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Sky 9/16/16 trip review with lots of pictures

CruisinCrow

By CruisinCrow,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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CruisinCrow

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When I got back to the cabin it was almost 8 o’clock and Ron was still asleep, so I pounced on the bed to get him up and moving. We were in Nassau! Our plan for the day was to take a cab to Paradise Island, where we had day passes at RIU Palace, an all-inclusive resort on Cabbage Beach. Hey, if we were going to have an all-inclusive weekend, we might as well go all out, right? :) This was our 4th time at RIU so we made ourselves at home right away, snagging a couple of lounge chairs on the edge of the pool deck with a view of that amazing turquoise water. Since our last trip, RIU had replaced the umbrellas around the pool with canvas awnings, which provided a lot more shade. Very smart.

 

Before Ron got too comfortable at the swim up bar, we took a long walk on the beach, walking past the One and Only Ocean Club and then back down to Atlantis. Last year the public access point next to RIU had been closed due to some kind of property dispute. Evidently the issue had been resolved because the vendors were back in full force and the beach was busy with people renting lounge chairs, jet skis and banana boat rides. Lots of people were bobbing around in the water, enjoying the unusually calm waves. Cabbage Beach is normally too rough for swimming but not that day!

 

 

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CruisinCrow

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We had lunch at the buffet and then I settled into my lounge chair while Ron went to pick up drinks for us at the swim up bar. He came back with two cups of Sky Juice. I was introduced to Sky Juice on our Segway tour in March when we’d made a beverage stop at the Fish Fry. Sky Juice is a traditional Bahamian drink made from coconut water, condensed milk and gin or rum. I really liked it because it was refreshing and different. The Sky Juice made me sleepy (or maybe it was the 3 hours of sleep I’d gotten the night before) and I immediately nodded off. The next thing I knew, Ron was waking me up to tell me that Oasis of the Seas was leaving port. What, already? That meant it was almost 3 o’clock and time to go. We didn’t hit any traffic jams on the way back to town so we had a little time to shop at the stores around the cruise terminal before getting on the ship. I bought a beautiful print of a sea turtle by Bahamian artist TIFF Barrett - a little reminder of our home away from home in the Bahamas.

 

 

Oasis of the Seas leaving port

 

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Setting sail

 

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After the sailaway and dinner, we went to the casino for some more Black Jack, but we probably should have gone to the show instead. First, the automatic shuffler kept jamming, and every couple of hands the pit boss had to come over and fix it. The pit boss said they called the shuffler “Sam”. Well, Sam was killing everyone at the table. Ron joked that Sam actually stood for “shi$$y a$$ machine”. Bad Sam! :) Before long, we had both lost our daily gambling allotments so we took one last walk up to the bow to see the full moon. The ship was moving much faster now that we were heading home to Miami but the seas were still calm and smooth.

 

Miami Again

 

In the morning when I pulled our Sign and Sail statement off the door, there was nothing on it. Not one single charge! That was a first. Since there was no reason to rush off the ship (our flight wasn’t until 2 o’clock), we had a leisurely breakfast in the Pink Dining Room. On the way back to the cabin, I spotted our embarkation photo hanging in the photo gallery and couldn’t resist buying it, so we ended up with one charge after all. :) You can't beat an all-inclusive vacation!

 

 

Happy Cruising!



~Susan

 

 

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CruisinCrow

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Love all the photos and your review....so much so that I just booked the upcoming Oct 14 sailing. Yep, one of the advantages of living in florida...:p

 

Awesome! I'm not sure what your itinerary will be since Freeport hasn't reopened yet. Nassau should be good though. Please support the local economies. They will need it! We love the Bahamas and are so sad they got hit so hard by Matthew. I heard that the RIU Palace lost part of the wall of their building.

 

Have a great time on Sky!

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harleycruisers

harleycruisers

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Thanks for sharing - we leave next week 10/17 on a four day. I wonder if they will have to change the destinations due to Matthew - but who cares, right?

This will be my husbands first cruise and even if we stay on the boat the whole time it will be a blast.

Question - have you ever dealt with onboard credits? Do they refund them at the end of the cruise? Can you use them in the casino?

 

It has been 15 years since I have cruised as well and have never been on Norwegian and am soooo looking forward to it and know things have definitely changed over the years. Did you get charged gratuity per drink even though they were all-inclusive?

 

Thanks for responding and sharing...LOVE the pics!

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CruisinCrow

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Question - have you ever dealt with onboard credits? Do they refund them at the end of the cruise? Can you use them in the casino?

 

It has been 15 years since I have cruised as well and have never been on Norwegian and am soooo looking forward to it and know things have definitely changed over the years. Did you get charged gratuity per drink even though they were all-inclusive?

