Dorhead1230

Enjoying your review @PistolPete13! Your pictures of the terminal on embarkation day made me happy that we were dragging last week and got there late lol. We may have missed MDR lunch service, but we also avoided that stinky sea of humanity. I would have thought your cruise this week would be less crowded than ours, with it being longer and far fewer kids. Hopefully it’ll start to thin out a bit on your port days coming up. Have fun; I hope all your port visits are very enjoyable!

Aaaaaand I just realized there must have been a Latitudes bonus points situation happening with this cruise because I logged into my NCL app and I’m officially Platinum now! Woot!

We were so lucky with the weather and it was overall such a smooth sailing seas-wise, I’m not buying the currents and headwinds excuse, either. There’s obviously a mechanical issue with the ship if it’s consistently making a lower speed than it’s capable of. I wouldn’t say there were any big surprises. We really weren’t “joiners” on this cruise. Went to almost no entertainment, kept a very low profile. Especially once LM and DM started to cough and not feel great after the port days (and then me by the last day). We did do Covid tests we brought from home and they were negative, but better safe than sorry and we were trying not to be out and about spreading our germs too much. Incidentally, we’re all still pretty sick, and it’s basically just that the colds this winter are supercharged and terrible. We’ve done more Covid tests, and I went to urgent care today and got another Covid test there plus a flu test. LM’s pediatrician yesterday and the urgent care doc today said the colds are just so nasty this year, and last a long time and are causing fevers as well. We’ve already had a few with him in preschool and me at school and DH out and about in his precinct, but this is the worst so far. I do think this cruise proved to us that our previous policy of no cruises for February break was the right policy. We just wanted to get away very badly this year, but we’ll never do a cruise this week again. You get some crowds in the summer when we usually sail, but they’re spread out over the summer and generally people are able to be outside the whole cruise/almost the whole cruise. This was too much. And it wasn’t even that we were waiting a lot (but again, didn’t go to shows). There were just too many people everywhere all the time! As far as the ship and cruise itself, no surprises really, because everyone who preceded us did such a great job reporting. We did notice one thing, and again, maybe they were saying it at the shows and we just didn’t hear it because we didn’t go—in the past, they loved to use the expression “cruise vacation of a lifetime.” Have they dropped that? Are they just like “meh, good enough cruise”? 😅 Maybe people who went to more entertainment can comment on whether they heard this said at all.

DH said the same thing about the late arrival in Port Canaveral. He said of course they knew how far behind we were running; why would they not just announce it sooner so people would have a little more lead time to adjust plans? DH and DM were more disappointed than I was about the Bermuda cancellation. However, we don’t even like the FL/Bahamas itineraries very much and generally go to Bermuda instead. So we’ll most likely end up going back to Bermuda this summer anyway, and two overnights there are infinitely better than a brief port stop 😎.

Wow, that sounds like a wonderful tour on Princess! Sucks that you spent so much money and the kids didn’t like it. We’ll hold out until we have it free when we’re Platinum. Then I can be more forgiving if it’s not great!

It wouldn’t have bothered me at all if you commented on my review! Thanks for the more technical explanation of the Internet issues. My assessment was just “it’s crap” lol. Aside from the MDR service being slower at the start of the cruise (I think they improved as the week wore on), we didn’t have any bad meals there. The worst was a couple things that were a little blah or overly-salty. But you can always ask for something different in the MDR, too (we never did). We never pay for extra specialty meals beyond the FAS, and frankly aside from the steaks themselves, Cagney’s went downhill a bit in my opinion. The service at the specialties was FABULOUS, though! Even though the MDRs tend to be a little slower and more disorganized, we did have a few servers there who were wonderful, too. Aside from that first-day server in O’Sheehan’s who is clearly in the wrong line of work (the other times I saw him during the cruise, he was always scowling and appeared to be actively trying to avoid working lol), the crew absolutely busts their butts to do more with less. The only other place we weren’t happy with the service was in the casino. I think the servers were a bit harried there, but DH and I found it impossible to get drinks without going to the bar. Not only were we unable to even flag the servers down, but they never once came and offered drinks. The bartenders at that bar are great, though. On previous cruises, we could barely get rid of the casino servers as they were so attentive and always checking on us.

