Live from NCL Sky-May 5-8, 2023 - a little cruise therapy - Miami to Bahamas

[Seas2mountains]

Let the excitement begin as my husband and I each have one more day at work and should be arriving in Ft Lauderdale in about 25 hours or so of the flight is on time. We wish we could have left earlier in the day but taking more time off from work wasn’t an option. 
 

We celebrated our wedding anniversary this weekend so decided this cruise would we a great way to extend the celebration. 😁

 

Our last NCL cruise was in March on the Gem and we got an upgrade to a 2 bedroom suite and were spoiled and pampered the whole 12 days.  Our cruise before that was on MSC Divina in the Yacht Club in January and we also enjoyed being treated so well while loving Ocean Cay. And the cruse before that one was in September on NCL Getaway in a Haven 2 bedroom suite where we also had a wonderful time. 
 

So this time, we are in a regular balcony cabin and will need to readjust to not having the special breakfast and lunch treatment we loved on the previous three cruises. 
 

But we are on a cruise and that’s all that matters anyways. 
 

Here is our itinerary for this sailing.  
 

[Seas2mountains]

We booked this cruise at the beginning of April as reality set in that our cruise at the end of May on the Escape which is also leaving from Miami was not going to be the same as we are taking some family members with us.  On the cruise later this month, we will be responsible for our almost 8 year old granddaughter as we offered to bring her with us when realizing her Mom (our daughter) had some challenges with summer daycare. While we are super excited to take our granddaughter on her second cruise with us, we also know our schedule will be so different and we won’t have the same freedom we usually have on most of our cruises. 
 

So this cruise was a great excuse to get away for some time for us before the next cruise when we will readjust to parenting/grand parenting. We are empty nesters and attended the youngest son’s college graduation exactly a year ago. 
 

We have FAS+ on this cruise and hope the lounge entertainers are decent. Will there be any Veuve left to finish with the recent P+ changes?

 

We have been on the Sky three other times in our early days of cruising. We are excited to see the complete refurbishments that happened in late 2019.  We are a little confused as to why the NCL website says the last refurbishment was in 2022. 

[Seas2mountains]

I know that I haven’t seen any recent live reviews on the Sky but did watch some recent YouTube videos so we kind of know what to expect.  We think a pianist and singer named Alexa may be on the ship and hear she is good. 
 

If anyone has any questions, please ask. I’ll do my best to get answers during this short cruise. 
 

@www3traveler I’ll try to get the list of officers for you. 

[www3traveler]

Thank You

 

I have not seen anything about The Sky in a long long time.

[Jerseygich]

Looking forward to your report. We will be on the Sky for 10 days starting June 8th.

[Seas2mountains]

6 hours ago, www3traveler said:

Thank You

 

I have not seen anything about The Sky in a long long time.

You’re welcome. I agree. I have seen a lot of other live reports but none from the Sky recently. 

[Seas2mountains]

11 minutes ago, Jerseygich said:

Looking forward to your report. We will be on the Sky for 10 days starting June 8th.

Thank you. I will try to get a lot of photos and will add the dailies. 

[cruiseny4life]

While I may not ever cruise Sky. I don't think I like the small ships, yet I've never actually cruised on one....anyway, I'm so happy you are going on an anniversary cruise! Happy Anniversary!!!! We belatedly celebrated our anniversary last September on Getaway (I think the week before you were on). It was wonderful. 

 

Have fun and I'm looking forward to learning more about Sky. 

[Seas2mountains]

We are almost at the airport!  Flight appears to be on time. 
 

Weather looks to be perfect for a cruise. 
 

[Seas2mountains]

5 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

While I may not ever cruise Sky. I don't think I like the small ships, yet I've never actually cruised on one....anyway, I'm so happy you are going on an anniversary cruise! Happy Anniversary!!!! We belatedly celebrated our anniversary last September on Getaway (I think the week before you were on). It was wonderful. 

