Just off the Sky 1/4 - 1/8/16

[msweezie]

Just off the Sky, I will give a short review. My boyfriend and I, both 51, and our first cruise with Norwegian. I have sailed previously with Carnival Victory and the Breeze, and Royal's Majesty of the Seas and the Enchantment. Well, I thought the ship was a little lack luster. I know it's a smaller ship, as I have sailed smaller ships before. But nothing "wowed" me on this cruise. This is also the first cruise for the SKY where alcohol was included for everyone. Sometimes it seemed to be a problem getting served because of this. Some bar areas, such as the pool, have designated lines for ordering. Some other bars, such as in the Longboard, had bartenders that were very unfamiliar with the layout of the bar. I had to point to where the bottle of Vanilla vodka was, and then point to the refrigerator where I knew they kept the Chambord. They had a hard time keeping up. But I was impressed that I didn't see any guest out of control from too much alcohol, which was surprising, cause they didn't take count of how much you ordered. You weren't asked to show your card. The other thing was consistency.... a Cosmopolitan ordered one place was made entirely different at another. We were told by the pool bar "no shots are allowed anywhere on the boat" when my boyfriend was getting them the night before at Captain Cook's bar...in fact he got four of them at a time. The pool bar would also not serve more than two drinks to a guest in line, where Captain Cook's gave my boyfriend four shots and 2 drinks to bring back to the table.

 

The food: Well, we ate at the buffet in the Garden Café twice for dinner, once for lunch and once for breakfast. The food was ok. I will say just ok. I didn't see the variety I have seen before on other ships. The main problem was the temperature of the food. It was barely warm. I like my food hot, and this was a problem for me. The main dining room for breakfast one day was great. We had eggs benedict. Dinner was night was really not good at all. The smoked pork tenderloin was very tough and once again, mediocre temperature. The braised beef over pasta was ok. Once again, really could have been hotter. I also had the veal cordon bleu, which was very dry, no sauce, and not hot at all. My boyfriend also had a type of white fish, he said was ok. The second time in the main dining room was much better. We both had the Prime rib, and I must say it was excellent, great temperature, and steaming hot baked potatoe. We also shared a calamari dish that was average. Also, would like to note that if you go to the Garden café, which is to the left of the pool towards the back of the ship, if you continue and walk through to the open area in the back, the same food is located at the Great outdoor café, with much shorter lines! Especially helpful on embarkment day, and at breakfast if you would like an omelet made, or toast.

 

We saw the Rock show. The band was really good, played a lot of 80's music. We didn't see any other shows. We did some music trivia twice,

 

I knew not to be disappointed, as I had read before hand that they have been cancelling the stop at Stirrup Cay, and yup....they did. I was still very disappointed. But we had a sea day instead, and the weather was fabulous, as it hadn't really been that good for the prior days. We had the rainiest day ever at Nassau, and only about 70 degree weather at Freeport.

 

Another point, The longboard café, the freestyle daily says they serve food starting at 6 pm. Well, one day, we were told no. The next day we went back at 11:30 pm, and we ordered and questioned about the 6 PM thing. He stated that they serve buffalo wings at 6 pm only, (another inconsistency) Also, how was one to know they even had food. We asked for a menu, the bartender said they were on the tables. There were no menus on the table at all. Once again, we asked the bartender and we received the menu. I must say, the food was awesome! We had buffalo wings to die for, and fish and chips. And the food was HOT! But the inconsistencies again, showed themselves.

 

That's all I can think of for now. I did save the freestyle daily for the four days, I will have to see how I can go about scanning them. Any questions, I would be glad to answer them.

[david_sobe]

Thank you for this report and review. I was curious how free drinks for everyone was going to work. I can only imagine how busy the bartenders are and the wait for drinks at dinner or elsewhere. Too bad you did not make GSC. I can only imagine how busy the bartenders and waiters are on the island shuffling the drinks.

