A time to GETAWAY and see the SKY

[bluesea777]

Wow! Just Wow! These cars! I'd like Cuba to be my next cruise destination, but I kinda don't want to go on the Sky, as it's an older ship. But you're photos are starting to sway me. Thanks for your wonderful review.

 

The SUN does 7 day cruises that include CUBA starting in Sept. Check them out. We're on the first one Sept 9th.

[jsparents]

We woke up and guess what, we did not see land. We had such a great track record. We went to breakfast at the buffet. One thing I liked about the Sky was they had a crew member walking around filing coffee cups or offering coffee. They also had a crew member who had a tray of pastries. These pastries were really fresh and bakery quality.

 

We attended the ice carving demonstration and then Mr. Sexy Legs show. Mr Sexy Legs was funny and the crew member that hosted it was great with his one liners and zingers. This took us to about 3:00 pm when DW and our friends had the painting class, Canvas by U. This was held in the Outrigger and consisted of all females except our friend who was the only male. They said there were a lot of people that showed up thinking they could just walk in, but the class was full. So if you want to paint, sign up on day 1.

 

The class lasted about an hour and this DW end result.

 

 

 

We had dinner reservations at 6:00 pm at Cagneys. We were hoping we would have a better experience. When we walked in the maitre de recognized us and greeted us. We were hoping to sit in a different section with a different waitress. We were seated in a different section, but guess what, we had the same waitress. She greeted us and was nice to us. Somehow during our meal, our whole wait staff changed. Service for the most part was good and my meal was good just as before. DW ordered Seabass and hoped it would be similar to her experience on GA. The piece of fish was huge and the outside was pefectly cooked. Unfortunately as she got towards the middle it was mushy and not flakey like the outside. DW did not say anything as she had enough food with everything else. So we ate at Cagneys for a total of three times and all three times I ate the same thing and it was great.

 

We went to Rock you Tonight at 9:30 pm. I was not impressed with the performance as you could see that some of the singers were lip singing. They were off beat and not matching the words so it was pretty obvious. The performances on the Sky were not as good as GA.

 

We called it a night after this as we wanted to be up and off the boat at GSC.

[bluesea777]

jsparents, fantastic review and photos of Cuba, thank you! Now it's our turn in Sept. We have booked a 6-hour tour with oldcartours, and are looking forward to it.

 

Gambee has stated that Havana is the nicest port he has ever been to in the Caribbean and I'm inclined to believe him!

[30palms]

Thanks for sharing your tour in Cuba. I loved seeing your photos, especially of the Tropicana. My parents were there in the 1950’s and I have pictures taken there.

 

 

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[jsparents]

Day 4- Great Stirrup Cay

 

Freestyle Daily

 

 

 

 

 

Great Stirrup Cay Fact Sheet

 

 

[victory2020]

I see Royal Caribbean was in port when you pulled into Havana. Did they stay while you were there? Last April our port time was cut short due to Royal being there & having priority.

[jsparents]

I see Royal Caribbean was in port when you pulled into Havana. Did they stay while you were there? Last April our port time was cut short due to Royal being there & having priority.

 

I am not sure when they got there because they were there when we pulled in. They left right when it started to rain so I guess about 6pm. I think they were possibly there overnight because when we got off and were getting ready to go through customs, they only had two booths open for RC while we had 6-8. I only saw a couple people getting off when we got off. I could be wrong though.

[victory2020]

I am not sure when they got there because they were there when we pulled in. They left right when it started to rain so I guess about 6pm. I think they were possibly there overnight because when we got off and were getting ready to go through customs, they only had two booths open for RC while we had 6-8. I only saw a couple people getting off when we got off. I could be wrong though.

Thank you. Am looking at another Cuba cruise & don't want to have port time shortened again because of Royal Caribbean. Maybe they've figured it all out by now. Has anyone else out there noticed Royal in port when they were on the Sky/Sun?

[jsparents]

We woke up about 7:15 am and looked out the window and saw land. We were pretty close to where we were going to drop the anchor.

 

Looks like RC is building a dock for their island.

 

 

Construction at GSC. I think they are cabanas from what I have read and a lighthouse. I wonder if the Lighthouse will have a zipline like Harvest Caye.

 

 

 

This gives you a better idea of how the island is divided. The rock in the water to the left of the lighthouse is the main swimming area.

 

 

We were on the 1st tender to the island. I did not know how busy it was going to be so we wanted to get there and get in the water. We had brought our own snorkel gear so we did not have to wait for anything.

 

Our room. 1st balcony on the bottom. Cabin 9212.

 

 

[jsparents]

The first area you come to when entering the island. You can see how close RC is and that is how close their island is.

 

 

 

 

This was our spot for the next few hours. Note the cones, I will talk about this area in a minute.

 

 

We went right in the water which felt great. The water was cool and the air was warm and not too hot. Off to see what we could find.

 

And we found this first. People are slobs. (NCL drink cup if you can't tell)

 

 

And then this.

 

[jsparents]

 

 

 

The clouds were coming in, but it never rained.

