Detail Getaway review June 7th sailing

Info

Let's start with our traveling group. My wife K is 43 recent illness has left her with mobility issues. She is getting better, but can't walk or stand for long periods. She gets around with the aid of a cane and me, I'm 44 and this is our 9th cruise. We booked a Haven aft penthouse. Also traveling with us was my brother-in-law J (44), his wife M (40) and their son R (16) and their daughter E (11). This was their 1st cruise and they booked the same type cabin as we did, just on the opposite corner on the same floor.

Travel Day (Fri June 6)

We had a direct flight into Miami early in the morning. No issues arrived into Miami just before noon. J and I decided to surprise the kids with a H2 Limo, thanks to a great coupon from Limos.com. However, the day before I got a call from the limo service to inform us that the Hummer limo was in the shop and would it be okay to replace with an Escalade limo. I stated that my only concern is the amount of luggage that we are bringing. The lady responded that it shouldn't be a problem since it holds 22 people. So I said okay. Since I was at work I didn't have time to look it up. So I was concern that either this limo cost less and We were still paying H2 prices or it it cost more, then they expected us to pay more and not have the coupon in place. So when we get there, the driver is waiting for us and helps us with our luggage. We get to our limo, wow is all I can say. It was long, with hardwood floors, laser light show, leather seats, and best of all our 14 pieces of luggage fit in back just fine.

Here is the limo

The kids and adults for that matter were having fun in this once in a lifetime moment. As we were going down the road, I looked up the price of this limo. It was double what we paid. Now, I'm thinking huge credit card charge coming my way. So we headed off to our hotel The Doubletree Grand on Biscayne Bay. As we pulled in, the driver was having difficulty getting into the entrance (too many cars) So he parked in the limo on the street and went in for assistance. While waiting on the street, people were stopping to see who was in there. We were cracking up when this couple started taking pictures in front of our limo. We were going to photo bomb them, but our driver had locked the windows or we couldn't find the unlock button.

Have you never seen a limo

Our driver then came back with a bellman who got our luggage and we got out of the car. K and M were covering E to pretend that she was someone famous alluding the cameras. Nobody fell for it, once people figured out that we weren't famous the crowd dissipated. And we walked into the hotel. Since we were early, our rooms were not ready, but the desk person informed us that we had been upgraded. WooHoo!!! We then headed for lunch we decided to eat at Bubba Gump at Bayside. We love Bubba Gump, J and K ordered fish and chips, however the fish pieces were small. The shrimp E and I had was excellent. The concierge at the Doubletree gave us coupons for a free kids meal or a free appetizer. Since we were two separate parties,we got one of each. E got a free meal and we got appetizers. I highly recommend the Mac and cheese with shrimp. As we were finishing, we got the call from the hotel, our rooms are now ready. We grabbed a cab and headed back. We got back, got our keys and signed up for the port shuttle. We got all 6 of us on the first shuttle out at 11. We then went to our respective rooms. Our room was spectacular. It had two balconies one overlooking the bay the other overlooking the park next door.

A few shots of the room

After settling in I walked over to the Publix grocery store about a block away to stock up on soda for the cruise. While I was out I got the email receipt for the limo, it was still the coupon price. Woohoo!!! After resting within that at the pool went swimming. We then decided to have dinner at Primo's Italian Restaurant. It is located in the shopping center between the Doubletree and the Marriott. They claimed they had "world famous" meatballs. They were the best we ever had was the consensus around the table. After the incredible dinner, it was time to head to bed. Set the wake up call for 8:00 (more on that later) to give time to eat breakfast and pack. So ready for the cruise to start.

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Subscribing - great so far!!

Interesting start to your vacation. Looking forward to hearing/seeing the rest of your adventures. We'll be on the Getaway on Sept. 13th.

Thanks for the report!

Embarkation Day (Sat June 7)

Phone rings, it's our wake up call. I wake up. I told my wife that I take my shower first so she could rest a little longer after the busy day the day before. I enter the bathroom, start the shower, use the restroom, take of my clothes, and reach for my phone to turn on some music. I looked on my phone and notice that it said 5:12. So our 8:00 wake up call was a 5:00 wake up call. I decided to go though with the shower and just be up early. After my shower, I decided to go out on the port facing balcony and relax. As I pulled the curtain back, I now see that it is still dark. But also I saw pulling into port was the Getaway.

So after everyone was up and cleaned we went to breakfast. We stayed at the Doubletree with the cruise package. The package included the room, transportation to the port, and breakfast for two. Since there was only two in our party because that much about the breakfast however my brother-in-law and his family had for so little to the front desk in the nice lady there gave them an additional coupon for two. We ate breakfast at Gauchito's next door. It was the best free hotel breakfast that I've had in along time. We checked out and met our van and we were headed to the port. Important point to all you go to the port there are two terminals. Be sure to check your ticket as we entered terminal B which was on our ticket there was a family there were upset because they were supposed to be in terminal C and didn't feel like walking. They were blocking the door. Finally, went though security and into the Haven check-in. Quick and easy. They offered my wife a wheelchair, but she refused and said she could get though with her cane. We scanned our key cards and my brother-in-law was having trouble. Apparently he stuck the card in too far and it was stuck. So the line was stopped. It took a couple of security people to pull it out. We boarded the ship headed for the Haven. We met Anoop, the lead concierge. It was still before noon, so we waited for the restaurant to open. While we were waiting, we signed up for the cupcake decorating class. Unfortunately, it was at the same time as the CC Meet and Greet. Noemi, one of the staff concierge book the cupcake class, Ice Bar, and specialty La Cucina and Le Bistro for us. She was incredible throughout the trip. We had a great lunch there and then we checked with the Noemi and our rooms were now ready. So we decided to head down to the room.

