NCL Sun Review/Blog (long) 14th June to 21st including suite comparisons and food.

[ajohnstu]

EMBARKATION

Embarkation went like a dream, apart from the so called VIP bit, as we did not wait till noon and lined up with about another 60 people at 10:30. You wont get on the ship till about 11:30-12 due to the ships computers or something not being connected to the port. i.e. the NCL staff not being ready. But I thought it was worth it as i remember popping in a week before and it was rammed with people queuing to get on the Sun. With parents in their mid 80's we wanted to be close to the front, so we were on board and having tea by 12:15 I think.

 

VIP EMBARKATION LINE

 

This line was a complete waste of time and we found we were standing there like lemons for 25 minutes waiting for them to sort their lives out while a LOT of people cruised pass us in the regular line. So you know what, use the regular line if you get there early it's much faster. Once we did finally get served in the VIP line we were herded to a VIP section where we were given a talk by our concierge which again was a waste of time and left us feeling frustrated. We had already booked all our tours and her talk added nothing to our knowledge. She gave us our key cards which we could have got from the people who checked us in. So a complete waste of time and quite frustrating. Saying that of course it may be better next time in the VIP line so NCL read this, sort out your VIP line cause it don't feel like VIP at all at embarkation.

 

 

Tuesday = Ketchikan first stop

 

Woke up to Rain, quite a lot of it too. The day did not look promising with low clouds and grey landscape. Ketchikan seems to be on an island with high hills and lush forests rising up into the clouds. Colorful wooden houses are evident near the cruise ship and I can see 3 other ships docked at this port. That is some influx I have to say in one hit for a town this small, they must love it. Stuffed my face at breakfast again with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage links, mini croissants, coffee etc. I have to say the croissants are spot on, perfectly flaky and very French, I should know I have tasted these babies all over the world and these are good. It would be nice if you could heat them up so they are even crispier and hot but hey I am not complaining. Breakfast seems to be something the ship does well and as a hint go to the garden outside café at the back of the ship which was empty because of the rain. This buffet does all the same items under cover with no queues.

 

Seating can be a problem on a ship with 1,200 people on it so do get there early especially if there are 7 of you. Once off the ship which was quick there are lots of Jewellery shops, local art some quite good actually but not really much to do here. I didn’t book any excursions at this port as nothing interested me and I am pretty glad of that with the weather and rain.

It did stop raining of course and it didn’t stop us from getting off the boat and walking into town for a look around. We got back on the boat after about an hour as the town had nothing of interest for us. In retrospect we got some nice and atmospheric photos of the town so it wasn’t a waste and I was glad to have gotten off the ship for a look around.

 

We had to go through security top get back on the ship, which was easy, and have our stuff x-rayed on the way up. This is understandable of course and took no time at all. I have to say I have never seen so many grossly overweight people in one place and that is even before they get to the buffet. I suppose it is to be expected as a ship is a cross section of the country you are living in I suppose. On this ship there were about 950 Americans, 860 Canadians and 280 Brits so a good cross section and varying ages with the average age being about 45-50 I suppose with older and younger. Of course all the kids are still at school thank heaven so it’s a quiet ship.

 

Hit the gym for a hour to prep for lunch and found that our Verizon WIFI Air card in our laptop works better in Ketchikan than it does in Chicago so we have 4 bars and access to the internet. The ship board internet is $100 US for 4 hours for less than MODEM speed. You have to be desperate to need to access this at these prices. Right now off to Lunch I think a bowl of soup for now and a stroll around the promenade deck which is on deck 6. Between 8am and 8pm you can walk or jog around this and it’s a pleasant stroll. 3 ½ times around is 1 mile or for me 520 paces. Yesterday excluding the gym I managed 22,000 steps or 9 miles, on ship that’s not bad going eh and better than most days in Chicago.

 

Wednesday – Juneau

 

Juneau was a shorter stop with a trip up the mount Roberts tram up 1800 feet above the city. All of us were doing this and this alone with a walk back to the ship.

