The Getaway Tie Breaker Cruise Live Trip Report 4/26-5-1 2023

[justhappy]

6 hours ago, amygutman said:

Beautiful photos. 

Aft balconies are so lovely - very tempting every time we make a booking but we love being in the Haven. Kiddo loves a quick trip from room to pool. After all of the amazing food this trip, I probably need to get more steps in!

I’m averaging 12,000 steps a day!

[justhappy]

3 hours ago, amygutman said:

Not to step on @justhappy's review, but a few observations from today.

 

It was a sea day and super busy. The decks and pools were packed, the buffet was a madhouse (kiddo came home empty-handed from his first solo foray out as the crowds were...well...too crowded), and the bars were overflowing with what seemed to be very rude and loud people. We saw one poor woman in a motorized chair trying to get off an elevator but people kept piling into the elevator not let letting her or anyone out despite us hearing her ask repeatedly for help backing-up her chair. 

 

The crew were working extremely hard and were so polite but I was really struck (not for the first time) by the difference between the Haven and the rest of the ship. Honestly though, even the Haven was uncharacteristically busy today - more people than i've ever seen on the deck even on Breakaway+ class ships. I think one of the reasons is the Haven restaurant is smaller then similar class ships (compensates with outdoor seating). Luckily, there was no fighting for Haven loungers (unlike by the pool and nearby decks where it was a madhouse), and everyone was smiling. Other than at the peak of lunchtime there was no wait for meals or drinks - and no problems getting a hot tub spot. 

 

Did have an amazingly terrifying time the ropes course. Highly recommended as it was so much fun, even though the wind was whipping. Yes, there was a wait but worth every minute. What I did not like was being weighed in public - yes...I understand the need to weight everyone for safety, but they actually put me on the "you must be this tall to ride" measuring board. Now really...I'm five feet tall and weight like a buck ten. I suppose it was worth the giggle to see if I was >48 inches but seriously...it was just mean🤣. Slightly queasy at the thought of looking at my "walk the plank" photo tonight at the photo studio which is bound to be horrible..

 

Looking forward to NOT getting off with the crowds tomorrow at Cozumel and experiencing a (hopefully) less busy ship atmosphere.

 

Warmest, Amy

So glad you’re adding to my trip report, it makes it even better. I agree with your assessment on the crowds

[justhappy]

Breaks at yesterday morning in the Haven courtyard was enjoyable if a bit breezy since the Getaway courtyard has no retractable roof. However it was not as breezy as outside the courtyard!

Sorry for the halfeaten food pics. I keep forgetting to snap the photo first 🤨

[justhappy]

Shortly after breakfast we headed down to deck 6 at 9am to join the Latitudes Behind the Scenes tour. I had done one on the Encore back in 2019 but my husband had not had the chance since becoming platinum to do one yet.

  We started off viewing the dressing room off of the Illusionarium then to the adjacent room where costumes are stored and seamstresses repair and clean the outfits. We weren’t allowed to take photos here. We also visited the women’s dressing room off the main stage. I’ll have to say it’s quite the maze of hallways running through that area.

We were told how the fast costume changes happen and how the live camera feed helps performers time there entrances and comedians can gauge the audience mood before they come on stage.

We were then led to the laundry area of the ship which is always impressive in the scale and scope of the operations.

[justhappy]

Continuing the tour via 1-95, the long service corridor that most crew travel through ending up in the galley where they were cleaning up from breakfast service and starting lunch prep. It was quite busy so we were hurried through the area.We ended up by leaving Savor after coming through the service entrance.

So it was a very good tour and makes you appreciate all the behind the scenes work that goes on every day.

 The tour lasted an hour and a half which gave me enough time to attend the CC Meet and Greet at 11am in Cagneys.

 There was a very large turnout with all the officers in attendance and a nice spread of snacks and beverages provided.

 Since the CC member who had arranged the meet and greet had to cancel his cruise at the last minute due to a family emergency, another lady stepped up and handled the meeting.

 A CC member stood up and did a great job of explained the benefits of the CC boards and forums since a good deal of the attendees were from the book of faces.

 I was sitting about half way back in Cagneys and there were as many people behind me as there were in front.

[justhappy]

Famished since we hadn’t eaten in 4 hours which I here is frowned upon by cruise ship staff - I hear they judge your enjoyment of the cruise by how much weight you’ve gained at the end 😛

 We hurried back to the Haven for lunch, before I went to the Latitudes reception at 12:30.Cobb saladchicken Milanese Carrot cake 

[amygutman]

19 hours ago, Sand and Seas said:

Thank you  for sharing  with us!

