SportsMomof4

I can get anywhere in the Caribbean but I am an Alaskan dummy! Looking for help!

Trying to plan for next summer, 4 adults & a 12 year old. I see some cruise lines go to the inside passage and some go to glacier bay. Which is a must? We usually sail Carnival but the times we can go, Carnival doesn't go to glacier bay. We love Carnival but I'm hearing Carnival is not the way to see Alaska & we are willing to try another.

Can anyone give me any input please? Which cruise line did you choose? Did you go through the inside passage? Go to glacier bay? Will my 12 year old be bored on Princess? Thank you!

Personally, I appreciate your review! I love NCL but have never been on this shop or done as short of a cruise. I had been thinking to try a long weekend getaway (and I may still) but I will know to research it more before booking and not to expect the Sky to be like the Epic, Escape or other NCL ships that I'm used to. Thanks for the honest review and I hope you'll give the Escape a chance because it's great for kids and I bet you'll like it

Thank you. I did read a lot of reviews on the Sky prior to booking. The major cons consistently noted was that it was a party boat, lots of drinkers etc...that did not bother DH & I at all.

For us it was the food!! It was really horrible (except for breakfast). I don't recall ever reading the food was horrible in any reviews (we are not food snobs in any way but we like tasty edible food lol). We barely ate. I told DH that this was probably the 1st cruise where we lost weight.

It's a valid negative review, and some people just can't handle that. ;)

Yes! Thank you....you hit the nail on the head :rolleyes:

You may want to reconsider the Escape . We have been very loyal to Carnival for the past 8 years and have a steady decline in the overall quality of their product. That being said we will be on the Vista in January. Back to the escape our May cruise with our 21 year old Grandson was Fantastic. The most friendly staff we have ever had on any line. Excellent service and food in the MDR. Specialty restaurants were outstanding

Interesting. I think we are going to give NCL another chance!

I think it would be a good idea to try NCL again but on another ship. Our first cruise on NCL was on the Dawn and we hated it. The food was awful. Even Cagney's wasn't worth the extra fee. We swore we would never go on NCL again. We finally decided to try the Gem since it departed from New York and we absolutely loved the cruise. The food was excellent, especially the MDR and the buffet. This experience completely changed our opinion about NCL - so much that we are booked on the Breakaway in March.

 

The ship really can make a huge difference in the cruise experience. Had my first Carnival cruise been on the Triumph or Victory, I probably would never have sailed on Carnival again.

 

If you do go on the Escape, please post a review. I would love to know if you had a better experience by going on a different ship.

That's great to know. I think we will do that because we were really looking forward to the Escape.

Something fishie with this OP... I just search her profile on messages and she has different tales to say... we have been commenting since she started this thread... maybe there is more than meet the eyes.... hmmmmm

Something fishy about ME??? Different tales to say? PLEASE explain!! I've been on here for years for 700 + messages. I'd like to hear what you have to say!

On a cruise, then to Disney World, then 1st day of school. Been a little busy to get back on here.

It's a valid review...what gives??

The Sky was my least favorite ship. We did the 4 day cruise. We will never sail her again. Our bathroom door in the cabin wouldnt stay shut and the bottom part of the bed was broken.

 

We chatted with another couple who was sailing the Sky on their first NCL cruise. They said the same thing as you, that they wouldn't sail NCL again. I did tell them that all Ncl ships are not like this and the other ships we sailed on were great. But, the Sky makes a bad first impression.

Unfortunately we did cancel our Escape cruise but I'm wondering if we should give it a chance. The experience on the Sky was so awful that I'm afraid it will be similar on the Escape.

Enjoying this candid, fair review so far.

 

In my opinion, your first mistake was going to the MDR.

 

Food in the specialties (especially Cagney's and Le Bistro) is substantially better, as is the atmosphere and service.

 

Don't get me wrong... the specialties aren't perfect, but dining in the MDR every night is just asking to have "EPIC FAIL" dinners like you described.

I wish I had known this prior. Although we met 2 couples in the pool who ate at Cagney's the 1st night & Le Bistro the 2nd night & they all said the food was not good.

I wont bother finishing the review. But the entire synopsis of our cruise was the food was TERRIBLE!! The only meals that were ever edible were breakfast & the pizza & pasta at the Italian restaurant. The last day DH & I got so sick from the food at the poolside BBQ that we were stuck in our rooms the entire night.

For days after the cruise my DH would randomly say the food was disgusting. That was our 1 major complaint. Yeah the ship was older but that didn't bother us. The crowds were partiers but that didn't bother us either.

Egads! You can keep the singing and dancing waiters on Carnival. I don't need the waiter to be my best friend or my entertainment. Just want them to, er, be my waiter.

