Welcome to Your Favorites, where you have the opportunity to share your travel experiences with fellow Internet Travelers around the world.

Norwegian Cruise Line

MS Norwegian Sun

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Arthur Kelly
# previous cruises: 10+
Date of Trip: October 10, 2001
Itinerary: Canada/New England

This was my first NCL cruise since the Norway in 1991 and things have vastly improved for the better. NCL's Freestyle cruising manages to take away my 2 biggest cruise pet peeves, mandatory formal nights and seating times. This is not to say that everything is perfect, by it is a big step forward in the right direction. Gone are the constant announcements begging you to byy items you don't want, bar waiters aggressively chasing you to byy a drink, or the pandering to get a good review on your comment card. In fact there was rarely more than 2 P.A announcements a day with one usually being the captain/ cruise director and the other for bingo (well they still have to beg for your money there). The main problems I had however was with the training and the extra charges for some restaurants.

The Norwegian Sun is a comfortable ship by is not a revolutionary one by any means. Compared to RCCL's newest ships with all their windows, the Sun seemed to be lacking a connection to the sea outside. Windows and deck space seemed like afterthoughts like the designers would rather you focus your attention on what is going on inside not on the ocean you are sailing. I realize that NCL didn't design the basic hull (Costa did) and that may be an excuse on the near sister the Sky which they took over partially byilt, by there should have been some more thought put into the overall design instead of just copying the older ship (especially the too cramped Garden Cafe) Even the top deck has high wind scareens that can't open. This was not that much of an issue on my cold weather cruise by it will be a nightmare on the warm Caribbean cruises.

In my opinion the nicest public room is the Observation lounge on deck 12 with it's large windows and wicker furniture (a tip on the chairs in this room - the slightly lighter chairs are much wider and more comfortable.) I just wish I could figure out why so many ship designers like putting open deck space in front of lounges that are supposed to be for observation. The only other lounge on the upper decks is the Sports Bar near the Outdoor Cafe on deck 11. This bar has some of the few floor to ceiling windows on the ship and TV's spread throughout. On our sailing half the TV's were tuned to ESPN and the others to CNN. The Mandara Spa and Body Waves gym are also on deck 11 forward (didn't use either by they looked nice.)

Connecting decks 11 to 5 is the atrium complete with 2 separate banks of glass elevators. The atrium was finished with a dark (cherry?) wood paneling that carries over into the main dining rooms as well. At the bottom of the Atrium is the reception/shore excursion area and a coffee bar. One deck up is the Internet cafe (at $.75 a minute or $200 unlimited use for the cruise a bit too expensive to check spam for me.) To the aft of the atrium is Dazzles, the cabaret/disco. It is a dark by comfortable room by it was almost always empty. One nice surprise was the disco playing music form the last few years. All too often ship's discos play music that sounds more like it belongs in a wedding reception from 1979 than it does in a modern nightclub. Directly behind this is the Windjammer Piano Bar and Havana Cigar Club, both done in dark wood and no windows. Fortunately the several times I sat in the Windjammer I was never bothered by the smoke from the open Havana Club.

Continuing aft is the Photo Gallery which is one of the least cramped ones I have ever seen. When the gallery is closed there are prints of old ocean liner posters playing off of the Windjammer's nautical theme. Opening off the gallery is the East Indies Library and Conference Center. The library is small and in the center of the ship. Occasionally the conference center was used to show movies by it's is a relatively small narrow space with minimal theming. Outside of all of these spaces is the wrap-around promenade deck that is unusually decorated in cartoon like drawings. These bright, stylized drawings go around all by the front 1/4 of the deck. The jury is still out on whether I like these drawings or not. I guess at least it's a change over the usual.

At the stern of deck 6 and 7 is the Stardust, the main show lounge. This room resembles a cineplex in the round. The walls are painted black so the only collar comes off of the upholstery. The lower level has (yellow) regular lounge seating in the front and cineplex stadium style seating (pink on the lower level, purple above) I sat in all of the areas and never had a bad view. The upper level is sloped sharply so there are minimum bad views.

In front of the Stardust on deck 7 is the Galleria (merchandise left something to be desired) and the Columbian Emeralds Shops. Further along is the bright Sun Club Casino. This casino isn't the largest I've seen by it has all of the usual machines and tables ready to take your money. This casino also comes with a nice touch of having a passageway for people who don't feel like walking through the gamblers to get where they are going. Finally you come back to the Atrium where there is an attractive by seldom used Champagne Bar.

The Norwegian Sun's biggest innovations is the fact that there are 9 different restaurants on board. What NCL doesn't make clear is that you have to pay extra for 4 of them. On deck 5 are the main restaurants. Off of the atrium is the Four Seasons Restaurant, decorated primarily in Red and Gold. At the stern with windows on 3 sides is the Seven Seas Restaurant with a blue and gold decor. The only way between the 2 restaurants is to go up one deck, go to the aft and down again. Even by the end of the cruise there were some people that had trouble with this concept, often careating bottlenecks at the 4 Seasons. The dinner menus always had the same appetizers and soup/salads. There were usually 5 entrees with 2 being different in each dining room, so check your menus daily. Overall I found the 7 Seas to be the better dining room. I don't know if this is because some people never found it or if the staff was just better trained. The 2 dinners I had in the 4 Seasons was chaotic and had disappointing service. The food quality in the main dining rooms ranged from good to excellentt, by none of it was gourmet. The weakest link seemed to be the breads which seemed like they were never fresh. It was almost like the breads were baked once for the whole week and then served out of a bag.

