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: Phil Lacasse
# previous cruises: 2
Date of Trip: February 23, 2002
Itinerary: Caribbean

Norwegian has this "freestyle" cruising concept, which is supposed to mean "no tipping"; however, they hit you with a $20.00US-per-head-per-stateroom, so it's an extra $140US for the week for two people - whether you think that a tip was warranted or not. As a result, the restaurant staff, in most of the restaurants, were not so attentive. Beware: the bill they present you for each drink has an extra spot for tips!! (more on that below)

There were administrative problems (eg, they messed up on my Visa card 3 days running; I have the highest praise for the Reception Desk Manager, who solved all of our problems with a great amount of patience. I must admit that I was angry a few times, but she took care of all the incidents quickly and efficiently! I only wish her peers and crew mates would take a lesson from her!)

I found the ship to be in excellent condition, with all public areas meticulously clean and the maintenance staff always "on the job". The restaurant staff were all over the place, but you were hard-pressed to get someone to pay attention to you (e.g.: I dropped a knife on the floor, in one of the restaurants; I couldn't get a bus person's eye, to get me a replacement. The waiter finally came by, and my request was finally taken care of.) In each of the bars/lounges, the drinks were paid as you got them; I had no luck establishing a "tab" for the evening. And the bill for each round of drinks had a spot for a tip. (Kinda sounds contrary to their principle of "freestyle cruising")

The food itself was SUPERB! The service, on the other hand, generally was fair-to-middlin'-poor.

Five of the 10 restaurants were "free"; however, the others had either a $10.00 US-per-head cover charge, or hit you with an a-la-carte menu, or had hidden costs (i.e.:there was no signage to tell us that the appetizers in the Tapas Bar were $1.00/serving. When I saw this on my stateroom bill, I questioned it; I was told that "...these charges were tips." - I hadn't tipped, in that lounge) Overall, I was disappointed with the "nickel-and-diming" that we encountered aboard this ship. Apparently, from my conversations with other Norwegian cruisers in the airport, this is also common on other NCL ships.

The French restaurant ("Le Bistro") had, by far, the best food and service aboard the ship. Our waiter was very attentive, and the food was served at the right time (the courses were served <> we had finished the previous one) and at the correct temperature.

The worst restaurant, in my opinion, was the Italian one ("il Adagio") - the food was average type (no gourmet entrees that I recall) and the service was poor. (The waiters and bus persons stood at the wait station chatting, while we waited for the pepper and grated cheese for our main course. I was getting ready to go tap them on the shoulder, when one of them finally glanced my way. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed. And then, not even an apology.)

The stateroom we got was not what we had requested; however, as it turned out, we got a 2-level upgrade, and were 1 deck higher than we had requested. This was an outside stateroom with a balcony, and was quite roomy. My partner is physically challenged, but this room was no hindrance; however, a wheelchair-bound person might have trouble with narrow entrance hallway/walkspaces in the cabin. The shower was ok for us, but a 300-lb person would not fit in there. Closet space was adequate. There was ample space for our huge suitcase in there; as well, there was the entire floor under the bed for skinnier luggage.

Overall, the ship was comfortably quiet; not a huge number of announcements.

We were disappointed that there were only two TV channels available (other than the standard "house" channels): CNN News and ESPN. Many passengers wanted to see the Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Final game, but this was not available. For such a huge, technologically-advanced ship, a satellite dish should have been a part of the communications package - even if the channels are only pumped into the Sports Bar! (They lost a big opportunity for selling a lot of booze, that day!!!)

Due to our planned itinerary ashore, we only attended 2 of the 7 shows during the week; we also spent time in the Casino, losing as usual...

The shows we did see were magnificently done: lighting, sound and staging were quite professionally done. The actors and actresses were equally talented and entertaining. The entertainment team did an excellent job! Kudos to all!

The itinerary was Miami-Grand Cayman-Roatan-Belize-Cozumel-Miami. We went ashore in each of the ports, and took advantage of the planned excursions in each port except Grand Cayman... there, we did our own thing.

Each of the planned excursions were well-run, with knowledgeable and entertaining guides.

There were pools on Deck 11, as well as the spa; however, we didn't partake of either of these. (Note: A massage in our part of Canada is approx. $60.00 - $80.00 CDN; on board ship, a massage went for $99.00US)

We made some acquaintances on board the ship, with whom we have kept in touch with since our return. We will readily invite them into our home, if they ever come to our area; I'm sure the reverse is also true.

The passengers were a diverse lot, with a good mix of young (children through to teens) through to the fairly elderly. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.