Norwegian Sun trip report from first time cruiser

[Houstonguy62]

Our family of 6 took the northbound Alaskan cruise on the Norwegian Sun, leaving from Vancouver on July 20, 2015 and disembarking in Seward, Alaska. Our family consisted of my wife and me, three grown kids (ages 25-32) and one son-in-law. This was the first cruise for my me, my wife and one of our daughters. We had a great time on the Norwegian Sun.

Since this was my first cruise I am writing this trip report geared towards first time cruisers.

We picked the Norwegian Sun in large part based on the advice of the travel agent we used. He felt that there would be a good mix of people on board so our “kids” wouldn’t feel out of place. He was right. While there were a good amount of older cruisers, there were all ages on board. I made reservations in October 2014 for a July 2015 cruise. I wanted to have our cabins on the starboard side of the ship since we were sailing north and also a mid-ship location, both of which we got. After I made our reservations, I enrolled in My NCL and received emails about NCL and the upcoming cruise. I also paid attention to deals that NCL offered. Eventually, NCL was offering one free choice of premium services. I contacted our travel agent and he was able to get us the Ultimate Beverage Package for free. I had also read on Cruise Critic reviews and forums that bottled water was not part of this package and one had to pay for bottled water so I planned on buying bottled water in Vancouver and taking it on board. I did buy a 12 pack of bottled water at a Rexall Drug store in Vancouver just a few blocks from our hotel.

This cruise left on a Monday so we decided to fly into Vancouver and spend the weekend seeing the city. We flew into Vancouver on Friday night. If you have a U.S. passport, when you get to Immigration, go to the line marked for Canadian passports. This line takes you to kiosks that automatically take your information. It’s not listed on the first sign, but holders of U.S. passports on vacation can also go through this line and use this automated system. It greatly speeded up our processing through Immigration and then Customs.

We took the light rail from the airport to our hotel in downtown Vancouver. The light rail station is just outside the terminal. There were people in several areas of the airport to help with questions if you aren’t sure where to go. You can buy tickets using your U.S. credit card. The train ride took about 30 minutes to go from the airport to the Waterfront Station. The light rail is part subway and part above ground.

Vancouver is a really nice city. We lucked out and the weather was sunny and pleasant. We stayed at the Auberge Vancouver Hotel. I picked this hotel based on its reviews and its close location to the Waterfront rail station in Vancouver and its close location to Canada Place, the cruise ship terminal. This was a great location. It was an easy 2-3 block walk (also downhill) to Canada Place and also to Gastown which has a lot of shops and restaurants.

On Saturday we walked around Gastown and ate lunch at the Steamworks Brewhouse. Everyone enjoyed their lunch and beer. For dinner, we ate at the Dinesty Dumpling House on Robson Street. We took a taxi to this restaurant from our hotel and it cost around $10 Canadian including tip. I made reservations for dinner. As the name implies, this place has a large variety of dumplings. We had several kinds and some main entrees and everyone thought all the dishes were good. Of the places we ate, this was the most reasonably priced. We flagged down a taxi outside the restaurant to return.

On Sunday, we decided to take the red Vancouver hop on, hop off trolley. The trolley starts at Canada Place so it was an easy walk there from the hotel. There is also a blue hop on, hop off bus run by Grayline. The trolley has two routes, a Stanley Park route and a City route. Your tickets are good on both routes for the day. One reason we chose the red trolley was that the back half of the blue buses had no roof, it was open. We were very glad we were riding on the trolley where every seat was under a roof because the sun was bright and hot. Tickets to the trolley are sold by people wearing red and standing on the sidewalk. There is a ticket booth that sells tickets to the blue bus but not the red trolley. The weekends are very busy for both these tours with cruise ships coming in and departing. We got on our trolley around 10:30am and it was full. Even though it is a hop on/hop off bus, we decided not to get off. There were several stops the trolley made in town and in Stanley Park where people wanted to get on but couldn’t because we were already full. We did eventually get off at the False Creek stop to take the False Creek Ferry to Granville Island.

