Getaway with kids and person w disability

[MTB25]

I'm reading such bad reviews about overcrowding on the Getaway. We booked a 10 day cruise for April 2024 out of NY which is during spring break. Have 3 kids ages 13, 5, & 3. Reading how small the pools are and how hard it is getting chairs has me nervous. Also my sister in law has CP, and while NCL sounds very accommodating, I'm still nervous with the crowds it'll be hard for her to get around.  Anyone have anything positive to say about the ship leaving on what I'd imagine to be full capacity? Thanks in advance 😊

[DCGuy64]

Booking a cruise during spring break is usually a guarantee you'll have a full ship and there'll be a lot of noise and crowds. I haven't been on the Getaway but I know which seasons cruise ships tend to be full, and spring break is a big one. What is CP?

[Laszlo]

56 minutes ago, MTB25 said:

I'm reading such bad reviews about overcrowding on the Getaway. We booked a 10 day cruise for April 2024 out of NY which is during spring break. Have 3 kids ages 13, 5, & 3. Reading how small the pools are and how hard it is getting chairs has me nervous. Also my sister in law has CP, and while NCL sounds very accommodating, I'm still nervous with the crowds it'll be hard for her to get around.  Anyone have anything positive to say about the ship leaving on what I'd imagine to be full capacity? Thanks in advance 😊

Spring break.... it's going to be a cluster. Only way to help is book in the Haven

[wolft927]

12 minutes ago, Laszlo said:

Spring break.... it's going to be a cluster. Only way to help is book in the Haven

I agree, but one thing that is good is its a 10 day sailing, usually longer cruises have less kids. Also, what spring break? College or High school. We went last April on the Joy and yes there was a lot of kids but not the college age, more elementary and High school age. 

[MTB25]

23 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

Booking a cruise during spring break is usually a guarantee you'll have a full ship and there'll be a lot of noise and crowds. I haven't been on the Getaway but I know which seasons cruise ships tend to be full, and spring break is a big one. What is CP?

CP is cerebral palsy and she is in a wheelchair. It's a physical handicap.

[DCGuy64]

9 minutes ago, MTB25 said:

CP is cerebral palsy and she is in a wheelchair. It's a physical handicap.

Thanks, I know what cerebral palsy is, I just didn't recognize the CP acronym. There are SO many acronyms now for medical conditions, I can't keep track of them all, sorry.

[cruiseny4life]

1 hour ago, MTB25 said:

Anyone have anything positive to say about the ship leaving on what I'd imagine to be full capacity?

Soooooo....I cruised on Getaway during spring break (April, Easter week), 2022 out of Manhattan. I have a lot of positives. They are all due to being in the Haven and having the thermal suite booked. I know that's not what you want to hear, but it truly is the only reason we continued cruising. This was our first cruise together (I cruised in 2009 on Carnival Triumph, of poop cruise fame, and said "never again") and truly the only reason we enjoyed ourselves is because we could walk through the chaos of the pool deck, into the quiet, yet fully booked Haven. 

Given this is a ten day cruise, you might find a little more quiet, but I find that doubtful. I think it'll still be a pretty darned crowded cruise with little going for it in the general public areas.

[kitkat343]

I was on Laszlo's getaway cruise, and they are correct.  It was really crowded and hard to navigate this ship on a 11 day cruise in January with a family when the schools were in session, but hopefully NCL will help your family more because of the wheelchair.  At one point, I dragged a beach chair over to the splash pad so I could keep an eye on my youngest in the water, since there were so many empty chairs near the pools and splash pads being reserved with towels and stuff (NCL did nothing about this, but in all fairness I don't think they did anything about this on the other cruise lines I sailed either).  

 

The other really big issue is that with young children and travelers with disabilities, your best option is private tours.  Make sure you book private vendors who will refund you if the ship doesn't dock or make sure you have trip insurance to cover the possibility that NCL might cancel or change your ports after final payment.    We sailed the getaway from NYC, and they cancelled one port and the morning of another after final payment to help the environment.  

