I'm trying hard to be fair, considering this was not a 7 day cruise and therefore the expectations need to be lowered. The Sky was attractive and well maintained and the crew was excellent. I have been on a few 3 or 4 night cruises with NCL and others and also a few 7 day cruises. I was always very pleased with the food in the main dining rooms and buffets in the past but the offerings on the Sky were blah and uninspired. Gone was the famous chocoholic night that had been on every 4+ night NCL cruise I have been on. I never heard the captain's voice on the announcements and I never saw him. I had always enjoyed hearing their accents and the funny things they would say. The cruise director did most of the announcements and was fine but reminded me of the guy on the "Sham Wow" commercials (I stole that from another reviewer when I realized that was the perfect description). Last year we were greated by champagne as we boarded but that has been done away with on all ships. This year it was like going to a yard sale (another stolen description) with the crew hawking things for you to buy as they had you herded through the rooms and they had you "trapped".

We are Latitudes members but didn't receive an invitation to a gathering and to be honest, we didn't pursue it. Just another thing that was missing. It really made us wonder if the captain took "a vacation". We were really catered to on the Pearl last year and the crew put on a Cruise Critic reception for us. A world of difference between 4 and 7 days.

Embarkment: very efficient- A+ on that. Read more