Getaway! May 6-13 Trip Report & Review

[drbeamer]

Loving your review....going on Getaway in November so this really helps!

 

 

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[MaryBethV]

Saturday, May 12th | Sea Day

We woke up to a cloudy day somewhere North of Cuba. DH and I headed down to Savor for breakfast. An omelet and eggs benedict were on order with a basket of butter croissants.

 

It was a busy morning in Savor and everyone seemed wide awake and geared up for a final day in the sun (once the clouds cleared). There was even a table near us where 3 or 4 'older' (older than me - which really isn't THAT old - ha!) ladies had obviously stopped by Savor on their way to the pool deck... they were all in their coordinating swimsuit coverups which each oversized t-shirt featuring a thong-clad 20-something body. My pre-coffee brain teeter-tottered between "you go girls!" and "you are in a restaurant with white linen table cloths, um...!". Eh - my brain ended up on "you go girls!" because I'm pretty sure it is awesome to have girlfriends like that. In fact I can see my two closest friends ordering shirts like that for us someday and threatening me with no coffee to make me wear it! Humiliation or no coffee??? Hmm...I pick humiliation. :')

 

 

 

 

[MaryBethV]

Not really sure what we did between breakfast and lunch. There may have been a nap. No judging - have I mentioned how exhausting it is to travel with 4 "kids"?

 

Lunch at Taste --

 

 

 

 

Easily 8+ ounces of Salmon with the Caesar Salad appetizer again-

 

Stuffed Potato Skins-

 

Philly Cheesesteak-

[MaryBethV]

We had reservations at a main dining room that night - but looking at the menu and knowing our kids we didn't see that going over well. However, the ad for Italian Night in the Garden Cafe looked promising - so we cancelled our reservations for the dining room.

 

 

It turned out to be a beautiful day!

 

We checked out the Shanghai's to see if it would be a better option than the Garden Cafe for dinner - but it is open to the casino and the smoke was just too much for us.

 

After walking around a little inside, we grabbed a Rum Punch at the Mojito Bar and hung out on the Waterfront for a bit. (I could use one as I write this - it was 92 in MI today!)

 

 

[Seminole1975]

Anyone can bring water or other certain liquids on board with prior permission. Email accessdesk@ncl.com

 

I received permission to bring sugar free coffee syrup and sugar free lemonade and water. I told them I was diabetic( I am) and that was it. My ticket says " Liquid exclusion". I tried to get permission for diet coke( not a fan of pepsi) and was denied.

 

This is a bit off the topic, but I do not think "anyone" can bring on water with prior permission. You got permission because you were diabetic. I have no medical issues that would necessitate bringing water on board. I would hate to get people's hopes up. And water is sugar free so I do not understand what it has to do with diabetes. But anyhow, hope it all works out for you and that you have a great cruise. PS They have sugar free drinks at the buffet that taste good.

[calicakes]

This is a bit off the topic, but I do not think "anyone" can bring on water with prior permission. You got permission because you were diabetic. I have no medical issues that would necessitate bringing water on board. I would hate to get people's hopes up. And water is sugar free so I do not understand what it has to do with diabetes. But anyhow, hope it all works out for you and that you have a great cruise. PS They have sugar free drinks at the buffet that taste good.

 

 

I did not phrase that correctly. I mean't " anyone will a medical issue".

 

What sugar free drinks do they have at the buffet? I abhor diet pepsi so I'm not getting a soda package( and I don't drink alcohol". I tried to get permission for diet coke, but they said No way.

[Seminole1975]

I did not phrase that correctly. I mean't " anyone will a medical issue".

 

What sugar free drinks do they have at the buffet? I abhor diet pepsi so I'm not getting a soda package( and I don't drink alcohol". I tried to get permission for diet coke, but they said No way.

 

They have several fruit punch type drinks in several flavors that were pretty good. I am not diabetic, but try to avoid excess sugar so I drank them now and then. This was on the Getaway on the Baltic cruise.

