Short Review NCL Sun - Repositioning

[larryvel]

On Thursday, I got off the Sun from Vancouver to Los Angeles (continuing to New Orleans). Had the owner's suit - nice room. The food and service in the restaurants were not up to par. I would say that the food in the four restaurants we tried would be rated a 4 to a 5 on a 10 being the best scale. The service at the restaurants was poor. I got two free dinners and two free bottles of wine due to the poor service in two of the restaurants. In one restaurant (East Meets West) the steak house we were keep waiting for over twenty minutes for coffee. The staff was talking between themselfs and seemed to forget about us. I'll be on the Jewel in December - has anyone encountered any bad habits of the staff and or the food not being any good.

[jerhardt]

On Thursday, I got off the Sun from Vancouver to Los Angeles (continuing to New Orleans). Had the owner's suit - nice room. The food and service in the restaurants were not up to par. I would say that the food in the four restaurants we tried would be rated a 4 to a 5 on a 10 being the best scale. The service at the restaurants was poor. I got two free dinners and two free bottles of wine due to the poor service in two of the restaurants. In one restaurant (East Meets West) the steak house we were keep waiting for over twenty minutes for coffee. The staff was talking between themselfs and seemed to forget about us. I'll be on the Jewel in December - has anyone encountered any bad habits of the staff and or the food not being any good.

 

We were on the same cruise, and were in a Penthouse. I agree that the service on this ship wasn't what I normally had expected from NCL. The crew/staff looked tired this time around. However, food is subjective, and I wouldn't grade it that low. Possibly 7 out of 10 in the main dining areas. Never ate in the Garden Cafe, Outdoor cafe was 7 out of 10 for a buffet, and East Meets West was about an 8 out of 10 (and we were there on the Sunday).

[newmexicoNita]

On Thursday, I got off the Sun from Vancouver to Los Angeles (continuing to New Orleans). Had the owner's suit - nice room. The food and service in the restaurants were not up to par. I would say that the food in the four restaurants we tried would be rated a 4 to a 5 on a 10 being the best scale. The service at the restaurants was poor. I got two free dinners and two free bottles of wine due to the poor service in two of the restaurants. In one restaurant (East Meets West) the steak house we were keep waiting for over twenty minutes for coffee. The staff was talking between themselfs and seemed to forget about us. I'll be on the Jewel in December - has anyone encountered any bad habits of the staff and or the food not being any good.

Larry, you were on another board and said the table linens were dirty so you choose to eat in your suite each night or that is the impression you gave. One thing that many cruisers do not realize; the very short cruises do not offer the same experience as the longer ones. Even a 5 day cruise is better than a 3 day one. This shouldn't be the case but it is. Believe me, as not only a TA but a frequent cruiser I do know. We have done 4 or 5, 4 day cruises: never have they compared with 7 to 10 day ones. The Sun, actually is a great ship with probably the friendliest crew I have ever seen. I am sorry you had such a bad experience. I will say, I wasn't terribly impressed with East meets West period, but DD and I didn't really complain. I don't think we waited 20 minutes for coffee; I just really wasn't impressed. I thought Le Bistro was much better, service as well as food. NMNita

[jerhardt]

Larry, you were on another board and said the table linens were dirty so you choose to eat in your suite each night or that is the impression you gave. One thing that many cruisers do not realize; the very short cruises do not offer the same experience as the longer ones. Even a 5 day cruise is better than a 3 day one. This shouldn't be the case but it is. Believe me, as not only a TA but a frequent cruiser I do know. We have done 4 or 5, 4 day cruises: never have they compared with 7 to 10 day ones. The Sun, actually is a great ship with probably the friendliest crew I have ever seen. I am sorry you had such a bad experience. I will say, I wasn't terribly impressed with East meets West period, but DD and I didn't really complain. I don't think we waited 20 minutes for coffee; I just really wasn't impressed. I thought Le Bistro was much better, service as well as food. NMNita

 

I would have to agree with you. I am not a season cruiser (yet) but I didn't notice anything that Larry mentioned here. The ship was clean, period. The crew was tired and it showed. However, I never had to really wait for anything. The only blunder I had was that our key cards expired every day at 5pm! Quick fix tho!

 

I didn't compare this at all to the 8 day Mexico cruise that we were on this past March (the Star) - not enough time to fully appreciate it. I can't wait to hear our friends review after they get to the Big Easy later this month on the Sun.

[newmexicoNita]

I would have to agree with you. I am not a season cruiser (yet) but I didn't notice anything that Larry mentioned here. The ship was clean, period. The crew was tired and it showed. However, I never had to really wait for anything. The only blunder I had was that our key cards expired every day at 5pm! Quick fix tho!

 

I didn't compare this at all to the 8 day Mexico cruise that we were on this past March (the Star) - not enough time to fully appreciate it. I can't wait to hear our friends review after they get to the Big Easy later this month on the Sun.

Pretty funny about your key cards, maybe they were trying to tell you something. I wonder what would have happened if you tried to buy a drink or did you?

