ncl-norwegiansky4

Note - this page contains multiple reviews.

Name: Patti Young
Email: pattiyoung_99@yahoo.com
Age: 49
Occupation: Executive Assistant
NumberOfCruises: 5
TravelAgent: No
Ship: NCL-NorwegianSky
SailingDate: October 15, 2000
Itinerary: Eastern Caribbean
Cabin: 7211 Outside
FoodDiningRoom: 100
CruiseDirector: 90
CabinComfort: 90
FoodRoomService: 100
CruiseStaff: 100
CabinAmenities: 100
FoodLidoDeck: 100
DiningRoomService: 90
CabinQuietness: 100
FoodMidnightBuffets: 100
CabinSteward: 100
ShoreExcVariety: 90
FoodVariety: 100
DeckService: 100
ShoreExcValue: 90
GoodForHoneymoon: 100
CasinoStaff: N/A
PrivateIsland: N/A
GoodForFamilies: N/A
LoungeService: 100
TenderService: 100
GoodForSeniors: 100
BeautySalonStaff: N/A
EntertainmentLounges: 90
WheelchairAccess: N/A
ExerciseFacilities: 100
EntertShowLounge: 100
OverallPortsofCall: 90
BeautySalon: N/A
EntertainmentPoolside: 100
CruiseActivities: 90
Casino: N/A
AirSeaProgram: 75
MedicalFacilities: N/A
ShipCleanliness: 100
EmbarkDisembark: 90
DiscoNightclubs: 100
DeckSpace: 100
Stabilization: 100
ShopsOnBoard: 100
SpaceRatio: 100
OverallCruiseValue: 100
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 24 Oct 2000
Time: 12:34:04
Remote Name: cm-24-142-191-63.sanbruno.ispchannel.com
Remote User:

Comments

This is my review of the Norwegian Sky Eastern Caribbean sailing 10/15/2000. I apologize for the
length of the review, but I want to share all my thoughts and impressions with you!

NCL could have done better in the air/sea flight program. Seeing as they had me fly the day prior to
sailing from San Francisco to Miami, I am aware that American has direct flights to Miami from San
Francisco. NCL booked me on Continental a 6:15 AM flight from SFO, connecting in Houston and
arriving in Miami at 4:30 PM. NCL was disappointing in this choice. Continental served no meals on
either flight, so upon arrival in Miami there were 200 starving passengers. The return flight they
booked was ridiculous. A flight departing Ft. Lauderdale at 2:45 PM to Atlanta (a 1 hour 20 minute
flight), with a connecting flight to San Francisco at 8:10 PM – a 5-hour “sit” in Atlanta airport. Totally
unacceptable, and it would have taken me nearly 24 hours to get home from the time I disembarked
the ship. I arranged with Delta to change my return flights to more reasonable flights for $75. Cheers
to Delta for their support.

Embarkation: We were put up at the Crowne Plaza Hotel near the airport. A nicely appointed hotel with
an adequate restaurant to serve us starving passengers. We checked in for the ship at the hotel upon
arrival and were given a time of 12:30 PM the following day to board busses to the Norwegian Sky. I
noticed there were approximately 300 people waiting to board the busses. A fellow passenger and I
got impatient around 11:00 AM waiting for the bus, and decided we might not make the first bus, so we
opted to share a cab to the port for $11 each. A good decision as we beat about 5 bus loads of
passengers to the pier! After a long line to go through the metal detector, we were already checked in
at the hotel so we were allowed to bypass the huge embarkation lines inside the terminal and went
directly to Gangway B and onto the ship. I think NCL needs organization in the embarkation process
inside the terminal. I am now on the ship.

I found the Atrium to be European in design. An elegant, wood toned design. Much quieter in style
from the neon and glitz of the Carnival ships. Different to me after having sailed so much on Carnival’s
ships – but elegant and nice. A baby grand piano in the Atrium Bar was a nice touch and very pretty to
behold! One design that took me a few days to conquer was that I had to go through the Casino to get
to my cabin or to the dining rooms aboard the Sky. I noticed that several passengers were still
wandering around “lost” at the end of the cruise. I did find the Sky a little tougher to navigate due to
the fact that you had to walk through the Casino to reach the ship’s cabins. Being that the Casino was
very smoke filled when open, this was not a welcome thing for me! I did find my way around by day 2.

Ship personnel escorted me directly to my cabin – 7211 on the Independence Deck 7. A nice touch.
My luggage arrived within an hour. Also an improvement over Carnival and RCCL. The cabin was
nicely appointed with a queen sized bed, TV, nightstand with mirror and one center drawer, small
refrigerator and safe. There was an extra pillow in the closet. The bathroom was very small and the
shower I found to be very small - barely enough room for one and certainly too small for 2. I found the
bathroom and shower on Carnival’s Destiny to be much bigger than the NCL Sky. There were shelves
for toiletries instead of the medicine cabinet furnished on the Destiny. The toiletries provided by NCL
included shampoo, bath gel, facial soap, deodorant soap and lotion – a nice touch not provided by
Carnival or RCCL.

