Sinewave4x4

Do NOT stuff yourself on the breakfast buffet or even the lunch buffet. You'll be too full to enjoy all the other food the ship has to offer. Just eat normal portions. Feel free to stuff yourself at dinner, however.

The thing is that the vast majority of people stay on the main street where all the touristy shopping is and never get out to see the culture. That street is perfectly safe and is well patrolled by the police. Since people mainly stick to that street or take a car somewhere, the police have no incentive to clean up the other areas. Plus, cleaning up high crime areas is easier said than done.

It is a shame though, because I would have really liked to see the rest of the island.

No, we tried walking to the staircase a few months ago and made it about half way and turned back. We didn't feel safe at all.

Use a car.

National and Alamo have a free shuttle from the port to the car rental place. I know because I took it a few months ago. I'm not sure if other car rental places offer the shuttle and I'm not sure if they offer rides to the port from the car rental place, however. Call up the local office and ask and also don't trust what the main national phone people say.

I tried calling the local National RAC office to verify, prior to our trip, but I couldn't get through and ended up talking with the main office and they gave me incorrect info...that there is no free shuttle.

They do check to your paperwork to see if you have a rental car rented.

I think I remember seeing taxis at the car rental place.

Absolutely. We'd go out into anything short of a hurricane, but then again, we're usually pretty well prepared with gore-tex shoes, rain pants and a rain jacket.

This is all we had for a 3 day cruise, but it was the same for a 2 week long non-cruise japan trip in the middle of summer. We each had one travel backpack which is carry on size, along with a day pack that attaches to the big backpack.

Don't take cotton, not even underwear. Cotton takes forever to dry when you wash it, especially if it's humid. Jeans are heavy and bulky so we take thin, lightweight pants from REI that can also double for somewhat nice clothes. A suit can be problematic because of all the bulk associated with it, so I'm unsure what to do for truly formal nights. For shoes, you only need formal shoes, comfortable walking shoes, and sandals if you go to the beach.

I'm an amateur photographer so I have a big dslr, a travel tripod and the associated accessories so that adds a lot of weight and bulk that most people won't have. A small tablet is invaluable as a book, map, movie player, and internet source. No need for a laptop anymore.

Why so hostile? It's only a thought experiment. :confused:

I'm curious...if you ("you" meaning everybody here) were forced to check your valuables, say $5000+ worth, would you still not put a lock on your luggage?

You have no other options, you cannot mail anything, you HAVE to check your valuables.

I don't understand how the cabin would become overcrowded. If I stepped in a time machine it would zip me back to the beginning of the cruise again. The clothes part I hadn't thought that through carefully, just pack more and have a big laundry bill.

 

Jonathan

It's part of the time travel paradox. Your old self would still be there so there would be two of you there. Then, at the end of the cruise both of you will want to travel back to the beginning of the cruise so then you'll have your old original self, plus the second time traveler, plus the pair of you for a total of 4 of you. It'll keep going forever and there will be an infinite number of you.

This is all we had for our 3 day bahama cruise, but this was also the same for our 2 week non-cruise vacation to Japan.

1 travel backpack for each of us, meaning there is the large backpack for the majority of your things, but it also has a small day pack that attaches to it. I think backpacks are better for travel flexibility because if needed, you can use them for lots of walking over rough terrain or in crowded conditions. They often come with rain flies so no need to worry about your things getting wet if you're caught in a sudden downpour when exploring a city.

As far as your question about storage in the cabin, it doesn't matter because you're going to put your luggage under the bed which has plenty of room.

If you want to by something from the locals at the straw market, you need cash.

Thanks! I did google maps but had heard horrendous things about the traffic! Thanks again :) You have me excited to go - and I think we'll hit that breakfast spot. Nice!

Well, maybe we had better luck because we didn't go during peak season and it was a monday. Certainly, in the morning we were going against the flow of traffic since we were going away from miami.

By the way, from the outside Sedici doesn't look like much but once you sit down and take in the ambiance place and the charm of the owner, it very much grows on you.

Just remember that you can't use the touch screen of a phone underwater. You have to use the physical button to take a picture; for an iphone this means using the volume up button.

http://www.lifeproof.com/en/pr/articles/using-the-lifeproof-touch-screen-underwater/

Sedici wasn't too bad...not cheap but not expensive either. The cost for all the food you see in the picture was $10 per person, and that included OJ or coffee. The waffles were stuffed and when the owner asked me what I wanted in it I just said "surprise me". I think it was just bacon, but it was very good.

