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The Sky Falls Short - Report On Our 7/21 4 Day Cruise

sunshinestyles

By sunshinestyles,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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sunshinestyles

sunshinestyles

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Norwegian Sky 7/21-7/25:

First a little demographic info- I went on this cruise with my husband, 11yr old daughter and 8 yr old son.

It was our fourth cruise as a family, the first 3 were 4 day Disney Cruises (same itinerary as this one), so that is our point of comparison.

Overall, we enjoyed the cruise, we all agreed that it was relaxing and pleasant, and our favorite part was the food and the shore excursions.

Compared to Disney, the main difference is the lower standards, below what we'd expect to be the minimum standards for a cruise, especially for such a well-known brand as NCL. On all our Disney cruises, we never saw a single thing out of place or done incorrectly, and on this cruise there was plenty to find fault with.

I would attribute most to new-ship and new-staff glitches. The positive comparison with a Disney cruise is that it seems much less crowded.

Though the ship was completely full, there were never crowds and rarely were there lines, so it was more relaxing and less of a kid- oriented theme park atmosphere.

Speaking of kid-oriented, we heard from the cruise staff that usually this ship would have 150 kids but because of the kids sail free promotion, there were 450 children on board.

Very little accommodation was made for children. At restaurants, we always had to ask for kids menus and it took them a long time to locate them. During the port days there was almost nothing for families to do on board, only the pool, which does get old after a while.

Our kids didn't mind, because they're old enough to enjoy what we like to do, but for little kids it would have been difficult to keep them amused.

Something as simple as having some board games for families to use in one of the lounges during the day would have really helped.

Below is my opinion on some shipboard categories, based on my family's observations:

EMBARKATION: Very easy, we arrived at noon and there were no lines at all, we were on the ship by 12:30. We immediately noticed that the ship was very warm, the a/c appeared not to be working. We went straight to Le Adagio, and the custom made pizza and pastas were delicious. The pools were closed, so there was little to do while waiting for our stateroom.

My husband had gym clothes on, so he spent the hours working out in the gym, which was pretty well cooled, while we wandered the ship looking for a cool place to sit.

Our room was ready at 2, so we could put down all of our carryons and change clothes. At 4 we cooled off in the pool until the 4:30 safety drill, which was fairly quick and well-run.

 

AIR CONDITIONING:

I'm sorry to report that the air conditioning problem continues. At noon when we embarked it was sweltering hot all over the ship, and the pools were closed until 4pm so there was no way to cool off for all that time. Sitting in the shade with iced tea helped, but all in all, this was our biggest complaint, it was just a bad way to start the cruise off.

The air conditioning was not working again after we left Freeport, so there were a few more hours of excessive heat then. The rest of the time the ship was appropriately cool and our stateroom was always cool enough, though I heard many other passengers complaining that their rooms were not cool.

 

DINING:

Le Adagio is free at lunch, and the pizzas and pastas are excellent. We went there for dinner as well, and really enjoyed the antipasto cart, and the chocolate apricot torte.

Crossings is really nice, with blue toned decor and great views. We loved the food, and appreciated the Cooking Light options available at every meal (also available at Palace). We had 2 dinners and a breakfast at Crossings, and the service was great every time, and the food was invariably excellent.

I had heard that NCL food is better than Disney Cruise Line, and I agree completely. Disney's food is all made assembly-line style so it wasn't usually really fresh or warm. The NCL food seemed to be more custom- made and the ingredients are all fresh and high-quality.

Room Service: We had breakfast delivered the first morning, it was on-time and delicious, and everything we ordered was brought.

Buffet: The lines moved quickly and there are action stations, so you can go directly to what you want.

