mjm325

So I wonder how well Gateway is selling. I received an e-mail from a TA advertising the following perks for booking a sailing on Gateway this spring:

 

-Pre-paid gratuities (2 people)

-Ultimate dinning package (2 people)

-$150 OBC

 

and if you book a balcony or higher you get an additional $100 on OBC.

 

So, the cruise is almost free.

 

nevermind, found it ;)

I hope it's a few table games, that would be awesome!! Now, if only it were like the tables at Hard Rock in Vegas... they are IN the water... talk about the best of both worlds :D

I tried searching and didn't find a post discussing this, but I just saw a Pool Casino on the deck plans for the Getaway.... this sounds awesome!! Does anyone know anything more about this? any images yet? I think this just made the decision for us to book Getaway!!!!

It would be helpful to confirm that we're talking about the 7-day Eastern Caribbean RT Miami, right? The price looks OK to me. As you said, this is a new ship so you can't really predict if it will sell out or if you'll be able to get a great last-minute deal.

 

yes, you are correct, it is the 7 night Eastern Caribbean from Miami on the Getaway.

 

I know I got a balcony on Allure for $899pp ($799pp after diamond discount) and that was a month before sailing. so this $989 feels high to me......

thanks everyone! can you tell me if this is a good deal, or should I wait for lower prices? we live in FL so I can wait until after final payment if prices do significantly drop (just not sure if this ship is full because it is new)

 

$989 pp for midship balcony (includes the balcony upgrade from oceanview) and $100 OBC. any thoughts on this pricing for May 31st sailing is appreciated =)

 

thanks!!

hi all! We are looking at trying a different cruise line (typically sale RCL and getting tired of the same ships). We are interested in the Getaway from Miami, but I'm curious how NCL handles price drops. When I called and asked, they said they will try to upgrade you and if there is not an upgrade available, they will give it to you as OBC.... have you found that to be true??

 

Also, any great resources to really learn more about NCL? I find their website a little hard to navigate (probably because I'm just not used to it).

 

thanks so much! Looking forward to trying something different :D

we just got off the Legend Holiday cruise.... overall cruise was fine. I hate to say though, that the sewer smell is in full effect on deck 3. There was also a major plumbing problem 2 cabins down from us, a major pipe burst and for about 4 days they had a big part of the ceiling in the hallway opened up to fix it and they had big dryers going 24 hours for about 3 days. I feel bad for the people 2 cabins down... their cabin was about 2-3 inches deep in water :eek:

we just got off the Legend Holiday sailing (11 night over Christmas and NYE). At adventure ocean I asked how many children in my daughter's age group (3-5 year olds) and there were only 15. My guess is because it was a longer cruise and higher premium that there were less kids. There were a lot of teenagers that I noticed, but the under 10 group... not very many. hope that helps =)

we just got off Legend and spent NYE onboard, it was a great time. We spent NYE onboard Oasis during her inaugural season and it was AMAZING! I definitely recommend NYE on a ship with a promenade ;)

we just got off Legend: 2 formal nights, 2 smart casual (as I read: cocktail) and the rest were casual.

we got one on our Legend Dec 23rd sailing. the other 2 couples we sailed with (also both diamond) did not receive one, so.... who knows??!?!

That's great Congrats!!!:)

 

thank you! :D

checked this morning and there was a balcony guarantee X available... we were able to upgrade to that (no cost) so it all worked out =)

thanks everyone. we've always been able to upgrade during these Tuesday sales, because we are paying more to upgrade.. this is the first time that the balcony discount makes the net price lower so that is going to be interesting..... I'll update once we have an answer :D

ok, we are booked in an oceanview for $2469. the C&A preview sale is showing a balcony for $2599. That is $130 more pp, or $260 for the cabin. Now, according to this, we should be getting a $300 discount (I assume it will be considered booked less than 6 months since we are making a change to the price). We will be on an 11 night sailing.

 

Diamond Balcony Discount When Booking More Than 6 Months From Sailing Date:

$125* for sailings of 3-5 nights

$225* for sailings of 6-9 nights

$325* for sailings of 10+ nights

 

** so my question is, do you think we will be able to upgrade???? we would be paying more, but when the diamond discount kicks in, there would be a credit of $60.

 

has anyone had this happen, and could you share your experience??? I'd love to hear your thoughts on what might happen. Of course, I won't know until I call on Monday for the upgrade =) thanks!

we just booked this for our daughter as one of her Christmas gifts. we did get the 30% off. She is going to LOVE IT, like completely flip out because she loves Barbie. How can I put a price on that??? I can't wait to take her to the events =) I know it will be a great cruise memory for her, and for that reason alone, it is worth it ;)

I was going to mention this in an upcoming post, but we (myself and my DW) were not allowed to look into the Ocean Adventure room ourselves. When you walk into the room there is a 3' x 5' space that parents can stand in to register or sign the child in/out. Before you is a door that opens electronically from the inside and a desk to your right. There is a little space behind this area (maybe 20 sqare feet in total) and to your right is a door to the play area. On the first day we took her there, another parent of a younger DD (maybe 6ish) right behind us on line also asked if she could take a look, and the person said "sorry, no parents."

