NCL Sky 10/12-16 Review

[Mutumbojimbo]

My wife and I just returned from a great short trip on the Norwegian Sky. I intend to provide a review of the cruise and will answer any questions that I can.

 

For a little background, my wife and I had been on 5 cruises before this one, 2 on our own, 2 with our kids, and 1 with a small group and all of them with Carnival. When I went looking for a Fall getaway for the 2 of us, the good price on this cruise, the offer of the UBP, a stop at Great Stirrup Cay and my desire to try another line were the main factors in choosing this cruise.

 

We drove most of the way down on the day before, Sunday, as we don't like to worry about how much we pack, and it keeps the cost reasonable. We stopped for the night in Ft. Pierce, about 2 hours from the Port of Miami. We got up fairly early Monday morning and headed to Miami. We stopped for water and a few other last minute items at a Target along the way, and arrived at the Premier Cruise Parking garage just before 11. We've parked with them before and they are reasonable and got us to the port quickly. We did have a little trouble finding them to return to our car.

 

When filling out our pre-cruise paperwork, I indicated that we would arrive between 11:00 and 11:30 and we got there about 11:25. We only had to wait about five minutes in line to get our Freestyle Cards, and then headed upstairs where we were assigned to zone 13 for boarding. This was a little misleading as all the zone numbers were odd, so we were in the 7th group to board. We were on the ship by 12:30.

 

I knew from some pre-cruise research that one of the MDR would be open for lunch, so we headed to Crossings, the aft MDR, and enjoyed being able to set our bags down and not deal with a crowded buffet. We finished lunch right about 1:30, and as we were finishing, the announcement that rooms were ready was made.

 

We dropped off our carry-on bags and headed out to explore. The Sky is comparable in size to the Carnival Fantasy class ships, so it was easy to get around. We especially liked the Outrigger bar with its fantastic forward views, Captain Cook's which was an activity center during the day and a piano bar at night, and the longboard bar which also offered great views and was close to the buffet should a snack be required. We missed the Fantasy Class promenade which offers top class people watching and table service from the bar wait staff.

 

The muster drill began about 4:30 and was a chaotic mess. It was held entirely outdoors which is not what we've experienced previously. The crew member conducting the drill was hard to understand and did not keep control of our muster group.

 

Immediately following the muster drill we sailed, we found great seats in the Longboard bar where we had a great view of the impressive mansions, yachts, and Miami Beach. Happily out in the open ocean we headed down to our cabin to prepare for dinner.

[Mutumbojimbo]

While preparing for our cruise, I took NCL's suggestion and made dinner reservations in advance. I imagine that this may be a good idea for specialty dining but it wasn't really necessary for this cruise. We were asked if we minded sharing a table, which sort of surprised me given that we had a reservation, but we agreed. We've had Anytime dining on 4 previous cruises, but always ate as a couple or with our family. We really didn't gel that well with the other 3 couples, and were the only ones drinking (one glass of wine each) which was a little awkward.

 

I started with the salmon tartar which was pretty good. Then a cup of French Onion soup that was pretty disappointing. We both chose a roasted sirloin dish which was alright. In general I thought the food in the MDR was alright but maybe not quite as good as Carnival's MDR food, but certainly more than adequate.

 

Fear not NCL stalwarts, I'm about to move on to an area where NCL eclipses my previous Carnival experiences, entertainment.

[Mutumbojimbo]

Following dinner, we headed to the Welcome aboard show. We thought the presentation of the Senior Officers was well done and enjoyed the short performance by the singers and dancers. We found that the comedian not to our taste, his only funny bit seemed to come from a fortunate bit of audience interaction.

 

We felt that the performers on NCL were stronger than what we've encountered for the most part on Carnival. The group was a little larger, I think 4 singers and 8 dancers. I think this allowed for a little more variety of what they could do. Later in the week, we were surprised when one of the singers did a few numbers off the cuff in the piano bar.

 

Following the show, we decided to head in for the night. It had been a long day, and we wanted to make sure that we had plenty of energy for the days to come.

 

To sum up the first day we were impressed with: the Embarkation process, the Outrigger and Longboard bars, the Welcome Aboard show. We felt that the muster drill was a mess, and the food was not quite as good as what we've had on previous cruises.

[quillwercruisers]

Thanks for your review so far. Going with my BFF for a girls cruise (her first ever cruise) on the Sky Dec 11th. I have not been on board since Dec 2009, so I am looking forward to a recent review.

[Mutumbojimbo]

Thanks for your review so far. Going with my BFF for a girls cruise (her first ever cruise) on the Sky Dec 11th. I have not been on board since Dec 2009, so I am looking forward to a recent review.

 

I think the Sky will be perfect for that. Lots of first time cruisers, and definitely a party cruise, many people boarded with their swimwear on or in their carry-ons, the pools were packed early on.

[Mutumbojimbo]

I think the Sky will be perfect for that. Lots of first time cruisers, and definitely a party cruise, many people boarded with their swimwear on or in their carry-ons, the pools were packed early on.

