Just Off the Getaway 03/28 - 04/04 Review

My wife and I are first time cruisers and these are some of our thoughts. Please forgive the disjointed thought process, but I'm going to break things down into small sections...

Room

We stayed in room 14118 which is a spa balcony. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the room. The balcony is extremely small, but large enough to occasionally stand out there and watch the ship come into port. (which by the way, we always backed in and docked on the port side for those that care.) Our room steward Clark was very nice and our stateroom was always immaculate. The location is perfect, right by the stairs you go one floor up for the spa and 2 floors up for Vibe. My only complaint about the room is that the beds are horrible. Had a very hard time sleeping on the beds after around day 5. Also received a nasty surprise once we boarded the ship that room service is now $4.95+18% gratuity no matter what time of the day you order. Our room steward was also unaware and he checked and they just changed it for our cruise. More on nickle and diming by NCL later.

UBP

Pretty much everyone had the package on the ship. This led to extremely long waits at some of the bars. The process that forces the bartenders to make your drink, swipe your card, and then have you sign your receipt takes approximately 5 minutes. When you have everyone vying for drinks that is too long. The bartenders seemed to have zero sense of urgency and a generally apathetic attitude towards customer service in my opinion. The worst bar with the slowest service is sugarcane mojito bar. Although they have great drinks at that bar the service is painful.

Restaurants

Tropicana, savor, and taste are all the same for the most part and the servers are not extremely courteous as they should be in a customer service position. For example, I just want to order Appetizers now and I will order my entree later. "No you order everything now." Some of the servers downright seemed as if they hated their lives. I rate the 3 MDRs a C-. O'Sheehans has the same menu every single day with the absolute worst service in my mind. It's supposed to be a pub type restaurant but the hardest thing to get is a drink! Several times I would just go to the bar and get myself a drink and come back to my seat. Once I got 4 drinks by going back and forth to the bar before the waiter brought my first drink. O'Sheehans is a D-. Garden Cafe is okay standard buffet C+. The best complimentary place to each is flamingo grill. The food here isn't fancy but it's outstanding. Flamingo Grill is a solid A. I only had the opportunity to eat at Cagney's and the food there was excellent as well. Cagney's is an A.

Vibe Beach Club

We arrived at the POM at 10am on the dot. We were given boarding group 4 at the terminal. Once our group was called we went straight to the customer service desk on deck 6. We were number 21 and 22 for the Vibe passes. I'm unsure how many they give out. Out of everything on the cruise this is the one thing that we swore by. The decks are packed I mean packed by 9am everyday by mostly chair hogs and by 10am the decks are full of people you can hardly walk anywhere and it is super loud. There was a few different groupsets in vibe there of course was the new York floating retirement home group, the LGBT group, and the loud middle aged bar group. All in all though it is extremely mellow and in my mind a must to avoid the absolute insanity happening on the main decks. The best part about vibe is the personalized bar service. You have your own bar right there and the bartenders come to you to get drink orders and deliver drinks. Ken and Ali were outstanding bartenders and really deserve to be applauded. I've heard people say vibe is too windy. There definitely are times when vibe is extremely wind but all in all I still say it's worth the $79pp.

Spa

Of course having the spa balcony we had thermal spa access everyday. We woke up every morning and arrived at the spa when they opened at 8am. 8am is very late for it to open in my opinion I wish it would open at 6am or so. Anyways from 8am-9am it was never crowded and there were maybe 5 other people there at the most. They seemed to be having some issues half the time the steam room wasn't working or the sanarium was a sauna because there was no humidity. That was a slight disappointment. However the hot tub and pool are very nice. The heated tile loungers are very nice and from 8am-9am there are plenty available. My one compliant is the towels. They are the thin rock hard towels you get in your room. If there is a next time I would not pay the extra money for spa access.

Bars

I've already touched on this. Overall very slow service the best bar was believe it or not the atrium bar or the headliners bar when it was open. This of course doesn't include the Vibe bar.

Joel Sanchez

He seemed overwhelmed with the job as cruise director. I though the assistant cruise director Tyler did a much better job in fact. I'm unsure what Joel's qualifications are but I find it odd he's the cruise director of the newest and best ship in NCLs fleet.

Television

I know that on Channel 21 every once and awhile they have a very broad weather overview. I wish they had a more detailed breakdown on there weather channel style. Or atleast have a section on the daily with detailed weather.

Howl at the Moon

We went every night it was offered. We love dueling pianos. Ben Torres is pretty good but he is somewhat limited in his depth. Without fail one of his first songs every night is bad bad LeRoy brown. Pete is the old guy and he is terrible. The guy with the ponytail is pretty good. Aside from them pretty much doing the same songs every night despite the requests I say this was B entertainment and we enjoyed it.