 

Thanks for responding and sharing...LOVE the pics!

 

Sorry, I don't know about onboard credits since we didn't have any. I'd start a new thread to ask about that.

 

For the drinks, no you aren't charged any gratuity and you don't have to sign for anything. It's great! Some people did tip cash.

 

Have a wonderful trip!

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Sungold

Sungold

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CruisinCrow, thanks so much for your review and pictures! I'm booked on a 4-nighter on Sky leaving December 5. I have sailed Norwegian once before, but have never been to Freeport or Great Stirrup Cay. Very much looking forward to it, and will probably look into the all-inclusive option in Nassau at least, since I've been there several times before.

Pam

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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CruisinCrow, thanks so much for your review and pictures! I'm booked on a 4-nighter on Sky leaving December 5. I have sailed Norwegian once before, but have never been to Freeport or Great Stirrup Cay. Very much looking forward to it, and will probably look into the all-inclusive option in Nassau at least, since I've been there several times before.

Pam

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks, Sungold!

 

RIU, Breezes and Sandals all have all-inclusive day passes.

 

We really enjoyed seeing Freeport since we hadn't been there in 25 years. All of the cruises that go to Freeport are 4-day cruises that sail during the work week so we can't book them. So it was a plus for us that the itinerary was changed.

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Thanks, everyone, for the nice words!

 

Here are some final comments about our cruise on Sky.

 

Cabin: Our oceanview cabin was small and there was a shortage of drawers but it was clean and the bed was comfortable. We never met our cabin steward but he made up the room twice a day and always restocked what we needed. We had a towel animal every night.

 

All-Inclusive drinks: This was a nice perk and worked pretty smoothly. The bartenders did a great job keeping up with demand while still being cheerful and fun. I wish there had been more high- end drinks though, like martinis. At dinner, the inclusive drinks included one white wine and one red wine (either Merlot or Cabernet). There didn’t seem to be any bar waiters in the dining room so I’m not sure if you could order a cocktail or not. We didn’t try. You might want to pick up your cocktail at the atrium bar before dinner and take it with you.

 

Food: Our last two cruises before Sky were on Carnival. Sky had a lot more food options than our Carnival cruises. The dining room was open every day for lunch while on Carnival the only lunch option was the buffet. Il Adagio was also open at lunch for fresh pizza and pasta. There was a BBQ every afternoon by the pool deck. They had a crepe station at night. We didn’t try any of the specialty restaurants because the new menus were too expensive. Maybe for a special occasion, they would have been worth it but we didn’t bother since there were other good options. I thought NCL’s Freestyle dining worked better than Carnival’s Your Time Dining. I noticed on our last Carnival cruise that the dining staff was trying to treat it the same as traditional dining where they bring out the food for 10 tables at a time. It was very chaotic. On Sky, they brought each table’s food out individually.

 

Itinerary: My husband and I prefer time in port over sea days so this itinerary was perfect for us. It was great having full days in Nassau and Freeport.

 

Dislikes: There were so many loud people on our cruise. I don’t know if all Sky cruises are that way or if we just happened to get a particularly loud bunch. We mostly sail on the 3 or 4-day weekend cruises so we know they tend to have more party people but this was by far the loudest cruise we’ve been on.

 

Likes: I really liked that they had a place to leave your carry-on bags until the cabins were available. I also liked how they handed out cold towels when you were reboarding the ship in Nassau and Freeport. Those are the kind of nice touches that make a cruise special.

 

All in all, we had a great time.

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Where did you find that painting? Going on Sky in December and that would be a perfect Christmas gift for my sister as she loves sea turtles!

 

Thank you,

 

Trish

 

The artist's name is TIFF (Tiff Barrett). There was a booth selling her stuff in the shops right outside the cruise terminal and the prints came in different sizes.

 

Here's a link to some of her artwork. I think she won an award for the hummingbird picture. http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/tiffany-barrett.html?tab=artwork

 

I love my turtle print!

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ggTexasGal

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Thanks for sharing - we leave next week 10/17 on a four day. I wonder if they will have to change the destinations due to Matthew - but who cares, right?

This will be my husbands first cruise and even if we stay on the boat the whole time it will be a blast.

Question - have you ever dealt with onboard credits? Do they refund them at the end of the cruise? Can you use them in the casino?

 

It has been 15 years since I have cruised as well and have never been on Norwegian and am soooo looking forward to it and know things have definitely changed over the years. Did you get charged gratuity per drink even though they were all-inclusive?

 

Thanks for responding and sharing...LOVE the pics!

 

If your On-Board Credits were issued to you by NCL, you will NOT get a refund, but they should be available for use in the casino. If you purchased OBC, or they were a gift, then you should be able to get a refund if unused.

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