We just returned home after 4 nights on the Sky. We had a wonderful time and I wanted to share my review. I had read several reviews after booking the Sky that made me nervous but posters on this board put me at ease and they were right. We are a family of 3, ages 38,42, and 14. This was our 5th cruise, but our first on NCL. Previous cruises were Carnival and Royal Caribbean. We flew out of St. Louis on Saturday afternoon arriving in Miami at close to 10pm. The wait for the luggage was not fun, and luggage issues seemed to be a theme for this cruise. 2 of the bags came out right away but third was another 15 minutes later. There had been an announcement that there was a problem with the luggage and I was already standing in line with at the luggage counter to start the paperwork for lost luggage when it finally arrived. No problem, we did buy travelers insurance and we cross packed our clothes and swimsuits in 2 different bags so if the luggage was delayed no big deal. Next we proceeded to the Avis lot to pick up our car. I booked a compact car through Priceline for $18 a day, they offered to upgrade us to an SUV but we declined. Our agent disappeared for close to 10 minutes, came back finally and gave us the SUV for no additional charge. Apparently they were out of compact cars. I never purchase the upgrade for this reason. Just like booking a guarantee cabin, book the lowest class car you will accept and then take the free upgrade if they are out of the class you booked. Coming in at 10pm, there is a good chance they will be out. A few things to watch for with AVIS: They now have a device in the car to get you through the tolls without having to pay. They will automatically charge your credit card the cost of the toll, plus $2.50 per day service charge. It doesn't matter if you only use this feature once, you are charged for each rental day, with a maximum of $10 per rental period. So a 5 day rental using the toll saver feature one time will cost you $10 plus the toll, which was up to $1.25 in our case. Hmmmm... $11.25 to avoid waiting at the toll booth. Not worth it to us, we did not bypass the tollbooth even once. Another sneaky practice, if you drive less than 75 miles you are automatically charged $13.99 for fuel unless you can show a receipt that you got fuel, in which case they will reverse the charge. I don't care for these types of charges or practices, seems like they are hoping you mess up in some way or another. Our day after cruise car rental, also booked through Priceline for $19 a day was with Alamo. They had none of these practices and the rental process was smooth as could be. We finally made it to our hotel around 11pm, can you guess who we booked through......Priceline. We booked the Hotel Indigo Miami Dadeland. $55 a night, the rack rate was $129 for our dates. We were told when we checked in that they did not have any rooms with 2 beds (Priceline only guarantees double occupancy). I understood this and asked if we could be switched the next day if there was availability. The front desk manager was very apologetic and I let them know that it was ok, thats the way the system works and we knew when booking through Priceline this could happen. They noted the folio to change us the next morning if possible. I then asked about places to eat that might still be open, it was now after 11pm and nothing was open except maybe some pizza delivery. The manager offered to order for us....now that is service!! Being that my DH was waiting in the car to unload the luggage I declined. He encoded our keys and we were on our way. When we walked in the room I was stunned. 2 double beds. The room was beautiful and very luxurious, a walk in shower instead of the usual tub shower. The furnishings were very upscale and I was pleased with my priceline assignment. In the morning I visited the manager and told him the room would be fine for the day, he was surprised but when he double check the computer he had a puzzled look on his face. I suspect the computer only showed a queen bed. It appeared that several of the rooms were being refurbished and probably their system did not show the newly refurbished rooms correctly.

