NCL Sky Final Cruise Review

First-time Cruisers review of the NCL Sky to the Bahamas:

As many of you know my brother and Sister and in-law went on the NCL Sky on 9.08.08.  They just missed Hurricane Ike.  I asked Lauren AKA my sister-in-law to write a quick review of the cruise and to give advice for first time cruisers.  Lauren went way above and beyond my expectations…she has written a great review of the their trip sprinkled with good advice for first time cruisers.  THANKS Lauren!! 

Hey Rich! Well I would just like to say that overall the cruise went well! And can’t wait to do it again…only next time, we want to take our oldest daughter! There were so many times when we said…”ah Payton would looove this!” I’m gonna try to give a little summary why the babys asleep so here goes:

So we flew to Miami on the Sunday the 7th, and stayed in a really nice hotel that had a balcony on the bay. You could see the cruise ships lined up at the port off in the distance. It was pretty cool trying to figure out which one was ours, which we werent actually able to see until Monday morning. It was the one with the pretty flower tattoo along the front side. We took the extra day to wind down from the IKE stress of week. We walked around in what was surprisingly good weather, and found a hidden pub in a nearby hotel. We ate every meal there that day and watched some football. We hit the sack with full bellies, and my husband didnt snore so it was a great night!

We woke up fairly early and had breakfast, then went to make sure our carry ons were packed to last us for the day, just in case. Included things like Bonine which we took about an hour before boarding the ship, sunscreen, bathing suits, flip flops, extra undies, sports bra, change of comfy athletic clothes, my make up, magazine, sunglasses, any medicines, and of course our birth certificate, id, and registration stuff for the ship. We got there at the earliest time we could, and it payed off. There was not this hectic crazy line, that made you want to pull your hair out. There was a line already, but it was one you can deal with. LOL. Everything went smoothly, and we were on the ship in no time!

Day 1. Miami port

Once on the boat, we were immediately greeted with genuine smiles, and a nice glass of champagne.

There was a couple hours still to go before able to go to our rooms, so we took our
carry-on’s to a safe place they had in one of the lounges and explored a bit. Everything seemed clean and tidy, and they even had a hand sanitizer dispenser in the door way of all the main areas, with someone standing next to it as a gentle reminder to please sanitize!

It was only a short time before we found ourselves a buffet, and made ourselves at home! We ate and ate and ate. The first thing everyone said when we mentioned going on a cruise was “you’re gonna love the food!” And they weren’t kidding. I would put it in my top 5 favorite things I loved about this trip! There were two main areas for buffet, one inside, and one out. The food was always delicious, and there were staff always around cleaning up after everyone, so it was always like you were the first one at the buffet. No crumbs or spills all over the place. They were like robots with a smile! Someone would drop something or spill something, they would quickly come out of nowhere and wipe it up, but not in an aggravating way that made you feel like a child getting cleaned up after. So anyway we ate, and ate and ate. Then explored some more. They called that our rooms were ready, so we went to put our bathing suits on. The room was nice. I was worried about space, but even for me, being an over packer, was pleased. There was a closet to hang things, and plenty of room to slide suitcases under the beds out of the way. The bathroom was a little like an airplane bathroom with a small round shower, but did have space for things up the walls. I was able to fit our toothbrushes and toothpaste, face wash, shaving cream, face toner, big ol thing of body lotion, hair brush, couple of medicines, and my hubbys spit cup, in little caddies on the wall along side the mirrors. And even had room leftover. I just wanted to mention that, because I was expecting to have to live out of my toiletry bag. So the bathroom was small, but had good use of space.

The bedroom area was also nice considering we were on a ship where you are to expect tight quarters. There was a queen sized bed under a pretty big window. A desk with chair, where I put my make up on. And a TV above the desk. There was also a little couch that I think might have pulled out into a bed, but not sure. It was usually just where things got thrown. And under the bed there was a foldable table, that I guess was used if you wanted to have food ordered to your room. We didn’t ever do that, but was nice to know you could. They would have needed a lot of help bringing food to our room…we ate like pigs!

Cont’d Part 2

Related posts:

1. NCL SKY BAHAMA Cruise DEALS
2. Hurricane Tracker Comments
3. Flying to Miami, as Hurricane Ike moves closer
4. Hurricane Ike Moves South
5. Hurricane Ike – Not Good