A time to GETAWAY and see the SKY

Hello All. I am going to try to recap our NCL Getaway and Sky cruise. We were on the GA June 17-24 and the Sky June 25-29, so sort of a B2B. A little patience is needed as this will be my first extended review with numerous photos.

INTRODUCTIONS:

These cruises involved my DW and I (both 42) and two friends that we met in 2013 on a cruise in the Mediterranean. These would be our 7th and 8th cruises and our friends 3rd and 4th. Our cruise history is not limited to one company as we have sailed with Disney (2001 & 2017),Princess (2004), Carnival (2013 & 2015) , Royal (2011), and now NCL. We have sailed to Alaska, southern and eastern Caribbean, Bahamas, and the Med. We had originally planned to take a cruise to the British Isles, but airfare was extremely expensive. I wanted a cruise that was more than 7 days long and started to look at the Caribbean. Unfortunately with it being the low season it was hard to find one. I thought about doing a back to back, but due to the hurricanes damaging a lot of the eastern Caribbean ports that was out of the question. I then thought about taking a cruise to Cuba since we were already in Florida and found the Sky went there. There was a lot of back and forth about the first leg, but decided to take the GA as it left of Sunday vs Carnival Vista, or MSC Seaside leaving on Saturday and it avoided us traveling to Port Everglades. This would allow us to travel on Saturday vs Friday as I always like to arrive the day before. We decided on the GA due to the itinerary being completely new to us and the Sky for Havana.

This vacation was booked in October, 2017. I have to pick my vacations for the following year in October so we booked everything early. I booked through Costco and received a gift card for doing so. We booked a spa balcony, cabin 14102 to be exact as we have enjoyed the relaxation of the thermal spas during our last three cruises. Our friends booked a spa cabin next door, but that would change before we cruised(more to come on this). They booked directly through NCL. We picked the UBP and 3UDP during our bookings. DW and I ate at Cagney's, La Cucina, and Teppanyaki. Our friends did not go to Cagney's with us, but instead went to Moderno.

We are from California and dropped the kids off at the parents and flew out of Los Angeles on Saturday, June 16. I hate LAX, but it was really the only way to fly nonstop and avoid a 10-12 hour day. American Airlines operates numerous flights daily between LAX and MIA. We had originally booked a flight that left at 7:53am and arrived at 3:53pm. Not too early, but early enough that we avoided traffic and got in at an hour that allowed us to relax before going to sleep. I checked my flight in March, 2018 to see how full the plane was and found that the times had changed. Where was my notification from American? Oh that's right there wasn't one. I looked at the schedule and noticed American combined two flights and made a new flight. My flight was now leaving at 8:30am and getting in at 4:45pm. Still not too bad considering. Unfortunately,American did not carry over our same seats so I had to correct this.

Our flight was full of course and left on time. We arrived in Miami 5 minutes early. Unfortunately, we sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes due to "congestion at our gate" before arriving at our gate 40 minutes late. We were somewhat fortunate as our bags were one of the first 5 to come off.

With our bags in hand we hailed an Uber. A couple minutes later we were picked up in a nice Chevrolet Tahoe and on our way to the Conrad Hotel. 15 minutes and $28.33 later, we arrived at the hotel. Remember how I said I book everything early,well that included hotel rooms. I grabbed the Conrad for approximately $150 a night and since I am a gold member through Hilton I received breakfast included. I thought about other hotels, but for only a little more ($20-$30), I tried an upscale hotel. Plus, there were so may restaurants within walking distance.

Check in is on the 25th floor with a nice view of the city/bay. I originally booked a city view with the hopes of an upgrade which did happen. We were upgraded to a bay view on the 22nd floor. The restaurant is located on the 25th floor and has a nice little patio to eat on with a view of the bay.

Hotel Conrad

Room 2219, King bed Bay view

View from Room

By this time it was already 6:30pm and we were hungry. I used to live in south Florida and love Cuban food. So we were on the hunt for Cuban food and found Havana Cuban 1957 only 4 blocks away. It was a nice walk and the weather was actually comfortable. Not too hot and the humidity was not ridiculous. We were sat immediately and learned they have happy hour from 4-7 daily. A couple of mojitos later and this vacation had started. Dinner was good and service was relaxed. A live band starts at 8pm and we enjoyed a couple songs before finishing.