My room steward was Steve Francis. He introduced himself and was always available if needed. My
room was always made up quickly upon my exit to the ship and my bed was turned down every night
when I left for dinner. Good job by Steve. No complaints here.

I especially liked the Coffee Bar and Internet Café located on Deck 7. Several computer terminals
were available for passengers to check their email while at sea – and the rates seemed reasonable at
$.75 per minute. The Coffee Bar served espresso drinks and iced coffees while checking the Internet
– a nice touch on NCL’s part! The Internet Café’ was also the scene for the only “Singles Social”
onboard the Sky. I was sailing as a single on this cruise and I thought this was a nice touch. Only 3 of
us showed up, but I discovered they were my cabin mates on both sides of me. I feel NCL should have
more events for singles – this was the only singles event during the entire week. A little disappointing
to a single grandmother sailing alone!!

Dining: NCL has instituted a new dining procedure called “Freestyle Dining”. This means you are not
assigned an early or late dinner assignment, nor are you assigned a particular table with the assigned
waiter and busboy. There were the Four Seasons Dining Room and the Seven Seas Dining Room
serving as the two main dining rooms – you could walk through from one to the other. Also on board
were the LeBistro Restaurant serving Mediterranean cuisine, the Horizons Restaurant and the Chio
Chao Restaurant serving Italian and Oriental cuisine. The 3 restaurants, however, required
reservations and a mandatory $5 per person gratuity for dining. Reservations to any of the three
restaurants were impossible to obtain by the end of the first night at sea. We were lucky enough to
obtain reservations in the LeBistro for Sunday evening. The prime rib dinner I had was outstanding. A
full 10 ounce cut of prime rib, baked potato, appetizers, soup, salad, and dessert. I had a little trouble
at first with the $15 gratuity we three were charged, but after giving it more thought realized I could not
have had such a great dinner anywhere for $5 – so I didn’t mind it as much. The remainder of my
week was spent in the Four Seasons or Seven Seas dining rooms. Claude, my waiter (when I could
get seated at his table) was exceptional. I believe he should be appointed Head Waiter or Maitre’ D. All
service from Claude was exceptional and quick. Two evenings I was unable to get Claude and was
seated at another table. On these two occasions, the service was extremely slow. We were seated in
excess of one hour and had not yet been served an entrée. We found this unacceptable. On both
occasions I left the dining room before dessert was served in order to make the show.

Overall, NCL gets 5 stars in the dining area. I found the food on the NCL Sky to be the best food of
any cruise ship I’ve previously sailed on. NCL gets high praise for the food. The “Chocoholic Buffet”
served late one night should not be missed! Beautifully presented and extremely tasty. If you sail on
the Sky, do not miss this buffet! Served in the Atrium at 11:30 PM – delicious! Seeing the Eiffel Tower
carved in chocolate was something to see!! However, I am unsure of my feelings on the concept of
“Freestyle Dining”. While I enjoyed not being told exactly what time I had to eat dinner, I found myself
missing the pleasure of meeting fellow cruise passengers at dinner each night. I also missed having
the same waiter and busboy who get accustomed to your likes and dislikes by night 2 of the cruise. I
found that I didn’t meet nearly as many passenger as before with the freestyle dining. I also feel that
the wait staff will make less money in tips with this procedure. NCL adds $10 per passenger per day
for gratuities – a nice touch – and you may tip additionally if you wish – which I did. However, I
personally think I prefer having early seating dinner at an assigned table with an assigned waiter and
busboy. But the taste and presentation of the excellent food onboard the Sky made up for it!!

Entertainment: NCL is the only cruise line to provide “Broadway” musical-type entertainment, provided
by the extremely talented Jean Ann Ryan Company. I found their shows to be absolutely excellent and
far superior to any entertainment I’ve seen on RCCL or Carnival. Great job by NCL here. However, the
female entertainer, Laura Thornton was truly terrible – a lot of the passengers walked out of the show
– including me! She was a “screamer” rather than a singer, and we found her rude to the orchestra. I
talked with a lot of passengers about her to see if it was just me – but I got the same response from
everyone I spoke with – they hated her! The comedian, Willie Ferrell, was enjoyable and funny. I
enjoyed his performances, along with the magician, Michael and Karen Rappa – also a good show.
High praise to NCL for the performances – if only we could have axed the singer!!!

