Trip Report:Norwegian Sun 1/28/06, Western Caribbean

[Beachbum1944]

This was our 2nd cruise on NCL, our first on the Sun. The previous cruise was on the Spirit. I would say they were pretty much equal, but I give the edge to the Spirit. My wife gives the edge to the Sun. This trip we had an inside cabin (8326), on the Spirit we had a balcony cabin. The size of the cabin was great. There was plenty of room and more than enough storage space. The only negative is that no matter what time of day it is, it's always pitch black. You have no idea of what time it is.

 

We boarded the ship around noon with no problem. There were no lines at either latitude or regular check. We had our pictures taken boarding, and in our cabin in about 20 minutes. Had lunch and off to the pool. We ran into Jim (cruisinjim) on the back deck. He invited us to check out his suite and have some champagne. Curiosity got the better of us and we stopped by later. What a beautiful suite they had. I think Jim had a party going every night. We stopped by a couple of times. This is the way to cruise! Thanks again Jim for all your hospitality! :)

 

 

Day 1 was a sea day. We spent the day by the pool. For those who don't know, drinks are a little on the expensive side. We bought a soda card for $42.50 for the week. Very reasonable. We were told the ship was sold out, so it was kind of hard to get 2 lounges late in the day. Try to reserve early. At 4:00pm there was a cruise critic get together in the observation deck lounge. It was put together by Joyce, Tim, and Jim. We had drinks and cookies provided by NCL. We finally got to put some faces with names. We shared some of our plans and started some friendships. We got to meet Fran, Joy, Stephan and his family from Germany, and many others. We had corresponded with some of these guys through CC, so it was very nice. Joyce, Tim and the rest of the gang love to have a good time and it was a real pleasure to see everyone enjoying the ship and all it has to offer. Hope to meet up again on a future cruise!!

 

 

Day 2 was our 1st stop at Costa Maya. They have a Disney like setup right at the port. Lots of stores and a big swimming pool. We took the bus to Mahahaul. Just a 5 minute ride, $3 each. We walked the length of the village, checked everything out, and decided on a beach bar/restaurant called El Faro. The beach is rather narrow, but nice. They had beach chairs and tables with chairs and umbrella for free. All you have to do is buy something to eat and/or drink. We had sodas, drinks, nachos, fajitas for both of us. The whole day cost us around $40, with tip. While there we each had a massage. 45 minutes for $20. We enjoyed the company of Fran and Joy, Stephan, John and family and a few others from CC. We did a little shopping and then back to the ship. If you shop, do it at the village, not at the port. You will get better deals there.

That night we had dinner at "Le Bistro". This is 1 of the 2 " pay extra" meals that we had. The food and the service were very good, but I don't think it warrants the extra money. The food and service in the main dinning rooms was just as good.

 

 

Day 3 was stop #2 at Santo Tomas De Castillo. Here we had planned to go to Amatique Bay Resort on our own. From the ship we noticed the water was brown and kind of murky. We were at a working port. It wasn't the typical blue/green of the Caribbean. When we got off the ship there was a covered walkway to an enclosed market. If you walk to your right there are tour people selling tours and water taxi rides. There are also a bunch of tour guides inside the building. When we spoke to someone about a water taxi to Amatique Bay Resort, they suggested a better place to go to for less money. They said Amatiqe Bay Resort had a muddy bottom. They suggested we go to "Siete Altares", which is a series of 7 waterfalls, 1 above the other. Price was $25 each, provided there are 10 people on the boat. This sounded good to us, and there were easily 20 other people looking to do something (many CC friends). Off we went! This waterfall was something I had originally looked into, so I was very happy. We had Freddy and Anthony as our guides. It was about a 1 hour water water taxi ride. We passed the town of Livingston on the way, along with some rustic homes along the banks of AmatiqueBay. Well worth the ride. When we got there, it cost $1.50 per person to enter the falls. This is a MUST tour to take. Beautiful waterfalls with a pool of fresh cool water under each waterfall. Make sure you have good water type shoes on, because you are walking in the water and on small and big rocks. This can be handled by most any age unless you have walking problems. You can climb as far up as you want. Some of us went to the top or 7th waterfall. This is where the payoff comes. Here is the biggest waterfall of them all and the largest pool below. You can climb to the top of the waterfall and dive in, as some of us did. Or you can just walk in. You can also sit under the cascading water. Freddy took some pictures for us. After this we walked back down, got on the water taxi and went to a restaurant a little ways back to have lunch. This was pay as you go. I had the chicken which was just okay, but my wife had the shrimp, which she said was very good. Somebody else had a whole fish which he said was very good. When we left there, we were going to stop at Livingston for 1 hour, but we had boat problems for a little while. We didn't get to see Livingston, but we were back at the port by 4:30 and were able to shop for a while. Very inexpensive shopping inside at the port and a nice local dancing show. They had some real nice local crafts, coffee, silver and jade, the usual t-shirts, and lots of other stuff. The people we met there were great, very friendly and happy to have us there. When we were back on the ship, at sailing time, all the taxis lined up, blinking their lights, blowing their horns and giving us a wonderful good-by. The tour operators and children waved goodbye. They had a band playing. It was the nicest sendoff I have ever seen. They are very happy to have the cruise ships come in. They only get a couple ships every few weeks. Don't be afraid to get off the ship and take a tour. You won't regret it.

