The Bad: Let me start with the biggest problem of the Norwegian Sky - the odor of the ship. In some areas, you will most likely be hit with the strong odor of raw sewage (similar to what you may smell in any restroom at a gas station). In other places however, the odor will be much stronger and much more unpleasant. Take the Dazzles Night Club for example. When walking in there, you will only be greeted with the smell of a musty locker room. I cannot properly describe the foulness of Dazzles Night Club’s odor. It was to the point where my family could not go in there to watch the fun games and activities it had to offer throughout the night. Please keep in mind that Dazzles is Norwegian Sky’s equivalent of the Atrium on the Breakaway and Breakaway Plus class ships. For those who have been on one of Norwegian’s newer ships, imagine the Atrium smelling like a gym locker room! We eventually discovered that this more than unpleasant odor was coming from Dazzles chairs, which were the nastiest chairs that I have ever seen! I wouldn’t even want those chairs in my basement storage room, much less on a cruise ship! Another major issue that we had was the odor we were greeted with when arriving in our cabin. Once again raw sewage overtook our tiny ocean view room. We quickly alerted guest services, who attempted to pour bleach down the sink where the odor was coming from. Eventually the issue was solved, but not without having to call down to guest services about 15 times. I will give guest services the credit they deserve and say that they handled this situation professionally and properly. For a lot of people, the biggest draw of this cruise is the free open bar, as Norwegian advertises this heavily. The problem is that the only good free drinks you will find that are the kid’s mock tails. All the beer and wine is cheap and/or extremely watered down. The shardina in particular was foul and practically undrikable. So, the open bar really isn’t a good value at all. Don’t expect the same quality of drinks as the other ships’ drink packages offer. The pool was almost unusable most of the day because new are paces over the swimming pool to prevent swimming. That’s right, it’s not an uncommon sight to see the pool covered at 3:00 pm! Also, they love to blare their music so loud that you can’t hear the person six inches from you. Not what I would call relaxing or fun! Also, the ship looks very dated in some places. Take Captain Cook’s for example. This bar should have been renovated 15 years ago. The decore looks like something out of 1975. Other places on the ship such as Placae and Crossings main dining rooms looked nearly as good as Norwegian’s newest ships. Also, the second of 3 stops on this cruise, which is Freeport in the Bahamas is by far the worst port I have ever cruised to! If the Sky has more to offer, I would have just stayed on the ship. The port was run down and chaotic and the ship docked very far from any fun places to see. THE GOOD: Norwegian Sky had exceptional service. We went on the Norwegian Getaway in 2018 and I have to say that Norwegian Sky’s service was much better. Our room steward was great. He was friendly, helpful, and always was more than happy to get us what we needed when we called. What else can you ask for? Also, the food was much better than expected. The New York strip steak in the main dining room was so good that I would have been satisfied if I had been served it at Cagney’s Steak House. The desserts however, were hit or miss. Embarkation was the fastest we’d ever experienced . We were on the ship in 15 minutes form arriving at the port. Disembarkation was equally quick. No compaints here. In conclusion, if you want a sort getaway that visits 3 ports in 4 days, don’t mind drinking cheap alcoholic beverages, or the datedness and odor of the ship don’t bother you, this cruise is for you. I still had a lot of fun and I don’t regret this cruise, let’s just hope that most of Norwegian Sky’s issues are fixed in its upcoming dry dock. Read Less

We traveled as a family with two adult children and their spouses. We found the boat in excellent condition, like new almost. The ship is a bit smaller than some of the mega ships we have been on and we found that quite refreshing. The lay out of the boat and signage makes navigating the boat easy. There are a wide range of activities more than you can do. Something for everybody. Good restaurants, be sure to book specialty restaurants early. Many of them sold out on our cruise. We found the sit down restaurants, venition and aqua much better than the buffet. The cruise next program is excellent. You get half of any future cruise deposit as an onboard credit to spend on your current cruise, an incredible value. Our only complaint was the bedding was not comfortable , but our room steward quickly got us some extra padding that fixed this. This ship is an incredible value. Read Less

