Somewhat live from the NCL Sun - 9 day cruise to Alaska

[Analog187]

Somewhat live because I'll be using my cell service when were in port.

 

I lost count on how many cruises I've been one, about 2 dozen.  6th time with NCL I think.  This is my wife's 3rd cruise, all have been with NCL.  We booked this cruise because it has an awesome itinerary and fit our schedule.  Today was a little crazy but after 12 hours of traveling, we got on the boat and went straight for lunch.  Fairly standard stuff, nothing horrible, nothing amazing.  We then checked out our room, a family balcony.  It's nice given how old the ship is.  Cabin seems updated but the bathroom is not at all.  No big deal.

 

While this older and smaller ship doesn't have the bells and whistles of all the other ships, it's still pretty good.  Most of it looks really nice.  While some aspects of the layout are annoying such as having to go up to go down, it's really not the end of the world.  We only had one drink so far, a vanilla painkiller and it was really good.  Will be interesting to see how the rest of the drinks were.  On my last cruise about 7 months ago, the drinks were not that great. 

 

I was told that there are 900 people on board which is about 45% capacity so that's going to be nice.  This is because the 9 day cruises don't get a lot of people. Seems like a lot of the people are elderly.  We are in our 40s.  I was hoping that the sauna and steam room were still free on this ship but nope, $29 per day. 

 

The public areas and bars seem really nice.  I doubt we'll ever have to wait in line.  It was a really nice day in Seattle and a number of people were enjoying the pool and getting some sun. Thought that was interesting. 

 

Seems like there is some decent entertainment on board.  Besides the Welcome Aboard Show that features a comedian, there are your standard musical acts around the ship.  That'll be nice if one of the main shows don't interest me.  There also appears to be a Rock N Roll show and another one featuring music from around the world or something like that.  Not sure if they are just going to repeat things for the 9 days or if it'll be different every time. 

 

Although we are eating at Cagneys tonight, we checked out the menu for the main dining room.  Looked good to me.  

 

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have but I may not get to them until Thursday or Friday depending on cell service. I was a little concerned that this ship wasn't gonna be that great given the age and size but so far, so good!  

 

 

[Analog187]

I should have added, we needed a covid test to get on the cruise.  We didn't know that and neither did 20% of the people on the cruise.  They can give you a test before you get on - at $75 each!   Guess I know to call ahead and double check next time.  

[rickmin]

Good to know about the sauna and steam room, I was curious on how that was going to work. Will be on the Sun next Thursday 15th! Enjoy your Cruise!

[Yo Adrienne]

We were on the Sun back in May and had a great time...hope you enjoy it, too...!  Very much the same as you describe...sailing at only about half capacity.  But because of this, we found the service to be excellent.  The crew were so anxious to help guests have a great time.  

 

We thought the food was excellent...frankly, it was some of the best we've ever had on NCL.  (Maybe it was that the ship had just returned to service after the two-year shut down and they were anxious to make a good impression.)  Cagneys, Los Lobos and La Cucina were excellent.  (If you see this before going to Cagney's...or if you go again...see if you can have Caterina as your server.  She's delightful.) 

 

We love the smaller ships, like the Sun.  Agreed...not as many bells and whistles as the megaships...but as long as you know that in advance, you won't be disappointed. 

 

We never went to any of the shows in the theater...and instead, opted for the lounge performers.  The shows in The Bliss Lounge were VERY good.  (I can't recall the names of the shows, but do check out the Freestyle Dailies and ask a crew member for a description...cause the names of the shows aren't particularly descriptive.)  We also "followed" the Banda Duo to almost every location where they played...!  They were SO good...so if they're still performing on board, do check 'em out.  (And congratulate them on their recent engagement...!)

 

Hope you have a wonderful cruise...! 🙂

[edspec]

Just off the Sun. Great service, food excellent, loved the Great Outdoors. Don’t miss the Frank Sinatra tribute, watched it twice last night.  Would definitely sail on this ship again.

[Travelling2Some]

Thanks so much for reporting.  We are on the Sun's transatlantic a few cruises from now.  My DH is wondering if there is a usable HDMI port in the back of the TVs?  With 5 consecutive sea days we might want to watch some of our old home movies and things like that (not trying to use wifi).  He has all the necessary tech but doesn't want to bring it along if we won't be able to use it.  Have a great cruise and thanks for any info.

