Sun and Fun on Norwegian Sun

Port Canaveral

We didn’t realize that this cruise left on Friday the 13th when we booked it. Not that it would have mattered - we just wanted to go somewhere the first weekend possible. :-)  But I was starting to wonder if we’d made a mistake when two days before the cruise, I came down with a cold and the night before the cruise our air conditioner stopped working. First thing Friday morning we frantically called up air conditioner companies and made arrangements for our friend Bob to meet the repairman that evening. Thank goodness for good friends! I was feeling pretty frazzled by the time we got on the road, but then Zac Brown Band’s “Castaway” came on the radio and I got into the island state of mind. “Pour me another one, make it a strong one, we’re gonna have some fun tonight. Just like the other one, make it a double rum, we’re gonna castaway tonight.” Bahamas, here we come!

It was almost noon when we boarded the ship so we went straight to the Great Outdoors, the buffet area at the back of the ship, for lunch and a celebratory “welcome aboard” drink (a mojito for me, of course). Then we explored. It didn’t take long to find our way around since Sun’s layout is almost identical to her sister ship, Sky, which we’ve sailed on three times. Sun was just refurbished in April and looked great! All the carpets and curtains had been replaced and everything was fresh and modern. Our cabin had been remodeled too. There were even decorative pillows on the bed so, for once, the cabin actually looked like the pictures on the website. And we had a coffee maker, a first for us on a cruise. We’d booked a guarantee balcony cabin and had been assigned a mid-ship cabin on Deck 9. It was a great location, convenient to everything and quiet, and we loved having a balcony. The only problem was that the cabin smelled! That was ironic since we had just told Bob a few days before that we had never had a smelly cabin. I guess we jinxed ourselves. We usually book the short, weekend cruises where the ships tend to be older, so we’ve smelled our share of sewer-y, old ship smells but never in our cabin.

Welcome aboard!

The ship left Port Canaveral at 4 o’clock and we watched the sailaway from our balcony. Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas and Disney’s Dream joined us as we headed out to sea. We ended up spending the next three days following each other around the Bahamas. :-)  After unpacking and a quick nap, we headed to dinner in the Four Seasons dining room. Sun had two main dining rooms, Four Seasons and Seven Seas, as well as six specialty (extra-charge) restaurants and a sushi bar. For such a short cruise, we didn’t see any reason to spend more money on the specialty restaurants. Four Seasons was a little more casual than Seven Seas, so we ate there so Ron wouldn’t have to change into long pants. I ordered salmon tartare, French onion soup, and swordfish salad, which were all very tasty. We skipped dessert so that we could watch the sunset, figuring we could get something “dessert-ish” from the Champagne Bar later. That was when I remembered that I’m not a fan of the open bar on Norwegian’s 3- and 4-day cruises. Instead of offering beverage packages where you pay a set package price for unlimited soda and alcoholic drinks, the entire ship was open bar. The system was set up to be fast, but the drink selection was really limited. At the Champagne Bar, when I asked for a chocolate martini, the bartender said they were “not allowed” to make drinks that weren’t on their menu. I got the same story at two more bars – if you wanted a martini, your only choices were a classic, a Cosmo or a French. Sigh…  We finally gave up and went to the buffet for ice cream, then took a walk around the deck before heading to bed.

sailing next to Enchantment of the Seas

Nassau

Disney Dream arriving in Nassau

When we woke up Saturday morning, the ship was already pulling into Nassau. Our plan for the day was to see the sea lions at Blue Lagoon Island. I’d wanted to do the sea lion encounter ever since our first trip to Blue Lagoon back in 2009. Ron wasn’t that excited about sea lions so we decided that I would do the encounter by myself and Ron would get an observer pass so he could come with me and take pictures. We had to be at the Paradise Island ferry terminal by 10 o’clock, so we went ashore around 9:15 to make sure we had plenty of time to catch a taxi. Taxis to Paradise Island are shared (usually with people going to Atlantis) and it can take a while to fill up a van. But with five cruise ships in Nassau that day, it wasn’t a problem. It was a 30-minute ferry ride from Paradise Island to Blue Lagoon and once we got to the island, we made our way over to the sea lion enclosure. Fortunately, we already knew how to get there because there wasn’t anyone at the dock to direct traffic. The staff mainly seemed to be pointing people to the new “VIP” area that had opened since our visit.

