NCL SUN SHIP TOUR!

So the moment you've all been waiting for....the SHIP TOUR!!! 

We will start with the lowest deck (that has things other than rooms of course).

This is the Atrium area. The credit desk and reception (you will also find the excursion desk here as well).

The atrium is just like I like ALL ships to be...huge, beautiful and stories tall with the glass elevators. This is what they looked like when I started cruising back in the 80's and it's just something I think all ships should have. It give it that WOW factor when you walk on board (unlike the newer ships like Epic, Getaway and even the Jewel class ships with only 2 stories tall. They just don't "do it" for me).

They had 4 glass elevators-2 on each side, which I thought was really nice. I have only been on ships that had the glass elevators on just 1 side.

The decor under the steps wasn't much to write home about and I have seen a lot better.

Riding the elevators up to the top.

Looking up to the top of the elevators, 11/12th floor area there was a glass dome

This is the atrium Cafe Bar. This was a Java Cafe that you could purchase lattes, specialty coffees, teas, and pastries and cookies from Carlos Bakery.

In the atrium on sail away day, they also had a desk set up right in front of this that you could purchase your soda packages and drink packages for the week.

Four Seasons Main Dining Room is up next and is their complimentary dining that is free of charge. It's located in the middle of the ship right by the atrium.

In the entrance, they had a large replica ship of the Sun. I believe I have seen this on one other ship before, but I can't remember which one. The only thing I didn't like about this is that it didn't have the hull art on it. :(

See all those available chairs? There's no chair hogging on this ship!

Our experience in this MDR was good. We didn't experience any lines waiting to get in, get seated, or even with the service. I have grown accustomed to waiting forever for a meal or service on the other ships and this was a pleasant experience and surprise this time around.

La Cucina (which was formally called Adagio on this ship) is one of their specialty restaurants for an added charge. It is an Italian restaurant and they charge $15 per person. It accomodates 74 people.

We have eaten here several times on the other ships. I have to say that I usually enjoy the experience and the surroundings on the other ships more than I do the actual food. (I don't really like red sauce, so always get the alfredo). So since we have done this dining venue several times, we did not go this time around. However this is where they took us for the VIP status on the first day for our lunch, so we were able to dine there and that was enough for me.

The area also was accessed on the 5th floor, but you entered an area and walked down the steps to the next floor for the dining. (It was like this on the Sky as well). You would almost miss it if you wasn't looking for it. It reminded me of walking into a stairwell of a building.

At the back (aft) of the ship is the Seven Seas Main Dining Room. It's almost the same as Four Seasons with just a few minor changes in decor....and well...it's located on the aft of the ship. This is a free of charge dining area and holds 526 guest.

What's nice about this area is the entrance, or the Seven Seas "Courtyard". It's like its own little atrium there and several stories tall with nice decor. They also used this area, since it was so huge, to set up props and backdrops to take pictures with the photographer in the evenings.

I am COMPLETELY convinced they put this sign up distinctly for my husband (or was forced to put it up because of a previous husband like mine on the ship).

There were also a set of restrooms, located under the stairs, for this restaurant.

The elevators located at the back here, had several elevators, but here's a tip.... When you pushed the button to go up, there was an elevator on the end that you would have to push a separate button if you wanted to use it. I got use to going between those 2 elevators and just pushing both buttons to see which one would win and arrive first. LOL But this held true for every floor and this elevator. If you wanted to use it, you had to push that button separate than the others.

I believe it was the only elevator that went all the way to the 3rd floor as well. The other elevators only went to the 5th floor??? Correct me if I'm wrong. (I mean after all, this was 2 cruises ago hehe). I just know there was something different about it and if you look at the pictures, you will also see that it has a down button where the others don't.

Since this MDR is basically the same as the other MDR, I only took pictures of the lights/chandelier, which fascinated me.

Completing Deck 5 will be one odd-ball picture that I'm throwing in of the entrance to the ship while we were still in port. It was almost time for the sail-away and I didn't see anyone running down it almost missing the ship. I guess that was a good thing. :D

So up one floor to Deck 6 now.

We will start in the Atrium area again. 

From the 6th floor looking down and up:

Want to burn off some of those calories from all the food you eat? Try taking these lovely stairs instead of the glass elevators.

Now I'm not 100% sure if the following was located on this deck or deck 8, but I'm including it here...just because I can.

They also had a wall of awards and such...

