Getaway 7 Day Western Caribbean Review

Just back from a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Getaway. Although this was my 18th cruise, it was only my third time cruising with NCL. My most recent experience with them was last March on the Epic. You can read about that trip here. It was an honest review of my experience on that cruise. While it certainly did not rise to the level of "disaster" or "whole trip ruined" or anything crazy like that, the ship and the cruise did fall far below my expectations.

So why am I back taking another cruise with NCL so soon if my experience was so poor? There are a couple reasons. For one, I know that every ship and even cruise on the same ship is going to be different and writing off a cruise line entirely based on one bad experience is a bit drastic. But more importantly, I like to gamble when I cruise. Based on my losses on Epic, I was able to call up CAS and request a comped cruise to come make some more donations to their casino. It would have to be pretty bad to not take a free cruise that you have already paid for in the casino so another trip was a real no brainer.

Next to decide when and which ship. I was specifically looking for cruises that would earn double points in their loyalty program. Carnival gets some flack for not having great loyalty perks, but NCL's seem even worse. Fifty-five points just to get a free bottle of water? Brutal. Since I'm really just looking for any cruise to scratch my cruise itch and I have a free offer for almost any sailing it was another no brainer to pick something that would earn double points, just in case I end up sailing with them in the future. I love me some free bottled water....especially when the cruise line turns it into such a rare commodity.

I landed on the Getaway as it was the only ship sailing from Florida for 7 day cruises that were worth double points. I was a bit hesitant about sailing on another mega ship, but Getaway was literally the only option that met my other criteria.

Joining me this cruise was my good friend and frequent cruise buddy M. She is the one who got me into cruising and I took my first cruise with her on the Sky back in 2012. Since then we have only cruised together on Carnival. I gave her some dates that I could do and she picked 7/22 so I called CAS and booked and got ready to embark on another adventure and told myself things would go better this time. And just in case they didn't, I did have the UBP as a backup plan.

To summarize, this ended up being a great trip. I had a great time and the UBP definitely enhanced my cruise, but it was great without it. Everything that I did not like about Epic, was not a problem or less of a problem on the Getaway.

There were still some difficulties with things being on standby only, but I was better prepared and made more reservations. Plus it was not EVERYTHING on standby. On Epic, by day 2 there was not a single show or restaurant that had openings for the entire rest of the week. Getaway seemed to be only a little smaller than Epic while having far less people, so the venues were not as consistently booked solid.

The other big complaint with Epic that could still use some improving on Getaway was the food. I felt like the food was much much better this cruise but there are still some opportunities for improvement that I will elaborate on as I go.

Day 1: Embarcation

We boarded the Getaway on Sunday. I thought I liked leaving on Sunday because it gave me a day off work for last minute items (I am so last minute at everything) but in retrospect I think I would rather have that extra day at the end so I have more time to get readjusted to the real world. Not to mention the drive. My last two cruises have been out of Port Canaveral which is about 90 minutes from my house. Miami is much further than I care to drive.

#FirstWorldProblems for sure.

I arrived at M's house in South Florida on Saturday and we headed out the next morning. Parking has been hit or miss with a few rounds of really bad misses with unreliable or nonexistent service. Last time we parked at the port which was super easy, but also super expensive and it just wasn't in the budget this time.

I ended up using Best Cruise Parking. Things did not get off to a good start. For no apparent reason my reservation was cancelled. When I emailed them asking for an explanation I did not get a response. I ended up rebooking through them and then realized my refund was for $5 less than what I paid - I'm guessing some sort of cancellation fee. Except I did not ask for a refund.

I found another contact address for them and sent a strongly worded email explaining what had happened including the lack of response. Literally within minutes they responded and refunded me the money owed and apologized. I didn't really get an explanation, but I felt satisfied with the response and resolution and I would still be willing to recommend them. Other than the initial snafu, the service was excellent and we arrived at the perfect time to catch the next shuttle. Plus, the cost was $56 and some change, which would only buy me two days parking at the port. Huge savings that can now be redirected to the casino. Priorities and all :)

I spy a whale tail. Wait, wrong ship. Ok, my first glimpse of the Getaway.

I'm still a little out of my comfort zone with NCL. Typically I carry on my own luggage. Even before my room was ready on boarding with Carnival, I would carry it with me because I could navigate their ships easily with luggage in tow. I had a bad run there for a while with my luggage being damaged every cruise. Plus I hate the porters' attitude with regards to tips. Waiters don't get an attitude. Tour guides don't get an attitude. Porters are pretty well compensated, but see nothing wrong with "expecting" to not just be tipped, but tipped well. Any other profession would get squat from me if they even hinted that a tip was expected but porters got you by the neck, and they know it.

A guy ahead of me on the shuttle gave a tip, I don't know how much, and was met with "that's all, are you f#@%ing kidding me" except without the cute symbols I put in there to clean it up in case there are kids reading just like there were kids with the poor guy whose tip offended the porter. I chose a different porter who was hopefully less grumpy. I gave him $5 for two bags. One light (mine) and one medium (m's) weight suitcase. That was not enough to make him happy but enough to not get cussed at. He grumbled something under his breath, sighed, and took my bags with more grumbling as he walked away. I prayed my bag would arrive safely. It did.