[Shellbelle28]

Thanks for sharing!

Information about the Sun this season has been hard to find.

We sail on her 9/29 and hope the experience and low passenger count will be the same! 

[Shellbelle28]

On 9/6/2022 at 4:49 PM, Analog187 said:

I should have added, we needed a covid test to get on the cruise.  We didn't know that and neither did 20% of the people on the cruise.  They can give you a test before you get on - at $75 each!   Guess I know to call ahead and double check next time.  

I wish Canada would let go of this requirement!

[Analog187]

On 9/7/2022 at 8:02 AM, Travelling2Some said:

Thanks so much for reporting.  We are on the Sun's transatlantic a few cruises from now.  My DH is wondering if there is a usable HDMI port in the back of the TVs?  With 5 consecutive sea days we might want to watch some of our old home movies and things like that (not trying to use wifi).  He has all the necessary tech but doesn't want to bring it along if we won't be able to use it.  Have a great cruise and thanks for any info.

 

There are two HDMI ports that are easily accessible.  Whether you can actually use them, I don't know since I have nothing to hook up.

 

Day 1 - We went to Cagney's for the first time.  I didn't think it was anything special but I do go to some amazing steakhouses such as Mastro's, Bern's, Council Oak, etc fairly often so maybe I'm used to something different but I thought it was bland.  Nothing bad, just no real taste.

 

The Welcome Aboard Show as good, comedian was Julie Barr.  The Cruise director JC is good.  

 

Day 2 - breakfast is pretty good, especially the omelets.  Lunch is probably my least favorite meal here.  The burgers are like hockey pucks which is par for the course for NCL.

 

I did get into the steam room and sauna.  Had the place to myself.  It's good but not worth $29.  The relaxation room is rather lame.  You can't even really lay down.  I only saw one couple there for a few minutes.  

 

It was pretty rocky and few people got sick.  We didn't have any problems.  We had dinner in one of the main dining rooms.  Food was good.  

 

The NW/Not so NW game was fun as always.  The show was a tribute to Burt Bacharach.  If you're into that music, you probably would have liked the show.  I am not so I bailed after 20 minutes but it seemed like they were doing a good job.  

 

The drinks seem like they are better than the Breakaway but maybe that's just me.  Overall, really nice relaxing sea day.  Sunny all day and the waves kept it interesting.  

 

Day 3 - I looked at the map and figured there was no way we were getting to ICP on time and sure enough, we were 3 hours late.  Our tour was canceled which sucks and there was almost nothing to replace it except whale watching which we didn't want to do since we already saw several whales from the ship.  

 

We ate lunch at the MDR and the burger was better than the buffet but it's that same cheap meat.  Oh well, the cheesecake though was really good.  The desserts have been really good so far.  

 

I went to the Hotel Talk presentation/Q&A and that was pretty cool.  JC did a good job with that.  Some of the questions people ask are....how can I put this.....interesting.  We didn't get to ICP until 4.  It was nice to watch the scenery from different areas of the ship and our balcony as we came in.  We saw more whales.

 

There were no other tours available at ICP so we just walked around for an hour.  There's not much to do but we had a good time walking by the shore.  There were a ton of starfish which is something you don't see too often.

 

Tonight is a mo-town show.  Seems like it will be good.

 

After two sunny days, it went from partly cloudy to cloudy with drizzle as we got into ICP.  Still better than rain though.  

 

So far, so good.   The service is 5 star.  There's more crew than guests and they are really going out of the way to treat you like royalty.  It's the best I've ever seen on a ship. 

 

We haven't been able to check out any of the other entertainers yet besides the main shows but perhaps we'll be able to do that at some point.  

 

  

[Analog187]

We checked out the ship band who had a swing music thing and there was literally no one there so I don't think they started playing until we showed up.  Sure wasn't my idea of swing music but whatever you want to call it, it was good.  Too bad just about everyone else missed this.  The ship can sure seem like a ghost town sometimes.  

