Adventures on the Getaway, a post trip report

[biguntx]

I have truly enjoyed your review and look forward to more installments!

 

Thanks for posting

[megacruiser]

I will be sailing on Saturday. I am presently sat in Departures at Dublin airport awaiting my Transatlantic flight. I can't overstate how much I have enjoyed reading your review. An absolute delight and I will be dipping in again before I board in the hope of reading more. Many thanks for taking the time to write such an interesting review.

 

Kind regards

megacruiser

[riddle]

A most enjoyable report. We have been on the Getaway 2 times and I can say that I wish I had your youth to enjoy the nightlife like you have.

You express your experiences in such a charming and unique way that is refreshing to the reader.

 

Can't wait to hear more and may your love of cruising take you many wonderful places. I have cruised several times with my daughter, most recently with her whole family and those are very special times. You have wonderful memories I am sure.

[maren91]

Cruise Day #5 – Wednesday, January 7th – St. Thomas (8am-4pm – All Aboard 3:30pm)

 

Fact: I hit the snooze button at least four times before finally getting out of bed during most “cold” Los Angeles mornings. Fact: When room service is knocking on your door at 7:00am on a cruise ship, the ship is virtually motionless and the sun is peeking through the blackout curtains of your cruise ship stateroom…. Well AWAKE!

 

Once again room service was right on the nose of the 7:00am-7:30am time and I did the “in the dark scramble” involving locating tip money and clearing off eating space. I popped open the curtain to prevent any tripping over a flip flop incident and in came our continental breakfast. We were still making our way very slowly through the harbor towards the dock and wow, again such a beautiful day! It was already fairly warm outside when I opened up the door and actually too warm to sit and eat breakfast so I snacked on a few bites while we both got ready.

 

Just like yesterday I had obsessed over what to do in St. Thomas and after reading a ton of reviews about the wonderful ship tour “St. John Beach & Champagne Snorkel” I decided that we would try that out for our first trip to St. Thomas. I usually try and avoid ship tours but sometimes they are just unavoidable and everything I read said that the timing of going to St. John on your own could be tight. Our tickets for this tour were waiting in our stateroom when we first got on the ship (I had booked this trip about three months ago) and we had a meeting time of 8:20am in the theater.

 

From the theater we were quickly directed to head down to the dock for our guide. This seemed to be a very popular tour and I was concerned about overcrowding once we got to the boat. The groups were split up on the dock and we boarded a “taxi” (I say that in quotes because it’s like a small open air bus) for our wild ride to the boat operator’s dock. The roads in St. Thomas are extremely narrow but that doesn’t seem to phase our taxi driver one bit. It can best be described as ‘Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride’ at Disneyland. It was fun though, I never felt unsafe and almost everyone was playfully screaming and laughing the entire trip which took about 15-20 minutes.

 

Once everyone arrived at the dock we were split up into groups again and we were directed to board the “Adventuress” a sailing catamaran. Thankfully the group size was fine with 18-20 people. There were introductions from the crew which included two very young folks and a female captain who was a bad ass and that always makes me happy to see. Gear distribution began and we received mandatory life jackets (sad face, very uncomfortable and I ended up deflating mine during the trip which then was fine), our snorkel gear which appeared clean but definitely had about 7-10 years worth of trips before it landed on may face and of course fins.

 

While I was at the Maui Costco they had some great deals on snorkel masks and I briefly debated on purchasing a set but decided that every snorkel trip that I take they always issue you a set. Bad idea and I really regretted not bringing my own gear. Between yesterday and today I saw quite a few people with their own snorkel items and well, I was jealous. The gear yesterday was wonderful though so if you’re headed out with them do not fear.

 

We set out through the harbor on this beautiful day and took some wonderful pictures of beautiful sailboats and mansions on the coast as we floated by. The water was definitely choppy but it was a nice trip over to St. John. On the way there the younger member of the crew who once she began speaking reminded me of a cast member from the movie Clueless began giving a questionable history lesson of the island. Later in the day her slightly older partner corrected some of the details she had given and they even had an open conversation about who’s facts were correct in front of all of us which seemed a bit odd.