 

So after heading out about 9:30 a bit later than normal we walked the 25 minutes to the tram/cable car terminal. There is as shuttle bus but we walked anyway. It didn’t look that high or particularly impressive from down below. After living in Chicago 1,800 doesn’t seem too high. However once you are actually going up in the cable car you realise how stunning it is up at the top. Our ship and the others looked incredibly tiny as they whizzed away from us and as we shot up on the 5 minute journey to the summit.

 

It was relatively mild so some of the trails were muddy. I wasn’t aware what was available up top but there are several trails from ½ mile to 3 miles and as a lot of the snow had melted there was a lot of muddy areas. SO if you are thinking of this excursion do take hiking boots just to be safe.

 

The price for this was $27 which was exactly the same as the price at the ticket booth at the cable car so well worth it. We had a nice look around up top there is a visitors center which we bypassed in favour of a walk around the summit and taking some pictures of the incredible view.

 

We all headed back down around noon as our boat left around 1:30 so a short stay in the Capital of Alaska. We didn’t see any of the rest of the town and I don’t think many others did.

 

It was great to be up on deck watching the many float planes taking off over the ship and I managed to get some great video. We saw a few enormous eagles flying directly over the ship too, incredible birds.

 

THURSDAY – SKAGUAY

 

Arrived in port around 6am in a great location with Skagway being a disneyfied version of its original self I believe. Very nice clapboard shops, bars, tons of jewelers, fur shops, cafes all very attractive and nicely painted. This place heaves with ships from April to mid September then is dead the rest of the year. Nice location though.

 

The White Pass railway trains are fabulous to look at. Big engines with stunning wild west carriages a lot of them restored originals I believe. Big clean windows lining all the carriages with fabulous views and interesting dated interiors showing what the trains used to be like. I can’t imagine the trains were ever as clean and pretty all those years ago but hey we have to have our luxuries.

 

The trains run right up to a lot of the ships so some tours get off their ships and walk straight onto the White Pass railway as did our parents. They enjoyed 3 ½ hours on a train up to the summit and back. Bear in mind you do NOT get off the train for 3 ½ hours and no food is provided, something that should have been made clearer as the old wrinklies arrived back very hungry after getting used to eating so frequently on the ship. Toilets are on the train so you won’t get desperate their and the trains are delightful.

 

We booked the Laughton Glacier and White Pass tour which was about a 9 hour train, hike and talk tour which was great fun but incredibly hard work by the time we got back on the train. I had my pedometer on my ankle and it calculated that for the entire day up till when I went to bed we walked 32,000 steps or around 10 miles. Not bad for a cruise eh.

 

Laughton Glacier was great, we took the White Pass railway for 45 minutes up the mountain and into the hills. The train stopped to let us off where it continued onto the White Pass route.

 

Our young cloned tour guides were great. I think they all were pressed from one mould as they all seemed to be mid 20’s to late 20’s with waif like thinness, 12 “ waists, very sinewy and all with short beards. I mean bless them they looked like tall pixies ready to go change and help Santa deliver gifts at Christmas. Nice guys though and they clearly loved what they were doing.

 

Friday on Ship heading back to Vancouver

 

The 10 mile hike yesterday completely knocked me out so I didn’t actually get up till 10am. They put the clocks forward 1 hour in anticipation of arriving back in Vancouver so when we left Il Adagio it was 10:25pm and we all felt fully justified to go to bed and promptly pass out. We have had the same white and red wine choices all nights on board and have really enjoyed them. We only ordered 1 bottle of red and one white at a total cost of around $86 which was pretty reasonable considering the quality of the wine. It definitely wasn’t worth buying wine, for us, then having to pay $15 corkage fee when the wine is this good and reasonably priced. Il Adagio was a bust, horrible food and a waste of money so be warned.

