Getaway 7 Day Western Caribbean Review

[jam19872016]

For dinner tonight M wanted Shanghai's again. There was just no way I was eating there again so I told her I would join her but not eat and then go the dining room. She also joined me in the dining room for my dinner.

 

Tonight's special at O'Sheehans was braised lamb shank. The special at the Garden Cafe was Italian.

 

Tonight's MDR menu.

 

 

 

For my starter I ordered the salmon tartar and the crab and cheese souffle.

 

 

 

Raw salmon used to be one of my favorite cruise ship treats. It was pretty gross one time and it kinda ruined it for me but I decided to give it another try tonight. It was a little better than the last time I tried it, but I still don't think I like it anymore. The souffle was amazing!

 

For my main I ordered the spaghetti bolgnase and the potato gnocchi.

 

 

 

Both were perfect!

[jam19872016]

Dessert menu.

 

 

For dessert I ordered the minted berry tiramisu and and one final lava cake. They also brought out the apple souffle for M because she was not eating. I ate it for her :D.

 

 

 

 

Everything was very very good.

 

Dinner service was just over an hour tonight and the food was fantastic. This was by far the best meal of the week! I'm very glad I didn't miss it for another return to Shanghai's.

 

We turned in pretty early tonight because tomorrow would be here way too early. And by we, I mean me. And by turned in early, I mean I tried to. M insisted on ordering another movie I can't remember which one because I was trying to sleep. I sorta faded in and out they way you do when someone is in the same room as you playing an action movie. The final night argument over an appropriate bedtime is an argument we have every cruise, and I lose the argument every time even though it means we bicker the next day because of how cranky I am from not getting any sleep.

 

At some point M left the room with the movie on pause to go to O'Sheehans. I turned the TV and lights off. After that it turns out there was no way to get back to the movie. After midnight the last day that channel just sorta goes away and there is no way to access it anymore. If I had been watching that I would have been upset. As such, it was sorta karma for not letting me go to sleep hehe.

[jam19872016]

Debarcation:

 

Despite getting to bed later than I had planned, I was up pretty early this morning. The plan was to get some breakfast and wait till later in the morning to debark. We were up early enough though that we changed the plan and walked right off (we always do self-assist). The whole process was very very easy and even though we were among the last off before they started calling zones, there were no crowds and we breezed right the security.

 

There was a small wait for our shuttle to arrive, but not too bad. I would definitely recommend Best Cruise Parking for an alternative to parking at the port.

 

Overall this was a fantastic cruise. It was much much better than my previous trip on the Epic and I look forward to sailing with them again someday.

[jam19872016]

Summary:

 

I didn't intend for this next part to be a comparison between NCL and Carnival, but it ended up being one because I just don't have a lot of experience on NCL to compare it to.

 

Dining:

 

I felt like the dining was much much better on the Getaway than on Epic. That being said, keeping in mind that everyone's opinion on food is very subjective, dining on NCL still falls very short of my low expectations.

 

I won't comment on breakfast because I only ate breakfast once.

 

Their afternoon choices are basically non existent. I love that they have the dining room open on sea days and especially on embarkation day. The food fell a little flat though and there is only one menu so I could see how after you've sailed NCL a couple times this is not a very exciting offering anymore.

 

The buffet is a buffet. I find myself not really enjoying a buffet as much as I used to. That said, this was a very large buffet with a much better variety of food than I am used to on Carnival. I was also very glad to see the full buffet open still in the afternoon. Carnival shuts theirs down by 3:30 leaving not many options for a late lunch.

 

O'Sheehans was my to go which is not a compliment to the venue, but rather a criticism of the line's poor lunch time offerings. I understand it is bar food, which in and of itself should never make it a "go to" choice. To make it worse, it was not even good bar food. Some items were better than expected, and for some reason the food actually tasted better at lunch than late at night after a drink or ten. At night, the food was garbage. Even if it was the same item I would order at lunch, it was horrible at night. Service here was always A+ thanks in part to top notch maître d'.

 

I think NCL has an opportunity here so I have to assume there is an unknown operational reason they don't do it. They need to open some specialty restaurants for lunch. I will say that after a few days of eating O'Sheehans, I would have easily been willing to whip out my freestyle card for a decent lunch. Given NCL's, ummmmm, aptitude for generating additional on board revenue, I am surprised this is not something they do.