Now I did find it interesting that they had a few steps to go up and down toward the elevators. I believe it was like this on both deck 7 & 8. If you were in a wheelchair, I'm pretty sure if you went around to either side, there wasn't any steps for access back and forth.

I can tell you these steps caught me a little of guard the first few days. I don't recall any of the others ships having anything like this and can't imagine why they decided to do this on this ship.

I do a lot of "walking and snapping" pictures, so some do end up less than better quality with some blur. I especially do this on places that I have no interest in investigating a lot of times. Sorry about some of the pictures.

This would be one of my walk and snap pictures. It's the photo studio located within the atrium/elevator area on deck 6. They are called "Perspectives Studio"

Now that I'm looking at the "blue prints" online, I see that on the opposite side of this, in the atrium, is a play called the "Lifestyle" area. It says it has boards games and such. This must be what another poster was referring to. I really don't remember seeing anything there. Maybe I just missed it (well, obviously I missed it).

Located on both sides of this open, deck 6, atrium area is the Internet Cafe.

Here are the plans available on this cruise.

I will talk later about these Internet plans and answer any questions you may have on it (that I can). We DID end up purchasing a plan and using it and I know that it is talked about on here all the time with people wanting to know how it worked and especially about the SPEED. I will have all your info soon with screen shots of the internet.

Next up is Dazzles: A nightclub with a stage for dancing and a bar inside. Accommodates 292 people according to NCL's website...which I find funny since they hold the White Hot party in here for the entire ship if it's bad outside!!!

When you walk out of Dazzles, you walk into a little room with nothing but doors to the restroom before walking into the next bar. I couldn't imagine why they had these 2 doors with a little section (wasted space I thought) until one night I was in Dazzles and decided to walk over to the other bar and noticed how loud both places were but yet with those doors there, you couldn't hear a thing from the other side. Hmmm, mission accomplished by doing this.

Then you come to Windjammers Bar. It accommodates 110 people and it a bar with a little piano area for nightly entertainment. This is also the area that they let you store your carry on bags on the first day.

Ships is a box I call them.

On one side of this was several conference rooms. I did peak in and take a few pictures, but I didn't take pictures of all of them...I mean after all, they were just conference rooms and I was there to have fun and relax, not think about anything relating to a "work environment".

On the opposite side of Windjammers was the photo gallery area. (This would be the old system of looking at tons of pictures everywhere on the wall for that needle in a haystack that would be your family pictures taken around the ship, at port and so on).

This is also where they sold scrap-booking supplies and books, cameras and accessories, bobble heads and so on.

Just off to the side after the Photo Gallery, you have the library. We did go inside to browse around, but didn't check anything out at the time because they were closed. I do know that they seem to rotate who works in there for the short amount of hours they are open. (I overheard staff talking about who had "library duty" that time).

It was very pretty in there. They did have locks on the shelf doors, so you did have to wait until someone was there to check out the books. You were allowed in to browse without it being open.

They also had a bookcase that had books on it that were free to take. It was a take one, give one, leave one behind system. :)

So this completes my tour of Deck 6. I will include the Stardust Lounge in with my pictures from Deck 7, since that's the folder I ended up putting them in on my computer when I downloaded them. :) Up to Deck 7 we go....

Since we are in the back of the ship (when I left off), I will start with the Stardust Lounge (since it is located on both 6 & 7).

A very pretty hanging chandelier light that has an opening from below where you can see it on either deck.

The lounge has purple seats...Sakari's favorite color and she screamed with excitement at this.

I liked how they had separate chairs down below instead of the stadium/movie theater chairs. It was a very nice added touch to see the tables in front of them and some leg space. You don't get very much leg space on most of the ships and this actually reminded me a little of the Carnival Dream (which had the tables in front and plenty of room to get around each other).

Along the back of the second floor, they had some bar stools that sat at a long bar-like table

A different perspective of looking up at the chandelier light.

After walking out of the Stardust Lounge and down the hall, you will come to the Galleria Shop and Shopping Arcade.

I was fascinated by the ceiling (as you can tell since I took more pictures of it than the actual shopping). You will also notice that it's the first thing Sakari noticed and loved about the area as well.

Next up, the place I spend most of my time at and love to donate my money to.... 

The Sun Casino.

Once again, we are at the open atrium area with the glass elevators so time for more pictures of that area because you all know it's different looking down than looking up.

Then we have the Champagne Bar. This is where you can get premium champagne and vodka, caviar, pate, and foie gras (whatever that is). :confused: :eek: :p It says it holds 62 people.