 

 

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Not asking for them to be our best friend...I would just rather not feel as if we are at a wake or a funeral.

Last weekend my DH & I (50 & 46) went on our 1st Norwegian cruise which will also be our last :eek:

After reading many mixed reviews which made me nervous, we sailed last Friday 8/26/16 on the Norwegian Sky from Miami for 3 days. We booked this 3 weeks before the sail date. Never booked anything so spur of the moment. We really wanted to do a 7 day but 3 days was all my Mom & son can handle together lol. We will take what we can get!

I know so many of you are saying why oh why did you pick the Sky for your 1st NCL cruise!! These are the reasons why:

1) DH & I needed a getaway STAT. We have 4 kids (2 of them are 18 year old twins that are wreaking havoc on our lives).

2) We had plane tickets to visit my Mom who lives in FL. The Port of Miami is 2 hours away from her & this was a score for us since we could leave our 10 year old with her!

3) The price!! The UBP....it was a no brainer. Need I say more??

The week prior & the week of the cruise, there was so much hype about all the tropical storms in the Caribbean. One was even heading right to the Bahamas a couple days before we were set to sail. We honestly didn't even know if this ship was going to leave on schedule. Well, it did & one thing I can say is that we had AWESOME weather!! No crazy waves, no rocking & on Saturday we had just a little bit of rain (maybe 30 mins!).

On to the review!

Day 1....CHECK IN WAS AWESOME. We were on line for 5 mins & at the counter for 5 mins. Props to NCL for being so efficient. DH & I were very impressed. We got on the ship at 1:00 & even though we were starving, our 1st stop was the Breakers bar. Then off to the buffet. Ehhhh! Not impressed at all. I got 2 slices of beef brisket, mashed potatoes & potato salad. Nothing else was appealing to me. The brisket was not even edible because it was completely fatty. The potato salad tasted off but the mashed potatoes were good. DH grabbed short ribs (I didn't see them). I tried them & they were very good. He went to get more. They were hard as a rock, we couldn't even cut them, let alone eat them. DH looked at me & said I give lunch a C at best. EPIC FAIL!

We go see if our room was ready. We had a balcony room on deck 10 forward. It was old looking & small (smaller than what we are used to). A lot of the wood had cracks & chips (nightstand & closet door). Our room had a fridge & a very small flat screen tv. But the room served its purpose & it would be fine for us. If our son was with us, it would have been crowded with 3 for sure.

We went off to have a few more drinks & take in some sun. We grabbed some pizza since we were both still hungry. It was yummy.

As we sat at the pool, I did notice a few 20 something year old bridal/bachelor/bachelorette groups that many people mentioned in the reviews of the Sky. But these groups were no bother to us at all.

Later on at 7, we head to the Palace MDR. We figured there would be a wait. As we approached we thought it was closed. It was dark & VERY quiet. We were greeted by the hostess & then we were seated by the window. There were only about 10 tables being occupied. DH & I thought this was so strange. We wondered where was everyone? At the pool? At the buffet? At the other MDR? Our waiter came over to us & didn't even introduce himself. Very cold, very unpersonable.

I ordered the tomato soup as an app, NY strip roast for my entree that came with potato wedges & broccoli. The soup was delicious. The meat wasn't good but the sides were. DH had the french onion soup which he said was very good & the same meal as me. Like me, he was NOT impressed.

The waiter never struck up a convo with us. Oh how we MISSED our 6 pm dining on our Carnival ships. The waiter interaction, the singing, the dancing, the entertainment as a whole. We LOVE that. Our dining experience on NCL was terrible & lacked personality & fun. Dinner....EPIC FAIL.

We were exhausted & I am not going to lie...we were in bed very early!

Day 2...I woke up at 5 am & we were approaching Freeport. With the crazy weather we didn't know if we would get rain, wind or sun. DH got up at 6. We got to the buffet at 7. It had all the basics...omelettes, pancakes, bacon, fruit, yogurts etc...we gave breakfast an A.

It looked like it was going to be a beautiful sunny day after all. We got our bathing suits on & we headed to the pool. We've been to Freeport & had no interest in getting off. We wanted to enjoy the sun & pool. We tried getting in the hot tub at 8 am & it was SO HOT that I couldn't even submerge my body. Yikes!