 

Today I am spending the day just updating, offline, my blog, relaxing at sea and enjoying the cabin. The cruise experience has been a 100% positive experience and I have simply loved every minute of it. To be honest I am enjoying the time at sea far more than being in port. I have no real interest in any of the towns or cities the ship has stopped at to be honest, to me a city is a city a town is a town. Having been a constant traveler I find I am not a tourist, my interest in a lot of local history or trivia is glancing but I love experiencing nature, mountains, sea, wildlife. It’s good to know what you like I feel.

 

Saturday cruising the inside passage

 

Oh my god we saw a school of Orca just now off the starboard bow. Very cool! At least 4 or 5 killer whales bouncing through the water near our cabin, very very cool.

 

I Feel very rested after a relatively late night for me i.e. 11pm watching the sunset from the aft of the ship. It was stunning, the colours and view were incredible. I was joined by about 25 other people all gathering to watch the same amazing view.

 

The morning was very similar with stunning views and exhilarating winds. I really do enjoy being at sea and I also thoroughly enjoy it when we have a bit of a swell and the boat rocks a bit. This can be a problem in the gym though on the running machine hehe. They say the average cruiser can put on 7-10lbs in one week. I tell you now there was no bloody way I was letting that happen as it took me months to get off Christmas and I don’t want to feel that disgusting again.

 

With the facilities on offer on this ship there is no reason to go home feeling like a lard ass. With the 460 metre promenade on deck 6, the gym, the classes and the walking you do just exploring the ship I would say I am averaging 15-20,000 steps a day, according to my pedometer, or about 8-10 miles which is actually more than I do at home. I have eaten more or less what I want and knocked back plenty of sparkling wine and Bacardi but I have not gorged myself. There are some amazingly obese people on the ship but in general I think it’s a good cross section of western society i.e. Anglo Saxon that is. So we have a very international group of people which is great.

 

I have just finished packing 2 out of 3 of our suitcases and I will leave these out tonight to be disembarked so we can walk off at 9am with 1 suitcase. I was surprised to be kicked off the ship so early as our hotel room in Vancouver is bound not to be ready. We will be turning up at the Hotel with 7 adults and luggage so hopefully they will let us store the gear until our families flights. We are staying till Monday so we can have a relaxing departure from Canada.

 

We have just sorted the tips into envelopes and started handing them out. For those that are interested we have given our Concierge Karin $200, Orlando our Butler $150 and I will give Michael our steward $50. Michael is actually covered by the $24 a day we are putting in as our room service charge to cover the stewards, waiters and bar staff. We actually tipped every night at the restaurant too so they have done alright out of us I think. I think this week we will have dropped about $460 in tips plus the $24 a day which is added automatically so that is $610 OUCH, which is a heck of a lot but whatever. I still say I would rather this was added to the bill to save me the worry/hassle of actually distributing the stuff. Still I suppose it’s nice to personally thank people who have helped make your vacation what it is.

 

Tomorrow we will be up quite early to raid the Garden Café at 6am to bring back some breakfast to our terrace so we can enjoy the arrival into Vancouver with the family. I will probably do 7 laps of the promenade deck if I get up in time which is 2 miles before breakfast to take in the sea air and enjoy it one last time. I would do this again in a heartbeat.

 

I have over 1600 photos and 75 videos to process over the next few weeks. Of course as the video is in HD I will need to buy a new PC to process it otherwise it will take years. Oh well I knew the time was coming. I can use the old laptop as a media server for Netflix on demand via my PS3 to our wide screen LCD TV, it does very well at that but as the graphics card is integrated and it’s 3 years old it’s just not powerful enough to cope or play HD video. Right that’s it am off for now hope you enjoyed the highlights of my trip to Alaska.

 

My only mild disappointment is not getting closer to the Hubbard Glacier, it was within reach of the ship but I guess there was too much ice. It looked incredible, I suppose I will just have to do it again somehow or perhaps do a Norwegian Fjord cruise from the UK when I move home.

 

ISSUES

 

The only thing I did complain about twice was the shutting down of the Observation lounge on the Sun for private functions during the day. We got kicked out twice and as this is really the ONLY place you can sit down comfortably inside with 7 people including 2 mid 80’s parents it was disgusting they kept shutting it down for latitudes receptions, or private functions. This is a public room, there are other smaller rooms that these functions can be held in so I was not happy with this. One day it was out of action for 6 hours which is totally unacceptable.