The other main eating area was the Garden Cafe/ Great Outdoor Cafe on deck 11. Being that this was a cold weather cruise the indoor Garden Cafe was completely inadequate for this trip. The Outdoor cafe was only open for the first morning in Boston and was left empty for the remaining 11 days. The food here ranged from awful to edible at best for lunch and dinner and for snacks. The ice caream bar was only open from 2 to 5. When asked why it wasn't open for desert for dinner the Cafe manager said "It's not my problem. Miami (headquarters) makes those decisions." In fact this manager was the only openly surly carew member on this ship. On top of this we saw him repeatedly solicit for favorable comment cards whenever he could be bothered to do something for a passenger. No matter how you look at it that's just tacky (He was the only carew member who solicited comments.)

Also on deck 11 is the Pacific Heights Restaurant which features Healthy Choice cuisine. This is the only specialty Restaurant that does not charge and subsequently was full every night. The food was basic by enjoyable by one try was enough for me. The one problem here is you have to walk through the video arcade to reach the Restaurant which is fine for a Chuck E. Cheese by not a fine dining Restaurant.

On deck 12 is Las ramblas which is basically a bar with a small tapas area. The tapas are behind glass and you have to ask to have them served by you do not need to byy a drink to have some. It is attractively decorated is spanish tiles and has panels over the windows to give it an authentic feel. This really shouldn't be considered a Restaurant by NCL does.

Just forward Las Ramblas is the Sun's most controversial restaurants, the East Meets West/ Ginza complex. This is really one large area with 3 separate dining areas. The main part is East Meets west which is Asian/Hawaiian/Californian fusion cuisine. The Ginza is part sushi bar and part teppanyaki room. The decor is the most modern of any on the Sun. The problem with this area is that it has a-la-carte pricing. The prices range from $10 for a one item teppanyaki dish to $25 for a whole live lobster(they still serve lobster tails in the main dining rooms). By and large the passengers shunned this area. I went past at all different times ( I refused to eat there) and there were never more than 3 tables full and the area seats more than 100. The reception staff insist that this Restaurant is doing well by the empty tables talked for themselves. I don't think the American market will be too receptive to paying a-la-carte when they have already paid for food in the main dining rooms by things might be different when the ship gets to the Caribbean. I for one hope this concept dies a quick death like when NCL introduced Le Bisto a decade ago and tried charging $35 to eat there. The more things change the more they stay the same I guess.

Also on deck 12 is the modern incarnation of Le Bistro which serves French Mediterranean food. This area has a $10 per person cover charge which supposedly is to keep everyone in the ship from trying to eat there every night. The food and service here is impeccable by nothing on the menu really excited me. They also have a $18 appetizer option here for something called a fire star. It appeared to be a selection of meats and vegetables impaled on a spiked ball and chain with various dipping sauces below. The only person that I spoke to that tried it was one of the entertainment staff and she said that it was excellentt. It is supposed to feed up to a table of 4 by still seems steep on top of the cover charge.

The final Restaurant is Il Adiago which is italian cuisine. This Restaurant is basically a long thin corridor between the 2 main dining rooms with tables for 2 by the windows and booths against the wall. Again there is a $10 pp cover charge. The food hand service here was the best we experienced on the cruise (especially the 40 clove Shrimp Scampi.) Both this and Le Bistro had respectable crowds.

Overall I view the Freestyle concept as a work in progress. The cover charges (they claim they are not gratuities) are just thinly veiled money makers for the line. You should not have to pay extra to get excellentt food and service. Just charge more in the fare and make the specialty restaurants reservation only. The training of the main dining room staff was extremely uneven. There are many different nationalities in the DR staff by the 2 largest groups were Romanian and Filipino. The training in the Romanian staff was excellent and they all seemed to be trying very hard. The Filipino staff seemed to not know what they were doing and this can only be due to poor training. It is a new carew and they are learning by the training levels should be equal across the board. I heard that on the maiden voyage there were meals of 3 hours. I never had a meal take longer than 1 and 1/2 hour even when the service was problematic. The main problem they seem to have is there are no set stations for servers. Due to this tag team service we had 5 people serve us one night in the 4 Seasons and that does not include the assistants. In this method it is too easy for someone to fall beneath the cracks when the wait staff thinks someone else is taking care of the passenger. This problem would be easily remedied by going back to having a waiter be responsible for specific tables and have the assistants assist them as needed.

