LrgPizza

[SissasMomE]

Welcome home, Barbie! Can't wait to hear all about your trip! :)

[DrNora]

Ditto!,,,

I want to hear all about the freestyle deck!,,

[kcwingwalker]

Yep we need the all the news!:)

[LrgPizza]

Thanks!! I'm sitting at FLL now. It was a fabulous trip! I have so much to share!

 

Re: Freestyle deck... On this ship it was in no way freestyle. Kids were up there all the time, and there are no signs or anything prohibiting that. It is merely labeled "sun deck" with arrows pointing up. It's a good place to spy into Vibe and also the Haven. I have pictures. Also, even though it's a sister ship, this deck is more than double the size of the one on the Beeakaway.

[NMLady]

Thanks!! I'm sitting at FLL now. It was a fabulous trip! I have so much to share!

 

Re: Freestyle deck... On this ship it was in no way freestyle. Kids were up there all the time, and there are no signs or anything prohibiting that. It is merely labeled "sun deck" with arrows pointing up. It's a good place to spy into Vibe and also the Haven. I have pictures. Also, even though it's a sister ship, this deck is more than double the size of the one on the Beeakaway.

 

I think NCL did away with clothing optional or topless on their freestyle decks so that all of those decks are now simply sun decks.

[SissasMomE]

Thanks!! I'm sitting at FLL now. It was a fabulous trip! I have so much to share!

 

Re: Freestyle deck... On this ship it was in no way freestyle. Kids were up there all the time, and there are no signs or anything prohibiting that. It is merely labeled "sun deck" with arrows pointing up. It's a good place to spy into Vibe and also the Haven. I have pictures. Also, even though it's a sister ship, this deck is more than double the size of the one on the Beeakaway.

 

Which deck is that? I don't think we ever went up there. Oh - is that the nude deck??

[SissasMomE]

I think NCL did away with clothing optional or topless on their freestyle decks so that all of those decks are now simply sun decks.

 

Ahhh, ok. I never knew they even had one. I saw someone mention it on another thread.

[SissasMomE]

Check your messages on FB

Edited June 7, 2014 by SissasMomE

[LrgPizza]

For those wondering, yes we got our money's worth out of the UBP. We reeled Cruiser Who Knows Nothing into our antics, and she might have to detox a while. ;-)

[DrNora]

For those wondering, yes we got our money's worth out of the UBP. We reeled Cruiser Who Knows Nothing into our antics, and she might have to detox a while. ;-)

 

excellent!!!! EXCELLENT!!!!!

Job well done!

 

We anxiously await details.

Laundry can wait.

Save travel home!!

 

Nora

[LrgPizza]

Random thoughts and things about our cruise...

 

We stayed at the B2 Miami hotel located on Biscayne across from Bayside Market. We paid $73 or $74 for the room (Free Wifi, $30 valet parking). We awoke early enough Saturday morning to watch the Getaway arrive out our hotel room window and do the turnaround in the basin. Our excitement from seeing her led to...

 

We arrived at the terminal at 9:45 AM. We were boarding group 1. We were able to board the ship at 11:40. The next time we do this, we won’t arrive at the port until about 11:00 AM, assuming we can contain our excitement. While waiting to get on the ship, we logged on to iConcierge from our phones at the terminal, paid the $7.95 each, and practiced messaging each other to test out the notifications and such.

 

We had angled balcony cabin 13870 (category BC), and we loved it. It was 2 floors straight down the stairs from the buffet (3 floors below Spice H20 & Flamingo Grill). It was located right at the stairs/elevator so there was no walking down long corridors to get to our room. The location was fantastic! Also, the extra space of the angled balcony made it possible for all 3 of us to comfortably sit outside at once. (There are just 2 chairs out there, but we dragged out the footstool thing from the room.) I’d say it’s 50% larger than the standard balconies, and for the same price. We’d book one again in a heartbeat.