 

 

In addition, for a first time cruiser, though conditions can change, we felt almost no movement on the ship, if not for the spectacular views, it would have been hard to tell we were sailing.

 

 

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[Mutumbojimbo]

Our first port on this cruise was Freeport on Grand Bahama Island. Having been there before, we knew that the port was in an industrial area, so we got up at our leisure. We enjoyed a very nice breakfast in Crossings. I had Eggs Benedict and my wife had Salmon Benedict, both were pretty good. We like that the servers left us a carafe of coffee, as cruise ship coffee cups tend to be small. Carnival is known for having bacon police, but none of that here, we split a side of bacon every day as the order seemed to be at least 12 pieces :)

 

Following breakfast, we went to Captain Cook's, lounge for trivia. I thought the questions were good, and the fact that we traded papers for scoring eliminated chances for cheating. I won a Frisbee, which I'm sure the boys will enjoy.

 

We decided to wander around the port area for a little while, mostly in search of free Wi-Fi. We looked at the typical t-shirts and souvenirs for a few minutes and tried some conch fritters. Only belatedly did we see that there was a different food stand (Robinson's) that offered Wi-Fi, so we missed out on that. We didn't see any reason to stay out longer, so we headed back to the ship in time to have lunch at Crossings. The menu was the same as the day before, so we made some different choices, the salmon was a favorite, the philly sandwich was ok. This was the final day that Crossings served lunch, and if I had known that I might have chosen the fried chicken, I guess never put something off, especially on cruise ship menus.

 

After our hard morning, we decided a nap was in order plus we hadn't seen any of the movies that were playing on the movie channel (Pitch Perfect 2, Ant Man, and Jurassic World).

 

We went up after a little while, and had a drink and watched the sail away, before we got dressed for dinner.

 

We like to dress up, and Tuesday was the dress up and get pictures made, if you want. We did, but were not happy with any the results. We were surprised at how few people were lined up to meet the captain, but that may be due to the fact that the senior officers were very visible throughout the ship, which may be common to NCL, and a trend that we found very impressive. The captain even chatted with us for a minute or two, the only time I had any real words with the Captain of a Carnival ship was when I paid for a behind the scenes tour.

 

We agreed that our dinner that night in the Palace dining room. For us, this was the best dinner, my wife had a chimmichuri steak, and I had a smoked pork shank. Both dishes were very good.

 

We went to the 'Vegas' show, which was very good. We were very impressed with the quality of the performers and the show was well put together. Following the show we found the piano bar where Barry was very entertaining. His act was fun, but definitely requires audience participation. Barry wrapped up around midnight and we headed back to our cabin as we wanted to be able to watch the ship sail in to Nassau.

[Mutumbojimbo]

On our third day we stopped in Nassau. We've been to Nassau a couple times before, and to be honest it's not our favorite port (Cozumel FTW) but we LOVE the sail-in. There's something about sailing past the lighthouse and watching the other ships come in that I think is really special. I intended to get up to the Outrigger, but ended up watching from our window, or the dining room windows.

 

We were off the ship about 9. in the past we've been able to use the Wi-Fi at festival place, but it is being renovated, and we couldn't connect this time. There were a lot of booths in the outside area and it was much more congested than in our past visits. We pushed past the vendors that were very aggressive, and headed out towards Bay street. We really were not in to shopping this trip, so instead of prowling through the usual stops ("Cari-lo-hah", and "I Love Del Sol") we headed over to Junkanoo Beach.

 

We dipped our toes in the water and took some great pictures, we walked along for about 15 minutes and were ready to move on when we finally found what I was looking for, free Wi-Fi.

 

We found the Bikini Tiki hut, where Amanda, Vargo, Jordan and the rest of the crew made us feel like part of the family. For $20, I bought a coconut that could be refilled with frozen drinks, we had pina colada and mango) and we got to sit and catch up with our family. We stayed there until about 12:30, when black clouds started rolling in. While we were there we had a great time, but I was starting to feel guilty about how much we were drinking for our $20, as we were sharing. We made it back, stopping along the way for a few souvenirs, right before the skies opened up. We were very pleased with the cold towels and beverages that were offered for returning guests.

 

Crossings was not open for lunch, so we tried the pasta bar in il Adagio and got a salad from the buffet. We thought it was a pretty good lunch and we brought it to the longboard bar where we could eat in a quieter area. It really was one of our favorite spots, though we never made it up there for bar snacks.

 

We grabbed another nap (hey it was vacation!) and went up to the outrigger bar to watch our departure. Even though we left at about 5:30, we were the first ship to sail, and as we hadn't turned on our way in, we got to do the Nassau spin on our way out. Once we were out of the harbor, we headed down to get ready for dinner.