 

 

Day 4 was stop #3 at Belize. Here we went on the cave tubing tour with "Cave-tubing.com".It was put together by Jim, who did a wonderful job of co-coordinating the whole tour. We had 32 people and Jim arranged every detail perfectly. We were met at the port by Yhoney, got on a bus, and off we were to the cave tubing. It was about an hour drive and about a 45 minute walk through the jungle. We voted on an 8 minute longer walk so we could go through an extra cave. When we got to the point where you get into the water, you could either just walk in, or dive off a cliff. I chose to dive in and when I did one of my sandals came off but somebody found it right away. We were put into groups of 8 and were connected to each other for safety reasons. They stressed safety all the time. Each group had a guide. He did all the steering and backward swimming to pull us through the slower areas. When I climbed into the tube I thought I lost my water camera. Couldn't find it anywhere. We floated through 2 caves. The first had a very low overhead. The second was quite high. I felt that the water was not too cold but the air temperature inside the caves was quite cool. I was cold above the water. After we came out of the second cave, all of a sudden my camera popped up right in front of me, but I couldn't reach it and it took off with the current. I yelled to our guide to try and catch it but he couldn't swim fast enough to catch it and it was finally gone for good. Yhoney and the other guides were very helpful and funny. He worked really hard to make sure everyone had a good time. Safety was #1. After the tubing was done we changed clothes and had lunch at a restaurant, Cheers, on the way back to the port. Good food and drink. On the bus, Yhoney gave us some cashew wine, which is a little sweet, but good. At the restaurant you can by some. If you wait till you get back to town you can get it for 3 or 4 dollars cheaper at the market. Overall we had a great time, but if we ever go back to Belize I think we would go snorkeling or just go to one of the cays and hang out at a nice beach. That night before dinner we decided to go to Las Ramblas, the Tapas Bar. We wanted to have our appetizers there and then go to dinner in the dining room. We had quite a few and they were very good. There is no charge for eating there. From there we went to the dining room and still had appetizers with our dinner. So much for weight control.

 

 

Day 5 was stop #4 at Cozumel. I hate to say this, but we were a little disappointed with this stop. Granted, this was our 1st visit to Cozumel, but we were pretty unhappy with the beaches. We rented a jeep to tour the island because we heard so much about the beaches on the other side. As a beach person I think the other side is a waste of time. The beaches are not good for swimming or lounging. Covered with coral and rocks, and very windy. There are a few beach bars there that were nice, but we didn't want to spend the whole day in a bar. As we drove south and came to Playa Palancar we stopped there because we had read that it would be the least crowded. When we got there it was fairly crowded and had a lot of rocks sticking out of the water and the beach was very narrow. We left and stopped at Mr. Sancho's beach. What a disaster. There had to be at least 20 buses there. The beach, (about 15 feet wide), was packed, and the bar/restaurant area had to have about 1000 people standing there. (There were 6 ships in port that day). My wife was extremely disappointed. So again we left and while we were driving, we passed a little man standing at the end of a road waving us to come in. There was a sign there advertising Alberto's Restaurant. So we drove in and found this great beach with nobody on it! They had a nice open air restaurant and there were about 15 beach chairs set up down by the water. We looked at each other and asked, could this be true? So we sat down, had a couple of drinks and lunch. By the time we left there were 4 other people there. Could you imagine, 6 people on this beach? The only problem was that there were a lot of coral/rocks in the water so you really couldn't go too far into the water. It still wasn't as bad as Palancar though. After we left Alberto's, we went down town. One thing I must say is this town is not good if you're trying to park a car! There is absolutely no place to park. We returned our car and went back into town with the other 13,000 or more people that were on the island that day. One thing we noticed was that there was a funky smell around the port and downtown. All in all, very disappointed with Cozumel. Until Cozumel gets back on its feet, they should put a limit to how many ships can come each day. Six ships at one time are way too many based on the conditions of the island right now. I know the local economy is depending on the cruise ship $$$ right now, but we personally wouldn't go back for quite a while.:(

