RCCL couple tries NCL SKY Nov. 9th review

[nimbex1970]

Well hello NCL friends.  Wow, what a new experience with NCL.  Wish to share some RCL comparisons and opinions on NCL and its smallest ship, the Sky.  My husband is 62, I’m 53 and this is my 20^th  sailing.  We have three more cruises booked with NCL.  One was cancelled but will book the 2025 French Polynesian back-to-back when it comes out. We sailed November 9^th.

I chose the small ship after sailing RCL Wonder of the Seas in May.  It was everything I wanted for the grandkids, but for two older folks, we were missing the small ship experience, didn’t need the bells and whistles, and wanted the port-intensive 9-night Caribbean experience.

 

Embarkation.  Well, we were late, missed our early arrival time of 10am (didn’t get there until after noon), and were handed a #14 ticket.  So we sat on the benches in the port about 25 minutes before our number was called. My photo also didn’t go through somehow, so that was another line to re-do it, but that happens, maybe 10 minutes at the most to do this.  Everything was organized, I simply misunderstood that our early boarding time would be honored. We were excited to board. Equal boarding time for NCL and WOS.

 

Woot, on board, and went right to the muster station, two minutes, checked in and time to explore. I had watched many videos on YouTube about the ship before sailing, which helped me with the layout. Know that we are smokers, so we chose deck 12 for a smoke and a much needed adult beverage to start the party! Great bar service, and a small smoking area.  Here we met many wonderful folks who throughout the cruise shared tables and stories with us as well as having a riot with our gambling buddies from California. With wind/rain, they open a temporary smoking area directly below the bar on deck 11.

Everyone says skip the buffet lines on day one, and I say this as well. but it wasn’t that bad of a wait as we wanted to eat out back on deck 11. What’s different from RCL is that there are two lines, and each has different offerings.  Yes, the buffet is smaller, but it’s enough choices to find something.  What’s great?  ICE CREAM at the inside and outside buffet. The food was mediocre, but it was lunch/pre-dinner and was “fine”.  It was on par with RCL.

 

Room We did an inside room 10021 as It was port intensive and we only slept in the room.  The room steward was amazing.  We need very little, like only want service every three days and he was begging us to get in the room, lol.  We reused towels and didn’t need him more than that.  I can make my own bed.   The room was great as it’s not under the pool, but it was a fair walk to the elevator, which I chose and am not complaining about.  It’s small… I knew there was only one plug going into this.. and I made it work as I didn’t do my hair as much as I expected, We simply rotated the phone charging… forgot the multi-prong plug-in. Temperature control on point. To compare RCCL’s oldest ship isn’t situated much better than this for electronics, space, or showering, so equal there.

 

Casino We hit the casino as it opened, this is our thing. The casino staff was excellent, helped set up my card and account, cleaned machines, chatted, and helped. They were simply excellent.  Bar service if you were not at a table could be slower, but they did their best and we were pleased with them.  My husband hit enough to “win”, cough.. spent enough for a free cruise and I was close.  We play craps, three card poker and I play slots.  We both also play slot poker. Total together put in $15k, lost a total of $4k, but had a blast.  So those wondering about free cruises, yeah… $4k down, but we allotted for this, had no intentions to work for a free cruise, it’s our gambling budget. The casino is smoky, for non-smokers, I don’t know how you put up with it. If there was a non-smoking section, I never came across it.

 

Entertainment. For such a small ship there was always something to do.  We didn’t care for the piano/singer Jamison at the atrium as he couldn’t hit the notes.  His tribute to Billy Joel should be scrapped. In comparison, Leo at the atrium lounge was excellent! There was trivia every day at Sugarcane Lounge (Mojitos!) They only use half the lounge for the screen setup so get there early. The casino held several tournaments and raffles, didn’t win. Music at night was excellent, the band Sonata played everything from easy listening to Led Zepplin, what a treat!.  Latin music with mango Duo had folks out dancing and was very enjoyable. We never made bingo, as we were always running late. There is a library with limited posted hours, but it was open much longer than advertised. There are main production shows, which fellow travelers raved about, but that’s not our thing. To compare (aside from production shows), the NCL Sky held its own to RCL Wonder of the Seas!

 

Ports

1.     Dominican Republic had a private excursion to take us to two beaches for 6 hours which included water, chairs/umbrellas but not lunch. This was $90pp private vehicle as we prefer to manage our own time.  It was slightly drizzling on and off but a beautiful day.