Piano Melodies with Chris Wade

This guyplays every night at a few different spots and a few different genres. Very good we enjoyed him alot.

Burn the Floor

Very good A. The theater is very nice however the chairs aren't the most comfortable. There is a bar that runs the length of your chair that you are forced to shoot on which is very odd.

Legally Blonde

C-

Levity Entertainment

Warren B Hall is hilarious I'm upset he just opened for Andrew Sleighter who was okay. Overall solid B entertainment.

St. Maarten-America's Cup Regatta

Best shore excursion ever. We didn't win however we had a great time and the reviews on this speak for themselves. A must do.

St. Thomas/St. John-Champagne Catamaran and Snorkel

So much fun! Again not much to say other than hands down this was awesome. The snorkeling wasn't the best I've ever done but who cares when you are having that much fun.

Nassau

Place is a dump that's all I can say. We stayed on the boat and did all the things that are too crowded normally such as the water slides. The free fall water slide is awesome!

Ship movement

Not sure if it is because the ship is so tall however the movement of the ship is very pronounced whether you are on deck 14 forward or at the atrium on deck 6 mid. No matter how calm the seas the boats movement is felt throughout the ship.

Crowd

There was a ton of loud mouthed new york/Jersey cruisers that were annoying to say the least. I can get over that but their kids are running wild. The crew just let's it go and kids are running wild all over the ship. This is to be expected since it was spring break. I'm not 80 years old and anti kids either. I'm in my late 20's and we have two kids of our own. We met several very nice people though! If you are on the main pool decks it is like sardines crowded. They said we have 4,800 guests on the boat for my cruise which may have something to do with it. The very, very, very small main pool is always jam packed. This is another reason Vibe is so crucial.

The Ship Itself

Very beautiful, everything is brand new and immaculate. Very very crowded the atrium around 7pm is so crowded you have to fight through traffic to go from the forward to aft of deck 6. The jogging track is in the most ridiculously stupid spot. The runners are pushing people out of the way. The small area between chairs they run is dangerous for passers by in my opinion.

Overall experience

I rate it a C. We are the all inclusive type and this was our first cruise. We were downright shocked at how NCL tries to upcharge everything!!! You want to do this Okay well that's $10, you want to do that? Okay that's $15. I'm glad we finally got the opportunity to take a cruise, but quite frankly don't see us taking another one when for a similar price we can go to an all inclusive resort and not have to feel the constant pressure for up charging.

I apologize for any errors I'm on my cell phone typing this.

$4.95 delivery fee for room service PLUS a mandatory 18% gratuity for delivery? Please clarify that, I want to make sure I understand properly.

$4.95 delivery fee for room service PLUS a mandatory 18% gratuity for delivery? Please clarify that, I want to make sure I understand properly.

That is 100% correct.

That is 100% correct.

Was the 18% for soda / wine delivery or is it top of the room service fee? Because if its the latter, wow, that is some nickel and diming....

Was the 18% for soda / wine delivery or is it top of the room service fee? Because if its the latter, wow, that is some nickel and diming....

No if you order eggs which has no price on the room service menu unlike cokes, etc which do its $4.95 + 18% gratuity regardless. So to clarify you order what used to be complimentary it is a $4.95 service fee plus a mandatory 18% gratuity whether you order one item or 8.

No if you order eggs which has no price on the room service menu unlike cokes, etc which do its $4.95 + 18% gratuity regardless. So to clarify you order what used to be complimentary it is a $4.95 service fee plus a mandatory 18% gratuity whether you order one item or 8.

Thank you for responding back with this info. The community appreciates it. We were as shocked as you were to find out about these new unmentioned charges. I am double shocked to learn of a mandatory gratuity on top of this charge as well.

Thank you for responding back with this info. The community appreciates it. We were as shocked as you were to find out about these new unmentioned charges. I am double shocked to learn of a mandatory gratuity on top of this charge as well.

The worst part is that you are on the ship ordering breakfast for your balcony and surprise you are charged!! I booked the cruise and had a contract in my opinion for specific services and I get on the ship and NCL basically says tough luck you are forced to pay us muuuahhaha.

No if you order eggs which has no price on the room service menu unlike cokes, etc which do its $4.95 + 18% gratuity regardless. So to clarify you order what used to be complimentary it is a $4.95 service fee plus a mandatory 18% gratuity whether you order one item or 8.

Ouch - its the buffet for me......Oh heck no..... So basically is $5.84 in total for room service. So that means it was 9.38 on the Breakaway....

Thank you for taking the time to do your very fair and balanced review. There has been much talk here on the boards while you were away about the 'test' of room service with a convenience fee. I too am shocked that there is an 18% gratuity added on top. If you can recall, were there any breakfast items that incurred a fee?

You seemed to enjoy the Vibe. Curious though if you spent and time

during the day in Spice H2o? Wondering specifically if this was a packed area during a holiday cruise.

