Up to now, I have never had a vacation go so horribly. Sure, my family and I have had hiccups in our vacation experiences like illness, ankle sprains, hospitalization (food poisoning), lost and delayed luggage, 16 hours in a Puerto Rico airport because the plane had "mechanical issues", etc. (I could write a book.) I have been on three previous cruises, one I didn't get my luggage until three days into the cruise. Yet, I always enjoyed my cruises (Costa and Royal Caribbean). Nothing compares to the experience on the Norwegian Sky. I hate to bash anyone or any company, but this information should be posted to prevent other cruisers from suffering the same fate. There were no reviews of this particular ship because it had just been refurbished and relocated from Hawaii to the Bahamas. The cruise right before ours was the first one open to the public since the refurbishment. Crazy as it seems now, I thought newly refurbished meant we had a clean slate and "new" ship to enjoy. Well I found out that the ship still had many technical issues to work through and that the voyage was a training cruise for the crew. I'm not against training, everyone has to learn sometime, but an entire ship of trainees should have been disclosed to us unsuspecting vacationers. If you get a discount because it is a training cruise, then you should be allowed to make the decision if the discount is worth the substandard service.

I sailed with my mother, my thirteen year old daughter, and her fourteen year old friend. I chose a three day cruise because the girls had never been cruising before. I just wanted them to experience the fun of cruising. I prefer a seven day cruise to immerse myself in the pampering and the tropical surroundings. Thank God we didn't make this one seven days. I also chose the Norwegian cruise line because of the "freestyle cruising" appealed to me. I don't like dressing up and going to meals at a set time with strangers. I found the discount with the Norwegian Sky where the kids/teens were free. This was perfect. I could keep the cost down for my family and my daughter's friend.

I made reservations by calling NCL directly. I wanted to carefully pick our cabin. I preferred an outside cabin, but was told they were sold out, so I regretfully chose an inside cabin. I figured for three days we could put up with the cramped space, we'd be doing things outside the cabin most of the time anyway. After making the reservations, paying with my credit card, and listing the passengers (my name first), our cruise documents and luggage tags were sent to my daughter's friend who happens to live in a different state than us now. Why they sent the documents to a fourteen year old with a different address than the one who purchased the cruise, I'll never know. OK, we got the documents back from her. One little goof up. No big deal. Read more