Getaway Aug 1 - First Timers With NCL Review

[JimHam4]

This has taken longer to get started than I thought it would so I will try to remember as many details as possible. If you have a question about anything please ask. Other reviews I have done I give a little background about us and getting to the boat and then write the rest of the week like a diary. I have some pictures this time, but didn't bring my big setup so maybe not as many as I've had in the past.

 

BACKGROUND: We are two families cruising this time, my family is my wife and I (48 and 50) and our daughters (21, 18 & 16). The other family traveling with us is my BIL (45) with his wife (42) and their daughter (10). We are all from Southern California, but for us this was the second week of a trip that started in Washington DC; my BIL's family would be joining us in Florida. All of us, except my niece, have cruised before, my wife and I most recently on Celebrity. None of us had ever been on NCL before and weren't sure what to expect with freestyle cruising and such a large boat.

 

We booked our cabins (balconies on the rear bump out) during one of the promos that gave my wife and I the UBP and my daughters the UDP. I originally had booked us all with the UBP but after finding out that the two girls under 21 would only get a soda card it didn't make any sense to take that option. My girls don't drink much soda and the soda card wouldn't include the water and smoothies my girls were interested in. Reading the fine print I wasn't sure if the two cabins would be allowed to have separate plans since we were using the same credit card for both rooms but it wasn't a problem.

 

Our planning stage is where you're going to find my only real complaints about NCL and I will preface this with it has nothing to do with their staff. Every phone call I made was answered by a happy and helpful representative, maybe I got lucky every time but I think the odds would be against that. My main gripes are the ones I think everyone had on these boards leading up to our trip - changes in scheduling, increases in gratuities, etc. and my complaint isn't so much in the amount they changed but in the fact that for us these changes happened after final payment and we were left with no alternative but to suck it up. It left me feeling it didn't matter how much pre-planning we did for our excursions and finances we wouldn't really know where we stood until the boat left the dock. Sorry NCL, I know you have the right to make changes as you see fit but once I can't take my money back to let you know how I feel about your changes things should be locked in. My second complaint, and to be honest I don't know how NCL would change it, is having to prepay for our specialty dining reservations. We had to put out quite a bit of money in deposit when we knew most of it would be coming back to us because of our girls' UDP. I can see the reason for it, even Disney parks require a deposit now to limit no shows, but it became a little bit of a hassle on the boat trying to track if we were getting our money back (and to be honest I THINK I'm still out $10). All in all though these are pretty minor complaints in the scheme of things.

 

GETTING THERE: Usually we have to fly cross country so we always fly in the day before to make sure there are no problems. Flying from DC this time we didn't leave Baltimore until the evening, arriving in FLL around 11:30pm; we flew into FLL because flights from both CA and DC were quite a bit cheaper than going into MIA. We picked up our van from Alamo without any problems and met my BIL's family at the Hampton Inn Airport/North Cruise Port who had used the hotel's free airport shuttle earlier in the day. They have a pay shuttle to Port Everglades if you're sailing out of there. We rented a 15 passenger van to hold the eight of us plus luggage, but found out the rear seats of these large vans don't fold down so getting our luggage situated was quite the adventure. The Hampton Inn was typical of every other Hampton Inn I've ever stayed in, nothing fancy but clean and comfortable. The free breakfast was the usual scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and fruit with a waffle maker in the shape of Texas. There is a strip mall across the street with a supermarket you can walk to. There were quite a few cruisers staying here as we saw several shuttle vans loaded up the next morning taking people with their luggage to the ports.

 

After breakfast we loaded up and headed toward Miami Airport to return the car and take the shuttle to the port, Alamo runs a free shuttle for people who have rented from them both to and from the port. The shuttle was close to full but if we hadn't fit there was another one right behind it. We arrive at the port a little after 11am and it's already hustling. The shuttle driver and luggage hander work together to get all of our luggage together; I had already put tags on our luggage but they have stick on tags for our cases of water. I tip them both and we are on our way to check in. Side note: we started with three cases of water, one for each cabin, but only two of them made it to us. Making our way inside there are two lines to get through security and it moves pretty quickly. Once through security everyone over 18 is asked to step over to a counter and fill out the health questionnaire, make sure you have a pen handy they were scarce at the counters. Completed questionnaire in hand we find there are several different lines to accommodate checking you in. There are lines for suites, casino guests, past cruisers, etc. , we're not in a special line but it doesn't seem to be moving any slower than the others. We get to the counter and begin the check in procedure. It's fairly easy but very crowded as the check in windows are pretty close together and most everyone there is a large family group. My BIL and his family check in quickly and are through the process in a heartbeat, ours check in takes a little while longer as for some reason the terminal I sign my name on isn't talking to the computer it's attached to and we have to give it several attempts before it finally goes through. It finally works and we are given our keycards and sent on our way. There is no line to get on the boat and we stop only to have our picture taken. I'd say the entire process from curb to on the boat took about a half hour to 45 minutes at the most.