 

I could fully understood this, since we are adults and there were kids in the room and they were responsible for their safetly. In hindsight, if we arrived before they opened or at closing time and no children were in attendance, if we would have let us look if we had asked.

 

In fact, on one occastion, my DD8 wanted to look into the room to see if any of her friends were in the OA before we signed her in, so we asked if she could look into the room. The person/counselor at that time said she could not walk inside unless we had her signed in (however, this was the only time -- on alll other occasions the other counselors did let my DD peek in before signed her in).

 

As mentioned, we were not allowed inside, and when I tried to take a picture of the sign-in area, the counselor very quickly said I could not.

 

My daughter did not provide any details regarding the size of the room, but did mention that the area just beyond the door was for younger kids, and the older kids (her age) played & hung out at the other side of the room.

 

I know this does not directly answer your question, but hopefully some of the info will be of some assistance.

 

[FYI - I do have a few pictures of the Teen Lounge from various angles (although emty of teenagers) which I will post in the next day or two.]

 

thank you, I appreciate it!

great review so far! Do you have any pictures of Adventure Ocean on Legend? we sail in Dec and our DD will be 5.5 and I'm trying to get an idea for how large the space is??? and if you could possibly describe some of the toys or things they have, that would be great! thanks :D

[quote name='PCWalton1']What I failed to mention is the weather for these last two at sea days has been great, so much for the stormy forecast. :rolleyes: Forecasting the weather is the only profession where looking good is more important than being right.

The seas have been calm, little winds and some cloud cover at times to keep it from getting too hot.

[IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/06/01/6y8atu8a.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/06/01/6asebyru.jpg[/IMG]


Sent from my Droid RAZR M using Tapatalk 2[/QUOTE]

I am SO glad to hear this, we board tomorrow and I'm hoping for decent weather. Overcast is fine, but rain is never fun on a cruise.... great review!

posting so I can see it in my signature, lol!

 

EDIT: ok, 16 days left ;)

yes, he did charter it. I live in the city where his dealership is. He's advertising it like crazy, he is actually the largest kia dealership in the country. His commercials are crazy and annoying, but.... he sells a TON of cars. It's gonna be HUUUUGGGGGEEEEEEEE!

Sure glad I use a cruise line that provides DIY laundry service and irons, too! Took a Celebrity cruise recently and really missed those machines on Oceania! I guess I'm a cheapskate, but I did NOT want to pay to have the cruise line do my laundry!

 

ugh, exactly! we are doing a 4 night, pre-cruise tour and then a 12 night sailing, and I'm going ot have to do laundry. I don't want to spend a small fortune to have RC do it (Brillance) so I'm hoping to find SOMEWHERE mid-cruise to do some laundry :rolleyes:

hi! I would love to know if there are any laundromats within walking distance from the port in Helsinki?? thanks!

 

Welcome, everyone, to my trip report/review of the always-fabulous Freedom of the Seas! If you read my recent Serenade of the Seas epic novel, well…kudos to you for your endurance powers! I promise that THIS review won’t be so…um…wordy. I had less days (7, as opposed to 12 on the Serenade) and less family (2, as opposed to 5) to work with…so not as much drama (which can be a GOOD thing, believe me!) but just as much fun, trust me!

 

 

First, a little background: As mentioned above, our family had JUST sailed on the Serenade of the Seas (June 22-July 4) for an epic 12-night Eastern Mediterranean cruise. We had an amazing time, especially with the ports and the people, but we found some things on the Serenade lacking, particularly the quality of the food, the activities and shows, and the service (SOME service; not everywhere, mind you!). Hubby Mike had declared that he wouldn't sail on RCI again, and wanted to explore other cruise lines. However...I've always liked RCI...and got to wondering...which is always scary. Were the food issues only on the Serenade? Were the lack of activities only on the Serenade? Things that make you go, "Huh...I wonder....?" It can drive me NUTS to wonder about things and not know the answers...So…wondering if the “cutbacks” – as I deemed them – were fleet-wide within RCI, I decided to do some further research…and the best way, I figured, to research, was to hop on another cruise. Right? THAT way, I'd find my answers I was looking for.

 

 

So...how would the quality of the food be on a different RCI ship? How would the activities rate? How would the cruise director rate? How would the people of Guest Services rate? THESE were my questions...I needed answers.