Ports of Call: Nassau was very pretty. I took the Seaworld Explorer tour in a mini-submarine. They
picked us up at the dock, tendered us out to a waiting sub and we saw many colorful schools of fish
and a shipwreck. This was a very short port of call – with the ship leaving at 1 PM. I wish we had had
more time in Nassau to see Paradise Island! San Juan – I’ve been there before so I decided to take
the Rain Forest Tour. This was a 5 ½ hour tour. It was election time in San Juan and trying to get back
to the ship from the Rain Forest was a challenge! We had 6 busses being escorted through the
streets of San Juan by their police. There were people waving political flags of different colors
everywhere – trapping cars and people! It was fascinating to watch – but we didn’t make it back to the
ship till 7:00 PM – a full hour and a half past when we were due! The Rain Forest was pretty to look at
– above the island with spectacular views of the island below us.

St. Thomas – I had been to twice before so I opted to take the Best of St. Thomas bus tour. This tour
was just so-so. We drove around the island and stopped at the Botanical Gardens and had a banana
daiquiri for $6.50. The views of Magens Bay were breathtaking, but I felt the price for this tour was a
little high at $35. The last port was Great Stirrup Cay – NCL’s private island back in the Bahamas. I
elected to remain on the ship and just relax.

Cruise Director and Staff: The cruise director, Eric Bohus, was the youngest CD I’ve ever seen at 31.
I’m accustomed to older CD’s. However, I found him very pleasant and he did his job well. He was not
real visible when at sea however. We only saw him at the shows. I did not see him around the pool or
in the lounge areas chatting with passenger as other CD’s I’ve seen do. Being that I was a single and
sailing alone, I sometimes felt bored on this cruise. One assistant cruise director saved this cruise for
me – Maddy Rumanescu from Romania. She and I became instant friends at a Trivia Challenge game
and she made it her personal challenge to make sure that I had a good time and did not feel alone!
During one of the Trivia Games in the Windjammer Lounge a particularly obnoxious passenger was
giving Maddy a hard time about her accent – but Maddy kept her cool and dealt with this jerk
appropriately. We passengers, on the other hand, wanted to throw the jerk overboard. Our hats off to
Maddy for handling him so professionally. I think Maddy should be promoted, as she has tremendous
people skills and without her I would have had a much lonelier time on the ship. We exchanged email
addresses and will keep in touch. Maddy – great job girl and I’ll miss you! Darrell the DJ was terrific
and kept us dancing till late each night. Amalia, the hostess/server in the Windjammer Lounge gave
me a hug every day and made sure I had a good time. Thanks Amalia - I’ll miss you as well.

Poolside service was good with plenty of wait staff to make sure you weren’t thirsty. The splash pool
on Deck 12 aft was a quiet place to sunbathe without a crowd. There were ping pong tables,
basketball courts, shuffleboard, golf driving places, several hot tubs, 2 pools and a huge gym. Very
nicely appointed poolside deck. NCL gets high praise here. A dive-in staff to provide snorkel
equipment – very knowledgeable and helpful.

Disembarkation was effortless. I placed my luggage outside my cabin door the night before. We were
given colored tags and were actually allowed off the ship before our colors were called. A really nice
new touch is the terminal just built with individual carousels. Your luggage is placed on an individual
carousel according to the color tag you were issued. A tremendous improvement over Carnival’s and
RCCL’s procedure of dumping luggage together in a huge warehouse and telling you to find it
yourself! And the air conditioning in the new terminal is wonderful! I was off the ship by 9 AM and on a
bus to Ft. Lauderdale airport.

Overall I would rate this a 5-star cruise line. I am extremely impressed with Norwegian Cruise Line and
am so spoiled after having sailed on the Norwegian Sky that I will probably never sail RCCL or
Carnival again. Norwegian has a new and valued customer. However, I would like to see the 2 newest
ships that NCL is building to have larger staterooms and larger bathrooms; and the embarkation
process needs some organization. Another point I should mention is that I have an inner ear condition
that makes sailing difficult. Norwegian’s newest ship has outstanding stabilizers. With the help of
patches behind my ear, I felt the motion of the ship on only one day at sea – a day with high winds and
heavy waves – not the ship’s fault at all! The most pleasant ship for someone with seasickness ever!
Good job, NCL Sky! I loved this cruise and will definitely be sailing Norwegian in the future. The staff is
excellent and I got outstanding, individual service from Maddy, Claude, Steve and Amalia and they
deserve high praise for their individual efforts. I highly recommend Norwegian and was sad to see us
return to port. I look very forward to my next cruise. If you have any questions, please feel free to
email me at pattiyoung_99@yahoo.com. Bon Voyage!