 

I'll stop here now that we're on the boat and post more later.

[Cruise-mom]

Thanks for your review, I appreciate all the small details like what happens at check-in. Looking forward to reading more :)

[bradleyk]

Thanks for the detailed start. Following

[NLH Arizona]

My second complaint, and to be honest I don't know how NCL would change it, is having to prepay for our specialty dining reservations. We had to put out quite a bit of money in deposit when we knew most of it would be coming back to us because of our girls' UDP. I can see the reason for it, even Disney parks require a deposit now to limit no shows, but it became a little bit of a hassle on the boat trying to track if we were getting our money back (and to be honest I THINK I'm still out $10). All in all though these are pretty minor complaints in the scheme of things.

 

Actually, you could have made the specialty restaurant reservations for your entire party under one of your daughters name and because she had the UDP, they would not have charged you upfront for the dinners. For those without the UDP, they would have charged you at the time of the dinner.

[emmak8]

Thanks for posting your review.

[JimHam4]

Sorry this has taken so long to get back to, I am in the process of starting a new teaching job and it has kept me a little busy. Good news though, I received a check from NCL this past week paying back the $10 leftover from our prepay specialty dining.

 

Day 1 - Embarkation Day

My first impression is this boat is huge. I know there are a lot of boats bigger but when you’re used to Celebrity’s Constellation the Getaway is quite a step up. The next two things I notice (and it will stick with me all week) is the crew is very friendly and this is definitely a family boat. Someone posted their cruise was 4800 people with 1600 kids and looking around I have no reason to believe ours is any different. It feels crowded but my hope is that this feeling will diminish as people find their way to all the different areas the ship has to offer. We decide to head toward O’sheehans for some lunch and explore the ship along the way. I’d looked at plenty of deck plans before we left but it is still a little confusing once on board. Near each elevator though is a listing of the different facilities by type (bar, entertainment, restaurant) and what deck they are on. What I didn’t immediately see was a map though that told you in which direction you needed to go once you were on the right deck.

 

We head forward and end up walking through the area they call “678 Ocean Place”. This is more or less the central hub for most of the restaurants and entertainment. It’s bright and nice looking but also very busy and the casino is spread out through the area. The restaurant’s here look nice and I am looking forward to our reservations later in the week. We find O’sheehans and are quickly seated, not bad for a party of eight. The restaurant is actually fairly empty still, but fills up quickly while we are sitting there. We order a variety of items, including the hot wings my kids have been looking forward to since we booked this trip. To quote them, “Unlimited hot wings? We must be going to heaven!” Sorry to say the food here was a little disappointing. The wings come hot or mild, we got both and neither one was hot; the rest of the food we felt was just okay not measuring up to what some of our local pubs serve. We ordered our first drinks on the UBP which was easy, but found it interesting you have to sign for it (you don’t on Celebrity) and nowhere on the receipt does it say it’s going to be free; the receipt lists all the charges (drink,gratuity, tax).

 

While in O’Sheehans we all activated the iConcierge app on our phones. Everyone had already downloaded it either at home or the hotel last night where we wouldn’t incur any roaming charges on our data plans. Each phone has to pay to activate the messaging and phone service part of the app and the app assigns us each our own number that becomes our phone number for the week. The app has a “contacts” feature that allows us to store everyone’s number and makes it easy to call and message. We had quite a few connection problems the first day or two until we made some adjustments on our phone settings and then they seemed pretty locked in (we were using both iphones and android devices). Not sure how I feel about the app. BIG positives were the ability to make reservations, check the calendar, and keep in contact as we went our separate ways. NEGATIVES for me were having to carry around my phone on vacation and the fact that many of the listings for clubs/restaurants/etc. didn’t list the actual time a place was open and referred you to the daily newsletter. I bought the app so I wouldn’t have to use the newsletter! Overall though I would definitely purchase again, and for the price it was quite a bargain.

