I recently took this 4 day trip from Miami on NCL Sky to Freeport, Nassau and their "private island" Great Stirrup Cay. Although I am a Platinum member at NCL this was the first time that I have returned to NCL in several years. NCL, along with RCI and Carnival, may be characterized as "bottom feeders" - they are the "low priced leaders" of the so called "budget" lines - although Low Priced doesn't accurately reflect their pricing any longer. I seldom travel on NCL as I am a single, and NCL is NOT single friendly, charging singles two full fares most times. This time I got a somewhat lower single fare and thus went with them for a change from RCI. I will be making lots of comparisons between RCI and NCL in this review.

Arrival at MIA and meeting a NCL rep. to purchase a transfer was easy, and unlike many other times, the bus left almost immediately. We used the new tunnel to Dodge Island and the cruise terminals which cuts down on the time/traffic to the port.

Check in was easy as is the case now at all lines, but I noticed that NCL did not give priority boarding to its Platinum members - NCL's highest category of repeaters. Read more