 

Anyways back to the trip, about 45 minutes later we were at St. John and we dropped anchor. They had a small ladder off the side of the catamaran where you could climb down or you could just jump off of the back, which I happily did. There were a few other boats and catamarans in the water with us at the beach as well. Unfortunately we only had abut an hour here which went by extremely fast.

 

Compared to yesterday the water conditions were wonderful and the highlight of the day was seeing a good size sea turtle doing his thing on the ocean floor. What a sight to see! I took some amazing photographs and turned around to make sure my friend was seeing this but she was nowhere to be found. Once located she said she couldn’t snorkel because there was a crack in her mask and it kept filling with water. She headed back to the boat for a switch out and I hoped my new friend would hang out long enough till she returned. We were in luck though, she stayed (I just assume she) long enough for her to take a peak and then her male? Friend came over and decided it was time for lunch and they both began to swim away. Nothing else had to happen today to make it perfect after that moment.

 

I swam around looking at all sorts of fish and beautiful coral and made my way up to the beach to put my feet in the warm and soft St. John sand. Back in the water I made my way back towards the boat and they tossed me an ocean noodle where I just floated there for the last ten minutes enjoying the sun and warm ocean water. The horn quickly sounded that it was time to make our way back on the boat and I had an adventure trying to climb up the ladder, which resulted in a small knee scrape. PS. Not a vacation goes by that doesn’t involve me being injured in some fashion. In fact almost every scar on my body can be traced back to some trip.

 

A head count was taken, the anchor was brought up and just like that we were headed back to dry land. I really wish we had more time there, it just wasn’t enough to enjoy it fully but I’m still very thankful for the experience. On the way back the champagne was opened, the rum punch was flowing, the beer cans were opened and a party was had by all. Sometime after my second mimosa and right after the rum punch I realized that there was no way I was making it back to land without experiencing a ship toilet. I pretended like I could wait until I couldn’t pretend anymore and then finally headed down the stairs and honestly it wasn’t that bad. Plus when you gotta go, well….

 

Our captain had put the sails up while I was down there and turned off the engines and we were flying through the beautiful Caribbean afternoon. Learning to sail has always been on my bucket list of things to do and this was definitely another reason why I need to make this happen. We sailed past some beautiful yachts and an island owned by one very rich gentleman who built an Egyptian style pyramid on it (very strange) but hey if you’ve got more money than you know what to do with then why not buy an island and build a pyramid. I’m definitely not anyone to judge.

 

About 45 minutes later we were back on the dock and got a good talking to about the importance of tipping. They all did a fairly good job so I gave them the only wet $10 bill I had with me.

 

Our open-air crazy taxi busses were not there yet so we waited around in the company of a beautiful cat and iguana also both enjoying the day. The other groups slowly started making their way back to the dock and we soon boarded the wild ride back to the dock.

 

St. Thomas is known for it’s great shopping however I was currently some place between feeling water logged, still suffering from cruise ship narcolepsy and really needing a good meal so we decided that it was best if we headed back to the ship. I briefly considered stopping into Senior Frogs which was right next to our cruise ship then remembered some painful college days involving bad tequila, whistles and some questionable men working there and kept walking. They did have a pool right at the bar though so hey it could have been fun.

 

Walking back towards the ship and the welcoming committee was back again. It really does feel like coming home! This cruise didn’t start the best and I was concerned that perhaps I should have taken that celebrity trip instead but it was right there at that moment that I realized I had made the right decision. This trip had been amazing thus far and there was so much of our vacation still left to come. We traded in our wet towels for fresh ones again right there on the dock, enjoyed a cool towel to clean some of the ocean salt off our faces and headed up the room for showers.

 

We again made our way to the Flamingo Grill and grabbed two seats right by the window. Again we enjoyed wonderful sandwiches and ordered some drinks at the bar. We must have sat there for an hour just watching all the activity in the harbor. As I sit here and write this I’m looking at all the pictures I took while we were sitting there and remembering what a magical moment it was. Just then I noticed a rainbow appear over the hills yet there was never any rain or really many clouds in the sky. There were two ladies sitting behind us who were very involved in their card game and I turned around and apologized for interrupting but insisted that they look up. They couldn’t stop thanking me but I think I just wanted to make sure that we weren’t crazy and there really was a full deeply colored rainbow just in front of us.