 

FOOD

 

BREAKFAST

 

Breakfast is pretty good and is a full buffet in the garden café inside and outside plus I think in the VIP suites you can go to LE BISTRO for breakfast and lunch if you want. As we were in a group of 7 we didn’t bother and had lunch wherever the family was. It seems VIP suites are considered as Penthouse and above as we learnt when we tried to get our mini suite family in. I was pretty sure on cruise critic it said mini suites were considered vip but our concierge said definitely not there are over 60 of them.

 

I enjoy breakfast and enjoyed it on the Sun, lots of Smoked Salmon, crispy bacon, sausages, grilled tomato, cereals, rolls all your normal hotel buffet options so you won’t go uncared for at breakfast. You can more or less pick up what you want and eat it wherever you want carrying it with you. If you are in the VIP suites you can have a full breakfast menu and have it delivered to your room. We did this twice but found it more boring than anything, it’s quite nice to get out and see the other cruisers and eat on the AFT terrace in the garden café, plus the food is hot then rather than just warm.

 

LUNCH

 

Lunch is buffet style in the main cafes and a walk up and order at the Pacific Heights restaurant. I didn’t really enjoy pacific heights at lunch time. The pizza looked unappetizing although the spaghetti Bolognese was OK as were the other pastas. It’s just lunch so nothing special. The Main included restaurants were perfectly adequate for lunch. Lots of choices, a carvery, and salad bar so something for everyone. Most of the deserts I didn’t enjoy but the cookie and cake bar was nice.

 

I can recommend the Las Ramblas for lunch on the 12th floor as this is like a make your own sandwich bar. You just stroll up tell them what bread you want then fill it with cold meat and salad. They had a soup option and sometimes chips. Nothing fancy but hey what do you want for lunch! I got told off twice by the server fascists for taking my own bread to be filled by the ladies and the other time for taking the water pitcher to the table with 7 plastic beakers. It just seemed easier to take the pitcher and 7 empty glasses to the table than keep going back and forth. The servers were a bit personality free in the Las Ramblas sandwich bar at Lunch time but very friendly everywhere else. That’s unwritten rules for you.

 

We also had to deal with the constant minor irritation of having our hands sprayed whenever we entered a restaurant. The first time I had to do this I had a bit of an attitude after embarkation but dropped it quickly as they are only doing their jobs and judging by other peoples sanitary habits I think it’s probably a good idea to be honest. I saw so many people leave the rest rooms without washing their hands. Disgusting. You also have to sanitize when you get on the ship.

 

DINNER

 

I would class the dinner food in the main restaurants as adequate to good. I thought it was a buffet again in the evenings but was pleasantly surprised when we sat down in the 7 seas and 4 seasons restaurants to have waiter service. All our servers in the main restaurants were exceptional and very attentive and the wine choices were excellent. Of course wine is extra but we had some great reds and whites for normal prices. I didn’t feel like I was being gouged at all. I drank NO soft drinks in the restaurants at all. We tipped at dinner anywhere from $7 to $20 although it was included in our $12 a day service charge in all restaurants in the evening even though most people didn’t.

 

The food was OK to good, but I enjoyed my time in the main included restaurants because of the company, the service, being with my family and the two main dining rooms are very well laid out, large and grand in their own way. Very impressive. The food I think someone said on cruise critic was Applebee like. Having never been to this place but having seen the commercials I think they are close to the mark. I had beef wellington one night which had no pastry on it and the steak was a bit bland. Nice try but not very interesting.

 

Other members of my party found the food nice enough. So they tried hard and the food was OK just nothing special.

 

PAID FOR RESTURANTS – IL ADAGIO

 

We booked a table for 7 in IL Adagio which really meant 5 of us were in one of the booths and 2 by the window over the other side of the corridor. Il Adagio is quite small with a table for 2 by the window, a corridor and then a table got 4-5 in a semi circular booth facing the window and the table for 2. So we had a disconnected table for 7.

