Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Great time on NCL Sky - Dec 27th

leslierx

By leslierx,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

Recommended Posts

leslierx

leslierx

Posted
Posted

We just returned from the NCL Sky. I have been on 2 Disney Cruises, 1 Royal Carib, and this was our 1st NCL. After reading all of the reviews, I had low expectations with the food and service, but was pleasantly surprised! We had great food the whole time and thought the staff was very friendly.

 

This cruise was a Christmas present from my inlaws. Me (38), my husband (37) and daughter(11) were in an aft balcony (0066) on deck 10 and my inlaws were in an aft penthouse (0064) also on deck 10. Our rooms was the normal smallish cruise stateroom with tiny bathroom. This was our 1st balcony - wow! That was awesome! There was room for 2 chairs and a small table. How wonderfull was it to have a balcony. I don't think I could ever sail again without one! My inlaws penthouse was huge! They had a separate bedroom with nice fluffy bed and vanity and small flat screen tv. A huge bathroom (for a cruise ship) with a glass door shower, and a nice size jacuzzi tub. It also had a living room with a round dinning table w/2 chairs and a loveseat that made out into a bed and a couple of chairs and a desk. There were doors out to the balcony from both the bedroom and the living room. Their balcony was absolutely huge! It had enough room for 2 lounge chairs, a round dinning table with 4 chairs, and a couple of more chairs and side table. All 6 of us fit out there comfortably to eat room service. Their room came with a butler who brought room service to us and set a nice table on the balcony and also a conceirge who could make reservations.

 

Let me start from the begining. Pre-cruise, we stayed at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay - loved it! It was a nice hotel and we had great views across the bay of the cruise ships that were docked. There is a restaurant/bar in the lobby, but if you walk right past the lobby, there is a door to an enclosed shopping area between our hotel and the doubletree that had a few restaurants (Italian, Steakhouse, sportsbar/deli) and several shops. The sportsbar/deli had reasonable food and drinks. My husband went to the lobby bar, not knowing about the other area, and paid about $7 per domestic beer. Later, I found the deli and beers were $2 each!! They also have a small store connected to it that sold package liquor, beer, wine, etc. I think the beer was around $8 per 6 pack. Not dirt cheap, but we didn't have a car, so it was convienent to grab easily. We were in Miami for 2 night before our cruise. There is a free train called the "metro-mover" that had a stop just across the street a block from the hotel. There is also a nice Episcopal Church Cathedral right next door. We jumped on the metro-mover and headed down to bayside marketplace. Really nice area, had lots of shops and restaurants, bars etc.. right on the bay. Nice area to spend if you have a day or night in Miami near the port. We also rode the metro-mover to Macy's dept store (there is a stop right at the door) and bought a few things we forgot before our cruise. We only rode it during the day, and felt safe, but I have read here, may not be safe at night, especially if alone.

 

Anyway, the day of our cruise, we took a cab to the port (I think it cost around $20). Dropped our bags curbside and went to check in. It was around 11am, and since my inlaws had a penthouse, they got priority check in and boarding. They let us all remain together, even though we were just in a balcony cabin. They had a tiny room with fruit, snacks and beverages to enjoy while waiting. Someone came around 11:30 to escort us onto the ship. My daughter was booked into the penthouse with my inlaws and brother in law, while my husband and I were booked in the balcony cabin. We were all escorted onto the ship and met the inlaw's butler Joha. He was from Chile and very nice. He was leading us to Cagneys for lunch. We told him not all of us were in the penthouse, but we would pay for the cover charge for those who weren't. We were all seated in Cagneys. Before long the inlaw's conceierge (Teresa Marie, I think was her name) came over to introduce herself. She said since we were a family traveling together she was going to extend the courtesy of allowing all of us to eat breakfast and lunch at Cagneys if we wanted for the duration of our cruise. We had a wonderfull lunch. The guys had huge shimp cocktails and steak. We all had great food. We had breakfast here once during our trip, but were always off the ship at lunch time, so never had the pleasure of anymore lunches there. After lunch, we looked around the ship a bit. A cool front had hit Miami, and temps were barely in the 60's. So it was a bit cool for the pool, but some people were in the hot tubs. Before long it was 2pm and our rooms were ready. That night the waves were huge from a storm that just headed out to sea. For the first time my husband and I got sea sick. We didn't wear a patch (even though I brought a whole box of them) because we had never had a prob before. We laid down and took a dramamine, and it passed. The worse part was that we missed dinner that night and ordered some quick room service instead. The rest of our cruise was smooth sailing and we didn't have any more problems.