 

Then there was cruise ship narcolepsy and oh it was wonderful. We overslept and woke up shortly before 5:00pm and were heading down to the Illusionarium around 5:10pm. Unfortunately when we arrived all the front tables were already full. You really need to get there early! We were quickly seated and it wasn’t terrible, it just would have been even more fun in front. This venue is stunning!! First off I will preface this next part by saying that I’m a huge fan of magic. Some of my favorite fancy nights out have been at the Magic Castle here in Hollywood and I will always take any opportunity to watch some magic whenever possible.

 

We ordered two of their specialty drinks and were quickly served our appetizers of mozzarella, fresh tomatoes and prosciutto topped with a balsamic vinaigrette. It was wonderful and the show promptly started. I won’t spoil anything but I will say that I thought it was wonderful and so much fun! This was included as part of our UDP but even if I didn’t have that I would have paid to go see this. Our main course was a surf and turf (my friend promptly received my surf portion). The steak was flavored and cooked to perfection and really it was probably the best piece of meat that I ate on the entire trip even over my dinner at Cagney’s. Dessert was a trio of items which were good but not amazing.

 

We took some pictures with the magicians after the show and then throughout the rest of our journey we kept seeing them all over the ship just doing regular passenger things. Later that night we ended up getting a late night snack at O’Sheehans and I watched one sitting in the corner waiting to see his plate disappear or something equally as cool.

 

From here it was back to the ‘Let’ Em Lose’ table where I did promptly that. I stayed to play a few rounds of blackjack where the dealer always had 21 (even when I had blackjack). Feeling discouraged we took off for some more drinks and a round of games at O’Sheehan’s. Tonight was dueling pianos at Howl at the Moon. My friend and I practically lived in there most nights on the Breakaway so we were excited to experience it on a new ship. The place was packed when we walked in and we barely found two seats at the back thanks to a couple who moved over for us. It was a fun show and we enjoyed some good sing alongs and before we knew it, it was around 12:45am. This is the point where we ended up at O’Sheehan’s and I realized I probably should have stopped drinking one Angry Orchard earlier. The O’sheehan’s late night menu left a lot to be desired and I was wishing for at least some salad or some more appetizer options but no. Due to a lack of options it was a hot dog with chili on the side for me along with French fries and a giant glass of ice water and my friend had the tuna melt. They were both pretty great and I was actually tempted to order a second helping of fries but I wanted to make sure I could fit through my bedroom door when I came home.

 

Off to bed with happy thoughts of sleeping in tomorrow and getting to see Legally Blonde!

Edited January 22, 2015 by maren91
Had my days wrong

[Windy56]

You are doing a fabulous job on this review. I check every day! My husband and I are leaving in one month for a back to back on the Getaway. We have booked a Haven Spa cabin and after reading your review, I am not sure we will be able to see and do everything in the two weeks!

 

I must say I was so touched by your references to your mother throughout your review. It is one of my life's regrets that I did not have the means or opportunity when my mom was living, to cruise with her. Like your mom, she would have loved it.

 

Many happy future sailings to you!

[graffy]

Your review makes for a wonderful read Maren.....we were on the Getaway in December and it's bringing back so many similar, happy memories - it was our 16th cruise (Celebrity, RCCL, Princess, P&O) but our first on NCL since The Norway! ...and I have to say it was one of the best cruises we've ever had - the ship was beautiful, the food delicious - both UDP and the casual options (Im still missing the Latin Burgers in the Flamingo grill!) entertainment first rate, met some great shipmates and had almost perfect weather for the duration...we did back2back and it was 2 weeks of holiday bliss..all I can say to anyone embarking her soon is that you're in for a treat....and cant wait for your next installment :)

[murcor]

We were on this sailing too :D

Great time!

[maren91]

Cruise Day #6 – Thursday, January 8th – At Sea

 

Today’s mission: Don’t miss breakfast. I love breakfast and the first two days at sea it was more like lunch by the time we woke up. I set my mini travel alarm last night and woke up with thoughts of omelets dancing in my head. Another beautiful morning aboard the NCL Getaway and I was really looking forward to hitting the spa later today!

