Getaway 7 Day Western Caribbean Review

[bonstersd]

Thank you for clarifying. I was a little unsure if all CAS bookings would include the drink card and didn't want to give out wrong information :D

 

Thank you both for the response! I will ask my CAS rep just to clarify. I drink myself silly with both booze and water so I can use both cards! (Sorry to hijack your AWESOME thread!)

[jam19872016]

Thank you both for the response! I will ask my CAS rep just to clarify. I drink myself silly with both booze and water so I can use both cards! (Sorry to hijack your AWESOME thread!)

 

No worries. I welcome questions. Thanks for the kind words :)

[PTC DAWG]

No late night parties on the back deck? (H2O) those vacancy be a blast....nice area during the day too...

[Scarlett824]

Anxiously awaiting the rest of this review. :):):):):)

[starfishee]

Great review! I've never been on the Getaway and your review definitely has me excited to be going next month! That, and the fact that i've had it booked since last November. So nice that it is finally getting close AND you put up this fantastic review WITH pictures! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am looking forward to see what you have in store from the rest of your trip!

[jam19872016]

No late night parties on the back deck? (H2O) those vacancy be a blast....nice area during the day too...

 

Yes, there was a dance party of some kind each night. I mentioned it to M and she wasn't interested and I'm pretty content with doing whatever so we didn't make it up there. They did do something every night though.

 

Anxiously awaiting the rest of this review. :):):):):)

 

Bout to post some more :)

[jam19872016]

Great review! I've never been on the Getaway and your review definitely has me excited to be going next month! That, and the fact that i've had it booked since last November. So nice that it is finally getting close AND you put up this fantastic review WITH pictures! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am looking forward to see what you have in store from the rest of your trip!

 

Glad you like it! I'm about to post some more :)

[jam19872016]

Day 5: Honduras

 

Today we were docked in Honduras. This is my fourth time here, although my first time at Coxen Hole since Carnival has its own private docks at Mahogoney Bay.

 

We got a late start today and it was after 1:30 before we made it off the ship. But first we stopped by O'Sheehans for break....umm lunch.

 

I ordered the nachos and the shepard's pie.

 

 

 

The nachos were better today and the shepard's pie was very very good. I'm glad I finally tried that.

 

Once we ate we got off the ship and set out to see the sights.

[jam19872016]

Damage possibly from the Armonia crashing into the pier?

 

 

I've often been critical of places like Mahogany Bay and other areas that are purpose built for tourism but I found myself wishing I was there instead of in Coxen Hole. This place was everything I dislike about some of the authentic experiences in the Caribbean.

 

We really just wanted to walk around for a little while to kill some time. Browse the shops and stop in at a bar for a bit so M could check her email and have a drink. But the locals were not having that. Our self appointed guide followed us from the moment we stepped out of the port area. Not in like a threatening way or anything, but he was still a nuisance and we couldn't shake him.

 

Eventually we landed at a bar that took credit cards and he sat along the bench behind the table we were seated at. I had my back to him so I'm not sure when, but he did finally leave. He was replaced with a lady offering massages. Followed by young (like 5 or 6 yo) kids begging for money.

 

Finally was a guy who was a bit eccentric but seemed harmless enough. He wanted me to give him my insulated cup and seemed insulted when I told him no. He told some pretty wild stories and repeated himself a lot and was in general a bit out there. He was harmless (I think) but it was annoying to be constantly bothered by one person or another. M was amused and enjoyed the interaction, especially from the last guy.

[jam19872016]

A couple pictures from the bar, it did have a pretty nice view of the ship.

 

 

Somewhere over there is Mahagony Bay.

 

 

After M had her drink (which was the same price as a virgin drink as a regular drink) we made our way back toward the pier. We stopped at a couple of the shops in the port area but nothing really caught M's eye so we headed back onto the ship.

[jam19872016]

As the cruise went on, I started slacking at taking pictures of the daily specials at the Garden Cafe and O'Sheehans but luckily this information is located inside the dailies. It was Asian at the Garden Cafe and steak diane at O'Sheehans.

 

MDR menu.

 

 

 

For my starter I ordered the fried mozzarella sticks.

 

 

These were very good.

 

For my main I ordered the vegetable pad thai and the linguine with prawns.

 

 

[jam19872016]

Dessert menu.

 

 

Based on the recommendation from the maître d' I ordered the snicker doodle pound cake which did not sound very good.

 

 

This was amazing. Best dessert of the week. As a side note, I loved the maître d'. It was the only one I have ever interacted with in 18 cruises and he was great. Very busy guy and very hands on. He was also maître d' at O'Sheehans and always stopped to speak to us each time he saw us. He also would sometimes take our order, deliver, and even saw him busing tables. Very hands on guy.

 

Dinner tonight was fantastic and service was great.