 

After that we saw the mo-town show which was really just a Marvin Gaye show.  It wasn't really my thing we we bailed.  He also wasn't mixed right and his mic had horrible reverb.  Not sure why they didn't fix that.

 

Day 4 - Sitka

 

This is a pretty cool place mostly for all of the totem poles.  The cell service here at the dock is horrible probably because you have 1000s of people trying to use their phone at the same time.  Despite having a good signal, nothing would work kind of like when you are at a big concert.  We got off the ship and boarded a bus to take us into town.  That's free, takes about 10 minutes.  The town is touristy which is to be expected.  There's no need for a tour to see the totem poles, just walk about 10 minutes.  They are really cool.  One guy was even carving one while we were there.  There's a really nice walk through the woods too.  

 

We also when to the Sheldon Museum which had a lot of native artifacts.  It's small but packed with stuff.  Again, no need to go on a tour for that but we got there just as a tour from our ship got there.

 

We didn't see anything we wanted for lunch so we went back to the ship.  A reindeer hotdog was $11 in town.  That's crazy.  Was $3 a few years ago in Anchorage.  We stopped at a few shops and got a cheap T-shirt and I went into the Russian Orthodox cathedral.  That was really cool.  Over 150 year old.

 

We walked about 4 miles so we were pretty tired at that point.  After lunch I hit up the hot tub and it was really nice since it's in the 50s here a little drizzly.  Normally I don't bother with these hot tubs since they aren't very hot but in this weather, they were perfect.

 

Tonight there's a lot going on.  Elvis tribute, which we'll check out, reggae music which we'll have to miss because it conflicts with the Frank Sinatra show which we are going to.  Looking forward to all that.  

 

Tomorrow is Glacier Bay.  Can't wait.  Hoping for good weather.  

[Analog187]

The wife was looking at jewelry too long so we missed most of the Elvis show but we caught the last few minutes. It was not that great so we didn’t miss much.

 

Dinner didn’t work out so well. I ordered the baked ziti and while I knew it wasn’t going to be baked or ziti, I thought it would at least be decent pasta. As the waitress was bringing it over, I saw before she even got to the table that there was a problem. It had mushrooms in it. I’ve never heard of that before in my life nor was it on the menu. This has been and continues to be an issue with this cruise. I told her that I don’t eat mushrooms so I asked for it to be remade. When she came back, I started to eat it and noticed an odd taste. It had carrots in it. On what planet does someone put carrots in baked ziti? This was also not on the menu so I just kinda bailed on dinner.  

I spoke to two supervisors that came over and explained to them that regardless of what type of wild things they want to do with the food, it should be on the menu. They list all sorts of other things so why leave out some? Just doesn’t make sense. I had this issue 3 nights in a row where something is on an item and it’s not listed.  It's very frustrating and it causes more work for the crew as they have to run around to get questions asked or to have food remade.  

 

The Frank Sinatra show was the best show in the theater so far. Very well done. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was everyone’s favorite.

 

Day 5 – Glacier Bay

 

After breakfast, we spent almost the entire day looking at the amazing scenery. It was unbelievable and will surely be the highlight of the cruise. I’ve been on glacier tours before but this was just incredible. If you’ve been on an Alaskan cruise without going to Glacier Bay, you haven’t been on an Alaskan cruise. What made it even more special is that we had the most amazing weather. The park rangers couldn’t get over how nice it was. The ship’s crew liked it as well. I’ve never seen so many on deck taking pictures.

 

Few things to note – I thought the back of the ship was the best place for pics most of the time. Other times, our balcony was the best spot. The rangers point out some wildlife but not everything so don’t rely on them. They pointed out some whales and bears but didn’t point out the seals at all and there were a lot of them but most people missed them. I would time out your meals to not miss anything. Eat breakfast and lunch early. That worked out well for us.

 

We saw a ton of otters, whales, a few bears, dozen of seals and a few mountain goats.  There was even one bald eagle.  

 

Once again at dinner I had an issue with something not being on the menu. Once again, two different supervisors came over. They take this stuff seriously and were very nice. I don’t know who writes these menus but hopefully they’ll fix it at some point.

 

We had an issue with a ton of water in our balcony. We gave it half a day and the water didn’t drain. It was like a pool. We called up to get it fixed and our room steward and a supervisor were up in minutes. They got it taken care of right away. Another person came back an hour later to make sure it was handled. Really amazing follow up.