And things got interesting from here.

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We were in the Haven on this same sailing... I'll be interested to see the rest of your review

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Can't wait to hear more!

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Embarkation Day (con't)

So we headed to my brother-in-law's cabin it was a haven aft penthouse 13902. We were very familiar with this room has on the Breakaway we had Suite 13902 also. When we walked in my wife and both thought the cabin was smaller than the Breakaway. We later looked at pictures and it appeared to be the same.

They seamed very happy with the room. We showed them around and found the invitation to the VIP party with the Captain. But it had our name on it. Our invitation was in their room. Okay so where is their invitation? They were getting settled in, so we headed to our cabin Aft penthouse Suite 13302. Sure enough their invitation was in our room. So we are looking through all the envelopes left in the room. We discovered that we had somebody else's excursion tickets. This was our 1st cruise as platinum, but only my items were there none for my wife. Plus there were no ship pins. I ran down to the cruise consultants desk. They didn't open until 6 pm. We then discovered there was no fruit bowl, no robes, no soap and the flowers didn't look like they were going to survive the day. We had contacted the concierge email prior to the cruise. We asked for the mini bar to be cleared (partially cleared and dirty), gummy bears and nuts(not there), and water and tea(not there). I pre ordered a cake. It was there, but it was the wrong cake,

Cake that was delivered

Cake I ordered

I didn't have the heart to tell my wife as she was growing frustrated with all the errors. So we invited the others over for some cake. It was really good.

After the rest of the group left. I decided to plug in my cell not charging. I tried 3 different plugs nothing. The card was in the slot. Grrr another problem. She made a list and got on the phone. The electrician was the 1st to show up and said the breaker had tripped. The coffee maker started up. We hadn't notice that it wasn't on. We don't drink coffee. So now it was 30 minutes before the muster drill. Since my wife has mobility issues we decided to head to the station early before the elevators filled up. We were still concerned that we had issues, no luggage yet, no room steward, and no butler yet. Don't worry more issues to come, but also a turnaround.

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I can't wait to hear more. We have the same type of suite that you have. We've never spent this much on just ourselves. I have to say I'm a little worried. This is a special treat to just my husband an myself as a reward. Last year we took our 13 adult children and spouses along with 14 grandkids (19 years to 4 years) on Carnival. It was great but as I said, this is our reward cruise. Please tell me all worked out !?!?!?

I can't wait to hear more. We have the same type of suite that you have. We've never spent this much on just ourselves. I have to say I'm a little worried. This is a special treat to just my husband an myself as a reward. Last year we took our 13 adult children and spouses along with 14 grandkids (19 years to 4 years) on Carnival. It was great but as I said, this is our reward cruise. Please tell me all worked out !?!?!?

The 1st day had some bumps, but it got smoother as the trip went on. The Haven Aft Penthouses are our favorite type of room now.

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Embarkation Day (cont)

So we went to the Tropicana Dining room for our muster drill. We met a family from CC. It turns out they were only 2 doors down from us. We chatted with our new friends and headed for the elevators. We dreaded this, but the elevators were not to bad. So we headed back to our cabin. We notice luggage in the halls as we got closer to our room, we notice no luggage. We were getting worried. We opened our door. Yeah all 4 bags made it!! Gummy Bears and nuts were now on the table and pitchers of Tea and Water too. In the closet was our robes. So I notice that my phone was running low. So I grabbed the charge plug it in. And nothing. I look over at the coffee maker and it was off. The power was out again. Call down and the electrician was down quickly the breaker had tripped again. Power back on again. Our steward then showed up. To let us know that the soap and shampoos were now in the restrooms and she brought extras. I forgot her name it started with a J. She was great the entire trip. We then informed her that our nephew is staying with us and it's affecting me she was very grateful if she also says it should set up the smaller bathroom for him with countless things like that after she left I we got a call from my brother-in-law he stated that the Armando had visited them and he was headed our way. While she was on the phone she saw the receipt for the cake and asked me if it was the wrong cake. Armando then rang the doorbell. Now this is our fourth cruise with a butler. Our 1st butler on the a Epic was Chris. He set the standard in our opinion. Last year on the Breakaway, we saw that Chris was there. He was not our butler on the Breakaway. We got Roy. He stated that we should know that some of the guest had complained that he was slow. It did not make a good impression with us and he did live up to his reputation. So now the question would Armando be a Chris or a Roy. He would be an Armando, the new standard. He was incredible throughout the trip. He apologized for not bring the snacks and drinks earlier and that he didn't know when we would be there and he didn't want them to sit out all day. My wife mentioned to him that the wrong cake had been delivered. He looked at the receipt and said that he would go to Carlo's personally and get it fixed. 10 mins later Armando showed up with the right cake.