 

We head up to the top decks to check out the pool (small), slides and ropes course, looks like fun for later in the week. We walk by Spice which is open today and I stop by a mini bar setup for today and get another drink. My favorite drink with Celebrity's premium package is Zacapa run on the rocks. I ask the bartenders what I can have with my free package and they say pretty much anything. I ask for a Zacapa and am pleasantly surprised to find out even though it's not at this mini bar they tell me all the regular bars should have it and it's included in my package. Hallelujah! I know what I'm drinking the rest of the week! I talk to them a bit about the drink package and find out the entire cost of the drink (drink and gratuity) is covered by the package I have. However, while we are in port I have to pay the taxes on my drink. Sorry NCL that's kind of nickel and dime but I do appreciate the quality of drinks you are providing.

 

We decide to head toward our cabins to see if we can drop our bags. We run into our steward near our cabin and he lets us know it's okay for us to go in. Our cabins (10894 & 10896) are a little bit bigger than I expected and in very nice condition, in case anyone is curious they are not adjoining cabins. The cabins require you to put a card into a slot by the door to power up the room; it's supposed to be a room key to make sure the room is occupied when the power is on but any credit card or ID card will work. I used a Costco card so I could leave the power on to my battery chargers while we were out. The system also turns on a light outside your door so the steward knows when it is occupied; my only problem with the system is it's not obvious what it is. I don't remember any markings telling you to use your key to turn on the power. Storage is decent in the room with drawers and a safe in the closet and a few cabinets built into the vanity. The safe is big enough to hold a tablet but not my large laptop. Nightstands are on each side of the bed with enough room to store a book and some other small items. The television has a couple channels offering movies and regular tv shows. The other channels are dedicated to showing the ship's position and activities. You can also check your ship account and other messages through the tv.

 

The bathroom is a good size with plenty of room to move around. I'm not a small guy (6', 240) and I never felt cramped. There is plenty of room for your toiletries and a hook on the back of the door to hang whatever you wish. The shower is glassed in with decent power and there is a retractable clothesline inside it.

 

Our balcony is small, two chairs and a side table, you can't really sit facing out with a lot of leg room but decent room side to side. With two people out there you kind of have to work your way around each other. Our girls' cabin is one of the triangular ones as the hump ends and the extra room makes a lot of difference. Still only two chairs and a table but all three can easily stand out there and the chairs can be positioned so you can look out and stretch out your legs. The disadvantage is if they want to look forward they have to come out to the rail, but they do have a great view aft.

 

Our luggage hasn't arrived yet but we stash our carry ons and head out to our assembly point for the lifeboat drill. For us it's in the Tropicana dining room; this is actually the assembly point for several lifeboat groups. Everyone just sits at one of the tables while the crew goes through what they need to do, they track everyone on a tablet so they'll know if you don't show up. The drill is pretty quick but it amazes me that passengers can't keep quiet or leave their drinks alone for the duration of the drill after being asked several times. These drills are the minimum info you would need if something went wrong you might want to pay attention.

 

After the drill we head up top for sail away. The decks are pretty crowded but we're able to find a spot along the rail. I'm starting to notice though that traffic on this boat has to go through a lot of narrow choke points that seem to create traffic jams. Sail away is beautiful, but it feels odd to be leaving from MIA since our last couple of trips have been out of Port Everglades, the scenery just isn't quite right.

 

We explore for a bit more and I get the feeling even after a week there will be places on this boat I haven't discovered. Heading back to our room our luggage has arrived but a case of water is missing. I talk to our steward about it and he says he'll check. It it never does show up. In all the confusion of the shuttle from the car rental I have my doubts it ever made it to the ship I also ask him to empty the fridge so we can put the water in and it's taken care of without any problem.

 

We decide to have dinner tonight in the Tropicana room. For those who don't know, Taste, Savor and the Tropicana are the free dining rooms that have the same menu. Taste and Savor are a little smaller and next to each other on deck six, while Tropicana is a larger dining room setup with a dance floor in the center and live music. Dinner is good and the service is great. The staff goes out of their way to make sure my niece is taken care of quickly so she can get to the kid's club and the rest of us enjoy a leisurely meal and dessert. This meal went a long way to fixing the worries I had about what to expect from NCL as far as food goes. Nothing over the top fancy but a good meal with great flavors and smiling service. We don't do any dancing but there are some couples out on the floor. Passenger dress in Tropicana ranged from suits and dresses to dress shorts.