 

The Wheel of Ill Will was a lot of fun as always. The cruise director staff is awesome.

 

Tonight’s show was Rock You Tonight.  I thought it was gonna be like Rock of Ages but it was mostly 70s songs. Whether you like this or not will depend on how old you are; the older you are, the more you’ll like it. The crowd seemed to really like it but the average age on the ship is probably 74. I don’t like 70s music and that’s mostly what this was so I’m not really the person that should be reviewing this. I never even heard of two of the songs and I know music even if I don’t like it. My wife was a DJ in college and worked in theater for many years. She had so much to say about this one but the short version is that it was done all wrong. While I’m sure the singers and dancers did the best they could, some people are just not cut out for certain things. The problem here is that you are asking people to do something that they are not equipped to do. Regardless, I heard a lot of people saying how good it was (and that it was so much better than the Marvin Gaye show). So again, opinions are going to vary here I suppose.

 

Afterwards, a bunch of people came out and wished JC a happy birthday. He’s probably my favorite cruise director. I wonder what other people think about him because he’s not your typical CD which is probably why I like him. Seems like a normal guy and it likely a lot of fun to hang out with.

 

Day 6 - Skagway

 

Our tour to the Yukon got canceled because there was not enough people.  It seems like half of the town is closed up for the season.  I assume that's because of the rock slides impacting the ships that can stop there.  So we just walked around.  There are two good museums here - the National Park Klondike museum and Corringtons museum which is in the back of a store.  Both are free.  

 

A lot of the shops here are very touristy and the stuff they sell is very cheap.  Be careful about that.  Most people did the train tour but at $140 a person, we didn't bother.  None of the restaurants seemed that good so after walking around for a few hours, we came back to the ship.  Waiting for us in our cabin was a plate of chocolate covered strawberries to make up for the baked ziti disaster form the other night.  That was really nice.

 

The hamburger at lunch was actually kinda good today but that's because it was freshly made.  I swear they sometimes cook these early and just let them sit there.  When we had lunch yesterday, we got there just as it opened and the burger was already cold and dried out.  Impossible if it was just cooked.

 

Gonna go in the hot tub again and relax.  It's so nice with the cold air.  The guy that did the Marvin Gaye show is doing another show tonight.  I might not bother with that.  

 

Few things about the buffet - There are two sides and they meet in the middle.  Mostly the same stuff but one side seems to have a few different things sometimes.  Out back there are different things like hamburgers and hotdogs.  Across the hall in Moderno (for lunch only) they have pizza and a noodle station.  Kinda bizarre set up but they gotta work with what they have.  

 

We continue to have a great cruise and the service continues to blow us away.  

[PTC DAWG]

Mushrooms and pasta go together like a hand in a glove.  Me, I’ll try anything.  59 years old here,  not sure I haven’t ever sent back a dish while dining out. 
 

Nice review, I enjoyed my last cruise on the Sun. 

Edited September 12, 2022 by PTC DAWG

[teachberry]

On 9/6/2022 at 4:49 PM, Analog187 said:

I should have added, we needed a covid test to get on the cruise.  We didn't know that and neither did 20% of the people on the cruise.  They can give you a test before you get on - at $75 each!   Guess I know to call ahead and double check next time.  

We are also on this cruise and knew to take the Covid test (required by Canada) because it is clearly stated in NCL's sail safe info under "Canada." We also received emails telling us it was required. However I do understand how you could be confused because everything you read starts out with "no testing required." 

[teachberry]

On 9/11/2022 at 2:54 PM, Analog187 said:

The wife was looking at jewelry too long so we missed most of the Elvis show but we caught the last few minutes. It was not that great so we didn’t miss much.

 

Dinner didn’t work out so well. I ordered the baked ziti and while I knew it wasn’t going to be baked or ziti, I thought it would at least be decent pasta. As the waitress was bringing it over, I saw before she even got to the table that there was a problem. It had mushrooms in it. I’ve never heard of that before in my life nor was it on the menu. This has been and continues to be an issue with this cruise. I told her that I don’t eat mushrooms so I asked for it to be remade. When she came back, I started to eat it and noticed an odd taste. It had carrots in it. On what planet does someone put carrots in baked ziti? This was also not on the menu so I just kinda bailed on dinner.  