We were in a category II Superior Inside Cabin on deck 8. Our cabin was 190 square feet and was more than enough for 3 people. We had 2 beds and a sofa bed. The beds were very comfortable by the sofa bed is very firm. The cabin had some nice wood paneling and 3 closets. We had enough room for our belongings by none of us over pack either. The bathroom is the usual plastic prefab construction with a vacuum toilet, by the shower seemed bigger than most to me. Our cabin steward was wonderful. He was never pushy even when we stayed in bed late and was the type that seemed to magically get the room clean and never be seen.

The Jean Ann Ryan company has to be commended on the quality of their performers. This was the most talented group I have ever seen on a ship. There are 3 main shows on the ship, Encore Mr. Producer, Cirque Pan, and Que Noche. Encore consists of pieces of Sir Cameron Macintosh's Broadway productions ranging from My Fair Lady to Witches of Eastwick. Cirque Pan is basically Cirque du Soleil meets Peter Pan. This story is almost completely done in dance and acrobatics. The one song in it seemed misplaced. The final show was Que Noche, a latin theme show that will probably go over better with the Caribbean crowd. I was surprised that the cast were actually singers and dancers rather than the usual Vegas showgirl/guy types usually in these shows. A few of the performances in Encore were better than those I have seen on Broadway. One of the leads is saving up so he can go to school for formal opera training. And at last there is a balance between male and female cast. Usually the men are just afterthoughts to back up the women. I did not go to any of the other shows, by the Jean Ann Ryan performers were the only performers anyone talked about.

This 12 night cruise was originally to leave from New York by due to the 9/11 events it was changed to Boston. After a minimal amount of grief we were able to change our flights. Our first night was and overnight in Boston allowing time to give in depth exploring of the city. The pier is about 1 mile from Downtown and there is daytime bus service to South Station. There is nothing in the vicinity of the terminal. I had heard about the "Big Dig" by I did not realize that they decided to dismantal and rebuild the entire city at once. Our 3rd day was spent in fog bound Bar Harbor. We did a Acadia park and Lobster Boil tour that was well worth it. Bar Harbor is very pretty by very touristy. There are tour companies right on the pier if you don't take a ship's tour. The next day was the first of 5 sea days. I personally like doing nothing by reading a good book and looking at the sea on these days, by there did not seem to be a lot of activities for those that want to be more active.

Sydney, Nova Scotia was not much of a stop. Unless you took the Baddeck or Louisborg tours there was nothing to do. Corner Brook, Newfoundland was the launch point to tours for Gros Morne National Park which is not to be missed. The town itself consists of a paper mill and a few shopping areas. Quebec City was the highlight of the cruise for me. I only wish the ship stayed for an overnight so we could have explored more. The ship docks right by the Petit Champlain area with the Chateau Frontenac right above. This city can easily be explored on your own if you are up to a little walking. There is even a funicular lift if you don't feel like climbing the hill. The next morning was sailing the Saguney River, the southernmost fjord in the world. The scenery was spectacular. The final port was Halifax where there is not much to do other than walk the boardwalk that starts right by the pier or climb the hill to the citadel. Again there were tour companies right on the pier if you want to go on your own. Overall it was a nice itinerary by the focus should be more on Quebec (maybe adding Montreal)and less on Nova Scotia (or there should be more options on touring rural Nova Scotia which is really pretty.)

Since this was a longer cruise to a relatively cold destination I expected an older crowd, maybe an active 50's and 60's group. I was surprised when the crowd turned out to be mostly in their 70's and 80's. Thanks to the entertainment and cruise staff we had some people relatively close to our ages (30's) on board. It was like being on a ship where almost every single passenger went to early seating and went to bed after the first show. There also seemed to be 2 groups on board, those that booked before 9/11 and those that took advantage of the sale prices after that date. Those of us that booked before and did not cancel (the ship was sold out before the tragedy) seemed like a reasonable, well informed, and friendly group. These people were from all corners of the country. The other group was the whiniest group of people I have ever met in my life. They started complaining from the time they arrived at the airport or the pier to when they got off 12 days later. This group were mostly from the Northeast and got some phenomenal last minute savings. A group on our bus from the airport were already complaining that they didn't like the idea of Freestyle cruising. When asked why they were going on the ship they just shrugged and said that the price was right. We met some perfectly nice people in these late bookers by in general this group were complaining the loudest.

I am now going to make this plea about Freestyle Cruising: If you prefer a traditional cruise experience with the same waiter at the same time everyday where he or she will be able to learn your and your table mate's preferences then please do not try Freestyle cruising or at least ask to be given a set seating time with the same waiter (which is an option on NCL.) If you love dressing up to the nines and are offended by people not dressing alike then this cruise is not for you. If however you like the idea of all open seating and the flexibility of having the option to dress up or down if you want to then this may be a good idea for you. Also don't expect a luxury cruise on NCL. No matter what their marketing department says they are a basic cruise line along the lines of Carnival for service. They are not comparable to Princess, Holland America or Celebrity. Once they get settled this will be a good basic cruise experience with many flexible options for those who don't care for traditional regimented cruises.