We are doing the opposite and trying out the Sky as our first cruise before going on an Alaskan cruise next year to see if we like the whole cruising thing.

We really really really enjoyed the alaska cruise. Everything about it was awesome. Even though it rained or drizzled a lot of the time, the ports were cool, the excursions were cool and the scenery was cool. I guess the only thing that could have made it better is if we stayed in a port for more than the day so we could get some fishing in. I think you'll enjoy it, especially if you're outdoorsy.

Thanks all. I knew there were some people who didn't like the sky, but I had no idea it had this bad a reputation. A couple more things to add to the review:

• One complaint I just remembered about was the bed. When I laid down I noticed a pretty pronounced sag right where my butt is, but I figured it was just an old mattress. At the end of the trip when I did a final look around to make sure we weren't forgetting anything, I noticed the bed frame was bent a good 6 inches! Well that explains that and no, we didn't bend it :p. Like I said, it takes a lot for me to complain about something.
  
• The personal touches that Princess had weren't there for NCL. For example, the room steward never introduced themselves so we never learned his/her name. However, whenever we passed them in the hall, they were always friendly and greeted us with a smile.
  
• I was surprised at the number of people who dressed up for the MDRs. Sure there were people in shorts and sandals, but a good percentage dressed up in nice clothes...not suits and ties mind you, but elegant none the less. I wore black slacks and a nice button down shirt while the wife wore a nice patterned dress and we fit right in. I kinda like the freestyle thing where we don't have to eat at a specific time and eat with strangers, but at the same time I missed the personal touch of having the same waiter. We also never had to wait for a table more than a few minutes. This makes me wonder if we had a full ship because some of the reviews have said sometimes the MDRs were full.
  

How long did it take you to get to Key West from Miami? We're thinking of spending a week in Marathon after our Getaway trip in July.

It's hard to say because we stopped a lot on the way there and on the way back. We're thinking maybe 3 hours. It made for a pretty long day...getting up at 6am, drive for 5+ hours, walk around, drive for 3+ hours again and get back to the hotel at 11pm. But I enjoy driving and the road trip was part of the experience. I'd say the google map estimates are pretty close.

I'm a guy and even I know not to wear socks with sandals. It's like being that old guy out doing yard work who still wears those short shorts from the 70's and 80's. :eek:

I wonder if there is an age correlation between those who do wear socks with sandals and those who don't.

Thanks for the kind words everybody, I'm glad you liked the review. 3 days is definitely too short for a vacation, but oh well, ya make do with what ya got.

RJM, I'm not sure what a chef's table dinner is, but that probably means they didn't have it.

David, yeah I remember that thread and told her to keep an eye out for my review. Maybe I'll go post a link to it in the other thread.

When we were trying to decide on a vacation, we considered flying somewhere and staying in hotels, but yeah, you really can't beat the price of a cheap cruise since it includes food and entertainment.

Oh, by the way, the comedian was hilarious.

Of course, what would a visit to the Keys be without trying some key lime pie.

By this time, it was around 6:30pm and I wasn't feeling so great, even after eating the pie, so the wife drove back. However, this being florida in August, the inevitable evening showers soon kicked in and she was caught in a deluge of biblical proportions. She panicked and I told her to pull into the turn lane and off into a parking lot. We switched and I drove back the rest of the way. The rain was some of the worst I've ever seen (coming from CA and AZ), but luckily it was night time and the reflectors showed me the way. I've been caught in bad rain in Florida before but during the day time and I literally couldn't see past the windshield.

We finally made it back to the hotel just north of the miami airport at around 10pm. There's no rest for the weary because we had an 8:30 am flight to catch so we had to prep everything that night. By this time I was feeling a little better, but not great. To make a long story short, we made it home just fine. The wife is still complaining to me about not unpacking everything yet, but I have a good excuse. I had to process photos and write this review!

Most of my pictures have been posted here, but there are some more here:

By the time we made it to key west, I was starting feel a little funny. In the mean time, we made a few stops along the way.

After driving around a little, we finally found a Key Deer.

Finally we made it all the way down to Key West and what did we find there? A Carnival cruise ship. Ducky was impressed.

Again, wanting to get off the beaten path but wary of the travel advisories, we compromised with the Frommers walking tour to the historical places like the queen's staircase. Now, having read the reviews and concerns about Nassau a lot of people say it's fine, just stay in the touristy areas. Well of course the touristy areas are safe, but what about the true cultural areas away from the harley davidsons and gucci's? In this case, we walked a couple blocks away from Bay St toward the queens staircase and immediately got a bad vibe.