We never parked right at the pier before so it was semi-accidental because we thought that was the entrance. However, we were quite late arrivals on embarkation day and when we got on the ship pier 88 looked pretty full anyway so I think it worked out better for us to just pull in, park, and get over to the ship when we got there.

Oh, sheesh! And at only $129p/p, for your convenience and something about sustainability.

Glad the grandkids enjoyed Splash Academy! LM is too little for us to be comfortable with leaving him there at this point, but maybe when he’s bigger and cares more about meeting other kids when we’re on vacation. Sorry to hear the tour wasn’t good. DH and I will be Platinum after one more cruise, and we’re looking forward to doing it at that point. Maybe it varies by ship, or maybe they just weren’t back in a good groove with it yet because I think this was the first sailing with them doing it again.

Dailies from days 7 and 8:

A few items I would have posted yesterday if I was having better luck with the internet: 1) They advertised the behind the scenes ship tour in the Daily. I am not sure what that means for Platinum and above, but they’re definitely selling the tour at the Excursions desk. 2) I was wandering a bit last night and I walked out to Spice H2O just to see what it looks like. It’s beautiful out there and I think it would be a lovely place to hang if you’re not traveling with kids (or you get some alone time if you are). However, the way the wind was blowing last night, the stink of exhaust was awful. I think I actually said “DUDE” out loud when the doors opened because the exhaust smacked me in the face. 3) Also in my wanderings last night, I looked around in the little alcove all the way aft on Deck 6. I’m a total nerd, so I really enjoyed checking out all the plaques from the ports Getaway has visited. Also, there’s a scale model of the ship there that is super cool to look at…the minute details in it are awesome. The kids’ splash area used to be SpongeBob-themed and there’s an itty bitty SpongeBob on the model in the kids’ splash area if you look closely. These silly things amuse me. Also, you can see exactly how crappy the deck 13 and 14 aft balconies are 🤣.

Well, I gave up on the Internet yesterday because nothing was loading. But greetings from cold, gray NYC 😢. It’s 10:11 and we’re already in the car heading home. And I had taken brown (10 AM) luggage tags. This was the fastest, smoothest disembarkation we ever had. That minor inconvenience of the immigration clearance in Miami turned out to be completely worthwhile because we walked straight out of the terminal this morning without even a pause. Our porter walked us back over to Pier 90 and we’re outta here.Farewell for now, Getaway! Bon voyage to everyone boarding today.

I have now broken into DM’s Internet minutes because everything was loading so slowly I burned through LM’s. MDR was very nice today. Our server was especially wonderful. He brought everything we asked correctly and as promptly as possible (it was a bit of a wait because everyone sits for lunch pretty much at the same time). Right before dessert, LM needed a bathroom trip, so the ice cream on my lava cake (which does reside on the lunch menu now) was kind of melted when I got back. When I got back, the server immediately said he wanted to get me a new one. I told him no because there was no reason to waste what was there, but I thought that was very sweet (actually I like the lava cake so much I should have made a pig of myself and gotten the new one and eaten both 😂). Some pictures of the food:loaded baked potato (stuffed with chili…I actually kind of dig their chili) kids’ cheeseburger meal chicken flautas (some guac was under them and that tomatillo salsa was delicious) spaghetti carbonara was tasty (salty from the bacon though) chicken Milanese—DH and DM liked it DH also had the wedding soup and DM had the spinach Caesar. They said both were really salty, and DH is a salt person who constantly complains that I use too little salt when I cook, so when he says something is salty, I believe it! Will probably spend most of the rest of the day relaxing in the cabin because of LM’s cough. DH and I taking turns going out to spend the remaining OBC we have and to maybe take one last round of abuse in the casino. Right now, I looked up some origami instructions and screen-shotted them so LM and I can use the paper squares I got earlier to have our own crafting session!

