day who made the kids origami animals. When we ended up in his section for dinner a few days later, he taught them how to make their own. We had another waiter who showed the kids magic tricks. With very few exceptions, everyone we encountered was really, really great!

Dining

On all our past cruises, we’ve always had a set dinner time and I have to say, I LOVED the freestyle concept. We thought the food was very good in all the dining locations. As a party of 7, I was worried about having long waits at dinner, but we rarely had to wait at all. We at Four Seasons most nights, but we also tried Il Adagio and Pacific Heights.

While dinner was a pleasant experience, breakfast and lunch were truly a hassle. It was impossible to have a quick, simple meal. I had read about issues with the buffet on the Sun, but I was unprepared for just how dysfunctional that entire deck 11 aft area could be. As others have said, there is not a lot of seating in the buffet area itself – there is a lot of covered outdoor seating, but it was cold, so very few people sat out there. So, the buffet crowd overflowed in to the neighboring Sports Bar and Pacific Heights – which again I was expecting thanks to reviews from other on CC. The problem however, was that it was still often difficult to get a table, and there were only a couple times when our entire party of seven was able to find space together. So in addition to always having to hunt for a table and then having to split up our group , we were often seated a long way from the buffet – so with three kids in our group, we spent the whole meal hiking back and forth to get things. There are no trays in the buffet area and the plates are pretty heavy (not a big deal for adults, but a 6-year-old can’t carry a heavy plate of food, her silverware, and a drink). The whole situation was really unpleasant. We did several breakfasts and lunches in the main dining rooms, but those meals tended to take up a lot of time that frankly we really didn’t want to spend eating. Despite the how stressful it was to try to eat at the buffet, I thought the food was generally pretty good.

Kids Club

This was the area I was most concerned about. We had three days at sea and while the adults in my group were really looking forward to watching the beautiful Alaskan scenery go by, I knew the kids would be bored with that fast. Fortunately, all 3 kids in our group loved the Sun’s Kids Korner and I had to drag them out of there when it was time to leave. As you would expect, the space itself is much smaller than Disney’s, but there are a lot less kids. One of the counselors said there were 350 kids on our sailing. The kids really got to know the counselors well and they were able to do a lot of activities that the Disney kids club simply can’t do because of the large number of kids. Of course, NCL can’t have Snow White come and teach them to dance . . . but they enjoyed Wii Mario Cart just as much! I’ve asked my kids several times who had the better kids club and they can’t decide – they love them both.

Cabins

We were in 9278 and my parents were in 0067 - both are aft mini-suites. As soon as they announced that our cabins were ready, we headed to check them out. We went first to my parent’s cabin, 0067, and it was great – it looked just like the photos I had seen online from other people on Cruise Critic. Then we headed down to ours, 9278 and I was so disappointed. Our cabin was at least 3 feet shorter than my parents cabin above on deck 10. Their cabin had a chair and night table on one side of the bed, while ours only had room for a night table. They also had a chair for the desk. In our cabin, there was barely room to stand between the bed and the desk, so you couldn’t even fit a chair in there. If I hadn’t seen my parent’s cabin, I might not have been quite so disappointed, but the damage was done. I wanted to go ask if any of the mini-suites on the pool deck were still available (there had been several available 2 days prior to sailing), but DH didn’t want to give up the aft balcony. So, we made do. Our room steward happily removed the coffee table, which helped give everyone at least a 12-inch path to the bathroom at night. The linens were great, and the bathroom was huge. It had a 6-foot bathtub, granite counter tops, a separate room for the toilet, and a lot of storage room. There was also a walk-in closet/changing room that had lots of built in drawers, a small vanity table, and a big mirror. Overall, this would be a nice room for a couple, but it just was too tight for a family of four.

I’ll post a separate review of our ports and excursions over on the Alaska board in a day of two. I’ve put a link below to our photos if you’re interested. There is a separate album with just pictures of our cabin if you want to see that without going through the rest of the pictures! I’d be happy to answer any questions.

http://community.webshots.com/user/leslieandbilly

Thanks

Leslie

[MalkyM]

Leslie

 

Thanks for your review of your Alaskan trip on the Sun. We sail on Sep 6.

 

Did you take any excursions? If so, any particular interesting ones or highlights? We have booked a few (both with NCL and a private tour company) and are just interested to know of others' experiences.

 

Also, did they offer one of their "fill a bag" laundry deals for a set price?

 

Thanks

 

Malcolm

[patch62]

Leslie..... Thanks for details on the ship.. we are sailing on July 5.... wow !! that is almost here!!.....

Have sailed NCL many times and love the freestyle....Never to Alaska though... will be anxious to read about the excursions and whatever else you did..

Pat

[newmexicoNita]

Leslie, I am sure your review will be helpful to many. The Sun is one of my favorite NCL ships, no, not the newest but just a nice ship to cruise.

Nita

[patch62]

Just viewed your photos..... kind of a heads up as what we can expect.. Thanks!!

Pat

[riggins]

Hi everyone-

I posted a review of our excusions over on the Alaska boards. Here's the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1014061

 

Thanks

Leslie

[SkippyAnne]

Hi Leslie,

 

We're going on July 19th. Do you know if they have self serve laundry on board? Thanks!

Nicole:)

[riggins]

No, there was no self-serve laundry. They had a "fill the bag" laundry special for $25 that came to us on Wednesday night. You had to turn it in Thursday or Friday before noon and they would return it on Saturday. We didn't bother since the cruise ended Sunday.

