Becca11

Hello!

We've cruised 3 times, 2 NCL cruises and 1 Princess cruise, all balcony staterooms.

We have a fourth cruise booked in September,  another NCL balcony stateroom. 

We just booked another cruise for February 2022, NCL Jewel, and this time I  got brave and booked an inside stateroom. I say "I got brave" because I am a wee bit claustrophobic. 

It finally occurred to me that I do not have problems in elevators, and I worked in windowless rooms for years. I'm unlikely to have a real problem in an inside stateroom. 

We are both retired now, unlike when we've previously cruised. We are on an adequate but fixed income.  What we do have is time.  I'm giving the inside cabins a go because the cost savings are significant and that means more cruises for us!

So I'm studying the inside staterooms seriously for the first time, and I am absolutely stumped about our likely preferences for the bed configuration. 

We sleep together in a king sized bed at home, so it was a no brainer in balcony cabins, we just went with the beds together. 

I know that mathematically, beds together vs. beds apart are exactly the same; the cabins have the same square footage and the beds have the same volume displacement regardless of their configuration. 

When I look at the pictures of inside cabins, however,  the beds apart configuration looks like the room would feel and 'live' larger and more functionally. 

It would be much easier to get dressed while standing in between two single beds, for instance,  than standing on one side of the single bed, particularly if there are wall mounted Pullman beds in the cabin.

Also, the twin beds could act as sofas or divans when made up. I have grown to really appreciate a sofa in any accommodation.  I really missed having a sofa in our Princess stateroom. 

Is there a preferred bed configuration in inside cabins? If so, to what advantages?

Any other tips you can give re: quality of experience in inside staterooms are much appreciated as well. 

Thank you!

Oooh, an owner's suite!  I'm jealous!   Are those the suites in the front of the ship with hot tubs on the balconies?  Nice!

We were just on the Sky in September.  It's a fun ship.  It's not a huge ship but this plays to your advantage for embarking and disembarking the ship.  We walked off with our luggage on disembarkation day.  It was so easy that we were kind of stunned and looking or waiting for something else? to happen?  Like are we already disembarked?

Despite it being a smaller ship,  we didn't do half of the stuff available on our 5 night cruise.  On the last night, while waiting to buy Cruise Next deposits, we met a crew member who had just joined.  His designated job was jewelry specialist.  He gives presentations on duty free jewelry shopping, then accompanies passengers ashore to assist them with their duty free jewelry shopping.  It's a good thing I didn't find out about that service earlier in the cruise.  🙂 

It can indeed take from 5pm to 8am to arrive in Key West.  In fact,  on our 5 night cruise, we left Miami at 5pm and arrived at Key West at 3pm the next day.  We departed at 9pm, IIRC.  I guess the captain sails casual or something.  🙂

The Sky was a fun ship.  We'd sail on her again. 🙂 🙂 

Our stern balcony cabin had a fridge. There were a couple of for purchase bottled waters in it which we did not consume, but it was largely empty.

 The Great Outdoors (behind the Garden Cafe, on the stern deck) has a made to order omelet station at breakfast. Not sure if the Garden Cafe (the indoor buffet) has one or not. Also not sure if either will do sunny side up eggs.

You can get eggs made to order for breakfast in whichever main dining room that's open, or I think at La Cucina or The Local, one of those also serves breakfast IIRC, and perhaps even MTO eggs through room service during breakfast hours but I will admit that I do not remember specifically about MTO eggs and the room service menu.

Note: Husband says that he saw fried eggs come out of the omelet station a couple of times, so it appears to do st least some degree of MTO eggs at the buffet.

I know for sure that room service has a tomato and spinach omelet and a ham and cheese omelet. 

I don't know if the buffet has fruit juices at lunch and dinner, sorry. The buffet had orange juice and a couple of other selections I do not recall at breakfast.

Lunyma, someone was punching holes in the ID cards for passengers because we saw many people with their ID cards on lanyards, attached with the clip through a punched hole.  Not sure who was doing it/where they had it done, though.

