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Emily

Age: 28
Occupation: coordinator
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Norwegian
Ship: Sun
Sailing Date: March 14th, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

This was my first and probably my last cruise. Prior to cruising I didn’t know much about cruises – my mistake! I love to travel and after cruising have come to the realization cruises are for people who want to vacation but do not like to actually travel. This is not the vacation choice for people on a budget.

The boat itself was nice enough – basically it’s just a huge hotel you can’t leave. It mostly consists of the guest cabins. There were lots of restaurants and bars, altho more than half of the restaurants are an additional charge. I only ate at the included “free” restaurants.

Basically be prepared to spend A LOT of money. Don’t be fooled into thinking that approx. $1,000 for the cruise includes anything. If you want a glass of juice at any time other than breakfast – be prepared to pay $1.73 for it. You are automatically charged a 15% tip for every transaction and you are charged $10 a day per person to cover gratuities for your cabin stewards and restaurant staff (even if you eat at the buffet and keep the do not disturb sign up). Even if you don’t buy the outrageously expensive shore excursions ($45 to $100+ per person) – be prepared to pay for transportation to anywhere beyond the port, and admission to everywhere. And bring cash for shore excursions – anywhere that takes credit cards will be very expensive and the on-boat ATM charges $5! If you plan to buy anything at the on-board duty free shop, wait until the last day when everything is 20% off.

The food is ok. It’s not great, after all it is mass-produced, but it’s not awful. There are very few choices for vegetarians. I was disappointed in the healthful options. The two main sit-down restaurants featured one appetizer, one entrée and one dessert from the Cooking Light recipes they boast – but if you don’t like that one choice, you’re stuck with the full-fat menu (about 4 or 5 choices in each category, and the menu changes daily). The wait staff was hit or miss. We had a different server every meal and some were awesome and some were terrible. I was there as part of large group of friends and we found the restaurants simply could not accommodate all of us at once, even when we called ahead and let them know we would be a party of 15. Even if they gave us a large table (2 out of 4 times) we were not served at once, with a full 5 minutes or so between first meal served and last.

The buffet changed daily as well, although there were some constants (burgers, hotdogs and bad pizza everyday for lunch, assorted breads, cheeses and fruit at all times). The salad bar lacked peppers, carrots, radishes, and low-fat dressings. Other than the limited salad selection, there were no healthful choices (even grilled fish was sitting in a pool of cream sauce) and the buffet had extraordinarily limited vegetarian options. The buffet sits between the back stairs/elevators and the pool, so it is not only a restaurant but also a major thoroughfare. No matter where you sit expect high traffic walking by you at all times.

The coffee was awful everywhere, all the time.

The 2 pools look small considering the size of the ship, but once you go in them you understand why they were always empty – they were always freezing! The hot tubs seat about 6 to 8 adults and were always crowded. While sitting poolside – get a towel early, they ran out of them by mid-day (altho I must say the staff was very quick about picking up used/abandoned towels to free up empty chairs!) We were asked approximately every 7 to 10 minutes if we needed a drink, even if we had a drink in our hands.

Beers average $3 each if you buy 6 at a time, $4 individually. Mixed drinks are $5 to $7. All drinks include an automatic 15% “autogratuity” and you pay per drink - you cannot run a tab, even in a restaurant. If you get your “souvenir” cup refilled it’s a $1 off the drink, so save your last cup of the day, to bring out the next day!

There are 24 computers in the “Internet Café” and they were never all occupied. I logged on for less than 10 minutes and was charged $17.

As for shore excursions – be prepared to wake up early. Also be prepared to not see the country. At least 1, if not 5 other cruise ships joined each port we stopped at. At an average of 4,000 passengers per boat, that means the majority of people you encounter at port will be cruise passengers, and the whole area surrounding the port will be solely a “tourist trap”.

At Jamaica, if you did not buy a shore excursion, don’t bother with the “shopping”. Just take the bus or a cab ($7 per person) directly to the beach. The shopping is just a bunch of tourist stores selling over priced t-shirts and such. Vendors, cab drivers and people who want to braid your hair will constantly harass you. If you go to Dr. Cave’s beach (admission $5 p.p.) you can get your hand stamped for re-entry. You can walk to tourist shops, the post office and Margaritaville. The beach has a bar that sells limited food (burgers $2) and drinks (Red Stripe $2, soda $1). You can rent chairs and umbrellas ($7-9) and snorkel masks ($5). There are large trampolines floating out in the water for all to enjoy. Once you are ready to re-board the ship there are a few more tourist shops for shirts, knick-knacks, liquor, jerk sauce, etc – these ones take credit cards.

On Grand Cayman when you get to port find one of the independent tour guides (there will be plenty!) and take the $15 island tour (if you buy an excursion, you will probably be able to do this quick tour afterwards). They will take you to Hell (trust me, the 15 minutes they offer is plenty of time), to the turtle farm (additional $4) and the Tortuga rum factory. The whole tour is short and will still allow you plenty of time to shop and walk around. You can rent snorkel gear (mask, fins and vest) for $12 or scuba gear for $75. You can take a submarine tour for $80. Some friends bought the boat’s stingray excursion and were very unimpressed. Beer on Grand Cayman is expensive at $6 a bottle. The US dollar is very weak there.

At Costa Maya we were warned there is nothing to do if you don’t buy an excursion, so we bought the Mayan ruins tour. It was very crowded as a few hundred people from our cruise also bought it, as well as a few hundred people from the other ship, the Grand Princess, which was also at port that day. Despite the crowds it was awesome to see the ruins and our guide was well informed. If you take this tour, bring water (or they sell 12 oz. Bottles for $1 there) and wear comfortable shoes as you will be walking and climbing stairs it the hot sun for a few hours.

By the way the warning about nothing to do was not at all true. On our way to the tour buses (the ruins were approx. 1 hour drive each way) we passed through what can only be described as an outdoor Mexican themed mini-mall. There was a kiosk in the center selling independent tours – horseback riding, kayaking, mountain biking, etc (and much cheaper than the ship’s similar tours!) There is an American-Mexican restaurant, a man-made beach and a pool in the mini-mall, as well as plenty of stores. Remember no price is final – you MUST haggle with these vendors or be totally ripped off. I got an enamel hair barrette for $8 – the first vendor wanted $35 for it!

At Cozemel we took a cab ($9 p.p.) to the Parque Naturale (admission $12 p.p.) where we settled under permanently installed umbrellas on weird little beach seats. The beach is man-made, as Cozemel does not naturally have sandy beaches; rather the water ends at a rocky coast. There are stairs cut into the rock at few places to easily get in the water, which gets deep (over 6 feet) almost immediately. We rented snorkel gear (mask, fins and vest) for $9. This is the place to snorkel! There were beautiful fish and sunken sculptures to see. The park also has a nice nature trail with Mayan replicas and plenty of lizards! Buckets of beer ($12 for 6), brought to you by waiters on the beach include a bag of chips and VERY spicy salsa.

Overall the cruise, while pleasant was so expensive I couldn’t really enjoy it. If I had simply been charged an extra $500 up front perhaps I would be less annoyed, but to pay so much and still get nickeled and dimed at every turn with automatic tips (don’t they stop being “tips” when I have no choice but to pay?) and not one single free beverage served to me other than coffee and water in a sit-down restaurant. And while the ports were awesome weather, I don’t travel to see 20,000 other Americans – I want local culture, which is simply not an option as a cruiser.

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