shadowmeboy

We have done 4 sailings on her! She is our favorite!

nice!

I am looking forward to it! We have a variety of activities planned for the trip!

We are missing Hawaii! 49 days to go!

That is the correct answer! Had to inject a bit of humor into the review!

So in 2007, when Susan and I got married, we sailed the Sun on our honeymoon. Our stateroom on that cruise was room 5001. When we got our upgrade notice, the stateroom that we got placed in was room 5002! Right next door. The great thing about these rooms are they are down a dead end hallway! Thus they are very quiet, even as you are literally 100 feet away from the Atrium! Room 5002! Meet & Greet Invite Our bags started to arrive So we started unpacking.

I always get the wedge! Susan got a Cobb Salad. Susan got the Fish & Chips I ordered my normal bacon cheeseburger I got the Creme Caramel Susan got the Five Spice Mango Tapioca Pudding After lunch, we checked in at CruiseNext and signed up for all our Sapphire Perks! This was the awesome gingerbread display in the atrium! We cleared up a restaurant reservation issue. We had purchased the Free at Sea Plus Package - Unlimited Wifi, 2 extra specialty dinners; $50 shoreex credit for 2nd person; Premium Beverage package; plus waters and Starbucks package! Here I am enjoying the first Iced Mocha of the trip! Atrium Cafe & Bar - Deck 5 Susan opted for a hot chai latte. We found a spot to sit as we waited for staterooms to be available.

We headed up to take care of the Muster Station checkin Boarding was on deck 5, so we headed up to 6 to check in. All Muster Stations on the Sun are on Deck 6 outside. Once we checked in, it was time for lunch! We headed to Seven Seas for lunch. Baggage Cart outside Lunch Menu Have you figured out my embarkation day order, yet? I order the same thing every cruise!

Brian Walters, General Manager, was up greeting guests as they got ready to board the ship. I love how he does that! Day 1 Daily! Shore Excursion insert

We had an awesome time at Fort McHenry! We also learned a bunch about the War of 1812 and how Baltimore stuck together. It was time to return to the hotel, so we could grab our bags, and head to the ship! Row houses - I thought these were so cool. There is the Sun! See you soon! We grabbed the bags and checked out! It's Cruise time! Our Uber arrived! Unloading the bags at the pier! I love how they use baggage carts; Great idea! Let's Go Cruising! Security Check-in lines Once checked in, it was time to head to take the boarding photo! There we are! As that sign says, to the ship! How can you tell its a Christmas cruise without me saying its a Christmas cruise? With a Santa greeting guests as the climb up to the ship!

We got to experience the changing of the flag from the overnight modern flag to the historical accurate flag of 1812. The ranger gave an excellent presentation. Modern flag She then asked for volunteers to help raise the historical flag. They have to raise and lower the flags at the same time to fulfill the Presidential Proclamation that requires a flag fly at all times over Fort McHenry. unfolding the flag There it goes! Here is the video of the changing of the flag! This was really informative!

Pano of the Fort inside The brig Here is what it would have looked like if you were a soldier at Fort McHenry during the battle. I am so glad the citizens of Baltimore stopped this from happening.

Fort McHenry This is a hard picture to look at. The Francis Scott Key Bridge was such a beautiful bridge, it is so sad that was hit and it came down. During the summer months, the US Coast Guard places a special buoy out in the harbor to mark where Francis Scott Key was during the bombardment of Fort McHenry. Heading into the Fort! Ravelin Magazine Someone short had to go down and explore the small room.

We had to visit Fort McHenry! So, for those of you who don't know. Fort McHenry is the Fort that the British were firing upon when Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner, our national anthem. Once we booked this cruise, I knew we had to visit the fort sometime while in Baltimore. Inside display area There was tons of info to read and digest. But the fort awaits!

December 21st, 2023 Embarkation Day! Location: Baltimore, Maryland My nerves woke me up early! I was noticing that the Sun was running a bit late into Baltimore this morning. The cruise that was finishing up had a bit of weather come through, which slowed down the ship a bit. At 7:30 am, the Sun was just coming into Baltimore. This is taken from our Hotel room! Knowing that disembarkation would be slower, we headed to breakfast! After breakfast, we got the hotel to print the new bag tags. Put those in our tag holders and got everything ready. Then we headed down to the lobby and grabbed an Uber, leaving our bags at the hotel for now! Where could we be off to? Interstate 95 tunnel Finally, we arrived at our destination!

Baltimore's Penn Station Interestingly; Our bags got put on a earlier train (Amtrak 20 - The Crescent) and were already in Baltimore when we arrived! Waiting for the Uber to arrive! It was chilly, like 41 when we arrived into Baltimore. So we were glad to get in the car! We had a half an hour or so drive to the hotel. We were staying at the Best Western that was only like 10 minutes from the Port. Our room! The view from our room! So by the time we got settled in the room, the Panera had worn off, and it was Pizza time! Dominos for the win! We enjoyed our dinner, watched some TV, then fell asleep knowing that tomorrow we would be boarding the Norwegian Sun!

After eating, we headed back to the Metro and made our way back to Union Station. We collected the stored bags, and made our way to the gate where our train would board from. We were taking the Palmetto, one of the long distance trains that has a baggage car, up to Baltimore! Susan ruined another penny. She loves those penny crusher machines. I wanted to note, that on our way over to Seattle, the day before, we got notified that our bid was accepted to go from an inside to an oceanview. Unfortunately, now we had to figure out how to print new bag tags! Time to board the train! Amtrak Train 90 - The Palmetto! We were going to be on the train for literally 45 minutes. Just like that we arrived into Baltimore!

Eisenhower Executive Office Building The White House - I am saddened that people can no longer be on the opposite side of the street. I understand the whole safety aspect for the President, but its still a government building that is paid for by my tax dollars. Why am I keep across the street from the White House fence? General Marquis de Lafayette Statue Treasury Department Building - Albert Gallatin Statue (Fraser) We were getting hungry and knew we needed to eat something before heading to the train. We stopped by Panera and got some Soup and Sandwich.

After leaving the Lincoln Memorial, we walked over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. I find this memorial to be one of the most impactful in DC. This picture captures the true size of the entire memorial. The personal mementos get me. As it was getting dark, we jumped in an Uber to get up by the White House quickly. Since we were only in town for the day, we were hitting some highlights for Susan's sake!

They were working on the Memorial when we got there. Unfortunately, it ruins the picture.

When we visited in December, it was just after wreaths were placed at every grave. The Pentagon We headed over to the Kennedy family graves. Looking up at the Tomb of the Unknown After we finished at Arlington, to save daylight, we Ubered over to the Lincoln Memorial. While its not that far, our legs were starting to hurt and it would have taken us far too long.

We headed into the House to look around. These displays were in former slave quarters. Slave Quarters

We then caught the Tram to Arlington House Civil War Tomb of the Unknown Incredible views of Washington from Arlington House

The Guard stepped off his path to address the spectators, who were talking too loudly. People are expected to be quiet and respectful, these people were not and the soldier addressed it. You could hear a pin drop afterwards.

Witnessing the Changing of the Guard Ceremony is something I highly recommend. It is such a great honor for these soldiers to have the responsibility to look after this tomb. Here is the video I shot of the Changing of the Guard.