Don't know if the casino was providing lanyards/clips or punching holes.  We only walked through the casino a few times, didn't spend any time there, didn't know to ask about lanyards or ID clips or holders there.

Husband found a lanyard with a decorative holder in the photography section of the ship but the ID holder was HUGE and decorative, so we passed.

We heard others inquiring as well, and no one seemed to know how/where to acquire lanyards once on board the ship.  

I ordered ID holders on lanyards from Amazon Prime for a few bucks for two, and they were delivered in two days.  At this late date maybe your best bet is a run to Walmart or Office Depot or Staples or the like.  There are a bunch of CVS stores in Key West; one of them *might* carry lanyards, I dunno.  We stopped in one CVS store to get me some hair scrunchies to tie down my mane. 🙂

We will wish you good weather!

I am not a coffee drinker so I didn't explore all of the coffee options. Also when we used the buffet as a meal option,  we consistently walked straight through the larger Garden Cafe to The Great Outdoors,  which was a slightly smaller buffet.

I do drink hot tea so I prepared that at the coffee station every morning.  The coffee that I saw available was plain regular and decaf. The cream dispenser had regular milk and half and half. I did not see flavored creamers but I was not looking for them either. They could have been there. There was a wide variety of tea bags so it wouldn't surprise me if there were flavored creamers and I missed them.

I do not remember seeing any sort of coffee maker in our cabin. If it was there I missed it.

The Sky was super strict about food being brought on or taken off the ship. We had to throw away our boxes leftovers from dinner at Key West before we were allowed to board.  We saw people being made to throw away what appeared to be plain non-alcoholic drinks in to go cups with lids on them before they were allowed to board. One of the announcements preparing us for disembarkation reminded us that we couldn't take food off of the ship.

That being said, there is a full service Starbucks on board and the prices were fairly reasonable for Starbucks.  I got a large tea, Husband got a medium coffee and we shared a chocolate croissant from Starbucks on the morning we docked at Nassau.  It was around $12 for all of it. Security let me walk off of the ship that morning in Nassau with my Starbucks tea, because it was covered with a lid. ??? 

Anyway. If nothing else, there's a Starbucks for flavored coffees. 

Hope that helps!

52 minutes ago, gizfish said:

We never book 6 months in advance and always use a cruise next certificate without a problem.  I had no idea that was a condition.  We will have to verify that the next time we want to get them.  I would be very upset if we couldn't use them.  The thermal suite is entirely coed other than the changing rooms. 

I don't know that the 6 months in advance thing is or is not. I *think* I read that on the Cruise Next thread on the NCL  forum here. That was here though, not NCL.  I could have read it wrong,  misunderstood it,  etc. Or that poster could have been mistaken. 

Husband says he doesn't remember any stipulation about 6 months, and the NCL rep with whom I spoke over the phone didn't mention it.

I don't want to get anyone alarmed needlessly!

We've agreed that we will purchase another Cruise Next credit or two on this next cruise, depending on what's offered whether one or two, and we are even seriously considering booking the next cruise while on the ship in order to get the most perks. Husband is close enough to retirement that we can actually consider it.

I will make sure I understand straight from the source then!

2 hours ago, gizfish said:

And, just so you know, sometimes NCL will allow you to use two certificates for one cruise deposit.  You can't do that online though.  You have to book with NCL by phone to do that.

Yeah, I sort of figured that out when I booked online (through a third party) and the Cruise Next deposits weren't accounted for in the balance due, despite using my Latitudes rewards number.  =/  I called NCL's customer service line and asked if we could apply the Cruise Next certificates to this cruise.  I was told that we could, and that I would receive a refund to the credit card I used to book the cruise within 7 to 10 business days.  I then received an email from NCL listing the two Cruise Next credits against the balance due, but showing the amount of the actual payment I made against the balance due as well.  My guess is that this was the agent's only way of documenting that the Cruise Next credits were going to be applied, and that I had already paid the full balance.  I am monitoring our credit card account, waiting for the $500 refund to be applied, and I've deducted $500 from the balance due and our payment.  BUT, I have have since read, on the NCL Cruise Next thread on this forum, that NCL's overall policy is that Cruise Next credits are to be used on cruises booked 6 months in advance or more, up to 4 years out, although sometimes exceptions to this rule are seen.