 

My DS11 absolutely loved the kids club. LOVED IT. He was basically there every single minute it was open every day, unless we were off the ship at a port. He was only in the pool for a few minutes on embarkation day, then never again the entire cruise. He also loved doing the kids circus. (By the way, they schedule a mandatory final rehearsal for the circus at the exact same time the Nickelodeon slime party takes place on the pool deck. Since there were about a bazillion kids in the circus show, there were very few attending the slime party. Poor planning there.) We were hoping to spend some more time with him doing some shows together and such, but he was so disappointed if he couldn’t be at the club, so we didn’t want to deny him his fun. I did make him sit at Howl at the Moon with me a couple times for at least a few songs.

 

We had UBP. Yes, we got our money’s worth... Probably by Thursday... Don’t ask...

 

We loved Illusionarium, even though we had only expected to like it. It was way better than we thought it would be. Like I had planned, we arrived 10 minutes before show time. We walked right in and were seated, and had a view of everything. Before the show, the host person came to our table to make conversation. He asked our son if he was ready for the auction. (This show has a little story line where they are pretending to be auctioning off magic gear or something.) My son had no idea what the guy was talking about. He said, "You guys told me this was a magic show!" and began getting upset. We pretty much had to chase the guy off, because he wasn't going to break character, and my son was ready to walk out because he was so disappointed. So yeah, if someone comes by your table before the show, just play along that you are there for an auction and not a magic show.

 

Burn the Floor is not to miss – it might be my favorite show I’ve ever seen at sea. Also, don’t miss Sugar Blue in the Grammy Experience if he’s still on your sailing. I went 2 times, but wish I could have gone every single day. He is truly a legend, and seeing him was so special. We skipped Legally Blonde. We just had too many other things we wanted to do.

 

We went to one of the early comedy shows. Our comedian was Phil Palisoul, and he was terrific! This is supposed to be the family-friendly show. I think that simply means they avoid cussing. There was still plenty of off-color humor, and we were happy that our son had skipped joining us in lieu of going to the kids club again.

 

Howl at the Moon is a total blast! It was very packed the first night, with people even standing outside Headliners waiting for chairs to open. On the very last night of the cruise it was totally dead, probably because people were packing, etc. Unlike the Howl at The Moon locations on land, this one had no dance floor and mostly just chairs, as opposed to chairs surrounding tables. (There were a few in the back). It was very small compared to the land locations. The pianists were Keith somebody, Ben Taurus, and Pete Moran. This was Pete’s first week on the ship, I believe. He was in a league of his own compared to the other two. If you really want to see his hands go crazy on the keys, request Devil Went Down To Georgia. This guy has bizarre talent and the other 2 pale in comparison. Again, I could have watched him all week, except that I could have watched Sugar Blue all week, except that there are too many damn other good things to do.

 

During the sea days up on deck, we never had an issue getting a lounge chair. It got crowded right around the pool area, especially around 1:00 or so when they did the "Mr. I'm a Big Tool competition" (AKA Sexy Legs contest), the "I Hope My Parents Are Proud of the Job They Did With Me" competition (Battle of the Sexes), and the "Ship 'Ho contest" (Miss Getaway 2014). Seriously, the only one of these I saw was the Battle of The Sexes, and the girls mistakenly thought shaking their assets and trying to out-do Miley's twerk was the way to win. They were wrong. The men won while keeping their dignity intact.

 

There was always plenty of space in Spice H2O, if someone wants adults only. Several times the hot tubs back there would be crowded with kids, but the staff usually chased them off pretty quickly. There were waterfall hogs who liked to lounge in the waterfalls making it difficult to walk around in there. I “accidentally” tripped over a few, which got them to move pretty quickly.

 

There are so many empty lounge chairs on deck 17 near the bar outside Vibe, and up on deck 18. Also plenty in Spice H2O, like I said. Never a problem getting chairs. One day we secured seats on deck 16 overlooking the pool. I think we got there at 8:30. At this time, there were already towels on all the chairs in the pool, although most were never used until around noon. It was sad. It's bad enough to be a chair hog. But when the pool is so small for a ship so large, and someone is saving a seat IN the pool, then you are a pool hog. Those people are basically saying, "This is my section of the pool and the other 4299 of you can kiss my butt." Jerks. I may or may not have accidentally thrown a few of those towels in the pool.

[LrgPizza]

Our arrival yesterday morning back to Miami:

 

 

 

Turning around:

 

Everyone needs to get up early and go outside and watch. It was such a nice way to return.

