11/29/14 Great Getaway (Review)

I had an absolutely amazing time on the NCL Getaway on the November 29th-December 6th sailing. It was my original intention to do a day by day review, but I think I’ve settled on just hitting the highlights of the notes I took and go category by category. Just a note, I am not an “NCL cheerleader” but I have sailed the majority of the time with them. I tend to notice both the good and bad and not sugarcoat what they do just because I happen to like them the best…

To set the scene, I am a 30 year old male who had gone totally solo once before, and “solo” with a friend once as well. There were, per sources, about 3,700 people on the Getaway during our week, so it wasn’t full. I would have bet there were a lot less than that, but that may be a compliment to the ship design.

The Solo Experience

When I started writing, this wasn’t at the top, but I realized that if you read nothing else in this post, its important you hear how wonderful the solo group was. The first meeting had between 40-50 solos squeezed into the (teensy tiny) lounge. A very large number of us actually booked balconies or inside rooms for more space due to the favorable rates, but we found our way to eachother at the meet and greet and events.

Almost every night, between 10 and 15 solos would meet in the MDR for dinner, and I know there were also breakfast, lunch, and port groups. The largest number of us ended up congregating and dancing the night away at the various parties and in Bliss. Having done the solo thing before, I know that sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. In this case, it worked magically and many of us hope to meet up again someday soon.

The “golden ticket” for the solos was a schedule we got from Sharon, our solo host for the week, which had a list of all the big events, all the social dinners, the show schedule for solos to attend, etc. This was given out on Day One and we were all able to find someone else to enjoy an event with at any time the rest of the cruise. Sharon was A+++ and will eventually head to the Sun once done this contract in January.

Embarkation/Debarkation

Stayed at the Marriot Courtyard Downtown Friday night. Upgraded to a suite (even after using points to book) and it was a beautiful room. Good service, Bistro restaurant in-hotel. Shuttle is available at 11:00am Saturday. I opted to take a cab around 10:40 and was at security right at 11AM. There was literally no line and I was checked in and waiting in reception by 11:10. They started calling groups around 11:30 and I was on soon after having lunch in Savor.

Debarking was a little more eventful. Getting off around 8:30 with a lime luggage tag was no issue. Waited in line to leave less than 7 or 8 minutes. Got into the luggage/customs area and as soon as I walked in I saw two customs agents watching me. I got my bag, waited in line about 20 minutes and as soon as I got to the front of the line they pulled me from line and occupied me for another 40 minutes searching my bags and asking me everything short of my bank account number. I know they also did a background check in the back office. The agent indicated at one point that he thought people vacationing alone was unusual. Guess he didn’t realize there were a couple hundred of us…anyway, eventually, with my faith in the US Government knocked down another peg, SAS transported me to FLL with no issues.

Room

I had balcony room 12778. This was the first time I booked a balcony as a solo, but have been in them when my parents booked, etc. The prices were so low that I “upgraded” to this room after booking an inside through Casinos at Sea. It was approximately $430 plus taxes and fees, and since I had a $250 future cruise credit to use, so needless to say the price was fairly good for a balcony as far as my bank account. I’m not going to bother rehashing it here, but NCL failed to notify me they would be taking away my $100 onboard credit when I changed rooms. I will continue to work on getting that reimbursed for as long as I need to…

Anyway, the room was nice for one person. I think it might be a little tiny for two. The balcony was a good size for just me as well, though I barely used it. In retrospect, I definitely should have just stuck with the inside because even for the $80 I didn’t get that much use in…maybe 20 minutes total the whole week. Seas were rough the first couple days and the railings/chairs were covered in salt until the window washers cleaned the ship on day five. It was very windy and rained off and on so it just didn’t work out. Plus, I was out and about the majority of the time.

There was plenty of storage – not sure why people have written in other reviews that there isn’t enough. I do think the setup is slightly odd, though. Assuming someone asked for the beds to be separated, there would be no way to get into the closet…

My steward Christian was adequate, at best. The sink had black sticky spots when I arrived on day one, but other than that (and the salty balcony) he kept things tidy. I only say adequate because I never actually saw him after the first day. Just the luck of the timing, I guess. He also seemed to think as a solo I only needed one facecloth a day, but I made it work.