Name: Mike Mastellar
Email: MMastell@aol.com
Age: 41
Occupation: Data Communications Manager
NumberOfCruises: 3
TravelAgent: No
Ship: NCL-NorwegianSky
SailingDate: 10/22/00
Itinerary: Western Caribbean
Cabin: 0067 Cat AA
FoodDiningRoom: 90
CruiseDirector: 80
CabinComfort: 95
FoodRoomService:
CruiseStaff: 85
CabinAmenities: 95
FoodLidoDeck: 93
DiningRoomService: 90
CabinQuietness: 95
FoodMidnightBuffets: 90
CabinSteward: 100
ShoreExcVariety: 80
FoodVariety: 90
DeckService: 90
ShoreExcValue: 80
GoodForHoneymoon:
CasinoStaff: 95
PrivateIsland: 90
GoodForFamilies:
LoungeService: 90
TenderService: 95
GoodForSeniors:
BeautySalonStaff: 90
EntertainmentLounges: 95
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities:
EntertShowLounge: 95
OverallPortsofCall: 90
BeautySalon:
EntertainmentPoolside: 90
CruiseActivities: 85
Casino: 95
AirSeaProgram:
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 99
EmbarkDisembark: 95
DiscoNightclubs: 85
DeckSpace: 95
Stabilization: 95
ShopsOnBoard: 95
SpaceRatio: 92
OverallCruiseValue: 90
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 06 Nov 2000
Time: 16:18:05
Remote Name: spider-wm051.proxy.aol.com
Remote User:

Comments

Norwegian Sky: October 22 – 29 2000

This is a review of my cruise on the Norwegian Sky on October, 22nd 2000. We purchased this cruise
on the Egghead auction site and got a pretty good deal on two Cat AA balcony cabins. The other
cabin was occupied by my brother and his wife. This was their first cruise.

Pre Cruise:

We booked our air from Minneapolis on AirTran. The price was reasonable but we had to make a stop
in Chicago and change planes in Atlanta. Two stops before getting to your destination is about two
stops too many. The AirTrans planes were reasonably on time and were in good shape but the seats
were about the hardest seats I have ever sat on in an airplane. We were lucky enough to get exit row
seating so that gave us a good bit of legroom.

. The Cruise:

Embarkation:

We took a taxi from the Wyndham to the Port of Miami. This is a short cab ride that is about $10.00
with tip. The cab driver dropped us off right at the port for the Norwegian Sky. We had seen the Sky
from my brother’s hotel room earlier in the day and I will say I was impressed with the look of the ship.
We handed our bags to the porter with $5 dollars to assure us we would see them again. The porter
directed us to the embarkation area. We entered the embarkation area and even though we were not
suite or Latitudes members we were processed and having our embarkation photo taken in less than
15 minutes.

We entered the Norwegian Sky and were escorted to our cabin by a steward. He took us forward to
the atrium elevators, which were very impressive, and up to Deck 10. We obtained our room keys on
Deck 10 and proceed all the way to the stern of the ship to our rooms.

Cabin:

I had requested stern cabins when I confirmed with NCL after we won the auction. This request was
granted. The two cabins we had were 0266 (My brother’) and 0067 (ours). The cabins were right next
to each other and ours was right in the middle of the ship. I was a little leery because of what I had
heard in regards to the size of the cabins. To my pleasant surprise the cabin was a good size for two
people. The balcony on the stern cabins in much larger than on other Cat AA cabins. It has a sliding
glass door instead of a conventional door and the balcony has a chaise lounge, two chairs and small
table. The port/starboard Cat AA cabins only had room for two chairs and a small table. The other
thing about the cabin that I was very impressed with was the bathroom. Even though it was not large it
was very well laid out. Shelves for toiletries, round shower stall that accommodated my 6’2”, 240 lbs
body, with no problem. The reports of little drawer space are not exaggerated. There are three small
drawers in the closet. To make more room we stored our luggage and the life jackets under the bed.
We also brought extra hangers and hung most of our clothes. T-Shirts and other items were placed on
the upper shelves where the life jackets were. This provided more than enough space for our, too
many, clothes. One bit of advice though. The shelves are quite high. If you are less than 5’8” you may
have a hard time getting things on and off the shelf.

The beds were very hard. My brother requested and received from his cabin steward a foam pad that
made the bed quite comfortable for him. The pillows though were wonderful and the duvet was a very
nice and comfortable touch.

We were also pleasantly surprised to find a bottle of wine, fruit and champagne in our room upon
boarding. I knew we would receive the wine and fruit, but the champagne was a surprise from NCL.
For what, I don’t know. My brother received the wine and fruit but no champagne. We also received a
t-shirt each and another huge basket of fruit the next morning. These were very nice surprises and
really added to our enjoyment.

The only negative I can say about the cabin was the placement of the bedside lamps. I should say the
in-bed lamps. The lamps are placed directly where you would sleep. I hit my head more than once on
those darn things. I did not injure myself and my wife, who is more graceful than I, had no problem.
Just beware of them. I think the designer had a few too many Schnapps when he put this in the plans.

