First NCL cruise

Norwegian Sun Cruise Review

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 8
Helpful Votes: 176

Overall rating:

4.3 out of 5
Norwegian Sun

5 Night Western Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 03, 2020

Ship: Norwegian Sun

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 9254

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

First time on NCL. Overall experience similar to Royal Caribbean in style but with a bit of Carnivals fun attitude. I was concerned there may be lots of drunks onboard and there definitely was a few special couples but overall not bad. Would cruise NCL and the Sun again.

Embarkation

4 out of 5
We arrived shortly after 11am and had long lines but they moved quickly. On the ship in less than an hour.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5
MDR was mostly very good though a couple items came out cold and didn’t taste very good. Buffet food we tried was pretty good. Main complaint for both is limited menu selections, and deserts generally were okay at best. Brazilian steakhouse was awful. Similar restaurants on Royal Caribbean and land were far better. Waiter had too many tables to manage so service was slow as well. Cagney’s was very good.

Four Seasons Dining Room

4 out of 5

Same menu as Seven Seas. Four seasons is much larger and suppose to be the more casual of the two. Our only disappointment was variety and desserts.

Seven Seas Main Dining Room

4 out of 5

Food and service very good. More variety throughout cruise would be nice.

Moderno Churrascaria

1 out of 5

I normally love this type of restaurant but the meats here were a huge disappointment.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Lots to do at night but daytime activities were pretty sparse though thats been true on every cruise line we have tried.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

3 out of 5
Many staff seemed to be fairly new. Bar service was excellent. Restaurants was good. Room stewards rarely greeted us in hallways even when we said hello, our own steward kept room spotless but never learned our names and was not overly friendly.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5
You would never know the ship is twenty years old. Everything looks new, in general its fat better maintained than similar age ships we sailed with Royal and Carnival. Getting around was also pretty easy.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Very quiet and good space. Room steward kept spotless but this was the first cruise where the steward did not recognize us by name whenever we saw him. In fact most times he didn’t even great us.

Ship tip

Make restaurant reservations before you board.

Ports of call

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

5 out of 5
Great port, very nice to walk through.

Port Canaveral, Florida

5 out of 5

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

Traveler Photos

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