Short review of our 11 day adventure on the Sun

[put me on a ship]

This was our first NCL cruise....we are platinum (for what it's worth!:rolleyes:) on Carnival, and sailed once with Princess.

 

We sailed December 11...we got off to a bad start when we tried to park at Premier Parking in Miami. We had reserved, and prepaid, for our spot about 2 months before our cruise. We got there around 11 am, and there was a line of cars waiting to be let in. We talked to the attendant, and he told us to come back in an hour, and we would have a spot. My husband decided to drop me off at the ship, with our luggage, and when he went back to Premier, was told no spots were available, and was given a number to call for our refund. We've called several...no, make that many, times now, and we are STILL waiting for our refund! While waiting for DH to return, I spoke with several other passengers that had the same problem with Premier....moral of this story....don't use Premier!!! DH ended up parking at safecruiseparking dot com, for less than what we paid Premier (no problems with them when we returned!).

 

We finally got to board about an hour and a half later than we planned, but it was all good!! We are now officially on vacation! Loved the welcome aboard red carpet, balloons, crew lined up....SO different than Carnival. We explored the ship (LOVE IT!), got into our balcony room, (REALLY loved it....we had the last balcony on the side, extra long balcony.....SWEET!!!!), met up with some of the CCer's, unpacked, had dinner, and went to the welcome aboard show.

 

The food in the MDR's for the most part was pretty good....but some of the choices were hit or miss. We did eat at 4 of the specialty restaurants....all except Teppenyaki....all were fabulous!!!!! My favorite was Moderno, DH's favorite was the Italian one.

 

We went to most of the shows, and were pleasantly surprised. Carnival's entertainment has been lacking, and we stopped going to the shows. NCL Sunhas some GREAT shows....I'm glad we decided to try them!! I think our favorites were an acrobatic couple and a pianist. We also spent quite a bit of time in the Observation Lounge, during sea days, and in the evening, when Brilliant Band was performing. We really enjoyed listening to this band....some nights they played in the Atrium, so we hung out there too.

 

We had a fantastic meet and greet on our first sea day...lots of fun...had a gift exchange, and on the second sea day, we had a slot pull. We had talked about meeting up the last sea day, but nothing was ever finalized, so one of the couples spread the word to meet at Topsiders the last day. I volunteered to talk to Guest Services about having it put in the dailies....for some reason, they didn't seem to want to do that, but offered to send a letter to the cabins that had signed in for the official m&g. Hanno, from Guest Services, even came to Topsiders that day, to make sure all was well, and we had enough space.

 

Our ports were Cartagena, Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas....great ports!! We did the carriage ride through old Cartagena (enjoyed a lot), DePalm Island in Aruba (won't do again....tour operators didn't handle it well), Hato Caves in Curacao (loved it!), Mirabella Catamaran in St Maarten (snorkeling not good, cat was great, as was the water!), then went to Maho Beach to watch the planes (INCREDIBLE!!), and went to St John while docked in St Thomas (Beautiful island, great snorkeling).

 

To sum it up, we LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, NCL! They do a lot of little things that Carnival doesn't....like the dock party in St. Thomas, the drinks, snacks, cool towels, sitting area when returning to the ship, plus other things. We are already planning our next NCL cruise, just need to decide if we want Pearl, Epic or Getaway for next December!!:):)

[david_sobe]

Welcome home. Thanks for the review! So glad you had a great time.

[roger001]

We did a 10 day on the Sun recently. If you ever do the Sun again, try one of their mini suites. Great. And the bathroom/dressing area super great. If you're not ready for a mega ship yet, and liked the Sun, try the Pearl. She's equally great and just a small step up in size from the Sun. Otherwise, I think I'd wait for some reviews soon to come on the Getaway. Glad you had a good cruise. We like the way NCL does things also.

[put me on a ship]

We did a 10 day on the Sun recently. If you ever do the Sun again, try one of their mini suites. Great. And the bathroom/dressing area super great. If you're not ready for a mega ship yet, and liked the Sun, try the Pearl. She's equally great and just a small step up in size from the Sun. Otherwise, I think I'd wait for some reviews soon to come on the Getaway. Glad you had a good cruise. We like the way NCL does things also.

 

We've been on Carnival's megaships...Dream 3 times, Breeze once (going on her again in April). The size of the ship really doesn't matter to us, we like them all!

[3DBeach]

Nice review. Thanks for sharing. Would you be willing to tell us a little more about the DePalm Island excursion?

[newmexicoNita]

This was our first NCL cruise....we are platinum (for what it's worth!:rolleyes:) on Carnival, and sailed once with Princess.