Cabin Steward:

I can describe our cabin steward, Dominador Carbonelle, in one word. FANTASTIC! He was the best
steward/stewardess we have had on a cruise. Pleasant, personable, accommodating and went the
extra mile to make sure everything was a.o.k.. One thing he did that was great was to make a “towel
creation” each night for us. Everything from Alf, Octopus, Turtle, and Alligator. My wife loved these
creatures. Dominador or “Ador” as he liked to be called, had never worked for Carnival, so he learned
his towel technique on his own. He also was very nice on the last day and let me look at the suites and
the other Cat AA and inside staterooms. The Penthouse suites are very nice. Two rooms and a full
sized bath with full size whirlpool tub. The balcony was a wraparound balcony and was large but quite
narrow. As I stated the port/starboard Cat AA cabins are about 3 feet shorter than ours and have a
standard door to the balcony and not a sliding glass door. The inside staterooms are tiny. I do not see
how two people could be comfortable in one of those, but we spoke to people who did and seemed to
like the cabin.

The Ship:

The Norwegian Sky is a nice vessel. My wife thought its décor was better than the Mercury. She
thought it was not as bright and wild. I would disagree but it still was a very nice ship. The things I did
not like were: Limited amount of teak decking. On the pool deck only certain areas were decked in
teak. The rest of the areas were decked with a blue plastic that was non-skid but also very painful on
bear feet. The promenade deck was nice in the fact that it was actually a wrap-around promenade but
it also had a blue plastic as decking.

The Atrium area: This was a very striking area and was also visually stunning with its glass enclosed
elevators and winding staircases. But every time I looked at it I thought: “What a waste of space.” That
is my own personal feeling and I know most people love the large atriums.

The Observation lounge on the front of the ship was a beautiful club. You could exit the Observation
lounge and go out on the teak deck and have a beautiful view off the front of the ship. The only
observation was that every time we were in the Observation Lounge there was hardly anyone there.

Checkers Cabaret was the setting for dancing, art auctions (yuck), certain activities (If someone from
the Cruise Directors Staff showed up) and live music. I did not like the dark décor of this room and the
layout did not give you an intimate feeling.

Windjammer and Churchill’s Cigar Lounge: These were quite nice but small. Churchill’s Cigar lounge
had a very strong tobacco smell in it. Unlike Michael’s Cigar Bar on Celebrity. But it was done in lovely
leather wing back chairs and dark wood tables. The cigar selection was quite poor. Mostly
Macanudo’s.

Library and Card Room: These were fine but we only visited them on the first day when we were
touring the ship.

Shops: The shops on the NCL were quite extensive. They had more than just the standard clothing,
liquor and jewelry. They had these things but they also had Columbian Emerald, a fine watch shop.
The watch shop (I forget the name) carried fine watches: Tag Hauer, Breitling, Movado, Ebel. Their
prices were reasonable. A Colt Ocean, automatic, stainless with pilots strap was $1,080. $200 less
than what you could get it for in the states but $80 more than the one I bought at a reputable shop in
Ocho Rios.

Internet Lounge: Located outside of the main shops. There were a number of terminals and an
attendant that was very informative. But at .75 cents per minute I could live without checking my stocks
and email for one week. One thing that I was sort of impressed with was the fact that in cabin internet
access for you laptop was still .75 cents. Other cruise lines charge much more. This is at least a less
costly alternative if you must stay in touch with work and/or email.

Stardust Show Lounge: This was a disappointment. If you were on the upper level, on Deck 7, you had
to watch the show through the railings. I commented that it was like watching a show in prison. The
bars were always in your line of sight. The support poles were numerous and made for many
obstructed view seats on both levels of the showroom. The chairs were very comfortable and swiveled
nicely. The couches though were quite hard and uncomfortable.

Monte Carlo Casino: The casino personnel were very personable and fun. The blackjack and slots
tournament were enjoyable. My brother even finished in the top seven in the slot tournament and won
a bottle of champagne and a t-shirt. I did not place in the blackjack tournament or the slot tournament
but I did pretty good at the blackjack tables. We went home with quite a bit more money than we came
with.

Space: While on the Norwegian Sky we never felt crowded and it did not seem like there were over
2,000 passengers on board. It was not as intimate as the R2 but we never really encountered crowds
of people. The pool deck was full on sea days and the Garden Café was had a fairly long line on a
couple of occasions but it was not the norm. The forward splash pool and hot tubs were usually open
and this area of Deck 11 was not crowded at any time. One thing my wife liked but I did not was the
partitions on Deck 11. These plexi-glass walls protected you from the wind but I thought it distorted the
view and blocked too much wind. It got quite hot for me.

