Getaway June 7th review (not a Haven or VIP guy)

Got off the Getaway a couple days ago and thought I'd share the goods and very few bads as I've always appreciated those that review a cruise as I'm researching upcoming cruises myself.

A little about us. We had a group of 7, 3 rooms all on the 9th floor. A Large balcony, a regular balcony and an inside. 4 of our 7 were teenagers. This is our 9th cruise as a family, 3 on NCL, 4 on RCL and a Disney and a Carnival. In short, we have a great family vacations on cruises, don't have strong loyalties to one particular line but rather prefer the newer ships and itineraries. That is why we chose the 4 month old Getaway.

Embarkation in Miami. Good but not quite as quick as others had described. We got there about 10:45 but probably didn't get onto the boat until about 11:45. We were in group 4, maybe there was a customs thing but nobody from group 1 on up was going on until about 11:30. Seating was getting a little scarce waiting and when they did call the group numbers, the sound system in that port was the worst, you couldn't hear your group get called. Had to keep asking the guy at the front of the line what number they called. No worries, was still on in about an hour and started our cruise.

Ship - beautiful, great boat. As the week went on had some things that I found I liked more in other boats but for the most part it was a great layout.

Cabins - The normal balcony, as has been described here before, was a little disappointing. Very tight. Enough to fit a chair on but that's it. Very happy we upgraded one of our balconies to a large balcony. As we get a lot of use out of that balcony, this was a great space. We even got our cabin steward to put two loungers out there, along with a table. Plenty of room to lay out on the lounger there, in the sun, throughout the cruise. Came in handy especially on the "at sea" days when the pool area was very crowded. if you don't foresee yourself laying out on your balcony and just go out to stand and look at the water, then the normal ones are fine, otherwise I'd highly suggest upgrading to the large balcony. Very happy with that room. The inside was just a normal inside (sorry kids but when you pay the bill, you can get your own balcony). All of the rooms had ample storage and the beds were very comfortable. We had two different cabin stewards and both were excellent. No complaints on the rooms.

Food - Ok this is one area that I feel suffered, but didn't spoil the cruise for us. As I've mentioned, we've done several different lines without a strong loyalty - most on this board are probably NCL and "Freestyle" loyalists. That's ok. But in my opinion, the freestyle thing kind of devalued the cruise for our group. I personally like going to dinner the same time every night, really getting to know and catching up with our waiter, and him getting to know out tastes and preferences and receiving excellent personalized service. Kind of miss that with the freestyle thing. I'll qualify this and say we didn't do any of the specialty restaurants. I'm sure the service is better there but just not worth a group of 7 paying $200 more for dinner every night - in my opinion. Anyway, the buffet was, a buffet. Good early in the cruise and then how much pizza, burgers and the same kind of food can you keep eating all cruise long? The quality was fine, great for a quick breakfast, but seemed the same by day 5, 6 or 7. On Embarkment day I tried to set up a more traditional dining deal, whereby we'd go to Savor every night at 6:00 pm but the hostess said she could reserve us a table every night but it wouldn't be the same waiter etc. I'd heard that it can be more that way but didn't work out for us. Night one we did the Illusionarium (ok I guess I did pay for one dinner, but it was more about the show). Dinner and service was good, show was excellent. Highly recommend this. Night 2 ate at Savor. Very slow, not the greatest food. Waited 20-25 minutes before completing our dinner and getting desert (even though we ordered desert at the same time as we ordered our appetizers and our meal). After about 15 minutes I found my waitress and asked where desert was and got some laughing remark about how they had to go find a banana tree in the ocean to pick a banana from (I ordered a banana split, a scoop of ice cream and a banana). When we finally got it after 15 minutes again, not an apology just a joke about bananas are hard to find. Are you kidding me? I didn't order something not on the menu, it was one of the menu items. I could have walked up to the buffet and brought you a banana back in 5 minutes. Oh well, the food nor the service wasn't great in Savor day 2. Day 3 we ate Prime Rib in O'Sheehans. Food was ok but its a loud, crowded, bar atmosphere. Not the family dinner with excellent service I'd hoped for on a cruise. Day 4, back at Savor again, another experience. Even though we were one of the earliest seated groups, and by the way Savor was never 75% full anytime we were in there, After ordering our meals, and eating our appetizers, again a long wait ensued waiting for our meals. After about 15-20 minutes we asked the waiter and were told there was a problem with the grouper. They just had a meeting about it in the kitchen. The three of our group that ordered grouper needed to no re-order something else. But the 3 of our group were vegetarians and they had the choice between the grouper on the menu and the flounder. They didn't want flounder. First of all, why not know/mention this when we ordered 30 minutes ago? Why do we always have to ask about not getting our food? Why are there items on the menu that they don't have. Well after complaining again, lo and behold they found enough groupers for our table. (Sorry to whomever's table didn't get their grouper if they took it from you?). Again, just poor service. We decided here that this was our last night eating there. Ate the next night at the buffet and Day 6 and 7 at Tropicana. We should have gone to Tropicana sooner. Much better service, in our opinion. Even got the same waiter both nights and same table so got a little feel for that "traditional" seating cruise we were looking for. Food was better, no unexplained delays and we even got entertainment. Burn the Floor dancers performed while we ate. On Thursday night they did a swing routine that was excellent. So, if you are like me and want the more traditional, I can only suggest make reservations in Tropicana every night and hopefully you have better luck. As for other meals, did room service twice, good for a quick breakfast but not so great for lunch. Did O'Sheehans a couple times for breakfast and the rest the buffet. I'm not a food critic, I can be happy with a very basic meal so for the most part - I didn't go hungry but would have liked better service.