So now I'm kinda wondering if we are going to get those two credits refunded to our card or not.  I'm kinda chill about it, as long as I can keep our books straight and those Cruise Next credits don't disappear somehow.  The cost for the large balcony stateroom was low enough that it's OK with us if these credits must go towards a future cruise.  Somehow we missed the "at least 6 months in advance part" but there's so much information inherent in the process, that doesn't surprise me.  We are bound to miss fine print somewhere.

5 hours ago, PSU78 said:

Have you joined the roll call for this cruise? There is a wealth of info there, plus you may want to consider the meet and greet, slot pull, etc. We booked this cruise in part because we love the Escape. The Choir of Man show is a must, as well as the dueling pianos in Howl at the Moon.

Thank you so much for the information!  I will go take a look at that thread.  🙂  🙂

2 hours ago, gizfish said:

Regarding the thermal suite, the thalassotherapy pool is not really the type of pool that you would swim or do laps in.  It's really like a giant hot tub with a cascade of water in the middle. 

That's actually fine.  The Thermal Spa had me at  "thermal."  Oooooh, heat!  I honestly could have been happy with the grotto in Spice H2O as a water feature with shade and a lower population density in the feature itself (adults only) (not that I hate kids, bless young families and the adults entertaining those children, but it's just no longer our demographic) but I was concerned that in late-ish October sailing out of New York into the Atlantic, it might be too chilly/windy to enjoy that type of outdoor water feature.  As long as I can get into a heated body of water with some shade (I've been known to burn in the shade from reflected UV rays) I'm happy.  

I do have a question, though:  are the sauna, steamrooms and sanarium gender neutral?  I don't care either way- I'll have on a generous and modest towel, my bathing suit and/or a robe, but I'd like to get my head around what to expect- can I expect to share this experience with my husband, for instance, when he's with me, or should I expect it to be divided like it is in gym locker rooms?  We've had both experiences and either is fine.

2 hours ago, gizfish said:

Since you are on a port intensive itinerary, the spa should not be too crowded while you are in Bermuda. 

As of right now, the plan is for Husband to have a dive excursion on the first afternoon in Bermuda, whilst I lounge on heated stone in the Thermal Spa (like a cat,) or get my nails done, or shop for shiny ornaments (like a cat.)  Husband is certified but it's been years since his last dive, so he's signed up for the discovery dive course just to keep things legal and safe.  I had a diving accident the first time I tried to dive with him, could not equalize for the life of me, got stubborn and tried to push it, and bled into both ears.  =(  Oh well, it's all for the best:  I sort of knew going into it that scuba was never going to be my thing anyway.  Imagine, if you will, a Labrador Retriever and a Persian cat jumping off of a boat into the ocean.  Which of them is going to have the better time of it, LOL?  I'll take myself to the Thermal Spa or get my nails done or go shopping for shiny baubles, where I belong.  🙂  (I'll honestly cause less bother that way!)

Second day is for exploring the island together.  Third day is for whatever appeals to us,  either going back ashore to explore the island again, to see or experience something to which we did not get the day before, or maybe the thermal spa together.  Whatever is fine!

4 hours ago, PortFees45 said:

The salt room is a total scam, unless you like sitting in a weird Fortress of Solitude-esque crystal chamber. Also it smells like feet. 

OMG LOL.  

Well, I'm probably gonna smell like feet then.  🙂

I've had a miserable allergy season this year (in my defense, I'm not the only one in our area suffering, a bunch of us are lit up big time over some allergan or another) so I was planning to park in there, because salt *anything* seems to help the sinus and nasal symptoms.  So if I smell like feet, please kindly ignore...  🙂

3 hours ago, mjkacmom said:

Since the Sky doesn’t have a haven restaurant, could those folks eating lunch in there be in the Haven?

Interesting!  I was wondering how the Haven level of amenities would be handled on the Sky, if at all!