In case you’re wondering how California sea lions ended up in the Bahamas, it all started when Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Mississippi in 2005. After being cared for at Sea World in Orlando for a year, the six displaced sea lions from Mississippi found a permanent home at Blue Lagoon. Now, twelve years later, Blue Lagoon has eight sea lions, four males and four females. One of the original Katrina sea lions is still living but the others were all born at the Blue Lagoon facility.

At the enclosure, I joined two other people who would be doing the encounter with me. The three of us walked down to the waist-deep water to meet our trainer, Keva, and our sea lion, Charlotte. Keva gave us some information about California sea lions – males are much larger than females and a darker brown color, they can dive for up to 10 minutes and swim 15 miles per hour, they are social animals and live in both the water and on land, coming ashore to rest, mate and molt. Molt? I guess I’d thought of sea lions as being hairless, like manatees. The photographer took pictures of each of us giving Charlotte a hug and then we got to feed her some fish and pet her back and belly. Keva instructed us not to touch her around the face since sea lions have very sensitive whiskers that they use to help them hunt in low-visibility. After Charlotte had demonstrated a few tricks, we all moved back to the dock for a few more pictures and then the tour was over. It seemed really short and I wished that we’d gotten more information about the sea lions, but I still enjoyed it.

Charlotte

photo by Blue Lagoon

photo by Blue Lagoon

We had a couple more hours before the 2 o’clock ferry back to Nassau, so Ron and I watched the dolphins swimming in the lagoon and then relaxed at the bar with some lunch and Sky Juice, a Bahamian drink made with gin, coconut water and condensed milk. After lunch, we took a walk down to the end of the lagoon and explored the beach side of the island. The day had started off cloudy but the sun was breaking through, turning the water to turquoise. So pretty!

new VIP section

On the return ferry, the captain dropped off all the cruise ship guests at the port, which was nice because we didn’t have to take a taxi back to town. We were onboard around 3:30 and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on deck. Once again, we were docked between Enchantment of the Seas and Disney’s Dream. On one side, a little girl on her balcony on Dream was dressed up as Cinderella. On the other side on Enchantment, a group of kids were flying high on the bungie trampolines. It was a great day to be cruising!

For dinner that night, we ate in the Seven Seas dining room. Our table was next to the full-length windows at the stern, and we had a beautiful view of the sea and ship’s wake. There was no wind and the seas were completely calm. Whenever it’s calm like that, Ron starts talking about taking our boat to the Bahamas, but I think he forgets the trips like our cruise in January when the waves were huge. I think I’ll stick with the “big boats”. :-)  We’d planned to watch the Newlywed/Not So Newlywed game after dinner but it was standing-room-only in the Bliss Lounge so we took a walk around the deck instead and went to bed early.

Great Stirrup Cay

Sunday was our day at Norwegian Cruise Line’s private island, Great Stirrup Cay. The last time we were at Great Stirrup Cay was in 2011 when they were in the middle of a remodel. They had brought in lots of sand to replenish the beach but almost all the vegetation had been removed and the island was a construction zone. It was really windy that day, and with no plants or trees to hold it in place, the sand blew everywhere. We couldn’t even eat lunch because sand kept getting into our food. So I wasn’t very disappointed when on our Sky cruise in 2016, the island was closed for another refurbishment and we were routed to Freeport. The remodeling on Great Stirrup Cay seemed like it would never be finished!

We ate breakfast at the Great Outdoors while we watched the ship pull up to the island and anchor. Not far from us, Enchantment of the Seas was also anchoring off Royal Caribbean’s private island, Coco Cay. The skies were mostly sunny but there were a few tropical clouds popping up here and there, which I hoped would blow away quickly. We had booked the 9:45 Stingray City excursion and our tour tickets said to allow 45 minutes for tendering, so we headed to the gangway around 8:30 to make sure we’d have time to find shaded lounge chairs and explore a little before the tour. Good thing we did because tendering took forever! Our tender held 400 people and we sat and sat while we waited for the seats to fill. Meanwhile, one of the tropical clouds turned into a storm cloud with thunder and lightning. I was NOT happy about sitting on the top deck of a metal boat with lightning around. Not to mention, I was worried that the captain would have to stop the tendering process and our tour would be cancelled. But finally, after over half an hour, the boat was full and we made the short trip over to the island.

