We just returned from an 11-night Mexican Cruise from San Francisco on the NCL Sun. The ports included Mazatlan, Acapulco, Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas.

We had an outside cabin with a window. The cabin was fine with a queen size bed (two twins together) and a sofa, coffee table, desk and TV. It seemed to have more closet space than the Pride of Aloha.

We had cruised on NCL Pride of Aloha in Hawaii in 2006 and the food and service were great. We also cruised Holland America in 2007 to Mexico from San Diego, as well as other cruises in previous years, so we were familiar with cruising and we must report that the NCL Sun was the worst in regards to food and service. It was so bad that on the last day we asked them to credit us back the daily $10 per person service charge, which is supposedly shared by the service staff. We used the money to individually tip the very few people who DID provide good service. The food selection, quality and service was from bad to adequate, unless you went to one of the restaurants with a cover charge, which we did more often than on previous cruises due to the poor quality in the main restaurants. The portions were small, the food (especially sauces) was very salty, fresh tomato slices on smoked salmon was always soggy, cold juice was often served in hot glasses, same with cold fruit being served in hot bowls, there were water drops and stains on the glasses when you sat down to eat, the espresso was often made wrong, food was served in the wrong order, etc. The Garden Cafe (their cafeteria style restaurant) had limited selection and was laid out poorly. There are no trays, so you get your hot food, then cold food, then hot food (because of the poor layout)....then put your plate down on a table to go get a drink...by the time you return to the table, all the food is cold. The staff seemed tired and unfriendly. I know these people work long days and months without a day off, but they were borderline rude when you made even a simple request. Our room stewards did a good job keeping our room clean, but were not very friendly. Usually the room stewards smile and greet you as you come and go from the cabin and often call you by name - not these guys - we ended up giving them each a tip on departure ONLY because they kept our room clean and that was the only time they smiled and shook our hand. The entertainment went from bad to good, but nothing great. The musicals were decent but the sound system blared the music too loud. Most of the activities were geared towards selling us something, either on ship or on shore at one of their tourist trap destination stores. On previous cruises, I always found a comfortable chair by a window in one of the public areas, to sit and read peacefully. This was not found anywhere on the ship. The library was quiet but had limited window seating and all the other areas were noisy. Read more