Let’s give it a go…sort of live-ish Getaway February 18-26, 2023–I’ll do my best!

[Suntanz]

Loving the review, thanks for posting it. We are sailing the Getaway in May and trying to learn as much as possible before our cruise. We were on the Joy last August and loved it.

Question, is there much of a difference between the Local, (which we loved) and O'Sheehan's?

[mking8288]

Just checking in, love the pictures and looking at cruisemapper & ship's live-cam ...still like 60+ nm to PC. That's running late for 1 pm scheduled arrival + docking and gangway time, thankfully it's an overnight stop. Ship hasn't been going past 21 knots lately ??? to save fuel ... Sea has been calm too. 

 

Enjoy & go have fun with LM. Still going to Bermuda ?  Looking closely at Windy App forecasting 🤞

[Dorhead1230]

7 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

I like the Reuben sandwich at O'Sheehans.  On the Joy in September they put on at least 3" of corned beef which made it taste like it came out of a Jewish deli.  Sadly on the Getaway two weeks ago the corned beef barely covered the rye bread.  We also asked to have the chicken wings baked twice as per other's suggestions but they still came out soggy.

We just had a good lunch there today. The chicken wings are pretty bad now, though. We had gotten them when we went late-night the other night and they really are soggy. I just baked chicken wings at home a week or two ago and they came out great, but they need to be cooked for about 40 minutes at I think it was 425. And then I sauced them and baked them some more. I gave up on them at O’Sheehan’s after the other night. There are way better things to have there. Plus, the Buffalo sauce is weird. It just tastes like cayenne and nothing else—there’s no vinegar bite to it or anything but pepper. Anyway there’s my 2 cents in the baked chicken wing saga lol.

 

We did have to wait before we were seated today, but we were able to go play some arcade games near O’Sheehan’s with LM, then we went to get drinks from the bar, and then the pager went off. It was maybe 1/2 hour? Getting drinks from the bar was interesting…they have no cider, I presume no mango mix because my mango meltdown request was rejected, and I think no strawberry daiquiri mix because no Miami Vice. Piña coladas it was, then! I feel pretty bad for the crew with the amount of stuff that obviously didn’t get to the ship in NY. I’m sure some people must be busting their chops when they keep getting told no and the crew members seem a little uncomfortable when they have to keep saying no. At breakfast this morning, no chocolate milk (it was the chocolate, not the milk, that they don’t have) and no bananas. Our waiters told us they are hoping to take on a lot of these missing items in Florida, but it still puts them in a bad position to keep saying no so that sucks.

 

We had nachos, pretzel bites, fish sandwiches and a chicken salad sandwich. LM had a hot dog. Everything came out pretty quickly and correct (LM’s hot dog was completely plain as requested) and it was fine. The fish in the sandwiches was nice and crispy. DH said the chicken salad was meh because he said other than onion overpowering it, it was pretty bland. But he stuck some potato chips in the sandwich and soldiered on lol.

[Dorhead1230]

A photo of LM’s penguin and my fruit salad from breakfast at Taste today. MDR breakfast is so much calmer and more pleasant than the zoo at the buffet. When we make it in time we greatly prefer it!

 

I didn’t take any other pictures because we were really thrown for a loop when the Captain announced that we had faced headwinds and unfavorable currents on the way down and we’re arriving hours late to Port Canaveral. We had read so many bad reviews of the Budget rental car here that we went with Enterprise. They, however, close at 4 PM and are not open on Tuesdays. So I had to scramble during breakfast right after our food arrived to make a new rental car reservation and ended up going with Avis. It’s 3:59 now and we’re still waiting for the announcement to be able to get off the ship and go grab our car so we can go visit our friends. All shore excursions except the shuttle to Cocoa Beach were cancelled today due to the late arrival.

[Dorhead1230]

6 hours ago, Suntanz said:

Loving the review, thanks for posting it. We are sailing the Getaway in May and trying to learn as much as possible before our cruise. We were on the Joy last August and loved it.