Welcome home and thanks again for your review.

Rochelle

Im sorry but charging 18% gratuity on top of the $4.95 is just a slap in the face!

Also received a nasty surprise once we boarded the ship that room service is now $4.95+18% gratuity no matter what time of the day you order. Our room steward was also unaware and he checked and they just changed it for our cruise.

Thank you for taking the time to do your very fair and balanced review. There has been much talk here on the boards while you were away about the 'test' of room service with a convenience fee. I too am shocked that there is an 18% gratuity added on top. If you can recall, were there any breakfast items that incurred a fee?

 

You seemed to enjoy the Vibe. Curious though if you spent and time

during the day in Spice H2o? Wondering specifically if this was a packed area during a holiday cruise.

 

Welcome home and thanks again for your review.

 

 

Rochelle

No from what I remember none of the standard breakfast, lunch, or dinner/dessert items had a fee. That's why I ordered it and when they delivered the food they gave me a bill for $5.84 I said Yeah no thanks. They showed me how now at the bottom of the room service menu in size 8 font there is now an asterisk that says $4.95 + 18% gratuity for all orders.

I never spent any time in spice H2O so I can't comment on it.

Did you ask for the charge to be removed from your onboard account?

They brought the receipt for me to sign with the food. I rejected the food and told them nevermind I don't want it if I'm going to be charged. They couldn't explain the charge to me and very soon thereafter I saw my room steward who was surprised as well. He asked came back and showed me on the bottom on the room service menu in very small font there is now an asterisk that says $4.95 + 18% gratuity.

They brought the receipt for me to sign with the food. I rejected the food and told them nevermind I don't want it if I'm going to be charged. They couldn't explain the charge to me and very soon thereafter I saw my room steward who was surprised as well. He asked came back and showed me on the bottom on the room service menu in very small font there is now an asterisk that says $4.95 + 18% gratuity.

They brought the receipt for me to sign with the food. I rejected the food and told them nevermind I don't want it if I'm going to be charged. They couldn't explain the charge to me and very soon thereafter I saw my room steward who was surprised as well. He asked came back and showed me on the bottom on the room service menu in very small font there is now an asterisk that says $4.95 + 18% gratuity.

Sorry that happen to you, that just...ouch....Thanks for letting us know about the fine print and the tip.

You seemed to have a good idea what the cruise would be like before you went on it. You knew about Vibe. Is there anything you would have done differently? i.e. made more reservations prior to the cruise?

I can't say that I am looking forward to being one of 4,000 + with a small pool and a few bars with most people having a beverage package, but like you said with the spa were there better times of the day for certain activities? Slides, rope course?

And did you say that the MDR was open for 2 hours?

Thanks

Neal

OP, welcome home & posting your key thoughts - refreshing to read about "reactions" of those that sailed last week about this "2 week test" trial on the GA and BA, which we came off 7 days ago & turned over to the next Roll Call, now on their way home sailing into NY.

* * Excellent move on your part to refused delivery, reject the charges and send it back to the gallery - that send a loud & clear message that to you as a passenger, it is unacceptable and un-welcomed. * * Let NCL eat it :p

So, it would be similar to our invoice - with the line "Please use the 'Additional Tip' Line to recognize outstanding service. This slip is ours for Shanghai Noodles last month on the Breakaway - 18% is NOT a suggested amount, it is printed as Autogratuity.

It's not the small amount of tip money involved here - 15% to 20% is what we generally give in the form of a cash tip, but heck - I'm not going to add another 15% - let alone 20% on top of that 18%, regardless of what it is called - plus the Delivery/Convenience Charge - to effective paid a 33% to 38% gratuity/tip combined, am I crazy in calling this out !! NOT

Unfortunately, the crew members that most/all of us do care and still feel good about overall, are caught up with NCLH corporate decisions and ducking under their covers.

We are neither filthy rich and not so "poor" as being unable to afford to cruise & pay extra for "minor" add-ons, we've stayed at some of the finest 5 stars hotels in our global travel - where some of the suites are 800 to 1,200 sq. ft. in size ... Go ahead if anyone wanted to flame, got Level C PPE gears on - besides, just consider earning yourself on my IGNORE LIST as I can choose to selectively not respond to or answer posts.

The new round of cyber-fireworks on one of the hottest topics for this week here on CC's NCL sub-forum is now on - watch & waiting for the insults to start shortly.

OP, welcome home & posting your key thoughts - refreshing to read about "reactions" of those that sailed last week about this "2 week test" trial on the GA and BA, which we came off 7 days ago & turned over to the next Roll Call, now on their way home sailing into NY.

