Our recent Sky adventure - Good and Bad

[BigNance]

I posted a review, but wanted to mention our experience here.

 

We did the 4 day Sky Cuba GSC cruise a few weeks ago. We were on the Sky in February for the 3 day Bahama cruise, so we knew what to expect on the ship and GSC. We REALLY wanted to see Cuba and this was our way to do a quick trip. We cruised with a group of 10 - friends and family. Mostly we had a terrific time. Except for the debacle of the 'Specialty Dining' on the Sky...

 

Norwegian and their "Free Specialty Dining" sucked me into making reservations for 10 at 3 specialty restaurants. After multiple e-mails with our TA and the Norwegian coordinator, this was achieved. The first night, at Cagney's, we were told that we did not have Specialty Dining perk, we had a $25 OBC per person. Total.. Imagine my surprise!! Especially since I had contacted BOTH my TA and our Norwegian rep ahead of time to confirm that "Free Specialty Dining" meant just that. The Norwegian rep even emailed me that it meant 2 meals in each of the 3 specialty restaurants - Free. I had checked with them when first deciding and then again, because when we received our documents, it stated $25 credit instead of Specialty Dining. My TA was told by Norwegian "that is how they show it on those short cruises".

 

I did try to address this on board. I went down to Guest Services, while everyone else waited at the table in Cagney's, explained our situation and showed my email to the gentleman at Guest Services. All he could do was to contact Norwegian Corporate. We decided to have dinner at Cagney's and see if Norwegian would come through. BTW, the meal at Cagney's was very good.

 

The next night we found out No. There was $25 credit on our account and that was it..

We were very disappointed and cancelled the remaining dinner reservations. We did not let this ruin the rest of our trip, but it did leave a very bitter lingering disappointment.

 

Once we returned from the cruise, I went on the website to check the wording and advertisement. It has changed.

Free Dining Credit. $50 Credit. Which was not the way it was worded when we made our reservations. If it had been worded this way, we would have done the cruise, maybe picked this perk. But, we would have known what to expect.

 

Should I have gone looking for the fine print? Maybe so. I thought calling Norwegian would get me the answers that I needed. Not so much.

 

Aside from that, we enjoyed the cruise. Cuba is fabulous!!! Make sure you arrange for a good guide. Ours were terrific! Blexie Havana Tours. Check him out on Trip Advisor. We did a walking tour of Colonial Havana for the first part of our trip and then we had 3 classic cars - air conditioned, it was August - and they were awesome! Our guides, Blexie, Jorge, and Raul were smart, educated, kind, funny, educational, and savvy young men. Our tour was an all day tour (10-4) and we saw quite a lot of Havana and the immediate area. We went down Embassy Row, to Fusterlandia, through Old Havana, over to the Christ of Havana Statue, and more. Our guides answered all of our questions and told us so much about Cuba's history, culture, people, and sights! They arranged for a lunch at a palador (private restaurant) that served traditional Cuban food and it was delicious and very reasonable! I cannot say enough good about them and the service they provide! We really enjoyed our visit and would like to return to see more.

 

The ship was fine. Our cabin was kept very nicely by our cabin steward, the bars and restaurants were very nicely maintained and clean. The serving staff all over the ship were very friendly and accommodating. (I know, that's their job, but some posters have commented that some staff seem like they don't want to be there, or were rude. We did not run into that)

 

The bartender and wait staff at the Atrium bar were terrific! As were the cucumber jalapeno mojitos! (we had a few..a day) There was also musical entertainment there several times a day. Longboards is another great bar. The drinks were good, although we seldom saw a server there. We usually had to go to the bar ourselves (what a hardship...) Captain Cook's is also a nice bar and we had some adult beverages there when we played Trivia (or tried). With a group of 10, you would think you would do fairly well...didn't happen. We went to Dazzles for "Dancing with the Stars or Staff" (or whatever they called it) What a riot! We laughed the whole time!!

 

We mainly ate in the MDR. Embarkation, lunch, dinner, disembarkation, breakfast, whenever. If we weren't in the MDR, we were at a bar. (see a pattern?) The food was good. I believe it was better than in February when we were aboard. Then, I found it to be mediocre. We like good food and it shows (sadly). I know that tastes in food are subjective, but there has been improvement. We weren't on this cruise for the food, we were on it for Cuba and some camaraderie (and cutting up) with our friends and our adult son. If I want top notch food on a cruise, I will try out Oceania. (oh, wait, I am!! Soon!!)

 

This is much longer than I intended, sorry! Let me just say that we really liked GSC again. And, disembarkation in Miami was a breeze.

[herdingdogmom]

Blexie is great isn't he? We had a wonderful tour with him last August.

[casofilia]

NCL have also advertising "Free Shore Excursions" on numerous occasions recently!!!!! No such luck!!

[vacation44]

Sorry about the speciality dining situation, but I am glad you did not let that ruin your cruise.

[BigNance]

NCL have also advertising "Free Shore Excursions" on numerous occasions recently!!!!! No such luck!!

 

We had picked the Free Shore Excursions first, then I did a mock booking and saw (when you pick your room and perks, that it was $50/port,which wasn’t worth it to us)