[cruisetimeforme]

Is the chocolate lava cake offered every night in the main dining rooms? Love that dessert, but mostly go to speciality restaurants

[starfishee]

Is the chocolate lava cake offered every night in the main dining rooms? Love that dessert, but mostly go to speciality restaurants

I cannot vouch for the Getaway, but it was an option in the MDR on both the Epic & the Escape every night! Hands down the best desert on Norwegian!!!:hearteyes:(y)(y):ship:

[cruisetimeforme]

Oh that'd be GREAT!!

[kpjb]

I did not phrase that correctly. I mean't " anyone will a medical issue".

 

What sugar free drinks do they have at the buffet? I abhor diet pepsi so I'm not getting a soda package( and I don't drink alcohol". I tried to get permission for diet coke, but they said No way.

 

Nestle waters are the sugar free drinks available ship-wide without any UBP. Strawberry-Kiwi and Mango are the flavors, I think.

[kpjb]

 

 

Then our kids actually all crashed while DH and I headed to the…

 

… for a Raspberry Guava Mojito. HOW in the world did we not visit this place on the Escape?!? A perfectly light & refreshing cocktail.

 

It's not in a convenient place on the Escape. No waterfront access. I like the wine bar, and had a Toma each night there, but Sugarcane is a much better choice for an outside beverage. I think they switched it back for the Bliss.

[Seminole1975]

Hey MaryBeth! Where are you? We are carryin' on this thread without you! Looking forward to hearing about how disembarkation went.

Edited May 30, 2018 by Seminole1975

[KAYKAY121]

Great review! Thanks for sharing!

[MaryBethV]

Apologies for leaving you hanging... thanks for carrying on the thread without me.

 

Personal side note...

 

The week before our cruise one of our two goldendoodles (they are sisters from the same litter and are 8 years old now) got a ping-pong ball size lump on the top of her head. I had grooming appointments scheduled for them the Wednesday before our cruise... but thought I should have Lila's head looked at before that, so I took her into the vet on Tuesday. I was thinking she had a bug bite or infection... but x-rays revealed she had advanced bone cancer in her skull and it had also already spread to other parts of her body. We left both of them with my brother-in-law and his wife & kids, where we knew they would be loved on & spoiled while we were gone -- but it was still hard to leave them not knowing how long Lila had.

 

Long story short... she had to be put to sleep yesterday and we were all just :loudcry:.

 

Lila (left) & Gabby-

 

I'll finish the review today and then I may very well just sit and watch Pasta Grannies on YouTube. Watching comfort food is almost as good as eating it... almost.

[MaryBethV]

The last day at sea continued...

We went back to our room to relax on the balcony and were treated to a gorgeous rainbow!

 

We hung out on the balcony, reading and chatting with our kids as they came and went on their balcony -- until someone blew a big cloud of cigarette smoke our way. Ugh. We opened the balcony door to go back in just as another puff blew back to us and filled our room. Fabulous.

 

This is getting old.

 

Moving on...

 

We headed down to the Atrium to see what was going on. They were playing the movie Wonder. I really do want to see it & have watched the previews... but ugly crying in public is not on my list of things I enjoy - so we ordered drinks at the Atrium Bar to go. (They make a yummy appletini!)

 

We headed to the aft of the ship via the Waterfront & we get towards the back of the ship and all of a sudden -

 

WHACK!

Something hit me in the back right between the shoulder blades! Hard! What in the world?!?

 

We look down to see an empty (good thing!) large Corona beer can. It must have blown off an upper deck. What are the odds??? Maybe I should go play something in the Casino now? Do good odds come after bad odds?

 

By the way - I was fine. It hit me in the back & thankfully not the head. It scared me more than anything. Note: if you are enjoying a beer on the upper decks be careful not to let your empty can blow away!

