We just got back from our cruise on the Norwegian Sun to the 11-day Mexican Riviera and I wanted to write a review, not so much of every detail of this cruise, but more as a comparison on how this Norwegian cruise compares with similar Royal Caribbean and Carnival cruises we have taken. This is a popular Cruise Critic question, so I thought I would add my comments.

First some background. This was our first Norwegian cruise but we are pretty experienced cruisers, having completed maybe 6 or 7 cruises on Royal and another 6 or 7 on Carnival over maybe about 15 years time. Both Royal and Carnival have evolved greatly over this period, so for clarity we are only comparing this cruise to the last Royal and Carnival cruises we have taken. These cruises were definitely much fancier and better in the past, but that is another story. For here I’m comparing recent (within 2 years) cruises.

So this was the longest cruise we have ever taken, and I would say 11 days might be my max length, but on to the review. We started off in San Diego at about 11:30 and had to wait almost two hours to board the boat. The lines were long and slow. I can’t blame Norwegian for this because they don’t own the port, but it is by far the longest we ever waited in line. Read more