At the end of the Champagne Bar is the hall for the Art Gallery. You will find art all over the ship (at least it seemed like it) for sale with information on it for the auction. I don't recall seeing so much art along hallways on the other ships as I did this ship (and the Sky).

You can tell, by the picture, that this is one of the side hallways on the side of the ship and it has a ramp instead of the 2 steps that you will find in the middle hallway leading to the elevators.

Just a few more pictures looking back at the atrium area before moving on.

Now the next thing I'm still trying to understand. 

This would be category OD, which is an ocean view room and category IF, which is an interior room.

They are located on Deck 6A, but accessible from deck 7 by stairs ONLY. There is NO elevator that will go down to this floor area. Weird I know!

It is called the Osto Deck.

I still can't figure out how this works though because there are cabins on the 6th floor, which would/should be in this area and yet these cabins are there as well? So how can you be standing on the 7th floor and walk down a flight of stairs (which would logically put you on the 6th floor) and there also be 6th floor rooms as well? Maybe I'm missing something. :confused:

I can't imagine anyone wanting to stay in these rooms and have absolutely no access to the elevator.

The steps leading down to the dungeon.

Last but not least on this floor...the Kids Korner/Splash Academy. Sakari's favorite place on the ship.

The kids can do art projects, play and run, play games, watch movies, play on the computer and much more.

There are always people on these boards that ask how the kids club is and while I don't have anything (other than Carnival) to compare it to (which I might add that Sakari hated and so did I), I think NCL has an AWESOME kids program. The structure every day with something different and it has a "theme" to it. One day you might find that it is "Pirate Day" and everything they do is pirate related. They made pirate hats, crafts, paint their faces like pirates and do a pirate parade around the ship singing songs and "hunting for the treasure". Another day could be the Prince and Princess Day and they do everything related to that. I just love their program and I know that Sakari begs to go there and fusses to leave, then begs to return as much as I try to give her options of things to do with us around the ship, she prefers to go there when she can.

Also, the counselors at the club are usually pretty awesome. They are not just people they hire off the streets to fill a position on the ship. These people have degrees all related in childhood development, child psychology, teaching and so on. They are A+ in my book. Enough said.

Now I knew ahead of time that this place was going to be a lot different than the design of your "normal" kids club area on the other ships and it was pretty cute with the stairs, being at the front of the ship, 2 story ceilings and the skylights. Then there's the round peep ship holes for the parents to peak in to this "parent free zone" from the hallway. Pretty darn cool I tell ya!

The hallway with the peep holes:

The bulletin board with the activities.

The entrance into the club...down the steps you go. 

Another neat thing that NCL started doing a few years back was a Circus show. The kids can practice during the week different skills/tricks and then on the last sea day, they put on a show in the theater for the parents and anyone who wants to come. They are divided up into age groups and do a skill that they learned. It's pretty cute. 

Across the hall from the 3-5 and the 6-11 is it??? Is the teen club. I didn't go in and just took this picture from the hallway.

So that completes Deck 7.

Now we will take you up to the 11th floor (since the rest of the floors are just rooms). 

We will start with the front as you get out of the elevators. 

You will have the Spa & Salon with the Sauna & Steam rooms on one side (which I did not go to or get pictures up...sorry, I completely forgot) and on the other side is the Aerobics and Fitness Center.

"Norwegians like to stay fit" (Not this Norwegian, this Norwegian likes to eat!!!)

As you walk out the door, you have the pool deck area.

You have the dance floor and stage, which is where they will hold numerous events like the sail away, White Hot party and so on. This area will also have plenty of live bands playing during the days and transforms into a beautiful array of colors in the evenings to light everything up.

There's a clock out there...just in case you lose track of time. (I myself am on "cruise" time and could care less). :D 

Immediately to your right, as you walk out of the door is your smoking area. It's very small and over flows down the line on most days because there are more smokers than tables and chairs.

Now I will take a moment to talk about this "smoking" issue and the new rules. I'm not here to ruffle any feathers or get a debate started, just stating the facts and things that I learned on the cruise.

Yes, I am a smoker and have been for many many years (hanging head in shame). I was raised in a family, back in the 60's when everyone smoked and it was the "cool" thing to do. My entire family smoked and I picked up the habit. I am not proud of it, and know it's a bad habit, but non-the-less a habit that's hard to break. Have I broke the habit before? Yes. It wasn't easy. I hope to do it again, but who knows. With that being said, I'm also a very polite and conscious smoker as well. Even if I'm in a smoking section, I make sure I'm not blowing smoke in someone's face, I'm waving it out of the way, I won't smoke around others that don't smoke and even when in places like the casino, if there's not someone smoking beside me, I won't smoke either. I have also been known to put it out if someone comes along and sits beside me that is not smoking (just because I don't know if they do or not).