Check-in was a breeze thanks to having priority embarkation. The line was pretty bad for anyone without priority and I was very thankful to be able to bypass it. It took a minute to find it because the CAS boarding sign just pointed you to the regular line but when we asked an employee if we were at the right spot they directed us to the line for platinum and above. Thank goodness.

Once we boarded we went to the dining room for lunch. I love that the dining rooms is open for lunch and some of my favorite items last time were from the lunch menu in the MDR. On the way to lunch, I grabbed my first drink from the atrium bar.

Rebellious fish.

I brought my own straw because not serving your customers straws is kinda absurd. I get the reason behind it and fully support you asking your customers to consider not using a straw, much like they ask you to consider reusing your towel, but to simply not offer them is poor customer service, period. At worst, I question their real motive and suspect cost cutting is the real reason. At best, NCL is that annoying friend who thinks that they are morally superior to everyone and expects you to conform to their beliefs.

I got a lot of positive comments all week for having brought my own straw and gave out a couple to people who asked (one even offered to pay) so this using a straw thing does not make me some evil dolphin killing guy in most people's eyes, NCL is just being wacky and enforcing a belief that most don't seem to agree with.

Stepping back off my soapbox let's have some food pics.

For lunch I ordered the bacon wrapped meatloaf and the cajun grouper sandwich.

For dessert I ordered the orange chocolate mousse.

Dessert was fantastic and just as good as I remembered it. The entrees were still good, but I thought they were better last time. Strangely lunch in the dining room was my favorite meal last cruise, this cruise it fell a little short but dinner more than picked up the slack. Service was also a little slow which would be a trend all week. Never any ridiculous wait times, but slower than I would prefer and certainly slower than Epic.

After lunch we went to our rooms which were ready for us. We had an inside room, 11621. It was conveniently located close to the forward elevators but far enough away we had no issues with noise all week. I knew the room would be smaller than what I was used to and it was. We did some rearranging and made it work but truthfully, it was too cramped in here.

Our steward was Jhonny (not how I would spell it but that was how he spelled it so who am I to correct it) and he did a great job keeping the room clean and the ice full all week. I guess that is all I really need from my steward. He did not speak in the hall and in fact other than when he introduced himself the first day, I did not interact with him all week. No complaints as he did a good job, but I do wonder what ever happened to the personal touch that seems to be missing lately across both cruise lines I sail.

After we setteled in we set off to explore a little. Outside on the Waterfront the skies were not looking friendly.

There was a light rain that afternoon but wonderful weather for the rest of the week after that.

We didn't have much time for exploring before it was time for muster. I was very thankful that the muster was held inside especially since this seemed to take forever to get started. It was an oddly unorganized process that took forever to get started but again it could have been so much worse if they had crammed us outside.

After muster was sail away. My biggest regret this cruise was not watching us pull out of Miami. Of the ports I have sailed out of, Miami has the best sail away hands down. Instead I went to the "rum punch party" at the casino. I figured this would be like the gathering on the Epic where we had a cocktail party with food and drinks being served while the casino staff explained how their casino program worked. I figured wrong. It was just servers walking around handing out rum punch to people in the casino. "Party" was a bit of an oversell.

Since we were here anyway, we took them up on an offer to teach us how to play baccarat.

It was pretty easy to learn, in fact it seemed a little too easy.

The gorgeous chandelier hanging in the middle of the casino.

Tonight for dinner we went to the Savor MDR. Tonight's dinner menu.

It was prime rib night at both O'Sheehans and the buffet.

For my starter I ordered the crab cakes and the slider.

The crab cakes were good. The slider suffered the same fate as my lunchtime favorites - good but not as good as I remembered. I did not end up ordering it again this cruise.

For my main I ordered the lasagna.

Just like with Carnival's, this was overcooked to my liking.

Dessert menu.

I ordered the cheesecake.

This was fantastic.

Overall the food and service tonight were both average. No real complaints about either but nothing that stood out except that cheesecake.

We ate pretty early, it was only just after 7 when we were done eating. M gets bored real easy and usually ends up spending a lot of her time in the casino even though she always intends not to. I, on the other hand, am pretty easily entertained and could be content just people watching. We set out to enjoy the nightlife to save M's casino budget but we did get off to a rough start trying to find our niche.

Sunset on the waterfront.

We headed to sugarcane where Velvet Duo was performing "Songs of Michael Jackson". I am not sure if it was the equipment or the performers but you could not understand anything being said so we moved on. I did enjoy a raspberry guava mojito while I was here though. I am sad I never made it back for another one it was very good.

Next we moved over to Fat Cats. They were near the end of a karaoke session followed by Tribute to the 90's with Let's Groove Band. The band sounded much better, but the songs were very obscure so after a couple of songs we moved on from here as well.

