Sky Review Feb 22 - 25 - Amazing! 9076 Aft

[BlueJai]

We flew to Miami the day before and booked into the Holiday Inn Port of Miami. This was a big adventure to us as we had booked the weekend trip on the Sky, and then we were going to board the Sun on the 27th for the 11 Southern Caribbean.

 

This was our first time on the Sky, and I had read everything I could find on CC. Thanks to those that had posted previous reviews, I felt like we would have an amazing time. My favourite ship is the Sun, and going on the Sky was so similar that I felt like I was at home as soon as we boarded!

 

We left the hotel at 10:30am and took a cab to the port. It was weird as there was no traffic getting there and 99% of those people who were disembarking were gone. You could have shot a cannon down the road and not hit anything. Awesome! The porter grabbed our luggage and assured us it would make it to the ship! Because we were going on the Sun later, we had 2 big suitcases that were both pretty close to the 50lb mark. I think he wondered if we were at the wrong terminal;). Tipped the porter and made our way to the terminal to check in.

 

We had two bottles of wine in our carry on and they were set up for us to pay the corkage fee just past the X-ray machine. The check in was easy and fast as there were very few passengers yet. We were through in no time, and I think we were group 5 (so already there were a number of people in the lounge waiting).

 

Just a little note here - my husband and I were travelling alone on this trip, and then meeting friends from Cape Cod afterwards to sail on the Sun together. While sitting in the terminal waiting to board, someone taps my shoulder and there are our friends - SURPRISE! They are sailing on the Sky with us too. We met a couple of years ago on the Pearl and became great friends.

 

So, we are now a group of 4. We are able to board around 12:00 and I couldn't wait. I was so excited to see this ship, so like the Sun, but different as well.

 

Our plan was to purchase the UBP and I learned from CC that we needed to do that in Dazzles so that was our first stop. Then it was up the stairs to Deck 12, above the pool deck. We have always enjoyed sitting up on this deck and this trip was no exception. We grabbed some loungers, changed into our bathing suits and prepared to let the vacation begin!

 

We'll start with some Ceasars - now we just have to find 'our guy' who we will count on for bar service at the pool area. We found Maxine from St. Lucia and he became our guy for the trip. 'Maxi' seemed to be everywhere we went over the weekend and he was great, knowing quickly what we all liked - he never disappointed and in fact, helped to make our cruise a great time.

 

More to follow ...

[jdvmd]

We flew to Miami the day before and booked into the Holiday Inn Port of Miami. This was a big adventure to us as we had booked the weekend trip on the Sky, and then we were going to board the Sun on the 27th for the 11 Southern Caribbean.

 

This was our first time on the Sky, and I had read everything I could find on CC. Thanks to those that had posted previous reviews, I felt like we would have an amazing time. My favourite ship is the Sun, and going on the Sky was so similar that I felt like I was at home as soon as we boarded!

 

We left the hotel at 10:30am and took a cab to the port. It was weird as there was no traffic getting there and 99% of those people who were disembarking were gone. You could have shot a cannon down the road and not hit anything. Awesome! The porter grabbed our luggage and assured us it would make it to the ship! Because we were going on the Sun later, we had 2 big suitcases that were both pretty close to the 50lb mark. I think he wondered if we were at the wrong terminal;). Tipped the porter and made our way to the terminal to check in.

 

We had two bottles of wine in our carry on and they were set up for us to pay the corkage fee just past the X-ray machine. The check in was easy and fast as there were very few passengers yet. We were through in no time, and I think we were group 5 (so already there were a number of people in the lounge waiting).

 

Just a little note here - my husband and I were travelling alone on this trip, and then meeting friends from Cape Cod afterwards to sail on the Sun together. While sitting in the terminal waiting to board, someone taps my shoulder and there are our friends - SURPRISE! They are sailing on the Sky with us too. We met a couple of years ago on the Pearl and became great friends.

 

So, we are now a group of 4. We are able to board around 12:00 and I couldn't wait. I was so excited to see this ship, so like the Sun, but different as well.

 

Our plan was to purchase the UBP and I learned from CC that we needed to do that in Dazzles so that was our first stop. Then it was up the stairs to Deck 12, above the pool deck. We have always enjoyed sitting up on this deck and this trip was no exception. We grabbed some loungers, changed into our bathing suits and prepared to let the vacation begin!

