Poorly managed and oriented to cheap.
Norwegian Sun Cruise Review to South America
14 Night South America Eastbound (Santiago To Buenos Aires)
Sail date: February 13, 2016
Ship: Norwegian Sun
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 8046
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 8 years ago
Review summary
The bathroom glasses were not changed for the entire trip. The attendant simply dried them with a towel and left them. I'm sure that wasn't the attendant's fault -- it's the ship policy. It wouldn’t surprise me if the same glasses are still there for the next cruise.
The shows were not particularly good. The showband was great, and was usually the best part of the show. The entertainers that had shows were not very high quality. A good guitar player is not necessarily a good entertainer.
Greg Sampson was the best piano bar player I've ever seen. And the Amber strings were always good. When Wes and the showband members had shows they were always good, although the individual members who had shows were not that great. I got the impression that they simply used band members as the entertainment because it was cheaper than having real entertainers.
Repeated requests to find out what the pounding noise in our cabin was were passed off -- customer relations said i needed to talk to housekeeping; housekeeping said it was probably some maintenance going on but they didn't know what. 4 telephone calls, one trip to housekeeping, one trip to atrium, and finally someone came to our room and said he'd try to find out. Eventually the noise stopped. But hours, not minutes after complaining. After my first two calls they simply didn’t answer the phone for a while.
Internet service was the worst I've ever seen. The manager just explained that we couldn't expect to get internet in our room, or in the front or back of the ship, because the ship wasn't really set up for that. I bought the 24/7/14-day package and probably got 5% of that. If I moved from one spot to another on the ship, i lost connection. I could tell that the "counter" was still saying I was connected; but i couldn't do anything. If it had not been under a cruise ship terms, that would be fraud.
The Garden cafe had the lowest quality of food I've seen on a ship. Whatever we had for lunch was also there for dinner and then again tomorrow. Day after day, it was the same thing. And it's laid out and managed so poorly that it's really hard to get to the food. The lines of people trying to get one thing were in the way of people trying to get something else. And it seemed like the crew wasn't aware that people were not going to eat outside in the rain. There simply was no place to sit inside. They were really fast to take things while we were eating, but slow to clean tables for someone coming in.
I thought it was really strange that we were in an area with high quality wine and local fish, but we got Mondavi wine shipped from California, and generic fish chunks. Food was generally overcooked and dry. We ate at a restaurant off the ship whenever we could.
I was also surprised that the "ultimate beverage package" no longer included water. That seems like a ridiculous penny-pinching game.
The captain decided not to go to the Falklands "because of hurricane winds". I was watching weather forecasts regularly and they showed maximum gusts of 30 MPH. But he went all the way around the islands and wasted another day. The winds weren't that bad when we got into the area; they weren't any different when we left.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
The ship might be fun again when the captain changes. It was good to get off the ship almost at any place.
Ports of call
Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina
Port Stanley, Falkland Islands