Question, is there much of a difference between the Local, (which we loved) and O'Sheehan's?

Thanks for the compliment on the review 😊. I am not sure what is on the Local’s menu because I haven’t been on a ship with it, but in principle I think it is pretty much the same idea. Maybe someone on this thread with more experience with the Local can comment a little further!

Edited February 20, 2023 by Dorhead1230

[Dorhead1230]

4 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Just checking in, love the pictures and looking at cruisemapper & ship's live-cam ...still like 60+ nm to PC. That's running late for 1 pm scheduled arrival + docking and gangway time, thankfully it's an overnight stop. Ship hasn't been going past 21 knots lately ??? to save fuel ... Sea has been calm too. 

 

Enjoy & go have fun with LM. Still going to Bermuda ?  Looking closely at Windy App forecasting 🤞

You called it on the lateness to PC. So glad this happened on an overnight stop and we didn’t miss most of the port.

 

The navigation channel is still showing our route going to Bermuda. Which I find shocking lol. I’m still waiting for the cancellation but I haven’t taken the time to check the forecast since I got Verizon service back.

[Dorhead1230]

I apologize because I feel like this is all disjointed today, but the late arrival threw me a bit and the ship’s wi-fi was very slow this morning. It also took basically until we fully docked to get a good enough Verizon signal to start posting again. I scanned the first 3 days’ dailies and am going to attempt to attach the PDFs here. If you can’t open them, let me know because I have photos I can post instead!Getaway 8-day Day 1.pdf Getaway 8-day Day 2.pdf Getaway 8-day Day 3.pdf

[Treasure Hunter]

1100 kids. Food is great. Weather in Cape Canaveral beautiful, 80 and sunny. Kids doing the rope course. Having a blast. I thought the wings were great ( spicy though) , Burn the Floor last night was terrific 

[Dorhead1230]

 

Well, nothing much ship-related to convey for the rest of today. When we were cleared to get off around 4, DH and I thought the lines to disembark would be terrible, but we walked right off the ship. I don’t know if a lot of people maybe just didn’t bother getting off because the late arrival ruined the day’s plans for them? Despite the fact that it seemed that maybe a lot of people did not get off, the ground level outside the terminal was pretty chaotic. Every time a shuttle for one of the car rental places showed up, it was swarmed with people. I said screw it we’ll just pay for an Uber, but I had to try repeatedly for about 20 minutes to actually get one because they must have been so busy. We made it to Avis, got our vehicle (ended up giving us a minivan instead of the full-size sedan we booked but no worries), and headed back to the ship to get LM from DM. We didn’t want to take him for the car pickup because we were unsure how we were getting there.

 

We spent a fabulous evening at our friends’ house in Viera. We are now returning to the ship around 11 PM. I am a little concerned because earlier when we checked out the parking lot, the machines to collect a ticket from were not working, but one of the gates was just in the up position so we came in and parked. Hopefully we won’t have a problem pulling out in the morning, but there are many other cars parked here, so I guess they all drove through, too.

 

Planning to pretty much head right to bed when we get back on right now so we can get up bright and early for SeaWorld.

 

But first, 30 seconds of zen recorded earlier today.

 

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Enjoying your posts and pictures especially the food.  Thank you for taking the time to share! Enjoy

[Dorhead1230]

 

 

Good morning from sunny Florida! Had a nice breakfast at Savor today. Did take a while for the food to come, and I’m sure the buffet would have been a little faster, but the little bit of extra time was worth it to avoid the gladiatorial battle 😛. A few breakfast photos:

 

On the road to SeaWorld now. Will get there within 15 minutes of the park opening. It was definitely worth it to get the rental car as we have made good use of it and are having a nice, comfortable ride. Also, the exit gate to the parking at the port was in the up position today, so parking ended up being free 🤷🏻‍♀️.