We were barely aware of the concept of the Haven when we booked that cruise, and the Haven was way out of our target budget, and IIRC Haven styled accommodations weren't offered through the booking service we used.  (If they were, I blew right past them/didn't recognize them due to the budget parameters we had for that trip.)

I slooooowly became aware that there were forward facing staterooms with large balconies on the Sky, and I began to wonder if those were the owner's suites?  Perhaps those are the Haven accommodations on the Sky?  

My impression was, based on what our server in Pinnacle told us, that at least some of the SDP restaurants were open to the whole ship for lunch.  My impression was that we could have walked right into Cagney's and been seated- but we'd just eaten sushi, so there was no need for that.

Don't know about Le Bistro on that day, we didn't look, and IIRC, La Cucina was still doing the complimentary pizza thing for lunch, because we snagged a couple of pieces of pizza from there a couple of hours later.

Anyway, I might call NCL and ask about sea day dining, SDP passes for lunch, etc. on the Escape, since this is a sea day intensive itinerary (3 out of 7 days) and it is a dining venue intensive ship.  

Thank you to everyone for your help!  ❤️

54 minutes ago, salty dingo said:

We are on the same cruise as you! Only 14 days to go!!

 

I can help with question 4. On a previous cruise to Bermuda we bought the bus/ferry pass and it worked out great. You just get on and off when you like and fare is no concern... getting tokens or having enough $5 bills on you. Also you don't need to worry about getting a transfer ticket if changing buses enroute.

 

It is very easy to go anywhere in Bermuda via bus, and we will do It again. Thinking we will get the two day pass for the first two days and save exploring the dockyard for the day we leave, to stay close to the ship before departure.

 

There is supposed to be a  visitor center near where we dock where passes are sold. Last cruise we docked in St. George's and we bought passes at the post office there. No post office in Dockyard I think, but there is one in Hamilton as well as St. George's. I have read there is a NCL free ferry from Dockyard to St. George's but not sure if or when they will run that for our cruise.

 WELL WE'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO CRUISE WITH A SALTY DINGO, SO, LIFE GOALS!  🙂  🙂  See you on the ship!  

Thank you for the information about getting around in Bermuda!  You are confirming our impression of it, that it's easy and inexpensive.  We like to explore on our own so it's nice to know that our impressions are close enough to accurate, and to have some details filled in.

Long story about the short turnaround on cruises but basically Husband is using up some backlogged vacation time before retirement.  He took a week off in September, which we spent on our first cruise, on the Sky.  We enjoyed that so much and it exceeded our expectations so much that, on a lark, we looked at what NCL was offering for the upcoming week off this month.  Bermuda was on our bucket list, the price was right for the stateroom and the Take All Offers/Free at Sea promotion was still running.  I was all, "We need to jump on this!"  Ergo we are cruising again this month.  

And that will be it for this year.  The original catalyst for this intense study of cruising is a Princess cruise we have booked for January 2020.  That was to be our "first cruise."  We were several thousand dollars into it when we became overwhelmed by planning.  We had no idea what we'd prefer, like, not like, could deal with in order to have something better/more/different elsewhere in the experience, because we had no point of reference.  Neither of us had ever set foot on a cruise ship before!

So we booked the "little" cruise on the Sky, just to get oriented to the process and the possibilities, and we were totally blown away!  AWESOME experience!

There's another thread on here that speaks to NCL practically giving away cruises this fall.  The low fare and the free promo offers were a huge incentive for us on this Bermuda cruise.  The Princess cruise in January 2020 is 10 days with 7 port calls en route, so it's a longer/bigger cruise, but functionally in terms of feeding and housing us, only by 3 nights.  It is also high season for the Caribbean, as far as I can tell.  The price difference between what we've already paid for that cruise in January and what we  are paying for this "hurricane season" NCL Bermuda cruise is notable.  

