4 day Sky ... With kids! Owner's suite 8201. Pictures!

We are currently sitting in Cagneys, awaiting lunch. This was the fastest embarkation EVER. We were on the ship within 20 minutes of arriving at port - at 11:15 am!

Funnily enough, we immediately ran into a family with a son that is exactly my sons age, who will be on our same floor, who were on the Jade in April - in the same room we were in in March! (14008). Crazy!

This is going to be so much fun!

I will come back to do a picture review after we get back. My rum and Pepsi is calling my name!

ETA: the rum and Pepsi is definitely not watered down or weak!

I love the Sky. I have sailed on her 3 times and loved each one. :)

Have a nice trip.

We just did the 4-day Sky cruise last week. It was a great time, and no watered down or weak drinks for us either!

You really did have a fast embarkation. Last Monday, boarding didn't start until after noon.

Have fun!

They did some redecorating of the OS. The garish carpet is gone.

im trying to upload a video, but it's redirecting somewhere weird. So, I'll troubleshoot later. Sorry :/

We just did the 4-day Sky cruise last week. It was a great time, and no watered down or weak drinks for us either!

 

You really did have a fast embarkation. Last Monday, boarding didn't start until after noon.

 

Have fun!

We were on that cruise, too! With kids! Funny, we found the drinks watered down (at least the "specials") and began ordering drinks "to order", i.e., Jack (or Crown) & Coke, G&T, etc....they were much better after that. Also, I found it perplexing that with decent beers (Sams, Newcastle, Amstel, Heinis, Dos X, Amstel) on the inclusive menu, people were ordering Bud & Coronas?? :confused:

Beside that rough seas on the way out of MIA, it was an awesome cruise! We were part of a group and qualified for the upgraded dining package (which was AMAZING!!) and some other perks. We stayed in a OV (cat O2) and the cabin was comfortable.

We were on that cruise, too! With kids! Funny, we found the drinks watered down (at least the "specials") and began ordering drinks "to order", i.e., Jack (or Crown) & Coke, G&T, etc....they were much better after that. Also, I found it perplexing that with decent beers (Sams, Newcastle, Amstel, Heinis, Dos X, Amstel) on the inclusive menu, people were ordering Bud & Coronas?? :confused:

 

Beside that rough seas on the way out of MIA, it was an awesome cruise! We were part of a group and qualified for the upgraded dining package (which was AMAZING!!) and some other perks. We stayed in a OV (cat O2) and the cabin was comfortable.

Haha, I was one who ordered Corona. But I'm not a big beer drinker, and it was the only one that came to mind when I wanted a beer. :-) I pretty much stuck to the mixed drinks and sparkling wine.

I somewhat retract my statement about drinks not being watered down. They were on GSC, but on the ship they weren't.

Ugh, those rough seas. Most of the staff we talked to said that was rare, which I agree with based on previous cruises to/from the Bahamas. We had a few first-time cruisers with us, and one of them was definitely not feeling well. Glad it only lasted that evening! It was a great cruise overall!

I'll be sailing for the second time in 8201 in 55 days! I've also sailed twice in 8001! Can't wait to see the updates!!

Have a great cruise.....and take care of 8201!! :D

We just docked. Whew! It was a lot of fun! I'll do what I can on the way home, but we stuck have to make an 11 am flight from MIA!

Ok, here we go! :)

First, a bit about us: We live in Tx, and have only been able to take vacations recently. We have 3 kids - the oldest is grown, but is pregnant, living at home and has a job. The other 2 are small. Their names go in alphabetical order, A, B and C. A stayed home, as she couldnt afford the trip (she did not live with us when it was planned).

Pre cruise:

We flew from DFW to MIA on Sunday, 6/26. When I was booking tickets (just after Christmas), I scored a KILLER deal. For all 4 of us to go first class instead of economy round-trip, it was only $300 more. TOTAL. Complete no-brainer. Especially cool for the return trip home...but more on that later!