Le Bistro: We went there for our 15th anniversary dinner, and the setting was nice and romantic. It was Dress up or Ddown night, so we fit right in in our dressy clothing. The food was pretty good, I had the vegetable napoleon which was delicious but tiny. The desserts are amazing, we shared the creme brulee, hazelnut chocolate cake (the best!) and strawberry mousse. However, our romantic dinner was utterly ruined by the family that was seated next to us. They were in swimsuits, 4 adults sat at 1 table and put their 7 children, ages 3 to 8, ALONE at the table next to us. The parents paid no attention to their children, just letting them run wild, and it was just appalling. The unruly toddlers were screaming, climbing on the windows, and rolling in the aisles, they almost had hot food spilled on them by the waiters a few times. It was just awful, I think the maitre d would have had better sense than to seat them next to us when they knew we were celebrating an anniversary. The staff did come out and sing us Let Me call You sweetheart, and they gave us a special cake. That was really cool.

Palace: we didn't like it as much as Crossings, the decor is all mauve and seems dated. We went there for lunch and a waiter didn't come to our table for about 20 minutes after we were seated. The service was inattentive, they rarely came to see us and got the orders wrong. We definitely prefer Crossings.

 

KIDS CREW:

Open 5pm to 10pm. They didn't have a lot of activities to do, so compared to Disney's it doesn't even come close. My kids begged not to go, so we only made them attend for two 2-hour dinners. It was organized and safe, however, so that was a good thing. Also, the A/C was never working well it the kids crew, so it was really sweltering hot in there, which didn't help. The heat added to the kids' discomfort, making it really unpleasant, they said it felt like jail.

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

We went to the Broadway show the 2nd night. The set was very minimal and dated, it didn't change throughout the show, and it looks very '1985'. The dancers were energetic, and the 2 female lead singers were excellent.

The piano bar-type music is very dated and cheesy, I can't imagine enjoying it unless one was very drunk. Simon-Cowell-like quips kept coming to mind, and it was hard to keep a straight face when thinking of what he would say.

It was reminiscent of a Saturday Night parody. We didn't go to any of the nightlife activities, since we turned in each night by 10pm.

There was very little to do during the day, we didn't go ashore at Freeport and after the pool we just watched TV in our stateroom.

Bingo was quite fun, we did it the first evening and kids get free cards when adults buy one, so we all enjoyed it.

I recommend attending the shopping talk. If you cheer loudly when asked, you get prizes, my daughter won a very cool Del Sol t-shirt that changes color outside.

 

SPA AND FITNESS:

The spa is nice but not very modern. It is different than most spas in that it's all open so you can see out the windows while getting treatments. We bought the $10 Therma Pass on the 2nd day, which allowed us to use the spa locker room, steam room and sauna. It was nice but not of the upscale quality of most spas I've visited, either on land or sea.

The fitness center is GREAT! Both my husband and I worked out there daily, the machines are new and work well, with great views of the sea. The gym is very large and has everything we needed to work out. We took the Spinning class with Antonio one morning and loved it.

 

SHORE EXCURSIONS:

We went ashore at Nassau. We shopped on Bay Street for a while, the only good bargains appear to be jewelry. We bought some cool stuff for the kids at Del Sol. We went to the Starbucks off Bay Street, it was a wonderful oasis in the city, it's a big room with lots of couches, very nice bathrooms, and all the usual Starbucks drinks and snacks.

The Starbucks is right across from the taxi stand, we got a wonderful taxi driver and it was just $4 a person to Paradise Island. We had booked the Dolphin Swim ourselves since it was much cheaper that way, so we had to get to the marina on our own to take the boat to Blue Lagoon Island.

We got to the marina 2 hours early, and it's across the street from Atlantis, so we wandered around there for a while. It was nice and cool, so we shopped and looked around. Many areas are free, so it's a fun place to spend a few hours. We had brought sandwiches from the ship buffet, so we just went to the deli and bought sodas, then sat outside and had a picnic by the yacht marina.

