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Cruising on the Sky: 11/9-11/13 Review


the_lovely_voyage
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My fiancé and I recently got back from our 4-night cruise out of Miami on the NCL Sky that sailed to Freeport, Nassau, and GSC. We had a great week, wonderful weather, good use of the free UBP, and a lot of fun and relaxation. That being said, our overall opinion is sort of “meh.” There were no events or problems that were outstandingly terrible, nor do we regret the vacation. We went on the RCL Enchantment of the Seas back in January and found ourselves comparing the two cruises, since that one also went to the Bahamas for a 4-night. I think having such a recent cruise to compare to just made us realize that we preferred the previous cruise slightly more. With that being said, I do have many wonderful things to say about this vacation! Here we are with the beautiful ship!!

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To start, we flew in Sunday and stayed at the Quality Inn on Stirling Rd in Hollywood, FL. I had seen a lot of mixed reviews but got a good deal and decided to go for it. They provided a free airport shuttle, and we were picked up within a few minutes of leaving the terminal. Check in at the hotel was really slow and it didn’t help that a woman cut in front of me in line, which made my wait longer. Apparently I’m still bitter about this. The staff was fairly friendly and helpful once I did get to check in. Our room was pretty clean and not like some of the reviews I had read. The bed was great, and there was a nice TV, microwave, and fridge. We never received bath towels and when I called to the front desk to request some, I was told I would have to come down to pick them up. I don’t know if that’s a customary practice, but I know that I’ve definitely had towels delivered to my room at other hotels. Also, we asked the front desk for extra shampoo and they assured us it would be delivered shortly; it never came. Overall, the rate was really good and if I couldn’t find a better price in the FLL area, I would still probably consider staying here in the future. I’ll just hope that their customer service improved.

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MONDAY morning, we used the MJS Transportation shuttle to get from the hotel to the Port of Miami. I had signed up for a 9:30 pick up and they were very prompt. Great service, and at $15/pp, I’m pleased with the price too! I would definitely recommend MJS if you need shuttle service between FLL and POM. We were at the terminal by 10:30, checked in quickly, were assigned Group 2 for boarding, and waited until it was time. Around noon, boarding started and we were on the ship shortly after that! We ate lunch in the Great Outdoors cafe since we deemed the line in Il Adagio too long (it was like 8 people but we were hungry). The Great Outdoors very quickly became our favorite spot on the ship. The bar, food, views, and ample seating really made for such an awesome venue.

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We were in our room shortly after 1:30. Upon entering, I saw a birthday card from NCL (oh yeah, it was my birthday!!) that offered me a special birthday dessert at any restaurant. Also, I saw that my fiancé surprised me with a spa gift certificate. How sweet of him :) After putting our things down and changing, we went back on deck and scheduled dinner at Cagney’s for that evening and a spa time for Wednesday after Nassau. We walked around the ship a little, but mostly sat at the Great Outdoors and enjoyed the bar and views of Miami. Our muster drill was at 4:30 and I think we were sailing not too long after 5pm. We watched sailaway from the Great Outdoors and passed the Escape that got christened earlier that day. What a sight to see, that giant ship!

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That night we went to Cagney’s, and it was probably the most incredible and memorable dining experience I’ve ever had

(tied with the steakhouse we ate at the night we got engaged). Our server’s name is Mark, and he made the experience

so fantastic. He recognized it was my birthday and sat us under this pergola/column thing in the center of the restaurant.

It was truly special. The food was great, and as expected, made us completely stuffed. Seriously, it induced a food

coma about an hour later. Mark was funny and engaged in nice conversations with us, and reminded us that we’re on vacation

and calories don’t count (oh I wish). At the end of the meal, Mark and another Cagney’s staff member surprised me by

singing Happy Birthday and with a GIANT slice of cake. That was unexpected, since we didn’t bring the card that was in our room,

so I wasn’t actually anticipating a birthday dessert. It added another dimension to the entire experience that was so awesome.

(Excuse my red face in the picture, I was a little emotional about it...) We took a few bites of this huge slice of cake and asked

for it to-go, since we knew we couldn’t eat any more food! Mark said no problem and gave us a lid for the plate and off we went.

Upon returning to the room for what we thought would be a quick nap, we ended up sleeping until morning!

 

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UP NEXT: Tuesday/Freeport!

