Things I should know about the Norwegian SUN ship.

[watergurl1125]

Hey Everyone,

My friend and I will be going on the Norwegian Sun. I would like to know what are thing we need to do when on the ship? Also this is our first cruise so I have few other questions. First, tipping? how much sure I tip and will it get auto to my card (one of my coworker said something about that and told me to go to service desk and say we will be tipping with cash). Should we do one nice dinner (the steakhouse) or just stay at the main dining room? Any advice will be grateful appreciate.

thank you

[Maniacal Cruiser]

Nice ship. It can be a little (and I do mean little) confusing to find your away around until you get it down pat. I think it is because the ship was retro-fit during one dry dock. All in all though its a great ship.

[cliffd64]

OK, tips... never had anyone ask that question before! (JUST KIDDING!)

 

Your daily service charge should cover most of your tips for services throughout the week. If you signed up for the free UBP you already paid bar service tips as well.

 

Now, and remember everyone has their own opinion and here is mine:

 

If your room steward gives you much better than average service, feel free to leave him a tip at the end of the week... or not... up to you.

 

If you eat at a Specialty Restaurant (and I encourage you to try one or two) and had spectacular service, then you could tip after your meal... or not... up to you.

 

Have a favorite bar server or bartender? ... Try giving them a cash tip of a dollar or two every now and then... you will be remembered when they see you next time... or don't ... up to you (but trust me ... this is a good idea if bars are getting crowded.)

 

Things to do when you board... make dinner reservations if you plan to visit a specialty restaurant, especially Teppanyaki if you choose to do it. You do not need reservations for the main dining rooms.

 

Use your freestyle daily newsletter each day to plan out your activities. Participate, and engage with the crew and they will help you have the best time :)

[zitsky]

This is from the perspective of someone who is doing their first cruise on the Sun in December.

 

Staying in the main dining room is a personal choice (of course), but I think it's much nicer if you try one of the specialty restaurants. Because I have the dinner package (4 dinners X 2 people) I have booked quite a few specialty restaurants. In fact in 14 days we are only going to the main dining room twice.

 

I am not sure what you mean about what to do on the ship. If you are like most of us, you find out what kind of music or shows are in each location, then decide whether to go depending on your preference. Details of what happens each day are on the daily sheets that come to your room each evening. The Sun doesn't have as many shows as the bigger ships.

 

If you want to meet other people, look for the link at the top of this page called "Find Your Roll Call".

 

Also, there don't seem to be as many posts about the Sun as other ships but there are some. So try the "Search Forum" button. Search for "Sun shows", "Sun restaurants" etc.

[Weluv2cruise2gether]

Just off the Sun on 9/30. Ship is smaller and has less people. This was really nice. Never had to wait for a table in the main dining room. And believe it or not, the both times we used the pool, we were able to get chairs no problem eventhough we only went at 1 pm. Seven seas Main dining room had great service and delicious food. Do try a specialty restaurant, our favorites are Cagney's (Oreo cheesecake for dessert, OMG!!) and La Cucina. If you like sushi there is a sushi bar, made to order, and we were delighted that on both sea days it was open for lunch in addition to the usual dinner times (teppanyaki was also open at lunch on sea days). The buffet was okay. It's not very big and the food didn't seem to be hot most of the time. We only used the buffet when we needed a really quick breakfast.

 

State rooms seemed a little larger than on other ships. However, the bathrooms in the staterooms are really small, especially the shower! Hubby had very little room when showering. The showers are round with a cloth curtain, and the light doesn't shine that great into the shower area. I found it difficult to shave your legs due to both the lack of space and light. The hairdryer is in the bathroom, attached to wall, and is a hose type dryer. Thankfully I knew this in advanced and took my own hairdryer. Hubby used the wall dryer and it took longer than normal for him to dry his short hair, so it would have taken way too long to dry my medium length thick hair!

 

We enjoyed all the shows in the Stardust theater. We also enjoyed the pool side music. All the staff were very friendly and helpful throughout the ship. Don't know when you are going, but currently the cruise director is Dingo Dave. He was funny and we had seen him and his staff quite often. You will also see many of the other officers frequently. Every night someone stopped by our dining table to make sure everything was good. However, you will not see the captain much, we seen only 1 time in 7 days.

 

I hope this helps! Have a wonderful trip!!

[zitsky]

Weluv, could you comment on some of the shows you saw?

[watergurl1125]

I’m also looking for parking

 

 

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[zitsky]

I’m also looking for parking

 

 

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Could you tell us where??

