Just Back - NCL Sun - 1/19 - 1/26!

[B_K]

We are just back from the Western Caribbean on the Sun from 1/19 to 1/26, and I am sitting at my desk watching the snow (MA) - AAARGH…!

 

Here is an evaluation of the key components where I have input. This was our 4th cruise, most recently 3 years ago on Caribbean Princess the same week in January. I will also provide some corrections to information I have seen on CC, comments, and warnings (this is where you will find the negatives…). This may have to be a response to this document because of size, so look for it there.

 

Overall the cruise was good – it was prevented from being great by a factor beyond the control of NCL, the weather! The NCL “Sun” was certainly a misnomer thus week…. It was completely overcast and rainy Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday until Noon. Then it was sunny through the end of the day Thursday, followed by cloudy and windy on Friday. This is certainly the exception rather than the norm from my Caribbean experiences. (The cloudy and windy Friday was the result of a cold front that stirred up the waves and forced us to bypass Great Stirrup Cay and dock in Nassau)

 

Oh well, life aboard the ship went on – here’s a look at some facets:

 

Ship – this is a nice ship. Maybe not so glitzy as the Caribbean Princess, but overall quite nice.

 

Cabin – we were in a penthouse suite (8077 – category AC) on the Viking deck at the very back of the ship. Nice to have 2 rooms and a full size tub with shower. Furnishings in the suite were a bit tired. Balcony is wide (about 20 feet), but not deep (about 5 feet). Bed was hard, became more comfortable with egg shell mattress pad.

 

Service/Staff – probably the best I have seen - very friendly and obliging in most areas.

 

Food – everybody’s prime concern – I found it to be pretty much as expected. We ate dinner in the Seven Seas 5 nights, Il Adagio, and the Steakhouse. I found the Seven Seas to be a bit better than expected. I would rank the food quality better than the dining room on the CP, however that may be partially because they offer a more limited menu (5 entrees), so they only have to concentrate on a few items (yes, I know you can order other things not on the menu…). I give the Seven Seas a B.

 

We rated Il Adagio a B-. Nothing wrong, but nothing that made you sit up and take notice. East meets West was rated a B. We had a good meal there, but they lost points because the prime rib I had there was not quite as good as the prime rib I had in the Seven Seas earlier in the week (though the SS portion was half the size). The prime rib in the Seven Seas ranks as the best meal of the week for me.

 

Breakfasts were a mix of dining room and buffets – neither were anything to get excited about. Lunch was mainly buffet. I would rate the buffets a C/C-, mainly for all the reasons spelled out by many others across this board. The buffets on the Caribbean Princess were better, both in quality and variety, and of course layout…. Nuff said.

 

 

Entertainment – Typical cruise ship stuff. They had a very talented group of singers and dancers (Ann Ryan Singers & Dancers) who did 3 shows. The first – Meet the Producers – was excellent. The other two were not really fits for this group and were over choreographed. There was also a comedian who did several late shows, including the last night, and was very funny.

 

Ports – not much input here. We did not get off in Roatan or Belize City. The downtown areas in Cozumel and Nassau were both tourist oriented with lots of hustlers (particularly Nassau). There were some classy shops in Nassau. See my comments and warnings for what NOT to eat in Cozumel!

 

Others – no real input on embarkation and debarkation (a breeze), casino (too smoky), room service – see my correction on this, and excursions (did none).

 

See response for corrections/comments/warnings

[B_K]

Here are the promised Corrections and Warnings etc. from my review of the Sun Western Caribbean 1/19 – 1/26:

 

Soot on Balcony – if you have an aft facing balcony, be careful of soot that floats down on balcony after almost every departure (must accumulate in stacks while engines idling). It gets on floor and deck furniture. Our balcony was not cleaned the entire week.

 

Portion Sizes – this is just a heads up – some food portions are really ridiculous in size. Examples include order of hash browns in Seven Seas gets you a piece that measures (no exaggeration here…) less than 1 inch by 2 inches; an order of buffalo wings in the sports bar brings 4 very small wings (not that good…), and a serving of Tilapia one evening was a piece that could not have weighed even 4 ounces. Keep this in mind as you may want to order more than one portion/order of selected items.

 

Suite Room Service – you CANNOT order room service from any restaurant on board including the specialties. This perk is reserved exclusively for the owner’s suite. This is a change from what I had read earlier. You have a more extensive menu, but this is all you may use.