When you buy your trolley ticket you get a free coupon for the ferry. We ate lunch on Granville Island at the Vancouver Fish Company. We sat outside and had another good, but expensive, meal. The beer they serve at the Vancouver Fish Company is from the Granville Island Brewery. To get the trolley to return into town, you just have to walk a couple of blocks over a bridge to the mainland and pick up the trolley on the City route. By this time it was around 4pm or so and there was no problem getting seats on this trolley. We saw more of the city on this route and finally got off at Canada Place. For dinner, we took the Canada line train from Waterfront station to the Yaletown station and ate the Cactus Club Café. This restaurant was located just 2 blocks from the light rail stop. I made reservations for this location. We had an excellent and also expensive meal.

Monday morning we relaxed and headed to Canada Place a little before 12 noon. Everyone did online check in and printed out baggage tags. I bought plastic baggage tag holders from Cruise Critic to use rather than taping or stapling the paper tags to our bags. I was concerned the tags would get torn off without the tag holders. I also printed out a baggage tag and taped it to the case of bottled water I purchased. We walked from the Auberge Vancouver the 3 blocks to Canada Place. There were several Vancouver tourism people outside Canada Place providing info to cruise ship passengers and they can direct you where to go. It doesn’t matter on which side of the pier your ship is docked; everyone enters on the same side (the right side as you face Canada Place). If walking, you walk down into a parking garage like area. Once down there, there were plenty of signs and people to direct you towards your cruise ship. The first line we encountered were people who did not have baggage tags on their luggage. Since we all had tags, we were able to bypass this hectic scene and take our bags, including the case of water, to the porters. We were then directed to the main check in area. This was just like checking in at the airport. There was a fairly long line but it moved relatively quickly. Norwegian had, perhaps, 18 representatives to check you in. At check in, we presented our confirmation paperwork we received from our online check in and also our passports. It is at this location that they take your photo, take the credit card you will use for all purchases on the cruise ship and give you your NCL card. This is the card that does everything. You use it as your boarding pass to get on and off the ship, it is your room key and you use it to purchase anything on the ship. It doesn’t have your room number printed on it so make sure you remember that. You also fill out a short questionnaire concerning health risks, such as travel to an Ebola area, etc. You then go through Canadian immigration/Customs and U.S. immigration/Customs. Your carryon bags also go through screening similar to the airport. You cannot take weapons on board, including small knives. My son-in-law had a small folding pocket knife. Security took this but unlike the airport, they labeled it with his name and cabin number and said he could get it back at the end of the cruise (which he did). When we got to the ship, we had to use our new cards to swipe in through security. We had a small problem when my daughter and son swiped their cards; the agent that prepared the cards reversed the photos. This took several minutes for the security guys to figure out (their English wasn’t that good). Eventually they let them on but sent them to Guest Services on the ship to fix the problem. We did that immediately and the issue was resolved.

Once on the ship, they were announcing that rooms were not quite ready so we went to the Four Seasons dining room and were seated for lunch. After lunch we went to our rooms. Some of the rooms had their luggage already outside. We met our cabin steward who was busy trying to find luggage. He was very friendly and a great guy. The bottled water was already in our room. My wife’s and my luggage was the last to arrive but it did arrive before we actually sailed.

As a first time cruiser, my first impression of our cabin (which was a balcony cabin) was it reminded me of the inside of a travel trailer/RV. We found our cabin to be perfectly fine. There were a good number of drawers for clothes and the closet had a large number of hangers. There were also some shelves and cabinets. My wife and I found that there was a nice amount of storage space. Our 26” suitcases both fit under the bed for storage. The space between the end of the bed and room wall was narrow and it was difficult for two people to pass through this space without getting very cozy with each other. We had a sofa that could seat 3, a desk area, a small refrigerator, coffee maker and room safe. I moved some of the drinks around in the frig to make room for a bottle or two of our water. The bathroom was like an RV bath, small. Actually, mainly the shower was small. It was circular with a shower curtain. The most annoying part of the shower was that, when taking a shower, the shower curtain would blow in on you. The bed was a little firm and we asked our cabin steward if he could put a pad on it which he did. This helped make the bed reasonably comfortable. We were located on Deck 8. I was a little concerned when I learned that the casino and shops were below us on Deck 7 but we never had any issues with noise from below or anywhere.