Edited by morninsun86
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TUESDAY- FREEPORT:

We didn’t have any excursions purchased through NCL so we took advantage of sleeping in (it was 8:15, but still, it was nice to not feel rushed to be anywhere). We went to the Garden Café for breakfast, ate back in the Great Outdoors, and enjoyed the warm weather until we decided to get off and head into the port. We were in the port area by 9:30 after our quick detour back to our room. This was my 6th cruise, I probably should’ve remembered this fact, but we get down to the gangway and hear “don’t forget your photo IDs.” Well of course I didn’t have mine on me so we had to go back up to the room. I’m not blaming anyone and it’s probably my fault, but I do wish there was a reminder somewhere other than when we were about to get off the ship.

 

We walked around to find a taxi and it took us a few minutes to figure out how to get one. There were a lot of taxis advertising Lucaya and other places, but we wanted to go to the Sands Bahamian Brewery, which I knew was the opposite direction of the beach and Lucaya area. My fiancé eventually asked a guy who walked us to an area where two women were creating groups of people for taxis. About 5 minutes later we were picked up with another family also heading to the brewery by our shuttle driver Ms. Rolles. She was very friendly and gave us her phone number to call when we were ready to leave the Brewery. We paid $4/pp, so $16 round trip (plus tip), which was fine with us.

 

The Sands Bahamian Brewery was a very nice experience and I would recommend it for anyone looking to hear some culture, have fun, and drink a lot of beer. We paid $15.05 for the two of us, which we were a little annoyed by the tax, but we paid it, and off we went! Our tour guide was Krista, and she was very interactive, both during the tour providing a lot of information and afterwards during the sampling, engaging in multiple conversations with us and the family from our taxi. The tour includes tasting of their 7 beers, and unlimited sampling of your favorites afterwards. My fiancé and I both liked Sands Light, and I liked Bush Crack and my fiancé liked High Rock. We stayed for a few cups of beer after the official tour was over and had a very nice conversation with Krista. We definitely could’ve stayed longer if we wanted, but were ready to get back to the ship to get some pool time in. We went downstairs and the staff had no problem called our taxi driver, who was about 5 minutes away. Overall, it was a really nice experience, and for a total price of just over 30 dollars for transportation and the tour and tasting, it was really affordable too! If you’re a fan of beer and want to see a little bit of Freeport, head over to the Bahamian Brewery!

 

Once back on the ship, we went swimming, had a few drinks and lunch, and laid out on a few chairs. The weather was beautiful! Eventually it was Sailaway and we watched that from the front of the ship just outside the Outrigger Lounge. Definitely a nice, secluded deck spot that we never saw that many people at. That night we had sushi at the Plantation Club, and it was so good! I had a spider roll and my fiancé had the 10 shades of grey; both were very big and filling. We sat at the bar and were able to order very quickly, and it didn’t take a long time to receive our food either. We paid 12.50 for the 2 rolls, which was a good deal for us. Another highlight of the dinner was that Mark, our server from Cagney’s the night before, came over and said hi to us! I was VERY surprised and delighted that he remembered our names and took time to come say hi and say that he hoped the rest of my birthday went well after dinner. So very nice, and I was sure to tell NCL about his fantastic service.

 

After dinner, we went to the Deal or No Deal show, which was fun to watch and get involved with as a crowd member. We didn’t buy a card, but we liked taking guesses between ourselves and making suggestions with other audience members. We also went to the Not So Newlywed show, which my fiancé and I both enjoy a lot. I know a lot of people say the show gets old and the questions are the same, but we just really enjoy the people, answers, and the comedy aspect about it all. After the show, we stopped at the Longboard Bar for some wings, and my fiancé said they were awesome.

 

UP NEXT: NASSAU

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Glad to read you had an enjoyable time. :)

 

I'm boarding Norwegian Sky next Monday, and will request Mark to be my server on both evenings booked for Cagney's. Thanks for the 'heads up' on his great service.

 

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That makes me so happy to hear! He really made our Cagney's experience special and I hope he makes both of yours just as wonderful! I'll definitely try to finish the rest of the review before you set sail!

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WEDNESDAY- NASSAU:

We had a really late start to the day as I wasn’t feeling too well, but since we had been to Nassau back in January and didn’t have any concrete plans for this visit, it wasn’t too disappointing. We walked around the pier area, looking at the other ships in port with us (Enchantment of the Seas, Carnival Sunshine, and another Carnival ship, I think the Fantasy), taking pictures, and enjoying the weather.