[Dorhead1230]

We are heading back from SeaWorld now. I have not been there since I was a little girl. It’s a great park! We definitely would have needed the full 8 hours from park open to park close to even come close to doing most of what’s there. I think even then you couldn’t take in all the animals plus all the rides. It worked out okay for us only having about 5 hours there because we were lugging around a napless LM, who is out cold in the backseat right now and was asleep before we got out of the parking lot. He got to see dolphins, stingrays, manatees, walruses, belugas, sharks, gators, etc. He also did a few of the rides in the Sesame Street area, played for a few minutes on the little playground in Sesame Street land, and saw the end of this little Oscar the Grouch show they do in the street there. Also, we made sure we saw the noon orca show, because the other one is right before the park closes and we knew we wouldn’t be there for it. LM was completely awestruck by the orcas and how smart and agile they are. I was, too! The park appeared clean and well-maintained. I would definitely go back when we have more time to spend there. I would not recommend ever planning to do it if you’re on a day port stop when it’s possible that you could be delayed arriving or getting off the ship. Even with us being here already this morning and getting off the ship early, it was a time crunch. I just don’t see how it would be enjoyable with even less time, but that’s just my two cents. 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

Some animal photos:

 

A few other random park photos, including their new roller coaster that’s still under construction (don’t know why I can’t get it to upload right side up but you get the idea lol):

Having trouble uploading any orca videos right now but I’ll try again later. When I bought the tickets, SeaWorld was doing a deal for a meal included with each ticket. They could be redeemed at any of the places that accept SeaWorld’s all day dining deal. We first walked into Waterway Grill and it was bedlam. No joke, a girl walking out with her food looked at us and said “Don’t do it. Don’t’ wait.” Lol. It clearly was about an hour line so left and kept walking. We ended up at Lakeside Grill and waited only maybe 15 minutes or so in line. We all agreed it was pretty decent food for theme park stuff. But boy oh boy is theme park food expensive. Good thing we had that deal because it saved us about $70. LM had a cheeseburger and waffle fries, DM and I got Greek salads with chicken kebabs, and DH got a platter with rice, vegetables, and chicken kebabs. We also got a Mediterranean nachos, which was pita chips with hummus, feta, Kalamata olives, and cucumbers, and DH and LM shared a slice of chocolate cake. It was all surprisingly good considering we were at a theme park. We especially liked the “nachos”—the chips were nice and crispy and the hummus was tasty. I only took a picture of mine, but it gives a decent idea since almost everything we got had the chicken kebobs. The only complaint was that the chicken was a little dry, but I think that’s to be expected when they’re making mass quantities like that. 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Dorhead1230

[alchemist4]

No Bermuda…going to Miami!

[Dorhead1230]

3 minutes ago, alchemist4 said:

No Bermuda…going to Miami!

Not gonna lie…Bermuda is my favorite place on earth and I’m still not disappointed. Six hours (five?) or whatever it was is not enough there, and I’d rather stay down south here where the weather is going to be gorgeous than have high winds and rough seas and meh weather in Bermuda.

[Dorhead1230]

Quick photos of today’s Daily before we set sail (apologies for the shadows!).

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Dorhead1230

[Dorhead1230]

Greetings from the ocean adjacent to GSC! (We’re still on the ship so I can’t greet you from beautiful GSC yet.) I am so excited we actually made it here. We are not rushing to get off the ship because when the Captain made the announcement last night about swapping Miami in for Bermuda, he also said we are going to stay at GSC until 6 PM today instead of 2:30! Miami’s port stop tomorrow will also be a decent length—7:00 AM until 6:00 PM. I do believe this worked out for the best. The weather forecast down here is incredible for the next few days and I think that because we’re not departing Miami until tomorrow evening we’ll also catch pretty nice weather still on Friday hopefully, rather than battling wind and big waves to try to get in and out of Bermuda. Just gives us an excuse to take an actual Bermuda cruise, anyway 😉.
 