One of the best tips I received from Cruise Critic was to bring an extension cord of some sort for the room. There was only one plug above the desk. I had bought a 3 outlet wall tap from Amazon.com which was very compact and provided 3 plug outlets. This worked well. The hair dryer in the bathroom does get pretty hot but it does not blow very forcefully. My wife brought a hair dryer and was glad she did.

On the ship, there are two main dining rooms where you can sit down and order meals. One of them is open for breakfast and lunch and both are open for dinner. Each has a menu that stays the same each night. The menu items are similar but not identical. For example, the Four Seasons had rib eye steak, grilled chicken breast, and fillet of salmon while the Seven Seas had New York strip steak, rosemary chicken and broiled Norwegian salmon. In addition, there is a portion of the menu that changes every day but is the same in both restaurants. We ended up eating in the Four Seasons main dining room for most dinners just because we liked their fixed dinner menu a little better than the one in the Seven Seas dining room. We found most meals were good. They are not gourmet meals but tasted good and were presented nicely. The portion sizes were reasonable, definitely not huge portions. If you want more, you can order two entrees, which a couple of times my kids did. Exceptions to this were the steaks. Each restaurant had a different steak. We tried the steak in each restaurant and thought the steaks were fatty and thin and not that great. So if you want a good steak you’ll have to go to the specialty restaurant Cagney’s and pay the additional charge. On the other hand, both restaurants had an egg roll as an appetizer that we really liked. I started ordering two egg rolls for an appetizer.

We did not eat in any of the specialty restaurants, in part, because when in port we ate dinner in town. We also never ate dinner in the Garden Café or the Great Outdoors café, both of which were buffet style and generally crowded during meal times.

We did eat breakfast at the buffet and it was a typical buffet breakfast with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pastries and more. At times there was an omelet station open in both the Garden Café and Great Outdoors (I didn’t know about the Great Outdoors location until the end of the cruise). There was also a waffle station operating sometimes in the Garden Café.

For lunch, the ship held a barbeque on the pool deck when we sailed from Vancouver and at least two more times. They had charcoal grills going and served chicken and salmon. Lunch in the Garden Café and Great Outdoors was varied and included hamburgers and hotdogs. There was also an ice cream bar in the Garden Café. It had soft serve ice cream and also real ice cream one has to scoop up. They also had cobbler and pound cake to go with the ice cream. Finally, in the Moderno specialty restaurant location, they served pizza and pasta at lunchtime that was complimentary.

There were hand sanitation stations throughout the ship. There were also crew members with a spray bottle of hand sanitizer standing near restaurants (especially the buffet ones) saying “washy, washy” and offering to spray your hands.

As first time cruisers we haven’t experienced the situation where we are assigned tables and specific times to eat, but we enjoyed Norwegian’s freestyle dining. We just walked up to the maître d’, told them how many people we had and they would find a suitable table for us (they also would swipe my NCL card each time we came to dinner). We were always seated very quickly.

My only complaint about the dining rooms is that some of the wait staff did not speak English very well and could not explain some of the menu choices.

 

Excursions:

I made all our excursion trips on my own and did not use the Norwegian sponsored ones. I found that the prices were not much different but oftentimes we would be a smaller group. I had read that passengers were supposed to be back on board the cruise ship one hour before departure but Norwegian only asked that we be back on board 30 minutes before departure.

 

 

Ketchikan:

The ship was supposed to be in port from 7am to 4pm. We learned from the Daily that we were leaving at 3pm, not 4. The weather was cloudy and a little rainy. It was clearer by lunchtime.

