notthatpaulyd

This has all been great. Thank you!

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Hi there -

I’ve cruised to the Caribbean 5 times in the last six years and love it. My last three have been with NCL.

This upcoming year my wife and I would like to visit Europe - but we love beaches and warm weather.

Are there any European cruise itineraries that NCL offers that you would consider similar to a Caribbean vacation?

I know this is an odd question - but I appreciate the advice!

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Was this your angled balcony on the Getaway? I have read multiple times that the angled balconies are bigger on the Escape than the -away ships.

11856 on Escape

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If you have an angled balcony, and you request to put a lounger on it, is there still room for an additional chair?

It would probably be tight if it was just a regular angled balcony:

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Just off Escape. We took a cab (open air with multiple benches) to Magen's bay. The cabs are at the end of the shopping center and there are signs everywhere. We paid $8 each and it was about a 20 minute ride. We got in super early so we were alone for a while but as two more ships arrived it became more crowded - I didn't mind it though.

In Tortola we did an NCL excursion so I can't help there...

Enjoy!

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Just got off Escape. The fee is $9.99 to activate your device. It was good 90% of the time but we definitely had some texts not go through. It does tell you when they can't deliver though so at least you know. It was helpful as we were traveling with another couple.

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I was in 11856 and we comfortably fit four chairs and two side tables. It was an angled BC balcony.

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This one works best for me: https://cruiseoutlook.com/

It allows you to select your specific trip (date and ship) and if you choose "Detailed Itinerary" on the right it shows the breakdown:

I stayed in 8736. It was definitely an angled balcony and larger. I do not remember 8738 being equal in size.

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1)Reflection is the current flagship.

2)Probably can get a mimosa at breakfast.

3)One beer at at time! You're not at home watching the game!

4)You may be able to score a 2 top table, if you have select dining

5)I'll be honest, that trashy to me, which is why I'd never cruise those lines.Celebrity is quite a bit more sedate than that, especially on Solstice class ships.You'll need a few decent shirts, a sport coat(tie optional, but bring one!)decent shoes. Shorts are NOT acceptable at night in the MDR & you will be turned away.

Thank you for helping to make my decision easier. I'll stay away from X; don't think it's for me.

Hey CC -

Happy Holidays!

I am a relatively new, but annual cruiser, and have now sailed with RCI, Carnival, and NCL.

I really loved my time on Allure and on Getaway, but could have done without the Liberty.

My cruises typically look like this:

- Get up and eat breakfast (with a Mimosa)

- Get a bucket of beers and enjoy the pool and poolside entertainment

- Get dinner (I loved the ability to get a table for 2 on demand with NCL)

- Enjoy entertainment with drinks (I love the game shows, and obviously loved The Quest on RCL, and also loved Howl at the Moon on NCL)

What is the "flagship" ship for Celebrity? I love being on the biggest and best ships around!

What are the general experiential differences between the three lines (X, NCL, RCL)?

For perspective - we are a couple (29) traveling with another couple.

Thanks for the help!!

Thank you for your review and pics. Glad you enjoy NCL

No problem Susie. Thanks for reading!

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GREAT review!! Thank you so much for sharing your story and your pictures! My boyfriend and I are sailing on the Getaway on November 15th. My first cruise in 10 years, and his first one EVER! We're so excited.

 

 

 

I'm curious about the photo packages, and how much they are? Do you know if they have an unlimited one? Can you get the prints and the digital ones on a thumb drive? Are their photographers taking candid photos too throughout the cruise?

 

 

 

We're also seriously reconsidering getting the bev package after reading this....having to get up every time we ant a beer is going to be annoying. And I like the idea of being able to take the unopened ones back to the stateroom. Do all the servers let you do that? Or Jane just awesome? Do you know if you have the beverage package, if one person can get 2 beers if they have 2 cards?

 

 

 

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks again for your great review! SUPER informative, and has me on pins and needles for November to get here!!

As far as the photos go, I don't recall whether there was an unlimited package or not. There were definitely packages and promos that they advertised, but I didn't pay much attention to the specifics. There was a USB thumb drive option, but I understood it to require physical purchases as well. The drive was a $20 surcharge I believe, and would give you digital copies of the photos you purchased. I didn't notice any candid photographers, all photos were in front of a back drop or were in the dining areas / action areas / gangways.

For the drinks...

While Jane was awesome, I don't think she was doing anything out of the ordinary. Especially because most of the time the servers just gave us 6 sealed bottles in a bucket. We could do whatever we wanted from that point.

