clarkg

The Food

The food is always subjective, but it was good. Comparing it to the last Princess cruise we took, it was better. The only complaint I had is that they cook with a lot of alcohol. I'm a non-drinker so it limited my choices.

The problem with a fourteen day cruise, is breakfast and lunch menu's don't change. On the plus side, there was a wonderful salad bar in the main dinning room for lunch. I was a good break from the heavy meals.

Food rates an A.

Going under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

Formal night

Stateroom

I loved the large balcony with a table you can actually eat off of. I've seen very small tables on other cruise lines. The desk wasn't much to speak of. I'm a writer so I wanted a little more width, but I made it work. Wrote 22,000 words on it. Mostly the cruise blog.

The bed was hard. Wife complained so they put a couple of layers more on it. It was sill a killer. A supervisor was checking out our steward's work about three quarters into the cruise. Didn't expect us to be in the stateroom I guess. Wife complained to him about the bed. When we arrived back on board that day, we had 10 pillows made into the bed. I joked about having a pillow top mattress, literally.

I'm usually not fussy about things like that, but I would wake up in the night with my hip in screaming pain and have to roll over. That worked until the other hip was hurting, then I would roll back over.

The toilet would make a deep moaning sound in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. It would stop soon after.

I would give the room a C+. It went up to an A- after the mattress was fixed.

I enjoyed the golf.

Room service breakfast on the Balcony

Formal night. I didn't want to bring a suit coat so I just brought ties. Wore red because it was Italian night at the MDR and if I spilled my lasagne, it wouldn't show

I have posted my blog about this cruise here but I thought I would do a picture review for those who don't want to read the whole story.

The wife and I took this cruise after a long debate. She wanted to visit her mother, I wanted to house hunt and both of those things took us all the way cross country, North to South and West to East. I thought we should take a cruise as long as we've traveled so for to get to Florida.

We timed the cruise to correspond to the mother-in-laws birthday.

The Ship: It's just the right size for us. We don't us the flowrider or things like that. It has dings in the hallway like all ships this age do. The carpet wasn't our favorite. Okay I'm being charitable, we hated the carpets in the halls to the stateroom. We loved the centrum. The library is now a book nook and that wonderful room above the atrium has been taken over by unused equipment. Overall A- for the ship itself.

Out home for 14 days

The front of the ship from the helicopter pad.

The mini golf was fun, but hard to do. It was always windy.

Just loved the Atrium

Nice review. What were your favorite parts of the cruise?

Looks like you are having fun.

So far so good.

Since the POA is US flagged, the PVSA does not come into effect. PVSA only affects foreign flag ships, and is designed to allow only US flag ships like the POA to do just this.

That is correct.

Looks like you had a great time.

Thanks for the review and the tips.

Great review, thanks for taking the time to post it. I love the pictures.

I'm enjoying the review. Thanks for taking the time to write it. It's funny to hear you say that this was the first time on a smaller ship. When we first took the Jewel, it was one of the largest ships we had been on.

Enjoying this thread. Keep up the good work.

Did you have good weather for your cruise?

So far so good. Keep it coming.

Loving your review.

Thank you for your review.

Enjoying your review.

I would invest in a cruise tips book. For just a few dollars, you'll get a wealth of information.

Good start to your review. Excited to hear more.

It used to be a cover charge of $15 for salad appetizer main course sides and dessert-. Ever since they went a la carte I've been saying it was to squeeze more $$ out of us. :(

The first time I ate there it was complimentary. The next time our TA, who was with us on the cruise, paid for it. I will not be going there again unless I get a massive onboard credit that I have to blow through.

La Cucina

 

 

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That's all, folks. Next up, ship activities (I assure you that all evidence of mom singling karaoke has been destroyed).

Ouch, those aren't good prices. I can remember when Freestyle first came out, La Cucina was a free venue.

Help - cruised with RCL for years and was booked on the Empress March 30th which has been cancelled. I'm dealing with that rebooking for June but have just booked Sky (My first on NCL) for April 1-4 as I didn't want to deal with flight changes, etc. So - what do I need to know? Food? Shows? Have been to Nassau a number of times - no worries there. First time on Great Stirrup Cay....what should we look for? Any tips, suggestions, Ready....go!

Should be a great cruise. I love the Sky, even though it's a smaller ship. It would be similar to the Empress experience. Freestyle dining is the biggest thing on NCL ships. To get around wait times, go early, or late, not when the rush is there. Enjoy the observation lounge at the front of the ship. Don't order the Alaska Meatloaf, and enjoy your cruise.

The one thing I would recommend (maybe two things) is don't try to do everything onboard, and don't try to eat everything. Not possible.

 

But if you want two entrees at dinner or can't decide between two, just ask - they are happily provided. Same with desserts.

 

 

Have a great trip!

Don't believe them, I came really close to eating everything on board. It felt that way at least.

I would suggest you get a couple of books, one cruise tips and one on ports of the Caribbean.

I loved it.

Ouch, you poor thing. I broke mine when I was just a couple of years older than you. No fun and it takes forever to heal.