[jam19872016]

After dinner I had reservations for the production show Million Dollar Quartet. M did not join me, these kinds of shows aren't really her thing.

 

 

I was a little skeptical about this show going in. I heard great reviews from Burn The Floor but wasn't that impressed. It was also an interesting choice for genre of music. I love old music but wasn't sure how popular 50's music was with the average person. This turned out to be a really great show despite it's length (I wasn't sure I could sit for that long without getting bored, but it wasn't a problem). The theater wasn't full, so perhaps I was right about it not appealing to everyone, but it was a really great show and I do recommend it being something you go and see.

 

After the show we took it easy the rest of the night. I did not want to stay up real late because I wanted to get up early to take pictures of the ship in the morning. M stayed up a couple hours later than me before turning in.

 

Tomorrow was our final port - Cozumel.

[jam19872016]

Day 6: Cozumel

 

Our final port of call this cruise was in Cozumel. This was my 6th time here and it joins Grand Cayman as my most visited port. I've only docked here one other time (my first time) when our itinerary was switched around due to a medical emergency and the usual pier Carnival uses was unavailable.

 

I was up fairly early (for me) this morning so that I could get my pictures of the ship for this review. M was still sleeping since she was out pretty late the night before.

 

The MSC Armonia was docked next door and there was an interesting sight below.

 

 

I'm assuming that was late delivered luggage, but wow that is a lot of people without their suitcases!

[jam19872016]

Some pictures of Cozumel while I was touring the ship.

 

 

 

Way off in the distance, the Carnival Breeze and Carnival Dream.

 

 

Armonia next door, which M and I will be sailing on for New Years.

 

[jam19872016]

I had breakfast for the first (and only time this cruise) at the garden cafe. I didn't eat a lot but it still left me pretty full when M got up and was ready for lunch. We headed to O'Sheehans. All I ordered was the nachos and apple pie (which M was invading before I even got the picture taken lol)

 

 

 

Nachos were decent again and that pie was really good. I had pretty low expectations for it and was pretty pleasantly surprised.

 

As I mentioned M stayed out late last night. While she was out she ran into her arch nemesis at Bliss - fireball shots. Turns out you can get those on the UBP (and I had been wasting my time with fireball on the rocks this whole time! But good to know for tonight). She had a bit too much to drink and was not feeling good this morning.

 

In all the years I have known M (ten) I have only seen her hungover twice, both on cruises both from drinking shots of fireball. M did not feel up to getting off the ship today, and as someone who only gets off the ship because M likes to, a light bulb has gone off in my head. I think fireball may be making many a return visit in future cruises :evilsmile:. Just kidding, sort of.

[jam19872016]

We spent our afternoon in the library playing games. We heard some noise outside the windows and had a pretty good view of the action below. This was the rock the dock party on the pier as folks were arriving back on the ship.

 

 

 

 

I wasn't expecting this, it was a lot of fun to watch!

 

Soon we were pulling out of Cozumel. Bye bye Armonia, the next time I see you, you will be taking me into a New Year and into Cuba!

 

[jam19872016]

Tonight I took M out for dinner to celebrate her birthday. It was not actually her birthday yet but it will be the last time I see her before it is. We went back and forth on a couple different options and in the end M's choice was Moderno.

 

We caught a nice sunset on the way to dinner.

 

 

 

Of the three specialty restaurants I went to on the Epic, Moderno was my favorite. The bread they bring out is so delicious and I very seldom eat bread. M only had one slice which meant I ate the rest. Bad choice. I did behave at the salad bar with just a small sampling.

 

 

Then came the meats. It was pretty consistent to how I remembered it with some real stand outs (the parmesean crusted pork loin and bacon wrapped filet mingon are my favorites) and the sausage was still something I could not eat even one bite of. I also tried the pineapple this time which I did not before because I did not think I would care for. It was amazing and I wish I had had room for more!

[jam19872016]

Things did get off to a rocky start. M asked for well done which is not at all what was being brought out. Moderno helped me branch out, I ate medium well last time and learned I liked it (I usually do well done also). M was not feeling it though and mentioned it to the waiter. He got his supervisor involved and all was well going forward. Very good save and I felt like they did a great job saving what was almost a ruined experience for M's birthday dinner.

 

The fantastic bread they brought did me in and I was full before I would have like to have been. Evil bread! I did save a little room for dessert of course. I ordered the papaya cream.

 

 

This was better than I remembered it but their dessert offerings could still use some improvement.

 

I tried a strawberry caipirinha and well another good thing about the UBP is it is okay if you try a drink and don't like it. I only had two all week I did not care for, this and the painkiller. I did drink this one though, but I would not order it again.

 

Overall service was fantastic they really worked to correct that bad start. The food was very good as well and I love the concept here and would have no problem returning. I think overall M enjoyed the food but probably would not come back. She is a picky eater and needs a little more control over her food so that is something to consider if you have a picky eater in your group as well.

