In the fall of 2024, we sailed on one of Norwegian Cruise Line’s oldest cruise ships. We wanted to see how it compared to the spectacular Norwegian Encore. Would it feel old and outdated? Could Norwegian ensure a consistent experience across such an old ship? We set out to find out and created our Norwegian Sky Full Review: What we Loved, Didn’t Love, Hated.

Norwegian Sky’s Fascinating History

Norwegian Sky has a really fascinating history. A quick scroll through her Wikipedia page tells the story of a ship once set to be delivered to Costa Cruises. But due to financial struggles with the shipyard, the cruise ship was only partially completed before floated out in October of 1996. Eventually, she was simply laid up unfinished. Costa decided not to pursue purchasing the ship and over a year later. That’s when Norwegian Cruise Line swooped in and purchased the vessel for their growing cruise line. The ship was towed to a new shipyard to finally be completed and delivered to Norwegian in July of 1999.

Norwegian had big dreams for the Sun-class ship, ordering two additional ships based on the Sky’s design before she was even finished. Only one of those orders came to fruition, however, with the launch of Norwegian Sun in 2001. The second additional ship based on the Sky’s design was ultimately cancelled.

While I won’t go into her complete history here, it’s definitely worth reading about her time as Pride of Aloha, her possible sale to a Royal Caribbean subsidiary, the time she spent with Genting Hong Kong, and eventually, Norwegian Cruise Line’s repurchase of Norwegian Sky for the fleet.

So how does a 25 year old ship compete in 2024?

Norwegian Sky in 2025

Norwegian Sky is a small ship by today’s standards, weighing in at only 77,000 gross tons. Her 12 decks feature standard amenities like swimming pools, hot tubs, a basketball court, theater, main dining rooms, shopping, and plenty of bars and restaurants. In fact, she went through a massive overhaul in 2019 which introduced new eateries and experiences already associated with the NCL brand (Cagney’s Steakhouse as one example). Norwegian Cruise Line at the time shared this “bow-to-stern renovation” also included upgrading every single stateroom on the ship.

We certainly appreciated a lot about our experience on board. As you’ll see in our Norwegian Sky full review, we love how modern the ship feels. But sadly, this was the first cruise ever where we said, “we just want it to be over.”