 

Time for an early-ish dinner at the Garden Cafe with the kids. I'm sad to report that we all felt that Italian night was a bust. Not that we were expecting LaCucina quality or anything - but the offerings were mostly items like muscles in spaghetti, (dry) gnocchi & mushrooms, and sausage & veggies with (overcooked) penne. If they would have had one station with basics-done-well like lasagna, spaghetti & meatballs, chicken alfredo, chicken parmesan - my kids would have been thrilled. (They did find spaghetti in the kids section, but it was not great.)

 

The meatballs were really good though! I considered them a snack and left the rest.

 

So, we split up... Oldest and youngest sons went to Shanghai's (which they liked quite a bit!). Middle son went to O'Sheehan's and DH and I went along just to sit with him. Daughter had enough at the buffet and really just wanted to get back to her new friends - so she went to the teen lounge. DH and I decided we'd go to Taste or Savor later in the evening, if we were hungry. Not what I wanted for our last night -- but my fault for not making better decisions. In the future, I think I'll make reservations for a specialty restaurant on the last night so we can know the menu and have a great last family meal to look forward to.

The sun was setting - I will never, ever get tired of sunsets at sea. LOVE each and every one!

 

 

DH and I headed back to the room to pack the large suitcases. The rest were carry-on size and we'd all walk off with those. Around 9pm we were getting hungry and decided to go to Taste for dinner.

[MaryBethV]

Taste for dinner --

 

 

 

 

Crab and Cheese Souffle (pretty good)-

 

Grilled Garlic Snapper Filet and Shrimp (looked beautiful and the broth was delicious, but the shrimp were overcooked and the fish was really dry, which even the broth couldn't help)-

 

Bangers and Mash (DH said it was good)-

 

I really wasn't feeling well during dinner - a combination of a rocking-a-bit-more-than-usual ship and previously mentioned issues. So, we headed back to the room to crash & watched an Italian documentary on making cheese and balsamic vinegar (which was really cool to learn about).

 

Little did we know that the day was far from over...

[Doug R.]

Mary Beth- My condolences on the loss of your furbaby, They are truly more than pets, they are family.

[MandyMommyof2]

I am so sorry for your loss of Lilia. She was beautiful. Both of them.

[Seminole1975]

I am sorry about your doggie. It is terribly sad to lose a dog.

[calicakes]

I’m very sorry for your loss. I have a soft spot for golden doodles. I have two standard poodles a red and a black, and their best friend is a golden doodle. This

[MaryBethV]

OK - the rest of the story from that night - which I will share in case it helps any other parents reading this. I’m also open to any sage parenting advice/ideas/tips you may have for cruising with teenagers in the future!

 

Let’s start by saying that teenagers = the reason I have to color my hair now. :loudcry:

 

This being the first cruise with our kids, we weren’t exactly sure how much freedom to let the younger ones have or how to best communicate with them on the ship. Our 14yo and 15yo are really good kids and both look and act more mature than their age… but we live in a safe, rural area and they may be a bit on the naive side. We cautioned them to always be in groups & not be out alone (especially late at night when the only people awake are the crew and really drunk people). I gave daughter the talk about never ever leaving a drink unattended (even with friends)… if you walk away and come back to it, chuck it and get a new one.

 

The first day in we ended up purchasing the iConcierge texting capability for each of them and my husband’s phone (so $15 x3). They were to text us when they went from one place to another (which they rarely remembered to do) and check fairly often for texts from us since the app didn’t send them notifications when a text came through (even though notifications were turned on!) - which, well, you can guess how often they remembered to do that. :rolleyes: (iConcierge texting was pretty much useless and we will figure something else out for next time.)

 

The teen lounge was open until 1am and they were to come back to their room when it closed. Since they “discovered” the teen lounge on Thursday -- I started setting my alarm to wake up and go count heads about 1:30am. (We had an extra key for their room and they had one for ours, which was very useful both ways.) Up until now, they were all accounted for during head-checks. (Well, except for the 22yo occasionally, who isn’t a fan of crowds and likes to walk around the practically empty ship at night and eat at O’Sheehans at 3am! He is a 6’2” college student who - even if he had a drink package would choose Mountain Dew - so I wasn’t worried. Which reminds me that I need to get pictures from him - he probably has some good ones to share.)

