We sailed on the Norwegian Sky 8/4/08 to 8/8/08 from Port of Miami. Our itinerary took us to the Bahamas: Grand Bahama Island, Nassau, and Great Stirrup Cay. My husband and I carried our 6 & 8 year old daughters on this cruise for vacation this year. We have cruised at least 5 times before on various lines such Disney, Carnival and Royal Caribbean. This is our first time on NCL and had a wonderful cruise.

Pre-Cruise: We traveled to Atlanta the night before our cruise to catch an early morning flight and stayed at the Renaissance Concourse Hotel. If you are ever in Atlanta I would highly recommend this hotel, especially if you have children. The hotel is situated next to the Atlanta Hartsfield--Jackson airport and you have a perfect view of the airport and runways from your balcony. Of course you do hear some airplane noise during the night but it wasn't bothersome enough to us to keep us awake. The excitement for our cruise was to blame for our lack of sleep. We flew into Fort Lauderdale the morning of our cruise and we had arranged for a private car (through Go-Airport Shuttle) to pick us up and take us to the Port of Miami where the Sky was docked. The driver was there as promised and waiting for us in baggage claim when we arrived. The driver was very pleasant and we will definitely use them again. We had learned of them from Cruise Critic website and we were very grateful.

Check-In and Embarkation: We arrived at the pier around 10:45am and walked right up to the check-in counters. The check-in agents were very friendly and organized. After 5 minutes total of checking in, we were shown to the sitting area and explained that boarding wouldn't begin until at least 12:15 and most likely 12:30pm. While waiting there is an area with juice and water as well as snacks that included pound cake and banana nut bread slices that were yummy and a nice touch. At 12:00pm they started lining up the passengers according to the number you were given at check-in. Ours was 3 and we were probably 400 or so people back in line to board. At promptly 12:30 we were allowed to board the ship. Once on board there were many waiters walking around offering everyone either a glass of orange juice or champagne. We went to Il Adagio for lunch of pizza, pasta and ice cream that was listed in the freestyle daily as a venue that would be serving lunch that day12:00 to 4:00pm. However we were disappointed to find that they were not set up and ready yet to serve passengers. We then headed next door to the Garden cafe and the buffet. More on this later in the review. Read more