We hope  to enjoy a few meals at the Haven  outdoor  area.  Do they have a different more casual  lunch menu outside? 

Same menu as inside for breakfast and lunch. Not sure for supper, honestly. The only downside of the outside area for breakfast is the breakfast buffet (which is AMAZING) is inside. Yes, you can go back and forth and it's only a few yards, but it's important to know. 

 

Night-and-day for ship crowding and rudeness today. 75% of pax are off-ship, and everyone left on-board are smiling, happy and gracious. No wait for the slides and main pool deck chair-hoggers were absent. The only issue was the temporary closing of the kiddie pool-play area due to a "diaper incident". Apparently a kiddo removed his "fully-loaded" diaper into the pool in a "PPI" ("public poop incident"). Parents were mortified - I was on the jogging track and witnessed the "poop explosion". Impressive to say the least. 

 

Learned a new tip from @justhappy and family today - we usually bring snacks and gifts for the crew (i.e. Amazon cards, phone cards, Tilipino, Asian and Indian snacks, socks, toothpaste and bathroom supplies, laundry detergent "balls", socks and pantyhose if anyone wants to know examples to bring on board), but she and friends went into Cozumel today and picked up sardines and spam. Swears they are proven happiness-maker for crew members. Who knew? I think it's fantastic and speaks to their kindness. 🥰 Yes...she is as happy as her name implies and a lovely human. 

 

Tons of cool people in the Haven - kids, young adults, older adults, couples, family. May I just say how cool our new Lake Nona Haven friends are - best nerdy t-shirts and travel stories, and helping keep our veterans safe and healthy when not seeing the world. Forgot to ask permission to post their names but they are awesome. 

 

Warmest, Amy

[justhappy]

2 minutes ago, amygutman said:

Same menu as inside for breakfast and lunch. Not sure for supper, honestly. The only downside of the outside area for breakfast is the breakfast buffet (which is AMAZING) is inside. Yes, you can go back and forth and it's only a few yards, but it's important to know. 

 

Night-and-day for ship crowding and rudeness today. 75% of pax are off-ship, and everyone left on-board are smiling, happy and gracious. No wait for the slides and main pool deck chair-hoggers were absent. The only issue was the temporary closing of the kiddie pool-play area due to a "diaper incident". Apparently a kiddo removed his "fully-loaded" diaper into the pool in a "PPI" ("public poop incident"). Parents were mortified - I was on the jogging track and witnessed the "poop explosion". Impressive to say the least. 

 

Learned a new tip from @justhappy and family today - we usually bring snacks and gifts for the crew (i.e. Amazon cards, phone cards, Tilipino, Asian and Indian snacks, socks, toothpaste and bathroom supplies, laundry detergent "balls", socks and pantyhose if anyone wants to know examples to bring on board), but she and friends went into Cozumel today and picked up sardines and spam. Swears they are proven happiness-maker for crew members. Who knew? I think it's fantastic and speaks to their kindness. 🥰 Yes...she is as happy as her name implies and a lovely human. 

 

Tons of cool people in the Haven - kids, young adults, older adults, couples, family. May I just say how cool our new Lake Nona Haven friends are - best nerdy t-shirts and travel stories, and helping keep our veterans safe and healthy when not seeing the world. Forgot to ask permission to post their names but they are awesome. 

 

Warmest, Amy

You are too kind Amy.

 We just try to be the kind of people you’d like to meet in the world!

  And yes it’s amazing the difference in the ship today with most people on shore.

[justhappy]

After going here and there on the ship we just hung around in our stateroom and our friends joined us to watch a movie.

We hadn’t met our butler so at lunch I asked Alex if that was normal as in the past we usually got a visit from them on the first day.

He explained that she had all the aft cabins to attend too which I knew but he said he would call her and have her come up. I told him that really wasn’t necessary but of course he did call her.

I felt so bad that she had to come up but it was nice to put a face to the name.

when we got back to the stateroom there was enough sandwiches and cookies and snackies for 12!

They came in handy for movie time though.

 We had Cagneys reservations for 7:30 but wanted to see the comedian at the 9:00pm show and knew we would not have enough time to get there for a seat in Headliners. The lovely Lourdes was able to get us in at 6:30pm which meant we could go to the Captain’s Reception at 6:00pm and make it to Cagneys on time then head to the Haven to be escorted to the Comedy show.