Now, the new "rules", effective Nov 1st of this year is that you can no longer smoke on your balcony in the rooms. Did this effect me? No. I'm use to not smoking in the room since I have "normally" booked an interior and I go outside to smoke at home, so really there's no difference for me. I would much rather go outside to smoke in the Caribbean than at home in the snow. No complaints from me! (Well, I guess the only complaint is that I can't do it in my sleepwear...that would offend a few people!) LOL

I found the only smoking places on the ship was in this small area on the pool deck (11), on the aft across the entire deck on 12 and the casino. If there's more, I missed it.

Now let's talk about this small area on 11. I have already told you that there's more smokers than spaces. So, you get people crammed in there standing or flowing over on down the line. My only gripe about this place is...people that were smokers would come there and sit and never move. It was their hangout spot and not just that, they would hold a table (kinda like chair hogging) and go get their meals and bring it back to the table and eat taking up space. I mean come on, go eat your meal and THEN come to the area to smoke. No need to be taking up all the space the entire time. I consider these people inconsiderate!

I also did talk to other smokers who said that they WERE still smoking on their balconies and that if you came out on your balcony during the night and looked in any direction, you would see hands hanging over the railing with a lit cigarette in it. One guy I spoke with said he's not only still smoking at his balcony, but he's putting his cigarettes in a cup of water and the room steward empties it every day for him (so they obviously know). I'm sorry, but there are rules for a reason and those that break the rules are what makes it hard on the rest of us that abide by the rules and give us all a bad rep.

I also found people smoking while sun bathing...anywhere no matter what deck.

One last thing on smoking...the area that they have on deck 11 is right in front of a glass wall that is the fitness center. There was a lady that worked out in there every day and we would see her come in, look at everyone and go around closing the blinds to the place. By the next to last day of the cruise, this is what the smoking section looked like:

Notice it's gone? (It's the area just where the lounge chairs are stacked up). Well, according to the story, she complained about working out and having to look at the unhealthy people smoking and they picked up and moved the ENTIRE section to the other side. REALLY??? All it took was 1 person complaining about having to see it and they move the entire thing? My thoughts: how many years have the non-smokers been complaining about smoking on the balconies and how long did it take to stop that? Then this? I would be real interested in knowing if it's still on that side or if they moved it back. It was just weird.

Ok enough about smoking and on with the tour.

Notice there are not ANY slides on this ship. I can enjoy myself no matter what, but Sakari's first words when we hit the pool deck "Where are the big slides? I don't like this ship. Can we get on that one?" And points to the Carnival Pride docked in front of us. Sigh. I told her to live with it.

There were 2 of these round stairs on the ship and according to the blue prints on NCL, they are showers. I didn't discover that this was a shower until the next to last day. LOL I had always walked in front of them and not behind them because there were people sitting at the tables there. Once the hubby told Sakari "This is your new shower area" and she said "No way, people will see me!"

I can tell you on one side, it was NOT a shower, but the towel exchange area instead.

A few night pictures

The water that night reminded me of glass or ice

Next up is Topsiders bar at the end of the pool.

See these round bars strategically placed forcing you to walk one way or the other? They would create a bad traffic flow with the decks were full. They had tables and chairs up against the pool area, which made for a very tight squeeze most of the time. They didn't have any chairs placed against them, so maybe they discovered these things were not a good idea although you could tell they were supposed to have chairs since there was a rail around the bottom to place your feet, just like at the bar. There was people that would pull up the high chairs from the tables though to sit there, blocking even more of the traffic flow.

On one side you walk into the Garden Cafe. This is one of the free eating area's and it is the buffet. It says that it holds 194 people. You could get breakfast, lunch or dinner here.

The place was probably the smallest buffet I had ever seen before. But the seating area was plenty and extended toward the back of the ship before going out to the aft, which had more seating out there.

I have to admit, even though the area was small, we never had a problem finding a seat. The food selection however...

To the right as soon as you walked in, you would find the ice cream area. They had soft serve or regular scoop ice cream. This is also where you find the crepes!!! YUM! I visited frequently.

To the left of there was a drink station with coffee, teas, juices, water and the flavored drinks.

You would also find numerous drinks stations placed along the walk way of the buffet so that one area wasn't always crowded.