Also, just a quick casino report for anyone interested in that. For us, it continues to be tight. And I’m not sure it’s just for us. We’re spending way less time in there than we normally would, but neither of us has seen a hand-pay yet. And DH does sometimes spend time playing in the higher-limit area, and he still hasn’t seen anyone getting paid out. I’ve been managing to stay alive going up and down, up and down, but no really good pays. The best I was doing was last night on a Wonder 4 with the wheel when I kept getting bonuses on Pelican Pete that would pay maybe $100-$150. I was betting anywhere from $4-$6 a spin on it and the best bonus was a little under $300. But I’m no quitter so I’ll probably squeeze in a little time again tonight!

[Dorhead1230]

I am very behind posting because this was a long and busy day, so I am going to back up to last night because this morning I only commented on the itinerary change. We ended up going to Savor on the later side by the time we got back on the ship (after dropping off our rental car, we got back in our Uber at 5:35 and stepped back onto the ship at 5:45) and got cleaned up. It was just DH, LM, and me because DM was exhausted. Everything was fine. There are still little glitches that are obviously just the result of the short staffing—being given bread without butter, having to ask 2 or 3 times for a lemonade for LM, things like that—but overall it was fine. Our waiter was so nice, and at the end of dinner when LM asked him for a chocolate chip cookie, the waiter brought him 4 lol! I actually really enjoyed the pork belly with mashed sweet potatoes and slaw (menu said pineapple slaw but I didn’t taste any pineapple). That dish was right up there with an entree from most decent land restaurants, in my opinion. DH was underwhelmed by the red snapper entree, and to be honest it did look a little meh. LM was not a fan of the kid’s mac and cheese. I tasted one piece when it came to make sure it wasn’t too hot, and it was so-so, not really creamy and not too flavorful, but I guess they kind of try to keep it bland for kids? Anyway, not LM-approved. Always skeptical of NCL’s desserts, I didn’t try the cannoli, but DH said those were really pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised by the carrot cake.

Pork potsticker appetizer (was good but not the wrapper I think of for potstickers; this was more of a wonton wrapper).

jalapeño cornbread

 

snapper entree

 

pork belly entree

kids’ Mac and cheese

 

cannoli

 

carrot cake 

 

After I got LM to bed, I went to check out the late show of the comedian Mike Gaffney in Headliners. It was full already, but I just stood in the back (figured it’d be easier to leave if I didn’t like the show anyway 😅). It was okay. He did get a few real laughs out of me; some of it was just eyeroll-inducing. Some people seemed to be in stitches through the whole thing, though (alcohol-enhanced laughter, maybe?). But comedians, like food, are definitely totally subjective and if he’s still on the ship in the coming weeks, I guess it’s worth checking him out.

[mking8288]

How are those remaining WiFi minutes holding up ?  Miami-bound on cruisemapper at an easy 10 knots - plans in place in the morning ?  

 

Had NCL not cancelled the Bermuda stop, getting out might be a little choppy but part of the ride from Dockyard to NY ... looking at forecasts on Windy App - will likely be a roller coaster on water ski.  Mother nature always win - besides, not a whole lot happening on the island in the middle of their off-season.  Go catch some zzz's & get ready in the morning.  

 

With planning & good logistics, NCL should find little excuse to not fully provision and stock up the ship on its Florida stops, including bananas, milk, juice, butter, etc. 

[Dorhead1230]

8 hours ago, mking8288 said:

How are those remaining WiFi minutes holding up ?  Miami-bound on cruisemapper at an easy 10 knots - plans in place in the morning ?  

 

Had NCL not cancelled the Bermuda stop, getting out might be a little choppy but part of the ride from Dockyard to NY ... looking at forecasts on Windy App - will likely be a roller coaster on water ski.  Mother nature always win - besides, not a whole lot happening on the island in the middle of their off-season.  Go catch some zzz's & get ready in the morning.  

 

With planning & good logistics, NCL should find little excuse to not fully provision and stock up the ship on its Florida stops, including bananas, milk, juice, butter, etc. 

I think I am at a little under 50 of my wi-fi minutes remaining, but haven’t dipped into LM’s yet, so I’ll probably try to post more the next couple days after we leave Miami later to burn through those minutes. It has been taking a long time each time I post just to get the thread to load back up, but then once I have it, uploading the photos and actually posting works fine.

