Norwegian Sun Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,169 reviews

NCL Sun...Not up to par with Carnival

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Sun
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Medic613
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Apr 2012
Cabin: Mid-Ship Oceanview Porthole Window
Traveled with children

We just got back from a 7 day cruise to Nassau, St thomas, San Juan, and GSC (Norwegian Island). Got to the port after a crappy transfer/parking service (Premier Parking--DO NOT USE) and made it onto the ship with relative ease. Once on board headed to the main buffet for some lunch. Food seemed like it was gong to be good here and pretty much was for breakfast. Omelet bar and waffle station were a plus. The down side is that it is the only buffet station on the ship and tended to get crowded at times.

The room was pretty good, with the exception of a broken drawer that got fixed on the second day of the cruise. However, the room steward was very inconstant throughout the cruise. We were there with three kids and they like the towel animals from previous cruises. When we did get one in the room sporadically, they had no eyes. Not a huge deal but something that kids noticed. They put pool towels in the room and switch them out once used. Again...Inconsistent. We should not have to remind the steward to do his job. there was a huge wet spot outside our room and when reported they put a fan out for a day, but it was never dried up. Something is leaking somewhere.

Now for the dinner service in the main dining rooms. We have sailed Carnival three other times and the service has been great and the food as well during dinners in main dining rooms. NCL has "Freestyle" dining and uses a team approach. This means you eat whenever you want and you have more than one wait staff per table. This would, in theory, seem to get you better service. We went to dinner in the more casual dining room 5/6 nights and once in the contemporary room. It never seemed crowded in the casual room and we were seated quickly. But the meal took between 1.5 and 2 hours every time. Just seemed way longer then it should have and there were many long gaps when we had nothing on the table. the night we went to the dressier one, we were told that they had to set a table up. After about 10 minutes we were told that it was almost ready and they were setting up a window seat. 5 minutes later we were seated. Not really sure why they thought the window seat was so special or worth the wait...It was pitch block outside. As for the selection/quality of the food...Carnival has them beat hands down. They two restaurants basically had the same food with maybe three variations between the two. The food portions were sometimes small. The beef had too much fat. My wife got fish one night and between the amount of salt and the overly fishy taste, she choose to stop seating. The deserts were odd in texture sometimes, like they had been sitting out all night.

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Oceanview Porthole Window

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