[jam19872016]

MDR menu, taken on Epic but again so far everything has been identitical.

 

 

 

 

The special at the Garden Cafe was grill extravaganza and the special at O'Sheehans was cajun shrimp & beef short ribs.

[jam19872016]

We made reservations tonight for the adult comedy show featuring Dylan Mandlsohn. This guy was HILARIOUS. If you get the chance to see him make sure you go I felt he was easily one of the top3 comedians I've seen on a cruise ship.

 

After the comedy show I played one last time in the casino. I did ok for a little bit but then things went down hill pretty quickly. Darn you NCL for depleting my gambling budget on the Epic!

 

With the casino being a bust we headed over to Bliss. I was excited at the idea of fireball shots being included on the UBP. Even better was the fact that I could order them two at a time! I knew I needed to pace myself and didn't just slam back shots two at a time, but it was nice only having to go to the bar half as often.

 

Knowing that the bars would be closing up shop at 2 we both ordered extra drinks to have for later in the evening. There wasn't really much to do though since everything on NCL shuts down at 2 except the casino. (On a previous night, M was in the library while I was out in the bathroom and the lights in there shut off at 2 I did get a chuckle out of the situation but seriously they really discourage you from being out past 2). We went back to the room and rented a movie to watch with our after hour drinks.

 

The towel animal in our room.

 

 

We rented Game Night and settled in for the evening. We made it part way through when the voice of reason (M) mentioned how late it was and that we should probably go to bed. Not without eating again of course. So we made our way down to O'Sheehans and this was where things took a sorta ugly turn.

 

I've never heard of this before, perhaps because most people are in bed by this time. But I thought O'Sheehans was 24/7. I guess technically the venue is open 24/7, but the kitchen is not. That is right, no food after 4am. We were informed it closes at 4 to prep for breakfast service which starts at 5:30. That seems a bit long, and there are definitely 24 hour diners in the world who somehow manage to make the transition without shutting down the kitchen entirely. They did have trays of sandwiches available but honestly at this point we had trouble handling self-serve food. We made quite a mess.

 

My post 4am O'Sheehans dinner.

 

 

Unlike other nights, I was in fact drunk enough to enjoy the food tonight :)

 

After we ate (in our rooms btw, no problem taking it to go) we retired for the evening as the ship made its journey back to Miami.

[disneylover89]

How did you like your cabin? How was it in comparison to Carnivals'. I know you did not like the setup with the shower in the cabin area on your last cruise.

[jam19872016]

How did you like your cabin? How was it in comparison to Carnivals'. I know you did not like the setup with the shower in the cabin area on your last cruise.

 

It was better than Epic. But in comparison to Carnival, Carnival wins this one hands down. Most of the issues were petty, but since you asked...

 

The room was smaller, I'd say about 40% based on average sizes listed for rooms although I did not break out a ruler to fact check that. It was cramped and we had to get creative with our unpacking to make things work. As it was we could not open the closet door without rearranging the items we stored in front of it. We could have been even more creative and I am sure that would not be an issue anymore and I am sure most people make it work, but this is not something we have ever had to do on Carnival, and Carnival's rooms are by no means spacious.

 

The bathroom seems bigger (meaning the living space of the room is even smaller) and the color scheme is a little less brass than Carnival's bathroom. The shower has a door instead of a curtain. I am probably the only one who feels this way, but I would prefer a curtain. I felt very closed in in that tiny space. The shower head for some odd reason was run through a loop and so if you tried to detach it and use it as a handheld it would twist up and you would have no water pressure. It seemed to serve no practical purpose except to make the shower head remain stationary.

 

The soaps had a lovely lemongrass scent. I found myself loving the scent of these.

 

These in no way impacted my cruise experience and would not let them impact my decision to cruise either line :cool:

[jam19872016]

Day 7: At Sea

 

After staying up later than O'Sheehans kitchen the night before we slept in pretty late today. In fact it was after 1 before we got up today. That's what vacations are for though :D.

 

I kinda wanted to try the sushi place but ended up skipping it. I knew for sure I wanted to try the lobster roll at the walkup window at Ocean Blu.

 

It was a sorta grey day out, but very calm waters.

 

 

My lobster roll.

 

 

This was a very nice little treat, but at $9.75 for this tiny roll I would not bother ordering it again.

 

Carnival's lobster roll for comparison at $12. The quality is not the same but the quantity more than made up for it.

 

[jam19872016]

I took my roll with me and we headed to O'Sheehans for our final lunch. I ordered a Coney Island hot dog and the apple pie for dessert.

 

 

 

The balance of our afternoon was spent in the library and finishing the movie we rented last night. It was still pretty funny but I think it benefited a little the night before from our excessive adult beverage consumption. We also packed, but I don't want to talk about that - too sad.