Dinner

Band

We walked around the area and walked to the bay. We ended up finding a gelato place and had dessert. After a long day of traveling and a full belly, I was done. Even though we were still on west coast time, we were in bed by 10.

Looking forward to this review!

Following along! Love to "hear" about everyone's experiences.

We’re staying at the Conrad hotel for our cruise this coming October and cruising on the getaway also. The price is not to far off from what I’m paying also which is great. Hopefully we can get an upgrade also. Can’t wait for the rest of your review!

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DAY 1- June 17

We woke up about 8am so we got a solid 10 hours of sleep. This shocked me as I expected us to be up earlier. No biggie though. I knew I wanted to get to the port early as we needed to get on the ship early to get ferry tickets for Harvest Caye. From what I read on CC, it was something that needed to be done right when we got on the ship since they only issued a limited number. I had selected arrival time at the port of 9:30am to 10am.

I looked out my window expecting to see the ship and to my surprise I could not see anything. It was so bright and my eyes could not adjust. I knew my home for the next 7 days was out there somewhere.

We got ready and went to breakfast. Nice little continental (buffet) breakfast. We sat outside on the patio and enjoyed the fresh air and view. Temperature was just right, not too hot and definitely not cold.

Our friends had listed their arrival time to the port as the same as ours, but it did not matter for them. Remember when I said they booked a room next to ours, well on Sunday(less than a week before the cruise) my friend said I forgot to tell you but we put a bid in for The Haven and it was accepted. We found out a couple weeks ago, but forgot to tell you. I had read on CC about receiving emails regarding upgrades and we never received one. After hearing this news, I called Costco to see what it would cost for us to upgrade or if there were any upgrade specials available. I saw on the website that there were still plenty of Haven rooms available.

My friends told me that they bid $2000 for a Haven Spa Suite. They never thought they would get it as the meter said they only had a fair chance. It was still on the same floor as their original room, but they wanted the king size bed and bigger room. They were not too worried about the other privileges that came with the room.

Costco called NCL and told me that there were no upgrade specials available, but the cost for me to upgrade was approximately $3100. I spoke to the DW and we came to the conclusion that this was the cost of another cruise and passed.

So our friends had priority boarding and their own area to relax at the terminal. We joked the whole cruise about DW and I being in third class compared to them.

We used Uber to the port and our driver was at the hotel about 2minutes after I requested it. We were picked up in a Toyota Sienna van. About 10 minutes and $16.00 later, we arrived at the port about 9:50am. The terminal was very busy and traffic was heavy. We were greeted at the car by a porter and I gave him our suitcases. We were directed to Terminal C.

The doors were open, but they were not letting anybody through security. I would say there were 50 people in front of us when we arrived. We filled out our health form while we waited and they opened the security lines about 10:20ish and we were quickly through. While waiting, I told DW about why these people were here so early. I explained to her what Vibe was. She asked if we wanted to get Vibe passes and I told her that I did not really care.

I got in line to check in. I had expected the line to be long since this was my first NCL cruise and I had no privileges. I would say I waited in line for less than 5 minutes. The check in process was easy until I was asked if I wanted to place a credit card on file for ship charges. I told the agent that already did when I did online check in. He told me that the information does not transfer. I thought that was weird and wondered why ask/do it then. Either way, I coughed it up and was on my way to the second floor.

Off the escalator I was handed boarding Group 1 which was great. What was not so great was the temperature in the terminal. I would say it was a cool 80-85 degrees and did not feel as if the AC was on. We sat down and then saw our friends being escorted to the special area. We walked over to the Haven area and were able to sit just outside the Haven area and talk to them. The entire Haven waiting area consisted of some red chairs/couches compared to blue/grey chairs for the rest of us. The Haven area also had snacks while the others only had coffee and water.

Haven waiting area

My wife went to use the restroom and returned saying it was one ofthe most disgusting restrooms she had ever used. I know NCL is building a new terminal in thefuture, but I would hope they would not neglect their current one. We talked with our friends and at about 11:30 they started boarding. I knew that our friends would be escorted on and then introduced to their concierge. I told them we were going straight to Guest Services to get our ferry tickets. I told our friends to check and see it their concierge could get their ferry tickets. I told them I would call them if I was able to get all 4 of them.