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After 30 minutes off the ship, we got back onboard and went to the Great Outdoors for a snack and beautiful views. I had my massage appointment at 6pm, so my fiancé stayed on deck to watch sailaway while I went to the spa. The massage was a 55 minute appointment, but I think the entire process took about an hour and 15 minutes. The cost was $119, plus 18% gratuity. I found out afterwards that I was charged 119 because the ship was already sailing, but if I had set the appointment for 15 minutes before when we were still docked, it would’ve been 109. No one told me this beforehand and I felt a little cheated, but I guess that’s business. My massage therapist was Marshelley, and she was very nice and did a great job and relaxing the muscles in my shoulders, which are always a problem area. At the end of the massage, she did the spiel about selling me products they used during the massage, which I found a little annoying, but I know that they’re required to. I just hated the idea of being relaxed and pampered and then feeling pressured to buy things. Overall, my first cruise massage experience was enjoyable and relaxing, I just hate the price tag that is attached to it.

After the spa, I met up with my fiancé in the Longboard Bar, where he couldn’t stop raving about the tomato soup with basil cream. Seriously, all night he would keep commenting how good the soup was. Here's a menu of the other food options they serve there (after 6pm).

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After dinner, we went to Deal or No Deal again, but it wasn’t as fun as the first night. I think the contestants had a different attitude than the people the night before. Oh well, it was still some fun entertainment! We also went to see the Comedy of Alvin Williams, who was pretty funny. My fiancé enjoyed him more than I did, so I guess different strokes for different folks on that one. He did have some really funny jokes that we were cracking up over, but there were also a few jokes that really fell flat for me personally. During the show, we tried our first Mango Meltdowns, and I can’t believe we waited so long!! What a great drink! The waiter made us aware that there’s a lot of alcohol in it, but it certainly doesn’t taste like it, so be careful! I think my mouth is watering at the thought of one right now, honestly. So good!

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UP NEXT: THURSDAY/GSC

Edited by morninsun86
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THURSDAY- GSC

We were so thrilled that we were able to visit Great Stirrup Cay, as the captain mentioned rain the day before and we were a little worried about tendering. We really enjoyed our beach day at Coco Cay back in January and were looking forward to exploring GSC, since we had read it was better than RCL’s island. We were also really excited for our excursion, Stingray City Bahamas. This was my fiancé’s first time interacting with stingrays and he was so looking forward to it! This would be my second time, but I knew that it would be more interactive than my first time. In 2009, I went snuba-ing with stingrays in Grand Cayman. We were swimming with stingrays and got to watch a handler do a feeding. I also received a “love bite” from a stingray, which was basically a hickey on my wrist that left a scar. It’s a fun icebreaker to share that story!

 

So, we woke up around 8:30 and headed up to the Great Outdoors for breakfast with a view. We decided to head down to the tender area at 9:10 and were on the boat by 9:15. The Freestyle Daily said to allow 45 minutes for tendering and I didn’t believe that. Let me tell you, it was true! From stepping on the boat, waiting for it to fill up, riding over, and getting off took almost exactly 45 minutes. Didn’t help that the tender boat capacity is 400 people and we got on when the boat was pretty empty. We got to Great Stirrup Cay around 10 am and were amazed by how beautiful this private island is. Hands down, GSC has way more curb appeal than Coco Cay. From the moment we approached the docking area, we were in awe of how aesthetically pleasing the view was. We walked around and had no problem finding two loungers to claim. We stayed there under 10:50 when we decided to get a drink before we met up for our excursion at Stingray City. Not a big deal, but I will mention that there was always a line for drinks at the bars we visited. It was never more than a 5-6 minute wait, and I know that the bartenders were working quickly to serve everyone, but it was a noticeable wait.

 

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After our drink, we headed over to the tour booth area and signed in for our excursion. Our group had a five minute walk to the backside of the island and there we met the captain of our speed boat and one of the stingray handlers. He explained to us how to interact with the stingrays in an educational yet funny way. After the discussion, we took a short boat ride over to the stingray pen off of Stingray Island. We docked at the pen, got out of the boat onto a pier, and took a few steps on a ladder down into the water. The water level ranged from mid-thigh to mid-chest, depending on where we walked in the pen. At no point was the water too high or did I feel like I had to swim instead of stand. I’m just under 5’ 8”, in case anyone wants a reference point. The water was clear and it was very easy to see the stingrays and where you’re stepping (to avoid stepping on them). We had a chance to snorkel, feed the rays, hold them, and take pictures with them. They have a camera that they take pictures on but also allowed us to use our personal devices and even offered to take some on my phone of my fiancé and I holding a ray, which I really appreciated. The entire excursion was at least 1.5 hours but probably was 1.75 hours. The stingray wranglers were so so friendly, informative, and very willing to talk about the rays, their jobs, life in the Bahamas, and even asked us questions about ourselves. I would definitely recommend this excursion!! I know we felt safe the entire time and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

