First cruise- in depth- Norwegian Sky , 4 night Miami

This was my first cruise and it was so much fun!

First prepping and the cabin...
I heavily overpacked (followed online checklists). I expected to be sleeping in a closet but the porthole room was surprisingly bigger than I'd hoped! The shower was also very comfortable and that was also a surprise. I'm a fairly heavy person and I had a roommate.

The Sky is a little dated but fit with the home port. Think "Miami Vice".
Everything was super clean and I saw staff continuously working to keep it so. Our steward was awesome and once I complimented him on the first towel animal, we had one for each bunk..twice per day!

Perks...
Traveling with family who booked the owners suite, we got to be included as a whole party ( 1 interior,1 porthole, and the suite guests) when their "owners suite" perks were heaped upon them. Priority everything, room snacks, free water, reserved seating, etc!

Food and alcohol...
The buffet is pleasant and has many choices. About your average buffet style restaurant. The deck barbecues were excellent. The seated restaurants were all very nice. Extremely attentive service and encouraged to try more than 1 dish if you can't decide. The food was good, not great, but an experience in luxury! The mixed drinks were pretty good. I recommend the Moscow mule or anything from the Mojito bar. Unlimited, but you can only carry away 2 per person at a time from the bars. Servers are 90% friendly but at times very busy.

Ports...
Nassau was nice to experience but it was very dirty and the people are seriously aggressive with selling you anything. Everyone calls you by "Beautiful" and they get offensive if they can't talk you into buying anything. Very crowded flea market area was like walking the gauntlet! They will ALWAYS come down in price tho. Saying that you don't have cash gets you an offer to be escorted to the ATM with whatever you glanced-at-object in hand! Fresh coconut to drink is SERIOUSLY good and $1.

Freeport and the private Island were canceled for us and we had a sea day (Think this is the cause of my 10day sea-leg dizziness after the trip)

Key west was the replacement stop for our canceled Freeport. It was pretty nice. Felt like Tybee Island. Palm trees, trinkets, and laid back atmosphere.

Embarkation was smooth, tho disembarking was a little messy. I got yelled at by security for trying to photograph the ship I just spent 4 days on. Traffic jam at the elevators, which are required if you have more than 1 suitcase per person, to leave the port.

We had very rough seas at night and visiting the owners cabin felt like you were surfing, although nobody got seasick thankfully!

We had rooms booked for fall 2017 before we left.
Looking forward to it!