This back-to-back eastern/western Caribbean 14-day cruise on the Norwegian Sun was our 9th cruise and our 2nd with NCL. The cruise was enjoyable and relaxing; however, NCL's business model left us feeling less than thrilled with the overall experience. In fairness to the Sun crew, we found them to be friendly and helpful and about as good a crew as most we've encountered on other cruise lines. But if you expect a high quality cruise experience, expect to pay more for it once you're on board.

We observed that "Fee-style Cruising" might be a more accurate motto for NCL than "Freestyle Cruising". There was heavy emphasis throughout the cruise on selling you everything possible. The drink prices were high, especially once they added the 15% service charge to every drink. Beers started at around $5 for domestic; glasses of wine at around $6; mixed drinks at around $7; blender drinks at around $8, and prices go up from there. The coffee shop in the atrium on deck 5 could have been a much more pleasant and frequently used venue had they offered some sort of coffee card deal and provided faster service. As a result of the high pricing and very slow service we purchased only about 7 espresso drinks in two weeks. Also, their complimentary pastry selection was pretty much limited to several different varieties of pound cakes; a far cry from what we've experienced on Princess, Royal Caribbean and Holland America. The coffee at the espresso shop was good, but at the buffet not so good.

A word about back-to-back cruises for those unfamiliar with the concept; the day between segments is pretty much a wasted day, as the ship is busy disembarking the first segment passengers and embarking the new passengers. Some areas of the ship are closed for cleaning and maintenance, including the pools and hot tubs. The crew is concentrating on getting ready for the new group of passengers. The passengers continuing on for the next segment are required to leave the ship, pass through Customs and turn in their Customs Declaration Form and then wait until Customs clears the ship before re-boarding; the total process took us about 75 minutes. You do NOT have the option of staying on the ship. You end up paying for a cruise day without really getting the full benefits of a cruise day. Read more