 

We made it down to Savor for breakfast and were quickly given a table for two right next to the window. What a beautiful site this massive ship gracefully gliding through the warm Caribbean waters. Yes, we were on our way back to Miami but we were both determined to make the best out of these next two days. A waiter stopped by soon after and we ordered orange juice and water. Due to my fear of the onboard coffee I requested a latte and my friend ordered a café mocha. Now you would think this would be a common breakfast request however I saw our waiter go and ask about two other people regarding our request and about 15 minutes later a waiter showed up with our drinks from the Atrium Café. I feel like they should have a proper coffee machine in the dining room area, what an inconvenience to the staff! I felt kind of bad as I could have just as easily gone to the Atrium Café and obtained my coffee prior to making it to the dining room so I tipped him a little extra for his effort. As usual the latte was lovely! I ordered eggs benedict with a side of pancakes with a starter fruit plate and my friend ordered a custom omelet.

 

While talking about what plans we would make for the day and while going through the Freestyle Daily we read about Wine Lover’s The Musical that was occurring at 12:30pm inside of the Illusionarium. Well, I definitely love wine and I love musicals and I also loved just being inside of the Illusionarium so this seemed like a great way to spend part of our afternoon. I was a bit concerned about seating so I stepped out of breakfast and headed towards the elevator bank to use one of those handy digital screens to book us two tickets ($25/Each).

 

Breakfast was wonderful and relaxing and we lounged there for a while enjoying the view. Most of the ship were definitely late risers this morning as all was pretty quiet until after 11am. We had came prepared all dressed for the spa but took our usual Deck 8 walk to work off some of our breakfast. Spa time would be short this morning due to our pending wine adventure but really, I was okay with this.

 

I took a nice swim in the almost empty pool and then enjoyed some time in the sauna. Cruise ship narcolepsy set in shortly after lying on the hot stone bed and 20 minutes later I started feeling like a cooked potato and headed for the water and a lounge chair.

 

As usual time got away from us (it would have probably helped if I would have warn a watch) and by the time I asked a staff member for the time we were definitely running behind. We headed off to the room with time to take a good shower (though we both had rinsed off in the wonderful spa rain showers). We made it down to the Illusionarium around 12:10pm and already most people were seated and eating their first course of the included lunch.

 

In front of us were five empty wine glasses and once we were sat a waiter came around and started filling them one by one. A menu in front of us declared “Prepare to tease your taste buds!” and I was definitely excited and up for the challenge. The first course came along, a Peking Duck Salad with a wonderful vinaigrette. I’m not a fan of duck so I just put it off to the side and enjoyed the salad. The lights went down right about 12:30pm and a short video played explaining how the show would go. The premise is that a woman and a man are separately at a wine tasting event learning about wines and we too would learn about them as the musical went along. We only went to the next glass of wine when the characters in the show did and we were alerted by a bell and a message on the screen.

 

Now let me tell you, these were some good pours of wine. They were more like full pours at some of the restaurants I’ve been to around town here. I was very thankful that food was served or oh my it would have been quite the event in there. Just as the characters in the musical began to get to know each other after there first few glasses of wine so did everyone and their table mates. Wine = liquid courage to talk to your fellow guests?

 

The second course was a steak and breaded Cajun shrimp and the steak was again seasoned and cooked to perfection. Yum! It was also right about then that I took stock into how much red meat I’d eaten in the last week and vowed to be on a red meat free diet as soon as I got home.

 

The third course was a cheesecake which was light and lovely and a good compliment to the last glass of “wine” served which was a Prosecco that was brought around to every table by the wait staff.

 

After the show concluded and a standing ovation was had by all we were given ordering sheets where we could order the wines we tasted by the bottle at a 20% discount. The wine we tasted was good but I wasn’t in love with any of them. I’m also not in love trying to get wine in my already heavy suitcase back to Los Angeles so I passed this time.

 

For $25 I got a full great lunch, five good pours of wine, one wonderful glass of Prosecco and a fun little musical. This is what I call winning.

 

I will now interrupt this review to take a trip back in time to earlier in the week at Carlo’s Bake Shop. I took a side trip there to get the ever talked about Lobster Tail. I did also had one on the Breakaway and it was good but took me four days to finish. Well, let me tell you on this trip that Lobster Tail tasted like it had been made two weeks ago. It was hard and cold and about two bites in I just considered it around $4 lost to the sea.