I had made the decision that I wanted to see bears in the wild catching salmon. That was one reason I picked a cruise date late in July because most salmon types were running. From reviewing Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor I found that a trip to the Anan Creek bear viewing area was one of the best places for doing this. The cruise ships did not provide this particular tour. The Anan Creek observation area is located in the Tongass National Forest and can be accessed only by permit from the Forest Service with only 60 people allowed per day. Permits are assigned by lottery and the floatplane operators apply for them for their passengers. The observation area can be reached only be floatplane or boat. I contacted Island Wings and Southeast Aviation in Ketchikan in October 2014. Island Wings was already booked up on the day we were in Ketchikan but Southeast Aviation was available. When I spoke with the owner he said that I had called right before a lottery so my timing was great. There were 6 of us which is the maximum for the floatplane. Ultimately, we got the permits.

It was cloudy when we arrived in Ketchikan. We were off the boat around 7:20am and met by Southeast Aviation. We were driven to their office. While there, we met our pilot, Fred, and were briefed by the owner on bear safety and given some literature to read.

Even though it was cloudy, we could still fly. The takeoffs and landings were very smooth as was the flight. We were dropped off at the trailhead and met by a Forest Ranger who also briefed us on bear safety. We could not bring any food with us on the trail. We did bring some candy bars, granola bars, etc to eat when we were picked back up and we left those on the plane.

We hiked about 30 minutes to the bear observation platform, mainly on a wooden walkway. We saw a lot of bald eagles on the way. Before getting to the observation area, we saw a juvenile brown bear aka grizzly bear in the creek hunting salmon. At the observation platform, we were met by two more rangers. We stayed at the platform about 2 hours and saw 6 or more black bears fishing for and catching salmon in the creek. The young brown bear also walked up the creek towards our area so we got a better and closer look at him. There were also a lot of bald eagles at this location. The eagles eat the salmon scraps of the bears. We all had a great time. We hiked back and were met by our pilot and flew back to Ketchikan. We had a few hours left in port, so we ate a late lunch at Annabelle’s Keg and Chowder House. Everyone enjoyed the meal. We had enough time after that to do a little window shopping and buy some t-shirts, etc.

 

Juneau:

The ship was in port from 10am to 8pm. It was raining on this day and chilly on the water. This was a very busy day for us because we were going to squeeze in two sights. I had booked a whale watching trip with Harv and Marv. They had good reviews and used smaller boats, which I liked. In fact, with a group of 6, we had one boat to ourselves. They were going to pick us up at 11:30am to take us to the marina. Normally, after the whale watching, their shuttle bus takes you to Mendenhall Glacier and gives you about 15-20 minutes at the glacier. We had decided we wanted more time at the glacier so we had them drop us off and leave us.

We got off the ship a little after 10am (later than I wanted to). Our ship docked a little far from the main pier area so there were shuttle buses that took us from the ship to the Roberts Tramway area. We walked around Juneau a little before our whale tour. I had found where a Subway shop was located and we went by there and bought sandwiches which we took with us and ate on the shuttle bus to the marina.

We went out with Capt Jen and had a great time. We saw Stellar sea lions and humpback whales and some juvenile whales. On our boat, there were snacks of granola bars, Famous Amos choc chip cookies, water, Coke and Diet Coke. There were enough binoculars on the boat for all 6 of us.

Because of the size of the boat, it can be somewhat jarring inside as the boat cuts through the water so if this is a problem for you, go with a tour that uses a much larger boat.

As planned, we were then taken to Mendenhall Glacier and arrived around 3:30pm. We hiked to Nugget Falls and the sights of the glacier and falls were wonderful. I had arranged with Taku Taxi to pick us up at 5pm. They were right on time and took us back into Juneau. The one way fare was right around $35 Canadian. We had the taxi drop us off at the Twisted Fish restaurant on the dock. We had another fine meal and the desserts were huge! We did not have time to visit the Red Dog Saloon.