 

So the last night - I wake up and go to their room for head checks at 1:30 and daughter’s bed is empty. I go back to our room and use DH’s phone to text her. Nothing. Tried one more time. Nothing. So I wake up DH and he tries calling her phone with the app. Nothing.

 

We check the room one more time and decide that DH will go look for her. I stayed in our room by the phone - which after about 20 minutes of looking, he calls to say that he still hasn’t found her and that he has been to practically every public space on the ship and has asked crew and officers he saw along the way. The next step was contacting security - which he did. They told him to check the room one more time (we did) and they were looking at surveillance footage. They saw a group of teenagers in some elevator footage from a little bit earlier that it looked like she was a part of and were actively working to find her.

 

I had since stationed myself at the opening between the stair/elevator lobby and the hallway - where I could both see our room doors and anyone coming from the stairs or elevator. Around 2:30, she comes strolling from the stairs with a teenage boy… chatting away... happy as a clam.

 

Then she sees me. :eek:

 

I’m pretty sure my face told her all she needed to know. Him too - as they parted without a word and he made a beeline to the elevators.

 

I led her back to our room - where I tried calling customer service twice with no answer. So 911 it was. Security answered and relayed to DH (who was with them) that daughter had been found.

 

Come to find out - her phone died “a couple of hours ago” - and apparently she didn’t think that was a problem. (So I can’t blame iConcierge on the failed texting/calling this night.) I’m also guessing she didn’t know her mom did head checks each night via cellphone light since she was sound asleep at the time!

 

The teenage boy turned out to be a very nice kid (she has kept in contact with him and a few of the girls from the teen lounge since then - during the limited time she now has her phone, that is) who walked her back to our room via the stairs because of some highly intoxicated people in the elevators.

 

So after confiscating her phone, we sent her to bed. We are thankful she is safe and sound. It is about 3am at this point and I’ll let you guess about how much sleep you get after having adrenaline pumping through your body for a good 45 minutes...

[MaryBethV]

At that point we pretty much blinked and woke up to this familiar sight...

 

 

It was a RAINY morning in Miami - if you want to know how rainy, go read natefish95's really great review because he was getting on as we were getting off.

After a quick breakfast in the Garden Cafe consisting of eggs, sausage and A LOT of coffee, we triple checked both rooms to make sure everything we came with left with us - then headed down for our 8:45 disembark time. The line was pretty short and never stopped moving. We picked up our large suitcases were and were on our way to the airport via a taxi van in no time. This time (as opposed to the same trip to the airport a few months earlier) we had a great driver who did not cause us to fear for our lives. Always a good thing. ;)

 

I'll be back in a little while with some final thoughts.

[Linda the Book Lover]

Mary Beth, I am so sorry to read about your sweet puppy (dogs are puppies and cats are kittens to me always). It is so difficult to lose someone you love dearly.

 

Wonder - just sit with a box of tissues. My DH, DGD and I watched the movie together. She had read the book and she and her mom thought it would be a good movie for when she came over to spend the night. I sobbed - not cried sobbed! :eek: The movie is great and opened a nice discussion with DGD as the book really moved her and she said the movie was well done. (she is 9) I thought it was sweet how she kept patting my arm telling me it will be ok Grandma. [side bar - I am not a crier]

 

Loved the new pictures especially the rainbow. Whoever gets tired of seeing rainbows?

 

Peaceful thoughts are being sent your way.

[MaryBethV]

A few final thoughts...

 

Service & Standards

• We had good service overall (with very few exceptions), and some that was exceptional.
  
• Bed sheets & towels could definitely be held to a higher standard. Obvious stains shouldn’t be acceptable.
  
• The indoor public areas, public bathrooms, and exterior decks were very well maintained and always clean.
  

Entertainment

• The waterslides, ropes course, mini golf, and the teen lounge were great to have for our family.
  