At 12 pm, we started to hear some distant thunder. It was a perfect opportunity to take a break from the blazing sun & eat lunch. We headed to the buffet. Most of the items were the same as the day before & DH & I couldn't find a thing we liked. So we went to Il Adagio for pizza & pasta (during the day it's free, at night it is a specialty restaurant). The pasta the were serving was bowties (not sure if the serve a different one each day) with 2 sauces to choose from...alfredo & marinara. They offered some add ins...chopped onion, bruschetta, pesto & chopped ham. DH & I both got the alfredo sauce but he added ham to his. After waiting on line for 20-25 mins (everyone else had the same idea & after having a discussion everyone felt the same about the buffet food), we get our pasta. It was a toddler size portion. I DO NOT understand that. We were obviously still hungry so DH went & got us a cheese pizza to share.

After lunch, we went back to the pool. The rain shower had passed & the sun was back out. It was HOT. The pool was packed.

We were really glad we didn't bring our son on this ship. He would have been bored & at times the pool area was crazy with the drinking, cursing & rowdiness. There is a little TINY pool along with a hot tub in the front of the ship on deck 12 with a sign saying it's for families only. DH & I wanted to see what it looked like so we took a walk in there. There was a couple without children in the hot tub. Guess they wanted a peaceful area lol.

About 3, we head back to our room to get ready for the evening. We stopped in at the casino when it opened at 5:30. Within 5 minutes we left because it was so smoky. At 5:45 we headed to the other MDR, Crossings. They didn't open til 6 so we went back to Palace. Ugh...dreading it. The reason we didn't go to the buffet tonight was because it was Mexican night. Neither DH or I eat Mexican food.

I will continue tomorrow. Didn't think it would take me this long lol...

The poncho is already packed :)

Does anyone know when NCL or the Captain will tell us about an itinerary change?? I'd love to be able to tell my kids & Mom what the course of action is. Everyone is nervous especially my 10 year old. He has visions of us being on the Titanic lol!! Ugh.

I'm a Carnival girl but taking out 1st cruise on NCL today out of Miami. Hope Carnival didn't put this weather curse on me lol. J/K! I am nervous about leaving today....Not going to lie. Does anyone know when NCL or the Captain will announce to us that they are making an itinerary change? Before we get on....after we sail away? Hoping for the best!!

SportsMomof4 - I say we meet at the bar and drink our worries away;):p

Absolutely!! I'll be there!

Thx Colin :)

I'll certainly do my best to enjoy this trip, although my idea of staying in a cabin for the whole duration of this cruise will really suck. I have never sailed NCL so this is the first time. The Sky appears to be on the smaller side. Anyone know what the protocol is if it storms for the whole duration of the cruise? Do we all flock in common areas? Anyone have past experiences on this ship during a time like this? Any pointers on enjoying myself without having to drink myself silly LOL. Although I'm sure the booze will help take the edge off.

I feel the same way. This is my 1st NCL cruise too so I'm not sure. I'm preparing for rain & lots of it !

My Husband called yesterday about 2pm. They said in 24 hours they will have something posted on their website. Nothing yet. Considering we are sailing in just about 24 hours, I would really like to know what's going on. This is frustrating. I think they are still investigating the situatuon & they just don't know yet. That's the problem! I'm stressed too!

I'm on this cruise & I'm the one that made the original post about this. First it was Fiona which is nothing to worry about. Now it's Gaston & the other.

Yup...I'm worried for sure. Not thrilled with sailing. Water will be rough. Don't wanna be stuck inside the ship for 3 days. Will they have enough time to go to another port or will they circle the ocean. Lots of questions.

First cruise EVER that we didn't get insurance. We booked this spur of the moment 2 weeks ago....for some dumb reason we didn't think we needed it.

Sorry to bear bad news, but while Fiona js done, the NHC is watching an area of disturbance in the eastern Caribbean for development. Potential to impact Florida and Bahamas over the next 5 days. Maybe you'll end up with a trip to Bermuda instead!

 

 

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Yes....this is what I'm worried about. Not looking good.

Thanks everyone!! I don't mind circling at all. Just don't want 3 days of straight rain. But if it happens....it happens. We can always drink, eat, gamble, drink, eat, gamble & repeat :D

Leaving from Miami. Heading to Freeport & Nassau.

Thanks everyone....we need this cruise more than ever! I feel better with all you responses!

You might get a really nice cruise to nowhere!!

That would be ok with me! We weren't getting off the ship in Nassau or Freeport since we've been there so many times!

Wanna trade places? I'll take the cruise and you can come take my place at work...

 

LOL...thanks for making me laugh! I could be worse...you are right!

Please help me feel better about this.

DH & I are taking a MUCH needed getaway (1st since we were married 11 years ago) Friday am on the Sky. Of course....Fiona is heading right to the Bahamas!!

With only a 3 day cruise just to the Bahamas...is there even a possibility of re-routing?

I hate to jump the gun, but we have been so looking forward to this. I want to know if there is a back up plan or if we are just out of luck. So disappointed....this is just MY luck :(