 

 

On a whim, I booked myself and my (almost) 13-year old daughter, Mickey, on the July 15-22nd sailing of the Freedom of the Seas. Truly, the purpose of this cruise was for comparison’s sake…oh heck, who am I kidding? The real purpose of this trip was to have some fun in the Caribbean, as well as sneaking in some quality Mother-Daughter bonding time. The boy Klingons were back in Kansas City, with one returning to his job, and the other, seeking a summer job. No more summer cruising for them - such are the "joys" of adulthood.

 

 

Mother & Daughter

 

 

With this in mind, this trip was a surprise for Mickey. I don't really know WHY I wanted it to be a surprise...maybe because I've never been able to pull off the "We're going to DISNEY!!" surprise - or even a surprise birthday party...and darn it, just ONCE, I wanted to surprise my kids. Just once. Because…I am not one to keep a surprise – OR a secret. Yup – I’ll be honest. Do NOT tell me anything you don’t want known, because I’ll blast it out there via Facebook, Twitter, my blog, or my big mouth…oh, I don’t MEAN to spill it, but it just…happens….so it was amazing – AMAZING, I tell you – that I managed to pull off this little surprise. (My kids are just like me when it comes to secrets…I’ll never forget Brainy Brad when he was 5 years old, coming in one night and saying, “I’m not supposed to tell you that we bought you a leather coat for Christmas.” Gah. Like mother, like son.)

 

 

Anyway…back to the cruise…our family arrived back in Kansas City from Europe on July 5th from our Serenade sailing; I’d previously made plans for Mickey and I to travel to Florida on July 8th for a few weeks at our vacation home in Ft. Myers. As we were packing for our Florida adventure, I oh-so-casually mentioned that she might want to “throw in the dresses you wore on the Serenade” – in case we decided to “go someplace fancy to eat in Ft. Myers.” Man, I’m good. :rolleyes:

 

 

So, Mickey and I arrive in Ft. Myers and have a fabulous week in the sun, lounging on the beach, working on our golden tans. Okay. Not really. I made that up. Ft. Myers was being inundated with torrential rain the entire first week we were there, so we actually sat around the house every day, while she voraciously read her Kindle and I voraciously wrote my Serenade trip report. You’re welcome.

 

 

As it got closer to July 15th, our Embarkation day on the Freedom, I began dropping bits into our conversation such as, “Wow. It sure is raining a lot. Maybe we should go over to the east side to see if they have sun?” Or another gem: “Hmmm…we’ve never checked out Cocoa Beach. We should pack up a suitcase and go spend a few days there.” Again…I am SO smooth.

 

 

So, the evening of July 14th, I pulled out a suitcase, and told Mickey to pack up…that I was sick, just SICK of the rain, and we were heading to Cocoa Beach to search out the sun. And, “Oh – throw in some of your nice dresses that you wore on the Serenade – we may go to some fancy, schmancy restaurants over there.” (I had to do this; otherwise, how were we going to get formal wear in our bags???!! For a supposedly week at the beach??!! Surprises require creativity – and I am just FULL of it. Creativity, that is. Among other things. :p)

 

 

Early on the morning of July 15th, we hopped in the car and began the (almost) 4-hour drive across Florida to Port Canaveral – which is close enough to Cocoa Beach that my (almost) 13-year old daughter, who never pays attention in the car anyway, unless we happen to be passing a McDonald’s, would never question. We needed to stop for breakfast at one point, and Mickey INSISTED it be, what else?, McDonald’s, so I ended up slurping a Diet Dr. Pepper along the way…which turned out to NOT be such a wise decision.

 

 

As we’re leaving Orlando behind us, and heading into the swampy, jungles of no-man’s land that is between The House of Mickey Mouse and Port Canaveral, I realize I need the…um…facilities. That darned Diet Dr. Pepper. Of course, there ARE no facilities in the swampy jungles east of Orlando, unless I want to park and wander into the muck and mire and find a big bush – but with my luck, I’d find a giant alligator, as well - and so I am increasingly uncomfortable. However – using my creativity – I decided to use my pea-sized bladder to my advantage. As we got closer to Port Canaveral, I began saying, “Man…I need a restroom. Maybe in Port Canaveral, there’ll be a place to go.”

 

 

Soon, it was about 11:15 am, and we were driving over the bridges where you can see the beautiful cruise ships off in the distance…the Disney…the Carnival…the Freedom.... My excitement was almost palpable, but I still oh-so-casually said, “Huh. A port. Wonder if there’s a restroom facility down there where the ships are?” Mickey shrugs; my increasingly-uncomfortable situation is not her concern at this point. When I saw the exit for the Freedom of the Seas, I pulled off, looked at Mickey and said, “There HAS to be a restroom by that ship…we’ll just park the car and see if we can find one. They won’t mind.”