 

We sailed December 11...we got off to a bad start when we tried to park at Premier Parking in Miami. We had reserved, and prepaid, for our spot about 2 months before our cruise. We got there around 11 am, and there was a line of cars waiting to be let in. We talked to the attendant, and he told us to come back in an hour, and we would have a spot. My husband decided to drop me off at the ship, with our luggage, and when he went back to Premier, was told no spots were available, and was given a number to call for our refund. We've called several...no, make that many, times now, and we are STILL waiting for our refund! While waiting for DH to return, I spoke with several other passengers that had the same problem with Premier....moral of this story....don't use Premier!!! DH ended up parking at safecruiseparking dot com, for less than what we paid Premier (no problems with them when we returned!).

 

We finally got to board about an hour and a half later than we planned, but it was all good!! We are now officially on vacation! Loved the welcome aboard red carpet, balloons, crew lined up....SO different than Carnival. We explored the ship (LOVE IT!), got into our balcony room, (REALLY loved it....we had the last balcony on the side, extra long balcony.....SWEET!!!!), met up with some of the CCer's, unpacked, had dinner, and went to the welcome aboard show.

 

The food in the MDR's for the most part was pretty good....but some of the choices were hit or miss. We did eat at 4 of the specialty restaurants....all except Teppenyaki....all were fabulous!!!!! My favorite was Moderno, DH's favorite was the Italian one.

 

We went to most of the shows, and were pleasantly surprised. Carnival's entertainment has been lacking, and we stopped going to the shows. NCL Sunhas some GREAT shows....I'm glad we decided to try them!! I think our favorites were an acrobatic couple and a pianist. We also spent quite a bit of time in the Observation Lounge, during sea days, and in the evening, when Brilliant Band was performing. We really enjoyed listening to this band....some nights they played in the Atrium, so we hung out there too.

 

We had a fantastic meet and greet on our first sea day...lots of fun...had a gift exchange, and on the second sea day, we had a slot pull. We had talked about meeting up the last sea day, but nothing was ever finalized, so one of the couples spread the word to meet at Topsiders the last day. I volunteered to talk to Guest Services about having it put in the dailies....for some reason, they didn't seem to want to do that, but offered to send a letter to the cabins that had signed in for the official m&g. Hanno, from Guest Services, even came to Topsiders that day, to make sure all was well, and we had enough space.

 

Our ports were Cartagena, Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas....great ports!! We did the carriage ride through old Cartagena (enjoyed a lot), DePalm Island in Aruba (won't do again....tour operators didn't handle it well), Hato Caves in Curacao (loved it!), Mirabella Catamaran in St Maarten (snorkeling not good, cat was great, as was the water!), then went to Maho Beach to watch the planes (INCREDIBLE!!), and went to St John while docked in St Thomas (Beautiful island, great snorkeling).

 

To sum it up, we LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, NCL! They do a lot of little things that Carnival doesn't....like the dock party in St. Thomas, the drinks, snacks, cool towels, sitting area when returning to the ship, plus other things. We are already planning our next NCL cruise, just need to decide if we want Pearl, Epic or Getaway for next December!!:):)

 

After your raving about your cabin we tried to book one our Dawn cruise coming up in April. You might know, they are all sold out...We called our TA as soon as we got on land in St. Thomas, but we were too late. I guess the word is out. Next time we will grab one even sooner.

[put me on a ship]

Nice review. Thanks for sharing. Would you be willing to tell us a little more about the DePalm Island excursion?

 

Sure! The island itself isn't bad....there is a nice swimming area, but be warned, it is somewhat rocky, so water shoes are a must! The snorkeling was pretty good, lots of fish, not much coral though, and what there was, was dead coral. The water park area was pretty good, not huge, but certainly would keep children entertained for the day. The food left a lot to be desired....it was edible, though! Plenty of lounge chairs on the beach, some in the sun, and some in the shade.

 

What we didn't like, was the way the tour was handled. There was one boat to transport guests. When we got there, another bus from another ship had just loaded onto the boat. Instead of taking those guests over (it is a short ride), it waited until maybe half of our bus loaded, so half of our bus had to wait until the boat came back, plus the guests from the first bus had to wait longer than necessary. The tour operators didn't really inform us as to what was available on the island once we got there.

 

Overall, it just didn't impress us that much, for the price we paid.

[put me on a ship]

After your raving about your cabin we tried to book one our Dawn cruise coming up in April. You might know, they are all sold out...We called our TA as soon as we got on land in St. Thomas, but we were too late. I guess the word is out. Next time we will grab one even sooner.

 

It really was a great balcony....we had room for a lounge chair, two tables, and 3 regular chairs! Our room was a little smaller than other balcony rooms, but for the two of us, the balcony more than made up for it!!

 

We really enjoyed the carriage ride with you and Pat....maybe one day we will sail together again! And thank you for setting up the official meet and greet, and gift exchange.....we had a great time!!!

 

Kat