Norwegian Sun Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,168 reviews

Lower your expectations, and beware the power strip!

Review for Alaska Cruise on Norwegian Sun
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carrolldouglas
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: May 2015
Cabin: Mid-Ship Balcony

We just finished a 10-day AK cruise on NCL Sun & although we enjoyed ourselves, we found major flaws in the ship. Our cabin, 10226, was OK for space & storage but tired. Curtains were faded & torn in several places. Food in main dining rooms was barely OK, often disappointing. The organization of the Garden Cafe was a disaster. On our cruise on the Sun there seemed to be a large number of passengers from other cultures; & maybe all the pushing, shoving & crowding in the buffet was due to some passengers not being familiar with the concept of waiting your turn. (The day before we boarded the Sun, we debarked a repo cruise on NCL Pearl, where the buffet was much better organized for easy access & where the food selection was greater, much better & more appetizing.) We usually ate in either Garden Cafe or main dining room, 7 Seas, which we mostly found merely adequate.

We had a major complaint with the embarkation process, specifically luggage delivery. We carefully read about allowable items & nowhere saw anything about power strips being forbidden. In fact, many cruisers here on CC urge taking a power strip. We had 2 cameras, 2 phones, 2 iPads, a hair dryer, a Kindle & an iPod, so we needed a power strip in light of the single 110V outlet on the vanity. We had 1 large checked bag which had not arrived in our cabin by late afternoon. I received a written notice to check at guest services for my bag. I stopped there before dinner, assuming it was a simple matter. I was sent to a backstage area & dealt with aggressive female & kindly male security staffers. The female asked if I had an "extension cord" in my luggage. Told her I had a power strip & showed it to her atop the contents of our suitcase. After considerable discussion (there was another passenger, a New Zealander, with the same issue) she said she would have to search my cabin (what?) & contact an electrician. I waited more than 1/2 an hour but left since my family was waiting for me to join them at dinner.

Assumed our bag would be in our cabin after dinner. It was not, so I called guest services again. Was told my luggage ID had come off & I had to return to the secured area to ID our bag. (How did he know OUR luggage tag had come off? Obviously he was making stuff up.) I told him TWO ID tags had been on our bag when I last saw it at 6:30 p.m. & asked him to deliver our bag. We waited several more hours until finally my husband returned to the secured area & found our bag, ID tags intact & power strip inside. No apology for all the delay. Except for 1 male security staffer, all we dealt with thru this process were rude & accusatory.

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Balcony

Cabin BB

Port Reviews

Juneau

We took the Mt Roberts tram on our own & enjoyed it. Both the maps we found online & the one we got on the ship showed the AK State Museum several blocks from the dock, so we walked all that way only to find the AK State Museum is "opening 2016." They need to update their maps!

Ketchikan

Another case of out-of-date maps. We followed a map to the post office to mail gifts, only to find out it had moved miles away. And shops, shops, shops. We walked around for a few blocks but headed back to the ship after being constantly accosted by jewelry store salespeople.

Sitka

This was my personal favorite port, perhaps because when we got to the center of town we met a little girl selling homemade cookies, 2 for $3. Also found a great shop, the Fisherman's Eye, I think, across the street from the Lutheran church. There I bought one of my all-time fave travel souvenirs--a sterling silver sardine can, lid wound back & with 4 articulated sardines inside. I bought the last 1 of 3 the low-pressure shopowner had, but I'm sure he'll have more.

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