Back from the Sky 4-Day - Any questions??

[bostongal965]

Back from the Sky, four day Bahamas out of Miami - we left Monday, 11/25, and came back today (Friday, 11/29).

 

I plan on writing a more detailed review later, but some quick points:

 

*The Sky was kept very clean, but could definitely use a little deep TLC

*The crew was happy and professional - we saw none of the negativity that folks had been commenting on recently

*We saw our room steward daily - he was awesome; he greeted us by name and left us an adorable menagerie of towel animals

*This was our first inside after balconies on the Sun & Dawn - seemed like we didn't have as much storage, drawers in particular, but it was okay overall

*We got the unlimited beverage package - it was okay, too, no real issues except that you had to wear a wristband the entire cruise

*Lobster was the first night in the main dining room, and was pretty good - the "steak" on the other hand was one of the sadder items I've seen served

*We ate in all three specialty restaurants - YUM!

*We did not make Great Stirrup Cay (a huge disappointment since we had booked a cabana). Staff said they did make it on the 3-day over the weekend. Pretty sure the Breakaway didn't make it Wednesday since we saw it in Nassau Wednesday night (that seems to be the back up plan).

*Movies being shown included Grown Ups 2, Hunger Games, Smurfs 2, and Pacific Rim - NFL games were broadcast as well

 

I can't think of anything else, but if you have any questions, I'll try to answer over the weekend!

[artman10]

Back from the Sky, four day Bahamas out of Miami - we left Monday, 11/25, and came back today (Friday, 11/29).

 

I plan on writing a more detailed review later, but some quick points:

 

*The Sky was kept very clean, but could definitely use a little deep TLC

*The crew was happy and professional - we saw none of the negativity that folks had been commenting on recently

*We saw our room steward daily - he was awesome; he greeted us by name and left us an adorable menagerie of towel animals

*This was our first inside after balconies on the Sun & Dawn - seemed like we didn't have as much storage, drawers in particular, but it was okay overall

*We got the unlimited beverage package - it was okay, too, no real issues except that you had to wear a wristband the entire cruise

*Lobster was the first night in the main dining room, and was pretty good - the "steak" on the other hand was one of the sadder items I've seen served

*We ate in all three specialty restaurants - YUM!

*We did not make Great Stirrup Cay (a huge disappointment since we had booked a cabana). Staff said they did make it on the 3-day over the weekend. Pretty sure the Breakaway didn't make it Wednesday since we saw it in Nassau Wednesday night (that seems to be the back up plan).

*Movies being shown included Grown Ups 2, Hunger Games, Smurfs 2, and Pacific Rim - NFL games were broadcast as well

 

I can't think of anything else, but if you have any questions, I'll try to answer over the weekend!

 

We leave the 16th on sky. What were your favorite speciality restaurant items? We, also, are dining in all three.

 

 

Artman Family

NCL Sky December 16-20

[kdog126]

We are going 12/30 - 1/3. What didn't you go to the private beach? Weather? What excursions did you do?

[bostongal965]

Artman - my husband loves Le Bistro's French onion soup - he gets it every time. He had the lamb, and it was amazing. I had the pork romarin, which I really like, and it was as good as always. I love the creme brulee they serve, so if you like that, I'd recommend it.

 

For Cagney's, everything we had was so good - believe it or not, the creamed corn side was one of the most delicious things I've ever had (not your momma's cream-style from Del Monte, that's for sure). Onion rings and potatoes were also good. My husband had the garlic butter, and I had the Dijon mustard with the steak - delicious.

 

Il Adagio - we both had the lobster fettuccine - excellent, perfectly al dente. The salads (my husband had Caesar and I had the fresca) were really good. The torta di chocolata dessert will ruin you for life as far as chocolate desserts go - it's THAT good.:D

 

One thing we didn't try, as it's new, is the a la carte sushi in the Plantation Club. Not sure of the price, but if you are a sushi fan you may want to check it out.

 

kdog - it was too choppy for the tenders :( I knew it could happen, as it had been happening a lot lately, but I was still really disappointed (we had booked a cabana months ago, and I was really looking forward to it). The captain tried to wait it out, but called it at 9:00 (we were supposed to start tendering at 8:00). Royal didn't make their island that day either. We ended up with a sea day, and the captain tried to keep the ship in what pockets of sunlight he could find.

 

We didn't do a ship excursion in Nassau, but did go to the Pirate's Museum ($12) - it was pretty good. We didn't do much else because it started to rain pretty hard.

 

We booked "Beaches and Caves" ($39) through the ship for Freeport. It was about a 30-45 minute narrated bus ride (pretty interesting info, not so much on the scenery) to a national park (Grand Lucayan, maybe?). First we saw some caves - they are open caves, not closed. There were short walkways into them. Kind of neat, but that only took about 30 minutes, tops. Then we walked across the street to a beach - one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen! You take a short walk through a nature area to get to the beach. I've heard it's much better at low tide, and that was something I checked before booking the excursion. Finally we went to Banana Bay restaurant - we had some good conch fritters. If you want to know more, google "Ben's Cave," "Gold Rock Beach," and "Banana Bay Restaurant, Freeport." You could probably do it on your own - I had read that taxis were pretty expensive, so I just went ahead and booked the ship's excursion.:rolleyes:

Edited December 1, 2013 by bostongal965

[artman10]

Thanks for the response and dinner reviews! Can't wait for ours!

