NCL Sky LONG Review!!

[irish cailin]

Embarkation – Monday. First up, can I just say to anyone travelling to Miami Port – please leave plenty of time, the traffic was dreadful! Add to that we had to return a rental car so that delayed us by over another hour!! So our cruise didn’t start until close to 4pm when our original plans were to arrive around 1pm. Thankfully we walked into check in area and were met by John who knew us immediately (party of 5 including 1 child). He was getting a little concerned that we hadn’t arrived; I’m surprised my cell phone wasn’t ringing to see where we were! Having explained what had happened, we were escorted to check in desk where credit card was swiped and photo’s taken. They then had to look for our suite cards but were found quickly and a member of staff escorted us to the ship. As we were so late boarding, our rooms were ready and some bags had already arrived. Checked out room 0201 (AD suite) we made our way down to room 8202 (AC Suite) and were greeted by Naveem our butler for this trip. This guy certainly knows his stuff (I am convinced he hid in the corridor as he seemed to know EXACTLY when we arrived back to our suite!) After the mandatory drill (which was quick) we retreated to our suite, cracked open the sparkling wine and had our own cruise away party. The deck on our suite was huge, really huge!

Monday Night – Dinner in Crossings. Food of a good quality but not very hot, this we found other nights in the “free” dining rooms. I cannot understand this as the kitchen is situated to the back of the restaurant! Ana Marie our concierge organised a table for us and we were seated promptly and dealt with and found all the staff to be friendly and professional.

I ordered a back pack for my niece and we were to collect from the kids club. We went to register her for it, and were told to come back at 7.30 and the bag would be there. While the 3 girls went for spa treatments, her dad brought her back at the agreed time and was told no bag. Cue a very upset 4yr old and a very irate father! This should have been better organised or else says bags can be collected Tuesday Morning. Poor form on NCL’s part. But this didn’t ruin our trip.

Spa Treatments – Special offer $129 + 18% = 160 dollars. This was as per their brochure “full body exfoliation (which in reality is just dry brushing), back massage, pressure point massage on feet, facial, and pressure point massage on scalp. Mother and sister had a wonderful experience and were very happy with their treatments. Me, as a qualified beauty therapist, was less than happy with mine. So much so that I spoke to Ana Marie who arranged a meeting with the spa manager and as a gesture I was given another facial and hydro bath to make up for the dreadful experience I had! I think they should have taken the price of my treatments off our final bill but they didn’t and I didn’t push it! Second therapist was wonderful and would highly recommend having some treatments.

Kids Club: About 15-20 kids in the 2-5 yr old age group and 4 leaders. It’s free in the evenings but you have to pay if using during the day, $6 hour. We used it Tuesday morning to see if it would be a success and it was difficult to get her out for lunch 3 hours later!! She went to the club every evening once it opened, and we picked her up around 10pm. They do a “parade” on Tuesday (princes and princesses) and Wednesday (pirates) and a PJ party on Thursday. The girls work really hard and I didn’t see one tear from any of the kids in the club!

Tuesday: Great Bahamas. We did the safari snorkel. Water was very choppy. I needed a floatation device as did my sister. This tour is great value for money and worth doing. Food and drink is available on board so bring some cash. We had about 90 minutes in the water and that was ample time. Did get to see plenty of fish and coral. I did snorkel in Egypt 2 yrs ago and fish were much more colourful (think finding nemo) but I wasn’t disappointed! The bus collects you an hour after the tour finishes to allow time for shopping, but you can also take a taxi back to the port if this is not your thing. We paid $5 each and we shared with 5 others! We were back on ship around 1pm and down for lunch around 1.30

As we were in suite, breakfast and lunch in Cagneys was included. And it was brilliant. It was fantastic to have the restaurant to ourselves every day. The breakfast and lunch menu doesn’t change but there is plenty of choice. Nice Buffet every morning for breakfast, cereal, fresh fruit, pastries, cold meats etc. and they you can order off the menu for hot items. I had waffles (tue), pancakes (wed), omelette (thurs), waffles (fri). All food was cooked to order and arrived piping hot on hot plates. Coffee was much nicer here than at the station downstairs. Ana Marie checked in with us every morning at breakfast, asked what our plans for the day were and made any necessary reservations for us.

I spent the afternoon on our deck catching some rays and ploughing my way through my stack of books. Bro in law and niece spent the afternoon in the kiddies pool up on deck 12 (no body there except them), mother and sister went shopping! Sail away at 5.30 I think. Niece into kids club, we ate at the Palace. Again we made reservations with Ana Marie. We had a private cocktail party with the captain, officers and upper management on Tuesday night. It was nice to just sit and chat with the staff that was more than happy to answer any questions we had. Nice touch and again, we were made to feel very special. Dinner booked for 8pm, shown to our table immediately. Again food was good quality but can’t understand why it can’t be served hot! After dinner we caught the end of the show (Broadway) which looked very good.