Stability and Vibration: This was the roughest sea we have had so far on a cruise. On the north side of
Cuba we hit 15 – 20 foot swells and you did notice the pitch. There were a number of passengers
walking with a stagger but hadn’t had any alcohol. We noticed the pitch more so in our stern cabins
but it was not unbearable and was sort of relaxing for sleeping. I enjoyed sitting on the bed and
looking out of the balcony door and seeing ocean, then sky, then ocean, then sky. I told my wife not to
do that or her scopolamine patch would not help. I did notice some vibration and noise when the ship
was using its thruster’s. This was only during docking and otherwise the cabin was quite quiet.

Food/Restaurants

There are seven different dining venues on the Norwegian Sky. The two main restaurants, Seven
Seas and Four Seasons were nicely decorated did not have the “banquet room” feel that some cruise
ship restaurants have. The Horizons restaurant was intimate and provided wonderful views of the
ocean from all tables. The LeBistro was decorated with fine linen and dark wood. The Garden Café is
the enclosed buffet area on the Sky and the Outdoor Café is the open air buffet. Ciao Chow’s is an
alternative restaurant that has a service charge. ($5 pp.) They have Italian and Chinese food during
Dinner and VERY good pizza 24 hours.

The food in Seven Seas and Four Seasons was consistently good. The lobster on “Captain’s Farewell
Night” was excellent. Even my sister-in-law who does not like lobster thought it was very good. Most of
the food in these restaurants ranged from very-good to excellent. There was a good variety and
appetizers and entrée’s were done as requested or expected. There was not a large variety of
desserts but the ones that they served were good but I have had better.

The Garden Café and Outdoor Café were both pleasant surprises. I am not a fan of cruise buffets but
these two were actually quite good. Cold food was cold and hot food was hot. There was a good
variety of entrée’s at lunch and dinner. I was even surprised when the sirloin steak that was served
was actually good. It was a little more done than to my liking but it was not well done. I also liked the
fact that the buffet was open 24 hours. We did have a couple of midnight snacks up there. Mozzarella
sticks and buffalo wings were quite good. I also appreciate that milk was available at all times. Juice
was only available at breakfast and iced tea was available all other times.

Horizons is very visually beautiful dining venue. There are a number of tables for two and the rest of
the tables are booths for four. This is a great place if you want to have an intimate dinner or celebrate
a special occasion. The food is basically the same as the Seven Seas and Four Seasons. The night
we dined in Horizons I was not impressed with my steak but the service was quite good.

We never ate at Ciao Chow’s for dinner but two things served in this restaurant were highlights of the
cruise. The pizza is great. It is available 24 hours, made to order, loads of toppings and a great thin
crust. Very good. During lunch on our days at sea we were very pleased to find sushi being served.
They had a variety of sushi rolls and mackerel, Ahi, Squid, and Salmon sushi. My brother hates rice
but loves sashimi and the sushi chef had no problem accommodating him with all the sashimi he could
eat. I will admit that my brother and I made thorough pigs of ourselves on sushi and sashimi. Here in
Minnesota (flyover land) sushi and sashimi is very expensive. We figure we consumed the equivalent
to $100 worth of sushi in Minnesota.

Le Bistro was the only disappointment in dining on the cruise. It was a big disappointment. The service
was really bad. Our waiter was not attentive and had too many tables for an intimate, elegant dining
venue. We waited 40 minutes between salads and entrée. When the entrée arrived my steak was very
well done. Remember, I liked the steak at the buffet. I asked him to take it back and bring me one that
was medium rare as asked for. He said that it would take awhile for the steak and I said never mind
and just bring the dessert tray. 20 minutes later we had dessert. This was ridiculous for a restaurant
that expects a $5 surcharge. I complained to the Maitre D. He expressed his apologies and that was
about all. I left Le Bistro in a very bad mood. I spoke with others on the cruise that thought it was
wonderful but we sure hit it at the wrong time and the wrong waiter and Maitre D.

Entertainment:

The shows in the Stardust lounge were VERY GOOD. The Jean Ann Ryan Dancers were a joy to
watch. The comic, Willie Farrel was funny and entertaining and did a good job of lampooning cruise
ships, and personnel. The magician was fun and did some very good slight of hand and used his wife
and daughter as part of the act. The acts in the lounges were pretty good. The ones that stand out
are The Rob Ellis Trio and pianist/vocalist, Jackie Wood. The pool band, Roots Link, was fair but not
really good. We did not visit any of the disco’s late at night but I was told that they were pretty dead
and not much going on after 11:00.

Activities:

I will say this is an area that needs work. The number of activities on the Norwegian Sky, are limited.
There were more non-revenue producing activities on Renaissance than on the Norwegian Sky. The
cruise director, Eric Bohus and his staff were the worst I have seen. Eric was only seen at the shows
and giving “lectures” on the ship channel. There were trivia games that were cancelled not because
players didn’t show up but no one from the cruise director’s staff showed up. The assistant cruise
director that hosted the Newlywed/Not so Newlywed game was painful to watch. She really needs to
work on organization and public speaking. She also made a number of mistakes while hosting
Karaoke. Eric was the only member of the Norwegian Sky’s crew that asked for an excellent rating and
he and his staff were the least deserving.

