Seas2mountains

Thank you! It’s fun to celebrate on the ship. Or just to “pretend” to have a good excuse to cruise especially when co-workers really think we are crazy to cruise often. The small ships are not preferred but they do have some nice features, too. I’ll do my best to get photos.

We are almost at the airport! Flight appears to be on time. Weather looks to be perfect for a cruise.

Thank you. I will try to get a lot of photos and will add the dailies.

You’re welcome. I agree. I have seen a lot of other live reports but none from the Sky recently.

I know that I haven’t seen any recent live reviews on the Sky but did watch some recent YouTube videos so we kind of know what to expect. We think a pianist and singer named Alexa may be on the ship and hear she is good. If anyone has any questions, please ask. I’ll do my best to get answers during this short cruise. @www3traveler I’ll try to get the list of officers for you.

We booked this cruise at the beginning of April as reality set in that our cruise at the end of May on the Escape which is also leaving from Miami was not going to be the same as we are taking some family members with us. On the cruise later this month, we will be responsible for our almost 8 year old granddaughter as we offered to bring her with us when realizing her Mom (our daughter) had some challenges with summer daycare. While we are super excited to take our granddaughter on her second cruise with us, we also know our schedule will be so different and we won’t have the same freedom we usually have on most of our cruises. So this cruise was a great excuse to get away for some time for us before the next cruise when we will readjust to parenting/grand parenting. We are empty nesters and attended the youngest son’s college graduation exactly a year ago. We have FAS+ on this cruise and hope the lounge entertainers are decent. Will there be any Veuve left to finish with the recent P+ changes? We have been on the Sky three other times in our early days of cruising. We are excited to see the complete refurbishments that happened in late 2019. We are a little confused as to why the NCL website says the last refurbishment was in 2022.

Let the excitement begin as my husband and I each have one more day at work and should be arriving in Ft Lauderdale in about 25 hours or so of the flight is on time. We wish we could have left earlier in the day but taking more time off from work wasn’t an option. We celebrated our wedding anniversary this weekend so decided this cruise would we a great way to extend the celebration. 😁 Our last NCL cruise was in March on the Gem and we got an upgrade to a 2 bedroom suite and were spoiled and pampered the whole 12 days. Our cruise before that was on MSC Divina in the Yacht Club in January and we also enjoyed being treated so well while loving Ocean Cay. And the cruse before that one was in September on NCL Getaway in a Haven 2 bedroom suite where we also had a wonderful time. So this time, we are in a regular balcony cabin and will need to readjust to not having the special breakfast and lunch treatment we loved on the previous three cruises. But we are on a cruise and that’s all that matters anyways. Here is our itinerary for this sailing.

We will be on the Escape on May 28th. I’ll try to do a Live report to let you know.

Have a wonderful cruise! I always love your live reviews. For your March review on the Bliss, we were on the Gem and during this review we will be on a short getaway celebrating our anniversary on the Sky this coming weekend. We are also eyeing the June YVR to Seward cruise on the Spirit. We love the smaller ships that do the YVR to Seward or Seward to YVR so it will be fun to follow along hoping we can do this in June. Happy 80th Birthday to your Dad! I hope all goes as smoothly as possible with embarkation and especially with his surprise trip.

Have a wonderful cruise! Thank you for doing a live report. That mushroom flatbread is sooooo good!

Alaska

Filet mignon and 7 layer chocolate cake at Cagney’s Escargot, Dover Sole and Marquise au Chocolat at Le Bistro while enjoying Veuve Clicquot Hashbrowns and corned beef hash at breakfast Fire cracker shrimp at Ocean Blue Fried rice at Teppanyaki Chicken legs at Moderno Almond croissant at the Haven or Moderno when in a suite We used to love the wings at O’Sheehans/the Local but they changed the recipe. Also loved their watermelon salad with feta cheese but they no longer offer it.