I'll post this now because Im afraid I would have typed it all only to lose it in a power outage and follow up with more later.

Food Follow Up - One thing we liked about some of the newer RCL ships that this didn't have was the promenade area in the middle of the ship. Like Deck 7 or so. The Oasis and Freedom would have a little shop where you could walk right up and just grab a free sandwich or desert like cookies, hot chocolate, tea or milk. We found we used that a lot. I guess the closest thing would be O'Sheehans but still very different. You have to sit down and order at Osheehans and its heavier meals. Our kids would routinely go down to the Promenade and grab a cookie and a carton of milk before bed every night. Same with me or wife, sometimes grab a cookie and a cup of tea before turning in. Going up to the buffet is further, sometimes closed late at night, just no the same. Kind of missed that aspect on the Getaway.

Shows - Legally Blond was great. Broadway quality. Went to the sail away show, kind of stupid, walked out. Already said the illusionarium was worth the price. Went to the comedians, I don't know if they change every week, but thought Andy was very funny, Landry and Andrew - not so much. the cruise director, Jo-El, was a drag. Me and my kids usually like the cruise directors and often think they are hilarious, sorry Jo-El. And he calls himself the Jersey boy, - not what I think of when I think of Jersey Boys at all, but no biggie.

Pools - I agree with most posters, there just is not enough pool space on this ship. Just the one "Adult" pool which is tiny and packed. Part of the problem is its like 6 feet deep, so unless you want to tread water constantly, everyone is huddled around the edge, or pulls chairs into the shallow sides. As a result, you can not even go in the pool unless you want to climb over someone else. Spice H20 is a decent area to lay out but just a waterfall and hot tubs, no pool. Then the only other pool is the walled in kids pool and the kids splash area. We had a 19 year old, 17, 16 and 13. They couldn't all go in the adult pool and wouldn't be caught dead in the kids splash pool. They didn't go into a pool all week. They really are missing another "everyone" pool. The slides were cool, tip - don't wear any jewelry on the big slides. They make the women take off their wedding rings. You might want to leave it in the safe in your room when doing the slides not at your pool chair somewhere. On sea days the decks were very crowded but you could still find spots higher up.

More to come......

While I appreciate the review paragraphs would be nice and I have to correct you that it's a ship not a boat.

Apology as there are paragraphs.

While I appreciate the review paragraphs would be nice and I have to correct you that it's a ship not a boat.

 

Apology as there are paragraphs.

If you are going to criticize and correct, use commas. ;)

good stuff so far It's nice to get reviews from non suite life sometimes. Maybe just because I'll never be in one lol:o

If you are going to criticize and correct, use commas. ;)

That was the first thing I thought of as well :D

Thank you for sharing.

While I appreciate the review paragraphs would be nice and I have to correct you that it's a ship not a boat.

 

Apology as there are paragraphs.