 

The décor and room were very pleasant and the service was pretty good although my waiter had a few problems understanding English and messed up my desert order, no big deal. However the food was not very good, worse than the main dining room. I wouldn’t go back. My pizza was undercooked as was another of my party, the base was doughy and boring. The Beef Carpaccio was flavourless even the oil on top of it was flavourless so a dead end meal. 5 out of 7 of our party disliked their meals due to quality of meal or it being too cold. This is not what you expect when you are being charged more. I could not recommend this restaurant.

 

None of us complained at the time although when asked how we liked our meals we said it was OK. It was OK, nothing special, not good, bland and worse than the main restaurant. Our Concierge Karin said we should have said something at the time, and you know in the real world on shore I would have no problem. But with 7 people, 4-5 meals sucking big time who can be bothered. I wasn’t prepared to wait for all these problems to be rectified. We still had a good time but the food sucked. If it is a paid for restaurant this should never have happened. With 1 meal maybe but 5 no. So we just cancelled the other so called specialty restaurant we booked and decided to stay with the main restaurants the 4 seasons and 7 seas where they have shown consistent quality and there is no additional charge.

 

Personally I wouldn’t bother with the other restaurants in future as the food is more than adequate in the included ones.

 

Room Comparisons

 

OK so between the 7 of us we have 4 different types of cabins which should give the reader a good comparison.

 

OWNERS SUITE

 

We were in the AA owners suite, which is quite plainly divine. The division of the main lounge/dining area and the bedroom is strange as you have some wasted window area. Although it’s a tossup between having a nice sliding balcony door to look out of while sitting up in bed or giving that over to have a much wider lounge. It would depend on your view point. I have enjoyed it this morning sitting up in bed reading my book watching the bow of the ship bob up and down while watching the grey horizon. So it would be a shame to lose it to hand it over to the lounge for a larger gathering.

 

LOUNGE

 

There is a nice suite which is a 3 person sofa which is also a sofa bed and 2 nice high sided chairs. A small round dining table with 4 chairs which really has only enough space for 2 dinners. You could pull in the table on the terrace to extend this to 4-6 should you wish.

 

On the terrace we have 4 comfy chairs, 2 small tables and 2 loungers. I also borrowed a high chair from the bar so I could sit up next to the rail and watch the world go by. The terrace is enormous i.e. 300sq feet. There is a hot tub in the corner that we haven’t used although I tested it and needed to get the plug replaced so that’s all sorted for the next cruiser.

 

There is a little desk area where the laptop sits. We shoved it in the drawer and replaced it with our own. We found our Verizon WIFI air card worked perfectly in port in Alaska so we had no use of the ships internet which was extortionate at $25 an hour for old fashioned MODEM speeds. I think it is not worth the stress unless you really have to stay in touch with someone urgently. Skagway and Juneau have places you can check your internet so save your sanity and do It there if you must.

 

In the lounge there is a bar area with a fridge, DVD Player, 27” or so wide screen TV, sink, coffee machine and there is also a Lavassa coffee machine. The capsule coffee machine is a very good perk as the coffee is seriously good. With hot frothy milk having piping hot cappuccino in bed is a real treat I have to say.

 

So the lounge area is a very nice space with a separate hall area with guest toilet. All in al l a great space for 2 people and to have sail away party’s with your guests.

 

BATHROOM/DRESSING ROOM

 

The bathroom is enormous with a large corner Jacuzzi type bath. The bath is lovely but to be honest I find Jacuzzis a waste of time. The jets are simply not powerful enough and just end up being irritating as all you hear are the noises of the Jacuzzi motor whining away. Lots of floor space and 2 sinks so for 2 people it’s the perfect size. The dressing area is a bit cramped and could have been expanded a bit to the detriment of the bathroom. It’s been lovely to have a dressing room of course but if two of you are trying to dress at the same time it’s not really possible. A hard life I know

 

There is a safe in the dressing room which we use for camera equipment, cash, passports so we can leave them behind safe and secure. Also plenty of hanging space and hangers for shirts, trousers and dresses.

