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NCL - Norwegian Cruise Line
Norwegian Sun Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

Linda
Age: 31
Occupation: Video Game Producer
Number of Cruises: 2
Sailing Date: December 17th, 2006

This was our first cruise with Norwegian, and it will be our last. I went on this cruise with really high hopes and left very disappointed. The only thing this cruise line cared about was getting more money out of your pocket.

I will try to cover the areas that affected us the most:

Children: If you are a couple or a group who enjoys having dinner, a drink in the bar, or a nice relaxing time by the pool this is not the cruise for you. Kids were everywhere running wild and screaming all the time. When we asked the staff is there any where on the ship where we can have a drink and get away from the kids the staffed smiled and said “your room”. The pool/hot tubs were over run with kids screaming and jumping in (esp. the hot tubs) with no parents in sight. While we were sitting in one of the four hot tubs (the rest had at least 5 kids each) with a drink (in a plastic cup) one of the staff came over and informed us “no drinks in the hot tubs”. We pointed at the 4 signs which said “No glass or bottles allowed” and he repeated no drinks allowed and pointed at the safety rules on the far side of the hot tubs. I got out and read it and it said “No drinks allowed”, ok fine, but right under that was “No kids under the age of 16 allowed in hot tubs without accompanying adult”, we mentioned this to him and all of a sudden he couldn’t understand us and walked away. We learned very quickly that the only rules enforced have to do with the cruise making more money.

Drinks: If you are on a budget like us and you enjoy a few drinks now and again, this cruise is not for you. A six pack a beer is 22.50 (plus they add on 15% gratuity automatically) and that is with a deal “buy 5 and get the 6th free” and a mixed drink with one shot in it is about $8.00. They confiscate all alcohol when you board (and they search your bag at embarkation and when returning from each port). Hint: Don’t be fooled by the ad you get in your room on the first day that says come to the duty free shop on the ship and buy two bottles of (insert type here) for this price. On the way down there we heard multiple people complaining, but we continued on. We get there and the sales guy informed the people in front of us (after they bought it) that they can pick it up after the cruise. They returned the stuff and got their money back, but didn’t leave too happy. We went back to our room and read that ad cover to cover and it never mentioned this would be stored until the end of the cruise.

Food: Food was terrible in the non pay dining room (buffet style). The formal dining rooms (which you pay $10- 20 per person to get into) were good. The sushi was definitely worth it.

Hint: The dining rooms have dress codes (no jeans, shorts or tank tops). But this is not enforced, so wear what you want (I prefer jeans anyway). Because each time we were in the dining rooms about half the people were wearing jeans (we only saw 3 in shorts), but out of approximately 50 people it was pretty high. When we mentioned this to the managers on duty, we were first told it was due to the cold weather. Then later it was changed to “they lost their luggage”. So be careful between the airline and cruise it seems more than half of the passengers will lose their luggage.

Onboard Activities: There is nothing really to do if you are over the age of 12 or under the age of 60. Some of the on board day activities were napkin folding classes, money counseling for couples, watch someone sculpt something out of ice or vegetables. And the adult only activities did not start till about 11:00pm, so you had to wait around until then to do anything.

Ports:

Costa Maya Mexico, Belize and Cozumel were great. All of them had lots of excursions and easy access to local beaches if you just want to relax.

Santo Tomas, Guatemala- Ships docks in a shipping yard. If you don’t do an excursion there is nothing here. Everyone said the waterfalls were nice, but extremely crowed since it was one of the only excursions to do. When you get off there is a small warehouse to shop in and that’s it. We walked out the gate and were bombarded by the local kids each asking for a dollar (not just asking they were touching and grabbing you) and then the cab drivers set in. After about 5 minutes outside the gate we were asked over 20 times by cab drivers asking if we wanted a ride (and not one of them took no for an answer we had to a say it at least 3 times), so we headed back in. Back on the ship we were talking to some of the staff and they mentioned not to go into town because it was dangerous. This port should be taken off the cruise itinerary.

Overall I would give this cruise a 1.5 out of 5. Our cabin was nice; the balcony was worth the extra money.







 

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