GETAWAY REVIEW ~ MARCH 27 through APRIL 3

[vadersprincess12]

Our cruise on the Getaway was the result of numerous cancellations by NCL and reschedules by us.  It was originally scheduled in July 2019 for March 2020 but Covid hit.  It has been a total disaster with all the cancellations, etc. and NCL changing their Peace of Mind policy willy-nilly where we didn’t get back the travel insurance costs the last time we had to reschedule.  That being said, this is an honest review of the cruise we just got back from today.

 

The Getaway is a nice ship; the decor is very understated.  The ship is not the easiest to navigate.

 

CABIN:  We booked a Club Balcony Suite ~ the cabin had plenty of room for two people.  The bathroom had a nice long sink with two faucets which was nice.  The shower was great; it was larger than the standard bathroom and had a rainshower head as well as 6 additional body jets.  I was not too fond of the body jets as they felt more like bee stings rather than being rejuvenating.  We immediately requested extra towels but had to call again; it took hours.

 

FOOD:  Food was really hit or miss.  Our first night in the main dining room "Taste" my husband ordered beef medallions; they were cold and tough.  He had to order another entree and chose something else.  The maitre’d then brought another plate of the medallions but they were no better.  The apple pie was just “meh”.  

 

We only ate one other night in a restaurant and that was Cagney’s Steakhouse.  We both had filet mignon.  I ordered medium well and my husband ordered medium but they were both pretty much well done ~ not juicy at all.  The broccoli was good as were the au gratin potatoes.  Rather than a dessert choice we had a birthday cake (celebrating both birthdays) which was very tasty.

 

We enjoyed O’Sheehan’s pub several times during the cruise.  The fish and chips are really good as were the wings.  Their carrot cake is really good too.  We went there for breakfast one morning and I ordered eggs over easy but they were barely cooked.

 

One big issue with food in the dining rooms and O’Sheehan’s is that by the time it got to the table it was luke-warm sometimes.

 

Otherwise we stuck to the buffet which had different “theme” nights and there was always plenty to choose from; some really good and some not so good.

 

ENTERTAINMENT:  The dancers in Burn the Floor were fabulous, however, the storyline was a little boring.  We saw one of the comedians two times and he was very entertaining.  We also saw a magician who was entertaining but it seems he needs to work on his showmanship skills.

 

CASINO:  We had some fun in the casino and hit a couple of nice wins, but as the week went on the smoke just got to be too much to handle.  The casino is a large open area (it’s even open to the floor below) so having an area for non-smokers really doesn’t do too much.  They also charge a fee if you want to charge money to your cabin from the casino, which we didn’t do, but still………other lines do not do that.

 

GENERAL:  We tried to watch a movie at Spice H20 but every time the bell went off for announcements the sound would go out on the movie but we weren’t hearing the announcements.

 

Many people were filling their personal water bottles at the drink stations and that got annoying as they were holding everyone up, regardless of the fact that there were posted signs to not fill personal containers.

 

The ship in general was very clean with the exception of a few of the more out of the way restrooms; soap and paper towels were in short supply.

 

For all the “washy washy” every time we went to the buffet some of the soap dispensers and the paper towel dispensers were empty for the entire week.

 

Sound kept going out on our cabin tv.

 

The Waterfront is a great concept but walking along you have to keep zig zagging around the wind barriers.  Another bad thing about the area is that if you are someone who likes to sit on the balcony with a glass of wine and/or a good book at the end of the night, the noise is very disturbing. 

 

The staff was very friendly and our cabin steward BiBi was great.

 

FOREWARNING ~ don’t book the Kennedy Space Center excursion.  We did because we wanted to make sure there was nothing left in the future cruise credits account.  It was $125 per person but because of the credits we only paid $20 out of pocket.  While it was interesting seeing the Space Shuttle Atlantis, we only had less than 3 ½ hours at the Visitor’s Center and were not able to do their bus tour of the operational facilities which is what we really wanted to do.

 

The only reason we did this cruise was because we didn’t want to lose our money.   After the very first cancellation we were given a 25% bonus cruise credit but each and every time they canceled and I had to reschedule the cost went up.  It was extremely frustrating.  Through all of the cancellations, etc. we were told by NCL employees that we were eligible for a refund of our original outlay of money since they canceled twice (it was actually 4 times) but as with the insurance costs we were then given a different story by the NCL Resolutions Department.

 

We have sailed Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, and Disney so there are plenty of choices of who to sail with.  Given all of the run around we received from NCL we won’t sail with them again.

[cruiseinfoseeker]

Thank you for your review 

[cruiseny4life]

The buffet theme nights sound fantastic! Do you recall what the different themes were? Are there any you would avoid or make sure to go to? 

 

Thanks for a great review! I definitely appreciate hearing the good and the bad! 

[pcrum]

I’m interested in the buffet theme nights too. We haven’t sailed since 2019, but are scheduled on Getaway for a transatlantic cruise in June. On our last cruise (Epic transatlantic), they did a seafood night in the buffet. There was also a prime rib night in O’Sheehan’s. I’m curious as to whether these are still offered. 
 

We also experienced the luke-warm food in the MDR on our last cruise. Seems to be sitting out too long. 

[vadersprincess12]

The buffet theme nights included mexican, asian, caribbean, italian.  Usually there was signage during lunch that noted what the theme was.