The Ports:

Grand Cayman: We had been to Grand Cayman in February on the Mercury. At that time we
chartered Captain Crosby for a 4 hour Stingray City snorkel tour. We had a great time. This time
however my brother and his wife were not swimmers so a deep water snorkel of Stingray City was not
something they wanted to do. Instead we booked the sandbar Stingray City tour at the dock. The tour
was definitely not up to Captain Crosby’s standards. We were packed in to tour buses that had no air
conditioning and driven about 10 miles north of town to board the excursion boat. The boat was o.k.
except when my brother started climbing down the ladder one of the rungs broke. He cut his hand and
leg quite badly but not bad enough to require stitches. He also went over his head into the water
getting a lungful of saltwater in the process. His wife also cut her hand going down the ladder after
him. Needless to say they did not enjoy Stingray City. The driver of the boat could not handle the boat
well in waves and it took him a long time to get anchored on the sand bar. When he did get anchored
we were in quite deep water and it required you to swim to the sandbar. This stopped the
non-swimmers from going in. The transporting to and from the boat for this excursion took forever. We
were on the boat for about 90 minutes, including time at the sandbar and one other deeper water
snorkel site. The entire excursion was over 3 hours long. 1 ½ hours of it were just going to and from
the boat. This is an instance where you should not book this tour at the dock. At least with the ship’s
excursion you may pay more but we could have gotten at least a partial refund.

Afterward we all agreed that we would rather have went to Hell than this excursion.

Ocho Rios Jamaica: I booked a private tour here through Portpromotions.com. This was a great tour.
Our tour guide Danielle and driver Bins were very good. Danielle gave a great tour that was
entertaining and informative. We drove through the rain forrest, went to Cohoba (sp?) gardens, which
were beautiful and we finished up at Dunn’s River Falls. The falls were nice but not as impressive as I
imagined. My wife and I would have preferred climbing the falls on our own. We were herded up the
falls, holding hands with about 30 other people. This was o.k. but it took forever. Due to slow people,
picture taking, etc. We finally said to heck with it and went up on our own. If you follow the rocks that
have the horizontal black marks you will have less chance of slipping.. (They scrape them with a wire
brush to make them less slippery) Of course they frown on that because they want to make sure you
tip your guide. We did tip the guide.

Afterwards we bought a few trinkets and a Red Stripe beer. Red Stripe beer tastes just like a local
brand we have in Minnesota. Grain Belt. You can buy a case of it for about $10 and tastes bad. So
does Red Stripe.

We then did some shopping at the Tah Mahal shopping area. I finally found the Breitling Colt Ocean
that I have been looking for, for more than a year. I was able to negotiate the price down $80 and
purchased it for $250 less than Minnesota.

Nassau: For me Nassau was the best port. Not because of the island but because of the Dolphin swim
I booked on the Internet. I booked the Dolphin swim at Dolphinswim.com. I did the swim, not the
encounter. The swim gives you and 4 others the chance to swim with, play with and be pushed and
pulled by these magnificent mammals. They moved me around as if I were a toy. I am a large man.
6’1” 240lbs. You spend about 40 minutes with them and the $115 was worth every minute. If you get a
chance to do this I recommend you take the opportunity. You won’t regret it.

My brother, sister-in-law and wife took the ship’s “Sea and See” tour. The Sea part was a cruise on a
semi-submersible craft. They really enjoyed this and saw some beautiful underwater sights and fish.
The guide was very informative and provided quite a bit of information about the island and area. The
“See” portion of the excursion was a real bust. They boarded a bus after getting off the
semi-submersible. The bus driver asks them: “Where do you want to go.” They responded that they
thought this was a tour and that they should know where they are going. They then proceeded to
drive around the main part of town three times and then drop them off in the middle of traffic, about 10
blocks from the ship. OOOH Exciting! J

Great Stirrup Cay: This is NCL’s private island. It should be thought of as a beach day. The island has
an o.k. beach but snorkel gear, floats and any other water toys must be rented. They do have a nice
barbeque with hamburgers, brats, hotdogs, salads, fresh fruit and cookies. If you want to snorkel and
lie in the sun this is the place to do it. Tenders go to and from the ship constantly so it only takes
about ½ hour to get to or from the ship. Most people go back by 2:00 pm. and the last tender leaves
at 4:30.