 

The other concern is that looking at the reviews it looks like NCL put two mega ships in Santorini at the same time, and did the same to us in St. Lucia, which created a massive gridlock situation.  So please leave a lot of time to return to the port if there are more than one megaship docking that day.  

 

When traveling with young children or a person with a disability, you need to carefully plan excursions.  NCL waiting until one month out to officially cancel the DR meant I had to research GSK and Nassau since they sent previous sailings there after cancelling the DR instead of a sea day (which was what we wound up with).  So make sure you research whatever backup ports NCL tends to use for your cruise because it would be hard on your family if you aren't well prepared for all your stops.

 

Edited August 15, 2023 by kitkat343

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, MTB25 said:

I'm reading such bad reviews about overcrowding on the Getaway. We booked a 10 day cruise for April 2024 out of NY which is during spring break. Have 3 kids ages 13, 5, & 3. Reading how small the pools are and how hard it is getting chairs has me nervous. Also my sister in law has CP, and while NCL sounds very accommodating, I'm still nervous with the crowds it'll be hard for her to get around.  Anyone have anything positive to say about the ship leaving on what I'd imagine to be full capacity? Thanks in advance 😊

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Mostly Fake News. Ships are running slightly under prepandemic levels. Spring Break cruises are naturally more crowded with a younger demographic. 
 

Make sure to register the kids for the Splash Academy on the first day (teen with the Entourage). They will have great fun. 

 

You’ll have a great cruise. 

[MTB25]

2 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

I was on Laszlo's getaway cruise, and they are correct.  It was really crowded and hard to navigate this ship on a 11 day cruise in January with a family when the schools were in session, but hopefully NCL will help your family more because of the wheelchair.  At one point, I dragged a beach chair over to the splash pad so I could keep an eye on my youngest in the water, since there were so many empty chairs near the pools and splash pads being reserved with towels and stuff (NCL did nothing about this, but in all fairness I don't think they did anything about this on the other cruise lines I sailed either).  

 

The other really big issue is that with young children and travelers with disabilities, your best option is private tours.  Make sure you book private vendors who will refund you if the ship doesn't dock or make sure you have trip insurance to cover the possibility that NCL might cancel or change your ports after final payment.    We sailed the getaway from NYC, and they cancelled one port and the morning of another after final payment to help the environment.  

 

The other concern is that looking at the reviews it looks like NCL put two mega ships in Santorini at the same time, and did the same to us in St. Lucia, which created a massive gridlock situation.  So please leave a lot of time to return to the port if there are more than one megaship docking that day.  

 

When traveling with young children or a person with a disability, you need to carefully plan excursions.  NCL waiting until one month out to officially cancel the DR meant I had to research GSK and Nassau since they sent previous sailings there after cancelling the DR instead of a sea day (which was what we wound up with).  So make sure you research whatever backup ports NCL tends to use for your cruise because it would be hard on your family if you aren't well prepared for all your stops.

 

Wow I've only had that happen once, I've been on only like 7 cruises though. This is all great information thanks. Anything with a tender would be way too difficult for her to get off, so we picked this cruise for that reason. If they cancel ports there's nothing we can do? 

[kitkat343]

4 hours ago, MTB25 said:

Wow I've only had that happen once, I've been on only like 7 cruises though. This is all great information thanks. Anything with a tender would be way too difficult for her to get off, so we picked this cruise for that reason. If they cancel ports there's nothing we can do? 

The cruise ship contract needs to give cruise ships total authority to make changes to the itinerary because there could be emergencies which require changes for safety.  No one wants to put a captain in a position in which there is a  financial incentive to stick to the original schedule if they are trying to decide if it is safe to dock.

 

 The problem becomes when NCL uses the language that was supposed to be for emergencies to make announcements  after final payment to make changes to the itinerary for reasons like helping the environment (which is what they claimed for the itinerary changes on my cruise).  They then use the language in their contract which was intended for emergencies to prevent passengers from cancelling or changing sailing dates (we pulled three kids out of school for our cruise because they would have loved the original itinerary, so I asked NCL to switch us to another sailing which wound up making all of the ports but they refused.)