The little kids havent been on many planes - B went on a couple at 13 months old, then they both went to Disneyland and back in 2014. That's it. We've driven everywhere else. They thought it was all pretty cool.

C wasnt too sure about the lunch:

Once in MIA, we grabbed a cab to go to the Best Western Premier Airport.

It was a bit of a ride (maybe 15 minutes) from MIA to the hotel, and there is not much around. There is a Burger King next door and there is a CVS about 1/2 a mile away (DH walked it to get Cokes to take onboard). It is also in a very predominantly Spanish-speaking area of Miami. We were the oddballs, since Im the only one that speaks Spanish in our family.

The hotel had a nice pool that was decently clean for a hotel pool, and the kids and I swam for a couple of hours (they were going stir-crazy)

We went to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner (DH hates burger king), and it was ok, but not worth the $$$$$ they charge for it (they pretend it's a gourmet restaurant - it even has a tasting menu).

I dont think any of us really slept that night, as DH and I both shared with a kid, since the beds were queens and not kings. Kids kick!

Breakfast at the hotel the next morning was a typical (included) hotel breakfast. We had signed up for the first port shuttle (at 11 am), so we had breakfast, then got our things together and headed down.

next up: The fastest boarding EVER.

So...off to the ship!

We got on the shuttle and headed to the port. No other NCLers were on the shuttle, but there was a Carnival family and an RCI family riding with us. We got dropped off first.

We gave our bags to the porters, then headed in. Suite check in was RIGHT at the entrance, in a TINY room, and there was no one in front of us. I didnt have a chance to get pictures...

Once we were checked in, we were lead out of that room to a small holding area upstairs, where other suite guests were waiting. We waited less than 5 minutes there, then were lead onto the ship:

Man, I felt pretentious following after that lady with the sign!

We were taken to The Plantation Lounge, where we met Leo, the concierge and Cyril and Isidore(?) the 2 butlers for the ship.

We met the family I talked about earlier, B really hit it off with their younger son. They were less than 2 weeks apart in age, we had been in the same cabin on Jade, both the husbands had been in the Navy, etc etc etc. It was just weird! (but cool)

The menu in Cagney's is still the old menu:

After lunch (and a few drinks), we were able to head to our room. 8201.

Ok, I dont know what's wrong with my video. It just isnt working.

So, Im borrowing DH's pictures:

The carpet is a HUGE improvement.

The new coffee machine (Nespresso) was in the suite, too:

OK. I gave up on photobucket. Here's the video tour on YouTube:

As we were exploring the room, we tried to find plugs to plug things in to. Most of the available plugs were European. I found ONE American plug behind the TV in the bedroom.

Cyril showed up to introduce himself, and brought along a power strip, unasked. That was our SAVING GRACE, and an example of what a great butler he was!

We headed down to Splash Academy (1 floor down), and signed the kids up, then returned to the room.

Our bags were not yet there, so, while DH filled the hot tub (which does NOT take 2 hours to fill - maybe 30 minutes), and I went along to the spa to book massages. We were able to book back to back deep tissue massages both that afternoon (at 5 and 6:45) and back to back hot stone massages on GSC morning (8 and 9:15).

When I got back to the room, the kids had DEMOLISHED the fruit plate, 3 out of 4 bags were there, and the hot tub was just about full. Our room steward (Junelle) saw me taking the bags in and asked if they were all there, I said we were still missing 1 - my son's Star Wars suitcase. He said he would look for it.

As an aside, on the Sky, suites do NOT get priority tags for suitcases at embarkation. Ours were pink, just like everyone else's in our area of the ship. So, no fast luggage delivery.

Anyhow, DH went to his appointment, the kids were hungry again, so I took them to the buffet.

I have to say, the buffet on the Sky is RIDICULOUS. It's 1 (ONE) line, and apparantly, you have to go through it IN line. And of course, they put the hot dogs/hamburgers/kid food at the BEGINNING of the line, so most of it is empty, but everyone has to wait while every kid/burger loving adult makes up their burger exactly right. It took FOREVER.