the Great Outdoors

Once we got to Great Stirrup Cay, we found a couple of lounge chairs under a palm tree on the main beach. The island looked very nice after its makeover. They had added twice as many lounge chairs, a new taco eatery, upgraded cabanas, and an underwater sculpture garden for snorkeling. Most importantly, they had planted a lot more trees for shade, which was a good thing because once the clouds dissipated, it was hot! The new zip line tower, which was supposed to be finished by the end of 2017, was still a work in progress, but it looked like it would be fun when it opened.

Bertram's Cove (main beach)

At 9:45, we checked in at the stingray tour booth and our tour group walked together to the water adventure area on the other side of the island. Our guide Miguel gave us a briefing on the stingrays, then we boarded a small boat for the ride out to the stingray enclosure. Once we got to the pen, the stingrays swirled around our legs. I’ve heard them described as big, wet Portobello mushrooms, which was fairly accurate, but their tails were rough and scratchy. That was a bit disconcerting at first, but Miguel reminded us that stingrays only use their barbed tails in defense so as long as we kept our feet on the ground and didn’t jump around on top of them, they were very gentle. :-)  Miguel and the other guides helped us hold the stingrays while they took pictures. There were 42 stingrays in the enclosure and the guides knew each one by their markings or the length of their tails. The first stingray that I held, Pepper, wasn’t feeling very cooperative and splashed around a lot. But the second stingray, Kink (because of the kink in her tail), was nice and calm. Turned out that Kink was pregnant. Miguel said you could tell by the swelling along her back. He told us that stingrays give birth to 2 and 10 pups at a time and the babies are able to feed themselves although their mothers stay nearby to offer protection from predators. The tour guides were awesome and gave us plenty of time to hold the stingrays and ask questions. You could tell they loved what they did. It was really a great tour and the highlight of the cruise. Unfortunately, sometime during the tour, water got into my “waterproof” camera and killed it. I was bummed because I’d planned to take a lot more pictures around the island but at least my SD card wasn’t damaged, and I didn’t lose any of the pictures I’d taken of the stingrays or Blue Lagoon.

photo by Stingray City Bahamas

photo by Stingray City Bahamas

photo by Stingray City Bahamas

It was noon when we got back to the main beach, so we had lunch at the new taco hut and then tried to stay cool in the shade of our palm tree. After a while I got overheated and thought I’d better get into the water to cool off. By that time, the main beach was PACKED. You know that scene in Titanic where Jack and Rose go down with the ship and Rose surfaces in a boiling mass of people, all splashing and yelling? Well, that was exactly what it was like at the main beach. :-)  I kept swimming out past the mob until I found a quiet spot in the water to float in peace.

Around 3, we decided we should head back to the ship before the line for the tender started forming. When we got to our cabin, we found a plate of chocolate treats waiting for us. I had no idea what they were for, but it was a nice surprise. We ate the chocolates on the balcony while we watched the last few tenders of drunk, happy people returning to the ship. At promptly 5 o’clock, the captain pulled up anchor and we left the island behind. Goodbye, Great Stirrup Cay! Maybe the next time we are there, the remodeling will finally be finished. :-)

the last tender

That night after dinner in the Four Seasons dining room, we took a walk around the promenade deck and watched the sunset from the bow. There were several other couples on the bow, taking selfies and enjoying the unusually calm seas. We'd been really lucky with the weather since you never know what you’ll get when you cruise during hurricane season. After the sun was down, we spent a little time in the casino. We’d been avoiding it because the lowest Black Jack table was $15, which was steep for a cruise ship. I don’t think we’ve ever had to bet more than $10. But it was our last night, so I gave it a go. Ron decided to hold onto his money (wise choice) but I played for a while. Before long, it was time to go back to the cabin and pack. From our balcony, we watched the lights on Grand Bahama Island as we slowly sailed back to Port Canaveral.

Despite a few glitches - my cold, the smelly cabin and a broken camera - it turned out to be a great cruise. We loved our days in Nassau and Great Stirrup Cay where I got to hug a sea lion AND hold a stingray. And our air conditioner was fixed when we got home!