After that we went to the library and played some games. This became our home away from home away from home for the week. M would disagree with me but I felt like they had a better variety of games than on Carnival. Although there is a bigger selection on Carnival, it is nearly impossible to find a game with all the pieces and the wider variety is kids' games like candy land and chutes and ladders stuff that doesn't really hold my attention. My favorite this week was Trivial Pursuit, although by the end of the week we had trouble finding questions we hadn't had already lol.

M did end up spending some time in the casino tonight but I felt like we did a good job of finding others ways to occupy our time. We had the drink card in the casino and we used that to stock up our supply of water. I like two to take with me in port. M easily drinks a 12 pack a day and that is not even a slight embellishment so I knew that the water situation on NCL was going to be a challenge for her. Once we got into a rhythm there was never a water shortage and all was right in M's world again. Just like with my straw, I had people coming up to me asking me where I got the water from.

After M got in some casino time we headed to the Bliss nightclub. Neither one of us dance but its a great spot for people watching and listening to music. We stayed here until around 1:30 and then headed to O'Sheehans for a late night snack.

I ordered the nachos and a hot dog.

I love the concept here of an all night place to grab a bite to eat. Carnival's choices are pizza, pizza, room service ($), or pizza. If you don't want pizza, you are out of luck. Now with that being said....I don't think I was drunk enough for what I ordered, it was pretty bad. I will try to be drunker tommorrow lol.

After our tummies were full again we made one last stop at the casino for more water then headed back to the room and called it a night after a great first day on the Getaway.

Tomorrow would be our first sea day.

following! thanks for sharing

Thanks for following along again!

Enjoying your review so far. Thank you for taking the time to write it up. We sailed on the Getaway this past June and really had a great vacation.

Enjoying your review so far. Thank you for taking the time to write it up. We sailed on the Getaway this past June and really had a great vacation.

You're welcome. I had a great time too, this was such a wonderful trip!

Thanks for the review.

I'm still a little out of my comfort zone with NCL. Typically I carry on my own luggage. Even before my room was ready on boarding with Carnival, I would carry it with me because I could navigate their ships easily with luggage in tow. I had a bad run there for a while with my luggage being damaged every cruise. Plus I hate the porters' attitude with regards to tips. Waiters don't get an attitude. Tour guides don't get an attitude. Porters are pretty well compensated, but see nothing wrong with "expecting" to not just be tipped, but tipped well. Any other profession would get squat from me if they even hinted that a tip was expected but porters got you by the neck, and they know it.

 

A guy ahead of me on the shuttle gave a tip, I don't know how much, and was met with "that's all, are you f#@%ing kidding me" except without the cute symbols I put in there to clean it up in case there are kids reading just like there were kids with the poor guy whose tip offended the porter. I chose a different porter who was hopefully less grumpy. I gave him $5 for two bags. One light (mine) and one medium (m's) weight suitcase. That was not enough to make him happy but enough to not get cussed at. He grumbled something under his breath, sighed, and took my bags with more grumbling as he walked away. I prayed my bag would arrive safely. It did.

 

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Surprising about the attitude of the porters. I am glad that I have never experienced that in Miami, but I have no doubt that it happens. I guess I have been lucky.

I am enjoying your report so far.

Loving your review so far ... love the detail and the pics. Looking forward to boarding the Getaway in October for the first time. Your review gives a great overview of the cruise for someone that has not been on this particular ship before. Thank you ... and looking forward to reading more :)

We are on her in three weeks for our second time. Thanks for the refresher.

It is really nice to read a review from someone who had a bad cruise on one ship but did not let it ruin the whole cruise line ....

Looking forward to hearing more. Doing this cruise in October. Can't wait!

Great review. Can't wait to read the rest.

Surprising about the attitude of the porters. I am glad that I have never experienced that in Miami, but I have no doubt that it happens. I guess I have been lucky.

 

I am enjoying your report so far.

We have got that attitude from them both times we have sailed from Miami. They usually change their tone quick when I tip them.

Read a couple of your reviews a while back, and now finally figured out how to find all of them, so have been barreling through all of them. Really enjoying following. I think you do a great job of noting the negatives but moving on.

I felt for you when you got caught speeding, but sounds like the officer was very generous.

Enjoy.

We will be sailing on the Getaway in 8 days. This will be our second sailing on her. Enjoy reading your review, while waiting ! Thanks

Taking this cruise in October. Loving your review!

FYI the Epic is seven percent larger than the Getaway and holds three percent more passengers.

Thanks for the review.

You're welcome.

Surprising about the attitude of the porters. I am glad that I have never experienced that in Miami, but I have no doubt that it happens. I guess I have been lucky.

 

I am enjoying your report so far.

Glad your enjoying! I seem to have bad luck with porters. Last time in Miami I carried on and they kept insisting that I could not do that and tried to take my luggage from me. When I insisted I could and would carry on myself they laughed and told me good luck. I'm not sure what went wrong that they need to behave like this but it is a culture with them likely fueled by the fact most people are bewildered by the whole process and easily intimidated.

As long as my luggage makes it on safely, I won't let it bother me too much. I'll chalk it up as something I just have to deal with.:D