Food

As mentioned, I’ve done six NCL cruises now. This was, hands down, the best food that I have had on Norwegian. I was slightly less than adventurous, but I found what I liked and stuck to it! The new MDR menu seems to be a vast improvement. The solo group ate most dinners together in the various MDRs, and I stuck to the delicious meat lasagna after some French onion soup most nights. One of my regrets each of my recent cruises was that I never picked a night in the MDR that had the warm chocolate volcano. Well, the Getaway makes that a whole lot easier by having it every night! And yes, you better believe I did have one…or two…most nights!

The time to eat in the MDRs was MOSTLY OK. Much quicker as a solo diner than with anyone else. They seemed to get me in and out immediately to free up the table. Solo meals approached two hours and were a little more perplexing because we would sit at the same time, but one table would be done (apps, entrée, or dessert) before another table even received them.

The only pay restaurant I did was La Cucina, which I love despite the mixed reviews it gets. It’s the best bruschetta anywhere (hold the anchovies) and the service was good.

O’Sheehans also saw me quite a bit. Nothing really either awful or special here, though I do hate the limited overnight menu that relegates you to a burger and fries and a couple other items. I would think even mozzarella sticks would be something they could do 24 hours, but I’m guessing that it’s a fryolator staffing issue overnight. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the dessert choices, and getting ice cream in this area costs extra.

I did try a cannoli from Carlo’s bakery. Didn’t love it. Meant to go back and try the tiramisu but it slipped my mind.

Tried the Flamingo grill once, had some fried plantains and something else. It didn’t really fit my personal tastebuds, but it seemed popular.

The only other notable location is the Buffet. I only ate there a couple times, no real different experience from my other NCL cruises. I did notice it seemed like the “entire” buffet area was only open at very limited times throughout the day. It was more likely to find half of it open. Not sure if this is the norm, or if it was due to the smaller crowd.

Outside Deck Facilities:

Against my better judgment, I did get myself up on the ropes course AND even walked the plank. It was a lot of fun though complicated by the fact it started raining shortly after getting harnessed in. I snapped an NCL picture on the plank but for some reason it never appeared with my other photos. I did not use the pool or the waterslides, but I didn’t think the pool was terribly full at any time during our cruise. If 4,000 people tried to get in at once, it would obviously be a little on the small side.

I wasn’t going anywhere near the drop slides even if I did do the regular slides (which I didn’t) but I was witness to a gentleman being trapped on the platform for somewhere between 20-30 minutes. Once closed in to the slide, it wouldn’t drop him and then they somehow couldn’t get their key to open the door. The guy had a couple legitimate panic attacks by the look of it, though I’m sure his wife standing next to him yelling at the staff to get him out didn’t help. He eventually was pried out safe and sound but I don’t think the slides opened the next day. I could be wrong on that point, however.

The one other thing I wanted to point out was that they kick people out of the spice H20 hottubs around 10 each night. I understand that for the party, but there were people watching the movie in it that got ushered out and it seemed like maybe that was overkill, but certainly nothing to get all that bent out of shape about.

There didn’t seem to be a big deck chair issue, but I only looked mid-late afternoon for some quick reading time.

Casino

Since I did book through Casinos at Sea, I found myself at the Craps table in most of my free time. I ended up leaving about $700 up. I couldn’t lose for the first five days but things took a turn at the end. The casino was never really packed. I did (half) jokingly chided a couple dealers to “smile” but it didn’t work. There were some funny and fun dealers and some that seemed miserable to be there. I would think they would understand being miserable would affect players tipping them but I found out towards the end of the week some of the Bahamas dealers are leaving once their contract is up to work at a new Nassau casino, so maybe that contributed to it…

As a quick note on the never-ending smoke issue, I never saw a problem inside the ship. It certainly did smell “Stale” near the casino, but there was never really a time when I was above or below it where I smelled smoke/etc as others have reported. The suction system works well and I think people are probably being overly sensitive if they think its “Awful”. I will say, however, on the other side of the coin, there was zero enforcement of the new “you should only be smoking in the casino if you are playing there” rule. There were plenty of passengers that use the slot area as their personal smoking room without ever spending a dime. People also used the cigar lounge for this purpose so I thought it smelled a bit worse near Sunset.

