NCL Sun shops—bourbon question

[dchod001]

Hello all—sailing on the sun this upcoming Saturday and was curious about the liquor selection at the shops—do they offer any hard to find bourbons (blantons gold, weller, etc), or just typical liquor store selections?

 

thanks!

[DShep]

I haven't seen anything on board a Norwegian ship that I can't get on Ohio. Looks like your 2 ports are in Mexico so you probably won't find any hard to find bourbons there either.  Now if you were going to Phillipsburg, Sint Maarten...

Edited February 19, 2020 by DShep
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[dchod001]

Well rats--honestly wasn't expecting much, but was hoping to grab a few bottles of Blantons (just the original really) for some local buddies. I guess you never know. 

 

It's funny, I haven't really even seen any NCL itineraries with St. Maarten in the last few years. We had a great time there.

[zqvol]

1 hour ago, dchod001 said:

Hello all—sailing on the sun this upcoming Saturday and was curious about the liquor selection at the shops—do they offer any hard to find bourbons (blantons gold, weller, etc), or just typical liquor store selections?

 

thanks!

 

I have never found any bourbons worth buying on any ship. You usually find one or two bourbons, like Jim Beam, and that is it. Depending on where Sun is sailing you might have good luck ashore.

Edited February 19, 2020 by zqvol

[DShep]

14 minutes ago, dchod001 said:

Well rats--honestly wasn't expecting much, but was hoping to grab a few bottles of Blantons (just the original really) for some local buddies. I guess you never know. 

 

It's funny, I haven't really even seen any NCL itineraries with St. Maarten in the last few years. We had a great time there.

We went to St Maarten on Celebrity in 2018. Picked up Blantons Straight From The Barrel, Gold, and Special Reserve as well as Wild Turkey 13 yr old. Wife got a few of rums.  7 bottles total and customs just waived us through.

[dchod001]

3 minutes ago, DShep said:

We went to St Maarten on Celebrity in 2018. Picked up Blantons Straight From The Barrel, Gold, and Special Reserve as well as Wild Turkey 13 yr old. Wife got a few of rums.  7 bottles total and customs just waived us through.

 

Well, this news is devastating, cause we're not going to st. Maarten 

[DShep]

2 minutes ago, dchod001 said:

 

Well, this news is devastating, cause we're not going to st. Maarten 

So what port are you going to stop at on your next cruise? 😊

[dchod001]

7 minutes ago, DShep said:

So what port are you going to stop at on your next cruise? 😊

That's the thing--since that hurricane hit St. Maarten a couple of years ago, I don't see it included in many itineraries!

 

Side note, last time we went there, my wife and I rented a small powerboat with a 50 hp outboard and cruised around the bay for the whole day. The whole thing was around $100, including gas, and remains one of our most memorable port activities to this day...all booked 3rd party of course. St. Maarten was such a great stop. I hope I've just been overlooking it & that ships still go there.

[Bonnie1222]

My husband got Blanton's a couple times in Grand Cayman including Single Barrel, Straight from the Barrel and Gold.  We just got back from a western on the Breakaway and the store in Grand Cayman has been out for months.

 

Last December when we were in St Thomas (Disney cruise) we found a store that had all three types, but his prices were stupid... he wanted $75 for the single barrel and the others were at least $50 a bottle more than we paid in Grand Cayman so we passed.

 

We did find that the ship had good prices on the Johnnie walker line (we did several tastings in the duty free shop on the Breakaway cruise) especially the Johnnie Walker Blue compared to Cozumel and they were well below the duty free prices on the islands.  They were a little high on the Don Julio 1942 I wanted, but they price matched the island prices.

 

 

[don't-use-real-name]

NCL SUN Duty Free Liquor shop - small ship - small selection - small floor space - - -

LINK:

https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/Norwegian-Sun

Click on deck 7 International

Pan down port side (left of image) aft to Tradewinds Tax and Duty Free

Where Duty is on its side look to the right for the small camera icon -

Click on it and to the left in the image is about half of the duty free liquor selection

Nothing to write home and rave about !

Yes NCL will have the run of mill usual stuff but high end specialty liquor forget about it !

 

And then of course times change so YMMV - on the SUN September last year no change at that time.

Edited March 13, 2020 by don't-use-real-name