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Thanksgiving Getaway 11/22-11/29

Mandy412

By Mandy412,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Mandy412

Mandy412

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Am I the only person that can't say the ship's name without singing it to the tune of Earth Wind and Fire's song Getaway? I am, oooh ok. So last week was the first time I've ever cruised and I was like a crackhead on this site reading for two months prior to sailing...I picked up so many great tidbits so thank you all. Now for the review:

 

Background:

The major players in this review are me (36) and my best friend Sasha (an elderly 38). We were there for Sasha's aunt's wedding. There were a total of about 40 family members and friends. We booked rather late in September after it was confirmed that Sasha's husband would be deployed with the army and I'd be playing the role of hubby (I'm better as a woman). We weren't trying to spend a ton so we opted for an oceanview room. We actually had the category OX for what it's worth and got room 9700. Welp, we hit the room jackpot in my opinion. It was a room geared towards disabled people in wheelchairs. The room itself had enough to do an Olympic floor routine for gymnastics and the shower was a roll-up and had a seat which was convenient for shaving. I'll attach pics at some point. The Bride and Groom stayed in the Haven which was super posh but we still had more room to walk around in our lil oceanview.

 

Day 1:

 

We stayed at the Hampton Inn with the intentions on taking the shuttle that's 10 bucks to the terminal. Luckily, the Bridge and Groom rented a 10 passenger abductor van and took everyone to the terminal in groups. When I saw the shuttle we were supposed to get on, I'm glad it didn't work out. I think I would have been Ms Crab Apples squished together with all those randoms and making multiple stops.

 

We got to the terminal about 12:30. We had the porter take the bag, they were super nice and I was worried about the cases of water making it to our room but they were unfazed by it and we had no problems receiving it without putting it in a bag. They just tagged it as is. After I got rid of my coffin sized suitcase and water, it was off to check in. We waited about 35 minutes in line to do this. It wasn't really bad even though I don't have much of a disposition for waiting (who does though?).

 

Since it took some time to check in, once we got on the ship (holy hell it's big), we went straight to the room to get rid of our carry on bags. From there, we went to the Flamingo Bar & Grill on 16. Sasha is half Cuban and even though the food wasn't like abuela made, it was still good enough for us to eat there multiple times. Now, I have read tons of complaints about how slow everything is in the restaurants and bars and from a bar perspective, the Flamingo's bar on Day 1 was the only place where I felt I waited an excessive amount of time. They had two guys working and it wasn't enough.

 

After lunch, it was back to the room and our bags and water were there. We had about an hour to kill before the muster drill so I thought I'd be efficient and call for an iron and iron all my clothes for the week. Well, I got the iron and it was broken. I called for another one and I don't think the lady understood that I needed a replacement because when I came back from muster, the iron was gone. So I made due with wrinkle remover spray and the following day when I met my steward, Oliver, I got one that worked. Wrinkle crisis averted!

 

Muster drill was rough...the content is already kind of dry (I can say that now that I'm home safe) and I put on the patch which made me sleepy so I was fighting the sandman the entire time. Because it was raining, we didn't try to go out for sailaway and instead did napaway.

 

Once we were up from nappy time, we went and explored the ship trying to find the others in our group. Did I mention the ship is huge? Yeah, 40 people and we couldn't find a soul that first night. We ended up at the Tropicana Room for dinner. I've read alot of complaints about the wait in the MDRs and we didn't have a wait to be seated and our server was very speedy and efficient. The bar waiter took a bit more time but it wasn't a wait at the level some of the reviews have mentioned. Anywho, we found the food to be good. The ship is by no means a sailing French Laundry but it's not Burger King either. One oddity that I did notice is that while TTR, Taste, and Savor all have the same menu, Savor seemed to always be slower in bringing out water, food, drinks, etc. Maybe Savor is the land of misfit servers or something?

 

We finished out our night drinking and then I hit up the casino and played some $1 WOF. Ended up hitting the $1000 spin and ended my night on a happy note.

 

That's it for now but tomorrow was supposed to be Grand Stirrup Cay but it was changed to Nassau at the last minute so hold tight for that part of the review.

