I was fortunate enough to have been invited on the Norwegian Sun's
Pre-Inaugural cruise to nowhere from Boston.
Having had 3 positive experiences on the Norwegian Sky, I was looking
forward to this new vessel, especially since it is the first ship
specifically built for NCL's Freestyle Cruising concept.
The ship itself is almost identical to her sister the Sky. The most
noticable improvement onboard the Sun is the increased cabin size.
We had a suite on Deck 11 (cabin 1009) and it was much larger than the suite
we had onboard the Sky. The cabin was well appointed with 2 twin beds
(convertable to a queen), desk, tv, refrigerator, sitting area with a
sofabed, chair and coffee table. There was plenty of storage space in and
around the desk/vanity area as well. The bathroom was very spacious and
well laid out. Prior to entering the bathroom, you had a walk in closet
with ample drawer space, a small vanity/sitting area and a safe for personal
items. The bathroom itself was huge by ship standards and had a full
jaccuzzi tub and plenty of storage around the sink. The balcony was of
decent size, however the 2 chairs were very small and most uncomfortable--
it almost seemed like they borrowed this furniture from the childrens play
area.
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Unfortunately, the decor and the improved cabin layout was the best part of
this ship. The service was spotty at best. It took at least 10-15 mins to
be acknowledged at any of the outdoor pool bars and the service at the
indoor bars/lounges wasn't much better. NCL has never impressed me with
their service and I must say they have remained consistanty below par
onboard the Sun. Another annoyance was the fact that with 9 restaurants
onboard, only 3 offer "free" meals. The Bistro is still $10.00 per person,
however the Japanese restaurant and a few others were priced A'la carte. It
kind of defeats the purpose of having so many choices if one must pay extra
to enjoy this experience. Another annoyance the the necessity to have
reservations to dine in these alternative restaurants.. so much for
Freestyle dine when you want, where you want! We were unable to arrange
reservations in any restaurant but the Italian one, and after dining there
we know why it was so easy.. the food was inedible and we sent it back and
headed to the main dining room for dinner. The service in the dining room
was horrid-- after receiving menus it took almost 30 mins before our order
was taken and it was at least that long before anything was brough to the
table. Bread finally arrived, without butter, and in the absence of any
waitstaff we were unable to locate any. The salad was limp and soggy, like
the dressing was placed on it hours prior to our dining. We ordered the
Prime Rib, which was like shoe leather, dry and over cooked, and the
accompanying mashed potatos were INSTANT and not even real!! Needless to
say most of this meal remained on the plate. Still hungry after visiting 2
restaurants, we decided maybe a slice of pizza would hit the spot-- WRONG--
they slammed the door of the Pizzaria in our faces. This was the first in
over 30 cruises where we went to bed hungry. Breakfast wasn't much better,
thank goodness we have a Duncan Donuts on every corner in Boston!! This was
a huge disappointment, especially since we didn't have a bad meal during any
of our cruises on the Sky last year.
The entertainment onboard was excellent. We saw the main review show
modeled after Cirque d' Soleil, and we also listened to a variety of bands
in the lounges all of which were good. The late night comedy show was also
entertaining. The casino was a bit tight on the payouts, but still a lot
of fun.
While it was nice to see the newest kid on the block, the poor service, and
horrible food would prevent me from ever sailing on this ship in the future.
I'm not a huge fan of NCL, and while I've had good experiences on the Sky,
I've had too many bad experiences on their other ships. I'll be sticking to
Royal Caribbean and Princess and a few others for my future vacations at
sea.
