Sun Review 4/8 - 4/15

[JulesNBama]

My partner and I are from Birmingham Alabama and this was our first experience sailing with Norwegian. Our cruise was April 8th through April 15th.

 

We arrived in New Orleans on April 7th and stayed at the Sheraton on Canal, just blocks away from the cruise terminal. Service is always good at this property, plus it gave us excellent views of the ship the morning of embarkation.

 

Embarkation: We caught a taxi from our hotel to the terminal about 9:00 am expecting to just check our luggage and then head down to Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets. The weather was quite cool in the low 40's. Once we arrived we were the first to actually check in. This was fast and smooth taking about 10 minutes. After check-in we caught the trolley down to the French Market and spent the morning shopping. We boarded the ship at noon; this again was fast and easy. I did like how before you could enter the ship you had to sanitize your hands.

 

Stateroom: We conveniently found our cabin with our shore excursion tickets waiting for us. The cabin was much larger that I had expected, with a king sized bed. This was a superior ocean view state room, very spacious, the bed was a little lumpy, lots of closet space, I did not feel cramped by any means, and I am a big guy.

 

The Ship: The Norwegian Sun is a beautiful ship, vibrant colors, amenities abound. I found the layout to be easy to navigate with floor plans posted at all elevator entrances.

 

Dining: The food was excellent; we did not eat in any of the specialty restaurants. We had diner in the Seven Seas and the Four Seasons both had lots of options to choose from. Everything was delicious and the service was excellent. We also ate breakfast and lunch in the Garden Café and Pacific Heights. The specialty omelets in Las Ramblas Tapas Bar & Restaurant were a real treat for breakfast. The Pina Coladas were quite tasty, but the bar prices were excessive.

 

Shore Excursions: We booked all of our excursions through NCL’s website; this was very easy and gave us many options to choose from.

 

Costa Maya- I was very disappointed with this port, too commercial. We had booked the Jungle Beach Break; a motor coach took us to a private beach that was absolutely beautiful. The only negative I have to say about this excursion was the lack of alcohol at open bar. The drinks appeared to be watered down.

 

Santo Tomas De Castilla, Guatemala- This was my favorite. We took the Las Escobas Waterfall Adventure, Eddie was our tour guide. The rain forest and the waterfalls were exceptional; I would highly recommend this excursion. The people of this port were the friendliest.

 

Belize-Altun Ha Mayan Ruins & Belize City Tour. Wonderful excursion, air-conditioned motor coach takes you on a tour of the city while your tour guide gives you a detail history of the points of interest, then you off to the ruins. Our guide was an archeologist and local, she was very thorough. The site is very impressive; I now can say that I have climbed a Mayan Pyramid!

 

Cozumel- We did not book an excursion for this port, spent the day leisurely shopping.

 

Entertainment: We were very impressed with the onboard entertainment, bands were good, comedians were top notch and the cruise director was very nice, a little cheesy. The cast of the production company were excellent. Entertainment-Very Good.

 

Disembarkation: This was the worst part of our cruise, the cruise director had been pushing the express disembarkation, and how it was fast and easy. We decided to just carry our luggage off and take advantage of this express check out, well so did the other 2,000 guest onboard. Elevators were useless, and we had to make our way down from deck 9 to deck 6 using the stairs, it took an hour moving one step at a time on the crowded stairwell. Once we made it to the deck six we walked right off the ship and through customs with no problem.

 

Summary: The Norwegian Sun is a beautiful ship and the service was excellent. I would highly recommend it to anyone who would like a nice relaxing vacation. I can’t wait for next sailing.

 

I hope this was not too long of a review.

 

Warm regards,

 

Jules

[Wormy53]

Thanks for a very informative review. It sounds like you had a nice time. We haven't departed from New Orleans, but it sounds like it would be fun. Maybe it's time to make it back there to have some of that great BBQ shrinp!