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Mandy412

Mandy412

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Day 2

 

Before we get started with Day 2, I want to address the smoking in the casino. So based on the reviews, I was expecting the casino to look like LA with a haze of smog everywhere. Pleased to tell you that it was not that bad and it's similar to any smoking section in a Vegas casino. I'm not a smoker and don't like the smell but again, I didn't think it was any worse than a Vegas casino.

 

So back to the trip....We were supposed to go to Grand Stirrup Cay on Day 2 but they changed the itinerary and we went to Nassau. This was my first time in the Bahamas. We got off the ship and didn't have an excursion planned through the ship and ended up talking to some of the people that do private tours. We met an amazingly nice guy named Mitchel (pm me if you'd like his info, I got his card) that gave us a great tour of the island for 4 hours. He drove us around the different neighborhoods, let us stop off at the Queen's staircase, took us to try rum cake, stopped at a beach to look for seashells, went to Atlantis for a quick walkthrough of the casino, and stopped at a conch stand to try the local cuisine. He was super accommodating and while he had a planned itinerary, he basically chucked it and showed us whatever we wanted.

 

I was a bit nervous about doing the private tour thing in case we were late but Mitchel was very punctual and we arrived back at the Getaway with time to spare. Random thoughts: Nassau was cool and Atlantis looked amazing but the price to do an excursion there was pretty expensive. I'm going back to Nassau in May on the Escape and plan to hire Mitchel again to show my mom and sister around.

 

Once we were back on the ship, we headed to the room to put on our suits to hit the spa. We purchased the week long spa pass online prior to boarding and it was definitely worth the money. It was so relaxing to use the facilities and we went in the evenings so it was easier to get one of the thermal loungers. The only negative about the spa is that the hot tubs use so much chlorine that my eyes were burning. I guess they have to or else you'd be soaking in people soup but that chlorine was savage on my skin.

 

For anyone that was on this cruise and noticed that when we left Nassau, it felt like we were competing in a Regatta instead of cruising, you can blame that on two guys in our group. These two guys lost track of time at a bar and were late boarding the ship. I heard them calling a bunch of people that were late over the PA and eventually they just kept calling these two. Well, they were so late that the Captain of the ship came down to the gangway and called them everything but a child of God and almost set sail without them. So the ship had to make up time and that's why it felt like we were moving at the speed of light that evening. So inconsiderate of them to do that.

 

That night was the 80s party at Spice H20. That was my favorite party all week. We danced the entire time to the point where at 1am, the DJ had to play Spandau Ballet's song True to slow it down and begged our group to go to Bliss so he could shut down. hehehe! If you were there and saw a group of young teenagers (one with a righteous afro) dancing with a bunch of old ladies in their 30s, that was us. We went to Bliss and danced more until around 3:30. The music there was really good and I'm sad the Escape doesn't have anything like Bliss because we ended up there every night.

 

The final stop of the evening was at O'Sheehan's. I got a burger and it was okay. Foodwise, I think this might have been the ship's weakest link. It was like the poor man's TGI Friday's. They should get rid of O'Sheehans and put in a Wawa or Sheetz because gas station food is the BOMB. :-)

 

Next up Day 3 & our first full sea day!

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TonyFred

TonyFred

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Was on the Getaway last month and loved it.

Just curious...I had great luck playing the $1 WOF. In particular, the machine that is second from the left in the row that contained 5 or 6 of them.

Is that the one you hit for a grand? I stayed on it so much and probably wound up 1500 ahead. I got up once and an Asian guy sat down and immediately hit it for 2000. I was happy for him though. He did not speak English and I had to help him understand he had just won 2000 dollars. The look on his face was priceless! :):D

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Mandy412

Mandy412

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Day 3

 

I should have written notes, stuff is starting to get hazy. Today was a day at sea and we didn't have anything planned other than we were doing a surprise shower for the bride over lunch at Taste and we were going to see Burn the Floor.