 

Back to the afternoon. Feeling like a whale who just ate a drunk cow, we headed up to the top deck to take in the afternoon and enjoy some soon. The party at the pool was in full swing and man the drinks were flowing. My friend ended up heading back for more spa time and I elected to sit on a bar stool and watch the spring break meets Electric Daisy Carnival party at the pool shenanigans. One man had a giant bottle of Grey Goose and was passing it around (which seems like a no-no to me but pool staff looked the other way). It was fun to hear all the different languages going on around me but really everyone was just dancing to the music…. Except one. One woman who looked to be about 25+ who could barely even stand was making out with another woman to most men hooting and hollering at the pool. Now in my day job in safety in the special event world (and as a 12 year paramedic) I knew what was coming next and just wondering if all the men would still be hooting and hollering during the projectile vomiting phase.

 

As the woman’s alcohol fueled afternoon took a turn for the worse and she ended up in misery on a lounge chair I kept wondering if staff would step in and check on her of which they really wanted nothing to do with her. Now mind you I have zero intention of doing any sort of work this weekend unless of course someone’s life is in danger so I just continued to watch from a distance pina colada in hand. The woman’s female friend was trying to get her to drink as much water as possible and sure enough the projectile vomited started all over the pool deck and all over her. To make a long story short this woman ended up passing out on the lounge chair and was looking really bad. None of the bartenders seemed to want to call for help or even call a supervisor probably for fear of them getting in trouble for serving her even though she was drunk. I motioned for the bar tender and told him she needed medical attention and he said he would call his supervisor. By now quite the crowd had formed and about 15 minutes later finally security and a member of the ships medical team arrived and she was taken away.

 

As young men would say, the whole experience was a “buzz kill” for all involved and the music soon came to an end at the pool. I’m sure the young woman would be okay after some IV hydration and rest (and a big fat bill) and wondered why anyone would drink to that point, especially on a cruise ship!

 

Back to the room to shower and change, tonight’s goal was to see the Levity Comedy show again, this time with a different comedian. The show started at 7pm and this time we were smart and arrived at about 6:30pm. You’re supposed to have reservations for this show and when I attempted to make some a bit earlier in the day it said it was sold out. When we got to the door however the gentleman scanning the cruise cards had no problem letting us inside without a reservation. We enjoyed a few martinis while we waited for the show and the room filled up to capacity.

 

The show was definitely funnier than the first comedy show I went to but still not amazing. Definitely worth the hour or so we spent in there though. Can you believe we were both hungry again?? What was wrong with us? This cruise eating schedule was out of control. With no reservations made for tonight we decided to head up to towards the casino and have dinner at Shanghai’s. The menu is ala-carte and not included with our UDP but we did receive 20% off of the bill.

 

The food I thought was fantastic, especially the soup and the noodles. The service was also wonderful and we sat at the counter and watched the chef make everything by hand. Highlights were: Steamed pork pot stickers, vegetable spring rolls, Beef Chow Fun, and the Glass Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables (Soup). We didn’t order dessert but the waitress said we were having so much fun that we should stick around for a bit and gave us the chilled mango pudding on the house. Feeling full and satisfied we headed for our Deck 8 walk and continued on walking the upper decks until the feeling walrus like feelings went away.

 

At some point the conversation of chocolate martinis came up (which I will never refuse a wonderful chocolate martini) and as we were heading towards the casino I decided to stop at Le Bistro. They had a table for two open right outside on the promenade and I decided it would be a wonderful way to kill some time before heading to see Legally Blonde. We requested to just have drinks and dessert from the hostess and were quickly sat. On a side note this UDP has worked out magically for us and I’m so glad we did it.

 

We ate at Le Bistro on the Breakaway and while it was good we both aren’t big fans of French food. We were however HUGE fans of their desserts. First up was our chocolate martini order which seemed to give the waitress a big smile. About ten minutes later she arrived back with two works of art and placed one in front of each of us. I wish I had a picture of these because they were truly magical! On the top of one martini was drawn the head of a horse perfectly in chocolate sauce. What was seemingly the tail led down to the back of the glass and then swirled around the glass till it got to the bottom. On my glass was a perfectly formed dog smiling and all with her tail swirling from the top of the glass around the sides and to the bottom. Honestly, it was hard to drink because it was so beautiful! Perhaps this is why the waitress was so excited when we ordered them? That bartender truly had a gift and I’m sorry we were unable to personal say thank you to him/her.