The lights in this place kind of reminded me of the Pearl/Jewel lighting.

On the opposite side (from the pool deck on the right), is Moderno. I have looked and looked and could not find pictures of this place. I find it hard to believe that I forgot because we spent a lot of time in here eating. They "might" be with my daily pictures of the review...we'll have to see.

However, during the breakfast times, you could go over to Moderno and eat breakfast. I was WONDERFUL and never crowded. I'm not sure if people just didn't know and headed to the buffet or what. But we loved it over there.

They had omelette's made your way, waffles made your way with all the toppings, a bar set up with fruits, cereals and such, a few tables set up banquet style with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and ???? why can I not remember what was in the 4th bin? Maybe some type of potatoes? Either way, it was plenty enough of a choice for us to fill our belly for a nice relaxing morning.

Right past Moderno was the Video Zone, which was of course an arcade. I never did see anyone in here at any given time when we would pass. I think the "video-arcade" days have long past myself. Everyone plays xbox or playstation at home. LOL

Next up would be the Sports Bar and we loved it here. It is the Sun's "Blue Lagoon/O'Sheehans" area although not open 24/7 like on most ships. Sigh*

Anyhow, you could get everything on the menu that you would in the Blue Lagoon and the food was yummy as always-just some wack hours IMO. LOL

See the penny machine? You could pick from 4 different backgrounds and pay $1 to get a penny (provided by the machine) smashed with the picture on it. Yes, we did it for Sakari and something to add to my scrapbook for the cruise. :D

There was t.v's with various sports playing all day long and in every direction for all of your sports fans.

Everything in here was sports related of course and they had signed memorabilia everywhere.

Heading out the back door to the aft, you will come to the Great Outdoors area. There's plenty of seating facing the wake of the ship and also more food! I love this area on the ships.

There's 2 sides and usually 1 side stays open longer than the other, but there's usually a decent selection of sandwiches that you won't find anywhere else on the ship, including the buffet. So it's a nice change.

They do seem to rotate hours with the Garden Cafe though. So, if one is open, usually the other is closed and vice versa. So it can be a hit or miss at times if you want to eat there.

There is also a drink station out there, so no need to run back inside for drinks.

Then there is a bar on the back as well.

Up to the next deck....deck 12.

We will start with Las Ramblas Bar & Restaurant. We passed through this area a lot during the cruise and we also had our meet & greet here as well. It's a cute little area and they had hot and cold Tapas, which we didn't try but it says it's complimentary. I knew that others stated the food in this area was like comfort food and it was free, but the food was behind the counter in a glass case and every time we went in, there either wasn't someone on the other side to serve you or I found others there and would pick out something and then go to the register and be rung up. So, I started doubting that it was a free dining area. I guess I didn't think about it until after the cruise that maybe they were purchasing drinks or something? I just know that every time I seen someone there, they were being rang up and a key card given.

The "sun" lights on the Sun. LOL

One last picture.

On the opposite side of Las Ramblas you have Le Bistro. I'm not a big meat eater, so we have never eaten here. However, when you come in the doors for the upper Deck (of 12) from the aft of the ship, you either go left into Las Ramblas or if you turn right, it's Le Bistro. However, this is not an entrance, but yet only has a curtain there. Of course, I had to stick my head in once to get pictures and one of the crew members gave me a really weird look.

Next up is Sushi/Ginza/Teppanyaki/Cagney's area. These were all located within Cagney's, which I thought was a little weird and they are all spread out. You really couldn't tell where one ends and another begins IMO.

This is a specialty restaurant that you pay for.

Before we move on down toward the front of the ship, I'm going to include a few odds and ends still in this area and the back of the ship.

Here is the 12th floor smoking area. It is across the entire back and right outside of Las Ramblas and Le Bistro.

Just a random picture I took while up there.

The elevators at the back (right outside of Las Ramblas and Cagneys) have 4 elevators. Once again, that LAST elevator is the one that you will need to also push that button in order to call for that last elevator. Otherwise, you are only waiting on the 3 elevators. 

One thing I liked about this ship is they had the rubber matting down on this entire floor/deck area. It made it easy to walk on without any shoes since it wouldn't burn your feet. I think this is an awesome idea! How many of you have had your feet burned when walking on the hot wooden deck? Yep, it's happen to me a lot and I'm doing a dance across the floor hopping like a bunny.