[LrgPizza]

I took the picture on the left on Friday, 5/30 on South Beach in Miami. I took the picture on the right exactly one week later on Friday, June 6, deck 18 on the Getaway.

 

[Susie51]

Good for you: accidently tripping and throwing towels. I've set towels aside before when I've noticed that no one has occupied the chair in quite awhile. If they finally do return, I tell them the chair was vacated. There is no saving seats.

[LrgPizza]

Oh yeah, one other thing:

 

I had bought a package of 100 glow bracelets to hand out at the Glow party. I sat in a chair and added the little connectors to the end of all 100, put some on myself, hubby, and son, and then wandered around giving the others out. I got a lot of very excited, "Thank you!" and "That's so nice and thoughtful of you!" from so many people. I also got an equal amount of, "I didn't get mine!" and "I need more than that!" and "Where is mine? I didn't get one yet!" It was really kind of comical. I had to explain that unfortunately I didn't bring enough for every single passenger, but I was doing what I could. I also gave plenty of "You're welcomes" to people, even those who didn't bother to say thanks, because I'm like that.

Edited June 8, 2014 by LrgPizza

[gburtonin]

Great time, great ship, great fun.:)

[mjm325]

we were on the same sailing and had a wonderful time as well. we learned our lesson with a very high bill, and will be getting the UBP the next time :D

[Cruiser Who Knows Nothing]

For those wondering, yes we got our money's worth out of the UBP. We reeled Cruiser Who Knows Nothing into our antics, and she might have to detox a while. ;-)

 

:eek: I'm out of detox for the moment, however, I'm waiting for Richard (our cabin steward) to help me unpack my luggage. Its still in the front hallway at home :D

 

I keep shouting "RICHARD" in my home and no one is magically appearing from the shadows....:confused:

[LrgPizza]

we were on the same sailing and had a wonderful time as well. we learned our lesson with a very high bill, and will be getting the UBP the next time :D

 

I'm usually a beer drinker, but I was drinking all kinds of concoctions all week. I don't even know what half of them were. Quite often I'd tell the bartender, "Just make me whatever you want. I don't want to make decisions on vacation." Ha!

 

:eek: I'm out of detox for the moment, however, I'm waiting for Richard (our cabin steward) to help me unpack my luggage. Its still in the front hallway at home :D

 

I keep shouting "RICHARD" in my home and no one is magically appearing from the shadows....:confused:

 

Before the next cruise, I'll put you on a training schedule. We can't have you going to your cabin before midnight anymore.

[alishac]

We are also staying at the B2 hotel this Friday before our Getaway cruise on Saturday. Was checkout crazy on Saturday? I've seen a lot of reviews saying the elevator is small and slow and that it takes forever to get the car from valet.

[LrgPizza]

We are also staying at the B2 hotel this Friday before our Getaway cruise on Saturday. Was checkout crazy on Saturday? I've seen a lot of reviews saying the elevator is small and slow and that it takes forever to get the car from valet.

It does take a while to get the car from the valet. My husband called for ours around 7:30AM, and then returned it to the rental office downtown at 8:00am, and jogged back to the hotel. We checked out around 9:30, with no wait, and the B2 sent us in a free shuttle to the port. (We got there way too early though, and wouldn't do that again.)

 

Edited to add: Our bathroom on the ship was larger than the bathroom at the B2!! We didn't care - the room was nice, clean, and the view of the port was amazing.

Edited June 9, 2014 by LrgPizza

[LrgPizza]

...and the B2 sent us in a free shuttle to the port.

 

 

My husband just corrected me - it wasn't a free shuttle from the B2 to port, it was $5.00 per person. (Too late to edit my original post). I never knew money other than a tip had changed hands. Ha!

[SissasMomE]

Can you post a couple of the pics that you took of the Haven from the upper pool deck area?

[LrgPizza]

Can you post a couple of the pics that you took of the Haven from the upper pool deck area?

Here is the one I took from my phone. I think I got one with the regular camera that would be better, but we haven't unpacked that yet. LOL. Not a very good angle (deck 18 shooting down onto deck 17), but you can see how deserted it is on that deck.

 

[SissasMomE]

Wow - that is tiny!!