The Dolphin Excursion was the best part of our vacation. We took the 20 minute boat ride to the island, which is just beautiful, with gorgeous water and flowers everywhere. My daughter and I did the Dolphin swim, it was a 20 minute orientation, then we got in the deep water with the dolphins and played with them, followed by the foot push, where 2 dolphins propelled us across the lagoon like a rocket, it was exhilarating and 'totally awesome' in my daughter's words. My husband and son filmed and took pictures, which came out quite well. We also bought 1 5x7 of the 2 of us and the $58 video (overpriced but worth it!)

Great Stirrup Cay was wonderful, we bought swim masks at the Straw Market and the kids saw tons of tropical fish. We also rented 2 kayaks and boated all over the cove, it was really fun and beautiful. We liked this island even better than Disney's Castaway Cay, it's bigger and the BBQ food is much better. The only drawback is that the BBQ area is constantly under attack my swarms of seagulls. It was just like THE BIRDS, they swarmed down and took people's food, and efforts to keep them away were unsuccessful.

Everyone went to the left upon arrival so we went right, to a more peaceful beach. The quietest beach is in front of the Boat Shop to the right, and the one to the right of where the tenders land had the most exotic fish. I didn't even have a swim mask but I could see them all perfectly since the water's so clear.

 

SHIP MAINTENANCE:

The lack of A/C at boarding and after Freeport was the biggest problem. On our deck, 9, there was a strong mildew scent at midship, so we had to walk through a very stinky area every time we went to our cabin.

The pools were closed at boarding and in the mornings for a while, I wonder why they had to be closed so often.

 

STATEROOM: We had an outside stateroom. Compared to Disney, the quality standard is much lower. Everything is plastic, unlike the teak and marble construction even in our inside staterooms at Disney.

Our queen bed was in the middle, with the kids on bunks on top of us, one on each wall. It was kind of weird but fun.

On Disney the couch turns into a bunk bed so the adult bed was more separate. The bedding is VERY comfortable with lots of down padding and plenty of pillows. The sheets are soft and upscale, we're used to 1000 thread count and didn't find these scratchy or uncomfortable.

I think the room stewards are very overworked, I heard some passengers didn't get turndown service. We only had a towel animal on Wednesday night. When we first got to the room, the floor wasn't vacuumed and there were some candy wrappers on the shelves, it didn't seem as spic and span as I would expect. The rooms are also very humid, we all awoke with puffy eyes in the mornings from the humidity, and our clothes we hung out to dry the first day after washing in the sink never got dry, not even on the 4th day. So if you're thinking of washing clothes to re-wear them it's probably not a good idea.

 

STAFF:

All staff members were very friendly and helpful. We did notice that they weren't enforcing the rules. Kids were swimming in the adult pool and splashing and making noise. When we told the staff members, they did nothing about it, so they had to ask another staff member to help.

In terms of conveying a luxury vacation experience, the fact that the staff members, even at dinner in the nice restaurants, wore t-shirts, was jarring. It gives the cruise a 'summer camp' atmosphere that didn't fit with the upscale settings. They wear black shirts to advertise Monte Carlo night and then white shirts to promote the White Night party.

We liked this cruise and believe in NCL's reputation from reading these boards well enough to book again. I spoke to Rusty and he gave me tons of info on the cruise I was interested in. I had already priced the cruise online, and his price was $2400 cheaper for the 4 of us, plus he upgraded us to a BB balcony. We booked the Gem 7 day Mediterranean cruise in May, and I sure hope it will be better than this one!

 

All in all, we had a great vacation and the ship's flaws didn't detract from the fun we had together. I have all the dailies and will be glad to post them if someone will tell me how to. I'm also glad to answer any questions any future cruisers may have!

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debs1505

debs1505

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Thank you so much for your review, which I think reads pretty positive!! We are due to go on our first NCL cruise at the end of August and I was beginning to panic!! I'm a pretty laid back person and tend to take things as I find, but some of the reviews were unnerving (although I do like people to be honest!).

 

We are mid ship in a balcony cabin - 9059 - I hope our AC is working! But then again I will just open the balcony door!!

 

A couple of questions if I may??