Or better yet, lets not criticize and correct at all. Some posters, like myself, are just trying to inform others, not write the great American novel in this message board. Some of us have jobs and don't have all day to write a perfect piece of literature. And why go to the trouble or criticizing and correcting yourself IN YOUR SAME POST? Just hit the delete button once you realize there were paragraphs and spare me your pompous, smarter than the rest of us attitude. Finally, while not in perfect paragraph form, there actually was a madness to how I chose to organize my post. I broke it down by section for a reason. I've had the pleasure to read numerous reviews from others, sometimes very wordy, that tell about things that I'm not interested in (but others may be), like their flight in from Des Moines, or the hotel they stayed at the night before the trip, or their gall bladders etc. I organized this in sections because if, for instance you are not interested in the shows, then don't read that section. You don't have to read the whole, paragraph organized review, to just scan for the sections you want to know about. Not that I need to defend my trying to inform and help others though, but get a life. More review to come later abut the ports and excursions, if anyone cares.

Or better yet, lets not criticize and correct at all. Some posters, like myself, are just trying to inform others, not write the great American novel in this message board. Some of us have jobs and don't have all day to write a perfect piece of literature. And why go to the trouble or criticizing and correcting yourself IN YOUR SAME POST? Just hit the delete button once you realize there were paragraphs and spare me your pompous, smarter than the rest of us attitude. Finally, while not in perfect paragraph form, there actually was a madness to how I chose to organize my post. I broke it down by section for a reason. I've had the pleasure to read numerous reviews from others, sometimes very wordy, that tell about things that I'm not interested in (but others may be), like their flight in from Des Moines, or the hotel they stayed at the night before the trip, or their gall bladders etc. I organized this in sections because if, for instance you are not interested in the shows, then don't read that section. You don't have to read the whole, paragraph organized review, to just scan for the sections you want to know about. Not that I need to defend my trying to inform and help others though, but get a life. More review to come later abut the ports and excursions, if anyone cares.

I do, I care !!! Keep going.

I care! Keep going!

I care too...love your review so far....need MORE

Thanks for the review.

Late Sail-Away. So this is something I have never encountered before. It kind of started the trip off on a bummer, but I got over it. I've been on 9 cruises now and they all start the same way. We eat, explore the "ship", get to get into our rooms and then around 3'ish is the life "boat" drill thing. (By the way on this "ship" they did the drill in the theatres, very comfortable and in the A/C. You didn't have to bring your life vest down either). Anyway, after the drill, the whole "ship" kicks into party mode as they get ready for the sail away. We usually get a drink, get a spot with a view up high and start the celebration. Well, after the drill they announced the start of the sail away party. We made our way up to Spice H20 for the party only to hear a muffled announcement from the captain. It seems that 56 passengers missed a connecting flight, from Jacksonville I heard, and that the sail away was going to be delayed a few hours. Now we can get into if its right to hold 4,400 passengers up for 50 but they did nonetheless. And in the end we still made it to our first stop on Tuesday on time so there was nothing lost, but the sail away was completely ruined. I'd say after that announcement, about 80% of the people left the party. Some probably went to eat, others to unpack who knows. We left too because it was dead and frankly its a little stupid to celebrate "sailing away" when you aren't "sailing away". My biggest complaint was that other than that muffled announcement from the captain, I never heard another thing about it. We were just stuck in Miami, sometimes hanging around our cabin, not moving, not knowing when we were planning to move. Its different when you are not moving, the upper decks are hot, not cooled down by that sea breeze. The casinos are not open, the party is going etc. etc. We went to the introductory show in the theatre later that night, where they introduce the crew but hardly anyone was there, not even some of the crew as they were getting ready to prepare for on 8:00 sail away instead of a 4:00 sail away. They introduce the captain and his officers by their pictures with them not being there. Anyway, in the long run, they could have communicated better, maybe even bought us all our first drink free for the inconvenience. Something tells me if I was the only one on that flight from Jacksonville, they would not have held up the "ship" and I would have been out several thousand dollars. But it all worked out well and I'm, glad the late arrivers could make the party.

