Review of NCL Sun 2/11-2/18 - Western Caribbean

[valen]

Hi all,

 

I'll try to provide a balanced review of our trip on the Sun.

 

DW (tennisgirl27) and I flew from Toronto to Miami on 2/10 (we just missed some pretty nasty weather by flying out a day early. We booked the Hyatt in Downtown Miami on Priceline and took a cab to the Port on Saturday morning.

 

Embarkation was a reasonably smooth process. We arrived at the pier around 11am and waited in a seated line for about 40mins before they let us on.

 

This is my first cruise, although DW has been on 2 RCCL cruises so she'll view things with a bit more critical eye than I will.

 

I liked the ship itself, nothing overly fancy, but reasonably elegant and well laid out consider what you had to accomodate in the space you had (different bars and restaurants can't all just be lined up in a row).

 

The room itself was spacious with plenty of storage for the 2 of us. We ordered a bar setup ($43 for a 40oz Bacardi Gold) and the Romance Package (bottle of Champagne, Dinner at a specialty restaurant with a bottle of wine, chocolate covered strawberries, hors d'oevres. I'd highly recommend getting the romance package, it's more than worth it. They did send us a non-alcoholic champagne, though, so I had to call down to change that (unusual that they would deliver a bar setup and then put non-alcholic champagne right beside it...) Also, the strawberries never arrived, so we called about that as well and they sent them up for the next day as we requested.

 

Weather - Obviously this has nothing to do with NCL, but wow, did we ever get a spell of bad weather for the caribbean in February. The first sea night / day the seas were 12-18 feet. DW wasn't able to handle it that well. I had no problem with sickness but I didn't sleep at all the first night. Like trying to sleep on a roller coaster. I pity the people on deck 4 that were sleeping closer to the stabalizers that were pounding around. We had Sunshine on Saturday, then mostly cloudy weather until Friday, when it was about 60% sunshine. Saturday when we got back was gorgeous :(

 

Casino - I enjoy Poker and Blackjack, so I got to play a bit of both. Most blackjack is available with 5 dollar minimums. They have a wide variety of other table games including craps, and a reasonably large amount of slot machines. I played 2 of the texas holdem tourmanents, finishing 6th and 3rd (took $100 for 3rd). $60 buy ins. Also played 2 sessions of 3-6 limit holdem, about 2 hours each. Won $100, then lost $30. Blackjack I won $100 the first night, then lost $100 the second night. Overall I quite liked the casino.

 

Excursions - We did the Dolphin swim / Beach Brea, at Uvero Beach in Costa Maya. If you or your wife / gf / kids like dolphins do this. Lots of fun. Free drinks, and flexible times for going back to the ship. We booked this one throught NCL.

We did the Quirigua Ruins / River Dulce trip in Guatemala. Tour was run by Gray Line, so we figured it would be decent. Our guides were very personable and you could tell they really wanted people to keep coming back to Guatemala. The port itself is an industrial port. We drove about 1 1/2 hours to the ruins, which were in the middle of a banana plantation. Ruins were quite cool. The river boat trip back was 3 hours, and I thought was waaay too long. There was about a 45 minute period where it was more of a river and you got to see some traditional villages, mayan residences, and wildlife, but the rest of the ride was wide open with nothing of note. The boat was very safe. Between the ruins and the boat ride was lunch as the Banana Palm resort. Food there was very good.

We booked cave tubing in belize with Major Tom at w w w . b e l i z e c a v e t u b i n g . n e t . 2 guides for 8 people, so very safe and well done, with lots of personal attention. Tom carried 2 children on his back across the river. He is the orignial Cave Tuber. I highly recommend this. We noticed some of the tours booked through the ships had 2 guides for a giant school bus full of people. Tom had to rescue one lady who was trapped by the rocks and seperated from the rest of the cruise group.

We pretty much just shopped when it came to Cozumel. It rained a good portion of the day, so that was proabably a good choice. DW says she can really tell how much devestation the Island went through since she was there last a few years ago. They are working hard to get things back to normal.