 

We'll start with some Ceasars - now we just have to find 'our guy' who we will count on for bar service at the pool area. We found Maxine from St. Lucia and he became our guy for the trip. 'Maxi' seemed to be everywhere we went over the weekend and he was great, knowing quickly what we all liked - he never disappointed and in fact, helped to make our cruise a great time.

 

More to follow ...

Keep it coming!

[camz]

Blue - Thanks for your review! Looking forward to what comes next. :D

[BlueJai]

We spent a good part of the afternoon up on Deck 12. They made the announcement that the rooms were ready fairly early, maybe 1:00ish, but truly, we were having such a good time on deck we stayed right where we were. Although we probably looked homeless with all the carry on's and bags that we had around our chairs.

 

We had booked an aft cabin for the very first time. After reading all the reviews about these cabins, I was so excited to try it and the Sky is a really affordable way to experience it, if only for a few days. At some point, I took a couple of our bags to our room so I could see what the balcony looked like. Upon entering the room, I was surprised just how small it was (compared with the Sun), but oh, the view out the back was amazing. Miami was there in all her glory! At this point, I met our neighbours in the suite beside us. Turned out they were from Montreal and fellow CC members! Nalagh has done an amazing pictorial review of this trip and it is worth seeing. Me, I haven't figured out the whole picture thing yet - sigh!)

 

But upon meeting our neighbours, I knew we had great people beside us. So, back up the deck for a bit, then it was time to get ready for the muster drill which I think was at 4:00. We went to the cabin prior to drop the rest of our stuff off, and Wow! both of our suitcases are already there. Amazing!

The muster drill was hot, crowded and long as lots of people are are late arriving. However, it is important and will happily attend.

 

Ran back to the room, opened some wine and prepared for the first sail away from an aft cabin. So excited! Our friends that surprised us were two cabins over and our neighbours invited all of us over for sailaway on their balcony. We had a great time with them and really enjoyed it.

 

We had made plans to eat at Crossings. The 4 of us arrived and were seated in Aarons area. There was no wait to be seated and it was 7:00ish. Aaron proved to be a great waiter and provided excellent service. Being lobster night, we all ordered that and when our meals were delivered, Aaron brought one more plate with 4 additional lobsters on it. Perfect!

 

After dinner we parted company with our friends and my husband (CC name - Newtonville Dan) and I explored the ship. Although so similar to the Sun, the decor is different and I thought she was beautiful. Up to the Outrigger lounge and then out to the deck to see the stars. Amazing! When we came back in (and there wasn't a single person in the bar), we found our guy Maxi so we sat at the bar and had a nightcap with him. Great way to end off the evening! Did a little more wandering, one of the things we wanted to see was the Outdoor Cafe (always a good place to grab a cookie at the end of the night) and we were surprised to see a sign across the door saying it was closed. We spoke to one of the officers and learned that yes, indeed it was closed for our entire trip. Unfortunate, but oh well. Time to head to the cabin to enjoy the loungers on the balcony.

 

I should mention when we arrived in the cabin in the afternoon, there was 1 lounger and 1 chair. We left a note for our room steward and when we came back at the end of the evening, voila! 2 loungers! Perfect.

 

Because we were travelling for 17 days in total, I packed suitcases by splitting the trip in half so one suitcase wouldn't be needed until we boarded the Sun. That one went right into the closet. We pulled out what we needed from the other suitcase and that one went under the bed. As mentioned, the rooms are much smaller that I expected and there wasn't too much storage. But normally you wouldn't need to much on the 3 or 4 night cruise.

 

So, a perfect day to start our adventure.

[gelo7]

Nice start.

[janpa70]

Can't wait to read the rest of the review. Great so far.

[dr.d]

We'll be on the Sky in April so I'm really enjoying your review. Love the aft cabins!

[BlueJai]

We had initially planned to stay on board in GSC, or if the mood hit us, we might have got off later just to walk the beach. But our great neighbours invited the 4 of us to join them in a Cabana on the island.

 

We met up at 9:30 and quickly got tender tickets and were on the island in no time. It is a bit of a walk to the Cabanas but there are really lovely. The beach there is much less crowded there and there is a bar located close by.

 

We were greeted by Aaron (who, yes was our waiter the evening before!), given wrist bands and shown the amenities. Again, Nalagh has done a great pictorial review of the Cabanas so I won't go into much detail. The cabana is a great place to relax, there are loungers, chairs and table as well as floaties for the water. It is a bit of a hike to the water, the restrooms and eating area, but the quietness and serenity outweighs the bit of a walk. Just remember not to wait to long if you have to use the restrooms:D.

