Would recommend this cruise to anyone who wants to see Cuba before it changes as it will over the next few years. The pier is right in the older part of the city so you feel like you are docked right inside the city itself.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
The embarkation experience was very pleasant. We were in an Owner's Suite so had priority boarding. We got to the port about 11:45 and just had time for a complimentary drink and snack before we were escorted to our room.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
We were able to have breakfast and lunch in Cagney's which was reserved to guests in the suites. We also had one breakfast and lunch in the buffet. We had 2 dinners in Cagney's, one in Il Adagio and one in the Palace. All the food was excellent with a nice variety of choices. Service in all the restaurants was also excellent. We were even able to make a special request in Cagney's for lunch one day and get something that wasn't on the menu.
Cagney's Steakhouse
5 out of 5
We had never had dinner at Cagney's until this cruise and were very happy with our meals. We ate here twice - once for steaks and once for seafood and both times the food and service was excellent.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
We attended a "walking with comfort" seminar in the fitness center. We also enjoyed several of the musicians, especially Barry, the piano player in Captain Cook's. He was an excellent musician but so much more and was a true all around entertainer.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
We were able to enjoy 3 different musicians and they were all very good and entertaining.
Children's Programs
No children with us
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
We found all the waiters in the restaurants to be very efficient and pleasant. Our suite package included a 24/7 butler and concierge. Both gentlemen were excellent and went above and beyond to provide exceptional service.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
We had been on the Sky 2 years ago and felt it was getting a little shabby. But it appears that NCL has spruced it up in the meantime and we found it to be very clean and well maintained.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We had one of the 4 Owner's Suites on the ship. This suite was very large and included a powder room, a full bath off the bedroom, a large walk-in closet off the bedroom, a king size bed, a living/dining room with a full sofa and upholstered chair and dining table and 4 chairs, a desk, a Murphy bed in the wall of the dining area that was a queen size bed. The closet space in addition to the walk in closet was enormous and we did not use most of the storage space in the room. We had a fully stocked bar with nice glassware, refrigerator and sink. We also had a very large balcony with 2 loungers, 2 chairs and a double hot tub. We were truly spoiled with this suite.
Ship tip
Be aware that this is one of the smaller ships in the NCL fleet so if you want a more spacious stateroom, you may want to look at a suite or at least one of the higher priced balcony rooms.
We flew in to Miami the day before the cruise and we found an excellent hotel that was 15 minutes from the airport and 20 minutes from the port of Miami. They also provided a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the port as well as a complimentary breakfast. We will definitely use this hotel for future cruises.
We did an excellent shore excursion called Old Colonial Havana. The first 3 hours was a walking tour and we saw a lot of downtown Havana. After the walking portion, we got on an air conditioned bus that had a nice clean bathroom.We were given time to shop and taken to a shop to buy rum and cigars. We were also given lots of opportunities to see the classic cars that Havana is famous for.
We had been to this port many times so debated about even getting off the ship. But we had heard about all the improvements that NCL had made over the last several years so we decided to get off and look for ourselves. The improvements are really nice. They have really cleaned up the island and added a lot of nice amenities. We were really impressed by the new cabanas that you can rent for the day that come with comfortable seating, water and snacks. We did not rent one but will definitely look into that on future cruises.
I rated this a 5 even though there was a little delay. NCL seemed to be on the ball and coordinated the disembarkation well. The delay was caused by the slowness of getting through customs. This caused it to be necessary to hold up the disembarkation process until the bottle neck in customs cleared out. It was only about a 15 minute delay but those folks who had early flights might have had an issue making their flight on time. Fortunately we had an afternoon flight so we didn't have any issues.
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