Norwegian Sun Review
Rating by category
Additional details
This is my first shot at this; I will try to cover everything as best I can. We took the NCL Sun out of Port Canaveral for a 3 day cruise that visited Nassau day 1 and the private island Great Stirrup Cay on day 2. We’ve cruised on NCL 7 times including this one (Sky x2, Dawn, Spirit, Pearl, Epic). We like that we know what to expect. I’ve never been on another cruise line, although my partner has. We chose this cruise as a quick mid-summer vacation over a weekend.
Side note: As a tip for others, we’ve cruised out of Port Canaveral 3 times and used the park and shuttle service at the Radisson every time. It’s about $10 a day and they handle your luggage on the shuttle and make sure it gets to the porters at the curb at the port. We have received good service from them, but anything beats paying the high port parking charges.
On embarkation Friday, we decided to try something new, and get to the port early. We hate the long lines at check in; it’s always hot, the employees are slow, don’t care/can’t do anything to help, and people are testy. So this time, we arrived at 10:30am.
Cabin Review
Aft-Facing Balcony
If you read the full text review, you'll notice that we got to see 2 cabins on this cruise. Both were configured exactly the same, but the cabin we ended up in was aft-facing and has slightly better appointments (nicer throw pillows and furniture). But it was LOUD, and vibrated like crazy. We'd never want an aft-facing room again. The second cabin was very clean, just as the first one should've been.
Port Reviews
Great Stirrup Cay
We’ve been to the private island 5 times, and it’s always a highlight of our trip. Once you get off the tender boat, you are free to do whatever you want for the day. We enjoy snorkeling and bring our own equipment to save rental fees. I’ve never rented the NCL equipment on the island, but I’ve seen plenty of people having trouble w/ it, and it looks cheap. For the price of one rental, you can buy a high quality mask/snorkel and keep it forever. I have my own fins too, but you probably don’t need them for casual snorkeling here. Again, the ones they give you in the rental package are very small and cheap. They are working to place man-made sculptures and other items along the ocean bottom, most of it is cheesy but fish seem to like some of the statues. The snorkeling spot is about 75 yards out away from the main beach along some rocks, pretty easy to get to. When you’re done w/ recreating, you’ll be hungry. They have a buffet that’s pretty typical for NCL that goes until 2 or so in the afternoon, then they close it down. The food spot is pretty easy to get to no matter where you choose to set up your chairs. They seem to be adding more and more stuff every time we’re there; they’re in the middle of building a lighthouse right now. I would suggest walking down a ways along the beach (to the left), you’ll find less crowds and more shady spots for the taking, but all with easy beach access. The tender process to/from the island is always a tricky proposition, people are always anxious and cranky both ways, but especially on the way back to the ship. It’s worse when the sea is misbehaving, but this time it wasn’t so bad.
Port Canaveral (Orlando)
We got on the ship here, and it's always pretty easy to get in and out of PC, but I will add something that might be of help: if you have a chance to visit Kennedy Space Center, you should do it. We went 2 cruises ago afterwards, and it was GREAT! One of the best museums I've ever been to. Absolutely fascinating. It's kind of pricey, but it's definitely worth it. It took about 5 hours to see everything.