I got on the ship and went directly to guest services. I saw a line and got into it. I told the DW that these people were in line for Vibe. DW said she liked the idea of what Vibe was and wanted to get it. What enticed her was the small size and our own bar. We were approached by a team member and I told him that we needed ferry tickets. He said this cruise did not have any tenders. Told him I knew that, but I needed ferry tickets at Harvest Caye. He then told me that this is handled at the Shore Excursion deck not guest services. I then told him we wanted Vibe passes. He handed me number 20 & 21and we stayed in line. Price $129 per person.

Guest Services

Excellent review so far! We are booked on Getaway in 2 weeks and about to add on Sky for the week following, so I am eager to read about the rest of your experience! Thanks!

We got our Vibe passes and then walked the 30 feet to the shore excursion desk. The agent told me that the computers were down, but they would take our request and process them as soon as their computers came back up. I called my friends to let them know I would get 4 tickets, but they did not answer the phone. I turned in our excursion form for two tickets and sat down waiting for our friends to meet us. Our friends called and then told us that the concierge had process the ferry tickets for all 4 of us. I went back to the shore excursion desk and told him I did not need the tickets. He tore up my order form.

Our friends said they were going to their room and to meet them there. I guess the Haven rooms are ready when you board. We walked up to deck 14 to find the doors shut leading to the rooms. I checked and it was unlocked, but I felt weird walking in (yes, I’m arule follower). After a minute or two, I made the plunge and walked in. There were room stewards walking around cleaning the rooms and not one of them said anything to me except hi and welcome.

Our friends were in room 14734. I have attached photos and when I reviewed them later I realized I did not take a picture of the bed. It was a king size bed and the room had plenty of room even with the large bed. The shower was nice sized and allowed for plenty of room. The thing I did not like about the room was the spa in the room. On a Caribbean cruise were it is so hot, I could not see using it. On an Alaskan cruise, I could see it being used a lot more. Just my opinion.

Rain Shower head

After they dropped off their bags, we decided to go to lunch at Margaritaville. All of us shared the nachos and a chicken quesadilla. I originally thought after these, I would order a burger, but I was sure wrong. The nachos are huge and I was full. The charge for DW and I was $14.95 per person plus 20% gratuity. Our drinks which were excellent were included in the UBP.

Havanas and Bananas

forgot which drink this was.

Not very busy. This was the scene all week.

After lunch it was time to walk off lunch and tour the ship. I asked our friends to take me into the Haven so I could see it and get some photos. While in the Haven, our friends spoke to Roland, the concierge about reserving Cirque Dreams and Steam tickets. The problem was that we already had made reservations for the week to see shows. A change in our week needed to occur and Roland said he would handle the requests and changes for both rooms. Thought that was nice since I was not in a Haven room. After a few minutes, Roland said everything was squared away with us only having to move Million Dollar Quartet to a different day. Roland told us to come to the Haven and they would walk us down to the show. My friend confirmed this was not an issue for us and he said it was not a problem.

Sorry for the double post

Haven Bar

Haven Restaurant

We continued our tour stopping in the Spa. I was excited to have a spa room due to thesize of the spa and thermal suites. Thiswas the largest spa/thermal suites we had seen in our three ships that we wereinterested in the spa. We really likedthe thermal suites and spa pools on the Carnival Breeze and Disney Dream. The whole spa experience was a relief fromthe masses and very relaxing.

Men's Locker Room

Men's Locker Room

Spa Pool- Note the big silver thing in the middle of the pool. I'll talk about this in a minute.

Heated Loungers- Note the wet floor sign by the pool

View from loungers

Unfortunately, the GA spa was not relaxing and very noisy. As you can see in the pictures, the spa pool is very large and has a water feature in the middle of it (the silver thing). The water feature is a big and powerful waterfall and when it is on (most of the time) it is pumping so much water that it is very loud. To talk to someone in the same spa you have to yell at them to talk over the waterfall. Put 10-15 people in the spas and you can imagine how loud it gets.