[watergurl1125]

In Miami I see if there any offsite parking you guys would recommend cuz I’m driving down from va

 

 

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[Laszlo]

The mini suites on the Sun are Huge compared to the rest of the flight, the bathroom most be twice the size of any other mini

[watergurl1125]

The mini suites on the Sun are Huge compared to the rest of the flight, the bathroom most be twice the size of any other mini

 

 

 

We put an offer in for the mini suits hoping to get it.

 

 

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[Aesop081]

The Sun is a nice ship, still personable, not mega crazy with crowds. Best place for Breakfast (IMHO) is a tie. First, the Great outdoors. No more beautiful place to eat early in the morning when the sun isn't so intense. 2nd, grab your food in the buffet, walk around the pool bar, to Moderno's where there is quiet seating. You can also have Omelets to order here. Big thing, it's usually very quiet and comfortable. Also a good place to take you plate of food on Embarkation day once you fill it up in the buffet.

Best place to read a book and relax with a drink is Spinnakers. Forward Deck 12 it has a floor to ceiling wrap around view and a walk way directly in front of it for entry and exit into port watching. All ships should have this.

Cagney's is definitely worth the visit. Big Fan.

Windjammer bar is a good place to listen to music in the early evening, the kind that you sit around a pub and sing along and interact with the piano player. Tips in the jar, Piano man kind of thing.

During the day for music and drinks the Atrium was a good place to sit.

There are free, stretch and mild aerobic workouts each morning which although the wife had to harangue me into going, I truly enjoyed the wake up it gave you, and justified the extra bacon with breakfast.

A variety of places to sun worship, noisiest the closer you get to the pool, quietest on the bow top of deck 12, kinda 12 1/2.

 

Enjoy, it's newly renovated which we were involved in and didn't get to enjoy, but the crew are/were great.

[DMH15]

Please consider that the crew works hard for you and many people in the DSC pool are working behind the scenes where it would be impossible for you to tip them in cash.

 

The Sun is my favorite ship. Have fun!

 

 

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[Weluv2cruise2gether]

Weluv, could you comment on some of the shows you saw?

Day 1: welcome aboard show - a few singing/dance numbers by production cast followed by an approx 20 mins of the comedian. Vince Acevedo was on our sailing, and he was very funny. At the end they introduced some of the senior staff.

Day 2: Rock You Tonight - a production show with singing and dancing to a lot of classic rock songs. Loved it!

Day 3: Rich Pupura - a very funny mentalist. We did not see this show but did catch his show later in the week.

Day 4: A Night in New York - a cabaret style show created by the singers in the production cast. They sing their favorite Broadway songs from recent shows on Broadway. They are great vocal performers.

Day 5: comedian Vince Acevedo - as stated before, very funny! Enjoyed it very much!

Day 6: World Beat - a production show with singing and dancing from various cultures throughout the world. Have seen this show many times on several NCL ships but each time it seems slightly different. Again, very enjoyable and a great bunch of talented singers, dancers and musicians. At the end, they again bring out several senior officers as well as representatives from all the departments. And yes, Happy happy washy washy were a big hit!

Day 7: the 7 &9 pm shows - Rich Purpura again. He does several tricks with a comedic flair. My favorite was something he did with animal crackers!

The 10:15 pm show - the adult only show by Vince Acevedo. Another very funny routine!

[inspiration100]

I highly recommend purchasing at least a couple specialty restaurants on the Sun. We really enjoyed Cagney's, Le Bistro and Los Lobos. La Cucina was ok. All of them were enjoyable for our party. I personally was not thrilled with the main courses for dinner in the MDR.

[newmexicoNita]

Hey Everyone,

My friend and I will be going on the Norwegian Sun. I would like to know what are thing we need to do when on the ship? Also this is our first cruise so I have few other questions. First, tipping? how much sure I tip and will it get auto to my card (one of my coworker said something about that and told me to go to service desk and say we will be tipping with cash). Should we do one nice dinner (the steakhouse) or just stay at the main dining room? Any advice will be grateful appreciate.

thank you

My opinion and it is only that an opinion: we would never, never take the automatic gratuities off and pay in cash. Those receiving part of the tip pool are often those who work behind the scenes and you never even see them.

 

Should you plan to eat in a specialty dining room at least once? yes, but again that depends on what you feel comfortable doing. We love Le Bistro; some prefer Cagney's.

 

The Sun is one of the older ships in the fleet but was refurbished just about 6 months ago and has always been one of our favorite ships. We have sailed on NCL over 20 times, 3 on the Sun.

 

Be sure and have breakfast at least once at the Great Outdoors behind the buffet. It is a wonderful place to enjoy watching the world go by, early in the morning. They have a smaller buffet out there or you can go to the larger indoor buffet and bring your meal back.

 

Don't know what else to tell you, except have fun,