Ports and Excursions -

St. Maartens - We arranged, on our own, for a private tour of the island with Jo Junie tours. With 7 of us it wasn't too much different than if we paid individually, but we felt like we'd have a little more control of the trip if it was private. He took us, counter-clockwise around the island. A stop at an oyster bay where a guy showed us a few sea creatures. Could have done without but still not bad and we didn't stay for long. Went to Orient Beach next. Beautiful beach, very glad we went. We had some hesitation about this, being uptight Americans and having 4 teenaged boys with us, with the possibility of seeing nudity on the French beach. I'm glad common sense won out and we still did. He brought us to the "Bikini Beach" area of Orient I believe. Yes we saw maybe 2 topless middle-aged women, no one cared or made a big deal about it. We didn't walk up near the Orient beach nude beach where it might have been more prevalent though so it worked out fine. My only commentary here is, if you have hesitations for the same reason, go to the beach. Its beautiful and what little nudity you might encounter really was a non issue. We got chairs and umbrellas and the teens jumped on a water trampoline thing. All in all a great couple of hours. Next stop was the French village of Marigot. We stopped there to eat lunch. It seems all the restaurants are all connected to each other there and all seem identical. Anyway we chose one and were kind of disappointed. I ordered some kind of rib and chicken dish and the chicken leg looked like it was the size of a seagull and the ribs were tiny, I don't know what kind of animal they were ribs from... and I wasn't asking either. But there were an awful lot of iguanas on the island. And it was overpriced too. But its a pretty little town I guess and we did get pastries from Serrafinas, they were good. Next stop was Maho beach. The famous beach where the planes take off and land right on top of you. The beach was nice, the kids had a blast holding onto the fence for dear life as the jet engines tried to blow them into the water. Fun place to visit for an hour or two but not the place to go if you are looking for a peaceful tropical beach. After all that we were ready to get back to the "ship". I'd recommend Jo, he was great and had unlimited beer, water, soda and rum punch too. And he drives a much nicer van than the Bernards tours we saw. He has an 11 person Mercedes van, at least for our trip he did, which was very comfortable and always had the AC running for when we met up with him.

St. Thomas - On St Thomas we did an excursion through the ship, St John catamaran and champagne sail. I've done some great excursions in Alaska and Hawaii among other places and this ranks right up there with the best of them. After a 20 minute ride to the catamaran (forgive me if I call this one a boat?), you get on the boat with about 20 other people. It wasn't crowded, the crew was great, maybe a 45 minute ride over to St Johns. St Johns was awesome! Picturesque. The snorkeling was great, spent maybe an hour and a half there. You could snorkel or swim up to the beach (or they boat you up to the beach in their dingy if you prefer). Apparently this was the beach the Kenney Chesney and Rene Zelwegger got married on, if that means anything to you? Anyway the crew was great, the trip was great, and this goes down as the best thing we did all week. Highly recommend it.

Nassau - its Nassau. We've probably ben there 4 or 5 times, stayed at Atlantis a couple times so we had no desire to go to Atlantis or really see any more of Nassau and its straw markets. I wish NCL would change this stop to their private island instead. We just chose to walk off the boat and walk about a mile or so to Junkanoo beach. You could see it from the "ship". Not the best beach but still a beach in the Bahamas. It got us off the "ship" and a chance to stretch our legs and dip our feet in the Caribbean before going home the next day.

Thank you very much for writing up your review. I'm enjoying it very much!

Thank you very much for the review and sorry you had to deal with the grammer police.

Question for you - do you recall if the wifi package was by minute or by megabyte? Recent Breakaway passangers are reporting it was change to megabytes and was wondering if they did the same on Getaway.

Thanks.

Atrium - I just wanted to mention something here, maybe others have different thoughts. I hated how the Atrium on this "ship" was used. Normally its a pretty good meeting spot or sitting spot, sometimes with activities like trivia going on. On this "ship" it was like a hectic second theatre. On other cruises we'd normally go to the typical "Newlywed" type show in the theatre some night, but on Getaway they do that and similar shows right smack in the middle of the Atrium. Unlike in a theatre where the seats go up as you go back so you don't sacrifice view, in the Getaway Atrium, people just pull up a chair and if you are not in the first or second row of people, you end up with a lousy view of the show. Then since its one of the highest traffic areas on the whole ship, even though you may have been lucky enough to have found a seat a few rows back, you constantly get people walking through the atrium from the casino for instance, and then of course stopping right in front of you to see what's going on. So whatever view you had is now completely gone. And the sound is not great either. You can see the Atrium from upstairs at O'Sheehans but only if you are in the first row of the horseshoe of seats, maybe 25 seats, that looks over the ledge. I just felt like there were several shows like the Newlywed show, perfect couple show, dancing with the Norwegian getaway stars, kinds of shows that we would have gone to the theatre to see but found it too frustrating to see since they held it in the Atrium. And heaven forbid if you are going to the Atrium to book a shore excursion or guest services during one of these shows, you cant hear a word they are saying with the show noise. I don't get NCL's use of this room. They did show the NBA and World Cup games in here and that seemed like a good use though as at least you could look up to see the action on the big screen. But I just felt like I would have seen more if they did more in the theatre like on other "ships".