I don't think I'll cruise with Norwegian again, and certainly not out of Tampa. There was not a lot that was better than other cruises I have been on in the past, and plenty that was much worse. First of all, we were affected by a fog delay. Obviously, that part is not controllable by the cruise line, but their handling of the issue was terrible. We had separate reservations for three different cabins and I was the only one to receive notifications about the delay (via text). If we had been coordinating with the others, they probably wouldn't have been notified at all. Additionally, as this cruise was departing on 12/30 (which I guess is considered a holiday by the company) they shut down their customer service line early, while there were literally thousands of people lined up outside with no guidance. I actually did speak with the a representative earlier that day, who was very pleasant and nice, but gave me very different information than everybody else gave me. The lady actually told me that because I was traveling with two small children (1 year-old and 2 year-old), as well as my 75-year old mother, that we would be able to join the priority boarding given how late the boarding was. We were slotted for a 10am boarding time (with scheduled 1pm departure) but we were told to arrive at 9pm (first, it was 6pm) due to the fog delay, which meant that we had nowhere to go (we ended up having to pay for a hotel room just so our kids could rest). We ended up waiting in line for 4-5 hours, which as you can imagine, was utter hell for our family. We had understandably tired, screaming and restless children, who were being kept in a line until 1am when they normally go to be at 8pm. At no point, were there any announcements made to the crowd. The only representatives we saw were only addressing people in Haven (premiere level) and suites to move them to priority boarding. The next day, we found out that we would be skipping one of the four ports of call and I don't ever remember getting any notification other than some paltry onboard credit that appeared on the account with no explanation. The cruise itself was hit or miss. Many of the staff were very pleasant, but I have found that to be the case on all of the cruises (Carnival, Royal Caribbean). There were also a handful of staff that didn't have the best attitude, but they were in the minority. We went into this trip knowing that Norwegian wasn't as toddler friendly (no drop-off care/activities for children under 3 years old, etc.), but it was still worse than expected. They planned all of the toddler activities (parent participation required, which was fine) at the most awkward times for toddlers (prime toddler meal times like noon and 5pm), and they located the smoking section of the deck right next to the kiddie pool area. They also seemed to have a systematic system for filling their dining rooms, with no regard for small children. They would start at one end of the restaurant and then fill tables back, but I thought this was weird because they were sticking us with our loud children next to people that wanted to enjoy a nice meal. This was less of an issue for us, but I felt bad for the people near us. At one point, an old lady yelled "QUIET!" in a nearby table when my 1 year-old started screaming (he's admittedly loud). Also worth noting is that about half of the high chairs had broken buckles, which was not the biggest deal but certainly not ideal. Our cabin was pretty standard for a cruise, but no big complaints. While we really like our room steward, I think they didn't do the normal level of initial cleaning due to the chaos with the fog delay (my mother's room had an old sippy cup under the bed filled with old yogurt). Our bathtub also leaked water from sides (maintenance took care of this). The biggest annoyance was the lack of beside power ports. The only ports within reach of the bed were single USB ports in the bottom of the beside lights. The main cafeteria (Garden Cafe) was ok, but the seating was very cramped. It would have been fine if everybody was between the ages of 5 and 60, but obviously that's not the case with a cruise. A very significant percentage of the people had walkers, wheelchairs and motorized scooters (along with the few people like us with strollers and high chairs). This was what made it tough to walk through the seating area. We enjoyed the specialty dining, particularly Cagny's (steakhouse) and Moderno (Brazilian grill). We had fun at Teppanyaki, but like all American hibachi grills, it was very salty. Two other quick negatives. First, this was the first cruise I've been on where they seemed to change the itinerary with no notification. We always try to plan out our vacation (dinners, activities, etc.) based on the schedule so it's a bit annoying when they move things around without telling us (although I recognize that this is clearly their right based on the disclosures). Second, we opted not to book excursions with the little kids, but my family did and they said Grand Cayman was poorly executed (they had booked the stingray city and snorkel tour through NCL). At the dock, there are lots of people so they were told to gather in a certain area. Apparently, a tour guide came by and quickly said to follow them and then took off at a brisk pace (which is tough given the demographics of the cruise ship). Many were left behind confused. I also heard the tour guide on the boat was all-around rude (stark contrast to the great service for the catamaran snorkel tour in Roatan). The next part is not NCL's fault, but to top it all off, there were so many ships in port that day, that there weren't many stingrays around by the time they got there (2-4). On the positive side, the drinks were pretty decent (nice variety around the boat) and the bartenders were generally friendly (especially Guillermo). And they didn't seem to nickel and dime you too much on the beverage package, which was nice. Read Less