Debarkation: The morning of debarkation went off without a hitch. We had lavender baggage tags.
This meant that we would be the third group called for debarkation. Seeing as we had no flight to
catch I was hoping to be one of the last ones off. We did however rent a car. Avis had a
representative on board. We rented a full size car and picked it up right at the pier. When our color
was called we proceeded out of the ship and through immigration and then on to customs. The only
issue in customs was that I had forgot to put my Breitling on the customs form. The customs lady saw
the watch and immediately asked where I bought it. I said: “In Jamaica.” She then asked why I did not
declare it, so I immediately played dumb and said that I thought you didn’t need to declare duty free
items. I then pulled out the receipt and the duty free papers and gave them to her. She then said that
yes, you need to declare this but you don’t have to pay duty. She then asked if I was sure there was
nothing else. I said no and she let us on our way. After that we grabbed the Avis shuttle and had a
very short ride to the lot and picked up our rental car. Our cruise was over.

Post Cruise:

We had a number of hours to kill before we could check in to our hotel. We proceeded north on I-95
but after a few miles we decided we were going the wrong way to see the Everglades. We then
proceeded south on Highway 1 and ended up where we wanted to be. We visited the Everglades
Alligator Farm south of Homestead, right next to the Dade County Correctional Facility. Good place for
a prison. If they try to escape the gators will have them for lunch. The Alligator Farm was touristy but it
was actually quite fun. We saw hundreds of farm raised gators. Several 15 – 20 foot gators. There
were some exotics that were raised by humans that could not be released in to the wild. They
consisted of two cougars, a black bear, and two bobcats. We also went on a 20 minute airboat ride.
The ride was fun and we saw quite a few turtles, birds, gators and snapping tutles. The driver also did
some air boat spins that most of the us really enjoyed. I also had a good time holding a python after
the snake show. After we left the Alligator Farm we drove through Everglades National Park to
Flamingo. It really was a pretty boring drive. We got out one time to look around and were instantly
attacked by mosquitos almost as fierce as the ones we have here in Minnesota. My wife had a nice
nap.

We returned to Miami about 5:00 and checked in to the Wyndham Biscayne Bay. We had originally
booked the Best Western Marina Hotel. After hearing many negatives about this hotel we switched to
the Wyndham Biscayne Bay. The Wyndham is about 1 mile north of the BW and it really was not worth
the $50 extra dollars a night to stay there. The hotel was o.k. but the rooms were a little shabby and
could have used some renovation. Carpets are old and hallways have a lot of wear and tear showing.
It is convenient for the businessman looking for companionship away from home. I had two nice young
ladies offer me their services for the evening. I had to decline. Our post cruise stay was not very nice.
No towels in the room, no hair dryer, no shampoo, no iron. These things were there just one week
ago. We waited 15 minutes for an elevator at 04:30 in the morning. Also on this day the computer
system was down at 05:00 a.m. so we could not receive an itemized list of charges to our room or
receive a payment ticket for our parking. Being late I said o.k. and did an express checkout. When I
went to obtain my car the attendant would not release it because I did not have a receipt from the front
desk. I blew up at that point. I walked back upstairs, told the desk clerk that I wanted to see the
manager. He responded that he had been trying to find him for the last hour. I told the desk clerk that I
wanted my car released, NOW! I also informed him that I was not going to pay for the room.. He said
he didn’t blame me and said that once the computer system was back up he would credit all charges.
I’ll believe that when I get my bill. He then went downstairs with me and told the attendant to release
my car and off we went to the airport. Not a great way to end a vacation.

Our return flight on Airtran was about the same as the previous flight. We did upgrade to business
class for the Miami to Atlanta portion of the trip. The seats were wider but weren’t any softer than the
seats in coach.

Freestyle Cruising: I like Freestyle. I like to be able to choose where and when I dine. I also like to be
able to stay in my cabin on debarkation morning and not have to wait in a lounge or public room with a
couple hundred other people. Many people have said that there are long waits for a table at dinner.
We never had this problem. We ate at all the venues and at various times and never had to wait for a
table. I also saw more tuxedos and dark suits on formal night than on Mercury. Also: They don’t water
down the drinks at the Captain’s cocktail party. My three Martini’s made me feel no pain for the rest of
the evening.

Conclusion: (Thank God, you say.) I would rank this cruise as third place amongst my wife and my
three cruises. It was a good cruise and I would cruise the Norwegian Sky again. I would not do this
itinerary again. If we cruise the Caribbean again it will be the Southern Caribbean. I really enjoyed
“Freestyle Dining”. The only thing I did not like about Freestyle was the pre-paid gratuities. I would
rather give gratuities to the staff that served us well. If this means giving a tip at each meal, then so be
it. If you lower your gratuities with the purser for someone giving you bad service you are also lowering
the gratuity for someone who gave you good service. I do not find this right. We did give extra to our
cabin steward, Dominador. I hope to return to the Sky someday but not until I have tried a few more
ships and lines and have more experience to base my opinions.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me at: Mmastell@aol.com

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