• We personally didn't feel that the Burn the Floor show theme and choreography was child/teenager friendly.
  
• DH and boys enjoyed the 3D movie offered in the theater.
  

Food & Beverage

• Overall we would rate the food fair to good, but (in our opinion) it did not measure up to the food we had on the Escape a few months ago. There was one standout meal (LaCucina) and a few standout entrees (such as: the veggies and shrimp & filet at Teppanyaki, the warm chocolate lava cake and the cajun shrimp with short ribs in the Main Dining Room, the curries in the Garden Cafe). On the flip side, there were a number of entrees that could use some improvement (such as: the caesar salad with salmon “appetizer”, sub-par cuts of the NY steaks in the main dining room).
  
• Breakfast, whether in the Garden Cafe or a main dining room, was consistently delicious.
  
• The beverage package was really nice to have (DH and myself). In addition to that we ordered sodas for the kids a couple of times (but were never charged for them). The selection of non-beverage-package drinks was also quite good - no complaints from the kids at all. They were happy with water, milk, lemonade, tea, and the fruit-flavored waters in the Garden Cafe.
  
• Loved the Sugarcane Mojito Bar!
  
• Missed the District Brewhouse and the Wine Bar from the Escape
  

Internet / Communication

• Social Media Package: The kids got a TON of use out of it. It caused a few squabbles due to the ability to kick the person using it off survivor-style when you wanted to use it. :') The only time Mom or Dad got to post photos or check Facebook/Twitter was early in the morning when all the kids were still sound asleep. Next time the parents get their own internet package I think!
  
• iConcierge app: No notifications when you texted someone, or texts coming in a good while later than they were sent - made it fairly useless for us. We wouldn’t purchase it again unless we can’t figure out a better option.
  
• Low speed data included on our cell phone plans: This was probably the most useful when we were close to or in port (except for Harvest Caye in Belize). We even had a relatively strong 3G signal in some places.
  

Smoking

• If you have read the trip report from our cruise on the Escape in February, you know that we LOVED the waterfront on that ship. On the Getaway, however, there is smoking on the waterfront area outside of the Sunset Bar on the starboard side. And not a little bit of smoking either - like 20+ people gathered at/near the bar smoking away. We also encountered people at other areas on the waterfront (nowhere near the Sunset Bar) who felt entitled to light up where they were as well.
  
• There were at least 3 times when we had to come in from our balcony due to people breaking the rules and smoking on their balconies. :(
  
• The smell of smoke was MUCH more noticeable in the casino area (and the surrounding open area of decks 6/7/8) than it was on the Escape.
  
• The smoke issue sadly was enough of an issue that I would not book the Getaway again because of it.
  

For next time...

• Eastern Caribbean instead of Western (In my opinion the beaches are better and for the most part the ports are more safe.)
  
• Forward balcony room (less chance of people smoking on balconies blowing smoke your way). The Garden Cafe and the Observation Lounge in the forward section of the Bliss & Encore also make a forward room location very appealing on those ships. :)
  
• More clearly defined rules for the teenagers and a better plan for communicating with them.
  
• Specialty restaurant reservation for the last night to guarantee a great family meal.
  

Thank you so much for following along! We did really enjoy this vacation, though I'm not sure when we will cruise again. I am looking at the Bliss & Encore for 2019 or 2020 - either the Eastern Caribbean or Alaska. Or maybe a different cruise line - who knows!

 

Getting off of the Escape I couldn't wait to cruise again and bring our kids along. This time wasn't quite the same... probably due in good part to not feeling well and lack of sleep, but also due to just liking the Escape better overall. However, I learned some things that will make our future cruise choices better for our family and I'm sure the boards here will inspire me to plan something sooner rather than later.

 

Feel free to ask any questions you may have and I'll do my best to answer them. I'll also try to pop back in and share some random photos that other family members took - especially of things I missed!

Edited May 31, 2018 by MaryBethV