NCL Sun May 8-18 trip report

[theloo]

Just a short report on the Sun's first Alaska trip of the year:

 

First and foremost, the weather was PERFECT!!! You couldn't ask for anything better. Partly sunny/cloudy every day and no rain (even in Ketchikan). It was almost too hot for hiking on some days.

 

The ship is in decent shape. We had a balcony and most things were in working order or we could fix ourselves with duct tape ;) We ate only at complimentary restaurants and found the food good (not quite as good as HAL, in my opinion) but could have used a little more variety. The chocoholic night was great for me and I had 2 of the hazelnut milk chocolate bars :D The kids club was a lifesaver! Our kids didn't really like Alaska ??? so they spent some of every day in Splash Academy. There were some fun activities aboard and the entertainment was good except that I didn't really like the Sun's own singers and dancers, but again that's very subjective.

 

The ports: we went to the basics (Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway), plus Glacier Bay, Sitka, Hoonah, and Victoria. Since it was early in the season, not everything was open and some of the stores were not fully stocked. :( Our favorite ports overall were Hoonah and Victoria, which were new to us. We didn't do any formal excursions since this was the first time to Alaska for the kids and we didn't know what they would like. However, we did see a few seals from the ship and in port, a couple of whales from a distance, and lots of bald eagles.

 

If you have any questions about the Sun, I'll try to answer them. After about 7 days, I finally felt like I could get around pretty well.

[weevie]

Hi

 

Thanks for your report. Can you tell me how it was getting off the Sun in Hoonah? I've an independent tour booked here and am not sure how using the tenders will work.

[theloo]

Thanks for your report. Can you tell me how it was getting off the Sun in Hoonah? I've an independent tour booked here and am not sure how using the tenders will work.

 

Passengers had to get tender tickets on the morning of the stop. I believe suite passengers got priority, but I'm not positive. Then you wait in a public area and they announce your boat number when it's ready. We didn't have any place to be, so we waited until we were ready and got tickets, and it was about a 20-30 minute wait from after we got our tickets. Boarding the tender, getting over there, and getting off took about 40 minutes? If you have an independent tour and need to get off early, I suggest you try to get tickets early. They had 5-6 tenders in service, so service was pretty much non-stop.

[weevie]

Passengers had to get tender tickets on the morning of the stop. I believe suite passengers got priority, but I'm not positive. Then you wait in a public area and they announce your boat number when it's ready. We didn't have any place to be, so we waited until we were ready and got tickets, and it was about a 20-30 minute wait from after we got our tickets. Boarding the tender, getting over there, and getting off took about 40 minutes? If you have an independent tour and need to get off early, I suggest you try to get tickets early. They had 5-6 tenders in service, so service was pretty much non-stop.

 

Thank you for this really useful information. I booked an early tour, then remembered that this was a tendered port, and have been trying to find out how easy it would be for us to get of the Sun early.