 

From the dressing room, dining room and bedroom are double doors you can slide open to access the terrace. Very civilized.

 

BED AND BEDDING

 

The bed is so comfortable I want to take it home. It has a built in comforter to soften it, plus the cotton linen it is more comfortable than my own bed, I need to fix this situation. I think it’s a king size so plenty of space and comfort and very nice pillows. It’s quite rare to have a good combination of bed, pillow and sheets so 10/10 to NCL.

 

LAPTOP IN SUITE

 

The owners suite provide a LAPTOP which is a waste of time. It includes no internet minutes, looks to be about 5 years old and is slow as molasses. This is a fake room benefit and they should either give you a decent terminal with included minutes or just throw them away.

 

LIQUOUR

 

The included spirits/liquor is a nice to have. We ordered a bottle of whiskey, Bacardi and gin which we are getting through nicely. My brother in law also brought on board a half bottle of his own favorite whiskey. He was not personally searched and it was not taken off him. The on board Prosecco at $38 a bottle were very nice if a bit expensive and at restaurant prices. We ordered between us about 12 bottles all told. If you order 6 bottles from the bar you get 20% off your order which really accounts for about 2-4% off your order as they then add 15% service charge which is a bit cheeky for really no service apart from handing the bottles over.

 

The Owners suite is worth every penny I you can get it at a good deal. Our room steward was very sweet, Michael I think his name was. We had Karin as our concierge and she was very present and helpful, booking 3 restaurants for 7 for us and looking into getting newspapers printed via the internet for us. We asked her to look into the FT and The Guardian for us, UK newspapers but at $15 each we decided against it. You could have the NY Times for $3.99 a day but decided we didn’t really want it that badly.

 

Our Butler Orlando was also very good, we had breakfast in our room twice and he called before arriving at one time at 6:15 am as we were off on our Laughton Glacier Hike that morning.

 

Now as for tipping, I did a lot of research on this and it’s obvious that your staff can help make or break your vacation, any idiot knows this. In the restaurants where tipping isn’t really necessary we did tip, we even gave our butler tips for delivering our breakfast knowing full well we would tip him at the end of the week too. So ultimately it’s up to you I suppose to determine how much is fair to tip and what not to tip.

 

A lot of people are so in support of tipping but I tend to find the only people who are so pro tipping are those that work in the service industry so no surprise there. I would much rather see all tipping on a ship like this to be included in the price. I think I would rather pay $500 more on my cruise cost and not have to worry about tipping anyone. This would inevitably mean I would pay more but you know what that’s fine as then the staff get a good wage and I have no stress on MY vacation. It may also mean that a server doesn’t then earn vast sums of money as is possible although probably not common but it is more spread around as a living wage which is far fairer in my eyes whatever your view.

 

MINI SUITE AE 0067AFT

 

We were originally going to be in this suite which would have been next door to our parents suite which is the same size. I have to say I was very disappointed initially when I saw this suite based on all the rave reviews on it.

The regular mini suite is much more suite or user friendly as it has a separate lounge area. This mini suite is wider by one glass window than the regular mini suite which has 2 glass floor to ceiling windows. Clearly you give something up. This suite does not have a separate seating area although it does have a sofa but it is facing the bed. So you get out of your bed almost straight onto the terrace although the terrace is nice and large which is what you pay for I suppose.

 

We basically paid only $400 more for our owners suite over the ORIGINAL cost we paid for this suite. We got an extra $1000 off this suite, between the 2 of us, before we paid in full for it due to the price reductions and then paid $1400 to upgrade to the owners suite so in effect we got twice as much space in the room and balcony for only $400 more. So worth shopping around. Personally I would rather have a regular mini suite over this suite as it is longer and is set out as entrance, bathroom, then bedroom, then lounge, then terrace so you have these distinct area which this room does not have. It has a full size bath though and nice changing washing area.

