La Romana to Isla Catalina on Sky

[kenmyfam]

We are cruising on Sky on April 10 with departure from La Romana at 8:30 pm.

Our first port is Isla Catalina arriving at 7 am the next day.

I'm aware that this island is about 5 miles away so my question is to anyone on or just off the Sky,  what does the ship do from La Romana departure?...are we traveling really slow and doing "figure 8's" until the morning?

Just curious...

 

 

[bluesea777]

12 hours ago, kenmyfam said:

We are cruising on Sky on April 10 with departure from La Romana at 8:30 pm.

Our first port is Isla Catalina arriving at 7 am the next day.

I'm aware that this island is about 5 miles away so my question is to anyone on or just off the Sky,  what does the ship do from La Romana departure?...are we traveling really slow and doing "figure 8's" until the morning?

Just curious...

 

 

 

The Sky just goes out to sea southward for the shops and casino to open, then makes an U-turn back up northward to Isla Catalina. Saw that on cruisemapper a while ago.

 

 

[kenmyfam]

3 hours ago, bluesea777 said:

 

The Sky just goes out to sea southward for the shops and casino to open, then makes an U-turn back up northward to Isla Catalina. Saw that on cruisemapper a while ago.

 

 

Thank you..I thought it might do something like that so the casino and shops could open

 

[dhanakorn]

I’m on Sky. Catalina is a nice beach excursion. Beach chair and umbrella are free to use. You get a lunch box from Bliss lounge and can get cold water from the water station on the beach. Clean restroom. You can snorkel near the rock - plenty of fish. It’s a nice beach day and you don’t need to pay anything for this excursion. 

[mommyx2]

Dhanakorn- looking at this Sky itinerary for 

next year

any insight on other ports? Love the idea of a port everyday

would love to see a review after your trip

thanks

Tami

[kenmyfam]

22 hours ago, dhanakorn said:

I’m on Sky. Catalina is a nice beach excursion. Beach chair and umbrella are free to use. You get a lunch box from Bliss lounge and can get cold water from the water station on the beach. Clean restroom. You can snorkel near the rock - plenty of fish. It’s a nice beach day and you don’t need to pay anything for this excursion. 

Can you tell me if you had to tender to the island or did the ship dock there?

[dhanakorn]

2 hours ago, kenmyfam said:

Can you tell me if you had to tender to the island or did the ship dock there?

You need to tender to the island. It’s a short ride - less than 10 minutes. 
 

In the photo below, you can see the tender pier and the ship in the background. 

 

[bluesea777]

21 hours ago, mommyx2 said:

Dhanakorn- looking at this Sky itinerary for 

next year

any insight on other ports? Love the idea of a port everyday

would love to see a review after your trip

thanks

Tami

 

Not next year 2025 (Sky will be in Asia), but she will be back in early 2026 to do the same itineraries.

 

 

[dhanakorn]

When you get to the island, you’ll be greeted by the local dancers. Water station is in the white tent. 

 

Lot of beach chairs and umbrellas. Free to use. 

 

The area to the left is where you could do snorkeling. Plenty of fish near the cliff. Don’t forget to bring goggles or snorkeling gears. 

 

It’s a very nice beach day. And you don’t have to pay for anything, unless you want to buy souvenirs or coconuts. 

[dhanakorn]

16 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

 

Not next year 2025 (Sky will be in Asia), but she will be back in early 2026 to do the same itineraries.

 

 

This’s amazing itinerary. NCL doesn’t offer this very often. Leaving from DR instead of Miami means you can skips a few sea days so you can visit more islands in one cruise. 

[mommyx2]

24 minutes ago, dhanakorn said:

This’s amazing itinerary. NCL doesn’t offer this very often. Leaving from DR instead of Miami means you can skips a few sea days so you can visit more islands in one cruise. 

Yes sorry I meant early 2026.  Love no sea days. Thanks for the pics and info.

[kenmyfam]

2 hours ago, dhanakorn said:

You need to tender to the island. It’s a short ride - less than 10 minutes. 
 

In the photo below, you can see the tender pier and the ship in the background. 

 

Thank you so much for the information. Are any other ports tender?

[dhanakorn]

19 minutes ago, kenmyfam said:

Thank you so much for the information. Are any other ports tender?

We docked at the terminal for the rest of the ports. 

[CruisnHallelujahs]

42 minutes ago, kenmyfam said:

Thank you so much for the information. Are any other ports tender?

Our recent sky cruise stopped in st Lucia which was also a tender port. 

[dhanakorn]

4 hours ago, mommyx2 said:

Yes sorry I meant early 2026.  Love no sea days. Thanks for the pics and info.

With this port-intensive itinerary, you’ll need to pace yourself carefully. I have full-day excursion on every port - this cruise feels more like an expedition rather than a vacation. We had one sea in the middle of the cruise and it was greatly appreciated to have a break. 

[mommyx2]

16 minutes ago, dhanakorn said:

With this port-intensive itinerary, you’ll need to pace yourself carefully. I have full-day excursion on every port - this cruise feels more like an expedition rather than a vacation. We had one sea in the middle of the cruise and it was greatly appreciated to have a break. 

Haha. Yes. Last year we did a 14 day on the NCL Star with 14 ports and loved it but came home exhausted.

thanks for the info

[ColdCruise]

On 3/29/2024 at 12:16 AM, kenmyfam said:

We are cruising on Sky on April 10 with departure from La Romana at 8:30 pm.

Our first port is Isla Catalina arriving at 7 am the next day.

I'm aware that this island is about 5 miles away so my question is to anyone on or just off the Sky,  what does the ship do from La Romana departure?...are we traveling really slow and doing "figure 8's" until the morning?

Just curious...

 

 

Precisely - goes out 12 mile so they can open casino and shops, makes MONEY, sails very slow, returns to Catalina.  Our ship anchored about 5:30 - we were on deck 7 forward and couldn’t miss the noise.

 

It’s a tender. 
 

about 10am look off to the starboard side of the ship. We saw 1 or 2 whales hanging out, easily viewed from deck or the beach by the pier.

 

nice beach but bring beach or water shoes, the sand is a light brown and gets scorching hot.

 

St Lucia was changed from a dock to a tender port, our paper work said dock, but found out at theater show the night before that it was a tender port. We had a private excursion arranged. It worked out, probably for the better as the other Norwegian Holdings ship was docked other side of harbor.

 

we loved it & prebooked similar itinerary for 2026 (2 different ports swapped in)

Edited March 31 by ColdCruise

[evalbert]

The April 10 sailing is at 20:30 (8:30 pm) which means that there will not be a lot of Casino or Shop time unless you want to stay up late.  But I'm sure there will be some "party hearty" folks working on their "15 drinks a day" package.  I'm sure I'll have a couple myself before heading to the cabin.😄🍸🍹.  First time on NCL too.

[bluesea777]

Just now, evalbert said:

The April 10 sailing is at 20:30 (8:30 pm) which means that there will not be a lot of Casino or Shop time unless you want to stay up late.  But I'm sure there will be some "party hearty" folks working on their "15 drinks a day" package.  I'm sure I'll have a couple myself before heading to the cabin.😄🍸🍹.  First time on NCL too.

 

There's no 15 drinks a day package on NCL 😄