Live from the Sun in the Baltics

[PokerDave]

Part One – Pre-trip, Embarkation, Sea Day, and Copenhagen:

Well, as I have been looking for info on the Sun for a year now with the Sun being one of the least often reviewed ships from NCL, I promised to right up a detailed review and so I will.

 

Some information on us for perspective: DW and I are doing this cruise for our 25th wedding anniversary. This is our 6th cruise and second in a row on NCL. We have also been on Princess, RCL, Holland and Carnival. We’ve enjoyed all our cruises a great deal and aren’t the types to come back with complaints about the small stuff… If you just want cruise detail, skip to cruise day one.

 

Pre-trip:

 

We flew to NYC and spent one night prior to the flight to London. We spent our day there at the Museum of Modern Art. This was a disappointment to us. Apparently we aren’t very artsy. Yes, they have a tremendous amount of great art ( Picasso, Van Gough, etc etc ) but we quickly tired of looking at art and were sort of going through the motions. They have an interesting exhibit with live nude models in it and quite a bit of other “art” related to nudity. The artist who created the exhibit was actually on hand. She sits in a chair on one floor in a large roped off area with one other person (I think an audience member?) sitting 10 feet directly across from her. They appeared to be having a stare off. I thought it was an odd exhibit. When I read on the wall behind her that she does this (motionless) every day and will do so for the duration of her exhibit at MOMA which will be over 700 hours of her sitting there, it did nothing to make me think it was any less weird.

 

We had dinner at Craft as we are huge Tom Colicchio fans from watching Top Chef on Bravo. Craft won the James Beard award for best new restaurant in 2002. Tom Colicchio actually won the James Beard award for best chef for 2010 a few days before we left for our trip. We had the Chef’s tasting menu with wine pairings and it was most excellent. With a half bottle of wine prior to the meal as we were a bit early, the total with tip was just under $600. A personal best for us for spending on a meal by quite a margin, but what the heck, it’s our anniversary.

 

Our flight to London was supposed to leave at 11:30pm, but due to the ash was a couple of hours late getting in and we didn’t take off until 1:30am. As we also had to avoid the ash, we took off due north went over Canada, then Greenland, and finally north of Iceland before coming down due south to the UK. We got in 4 hours late, but were tickled pink to actually arrive as we’d been sweating missing the whole thing due to the ash for weeks…

 

London:

 

We rented a flat in London from VRBO.com ( vacation rentals by owner ). We have been renting houses for trips for several years now and have found them to be much bigger, with full kitchens, sometimes pools ( Orlando ), and usually for less than the cost of a hotel. Usually takes a 3-4 night minimum, but if you are going somewhere for several days, by all means consider renting a house. The place we found on VRBO actually has its own web site (www.toweroflondonapartment.com) and I would highly recommend it as a place to stay for a couple or a family with one or two small kids. We did 3 day London passes and included the travel option so we had our run of the subway (tubes) and buses. Between jet lag and getting in half a day later than we’d planned, we made very poor use of both passes. I think they could easily pay for themselves if you have 3 full days to tour, but we ended up with more like two half days, and spent the first one entirely at the Tower of London which is right across the street from our flat, so it was day 3 before we used any public transportation (we had booked a limo service (Viator for $47) from the airport to the flat just because of the logistics of hauling all the luggage). The Tower of London was full of good history, the crown Jewels are spectacular, and don’t miss getting a tour from one of the Beefeaters (yes, the guys in red from the Gin bottle). They are all retired military of 20+ years with exemplary ratings, actually live in the Tower complex, and at least our guy was an absolute hoot. We happened to be walking in as his tour was about to take off or we would likely have just marched on past where the sign was saying they did tours at all (they are included in the admission). Our last day there we did the British Museum and it is one of the largest and oldest in the world. The Rosetta stone is there, Mummies, basically the entire history of every culture on the planet. Would take days to really see and appreciate it all and we enjoyed it a lot.

 

That evening we went to see HAIR in the west end. I grew up listening to my parents album from the Broadway show in the 60’s so getting to finally see it live was quite a thrill for me. We spent the whole of this day travelling by the tube which was very easy and I would rate as cleaner, nicer, newer, safer than the NY subway.