 

After dinner we walk around a bit checking out the different bars and the casino. The casino is located right in the middle of everything so it's a little busy, but there are plenty of machines available to play. I've heard complaints about the smoke, and I can smell it, but my daughters who really hate smoke say it doesn't bother them so it must not be too bad.

 

We decide to call it a night and head back to our rooms, excited to try out the different activities tomorrow.

[JimHam4]

Actually, you could have made the specialty restaurant reservations for your entire party under one of your daughters name and because she had the UDP, they would not have charged you upfront for the dinners. For those without the UDP, they would have charged you at the time of the dinner.

 

I wondered if it would work that way but we had already made the other reservations before I thought of it to be honest. Kind of wish they would charge those with UDP something for a reservation. What's to prevent them from making several reservations, preventing others from getting a spot, and then cancelling at the last minute?

[CP Tech]

Really enjoying the detail in your review. Having just sailed on the Getaway over Xmas, but only having sailed on NCL.

Edited September 7, 2015 by CP Tech

[Keith1010]

Enjoying your review.

 

Keith

[Cruise-mom]

Great review, looking forward to more. Good luck with your new job :)

[NayRN]

Review is great so far....but I'm curious:

 

How is NCL "nickel and diming" you because you have to pay taxes on the drinks while in port? You are payin Florida State tax...not giving that money to NCL. See attached post for more details.....

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2248305&highlight=taxes+on+drinks+while+in+port

Edited September 7, 2015 by NayRN

[LrgPizza]

Review is great so far....but I'm curious:

 

How is NCL "nickel and diming" you because you have to pay taxes on the drinks while in port? You are payin Florida State tax...not giving that money to NCL. See attached post for more details.....

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2248305&highlight=taxes+on+drinks+while+in+port

 

 

I just cracked up at that! I was really enjoying this review, until the poster considered a merchant "nickel and diming" because they have to follow the law and charge taxes. Now I'm out.

[JimHam4]

Review is great so far....but I'm curious:

 

How is NCL "nickel and diming" you because you have to pay taxes on the drinks while in port? You are payin Florida State tax...not giving that money to NCL. See attached post for more details.....

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2248305&highlight=taxes+on+drinks+while+in+port

 

I don't pay them on Celebrity. NCL may have to charge them, that doesn't mean they can't cover them. I'm sold (in this case given) a package that includes all my drinks but not when I'm in port? Sorry, free means free not you'll need to pay I'd you decide to have a drink while the boat is in port. It's not the money that's the issue for me either, a couple bucks on this two week vacation is not going to make or break me, it's the idea that NCL can't make their free drink package truly free for the entire cruise.

[JimHam4]

I just cracked up at that! I was really enjoying this review, until the poster considered a merchant "nickel and diming" because they have to follow the law and charge taxes. Now I'm out.

 

Really, a "nickel and dime" comment drives you away from a review you are otherwise enjoying? Sure taxes are the law but like I said above, on Celebrity they pick up the taxes when they have to charge them. So yes, when I have to pay them on NCL for my "free" drink package I feel like NCL is being a little ticky tack.

[kvickers]

Great review! I am wondering what your opinion would be on Celebrity's Constellation vs the Getaway for kids ages 6 and 9? Thanks!

[JimHam4]

Great review! I am wondering what your opinion would be on Celebrity's Constellation vs the Getaway for kids ages 6 and 9? Thanks!

 

For a family with youngsters I would pick the Getaway. The size of the boat with all the activities available I think lends itself better to keeping everyone busy. The pool is small but they can still get in and have room to move around. There is the splash zone, slides, mini golf, arcade (Constellation has an arcade but it's only a few games) and depending on their size the climbing wall and ropes course (there is a mini ropes course too). I've heard good things about both kids programs but the facility on the Getaway is much bigger. The Constellation is my favorite for laying around and going to the spa or gym, the Getaway is what I would choose when I want to be active everyday and not hear my kids say they don't have anything to do.