 

 

So…she NEVER questioned the fact that I pulled into the Port Canaveral cruise parking terminal, grabbed a ticket, and parked the car. And I managed to find a parking place within 25 feet of the porters who were collecting suitcases. Nope. In her innocent naivety, she still assumed I was on the hunt for a restroom. Although…she was getting a little nervous…”Mom…are you SURE you can park here?” She glanced around nervously at the HUGE ship, right in front of us, and the chaos of arriving & departing passengers.

 

“Oh, sure,” I said. “We’re just looking for a restroom.”

 

And then, I got REALLY creative. Or devious. Whichever way you want to call it.

 

“HEY!” I squealed. “What if we tried to get on that ship???!!! I’m sure the ship has a restroom.”

 

She looks over at the Freedom (which, by the way, is jaw-dropping beautiful when you’re right up beside her - I was almost speechless...almost – probably how I’d feel if I was to suddenly find myself right beside Angelina Jolie or Meryl Streep, but I digress) and she visibly swallows.

 

“We CAN'T just go get on the ship,” she says, although I can see she’s a bit tempted. Sometimes, she has to be the practical ying to my crazy yang.

 

“Why not?” I ask. “All they can do is say no,” I add. “Let’s go try! I’ll tell them I’m DESPERATE for a bathroom…too much Diet Dr. Pepper. They’ll understand.”

 

 

I grab the suitcase out of the trunk (which - if Mickey was paying attention, but she NEVER is, and I knew this, being her mother - she would have seen our RCI luggage tag attached to the suitcase…but she was oblivious) and wheeled it over to the porter.

 

The porter’s exact speech: “I work for tips, and if you want your suitcase to get on the ship, and to get on the ship in a timely manner, I can make sure that happens, especially when I work for tips, so I’m just saying, that with a tip, I’ll handle your suitcase.”

 

Okay. We get it. You expect a tip. So I tipped him. (And just a note – our suitcase didn’t make it to our room until right before dinner at 7:00 pm. AND - a wheel on the bottom had been snapped off. Perhaps I didn’t tip enough??!! Or perhaps tips don't make a darn bit of difference....)

 

 

I had surreptitiously pulled out our passports and our Seapass documents and had them in my hand, flashing them at each security stop along the way, the whole time chatting with Mickey. It went like this:

 

Me: “Well…we got past THAT guy. I wonder how far they’ll let us get on the ship?”

Mickey: “Mom. We shouldn’t be doing this.”

Me: “Why not? All they can do is say no.”

Mickey: “Mom. We shouldn’t be doing this.”

Me: “Why not? We’re not sneaking on. We’re going through the lines, just like everyone else.”

 

When I showed our documents and passport to the REALLY official looking security guy, the one with the stripes and badge and stuff, he very carefully looks at everything, and says to Mickey, “You….” And she gulps…”look fine,” and then indicating me, he says, “But YOU! You look like trouble.” Wow. How did he KNOW??!!! Dang, he was good. He says to Mickey, "Keep an eye on her...and have a good time."

 

 

Okay. Perhaps it was cruel to carry on the surprise for this long…especially seeing Mickey’s increasing nervousness about “getting caught”…but it was almost comical. The lines were relatively very short, and we were moving along at a fast pace, and I finally couldn’t hold back any longer. Especially as we were going into the Diamond line and walking up to actually check-in and get our Seapass cards. Not to mention, I was about ready to have a heart attack. I mean, if you've cruised before, you KNOW how your heart races and how excited you get when you're actually inside the building and getting ready to check in...it's EXCITING!!! But...combine that with the excitement of trying to pull off the Surprise-of-the-Day, and I'm pretty much trembling. Something's gotta' give. It wouldn't do Mickey any good to have her mom drop dead in a faint at this time...

 

 

“Okay,” I confessed. “We really ARE going on this ship. We’re going on a cruise.”

 

:eek:

 

Mickey’s face was priceless at this moment. Shock. Disbelief. Wanting to believe. But still not quite believing. And then – she punches me.

 

Yup. Punched me in the arm. Ow.

 

“GAH!” she says. “I can’t believe you DID that!!!”

 

But I did. And it was great.

 

We're issued our Seapass cards, we walk and take our photo, and we're walking on to the ship.

 

So…now…on to the ship. And what a ship it is.

 

But...I really DO have to find a restroom. Let's hope - with the immensity of this ship - they DO take into account mothers who have drank way too much Diet Dr. Pepper along the way....

 

 

 

ok, I read your Serenade review and kept thinking, gosh, I know her from somewhere... and I just couldn't place it.... until you said you had a vacation home in Ft. Myers! I live here, lol =) I'm sure I've seen you around, especially since I work in real estate for a homebuilder... I wonder if you came to my sales office when you were looking for your vacation home?!?!?! Nonetheless, hi neighbor!!!

thank you so much for taking the time to post this! I slowly am finding myself heading towards becoming a vegetarian... Your pictures make me excited for our cruise in 2 weeks, that I will actually be able to get some yummy food without having to settle! :D:):D