[ Cruise Reviews ]  [ Port Reviews ] [ Cruise Chat ]  [ Cruise Links ]  [ News ]

Brian Mckellar

Age: 55
Occupation: Industrial Sales
Number of Cruises: 4
Cruise Line: Norwegian
Ship: Sun
Sailing Date: March 21st, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Dear readers:
My wife, sister in law, brother in law, and I recently completed our 2nd cruise on norwegian sun. Having been on the sun in 2001 and enjoyed the experience so much, we started planning for 2004. We booked our cruise in summer 2003 with hope we would get preferred air travel and upgrades. Well we got the upgrade from deck 8 to deck 10. The flights we could have got last minute. Flight down okay Ottawa 6am to Montreal, 10am to Miami. Arrived 1 PM.

NCI rep meet us .Put us on the bus to the Ship. Got into Latitudes line at the dock, only a few people in line. (Note this the only time on the trip that being a Latitudes member would mean anything. So much for being a repeat customer). The Room we had been a balcony unit, our companions were a cross the hall in a large inside cabins.

Both rooms are very nice. The ship sailed, destination Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Costa Maya. And Cozomel Mexico. All the ports of call were great; we opted to just walk around these towns and shop shore excursions very pricey.

The second day out we began to feel the great expectation for this cruise we beginning to fade. Very poor service in the Garden Café and outdo café. Their seemed to be a shortage of staff which snowballed the rest of the cruise. In the main dining rooms service was fine as was the pool deck and bars. Of coarse they make money in some of these areas. We also give 10 out of 10 for the room cleaning staff. they were great.

The second day out there was an invitation to latitude member’s cocktail party. Their re prizes including a free cruise for 2. It started at 4pm and lasted till 4.45 there were free drinks if you could get one. Three servers for 300 people. We managed to get a drink at 4.25 never saw the food trays. It turns out you had to stay for the bingo afterwards and buy tickets for this free cruise. Another free giveaway included with our tickets was free pull on a slot machine for another free cruise. Consolation prize you get a free film developed if you bought their 24.95 picture of you coming on board. I m laughing at NCL. We never did here of anyone winning a few cruise.

What really disappointed us the most was the food. Having been on the sun before we so enjoyed the meals in both the café and the main dining rooms. We ate 2 dinners in the main Prime Rib 1 night, Lobster another, both very good. The other nights the menus were very fancy, some of the item ii could not tell you what they were so we opted to eat in the upstairs café. This was a big mistake as half the ship was doing the same thing. The café has 3 serving stations for meals of which all are open for breakfast and lunch. Dinner I guess doesn’t rate because only 1 station is open. Long lines, food service trays empty, no choice on cuts of meat, (I like rare meat, only well done available). Pork chops served on 4 nights and other items so spiced up you could not eat them. Another problem was their coffee machines; they have 6 in different areas of the café. On 4 days out seven 4 machines were broken and 2 were empty. When you able to get coffee it were so strong people were watering it down. There is one food item I would like to tell the readers about. I like scrambled eggs, Norwegian sun Version am egg soup, egg floating in water. This just gives s you an idea of what they was serving.

Another serious problem in there outdoor café. The outdoor chair was stained and dirty. Some mornings even wet because they hose down the area just before breakfast. What a treat. The staff cleaning the of dishes in this area seem to be striking against the company because no body was working very fast.

Disembarkation was terrible. Our flight that Norweigan had booked for us was out of fort Lauderdale at 7:15 at night. We were the first people to have to get off the ship. We had to wait an hour for our bags to come off and were surprised to find them damaged. My sister in laws nearly ripped open had to fill out claim for damaged goods. We don’t expect they will do anything for us. They bus us to the airport 900am. Waited till 3pm to get rid of our luggage

Because air Canada would not take it early. Our flight arranged by NCL Fort Lauderdale 715pm to Toronto, 1215 to Ottawa. When we get to the ticket counter we find out there is a direct flight to Ottawa leaving at 605 PM arrive Ottawa 915 PM and there were lots of open seats, so we changed our tickets. NCI did a very poor search jobs for us.

NCL if your reading This you lost us as customers. We will do our own Flight Arrangements In future. I’m hopping other passenger on this cruise do the same with a review. Norwegian needs to wake up. We spent almost 10,000 dollars and were very disappointed.

Brian Mckellar
Ottawa, Not. Canada

Ask a Question About NCL, Norwegian Cruise Lines

Home Based Travel Agent