[JimHam4]

Day 2 - At Sea

 

We start the morning off with breakfast at the buffet. It's a little crazy, like other reviewers have said, but the place is so huge it's not hard to find things to put on your plate. If you wanted a fresh omelette you might be waiting a bit but most everything else is easily accessible. The buffet is setup so you can start at various positions, this is good so the whole line isn't slowed by a slow person but it does create a little confusion as lines go in both directions. I'm surprised by the lack of seating though. The place is HUGE but there don't seem to be a lot of open tables. There are bar height tables, small tables, booths, and large tables. Many of the large tables I see have smaller groups sitting at them while booths are left open so the lack of seating probably isn't NCL's fault. The food is pretty good and I enjoy the the Eggs Benedict with salmon; my daughter doesn't like the spinach on her omelette, says it doesn't seem fresh and has a different taste to it. As the week goes on I find that some things on the menu rotate so each day is a little different.

 

Over breakfast we decide we want to do the family scavenger hunt that will be this morning in the Mojito Bar. We get there early to make sure we'll have a spot and sit down and relax. There are maybe 10 other groups waiting with us; there is also an NCL activities crew member there but she is just talking to guests at the moment and I figure she is waiting for the start time before she gets everyone organized. At the start time (10:30 I think) another crew member comes around the corner into the bar with a couple more groups of guests following him. He announces he will be handing out the scavenger sheets and each group should send up a representative to get it. He is immediately mobbed by people around the piano and starts handing out sheets. My adult daughter is up there but he quickly runs out of sheets and says sorry no more. He then leaves the bar with people following him trying to get more sheets. My daughter says she thinks he is going to get more but nobody's really sure since he leaves in a different direction than the one he came from. There are no announcement or directions given to those left behind as both activity crew members leave the bar. Personally I think they were overwhelmed and didn't know how to address the issue. A little disappointed but we decide to go change and hit the slides. Side note: we met a lady later in the week that had also been to the scavenger hunt. She said eventually they did get a paper about twenty minutes later. Her team completed the tasks and came back to get their prize but we're told they were too late, they should have been back when the other teams (the ones with a twenty minute head start) had returned. She asked how she was supposed to do that when they got the paper late and the crew decided to give her a prize anyway.

 

Up on deck it's pretty crowded but we are able to find enough chairs together that we can rotate around as people go the slides. There are quite a few chairs with just something laying on them to hold them but there are a lot of people running around to different activities too so I can't say they aren't being used. The ropes course and wall require closed toed shoes so we stick to the slides and pool for now and have a really good time, but man is it hot. I see a couple of bar staff making their way around but it just seems quicker to go the bar myself. Can't imagine how many people each server is responsible for, can't be an easy job.

 

My girls are in the pool when they start a poolside competition for the man with the best legs or something like that. I can't see it from where I'm at but I can see the crowd's reaction and everyone is laughing pretty hard. When my girls return they say it was a pretty good show with a mixed group of guys age wise all having fun making fools of themselves. They've seen their Dad make a fool of himself on stage plenty of times so they're pretty good judges of this type of thing.

To be honest I don't really remember what we did that afternoon, just a whole bunch of nothing with the pool, slides and arcade. After, we head back to the room to get ready for an early dinner at Teppanyaki.

 

When we made our reservations at home there weren't a whole lot of times available and once inside I can see why. The tables are a giant square that will hold 16 people, eight on each side with two chefs serving them. Not sure if your party is bigger than eight if they can fit you all together. There are four of these where we are and it looks like a couple more around the corner meaning the restaurant can only take maybe 100 guests at a time. The menu is typical teppan table stuff with your choice of steak, chicken or seafood; seafood includes shrimp, lobster and scallops. There are various combos you can select from. The rest of the menu is the normal salad, soup, rice and veggies. Our drink and food orders are taken and the chef comes out to prepare everything after we've started on our salads. My niece was offered a children's meal that would have been free but it only had the same items as on the kid's menu in all the restaurants (chicken nuggets, hot dog, etc.). To have a meal prepared at the table like ours it's full price. The chef is engaging and the service excellent, the food is pretty good too. The add on cost is a little higher than the other restaurants but it's still a bargain compared to the cost of teppan tables here in California. My only complaint here would be the photographer. He took some great pictures of us, but they were only available that night to purchase. Not sure if he belongs to the restaurant but his photos do not go the main gallery to view or purchase later.

 

After dinner my niece goes back to the kids club and we head to see the "Burn the Floor" show. We made reservations from home (no cost) and I'm glad we did. At the door the host scans our keycards to make sure we have reservations and then let's us in. It's open seating with a small section on the left set aside for VIP's (suites and frequent cruisers I assume). There are bar servers inside to get drinks for us before the show starts. Just before the show starts they open all the remaining seats to those without reservations. Not sure exactly what time this happened but there was a still a large group of people trying to find a seat as the first dancers come out. We are a dance family and find the show fairly entertaining, some may not. There really is no story or plot but there is a lot of really good dancing set to mostly Latin beats. My family enjoyed it, not sure my BIL's would have.