 

I fancied the dolphin swim at Nassau but Im a non-swimmer - would I still be able to do it - ie: do they supply floaty type jackets??!!

 

Also, was there lobster in Crossings?

 

Debs

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debs1505

debs1505

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Yes, all participants wear life jackets, so there's no need to swim, just after the Foot Push, you'd need to use your arms to doggie paddle to the ladder, but the life jacket keeps you afloat. Hope you enjoy your cruise!

 

Thank you! I am sure we will enjoy our cruise. We are having a week in Orlando first then driving down to Miami. Cant wait to get some sunshine! :D

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ilmsg

ilmsg

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Thank you for the review!

 

I have a few questions... I was also interested in the dolphin swim in Nassau. Does this sell out? Should I purchase tickets in advance?

 

What is there at the Atlantis to see for free? I am thinking we'll have a few hours to kill before/after the dolphin swim as well and was thinking of checking it out over there.

 

Also, can you tell me how many free restaurants there were (and names)? What exactly is Le Adagio? Is it free as well for dinner?

 

TIA!

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sunshinestyles

sunshinestyles

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Yes, I've heard it sells out so it's best to book in advance. I did it through the website: www.dolphinencounters.com They emailed me a form which I had to fill out and fax back. It all went very smoothly. It's way cheaper than going through the cruise lines, and the cruise lines don't let you book for Observer tickets ($20) like the website does. That saved us a lot of money since my husband and son just wanted to watch.

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waykaylincruz

waykaylincruz

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I have a question about Dolphin Enconters....

 

We are scheduled to do the sea lion encounter when we are there in a couple of weeks. Did you happen to see any of that and did it seem like fun??

 

Also, how do they check the ages of the children that are participating OR do they take your word for it??? I have a 7 year old daughter that is signed up to do our encounter with but she is supposed to be 8 (although she does meet the height requirement). Do you think that will be a problem??

 

I am SOOOOOO glad to hear you all had a good time. I think us upcoming SKY cruisers needed some good points to look forward to.

 

Thanks!!

 

Renee

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wayneh70

wayneh70

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Thanks so much for the great review, sounds like you had an awesome time!

 

One question though, why did you title the thread "The Sky Falls Short"? My 2 cents but isn't comparing the Sky to a Disney cruise a little unfair? Yes it may be kids' nirvana (I have 4 lil darlins') but when I looked at it, the Disney cruises are running over double the price for a 3 night! I'm thinking that the 2 lines are different markets, sort of like comparing NCL to Silversea for an Alaskan cruise. I'm not trying to criticize or anything, like I say I enjoyed the review (and just to add Id NEVER take my brood to Le Bistro much less in their bathing suits!!! And even if I did I'd swap spots so you weren't sitting next to them)

 

Thanks again :)

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newmexicoNita

newmexicoNita

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Norwegian Sky 7/21-7/25:

First a little demographic info- I went on this cruise with my husband, 11yr old daughter and 8 yr old son.

It was our fourth cruise as a family, the first 3 were 4 day Disney Cruises (same itinerary as this one), so that is our point of comparison.

Overall, we enjoyed the cruise, we all agreed that it was relaxing and pleasant, and our favorite part was the food and the shore excursions.

Compared to Disney, the main difference is the lower standards, below what we'd expect to be the minimum standards for a cruise, especially for such a well-known brand as NCL. On all our Disney cruises, we never saw a single thing out of place or done incorrectly, and on this cruise there was plenty to find fault with.

I would attribute most to new-ship and new-staff glitches. The positive comparison with a Disney cruise is that it seems much less crowded.

Though the ship was completely full, there were never crowds and rarely were there lines, so it was more relaxing and less of a kid- oriented theme park atmosphere.

Speaking of kid-oriented, we heard from the cruise staff that usually this ship would have 150 kids but because of the kids sail free promotion, there were 450 children on board.

