This was our first Norwegian cruise. We chose Norwegian Sun because we wanted to go to a place we hadn't before, which was South America. We also wanted a cruise ship that was sailing for both Christmas and NYE. We thought the itinerary sounded great because it included 3 countries (Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay) and some cities we were looking forward to such as Rio. This was our 5th cruise, we have previously cruised on Carnival Splendour, Allure of the Seas, MSC Splendida and Quantum of the Seas. We knew compared to the other ships this one was the smallest so we didn't have super high hopes but even then we were incredibly disappointed with the whole experience. It is important to note that whilst Norwegian might be an American cruise line, this particular cruise most definitely is aimed at the Spanish population. If you only speak English, like my family, you will most definitely be in the small minority of cruise members and you will notice that everything, including entertainment etc is catered towards the Spanish guests and that was perhaps by biggest issue with this cruise.
The only big redeeming quality of this cruise, that we hadn't ever had on any of our other cruises was the free included Ultimate Beverage Package which basically included unlimited free alcoholic drinks including cocktails, beers, wines, spirits etc. Normally the package is ~ USD$70 per person per day and we were cruising for 14 days and we got the drinks package free as part of our ticket. And that was the best part because frankly if you want to enjoy this cruise at all you need to be half buzzed on cocktails through out the day, as I was.
Ship:
We had 2 inside cabins on Deck 8 (8319 and 8320). Whilst the cabin was about as spacious as any other cruise ship we've been on, the decor again was old, ugly and tacky and it was clear it needed refurbishing. This cabin aslo had the worst cleanliness compared to all our other cruise cabins. The bathroom always had this horrible, sewage, public toilet kind of smell. And when we first moved in to our cabin, there were crumbled chips on the floor by the wardrobe and it hadn't even been cleaned well. Items were also not replaced as they were used, such as soap or sanitary bag disposers. And for the first 5-6 days the air conditioning in our room wasn't working properly and we would wake up every night sweating because it was so hot. We finally had to break down and ask the maintenance person to come and fix it.
The TV was small and old and the remote barely worked. Also there weren't many channel options and the things that would have been fun to watch on TV were only in spanish which was annoying as my family is from New Zealand and we only speak English.
Probably one of the most annoying aspects was the speaker in our room and right outside our cabin that was super loud and annoying and woke us up every day when the cruise director made his annoying unnecessary announcements starting from 7.30am... So even if you wanted to sleep in, forget about it.
Loved this place, wish we had more time there
Show was amazing