 

That morning we woke up late and ran up to the Flamingo Grill for bfast. I'm not a huge lover of traditional breakfast food so I did enjoy going there for something different. (Random note: there were 2100 kids on the boat and I didn't feel claustrophobic from it nor did I see grubby, dirty hands touching food on the buffets. The kids on the ship seemed to have good home training.)

 

Before the luncheon, there was some kind of sale on 8 for junky hats and bags and stuff. My friend and a ton of other women were in hog heaven fighting each other to buy stuff. I do alot of conferences for my job and get junky conference bags for free so I didn't have the bandwidth to play snatchies with anyone.

 

The luncheon at Taste was nice and it was the first day we had lunch in one of the dining rooms. I had a caesar salad and shrimp with penne and a pesto sauce. Between the reviews on here and stuff I read in a travel book, I thought the food was going to be like Mel's Diner and I am happy to say it isn't. It was all pretty tasty except for a horrendous dessert on Thanksgiving (more on that later). Anywho, the staff at Taste were great as there were about 18 or 19 women and kids at this luncheon and we were the last ones to leave. They were patient and provided pretty prompt service. They also didn't mind when one of the little ones was running through the empty restaurant exploring.

 

After lunch, we went to check out the Bride's suite in the Haven. It was pretty swank but like I said, we had more space in our wheelchair accessible rooms hehe. They had a nice Lavazza coffee maker and Narciso came in around 4ish to make coffee and deliver canapes and cookies. Since some of us are Team Chunk members, we didn't let it go to waste. Sorry to any Haven guests on the board that we disturbed....I know we were loud as hell.

 

Anywho, Sasha and I purchased a weeklong spa pass so we decided to put it to use. This was the first time I've ever been to a mixed gender spa facility so it was kind of weird. But then it was kinda nice to not be visually assaulted by old ladies parading their junk around. I think I already mentioned the chlorine levels were killer and stung my eyes and since we went to the spa around supper time, the thermal chairs were easier to score.

 

I can't remember what we did for dinner that night but I'll write it up later once I do. That night we went to see Burn the Floor. It's a 55 minute show and based on reviews, me, my best friend, and her cousin are the only people that thought it was 50 minutes too long. The dancers are incredibly talented and put on a good show but I thought it was too long! I have the attention span of a gnat soooooo afterwards, we grabbed drinks and went to bed early around 1 since we had a long day planned in Jamaica.

 

Oh, did I mention we went to see Illusionarium? Well we did and I thought again the food was pretty good. Tomato salad with proscuitto, entree was beef and shrimp with potato and veggie, and dessert was 3 different ones that not bad but not good enough for me to remember in detail what they were. The show was entertaining even though I'm not into magic. My favorite part was the guy that read people's minds. It was incredible.

 

Another fun thing I forgot to mention....I got hit on in the Bahamas by a guy that looked like the human form of Rizzo the Rat. He gave me some line about being beautiful and then asked me if I wanted to go smoke weed. I told him I'm an L7 weenie and I wasn't trying to be on Locked Up international. He wasn't familiar with sarcasm so he kept it moving.

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ncklhaus

ncklhaus

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$200 for 3 hours but he gave us 4.5. There were 4 of us so cheaper than Atlantis or a ship excursion.

 

Wow that's a great price. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

And I had to go look up what L7 weenie was. I'm such a dork at times. :rolleyes:

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Mandy412

Mandy412

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Day 4

 

Jamaica! I bet Jamaica is really gorgeous when it's not pouring down rain. Yep, it rained cats and dogs as soon as we got there. The group decided to do our own excursion and getting everyone together is like herding cats so that was fun. We went on a river rafting adventure that was so much fun especially since we already looked like sea hags from the rain drenching us. I think this one cost about $65 and it included transportation to the river that was about 30 minutes away. I want to say the excursion company was called Barco or Banco...I'll have to check. Anywho, it was a blast. Some of use used innertubes and others rode a raft and paddled down. Lots of rapids that made it fun and our guide was a very serious guy that worked super hard to make sure we didn't get knocked out on the rocks lining the river.