 Dinner in Cagneys was running a little slow and when the manager came by later in the meal to ask if we needed anything we explained we needed to be done by 8:00 to get to our show on time and he had things expedited for us without us having to rush.

The food in Cagneys was much better than our last few experiences on the Escape and Encore.

 

All the snacks!

Haven escorts to shows

[Sand and Seas]

Thanks for posting the Concierge show escort list😊  Would love to see list for other shows if you get a chance.

[justhappy]

The comedian Mike Head was very very funny. He had great crowd interaction skills. We plan to go to his adult show tomorrow night.

 We called it a night after the show and oddly enough tonight it was smooth rocking instead of engine vibration. 
Not complaining!

A few random photos of the ship…

[justhappy]

Friday dawned warm and sunny.

We woke up in time to watch us docking at Cozumel, we were at a different pier than in the past that was farther north than downtown.

 After docking we headed up to the Haven for breakfast and dined again tin the courtyard.After our friends were ready to head out about 10am we were escorted down to the dock via a service elevator to the dock.

We were making a trip to the Mega store to pick up requested items for our stateroom attendants and a favorite server in the Haven restaurant.

And since we arrived at the pier farther away from downtown we took a taxi which was $10 for the four of us.

 If you’ve never been to the Mega Store in Cozumel think of it as a cross between a Target or Walmart on steroids.

it sells everything from gas scooters to food.

It is a crew favorite and you’ll always see lots of them stocking up, especially in the snack isles.

 There is also a pharmica inside the store.

After getting the requested items and just having fun looking around we got a taxi ride back to the pier. The 2.5 mile taxi ride took 11 minutes and google maps said the walk was 1 hour but if you could probably walk it in less time.

when we got back to the ship we just enjoyed a relaxing day in the Haven sun deck reading and snoozing. The ship was very quiet with most passengers going ashore.

 Dinner was in the Haven restaurant and I totally forgot to take any food pics except for the Steak Tartare.

 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by justhappy

[justhappy]

We had planned to go to Howl at the Moon in Headliners but feeling totally lazy we headed back to our stateroom to read a bit before falling asleep.

We had to give back that hour we gained so set our watches ahead.

This morning (Saturday) we were woken at 6am by a code Alpha to a passenger stateroom. Here’s hoping they will be ok. So far there’s been no diversion of our course. We are currently at 7:50 am eastern time off the coast of Cuba.

 We could see Cuba very well on our way south on Thursday. I don’t ever remember being able to see the coastline so clearly in the past.

Havana Cuba….

[www3traveler]

Sounds like you are having a wonderful cruise.

Would you please be kind enough to post a list of the current Officers?  Thank You

 

[justhappy]

18 hours ago, Sand and Seas said:

Thanks for posting the Concierge show escort list😊  Would love to see list for other shows if you get a chance.

Here’s today list. I hope it helps you on your cruise.

[justhappy]

2 hours ago, www3traveler said:

Sounds like you are having a wonderful cruise.

Would you please be kind enough to post a list of the current Officers?  Thank You

 

It may be a few hours but I’ll get it for you!

[justhappy]

2 hours ago, www3traveler said:

Sounds like you are having a wonderful cruise.

Would you please be kind enough to post a list of the current Officers?  Thank You

 

Here you go, I had to go back to my room for a charging cord. This was handed out at the Meet and Greet.

 

[www3traveler]

33 minutes ago, justhappy said:

Here you go, I had to go back to my room for a charging cord. This was handed out at the Meet and Greet.

 

Thank You  I will get it posted.

[justhappy]

Where was I? And what day is it??

We seem 

to be fully in vacation mode and have gone from lazy to almost sloth like behavior.

 After heading up to the Haven for a very windy breakfast in the Courtyard (a sign of things to come) we spent most of the day on the loungers on the Haven sun deck. Lots of napping and reading and adult drinking with a break for lunch, of course in the Haven restaurant.

Around 2:30pm the Captain announced that due to high winds and heavy waves it was not safe to tender at Great Stirrup Cay so we are headed to Nassau Bahamas tomorrow instead.

 I can only imagine the pandemonium happening down at Guest Services.

So luckily we had nothing booked and nothing planned so no big deal for us, but I do feel

for those who are disappointed.