We live on the east coast and both of us will soon be retired, empty nesters without kids and their schedules and needs in the mix.  Soon we will be ultimately flexible to deal with itinerary changes, etc. due to weather.  We'd buy good trip insurance regardless because *anything* can happen, not just weather.  So if this is the trend, remarkably low fares off season, I can see taking advantage of that in the future.  🙂 

25 minutes ago, shof515 said:

 

 

The specially dinning restaurant does not have a lunch menu. What i noticed on the breakaway and the escape, they only use the restaurant as a venue as that has table and chairs since they most likely cant use the dinning room.. On both of the ships, it was always at Moderno and it was more a like a theme lunch buffet every sea day. One sea day it was German theme with German food, a band playing some German music. Then another sea day, it was Asian theme.

 

 

Huh.  Interesting.

When we were on the Sky last month,  we discovered quite  by chance that Pinnacle Lounge and Sushi Bar was serving their full bar and sushi menu at lunch time because it was a sea day.  We ordered a single roll of sushi and  a couple of drinks for lunch.  The drinks were covered by our beverage package.  The cost of the sushi roll went against our onboard account.  No one asked us if we wanted to use our specialty dining  credit for that purchase, but we already had dinner for two subsequent nights reserved for Cagney's and Le Bistro, so those reservations probably showed up on our account when it was accessed to add the Pinnacle charge... I'm guessing?  

When we left the Pinnacle Lounge we peeked inside of Cagney's, which was also open for lunch.  People were seating and ordering and they appeared to be ordering from a standard menu, i.e. there didn't seem to be a separate theme going on, nor any sort of buffet.  ???

Long story short, we do intend to use the MDRs for the dinners other than our three SDP dinners included in our promotion, so there's no need to buy additional SDPs if they can't be used for lunch- or if it's cheaper to just order from the lunch menu in the ala cart dining venues.  Or, if applying an OBC from a Cruise Next deposit or two will cover the cost of a couple of lunches at ala carte dining venues.  

We are totally happy with buffets, MDRs and room service (continental breakfast or an occasional $7.95 delivery charge) for breakfast and lunch otherwise.  And dinner otherwise too.

Was just wondering if there was a known "hack" or best practices for saving $$$ on ala carte venues for lunch or snacks.

Thanks for your help!  🙂 🙂

We are embarking on our second cruise ever on the Escape from NYC to Bermuda, 7 day cruise,  on October 20th.

1. This seems to be a "shoulder season" in both NYC and Bermuda. Trying to plan our packing. Any advice on weather and clothing choices?

2. Was surprised to find specialty dining open for lunch on our one sea day on the Sky, on our first cruise. Have read NCL's dining FAQs and now see that this is standard operating procedure.  We have 3 SPD meals in included in our fare as part of the Take All Offers,  Free at Sea promotion.  We've made dinner reservations for 3 nights: Le Bistro, Moderno and Tepenyaki.  Would like to try dinners in the MDRs on the other nights since we somehow completely missed that on the Sky. Is it worth purchasing the smallest SDP for each of the two of us to use in the specialty dining restaurants for lunch? Not counting embarkation day, there are 3 sea days on this cruise. Given our experience on the Sky and NCL's FAQs, I expect some of the specialty dining to be open for lunch on sea days, but do any of you have experience with which ones are typically open midday or all day?

3. We've purchased a Thermal Suite package to have access to an adults only indoor pool for the cruise, which also gives us ( me especially) access to a water feature with shade. Any tips on using the Thermal Suite package to get the most out of it?

4. We plan to see Bermuda on our own using public transportation: ferries,  buses and taxis.  Any tips or must sees?

5. We purchased 2 deposits for a total of $500 deposit money on a future cruise on the last night of our cruise on the Sky, which gave us a $250 on board credit to apply against our on board balance on that cruise. It was a "apply 2 deposit  credits to your next cruise" special offered on the last day on the Sky. Is this a fairly typical offer on NCL cruises? If so, this may be a more cost efficient way to "cover" the cost of specialty dining at lunch. Your opinions and experiences?

5. Bring on your best tips and suggestions for the Escape! 😊😊

Thanking you all in advance... ❤️

^^ Understood.  Even Uber-ing or Lyft-ing all afternoon with luggage is challenging.