I can't speak for NCLs policy on bringing up two cards, but I can say it did work on Carnival.

Hope his helps! Let me know if you have other questions.

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Thanks Bajan Keith and highboy90!

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I have really enjoyed reading your review! Thanks so much for taking the time to write all this. We will be on the Getaway in October and can't wait! This will be our 6th NCL cruise, and our first on one of the huge ships.

Just wondering, with so many passengers, how was getting off and on the ships while in port?

 

 

 

Pat & Tom

Not a single issue at all.

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Loved your review. Was that drink you had in the pool with the beach ball a real glass? It sure looks like it. Just surprised that you can't have glass bottles but they may allow glass for drinks.

Thank you!

It was actually plastic!

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You are AMAZING, I can't believe you have these, thank you soooo much!

Glad to help!

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Awesome review-perfect amount of detail! I have two questions:

 

1) on St Maarten, did the cabs and beach (for chairs)take American cash?

 

2) you mentioned you saved the dailies. Did you happen to save the flyers that advertised the in port spa specials? If so, could you post the prices of the spa specials for massages?

 

 

 

Thanks so much!!

1 - we had no issues with American cash at any point throughout the vacation, including cabs, bars, and chair/umbrella rentals.

2 - here are some pics, I'm sorry they got mixed up so I'm not sure which insert is from which day

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Disembarkation

Not much to add here... as I'm now depressed again writing about the last days of our wonderful vacation haha.

We disembarked around the exact time expected, though there was a moment were they suspended entry to the gangway to prevent long queues in customs. We got off the ship, and quickly located our luggage. We mad sour way through customs and were back in the real world.

While onboard, we heard NCL advertising a $25pp shuttle to FLL, where we needed to go, but we missed the deadline to sign up for this (10am Friday). We were pleasantly surprised when we saw they were still selling seats on the bus for the same $25pp when we got through customs at Port of Miami. We bought the tickets and boarded the bus. It was a 60 minute, or so, ride up to FLL from there.

Overall Impression

I've obviously spoken at length about how much we loved this ship, but if I had to put it in a sentence, I would say that I would, not only sail on the NCL Getaway again, but I would also strongly recommend my friends and family members to do the same. This was a strong, strong rival to Allure, and I think Lindsay and I would actually lean towards NCL for our next cruise.

We already have our eye on the Escape :)!

Any questions at all, please let me know!!!

Day 7: Thursday, May 30 - Nassau, Bahamas

The final day (with the exception of disembarkation).

Since we weren't set to get into Nassau until 12:30pm, we slept in a little bit and took our time getting up and heading to the Garden Café to get breakfast.

It was nice to get back to the room and casually take our time to get ready and watch the ship get into port. It really is incredible how these things can navigate such small openings. While we came into port, we enjoyed hanging out on our balcony and see all sorts of boats / tours sail by screaming hello at us. Here is a picture I took as we were backing in to port, Atlantis is in the middle of the picture:

We had booked an excursion through NCL for Bahamas for the Athol Island Snorkel tour. This tour was set to leave port at 2pm. With the extra time, we decided to get off the ship and explore a bit. The port at Nassau was huge, and there were three other ships there already (Carnival Sensation, Disney Dream, and another Carnival ship, that I think was called Victory). We were docked in the furthest slot from the port entrance, but it ended up working out nicely (more on that to come later). We walked, about 15 minutes, to the city entrance, and realized that there wasn't much to explore besides some shops, so we decided to head back to the ship and just hang out onboard until 1:40pm or so.

Once we got off, again, and showed our tickets to the Excursion staff members, we were paired up with our tour guide. He walked all of us to the dock where the boat was and we boarded. Lindsay and I decided to sit on top of the double decker boat so we could get some sun and enjoy the sights and sounds of Bahamas. As we ventured out to our final snorkeling destination, we sailed past the cruise port. Since we were in the outside most port spot, I was able to get some cool pics of the beautiful Getaway... like this one:

The journey out to the reef took about 20 minutes, and throughout that time, the hosts passed out the life vest, flippers, and snorkel/mask set. Once we got to the reef, we were given a basic over view and set free. We were given a full hour to explore the reef. It was a lot of fun, and as per usual, some of the hosts joined us in the water and brought some food to attract the fish. This resulted in us being surrounded by tons of colorful fish! I loved it... but Lindsay, not so much haha. She was a trooper and did this excursion for me and she toughed it out. I brought an underwater camera with us and we got an underwater selfie of ourselves:

We didn't spend the whole hour in the water, and made our way back up to the boat and enjoyed the sun while the others wrapped up their adventure. We took the same 20 minute journey back, but this time were offered to take part in the cash bar (I don't remember prices, but beers were very cheap and so were Bahama Mamas)... we passed on this. We also got a tour of the harbor as the host announced the owners of the big, beautiful celebrity homes. It was a nice touch.