I looked in the app when they made the change and only 4 came up. What I thought was weird was that two of the 4 were ones that they would usually do for disembarkation because they were the ones that are supposed to end at the airport. Perhaps if you went to the excursion desk or checked the kiosks there were more, but we didn’t do that because we didn’t intend to book one.

The ship is kind of a madhouse today since the weather isn’t great. DH, LM, and DM were having some breakfast in the buffet and I ran down to the Atrium figuring I’d just pick up the paper and instructions for the origami since LM enjoyed it a few days ago. Good thing I didn’t bring him down. The Atrium must have had a couple hundred people there. They didn’t appear to have the printed instructions today, so I just got the colored paper and left. I’ll look up an origami pattern and we’ll have a private session in the cabin later lol. I was trying to save myself for the noodle bar for lunch, but I knew it wouldn’t probably pan out because I wasn’t there waiting by 11:30. There were still at least 20 people in front of me in line trying to check in when the employee said they were already full for the entire lunch service. Ah well, it’s not as though I don’t have access to really good Chinese and Japanese food at home 🤷🏻‍♀️. We’re at Savor now because I hadn’t eaten anything. I’ve been a real bum about taking menu pictures (I always forget), but here’s the MDR lunch menu:

Incidentally, we’ve created a little cruising monster and LM has determined that he never wants to get off the cruise ship. So, by the standards of a 4-year-old, this trip has been A-OK!!

Hallelujah! I finally got on here. I’ve really been struggling with the wi-fi to load this page several times since yesterday. Not sure why; could have been my phone even, maybe. We’ve been laying pretty low and not getting into too much excitement. LM has been a little under the weather. Poor kid has been sick on and off all winter from preschool, and a cold he had right before we left has come back with a vengeance. We mostly kept him in yesterday, because I don’t want people getting nervous from his coughing. I made everyone do a Covid test at home before we left, plus we brought a whole bunch. On Wednesday, my mom did one just as a precaution because she got LM’s cold right before we left, then Thursday I tested LM and myself, and then I tested him again yesterday. Wasn’t going to have my kid be patient zero for a cruise outbreak 😳. But it’s just the same nasty cold he’s had over and over. Still, don’t want him even spreading that all around. Yesterday, we wanted him to rest, and we were a little wiped too from the 4 straight port days, so there was a lot of nap time. We just ran up to the buffet for dinner on the late side so we could sit away from people and just eat quickly. It wasn’t bad. You just have to stick to certain items, in my opinion. The pizza isn’t bad, the Indian food is always good, the salad items are always fresh, and the pasta station is a nice offering. They also had a carving station with some kind of cut of roast beef, and that was pretty decent, too. Some of the more “creative”-looking offerings I preferred to avoid. Also, the desserts in the case in the buffet are just awful. I don’t even bother to try them. DM has given it a go a couple times and hasn’t found any she liked. I stick to the ice cream. My theory is that they make a lot of gelatinous stuff for the buffet desserts because it’s easy to make them in quantity and pour them into whatever molds or pans they use to form/bake/chill them. A few buffet dinner pictures (only one side was still open by the time we went there, by the way):So sorry some are upside-down! I don’t know why that keeps happening in CC. I figure with food pics, you can figure out what it is, though lol.

Yes, may be a little busy, but spring breaks vary and at least there are no Tri-state public school breaks then! I hope they enjoy their graduation cruise! 😎

Is it the best cruise I’ve ever been on? Not by a long shot. Am I having a bad time? No way! The crew is working so hard and trying to be as accommodating as possible, and I knew what I was getting into sailing this week. On a less crowded week, you’ll have an even better time!

We got off and through super fast. All the woman at immigration did was look at our passports and then said to little man “Aw look you were just a baby there; so cute!” and we were through lol.