Huh.  I wonder if any of the resorts in the Miami area have resort day passes?  If you can't change flights?

Well, if you gotta spend an afternoon in Miami, you gotta visit the Ball and Chain in Little Havana for delicious food, awesome mojitos and amazing live music!  Check the Events calendar to see who is playing on the afternoon that you'll be there.  You can also take a look at the menu.  I can tell you for a fact that the jerk roasted chicken wings are to die for, as are the quesadillas, and the tacos, and the chilled jumbo shrimp.  🙂 🙂

https://ballandchainmiami.com/

The Pinnacle Lounge does have sake!  We were offered sake!  Don't know if it was hot or not because we were drinking other things.  🙂 🙂

The Pinnacle Lounge is one of the most elegant places on the Sky.  The service is wonderful and the atmosphere is perfect.

I was impressed with the freshness of the ingredients and the generous size of the rolls, and also with the modest prices.  Sushi rolls in our area (upper southeast coast) are at least a third higher for a less generous serving.  

A couple who was in the Pinnacle Lounge the second time we visited based their  order on the prices and sizes of rolls from their home town.  They severely over-ordered and it was actually funny.  It was sort of like an overwhelming sushi Christmas gone off the rails.  They could no where finish what they ordered!  

Oh, addendum- The Pinnacle Lounge and Sushi Bar was one of our favorite venues.  Very good sushi if you like sushi, and we thought the ala carte price was reasonable.  The rolls were generous as well.

If you don't like sushi, it's an attractive and elegant place to hang out for a cocktail.  

We were just on the Sky sailing on 9/23 through 9/28.  It's a smaller ship but recently renovated.  On our sailing it was spotless, almost smelled of fresh paint and new carpet!  The crew was super chill and very friendly and happy.  We had a great time, and  you will too.  🙂 🙂

1. Paper straws, yes.

2. You can take food from any of the venues to your room.  The server will even box it up for you.  We had to take dessert back to our room from Cagney's, couldn't finish it.  NOTE THIS:  you cannot bring food or drink from "outside" (port of call, embarkation) onto the ship.  They are strict about it, or they were with us on the Sky.  So if you eat a meal in port, don't count on bringing anything back onto the ship with you.  You also cannot take food from the ship off of the ship.  Ergo we ate our chocolate cake from Cagney's for breakfast on disembarkation day.  🙂 🙂  (Maybe the first time in my life I've legit had chocolate cake for breakfast.)

3. The Local- don't have a picture of the menu, but they for sure have wings, which seemed quite popular.  Didn't order them but would next time.  They have fish and chips, a very good cheeseburger, and reubens as well.  The spinach and artichoke dip is good.

4. We were in an aft balcony room for a 5 night cruise and we had neither robes nor bubbly in the room- but we didn't miss either.

5. You're gonna love The Great Outdoors, the aft deck dining area behind the Garden Buffet.  It has its own buffet and full bar.  The buffet is not as extensive as the indoor buffet at the Garden Buffet but the food is laid out nicely and the selection was more than adequate for us.

6. ROOM SERVICE WAS GREAT.  I made a classic "sea day" blunder and didn't pace myself, ergo between day drinking and sunshine and running about all day on the ship, I was in bed asleep by 8pm that night, no dinner.  I awoke at 4:30am, slammed the light on over our bed (my husband was THRILLED) and announced that I was STARVING (my husband was THRILLED.)  Cue room service breakfast, which was delivered in about 30 minutes, hot off the grill and really good.  It was worth every penny of that $7.95 service charge!

7. I awoke at about 4:30am again, on the last morning of the cruise, for no particular reason, and stepped out onto our balcony around 5am.  I could see the lights of Miami on the horizon. I got up, got dressed, and headed for the stern deck behind The Great Outdoors for our entry into the Port of Miami, in the dark.  All of the city and port lights were on, and it was beautiful.  It was a magical way to start the last day.  If you happen to be up, it's worth the early breakfast.  🙂 

Have LARGE, LARGE fun!