Norwegian Sun Review
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We had a wonderful time on The Sun. This was our third cruise having gone previously on a seven night cruise on the Norwegian Pearl and an eight night cruise on Navigator of the Sea (Royal Caribbean) before. This cruise was longer and was on a smaller ship than our previous cruises. We found that we loved the differences in both cases.
Regarding the length, 11 nights really allowed us time to fully relax and enjoy the cruise fully. We absolutely loved the itinerary. It was great to start our cruise with two full days at sea. These first two days gave us a chance get to know the ship and it’s crew. We had three ports of call followed by another sea day. This was followed by two more ports and the cruise ended with two more days at sea. We loved this schedule, it gave us a great mix of active and relaxation days, plus the different ports were different enough in flavor and culture that each one offered something different for us to explore. Prior to the cruise my wife was a bit concerned that 11 nights might be just a bit too long, now she thinks that the longer cruises fit us better than the shorter ones.
Regarding the smaller size of The Sun. The ship is small enough that we felt like we received individualized attention from the ship’s staff. The ship was not crowded and still provided most of the amenities we enjoy on the larger ships. In fact the only item I missed on The Sun was that it didn't have a cigar bar which both of the larger ships we have cruised on before offered. We did notice two bottle neck areas on the ships that traffic tended to back up. The first was following the evening shows the aft hallway on deck six from the Stardust Theatre leading forward toward Dazzles tended to back up, especially if people were stopping to look at the photos posted along the wall. We found a quick solution for this was to bypass the issue by using the outside walkway on deck six. This walk was always uncrowded and provided a great opportunity to enjoy the sea. The second bottle neck was in the buffet especially the area toward the aft area. This meant that during prime meal times there tended to be a backup to access the buffet. This wasn’t a real issue for us, we tend to eat at the sit down restaurants more than the buffet. We never had to wait in a line of more than one or two people at either of the main dining rooms or any of the other dining venues we chose.
Cabin Review
We had cabin 8270 which is a starboard side balcony cabin near the aft of the ship. Our cabin was a good size. The bathroom was small (as they always are on cruise ships, but not bad, I could even take a reasonable shower) The room had a king bed and a full size couch that would pull out to provide a second bed. The closet was reasonable and had plenty of hangers and several baskets along one wall which provided plenty of storage. There was also plenty of drawer space our standard small writing desk with chair. The cabin also had a coffee pot (which was nice), a small flat screen television and two fluffy bathrobes. The balcony was wonderful!!!!!!!! It was about four feet deep and ten feet wide and was supplied with two deck chairs and a small table. This cabin is positioned directly above the Stardust Theatre, we occasionally would hear a little bit of sound during show times, but even that was very faint. We found that the location of the cabin provided easy access to many of the key places we visited regularly. We could easily walk down one or two sets of stairs to quickly get to either the theatre or the Seven Seas dining room and the elevator also provided quick access to the places to eat on deck eleven and twelve. Our cabin steward Arvin was a real jewel. He kept our room spotlessly clean (even slipping in to freshen things up if we stepped out for just a few minutes). He greeted us by name every time he saw us and was always incredibly pleasant to speak with.