 

Next Day - Freeport

 

We slept a little late, and missed Cagneys breakfast, so went to the Great Outdoors (past the buffett) and it was great. Made to order eggs or omlettes and a waffle station and plenty of fresh fruit and breakfast meats and pastries. Not huge, but all good. We then got off the ship (down the 3rd floor - no line - just walked off). We grabbed a shared cab to Port Lucaya where there was a few blocks of shops and a hotel/casino. We looked around and bought a yummy frozen drink in a coconut ($7) and then headed to the hotel/casino's beach. Everything was within a few minutes walk. The beach was beautifull, white sand, gorgeous water. They had chair rentals for $10, but we had brought our beach towel from ship and sat on it. There was a free water trampoline the kids could jump on and a few watersports for fee (parasailing and jet skis I think). We enjoyed the day, then headed back to the ship. We found a hot tub in the front of the ship (by the kids splash pool) and me and my daughter and mother in law got in while the ship sailed away, nice!

 

We ate dinner that night at Palace dinning room. I thought it was pretty, our service was good and food was amazing. My husband got the lamb chops and the groupper/lobster combo and loved them both. My daughter got the salmon and said it was great, and I got the tortellini pasta and it was pretty good. We also all loved the caesar salad and the desert we split was a flourless choc lava cake - OMG! My inlaws ate earlier than us in the Crossings dinning room which had the same menu. Their food was good as well.

 

Next Day Nassau - to be continued...including Atlantis Aquaadventure pricing info.......

Link to comment
Share on other sites
david_sobe

david_sobe

Posted
Posted
We just returned from the NCL Sky. I have been on 2 Disney Cruises, 1 Royal Carib, and this was our 1st NCL. After reading all of the reviews, I had low expectations with the food and service, but was pleasantly surprised! We had great food the whole time and thought the staff was very friendly.

 

This cruise was a Christmas present from my inlaws. Me (38), my husband (37) and daughter(11) were in an aft balcony (0066) on deck 10 and my inlaws were in an aft penthouse (0064) also on deck 10. Our rooms was the normal smallish cruise stateroom with tiny bathroom. This was our 1st balcony - wow! That was awesome! There was room for 2 chairs and a small table. How wonderfull was it to have a balcony. I don't think I could ever sail again without one! My inlaws penthouse was huge! They had a separate bedroom with nice fluffy bed and vanity and small flat screen tv. A huge bathroom (for a cruise ship) with a glass door shower, and a nice size jacuzzi tub. It also had a living room with a round dinning table w/2 chairs and a loveseat that made out into a bed and a couple of chairs and a desk. There were doors out to the balcony from both the bedroom and the living room. Their balcony was absolutely huge! It had enough room for 2 lounge chairs, a round dinning table with 4 chairs, and a couple of more chairs and side table. All 6 of us fit out there comfortably to eat room service. Their room came with a butler who brought room service to us and set a nice table on the balcony and also a conceirge who could make reservations.

 

Let me start from the begining. Pre-cruise, we stayed at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay - loved it! It was a nice hotel and we had great views across the bay of the cruise ships that were docked. There is a restaurant/bar in the lobby, but if you walk right past the lobby, there is a door to an enclosed shopping area between our hotel and the doubletree that had a few restaurants (Italian, Steakhouse, sportsbar/deli) and several shops. The sportsbar/deli had reasonable food and drinks. My husband went to the lobby bar, not knowing about the other area, and paid about $7 per domestic beer. Later, I found the deli and beers were $2 each!! They also have a small store connected to it that sold package liquor, beer, wine, etc. I think the beer was around $8 per 6 pack. Not dirt cheap, but we didn't have a car, so it was convienent to grab easily. We were in Miami for 2 night before our cruise. There is a free train called the "metro-mover" that had a stop just across the street a block from the hotel. There is also a nice Episcopal Church Cathedral right next door. We jumped on the metro-mover and headed down to bayside marketplace. Really nice area, had lots of shops and restaurants, bars etc.. right on the bay. Nice area to spend if you have a day or night in Miami near the port. We also rode the metro-mover to Macy's dept store (there is a stop right at the door) and bought a few things we forgot before our cruise. We only rode it during the day, and felt safe, but I have read here, may not be safe at night, especially if alone.

