Verified answer

I went on the same exact cruise destination with Norweigen -but on the Norwegian Dawn. I had an awesome time. Great Stirrup Cay is the ship's private Island where you can enjoy a day on the beach just relaxing. Nassau is interesting and there are a lot of shops and historical excursions you can go on. There's also the Atlantis on Nassau, which ppl always want to check out. Grand Bahama Island is pretty laid back and you can either book a day at the beach or tour the town.

NCL is awesome for cruising because you can do whatever you want, when you want to and you DON'T have to sit with the same people all the time - you can meet new people and dine with them. I

I've been on two NCL cruises within a year and they have exciting excursions like scuba diving, and plenty of tours that you'll learn all about the place you're visiting - and you get a couple days on the ship so you can take advanatage of the spa (get a nice massage) or just sit by the pool and at night catch a casual dinner and a show.

Have fun!

I am scheduled to go on the Sky on the 15th you will find reviews on Cruisecritic.com and you can look and read the individual reviews. Back in July they had a lot of problems on this ship so bad they offered full refunds. Since then they have brought in upper management and things are now ok. The reviews are returning good. this is a 3 or 4 night cruise, it really can't compare with the longer 7 nighter but it is also very affordable. As for the freestyle dining I personally love it. The departure time in ports is different and sometimes you want to be out longer then you posted time or vise versa. When we went on the Pearl we never waited for a table and there was 7 in our crowd. We like it.

This is indeed a strange comment coming from your travel agent. So why did he/she sell you the cruise ? Maybe the agent wanted to discourage you, because NCL might pay less to travel agents than other cruise lines. However, your agent is not well informed. The ship which employs mainly US crew is the one sailing in Hawaii, since it is registered in the US and therefore has to have a certain amount of US nationals working onboard the ship. This does not apply to the other NCL ships. And if you are not happy with the service you can always decide not to pay the waiters - in reducing your tips.

Personally I hate NCL and would never use them again. But for you--what did you like about RC? What did you not like? Norwegian is different. The freestyle dining means you won't eat with the same people at night. You'll have to sign up to eat like at a restaurant which means at the key times (6-7) there will be a wait just like at a normal restaurant at home.

Norwegian's shore excursions are less athletic. The spa is not as nice. The general clientele is older and there are fewer kids on board.

So just think about what you liked about RC. If you thought it had too many kids and you hated the tablemates, then perhaps NCL is for you. If you looked forward to talking to your people each night and finding out what they did in each port--in my case I love the interaction with my tablemates--then NCL is probably not the right line.

Read the reviews on cruise critic.com. A lot of those are from people who really love it and are frequent NCL cruisers. They can give you a really good perspective on what makes NCL different. Though in my opinion, it is a bad different.

I have not personally experienced NCL, however I am a huge Royal Caribbean fan. Royal Caribbean has a cruise similar to the one you are looking at with NCL and can probably come close to matching the price. I have not had really good reviews from my clients that I have sent on NCL, so I tend to try to sell the products I am familiar with and get good reviews on like Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Carnival.

I have cruised on each of these cruise lines about 7 times and so can give you some comparisons.

The Sky looks like one of Norwegians newer ships so it may have on it as much as you had on your Royal Caribbean cruise. The one big difference you will notice between NCL and RC depends mostly on which ships you cruise on. RC tends to have more on-board activities, especially on their newer ships launched since about the year 2000. Things like the ice skating, in-line roller skating, rock climbing wall. Both cruise lines will have multiple pools and hot tubs and a gym. These may not be equal but you still have the same options.

I have not noticed that the food on RC is that much better than NCL. But for me the BIG difference is that "freestyle" cruising. I hate it. If you have cruised on RC and enjoyed having your own table, wait staff, and time to eat dinner, then you may not like the freestyle. With freestyle you go to dinner any time you want after about 6:00PM and when you arrive at the main dining room they seat you at a table that is available. You can usually get a table for two if that's what you want. But each day you will have a different table and different wait staff. My personal preference is to get to know my wait staff and so I like having MY table, and MY wait staff. Then when you pay gratuities you never know who gets them because you may have 3 or 4 different waiters on your 4 day cruise. Then I also had problems with the freestyle cruising when we got to the main dining room for dinner and had to wait in a line to get seated. The last cruise we were on the lines were so long that they were passing out buzzers to alert you when your table was ready. Then we did not think that the service was as good because the wait staff would only see you once; next day you sit somewhere else.

Then I also do not care for all of those "alternative/specialty" restaurants where you have to pay a fee to eat. For me a cruise should be all inclusive, especially for food. and paying $15 to $20 each to eat in these alternative places is NOT my cup of tea.

Now you will likely get comments from some people who love Freestyle. But if you liked what you had on RC you may not like it. The NCL cruise is otherwise essentially the same as any other cruise.

go to cruisecritic.com for reviews on NCL SKY

I would also suggest going to a good travel agent who specializes in cruises who can give you some more tips on this cruise.

best wishes.