The blogs here are posted in reverse chronological order so you would expect the "planning" and "introduction" sections to be at the end.... well, that's assuming that I wouldn't inadvertently delete those posts!
So here I am, at the end of my blog, putting up a post that should have been published months and months ago. I am going to combine the start with the end because I'm nothing if not efficient!
I got an invitation based on past play from Casinos At Sea to take a cruise of my choice in a balcony cabin, fully comped except for Taxes and NCF. Rather than select one of the flashy, newer 4k-5k passenger mega ships, I selected the quaint little Sun with its 1900 passenger max. The ship is the same size as the Sky which I had taken Sara on a couple of years ago. I knew Mike would be fine with it as he doesn't go in for rock climbing, water slides, or any of the other new features that are out there fleet wide. Neither of us can stand crowds. Since it is an older ship, I wasn't sure what I would find as far as the condition but the Sun is a beauty. Absolutely pristine in cleanliness with only slight signs of wear (our balcony had some rust, for example, which they sanded and painted over two days while we were in port). This is not a ship for someone who needs to constantly be entertained, but it is perfect for those who remember what cruising used to be like in the halcyon days before mega ships came into play.
We had a mid-ship balcony cabin port side on the 9th deck. Tip for other cruisers taking this route: it doesn't matter which side your cabin is on, the ship docks portside half the time and starboard the other half. Deck 9 was ideal with cabins above and below and everything that we ever wanted to do was either two decks up (pool, restaurants, gym) or two decks down (casino, shopping, theater). The only downside was that there are no stairs in the area of the midship atrium elevators so while it was only a couple of feet to walk to the elevators, we had to go all the way to the front or back of ship to access stairs. Why do we need stairs when the elevators are right there??? Because I would have gained 14 pounds instead of 4! While the food as a whole was just okay (rather than fantastically blog worthy), there were a couple of things that do stand out. For breakfast each day in the Garden Cafe/Buffet they had a made-from-scratch coffee cake, fresh out of the oven. Like a cinnamon bun, but so light and fluffy and the iced topping was also so light and creamy....I am actually salivating as I type this! At lunch time, in Moderno they had pretzel bread which is another of my favorites so I had to have 2 daily. Also, on every day except 3 & 7 (unbelievable that I actually know this) the dinner bread basket contained these awesome mini multi-grain rolls, 4 of them stuck together. How many did I eat each day? Four! And let's not forget the soft ice cream machine -- what day could be complete without a chocolate cone? Did I eat anything besides bread and icecream you ask? In fact, my ultimate favorite dish on the ship was a Chicken Scallopini served in the Main dining room an if I could have ordered that every day I would have!
When I get a chance I'll come back in here and add some photos, and probably more commentary, but I wanted to get this posted.
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