[cruisekrazykaze]

Thanks for the review! We are leaving on the Sky on 1/25. Ever hear what they are planning for the Sky's dry dock?

[msweezie]

I don't know about the dry dock for the ship. Another thing I forgot to mention, which has never happened before. I never met the room steward! Usually, if I remember, don't they make a point to introduce themselves?? Never saw him or her. Did their job well, but never met them. Isn't that strange?

[stormynow]

Bet your bf tipped the bar waiters well. We do and never have to wait for drinks.

[redfantum]

I don't know about the dry dock for the ship. Another thing I forgot to mention, which has never happened before. I never met the room steward! Usually, if I remember, don't they make a point to introduce themselves?? Never saw him or her. Did their job well, but never met them. Isn't that strange?

I have sailed the Sky 3 times and have met a room steward ONCE. I agree they do a great job, but do it invisibly. When I sailed the Getaway it kind of creeped me out how friendly the steward was!

Edited January 11, 2016 by redfantum

[aubreyc1988]

I don't know about the dry dock for the ship. Another thing I forgot to mention, which has never happened before. I never met the room steward! Usually, if I remember, don't they make a point to introduce themselves?? Never saw him or her. Did their job well, but never met them. Isn't that strange?

 

I think on NCL, they are very behind the scenes, as opposed to RCI and CCL where they are very interested in talking to you and getting to know you.

[pookeysmom]

Thanks for your review.

We've been on the Sky several times & love it. Yes, it's smaller & older, but the price was right & the stops were fun.

We look forward to trying the all-inclusive cruise ASAP.

The only thing that bothered us on the Sky was on the most recent time..our steward never came & introduced herself & her service was not great. Guest services was kind of rude too. A definite first for us since we're not picky, we're not buttholes & we love NCL.

[Cruiser Rich]

Just got off the Sky this morning. Our room steward introduced himself, and kept the room well taken care of. The new drink policy is great. No drunks were seen. Plenty of bartenders at each bar. But there was a wait for drinks at the pool bars, due to the fact that so many people were in that area. I just went inside to one of the "quiet" bars and no waiting. If you just wanted beer, there were several bartenders just doing beer, from large ice filled tubs side of the pool. Some of the bartenders seemed new to the job, probably due to the increased demand for drinks. I ordered Mai Tais from several different bars over three days, and no two were alike. I was a bit disappointed that they dropped the Las Vegas review. But the show Sunday night was good and the comedian Saturday night was funny. The skit that followed the comedian Saturday night, with five people in Togas spitting water on each other was just stupid, and not funny. GSK is a work in progress, and much progress has been made since last year. It rained off and on, and the tender ride back to the ship was a bit bumpy, but nothing serious. I noticed they kept the ship sideways to the wind, blocking it, so the tender could tie up on the lee side, out of the wind. I've been on the Sky before, and it is what it is. I enjoyed it, and the crew was very friendly, and seemed to enjoy their jobs. A nice little three day getaway.

Nassau is mostly high end jewelry shopping. A few blocks from the cruise ship area is really run down, and filled with vacant, crumbling stores and buildings. I blame Atlantis for sucking the lifeblood out of Nassau, like a Walmart does to a small town! And I refuse to set foot in Atlantis for that reason. There are a lot of locals pushing their wares around the cruise terminals, but that is about the only commerce in Nassau. Not a lot of jobs there. Just trying to be fair. The cruise business is about all they have there. The harbor area, straw market, and Senor Frogs are interesting.

[bromorg]

I just booked this cruise for February 12. How long have they been not going to Great Stirrup cay? I love sea days but I was hoping to get off the ship that day. Thanks!

[davesgirl51]

Being able to go to GSC is solely based on the sea conditions and the Captain's discretion if the tendering can be done safely. It is hit or miss and you do the Sky knowing that.