 

After the show we drop a few more dollars in the casino before heading to bed.

[PaulInPGH]

Following. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

 

My wife and I will be on the Getaway in three weeks and your review is only making me more excited. I only booked the cruise a couple weeks ago, but there's been a lot of anticipation--just crammed into a shorter amount of time:)

 

Cheers.

[darienill]

Any moe info on the MDR menu? Do they offer shrimp appetizer? see any shellfish items?

how slow/fast was the service?

Thanks

[darienill]

Did this string just stop?

[JimHam4]

Did this string just stop?

 

Sorry, I intend to finish as soon as possible. Just started a new job teaching and it's taken me awhile to get my schedule back under control. Will start posting again as soon as I can.

[scopewest]

Take your time, your job comes first because that's how you can pay for another cruise! Enjoying your review so far.

[batemangirls]

I love detailed reviews like yours! Can't wait for the next section, thanks for sharing it with us!

[bumorgan]

I'm also enjoying your review and can't wait for more. Thanks. :)

[JimHam4]

Long time between posts I know. Real life keeps getting in the way and I think I need another vacation already. I’ll apologize now as some things have gotten fuzzy as far as timing goes. I may report we saw a show on Day 2 when it was really day 3, but the opinions of what we saw and experienced are still the same.

 

Day 3 - At Sea

 

Another at sea day with plans to hit the ropes course and a few other things that we missed yesterday. Since we’re in no hurry for anything today we decide to have breakfast down in Savor on deck six. Both Taste and Savor are open for breakfast and we’re seated pretty much right away. Service this morning is outstanding and the food is very good. Can’t remember exactly what I had this morning but I know during the week I enjoyed Croque Madame, Eggs Salmon Benedict, Poached eggs, and a custom omelette. The service was consistently some of the friendliest and best we had all week and the food was fresher than the buffet. I’d recommend doing all your breakfasts in Taste or Savor if you have the time, and to be honest our meals didn’t take much longer than it did at the buffet where we had to fight the crowds and try to find seating.

 

After breakfast we make a point of getting to the trivia contest being held in the Atrium. There’s quite a few people of all ages ready to play but it’s easy to find seats for all of us. We’re pretty serious about our trivia (two of us have tried out for Jeopardy) and the questions for this contest are a nice variety of subjects; they do tend to favor American trivia. My only complaint would be with events like this being held in the Atrium there is a lot of traffic around the coffee shop and guest services area that can be distracting. Didn’t bother us though as we pulled out the win and walked away with a set of beer koozies with the NCL logo.

 

After trivia we head up topside to tackle the ropes course. Once outside we find it’s a really windy day and it might make the ropes course a little interesting. The line isn’t too bad, maybe 60 people and takes us about a half hour to get to the front. Our group consists of myself (6’, 240lb), my 16yo daughter (5’8”, 140) and my 10yo niece (I’d guess about a little over 4’ and 90lbs) and they have harnesses that fit us all plus one or two more sizes. After a safety check we are clipped in the track and make our way up the stairs. There are multiple routes to choose from but we find that half the course is closed because of the high wind, unfortunately this includes the “plank” you walk out on off the side of the ship. Even so, the course is a lot of fun and more a test of your balance than strength (if you have crummy balance though strength will come in handy to keep you from falling. As you complete the course there is a short zip line to the finish. As we walk down the stairs we find out we were some of the last people allowed to go up because of the wind and at one point while we were on the course a crew member was questioned rather vociferously by his superior why there were still people up on the ropes. I don’t know, the wind made it kind of fun, it’s not like we’re going to really fall. There is also a mini ropes course no more than a couple feet off the ground for the little ones.

 

With the ropes course closed we decide to change out and enjoy the pool for a while again. It's crowded, but we are able to find chairs near the front of the boat. As the week goes on this spot seems to be open pretty consistently and depending on the time offers both sun and shade. Just up the stairs next to our chairs is a bar that was never busy so it's easy to keep our drink count up too. Seating around the pool on the Getaway is crowded, but it's not as bad as when I was on the Triumph. For 4000 people the space is actually built pretty well; my only complaint would be the seating on the covered deck is completely enclosed and doesn't have a lot of air movement. With the heat and humidity we had that week I don't know how anyone was able to use it.