The heated loungers are only 5 feet from the spa pool so it is not very relaxing. The other cruises I have been on, the spa is playing spa music which as anybody knows is usually very relaxing. The noise was so loud that you could not even hear any music playing. The other issues is people getting in and out of the spa are dripping wet so there is a large amount of water on the floor. Employees were constantly using a squeegee pushing water off the floor, but the floor remained wet the whole cruise. I think the wet floor sign was always there.

The other thing I found really weird on this ship was the locationof the salon for both men and women. There is no privacy and when you walk into the spa lobby you are exposed for everyone to see what you are having done.

Men's salon- No privacy

Women's Salon

I wonder why you did not get an offer to upgrade your cabin. Was it because you did not book with Norwegian? Did your friends book with Norwegian?

Following. I can't wait to read the rest of your review. We will be on the Getaway in November. I am also curious why you did not get an upgrade e-mail. We also booked through Costco and I am wondering if we won't be given an upgrade offer?

I wonder why you did not get an offer to upgrade your cabin. Was it because you did not book with Norwegian? Did your friends book with Norwegian?

Following. I can't wait to read the rest of your review. We will be on the Getaway in November. I am also curious why you did not get an upgrade e-mail. We also booked through Costco and I am wondering if we won't be given an upgrade offer?

Just and FYI........Costco does not participate in the Upgrade Advantage. If getting an upgrade offer is important don't book thru them. Most travel agencies do, some don't

So someone deleted my thread, but thanks to the wonderful people at CC it is now back. Sorry for those that were bored. I'll post more later today.

So someone deleted my thread, but thanks to the wonderful people at CC it is now back. Sorry for those that were bored. I'll post more later today.

I wondered what happened. I was enjoying your review!

We then went to Vibe to see what it was all about and what I bought for the week. We took our friends with us so they could see it. Upon entry we were greeted by Darwin (bartender) and Ricky (bar waiter). They were awesome throughout the week and a highlight of the cruise. It was nice to go into the Vibe and see 10 people there. Everybody introduced themselves and it was like a small group of friends hanging out throughout the week. This turned out to be the best investment due to the amount of people on the ship. Iwould say there were never more than 30 people at the Vibe at one time and I never waited for a cocktail.

The Vibe has many padded chairs and 5 cabanas. I was told the cabanas are $300 for the week and include a $100 on board credit. They were already booked for the week.

For the week, our friends went to the Vibe with us every day without any issues. There is a list of people who have purchased Vibe, but they were never questioned. I am not sure if that was because they did not care or because they were in the Haven. I never asked.

Two spas just for vibe. They were used all the time, but never a time when you could not find room in one.

We finished touring the boat until our room was ready. Some random shots around the boat.

Main Pool

Secondary Pool/ Kids Pool

So here is where I will interject my $.02. These two pools are supposed to handle 4000 people. What a joke. The pools on the Sky were about the same size if not a little bigger for only 2000 people. I am not sure why there is not a third pool (for everyone, not Haven) for so many people. The lines at the bars by the pool on the sea days were 10 deep all the time as well.

Kids area. Very busy throughout the cruise and fun for the little ones.

Slides. They are fast and fun.

cool model of the ship

An announcement was made that the rooms were ready. Sorry, I do not remember what time this was, but it did not seem that it was too long after we were on board. We were in room 14102, a spa balcony room.

door. Notice how close it is to the cabin door next door

In this room, the bed is closer to the balcony. In others, the couch is next to the balcony.

The shower was bigger that I thought it would be. It is definetly bigger than Carnival.

Mini Fridge. We requested it be emptied which it was and we kept our bottled water in there.

Looking through my 1500 pictures, I thought I had some photos of some of the weird things about this room and I am sure about all the rooms. One thing was the closet and how close the couch is to the closet doors. I could not stand between the couch and the closet because it is only about 8 inches from each other. The other thing, was how small the safe was.

In 2013 when on our Med cruise, I had ordered Euros which were shipped to me in a white envelope. I left this envelope on the white bedspread in the hotel because it blended in. Thankfully, the cleaning staff turned it in and I recovered all $2500. For this reason, I now travel with a brown/yellow manilla envelope. I think it is a 10x13. Eitherway, I had to lift the ipad, and slightly bend the envelope to be able to shut the door to the safe. If you have a laptop, good luck. The safe on the Sky was the same size so it must be fleet wide. Sorry I don't have a photo of it.

