Boarding:
We arrived at the terminal about an hour before the time listed in the tickets. Boarding began about half an hour before the listed time. While we waited to board, punch was served. Once boarding began, it took perhaps 5 minutes before we were in our cabin. Our luggage followed within the hour.

The Ship:
The Sun is a lovely ship, but not spectacular in the way the newer ships are. The atrium, for example, is three stories high, but you can really only see the level you are on. The ship is decorated with lots of beautiful wood, but nothing to make you go "Aahh!" There are plenty of pleasant spots to sit. Our favorite - and many shared this - was the Espresso Bar and adjacent Oak Room, with luxurious well-worn leather seating and all the delicious coffee you wanted. The pools on this ship really leave something to be desired. One was a good size but only had seating for less than a dozen people. The main pool had adequate seating around it but the pool was only a teeny bit larger than the hot tubs (which were actually HOT, unlike other ships' hot tubs) and difficult to get in and out of.

The gym had eight treadmills, six bicycles, a stepper, a universal machine, and an assortment of dumbbells. Floor space, however, was cramped.

Our Cabin:
We had the lowest category outside cabin, number 477. This was one of the most comfortable cabins we've ever had, even though we've had larger cabins on other ships. There was a generous-sized walk-in closet, a small but comfortable sitting area, a mini-bar/refrigerator continuously stocked with complimentary Evian and soft drinks, a VCR, and a spacious bathroom with a full-sized tub. There were plenty of drawers and shelves for storage. It was a pretty room ingeniously designed.

The Dining Experience:
The dining rooms (separated into three different areas) were beautiful, with lots of space between tables. We were delighted to discover that we were seated at a smoking table, though we'd been told there was no smoking in the dining room. The cost for this was that we were seated in a remote corner of the room that had poor air conditioning! Our tablemates were a pure joy for us. The food was excellent; in 19 days, there was only one dish we didn't care for. Special requests were honored with a smile - a number of people at our table had caviar at dinner every night, for example.

Menus were similar to those of other cruise lines, but some more variety would have been good on a cruise of this length. There were a couple of exotic dishes such as reindeer steaks. Lobster tail was served only twice at dinner.
The alternative restaurant, Venezia, had delicious food and a quieter atmosphere than the main dining room.

The buffet restaurant, the Garden Cafe, was many many steps above the equivalent places in the other ships on which we've cruised, possibly the greatest difference between this cruise and our others. At breakfast, the food was fresh and hot. Lunch included all the items on the dining room lunch menu plus more, including hugh fresh shrimp every day. We never ate there for dinner but were told there was a choice of just a few dishes. We only visited the 11pm snack buffet a couple of times, but it included more giant shrimps and several other goodies.

Free wine was included with lunch and dinner, and refills were easy to get. All soft drinks, juices, coffee (including specialties like espresso), tea, and bottled water were free throughout the ship, and your mini-bar restocked every morning. Fruit was always available at the pool, ice cream in the afternoon, and a grill at lunchtime.

Single-serving dining is a much-touted plus for this ship, but we weren't that impressed with it. If you are dining at a table for two, it would be nice to be able to have dinner whenever you wish within the two-hour timeframe, but at a large table (which we asked for), you all more or less agree on a time to come, so that you can dine together, so this felt no different than dining on any other ship. Breakfast and lunch are open seating, but we always went to our regular area because we could smoke there.

Room service was several levels above what we are used to. You could get a full hot breakfast delivered to your room, or a complete meal from the dining room menu during dining room hours, or choose from a large variety of foods at other hours. Service was quick and deluxe - all orders brought on linen-covered trays with nice dinnerware and silver.

There was tea every afternoon, and every evening there were hors d'oeuvres in all the bars and lounges before dinner.

Activities and Entertainment:
The entertainment on this cruise was very disappointing. There was a really fine comedian, Mike Neun, who managed to come up with fresh material even after he'd done about half a dozen shows. His are the only shows I attended, but my husband tried them all and generally left quickly. This was a real contrast with our transatlantics on the Splendour, where there was something new and different nearly every day.