 

 

Artman Family

NCL Sky December 16-20

[PixieLegal]

Very Interested in Sailing the Sky! It seems the short cruises are few and far in between. Good Ones anyway. All the reviews are soooo all over the place. I am glad you had a good exp. and hope we have luck with the Sky in the future. I have not sailed NCL either so I look forward to the entire experience. I can deal with older, smaller etc. But I need clean and pleasant. I like happy service staff and we always tip on top of added gratuity so we kinda expect it. I was wondering why some, even aboard the same sailing, had a difference in opinion of the staff. Anyhoo, we like short getaways and the only one people keep telling us to go with is Disney. I would like to give the others a chance to shine though. We came off a difficult Carnival Cruise this past week. It was more of the weather (not their fault) and fellow passengers that were our issues. And the FOOD, yikes! I was wondering if the Sky would be another option for us, Thanks for the input.

[familyfun4]

Thank you for writing a review, I'm glad you had a good time and that you were happy with the ship. I want to visit Cagney's for dinner. We'll be going 4/28/14.

 

Do you remember approximately what time you were able to embark? How long did it take to disembark? (we have 12:30 flight out of FLL to return home).

[bostongal965]

PixieLegal - we enjoyed the cruise, even though the weather the first couple days was not good. I've only been on NCL (though I have a 3 day on Royal booked for Feb), so I can't compare to other lines, but I thought it was a nice 4 day get-away.

 

We also generally tip a little over the DSC (even a buck or so on drinks with the beverage package), and we didn't feel like it was unwarranted. We saw frequent smiles and were greeted by name by both our cabin steward and our "regular" bar guys - something we didn't expect on just a four day cruise.

 

The service in the MDR was good, and outstanding in the specialty restaurants (mind you, we're not really fans of the overly perky "I'm Tammy and this is Kyle and we're going to be your wait team tonight" a la Chili's). We like a slower paced meal - I hate when your entree is brought out when you haven't finished your appetizer.

 

While you could tell this was an older ship (wear and tear, etc), I always saw staff cleaning and repairing.

 

Familyfun - we got on the ship about 11:45ish, and we did the easy walk-off for disembarkation - I heard them call for that at about 8:00. We left closer to 9:00 since we stayed to eat a final sit-down breakfast in the MDR. Took us just a few minutes to get off the ship and through customs.

 

Strongly recommend Cagney's! We had never done it (we did the Brazilian restaurant on the Sun and Dawn previously), and we were pleasantly surprised - well worth the up charge, in our opinion.

[azcater]

We came off this same sailing and I have to say NCL has pretty darn good food (disclaimer- we ate at Cagney's for breakfast and main dining room for dinner) We very rarely utilized the buffet except for some pretzel rolls :-) Some things are misses, but for the most part we really enjoyed our meals. Even better, we didn't have to make them!!

 

Our room steward James was a total sourpuss. Just seemed really unhappy the whole time we were there. He never had to do turndown in the evening for us, since our kids went to bed by 8, but if we asked for ice or something in the evening it felt like I was inconveniencing him. Since I never know what's going on in someone else's life, I just let it roll, but it was unpleasant trying to talk to him. Anyhow.. most other staff on this cruise was very pleasant.

 

Pixielegal- I'm sure you'll have a great time no matter what you decide! My only beef was with the kids programming and amenities and even then I'm sure there are others whose would disagree. There are people that say the Sheraton in Nassau isn't worth the day pass fee... I disagree, the resort was awesome.. for us. So, everyone's mileage will vary. :-)

Edited December 1, 2013 by azcater

[TravelDiva88]

Back from the Sky, four day Bahamas out of Miami - we left Monday, 11/25, and came back today (Friday, 11/29).

 

I plan on writing a more detailed review later, but some quick points:

 

*The Sky was kept very clean, but could definitely use a little deep TLC Agreed. For a ship just out of drydock, she looks awfully tired. If they plan to keep her in service, they really need to invest in her to bring her into the 21st century

*The crew was happy and professional - we saw none of the negativity that folks had been commenting on recently I agree for the most part. The one disappointment was with Guest Services. There was a serious language barrier, and I had to explain myself several times on multiple occasions to get what I needed. It was frustrating.

*We saw our room steward daily - he was awesome; he greeted us by name and left us an adorable menagerie of towel animals Ours was AMAZING as well. His name was Gusti, and hands down one of the best stewards we've ever had. On the last day he even left us a letter thanking us for being such considerate guests.

*This was our first inside after balconies on the Sun & Dawn - seemed like we didn't have as much storage, drawers in particular, but it was okay overall We had an Oceanview, and I definitely agree with the lack of storage space!