 

Skagway:

The ship was in port from 7am to 8pm, our longest stop. The weather started out cloudy and a little rainy but cleared in the afternoon. Everything I read said that one had to go on the White Pass and Yukon train. I booked the Bennett Scenic Journey using Chilkoot Charters which lasts about 8 hours. If you book a train excursion through the cruise ship, you can get onto the train right on the dock. For us, Chilkoot picked us up at the dock and drove us to the train station (just a 5 minute drive). The Chilkoot tour group was assigned our own passenger train car and our car was about half full. This is one of the reasons I chose Chilkoot because I had read that the passenger cars for the cruise booked excursions could be full and crowded. There was also a tour guide assigned to each passenger car who provided a narration of where we were and what we were seeing. I assumed we’d just be looking out the window and admiring the scenery so this was great. We stopped in Bennett, had lunch and could walk around some of the original buildings still standing. We then took the train to Carcross. In Carcross we switched to a shuttle bus and returned to Skagway in the bus with our driver/tour guide pointing out things to see. We saw a mother black bear and her two cubs foraging for food on the side of the road. Our tour guide turned the bus around and stopped alongside the road for us to watch.

When we returned to Skagway, we still had plenty of time to shop and we ate dinner at the Skagway Brewing Company. The food and beer was good here also. Since we had missed the Red Dog Saloon in Juneau, we decided to go into the Red Onion Saloon. We all celebrated with a Duck Fart or Reindeer Fart shot.

Even though our train tour was fairly long, we still had plenty of time to shop in Skagway, down shots and eat dinner before boarding the ship.

 

Glacier Bay National Park:

Rangers from the park board the ship early in the morning. There was an early (7:15am) brief talk by Ranger Dan in the Observation Lounge and a longer one by Ranger Randy in the Stardust theater. Ranger Dan went onto the bridge and would describe what we were seeing in Glacier Bay over the PA system of the ship. You could hear it throughout the ship and on the TV in your room.

Glacier Bay had some amazing sights. We saw some calving of the glaciers and you could definitely hear them cracking. The Captain sails the ship as close as allowed and safe and stops. He then pivots the ship so both starboard and port sides have a view at some point. While in Glacier Bay, we saw harbor seals laying on a piece of floating ice and some sea otters in the water. On the way out of the bay, there was also a large, adult brown bear (grizzly) on the shore that was more easily seen with binoculars.

I did bring a pair of binoculars with me and they were useful to have on the ship, at Mendenhall (you can see the glacier much closer), in Glacier Bay and at Hubbard Glacier.

The weather was fairly nice while we were in Glacier Bay but it was still very cool. When you were in the shade or the ship was moving, it was chilly and many people had their fleece jackets on, gloves and hats.

 

Hubbard Glacier:

At this stop, there were no rangers so the cruise director provided some info about Hubbard Glacier. The weather this day was cloudy and rainy. The ship headed straight towards the glacier and stopped at a safe distance (I think we were able to get closer to this glacier than in Glacier Bay because in Glacier Bay the National Park has regulations regarding this and Hubbard Glacier is not part of any park system). Once stopped, the ship pivoted to the left and right so one could see from any side. Hubbard Glacier is the longest glacier in North America. As we left Hubbard Glacier, we saw some orcas near the shore. This took binoculars and they were still hard to see. You could see their spouts. It looked like they were just waiting off shore for seals to enter the water.

 

Seward:

We signed up (through My NCL) for the train excursion on the Alaska Railroad to take you from Seward to Anchorage. This did not show up as an excursion when I first made my cruise reservations in October but it was at least 6 months before our trip in July. The train picks you up at the docks and takes a scenic route to Anchorage. The trip takes about 4 ½ hours and leaves around 6:45am. We had to assemble at 6am (the Garden Café was open early for breakfast). The train goes directly to the airport in Anchorage. For those with flights in the afternoon, they get off and stay at the airport. For those with flights later in the afternoon or at night (which was us), you get off the train and get onto buses and you are driven into Anchorage. Norwegian has a hospitality area in the convention center. Prior to disembarkation, Norwegian gave us our excursion tickets and luggage tags that showed our bags should go to the hospitality center. You had to leave your bags outside your cabin on Sunday night (we docked in Seward early Monday morning). You do have to bring with you some type of bag to put toiletries in that you use Monday morning and the clothes you sleep in. Some people had backpacks, some had Vera Bradley overnight bags, etc. The train cars are clear, domed cars so there is no overhead space to store bags. Your carryon bag has to fit under the seats of the train.