Once we got back, we walked around the straw market (a bit sketchy) and some of the tourist shops to get souvenirs. We ended our time in Nassau by walking to the end of the port and checking our Señor Frogs. It seemed as though a bunch of people from our ship, and the three others, made Señor Frogs their excursion for the day :)... we each got a margarita, watched the people dance around enjoying themselves, and headed back to the ship.

The welcome committee on the gangway was the best of all week. There was even a big banner that said "Welcome Home." I really loved this nice touch when we get back on the ship on port days.

We did our usual nap and get ready routine, but this time also packed. We then headed to Savor for our final dinner. We had great food again... I got the vegetable lasagna dish, and Lindsay got a Shrimp / Rice / Soup dish. Both were delicious, but nothing came close to the dessert, which we both got. This was Lindsay's "favorite meal" all week, by far. The dish was the fantastic cookie and ice cream sandwich, pictured below. It was so good, and it was huge.

Once we finished our massive desserts, we made our way over to the photo store to buy one of the formal night pics and my plank pic that I posted earlier. Not cheap, but hey, it's vacation, right? We made a pitstop at the room to leave our suitcases outside (we chose the latest disembarkation time, and got our luggage tags on deck 6 near the Guest Services desks).

After that, we set up shop at our favorite bar on the ship... Howl at the Moon. We were greeted kindly by Jane and ordered our first bucket of Miller Lite's. We donated quite a bit to the pianists throughout the night to show our appreciation for the week's entertainment and for playing our requests. Lindsay and I even made our own little personal dance floor near the bar during one of our favorite Dave Matthews Band songs. The other unique thing tonight was that many of the entertainers and cruise staff were present and enjoying themselves at Howl at the Moon. We saw Jessy, some of the Burn the Floor performers, comedians, and even magicians from the Illusionarium. Everyone was having a great time.

We wrapped up our night towards the end of the show, and headed up to Garden Café to get some late night snacks, and finally, for one last time, called a night on the beautiful Getaway.

We were pleasantly greeted by a note from Roy reading, "It was a pleasure serving you, we are looking forward to seeing you again. Thanks, Roy"

Sadly, we looked at our empty room, and went to sleep.

Day 6: Thursday, May 29 - At Sea

Last day at sea... how sad!!

We made sure to get up nice and early and get to the pool. The weather was beautiful (even though the daily said "Cloudy")... these ships really now how to navigate to beautiful skies.

We ate breakfast in the Garden Cafe, and made our way to the pool to get our first round of refreshments.

We were able to get a nice seat in the corner of the wading area and set up shop. Today, there was a great energy at the pool, and it was packed! I would say it was packed in a good way, but I'm sure others would disagree. There was an NCL inflated beach ball that was being hit around and it became a lot of fun. Someone got a whistle and was really pumping up the crowd as we counted to see how many times we could keep the ball afloat. Even the hot tubs and people in the chairs were helping keep it going! So much fun.

You can see the ball flying around behind our cliché drinks picture:

At noon, they had an "Ice Carving Demonstration" where they had a multi-generational lifelong ice carver come out to the pool deck with a massive block of ice. Pretty cool to watch it take shape, but nothing I haven't seen on other ships.

At 1:30pm was the "Miss Getaway 2014" show, which of course required volunteers to participate / judge. It was a lot of fun as always, and was the opposite to the "Mr Sexy Legs" show earlier in the week. Jessy hosted this, and donned a funny set of sunglasses with an attached sombrero and mustache. He continued to be our favorite CD staff member.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool, got a quick lunch at Garden Café and then headed back for a nap... well, Lindsay napped... I went to the casino to lose the $113 in chips I had amounted!

After we met back up, we went to O'Sheehan's for dinner, for the first time, and for whatever reason, we didn't get the featured "Fried Chicken Dinner" of the night. I got an average burger and Lindsay got an average Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. OK meal for quick bar food, but definitely not up to par with the rest of the meals we had this week. I will say though, that the Fried Chicken did look good.

We got to our usual horseshoe bar spot overlooking the Atrium just before the 7:30pm "Battle of The Sexes" show, which was pretty funny also. I won't ruin any surprises. It was one of the funnier shows on the ship. There was one particular moment where Lindsay and I were in tears watching some of the hilarity ensue.