I spoke to two supervisors that came over and explained to them that regardless of what type of wild things they want to do with the food, it should be on the menu. They list all sorts of other things so why leave out some? Just doesn’t make sense. I had this issue 3 nights in a row where something is on an item and it’s not listed.  It's very frustrating and it causes more work for the crew as they have to run around to get questions asked or to have food remade.  

 

The Frank Sinatra show was the best show in the theater so far. Very well done. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was everyone’s favorite.

 

Day 5 – Glacier Bay

 

After breakfast, we spent almost the entire day looking at the amazing scenery. It was unbelievable and will surely be the highlight of the cruise. I’ve been on glacier tours before but this was just incredible. If you’ve been on an Alaskan cruise without going to Glacier Bay, you haven’t been on an Alaskan cruise. What made it even more special is that we had the most amazing weather. The park rangers couldn’t get over how nice it was. The ship’s crew liked it as well. I’ve never seen so many on deck taking pictures.

 

Few things to note – I thought the back of the ship was the best place for pics most of the time. Other times, our balcony was the best spot. The rangers point out some wildlife but not everything so don’t rely on them. They pointed out some whales and bears but didn’t point out the seals at all and there were a lot of them but most people missed them. I would time out your meals to not miss anything. Eat breakfast and lunch early. That worked out well for us.

 

We saw a ton of otters, whales, a few bears, dozen of seals and a few mountain goats.  There was even one bald eagle.  

 

Once again at dinner I had an issue with something not being on the menu. Once again, two different supervisors came over. They take this stuff seriously and were very nice. I don’t know who writes these menus but hopefully they’ll fix it at some point.

 

We had an issue with a ton of water in our balcony. We gave it half a day and the water didn’t drain. It was like a pool. We called up to get it fixed and our room steward and a supervisor were up in minutes. They got it taken care of right away. Another person came back an hour later to make sure it was handled. Really amazing follow up.

 

The Wheel of Ill Will was a lot of fun as always. The cruise director staff is awesome.

 

Tonight’s show was Rock You Tonight.  I thought it was gonna be like Rock of Ages but it was mostly 70s songs. Whether you like this or not will depend on how old you are; the older you are, the more you’ll like it. The crowd seemed to really like it but the average age on the ship is probably 74. I don’t like 70s music and that’s mostly what this was so I’m not really the person that should be reviewing this. I never even heard of two of the songs and I know music even if I don’t like it. My wife was a DJ in college and worked in theater for many years. She had so much to say about this one but the short version is that it was done all wrong. While I’m sure the singers and dancers did the best they could, some people are just not cut out for certain things. The problem here is that you are asking people to do something that they are not equipped to do. Regardless, I heard a lot of people saying how good it was (and that it was so much better than the Marvin Gaye show). So again, opinions are going to vary here I suppose.

 

Afterwards, a bunch of people came out and wished JC a happy birthday. He’s probably my favorite cruise director. I wonder what other people think about him because he’s not your typical CD which is probably why I like him. Seems like a normal guy and it likely a lot of fun to hang out with.

 

Day 6 - Skagway

 

Our tour to the Yukon got canceled because there was not enough people.  It seems like half of the town is closed up for the season.  I assume that's because of the rock slides impacting the ships that can stop there.  So we just walked around.  There are two good museums here - the National Park Klondike museum and Corringtons museum which is in the back of a store.  Both are free.  

 

A lot of the shops here are very touristy and the stuff they sell is very cheap.  Be careful about that.  Most people did the train tour but at $140 a person, we didn't bother.  None of the restaurants seemed that good so after walking around for a few hours, we came back to the ship.  Waiting for us in our cabin was a plate of chocolate covered strawberries to make up for the baked ziti disaster form the other night.  That was really nice.

 

The hamburger at lunch was actually kinda good today but that's because it was freshly made.  I swear they sometimes cook these early and just let them sit there.  When we had lunch yesterday, we got there just as it opened and the burger was already cold and dried out.  Impossible if it was just cooked.