Tampa is a great town, I live there but I would suggest anyone who has time to take extra time to enjoy the city, you could stay for weeks and not do close to everything the city has to offer. Lots to do at or near the port if you just have hours to kill. We got off to a late start due to the fog. We did not get out until around 2am. As a result our first port, harvest caye was cancelled. This brings up my one and only complaint. Communication. This is always an issue with cruise ships and I don't know why they have not fixed it yet. Still in the stone age when it comes to this. Like airlines were 30 years ago. There is no where to check the status of the cruise on the internet and many got no texts as they like us had their home phone number listed. Once on the ship we did not find out we were not going to harvest caye until late in the day the day after. The captain did make his daily announcement each day so I know we are at 28 degrees, 47 min and 30 seconds north which of course I can do nothing with, without a chart and most couldn't do anything with it with one. Never any mention of upcoming weather or seas. As an ex airline captain, this really bothers me. Its so easy to just make a quick announcement but they never do on any line. Ok, so you don't want to upset the boat with bad news, fine then have an area on the app or a text banner on the channel that shows where you are. Why there is no status on the website I will never know. So easy to do. The worst thing you can do is not communicate and the amount of business they lose by not doing it can't be counted. That's the negative. The positive was as follows: Ship This ship and cruise line is great for the money. I think it is the perfect size ship. Big enough to have a lot to offer but not too big where there are too many people. Cabins The cabins were very nice, We were on Deck 8 so easy to go up or down to 6 or 7 promenade decks without using the dreaded elevator. Or down from Deck 12 the pool deck. We pretty much just rode up. Casino There are tons of bars everywhere, Casino was good, although we lost our shirts. I suggest the quarter pusher. Hours of entertainment for $50. You won't win a dime though. Entertainment The entertainment venues are great, the bliss has the bowling and karaoke and the like and has a bar so does the spinnaker and is great as well. The main theater never sold out as it does with most cruises. The lobby area is great and the piano bar is well designed and can be enjoyed easily for a quick visit so you can just get up and leave when sweet caroline comes on. The shows were just ok. If you are doing one in the spinnaker get there early as they have a bar and comfy seats that will all be gone or be being saved if you get there on time. We managed obstructed view seats at the main shows each time getting there on time. Pool Just the one pool for common folks, but lots of decks and enough lounges for all. Not on the pool deck of course those all had a towel and bottle of suntan lotion on them and 10% occupied like every other cruise. I wish they would rent the premium chairs by the hour and solve this problem and make some money doing it. Dining Get the specialty dining package. Moderno and Le Bistro was great, La Cucina was just ok. I would recommend the Teppanyaki, which we couldn't get into weeks before the cruise. Make sure you book before the cruise or they will all sell out. O'sheehans is great for everything. Lotus Garden is great too for lunch and Dinner. The main dining is ok too, but no big deal. Lunch is the same everyday in both dining rooms. Dinner seemed to be mostly the same but not sure. Buffet is enormous and offers some good seating out back with its own buffet. Bars There are bars everywhere, lots to choose from. Good selections to be had. Guiness on tap in o sheehans and newcastle at the lobby bar. I would highly suggest this ship for value. I have been on 12 cruises. Scott Read Less

We chose this cruise based on dates available, visiting the Western Caribbean and flight prices. We ported out of Tampa, FL. Our ship got stuck out at sea due to fog and could not come in on time. We were supposed to board at noon and didn’t board until about 11pm. Stuck in Tampa, never received text messages/update from Norwegian (others did) and had to get into line around 2pm. Sat on concrete sidewalk, with luggage (they didn’t take it until around 5pm) for about 8 hours, taking shifts with the family to walk around. Tough, tough day. Had to eat lunch and dinner on our own dime (although I am hearing that NCL might be reimbursing). Thankfully it was a beautiful day. Could have been raining. Ship arrived around 6:30pm and disembarking the current passengers took just over 3 hours. Got on board around 11pm, had the safety meeting at midnight, we were falling asleep at the table and we got our luggage around 1am. It was just awful. The saddest part was the lack of NCL presence. Passengers were showing up around 9pm and trying to cut in line when people had waited over 8 hours. Things got a little dicey and many passengers (including teenagers) patrolled and attempted to keep order. They had to cancel our first port visit as we did not depart until about 4am (gave each room a $100 NCL credit to use onboard for food, drink or excursions). The good news, we eventually got on the ship, our room was ready and comfortable and our overall first time on NCL was positive. Entertainment was phenomenal. Staff was great and food was quite good (all regular dining). We loved Roatan and enjoyed the other ports as well. Weather was fantastic too. Tip for Roatan - you DO NOT have to pay to go to Tabyana Beach - just take a cab to West End and get dropped off. I repeat - you do not have to pay! We got sold - paid. $20 a person - live and learn. That was one expensive chair for a few hours. Roatan - visited Tabyana Beach. Paid $10 for snorkel gear and it came with a guide who swam us out to the reef and drop - pure awesome.... regret not visiting a place to hold a monkey. Costa Maya - visited Krazy Lobster Beach Club in Mahahual - free beach. Don’t pay for the beach. Excellent guacamole and chips for $4. If i could do it again - I would have gotten a massage $10 for 30 minutes... Grand Cayman - walked to Smith’s Cove from the port. It took about 20 minutes. Beautiful beach. Then we took a cab to 7 mile beach. In hindsight, whole fam wished we had stayed at cove. True natural beauty and not crowded. This was our 2nd cruise. The 1st one was with RC down the Adriatic Sea. Phenomenal experience!! NCL had big shoes to fill. Will we cruise NCL again? I think we would. I will be curious to see if NCL follows through with making their customers whole. We essentially lost two days and the experience was terrible. I have faith they will do the right thing. Will we ever port out of Tampa again? Nope. Apparently it is the bridge that is the issue, not the fog. Read Less