Very little accommodation was made for children. At restaurants, we always had to ask for kids menus and it took them a long time to locate them. During the port days there was almost nothing for families to do on board, only the pool, which does get old after a while.

Our kids didn't mind, because they're old enough to enjoy what we like to do, but for little kids it would have been difficult to keep them amused.

Something as simple as having some board games for families to use in one of the lounges during the day would have really helped.

Below is my opinion on some shipboard categories, based on my family's observations:

EMBARKATION: Very easy, we arrived at noon and there were no lines at all, we were on the ship by 12:30. We immediately noticed that the ship was very warm, the a/c appeared not to be working. We went straight to Le Adagio, and the custom made pizza and pastas were delicious. The pools were closed, so there was little to do while waiting for our stateroom.

My husband had gym clothes on, so he spent the hours working out in the gym, which was pretty well cooled, while we wandered the ship looking for a cool place to sit.

Our room was ready at 2, so we could put down all of our carryons and change clothes. At 4 we cooled off in the pool until the 4:30 safety drill, which was fairly quick and well-run.

 

AIR CONDITIONING:

I'm sorry to report that the air conditioning problem continues. At noon when we embarked it was sweltering hot all over the ship, and the pools were closed until 4pm so there was no way to cool off for all that time. Sitting in the shade with iced tea helped, but all in all, this was our biggest complaint, it was just a bad way to start the cruise off.

The air conditioning was not working again after we left Freeport, so there were a few more hours of excessive heat then. The rest of the time the ship was appropriately cool and our stateroom was always cool enough, though I heard many other passengers complaining that their rooms were not cool.

 

DINING:

Le Adagio is free at lunch, and the pizzas and pastas are excellent. We went there for dinner as well, and really enjoyed the antipasto cart, and the chocolate apricot torte.

Crossings is really nice, with blue toned decor and great views. We loved the food, and appreciated the Cooking Light options available at every meal (also available at Palace). We had 2 dinners and a breakfast at Crossings, and the service was great every time, and the food was invariably excellent.

I had heard that NCL food is better than Disney Cruise Line, and I agree completely. Disney's food is all made assembly-line style so it wasn't usually really fresh or warm. The NCL food seemed to be more custom- made and the ingredients are all fresh and high-quality.

Room Service: We had breakfast delivered the first morning, it was on-time and delicious, and everything we ordered was brought.

Buffet: The lines moved quickly and there are action stations, so you can go directly to what you want.

Le Bistro: We went there for our 15th anniversary dinner, and the setting was nice and romantic. It was Dress up or Ddown night, so we fit right in in our dressy clothing. The food was pretty good, I had the vegetable napoleon which was delicious but tiny. The desserts are amazing, we shared the creme brulee, hazelnut chocolate cake (the best!) and strawberry mousse. However, our romantic dinner was utterly ruined by the family that was seated next to us. They were in swimsuits, 4 adults sat at 1 table and put their 7 children, ages 3 to 8, ALONE at the table next to us. The parents paid no attention to their children, just letting them run wild, and it was just appalling. The unruly toddlers were screaming, climbing on the windows, and rolling in the aisles, they almost had hot food spilled on them by the waiters a few times. It was just awful, I think the maitre d would have had better sense than to seat them next to us when they knew we were celebrating an anniversary. The staff did come out and sing us Let Me call You sweetheart, and they gave us a special cake. That was really cool.

Palace: we didn't like it as much as Crossings, the decor is all mauve and seems dated. We went there for lunch and a waiter didn't come to our table for about 20 minutes after we were seated. The service was inattentive, they rarely came to see us and got the orders wrong. We definitely prefer Crossings.

 

KIDS CREW:

Open 5pm to 10pm. They didn't have a lot of activities to do, so compared to Disney's it doesn't even come close. My kids begged not to go, so we only made them attend for two 2-hour dinners. It was organized and safe, however, so that was a good thing. Also, the A/C was never working well it the kids crew, so it was really sweltering hot in there, which didn't help. The heat added to the kids' discomfort, making it really unpleasant, they said it felt like jail.