2.     San Juan we’ve been here many times and just enjoy walking around town.  The ship arrived on the weekend so there were many vendors set up on the walkway to the fort along the waterline.  We sampled local foods, walked for about two hours, and returned to the ship for a nap. (It was very hot for us as we came from Alaska).

3.     Saint Marteen we booked a ship tour for the sailboat regatta. This was so much fun helping to work a replica of the grand sailboats while racing.  No prior experience was needed and we were racing for over an hour, lovely. High on safety and a great time.  Drinks are included.  Ends up at their “store” for free rum punch and items to buy, no high pressure, we never went in. We returned to the water taxi spot.

4.     St. Thomas We have been here and did a land vacay for 2 weeks in the past, so we just caught a taxi to coki beach and did some sun and snorkeling.  This was a brief port from about 7am to 1pm, so not much time was allotted.

5.     Antiqua Our favorite spot never re-opened at Loves beach after covid.  So Husband booked a beach escape with lunch through the cruise ship and this one tanked.  The beach they brought us to had a steep decline into the water and umbrellas were an extra $10.  No problem.  The building, however, was dilapidated and dirty.  The bathroom was the worst I have encountered in the Caribbean, the water trickled, no soap to clean your hands before eating. A toilet had overflowed, and a man was in the next stall trying to unclog it as I was doing my business. The food was buffet style which included chicken, pork, mac-n-cheese, veggies, and slaw with no dressing on it.  It was average. The ladies running the excursion didn’t seem to know what to do and argued loudly amongst themselves.  For example, some folks didn’t have their wrist bands marked for the buffet and the tour ladies were arguing with people that they couldn’t go to the buffet twice when some poor person was stating they hadn’t gone through yet.  Transfer back had a mix-up with vehicles and it became so frustrating that a fellow passenger started yelling at the ladies to get it straightened out. This resulted in more excursion leaders yelling at each other.  Not a great time. NCL needs to vet this excursion and see if there is an alternative to this group.

6.     Private Island The ship missed it as it does on occasion, we had sea swells that made it unsafe.  Plus it was going to rain and the Sky was rocking, so hard pass on a tender. AN announcement from the captain had us heading to the Bahamas instead. The next day the weather was worse, so that was cancelled as well. 

7.     Cancelled port day. Well for having little time to plan, a new daily was provided to us.  The cruise director did her best to have things to do for passengers, but nothing to our liking though.  We just took a nap hit the casino and packed.

 

Food Always subjective and here I have issues.  I was NOT pleased with the food changes in RCCL, so decided to try another line. Our issues with the declining quality of the buffet and dining room of RCCL were similar to the SKY. So we bought upscale dining for three nights.  Cagneys was incredible. I had blue cheese ravioli with a filet, yummy. The head chef went table by table to obtain feedback and I politely gave mine. LaCucina for Italian was my favorite and we ate there twice. No three times, as on our last night we couldn’t get reservations for any of them, my husband went to Cagneys and they wouldn’t do take away but LaCucina would!  So we enjoyed our last meal in our rooms which was fine by us!. We thought we would love the freestyle dining, the theory worked as we don’t like to live by a clock.  The food though seemed to take forever (we did tell the waitress we wished for a “speedy diner”), and 90 minutes later.. no different in timing than RCL, plus not a fan of the food, it was ok and we never left hungry.  So I guess we are upcharge dining folks and will book them for our NCL repo cruise in April.

 

Service Yet another area where NCL wins.  I can’t say enough praise to everyone we came across on this lovely ship.  Not a single moment where we were not spoiled, smiled at, or cared for. Our room steward was always present practically begging to make up our room each day.

 

Closing To finish up, we LOVED our first NCL experience. If we didn’t have a family to visit during the holiday, we would have added on a back-to-back so we could have stayed for another sail. Excited to sail with NCL again in April for 19 nights and yes we have a RCCL booked as well.

 

 

 

[BirdTravels]

Thank you for the comprehensive review. We’ve sailed on the Sky around 6 times. And we were on the maiden voyage of the Wonder last year. We are Dimond members on both cruise lines. While we cruise on both line multiple times a year, we greatly prefer NCL. 

[PhillyTravelBug]

So glad to read about your wonderful experience with NCL.  Welcome aboard!

[nimbex1970]

15 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Thank you for the comprehensive review. We’ve sailed on the Sky around 6 times. And we were on the maiden voyage of the Wonder last year. We are Dimond members on both cruise lines. While we cruise on both line multiple times a year, we greatly prefer NCL. 

I wanted to thank you, you provided vital information about getting our laundry done!