 

Have fun and I'm looking forward to learning more about Sky. 

Thank you! It’s fun to celebrate on the ship. Or just to “pretend” to have a good excuse to cruise especially when co-workers really think we are crazy to cruise often. 
 

The small ships are not preferred but they do have some nice features, too. I’ll do my best to get photos. 

[Seas2mountains]

And we are on the plane! We’ll arrive pretty late but oh well, we will be on the cruise tomorrow. 

[Seas2mountains]

We arrived into FLL before midnight and have all carry on  bags. There were a lot more people in the airport than I expected for the time of night. 
 

We initially requested a Lyft and the app said it would be 9 minutes.  It finally got down to a 7 minute estimated arrival and stayed at 7 minutes for what seemed like 10 minutes and then it said it was looking for a new driver.  The woman standing next to us said the same thing happened to her. There were over 100 people waiting in the ride share area.  We decided to give up on Lyft as while it was slightly less than Uber, people standing around us were having no luck with Lyft. 
 

We tried Uber but the estimated time was stuck at 10 minutes and didn’t seem to move. We gave up, canceled the ride and went to the taxi stand where only one taxi was waiting but others were pulling up. We lost about 30-40 minutes trying to use Lyft/Uber. 
 

We are now in the taxi heading to our hotel in the Miami Brickell area. 
 

I’ll update the price later to see if the Taxi cost more than Lyft and Uber or not. 
 

Edited May 5, 2023 by Seas2mountains

[Seas2mountains]

Lyft price was $55 but no one seemed to have luck getting a Lyft to show up. It kept getting canceled. 
 

Uber was $88 but again there were so many people waiting and few rides arriving. 

 

The taxi cost $76 before tip. The driver was a safe driver and was really polite. We appreciated that he had the air conditioning on high and the radio was on low and he helped put bags in and out of the trunk. Next time we will go directly to the taxi. 

[cruiseny4life]

6 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

Lyft price was $55 but no one seemed to have luck getting a Lyft to show up. It kept getting canceled. 
 

Uber was $88 but again there were so many people waiting and few rides arriving. 

 

The taxi cost $76 before tip. The driver was a safe driver and was really polite. We appreciated that he had the air conditioning on high and the radio was on low and he helped put bags in and out of the trunk. Next time we will go directly to the taxi. 

So frustrating that you lost time waiting on Uber/Lyft! That Fort Lauderdale airport is nutso. And I've flown out of actual large airports before. 

 

Anyway, question - did the taxi accept a credit card? That's why I don't use taxis as I'm unsure if they'll accept a card. If they do, then perhaps I'll think about them. When we were at Fort Lauderdale airport there was one taxi waiting, but we walked right by as I had already requested the Lyft. We had to wait 15 minutes as the driver circled the airport in what could only be described as marching band speed. We could have taken the taxi and saved a lot of time...but that whole request ahead/credit card issue. 

[vacation44]

8 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

We arrived into FLL before midnight and have all carry on  bags. There were a lot more people in the airport than I expected for the time of night. 
 

We initially requested a Lyft and the app said it would be 9 minutes.  It finally got down to a 7 minute estimated arrival and stayed at 7 minutes for what seemed like 10 minutes and then it said it was looking for a new driver.  The woman standing next to us said the same thing happened to her. There were over 100 people waiting in the ride share area.  We decided to give up on Lyft as while it was slightly less than Uber, people standing around us were having no luck with Lyft. 
 

We tried Uber but the estimated time was stuck at 10 minutes and didn’t seem to move. We gave up, canceled the ride and went to the taxi stand where only one taxi was waiting but others were pulling up. We lost about 30-40 minutes trying to use Lyft/Uber. 
 

We are now in the taxi heading to our hotel in the Miami Brickell area. 
 

I’ll update the price later to see if the Taxi cost more than Lyft and Uber or not. 
 

The last two times we flew into Fort Lauderdale, we took a van service to Miami for, I think, $17 a person.   I was thinking of using Uber for our February trip, but now think I will continue with the van service.  