 

We see in the daily guide they are offering a class to make cupcakes with the cupcake boss. Sounds interesting but was too expensive for us. They are also offering pizza making for free at the Italian specialty restaurant, La Cucina. We decide that will be a nice break from the heat and give everyone a little snack before our late dinner at Le Bistro. I think the pizza making was set up for the kids to do but there are a few adults (parents and others) also participating. I don’t know if it’s aways setup this way but there wasn’t a whole lot of pizza making going on. The crew had set individual uncooked crusts ready to go and each person told them what to put on the pizza from the bowls in front of them. Not as fun as making your own, but probably safer than having everyone dip their hands into the bowls.

 

While we’re waiting it dawns on my kids the the UDP will allow them to go to all these restaurants even if Mom and Dad can’t join them. They quickly dig out their phones and bring up the iConcierge app to check out the restaurants. We already had reservations at Teppanyaki, La Cucina and Le Bistro so they quickly add reservations at Cagney’s and Moderno. This alone probably made them happiest about the whole cruise; all you can eat meat and no parents around! I’m impressed with the iConcierge app, the messaging and calling (premium features) works well most of the time and the free features (reservations, checking my account) make life aboard pretty easy to keep track of; my only complaint might be that often the schedule of events on the app referred you to the hard copy of the daily news which we didn’t carry around with us.

 

After the pizza snack we decide to walk around and explore some more of the ship. We wander through the shops where each kid decides to buy a lanyard to keep their keycard on since they don’t want to carry their purses around with them. The gift shop has a decent selection of lanyard styles pretty cheap. They come with a clear pocket to hold your card but if you ask the clerk will punch a hole in your card so you can just clip it on and it’s then available to slide to pay for anything or open your stateroom door. We browse the photo area where there are kiosks you can slide your key through and see the pictures the crew has taken if you gave them your room number (the Teppanyaki picture wasn’t there). We don’t pose for a lot of those kind of pictures so there’s not much for us to see, but there are places all over the ship where you can pose with different backgrounds. Pictures are expensive though, especially for the quality you get. My SIL and I have a photography business doing portraits and weddings and it wouldn’t take much for NCL to train the photographers a little more about posing. These cruises are once in a lifetime for many people and may be the only chance to bring together family from all around the country/world. If that’s the case go for it! Get the family picture everyone should have, you never know when the opportunity is going to come up again, but if you're travelling with people you see every day wait til you get home and hire a professional there. The business is so cut throat right now you can most likely find someone that will give you a better product for not much more money at home. Pictures of things you can only do on this trip are different (in port, on the ropes course, etc.), don’t miss those opportunities if you want them, but for the portraits in front of a simple background save it for home if you can get the same people together there.

 

We stop by the Illusionarium but we can’t see anything inside so we head to the library. The library has a nice selection of books and is on the honor system of borrowing. There are also copies of a daily Sudoku and Crossword puzzle laid out. We browse for a while, just relaxing in the cool and quiet before we decide it’s time to get ready for dinner.

 

Dinner at Le Bistro is a fairly relaxed affair. The restaurant feels like an upscale sidewalk cafe with a menu that has a wide variety of food including lamb, steak, fish, chicken and shellfish. Between the seven of us (my niece is in camp) we pretty much cover everything on the menu and there are no complaints about any of it. The only premium dish we have is the Ribeye for two ($10 extra per person) so I can’t comment on the lobster tail. The service is good, I think our waiter was a little on the new side but there are definitely no complaints here. I had two appetizers (escargot and mushroom soup) and two desserts (cheese plate and apple tatin) and am not charged anything extra. My girls are the ones that had the Ribeye and should have not have been charged the premium since they are on the UDP but there is so much confusion in straightening out the prepaid stuff and three different staterooms I’m not sure if we were charged for it or not. Not a big deal, they thoroughly enjoyed it and it was worth every penny free or not. My only disappointment was in the apple tatin, can’t put my finger on what I didn’t like but to be honest I didn’t like any of the pies I had on board (trust me though, I really enjoyed every other dessert available on the ship).

I’ll end day three here since nothing else really remarkable happened (we gambled and lost). I promise to get the rest of this trip up ASAP. Tomorrow St. Thomas and ziplining!

Edited September 26, 2015 by JimHam4