While the focus of Jetsetting With US is primarily on nature travel, we do take other, more relaxation-style trips as well. For Thanksgiving this year, we wanted to try something different. I personally went on my first cruise early in 2022 and had a really great time. After that awesome experience, I wanted Urmi to try out a cruise as well! By the recommendation of a close friend who is a cruise fanatic, we chose Norwegian Sky on the Miami-Bahamas route. Without further ado, let’s dive into our review of Norwegian Sky!

Review of Norwegian Sky: Miami to the Bahamas

1. Basic Info about Norwegian Sky
2. Review of Norwegian Sky
3. Insider Info on Norwegian Sky
4. Final Thoughts on Norwegian Sky

Basic Info about Norwegian Sky

Vibe

Cruises often have a vibe oriented toward honeymooners or seniors. However, the Miami-Bahamas route has a little bit of something for everyone! We met honeymooners, seniors, families, and our personal demographic: the folks looking to drink, meet new people, and have a good time.

Norwegian offers “free” open bar for all 21+ guests; you are still responsible for gratuity. (There are special policies for those 18-20.)

Excursions are great for all types of people and are clearly marked for their level of physical exertion. Planned activities on the ship are not always kid-friendly. Be sure to check with staff if you’re unsure if an event is safe for your kids. Some of those events will be highlighted in this review of Norwegian Sky.

Itinerary

This was a 3-day trip:

Day 1:

• Embarkation between 12 pm and 5 pm
  • If you get on the boat early, you are free to enjoy activities on the ship. If you are a late riser, or have other items to attend to on land, there’s no rush to get on the boat.
• Boat departs by 7 pm

Day 2:

• Boat docks at Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas early morning
• Passengers are free to leave the boat for excursions on land. Excursions are for an extra fee and should be booked in advance.
• Passengers are due back on boat by 6 pm.

Day 3:

• Boat docks at Nassau, Bahamas early morning
• Passengers are free to leave the boat for excursions on land. Excursions are for an extra fee and should be booked in advance.
• Passengers are due back on boat by 6 pm.

Day 4:

• Boat docks at Miami by 7 am.
• Party’s over 😭 You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here!

Embarkation / Debarkation

Unfortunately, I struggled to find information on the official NCL website regarding the embarkation and debarkation processes. Even asking their customer service proved to be an effort in futility.

Embarkation onto Norwegian Sky

For embarkation, the online check-in is superfluous. Don’t waste your time! Even if you watch their online safety briefing, they will request you watch it again closer to cruise departure. (So why did you need to watch it the first time?) Then, after you physically board the cruise, you will need to attend an in-person security briefing.

Instead, I would recommend just checking in at the pier. The process was super quick–we were through in less than 7-8 minutes. I’m not convinced the folks who checked in online went through the embarkation line any faster. I guarantee you they spent more than 7-8 minutes trying to check in online themselves!

Debarkation from Norwegian Sky

Norwegian offers literally no information regarding debarkation on their website. Attempts to contact Norwegian were fruitless; the CSRs were almost puzzled as to why I was calling.

Norwegian will tell you when your ship will be back at shore, and from what time you can leave the ship. However, some questions that went unanswered were: how long is the line to get back on land? What about checked bags? Do I have to go through immigration and if so, how long is that process? What time is the earliest I can safely book a flight back home?

• My experience debarking: the line was short and easy. I was probably off the ship within 10 minutes including all the walking I had to do. However, I tend to debark on the later side; no early mornings for me after a night of drinking! There may be a bottleneck leaving the boat on the earlier side.
• The staff will give you ample warning, including multiple empty threats on the speaker system, before you actually get in trouble for not debarking.
• Strictly speaking, you have to go through immigration, but it is nothing like airport immigration. It was so fast that I barely remember doing it! There were no lines and I didn’t have to talk face-to-face with any officials.
• Checked bags have to be left outside your room before 11 pm the final night. You will get a special colored tag letting you know when your checked bag will be available the next morning.
• Miami airport isn’t very far from the pier. Depending on your personal tolerance for airport buffer time, you could reasonably catch an 11 am flight back home.

Review of Norwegian Sky

In this review of Norwegian Sky, I’ll cover:

• Cruise Staff
• Gym
• Planned Activities
• Shore Excursions
• Dining

Cruise Staff

The cruise staff on Norwegian Sky were friendly and helpful. Special shout-out to the DJ playing at the late-night club, who played great music and took special requests from us all 3 nights!

Gym

While I of course didn’t expect to find a gym fit for Arnold Schwarzenegger himself on a cruise ship, I did find the gym a little lackluster. For weights, the gym had a set of dumbbells up to 75 lbs, 2 benches, and a series of weight machines. On the cardio side, the gym had treadmills, stationary bikes, ellipticals, a row machine, and a poorly-placed heavybag in the middle of the weight machines.

For an extra fee, guests can take various athletic classes (such as spin class), or other stretching- or relaxation-oriented classes.

Overall, the gym was sufficient for me to get in my daily workout, though I wish the setup made a little more sense.

Planned Activities on Norwegian Sky

The onboard planned activities were a lot of fun! Sample activities included:

• Bar trivia
• Solo meet-up events
• Stand-up comedy
• Karaoke
• Live music
• DJ and dancing (adults only)

Amongst the variety of onboard activities, our all-time favorites were the nightly game shows! The hosts took volunteers from the audience to participate in various stunts or “trivia” questions. I don’t want to spoil these game shows for you! But, be aware they are not kid-friendly. We did see one family at the start of a game show, and the host gave fair warning to parents to take their kids away. These parents ignored his advice and seemed to regret it within minutes of the game show starting! Here’s an example of one of the stunts below:

At night, following the game show, Bliss Lounge turns into an adults-only nightclub. The bartenders are fast and the DJ spins amazing tunes. We met fun people every night at Bliss Lounge and are even still in touch with some of them!