 

Anyway, the day of our cruise, we took a cab to the port (I think it cost around $20). Dropped our bags curbside and went to check in. It was around 11am, and since my inlaws had a penthouse, they got priority check in and boarding. They let us all remain together, even though we were just in a balcony cabin. They had a tiny room with fruit, snacks and beverages to enjoy while waiting. Someone came around 11:30 to escort us onto the ship. My daughter was booked into the penthouse with my inlaws and brother in law, while my husband and I were booked in the balcony cabin. We were all escorted onto the ship and met the inlaw's butler Joha. He was from Chile and very nice. He was leading us to Cagneys for lunch. We told him not all of us were in the penthouse, but we would pay for the cover charge for those who weren't. We were all seated in Cagneys. Before long the inlaw's conceierge (Teresa Marie, I think was her name) came over to introduce herself. She said since we were a family traveling together she was going to extend the courtesy of allowing all of us to eat breakfast and lunch at Cagneys if we wanted for the duration of our cruise. We had a wonderfull lunch. The guys had huge shimp cocktails and steak. We all had great food. We had breakfast here once during our trip, but were always off the ship at lunch time, so never had the pleasure of anymore lunches there. After lunch, we looked around the ship a bit. A cool front had hit Miami, and temps were barely in the 60's. So it was a bit cool for the pool, but some people were in the hot tubs. Before long it was 2pm and our rooms were ready. That night the waves were huge from a storm that just headed out to sea. For the first time my husband and I got sea sick. We didn't wear a patch (even though I brought a whole box of them) because we had never had a prob before. We laid down and took a dramamine, and it passed. The worse part was that we missed dinner that night and ordered some quick room service instead. The rest of our cruise was smooth sailing and we didn't have any more problems.

 

Next Day - Freeport

 

We slept a little late, and missed Cagneys breakfast, so went to the Great Outdoors (past the buffett) and it was great. Made to order eggs or omlettes and a waffle station and plenty of fresh fruit and breakfast meats and pastries. Not huge, but all good. We then got off the ship (down the 3rd floor - no line - just walked off). We grabbed a shared cab to Port Lucaya where there was a few blocks of shops and a hotel/casino. We looked around and bought a yummy frozen drink in a coconut ($7) and then headed to the hotel/casino's beach. Everything was within a few minutes walk. The beach was beautifull, white sand, gorgeous water. They had chair rentals for $10, but we had brought our beach towel from ship and sat on it. There was a free water trampoline the kids could jump on and a few watersports for fee (parasailing and jet skis I think). We enjoyed the day, then headed back to the ship. We found a hot tub in the front of the ship (by the kids splash pool) and me and my daughter and mother in law got in while the ship sailed away, nice!

 

We ate dinner that night at Palace dinning room. I thought it was pretty, our service was good and food was amazing. My husband got the lamb chops and the groupper/lobster combo and loved them both. My daughter got the salmon and said it was great, and I got the tortellini pasta and it was pretty good. We also all loved the caesar salad and the desert we split was a flourless choc lava cake - OMG! My inlaws ate earlier than us in the Crossings dinning room which had the same menu. Their food was good as well.

 

Next Day Nassau - to be continued...including Atlantis Aquaadventure pricing info.......

I was also in Penthouse 0064

Amazing. HUGE balcony, HUGE bathroom, 2 full separate rooms, HUGE bed, 2 TVs, entertainment center, bar, coffee machine, etc

 

The Sky's suites are simply amazing and the best deal on the seas. There is not courtyard but with these giant suites, you dont need to leave your suite to feel special.

The balcony on these penthouses are just HUGE deep and wide with tables, chairs, and lounge chairs.

 

I just got back from the Epic. While I like the Epic as a ship more, the penthouse in the Villas on Epic cannot even compare or come close. The Sky's penthouse wins hands down. Not even a close comparison.

Interesting when you think about it. NCL's oldest ship vs the newest ship

Link to comment
Share on other sites
leslierx

leslierx

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Day 3 - Nassau

 

We wanted to make sure and catch Cagneys for breakfast since we missed it the day before. They stop serving at 9:30, so we agreed to meet there at 9am. It was fantastic. My husband and his father ordered steak and eggs and said it was great! I had an omlette and breakfast potatoes and my daughter and mother in law had french toast. It was all great. They had a few long tables set up by the windows with various pastries, toast, juices, fruit etc that you could help yourself to along with the breakfast you ordered. When you ordered coffee, they brought it out in this glass pot with a press on top and sat it on the table.