 

Cruise day one:

 

We booked a National Express bus to Dover using a Fun Fare ( search for it on their web site ) for 5 pounds each. The bus leaves from Victoria Coach Station and it was very easy to get to the spot for the bus once our cab dropped us there. This worked really well and saved the astronomical amount NCL wanted for a transfer. The bus isn’t scheduled to stop at the cruise terminal in Dover. Technically you should have to take a short cab ride from the bus stop. In our case (we were on the 9:30 bus arriving Dover at noon) by the time we got to Dover there were around 18 people left on the bus and we were ALL there for the cruise so we talked the driver into taking us straight to the cruise terminal. I’ll stress several folks had asked him if he would stop at the cruise terminal and he had firmly said no. Having read that they do regularly drop folks at the cruise terminal I went up to the front of the bus just short of arriving at Dover (I hadn’t asked him yet) when I knew that the vast majority of us left were cruise passengers and he then agreed to. I would suggest a strategy of getting your fellow roll call folks to all schedule the same bus and maybe this would work for you as well. He certainly made a killing in tips from all of us…

 

Embarkation:

 

We are staying in an AC suite (9076) on the aft of the Sun, so other than lining up to go through security, we went to our expedited check in area and were quickly escorted by our butler Fernando to the Il Adagio restaurant as our room was not yet ready. As suite guests on the Sun you get breakfast/lunch in Il Adagio since the Sun does not have a Cagney’s. Lunch was excellent and by the time we were done our room was ready.

 

Room:

 

I had done a ton of research on our room prior to the trip so I already knew it like the back of my hand. I will report that the suites still have not been updated on the Sun. Tube TV, Mr Coffee type Coffee pot instead of Lavazza, and the room shows its age a bit. But for me, if a regular room rates a 50 and a brand new upgraded suite would be a 100, I’d still say I’m a 95 on this suite. And I wouldn’t trade it for the Owners suite on the Sun. Great layout, huge aft balcony, big bathtub with jets and separate shower. In short, perfect. The bedroom is separate from the rest of the suite which works really well. DW is napping at the moment and I am in the living room with the doors between the two closed. You have access to the bathroom both from the living room and the bedroom from doors on either end of the bathroom, so I can be in here, or use the bathroom and not disturb her in the bedroom. If PE is reading this right now he has been nodding his head in agreement. As I am not the first to attest, the AC’s on the sun are the bomb.

 

Slight digression – Why am I hooked on NCL at the moment. 3 primary reasons:

 

First is the Casinos at Sea (CAS) program. I got a ~20% discount on the fare of this cruise by booking through CAS. In order to do this, they have to know your casino play from a previous trip (or in my case on my first NCL cruise, I sent them a photo of many of my Casino affiliations and begged, and they let me have the discount. A case of it never hurts to ask). The 20% discount is great, but the other big perk is free drinks in the casino, and since I drink like a fish when I cruise, this saves a ton as well.

 

Second reason is Freestyle. I want to eat when I want and not with anyone that I don’t plan to because I want to. I have a nice tux, and while I took it on the last cruise on the Spirit ( we had lots of family along ) I happily left it home this time (I have enough penguin pictures, and besides I am younger and thinner in those anyway…).

 

The third reason is the suite life on NCL. With my discount and planning way ahead, I literally have this suite for what you would have had to pay for an outside room for the last 6 months. Deals like this probably aren’t the norm, but what IS the norm is that the difference in price between an NCL suite and a balcony on the other mass lines isn’t all that much. But the suite perks are awesome. Breakfast and Lunch in a specialty restaurant free every day means better food, better service and no crowds. Having a butler means being able to have a meal from any restaurant on board brought to your cabin. The concierge gets you priority restaurant reservations, reserved seating for shows, and priority tendering. Money well spent in my opinion.

 

Night one on ship:

 

Some gambling and cocktails before dinner. An excellent meal in Le Bistro (the escargot were to die for). Some more gambling. A late night snack of wings and fish and chips from the sports bar (yes, there is no blue lagoon on the Sun, but these were exactly as I remember them from the Blue Lagoon on the Spirit and the rest of the menu was similar). The casino payouts are horrible on all the machines. You really shouldn’t play them. I should really listen to myself, too. Lost $$$ on the slots/video poker, and won $$$ at craps and blackjack…

 

First Sea Day:

 

DW had the hot stone massage which she described as heavenly, and which ran long so she was late to our meet-n-greet with the name tags and forgot our gifts for the gift exchange. So much for being relaxed after the massage… :rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

Lunch in Il Adagio, I played in the Hold’em poker tournament ( only made it about halfway ), Dinner at Teppanyaki (what you expect from Teppanyaki), some more gambling, I stuck my head into the show which had a guy playing the Marimba with a band behind him. Caught enough of it to hear him explain that in a song of under 2 minutes he hits the Marimba over 1,200 times. He seemed good and the audience clapped nicely, but I didn’t hang around long. Another guy and I jumped onto the empty craps table and proceeded to have a really cold run and each had dropped a few hundred. Then he rolls the dice for what seemed like an hour, we not only get it all back but get up several hundred each and have the table ringed with onlookers. Nothing in the casino any more fun than a hot craps table… That ended the night on a positive note…