[calenita]

No, there was no self-serve laundry. They had a "fill the bag" laundry special for $25 that came to us on Wednesday night. You had to turn it in Thursday or Friday before noon and they would return it on Saturday. We didn't bother since the cruise ended Sunday.

 

can you fill the bag with anything? Jeans, pants, shorts, tshirts, shirts, underwear etc? On RCCL you could only put certain things in the bag - no jeans or regular shirts for example.

Thanks

[uppitycats]

can you fill the bag with anything? Jeans, pants, shorts, tshirts, shirts, underwear etc? On RCCL you could only put certain things in the bag - no jeans or regular shirts for example.

Thanks

 

I'm not the OP, but when we cruised on the Jewel in October, you could stuff anything into the bag that you wanted -- we had jeans, shirts, everything that we'd worn in there. It all came back folded, or ironed and on hangars, as appropriate. We did have duct tape with us and taped the bag around the top -- they tear rather easily when well-stuffed.. :o

[terrymtex01]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. We were on the Sun a couple of years ago and loved it. We had the Aft AC (I believe it was an AC, never can remember for sure). We found the ship to be beautiful and although I have read many many times about it being confusing finding your way around, we never found it to be that way. I do have to say though, most of the time we were going from our stateroom to the casino which was a trip to the elevator and down afew flights and there we were.. LOL.. But I have no doubt it is some what a trick to learn your way around because I have read that here so much.

 

Our favorite NCL ship is the Star and while I love her, I feel the same way about her buffet as you did with the one on the Sun. Felt that way about the Sun's buffet even more. To me, NCL got the buffet right on the Pearl. Wish all of their buffets where designed the same way.

 

Enjoyed reading your review so much now I am off to read your review of your excursions. Thanks agaiin for posting.

[Carey and Kerry]

Great pictures, thanks so much? We are looking at aft cabins. Did your parents notice any noise from the outdoor cafe above their cabin?

[AZ Boomer]

We just booked a cruise on the NCL Sun for July 2011 and booked cabin 9278. We decided against 0067 (the cabin your parents were in) being fearful of noise from the Great Outdoors Cafe on the Pool Deck.

After reading your review, it got us to thinking that 3 more feet might be very worthwhile for myself, wife and 17 year old son.

Do you have any pictures of 0067 for comparison, and did your parents complain of any noise from the cafe?

After checking the boards, you and your parents appear to have the info to make a good comaprison between the cabins.

Thanks

Ron

[Sauer-kraut]

We just booked a cruise on the NCL Sun for July 2011 and booked cabin 9278. Ron

 

The Sun will be in dry dock for 3 weeks in January 2011, so things might be moved around/changed from the set up she had in 2009. No one really knows what things will be done to her, other than engine work and other mechanical stuffs.

 

I hope you have a wonderful trip, I personally can't wait until Oct. when we do an Atlantic crossing on her for 12 days. :)

[AZ Boomer]

Hi Sauer-Kraut

We are just down the road from you (Dunlap/Peoria) after having moved from AZ (it the humidity, not the heat!). From what I saw on TV (History Channel) in addition to the engineering stuff, I think that there will be a general cleaning, new carpets, furniture etc. but the cabin sizes should not change.

I found a few more photos of each of the cabins, but a direct comparison will hopefully be helpful.

The Atlantic crossing ought to be a blast!

Cheers

--Ron

[Sauer-kraut]

Howdy!

 

Boy, your loyalties run all over, BoSox and AZ and now IL. There is a couple from Peoria on our cruise in Oct too and my uncle lives down that way in Mackinaw (sp).

 

It's so hot and humid lately I wish I could escape to someplace cool until the cruise, but I have to work in order to payoff the get-away!

 

Have fun!

[AZ Boomer]

I'm a bit of a nomad: School (and family) in Boston, last job in AZ, now "enjoying" the humidity this week in IL with my new job.

[dexddd]

We just booked a cruise on the NCL Sun for July 2011 and booked cabin 9278. We decided against 0067 (the cabin your parents were in) being fearful of noise from the Great Outdoors Cafe on the Pool Deck.

After reading your review, it got us to thinking that 3 more feet might be very worthwhile for myself, wife and 17 year old son.

Do you have any pictures of 0067 for comparison, and did your parents complain of any noise from the cafe?

After checking the boards, you and your parents appear to have the info to make a good comaprison between the cabins.

Thanks

Ron

We were in 0067 in June. I had put some notes on the general board under another ops comments on the Baltics trip we were on 6/16.

 

We did hear noise from chairs in the a.m. - usually right around 6:00a.m. as I recall and it only lasted about 5-10 minutes. We would also hear noise periodically throughout the day, but not bad.

 

What I hadn't read prior to our trip which you might want to consider is that our rooms on deck 10 aft were a prime target of seagull poop when the ship was in port as they hover over the outside cafe for food. This was lasted as long as we were in port and a bit while going out to sea. The birds will also sit on your railing at times with the food they took from upstairs.

 

I can't attest to decks 8 & 9 below if this is a problem but my guess is probably not due to the shape of the ship.

 

Other than that, the room was fairly large, had a nice separate makeup/bathroom/storage area, 7 110v outlets, a 19" flat panel. The room carpet and furniture was worn but that will hopefully get fixed before you go (in the drydock). The aft locations are very close to the restaurants/buffet/bars which are decks 11 and up for the most part (other than MDRs).