Wednesday: Nassau. 2 went on sub experience and raved about it for the rest of our trip! 3 of us went to Zoo. Sub experience booked with NCL, we did zoo ourselves. Worked out so much cheaper. We got the local bus to the zoo which cost $5 for the 3 of us, entrance in $20 each (niece got in for free! Thanks to lovely girl on desk!), and taxi back to ship cost $15, so overall a saving of $67, a huge difference. All other trips booked with NCL and cost wise worked out about the same as booking independently. The zoo, while small and some areas being renovated, was worth the money paid. There was a field trip with kids from the local school and they welcomed my niece into their group, I was really impressed with that! And it made it much more interesting for her (I think she was getting sick of adult company at this stage). We got back to ship just in time for lunch and spent the afternoon sleeping on the deck. Dinner tonight was in the palace for me and mum, Sister had booked the anniversary package so she got to eat at le Bistro! Another early night for us, the heat was by now beginning to take its toll!

Thursday: Great Stirrup Cay. Tenders started around 8.30; we didn’t bother leaving until nearer 11! Was met by Ana Marie on Deck 6 and was escorted to tender via the staff only passageways. Pity they couldn’t do something similar coming back! Our tender was only about half full, and we got loungers without a problem – in fact got 5 in a row! This was all about relaxing but there was plenty to do for those who cannot sit on a lounger and sleep! The hippo slide had a queue for the whole time we were there. I don’t know how lunch worked; it was brought to my lounger by my kind sister who just got food for everyone in our group! We left around 3.30 and by then the majority were making a move.

Back on the ship, we made last minute reservations for le Bistro (based on sisters rave reviews on previous night’s food). I did ask Ana Marie to organise a cake for my mother’s birthday but it never arrived. So one bad mark there for her. I can only confirm what everyone here as written about – the food in this restaurant is superb! I could easily live on their mushroom soup! Small delay in getting our table, we just went upstairs to the bar and got some cocktails and bubbly to pass the time. The menu reads very well and stood up to its promises! There is a lovely “buzz” about this place, the staff are so friendly, very knowledgeable on the menu and even made suggestions regarding which wine to pair with our orders! I could go on about this place for pages but I won’t. All that needs to be said about here is GO! Pay the extra $20 per person, you will not be disappointed.

Friday: Disembarkation. All restaurants close at 9, so we had breakfast as close to this as was possible (8.55 to be exact!). After a leisurely breakfast we made our way down to the cabin, said goodbye to Naveem who is a credit to NCL and the SKY, collected our carry on and met with Ana Marie who escorted us off the ship. As we were one of the last to disembark, no queues or anything. We just walked through customs clearance when … we realised we left the child car seat in the wardrobe! So had to wait for almost 2 hours to get it back!! What an end to the cruise!!

Overall, I never had any problems with the ship, its staff or anything to do with the cruise. I was on holiday and enjoyed myself from start to finish. There may have been a few little bumps along the way but the good far outweighed the bad. I cannot understand why people on here gave such poor reviews, or maybe my standards are lower than others?! But when you see staff on their hands and knees washing the carpets on the corridors you know you have a clean ship! Would I travel with NCL again? YES, in a heartbeat! Would I travel on the SKY again? YES, but only if it changed its itinerary (been to the Bahamas now, would like to see somewhere else)

I do have the dailies at home (and photos of our suite 8202), will try to scan and put up here next week! Any questions just jump in and ask!

[sparks1093]

Thanks for the review. A long review about the Sky was just what I needed to briefly escape the 18" of new snow outside my window:eek:.

[spacepotatoes]

Thanks for the review! Glad you enjoyed your trip. It sounds like the service was very good, for the most part.

 

DH and I are on the Sky next week, we can't wait :D We've been debating whether to treat ourselves to Le Bistro (we loved it on the Pride of America) or to try Cagney's this time. I keep swinging back and forth, and your review has swayed me back to Le Bistro...we'll see what happens next week ;)

[Susie51]

Thank you for your review. Do you have to pay extra for the kids club on sea days?

[Friend100]

Nice review. Your niece must have enjoyed the zoo trip with other school kids.

[K&M2009]

My wife and I only did one cover charge restaurant on the Sky and we did Cagney's. It was so good. I got the prime rib and it was delicious. I was craving prime rib again the next night and it was on the menu in the main dining room...let me say that it was very, very different haha. We didn't get to try Le Bistro but I'm sure it's very good too!

[irish cailin]

cost of kids club while in port was $6 per hour or part thereof!

 

If my niece had her own way, she would have been there from 8.30am when we docked to 10.30pm when it finished everyday!

[caljencruisers]

Is it possible you can post pictures of your room? We're booked for September 7, 2012 and I would like to see what the room looks like before we go. (I know, I still have a LOOOOOONG way to go:eek:)

[caljencruisers]

Giving this thread a bump!

[caljencruisers]

No pictures?:(

[Senoj84]

Enjoyed reading your review! Great details.