 

Day 3 – Copenhagen:

 

We over-slept a bit and missed breakfast. I am usually over-prepared for our itineraries when we cruise, but for Copenhagen ( and the other ports on this cruise except St Pete and Germany ) we had nothing specific planned. We jumped off of the ship at 10:30 and there was a Hop-On Hop-Off (HOHO) bus there waiting and we paid $30 each for HOHO tickets for the day. This worked out very well for the day and I would recommend doing the HOHO. We spent an hour or so at the Rosenborg Palace, had lunch next to the Nyhavn canal, did the rest of the HOHO tour and ended up back at the ship at 4. Very easy, enjoyable day. Lunch was around $80 and wasn’t anything out of the ordinary price-wise. From looking at most of the restaurants along Nyhavn (there are like 20 in a row side by side with indoor and outdoor seating) even if you get a couple of burgers and a beer it will likely be $60 for 2 people. We had the lunch plate special which was a creamy chicken salad with bacon, roast beef with remoulade and horse radish, a fried fish filet, a salad, and some really good bread. It was very good and a nice romantic spot. We took no Danish money ( Kronar ) with us. The guy took $60 US for the HOHO tickets right outside the ship and made change for a $100 bill. Tickets to the Rosenborg on the Amex, Lunch on the Amex. As I’m writing this and looking out the back, we sailed away about 30 minutes ago. Dinner tonight in Il Adagio. More to come…

[guyver]

Keep it coming Dave!! Great read so far. I appreciate that you are in an AC suite and like it. We will be in one this January.

 

Keep the hot dice a rollin!!

[Clay Clayton]

So envious of you....DDP and I were next door to your suite in April going round the horn. Hopefully who ever is in "our" room are as nice as we were! Have a great cruise, can't wait to hear more....the baltics is likely to be our next long cruise.

[sandm]

Thank you for this review. We are in an owners suite in June. We are new to NCL (other than Hawaii) and enjoy reading the details. I appreciate the detailed review of your port stops. We have 1/2 day ship excursions for many ports but also have free time and it is fun to learn of things to do right off the ship when available. Good luck in the Casino. My husband and father love to drop some cash there.

[STARFISH*4]

very INTERESTED in your review of the SUN itself as i will be on her in december...cant wait...GOOD TO HEAR about the food at the sports bar like Blue Lagoon--OUR FAV!!!

looking forward to hearing MORE.....is she looking a bit "worn"....she was suppose to have dry-dock in october so i thought i would get a "spiffed" up SUN for dec, but no dry-dock so all you pre-SUN cruisers have to keep her in GOOD SHAPE for me:D

[lanceholt]

Thanks, we are leaving on the Sun May 23 and have an AC as well, so will be reading the rest of our posts. We sailed the Sun to the Caribbean 2 years ago, great ship, great service. We were on the Jade for Western Med last summer, loved it, but liked the size of the Sun better. Enjoy your trip!

[LoisGriffin1]

Enjoying your report. We are cruising on the Sun next year from Copenhagen so looking forward to reading the port reviews.

[Sauer-kraut]

PokerDave, keep the reviews coming! Its so nice to finally hear a bit more about the SUN.

[Diana68]

Thank you Poker Dave for your review!! We will be boarding as you disembark. We have never been on the Sun, or to any of these ports, so we are loving all of the information that you are giving. :D

[southtexaspop]

Thanks PokerDave for the great review. Just the kind of info I was looking for. DW and I departing on the Sun on 16 June, volcano ash willing. Please keep the writeups coming. Thanks again. Joe

[DMH15]

So glad AC 9076 is as perfect for you and 'Twas for me!

 

Who are your concierge and butler? And Cruise Director? I'm a trivia geek, but also love casino. I came in 2nd in BJ tournament. It came down to the final hand and dealer had a BJ! Ouch.

