Live from my Norwegian Sky Canada/New England cruise 10/9/2024 to 10/19/2024 Quebec to Baltimore.

[Denise T]

Some quick observations.

1. Rooms: Small and minimal storage. The closets are big for hanging stuff but there is little drawer space. There are drawers but these are very small. We are in an aft balcony, and it is not very big. Two adults can strategically move about. There is no Haven but there are a few suites that if you want more space, choose those. 

2. Bathrooms are small with not much storage. You can make it work. There is a tube shower with shower curtain. 

3. Many on the NCL forum have said that crew are sometimes rude and nonresponsive. I have read complaints that it was hard to find a table in the buffet because the tables are not clear. This has not been my experience. The crew have all been extremely friendly. My room steward checks in frequently. In the buffet there are many crew members bussing the tables. I find the ship to be clean and crew working very hard to clean it. 

4. Because it has been rainy, most people are indoors. This makes getting into some venues a challenge as there are no seats. If the weather was better many will be outside. My sister and I learned when to get to the venues to find a seat. It takes some planning. 

5. There is a lot going on. Trivia, games, and music. Two of the bands Aura and Natural Mystic are very good. They play a variety of different music genres. I have not gone to the theater as of yet. 

6. A huge thing to remember is to be patient and kind especially for those in the United States. We left from Quebec, which is an international city. Many nationalities are on board who may or may not speak English. They have different cultures which means that they do things differently than in the U.S. There are many elderly on board as well. They are slower and need a little more time. Again, pack your patience and be kind. 

7. I like the food. There are hits and misses just like in any restaurant. The buffet is small so you will not have the same variety on bigger ships. What we have eaten has been tasty and we are finding many options. Alas, no cookies though. 

 

[CruisnHallelujahs]

Appreciate your live.  Our last cruise was on sky and we absolutely loved it.   Is the Sonata band still on?  They were awesome. 

[ckmedsec]

We were on the Sky over Christmas/New Years 2023/24.  The crew (all of them) were some of the best we have ever encountered on a cruise.  Hope you have William Golden as cruise director, he is such a great guy.  

[AncientWanderer]

Just caught up with your trip report.  Thanks for taking the time!

I hope you continue to have a great time.  Such a beautiful part of the world!  😍

[OceanDreaming2]

6 hours ago, Denise T said:

Alas, no cookies though. 

Look for cookies at the Great Outdoors buffet, between 3-4pm.

6 hours ago, Denise T said:

 

 

[Denise T]

12 hours ago, ckmedsec said:

We were on the Sky over Christmas/New Years 2023/24.  The crew (all of them) were some of the best we have ever encountered on a cruise.  Hope you have William Golden as cruise director, he is such a great guy.  

Yes. I love him. 

[boffoboffo]

12 hours ago, OceanDreaming2 said:

Look for cookies at the Great Outdoors buffet, between 3-4pm.

 

That’s where we found them. 

[Denise T]

We spent the rest of our time after sailing away from Saguenay wandering the ship. We had dinner at the buffet. Wanted to go to one of the dining rooms but there was a long wait time at both. The food was good. We then walked through the shops. Tried the casino but the smoke was overwhelming. I have some asthma, and my sister has a cold making it hard to breathe. We then chilled in the room. Clocks had to move forward an hour. 

[OceanDreaming2]

Also, the General Manager Jean-Michel Dhelin is excellent!

[Denise T]

Sea day today. Just chilling. I am getting some work done. Breakfast was in the buffet. With the buffet being small, you have to know when to go so that it is not crowed. With the Sky being a smaller ship and it being too windy and cold to be on deck, many are camping in the buffet by the windows. Get there early for a good seat. breakfast was good. Loved the omelet. I find the coffee to be quite good. I know others might disagree. We chilled in Spinnakers for a while. We got kicked out for the higher loyalty cocktail party. Being a lowly bronze, we were not invited. We then went to sit in Pinnacle Lounge. Nice quite place. Got kicked out again at 11:30 due to lunch. We were told we could sit in the back which is the "Quiet Zone". All seats were taken. We went back to our room and are currently relaxing. Trying to decide lunch. More soon. 

[Denise T]

I found the cookies! I also like the new plates that NCl has for the buffet. I also have to say how well kept the ship is. It is clean and the crew is always working. And they are always saying hi. I am trying to find whales. 