 

 

Day 6 was a sea day. Finally a day to rest!! This morning I tried to save some lounge chairs for us by getting up early and putting some towels down. When we went out to sit in our chairs, they were taken by 2 older women. I didn't say anything to them but I was very unhappy that I got up early for no reason after all. Needless to say we still had a very nice day resting from the 4 previous days of touring. The band that plays by the pool, Roots Link, was really great and had the crowd up and dancing by the end of the day. One of those memories that keeps you going through the cold winter!! Tonight we had dinner at the Tepanyaki restaurant. This was the 2nd pay extra restaurant. The food was good but the chef's entertainment was lacking. Again, not really necessary to spend the extra money.

 

 

We enjoyed the ship very much. We didn't go to any of the shows. We did go to Karaoke a few times and that was fun. We didn't care for the group that plays in Dazzles, Harmony & Rhythm. They were on the Spirit last year and we didn't care for them then. We thought Roots Link was a lot better. We went to the 70's disco that was good. We did hit the casino about 5 nights. I gave them less than $200 and my wife won about $300 playing blackjack, so she was happy.

 

 

Except for the two dinners mentioned, we had all other dinners in the main dining rooms. The food was consistently good and I had seconds most of the time. The staff was great, always friendly, very efficient and professional. We never had to wait for a table, except a few minutes on Captain's night. We usually ate around 8 or 9 o'clock, so I don't know if that made a difference. We ate breakfast on the back deck behind the Great Outdoors Cafe, and from Pacific Heights restaurant. The only negative is that if you wanted waffles, you had to go to Pacific Heights for them, and then go to the cafe for anything else you wanted. We never did get to the Seven Seas for a sit down breakfast. I think they only served until 9 o'clock, so were always a little late. On sea days we ate at the Great Outdoors Cafe or the Garden Buffet for lunch. Otherwise we were off the ship for lunch. Also, there are no trays at the buffet, so you had to carry all your plates in your hands, which made it kind of cumbersome for people like me!:eek:

 

 

We thought the ship was kept very clean, ALL meals were good, and the help was extremely kind and helpful. Our cabin was always in order. The only thing was that the cabin stewardess seemed to come to our room to turn down the covers before we were ready to go out for dinner. I guess she was not used to people going to dinner that late, but it wasn't a problem for her. We love the freestyle dining. No rush. We just can't imagine having to go to dinner at a certain time. Just doesn't work for us. The waiters and waitresses were always extra polite and very talkative with you. They work very hard. One waitress we got to know worked 6 or 7 hours for dinner and the next morning she was handing out plates at the cafeteria line. When do they get a break?

 

We did the early morning walk off carrying our own luggage. You are the 1st off. They start letting you off at 7:00 and we were off in minutes. All in all we had a wonderful time. We met a lot of wonderful people through CC. I think the next cruise will be either the Eastern or Southern Caribbean. We have seen enough of the Western between these last 2 cruises.

 

 

My wife and I took this cruise to relax, spend time together and enjoy some new adventures. We accomplished all of that and more. I think Norwegian gives you a good value for your money. I know some people on these boards complain about lots of little things not being perfect, but any vacation is what you make of it. We'll certainly be back on Norwegian, hopefully sometime soon!:)

 

 

Thanks to all on the CCBB for all the info we got and hope to see the friends we made on this cruise again. If you have any questions, feel free to ask here or send an e-mail.

 

Smooth sailing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:cool:

[crimmft]

Great review. Pretty much reflects everything I would say especially concerning the food and service in the main dinning rooms. We also did the early disembarkation and were in our car by 720 and on I-95 by 730. Hard to believe.

 

Joy and I really enjoyed meeting you and Mary Ann. Hopefully we will cross paths again. I have a couple of digital pictures of you guys and will try to send in a day or two if I can find your e-mail.

 

Joy and Fran:) :) :)

[Beachbum1944]

Joy & Fran,

 

Nice to hear from you. We had a nice time,huh? Hopefully when we are in Florida again we can get in touch. I recieved the pictures today, thankyou very much..