 

After the excursion, everyone was exhausted so we limped back onto the ship with plenty of time to spare. We took a nap and got up and went to the spa for a bit and then had dinner at Savor. The food was good but it's so weird how the service there is slower than the Tropicana Room or Taste. It's all the same! We tried hitting up one of the parties that night at Spice but we couldn't get our group together at the same time so I ended up taking my old butt to bed and getting sleep for the wedding tomorow.

 

Thoughts on Jamaica: The little shopping area off the terminal is absolutely dreadful. It's crap that's made in China and you can't even make eye contact with the people or else they will chase you down to come in and buy something from them. They were really aggressive and while I get they probably are pretty poor, I couldn't even deal with the shakedown so I just waited for our transpo on the other side of the marketplace.

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Mandy412

Mandy412

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Hello God, it's me Mandy. Is anyone out there reading this? Let me know because I feel like I'm talking to myself.

 

Day 5

 

Thanksgiving Day & Wedding Day! So as I mentioned in the beginning it was my BFF's aunt's (she's only 6 years older than us) wedding day. Today we made it to Grand Cayman.

 

Before I get into Grand Cayman, I forgot to mention that in addition to the spa pass, I also booked a massage and facial. The facial was pretty heavenly and while the facialist tried to sell me some products, she fell back and admitted that I have great skin and maintain it well (yay for me). The massage was also good and I had a bit of trepidation about it because people complained that the therapists were no good. I had Summer from the UK and for a skinny girl, she had strong hands and really got into the knots I had all over. She didn't try to push any products or other services on me so it was relaxing. I saved a bit of money but booking the services on a port day. The traffic in the spa is lighter so it's there way to draw more people in.

 

Back to Thanksgiving: Grand Cayman is a tender port and my first experience doing this. *picture Men on Film* HATED IT! On the way to the island, there was no wait and it was pretty easy, about a 5 minute ride to land. On the way back, it was a sh*t show. More on that later.

 

Our timeline was pretty compressed with the wedding being at noon, a quick luncheon reception, and back to the ship in time for the last tender at 3pm. The wedding was at the Wharf on the beach and it was gorgeous. A nice ceremony and good food. I love my friends and surrogate family damn if they don't redefine island time. It was 10 minutes to 3 and these people decided to go wading in the water. My half white side was mortified that we were going to miss the last tender and I went and sat on the taxi and tried to get the lady to leave without a full taxi. No dice. We finally got a full taxi at 5 minutes after 3 (I'm dying at this point) and then we got to the cruise tender area and see a line to Texas. I breathed a sigh of relief because it was all Getaway people and I knew they wouldn't leave that many of us behind. To make a long story short, we didn't even wait in the long line to the tender because the bride and groom were in the Haven and they hauled the entire wedding group with them in priority boarding. It still took forever though. Me and my BFF made it onto the 2nd to last tender and the real wait once we got to the ship was to get off the tender and go through security (BTW, I felt really safe on the ship with all the security measures in place overall). We were back in our cabin by about 4pm and our friend got back to hers at 4:45 on the last tender.

 

I guess everyone must have waited to go back to the ship until the last minute and that's why the line was very long. It was a beautiful day and 7 mile beach is truly one of the most gorgeous beaches I've ever seen so I imagine most of the ship probably did get off.

 

After we got back on the ship, a bunch of us changed into swimsuits and went to the adult poolet (I can't call it a pool, it's too small so it gets a small name). We hung out there for a while and then it was back to the spa for some relaxtion.

 

Finally around 9pm, we hit up Taste to get dinner. I'm not a huge turkey person but they did serve it. I got roasted chicken instead with broccoli and stuffing. It was okay but I wished I had got something else because it was just m-e-h. The dessert was a pecan pie with some kind of ice cream. It was putrid. Just cloyingly sweet and inedible. If you ate more than a bite, it was asking for a diabetic coma.

 

That night we checked out Spice for a Caribbean Dance party but none of our group got there at the same time so we were tired and decided to leave.

 

Off to bed!