[Denise T]

Rough seas this afternoon and evening. The barf bags were out. I have this weird enjoyment walking down the halls when the ship is swaying back and forth. They closed the Great Outdoors at breakfast and then closed the promenade. I saw waves hitting deck six. Loved it. We ate in the Palace for an early dinner at 5. I had a Waldorf salad, Breaded flounder, and no sugar added cheesecake. Oh, I forgot about lunch. Every place was packed. We ended up getting pizza at La Cucina and eating out by the pool. It was windy but we found some shelter. I then got a salad from the buffet to go with my pizza. It was good. Back to dinner. The dining room was busy. I think the only hiccup was no one asked us if we wanted something to drink. I could have asked, and we settled on water so we can have drinks later. Not a big disaster. After dinner, we went to the stores, and I brought a few T-Shirts (as if I needed more). We sat in on Deal or No Deal in the Starlight theater. I like that theater. It is more lounge like than anything. We went back to the room for a bit and then went to Spinnaker to listen to music and yes, my sister got her wish as we hear "Sweet Caroline" on a cruise ship. Yes, we are weird like that. I promise to get pictures up. I will be in Charlottetown tomorrow so I will use the free wi-fi to sync the photos on my phone to the Cloud. See you then. 

[kaysha2004]

16 hours ago, Denise T said:

Rough seas this afternoon and evening. The barf bags were out. I have this weird enjoyment walking down the halls when the ship is swaying back and forth. They closed the Great Outdoors at breakfast and then closed the promenade. I saw waves hitting deck six. Loved it. We ate in the Palace for an early dinner at 5. I had a Waldorf salad, Breaded flounder, and no sugar added cheesecake. Oh, I forgot about lunch. Every place was packed. We ended up getting pizza at La Cucina and eating out by the pool. It was windy but we found some shelter. I then got a salad from the buffet to go with my pizza. It was good. Back to dinner. The dining room was busy. I think the only hiccup was no one asked us if we wanted something to drink. I could have asked, and we settled on water so we can have drinks later. Not a big disaster. After dinner, we went to the stores, and I brought a few T-Shirts (as if I needed more). We sat in on Deal or No Deal in the Starlight theater. I like that theater. It is more lounge like than anything. We went back to the room for a bit and then went to Spinnaker to listen to music and yes, my sister got her wish as we hear "Sweet Caroline" on a cruise ship. Yes, we are weird like that. I promise to get pictures up. I will be in Charlottetown tomorrow so I will use the free wi-fi to sync the photos on my phone to the Cloud. See you then. 

I'm on this cruise.  Since we missed the port today, go to guest services and ask for a refund of the port fees and taxes for Charlottetown.  They will tell you no.  Be insistent and ask them to open a case for you.  Also, get one of the comment forms sitting next to the feedback drop box and write to the general manager that you are entitled to a refund of the port fees and taxes. They are not allowed to keep your money for a service or a port they did not provide, regardless of the reason. They will tell you it's because of weather.  The reason doesn't matter.

 

They will also tell you to call the Miami office after the cruise. That's a bad idea. Shoreside and onboard teams don't know what each other is doing. Best to handle all issues while you're on board.

[boffoboffo]

I’ve had port fees automatically refunded in the past and it usually amounts to less than $15 credited to your account. Keep that in mind before you jump through hoops to try and get a credit. 

[kaysha2004]

The taxes, $339.77, is about half of my cruise fare, so it's worth pursuing.  For me also, in principle, a refund is due for services (or port) not received.  

[grapau27]

On 10/10/2024 at 9:04 PM, Denise T said:

Saguenay was a nice walk around the harbor. Chilly and cloudy and of and on rain. Dress warmly and in layers if going at this time of year. We just walked the harbor and watched the NCL Gem sail in. The Sky got the dock. There was a great little show at the dock. Lots of artisan shops and a pretty church. When we returned, we played some 80s trivia and did better than we thought. We had lunch at the buffet, listened to music and had snacks later. I will come back with evening activities. 

Nice photos Denise.

We were on NCL Gems maiden voyage out of Dover England on October 6th 2007.

Best wishes for a wonderful cruise.

Edited Saturday at 07:55 PM by grapau27

[Denise T]

We had to miss Charlottetown today due to bad weather. No worries. We found plenty to do. Trivia which we did pretty good with. We didn't win but we did a lot better than we thought we would do. We went and watched the Wheel of Fortune game show. That was fun. We have La Cucina for dinner which we are looking forward to. More to come. 