 

After breakfast, we headed off the ship to Atlantis. We have been to Atlantis twice before on prior cruises. We always just grab a cab to get there. In the past we only just looked around and played in the casino and checked out the aquariums and hotel. This time 4 of us (me, my husband, our daughter and my hubby's brother) wanted to go to the water park, while my in-laws wanted to gamble in the casino. I knew that the aquaworld (or whatever the heck it is called) excursion from the ship was $149 and I had heard you can buy them at Atlantis for $129. We weren't sure if the weather would be warm enough, so just wanted to wait until we got there. I had also heard that sometimes in busy travel times (like the week we would be there, between Christmas and New Years) that they sometimes limit the amount of passes they sell, or don't sell them at all. So we get there via cab ($4 per person) and it was beautifull as ever. They sell the passes in the casino at a booth. Before buying the passes (and they were selling the heck out of them - huge line) we decided to check into getting a room at the hotel for the day because when staying there, 4 people are allowed to get armbands for the water park. Well the reg room rate that day was $580 - ouch! My mother in law has gambled there before and gets offers to come stay occasionaly from a casino host, so the reservation desk called the casino host for us and checked, and they would give her a casino rate room for $360 - much cheaper than the $129 x 4 we would have paid for the passes alone. So we got the room, they gave us 4 keys and away we went. Our room was in the Beach Tower, which was literally a mile walk from the main hotel/casino. We trecked over there, changed into our swim suits and left our bags. Our room was nice, but nothing to write home about. It did have a nice balcony which overlooked a beautifull pool and a winding waterway with sting rays. We could also see the beach/ocean. So we took the mile walk to the water park area. We were directed to the Coral Tower towel shack and that was where we got our arm bands. We only had to show one room key and tell them we needed 4 armbands, and lickety split, we had them on and away we went. We did a few water slides and then decided to all go on the lazy river, which was a mile long and had areas with fast rapids, very cool! We took our stuff to the locker area and rented a small locker for $7 for the day. They had small, med and large lockers. The small fit my tote bag, and all of our shoes. Note - the area is huge and there are a few bars & food service areas around. Most of them only take a credit card or a room key to charge to room. There was one bar that took cash. We found ourselves far away from our locker with only cash, and our credit cards & room key locked in locker. The drinks were, as expected quite expensive. I got a frozen Pina Colada and I think it was $12 and my daughter got a virgin strawberry daquiri and it was $8. Anyway, we had a fabulous day riding all of the slides etc. We headed back to our room to change and then to find the inlaws in the casino and head back to the ship. To our surprise, my mother in law had won $4000 on a dollar slot machine! And - the best part...no taxes!

 

We headed back to the ship and decided to all eat together at Crossings then go to the Broadway review show. We had another great dinner. I had the beef stroganoff and it was excellent! Can't remember what everyone else had, but everyone was happy. We then went to the showroom. My daughter and I arrived early and got a drink and a good seat, while the others headed to the casino. The show was amazing. They did 2-3 songs from several broadway shows. Wicked, Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia, Movin Out, Swing, and one more that I can't remember. The singers and dancers we thought were great. Especially for people like us that get bored easily, it was upbeat and exciting and very entertaining. We were quite surprised by the talent.

 

Another thing we caught on to was the great wings at Longboards. I had heard how good they are in these boards, but didn't know if we would make it there to get any. Well, we found out you could get them to go and take them back to your room. This became our nightly ritual. About midnight, we worked up some hunger, and orderd a couple of orders to go and took them to eat on our balcony. They were some of the best wings we've ever had. The food at Longboards was free and looked like a good place to hang out late night. Lots of teenagers gathered there for food and fellowship.