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

We went to the Broadway show the 2nd night. The set was very minimal and dated, it didn't change throughout the show, and it looks very '1985'. The dancers were energetic, and the 2 female lead singers were excellent.

The piano bar-type music is very dated and cheesy, I can't imagine enjoying it unless one was very drunk. Simon-Cowell-like quips kept coming to mind, and it was hard to keep a straight face when thinking of what he would say.

It was reminiscent of a Saturday Night parody. We didn't go to any of the nightlife activities, since we turned in each night by 10pm.

There was very little to do during the day, we didn't go ashore at Freeport and after the pool we just watched TV in our stateroom.

Bingo was quite fun, we did it the first evening and kids get free cards when adults buy one, so we all enjoyed it.

I recommend attending the shopping talk. If you cheer loudly when asked, you get prizes, my daughter won a very cool Del Sol t-shirt that changes color outside.

 

SPA AND FITNESS:

The spa is nice but not very modern. It is different than most spas in that it's all open so you can see out the windows while getting treatments. We bought the $10 Therma Pass on the 2nd day, which allowed us to use the spa locker room, steam room and sauna. It was nice but not of the upscale quality of most spas I've visited, either on land or sea.

The fitness center is GREAT! Both my husband and I worked out there daily, the machines are new and work well, with great views of the sea. The gym is very large and has everything we needed to work out. We took the Spinning class with Antonio one morning and loved it.

 

SHORE EXCURSIONS:

We went ashore at Nassau. We shopped on Bay Street for a while, the only good bargains appear to be jewelry. We bought some cool stuff for the kids at Del Sol. We went to the Starbucks off Bay Street, it was a wonderful oasis in the city, it's a big room with lots of couches, very nice bathrooms, and all the usual Starbucks drinks and snacks.

The Starbucks is right across from the taxi stand, we got a wonderful taxi driver and it was just $4 a person to Paradise Island. We had booked the Dolphin Swim ourselves since it was much cheaper that way, so we had to get to the marina on our own to take the boat to Blue Lagoon Island.

We got to the marina 2 hours early, and it's across the street from Atlantis, so we wandered around there for a while. It was nice and cool, so we shopped and looked around. Many areas are free, so it's a fun place to spend a few hours. We had brought sandwiches from the ship buffet, so we just went to the deli and bought sodas, then sat outside and had a picnic by the yacht marina.

The Dolphin Excursion was the best part of our vacation. We took the 20 minute boat ride to the island, which is just beautiful, with gorgeous water and flowers everywhere. My daughter and I did the Dolphin swim, it was a 20 minute orientation, then we got in the deep water with the dolphins and played with them, followed by the foot push, where 2 dolphins propelled us across the lagoon like a rocket, it was exhilarating and 'totally awesome' in my daughter's words. My husband and son filmed and took pictures, which came out quite well. We also bought 1 5x7 of the 2 of us and the $58 video (overpriced but worth it!)

Great Stirrup Cay was wonderful, we bought swim masks at the Straw Market and the kids saw tons of tropical fish. We also rented 2 kayaks and boated all over the cove, it was really fun and beautiful. We liked this island even better than Disney's Castaway Cay, it's bigger and the BBQ food is much better. The only drawback is that the BBQ area is constantly under attack my swarms of seagulls. It was just like THE BIRDS, they swarmed down and took people's food, and efforts to keep them away were unsuccessful.

Everyone went to the left upon arrival so we went right, to a more peaceful beach. The quietest beach is in front of the Boat Shop to the right, and the one to the right of where the tenders land had the most exotic fish. I didn't even have a swim mask but I could see them all perfectly since the water's so clear.

 

SHIP MAINTENANCE:

The lack of A/C at boarding and after Freeport was the biggest problem. On our deck, 9, there was a strong mildew scent at midship, so we had to walk through a very stinky area every time we went to our cabin.