Random hallway

While walking toward the front, you have the Sports Deck which includes the shuffleboard (which I REALLY wanted to play but everytime the mood struck me, someone was already there), the basketball/volleyball court (which we didn't use on this ship, but did on the Sky).

Here you can see the enclosed net of the basketball court (shot from the 11th deck):

Moving along you have the rows of sun chairs lined up.

Champs bar is located up here and facing the pool area. I have to say that I really didn't see a lot of people utilizing this area (most were down by the pool itself getting drinks). Every once in awhile you would see 1 or 2 people up here (unless I was just passing by at the wrong times). A lot of the times I noticed it seemed closed too.

If you go to the left and head inside, you have the Chapel located here. It accommodates 25 people and is cute. I ask my hubby to remarry when we were in here. He said yes and then proceeded to want to make out. :p Geesh...men.

Heading back outside and over to the right side of Deck 12 you will come across the kids pool/hot tub area. THIS is where I would tell Sakari has a slide. She did not find me amusing after she seen it.

They also have a kids hot tub as well, which was nice, especially when it was a little chilly out. Now I do know that I read on these boards prior to going that this is a "unknown hidden gem for adults that want to get away from the crowded hot tubs and have the hot tub to themselves". Well, I did witness some adults using it for this purpose. However, it IS kids hot tub and area, so when I come along with my KID, who belongs in this area and not in the ADULT pool, don't sigh and get out like I just ruined your day....just saying! :rolleyes: My child is where they are supposed to be and not in "your" hot tub. End of rant.

Here are the doors to go inside and the restrooms. The restrooms are a single person restroom and quite roomy. It made it nice that you didn't have to go looking for one somewhere on the deck or inside...especially with children.

I really thought the painting on the walls and around the pool area was cute. I can tell you that Sakari could and has drawn these pictures before. I can guarantee that she could have had a job painting this area. She's such an artist.

They also had a few showers here as well.

Now if you have children here and you want to sit down and relax, the hot tub kind of blocks your view of the kids if you are sitting on a lounge chair.

However...and of course this depends on the age of your children, if you go up a small amount of stairs on this 1/2 deck, you have the PERFECT view of the entire pool area. It was a great spot. But of course, like I said, this would be if you have older children (like Sakari) that would be able to be left below kinda alone and not have to worry about them drowning or anything.

The Observation Lounge is on the front of the ship and pretty huge with beautiful wood floors.

If you think you want to be a Captain of a ship some day, here's where you can practice your skills. I'm pretty sure Sakari wrecked us that day.

In front of the Observation Lounge is a huge deck. There's plenty enough room for everyone here and plenty of seats (or at least that's what we found when we were up here). It's also a great place for sail away as well.

If you are up here at the right time during sailaway from the ports, you get to be blasted by the ship horn. (Always one of my favorite things to do to Sakari when she's not expecting it).

This is a little "in-between" deck (between 11 and 12) and this is the only other spot I could find that if you stood there, you could get a picture without having to battle the glare of the glass in your pictures. As you can tell, there's not a lot of room for people there and everyone wants that area for a picture.

Now it's time for just some random odds balls I'm throwing in. 

Here's a bathroom (obviously)

This is a picture of them constantly doing work on the ship to keep it in tip-top shape. I watched them do repairs on the cove base along the hallways by the rooms, I watched them caulking areas, I found them painting, I found them scraping off the non-skid strips on the steps on deck 12 leading up to Champs Bar. There's always some type of cleaning and restoring going on on every ship that I have been on.

I always give a tour of the artwork/painting on the outside of the ships on the decks. One day, later in the week, I discovered that I had not been outside on the deck (6) for these pictures yet. The hubby and I did a sprint walk around the entire ship taking these pictures (he's knows my true dedication and went along for the ride...errrr, I mean walk).

So here's the story. We are on deck 7 by the Stardust Lounge. I know normally there is a door there. I could not find such door to get outside. So, we are walking around inside looking for a door. Somehow we decided to go down to deck 6 and I finally decide to ask an employee how to get outside to walk. They pointed at the doors and I ask about the other doors on the other levels. I got a blank stare. Hmmm, why does she all of a sudden not understand me? Well I guess she must have thought I was nuts because....THERE IS NO OTHER DECK TO GET OUTSIDE. Oops. My bad. I'm not use to there only being 1 deck you can go out on. LOL (Embarrassed now).

So tail between my legs and out I go...here's your tour.

Normally they paint on the outside something that relates to whatever is directly inside within that area. However, with only having 1 deck you can walk on like this, they had to mix things up a little and involved everything all on 1 floor.