 

Gonna go in the hot tub again and relax.  It's so nice with the cold air.  The guy that did the Marvin Gaye show is doing another show tonight.  I might not bother with that.  

 

Few things about the buffet - There are two sides and they meet in the middle.  Mostly the same stuff but one side seems to have a few different things sometimes.  Out back there are different things like hamburgers and hotdogs.  Across the hall in Moderno (for lunch only) they have pizza and a noodle station.  Kinda bizarre set up but they gotta work with what they have.  

 

We continue to have a great cruise and the service continues to blow us away.  

Re: the buffet. Don't forget about "The Great Outdoors" which has a mini-buffet.

[teachberry]

I agree with you about Skagway. When we visited in 2019, we didn't get to explore the town, so I was looking forward to it. Instead we were disappointed! All of the "jewelry" stores set off a rip-off vacation vibe. Very few stores were open. We did find a nice rock shop (of all things!). Granted ....in 2019 there were at least 3 huge ships here (we were on the Joy) and there were people everywhere! Sunday, the streets were literally empty.

[teachberry]

And...I guess my husband is one of those "elderly" you are referring to...lol!!

[Analog187]

Day 7 - Juneau

 

We got off the ship to meet our helicopter tour to the glaciers.  This was the big tour we were excited about.  We got in the van and then waited for about 20 minutes only to find out that it was canceled due to weather.  We were so upset.  I went down to the tour booths and booked us on a float plane tour over the glaciers.  Better than nothing I thought.

 

We walked around the shops but a lot didn't open until 10am.  After shopping we hit up Tracy's for crab legs.  Prices have jumped up a lot in the last several years.  Almost $80 a pound!  Crazy but still really good.  We then went to meet our tour for the floatplane.

 

I got to sit in the co-pilot seat and within minutes, we were blown away.  Because the weather was so nice (yup, it went from too bad to fly at 9am to amazing by noon) we flew right over the ice fields instead of near them.  Easily one of the best tours I've ever done.  I cannot say enough about this tour.   So our tour getting canceled was a blessing in disguise.  

 

At night we went to the 55 to stay alive game.  It was OK, seemed a little like summer camp to me.  Probably the weakest game they've had this cruise.

 

After that, we went to the main show which was the comedian again.  I thought she was OK the first night but she was amazing this show, probably because she is more of a dirty comedian.  My friend is as well so I know it's hard to not work blue when that's mostly what you do.  We were the only real newlyweds in the theater so she wound up talking to us for a while.  I even made a joke that cracked everyone up.  Such a good show.  She works a lot of cruises so hopefully some of you get to see her.

 

Day 8 - Ketchikan

 

Not the best start of the day.  We were booked for the crab boat tour.  Our ticket said to meet at 7:30am.  We got up at 6am to a text message saying we had to meet at 6:45.  Turns out this is because we were in Ward Cove which takes 20 minutes or more to get to the dock.  Not fun to scramble to get ready, eat and be off the ship but we did it with only seconds to spare.

 

This boat was from season 2 of the Deadliest Catch.  It's now been converted into a tour boat with stadium style seating.  It was so much fun.  I really didn't have high hopes for this as the wife wanted to do this more than I did but it was very different than what I had pictured.  The crew had good stories, showed us how they fish and crab, we saw a pair of bald eagles, we got to hold crabs, they caught an octopus which was really cool to see and we even saw some seals.  Everyone on the boat was blown away by how awesome it was.

 

We didn't really have any extra time since we left so early so no time to really explore the town.  Relaxing on the ship now.  My wife is doing Harry Potter trivia and will make a glow shirt after that.  

 

Forgot to mention before that if you like the pound cake from the Haven, you'll find it here at the Spinnaker lounge.  Odd place to stash pound cake but it works for me. 

 

 

 

[Jed12345]

1 hour ago, Analog187 said:

This boat was from season 2 of the Deadliest Catch.  It's now been converted into a tour boat with stadium style seating.  It was so much fun.

We've done the Aleutian Ballad twice and loved it both times!

[ggTexasGal]

Great photo!

[Analog187]

They ran out of shirts so my wife didn't bother with the glow shirt.  We went to the Perfect Couple game show and that was really funny.  After that we went to World Beat which may be the best show NCL has.  The cast was incredible, complete opposite of Let it Rock.  They really showed off all of their talents and blew everyone away.  It was the entertainment highlight for us.