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Mandy412

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Day 6

 

Last day in a port...Cozumel, Mexico. Another gorgeous day with little to no clouds and 80 something degree weather. Apparently we were going to do another group excursion but God forbid someone have organized it the night before. My group (BFF, her Dad, and step-mom) found a tour guide that for $35 pp, he would take us tequila tasting, to the beach to hang for a few hours, a quick drive by of the ruins and a couple other things. We wanted to do it but we didn't know if the people that were planning a large group excursion were going to pre-pay for us. We couldn't get in touch with them so we waited about 2 hours for the group to finally get together to go to Playa Mia for a beach break. It was $65 pp and we had about 3 hours left and it included unlimited food and drink.

 

Playa Mia was a nice beach and there was lots to do however the food was a joke. I would have rather have paid less because they had an open air buffet was crappy food on it with flies hanging out on it. A definite turn off. The best part of Playa Mia was they have fish pedicures! If you aren't familiar, there are a certain type of little fish that like to feast on the dead skin and callouses on people's feet. I know it sounds gross but it kind of tickles and they were super efficient at getting your feet soft. I take care of my feet but they nom nom nom'd on my doggies to the point that my feet were sore because they chewed up too much. After they get done with dinner, there are ladies that then give you a foot massage. I lucked out with a lady that enjoyed gabbing and she gave me a much longer foot massage than Sasha. The cost for both was $20 so it was a fun experience at a good price point.

 

This time when the excursion was over, everyone was on time and I didn't have to be a nerve wreck about missing the ship. I liked Cozumel and would like to go back to check out more of the city beyond the beaches.

 

That evening, we had a man down. Sasha didn't feel awesome because she got a chest cold while we were cruising so we had dinner and she ended up going to bed to watch tv and rest. I went to the casino and played for awhile and then hit bed. We totally forgot about the Latin dance party which would have been so much fun. It sucks getting old and sleepy.

 

On to Day 7.....

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Mandy412

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Day 7

 

Last full day on the ship and a day at sea. I was already dreading re-packing and getting off the boat and going back to reality. We had lunch at the Flamingo Grill with Sasha's grandpa and step mom and it was yummy as usual. We also made plans to have dinner at Shanghai Noodles which is complimentary.

 

In between lunch and dinner, we walked the track, and then I went to Spice to lay in the sun and relax. Sasha was going to and then saw a human California raisin and decided she didn't want any sun, sunscreen or not. Spice was crowded but not so crowded that I couldn't get a chair. The breeze was refreshing so it was no big deal that I wasn't close to the pool but Spice does have a waterfall or something to use in cooling off. I spent about 90 minutes laying there and then I went to the spa for my last day to use the facilities. Very relaxing.

 

On to Shanghai Noodle Bar....I thought it was good even though I'm not a huge non-Italian noodle person. There was plenty of food that you can order and I liked the dumplings. Then I had spicy udon noodles which were okay but I enjoyed the broth better than the ingredients. The fried rice was my favorite and had tons of flavor.

 

After dinner, we went to the 8th floor to check out our pictures. They were $15 per picture or 10 pictures for $149. I found 4 good ones that I bought. Sasha was going to be ghetto and take pictures of the pictures but they have overhead cameras watching that people don't do that. After that, we spent the last night have drinks with family and friends and then went and packed.

 

On Sunday morning, we chose to have breakfast together at the buffet and we scheduled our check out for 9:15 am. It was a really easy process and I'm glad we didn't try to walk off with our luggage because both of us carried suitcases the size of coffins. Customs was a breeze to get through and I though the process was well organized and not stressful.

 

Final thoughts: Some of you guys are really hard on NCL. I didn't feel nickeled and dimed at all as if I hadn't gotten spa treatments, I wouldn't have spent a thing outside of gratuities and I had a good time, ate good food, and drank A LOT without excessive wait times. I'm looking forward to my next cruise on the Escape in May however I'm going to work on some of my other single friends to maybe take a cruise before that and head out on a cool itinerary with Beiize and Costa Rica.

 

Oh, I stopped at Carlo's Bake Shop and had a delicious morning pastry some day.

 

Feel free to ask me any questions and maybe I can take off my honeymoon glasses and find something to complain about but it's doubtful. :-)

 

I hope you enjoyed this lengthy review.

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