 

Off to bed ...private island next day

 

I woke the next morning before the ship stopped at private island. I loved sitting on the balcony and watching the sights as we pull into a new port. We saw 2 Royal Carribean ships anchored in the water, and we anchored not far from them. I new RCCL's island was right next to NCL's - This morning we had room service breakfast brought to our inlaws suite balcony by their butler, Joha. We went over there and ate on their huge balcony. It was wonderfull again! We got ready and headed to the tender to the island. THe only private island we had ever been to before, was Disney's. I knew from pictures that NCL's didn't look as developed as NCL's, but was pleasantly surprised when we arrived. Even though there weren't alot of facilities built on the island, it was beautifull there. The water was a gorgeous color and crystal clear. The sand was soft and white, and everything was in close proximity and easy to get to. We laid on the beach, swam in the ocean, and snorkled. We bought our own snorkle at a shop in freeport for around $30. It was $35 to rent on the island, which I wish we had done, because you also got fins and a vest. We rented a vest for around $5 and then had to carry the snorkle stuff around with us on and off the ship. We all used the gear and it was super easy. You could touch most of the way out in the water until you got to the big rocks. There was an area between the rocks that got really deep, and there were tons of colorfull fish! We decided to check and see if there were any spots open for the wave runner tour. There were, so we booked all four of us. One rider was $99 and 2 people on one jet ski was $149. We met at the specified time and were led to the back side of the island. We had to watch a short safety video and put on a wet suit and life jacket. There were about 10 of us. They had 3-4 workers who also rode with us. One of the workers went first and they had each of us follow about 100 yards apart. We rode between our island and a neighboring one. Full throttle our jet skis got up to about 42 mph. It was tons of fun. We also stopped at a shallow area called starfish bay (or something like that) We all stopped and they picked up some big starfish and a huge conch shell with live conch inside and let us all see and feel them. We got to ride around 45 minutes. It was the highlight of our trip. So beautifull! There were also Kayak tours and a big inflatable slide the kids could ride on. The slide was $5 per slide, or $20 for unlimited. My daughter passed, but younger kids would love it. We barely ate any of the food on the island, because we had the big breakfast, and our wave runner tour started at 1:15pm and they stopped serving food at 2pm. We grabbed a plate right before our wave tour, knowing that the food would be gone when we got back. They had hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, bbq chicken breasts, rice, mac and cheese, pot salad, slaw, fruit and some deserts. The hot dogs were good. That was about all we had to woof down. We had gotten my daughter the soda cup/sticker. It even worked to get soda on the private island. For kids, it was around $18 for the whole cruise. She could get the cup refilled at any bar and if we didn't have the cup with us, she could show her room key card with the soda sticker on it and get a soda at restaurant/bar at no charge. I had one frozen drink at the private island and it came in a very nice reusable cup with straw and lid. I think it cost about $12, but it was pretty big, and stayed cold in the cup. Even when I came back from wave tour, it was still cold. There were lockers at the wave runner area, but we felt safe in leaving our bags and stuff on our chairs on the island, and no one bothered them. We didn't have anything too valuble in them. You do have to bring your beach towlels from the ship to the island and back with you. We really enjoyed our day at the island. I think we took the absolute last tender back to the ship. The tender boats looked to run continually back and forth all day. It didn't take long at all to get there.

 

Back to ship to shower and meet the family back at Crossings for dinner. The Palace and Crossings dinning rooms were both great. The Crossings was right above (or below - can't remember) from the showroom, so much easier to get to the show after dinner. Tonight there was only one show at 9pm. The other nights there were 2 shows. Tonight, it was the finally, which included the funny comedian (Rich Purpa - I think was his name) and the singer/dancers. We did not want to miss the show. For the first time there was a short wait for a table for 6. They gave us a beeper and we were seated in about 15 minutes. I ordered the Chichen cordon blue, it was good, and my husband ordered the prime rib. My daughter and I ate quickly and skipped desert to rush down to the show. It had already started and we missed the singer/dancers at the begining. We found what seemed to be the absolute last 2 seats way far off to the side. We caught the comedian, who was funny as hell agian, and then the entertainment staff did a funny skit at the end called fountains. REally funny! After the show we headed back to the room and put our jammies on. My husband found us and asked if I wanted to go to the casino to play blackjack a little. I put my clothes back on and away I went. He said, bring me back some of those hot wings when you return! I sat at a blackjack table with a fun group of people and before long my $60 had turned into $500 - I decided to quite while I was ahead and grab some wings and head back to the room. I got our 2 orders of wings and asked if I could also get celery and french fries. They said certainly, and within 5 minutes they brought them on plates with covers, like room service. We ate them on our balcony while watching and listening to the waves. A great end to a great cruise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...