Summary - As I stated earlier, I'm not a loyalist to one line over the other. The fact that I've got teenagers takes some lines out of the equation for me personally. My top two are Royal and Norwegian based on my family situation. I really enjoy going on newer "ships", even at the expense of the itinerary. But assuming Royal and Norwegian both came out with a new "ship" doing the same itinerary, and at the same price, personally I would book Royal myself. Primarily because of the more traditional dining, better food, Promenade areas and Atrium usage. But its not that dramatic of a difference and I've met others that are 100% opposite from me on the freestyle dining concept. But overall it was a great vacation, if I pointed out a few negatives, it was far more outweighed by hundreds of positives. I'd highly recommend the Getaway for a family vacation and I had a great time last week. If I can answer any specifics, feel free to ask. Otherwise, Happy Cruising and time for me to plan the next one!

Thank you very much for the review and sorry you had to deal with the grammer police.

 

Question for you - do you recall if the wifi package was by minute or by megabyte? Recent Breakaway passangers are reporting it was change to megabytes and was wondering if they did the same on Getaway.

 

 

Thanks.

Sorry - didn't use the ship wifi but seem to remember reading that it was by the megabyte but don't quote me on it. But this does remind me that we chose to download the IConcierge app. I'm sure many have read about this already but I found the free version helpful (look at activities going on or your account balance. You could buy a drink and then look at your phone 2 minutes later and it was already updated to your account.). But we paid for 3 of us to do the text messaging thing with it. We found that part to be unreliable and we only sent two or three texts all week, which all didn't even go through. if I had to do it over again, I would download the app but not pay the $8.00 per person for the texting thing. We got by just fine without it. Just my experience.

We also did the champagne / catamaran tour of st john, and I agree - it was a blast!

LOVE your review of the boat. You are well-spoken and offer much info. Thank you for sharing- your St Maarten stuff has made me finally make a decision, which turns out to be the same as yours was!

Did your kids use the arcade at all? Teen facilities?

How did they enjoy the water park and ropes corse? Or did it become boring after a couple tries?

(Oops! I spelled course wrong and I am not correcting!!!)

St Thomas- the catamaran to St. John - all day?

Thanks so much!,,,

LOVE your review of the boat. You are well-spoken and offer much info. Thank you for sharing- your St Maarten stuff has made me finally make a decision, which turns out to be the same as yours was!

 

Did your kids use the arcade at all? Teen facilities?

 

How did they enjoy the water park and ropes corse? Or did it become boring after a couple tries?

(Oops! I spelled course wrong and I am not correcting!!!)

 

St Thomas- the catamaran to St. John - all day?

 

Thanks so much!,,,

Did not use the arcade at all. One, the 13 y/o went to the the teen facilities most every night and really liked it, met some friends. The other 3 (16,17 and 19) felt they were too old for it and did more adult stuff like Howl at the Moon piano bar (excellent and very talented guys by the way).

We all loved the ropes course, very cool to do even for us old folks. The kids ended up doing it multiple times. Progressively harder conditions each time. First they did it while in port, then at sea, then at sea at night - said that was the scariest by far. Also used the water slides. I did the slide that the floor drops out underneath you. Worth doing once anyway, they did it multiple times.

Catamaran - was a half day thing. Met for the excursion at about 8:30 am, got back on the boat (oops I did it again - I mean ship) at about 1:00. I know the catamaran people were going out for a later one once they dropped us off, I just don't know if the later one works for the getaway port times.

Enjoy.

Do you recall if you have to wear socks and/or running shoes for the ropes course? This is not something I would normally pack for a warm weather holiday..

The catamaran - if you choose not to snorkel is your other option sitting on the beach or would there be something else nearby? My husband doesn't swim and we will have gear with us due to the kiddos, so I am happy they will at least rubber dingy you in! :D

Loved your review....I will be sailing on July 5th with my 11 year old granddaughter....I love both Royal and NCL....I chose Getaway this time for the slides for my gd :)

We have an aft balcony on deck 12....so excited!

You say you upgraded to a large balcony stateroom can you tell me what categorie this is? And what cabin # you had?

We are sailing in 2 months and have a BB Balcony with 4 person in it :eek::eek:

Kinda scared it's way too small for us 4....

Thanks for the review ;)

Thank you for the postings. We're going on Getaway in November. First time on the bigger NCL ship.

Your dining tips will be useful.

We're staying in Inside Cabin, knowing that we don't spend too much time in cabin.