 

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After getting back from the excursion, we got a drink and ate at the BBQ on the island. They serve it from 11:30-2, and things were still in full swing when we stopped by at 1:30. After lunch, we went to the Bacardi Bar and enjoyed a drink with a GREAT view of the ship, the beach, and the water. The DJ played some pretty good music while we were there. We went back to the ship around 2:30 and sat on deck and took a nap. I have to say that there was live music on the deck and they were pretty terrible. They were doing covers of popular songs and it really wasn’t that great to listen to. We watched Sailaway and the sunset on the Outrigger deck again, where we knew we would have really great views of the island.

 

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We went to dinner at the Crossing MDR that night. It was our only visit to the MDR on this vacation, which is weird for me because I’ve only missed a maximum of one night on all my other cruises. I guess the Freestyle aspect of NCL made us feel like we didn’t ever have to visit the MDR. That and the menu options posted outside never seemed that appealing. The food was pretty good, no major complaints about that. The service was great. Our waitress and her assistance were both quick with their service, eager to please, and pleasant. Overall, we were glad we went and had a nice dinner, but we’ve definitely been more impressed with MDR experiences. If anyone is interested in seeing the menus, I think I have pictures of each night.

 

After dinner, we went to the Perfect Couple show, which was something I was completely unimpressed with. It was odd and raunchy but in a really dumb way. It’s a certain type of entertainment that didn’t interest me at all, but my fiancé was enjoying it, so I stayed for him to have a good time. After that mess of a show was over, we went to the Longboard Bar and watched a football game and had some snacks. I tried the tomato soup and it was pretty great, like my fiancé kept raving about. We also tried the prosciutto and mozzarella panini which was awesome. Eventually we went to our room and packed for tomorrow morning. We were sad to be leaving vacation but were looking forward to seeing our dog! This was the first vacation we’ve taken since we adopted him in July and even though we knew he was in good hands with family, we really missed him!

 

UP NEXT: FRIDAY and FINAL THOUGHTS

Edited by morninsun86
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FRIDAY- DEBARK

When we woke up, we were in port and there were announcements about debarking. Vacation was really over! *cry* We finished packing and getting ready for the airport, took all of our luggage with us, and headed up to get some breakfast. We had breakfast in the Great Outdoors and contacted MJS Transportation about getting picked up at the terminal. To our surprise, there was a very long ling to debark at 9:15, which was completely different than our experience in January where we literally just walked off the ship and into the terminal for customs. Thankfully once we got through the line to get off the ship, there was no line for customs and were outside quickly. We waited 5-10 minutes for MJS to pick us up, and off to FLL we went.

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

-I know a lot of people have written reviews and expressed at how long it took to get a drink. Maybe it varies from cruise to cruise, but I really didn’t encounter any wait time that was ridiculously long. If there was a long wait, it was rare. Getting drinks in the MDR was not hard at all either.

 

-The mixed drinks and cocktails were strong almost every single time, which was definitely a huge plus and made up for any wait time we had. Seriously, there was only like 1 or 2 drinks that we encountered and wished it had more alcohol.

 

-We met our room steward once and it was on the last day as we were leaving. I was honestly a little put off by this. On all my other cruise experiences, the room staff made themselves visible and checked to make sure things were okay. We didn’t have any problems with the room or its cleanliness, so I guess it’s not a huge deal, but it definitely was striking as different. Side note about the room, the large porthole definitely lived up to its name and I didn’t feel like we missed anything compared to getting a full window for more money. I definitely would choose a porthole over a window again if it meant saving money.

 

-The staff didn’t seem as friendly as our RCL experience on the Enchantment of the Seas back in January. Another small factor, but it was nice that all the staff we saw in the hallway on the Enchantment would say hi to us first or at least smile and nod. On the Sky, we would say hi to staff and would sometimes get a response, but hardly ever received a “hi” from them first.

 

-We felt that there was less to do during the day as far as scheduled activities go. Instead, there seemed to be a lot of downtime and the work fell on us to decide what we wanted to do for hours at a time. I wish there would have been more activities such as trivia and competitions to do during the day. Maybe this is the Freestyle mantra in play and NCL doesn’t want cruisers to feel like they have to be somewhere at a scheduled time. I don’t know, but personally we wanted more entertainment options.

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