 

Additionally, dare I say it ? :eek: ... the loudest complainers about a cancellation would be the first to file a lawsuit that "the cruise line was negligent in allowing passengers to even attempt boarding the tender in such tenuous circumstances ! Why the seas were AWFUL!":rolleyes:

 

Mind you, tendering is a very very tricky operation that Captains don't take lightly.

 

All that being said, I hope the winds are calm and you get to stop :):)

[BVIArabella]

Just got off the Sky this morning. Our room steward introduced himself, and kept the room well taken care of. The new drink policy is great. No drunks were seen. Plenty of bartenders at each bar. But there was a wait for drinks at the pool bars, due to the fact that so many people were in that area. I just went inside to one of the "quiet" bars and no waiting. If you just wanted beer, there were several bartenders just doing beer, from large ice filled tubs side of the pool. Some of the bartenders seemed new to the job, probably due to the increased demand for drinks. I ordered Mai Tais from several different bars over three days, and no two were alike. I was a bit disappointed that they dropped the Las Vegas review. But the show Sunday night was good and the comedian Saturday night was funny. The skit that followed the comedian Saturday night, with five people in Togas spitting water on each other was just stupid, and not funny. GSK is a work in progress, and much progress has been made since last year. It rained off and on, and the tender ride back to the ship was a bit bumpy, but nothing serious. I noticed they kept the ship sideways to the wind, blocking it, so the tender could tie up on the lee side, out of the wind. I've been on the Sky before, and it is what it is. I enjoyed it, and the crew was very friendly, and seemed to enjoy their jobs. A nice little three day getaway.

Nassau is mostly high end jewelry shopping. A few blocks from the cruise ship area is really run down, and filled with vacant, crumbling stores and buildings. I blame Atlantis for sucking the lifeblood out of Nassau, like a Walmart does to a small town! And I refuse to set foot in Atlantis for that reason. There are a lot of locals pushing their wares around the cruise terminals, but that is about the only commerce in Nassau. Not a lot of jobs there. Just trying to be fair. The cruise business is about all they have there. The harbor area, straw market, and Senor Frogs are interesting.

Did you see anyone in a wheelchair or walker attempt to take the tender to the private island? Thanks

[cruizecrazygramma]

Just off the Sky, I will give a short review. My boyfriend and I, both 51, and our first cruise with Norwegian. I have sailed previously with Carnival Victory and the Breeze, and Royal's Majesty of the Seas and the Enchantment. Well, I thought the ship was a little lack luster. I know it's a smaller ship, as I have sailed smaller ships before. But nothing "wowed" me on this cruise. This is also the first cruise for the SKY where alcohol was included for everyone. Sometimes it seemed to be a problem getting served because of this. Some bar areas, such as the pool, have designated lines for ordering. Some other bars, such as in the Longboard, had bartenders that were very unfamiliar with the layout of the bar. I had to point to where the bottle of Vanilla vodka was, and then point to the refrigerator where I knew they kept the Chambord. They had a hard time keeping up. But I was impressed that I didn't see any guest out of control from too much alcohol, which was surprising, cause they didn't take count of how much you ordered. You weren't asked to show your card. The other thing was consistency.... a Cosmopolitan ordered one place was made entirely different at another. We were told by the pool bar "no shots are allowed anywhere on the boat" when my boyfriend was getting them the night before at Captain Cook's bar...in fact he got four of them at a time. The pool bar would also not serve more than two drinks to a guest in line, where Captain Cook's gave my boyfriend four shots and 2 drinks to bring back to the table.

 

The food: Well, we ate at the buffet in the Garden Café twice for dinner, once for lunch and once for breakfast. The food was ok. I will say just ok. I didn't see the variety I have seen before on other ships. The main problem was the temperature of the food. It was barely warm. I like my food hot, and this was a problem for me. The main dining room for breakfast one day was great. We had eggs benedict. Dinner was night was really not good at all. The smoked pork tenderloin was very tough and once again, mediocre temperature. The braised beef over pasta was ok. Once again, really could have been hotter. I also had the veal cordon bleu, which was very dry, no sauce, and not hot at all. My boyfriend also had a type of white fish, he said was ok. The second time in the main dining room was much better. We both had the Prime rib, and I must say it was excellent, great temperature, and steaming hot baked potatoe. We also shared a calamari dish that was average. Also, would like to note that if you go to the Garden café, which is to the left of the pool towards the back of the ship, if you continue and walk through to the open area in the back, the same food is located at the Great outdoor café, with much shorter lines! Especially helpful on embarkment day, and at breakfast if you would like an omelet made, or toast.