Notice that you have a side for "Walking" and a side for "Jogging"? I put MY side in the middle (and should have turned my name upside down) because this is my area and I can guarantee that I wasn't EVER going in the right direction.

Yea, we made it to the aft (peaking up to see if I see the Ma'ams hanging over the balcony)....nope. They must be at some wine tasting event. hehe

Oh my gosh does it ever end?

Of course it does...want to know why? Because the other side repeats what you just saw. Hmmm, I guess that was a good thing. No double pictures I hope since it took me awhile to discover this after thinking to myself "hmm, I swear I've seen this before".

Next on my list is the interior...stairwells, which for some reason always fascinate me. I inform the hubby we are now going to walk the stairs to take pictures of the artwork. He breathes a sigh of relief when I proceed to tell him that we will start at the top and walk DOWN the steps. hehe

I thought I would squeeze in a picture of the Sun elevator carpet...LOL

Up next is something I found interesting and odd (or at least from what I can remember).

Usually when you come out of the rooms/stairs section, the elevators are along the wall in front of you. On this ship it was actually around the corner longways.

Here's the steps and hallway (in the back of the picture) that you come to.

Then you'll go into this hallway where the elevators are.

On these elevators, you will need to push BOTH SIDES to call either side. If you push one side, it's the only side that will come. So, if you don't want to wait around for awhile, step over and push them both. 

Or, you can walk on down the hallway and you'll come to 2 of the glass elevators on one side, or walk around the open atrium area and the other 2 glass elevators are on that side.

If you are going up to deck 11 for all the fun and activities around the pool or the buffet. Once you exit the elevators, you will need to walk around the open atrium area.

You will follow the sign that says "Swimming Pool", which leads you yet into another hall.

This area is also where the fitness center is located and also where you will find the blinds closed because the lady does not want you watching her exercise.

Now I only decided to mention this because even though the Sun and the Sky are basically the same ship, the Sun is enclosed and the Sky is all open and beautiful. I really liked the Sky better in this area and you'll see why in my next review.

Next I will discuss the Internet and packages. We have NEVER purchased this before, but did purchase it this time around. My hubby owns his own business/store and he still has sales going on when we are on vacation and needs access to the Internet to complete orders and put in shipping for items to go out back home. We have always just used the Internet at whatever port we were in (but anyone that has read one of my previous reviews to Rose Hall in Jamaica and how that day went, you'll know why he tries to not stay on the Internet too long now).

So, we figured that this time around, we would give it a shot just in case there wasn't access at the places we had planned on using it.

Now I know that everyone on here has complained about how slow the Internet on the ships are. I mean after all, you are in the middle of the ocean in the middle of nowhere. It has been described at "as good or worse as the old AOL dial up back in the day". "Taking 5 minutes just switch from page to page" I'm here to tell you....it was NOT slow and was pretty darn fast in my book!!!! The pages loaded pretty quickly and there was no lag. We were pleasantly pleased with the service and will be using it again on our cruises. It was not slow by any means and kept up pretty darn good.

I want to apologize ahead of time for the pictures you are about to see. They are HORRID!!! I'm not sure why my camera was not focusing when I took them. In the screen viewer on the camera, they looked fine. Obviously they were not and they ended up blurry. So sorry, but you'll get the feeling for the Internet anyhow.

Once again, here are the packages they offer. We did not sign up on the first day so I have no idea what the "specials" were and how many minutes it included for signing up that day. We also used our own laptop and accessed the Internet from our room instead of using the ships computers. I can tell you that our PHONE service in our rooms while still in port was non-existent. So, this "could" indicate that also using our computers in our room might have been slower than using them up on the deck.

When you go to connect, it will ask you if you are a current user or new.

Once you click "new" you are able to register. It will ask you your name, cabin number and you will create your own password to use for signing on each time. Then it will ask you which plan you want. We chose the 250 minute plan just because we didn't know what to expect from this service.

Each time you use it, it will show you how many minutes you have remaining on your plan.

When you are ready to start...just click connect.

Once you are connected, you have a "main page". On that page you will have several things. There is a Google search (which I suggest using that page to do it because every time we tried to just go to another page or use the address bar, it did something crazy and we weren't able to get to where we needed. Using the page they have provided worked well (then again, it could have just been us lol) Then it will come up on another screen (with the homepage running in the background on another page).

Down below that page, it had tons of links provided that most people use. Just simply click on what you needed and away you go.

