Norwegian Sun Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,169 reviews

Spectacular Cruise

Review for the Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Sun

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Sail Date: Oct 2008
Cabin: Penthouse with Balcony

Embarkation: Suite passengers are treated royally. We had VIP embarkation which is above priority embarkation. There is a special check in lounge for VIP's. They have refreshments. After you check in you are directed to your concierge (In our case Belkys) who gives you important information and a bit of orientation about the ship and services provided. The lounge is right by the gangway and you are escorted on. Since we were early our suite wasn't yet available but we went by to drop off our hand luggage. A room steward asked us our room number and then to our amazement called us by name and walked us to our suite to offload our carry-ons. A delightful way to board. The Ship: The ship is a beautiful vessel. The look of the ship is in many ways the look of a classic liner. The dEcor varies from the clubby atmosphere of the Windjammer and Club Havana lounges to very contemporary. It is a comfortable ship and although we were sailing with nearly a full load never felt crowded. Accommodation: We had a category AC suite at the rear of the ship (9076). It has a living room and bedroom separated by a door. It is of adequate size but not overly large. The bathroom is long and narrow. It has a separate tub and shower. The tub is a whirlpool tub and also has a shower which is easier to shower in. The separate shower has swinging doors which do...swing that is with the slightest movement flying open and dousing the rest of the room. The toilet room is adequate but it is difficult to open the door and get in. The bathroom is accessible from both sides. There is a huge amount of drawer storage not so with hanging closet storage. The bed is very comfortable and there is a pillow menu. I never quite got the pillows right but there were certainly enough options. There is a bar area with a lot of glassware, a coffee maker, and a safe. There are two televisions one with a DVD. Movies are available from your butler. There is a dressing table in the bathroom and a desk in the living room. The dEcor of the room reminded me of the dEcor in suites we've had on Princess. It is very woody and pleasant. The couches are actually preferable to the ones on Princess which are slippery.