 

Wine by the Glass – another serving size issue, except you are paying for this. The available selection is somewhat limited, but I did order a glass one evening. I am sure the pour was barely 3 ounces – certainly not a good value (I rejected it). The better way to enjoy wine is by the bottle, and they will store any unconsumed portion and give you a receipt which can be used to retrieve your bottle in any restaurant on board when you want more the next night. This worked well for me.

 

Carrying on Own Luggage – this is also a correction. We attempted to carry on our two large rolling bags ourselves. We bypassed the porters outside and were inside the building when we were stopped and told that the larger of the two bags had to go back because it wouldn’t fit through x-ray the way we were coming in. I had to take the bag back outside and over-tip the porter to take it. When we got to the x-ray, sure enough, the bag we kept barely fit through (took a little pushing etc.). The bigger one was probably only an inch or two “fatter” but it for sure wouldn’t have fit. The NCL staff had sharp eyes.

 

Going to Stateroom Early – DO NOT believe what you read about being able to get to your cabin before 1:00 pm just by going through closed but unlocked fire doors to drop bags. There was a crew member at every turn and fire door stopping you from going anywhere but the restaurants and bars before the all clear was given at 1:00.

 

Cheeseburger in Paradise– doesn’t exist, at least not in Cozumel. A cheeseburger ordered in Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville brought some kind of processed patty that bore no resemblance in either appearance or taste to hamburger and was totally inedible. Stick to bottled beer and the nachos…!

 

Drink Prices – if you tell them you don’t want the souvenir glass and just put it in a regular glass, most drinks are in the $5.50 range, which is clearly better than the $7.95 - $9.00 in the ugly plastic glass. Also, as noted by many previous members, the amount of alcohol going into the drinks is real small. I watched him make a pina colada for my wife that had less than an ounce of rum in it.

[redlum23]

How often was lobster served on the ship? My wife and I are very fond of lobster and want to know when and where to go.

[scubagirl08]

Thanks for the review! My husband and I are in suite 8077 on the 2/9 Sun sailing. Now we'll know to just go ahead and get the egg-crate for the bed right off the bat. We were also hoping to have dinner on the balcony by ordering off the specialty restaurant menu, so that's a disappointment to know that we won't be able to do that:( . Also the thing with the soot on the balcony is interesting. We'll be sure so bring some wipes or something to clean it ourselves with. Thanks again!

[NEW 2 CRUISIN]

Thanks for the review!

 

I don't really get the whole "soot" thing either!

 

Every single night on our Princess Cruise we would be sitting out by the pool watching movies and without fail, black soot would start falling from the sky and get on EVERYTHING - clothing, chairs, hair, in eyes, and in your drinks and food - and that was long after we had left port for the night.

 

When asked, the crew would say it just had something to do with the way the wind was blowing, which leads me to believe that it happening all the time and it only lands on you if the ship is going slow enough! HAHA!

 

At first I suspected that they burn garbage after dinner and some of it just escapes through whatever filters they are supposed to have in the stacks. I suppose it could just be exhaust too. In any event, I don't want it on me, and if it fell on my balcony like that everynight, I'd be a little displeased about it.

 

Thanks for sharing the tips/corrections!

 

:)

[cassrebecca]

Thank you for the review. My husband and I are sailing on the sun 2/23 and found your review helpful. I am from MA also (Martha's Vineyard) and boy am I watching the snow come down!!!

[I'mwithhim]

I am also sailing on the Sun Feb 23rd, and appreciated your review. I just wanted to ask... the price of the drinks you said was in the $5.50 range "sans" ugly plastic glass.. does this include the 15% auto add on? Or are we looking at an actual price of $6.33 each?

[B_K]

Lobster was served 1 night in DR - I think it was Sun. Was Caribbean lobster, small portion, table mates said it was good. Lobster is also on the menu at the steakhouse - both Caribbean and a whole Maine lobster (extra charge for the latter).

 

Drink price of $5.50 was before 15%, so $6.33 was bottom line.

[Nickymjw1]

I oreered the drink in the regular glass one time to save money, and it was a very small glass. size of a water glass in the buffet. Did you experience that also?

[B_K]

Nicky,

 

No, the glasses were bigger than the buffet water/tea glasses in all cases - probably at least 9-10 ounces....

 

BK