Right now, LM and I are enjoying some balcony time. Although it got cloudy, it is still fairly warm, and one of my favorite things about the aft balcony has always been no wind. So it’s very comfortable and relaxing back here right now. Wanted to include a little video I took from the back of the ship, but it’ll take way too long to upload, so it’s just a photo for now.

We have been having a very lazy day, not accomplishing much beyond walking through the shops and some time in the arcade, and LM was in need of a long nap, so we ordered room service this afternoon. They said 40-45 minutes but it was definitely faster than that—maybe 1/2 hour. For about $12, I thought it was definitely worth it, especially if you’re ordering enough food for a whole family. The hot food arrived hot, the cold food was nice and cold, and everything was presented nicely and was exactly how we ordered it. The cheese plate consisted of cheddar, another block-type cheese (Jack, maybe?), Gorgonzola, brie, and goat, along with a few grapes, a couple pieces of walnut, a couple dried apricots, and come crackers. The only complaint is that they must have it completely ready to go in the fridge, crackers included, so they get a little soggy. Everything else was pretty much what you’d expect. This was the big surprise, though. Maybe I’m late to the party and everyone already knows this, but when DH looked at the menu he said to me, do you think this is THE chocolate cake? It said 7-layer chocolate cake with ice cream or whipped cream. We figured we’d check it out and it is the same as the Cagney’s cake! So that was an exciting revelation 😋.

Figured we’d probably be back to the chilly weather by tomorrow. It was good while it lasted and a welcome break from the winter at home. Besides, we can’t complain much this year, I guess, as we really have had a mild winter in southeastern NY. Hard to think that it will be a few months before we start having weather like we just had for the past several days, though! Ah well, clocks change in 2 weeks so there’s that to look forward to 🙂

@mking8288 I looked at all the Dailies again and it does not appear that there was a prime rib night at O’Sheehan’s or the buffet. I guess that’s another item from back when that is gone now (unless they do it tomorrow or it wasn’t advertised and I missed it).

OK, I’m hijacking the LM’s internet now, so I have a fresh 150 minutes to work with. I still have DM’s, too, now if I need it, so I’ll try to post more today and tomorrow. This morning has been pretty uneventful. We slept in a little and didn’t go to Garden Cafè until nearly 11. I assumed it wouldn’t be too busy since we were so late, but I guess everyone was wiped out and got up late because it was a zoo. The Daily said 11 AM was the end of breakfast there, but they had one side open well past 11; I’m assuming because of how many people were still there. We tried to take LM up to deck 17 to do giant Jenga or bean bags, but I didn’t realize how windy it was until we got up there, so naturally the stuff wasn’t out. DM was holding a glass of lemonade and some of it actually blew out of the glass lol. Nonetheless I don’t feel as though we’re having a rough ride at all. A couple of random thoughts and observations I’ve had in the past couple days: 1. I know it can vary from cruise to cruise depending on the crew, etc., but I have not one time seen anything at Garden Cafe to support claims that tables go uncleared and there’s stuff piled on them, etc. They are coming around constantly clearing tables. Yesterday, DH, LM, and I were there late afternoon for a snack and when DH got up I had to tell 2 different very nice cleaners that he was returning because they came right away. 2. It’s been a while since I cruised, so I was struck by how nicely the shower gel in the cabins lathers up. We bring Dollar Tree suction cup hooks and poufs and keep them in the shower and when you use a pouf, the shower gel is quite good! 3. If you have kids and don’t plan to purchase the streaming internet, load up a tablet with as many downloads as you can before you cruise. DH received a fire tablet from Caesars recently as a gift, so to avoid bringing an iPad which is way more expensive, I loaded the entire memory of the fire tablet with shows, movies, and a game LM likes that doesn’t require Internet. The room TVs have 4 “entertainment” channels (movies and TV shows), and most of the time it isn’t kid stuff, so definitely try to bring your own. Disney+ downloads don’t expire after starting to watch them like Netflix, Prime, and some of the other services do, so I tried to download a lot of Disney stuff for him.