Norwegian Sky Review

Norwegian Sky - Needs some work

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Norwegian Sky
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FLSoccerFan
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Mar 2009
Cabin: Balcony
Traveled with children

I consider myself a veteran cruiser, having worked for Carnival Corporation in various brands over 10 years ago and also sailed on mainstream and luxury cruise ships around the world. I decided to try NCL after my in-laws and friends had sailed on other NCL ships/itineraries.

The online check-in & shore side arrival was actually very smooth, as I arrived around 1:30 and the lines were reasonable with plenty of agents to make the process smooth. I think they can eliminate the next step of retrieving your cabin keys and incorporate into the check-in.

The whole Freestyle Cruising aspect was actually very nice with the arrival glass of champagne for the adults... What about the kids or people who do not drink alcohol? Need to work on that process. You enter the ship in what is the photo gallery and forced somewhat to circumvent around to the main atrium. That WOW first impression is now completely lost. For being a relatively new ship, I was disappointed in the overall decor of the public lounges and cabins. I realize that the ship previously sailed in Hawaii and carried a Hawaiian theme to it, but some of the public areas evoked a Caribbean theme, so I couldn't place myself in the proper mood. We were booked in an outside balcony on deck 10. The hallway carpet looked old and not well kept. Once inside the cabin, it was worse. The entire cabin area looked like it was 20 years old with old cabinetry that was starting to fall apart and a TV that the only thing missing were rabbit ears... Someone posted that the ship was recently renovated? WHERE? On deck 7 was the casino, coffee bar, duty free shops and the Stardust lounge. You had to walk through the casino and the smoke to get from one side of the ship to the other. Not very well planned out for families with kids or people allergic to smoke. At least on other cruise ships the casino sits off to one side of the ship and allows for people to cross without going through. Having walked through the casino on several occasions, it was relatively small (1-craps, 1-roulette, several card games and the one-arm bandits off against the walls.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Deck 10 - Port cabins towards the back of the ship have noise from the longboard bar until 1-2am each night.

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