 

In terms of compensation, you are not technically owed anything (I'm not sure about port fees - there are forum postings on port fee refunds every so often, with people debating whether they need to be returned and some saying port fees are estimated and they might go over in other ports so you don't always get them returned).  I don't know what the guidelines are, but on our cruise we got back $10 per person.  But compensation goes up when passengers band together to complain, as they did in the examples  below in which initially NCl was going to provide no compensation. (which they are allowed to) but after passengers protested they increased compensation.  But I was also on a cruise from NYC, and a significant percentage of the ship was just happy to be out of the cold and utilizing a drink package, so they didn't care about the port changes.  Other passengers were very upset that NCL continued to advertise the original itinerary for a month after the ports had been cancelled but there wasn't enough protest to create enough pressure for any significant refunds.  Its possible the European laws provide more consumer protection, but I don't know much about that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by kitkat343

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, MTB25 said:

Wow I've only had that happen once, I've been on only like 7 cruises though. This is all great information thanks. Anything with a tender would be way too difficult for her to get off, so we picked this cruise for that reason. If they cancel ports there's nothing we can do? 

Again, you are worrying about Fake News. If a port cancels, it cancels. There is nothing you can do. But it is not the cruise line’s intent to change or cancel ports. 
 

Most people stick with cruise line tours because of something happens on a private tour, it is all on you. 

[Laszlo]

16 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

I was on Laszlo's getaway cruise, and they are correct.  It was really crowded and hard to navigate this ship on a 11 day cruise in January with a family when the schools were in session, but hopefully NCL will help your family more because of the wheelchair.  At one point, I dragged a beach chair over to the splash pad so I could keep an eye on my youngest in the water, since there were so many empty chairs near the pools and splash pads being reserved with towels and stuff (NCL did nothing about this, but in all fairness I don't think they did anything about this on the other cruise lines I sailed either).  

 

The other really big issue is that with young children and travelers with disabilities, your best option is private tours.  Make sure you book private vendors who will refund you if the ship doesn't dock or make sure you have trip insurance to cover the possibility that NCL might cancel or change your ports after final payment.    We sailed the getaway from NYC, and they cancelled one port and the morning of another after final payment to help the environment.  

 

The other concern is that looking at the reviews it looks like NCL put two mega ships in Santorini at the same time, and did the same to us in St. Lucia, which created a massive gridlock situation.

 

Ugh.... St Lucia was a horror show. Our excursion was so poorly run everyone on the tour was fully refunded. IDK what has happened to St Lucia but we don't plan to return

[SimplyAlbert]

1 hour ago, Laszlo said:

Ugh.... St Lucia was a horror show. Our excursion was so poorly run everyone on the tour was fully refunded. IDK what has happened to St Lucia but we don't plan to return

 St. Lucia is a ship day for us after three bad excursions there.  1st time we chalked it up to anyone can have a bad day.  2nd time we said we'd just make it ship day from now on.  Well, we're suckers and tried it a third time - worst excursion ever.  Since we like all the other islands on the itinerary we just have a nice relaxing day onboard.

 

I have a co-worked that booked a land-based vacation on St. Lucia (Sandals).  I didn't say anything about our experiences because I wanted her to go without any preconceptions.  She came back and said they'd never go to St. Lucia again.  

[MTB25]

On 8/15/2023 at 12:39 PM, wolft927 said:

I agree, but one thing that is good is it's a 10 day sailing, usually longer cruises have less kids. Also, what spring break? College or High school. We went last April on the Joy and yes there was a lot of kids but not the college age, more elementary and High school age. 

It's public school spring break in NY.

[sherrihall128]

We went on the Breakaway (Getaway's sister ship) during spring break this year. The main pool was incredibly full. We went in it once, and were limited to a tiny corner. It wasn't a deal breaker for us, though. We did the slides, ropes course, and the kids pool during other times, and were happy with those options instead. There were a lot of people and a lot of kids on the ship during spring break!

 

I can't comment on the access for wheelchairs, though.

Edited August 22, 2023 by sherrihall128