[jerhardt]

Pretty funny about your key cards, maybe they were trying to tell you something. I wonder what would have happened if you tried to buy a drink or did you?

 

Well, funny you should ask - the first night, that's when we knew something was up, because it wouldn't swipe at the Topsider's bar, so the bartender wrote it up the old way. Then when we got back to our room, the cards wouldn't let us in. Down to the reception, where they reprogrammed the cards. After the 2nd night, the lady at reception, just cut the cards up, reissued new ones and reset the room. Someone just didn't set the room up properly on their system, that's all.

 

Some people would let something like this ruin their whole cruise experience, not us - part of travelling I say.

[atlmichelle]

Wow, that WAS a short review, larryvel......as in "restaurants only". We were on this repo as well and enjoyed it very much. I must say, I can't come up with anything particularly fabulous or especially horrible to say about the ship, staff, food, or NCL. But our taste is simple, and expectations very modest. As someone has said here before, any meals that I don't have to think up, shop for, prepare, and clean up after for 4 days automatically gets an above-average rating on my scale! :)

 

I have actually become a bit intrigued by reading all the reviews where the success of someone's entire cruise experience seems to hinge on the food. We have never made meals the focal point of any other vacation we've taken, and didn't see a reason to start now. There is so much else that goes into making a fabulous trip....participating in activities, meeting new people, and going with the flow!

 

We even turned getting to the food into an activity! According to my handy-dandy pedometer we averaged walking 6.72 miles per day, most of which was trekking the stairs between our cabin on Deck 4 and the Buffet on Deck 11 several times daily. (See how that works out? ;) ) We never set foot in a Sun elevator for the entire cruise, and even schlepped our bags up the steps for Express Checkout on Thursday!

 

I'm anxious to hear from Steve & Deb also, jerhardt! When are they due back home?

[tlm]

We were on the Sun Sep 9 and had the same thing happen to us in East Meets West only we never did get our coffee...in fact we were never asked if we wanted coffee! After we ate our meals the dirty dishes were not removed and it's like the waiter disappeared! Actually his assistant did offer us desert.

 

I think the problem was 1. Our waiter had far too many tables and 2. I don't think he was that experienced.

 

We didn't complain and ate there later in the week because we enjoyed the food. The service was a touch better but again I think the waiter was inexperienced because he kept getting the orders mixed up.

 

Did it ruin our cruise?? Not a chance!

 

Toni

[hotspur]

I get the sense that sometimes people go on a cruise carrying a scoresheet, if not on paper then in their heads, and are more concerned about checking off items on the scoresheet to later report here rather than just enjoying their cruise.

[newmexicoNita]

Hotspur, you have probably hit the nail on the head: We could take any cruise, regardless of the line and pick it apart; by letting everyone know what went wrong we may end up taking a wonderful cruise and having it come out as the worst experience of our lives. Our last cruise on celebrity, last Dec was fun, it was our granddaughters wedding, we were with lots of family and friends and our cabin was quite nice. The service wasn't bad except the waiter kept forgetting to give DH a menu: what was wrong? He spent 2 minutes or so every night lecturing us on what a good job he does and how hard he works to make our cruise a wonderful experience: actually the assistant did most of the work. Lobster night, everyone had wonderful Lobsters except me: my Lobster Tail was mushy: did that mean the food on the ship was awful, or sub par? Nope, it meant at least one Lobster was probably freezer burned. The service in the dining room for breakfast? We ate there once and it took close to an hour to get the eggs? It was the morning of imigration and everyone had the same idea. Did this mean the service was always bad for breakfast? I doubt it. Our cabin was nice, the bathroom large for a ship and the amenties quite nice, but the sink had nics, showing the age of the ship. Not one of these things would I consider enough to judge the ship as a bad one or did we have a bad experience. Again, I guess I just don't let the little things bother me or maybe I need to expect more from my cruising experience. NMnita

[jerhardt]

We were on the Sun Sep 9 and had the same thing happen to us in East Meets West only we never did get our coffee...in fact we were never asked if we wanted coffee! After we ate our meals the dirty dishes were not removed and it's like the waiter disappeared! Actually his assistant did offer us desert.

 

I think the problem was 1. Our waiter had far too many tables and 2. I don't think he was that experienced.

 

We didn't complain and ate there later in the week because we enjoyed the food. The service was a touch better but again I think the waiter was inexperienced because he kept getting the orders mixed up.

 

Did it ruin our cruise?? Not a chance!

 

Toni

 

You have to remember that in early September, as the Alaska cruising season is winding down, a lot of these ship take on new staff for the next leg (in the Sun's case, the Carribean). This was one of the reasons that it took us more than an hour to clear in LA before we disembarked (plus the fact that the LAPD helicopter was buzzing us continuously all morning). It takes some new staff time to get up to speed.

 

I ate in East Meets West and NEVER experienced what you are talking about - the service was great - not as great as the Star in March, but the crew on the Star in March had been on the ship/itinerary for sometime already.

[jerhardt]

I'm anxious to hear from Steve & Deb also, jerhardt! When are they due back home?

 

They are due back on the 14th.