We invited my BIL and his family over for the right cake and we popped open the champagne in the room and went to the balcony for sailaway.

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How did the 2 cakes compare? Which was better? Were they moist?

Looking forward to more. That's annoying about the electricity. I hope they got to the bottom of the cause.

Yeah, how were those cakes? I actually like the Norwegian one the best, but found it odd that it's half the price of most of the other cakes. So it had me wondering...

How did the 2 cakes compare? Which was better? Were they moist?

They were both incredible. The first on had a light whip cream type frosting. The cake was super moist. I was really surprised. It was a white cake tasted like tres leches cake to me. Wouldn't be surprise if it was considering the Spanish theme. The Ship cake was also very moist. It had a layer of vanilla cake and a layer of chocolate cake with a very smooth frosting almost pudding like. They both were very good

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So we've headed out the balcony enjoying our champagne and cake waiting for us to sail away. We saw two Carnival ships depart. Okay it was we past 4 and now moving toward 5. We saw a crazy lightning storm over Miami. So We decided to come in. The other group decided to go sign the kids up for the clubs. E my 11 yo niece did not care for splash. I've heard good reviews, but she wanted to spend more time with her family. R my 16 yo nephew loved Entourage. I don't know how many times I heard, "Is it okay if I head to Entourage". He talked and talked about it all the time. So obviously we were sailing late. So we started unpacking. My wife had a 6 o'clock massage booked so she headed to the Haven. I wanted to catch the Belmont on the TV. I can't believe California Chrome didn't win. I check Facebook and saw that we were delayed, because 56 people were stuck in Jacksonville. I looked at my phone and decided to charge my phone. Before I plugged in I look over and the coffee maker had no power. Yes the plugs were dead again. Apparently, the TV lamps, fridge are all on European plugs, but 110 US plugs were having issues. It was now past 6, and I got a call from my BIL saying that they were headed for the Haven pool and maybe dinner afterwards. I decided to head to the 6th floor and take care of some things. 1st stop cruise consultant. Explained to him that my wife's Latitudes package wasn't there. He confirmed that she was Platinum and he thought that it was odd that her items were not in the cabin. He said he would re-print and deliver. I then asked about the pins. He reached in a drawer and handed me two pins. Then I signed us up for the behind the scenes tour. He said it would be on Friday. That was odd since it was a port day. Next stop Excursion Desk to return the wrongly delivered excursion tickets. Final stop Guest services. I explained to them about the outlet situation. I also informed them that the electrician had been by twice. She said they would put a priority on it. So I headed to the Haven and met up with the others. We started talking about dinner. My wife was still in the massage, but it was close to 7:30, so I thought she would be out at any moment. Since we were in pool mode, I went in to ask if they could serve us outside. The do at lunch, but I've never seen dinner served outside.

Dinner view

It was a madhouse in there. I asked if we could be served outside. Suzana said yes, somebody would be out there to set us up. Quickly, the hostess and some waiters set us up. We must have started a trend. Two other groups were seated shortly after us, you could tell something was going on inside. Waiters keep coming out and grabbing chairs and a table from the pool deck. Here is where we met George and Terrence. These guys were incredible waiters, after the 1st night. My wife got out of her massage at 8, we were starving. And I think Terence was ready to take our order.

Dinner menu

So we waited and waited and waited. About 9, Suzana, the Maitre'd at Haven came by to apologize. For the delay, she explained that they had a unusual amount of large parties and that our food would be out. She gave us a complimentary bottle of wine.

Free wine

Me enjoying the free wine

Our dinner arrived. My BIL received the mushroom ravioli. He ordered chicken. Terence said that it was his appetizer. And the chicken was coming. It did come. While we were finishing up. We heard a person at the table next to us complain that he was the only one who didn't get his dinner. We later suspected that the ravioli was probably his. :) Suzana brought the chef by to apologize for the delay. My nephew wants to be a Chef. So he was excited to meet him. He informed us that the next night was Lobster night. He wanted yo know what time we would be there. We said about 7:15. Suzana told us that a table would be ready for us. We actually heard that lobster night was limited to the buffet, so we had Le Bistro reservations. But we didn't want to miss out on lobster. So Suzana cancelled Le Bistro and told said our table for 6 would be waiting on us. All the issues didn't matter, after all we were on vacation. We got to the room and you guessed it the coffee maker was not on. So, I told my wife that I think that is what's tripping the breaker. I reached behind it to unplug and it was all ready unplugged. I guess the electrician come to the same conclusion. We we were a little sad as we went to bed, because there was no towel animal. But there would be an army of towel animals in our future.

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Day 2 - At Sea Norwegian's Night Out

So after a long day 1, day 2 started out nice and relaxing. Armando delivered our breakfast as ordered. My wife had mark 3 on the pancake line. So, before he entered the room Armando asked if we meant 3 pancakes or 3 orders. She said 3 pancakes. He laughed and said he brought 3 orders just in case.