 

We saw the Rock show. The band was really good, played a lot of 80's music. We didn't see any other shows. We did some music trivia twice,

 

I knew not to be disappointed, as I had read before hand that they have been cancelling the stop at Stirrup Cay, and yup....they did. I was still very disappointed. But we had a sea day instead, and the weather was fabulous, as it hadn't really been that good for the prior days. We had the rainiest day ever at Nassau, and only about 70 degree weather at Freeport.

 

Another point, The longboard café, the freestyle daily says they serve food starting at 6 pm. Well, one day, we were told no. The next day we went back at 11:30 pm, and we ordered and questioned about the 6 PM thing. He stated that they serve buffalo wings at 6 pm only, (another inconsistency) Also, how was one to know they even had food. We asked for a menu, the bartender said they were on the tables. There were no menus on the table at all. Once again, we asked the bartender and we received the menu. I must say, the food was awesome! We had buffalo wings to die for, and fish and chips. And the food was HOT! But the inconsistencies again, showed themselves.

 

That's all I can think of for now. I did save the freestyle daily for the four days, I will have to see how I can go about scanning them. Any questions, I would be glad to answer them.

 

I will be on the sky in 2 weeks and would love to see the dailies. Thanks for the review

[Cruiser Rich]

The tendering to GSC is entirely weather related. We went ashore around 11 am. It was a little bumpy, but not bad at all. Do to the on and off rain and increasing wind, we returned to the ship around 2 pm. The ride back was fairly bumpy, but not alarming. They were using the thrusters to keep the ship broadside to the wind, and it was fairly calm on the lee side of the ship for the tender to tie up. But they were not taking anymore people to the island. Just bringing them back. I think if the weather was as rough in the am as it was later in the day, we probably would not have been allowed to go to GSC. But the wind came up after we were on the island. Even on the lee side of the ship, the tender was bouncing around pretty good.

Edited January 15, 2016 by Cruiser Rich

[BVIArabella]

The tendering to GSC is entirely weather related. We went ashore around 11 am. It was a little bumpy, but not bad at all. Do to the on and off rain and increasing wind, we returned to the ship around 2 pm. The ride back was fairly bumpy, but not alarming. They were using the thrusters to keep the ship broadside to the wind, and it was fairly calm on the lee side of the ship for the tender to tie up. But they were not taking anymore people to the island. Just bringing them back. I think if the weather was as rough in the am as it was later in the day, we probably would not have been allowed to go to GSC. But the wind came up after we were on the island. Even on the lee side of the ship, the tender was bouncing around pretty good.

Cruiser Rich: Did you see any wheelchairs on the tender boat? My wife and I want to take her sister (who uses a wheelchair and sometimes a walker) to GSC (weather permitting) but no one seems to know if wheelchairs can access the tenders.

Thanks

[davesgirl51]

Cruiser Rich: Did you see any wheelchairs on the tender boat? My wife and I want to take her sister (who uses a wheelchair and sometimes a walker) to GSC (weather permitting) but no one seems to know if wheelchairs can access the tenders.

Thanks

 

I am not Rich, but I will say that sure the wheelchair can be put on the ship but to what avail? I think pushing a wheelchair in sand would be almost impossible. Your siste-in-law would have to be able to board the tender walking with or without assistance.

 

All that being said, I would contact The Guest Services Manager for a definitive answer. Good luck!