After (finally) getting their food, I took them to splash academy.

I went back to the room, and DH was not yet back, so I poured myself a rum and pepsi. I am NOT a bartender. I kind of guestimated how much rum *should* go into a drink. I think I put in enough rum for about... 5-6 drinks, though. And this was on a basically empty stomach. I certainly didnt need any more alcohol for the rest of the night! And I was up ALLL night long, drinking water and taking care of situations that much alcohol + water created.

Then we went to Palace for dinner:

DH started with the Bouillabaise soup:

Wierd, as all Bouillabaise I've ever had was in saffron broth, not tomato. But whatever.

I started with the duck pate. And to be honest, I love pate so much that I kind of forgot to take a picture until I was done. Whoops.

Obviously, it was delicious.

DH then went on to a green salad with Italian dressing:

and both of us had the Chicken Cordon Bleu:

it was DELICIOUS.

Both of us also had the chocolate volcano cake thing, which was DISGUSTING. Ive had it taste good on other NCL ships, so Im not sure what was wrong with it, but it was icky. The cookies and cream ice cream was OK though.

At this point, it was so late, that it was time to get the kids from Splash Academy.

They did NOT want to share a bed, so we had both of the beds in the main room made up. Cyril did it, I think, instead of the room steward, as we met him exiting our room, and he told us it was all set up, and the room steward was still working on 8202 next door.

The couch bed:

The Murphy bed:

this one was pretty interesting, as there were cabinets in the long cupboards on both sides of the bed. The 2 cubbies on either side also opened up to the bed itself, and had lights that could be turned on. We used 1 of them for a nightlight (we covered most of the opening with a pillow off the purple couch, that light was BRIGHT!)

No towel animal that first night, but we were all pretty tired, so oh well.

next up: Freeport!

Freeport:

I managed to hydrate myself out of a hangover, so that was good. We slept in a bit (though, docking itself woke us up due to the vibration).

I went out on the balcony to have a look, and we were docked next to the Grand Bahamas Celebration line ship:

Once we were awake and dressed, we headed to Cagney's for breakfast (this menu never changed):

The kids had nothing but Fruit Loops, and somehow I think DH missed this breakfast. Dont remember why.

I started out with fruit and yogurt off the buffet:

Then moved on to traditional eggs benedict (my favorite):

I had prereserved passes to the Viva Wyndham resort, but I was tired and frazzled from the first couple of days of the trip and wasnt in the mood to go, and neither were DH or the kids. So, we got off the ship to go to the straw market for just a little bit.

We found a bunch of cool stuff in the straw market...but... the CC machine didnt work and somehow the merchant had been taken off the CC list of authorized retailers, or something, and I hadnt brought a lot of cash, so we got DH a hat, B a fish (he had forgotten his sock dog that he sleeps with), and C a pair of sunglasses.

It was about 1 million degrees out, so we went back on the ship after that quick turn around the shops.

The kids were super excited about the glass elevators, and asked DH to take a picture of them in one:

We then dropped them off a Splash Academy and we went to lunch at Cagneys (they did port play lunch).

While we were having lunch (both of us had burgers), we looked out the window and saw this:

Even the crew in Cagneys hadnt seen this before. Basically, a pair of tugboats were hauling this almost-empty cargo ship around the harbor. it was wierd! It came from behind us, got rotated around, then exited the harbor past the Grand Bahamas Line ship. It was neat to watch, actually.

After lunch, we went back to the stateroom and DH read a book and I took a nap. We picked the kids up around 4ish from splash academy, took them back to the room and found FIVE PLATES of snacks - a fruit plate, 3 sandwiches, chocolate covered strawberries and banana cake (he had delivered it in the early AM). WOW.

We took the kids to the Atrium to watch for pier runners. We didnt have many, but there were a few.