[debenson0723]

4 hours ago, kaysha2004 said:

The taxes, $339.77, is about half of my cruise fare, so it's worth pursuing.  For me also, in principle, a refund is due for services (or port) not received.  

So I guess you won't have a problem paying more if the port fees and taxes at another port you do visit are higher than what you paid? These fees are an estimate for the overall cruise and not port specific. As one poster mentioned, I have gotten an OBC a few days after a missed port and it never amounted to more than $10-12 dollars.  A lot of work for little money. I'd rather be enjoying my time onboard vs the aggrevation of a few dollars.

[Denise T]

This evening, we had so much fun. We had dinner as La Cacina. I truly enjoyed this restaurant. Yes, it is small, but the wait staff were attentive and engaging. I will get pictures up. I had cannellini soup and their salmon dish. The food was delicious. For dessert I had a lemon curd dessert. We then heard the Aura Band and this band is great. They are from the Philippines and the lead singer has a great voice for rock music. She did a variety of music including Stevie Nicks and Prince's Purple Rain. I can't wait for tomorrow when she does an Adele tribute. After that we watched a game show called Friend or Foe. This was funny. The Bliss lounge was packed for this. One thing that I learned is that you have to check everything out. We had read the Freestyle Daily and thought that we would not enjoy any of the scheduled activities but when we went, we were glad we did. 

 

I need to commend the Sky crew. With this unexpected sea day, they worked hard to revise the schedule and make the most of the day. The cruise director staff are all upbeat and fun. The crew continue to work hard and are so amazing. And despite the grumpy people on board (there seems to be a lot), there are many others who are friendly. We are having a blast. 

 

I am not concerned about port fees. NCL, in the terms and conditions of the sales contract for the cruise states that they can change itinerary as needed. We missed this port probably due to the port pilot saying that it was not safe to dock. This allowed the captain to make the call to skip the port for safety. Port fees and taxes are estimated when we pay for the cruise. Key word here is estimated. What I understand is that some of the estimates will be over and others under. My guess (and I am no expert) is that it will all even out. My TA stated that if NCL is going to refund port fees, everyone will get the refund and if the refund is given it will come after the cruise. I am okay with that. 

 

Hopefully we will be in Sydney tomorrow. I promise pictures are coming. 

[boffoboffo]

I’ve priced and researched enough cruises with NCL to realize their taxes, port fees, and expenses amount is just some arbitrary amount of money that is not specifically charged based on anything. First they lump the three things together and never list their amounts separately anywhere. What tax rate are they charging? Who knows. What are expenses? Who knows. Why are the taxes for all room types the same regardless if you have a $1500 studio suite or a $10000 Haven room? That’s not how taxes work.

 

I’ve seen two cruises sailing to the exact same ports but on two different ships where the cruise fare for one is $200 less than the other but the taxes, fees, and expenses are $200 more so the two cruises end up being the same price. Nothing about that makes sense. I think the main reason they don’t want to refund port fees is because nobody anywhere in the company actually knows how much they are. Plus no one will ever be satisfied with a $12 credit. 

[Denise T]

I am having difficulties getting my photos to load. Not sure what is going on. 

Today we visited Sydney. We walked the harbor and the neighborhoods dreaming of living here. We also did some shopping. The weather was all over the place, rainy, windy, and sunny. Breakfast was at the buffet. We always struggle to get a seat inside as the buffet is mostly being taken up by people reading, crafting, and playing games. We ended up sitting outside. Lunch and dinner were also at the buffet with the same issue. We did manage finding a table for dinner. The food continues to be good for me. Others have been complaining. We played some trivia and then we went to listen to the band Aura in Spinnakers. The lead singer has a very powerful voice, and I love listening to her. Her last set was an Adele tribute, and she nailed all of the songs. Tomorrow is Halifax. 

I am working on my pictures. I hope to get them loaded soon. 

[Denise T]

Photos from unexpected sea day. 

[Denise T]

Sydney.

[Denise T]

More Sydney, 

 

[OceanDreaming2]

On 10/11/2024 at 9:14 AM, OceanDreaming2 said:

Also, the General Manager Jean-Michel Dhelin is excellent!

Just learned J-M is on vacation..