We’ve  been to Nassau at least 16 times before so we will stay on the ship tomorrow and hopefully enjoy a somewhat empty ship. Tonight’s dinner is at Ocean Blue and late show of Million Dollar Quartet if we can manage to crawl our sloth like bodies there.

Thanks for coming along and staying this long!

[laumicmah]

On 4/25/2023 at 10:07 PM, justhappy said:

After a great dinner we walked  back to spend our last night at our time share.

Heres a look at the 2 bedroom unit we are in…

 

 

And as always tomorrow begins the best part, embarkation day.

 

 

Hi there! Saratoga Springs. We were just there a week ago, for 1 night. We are DVC too. ANd LOVE Saratoga with the renovations. And walking to DS (love Raglan Road). We live nearby so we just do 1-2 nighters. Anyway, am in for following your report as I am interested in booking NCL and the Haven. We met folks at the golf club bar last night who recently did the Haven and were raving about it. Enjoy your trip!! And thanks for sharing.

[justhappy]

11 hours ago, laumicmah said:

Hi there! Saratoga Springs. We were just there a week ago, for 1 night. We are DVC too. ANd LOVE Saratoga with the renovations. And walking to DS (love Raglan Road). We live nearby so we just do 1-2 nighters. Anyway, am in for following your report as I am interested in booking NCL and the Haven. We met folks at the golf club bar last night who recently did the Haven and were raving about it. Enjoy your trip!! And thanks for sharing.

Hello fellow DVCer!

We don’t own at SS but love staying there for the reasons you stated. The renovations are beautiful!

We bought in 22 years ago and have zero regrets.

[justhappy]

After a lovely meal at Ocean Blue, if you don’t consider the full on meltdown a grown ass adult man had in front of his family and stormed out cussing right after being seated, that is.

His poor family followed him out (I would have stayed and ignored him), only to return with him in tow about 8 minutes later. No more tantrums that night thank goodness.

The only problem with Ocean Blue’s location is the noise from the Atrium.

It sounded like Karaoke gone horribly wrong was the entertainment.

Maybe it came from Syd Normans?!

 I’m at that point on the cruise where eating has become a challenge. I don’t eat 3 large meals a day at home and I’ve reached a level of over fullness.

Try telling a Haven waiter that you don’t want dessert or an appetizer.

“But we don’t have nothing!” “Just try a bite”

And I don’t want to disappoint anyone 😛

 

Its as if they weigh you on your way off the ship and if you haven’t gained 10 lbs they feel

like they’re failed you!

NCL customer satisfaction team-

“Guest only gained 2 lbs, we must do better!” 😂

So what I’m really saying is I have overindulged and it’s no one’s fault but mine.

[justhappy]

I can see why Great Stirrup Cay was a no go. Docked here in Nassau the winds are from the SSW at 20mph, gusting to 30mph.

Over in east central to southern Florida from Brevard county to Miami-Dade county there is a tornado watch and wind advisory. That’s a large system for sure. 
out here on our aft balcony it’s still ok but gusts are coming around the corner and messing with my ‘do!

With my hairstyle it always looks messy though

Some port area photos. A lot has been added since I was here in 2016.

 

 

 

 

We are joined by the Carnival Conquest and the Disney Wish

All this area is new since the last time I was here 

 

[justhappy]

Our friends wanted to walk to the Straw Market so we tagged along. Big mistake. 3 more ships have arrived and between the crowds and construction and heat we quickly walked there and back. I don’t do the Straw Market, it’s just not my idea of fun haggling over crap made in China that is way overpriced.

Just my opinion people.

Here is todays escort schedule for the shows

Midday snack and tea selection in the Haven courtyard 

Crew is working on scraping and preparing the electronic tower forward of the Haven sun deck and as a result lots of noise this morning at breakfast. 
I got pancakes again, finished half and shared with Mr D.

Paint chips from the previously mentioned work. Not surprisingly with the wind blowing around.

For now it’s reading and drinking on the sun deck in the only shaded loungers right now.

I’m going to have a Bushwhacker in honor of all my Cruise Critic friends. Cheers!

[Elsammo46]

Thank you for the review! I'm on the getaway on May 11th (coming up!) and just had a question about the internet. I got the premium plus package because I need my YouTube fix, if you have that same package, how has the streaming been? If not, have you heard anyone else mention the internet quality? Thank you and have a good rest of your trip!