Cruise Day 1: Ohhh Miami!!

I think I'm in love....:) Well Miami from the ship is absolutely gorgeous. It's sprawling and the skyline is awe-inspiring. The islands between the mainland and Miami beach are populated with mansions complete with swimming pools and boats and yachts of all sizes docked right at their doors. I'm very glad we didn't avoid Miami like we had planned, or we'd have missed this perspective.


On to the ship...boarding was surprisingly easy, even though we didn't have luggage tags or any documentation other than the itinerary that was e-mailed to Thor (since we only booked a couple of weeks ago and we weren't home to collect the package!). So we just carried our luggage on, and just had to show the printout and our passports. Lunch was available, the sun was shining and getting to know the ship took up the hours before we sailed out at 5 pm.

As comparison; the Norwegian Sky is approximately the same size as the Carnival ship we took the “family cruise” on. We've found it maybe a half-step down in the level of opulence from that Carnival ship, and maybe a step and a half down from our first cruise on the Carnival Miracle. We have the very bottom level of accommodation which means smallest indoor cabin. I was a bit worried about claustrophobia, but really it's not that bad. What I really miss is not being able to place the time of day with no outside source of light. And really, what more do you need but a bed and bathroom! We've also found that compared to the Carnival ships, there are more things that cost money on this ship. There are two main dining rooms that are included, plus all the buffets, but if you want pizza, you pay. Also the free drinks are coffee, tea, milk, plain iced tea and water. The soft self-serve ice cream closes up when the buffets do. Now for the good parts...it's what they call “freestyle”. So no set dinner time, no set table and dinner companions. Our first cruise we had almost insufferable dinner companions. And of course the family cruise we all sat together so that was ok, but if you wanted the yummy main dining room selections you were tied to the same seating time the whole cruise. This one, you can wander into either dining room any time that they're open and be seated at your own table. For our first dinner on board, I started out with Thai summer rolls with sweet chili dipping sauce. Thor had Teriyaki chicken skewers which were served on a slice of grilled pineapple. I chose the sage and potato gnocchi which was served with vegetables in a pumpkin cream sauce and Thor had prime rib with horseradish whipped potatoes and vegetables. Dessert for me was dulce de leche flan garnished with raspberry and Thor had a cappuccino chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup. After dinner we did some “sightseeing” on board and just happened through the dessert station in the buffet area that was making crepes to order. Oh boy, a strawberry crepe with caramel sauce just hit the spot. Ok, one tip to avoid too much weight gain on a cruise...NEVER TAKE THE ELEVATOR! Our cabin is on deck 10 and the restaurants are on deck 5. Buffets, pools and sundecks are decks 11 and 12. Shopping is deck 5. The theatre for nightly entertainment is deck 6 and 7. Explore the ship and that adds up to LOTS of stair climbing! The show last night was a music and dance revue, very high energy and VERY entertaining. We enjoyed immensely. Tomorrow – Freeport, The Bahamas!