 

Day 9 - At sea (late night Jones Act stop in Victoria)

 

In the morning there was a digital bridge and engine room tour followed by Q&A with the Captain and other officers.  It was informative although not all of the questions were fully answered likely due to language issues.  Once again, some of these questions that people ask are something ask.  Of course someone asked about the iceberg (crawler technically).  Can't believe someone expected a real answer on that one.  Of course the captain said he couldn't talk about it.  

 

A little later on there was a Q&A with the entertainment staff.  That was interesting as well.  

 

After relaxing in the hot tub for quite a while and otherwise just hanging out and relaxing, we went to the cruise next presentation.  Massive waste of time.  Showed you nothing.  They really dropped the ball putting this together.  The power point presentation included videos that were very generic.   Cannot believe that such a massive company produced these things.

 

We had dinner in Moderno and that was really amazing.  We've been to Brazilian steakhouses before and while the food wasn't as good as some other places we've been to, it was really good considering we were on a cruise ship.  We sat right by the window and saw a parage of whales for over an hour.  It was incredible and then when they stopped, you didn't see anymore. 

 

The mashed potatoes they bring you are really good.  The manchego cheese at the salad bar is awesome.  Plenty of other good things up there as well.  It was such a good experience. 

 

There was no show tonight probably because of the late night port.  They just showed a movie in the theater.  There was the Eliminator game show in the Bliss lounge but that was basically just a trivia thing.  Nothing too exciting.  After that we watched them dock in Victoria and seemed like they had a lot of problems.  We were thinking about doing something after that but we decided to just pack it in since we have a long travel day coming up.

 

Day 10 - Seattle

 

Embarkation and the bus to the airport was pretty uneventful.  Sea-Tac is mobbed for a Thursday morning.

 

Conclusion 

 

This was an amazing cruise and I highly suggest this itinerary for anyone going to Alaska.  Glacier Bay in September is the way to go.  I could have bailed on Skagway and ICP but the rest of the ports were great.   

 

You would never guess the ship was so old.  They did such a good job with the refurb and they keep it up really nice.  The only way you really tell the age is the funky layout but we knew that going in so it didn't bother me.

 

Balcony cabin was fine, fairly standard.  Plenty of room and storage.  Bathroom looks a little dated but it fine.  My biggest issue is that the AC seems to shut off at night.  It's still on but it doesn't blow cold air.  As a result, the cabin gets very hot around 11pm or midnight.  We had to open our balcony door just about every night just to try to cool it down.  I've had this problem on ships before and it's pretty annoying.  

 

Food was a mixed bag but overall wasn't too happy with it.  NCL has really lowered the quality but I knew that from my previous cruise this year.  It is what it is.  What really gets me is the food temperature at the buffet.  Some items such as the mac n cheese were ice cold.  I don't understand how they can't keep some things hot.  At the main dining rooms, almost every item has at least one hidden topping/ingredient.  That's pretty annoying.  Not sure why they can't get that right.

 

Entertainment was mostly good.  Some of the stuff was not my thing so it's hard for me to comment on that.  Otherwise, Let it Rock was the only thing that didn't come out well but that's just our opinion.  I think most people liked it.

 

JC the CD and his staff were awesome.  Tons of fun and really nice people.

 

The service was incredible. While cruise service is usually good, this was 5 star.  We felt like we were on an ultra luxury ship.  I suppose it helps that there were more crew than passengers which is interesting since I've heard a few crew say that they've had hiring issues.  

 

I read some bad things about the Sun and was expecting the worse.  I actually really liked how small the ship was and how easy it was to reach everything.  Nothing was more than a few minutes away.  I think the only things I really missed from the Breakaway was the comedy club and the Brewery.  Otherwise, it all worked for me.  However, if the ship was close to capacity, the crowds may have been a bit much.  Even at half capacity, there were times where it was tough to find a seat at the buffet area.  

 

I would highly suggest booking a cabin in the Aft area.  We were steps from the Aft elevators/stairs and it was so easy to get everywhere.  The buffet was one flight up.  

 

If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.