The pools were closed at boarding and in the mornings for a while, I wonder why they had to be closed so often.

 

STATEROOM: We had an outside stateroom. Compared to Disney, the quality standard is much lower. Everything is plastic, unlike the teak and marble construction even in our inside staterooms at Disney.

Our queen bed was in the middle, with the kids on bunks on top of us, one on each wall. It was kind of weird but fun.

On Disney the couch turns into a bunk bed so the adult bed was more separate. The bedding is VERY comfortable with lots of down padding and plenty of pillows. The sheets are soft and upscale, we're used to 1000 thread count and didn't find these scratchy or uncomfortable.

I think the room stewards are very overworked, I heard some passengers didn't get turndown service. We only had a towel animal on Wednesday night. When we first got to the room, the floor wasn't vacuumed and there were some candy wrappers on the shelves, it didn't seem as spic and span as I would expect. The rooms are also very humid, we all awoke with puffy eyes in the mornings from the humidity, and our clothes we hung out to dry the first day after washing in the sink never got dry, not even on the 4th day. So if you're thinking of washing clothes to re-wear them it's probably not a good idea.

 

STAFF:

All staff members were very friendly and helpful. We did notice that they weren't enforcing the rules. Kids were swimming in the adult pool and splashing and making noise. When we told the staff members, they did nothing about it, so they had to ask another staff member to help.

In terms of conveying a luxury vacation experience, the fact that the staff members, even at dinner in the nice restaurants, wore t-shirts, was jarring. It gives the cruise a 'summer camp' atmosphere that didn't fit with the upscale settings. They wear black shirts to advertise Monte Carlo night and then white shirts to promote the White Night party.

We liked this cruise and believe in NCL's reputation from reading these boards well enough to book again. I spoke to Rusty and he gave me tons of info on the cruise I was interested in. I had already priced the cruise online, and his price was $2400 cheaper for the 4 of us, plus he upgraded us to a BB balcony. We booked the Gem 7 day Mediterranean cruise in May, and I sure hope it will be better than this one!

 

All in all, we had a great vacation and the ship's flaws didn't detract from the fun we had together. I have all the dailies and will be glad to post them if someone will tell me how to. I'm also glad to answer any questions any future cruisers may have!

Well it appears you made the best out of your cruise. I am sure it didn't compare with Disney cruises, of course the price didn't either. I am sure you will enjoy the Gem, most people say it is a great ship. Good luck, and thanks for letting us know your experience on the Sky.

 

Nita

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sunshinestyles

sunshinestyles

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To answer ILMSG's questions:

About the Restaurants- the Buffet, Crossings and Palace are all free, the specialty ones that cost money are Le Adagio, Cagney's and Le Bistro. Adagio is a contemporary Italian restaurant, pizza and pasta for free at lunch, at dinner you'll pay $10 each. They have a lot of great Italian dishes and good desserts, and the service was excellent.

At Atlantis, the only free things are the exterior, the marina shopping area which is nice, the casino and the lobbies. It's still a nice place to cool off and the sights are interesting. It was so crowded and busy, I wouldn't want to stay there but it was nice to see. We could see the aquarium from one of the lobbies for free but you had to pay to get up close. Even walking the grounds required a wristband.

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sunshinestyles

sunshinestyles

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Yes, we saw the Sea Lion Encounter, they were cute to watch but I don't think they do nearly as many cute behaviors as the dolphins, it's more to touch them and watch them do tricks, not as much interaction as the dolphins.

For the dolphin encounter, they didn't check the ages for children, so I think it'll be ok for your daughter. I was a little scared to be in such deep water, so make sure she's ok with that.

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sunshinestyles

sunshinestyles

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To answer wayneh, yes, I agree that the NCL/Disney comparison is not apples to apples, but that's the only point of reference we had. Our Disney cruises in November cost the same as this one in the summer, I guess it depends on when you go.

