A taste of Alaska

Norwegian Sun Cruise Review

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 17
Helpful Votes: 452

Overall rating:

4.1 out of 5
Norwegian Sun

7 Night Alaska Glacier Bay (Seattle Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 29, 2022

Ship: Norwegian Sun

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

This was a first time to Alaska for my daughter so taking this itinerary which was what I consider a taste of Alaska gave her something to look forward to to return. For anyone who has been to Alaska before, this itinerary is just entirely too short in all of the ports.And I absolutely do not like the Norwegian port, Ward Cove, 7 miles away from Ketchikan. I think that we just made a mistake putting money into this port.

Embarkation

5 out of 5
Incredibly fast embarkation due to the amount of guests on the sailing.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5
As with any cruise there were excellent meals and there were so so meals and there were awful meals.

Seven Seas Main Dining Room

5 out of 5

This dining room was only open for breakfast and lunch. It was closed in the evening because of the amount of guests on board. We were only at 25% capacity.

Garden Cafe

5 out of 5

The Buffet was very good. Selections changed every day with a theme in the evening. A problem that they do have in this area is a very narrow walkway where the beverages are. It always got very crowded.

Four Seasons Dining Room

4 out of 5

Most of the dinner meals were excellent. There was a couple that were a little overdone but that’s to be expected.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
The activities on board where your standard cruise ship activities, trivia, fun little games, arts and crafts, etc.

Entertainment

5 out of 5
Generally the entertainment was very good. The comedian did two shows during the week and he was very funny. There was a solo male singer who was excellent especially when he sang in Italian.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
This is a bit of a mixed bag. As far as cleanliness goes, you would not know the ship was over 20 years old. It Is very well kept. The layout of the ship is very confusing. You have to walk through several bars to get to the atrium and the seven seas dining room is in a obscure area in the back of the ship under the theater.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5
We did the Royal Up bid and ended up in a standard balcony on deck 10. The beds were split into twins and by doing that it was extremely difficult to walk from the bathroom to the couch without scooting in between an area that was less than 6 inches from the end of the bed to the desk. If the rumors for one person it would be fine to people sharing a bed, probably OK but two people sharing a room with twin beds-no

Ship tip

This ship is one of the smallest ships in the Norwegian fleet. Although it’s in good shape, I think it’s just outdated and it’s decor, layout, amenities.

Ports of call

Seattle, Washington

5 out of 5

Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), Alaska

5 out of 5
Amazing day out and about looking for Wales. We saw two breaching whales, whales slapping their tail on the water numerous times, and a couple sea lions.

Juneau, Alaska

5 out of 5
Our itinerary had us docking at 2:30 in the afternoon and leaving at 10 PM. Mt. Roberts tram stopped running at 6 PM, many stores were already closed for the season, and the streets were somewhat ghost like. We went out to Mendenhall glacier and could not take many of the trails because they were flooded, including Nugget Falls which you couldn’t even get close to. But we did experience the most beautiful full rainbow going from nugget falls over the mountain, extremely vibrant.

Victoria, British Columbia

1 out of 5
We were supposed to be in Victoria by 8:30 PM we did not rive until 9:30 PM and our excursion was canceled. We left Victoria at 11:40 PM.

Cruise Glacier Bay

3 out of 5
Extremely foggy time around all the glaciers in this park. Somewhat difficult to see.

KETCHIKAN (WARD COVE), ALASKA

5 out of 5
Our excursion at this port was at 7:30 in the morning. We only had till noon so we really weren’t able to see any of the town itself. The Norwegian port is 7 miles away from town which is Not convenient at all. But the kayaking adventure we went on was very nice and we saw many animals while we kayaked in extremely smooth water with sunshine.

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
Extremely quick disembarkation. I’d have to guess that everyone was off the ship by 830.

Traveler Photos

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7 Comments

byhisgrace    2 years ago

Thanks for your review

WRS31    2 years ago

Thanks for the review, The Sun was our first Norwegian cruise it’s an older ship but a well kept one.

JustCruz    2 years ago

Thanks for the feed back on the Sun & the Ports. We were concerned on the Ward Cove as it does look quite away from Ketchikan.

AuntPinkie    2 years ago

Appreciate your details. Glad you enjoyed your taste of Alaska (for your daughter).

WhippetMum    2 years ago

Thanks for your feedback

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

javawoody    2 years ago

Thanks for the review

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