 

We settled on the Chocolat Fondue which arrived warm and delicious. The fruit was served inside a carved out pineapple half and included the pineapple (so fresh and delicious!), bananas, strawberries and some sort of puff pastry balls. Just to insure our ever growing arse we ordered vanilla crème brulee. OH MY GOODNESS was this all so delicious. What a treat!! We sat and enjoyed for as long as possible but I was determined to have one of the best seats in the house for Legally Blonde.

 

The bill was quickly paid, with an extra nice tip of course and we headed off to the theater. Now I will preface this by saying that Legally Blonde and I have some history. When I originally had read oh so many years ago that they were making this movie into a musical I followed the theater company to Northern California where they were work shopping it and just fell in love with it right then and there.

A little over a year later and it headed to Broadway as did I. The show unfortunately had changed from when I had first seen it and I wasn’t as big of a fan that time around but I thought the show was still really fun and it was an enjoyable night.

 

When it was announced that Legally Blonde was heading to Getaway it was a natural fit for me. I did have reservations but in the end the theater wasn’t full (it was the second time they were doing the show that night). We had great seats but the ship was really rolling tonight and I was curious to see how the actors would work with the movement of the ship. The show was very cute and a real wonderful way to cap off this night. There was a standing ovation and it was about then that for some reason I couldn’t stop scratching my wrist! I looked down and something had bit me in there! It was bothering me so much I had to head upstairs and find my stash of hydrocortisone cream buried in the first aid kit. Very weird.

 

We headed out to the casino where again I was brutally robbed at the ‘Let Em’ Lose’ table and again won $300 after five minutes at that same $1 Wheel of Fortune machine. I had finally given up on that game and again I wondered why I still play it considering I definitely lose at least 70% of the time.

 

Exhaustion finally set in around 1am and we headed back to our cabin. The glow party was going on tonight but I had forgot to pack a single white item but I enjoyed listening to the music for the next few minutes on our balcony.

 

Tomorrow the ship would dock in it’s final port of the cruise Nassau. My friend and I were in Nassau in March on the Breakaway and had a blast at Atlantis with all the pools and slides. The weather was so bad on that trip that we didn’t get to enjoy any of the slides or ropes course so tomorrow we decided to make another sea day. We briefly considered going parasailing at $89 per person but in the end it seemed like a lot of money for something we could do close to home.

 

Cheers till tomorrow! Thanks for tuning in!

[TexasMuttdogMommy]

Can you explain we are leaving 1/31/15 on the Getaway and have never heard of this.

[maren91]

Can you explain we are leaving 1/31/15 on the Getaway and have never heard of this.

 

Here's a picture and a bit of information from NCL:

http://www.ncl.com/why-cruise-norwegian/cruise-accommodations/spa-cruise

 

The pass is included if you're in a spa mini or full suite, a spa balcony room or you pay $199 per person to use for the week.

[NayRN]

I've said in previous posts that I'm worried about sailing on such a big ship....but your review is making me more excited to board her! September can't get here fast enough!!! :cool:

[maren91]

Cruise Day #7 – Nassau, Bahamas (10:15am-6:00pm – All Aboard 5:30pm)

 

I woke up with that last day feeling. A sort of depression was around me that only veteran cruisers would seemingly understand. They would kick us off in the morning and someone else would be moving into my cruise house. Attempting to turn my frown upside down we woke up early enough to catch breakfast in the dining room again. The ship was still slowly making her way to the port of Nassau. The seas were calm and the skies were lively as we made our way downstairs.

 

It was an omelet and waffle kinda morning for me with some of the wonderful orange juice on the side. I again asked for a latte which arrived a bit quicker this morning and again I gave a nice tip knowing the waiter had to take a trip to get it for me. We again had a wonderful window seat and watched the action as land came slowly into view.

 

Today was all about doing all the things that we wanted to do on the Breakaway but weren’t able to because of the weather. This would also mark the first time I’ve ever not got off the ship while we were in a port. Having already been to Nassau twice, once aboard a cruise ship and once on a land trip I was confident in my decision to make the ship the destination today.