In the morning (late morning, we are not morning people). We headed down to the Keys, the traffic was horrendous, it was Memorial day weekend. It took about 3 hours to go about 40 miles. We drove to Islamorada to feed the giant tarpon at Robbies, had lunch at Lazy Days, the conch salad was amazing., We swam at the beach there and on Key Largo at John Pennekamp state park. This brought us to dinner at The Big Cheese in Homestead. We ordered the house special pizza which consisted of ham, pineapple, mozzarella, ricotta cheese and cinnamon. Also served were garlic rolls. It was incredible!! Back at the hotel we worked out in the gym for about 30 minutes trying to work off the days meals. Although we never use a gym a home, the equipment was nice and no one else was in there so we decided to give it a try. We then took a swim in the hotel pool which was now guarded by bullfrogs since the sun had gone down. On Monday we returned our car to Avis, took the shuttle back to the airport and then caught a cab to the Port of Miami. Shame on the Miami police. They pulled our cab over in the airport, right outside of the taxi stand. They essentially set up a speed trap in the airport. We were one of many pulled over that afternoon, 4 officers took turns writing tickets. The people drive like maniacs everywhere, yet the police feel compelled to fine the cabbies who are trying to make a living. Not to mention the bad taste it leaves for tourist who are trying to get their vacation underway. We were in no hurry, but I definitely felt their police could have found other people to harass. We arrived at the port just after noon. The boarding process moved pretty slow, there were only about 12 people in line in front of us at the station we were checking in. The agent who checked us in was as nice as could be. We had 2 cabins reserved and she linked our reservations so that we had only one folio. Once aboard we dropped a backpack at the carry on drop off and headed to the teen zone and then the pool deck for some lunch and a bucket of beer (by 5 get one free). We also purchased one adult soda card and a teen passport at the table in Dazzles lounge. Next time I would skip the soda card, with 3 ports on a 4 night trip we weren't onboard enough for it to pay off, never seemed to have the cup with us when we wanted a drink and got tired of carrying it around. The teen passport was $15 for 10 drink coupons. My son only used 3 of these, so that didn't pay off for us either, but I still think it was a good value and would do that again. Around 2pm they announced our cabins were ready and we headed to the cabin. We had 2 cabins. Originally only myself and son were going to go, but 2 weeks before my DH's work schedule cleared up and he was able to get the time off. We tried to add him to our inside cabin but the ships occupancy was approaching full and they would not allow a 3rd or 4th passenger in our cabin even though it was a quad cabin. By this time the prices had dropped and we were able to book the porthole cabin across the hall for DH (also had to pay the single supplement). This worked out so well for us in the end. 2 bathrooms, 2 showers, a private place for DH and I when we wanted to be alone. Our cabins were on Deck 8, aft. I booked 8158, which is furthest aft inside cabin, DH was in 8075. 8158 was amazing. If you look at the deck plans this cabin appears larger on the layout, yet a google search and a CC search could not tell me for sure if it was. Well....IT IS!! Our cabin was at least 3 feet wider than the other inside cabins near us. It was also wider than the porthole cabin DH was in. I'm posting pictures under the Topic "Sky cabin 8158", but to get an idea, usually the night stands next to the bed touch the bed. We had at least 18 inches between each nightstand and the bed. Also, the entrance usually has a bathroom on one side and a closet on the other, when you open the cabin door the hallway between the closet and the bathroom are only about 3 feet wide. In 8158 it is about 6 feet wide. I would definitely book this again, I would go so far to say that we actually spent more time in this cabin that the porthole cabin. The one downfall, not much drawer space, which I believe is identical to other inside cabins. A family of 4 would have plenty of space, but you would be living out of your suitcase for the week. There is plenty of room under the bed to store the suitcases. This cabin is located above the stardust lounge. You will hear everything going on in the lounge. This was not an issue since we are still awake at showtime anyway. I don't think any show went later than 11pm.

We dined in The Crossing the first night and the palace the other 3 nights. I felt the service in the Crossing was better, don't know for sure, could be that we had an exceptional waitress that one night. You could wear shorts in The Palace so that's why we chose that for the other dinners. We did not eat at any of the specialty restraunts, maybe on a 7 nighter I would but for 4 nights I saw no reason to pay extra. I enjoyed each of my dinners every night and was always able to find something that I liked. Most nights it was hard to decided between two of the entrees and I usually ordered 2 appetizers. I love the soups! For breakfast we usually ate at the garden cafe or omletts from the station by the pool. We ate lunch while in port each day. Read more