 

 

Just off the same cruise. I've added my comments above in purple.

 

Additionally:

 

The cruise director was forgettable (I honestly don't even remember his name) but Gigi on the activities staff was FANTASTIC! Like get this girl a ship, because she was everything a CD should be. She was everywhere, always on, and fired up 24/7. What a great "face" for a ship!

 

Activities- For such a small ship, there was ALWAYS something going on. We often ran into "down time" on the Epic and Breakaway, and we didn't get to do everything we wanted to on the Sky!

 

The comedian (cannot remember his name) was fantastic. We went to his adult-only show in Dazzles on the last night and he had people rolling on the floor in tears.

 

As mentioned above, we missed GSC, but the alternate activities were great. They even had a complimentary rum punch party on the deck, and we each had 5 or 6 glasses. They weren't super strong, but it was an awesome gesture seeing as how NCL owed us nothing.

 

Dinner service was slow. I'm not sure what the deal was, but our meals routinely took 90 minutes, which has not been our experience on other ships.

 

For those who are used to picking up your shore-purchased liquor on the last night, I want to say again this is NOT the case on the Sky. You must pick it up the morning of disembarkation. I think this is a rather asinine policy, and it simply makes for disgruntled guests and a longer time in the stateroom on the last morning since you have to wait to pack until you get your liquor if you are flying.

 

Overall it was a great cruise, and we will probably do it again in a few years- or if we catch a great airfare deal!

[thedoc29ca]

We loved our recent short getawaqy on the Sky as well. Dining wise we found the service in both the MDR and Il Adagio to be great. Our meals in the MDR were only okay.

 

We rented a car in Freeport and made our way to Gold Rock Beach and can second the opinion that it is beautiful. Try to time your visit with low tide to really enjoy your time here.

[PixieLegal]

I am trying to talk my hubby into doing the 3 day without the kids this time. He is a little shy because I had such a rough time on Carnival. I still have a bit of "land sickness". Everything is still rocking!!! It sounds like a great quick getaway. There are not many ships that do the quickie trips and the ones that do seem to all need TLC. Its probably the way the lines have it set up. They are not going to send their biggest all-stars out to sea for 3-4 days. But I really would like to find the best out of the few that sail. I see NCL Sky, RCI Majesty and CCL Ecstasy. I like that NCL goes to its private island. CCL goes only to Nassau. I hope to plan something soon. I just have to cross my fingers the seas and weather cooperate!

[TravelDiva88]

I am trying to talk my hubby into doing the 3 day without the kids this time. He is a little shy because I had such a rough time on Carnival. I still have a bit of "land sickness". Everything is still rocking!!! It sounds like a great quick getaway. There are not many ships that do the quickie trips and the ones that do seem to all need TLC. Its probably the way the lines have it set up. They are not going to send their biggest all-stars out to sea for 3-4 days. But I really would like to find the best out of the few that sail. I see NCL Sky, RCI Majesty and CCL Ecstasy. I like that NCL goes to its private island. CCL goes only to Nassau. I hope to plan something soon. I just have to cross my fingers the seas and weather cooperate!

 

Just be prepared that oftentimes the Sky doesn't make it into the private island. Since it's a tender port, any rough weather will keep you on for a "fun day at sea".

[Keith1010]

Welcome back.

 

Keith

[PixieLegal]

Since it's a tender port, any rough weather will keep you on for a "fun day at sea".

 

I am hoping the end of January shouldn't be a prob. But I know its SoFlo. So I will just have to hope. Either way, no kids should prove to be a good trip even staying on board!

[bostongal965]

TravelDiva - I second your opinion on Gigi - she was fun and fantastic!!

 

I forgot to mention that when the captain decided not to launch the tenders for GSC, they did a good job of coming up with a lot of fun activities - the rum punch party, wine and martini tasting, trivia, pool games, etc.

[TravelDiva88]

TravelDiva - I second your opinion on Gigi - she was fun and fantastic!!

 

 

What I posted above (re: give that girl a ship) was almost word for word what I put on the vacation hero card for her. I mean, she REALLY needs to move up the ranks. She was a riot.

 

 

There was one rather... obnoxious... issue onboard. I had ZERO issues with pool chair hogs, but someone decided it would be fun to have their child go to the theater and lay out sweaters, handbags, etc, on 10-15 chairs at a time in the front two rows to save seats... and then the family would roll up 2 or 3 minutes prior to showtime.

 

Chair hogging in the theater was definitely at an all time high. We showed up 5 minutes prior to curtain the last night, and had difficulty finding a seat, not because they were full, but because they were being "saved" for others. We finally picked two chairs about 2/3 of the way back, and as expected we were told by the women behind us that those were "taken" by their friends.

 

I turned around, smiled, and said "If your friends had taken these seats, I would be sitting on their lap currently. Since that is not the case, they are welcome to find empty seats when they arrive".

[Athena_Anton]

We actually made it to Great Stirup Cay even though the weather was not that great. It was raining hard in the morning so everyone thought we wouldn't make it out.

 

 

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