NCL Sky to Cuba

Can someone who has taken this cruise recently, let me know what time you were to get on board? The ship departs out of Miami at 5pm. Working on setting up a shuttle pickup from hotel in Ft. Lauderdale down to the cruise ship in Miami. I've taken that shuttle before, but I believe the previous trip left Miami at 4pm rather than 5. Enjoy getting on the ship earlier, so as to have lunch, etc.

We were on this cruise a couple of weeks ago. I don’t recall the exact time we boarded, but it was about 11:30 am. We got to the pier about 10:30 am and were in the 2nd boarding group.

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how was Havana? any tips you have would be appreciated

Can someone who has taken this cruise recently, let me know what time you were to get on board? The ship departs out of Miami at 5pm. Working on setting up a shuttle pickup from hotel in Ft. Lauderdale down to the cruise ship in Miami. I've taken that shuttle before, but I believe the previous trip left Miami at 4pm rather than 5. Enjoy getting on the ship earlier, so as to have lunch, etc.

General boarding will start between 11:15 and 11:30. Buffet opens at 11:30. Main dining room opens at 12:00.

Enjoy!

how was Havana? any tips you have would be appreciated

We didn’t get to see as much of Havana as we would have liked. We did the walking tour of colonial Havana in the morning and our plan was to go back out to walk around some more on our own after lunch. It was extremely hot and sunny the day we were there. Even at the start of the tour at 9 am we were already roasting. My daughter who spent all of last summer in Singapore, which is just above the equator, said that the heat there was more tolerable.

What we did see if the old buildings was interesting. A lot of the old homes have been converted to hotels. Unfortunately, the tour keeps you away from where most of the people live, though you could see the crowded streets in the distance.

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You can start boarding around 11:30AM, and most guests are onboard by 1PM. 2PM is the cutoff time (two hours before departure, which is at 4PM.)

For the Sky, get there when you get there, the earlier the better.

how was Havana? any tips you have would be appreciated

By all means do not use the public restrooms in Havana!

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We signed up for 11:30-12pm and got on before that. I am not sure they even looked at what time we signed up for. They just gave you a group number after you checked in.

As for Havana we had a private tour guide from 10am until midnight. We did a driving tour in an old convertible for 3 hours, had lunch at a great local place, did a couple hour walking tour, went back to the ship for dinner and to change clothes, went to an old fort for a canon firing, and to a caberet show. Great day!

Things to look out for: public restrooms will not have toilet paper and may not even have toilet seats, restrooms in restaurants are better, most places do not have a/c and if they do it is not great, most private shops prices are negotiable, government run shops and restaurants are not as good as private, watch out for tour drivers asking you for a tour (most speak limited English), there are 2 different currencies (CUC and CUP), you need CUC for most things and it is much more valuable than CUP, CUC has monuments on it, CUP has people on it, there will be a couple pushy vendors in the square near the terminal so be on your toes, people were very nice, city was dirty and smelly in places, and most of remember where you are and appreciate where you came from.

Have a great time! We did.