 

They do have Margaritaville which has an up charge of $15PP. Looking back, I regret not eating here at least once. I dismissed it as so many of us here do every time this comes up in a thread. Pay $15 to eat here? Sounds crazy but it does meet my criteria of "I will gladly pay to eat a decent lunch." The menu is pretty limited so it would probably still be a one and done experience (per cruise) but I will make sure I try it next time. Given the overall culture on NCL to pay for a meal at dinner (something most Carnival cruisers would balk over), I am surprised there is so much push back to pay for lunch.

 

Dinner was a huge improvement for me this time. I tried many things in the dining room that were very good. With so many available restaurants to pay for your dinner it is easy to think that not a lot of effort goes into developing a great menu at the free dining room but that was not the case. I think they purposely avoid items that are expensive (like lobster) but did take some care to make flavorful creations while maintaining a modest budget. I was overall very pleased with the dining room this cruise. Service was slower than Epic, but about on par still with the great service I typically get on YTD on Carnival.

 

I went to one specialty restaurant this cruise, Moderno. The food and service were both great. They also worked very hard to correct things when they got off on the wrong foot with M's request for well done meats. I do highly recommend Moderno especially if you have the dining plan.

 

I also love that O'Sheehans is open almost 24/7. I say almost because as I discovered this trip, after 4 the restaurant is open but the kitchen is not. That is like saying school is open today but there will be no teachers. What's the point? Anyway other than for the extreme night owls, this place is open to serve your late night food cravings. I won't sugarcoat it, the food at night is garbage. I would love and will continue to hope they improve the quality of food here, but either way I still love having this option over nothing but standing in the never ending line for pizza on Carnival. Unless it literally kills me (or carnival's pizza becomes worth standing in line for), O'Sheehans wins this battle every time :)

[jam19872016]

Public Spaces and Cabin:

 

First impression when walking on this ship - blah. It is all uphill from there though. It is very gorgeous throughout all the public spaces on the ship and very spacious. Carnival has a lot of tight corners in many areas while this ship just felt very very roomy (except at headliners). This ship is without a doubts light years ahead of anything Carnival has built and flows much much better than Epic as well.

 

The cabin on the other hand is the complete opposite. Carnival is well known for having the largest standard rooms among mainstream cruise lines. It was just M and I and we struggled to live in such a small space. We rearranged some things to make it work, and could have done more to make it even more livable, but ultimately, the rooms really could benefit from being bigger.

 

Entertainment:

 

Entertainment on this ship overall I would say is no better or worse than Carnival. Their main production shows really comes down to a battle of quality vs quantity. NCL wins hands down in quality. Million Dollar Quartet was an amazing show and I highly recommend it. Burn The Floor I did not see but I saw it on Epic. I can't say it is any better than the better shows on Carnival, except with a higher production budget and a longer run time (too long). That is it, two shows. I felt like one or two more shows, or at least something different than Burn The Floor was needed.

 

In addition to that, Getaway had all the standard nightly entertainment. Music, deck parties at night, comedy etc. The Atrium was used for a lot of events and they really need a dedicated lounge or a better design here because it is just not a good venue for these big events.

 

The casino was huge (for a cruise ship) and I felt like the smoking and non smoking areas were much better separated. Also when the casino was closed, there was no smoking which makes sense since the rule is smoking when playing, and since the casino is not open, you can't be playing.

 

Service:

 

I felt overall the service was good on this ship especially considering the size of the ship and the usual decline in service the bigger a ship gets. When I sailed on Carnival Vista many of the crew seemed genuinely miserable and bothered that I was there. That was not the case here and while there was very little personalized service, I felt most of the crew to be friendly and engaged in making sure you were having a good time and that your needs were being met.

 

The room steward was a different story. He kept the room clean. The end. He was not rude in any way but we had no interaction with him after he introduced himself.

 

I will cover bar service below.

[jam19872016]

UBP:

 

I had the UBP this trip which is something I got mostly because I know it would be a good value for M. While I knew with such a low break even point I would get my money's worth, it is not really an expense I would have added on my own. Boy am I glad I did it!

 

It was so nice being able to get a drink whenever I felt like it and not have to pay for it. There are no daily limits (other than all bars closing down at 2) and you can order two drinks at a time, you know one for each of you hehe. I was surprised to find out I could even order shots two at a time!! There are some limitations to what you can order like no water, energy drinks, coffee and at $89 a day plus 20% gratuity there is no way anyone should ever buy this outright, it is a wonderful perk to have "almost" included.

 

Do your research, no it is not free. Perhaps the advertising is a little misleading but the fine print clearly spells out for you this will actually cost almost $18 a day. That is two drinks. If you won't drink two drinks a day, then don't get this perk. Pick something else it is that simple. This was well worth it for me and I will not hesitate to pay $18 a day for my free drinks again.

