Despite a less than perfect New Year's cruise on Norwegian Majesty this year, we decided to book with NCL for an Alaska cruise in August, 2008. Why? Free style cruising fits perfectly into our life style. If you don't want set eating times, dressing up, etc., then free style cruising is for you. After our flight from Houston to Charleston was canceled earlier this year, we learned lesson number one. Give yourselves enough time prior to the cruise. This time, we arrived in rainy Vancouver three days before the Sun was scheduled to leave. We were able to relax and enjoy the sights before heading on to Alaska. We highly recommend taking Land and Sea's precruise tour of Vancouver. On the morning of the cruise, they pick you up at your hotel for a tour of the city. Meanwhile, your luggage is delivered to your cruise ship. After three hours of sightseeing, we were dropped off at the pier. Embarkation was a dream. No huge lines. We arrived at the pier around 1:30 PM. We are on board by 2:00 PM, enjoying the buffet lunch. Our inside cabin, 9334 on the Fjord deck, was ready upon arrival. Our luggage was waiting for us when we came back from lunch. Because we had previously cruised with NCL, we were upgraded to an II inside cabin. We were surprised by how spacious and comfortable it was! The layout was perfect for us. A large and comfy queen size bed separated by a sitting area with a couch that opened into another bed. We had his and hers closets, which we loved. Both my husband and I are avid readers.

It was nice to have reading lights on each side of the bed. Yes, the bathroom is small but it worked for us. For such a large floating hotel, the food was decent, definitely of hotel banquet quality. With the exception of dining at LeBistro twice, we ate our dinners at either the Seven Seas or Four Seasons. Please note that there is a dress code for the Seven Seas and they do enforce it. My husband wore a nice pair of jeans one night and we were turned away. Another night, we saw a family turned away because one member of the party was wearing shorts. The dining room menus changes daily but you can always get a steak, chicken breast or a fillet of salmon. Don't! The steak was tough while the chicken breast was dry. Stick to the "daily specials." I loved the souffles that were served on several nights. The pecan crusted fish was excellent as well as the Prime Rib. When we cruise on NCL, we always dine at least once at Le Bistro. The ten dollar cover charge is well worth it when you consider the menu. The foie gras and escargots were delicious. We were surprised, though, that the onion soup wasn't as good as on our other cruises. The Sun has a Jazz Brunch on Friday mornings at Le Bistro. With live music, a perfect cut of Chateaubriand, and a glass of Kir Royale, it was a perfect way to spend a lazy morning at sea.

We are not big on shows. We did see "Que Noche!" and it was excellent. I also saw the Crew's show on our last day at sea. I always get a kick out of the "Fountains" production! I attended the Behind the Scenes presentation as well. I especially enjoyed the Question and Answer session with the Sun's Captain and two other Directors. For the most part, we spent our time in the casino. I took part in the Blackjack tournament and won a bottle of champagne! Overall, NCL has a wide variety of shore excursions. In Ketchikan, I went salmon fishing while my husband went to see the bald eagles. In Juneau, we had a wonderful time at the Musher's Camp seeing the sled dogs and cuddling the puppies. Skagway is not our favorite port. It's basically a tourist mecca with lots of jewelry and souvenir shops. We crossed over to Haines and took a nature expedition with naturalists as guides. And, yes, we did see a bear! The only compliant we have about the ports is that we spent too much time in Skagway and not enough in the other two. We highly recommend NCL's Sun. She's a lovely ship that is well maintained and cared for. The service is professional and excellent. We definitely will go back to NCL for our next cruise!