 

I was under the impression that there were differences between the 2 main dining rooms, but I think they served an identical menu every night. We were given an excellent table with a view out one of the stern windows. We both ordered a veal cordon bleu dish, which was a little weird. It was served along side pasta with tomato sauce, which seemed a little odd, but then again Carnival serves their veal parmesan along side potatoes au gratin, maybe the 2 lines could trade sides ;)

 

We headed back to Barry and the piano bar. It was fun, but we knew most of the act, and one of the guests kind of dominated the proceedings. We stayed until a little after 11, then headed in to get a good night's sleep before the most anticipated stop of the cruise, Great Stirrup Cay!

[fin]

We met Barry in an elevator and enjoyed talking to him about some mutual interests. So we did catch his show, and yes, audience participation is certainly the cornerstone of his success. (He has been doing this for a great many years).

[Mutumbojimbo]

Our final day was a stop at Great Stirrup Cay. I like the beach, and my wife is definitely a beach person, so we knew that this would be a highlight for us.

 

We were on about the 3rd tender over, the ride was very smooth, and we were able to find loungers with some shade after a short walk. We also had the advantage of being close to the Bacardi Bar.

 

Ideally we might have walked farther and been more secluded, but we couldn't see as much shade farther away. We had a great time going in and out of the water. We don't snorkel, but I'm sure that would have been great too, as the water was so clear.

 

We stayed on the beach until about 1 and then headed up to the pavilion to get lunch. There was a very nice buffet with pizza, burgers, hot dogs, some really good jerk chicken, and all sorts of good salads and sides. Although we like to eat in the MDR when possible, I would say that food wise this was the best lunch of the cruise.

 

It was a pretty warm day, so we headed back to the tender port. I had heard tails on the Carnival boards of people standing out in the sun waiting for tenders at Half Moon Cay, here we received a glass of cold water, a towel for our faces, and sat in the shade until it was time to board. Again the ride was very smooth.

 

We cleaned up, had a nap, and headed out for our last afternoon aboard. We went to the outrigger again, but just after we got there, they put up signs for a private function. We headed down to the casino and played for a few minutes. I played black jack since there was an empty table and my wife tried the roulette wheel. We ended up just a little down as a couple, and headed to the atrium bar. The atrium bar is sort of a martini bar, my wife enjoyed the French raspberry and I had a Manhattan, there was live music there most, if not all nights.

 

We had reservations for the Bistro that night. This was definitely the best dining experience of our trip. When we discussed our dining options before the trip, this one jumped out at us because there are a lot of nice restaurants in Chattanooga, but we don't have a French restaurant. The whole experience was very nice and I would recommend it. My wife had the beef tenderloin, and I had the lamb.

 

Following our dinner, it was time to pack. We probably could have carried off our luggage, but we generally over pack, and it's nice not to stress. We were happy that we could choose our disembarkation time, as Carnival assigns the time and we usually get the next to last zone. Having packed, we decided to watch the rest of Ant Man, which was better than expected and get some rest for the drive home.

 

The last morning was relaxed , we enjoyed a nice breakfast in Crossings and sat there until about 10 minutes before our departure time. A lot of folks must have been staying until the last minute, as there were few people looking for their bags and no line at customs.

 

We had a little trouble finding our shuttle back to the car (look for a white van is not the most helpful suggestion) but once we found the shuttle they loaded us and another family and headed back.

 

After that it was just the small matter of 12 hours home, but my wife did the driving.

 

Overall we had a great time, 4 days is always kind of short, but my wife starts missing the boys too much after that. We talked it over and agree that your first experiences set your expectations, and there are some differences between NCL and Carnival, but over all, we still had about 900 people working hard to make sure the cruise experience was great, and I'd say they succeeded.

 

I'll check back for a few days to see if there are any questions.

[Mutumbojimbo]

We met Barry in an elevator and enjoyed talking to him about some mutual interests. So we did catch his show, and yes, audience participation is certainly the cornerstone of his success. (He has been doing this for a great many years).

 

I think he said that this was cruise 1787, but I may be a little off. He had a great way about him and was really fun.

[DobberDog]

Thank you for your review. Hubby and I are cruising on the sky in April 2016. Looking forward to trying the Sky and a new cruise line.

[Mutumbojimbo]

Thank you for your review. Hubby and I are cruising on the sky in April 2016. Looking forward to trying the Sky and a new cruise line.

 

I hope you have a great cruise. We had a very good time. Most things were pretty much the same, we found that we preferred a few things on Norwegian and a few things on Carnival, but all in all you're going to have 900 people working hard to give you a great vacation.

[the_lovely_voyage]

Thanks for sharing your review! I'm glad to hear such a positive review as my fiancé and I board in 3 weeks. This made me even more excited!

What was the passenger load like when you got back on in Freeport? Do you think a lot of people got off the ship or was it still pretty busy on the pool deck?

[Mutumbojimbo]

There were more people at the pools than normal for a port day. I think that most people who don't book excursions don't stay off the ship long. Especially with so many people on the UBP, why pay to drink off the ship, when you have drinks included on the ship.

 

 

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