Cupcake Decorating Class

Some advise here book early. This class is only offered once during the cruise and there is limited space. Since we had reservations, we got in. We saw lots of people walking up and trying to join. They were denied entry, because the class was full. The price was $39. It included the class, a Carlo's Bakery Apron, a picture with the Cake Boss (he's not there they green screen it), and the 4 cupcakes you decorate. Not a bad deal considering ship prices the picture alone would be $20. The class begins with a video from the Cake Boss welcoming you to the class. You are given 4 cupcakes, a turntable, icing bags, sprinkles and decorations. A chef is there and he demonstrates on a cupcake then you go back to your station and do it. And then he does the next one and so on. It looks easy, mine aren't going to look like that. They actually didn't look to bad. After we were done we walked our plates to the green screen. That's when my chocolate cupcake took a nose dive on to the floor. It was a big mess of frosting. I picked it up as the staff started to clean up the mess. After the picture. They hand you a cupcake decorating certificate. And box up your cupcakes to deliver to your room. The staff replaced my ruined cupcake with the one the chef made. All in all I would highly recommend this activity.

After we finished it was getting close to lunch. We suggested O'Sheehan's. My BIL wanted to try Savor. There was a large number of people hovering around. We decided to go to the Haven for lunch they stayed went to Savor. While we were having dessert my wife got a call from him saying they were just getting there lunch. And he complained and got a free bottle of wine. I was glad we didn't go there.

IConcierge

So I've seen conflicting stories about the app on reviews. On the Breakaway last year. I had the app, but didn't buy the text/calling $7.95 package. Without the paying you still get all the freestyle dailies for the week, check your account balance, make reservations? And even lay down future cruise deposit. This time since there were so many of us we sprang for the $7.95 each. As I mentioned my wife and BIL were calling each other. My phone however would not make or receive calls. Texting worked perfectly.

So after lunch, I stopped by the guest services desk as recommended by the app. The lady helping said sometimes you need to delete the account and then purchase again. She removed the account and credit me. I purchased it again and nothing. After doing this twice. She suggested that I go to the Internet Manager to see if he could fix. If he couldn't fix they would refund my money. So he wasn't there until 2. This was a waste of time. I saw him belittle and was very rude to the people in front of me. They didn't understand that they could turn on the wifi in airplane mode. He could have handle it better. Now it was my turn. I explained that text worked, but I can't make calls. He responded. "You won't be able to make calls". I explained to him that my wife could make calls with the same model phone and wondered if it could be a setting. He responded, "it works on some phones and not others. We don't know why. This is a texting app not a phone app. Next". What jerk. I didn't ask for a refund, because we did use the texting feature. I would not recommend you pay for the feature, unless you have a big party and set the expectations for texting only. Later on the cruise we were at the concierge's desk a person was complaining about really slow downloads of email. Noemi called the internet manager and his response was it is slow because it's satellite internet. My BIL is an IT professional said that he handled it incorrectly and made a suggestion to the gentleman about what to do. He also agreed that my phone issue was probably settings related. All in all I would avoid the internet manager until they can replace him.

Since it was Norwegian's Night out we got dressed up and took some pictures. Picture cost add up quick. This is night to get pictures done. Especially, since on Monday you get a 2nd set of picture at no additional cost.

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Enjoying your review!

Day 2 - At Sea Norwegian's Night Out (cont)

Captain VIP Party

So after pictures were done we headed to Bliss for the party. We entered meeting all the officers. Fist bumps only, the are careful about handshakes. At the end of the line we saw our old friend "Mama Tek". She is the Executive Housekeeper. We have met her on various cruises through the years. We last saw her a year ago on the Breakaway. She is friendly down to earth happy person. She saw us and gave us big hugs and said she was glad to see us. She grabbed my wife's hand and said follow me. She found her a seat. Grabbed a waiter, who got us all drinks. And waived down the appetizer trays to stop by. She talked with us for about 45 min. Grabbing waiters every time one of our drinks were empty. She asked my wife why she was getting by with the cane. My wife explained about her illness and Mama Tek told her to contact her if she needed anything. She gave us and my BIL her card. It was now time for our lobster seating time. She gave us hugs and told us that she looked forward to seeing us the next day at the Latitudes Party. She told is to go ahead and bring in my BIL family too. My BIL laid out her card on the table, hoping that the room steward would see it so he could get better service.

BLISS

We really loved Bliss the best on the Pearl. We also enjoyed on the Epic and the Gem. Great place to hang and lots of fun. We didn't care for it much on the Breakaway, it was was much smaller with limited seating. The Getaway seamed to be about the same size as the Breakaway, but had more barstools and tables. We didn't go back for any late parties, but it appeared to be better than the Breakaway, but not back to the classic standards.