Service: The service was warm, personal, friendly, and efficient. Suite service includes priority reservations in the restaurants, priority tendering, etc. Belkys, our concierge, was an amazing person and went out of her way to make our trip wonderful. On my birthday she left me a Happy Birthday message and came by our table at dinner to personally wish me a happy birthday as did the captain. Our favorite perk was a special place for breakfast and lunch and to hang out if one chose. It is actually the Il Adagio Italian Restaurant. The service and food are superb. We first realized the value of this amenity when we boarded and walked through the buffet. The line extended from San Francisco to Los Angeles so it was nice to have a quiet serene haven. Throughout the ship the service was excellent, warm and friendly. In the restaurants, bars, etc. One got the feeling that they really cared about serving passengers. I can't eat seeds and nuts but love chocolate. Every day they had a different and delicious chocolate dessert for me sometimes running all over the ship to various venues to find it. One day I ordered a dessert that I thought didn't have nuts in it but it did. A waitress literally grabbed it off the table and told me it had nuts and ran off to get me another dessert. Suite passengers also have the use of a butler. Ours was probably the most useless employee on board. He was inefficient and surly and told us the first day not to expect good service because he was so busy. But all in all the service was excellent. I've read many bad reviews of NCL service but I think ours was generally excellent. People were warm friendly and seemed genuinely glad to see us sometimes even greeting us with hugs. And unlike on some lines on which we've traveled the crew seemed happy they seemed to genuinely enjoy what they do. During our cruise they had a special barbecue for the crew and a Halloween party for them. Also there was no pushing for tips or pleas for good ratings. They didn't need to push they were great. We were both a bit apprehensive that the service wouldn't be as good as Princess or Celebrity but it was actually better. Everyone went above and beyond to ensure that our cruise was incredible. Food: We found the food for the most part to be excellent. We had two incidents of food that wasn't tasty or cold but the problems were always immediately corrected. One thing I found amazing was that near the end of the voyage they ran out of some items…olives in the bar (Thanks to our favorite bar waiter who found more.) and some appetizers in the steak house. There are many venues aboard for dining. The two main dining rooms are the Four Seasons and the Seven Seas. The Four Seasons has only dinner the Seven Seas has all three meals and is the more dressy of the two. We ate there twice and the food was good. Once we had to send back bad food and once cold food but in both instances they were replaced promptly. One of the waiters who waited on us in the Seven Seas missed greatly and longed for the days of fixed seating dining and was bemoaning the fact that he didn't get to know people. Many people we talked to raved about the food in the dining room. There is a buffet and the Great Outdoors which is also a buffet style restaurant. We didn't eat in the buffet but people who did complained about the organization of the buffet. The food didn't look great as we passed by. We had dinner two times in il Adagio the Italian restaurant. The food and service were great. An antipasto trolley has an array of items. The pastas are great and can be customized with different pastas and sauces on and off of the menu. And of course the atmosphere was familiar since it was our breakfast and lunch place. The up charge here is ten dollars. We also ate twice at Le Bistro the French restaurant. It is an elegant venue. Service starts with Versace chargers on the table. The food is excellent although my wife had a lamb that was a bit off but they replaced it. The escargot is excellent, likewise the onion soup. The steak and chicken are also good. (The charge for this restaurant is fifteen dollars with some surcharge items at an additional ten.) We ate twice in the Steakhouse which has great beef and service. The steakhouse shares it's area with the Japanese restaurants and is not as intimate a dedicated space but the service and food are superb. The charge in this restaurant is twenty dollars with some surcharge items at an additional ten (lobster for example). Pacific Heights is a California Cuisine style restaurant. A contemporary decor. The food is very good. The menu is designed by Cooking Light magazine. There is no charge for this restaurant. There are tapas available at Las Ramblas and food in the Sports Bar. And a sushi bar and a Teppanyaki restaurant (think Benihana) we didn't eat in any of these Entertainment: There was a wide variety of entertainment in the bars and lounges throughout the ship from pianists to guitarists and musical groups. There were shows nightly. We didn't see much of or many of the shows but there was a wide variety from classical piano to comedy to production shows to a magician to the ultimate a live performance of the "Rocky Horror Show" on Halloween. There were also special nights such as the Halloween party, White Night, etc. There was always something going on. Ports: My wife and I have been on several Mexican Riviera cruises so we are familiar with the ports and therefore didn't take any excursions. Mazatlan: we hopped on a Pulmonia (the little taxis that are made from stripped Volkswagen beetles and look like overgrown golf carts) and went to Plazuela Machado a not to be missed square in old town. We toured the renovated theatre and stopped for a drink at a cafe on the plaza. We then walked to the cathedral and found a great store (Michael's Gallery) with unique things. Ironically since we've been to Mexico so many times we decided we didn't need to buy anything. Oh yeah…we needed to buy extra luggage to bring home the things we weren't going to buy. We walked to the cathedral and the market. The Mazatlan market is a must see. It is an amazing place. We then hopped another Pulmonia and had a great driver who showed us things we'd not seen before. Acapulco: I first went there in the 50's and spent much time there in the 70's and 80's. I thought it was a fun vibrant happening town. Now it seems terribly crowded. This time we hired a car and driver