 

* * Excellent move on your part to refused delivery, reject the charges and send it back to the gallery - that send a loud & clear message that to you as a passenger, it is unacceptable and un-welcomed. * * Let NCL eat it :p

 

So, it would be similar to our invoice - with the line "Please use the 'Additional Tip' Line to recognize outstanding service. This slip is ours for Shanghai Noodles last month on the Breakaway - 18% is NOT a suggested amount, it is printed as Autogratuity.

 

It's not the small amount of tip money involved here - 15% to 20% is what we generally give in the form of a cash tip, but heck - I'm not going to add another 15% - let alone 20% on top of that 18%, regardless of what it is called - plus the Delivery/Convenience Charge - to effective paid a 33% to 38% gratuity/tip combined, am I crazy in calling this out !! NOT

 

Unfortunately, the crew members that most/all of us do care and still feel good about overall, are caught up with NCLH corporate decisions and ducking under their covers.

 

We are neither filthy rich and not so "poor" as being unable to afford to cruise & pay extra for "minor" add-ons, we've stayed at some of the finest 5 stars hotels in our global travel - where some of the suites are 800 to 1,200 sq. ft. in size ... Go ahead if anyone wanted to flame, got Level C PPE gears on - besides, just consider earning yourself on my IGNORE LIST as I can choose to selectively not respond to or answer posts.

 

The new round of cyber-fireworks on one of the hottest topics for this week here on CC's NCL sub-forum is now on - watch & waiting for the insults to start shortly.

That receipt it going to hurt even more when the Noodle bar becomes free in mid-April....

I would normally have given a 4-5$ tip for room service so really in the end this doesn't cost me that much extra since the tip is included. I guess it'll be less to the pocket of the person delivering it though, bummer.

I know people want to turn this into another discussion of room service and tipping only, but there is lots of other valuable info in your review, too. Thanks so much for sharing. It sucks that it wasn't up to par.

Regarding Howl at the Moon - We spend every night it's open there, too. The performers only sign contracts for a couple weeks, so they change constantly. Some are good and some are bad. I'd say most are mediocre.

Regarding Sugarcane Mojito Bar. By design, it will take longer to get drinks here. Mojitos take a LONG time to make! They are grinding and juicing fresh ingredients into every single one, so it's not like simply pouring in some liquor and mixers and shaking it or something. We spend most evenings sitting at the bar here, so we got to see all that goes into it. I think it'd be better if they got rid of the Mojito flight. For these, they are mixing, grinding, juicing ingredients into 6 separate drinks for just a single order. It takes forever, even when the bartender is going faster than full speed. They either need to add several more bartenders or do something.

We are also big All-Inclusive vacationers, but we throw in some cruises now and then. I'd say to give it another shot on another line or even another ship. It always seems to be completely different experiences. Thanks again for the review.

Am I the only person who has a problem with how the OP characterizes people they encountered on their cruise? What is the point of referring to a subset of pax as the NY Floating Retirement Home group, the LGBT group or the loud middle aged bar group, etc? I was enjoying the review until I read these comments. Why refer to Pete as an "old guy"? Sorry but either I need a thicker skin or the OP could do with some sensitivity training. I'm definitely in the older demographic and proud of it.

I would normally have given a 4-5$ tip for room service so really in the end this doesn't cost me that much extra since the tip is included. I guess it'll be less to the pocket of the person delivering it though, bummer.

That's a very good point. We've only ordered room service a couple of times but I'm sure we'd add $4 or $5 as a tip as well. So in the end, doesn't make much difference although I will say, I still disagree with the new policy.

Am I the only person who has a problem with how the OP characterizes people they encountered on their cruise? What is the point of referring to a subset of pax as the NY Floating Retirement Home group, the LGBT group or the loud middle aged bar group, etc? I was enjoying the review until I read these comments. Why refer to Pete as an "old guy"? Sorry but either I need a thicker skin or the OP could do with some sensitivity training. I'm definitely in the older demographic and proud of it.

Don't feel bad, though I was not on this sailing if I were I would be considered one of the "loud mouthed new york/new jersey cruisers who were annoying to say the least". LOL!

Am I the only person who has a problem with how the OP characterizes people they encountered on their cruise? What is the point of referring to a subset of pax as the NY Floating Retirement Home group, the LGBT group or the loud middle aged bar group, etc? I was enjoying the review until I read these comments. Why refer to Pete as an "old guy"? Sorry but either I need a thicker skin or the OP could do with some sensitivity training. I'm definitely in the older demographic and proud of it.

I have a huge problem with it! Everyone is so obsessed with room service fees, that is all they can read. If it doesn't hit people in the pocket they don't care about anything. Sad..

Don't feel bad, though I was not on this sailing if I were I would be considered one of the "loud mouthed new york/new jersey cruisers who were annoying to say the least". LOL!

I see no humor in the profiling of where people are from. Just dont think it should be encouraged IMHO