[Henry Chinaski]

On 4/3/2022 at 9:29 PM, aaroncstrong said:

The buffet theme nights sound fantastic! Do you recall what the different themes were? Are there any you would avoid or make sure to go to? 

 

Thanks for a great review! I definitely appreciate hearing the good and the bad! 

 

[RaftingJeremy]

meh. I found the dining rooms great and My steaks at Cagneys have always been just about perfect.  I don’t eat at buffets so can’t speak to it. good luck 

[latebloomer56]

On 4/3/2022 at 7:37 PM, vadersprincess12 said:

Our cruise on the Getaway was the result of numerous cancellations by NCL and reschedules by us.  It was originally scheduled in July 2019 for March 2020 but Covid hit.  It has been a total disaster with all the cancellations, etc. and NCL changing their Peace of Mind policy willy-nilly where we didn’t get back the travel insurance costs the last time we had to reschedule.  That being said, this is an honest review of the cruise we just got back from today.

 

The Getaway is a nice ship; the decor is very understated.  The ship is not the easiest to navigate.

 

CABIN:  We booked a Club Balcony Suite ~ the cabin had plenty of room for two people.  The bathroom had a nice long sink with two faucets which was nice.  The shower was great; it was larger than the standard bathroom and had a rainshower head as well as 6 additional body jets.  I was not too fond of the body jets as they felt more like bee stings rather than being rejuvenating.  We immediately requested extra towels but had to call again; it took hours.

 

FOOD:  Food was really hit or miss.  Our first night in the main dining room "Taste" my husband ordered beef medallions; they were cold and tough.  He had to order another entree and chose something else.  The maitre’d then brought another plate of the medallions but they were no better.  The apple pie was just “meh”.  

 

We only ate one other night in a restaurant and that was Cagney’s Steakhouse.  We both had filet mignon.  I ordered medium well and my husband ordered medium but they were both pretty much well done ~ not juicy at all.  The broccoli was good as were the au gratin potatoes.  Rather than a dessert choice we had a birthday cake (celebrating both birthdays) which was very tasty.

 

We enjoyed O’Sheehan’s pub several times during the cruise.  The fish and chips are really good as were the wings.  Their carrot cake is really good too.  We went there for breakfast one morning and I ordered eggs over easy but they were barely cooked.

 

One big issue with food in the dining rooms and O’Sheehan’s is that by the time it got to the table it was luke-warm sometimes.

 

Otherwise we stuck to the buffet which had different “theme” nights and there was always plenty to choose from; some really good and some not so good.

 

ENTERTAINMENT:  The dancers in Burn the Floor were fabulous, however, the storyline was a little boring.  We saw one of the comedians two times and he was very entertaining.  We also saw a magician who was entertaining but it seems he needs to work on his showmanship skills.

 

CASINO:  We had some fun in the casino and hit a couple of nice wins, but as the week went on the smoke just got to be too much to handle.  The casino is a large open area (it’s even open to the floor below) so having an area for non-smokers really doesn’t do too much.  They also charge a fee if you want to charge money to your cabin from the casino, which we didn’t do, but still………other lines do not do that.

 

GENERAL:  We tried to watch a movie at Spice H20 but every time the bell went off for announcements the sound would go out on the movie but we weren’t hearing the announcements.

 

Many people were filling their personal water bottles at the drink stations and that got annoying as they were holding everyone up, regardless of the fact that there were posted signs to not fill personal containers.

 

The ship in general was very clean with the exception of a few of the more out of the way restrooms; soap and paper towels were in short supply.

 

For all the “washy washy” every time we went to the buffet some of the soap dispensers and the paper towel dispensers were empty for the entire week.

 

Sound kept going out on our cabin tv.

 

The Waterfront is a great concept but walking along you have to keep zig zagging around the wind barriers.  Another bad thing about the area is that if you are someone who likes to sit on the balcony with a glass of wine and/or a good book at the end of the night, the noise is very disturbing. 

 

The staff was very friendly and our cabin steward BiBi was great.

 

FOREWARNING ~ don’t book the Kennedy Space Center excursion.  We did because we wanted to make sure there was nothing left in the future cruise credits account.  It was $125 per person but because of the credits we only paid $20 out of pocket.  While it was interesting seeing the Space Shuttle Atlantis, we only had less than 3 ½ hours at the Visitor’s Center and were not able to do their bus tour of the operational facilities which is what we really wanted to do.

 

The only reason we did this cruise was because we didn’t want to lose our money.   After the very first cancellation we were given a 25% bonus cruise credit but each and every time they canceled and I had to reschedule the cost went up.  It was extremely frustrating.  Through all of the cancellations, etc. we were told by NCL employees that we were eligible for a refund of our original outlay of money since they canceled twice (it was actually 4 times) but as with the insurance costs we were then given a different story by the NCL Resolutions Department.

 

We have sailed Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, and Disney so there are plenty of choices of who to sail with.  Given all of the run around we received from NCL we won’t sail with them again.

We are still trying to get our insurance for the trip we had to cancel, they wouldn't let us rebook. Send the hospital paperwork but the hoops never end. Glad you got something, hope we do, so much for peace of mind. NCL sails from home port for us but may needs to rethink where our loyalty should go.

[Double Jack]

Thanks for taking the time to write a balanced, well thought out review.

 

 

[HowardK]

Hello, did they still have Howl at the Moon?