Dining

No review of Norwegian Sky would be complete without a review of the food! Norwegian Sky dining comes in 3 flavors (pun intended):

• Buffet-style
• A la carte, complimentary
• A la carte, extra charge

Buffet

The food at the buffet was OK, not great – perhaps a 7/10. The selection was large, though I found the vegetarian selection lacking. I did appreciate that they had Indian food as well as no-sugar-added desserts for lunch and dinner.

Sections included soups, salads, a grill, live pasta, and desserts. Specific selections changed for every meal.

Overall, the buffet is a simple, no-frills way to get the food you need without the hassle of a sit-down restaurant.

A la Carte, Complimentary

For those seeking a fancier experience, there are 2 complimentary à la carte restaurants on the ship with table service. These restaurants have dress codes. Reservations aren’t required, and probably not necessary – I never had to wait for a table. The menus for each of these restaurants is the same as the other, and is mostly the same every day, with 1-2 dishes varying. These restaurants also offer no-sugar-added desserts. I found the food at these restaurants to be at a higher quality–maybe a 9/10–though at the cost of less variation.

A la Carte, Extra Charge

Most packages will allow you one complimentary dinner at one of the extra-charge à la carte restaurants on the ship. These restaurants will require a reservation (but keep reading!). If you’re interested in trying one of these restaurants, I’d recommend trying to make reservations as soon as you board. Urmi and I were unable to secure dinner reservations at the Italian restaurant La Cucina for any of the 3 nights.

However, we’d heard that reservations are canceled 15 minutes after reservation time, so we took a chance and showed up to the Italian restaurant at 7:45. (Reservations are at the :00 and :30, so we hoped another couple missed their 7:30 reservation.) We lucked out–or so we thought–because we were offered a table! However, for the entire length of our meal, not a single other table for 2 had any guests. In other words, either every other couple with reservations were no-shows, or more likely: the staff leave a large number of open tables. I’m guessing that this is a common practice on cruise lines, so don’t be shy to show up at a restaurant without reservations. They may have plenty of open tables!

Both Urmi and I were happy we dropped by, because the food at La Cucina was outstanding. I’d rate it a 10/10.

The other extra-charge restaurants were a French restaurant, a sushi bar, and a steakhouse. Those restaurants didn’t have great vegetarian selections, so we didn’t bother trying them.

Shore Excursions

I’ll be honest here – none of the shore excursions really piqued my curiosity, except the 2-tank dive (certification required).

At Great Stirrup Cay, most excursions were either expensive trips to the beach, or trips to swim with pigs (yes, you read that right). I’d have possibly considered doing the latter just to try something different, but for the exorbitant cost, I couldn’t justify it.

Nassau shore excursions included guided tours of the city, snorkeling with dolphins, and the aforementioned 2-tank dive. We’d have liked to do the snorkeling together. However, the staff informed us that cameras wouldn’t be allowed. The diver in me couldn’t go snorkeling without a camera, when I can dive and record anything I want!

You’re probably wondering, then why didn’t I try the 2-tank dive? The reason is that diving with 2 tanks is a half-day activity. Since I took this trip with Urmi, I didn’t want to leave her for half a day, thus precluding our opportunity to spend the prior evening drinking and dancing at the ship’s club as well. With a trip to Puerto Vallarta coming up just a few weeks later, it made most sense for me to skip the cruise dive excursion.

Other Amenities

Given more time, I’d have loved to include the following amenities in this review of Norwegian Sky, but I didn’t have time to check them out:

• Spa
• Basketball and Volleyball Tournaments
• Classes at the Gym
• Library
• Photo Gallery
• Casino

There were many more amenities on Norwegian Sky, but outside the scope of what I’d find interesting!

Insider Info on Norwegian Sky

As I always try to include, some Insider Info on Norwegian Sky:

• Don’t bother checking in online prior to embarkation. While they claim you’ll save time at embarkation, in reality you will be spending more time fumbling through their system. Just show up to the pier. (Don’t forget your passport though!)
• You probably don’t need WiFi beyond the 75 minutes included for free. We tested iMessage and Whatsapp, and iMessage worked even without fully connecting to the WiFi. We didn’t test out SMS from an Android.
  • One exception I’ll highlight is if you’re trying to work from the ship. A close friend of mine got the high-speed WiFi, but only achieved 1 mbps, far below what he needed to be productive. Norwegian refused him a refund.
• If you’re unable to get a reservation at one of the reservations-required restaurants, try showing up anyway. They may have no-shows or other open tables.
• The premium Open Bar packages are probably not worth your money, unless you like high-end whiskey or scotch. The standard Open Bar includes most liquors. I drank 1800, Patron, and Ketel One all as part of the standard Open Bar package.

Final Thoughts on our Review of Norwegian Sky

I wish I could include more in this brief review of Norwegian Sky Miami-Bahamas route. With only 3 days on board, it is impossible to explore every activity on the ship! As the first cruise Urmi and I have done together, we had a fantastic time, especially for the price.

My primary complaint was that the adults-only policies were sometimes not strictly enforced; in the future I would consider trying Virgin, which has adults-only cruises across the entire fleet. However, we did very much enjoy our weekend. I would definitely consider booking Norwegian again for a future cruise!

Did you take Norwegian Sky on the Miami-Bahamas route or a different route? Was the experience similar or do you have a different take? Leave a comment below!

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