 

We were just discussing what we plan to do today in Miami. We don’t want to schlep too far off the beaten path with a 4-year-old considering the fact that we couldn’t do too much advance planning and research. There’s a children’s museum close enough that I can see it from our aft view right now, so we’re thinking of just Ubering over there.

 

We got the great view from the aft this time. LM called me from DM’s room when he woke up and told me he could see cars and trucks and vans and my mom said all she can see is the industrial port stuff. Then I stepped outside and saw that our view is this…guess the aft wins this time lol.

 

Good morning, Miami!

 

Based on what I saw on Google, that brightly-colored building is the children’s museum.

 

[Dorhead1230]

 

Photos of days 5 and 6 Dailies:

Day 5-

 

Day 6-

 

[mking8288]

Doing good managing your limited WiFi minutes onboard 👍 - it can be done, there was a time where I felt that a semi-live report onboard can be done, with discipline & backed with roaming cellular data. 

 

Noticed that CBP is clearing the ship today in Miami per Freestyle Dailies, that should make for a quicker & easier disembarkation (oh, no .... 🫣 ) in NY on Sunday - it "should" for those in a hurry. 

 

How was tendering yesterday at GSC ?  Have a great day in Miami with LM 😊 

[Treasure Hunter]

Went to Disney with the family. We arranged a private car service and it took a little over an hour. We walked off the ship at 7:15 because of the previous days arrival. There were 80,000 people there . You could barely walk. We had the Genie lightening scam and could only use it twice for $90. I almost got sun stroke and a breakdown. The kids loved it. Couldn’t wait to get back on the ship. Great Stirup Cay was fantastic . The weather gorgeous and water perfect , lunch great. Last night the magician put on a funny good show until his last trick ( he stapled his forehead with a staple gun and kids started to cry. ) what! Today we had to go thru immigration in Miami but because we are in the Haven it was easy. We got off last and got on first. That’s when the Haven comes through. One more glorious day and then we start sailing north. Last night dinner in La Cucina was excellent. Antipasto, fried calamari, lasagna, tiramisu, yummy.

 

[Treasure Hunter]

Tendering was on very large ferry’s kept on the island. Very short ride ( max 10 minutes) longish wait on the ferry to go back to the ship because they wait to fill up. Smooth ride. Ship stayed until 6:00 because the change in itinerary. We went back around 2, after lunch. And swam in the pool. 

[Dorhead1230]

55 minutes ago, Treasure Hunter said:

Went to Disney with the family. We arranged a private car service and it took a little over an hour. We walked off the ship at 7:15 because of the previous days arrival. There were 80,000 people there . You could barely walk. We had the Genie lightening scam and could only use it twice for $90. I almost got sun stroke and a breakdown. The kids loved it. Couldn’t wait to get back on the ship. Great Stirup Cay was fantastic . The weather gorgeous and water perfect , lunch great. Last night the magician put on a funny good show until his last trick ( he stapled his forehead with a staple gun and kids started to cry. ) what! Today we had to go thru immigration in Miami but because we are in the Haven it was easy. We got off last and got on first. That’s when the Haven comes through. One more glorious day and then we start sailing north. Last night dinner in La Cucina was excellent. Antipasto, fried calamari, lasagna, tiramisu, yummy.

 

I can’t even imagine what Disney must have been like. I am glad you survived! 😳 SeaWorld was busy for a Tuesday, I think, but totally navigable and we did get a decent amount of stuff in. But LM is 4 and didn’t know where he was or that Disney was an option, so he was just like yayyyyy SeaWorld 😂.

[vacation44]

@Dorhead1230   Fellow Long Islander here (Exit 63) really enjoying your live-ish review.    Enjoy the rest of your sailing!   And you did get a chuckle from me with your puns.  And Bermuda is also my husbands and mine favorite island to visit.  

Edited February 23, 2023 by vacation44