 

Cinci

[Amanda/Tom]

Ill be on the cruise 2/15/16, would like to hear your review too!!!

[Amanda/Tom]

Thanks so much for your review, I will be sailing in 4 weeks, hope weather is a lot better by then. Which restaurant did you have the prime rib? Ive heard good things about that one. Did you make reservations in advance?

[amad01]

Just got off the sky this morning. Captain switched the itinerary so we went to great stirrup cay saturday instead of sunday. The place was pretty sweet, just a solid beach day not much more. Food on the Sky is terrible and my interior room was pretty gross. Drink service was rude but probably because being free they are busy. Overall we had a good time but wouldn't recommend the ship, unless all you care about is drinking I suppose.

[pixie411]

That's a pretty harsh review. Why was the food so bad? Well I could always live off of the salad bar because you can't mess that up.

[JOLTnPEST]

Just got off the sky this morning. Captain switched the itinerary so we went to great stirrup cay saturday instead of sunday. The place was pretty sweet, just a solid beach day not much more. Food on the Sky is terrible and my interior room was pretty gross. Drink service was rude but probably because being free they are busy. Overall we had a good time but wouldn't recommend the ship, unless all you care about is drinking I suppose.

we also just got off the ship and I thought the food was mediocre. great stirrup's food was all cold and we got there right when the food opened. the Burgers were cold and pizza was hard as a rock. they do have good soup compared to other ships. I would have to say that this review is pretty accurate. Bartenders were not very friendly when you asked them to make you something that wasn't one of the premixed drinks they have already made.

[amad01]

That's a pretty harsh review. Why was the food so bad? Well I could always live off of the salad bar because you can't mess that up.

 

Not trying to be harsh, just my honest opinion. I went into this cruise expecting amazing cruise-food as people have told me over the years, and was disappointed. If you go in with high expectations, you will definitely be let down. But if your goal is to get drunk and eat hot dogs, this is the cruise for you.

 

Very bland and never hot cafeteria/hospital type food. Lots of strange stew-type dishes that you could eat over rice but simply had no taste. Beef empanadas that were basically a can of chili in a crust. Hamburgers/hotdogs and potato salad nonstop at the buffet. It seems that since the drinks are free they don't invest in quality food for the cruise.

 

A few good things we did eat are:

A bread pudding dessert in the MDR on the first evening

steak with chimichuri in the MDR on the second evening

Waffles with a banana compote in the MDR for breakfast

 

So I guess you can find a couple things that are decent, but the majority was pretty poor quality, especially the buffet. It's also very disappointing to run into cardboard pizza.

[pookeysmom]

Not trying to be harsh, just my honest opinion. I went into this cruise expecting amazing cruise-food as people have told me over the years, and was disappointed. If you go in with high expectations, you will definitely be let down. But if your goal is to get drunk and eat hot dogs, this is the cruise for you.

 

 

 

Very bland and never hot cafeteria/hospital type food. Lots of strange stew-type dishes that you could eat over rice but simply had no taste. Beef empanadas that were basically a can of chili in a crust. Hamburgers/hotdogs and potato salad nonstop at the buffet. It seems that since the drinks are free they don't invest in quality food for the cruise.

 

 

 

A few good things we did eat are:

 

A bread pudding dessert in the MDR on the first evening

 

steak with chimichuri in the MDR on the second evening

 

Waffles with a banana compote in the MDR for breakfast

 

 

 

So I guess you can find a couple things that are decent, but the majority was pretty poor quality, especially the buffet. It's also very disappointing to run into cardboard pizza.

 

 

Well, this is a bummer to hear. We've been on the Sky several times & it's always been our quick & easy getaway.

It sounds like making it all-inclusive has changed the overall quality of the cruise. I guess even though they charge more now for the cruise itself, all the money they used to make on liquor they're trying to make up for now by lowering the quality of the food. Sad...

[Amanda/Tom]

How was the weather? Been looking at weather forecasts, seems cool there

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!