 

After breakfast it was time for my previously scheduled pedicure and goodness I was in desperate need of it! The spa was busy this morning and I had to wait about 10 minutes past my reservation time to be called. No problem though and I was quickly seated in a comfortable chair. I chose the Fire & Ice Pedicure for today which took about 50 minutes. The service was wonderful and being that it was a pedicure there was zero sales pitch at the end of the service, just a thanks for coming. Over a week later and it still looks amazing.

 

My friend was enjoying the spa and I came out to meet her. We headed back to the room and grabbed our beach towels and headed towards the pool area. What a nice surprise to see tons of empty deck chairs and empty pools. It was a bit cooler today in Nassau then it had been the other days of the trip with some high clouds that looked like it could become threatening later in the day. No fear though, we wouldn’t let it stop us in our quest for adventure. We both climbed the stairs for one of the easy flowing slides and were excited for no lines whatsoever. A crew member indicated we could just go and so I went for it. It definitely brought back some water park memories that I have as a kid and was tons of fun heading down and not scary in the least. The pool water was a bit cool but it felt nice, especially on the sunburns that I had received during my other weeks adventures. We tried out one of the other slides and then my daring friend tried out the drop slide while I volunteered to watch. She said it was great fun but wasn’t in a hurry to do it again.

 

I then took the opportunity to take a swim in the ships pool, which I also rarely ever do. It was completely empty, what a treat! Yes the water was pretty cool but it still felt really nice. Once I had my fill I found a good chair, laid down my towel and read my book for about an hour.

 

We headed up to shower and change and headed for lunch at O’Sheeahans. I had the Corned Beef on Rye sandwich and my friend had a tuna sandwich. We ordered the mozzarella sticks and chicken tenders for the appetizers. Wow oh wow was my sandwich tasty! I wish I had known how good it was earlier in the week so I could have eaten it again! My friend thought her Tuna Salad Sandwich was wonderful as well.

 

It was time for our deck 8 walk and then we headed straight to the Ropes Course which opened at 4:00pm. We arrived around 3:50pm and there was already people hanging around and waiting for it to open. Now I have to say this entire trip thus far was filled with amazing staff and everything seemed to be so well organized, well not here. At about one minute to 4:00pm three crew members arrived who looked about 16 years old (I’m sure they were at least 18 but couldn’t have been much older than that). There was no hello, no introduction, no smiles, no attempt at getting a line formed. We sort of made our own line and were about fifth in line. One crew member had opened the storage area that held all the harnesses and just started handing them out with no instruction. As you got the front one of the gentleman did assist you in getting everything tight. I had brought my camera and sunglasses along which was a big no-no and attempted to leave it on the desk until I came back. One of the crew members snapped at me and just pointed to a sign that said “Not responsible for belongings.” I told him that I wasn’t asking him to be responsible, I was simply leaving it there until I came back. All he said was NO! and walked away. I left it on a pole near the desk and then spent the entire time I was on the ropes course worrying I would lose my camera and glasses. I could have taken it back down to the room but by this time the line was at least 30 deep. There was no instruction on the ropes course you were simply strapped in and sent up. Since we were one of the first people up there we could choose our own course and let me tell you it was as awesome as everyone tells you it is! I definitely don’t have a fear of heights but I was also grabbing that rope as if my life depended on it! Unfortunately the zip line portion of the course was broken and we couldn’t enjoy that but it didn’t take away from the experience. I was one of the fist to “walk the plank” and it was so beautiful up there looking out at Atlantis! I pulled the cord twice hoping to get great pictures and then took a few more ropes. This course was huge but about ten minutes out there were a ton of people on it. Some people also have no manners and these were adults!! If you see one person on a single rope trying to get across why would you hop on the same rope directly behind the person?? Rude. It definitely started losing it’s fun and I was so proud of myself for not falling (in fact I didn’t see any guests fall, only one employee and by fall I mean end up off the rope).

 

I started to make my way to the exit paranoid that my camera would be gone along with all of my vacation memories but was thankful to see my friend already holding it and taking pictures of me when I got to the bottom. There was also a little kids version of the course and it was so cute to see them enjoying this as well.

From here we decided it would be a good time to grab some drinks and pull up a chair. The Dj at the pool was going again and we sit and watched for awhile before we headed all the way forward to our “secret” spot again to watch the sunset and watch us sail out of port one last time.