[PokerDave]

Day 4 – Warnemunde

 

We did not go the common route and book some form of trip to Berlin. It’s 3 hours each way and it just seemed like too much effort to see Berlin for 5 hours. If I thought it was my only chance ever to see it I might have, but our goal is to make it back some time when we can do it justice. Instead we took a tour of Warnemunde and Schwerin with Dave of “Friends of Dave tours” called Magical Mecklinburg. We had a fabulous time. There were 10 of us from our ship that booked it and we all met him as soon as the ship docked. We didn’t have to be back to the ship until 9:30 so we had lots of time to tour. Our tour with Dave lasted about 11 hours. First we did a walking tour of Warnemunde that took around 90 minutes. Warnemunde is a pretty port town with a rich history that is mainly a travel destination town for Germans now. We got a great look at the town and a full dose of its background and history. The weather was overcast and quite cool and windy. No rain, but not an ideal touring day. Dave uses headsets that everyone wears and he has one that broadcasts so you can hear him fine when you wander a bit and he doesn’t have to shout the whole time. After seeing Warnemunde we stopped in a nice coffee shop and had coffee and cakes which was all very good.

 

Next we took the train to Rostock and switched to a train to Schwerin. It took an hour and 20 minutes to get to Schwerin. The trains in Germany are electric and comfortable. We grabbed a beer for the ride and Dave walked us through some more info and history on the way.

 

The trip to Schwerin was primarily to see the castle there. Had I just taken the train there on my own, that is likely all we would have done there. Stroll through the town and do a tour of the castle. Dave walked us through several parts of the town we’d never have gone, put it all in cultural and historical perspective and really gave you a “feel” for the place. Keep in mind Schwerin and Warnemunde have been sacked and changed hands in who controlled them many, many times. Slavs, Danes, French, different Dukes, ****s and Communists have each had turns ruling over the peoples of these towns and it is reflected in the architecture and constructions of the towns. Schwerin has some buildings that date back as far as the 1200’s, the Castle to the 1500’s and we saw some houses that date back to the late 1600’s. The castle was magnificent in and out and well worth the trip to Schwerin just on its own. We had lunch and beer at a nice German restaurant ( DW and I had Schnitzel and another pork dish ) and I think all enjoyed the meal.

 

Dave was a fabulous guide. He’s an American who’s lived in Germany over 10 years now, has been on 76 cruises, and is a wealth of information not only on the tour we took, but cruising in general and on the way back on the train gave us the lowdown on the rest of our ports. Dave loves the area and clearly enjoys what he is doing and he does it really well. He was a hoot, and if we ever make it back to Warnemunde on another cruise, I will definitely take one of his other tours. The tour wasn’t cheap at 130 euros per person but I was happy with what I got for the money. This fee covered all of our train rides, coffee, cake, lunch and entry into the castle – all of which was organized and expedited by Dave. The tour did involve approximately 7 miles of walking by the time we were done, but it was nicely spaced out with breaks between. Wear comfortable shoes and plan to do some walking.

 

Since I'm not using up minutes uploading pics, here is a link to Dave's pictures from Warnemunde and Schwerin.

 

 

http://picasaweb.google.de/FriendsofDaveTours

 

Dinner:

 

We were tired and just had room service. Pepperoni pizza (blah), BLT (good), and Cheeseburger (dried out).

 

Second Sea Day:

 

Lunch in Il Adagio. I had a steak and cagneys fries. Both excellent. Then went and played in the Poker tournament and ended up splitting the pot with a few others and we each made a couple hundred. Dinner tonight will be in Le Bistro again and we are going to go see the Cirque Pan show. More to come…

[lanceholt]

Keep those reports coming Dave, really enjoying them!

[Doughboy139]

pokerdave,

 

Thanks for the reports....I'll be on the Sun for the 8/3 cruise staying in mini-suite 1210.......This is my first cruise ever and is a birthday present for my 79 year old mother, so I'll be interested in all the ports you'll be visiting....I've been on the web-cam just to see what the ports look like as the ship approaches.......I know that my mom is getting more excited as the time gets near and now will get more excited as she reads your posts.....Thanks

[PokerDave]

Had dinner in Le Bistro again tonight. French Onion and Mushroom soup, Escargot and Scallops appetizers, and the Coute de Beauf Per Deaux(sp?). The entre was a 32 oz ribeye carved tableside with bernaise and bourdelaise. All outstanding...

[Giantfan13]

Dave

 

Nice reports. We did this cruise last year and reading your reviews brings back many, many great memories.

 

You should try and post your reviews on the Baltics boards also. Many people will apreciate it there also.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

 

Cheers

 

Len

[Ms belp]

I liked the fact that you decided to do something "closer to home". When we did excursions that took forever to get there we were disappointed and extremely tired by the time we got back to the ship. Something closer would have been much more enjoyable.

[Cubuff1]

We were in your suite in November in South America and loved it. Who are the concierge and butler this time around? We will be back on the Sun in 8277 in August as 9076 was taken.