We let the kids splash around in the hot (well, we filled it with cold) tub for awhile, then went to dinner at Palace again.

I started off with the French Onion soup (yuck. the only place Ive liked this on NCL was in Le Bistro)

and the salmon tartare, which was pretty good, but was "slimy":

DH started with the same salad as the night before.

I had the chicken:

DH had steak:

Dessert was actually really good.

I had a blueberry compote, which was AMAZING:

The "shell" was meringue, and the blueberries were stewed with sugar or something.

DH had his dream dessert:

This was cheesecake on a brownie crust with butterscotch sauce.

C had pizza and B had chicken noodle soup from the kids menu (he has a loose tooth and it was hurting)

Then we headed back to the room to go to bed. We had a towel animal tonight, so I think Junelle had turned down our room. He was proud of his "sitting down dinosaur" (as he told us later):

Next up: Nassau!

C has been afraid of water pretty much her whole life, and last week, after 10 months of swim lessons, I dunked her multiple times. At her swim lesson on the Saturday before the cruise, she finally put her face in the water, willingly. Now, with the hot tub, she spent almost as much time under water as above!

I was so happy I was almost crying!

Oh, also, on the way out of Freeport, we passed this wierdness:

we thought at first it was some sort of drilling platform, but it didnt look like one when we got close. Is it a refueling station? Anybody know?

It looks like not too much has changed! I hope the Cagney's menu holds out on changing until after we sail!

I hope the hot tub fills as quickly as 30 minutes! All three times I've sailed in the deck 8 OS, the tub took about 2 hours....maybe they've upgraded the faucet!

Sounds like you had a great cruise!! I'm on the first one that misses GSC....but I'm not too upset about that! I love a good sea-day for extra relaxing before getting back to Miami! ;)

Edit- I booked my airfare on Cyber Monday...DTW to MIA first class..$248! Please keep posting! You're getting me thru the long wait!!

It looks like not too much has changed! I hope the Cagney's menu holds out on changing until after we sail!

 

I hope the hot tub fills as quickly as 30 minutes! All three times I've sailed in the deck 8 OS, the tub took about 2 hours....maybe they've upgraded the faucet!

 

Sounds like you had a great cruise!! I'm on the first one that misses GSC....but I'm not too upset about that! I love a good sea-day for extra relaxing before getting back to Miami! ;)

 

Edit- I booked my airfare on Cyber Monday...DTW to MIA first class..$248! Please keep posting! You're getting me thru the long wait!!

We did have a great cruise! I don't know why the tub full filled so fast - the faucet looks the same as In the videos I watched. Maybe it's because we filled it with the cold tap on as high as it could go. It poured faster than the one time we tried to make it hot. And draining it took FOREVER. We did drain it nightly, though, so we could be used the kids wouldn't sneak out to play in it unsupervised.

We did have a great cruise! I don't know why the tub full filled so fast - the faucet looks the same as In the videos I watched. Maybe it's because we filled it with the cold tap on as high as it could go. It poured faster than the one time we tried to make it hot. And draining it took FOREVER. We did drain it nightly, though, so we could be used the kids wouldn't sneak out to play in it unsupervised.

Good point with the cold water! We sail adults-only so we filled it with hot...let it cool and kept it filled half-way over night. In the mornings we would put luke-warm water in so it wasn't bone-chilling cold...but not so warm we didn't enjoy it in the heat!

Definitely enjoying your vacation!!! ;)

Nassau:

When the ship docks, the shuddering makes the whole room shake and the chandelier rattles something crazy. It woke us all up. At least we got an early start (?)

Also, you can hear some music from somewhere when lying in bed. It isn't loud, but it's definitely audible. Maybe the arcade? Im not sure. It goes on all night.

Today, I had to go to the pool deck for towels - I had left notes to get 2 more, but we still only had 2. Slightly frustrated with Junelle over that.

We were in port with Gem and Majesty of the Seas.