When we left the ship, we had a short walk and went inside where there were 3-4 lines divided by the starting letter of your last name. These lines were for someone to just check your name off their list. After this, you went to a person from the Alaska Railroad who gave you your seat assignment. He did this based on how many people were traveling with you. The passenger cars have tables on each side of the train with 4 seats around each table, two facing forward and two facing backward. In our group of 6, 4 of us sat around one table and two of us sat at a table with a couple from Denmark. The glass domed top made seeing either side of the train fairly easy. Each passenger car had a train employee who acted as waitress and tour guide. Each car had a kitchenette area and you could buy snacks on the train. This person also provided information regarding what we were seeing from the train and about the history of the railroad. The train also had a dining car where you could buy slightly fancier snacks. The train ride was very picturesque and we saw more glaciers. Our bags were put on the train from the cruise ship. When we arrived at the Anchorage airport, our bags were taken off the train and taken down to the hospitality center and unloaded. When we arrived at the hospitality center, we got tickets for the shuttle bus return to the airport. Our plane was leaving at 8:30pm so we took the 6pm shuttle. You could also leave your carryon bags at the hospitality center. The ladies there would tag your bag(s) and give you a claim check. Once all the luggage was unloaded, you had access to it. We eventually took toiletries and things out of our carryon bags and repacked them into the bag we were going to check. In this hospitality area, there were tables and chairs and bathrooms available if you just wanted to sit and relax.

The convention center is in the heart of downtown Anchorage and the log cabin visitor center is right around the corner from the convention center.

We opted to eat lunch and went to the Glacier Brewhouse which was about a 2 block walk from the convention center. We had our final Alaskan meal and Alaskan beer. The Anchorage Trolley runs a 1 hour tour of the city for $20 per person. We decided to do that. It leaves from next to the log cabin visitor center (shuttles to the Alaska Heritage Center also leave from here). Tickets are purchased from a guy standing on the street and cash only is accepted. While the price of the tour is a little steep, it was a nice tour. Our driver/tour guide was a college aged girl who grew up in Anchorage and whose family grew up in Anchorage. Much of the tour focuses on the major 1964 earthquake that destroyed much of Anchorage. It was pretty neat to hear our guide tell stories from that time about her family who actually lived through the quake. There is also a free museum nearby where you can see short films about Alaska and about the earthquake. The museum building is part of the federal courthouse so you have to go through security and have a picture ID to get in.

We caught our 6pm shuttle bus to the airport and took the long, overnight flight back home to Houston.

We were all very pleased with our Norwegian Sun cruise. All of the staff on the ship were friendly and always smiling. I don’t see how they do that day in and day out. We did not opt out of the daily room service charge by Norwegian. On top of that, I tended to tip the bartender or bar waiter $1 per drink extra (there is a 18% gratuity added to your drink order). We had a different waiter/waitress for dinner, so I gave them a $5 tip extra. For our very friendly and hardworking cabin steward, I tipped him $50. I had read a Cruise Critic article that suggested a $5 tip per day but we really liked our cabin steward.

[Host Walt]

Very well written review. I copied your post over to the NCL forum so others can enjoy reading about your experiences. You'll find your report both here and on the NCL board. Here's a link to your post on NCL: Norwegian Sun Trip Report

You will have replies posted on each forum so you may want to check both periodically.

[Baz23]

Great review OP, very well detailed and some great pictures as well.

 

Hope you enjoy it around here, look forward to reading more from you :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your wonderful comprehensive review.

Loved all your details.

Glad you had a wonderful time.

[Sauer-kraut]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the Norwegian SUN ... my favorite ship!! :D

[April29]

Great review from a First Timer !