Lobster Night at the Haven

So I had read all the reviews and complaints about lobster night going away. I have notice a reduction in lobster night over the last 15 years. Last year on the Breakaway and on 3 of our previous cruises, lobster night was on the 1st night. I started reading on CC that the weeks after Lobster night was disappearing. So, when no lobster was offered on the 1st night, I assumed it was gone. But when, the Chef mentioned that it would be lobster night on the 2nd night. That was all I could think about all day. So we arrived, Suzana greeted us and showed us to our table that was waiting as promised. She told Terrence that we were her very special guest and to take special care of us. She then told us that she would give us another complimentary bottle of wine. George and Terrance took great care of us. E ordered the chicken tenders off the kids menu. The night before in all the chaos, she didn't get a kids menu. She loves shrimp, but only fried shrimp. The menu only had grilled, so she put in a request for fried shrimp. They brought it out and we laughed, because they deep fried the shrimp with no breading or batter. She loved it though. Terrence and George remembered. So after all the meals were served the brought her an extra plate with fried shrimp and a rose carved out of a tomato. And they said it was a special plate for Cinderella. She smiled from ear to ear. Terence called her princess and George called her Cinderella the rest of the cruise. That was one happy 11 year old. The lobster was incredible. It was a whole lobster cut in half and the best part they started the removal of the meat. No cracking and juice flying everywhere. It was served with a couple of shrimp and rice. Best lobster dinner I've had on a cruise in years. After dinner, the Chef came by to say hello. It was a great experience for all

Lobster

Soufflé was to die for

My Nephew R taking his selfie with the Chef

Burn the Floor

So after dinner, we went to see Burn the Floor. Expectations were low. We saw Burn the Floor on the Breakaway and did all I could to stay

awake. This one was so much better. I don't know if it was because it was a Latin theme that made it better or what, but we all enjoyed it. 5 stars *****. My favorite part was their take on Stairway to Heaven. Latin Zeppelin too cool.

Norwegian's Night Out Dance Party

My wife and niece posing like models.

After they put E to bed, we headed to SpiceH2O for the NNO party. We got our pictures taken on the red carpet and headed in. We didn't stay too long about 30 min. They gave away prizes every 15 min. My wife tried to dance with her cane, but we were getting tired, so we called it a night. The party was okay, didn't care for the music.

When we got back to the room we found two towel animals. One on each bed.

AFT Balcony

We loved our balcony. We have become aft balcony type of people now. However, the big negative is the soot from the smoke stack settling every where. It was a big issue for us on the Breakaway. And it made its appearance again. Our room steward did an awesome job. She wash the balcony twice a day. She covered our loungers with towels and she put the seat cushions up against the back of the chair. It really helped to reduce the inconvenience of the soot. I've seen some complaints about the noise from SpiceH2O. This was never an issue for us. We could hear the music on the balcony. Once you close the sliding glass door, move the handle to the closed position and no more noise. You hear a little in the shower, but nothing in the living room or bedroom.

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Day 3- at Sea Day

So, we all agreed to sleep in have breakfast and then get to the water slides and rope course before it got to busy. So we had room service breakfast. Armando on time with our orders. I was relaxing on the balcony and saw rain clouds coming our way.

My morning ritual Dr Pepper on the balcony

We decided to get in our swim suits and pack closed toe shoes for the rope course. It was now 9:45. Everything opened at 10:00. Then we get a call. The girls decided to go shopping instead since it was raining. I told my BIL, that we were in the Caribbean and it would probably be a short shower. So it was decided the women would shop while the guys found a place to put our stuff down. Of course with the rain, the slides and rope course were not opened yet. But to our surprise. There on the deck were 6 loungers. With the rain most very one had set up in the covered areas. The rain started to let up and we notice the line started for the water slides. So we spread our things over the 6 chairs and headed to the water slide stairs.

Water slides

1st was the Free Fall. I decided to ride it first since I did not ride it on the Breakaway. My BIL and nephew went first. I heard screams before the countdown finished. I heard to screams all the way down. Last year, my wife rode the ride and we bought the picture of her scared look. So I was going to get my picture of me smiling. So my plan was to look straight ahead and smile. I did this through the countdown. When the floor dropped, I lost the smile and closed my eyes. Of course that is what the camera caught, so I have no picture. My next fear is getting stuck. I read a review about that and was hoping it would not be me. I knew pretty early that I was going to make it down. Later we did see somebody get stuck. You see them moving back and forth to a complete stop. They had to exit out the escape hatch. Luckily that was not me. So my eyes are still closed and I can feel that it was coming to an end and as I started to hold my breath water ran up my nose and mouth. It was an excellent ride. The scariest part is the anticipation. Next we took the Whip. It's tall, but not intimidating like the Free Fall. But it was surprisingly fast. Each twist it would pick up speed. It was really fun. One piece of advice, as far as seating. We did this on the Breakaway. If you need a place to leave your stuff while you ride the slides, as long as it's not a prime eating time. Use one of the outside dinning tables.

So we get back to the chairs and the girls found us. After a little while, they decided it was time for more slides. My wife really shouldn't have. Since she couldn't use her cane, her SIL and nephew helped her up the stairs. That is the most stairs she had been up in almost a year. Of course that was more than she should do in her condition. Her body fought back later, but she did have fun. After the Free Fall she was done. I stayed behind with E. While, everyone else was gone, the lady in the chair in front of us complained to one of her friends, that they had more chairs pointing at our chairs, but when it was raining "they stole them". Please, there was nothing on those chairs, and she wasn't there. So I took E to the kids pool keeping one eye on our stuff after hearing that. My wife was done, so we went back to the chairs. E and her mom spent sometime together at the kids pool. I explained to my wife what that lady had said. She wanted to say something to her, she held back.