 

The day was lovely, and probably the only negative was the bar service. They were very understaffed, and at points it was faster to just go down and get your own drink (I know, first world problems!). The bar wasn't set up with everything they needed and it seemed they were actually having to get stuff off the ship. And since Max was tending the bar, we had some good visits with him. The day was awesome, and the experience was one we would not have had if not for some great CC members.

 

Back on board and it was a little R&R on the balcony with some wine. We had been invited to the Captain's cocktail party this evening. We really weren't sure why we were invited but, what the heck, we would go and have a great time, which we did. There was a great turnout from the officers and staff, Max was serving so he was always looking out for the 4 of us and we had a really nice time chatting with officers and staff as well as fellow passengers.

 

More to come ...

[BlueJai]

One of the things I had read on CC was that because you are onboard for such a short period of time, it is difficult to get to know any of the staff and crew. I have to say that although I can understand this to be true, we found just the opposite in our experience. We weren't expecting it, but we really met some great crew members and they definitely enhanced our short time on board.

 

We had originally made plans to go to Le Bistro tonight, I had booked the reservation online before we left. We decided that with the cocktail party, we would reschedule them until Sunday night so we wouldn't be rushed.

 

So after the party, we thought we might try Cagneys. With no reservation, we were unable to eat there. No worries, off we went back to Crossings and again ended up in Aaron's section. Had a lovely meal and the 4 of us had had a great day.

 

After dinner, a little wandering around the ship and then it was up to the cabin to enjoy that aft balcony.

 

We were arriving in Nassau on Sunday morning and it was a beautiful morning. I was pretty excited as we entered port and then turned around and backed in. I was hoping this would be the case!! So, we had a lovely view of Atlantis as the sun was coming up. We knew that there would be 4 ships in port today so we made the decision that we would not get off. Watching all the people on the pier that morning made us happy for that decision.

 

Because the Great Outdoors was closed (:mad:), we ate breakfast in Il Adagio. They had an omelette and waffle set up as well as the other usual breakfast fare. The other thing that they did to help with the Great Outdoors being closed was to set up 2 buffets on the pool deck. We thought this was a great idea and it really helped with the flow of people. There was lots of selection and it seemed to be very successful. Kudos to the Food and Beverage team for this idea.

 

So, we enjoyed our day on board, the day was awesome, the pool deck was quiet and it was really perfect. Max was up on deck and taking care of us. He was a really nice guy and we enjoyed meeting him so much. It was sad to leave the pool area to get ready for the evening, but were thankful that we could say 'thanks' to Max for his great service before we left.

 

We wandered down to Guest Services as we wanted to get some Hero cards and had an opportunity to speak to the Guest Services Manager. He was really nice and I think initially he thought we had a problem because I was writing a note to put in the HD - Jean Michel's mailbox. Just the opposite was true, I was writing a quick note to just say what an amazing time we had on the Sky, and how terrific the staff and crew were.

 

Dinner tonight was Le Bistro and as always, it was fabulous. After dinner we went to find Aaron to say 'thanks' for his great service and eventually it was back to the cabin to get our suitcases ready to be put out and enjoy some balcony time.

 

A note here - when we pulled out our suitcases to add stuff back in, there was note in both saying that security had gone through them. Don't know how we missed this upon arrival, but no worries, there was nothing in there for them to find!

 

Monday morning arrived, the sun was shining and it was lovely to sit on the balcony and enjoy. We did breakfast again at Il Adagio and then back to the cabin for a bit. We didn't need to be out of our room until 9:00 so we took advantage of that. We had no plans other than getting off the ship and heading to the hotel so we weren't in any rush.

 

We said a goodbye to our steward Linton and again 'thanked' him for his service.

 

We finally left the ship around 9:30.

 

The 4 of us commented that it was really amazing how much relaxation you can get on a weekend cruise. We all really enjoyed the trip and loved the ship. I can only imagine how great it would be to live near Miami and do this a couple of times a year!

 

Bluejai

[Nalagh]

Great review! It was wonderful to have you next door! :)

I would love to see some of your pictures!

 

Cherie

[meltingmoments]

Nice review, thanks for posting!

The Sky was our first try at cruising and we found the crew amazing as well. everyone so cheerful and helpful....loved it!! :)