After that, there was a "Perfect Couple Game Show," that Lindsay and I threw our names in the hat for. Unfortunately we weren't selected (womp womp), but we still enjoyed the show. Also very very funny. While we watched, we also had our server bring us some snacks; spinach and artichoke dip (our favorite) and mozzarella sticks in this cool faux fry basket:

After the show, we were ready to make our way up to Spice H2O and take part in the GLOW Party. We ran to the room to change into our neon / backlight friendly outfits and were greeted by the last day's daily, and our favorite of the towel animals:

When we got up to Spice, about 15minutes before the party started, we were created by the CD Staff who was painting Glow in the Dark face paint on the guests. A lot of people had specific requests, but Lindsay and I just asked them to surprise us. Kayla painted Lindsay's face, and Jessy painted mine... here is what they came up with:

This party was a BLAST!! The music was pumping, lights were awesome, and all the face paint / glow sticks / etc made it that much more fun. I will say though that the face paint peeled off my face pretty quickly... it was really just the broad strokes (like the mustache), but the dots on my face and Lindsay's stayed on just fine.

We enjoyed the dancing and music for about an hour and then headed back to our stateroom so we wouldn't be too beat in the AM for day 7.

Come on it's been a week!

You're right! Sorry, crazy weeks at work since coming back. Working on the rest of the review right now!

Dancing With The Stars winner that ripped his pants was my boyfriend. Hahaha. I've been trying to get a hold of the video of it they recorded on the boat but apparently they dont Sell it.

Ah that's too bad. So funny.

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Day 5: Wednesday, May 28 - St Thomas

After our wonderful day in St Maarten, we were really excited to get to St Thomas, as like St Maarten, we had never been there before. We woke up nice and early today, and realized it was raining a bit. No big deal, we just took a little more time getting ready and eating breakfast in the Garden Cafe. Once we got off the ship, we travelled through the port shopping area (which IMO was much nicer than the one in St Maarten) and found the taxis in the back left (there are signs everywhere).

Everything and everyone before the cruise told us to go to Magen's Bay, so we asked for a cab there. We were then loaded into a pretty nice minivan with another couple a bit older than us, and two grandparents with their twin grandchildren. All of them but us had been to Magen's Bay, and our cab driver instead suggested we go to Coki Beach, suggesting it was much nicer. Everyone in the cab seemed agreeable, so Lindsay and I just went with it. We drove about 20 minutes or so, on the wrong side of the road, to Coki Beach. I forget how much it was, but it was definitely under $20 for the two of us.

We arrived and our cab driver waved over one of the guys from one of the chair / umbrella rental companies. It seemed a bit "set up," and it felt as though we were brought to Coki because our cab driver (who played her own Gospel music CD during the ride, and then offered to sell us a copy) had a little skin in the game. We rented two chairs, no umbrella, and it was $10.

Having not been to Magen's Bay, I can't compare the two, but I can say Coki was very small. It was beautiful, clear water surrounded by mountains... it was quite cool. But end to end, it was maybe the size of one resort area at St Maarten.

We arrived quite early, so were able to get another set of "front row" chairs, and it was empty, so the size didn't matter much... for a while. The food/drink areas seemed a bit more sketchy than something I'd be comfortable with, so while we had a waiter, we did not oder anything here. There were far fewer "aloe foot massage" vendors here, which was nice, but there was one very intoxicated man trying to sell us coconuts. He took a few more "no thank yous," than the ladies at St Maarten.

The water was beautiful and we loved the beach. Apparently there was great snorkeling all the way at the right end of the beach (and I think it was $15 for a day's rental of equipment), but we had a snorkeling excursion booked in Nassau, so we skipped it.

An hour or so in, a Carnival shipped must have arrived, and the beach started getting packed. At first, it was just a normal crowded beach, but after a while it was way too packed and the chair people were frantically trying to figure out where to find empty chairs and then where to put them. We also had a bit of rain, nothing for more than 5 minutes or so, but enough to make us wish we had paid the extra $5 for an umbrella!

The guy who got us the chairs, told us to tell him when we were leaving so he could call our Gospel singing, CD slinging cab driver, but we instead just left on our own terms. There were plenty of those open air bench seat busses going back and forth from port. We paid $9 each I believe for this ride back.