After everybody got back we started to pack up and head to the Haven for lunch. My wife spotted a family looking for chairs and told them that we were leaving. Just so that other lady wouldn't "reclaim" the chairs.

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Day 3- at Sea Day (Cont)

The incident

So we headed to the Haven for lunch. We stopped by the Concierge's desk My BIL wanted to confirm the time to meet there that night for the Illusionarium show. We had been working wit Noemi mainly this was our first real interaction with Anoop. He confirm that we needed to be there 45 min before the show. My wife had mentioned to her brother that on previous cruises that the concierge had taken us though the service entrance to gangway. This was what happened on the Gem and Epic. So my BIL asked, if they could do this the next day in St Maarten. Anoop stated that the gangways were generally not busy and we would not need the escort down. My BIL then tried to explain that she is disabled and has to walk with a cane and cannot handle very many steps. And she could fall in a big crowd. Anoop cut him off and keep saying there would be no issues. We left it at that for now. More on the aftermath of "The Incident" later.

We had a great lunch. Moved our bags to a chair/bed looking thing and enjoyed the pool and sun decks

The Haven Pool and Sun Decks

What can I say the pool always have very few people in it. Most people layout , but chairs were easy to find. The 2nd level of chairs were almost always empty.

Haven Pool Deck

The fruit skewer guy came by every 10 min. I only liked the Grapes. Later he had skewers with only grapes. Cold wash rags were delivered. It was nice. The sun Deck is amazing. The Have does have it's chair Hogs up there, but it's for the 1st row of clam shells and loungers. There are plenty of chairs to be had up there.

This picture cracks me up

We got back to our room and Armando had sandwiches and other snacks waiting for us. My wife's latitudes package had arrived. And two pins were there and somebody else's Latitudes package. Since the cabin number was on it and it was the room next door I just placed it on the room number slot. I gathered some laundry, I was excited since this was our 1st trip as platinum and now we get free laundry. We rested and got cleaned up for the Latitudes party.

Latitudes Party

Things have changed over the years. It used to include all levels of Latitudes, door prizes. and drawings. Now it's a wine (or Rum Punch) and cheese affair. You mingle with the officers and the cruise consultant tells you about the new itineraries and the new ship. We ran into our old friend Mama Tek. She wanted to know where the rest of the family was. It was just me and my wife. Mama Tek then called down to my BIL and told him he needed to get up to Spice H2O. Mama Tek again grab waiters for us, every time our drinks were getting low. She hung out with us until it was time for her to go on the stage.

Latitudes party

Me and Mama Tek

Once, my BIL and his family made it it was almost time to go. But we did get to talk to the captain for a little bit. My nephew thought it was cool.

So we headed up to the Haven so Anoop could escort us to the Illusionarium early. On the Epic and Breakaway. At the Cirque show on the Epic, the concierge walked us to the hostess stand. He didn't like where they sat us and had the hostess move us closer. On the Breakaway, they lined us up. And told us we could pick any seat that we wanted. So we expected somewhat the same. What we got was Anoop handing us a ticket that said table 14. He then leaded all the groups to the service elevator. Hit the button and sent us down. Not escorted. So they let us in an they showed us to table 14 it was not a great view and the dome part had an obstructed view. The other people that were seated in table 14 got up and moved to a better location. By the time we realized what the other group had done. It was too late the doors had open and people rushed in. If my wife had been healthy and it was just the two of us we would have tried it. We just took it in stride and watched the show.

Illusionarium

After all the hype, I was looking forward to this show. It didn't live up to the hype. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, it was good. The storyline was cheesy, but it was every magic trick I had ever seen in the past, minus the rabbit coming out of a hat. Girl in the box and putting swords through, birds coming out of handkerchief, the mentalist, mark your a cash and I magically find it here. Like I said it was a good show and I enjoyed it, but wasn't spectacular. My BIL, who is an amateur magician didn't like it, he figured out all of the tricks. You probably will enjoy it, just don't go in with high expectations. I would have rather seen another Cirque show. The food was surprisingly good. The Cirque shows on the other ships had really bad food, but this was excellent. I think they changed the menu. The coconut shrimp was gone and replaced by grilled shrimp. The steak was good, not Ruth Chris quality, but could give outback a run for its money. The weird potatoes were fries. It was a good surprise.

Our day 3 towel animals

We were going to go to the 70s party, but my wife was exhausted. So we headed back for the night. We sat on the balcony and enjoyed some of the music and then went to bed. Set the alarm, because St. Maarten was the next day.

