This was our 2nd sailing with NCL and our 2nd on the NCL sky. In Sept. we did the 3 day itinerary. It had pros and cons as compared to other similar ships with similar itineraries but I am pleased to say that either the 4 day is a big difference or they have improved greatly in a relatively short time b/c the cons had mostly all been fixed this time around.

Both cruises we picked NCL b/c we've done all the Royal Caribbean 3-5 day cruises out of our area that go to Bahamas and although I like Royal Caribbean I am very tired of their 3 day ships. NCL has the best rates and we find the Sky to be a better ship and offer more activities.

Last but not least we did the private island Grand Stirrup Cay. I've only ever been to RC's Coco Cay before so not sure how this is for a private island but we enjoyed it very much. I found there wasn't as much "private exploring" one could do (like Coco cay) as they weren't allowing access to non beach areas (and enforcing) but the main parts were better I thought and the beach cookout/bbq was MUCH better than RC with burgers, chicken, ribs, salads, but be warned it closed at 2:30. We tried to get off the boat at first around 9:30 and the line went ALL the way up from the gangway to floor 5 (they said the delay was due to rough seas meaning they had to individually help each guest on ferry) so we just took our stuff up to the pool, relaxed an hour and a half and then went back down and got on no problem. Read more