Having only cruised Carnival in the past, for this trip we wanted to upgrade to another line. This cruise fit our needs... date, embarkment and ports visited. It was at the lower end of ship size we were looking for, but reviews were good Due to fog in the port we left Tampa 10 hours late and missed our first port. We were given several small credits. We loved the ship. The speciality resturants were great. Even the main dining and buffets were better than we were used to. Entertainment was good. The cruise director did not seem to have an outgoing personality, but neither was she a over the top clown, as we have sometimes experienced on another cruise line. The staff did a good job. Our Cruise Critic meet and greet was fun. Thank you. We will most likely cruise NCL again. Especially if the continue the "free" perks. Read Less

Just got off 1st NCL Cruise, family of 4. We have sailed multiple times on DCL but were ready to try something different as kids have aged out of the Disney stuff. Overall Breakaway had better food quality across the ship, and the mini-suite Cabin seemed more spacious than regular DCL balcony and had an AWESOME shower. The ship was beautiful and I preferred the smaller dining areas vs the enormous main dining on DCL. BUT ... the service was awful. Sat in lounge chairs for over 4 hours on a sea day by the pool and not once did a cocktail server come by. Any time you wanted a drink it was easily 20 minutes in line watching the bartenders avoid you and constantly, slowly making over complicated drinks, muddling, shaking straining etc. Very frustrating when you just want one beer. The only self serve station with no wait was a wine machine but of course that’s not part of the package. Kids club was terrible ( obviously knew Disney would have that aspect in the bag) but seriously one large room filled with TV monitors and zero activity stations or anywhere to sit. Both my 9 and 11 year old hated it and the club was completely over capacity every night so you couldn’t get your kids in. The room steward was THE WORST I ever had. 4 out of 4 excursion days we came back to a room that was still not made up, I’m talking easily 6 + hours and nope! Nothing. Every day we had to call and then find somewhere to be while we waited on the room to be cleaned. It was painful. Also, every single speciality restaurant on board was completely sold out on every night of the cruise. They have these big boards that show availability and everything at every time was just red. The main dining service was so awful, that we ate in the buffet most nights. Thank goodness the buffet quality was acceptable. The entertainment was fine at night, the dueling pianos and the magician were good but the singing duo was so bad I have new appreciation for the old Will Ferrell skit from SNL. The ports were as expected, but boy Belize City is a dump! I would stay onboard if I ever found myself there again. I would not choose NCL again due to the service issues, too much waiting for absolutely everything - ther staffing ratio is not working at all. Read Less

We took a group family trip (almost 30 people) to celebrate Mom/Grandma's birthday. Overall, it was a great experience, but did not 5 stars for the following reasons: 1. Lines were not long for anything, but the bartenders were definitely slow - painfully slow. Waiting to order and waiting for drinks too forever. It would be nice to have a self-service beer and wine tap system for swiping your ship card and serving yourself. 2. There is definitely a language barrier with the staff. In our case, it was the bartenders and restaurant servers which impacted the overall personalization and requests. 3. The ship stopped for a full day in Belize City (which should've only been a 1/2 day) and we stopped at Costa Maya for only a 1/2 day. A full day in Costa Maya would have been great, since there was much to do. I would recommend to a friend. Read Less

We had a great cruise on the Breakaway, excellent dining options, service and activities. My only minor suggestions would be: 1. Bars need a designated "express service" bartender that only pours sodas, wine and hands out beer. A lot of time is spent waiting for people to get a simple drink because people order the complicated concoctions. 2. Margaritaville is a waste of space, hardly saw anyone eating there ever. 3. Cagney's was our only disappointing food quality. The steaks were not cooked as order, quality was actually lower than the steaks from the no added fee main dining room. 4. Would not choose to get off the boat again in Belize city, one of my least favorite cruise ports. 5. Harvest Caye was excellent and would love a cruise with a two day stop there. 6. Atrium bar had great activities but never enough seating 7. Embarkation and debarkation in New Orleans was the quickest and easiest of any of the dozen cruises we have been on Read Less

chose NCL because we like all the restaurant choices. There were 1638 children on our cruise so the boat was overrun with kids of all ages. All restaurants were booked solid the entire cruise. Events held in the main atrium which did not have enough seating for more than half the crowd. NCL is famous for nickel and diming you to death and this cruise was no different. Luckily we had the drink package. Pool was extremely crowded. Ports of call were good. Might recommend if you went on a Non holiday weekend. We had a balcony cabin but it would have been hard to actually sit on the balcony which had two chairs and barely enough room for the chairs so we never sat outside Bathroom was okay and had shower enclosure vs a shower curtain Bartenders were nice. Most wait staff were helpful. Room stewards were nice Food was plentiful. Read Less