Thank you for your great review! I'm really sorry to hear that Splash Academy didn't have much for the older kids. We are taking our 7 year granddaughter on the Escape in May and hope to be able to use Splash Academy. She cruised with us on NCL Dawn when she was 3 years old and loved Splash Academy although there were very few kids on that cruise. The hours at Splash Academy seem to be the new ones they are using on all of the NCL ships. SA was not open when in port on the Gem in March. Before Covid, SA had a consistent schedule and it was open when in port. It is really unfortunate that they have adopted these new hours as I do think this will turn families away from NCL. I am also hearing they don't have adequate staffing in SA on the bigger ships as some reviewers have reported that they had to be in line about 30 minutes before SA opened to get in or they were turned away and did not get to use SA if they didn't go early. Do you plan to cruise again on NCL? We do have some MSC YC cruises booked later this year and next year but do still love NCL and will cruise on NCL several times this year. I really appreciated your live review on Divina before we cruised on it in January. 🙂 Do you have any tips about cruising with a grandkid? We did get our granddaughter some specialty meals and the soda package. She will definitely get to enjoy Teppanyaki with us and I do know she could order from the kids menu at other specialty restaurants but she is pretty adventurous about trying new food. That is wonderful to read that your cabin steward did open and close the sofa bed each day. It sounds like you had a great time and enjoyed making memories with your cute grandson.

I’m not sure if the comedy show or supper club reservations will still be available when you board at 1pm or 2pm, but I know we have been successful at getting into many comedy shows on standby. If you want to see Choir of Man, you can book it online at 21 days or earlier depending on your Latitudes level. I do have one request, will you please post the dailies and any other info you can share? We will be getting on the Escape three weeks after you disembark. Thank you!

Thank you so much for your great review! The shower with the window in the 2 bedroom suite is understandably popular especially with the shower jets. That’s great you made it to breakfast in Moderno as the Gem restaurant staff for breakfast and lunch are wonderful as we experienced last month. Thank you for sharing details and photos of your excursions as we are going to those same places next month with our granddaughter. Have a wonderful time for the remainder of your cruise!

@BirdTravels Thank you for your very detailed and thorough review! I always appreciate the time you take to provide so much information about the ship and all venues. Do you have any insights or thoughts on how you are scoring a bottle of wine each day of your cruise? It looks like NCL appreciates you, too. I know this is not typical for most guests in Club Balcony Suites. Thank you! Enjoy your cruise!

Have a wonderful cruise! We love NCL and MSC YC. We have future cruises booked on both cruise lines. Thank you for doing a live review. I’m enjoying following along with you.

Wow. We did not have a fruit bowl in our suite on the Gem in March. How did you get the bottle of wine?

This was the same sparkling wine we were given on the Gem in March. We did not drink it.

We have been on two MSC cruises but both were in YC so I can’t comment on the dining experiences. I understand the MSC cruises in Europe may be very different than MSC cruises originating in US ports. Some differences may include later dining times, announcements made in several languages with English being last, and different foods being served. One thing we didn’t like on MSC was not knowing when lounge performers were scheduled. They gave a time range like 6:30pm-11:00pm. When we arrived at about 7:30pm, they might play for a few minutes and say they will be on a 15 minute break which was actually a 25-30 minute break. It was more difficult to get served drinks in the MSC lounges than we experienced on NCL. We really loved the YC experience on MSC and have future cruises booked.

We’ve been on many NCL cruises and have cruised on most of their ships and also have not experienced close tables.

I’m so glad you got a chance to try it and liked it! My husband does not typically drink gin but he had several gin drink with the ‘66 Gin by Norwegian on a cruise a few weeks ago. I thought it was really tasty, too.

Here’s a photo of the challenge coin and patch received on the Gem. While we are both military veterans and both are registered with NCL, as we kind of expected, we received one. It’s all fine as we have another cruise soon.

How did you like the Aviation? I forgot that was the other mostly gin based drink.