Norwegian Sun Review
Rating by category
Additional details
I traveled with my husband and two children ages 23 and 17. This was our 6th NCL Cruise. We've not taken the same ship twice so I have 5 others for comparison. The Sun is small. Not just compared to the new mega ships, but to the entire NCL fleet. She is also on the older side. The first thing I noticed is the lack of a main atrium area. Rather than open space with open decks above and elaborate open air stair case flanking the elevator bank you have a lack luster compact area directly in the center with the four glass elevators, two per side, separated by about 20 feet of space and a staircase tucked between them. The space is so tight that the only way to take a full photo of the staircase is from the side. The elevators themselves are tiny as well. The reception and shore excursion desks are very close by and the Java cafe is tucked into a corner on the opposite side atrium. As a photography buff, I found many of the public areas quite boring and lacking in artistic appeal.
In the pool area I was impressed with the size of the pools and cluster of 4 hot tubs. The Sun has only one level above the pool but has a tremendous amount of open space on the forward deck for sun bathing or reading. We never had a problem finding a deck chair at the pool which was an extremely pleasant surprise. This may have been due to the median age of the passengers being in the senior range and lack of teens on board, but whatever the reason, it was nice not to encounter large crowds poolside.
The Seven Seas Main Dining room, aft, looks almost identical to the Four Seasons, mid ship, Main Dining room. Nice, but not memorable. Dinners in both were wonderful, and absolutely delicious, but the nightly specials seemed to lack the wow factor. I was expecting elaborately prepared special dishes with interesting sauces or ingredients, instead the special one night was Lasagna and another it was Chicken Parm. Not that they were bad, I was just hoping for the regional specialty to be from the region in which we were sailing.
Cabin Review
Balcony
The BC Balcony states that it sleeps 4 and it does, COMFORTABLY! The room has a queen bed (2 singles pushed together) with the head of the bed against the wall. There is a large pull out couch against the same wall. The couch however does not pull out like the smaller ones in the cabins that sleep 3, this one pulls out more like a day or trundle bed so that the occupants of the pull out coach sleep perpendicular to the queen bed. This seems to make for more walking space around that bed to get to the balcony. There was plenty of closet space and drawers to accommodate the 4 of us...2 parents, a 23 and a 17 year old. The bathroom was small and the layout is not the one we are used to with the slide partitions on the shower and toilet with the sink in the middle. In this bath the sink is on one wall and a small round shower stall with a fabric curtain is on the wall across from the sink. the toilet is at an angle between them. I can see the shower being an issue for those over 250lbs. There is a flat screen TV and just 1 double outlet in the entire room so bring a power strip to charge your devices. The balcony has room for 2 chairs and a tiny table. The balcony door opens out rather than side and has a large metal hook to keep it open. The outer "wall" is like a wrought iron fence with a wooden rail atop rather than plexiglass. and the curtains are in need of some mending as the holes in the liner show through at sunrise. All in all I was quite satisfied with this cabin for a party of 4.