 

MINI SUITE Regular

 

As I said above the mini suite is nice, I like it a lot. You enter along a narrow corridor and on the other side of this corridor is a lovely bathroom, bath, dressing area. Nice and large. Then it opens out into the bedroom with a nice big comfy bed. Past the bed you have a lounge/TV area which is separate then the sliding door and nice small terrace which is probably about 8-10ft wide as is the suite.

 

All in all if I could not stay in the owners suite or a penthouse suite then I would want to stay in a regular mini suite.

 

Balcony room

 

This is actually pretty much the same as a mini suite but it doesn’t have a bath. It has a walk in pod like shower, dressing, washing cubicle which is big enough although you would find it a hassle if 2 of you used it at the time. If you were on a budget this Balcony suite is definitely a good deal and is really not much different than the mini suite. Clearly in the mini suite you get a bath so if a bath is important to you then you won’t want this but it isn’t to us so might be an option on future cruises

 

Overall a great cruise on a fabulous ship. Nothing really upset me or bothered me and as we spent a lot of time in our suite with our family it was very important for us to have a large deck and lounge hence our upgrade. If you are going with your family that would be my recommendation is one of you gets a big suite and the others a regular balcony room or mini suite. That way you all have access to a huge space to watch the world go by.

[njhorseman]

You said: "I was pretty sure on cruise critic it said mini suites were considered vip but our concierge said definitely not there are over 60 of them"

 

Believe me, you are mistaken. This question is answered on this board nearly every day...and we are always advising cruisers that mini suites do not have suite privileges!

 

Sounds like you had a good cruise overall.

[ajohnstu]

You said: "I was pretty sure on cruise critic it said mini suites were considered vip but our concierge said definitely not there are over 60 of them"

 

Believe me, you are mistaken. This question is answered on this board nearly every day...and we are always advising cruisers that mini suites do not have suite privileges!

 

Sounds like you had a good cruise overall.

 

Indeed. When I say VIP for mini suites I just meant for Breakfast in IL Adagios, but it's a definite no.

[big green]

The observation lounge is a public place for public gatherings such as a latitudes party--which may have up to 300 people. It is not just a lounge for your family. Also if you would have read your freestyle daily it would have had the schedule for the different events in the observation lounge so you could plan.

 

Big Green

[LoisGriffin1]

Great review. I was on the ship and pretty much agree with everything.

 

Sitting outside at breakfast was something we learnt pretty quickly too. It was way too much hassle in the buffet fighting the crowds. One person tried to run through me in a rush for a table. She ended up with my drink all over her.

 

The 20th (final sea day) was wonderful for whale watching. We spent the day on our balcony and saw countless whales.

[ajohnstu]

The observation lounge is a public place for public gatherings such as a latitudes party--which may have up to 300 people. It is not just a lounge for your family. Also if you would have read your freestyle daily it would have had the schedule for the different events in the observation lounge so you could plan.

 

Big Green

 

Yes it is a PUBLIC place, and I am the public and have paid to be on the cruise and have the right to access public spaces like this observation lounge. I have no issue with the Latitudes party really it was the other 5 hours that it was out of action on that day alone.

 

Either way it would have been sensible to allow those already there to stay. There really aren't many places for a group of 7 to sit after all.

[big green]

Yes it is a PUBLIC place, and I am the public and have paid to be on the cruise and have the right to access public spaces like this observation lounge. I have no issue with the Latitudes party really it was the other 5 hours that it was out of action on that day alone.

 

Either way it would have been sensible to allow those already there to stay. There really aren't many places for a group of 7 to sit after all.

 

I have sailed on the Sun twice on long cruises 10 day and 19 day--there are plenty of places for seven people to sit besides being in the observation lounge--knowing the Sun as I do I find this criticism without merit. Granted the view is great from the observation lounge-- I have sat in there when bingo was going--and other functions where no told our party to leave--- latitudes is private and sometimes they have two gatherings back to back depending on the amount of latitude members on board. Reading your freestyle would have gave you the times this lounge would be prive.

 

Big Green