and went to Los Flamingos hotel where movie stars hung out in the 40's and 50's. It was an era. We saw Johnny Weismuller's circular house and had drinks on the terrace. They invented the Coco Loco there. We then went to two other once great hotels with great views and interesting pasts. Then back to the ship. Zihautanejo: One of our favorite places. We immediately hit the local market then strolled the streets of this charming town. Rick's Bar, our favorite, is sadly gone but we had a great time and lunch at tres Hermanos. We then walked around town and back to the launch site. Zihua is a great place with much too much to see in a much too short a stop. Puerto Vallarta: We took a taxi downtown. (Interesting thing…to go to town it cost us twelve dollars. To go back to the ship it cost six. This is true every time we land there and we can't figure out why.) As it was my birthday we went to the Cathedral of our Lady of Guadeloupe to start our day in PV. We then went to the island on the Rio Cuale. We had drinks at Le Bistro and lunch at the River Cafe. We walked along the Malecón and taxied back to the ship where we unloaded more of the stuff we didn't buy. Then we got off again and went to Bucanero our favorite bar in PV. It is right by the ship and jumping. The bartender recognized us from previous trips. He's an amazing bartender. It was very hot in Puerto Vallarta. We were glad to get back into the cool of the Sun. Cabo San Lucas: We walked downtown. The walk from where the tender stops to the nearest hotel is quite long. They are building many things along the walk so it seems like it will soon be a destination to visitors who aren't on cruise ships. We walked through the old part of town and visited some of our favorite haunts. OK you got me. We bought more stuff. We then went to lunch and back to the ship. We were going to eat in one of those charming little restaurants that abound in Cabo but because of the heat we wanted an air conditioned. We decided to take a bicycle cab back as it was horrendously hot. We went to the shore side market and bought a few things. Oh shut up we did too need them. When we got back to the ship the air conditioner was only working at 50% capacity. Our room was in the sun. The drapes were open. It was a Sauna. Housekeeping sent up a fan and fortunately the A/C was quickly fixed. Days at Sea: We had five sea days this trip. Our favorite days are those long languid relaxing days at sea. We are very busy at home and it's great to get away and relax and be together. Our last sea day had an exciting beginning. At 6:15 in the morning the captain announced that all public areas at the back of the ship were closed so a helicopter could take someone off the ship. Since our suite is at the back we had quite a view of the person being airlifted off. They actually took two people. One of whom we assume was the companion of the other. The copter hovered right over us. It was interesting to watch and we hope that whatever and whoever they recover fully and quickly. It may have been a fall since the seas were rough the night before. Disembarkation: We are so used to Princess wanting to know your leaving arrangements a few days after sailing that we were pleasantly surprised by the lack of pressure from NCL about leaving. It's like a hotel where you worry about leaving when you leave not half way through the trip. One can choose disembarkation time and pick up a corresponding color luggage tag. The activities for disembarkation day include hot tubbing, piano music, and bloody Mary etc. drink specials. It really is a different and wonderful way of doing it. Suite passengers get VIP disembarkation tags and have a special place to wait. Belkys also arranged for a member of the crew to take our not inconsiderable hand luggage (Filled with all of those things we talked about not needing to buy since we'd been to Mexico so many times) from our room to the waiting place and then to the pier. The easiest disembarkation we've ever had. Freestyling We really didn't know what to expect from Freestyle cruising in fact we had cancelled a Princess cruise to take this one and as sailing day approached we were a little concerned after all we had loved Princess, Celebrity, Royal etc. but we were pleasantly surprised. There was one formal night which was optional. They even sold tuxedo t-shirts to wear that night. That being said the mode of dress did not differ greatly from other lines. Many people dressed up in the evenings and were more casual during the days. Some were casual all of the time but that was also true on Princess but less so on Celebrity. I loved the sense of humor about Freestyle cruising. In the daily paper they wrote at the end of the list of activities that although it looked like a schedule remember you were free to do whatever. The invitation to the captain's cocktail party invited you for drinks on the captain and then said…we mean with. One is truly free to do whatever and it is a wonderful experience. More like staying in a nice hotel. We loved the choices and didn't manage in eleven days to take advantage of them all. But we were after all free to…whatever.

Cabin Review

Penthouse with Balcony

Cabin SE

We had a category AC suite at the rear of the ship (9076). It has a living room and bedroom separated by a door. It is of adequate size but not overly large. The bathroom is long and narrow. It has a separate tub and shower. The tub is a whirlpool tub and also has a shower which is easier to shower in. The separate shower has swinging doors which do…swing that is with the slightest movement flying open and dousing the rest of the room. The toilet room is adequate but it is difficult to open the door and get in. The bathroom is accessible from both sides. There is a huge amount of drawer storage not so with hanging closet storage. The bed is very comfortable and there is a pillow menu. I never quite got the pillows right but there were certainly enough options.

There is a bar area with a lot of glassware, a coffee maker, and a safe. There are two televisions one with a DVD. Movies are available from your butler. There is a dressing table in the bathroom and a desk in the living room. The decor of the room reminded me of the decor in suites we've had on Princess. It is very woody and pleasant. The couches are actually preferable to the ones on Princess which are slippery.

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