By this time it was time for the safety briefing. We hadto report to O’Sheehan’s for our reporting station. They checked us in and we waited for 15minutes to hear everything. We had sailaway on deck 7 and said goodbye to Miami.

RCL new Terminal under construction. I was told this is going to house the Oasis size ships. To me it looks a little small.

Bye

South Beach was crowded as it was a nice warm day.

We unpacked and then went to dinner. For dinner we ate at Taste Restaurant. We were seated in couple minutes and the restaurant was crowded. I was surprised by the amount of people in line for Taste and Savor (they are across from each other). I thought with all the dining options, the lines would not be too long.

While waiting for our drink order to be taken, we made eye contact with Ronnie, the maître de. He came to our table and introduced himself. He asked about our cruise history and we told him this was our first cruise on NCL. He asked us our cabin numbers which we gave him and he told us someone would be with us to take our orders.

Service was slow and the food was not the best. Our drink glasses remained empty and unfilled numerous times during this meal. I had the prime rib with a loaded baked potato. The potato was not completely done and hard inside. The prime rib was fine. I had the lava cake for dessert and it was extremely over cooked as the lava (chocolate inside) was dry. The rest of my group also said their desserts were dry and lacked flavor. This would become a theme for us during this cruise, overcooked food with little or no flavor.

For those Carnival travelers, you know how the chocolate lava cake is. I thought the combination of chocolate chip ice cream and strawberries was weird, but it was actually quite good. I had another one of these later in the cruise and it was perfect.

After dinner we went to the spa. They were still having open house so there were a lot of people in and out. There was probably 25 people in the spa pool so it was very loud. This is where I learned about the noise problem.

I forget what we did after this, but I believe it was an early night. After consuming a few adult beverages through out the day, we were tired.

So someone deleted my thread, but thanks to the wonderful people at CC it is now back. Sorry for those that were bored. I'll post more later today.

Hooray! So excited you are back! I was going crazy trying to find this thread again.

Day 2- Sea Day

We slept really well once we were able to fall asleep. Our neighbors in the cabin next to us had their TV on a little louder than I would have liked. I originally thought they must be elderly, but I saw them later in the cruise and was shocked to see they were in their late 20's, maybe early 30's. Another issue I discovered throughout this cruise, remember the photo of our cabin door and how the next cabin door is only 6 inches away, well you can imagine the sound when they go in and out of their door and how it slams. When I booked this cabin, I was also excited that there were no inside cabins across from me thinking it would be quieter. Unfortunately, across from me was a crew door that was used constantly. I think maybe the crew elevator stopped on deck 14 and that is why so many crew where using it. There was a little noise from this, but not too bad.

Even though our cabin was 14102, our cabin was back a little bit due to the bridge. The below photo shows our view from our balcony. There is only one cabin forward of us before you get to the crew (captain) cabins/balconies. The Haven staterooms were above us and we had very little noise from them. All in all, a pretty quiet room if your willing to walk a little.

Our friends decided to try the Haven for breakfast and we went to the buffet. They said they ordered a 3 egg omelete, but believe it was 3 quail eggs because it was so small. They said it was good though.

The buffet was located on deck 15 aft. I liked this because I could walk aft on deck 14 and stay away from the crowd and in the air conditioning. One flight of stairs up and I was there. The buffet for breakfast is a standard fair. At this point, I want to address my issue with NCL and the buffet.

NCL prouds itself about freestyle dining. For breakfast, this freestyle dining allows you to chose between the dining room or O'Sheehan's for a sit down breakfast or the buffet. Margaritaville has a small breakfast which we found on day 3 and ended eating there everyday due to the lack of a crowd. The buffet area is large, but to handle 4000 people again is not reasonable. We ate at the buffet everyday and sometimes had a tough time finding a seat. We would have to walk around to find a seat, but would find one.

I found seating to be an issue especially when returning to the ship while in port. The only other option is O'Sheehan's. While comparing this to Carnival, I liked the options for lunch/snack on Carnival and not having everybody in the buffet area.