 

Food- The thing that was a bit dissapointing was the food. There were certainly good spots. Le Bistro was awesome. Formal night in the Main Dining room had Lobster (we also split the Chateaubriand). Il Adagio was very good as well. East meets West was incredible steak, although I wanted the Surf and Turf on Friday and they had run out of Lobster(?!). The main didng halls, Four Seasons and Seven Seas, had generally pretty good meals, though sometimes the food wasn't that hot when it came out. I really like the Freestyle dining though. I don't think I'd be a big fan of having to eat at the same time each nite.

 

Breakfast at the Buffet was quite blah. No more than you'd expect from your typical Golden Griddle. Eggs were always scrambled and always kinda like egg soup. No fresh fruit offered at breakfast until the last day (the first day was fruit cocktail from a tub like at costco).

Lunch at the Buffets were equally as dissapointing. You're pretty much stuck with Burgers and Hotdogs, maybe the occasional chicken here or there, but neither breakfast or lunch buffets seemed like I was getting anything special.

 

I assume because of the lower prices for cruising NCL they are cutting corners a bit.

 

Again, bear in mind this is my first cruise (and certainly my first review) so I'm trying to be fair. I think dw was more dissappointed with the food than I was, but I can't give it a pass, either.

 

Overall, I did have an enjoyable experience. The staff were usually very attentive and quite nice. The Sun is a nice midsize ship, the evening dining was good (mostly in the $ restaurants) and the ports of call were interesting (didn't figure we'd ever get to Belize or Guatemala again, so this was a good opportunity.) Would I cruise again? Yes. Would it be with NCL? Probably not unless something particular convinced me. May try something higher end like RCCL.

 

Comments and Questions are welcome.

 

valen

[haras]

For your review of the Sun. BF and I will be on her on March 4th, so it's nice to hear a review before we board her. We were also on the Sun last August on a cruise to Alaska. The specialty restaurants are definitely good. I agree that the regular restaurants (seven seas and four seasons) are adequate at best. However, I do like the choice of upgrading to the specialty restaurants when I feel like it and making do in the regular dining at other times. Did you ever get the chance to eat in the dining rooms for lunch or even breakfast? The food as well as the service is much better than the buffet.

 

I'm going to order that bar set up since it sounds like such a great deal. Thanks again for your review!

[valen]

For your review of the Sun. BF and I will be on her on March 4th, so it's nice to hear a review before we board her. We were also on the Sun last August on a cruise to Alaska. The specialty restaurants are definitely good. I agree that the regular restaurants (seven seas and four seasons) are adequate at best. However, I do like the choice of upgrading to the specialty restaurants when I feel like it and making do in the regular dining at other times. Did you ever get the chance to eat in the dining rooms for lunch or even breakfast? The food as well as the service is much better than the buffet.

 

I'm going to order that bar set up since it sounds like such a great deal. Thanks again for your review!

 

We didn't really get a chance to eat lunch much on board. Bear in mind 4 of the 6 days we were on excursions. Because of the limited sunlight on our trip we did try to eat on the back deck (the outdoor garden buffet) the first and last days of the trip. With breakfast, for the most part we wanted to get out quickly for excursions so couldn't spend that much time at a sit down breakfast. The quality of breakfasts may be much better in the dining rooms, you're probably correct. I'm sure you'll have fun. Just make sure if you want Lobster in East meets West, book the reservation for earlier in the week.

[riz]

Hi Valen

 

We are also cruising on the Sun first week of April. We are planning pre and post holiday stays right now and would like to stay downtown the night before. I would like to use PriceLine and was wondering if you could me the "way around" using it since you are also from Canada.

 

Thanks in advance and also thank for the great review.

[AnnH]

I was wondering about the dolphin encounter at Costa Maya.

 

How far away is the dolphin area from the pier? What length of bus ride did you have to take? (I see the encounter is listed as a 5 hour shore excursion and it has me wondering)

 

As well - were the dolphins in a small area? Did they seem to be well cared for? My daughter loves dolphins but doesn't want to see them in small "cement" cages because it would make her sad. (her words!)

 

Did you happen to notice the Crocodile Park at Costa Maya? We thought we'd like to check that out on our own as it seems to be right at the pier.

 

Thanks for any information you can provide!