 

Meanwhile back in Miami my father was scheduled to fly in and meet us landing at 5:55pm. I connected my iPhone to the ships internet and was able to send him text messages through iMessage and he had indeed landed without any issues. I was so worried he would miss his flight or not remember which airline he had taken it was nuts. All of a sudden I felt like a worried parent, it was strange. I missed him and was excited that he had decided to travel and meet us for the next leg of our adventure. While I was sad that this amazing cruise was coming to an end I had something to look forward to and that is always a good feeling.

 

Tonight dinner would be at Cagney’s so we went up and declared it our own personal formal night. I finally decided it would be a good time to put on the only nice dress I brought, did my hair and my makeup. I brought with me our last bottle of wine, a good red I had picked up on our Publix adventure which seemed like so long ago. We were still early for dinner so we made our way to the Sunset Bar to enjoy martinis and piano music before dinner.

 

We arrived at Cagney’s promptly at 8:00pm our reservation time and were quickly seated. The waiter took my bottle and opened it and our water glasses were filled. The bread and butter tasted wonderful and I soaked in the energy of the busy restaurant. We both decided to share an order of the Wagyu Beef Sliders which were cooked to perfection and delicious. I really just wanted the meat so I took the bread off. Then it was onto an Arugula Salad for me and the Baked Potato Soup for my friend. Both were delicious, her’s was so good I ended up finishing it after she was done.

 

Dinner for me was an 8oz Filet Mignon Cajun Seasoned with a side of both the Green Pepercorn Sauce and the Chimichurri Sauce. We both shared way too many side dishes including: Garlic Mash, Creamed Corn, Steamed Broccoli and Cagney Fries.

 

I also ordered a baked potato but that never arrived and there was so much food on the table I didn’t bother to ask about it. We also received an order of the Gratin Potatoes which we didn’t order but they were tasty.

 

As to the food, both my friend and I agreed that the meat was cooked to perfection but was just seemingly lacking flavor for some reason. She took the salt and pepper shaker and tried to doctor it up and I doused mine in the delicious Chimichurri sauce. I think we were spoiled by the wonderful steaks that were served in the Illusionarium earlier in the week. Honestly, the meal was forgettable. It definitely wasn’t bad by any means but it was at the bottom of the list in terms of amazing food we had during the week.

 

The dessert on the other hand was spectacular (again) and again we ordered the Oreo Cheesecake and the Raseberry Crème Brulee. I ordered decaf coffee and requested her to check three times to insure it was decaf. The coffee there is so wonderful!

 

The table next to us ordered a Macadamia Nut Ice Cream Sandwich and it looked amazing as well! Oh well, next trip.

 

Tonight’s goal was to get to the Grammy Experience which we had yet to do on this trip. We were sailing with Grammy Award Winner Sugar Blue. We headed in and easily found a seat since the place was a ghost town! Sugar Blue, wow!! That gentleman can play the harmonica like nobodies business!! I felt so bad for him that he was playing to an empty room! The doors were closed and I wondered if people just thought the venue was closed? I do have to say, he did kind of have the naughty grandpa act but him and his band were super talented and I was thankful to enjoy it.

 

From here we decided to check out the casino one last time and my favorite deal Kyrn was at the ‘Let Em’ Lose’ table. I used some of my slot machine winnings to play one final time and well you can guess the outcome. Again I wondered why I kept putting myself through this torture.

 

By now it was after 12am and I knew the kind of morning that was in store for us so I reluctantly headed off to bed. I found one final towel animal waiting for us with chocolates on the pillow. I kept the balcony door opened and listened to the waves one last time. My friend packed and I reluctantly at least packed my carryon stuff and cleared out some of the cabinets.

 

Suitcases lined the hallways as we made it back to our room but I always choose to just walk off the ship with my own luggage so I can finish packing in the morning. I filled out a room service menu for the last time and hung it on the door. The party continued in H20 and we were enjoying the music while the waves sent us into sleep.

 

Up next tomorrow, the end of our journey and the beginning of our adventure to Key West. Thanks for following and I hope everyone has a great weekend!

[SuiteTraveler]

maren91, Thanks for telling us about the vibration at the back of the ship. I had thought it was probably like that having sailed in a balcony towards the back of the ship one time and I'm glad to know first hand that is exactly the situation.

 

I'm enjoying your review!