ZigmasK

We just got back from a cruise on the Norwegian Sun on November 24, 2007. It was my second Norwegian cruise and my wifes 3rd. EMBARKATION The embarkation was fairly smooth in a new facility. At noon on Saturday the wait was small, no separate line for Latitude members. We were in our cabin by around 1:00pm. THE SHIP The ship is fabulous, it has a glass atrium at mid ship and tons of marble and polished woods everywhere. Many restaurants with great food. Three of the fancy pay restaurants have a 50% discount if you book them the previous day for eating supper between 5:30pm and 6:30pm for the next night. You can only reserve the night before for the next day to take advantage of this discount. Some nights we cancelled our reservations because the menu in the Seven Seas restaurant was just as good. The ship is continuously being cleaned and there are hand cleaning stations everywhere. Our outside cabin was mid ship on deck 5 which is central to everything, the atrium starts on deck 5 and the front desk is on deck 5. Our cabin had a big square window, but was a tight squeeze. The bathroom was about twice the size of an airplane washroom. It was plenty for the time we spent in the stateroom. The bed matrice was very thin and the foam pillows were hard. The shows at night were very good, especially The Producers on Sunday night. The magician from Quebec (JP) was a great show for the kids. Lots of other entertainment on the ship during the day and at night. The band Brothers & Friends was very, very good. The lead singer can sing anything and the lead guitarist is amazing. So many things to do at night that you cant get to all of them. The casino is nice except for the blackjack shuffling machines at the 5.00$ tables. In the casino they only use the shoe for 15$ & 25$ tables. On the Deck 11 at the poolside they have a 5$ blackjack table that uses a shoe. The casino has 1-2, no limit Texas Holdem when they can get enough players. The casino also has tournaments for Blackjack, the slots and Texas Holdem. They also have a daily lottery for 2$ a ticket. The pot was up to 134,000.00$ this week. They have a machine to create the tickets but they can only check the numbers only manually. All of the staff are very friendly and helpful throughout the ship. The gym is great, lots of treadmills and other equipment and its free! The soda pass is 55.00$ for the week..major ripbuy them separately @ 2.00$. ISLAND STOPS Apparently it is the rainy season in Roatan and Belize. In Roatan the boat docks, the rest of the stops use tenders to get to shore. The Belize tender is about 20 minutes. In Cozumel the weather was fantastic, we did the Deluxe Beach trip, it was 56.00$ per person and included an open bar and a small buffet. The beach is nice but the beach chairs are brutal. No big deals in the stores along the strip where the tender boats stop. The last stop is the Norwegian private island for a beach day. Bring deet bug repelant. We got a lot of bad bites. On our first cruise there we were fine, but this time we were covered in bites. Apparently they are supposed to spray for bugs but I guessed they stopped spraying. DISENBARKATION The quickest way off the ship is to use the Express disembarkation, you wheel you own bags off the ship between 7 & 8:30am, otherwise you have to wait a long time. SUMMARY The Sun is a really nice ship with great food and entertainment, we would definitely go on the Sun again.

This was our second cruise on the NCL Dawn. Back in 2002 the ship was amazing., In 8 years things have changed a lot. The food and the entertainment were average. The old comedian Dave is past his "sell by date". The casino is badly run.