We spent some time shopping when we got back, and found a Harley Davidson store. My father, who is a huge Harley enthusiast and lifetime mortocycle rider, collects pins from Harley stores around the world. The real Harley stores all have a unique pin, or a few, for the location. I've become accustomed to looking for these stores when I travel. We picked up a pin, and checked out some of the other stores. Lindsay bought some inexpensive jewelry from a nice boutique and found a beer coozie with the Caribbean islands printed on it. We walked down the port to Señor Frogs, but by the time we got there, it was packed, so we poked around a bit, and headed back to the ship.

Just like the day before, there was a great welcoming crew with cold towels, and party music playing. I absolutely love this.

We went to the Garden Cafe and I got some asian noodles for lunch, then we headed back to the room. Lindsay was feeling tired, so she napped, and I headed to the casino to play Blackjack. Since we hadn't left port yet, I had to do some laps around the ship and explore a bit. Once we were "legal," I sat down for a little while and turned my $100 into a whopping $113. Pretty exciting, huh?

Lindsay finished getting ready and came and found me at the Blackjack table and then we walked over to the Svedka Ice Bar. We did not have a reservation, but it seemed like we should have. They got us in within 5 minutes or so, but the impression I got was that they would have preferred advanced notice. Turned out we were the only ones in there once we got in. They gave us some gloves and a parka type thing (it was like a snuggie with a hood).

It was $20 each to get in, and came with two Svedka martini style drinks served in ice glasses. It was really fun. The bartender told me they normally keep it between -6 and -8 degrees celsius (About 20º F). I foolishly wore shorts... bad decision, it was so cold! We took some pics, we took turns sitting in the ice throne, and we drank our drinks as fast as we could so we could get back to warmth!

We had a reservation at Cagney's tonight, and made our way over around 7pm. Cagney's was delicious. We had a table that was near a window overlooking the Tropicana Room, which was pretty cool. I got the Shrimp Cocktail with Jack Daniels Cocktail Sauce for my appetizer, Filet Mignon for my entree, and garlic mash and broccoli as my sides.Lindsay got the Iceberg Salad, Filet Mignon, Garlic Mash, and Green Beans. Unlike the other restaurants, there was a separate dessert menu that was given to us after we ate (I forgot what we got).

The food was all delicious and I would certainly recommend you go to Cagney's. Service was spot on, and we even had a few officers come check in to see how our cruise and the dinner was going. Nice touch.

After dinner we made it to our usual evening entertainment spot, O'Sheehan's. The horseshoe bar was empty, as we made it quite a bit before the first big show of the night. We played some arcade games and duck pin bowling to kill some time and it was a good time. I found out Lindsay can actually shoot a basketball pretty well!

Once we got settled at the horseshoe and ordered our bucket, we got ready to watch the first show of the night, "Sing It If You Know It." It was a fun competition of name that tune where you had to get your side of the crowd to sing along. I don't remember who hosted this, but I think it was Jessy. In our opinion, Jessy was the best of the staff. I don't think I mentioned him yet, but it's probably because I just forgot who hosted what. He was a lot of fun, and was seen all over the ship throughout the week. We loved when he came to the mic and played along welcoming him with "Hola Jessy!"

After the name that tune game, they set up for, and started the "Dancing with the Getaway Stars." They asked for male and female volunteers to throw their names in a bucket. Joel then came out as the host, and introduced the "Getaway Stars," who were from the CD staff. There were 10-12 in total, half male and half female. They each picked a name from the hat, and were paired up with cruisers. It was hilarious to watch some of these people to dance (not like I would have been any better at all!). They had three judges, who were two of the comedians from Levity Live and a dancer from the Burn the Floor show. They all added their commentary round by round as they eliminated pairs. One of the funniest parts was that they filmed a loser's lounge after they eliminated each group. The CD staff members and cruisers all put on little exit interview skits with the ACD Omar. They were really funny as they played on the big screen. Ultimately, the game ended in a tie. Jessy was one of the Getaway Stars who tied for the win with his female cruiser, and I forget who the female CD staff member was.... what I don't forget, is that the cruiser that she was paired with did a split and ripped his pants. It was quite hilarious.

We wrapped up the night after this show, and made our way back to the stateroom. We intentionally skipped Howl at the Moon tonight, since we wanted to go back again on Friday, and didn't want to burn it out.

Day 6 (last sea day :mad:) and Day 7 (Nassau) coming soon!

The waterfront does not make a complete circle around the front of the ship. It goes about 2/3 of the way toward the front, and then it stops and you have to go inside and walk through past the stairways and then come back out on the other side.

Ah yes you are right. That was forward, right? It was always quite warm in that area from people coming in and out of the doors.