Entertainment

First night was the welcome variety show. This was supposed to give us a “sample” of some of the entertainment through the week. I will admit to being tired, but it was fairly boring to me.

The solo group attended the Burn the Floor show on the second night. I’m going to attempt to be fair to the performers here and say that they were excellent. However, it just simply isn’t my thing. I was bored out of my mind, the show has no plot whatsoever, and there’s no music that anyone really knows except the last couple songs. As I said though, in fairness, there was a standing ovation and many people were enamored with the whole experience. Just isn’t for me…

Legally Blonde was a better experience on day six, but I do have *some* questions here too. I don’t want to start any debate, but I’m just not entirely convinced this is a fully live performance. I know some of it was, but a lot of it just seemed…Perfect? Canned? That said, highly entertaining and the audience loved it. I would see it again.

There were two comedians on board; one was Lucas Bohn, and I don’t remember the other name as I didn’t see him. Lucas was funny during the late night 11 oclock show, though he pushed the envelope with a couple race-related jokes a bit too much for the few people that got up and walked out. I think the majority of us loved him though.

Most of the game shows/cruise staff entertainment were held in the atrium. It didn’t really seem like the ideal location because people were 3-4-5 deep up on the second floor trying to see things down.

The crew talent show was……well, it was what it was. Good for them for being brave and getting up and giving back to the guests.

The last night was the farewell show, and they brought back the Burn the Floor cast who for some reason were far more entertaining when dancing to better music…take a note, NCL.

I only poked my head in for five minutes during Howl at the Moon. While this was one of my favorite events on the Epic, I just didn’t find time this cruise to enjoy it!

Parties:

There were so many fun times this cruise I thought they should have their own section. The absolute highlight of the cruise was the Glow Party. I initially poo-pooed it as a cheap copy of the white party, but it improved it 10-fold. We all had so much fun! The 80s party was a close second, both for the music/entertainment and the fireworks display. They had multiple others, though the first night welcome aboard party ended up being in Bliss due to wind/rain. Bliss was HEAVILY used on our cruise, and definitely showed itself to be one of the major design flaws on the Getaway (along with the studio lounge). Both are much larger and crowd-worthy on the Epic.

Ports

This is going to be a pretty sort section. I have been to all of these ports 3+ times as of this itinerary. In St Maarten I got off to use the wifi, did not get off in St Thomas, and went to Dunkin Donuts on Nassau. I was offered drugs not five minutes off the ship in the Bahamas. I really do cruise “for the ship” and don’t much care where it goes.

Service/Staff

I can honestly say despite one casino waiter, I didn’t encounter a single rude staff member on this cruise. Many were extremely helpful and did whatever they could to improve our vacation. I read review after review where people complain about NCL staff and I just honestly don’t understand it. I have never had a truly bad vacation due to the staff on any ship. Joel Sanchez the cruise director was amusing (if not a little over the top) and assistant cruise director Adam seemed to be everywhere. The other cruise director staff members were absolutely hellbent on involving everyone on that ship in activities and the parties – their enthusiasm was contagious.

In conclusion, and all around great week, probably close to the top of my cruising list. I wouldn’t hesitate visiting it again, maybe once it takes the Epic’s western itinerary once Escape comes out. The service and entertainment were top notch and I would recommend it to anyone. I’m happy to try to address any other questions if I know the answer…

I did save the dailies and I will try to upload them next week in case someone is interested.

Thanks for the review. We sail on the 20th.

I'd love to see the dailies just because I'm curious about poker tourney's. :)

I'll never play a cash game on board, the rake is INSANE but I've had very good luck in the tourneys.

Great review! Would love to see the dailies since I will be on the boat in a few weeks

I snapped an NCL picture on the plank but for some reason it never appeared with my other photos.

Just curious but do you mean it never showed up in your binder or it never showed up where they put all the plank pictures?

Correct...it never appeared in my binder or attached to my card. Not sure if the facial recognition didn't work or what