The music on the ship was sadly lacking, at least for us. There was a harpist playing background music on one lounge two or three times a day, a good orchestra, and a couple of trios. Music was classical or mostly 30s and 40s. One day I heard a very elderly man complaining at the pursor's desk that the music by the pool (recorded and seldom played) sounded like a funeral dirge. The next day a trio played there for 10 minutes, but otherwise there was no live music and certainly no liveLY music at the pool. On leaving ports, canned opera was played on deck. There was never the kind of music that makes you feel like there's a party going on - and there WAS no party going on. They had what they called a disco 5 or 6 times during the 19 days, and the DJ seemed to have just two CDs, one of which was one of those imitations-of-hits-you-never-heard-of things. Sometimes we brought our own CDs, but the DJ didn't really want to play them.

Some of the activities included lectures, needlepoint, bridge, trivia, computer classes, karaoke, and a passenger talent show. There was bingo daily. There were no slot or blackjack tournaments or special low rates on the casino on some sea days, such as we've experienced on other ships.
There was an excellent library from which you could borrow videos or books, a large card room with numerous games available.
A fairly recently-released movie was shown each afternoon and night in the movie theater. These and more were available on your cabin TV too - but we never managed to see any. (We concluded the last day that there was something wrong with our TV.)

Net Connectedness:
There was virtually none. You could send an e-mail message to one person (I tried sending to two people at once and the message bounced) for $5. E-mail sent to you at the ship's address would be printed and delivered to your cabin. The web was not accessible. They are way behind in technology on this one.

Service:
The service on the Seabourn Sun was truly exceptional, in a totally different class from what we've experienced on the 5-star lines. It's a bit hard to describe, but I'll give it a shot. Your waiter knew what you wanted to drink - coffee, cappucino, decaf, tea, etc (unless, of course, like me, you kept changing your mind). Your bar waiter completely read your mind. Most of the time, I drink water, and the waiters who took care of us in the lounges would just bring water without asking, and kept checking to see when a refill was needed. When we danced and got sweaty, they would bring us towels! There were no lines anywhere for anything, which was an amazing feeling.

The Culture:
I've never really given this much thought before, but there is a culture to a ship. It was very noticeable on this one, perhaps because there are so many repeat passengers and because many of the staff have been there forever. The average age on this cruise seemed to be mid=sixties, with a large number of older men and their impeccably groomed much younger wives. About 50% of the passengers were British; most of the remainder were Americans.
The atmosphere of the ship was sort of brainy. The best attended event each day is team trivia; this usually had about 125 people attending out of the 750 passengers. Also popular were a "name that tune" type game and bridge. People seemed to really enjoy mental sparring. Lectures were very well-received, and there were a few political round-table type discussions.
Repeat passengers truly enjoyed their relationships with the staff in a way I have not seen on other ships. And staff were almost universally kind and helpful.
Notice I said "almost" - there is an exception to this. There are numerous unspoken rules on this ship, and as long as you don't break any, you are treated like royalty. But it took us a few days to catch on, and before we did, I broke a rule unknowingly. I was wandering through the casual buffet restaurant on the way back to my room and spotted some cookies I liked. I reached out to take one and was admonished by the waiter: "Madame, we are not opened for service until 12:00." I slunk away and then looked at my watch to find that it was 11:57. Now, this is NOT what I call good service, but I was less upset by it when I realized a few days later that everything on this ship was done with clocklike regularity. If we were to leave a port at 6:15, we left at 6:15. If we were scheduled to arrive at 7:00, we arrived at exactly 7:00. There was one change to the schedule for bad weather, but the change was announced early in the morning and we left at precisely the time the announcement said we would. There is never any pressure to buy anything on this ship. The usual photos, art auctions, gift shops, and excursions are all available, but not much ado is made about them.
All tips are included in your fare, but we did feel we wanted to tip more at the end, and certainly nobody objected.

Overall:
The cruise was duller than we would have liked, but it was extremely relaxing, and what was lacking in entertainment was made up for by the wonderful people we met and the fun we had with them. If you really want to just unwind and relax, this is a perfect venue for it. If what you want is a big party, try another ship!

For more info:
I'd be happy to answer any questions about this cruise, including the ports, which I've only listed in the interest of (hah!) brevity.
Eileen