Norwegian Sun Cruise Review by SanFrancisotraveler

Background We travel a lot but this is only our 3rd cruise. The others cruises were the Queen Elizabeth 2 Boston to Southampton (Oct 2001) and the Carnival Elation San Diego- Mexico (July 2008) with our kids and grandkids. We are in our mid 60’s which is probably about the average on the recent Sun cruise. We took this cruise because we live in San Francisco within view of the ship and it offered the Copper Canyon for a shore excursion

Cabin The cabin was great and especially the bed, balcony, and very large bathroom and tub. My wife loved the shower faucet with its temperature control. The cabin steward Michael was excellent.

Embarking and Disembarking Embarking scheduled for noon to 3pm. We arrived at 12:30pm by cab and found a huge crowd and nothing happening. Were told an xray machine was down(?). Took a cab back home, went down to North Beach for lunch, back to the pier at 2:30pm and breezed in. Disembarkation was relatively smooth but not laid out very well. If you carry off your luggage, its easy. You leave the gangway into the pier/shed and go down a ramp near the street end of the pier where the cabs and other transportation is available. If you put your bags outside your cabin the night before, you leave the gangway into the pier/shed and turn towards the bay end of pier, walk a couple of hundred feet, go down a elevator, collect your bags, and then proceed back towards the front/street side of the pier/shed where the cabs, and other transportation are waiting. It would seem better for all if the bags were stowed at the street end of the pier to make it easer to get heavier bags to the street and save several hundred feet of walking. Once you get to the street in front of pier, chaos breaks loose with cabs, buses, cars, ship reprovisioning trucks , and normal city traffic all competing in a few lanes of traffic. Not NCL’s fault but rather San Francisco which has been talking about a new cruise pier for years.

Entertainment Watched a couple of shows but left within minutes. Others on the cruise seemed to enjoy.

Copper Canyon Copper Canyon was our main reason for the cruise. We had tried to see one other time with a land based tour but had to cancel for health reasons 30 minutes before the tour departed in Phoenix, AZ. This shore excursion was very well run. Meet in the lounge at 5am, get on the buses for a 2 hour ride to El Fuerte, transfer to the private train for a 6 hour trip up to the canyon rim, lunch/show/view for 2.5 hours, and then reverse the trip back to the ship. Very well organized with a paramedic on board, armed police escorts on the train and at the canyon (not sure why it was necessary), box breakfast and dinner on the train, tour guide and porters in each car, and a bar car. About 200 people from the ship on the tour. Long day but worth it if the Copper Canyon is on your list of things to see. Weather perfect. End of the rainy season so lots of water falls, greenery, and terrain/flora changes as you gain elevation.

Dining/Food Overall very good for cruise food. Loved where and when you want freestyle dining. We had breakfast most days in the 4 Seasons dining room which is reserved for balcony cabins. Service was ok but slow. Food ok with a nice little buffet plus menu service. Lunch was mostly in the Seven Sea dining room and good. We had breakfast and lunch a couple of days in Garden court and Outdoor Cafe buffets and they were fine but laid out oddly which has been commented on by many. Had tapas for snacks in Las Ramblas one time. Ok. Dinner in Le Bistro on 5 nights. Very good especially the Foie Gras, frisee salad, steak, rack of lamb, chicken, cassoulet, and cheese plate. Mussels and escargot not so good on the night we tried. NIce room. $15 surcharge Dinner in Adagio twice. Veal marsala excellent, pastas so so, antipasto cart very good, tricolor salad very good, desserts too sweet. Nice room. $10 surcharge. Steakhouse once. Worst meal on cruise. NY strip and T-bone both had an odd grill flavor. Creamed spinach too creamy. Oysters Rockefeller had the same creamed spinach and the plate was hotter than the oysters. Wedge salad dressing had no tang. Baked potato and jumbo shrimp very good. Cheese cake no taste and chocolate brownie no chocolate. Odd room as its a continuation of the Japanese restaurant Ginza. $25 surcharge.

Wine list We brought 6 bottles of a favorite cabernet and paid the $15 corkage per bottle at check in. Would not do again as the wine list is very good with some good values.

Observation lounge Best secret on the ship. Hardly used and great place to sit and read/view during the day and have cocktails at sunset. Martinis and Old Fashioneds very good and reasonably priced. Music for us old folks in the evening.

Computer access/use Bought the $100/250minute plan and used with our Notebook in the cabin. Ethernet connection in cabin and wireless available in various parts of the ship. Decent speed for e-mail and facebook use.

Dislikes Designated Non smoking cabins do not exist on the ship. Was not a problem this cruise but could understand how it could be. All cabins should be non smoking.

Library/game room taken over by bridge groups of 60 or more and games moved to Tech Room which is a windowless space with gray work desks. Big groups should be moved to conference space. Couldn’t find a cribbage board towards the end of cruise. Bring your own.

Constant selling of things and announcements over the PA system to sell you stuff.

Overall We thought it was a great cruise and would sail with NCL again.