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Day 4 St Maarten

We arrived in St Maarten and then headed over to the Haven for breakfast. Then headed for the gangway. We booked the Orient Beach Rendezvous through NCL. We went down early give my wife some extra time to catch the elevator and walk through the gangway to meet our group. We got off fairly quickly. So we were about 20 min prior to our meeting time. We hung out under the canopies outside the ship. The Shore excursion people told us to look for people in yellow shirts. We spotted a yellow shirted person and headed that way.

The first person checked our tickets and told us to keep following the line. The line was long. Which could be a problem, my wife cannot stand for long periods of time. That and the length of the pier was a recipe for disaster. The next lady stopped us and asked us to follow her she found a bench for my wife to sit on. She then told us that she was calling a golf cart to pick her up. She said that she could take one of the kids with her. We asked my nephew to go with her in case she needed help getting in and out. The tour lady then asked the rest of us to go ahead and start walking to the buses. Do we headed that way following the golf cart. We were the 2nd group on the bus. After a few minutes, the rest of the excursion groups made it to the bus.

Orient Beach Rendezvous

This is a great excursion, the guide talked about the history of the island and pointed out key points of interest. The driver was scaring us. A fly had flown in the bus and he was trying to kill it instead of driving. Then several close calls. But it was a nice drive. The bus drivers on most excursions scare us, but we always make it safe. We arrived at the beach. We were each handed a lunch ticket and handed fruit punch. They added rum if requested. Which we did. Since we were the second group off the bus, Me and my BIL rushed down to the chairs and claimed 6 for our group. The chairs are included. They had umbrellas between every other chair. These are $3 , so we paid for them. If you didn't pay they removed the umbrella. The beach is beautiful clear blue waster soft sand.

They offered recreation activities for a fee. Water trampoline, kite surfing, boogie boards, parasailing, and hover boarding.

The hover boarding looked cool.

We stuck to playing in the water and relaxing at the chairs. Orient Beach has a nude part which is down the beach from where they set us up. The beach is however European, so women can be topless. None of the ship excursion females did the European thing that Insaw. We did however see 2 women walking down the beach European style. E was building sandcastles and didn't even miss a beat. R being a 16 year old boy kinda giggled. Lunch was decent. It included a main dish (Ribs, Chicken, fish), a side (salad, baked potato, or Fries), and a drink (alcohol included). I had the ribs, they weren't the greatest. I'm from Texas we have high expectations for ribs. The fries were real good. We returned to the water after lunch. The only real complaint I would have is the number of visits we got in the beach from the ladies selling stuff or offering massages. They felt almost non stop. We went to this same beach 4 years ago, and we had one visit from a single beach vendor. My wife did give in and purchased a foot massage, because she noticed that her feet were swelling. The lady massaged her legs and feet with aloe straight from the plant. My wife enjoyed it and the swelling was going down. After a final dip in the water we headed back to the bus. One thing to keep in mind, they only have one freshwater shower and the line gets long just before the busses are leaving. Once back on the bus we return. The driver slowed down for kodak moments and they made 2 stops. 1st in Downtown Phillipsburg for shoppers and at the pier for everyone else. At the pier security boarded the bus and checked for IDs and ship cards. We shopped around the pier for a few minutes. It was hot so we decided to stop at Sint Maarten Guavaberry and had a Guavaberry Colada. It was so good. We also purchased some Guavaberry rum and Guavaberry honey for home. We grabbed a golf cart back to the ship and headed back to the room.

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Day 4 80s night and fireworks

Pier Runners

So we we're getting ready for dinner. My wife was still getting ready when my BIL family showed up. We decided to wait for her on the balcony. All aboard was at 5:30, and it was just past 5:30. You could see the port pretty much empty. Then the stragglers started to show up they were walking slow. Then some people in the balconies started to harass them. By yelling "late" "hurry up", "we are leaving you", and "other things. My nephew joined in. He was cracking up. Most walked slow. One lady started run out of her flip flops. Near the end they were running golf carts out.

We had reservations 6:30 dinner reservations at La Cucina. We did this because prior to the cruise I saw dallies posted saying that the "Thriller" dance class was at 8:45. The girls wanted to do this. However when we got the daily the night before it showed a 7:30 time. So we asked Anoop to change the dinner reservation to 6:00. His response was that we didn't need to change the time, just show up early. My BIL and I talked about Anoop after that. We decided the he wasn't a bad guy, he had a little arrogance about him, which is something you need as a concierge, however he needed to work on being more customer friendly.

La Cucina

7 years ago, on the Pearl we tried La Cucina and loved it. Since then on various ship the quality had gone down. We decided to give it a try since we had our platinum 2 free meals and a bottle of wine. Since our Le Bistro outing was cancelled we decided to treat my BIL and SIL to a free meal and bottle of wine with the other coupon. I had the soup with shrimp for the appetizer. It was incredible. Lobster Fettuccine for the meal. It was also amazing. And finished off with the berry rhubarb also fantastic. Everyone enjoyed their meal. I would highly recommend La Cucina on the Getaway.

The meal lasted almost 2 hours. We missed the Thriller dance class, so we headed to our cabins to get ready for the. 80s party.