 

The reason I titled it The Sky Falls Short, is because given NCL's reputation and many years of experience, I did expect such basic things as air conditioning and foul odors to be taken care of. I think on this cruise NCL doesn't live up to the standards it sets for itself, and it's a poor way to introduce the brand to new NCL'ers like myself. Still, in case you're wondering, if I had to do it over again, I still would. We had a great time as a family and the ship's problems didn't keep us from enjoying ourselves (can you tell I'm an optimist and always look on the bright side?!)

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wayneh70

wayneh70

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To answer wayneh, yes, I agree that the NCL/Disney comparison is not apples to apples, but that's the only point of reference we had. Our Disney cruises in November cost the same as this one in the summer, I guess it depends on when you go.

 

The reason I titled it The Sky Falls Short, is because given NCL's reputation and many years of experience, I did expect such basic things as air conditioning and foul odors to be taken care of. I think on this cruise NCL doesn't live up to the standards it sets for itself, and it's a poor way to introduce the brand to new NCL'ers like myself. Still, in case you're wondering, if I had to do it over again, I still would. We had a great time as a family and the ship's problems didn't keep us from enjoying ourselves (can you tell I'm an optimist and always look on the bright side?!)

 

Lol optimism is great! I'm trying very hard to be optimistic considering I have to fly from Vancouver for this cruise with my wife & 4 kidlets so I'm REALLY hoping for the best! With a family that big a Disney cruise is a faroff dream for us and even this cruise is pretty much a one-off

 

Did you happen to see in the other thread that NCL has set up a hotline for people who had problems with the Sky to date?

 

Looks like NCL is stepping up to the plate. Offering 20-100% refunds for future trips depending on what happened. We got off the ship at 9am. My travel agent has already gotten a call from the brass at NCL asking for all the details of what has happened on the Sky. The call also verified all passengers in our group will receive 100% back torward's another cruise and ship board credit.

 

My travel agent is shocked at how fast they are handling the situation......Good for you NCL....

 

For those of you who sailed on The Sky on 7/21 NCL has set up a hot line to handle situations that occurred. 866-625-1164

 

:)

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mbisson

mbisson

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I'm trying very hard to be optimistic considering I have to fly from Vancouver for this cruise with my wife & 4 kidlets so I'm REALLY hoping for the best! With a family that big a Disney cruise is a faroff dream for us and even this cruise is pretty much a one-off

 

Did you happen to see in the other thread that NCL has set up a hotline for people who had problems with the Sky to date?

:)

 

Yikes! I hope (flying that far) you're doing more than just the cruise. (otherwise it probably would've been more cost effective to cruise out of Vancouver-unless of course you're cashing in a whole lot of ff miles)

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wayneh70

wayneh70

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Yikes! I hope (flying that far) you're doing more than just the cruise. (otherwise it probably would've been more cost effective to cruise out of Vancouver-unless of course you're cashing in a whole lot of ff miles)

 

We looked at it pretty closely and decided in the end to go someplace warm rather than close. We were about to reserve on the Sun for Alaska - oceanview rooms - when the magic words "kids sail free" came across my inbox and we were able to book adjoining balconies on the Sky (which would have NEVER happened if we sailed out of Van).

 

We managed to get a good rate for plane tickets down so the total cost is pretty much the same, just a matter of what you want to do for your 4 grand lol

 

I still really want to cruise the inside passage to Alaska, I grew up on the east coast of Vancouver Island and we'd go down to the beach and watch the cruise ships go by - very cool

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mbisson

mbisson

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We looked at it pretty closely and decided in the end to go someplace warm rather than close.

 

Florida/Bahamas warm in Sept? OH YES, it's a slam dunk it'll be 'warm' LOL. We swore a few years ago we would never return until at least Oct, but silly me-we'll be in Orlando a week after you cruise.

 

Hope you have a great time. And someday you should cruise the passage as well. We've done it several times and even though we grew up in W. Washington (which is also a bit green) we love it.

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