While you are online, you could always bring up the home page, which showed your counter ticking away at the time you are using.

Once you are done you HAVE to click to log off. Otherwise you will still be counting down your time. Don't forget to do this.

Once you have disconnected, it will tell you how much time you have been online and how much time is remaining still on your plan.

It also gives you an account history of your usage and dates along with the $$ used to purchase.

It's just that easy to use. Anyone who has been scared to use it because it's so slow and you won't be able to accomplish anything...I say go for it. We had an excellent experience on both the Sun AND the Sky.

Just a few things before I continue on with the daily review. Call it the "odds and ends" section. My apologies in advance for the blurred pictures. I always forget to put my camera on the "document" setting and macro for copying papers.

When you enter the ship, they hand you a card about the kids club if they see you with a child. This gives you information to sign the kids up: where and when.

Notice you have to have your key cards AND your childs to sign them up. You also have to give them a "password" that you will use every time you pick up your child(ren) before they will release them. They also allow 3 other people that you assign to pick up your child(ren) and they must be over the age of 18.

Sakari is a "SEAL" (ages 6-9), so this is the weekly events for Splash Academy. No, I don't have any for the other age groups...I have enough paperwork to pack and carry home. hehe

Here are the rules and regulations to Splash Academy. I have a few things pointed out that I will re-type a few things just in case you can not see it. They are commonly asked question that pop up on this board.

***Splash Academy closes on sea days 12pm-2pm and 5-7pm.

***The Youth Staff is not allowed to accept heavily crying or sleeping children into the Program. (I had never seen this before, but then again, I have never been given this form before until this cruise so it may be new). I would like to say that Sakari has been in there several times (mostly when she was a few years younger) and fell asleep and they just put her on a bean bag until we picked her up. Maybe things have changed now and they'll call you if they fall asleep.

***Children must be 3 years old to participate in Splash Academy based ON DATE OF BIRTH AT THE TIME OF SAILING. No exceptions can be made.

***Children turning 6 years old DURING the cruise and welcome to participate in the 6-9 year age group beginning embarkation evening. (Same for children turning 10 years old during the cruise and 13). For 3 years old, they can participate on their birthday.

***Children between 10-12 can be authorized by their parents to sign themselves in and out of the program after 2 hours of active participation.

***Port play-Port Play and Late Night Fun Zone ages 3-12 years. Port Play-there is a $6.00 meal charge per child if they are staying at Splash Academy and not going ashore with you. For Late Night-prices are $6.00 per child per hour and $4.00 for each additional sibling. Hours are from 10:30pm (which is when the center closes) until 1:30am. They like for you to sign up in advance.

I thought I would end day 1 with the daily. I forgot to post that before I started the ship tour. Forgive me. I'm posting the front page and the actual timed listing toward the last page.

I swear NCL bombards you with "mail", it's almost just like being at home and getting excited when the mailman comes only to find out it's a bunch of junk mail that just fills up your trash can and the land fill.

The following is a nice gesture and I wish we would have used it at least a few times during this cruise. It was part of the VIP status. However, breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and I love a variety, which is why we always go to the buffet instead of the MDR. I'm usually one of those people that wakes up starving (while the hubby is one that has to be up for awhile to actually get hungry) and when I'm hungry, I'm ready to eat THEN. Not have to order something and then wait for it to be made. So, we didn't utilize this offer.

Our invitation to have breakfast from 7am-9am on port days and 7:30am-9:30am on sea days and also lunch from 12 noon to 1:30pm in La Cucina.

Champagne event...thanks but no thanks.

VIP cocktail reception party hosted by the Captain that stated 7-7:45pm in the Observation Lounge. I would really love to attend one of these, however, it just never seems to coincide with what we might have going on that day. Usually it involves the kids club not open during this time in order for us to go.

For some reason, they sent a revision and changed the time of the party to 6:45 to 7:15. So, like I said, the reason we never get to go is because the kids club is never open during this time for us to drop Sakari off in order to go.

My letter for the meet & greet for the following day with information. 

Random picture...since NCL doesn't mail you your luggage tags anymore, I always make ours and then tape them up for stability, then staple them to our luggage. Depending on where you are located on the ship, you will be assigned a certain color. We were YELLOW and I thought this was highly appropriate, since it was the SUN. hehe

On the first day of the cruise, they give you this:

Although it gives you the times they are open to get this picture, I swear we went there right after the nightly show (around 9:30pm) and they were closed. So, we were unable to take advantage of this offer.

The following day, we were able to locate our picture.