 

Bar service was not unbearable. Not having to sign for anything helped to speed the process up however they did still have to take the time to run your card so they were very eager to ring up two drinks on one card. It was common to wait a minute or two for your drink but never a long time. The bartenders were constantly making drinks, so they were not overly friendly (not rude though). If you need personalized attention from your bartender, expect to tip extra for it because otherwise you are just another drink in a never ending stream of drink orders.

 

The only bar with a wait time was at Bliss. The bartenders were hustling but just could not keep up with the orders. My tip here would be walk right outside to the casino bar and place your order. There was almost always nobody there except 2-3 bartenders waiting to make drinks.

 

In the end, like with any purchase, you have to decide if it is right for you and your set of circumstances. Don't get so worked up over the creative marketing tactics surrounding this promotion. Relax! You're on vacation!

[jam19872016]

Looking Ahead:

 

At this time I do not have any future cruises planned with NCL. I typically sail on a casino rate. Sometimes that is a discount and sometimes that is a full comp. Multiple reps with CAS have told me that I need a $2,500 loss in order to be comped a cruise and while I can appreciate the fact that they can tell me that (where Carnival will not tell you what qualifies for a free cruise and likely does not know from week to week themselves) that much money is beyond the reach of my budget. If I was going to purposely spend that much money for a free cruise, I would just book a cruise on Oceania (and one day I will find a way to afford to sail with them!)

 

Coming into this cruise, I did not really have any plans to sail with them again due to that high of a loss requirement. M wanted to because NCL goes to Tortola which is somewhere she has always wanted to go. When she told me that I pretty much dismissed the idea, but I had such a great time that I did do some research into costs when I got home. As I understand it, I could probably get a 20% discount to sail again but even with that discount prices are higher than I have ever paid for a cruise. Perhaps if my 20% and M's 20% could be stacked for a 40% discount on the cruise fare?

 

I will keep an eye out and who knows, maybe either NCL or Urcomped will make me another offer in the near future to sail on NCL again. Although I don't officially qualify, cruise lines do send out offers sometimes to people they want to entice to sail again. Fingers crossed and I will jump on the chance to sail with NCL again in 2019!

 

In the meantime I have two more cruise booked on Carnival this year and a New Years cruise to Cuba on MSC courtesy of Urcomped. I hope to see you guys on these boards with another review again soon, and thanks to everyone for reading this one!

[Jim Barry]

Thanks for the effort and level headed review. This level of detail and thought in relation to a review is much appreciated by me and many others.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[jam19872016]

Thanks for the effort and level headed review. This level of detail and thought in relation to a review is much appreciated by me and many others.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Thanks for the nice words! I enjoy writing these reviews. It makes not being on a cruise a little more bearable :D

[texascat]

Thank you for your great review! I have sailed on the Epic, and the Breakaway, and Escape so I'm familiar with this class of ship. Looking forward to the Getaway next month.

[jam19872016]

Thank you for your great review! I have sailed on the Epic, and the Breakaway, and Escape so I'm familiar with this class of ship. Looking forward to the Getaway next month.

 

You're welcome and thanks for reading along! Have a great trip next month :D

[jotxl]

thanks a lot for the wonderful review !!

 

we will go in october on this route and i have some questions:

 

which beach is the best on this western caribic route ? i know only the wonderful trunk bay in the caribian....some similar beaches ?

 

which excursions you can recommend ? ( interests: jungle, rainforest, animals, plants...we are not in snorkeling and diving...)

 

Thanks :-)

[jam19872016]

thanks a lot for the wonderful review !!

 

we will go in october on this route and i have some questions:

 

which beach is the best on this western caribic route ? i know only the wonderful trunk bay in the caribian....some similar beaches ?

 

which excursions you can recommend ? ( interests: jungle, rainforest, animals, plants...we are not in snorkeling and diving...)

 

Thanks :-)

 

I'm afraid I can't be a lot of help on this one. Honestly none of the beaches I've been to in these ports have been very nice. I've never tried a beach at Costa Maya however. The beach at Harvest Caye is free and right there so that might be your best bet.

 

Excursions aren't really my thing either so still not much help lol :p Perhaps try the different port of call boards for better advice than I could give. I did a fun tour through a forest in Belize a couple years back, but that was in Belize City not Harvest Caye. I've also seen a lot of people rave about a sloth excursion in Honduras that might be of interest to you.

 

Have fun with whatever you choose!

[jotxl]

thanks, @jam however :-)