The Sky: a less than complete review

[FitchburgWIFamily]

A week ago we got off the Sky after a nine day cruise.  I sailed with my husband, my son and his two friends, my daughter and her friend. My husband and I are not 21 almost everybody else we sailed with was.

 

When I booked the cruise, I talked to the young ones to see whether they preferred a larger ship with more amenities or a smaller ship with more ports. They all voted for the smaller ship with more ports.  I was kind of surprised.

 

Since I was paying for everybody, we were all in inside cabins.  The Sky is an older ship and one way you know it is the inside cabins don’t have as much storage as the inside cabins on the away class and bigger ships.  There’s lots of room to hang things up in the closet, but not very many shelves and not much space outside the closet for storage.
 

I put the three boys in one cabin, assuming it would be two lower beds and a drop-down bunk.  It was not. It was two lower births in a fold out “sofa” that was not as long as a twin bed.  My son’s friends are 6’3 and 6’5 tall.  My son slept on the pull-out sofa on the part of the bed his friend’s feet didn’t over hang on to.

 

The bathroom had pretty good storage, and except for the extremely small round shower with the dreaded, sticky shower curtain, it worked pretty well for us.  Our mattresses and pillows were very comfortable. In our cabin, we had originally had the two beds pushed together to make one bed.  It was so tight to get around the ends of the bed that we asked our steward to split them apart.   The room worked much better for us that way.  All in all it wasn’t my favorite inside cabin, but it really wasn’t that bad.
 

The common spaces on the ship are wonderful with one exception.  Two of my favorite spaces were seating areas around the open attrium.  There was an atrium bar where different musical acts performed and seating on the other side of the atrium from that, and then one deck below, there was seating by the Internet desk, and on the other side from there.  I loved these areas because they were great for people watching, the chairs were comfortable, and the waiters were quick to bring your drinks.  Unfortunately, the cigarette smoke from the casino permeated both levels and chased me out more than once.

 

The theatre was one of my favorite on any of the NCL ships, with lots of tables and room to walk by without making people stand up.  And the seats were actually comfortable!  Most nights the ship did the same show twice: once at 7 and once at 9.  The shows we did catch we enjoyed very much. I appreciate the lack of needing to plan or make reservations on the older ships.  You just show up and go if you are in the mood.

 

I don’t know if people didn’t know all the different bars existed or they were just so many places to spread out, but we never had a hard time finding a place to relax.  We very much enjoyed time in the spinnaker and in the pinnacle. Both had plenty of seating, great bartenders and comfortable furniture, 

 

We also liked the Local, but we miss the 24 hour food service of O’Sheans.  The Local does have food, but it doesn’t start serving until very late in the day.

 

The musical acts on the ship were some of the favorite I’ve ever had.  Whether we were singing along with Dan on the piano or requesting tunes from Leoh and his guitar, the lounge acts were top notch.  The live band was also great, and the theater cast ensemble was very talented. The only complaint we had about the entertainment is that my kids said the DJ in the Bliss after midnight struggled to get the crowd jumping.

 

We only had one meal in the buffet, but often took advantage of the limited buffet of the great outdoors. We ate in both main dining rooms for both breakfast and dinners whenever we could.  All seven of us dined at Cagneys, and my husband and I went to Le Bistro and La Cuccina.  There were a few hiccups, but by and large we all very much enjoyed the food.  

 

Carlos the cruise director was fantastic, and his whole staff was very good.

 

At events where you saw the senior staff, whether it was in the show the first night where they were introduced, in the Q&A, or at other events, there was a palpable camaraderie amongst them.  They really seem to get along together and enjoy working on this ship. It’s been a while since I’ve had that fun feeling from the senior staff.

 

A nine day itinerary was great with two at sea days, and almost all the ports back to back.  We had a wonderful time in almost all of them, except for Antigua and that’s not Antigua‘s fault.  It was just sooooo hot.  We just didn’t do a lot in Antigua.
 

I had rented a premier cabana for the seven of us on Great Stirrup Cay.  The beach in front of the cabanas is so serene and beautiful. We walked over to the other beach and it was like an entirely different island.  If you want a little bit of solitude and serenity, walk past the first beach and use the lounge chairs in front of the cabanas. There are tons of them and the beach is not crowded at all.

 

of course, the uncrowded beach meant the ratio of jellyfish to swimmers was a lot higher on our beach. They did have the purple flags flying indicating dangerous marine life, but we just went into the water anyway, I think I got stung one time, but it was not a very painful sting and within an hour it didn’t hurt anymore. The jellyfish were so thick in the morning when we got there that you could not swim without slapping jellyfish.  Later in the day, there were a lot less in the water.

 

This is our second time in a cabana on Great Stirrup Cay and I will say that this time I was a little disappointed in the wait staff. They did stop by and ask what drinks we wanted, but not nearly as frequently as the wait staff from the Getaway did last August.  We got in the habit of ordering two drinks each and putting one of them in the refrigerator.

This was the first cruise for my son’s two friends, and my son’s first cruise in about five years. My husband and I cruise all the time and my daughter and her friend of cruise with us quite a few times.  I was worried about the size of the Sky, and whether it would have enough to keep us all interested, but I worried for no reason all of us had a very good time.
 

I would sail on the Sky again without blinking.  As a matter fact, I am looking for future sailings to see when I can go back on the Sky again.

 

[ggTexasGal]

I loved reading your review!  Because your group was a different mix than typical, it's wonderful to know that everyone had a good time.

[ckmedsec]

Thank you for posting.  We are sailing on the Sky in December.

[nimbex1970]

Thank you for the great review!  Our first NCL is on the sky in NOV, we were looking for a small ship with many ports and she fit the bill.  I'm more excited now after reading your review.  There are many negative comments about the SKY, but small ships are not for everyone.  Thank you again!

[Denise T]

Thank you for your review. I will be on the Sky 10/9/2024 to 10/19/2024 from Quebec to Baltimore. My last NCL ship was the Pearl in 2022 and this year I sailed on a similar sized ship with HAL. I think it is the perfect size ship for me and my sister. 

[suech1970]

Great review!
We sailed with friends May on Sky for a second time, the service and food was even better than than previous year. They were thoroughly impressed, thank goodness as we had recommended it!

I saw a chat on the boards about Sky doing a great itinerary next year, out from the Dom Rep, 9 nights with 8 ports, all top picks imo, no sea days! Couldn’t resist, so we’re sailing on her for a third time and can’t wait!

[MI49424]

This is our first time on NCL and we will be on Sky in December. Thanks for the information