We went to Cagneys for breakfast again, and everybody had basically the same breakfast, except that DH had an omelette this time.

After breakfast, we left the ship to line up for the Blue Lagoon dolphin encounter excursion. There were a LOT of people going to Blue Lagoon from all 3 ships. We got on the 2nd ferry to Blue Lagoon, which is about a 25 minute ride away from the port area.

The kids were pretty excited:

Once we got to Blue Lagoon, we were herded over into a dolphin encounter training area, and we waited for quite awhile to start that. It was HOT. So hot that I was concerned the kids would get heat exhaustion. They ended up taking turns standing in front of one of the floor fans.

Our dolphin was Cacique, a 9 yo male. We each got a group picture with him (it's pretty deep, C was up to her chin), then got taken in in groups of about 8. I havent been able to get pictures to upload off the CD yet

Each person got to pet his back/belly, a hug, a kiss, to dance, and to feed a smelt to him. The kids LOVED it (once C got over her freak out about the water being deep) Once we were done, DH ordered pictures and the kids and I left to find a place to sit.

Pro tip: if you're staying for more than just the Dolphins, send someone to rent a clamshell/umbrella/sea chairs. By the time we got done, there were NONE left.

Finally found one lounger that had nothing on it (I think a scarf blew into the next one, but it legit had nothing on it), so I claimed it, and the kids got re-sunscreened and Cassie got her floatie and went in to swim in the calm beach area right by the pier. There were inflatables on the other beach, but I wasn't paying $50 to use them. Our excursion did not include lunch, but DH got some water and cokes.

We headed back on the 2 pm boat, as the kids were turning in to crispy critters, and both of them were hungry and tired. The boat ride back was fun except for their bad moods. I think they were hangry, actually.

We came back to another feast! 2 plates of sandwiches, a fruit place, a cheese plate, a plate of lemon pound cake and a decorated cabin (it is DHs birthday). Despite the enormous amount of food, the kids ate it ALL, so we called Cyril to bring 2 pizzas and a tuna sandwich. The kids played in the cool tub for...a long time.

We also *finally* got 4 towels after I asked Cyril to help. I had lugged up the 2 "loaners" to the pool deck so we wouldn't get charged, and got a mango meltdown while I was there. They were out of mix, so the bartender had to make it from scratch. I tipped him $10, cause it looked like a pain in the patootie (and cause that was the smallest bill I had on me). They got incredibly excited over the tip, waving it around and yelling "tip of the day!"

That took me aback, but I'm glad it made them happy! I guess not too many people tip on Sky.

After I finished that, I made DH and I some screwdrivers. I found the measuring too thing so I didn't almost give us alcohol poisoning like I did the first night.

750 mL is a LOT of booze. x3!!!!

Plans tonight included Il Adagio and the comedy show. Plus champagne and cake!

Il adagio was crap. The last time we tried Italian on an NCL ship was in 2015 on the Jewel. It hasnt changed at all. The appetizer was good, but not the entrees. My lasagna tasted like Chef Boyardee and his chicken parm was... Just... No. Kids had pizza and chicken noodle soup, which was fine (according to them)

this was good:

These were NOT:

After dinner, we dropped kids at SA, went to the casino for a bit, and I left up $9 (hit a $100 jackpot on the Gold machine). DH wasn't so lucky, he was down $40. Oh well! I quit while I was ahead!

Next to the comedian. I dont remember his name, but he was so-so funny. The suite seating is nice, but SO far off to the side...

After the show, we went to pick up the kids at SA, and Cassie had a good time, but true to form, Brayden hated it to the point of tears. It was Survivor night, and I guess he hadn't been on a winning team at all and so got no prize (prize was a participation award piece of paper). Now, I generally don't agree with participation prizes, but it's a vacation and now he hates it. Again. This happens EVERY CRUISE.

I wish they had more kid stuff in the evenings that wasn't SA.

We had another towel animal:

Next up: GSC!

Loving your review.