 

 

 

[jsparents]

We snorkled for about an hour and half and then decided we needed a drink. When you do not snorkel all the time you forget how much energy it takes out of you. We were relaxing on our chairs and it must have been about 10:30 when I noticed people in the water looking towards those cones. I then could just tell by peoples expression and body language that something was not right. I stood up and could see CPR in progress. Medical staff was racing on their cart to the area. I saw back down, but the comotion kept going for 15 minutes before they took a women off the beach in the cart. I was told later that she was snorkeling and pulled from the water. I heard that she died. I felt bad for the family.

 

The island BBQ opened at 11:30 am and I think it was about 11:45 am when we had lunch. It was BBQ food that was good. After lunch we hung out for a little bit and then decided to go back and enjoy the ship to ourselves.

 

Tender Dock.

 

 

 

I forget what time it was when we got back to the ship, but I would say by 1:00 pm. We went to the pool and found nobody in the adult pool and only 3 other people in the other. I love when I can get into the pool and not have to worry about anybody else. We enjoyed the pool for awhile and then went to the casino to lose just a little more money before the trip was over.

 

We ended up sitting on our balcony watching the tenders come back and forth. We started to pack a little bit and before we knew it we were leaving.

 

We had dinner reservations on Il Adagio at 6:00 pm, but went early since we were hungry. I enjoyed Chicken Parm and the food was overall pretty good. I would not say it was awesome and I would not say it was bad. I still say that Cagney's was my favorite meal (three times of course).

 

We went to the final bingo show and free cruise drawing. I did not win the free cruise, shocking. The one thing I would complain about was the cruise staff who was calling the final bingo came. She was so annoying and dragging the game on. She was trying to make jokes that were so bad and not funny. You could hear people getting annoyed. We finished bingo and I lost again. Oh well, it was fun.

 

We decided to pass on the comedian due to our experience from the other night. We called it an early night and finished packing. We had been away for two weeks and we thinking of our all day travel day coming.

 

Day 5- Disembarkation

 

We had a 12:10 pm flight and thought about getting off the ship about 9:00 am. We met for breakfast at 8:00 am and I was surprised how many people were still on board. They were about 15 minutes ahead of schedule with calling group colors. We ate breakfast at a leisurely pace and then prepared to walk off at about 8:45 am. Nobody asked to see our group color and we were off. Unfortunately, we got the slowest customs agent. Our friends were in a different line and through in 10 minutes. 30 minutes later and we joined them outside. Again, no lines.

 

We used UBER again and our driver was there in 3 minutes in a Cadillac Escalade. Our friends driver was there in 2 minutes. We said goodbye to our friends and we were off to MIA. The tunnel was closed so it took a little longer than we though. The cost was $35.72. Our flight was on time and we arrived at LAX just in time to experience Friday night traffic.

Edited July 30, 2018 by jsparents
spelling correction

[QueenOfZoom]

Sorry you didn't have a good comedian. Got off Sky Friday and the guy we had was great!

[jsparents]

Review:

 

I hope you have enjoyed the review and learned something. My thought on doing a review was to educate someone who had a question as I have in the past.

 

I learned two things while doing this review. One, a review takes a lot longer than you think (I think this took me about 20 hours), and two I really enjoyed this vacation. My thought originally was that I did not enjoy NCL, but while completing the review, I realized what a good time we had (minus the steak issue). Of course, nothing is ever perfect and I hope that we just go with the flow and don't make a big deal about small things. For the most part I feel we did this (except the steak) and had a great time.

 

Thanks for the patience while I completed this and hope it is beneficial to many.

[jsparents]

Sorry you didn't have a good comedian. Got off Sky Friday and the guy we had was great!

 

Kind of disappointing. On the GA we loved the comedians and the same on Carnival. Oh well. Not a deal breaker for me.

[rncruiser]

I guess just like food, comedians are subjective as well. I was on the same sailing as QueenofZoom and did not particularly enjoy the comedian I did think his adult late night show was better, but still not that great.

 

 

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[zencruisers]

I loved the review and pictures. Thanks for taking the time.

[Nayola]

Great review. Wonderful pictures. Thanks for taking the time and effort to share your cruises with us ;-)

[cruisinlibrarian]

Enjoyed reading your review of the Sky and Cuba adventures. Photos were great! Thanks for sharing.

Heading there later this year and found your review quite helpful.

[sleepbestonships]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write the very thorough review!

 

Regarding the specialty dining- it is listed as 'a la carte'- but is there just one up charge regardless of what you order? I was on the Sky in around 2000 and my recollection way back then was it was a $10/person up charge to dine there. I am sure it is more now. If you get the dining package per person, does that cover the full extra fee for the specialty dining, or are there additional charges (e.g. an extra gratuity charge, I would imagine).

[jsparents]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write the very thorough review!

 

Regarding the specialty dining- it is listed as 'a la carte'- but is there just one up charge regardless of what you order? I was on the Sky in around 2000 and my recollection way back then was it was a $10/person up charge to dine there. I am sure it is more now. If you get the dining package per person, does that cover the full extra fee for the specialty dining, or are there additional charges (e.g. an extra gratuity charge, I would imagine).

 

The menus show the prices as a la carte, but if you have a dining package it is all inclusive. We paid $89 or $99 for 3 meals and well worth it IMHO.