Keep in mind that I'm not your average cruiser. I'm not law enforcement, but I've had some defensive situational training so I have a higher situational awareness than most people.

Anyway, here was a funny sign we saw just before we turned around.

After this, I didn't get many pictures of Nassau because the touristy areas are just gift shops and jewelry shops that are the same in every tourist trap. I did find the where they have free wifi!

After sweating up a storm and finding our souvenir T-shirts (my pre-shrunk T-shirt ended up shrinking and is now too small!) we headed back to the ship.

One last view of the Bahamian Navy. We were trying to catch the pier runners that I've heard so much about, but didn't see any.

Well, that concludes the cruise portion of the trip. Here are our thoughts on NCL and the Sky. Remember, that the only comparison we have is to a 7 day princess cruise.

Being that this was a quick 3 day trip and also one of the cheapest cruises around, I fully expected this to be a party boat. The wife and I really aren't partiers nor are we drinkers so we prepared ourselves by lowering our expectations. However, we didn't see any of this and were pleasantly surprised.

The food was good, but not over the top great. We ate in the main dining rooms all three days and thought it compared to a nice "$30 per dish" restaurant. It would have been nice to have a better variety of desserts from day to day.

Breakfast was done at the buffet and again it was decent but not great. It would have been nice to have a day to day variety. Lunches we skipped except for 1 day but all three days were indian food. We love indian food so this was good for us, but a variety would be nice.

The presentation of all the food was fantastic, but the flavor quality was only good. Overall, I'd rate the food an 8 out of 10. Princess would be a 9. I'm not sure what a 10 would be, but it would be mind blowing.

The ship was also pretty good. I've read some complaints that it's run down, but the only thing I noticed was some rusty spots in the bathroom and a musty smell in the room. Other than that, I thought everything was top notch. Well, I guess there were some places, especially in the more secluded outdoors areas where trash wasn't picked up.

Well, like I said, that concludes the cruise portion of the trip, but not the vacation. We disembarked as early as we could because we planned to drive down to key west for a day trip and get back to our hotel in miami later that night.

Now, in my planning, I saw somebody here mention that National Rent a Car offers a free shuttle from the port of miami back to the rent a center near the airport. Well, I tried calling the local desk, but they never picked up the phone so I ended up calling the national phone line. They said there was no shuttle. Fully expecting to take a taxi, guess what we saw but a National shuttle ready and waiting for passengers. Grrr...National is going to get an email from me soon. So it seems National and Alamo indeed offer this service.

After picking up our car, we hit the road. We stopped at this little seafood restaurant somewhere along the keys. Little did I know that this would be my downfall. It was either the fried shrimp or the coleslaw.

On to the second day.

Sunrise just as we were arriving to Nassau.

Getting off the ship and into Nassau wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, based on the Nassau reviews here. Talk of pushy vendors, stinky water, and customs hassles were non-existent. Well, there were vendors there trying to sell everything, but they're easily ignored with a polite "no thanks".

Surprisingly, the door was wide open and there were no barricades to get in.

I was debating whether to climb the stairs but some of them didn't look like in the best repair so I decided not to. Looking back, I kinda wish I had just so I could say I did it. The lighthouse is an automated system now, complete with solar cells so somebody has to climb those stairs to get up there for maintenance, so it's probably not so bad.

Back on the trail, we went a little bit further and got to the end of the road.

And back to civilization.

After the kayak trip we explored the island a little more. Heading down the beach we quickly got away from the crowds and found ourselves all alone.

This is the farthest beach...the Lagoon maybe? There were literally only 4 other people here.

So remember how I said we like to get off the beaten path? I really wanted to go to the lighthouse so we found the trail and took off.

It was really hot. It was also really isolated. I didn't even see any foot prints on the road so we were the first ones to walk there in a loooooong time. Along the way we came across the Great Stirrup Cay International Airport.

We also ran into a lot of iguanas. These guys were all over the place and you could hear them scatter into the brush as we got closer. If you're not used to wildlife, this could be unsettling as you hear them rustling all around you and you think there's some other animal out there that's going to attack you.

Finally, after quite a bit of walking we finally rounded a corner and came across the lighthouse.

However, the salesmen on the island were pretty pushy. This guy asked me if I needed insurance.

On our kayak trip they took us to a secluded beach about 15 minutes away. There, we handled starfish and they showed us some non-stinging jelly fish.

We also went on a short walk to another beach, but along the trail was an old military bunker. In the floor, there was a small hole that lead underground.