Just arrived back home from SUN (12/8-12/15)

[hollywoodnc]

CONGRATS' date=' [b']hollywoodnc[/b], on your first cruise! You picked a wonderful ship and a fabulous cruise line for your very first!! You are now officially bitten by the cruising-bug! Welcome to our world .... :D

 

Thanks for your kind words, and YES...I've been BITTEN!!!

 

I'm already looking for an April '08 cruise!!!

(With NCL of coarse)

[hollywoodnc]

The Sun repositions every year. Does a transcanal, then up to seattle/vancouver then sails to Alaska for the summertime, then it goes back down south, transcanal, then to miami for the winter season. So, I dont think that the western Caribbean is going to be losing a good ship.

 

Oh...I didn't know that they repositioned every year.

 

The gentleman made it sound permanent!

 

Good...I'll take another SUN cruise in Dec. '08 again! :D:D:D

[hollywoodnc]

The Sun repositions every year. Does a transcanal, then up to seattle/vancouver then sails to Alaska for the summertime, then it goes back down south, transcanal, then to miami for the winter season. So, I dont think that the western Caribbean is going to be losing a good ship.

 

Oh...I didn't know that they repositioned every year.

 

The gentleman responsible for booking a cruise, while cruising, made it sound permanent!

 

Good...I'll take another SUN cruise in Dec. '08! :D:D:D

[Globaliser]

The Sun repositions every year. Does a transcanal, then up to seattle/vancouver then sails to Alaska for the summertime, then it goes back down south, transcanal, then to miami for the winter season. So, I dont think that the western Caribbean is going to be losing a good ship.

The Sun has certainly done this for many years, but the pattern has not been invariable. During the northern winter 2006/7, the Sun was based in New Orleans, not Miami. For the northern winter 2007/8, the Sun was due to have been cruising in Hawaii, but was re-deployed to Miami when NCL decided to reduce the scale of the Hawaii operation. For the northern winter 2008/9, the Sun will be doing South America, not the Caribbean.

[Chance's Mom]

Hi!

We just wanted to ditto everything about the Sun! Had a wonderful time! We have been on NCL before and love the free-style options. The only negative we had (sorry! I just have to tell it as I see it!) was that the food in East Meets West and Le Bistro needs to be improved. My husband and I both had the ribeye in EMW and neither of us was very happy about it. It had alot of grizzle and it was tasteless. We wouldn't have minded so much if it hadn't been in one of the pay resaurants. The crabcakes in Le Bistro were more like tuna cakes, however, the fillet that my husband had was great! The service was great no matter where we ate. The food in Il Adagio was the best! The tenderloin there was very tender and flavorfull! We ate there twice! The food was great in the buffet and plenty of it!

The tray thing was boggling, but I have to agree that we did take less food and we were still full!. The second trip for the drinks just delayed our eatting by a few minutes.

I tink that anybody who takes this ship will be happy!

(also, the beds were very comfortable!)

[hollywoodnc]

Hi!

We just wanted to ditto everything about the Sun! Had a wonderful time! We have been on NCL before and love the free-style options. The only negative we had (sorry! I just have to tell it as I see it!) was that the food in East Meets West and Le Bistro needs to be improved. My husband and I both had the ribeye in EMW and neither of us was very happy about it. It had alot of grizzle and it was tasteless. We wouldn't have minded so much if it hadn't been in one of the pay resaurants. The crabcakes in Le Bistro were more like tuna cakes' date=' however, the fillet that my husband had was great! The service was great no matter where we ate. The food in Il Adagio was the best! The tenderloin there was very tender and flavorfull! We ate there twice! The food was great in the buffet and plenty of it!

The tray thing was boggling, but I have to agree that we did take less food and we were still full!. The second trip for the drinks just delayed our eatting by a few minutes.

I tink that anybody who takes this ship will be happy!

(also, the beds were very comfortable!)[/quote']

 

First off, I didn't eat at the East meets West or Le Bistro. These are the restaurants that require a fee. Like others, I didn't want "Sticker Shock" at the end of the cruise. Remember, keep a ZERO balance mentality when you cruise. Avoid temptations in on board drinks offered by the waiters. Wait till you disembark at the ports, OR bring your own drinks on board.

DO NOT open ANY drinks that you see in your stateroom. When I saw these drinks in my fridge, I immediately removed them, and asked the steward to remove them. He complied. Put your own drinks in their place!

Ice is always put into your container at least twice a day.

 

I remember having a New York sirloin steak at either the Seven Seas or Four seasons. It melted in my mouth! It was cooked exactly as I ordered it, and cut effortlessly!

 

I'm going out on a limb here about the lack of food trays...

I'm going to think that the reason for the lack of food trays is due to them sitting on the outside decks. If winds start to pick up, trays will fly around, becoming projectiles AND, most will end up out at sea. I only saw trays used for room service, so they do have them.

You'll notice that the dishes are quite heavy, and the cups are not styrofoam, paper or a light plastic. This (in my opinion) is so they also don't blow out to sea, causing them to wash up on distant shores.

 

We once walked into LeBistro, and after talking to the lady behind the counter, decide not to eat there. LeBistro (at that evening) was serving a Mexican Cuisine, and it did not look appealing. We ate Mexican when we were at Cozumel.

 

Overall, there is always something different to eat. You just have to go to different restaurants.

 

I personally wanted to eat fish (of all sorts) while out at sea. Where else can you eat lots of fish? I was disappointed at the fact that fish was not offered as much as I anticipated?!

Nevertheless, this does not constitute a negative rating, being that there was no fish (of my desire) on board (like the nag on another thread bashing her cruise 'cause her bf couldn't get chocolate milk!).

 

One last issue of IMPORTANCE...

You all may have a hard time sleeping on the ship due to the whirring of the ships engines. This is especially the case if you reside on deck 4 aft.

Buy yourselves some earplugs before you cruise, so you can sleep. As soon as we installed ours, we slept like babies!

[MonaCK]

I will likely indulge and eat at a pay restaurant or two during the trip, but I don't drink, so it all balances out in the end. We have a $ in our mind of what we want the tab to be at the end of the week, and as long as we don't exceed that number, it'll be alright.