The 80s group

Spice H2O

We learned one lesson from the Breakaway. Get to Spice H2O early to claim a chair. Half of seating area is blocked off for safety reasons. So we headed there early. The place was full, not with early birds, like us, but people watching a movie on the big screen. I will have to say I like this ideal. I thought it was a big waste not to use this as a movie screen. They served popcorn and everything, a big thumbs up. They were showing fast a furious 6. Not my kind of movie. The ending was laughable, very unrealistic. Anyway once the movie ended and people left we claimed seats.

80s party and fireworks.

Probably the one of the big highlights of the trip. We claimed seats, because my wife's disability it is impossible for her to stand for long periods of time. Most people did stand.

The big screen

You can see the fireworks either way. They did leave most of the chairs out from the movie, so there was lots of seats. The fireworks were spectacular. It was the same soundtrack that they used on the Breakaway. It was very entertaining. The 80s party really kicks into gear after the fireworks. They bring out impersonators. Bon Jovi and Madonna. They also bring out Tina Turner and Kiss, (who were around in the 80s), but sang songs from the 70s. Great music and memories most of the night. Later in the evening they did the Thriller dance. My wife and her SIL tried it, but the could have used the lessons. Probably my favorite dance of the cruise

We return back to the room and got ready for bed.

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Day 5 St Thomas

The last year has been tough on my wife's family. My SIL M, lost her mother and a SIL on the same day and about a month later she lost her father. Then my wife was hospitalized with Guillan-barre Syndrome which has left her with limited mobility. Then in September my FIL was diagnosed with cancer. And my wife's uncle was also had discovered he had cancer. So this trip was a good distraction for everyone. Well my wife struggled to get out of bed as we arrived in St Thomas. She was so used to being on the go and hasn't adjusted to her new physical limitations. So we decided that she had pushed herself too hard the day before and she stayed in bed. She was in good hands. Armando and our room steward (I think it was (Jennelle) did an excellent job checking on her while we were onshore.

Castaway Girl Shipwreck Snorkel

We booked the excursion through NCL. They met us on the pier. We followed them on the pier to the catamaran . They ran the engines out to the snorkeling area. After the short tutorial. We got in the water. Two options were given 1) go down the ladder 2) jump in off the deck. I choose the ladder. M, E, and R were not good swimmers, but they did snorkel with safety vest and noodles.

They gave us the option of joining a large group or snorkel in our own groups. We started out in the tour group. The guide lead us to the shipwreck. It was great snorkeling the water was clear. We had a great time.

Once aboard we set sail and used the wind to get us back. The rum punch began to flow. I've been on some excursions where they only give you one cup. Not this one the crew constantly came by to refill and top off. I lost count of how many we drank. They even brought the rum bottle by for a photo op.

I would highly recommend this excursion.

We were next headed to the butterfly farm on the pier. However too much rum punch and then some pier shopping E was tried and hungry so we returned to the ship.

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Day 5 St Thomas (cont)

After we returned to the room, I found my wife in bed still trying to work enough energy to move around. She explained to me that as she was laying there, the more she was upset about "the incident" with Anoop. She said she talked about it with Armando when he checked on here. After talking with him, she decided that she was going to complain to guest service. After she was able to get up and shower, we walked down to guest services. She asked to speak with the Guest Services Manager. The GSM did an excellent job taking down notes. She asked if we we're going to a show that night. We mention that we were going to Legally Blonde the next night. That night we were going to the Ice Bar. She said that she would meet us before Legally Blonde and escort us to the theater. She apologized and said she would comp the Ice Bar. She would meet us there and set it up. Once it was time the 6 of us walked down there. She met us there and we were comped. The only difference was we only got one drink instead of two. No complaints, because it was free.

The Ice Bar

This is our 3rd Ice Bar on NCL. The Epic was incredible. The Breakaway seemed small. The Getaway was my least favorite. It looks like there is less effort spent on the ice carvings. And while the Epic seamed like a small bar the last two seem more like a gathering in a freezer. My BIL's family enjoyed it. The kids even got special drinks. If you have experienced an NCL Ice Bar it seems like it's gone stale. If you haven't you will enjoy the experience.

We then headed to dinner at the Haven. Apparently, word of my wife's complaint had reached the Concierge's Desk. Noemi greeted us by standing up and asking if there is anything she could do for us. She seemed very nervous, which was a shame, because she had done an excellent job, my wife's issue was with Anoop specifically. Dinner was incredible as usual. Ester, George, and Terrence took great care of us. Suzana checked on us and found out that M's birthday was the next day. She asked us what time we were coming to dinner and she said a special table would be waiting for us. She was the best.

Mini Golf

We decided to try out the mini golf course. We loved it. The course has a unique pirate theme and some interesting holes. There were plenty of putters, but not enough balls. The balls were made of lightweight foam and moved in the wind and left the course from time to time. We found a couple of balls on the course or of the course I should say. It was fun, they really need an attendant there to recapture loss balls. And a ball that has a little mass, because it can gat frustrating watching your ball roll off before your first putt. It is a definite do on the ship.

After that we decided to head to bed, my wife still needed more recovery time.

My BIL and his wife went to the Grammy Experience and saw Sugar Blue. They didn't care for the show. We didn't go so I can't offer any insight.

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