[newfarmers]

Dave, really appreciate your posts as we are sailing on August 27.

Hoping you'll surprise me and tell us the ship doesn't end up at Nynashamn and instead sails right into Stockholm. Fat chance, I know! At least you'll get priority tender tickets unlike those of us in the bilges:)

keep 'em coming

cheers

pete

[PokerDave]

The Cirque Pan show wasn’t bad, but not our kind of thing (mostly dancing/jumping/some mild cirque like acrobatics/little voice). Having been to most of the shows in Vegas, and several on Broadway, we are a tough crowd for a ship show… We have higher hopes for the Epics entertainment lineup. We left after about 20 minutes. There is a section kept in the balcony in the left front with a great view of the stage that is for suite guests only. That is nice and will draw us into more shows spur of the moment.

 

Tallin, Estonia:

 

Managed to get up early enough to have breakfast in Il Adagio. I had a filet and eggs and DW had the French toast and both were very good.

 

The port for Tallin is close enough that you can walk to town and we did. We had it suggested to us to book the HOHO bus and only use it to get to the top of the town (hill), but we decided to just keep on walking. The weather today is beautiful and sunny, and we didn’t even take jackets off the boat. If anything it got a bit hot during the longer walking parts. I had seen the following on a CC post for a walking tour of Tallin and had printed it off ( 17 pages with pictures ) and we used that.

 

http://www.*****.com/tallinnwalk.html

 

In all I would recommend using it. I went many places I would not have had I just winged it. There were a few times it wasn’t hugely clear how to follow the map, but we muddled through and essentially got the whole tour done including lunch and a little shopping by around 3. We started a little before 10. I would say we ended up walking less than we did in Warnemunde/Schwerin but there was a hill to climb in Tallin. Trying to burn off all the food we are eating is futile, but every little bit helps. Tallin is an old walled city and the sights are the walls and towers, and some churches and other buildings in the city. Don’t miss the museum/sights/coffee shop inside the Kiek in de Kok (peek in the kitchen) tower. For lunch we ate at Old Hanse which is a really old restaurant. It has no electricity and the waiters are all garbed from medieval times. It has a large outside section and we ate there. I had a honey beer (good), DW had a cinnamon beer (also good), we each had the mushroom soup (excellent) and split a Neptune’s platter. The platter had a couple kinds of smoked salmon (good), a smoked herring (ok), a sardine (I don’t like them), some salmon eggs, some soft cheese and 2 kinds of bread. I wouldn’t order this one again, but we aren’t huge fans of the fishier fishes like herring and sardines, and had in fact thought this was a different platter when we ordered it. But the experience of eating there was cool and I would recommend it as a place to eat lunch. My walking tour recommended it, and so had Dave when were in Warnemunde. They also take $$, Euros, Estonian Kroner’s and credit cards. Apparently the thing to buy in Tallin is Amber. I literally walked by over 10 Amber specific shops and the walking tour I had said that you will probably get a better price on it here than anywhere else. But there is real amber and fake amber, and different colors and styles, and I hate buying stuff that I have no clue what it is really worth so we didn’t end up with any. If you want some Amber, do a little research on what you want and prices, and you will likely find it here and be more prepared to buy than I was.

 

Dinner tonight in East meets West and a Flutist for the Show.

[biker@sea]

Its great to get info on the Sun. Thanks so much for your time and effort. We book the cabin next to you 15 months ago with 6 more months till cruise time. One heck of a long wait with very little ship info.

Have fun.

Biker

[Skallywag]

Nice to read your report - we sail in 9276 on the 4th June and really good to hear about the rooms.

Brenda

[nickle0806]

Thanks for your great comentary! I am looking forward to hearing more. We are booked with Dave in Warmunde as well and looking forward to meeting him.:)

[McDebbie]

I wonder who your concierge is also, we had heard Virginia from the Sky was supposed to go there after her wedding but she was a little iffy we we saw her on the Sky in January.

 

Great review so far, lots of ideas to write down.

[Diana68]

I wonder who your concierge is also, we had heard Virginia from the Sky was supposed to go there after her wedding but she was a little iffy we we saw her on the Sky in January.

 

Great review so far, lots of ideas to write down.

Oh Dave, please answer this soon! :D

 

 

If you are talking about Miss Maria Virginia from the Philippines, we absolutely LOVE her. This would make me even more excited for our cruise next week...if that's possible.

 

Dave, if she is your concierge, could you let her know that Diana and Doug(minus the kids) from the Dream, Majesty, and Jewel sailings will be on-board next week, and we can't wait to go out to dinner with her again. Thank You!