Norwegian Sun Review

4.0 / 5.0
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Review for South America Cruise on Norwegian Sun
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Donaldc134
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jan 2010
Cabin: Mid-Ship Balcony

We just got back from a 14 day cruise from Valparaiso. This had to be the worst run cruise I have been on and ever hope to be on. The ship is DUE for refitting and repair. Our closet door and frame were hanging on by 2 screws and just about fell off the first night at sea ,I finally put a chair against it to hold it closed and so it wouldn't rip off! They did fix it the next day.The Norwalk IS still a problem on board,which slowed down the food lines in the buffet and getting a spoon was like trying to find lips on a chicken. I don't know why they didn't give you one with the rest of your dinnerware? The plates were almost to hot to hold ,which in some cases was a god send and others a downfall. I say this because it was the only HOT thing on the buffet,and maybe it warmed the food up. It's downfall was cold food became HOT very quickly. Getting a place to sit and eat was terrible. It was cold and rainy and people would sit in cafeteria to read books and just look outside so there you were with your food and no place to eat. My one friend finally had enough and sat down on the floor and spread out his things....they got him a seat right away! The breakfast's at all the restaurants were warm at best,the food was hmmm OK at best. I talked with lots of folks who looked forward to ports of calls so the could get a hot meal. One person told me they had had enough and made them microwave his food as he left the line. The staff on board, half of them were GREAT the other shouldn't be working with people. One of the guest services people, were so rude. My wife asked him a question about something on there little magazine and he started to read it to her. She said yes she read it and didn't care what it said, just a question about it. His reply was " I don't care if you care" nice guest services !! We also had trouble with the "mystery dinner" They started half an hour early and changed locations. We questioned them about at noon and everything was the same but by 5:30 it had changed and no one knew what was going on. By the time we found out where it was we were late and they told us just to sit down.When we asked the girl who was running it what to do she said she was busy trying to get it going and couldn't help us then. The other girl told us I came to where it was supposed to be every 10 minutes to look for people who were involved. Well ever 10 minutes was enough time to go there see it wasn't there and try to find some info. She also said "well I was standing by the backdoor why didn't you come there?" How should we know? There was no sign and if you came between the 10 minutes no one was there.After finally we had enough we asked to talk to someone who was in charge. After waiting 10 minutes we were told someone from the cruise staff would be with us shortly. 30 minutes or more later we told them we were going to the bar and they could come find us.About 20 minutes later the Asst. cruise director came and talked with us ,said he was sorry about all the trouble bought us a drink and dinner at one of the restaurant's. Which was nice and the least he could do! I had the feeling the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing. Thank God there was no serious problems on board because I don't think they could have handled it.Other little things that should have been noted and fixed were the clocks behind the guest services and shore excursion desk. The time was off ,yes I know the hours are different in other cities but was unaware that the minutes were also! some were 00:15 the next was 00:50 the next was 00:35 and so on.I know it would have taken some time to make sure all were the same,but it made me realize that if they couldn't get that right could they get anything right. Also we tried to check on something on NCL's web site and could never get it to work we called them and were told " Oh the website never works!"I also can't figure out why we weren't kept up on what was going on with the Norwalk on board ,we are all adults and should have been kept aware. The entertainment was poor there was a juggler that was great but the rest left me feeling like I was at a bad lounge show. So as I said it was the little things.The room attendants were GREAT !!! They went above and beyond,maybe the rest of the crew could take some lessons from them on manners! This was the first cruise we have taken with NCL and will be the last,we will also recommend to people to stay away. Our Travel agent tried to talk us out of using NCL as she said she had had trouble before with them,should have listened to her.

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Balcony

Cabin BA

Was OK other than needing a complete refit. The room as the rest of the ship is getting old and it appears that not much updating has been done,as the little holes in the black out curtains showed!

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