 

We will also be on a smaller ship, the Jewel, for the first time in a few months so Iam looking forward to reading about your experience.

 

Have a wonderful time.

[Seas2mountains]

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

So frustrating that you lost time waiting on Uber/Lyft! That Fort Lauderdale airport is nutso. And I've flown out of actual large airports before. 

 

Anyway, question - did the taxi accept a credit card? That's why I don't use taxis as I'm unsure if they'll accept a card. If they do, then perhaps I'll think about them. When we were at Fort Lauderdale airport there was one taxi waiting, but we walked right by as I had already requested the Lyft. We had to wait 15 minutes as the driver circled the airport in what could only be described as marching band speed. We could have taken the taxi and saved a lot of time...but that whole request ahead/credit card issue. 

Thanks.  Yes, it’s been awhile since we have been to the FLL airport.  There were no direct flights to Miami for the time we wanted to leave. 
 

We did pay by credit card and the driver did not ask for cash like we are used to hearing from other taxi drivers.  You are right about them asking for cash or finding that their credit card machine doesn’t connect to the internet. 
 

 

[Seas2mountains]

1 hour ago, vacation44 said:

The last two times we flew into Fort Lauderdale, we took a van service to Miami for, I think, $17 a person.   I was thinking of using Uber for our February trip, but now think I will continue with the van service.  

 

We will also be on a smaller ship, the Jewel, for the first time in a few months so Iam looking forward to reading about your experience.

 

Have a wonderful time.

Thank you!  There may also be an option to take the Brightline train as we saw signs for it in the airport.  We did not want to try it so late at night. 
 

I have not ever seen so many people waiting for an Uber or Lyft at any airport.  
 

We love the Jewel. It does have more to offer than the Sky. 

[Seas2mountains]

We had an uneventful Uber ride from our hotel, Hampton Inn - Miami Brickell.  
 

We dropped our bags with the porter outside.  There was no line for security. We initially waited in the priority check-in for Platinum and above but the line for the general check-in had no wait. The couple standing behind us said they paid for priority boarding and how funny it was that the priority check-in line was longer than the general boarding line.  We went to general boarding and it was fast and efficient to check-in. 
 

And there is the Sky behind the glass.  
 

 

[Seas2mountains]

Here are some hotel photos. 
 

We would recommend this hotel, Hampton Inn-Miami Brickell. It was clean. The staff we encountered were friendly and it was close to the cruise port for a short drive this morning. 
 

There was a safe and two robes in the closet, a refrigerator and microwave with a bar sink and Nespresso machine. 
 

 

[Seas2mountains]

Breakfast at the hotel was the standard free breakfast with cheese omelets, sausages, make your own waffles, etc.  The cheese and deli meat area was different from what I’ve seen at other hotels. 

[Seas2mountains]

Here are some pool photos.  This Hampton Inn did have a bar that is open until 11pm. 
 

 

[Seas2mountains]

A few more photos from the hotel. 

[Seas2mountains]

This is the first time we have been in the new beautiful NCL cruise terminal in Miami. 
 

The walls of windows and seating areas are gorgeous. I like how they had the security area designed as it looks like it should move people through quickly. 
 

Now for the whiny complaints. 
 

1. Is the carpet stained in so many areas especially on the gray carpet or is it because no one is cleaning it or both? Why not choose better flooring for such high traffic areas. 

 

I could add photos but it’s quite nasty in some spots. 
 

2. Could not get the soap dispensers to work in the women’s restroom but the Purell dispensers did work. 
 

We should be boarding soon. 

[cruiseny4life]

Looks like a lovely hotel. Thanks for sharing! I'm putting it on my list of possible hotels next time we're in Miami. 

[DCGuy64]

Beautiful hotel! Looks pricey, but I'm sure it's worth it. Love the photos of the new terminal, simply gorgeous. Have a great cruise!