TheSeaDragon

thank you for your wonderful pictures. They bring back a lot of very fond memories. I had the great joy of being on Her from Southampton to New York City. Did any of the staff members stand out to you?

Wow, you were on the Atlantic crossing? That would have been amazing.

Yes, a couple of crew members stood out to us and we filled out the "vacation hero" cards before the end of our cruise. One was a waitress at Ocean Blue who made my wife's birthday a very enjoyable occasion. The other was our cabin steward who was a really nice person.

In fact, the whole crew seemed very happy and in a good mood. What a great crew the Getaway has.

A few more (I'm still going through the 600+ photos I took).

Ghost Ship.

Pilot has left the building... I mean ship.

Little ocean liner.

Readying the ramp.

Where did everyone go?

Keeping things ship shape.

We were just on Getaway last week. There are a lot of lounging spots on the top decks. There's a quiet zone one at the fore of the ship as well as a sun deck.

The upper decks (17 and 18) are accessed via various staircases fore and aft.

A couple of pics I took of the upper decks...

Awesome pics!!

 

Do you know which Princess ship was docked by the Getaway in St. Thomas? That thing looks HUGE!! :eek:

That would be the Royal Princess. She's is a huge ship indeed!

Here's a closer shot...

You just reinvigorated me for our December Getaway cruise! It will be our first balcony and I almost shed a tear at the beautiful photos of the water and landscape you posted.

Thanks for the compliment. Truly appreciated! :)

Wonderful pictures! I am taking my 11 year old gd on July 5th....she wants to go to Moho Beach....I have been thinking about booking with Bernard's Tours(I have booked with him several times and always enjoyed it)....did y'all book with Bernard's or take a cab?

Thanks! We just took a cab to and from the airport. It was $8 per person each way. It's a small van full of people instead of a car with just one family in it.

We just made sure we headed back to the port a couple hours before all aboard. The roads can become congested there and cause delays in getting around. Especially when all the planes land around noon and there are 5 cruise ships in port.

How bad was the noise or exhaust from the planes at Maho. This is on our list this time. Do we need earplugs?

The noise and exhaust isn't bad. Mind you, if you stand behind the planes when they are taking off, well of course you will be jet washed with exhaust. The planes are noisy when taking off, but landing isn't very loud as the engines are not throttled up.

Also, the planes come in mostly around the noon hour so it's not like they are landing constantly all day. The rest of the day, it's just a normal beach from what I could see.

Great pics! We were on the same sailing. Wish we were still there!

Me too! I was depressed when we were disembarking. This was our very first time on a cruise ship and we LOVED it. :)

I am blown away by your photos. The colors are incredible. Could you share what type of camera you used? I think the harbor shot of St Thomas is my absolute fav. Maho Beach is a close second though.

 

Wow, just wow.

Thank you! I really enjoy photography and I like punchy colors (as you can see). My main camera is the Panasonic GH3 and that is what I used for almost all of the photos. I also have a Panasonic TS5 which is a small rugged point and shoot. I used it for last 3 photos above (Blue Lagoon and the 2 pics of the Getaway).

How'd you get the bridge pic?

The behind the scenes tour includes a visit to the bridge. It was the best part of the tour and the bridge is state of the art. Tour costs $79 per person and max group of 16 people. There were 4 tours during the trip I believe.

Thanks for the great pics! I'll be on her soon. It'll be my first time on a big ship! I've been on the Spirit and Sun with NCL and when I was 12, I went on the Carnival Sensation (which of course was huge when I was 12). I'm interested to see how much I will like being on a ship with 4000 people. lol

The only time we really noticed how many people were really onboard was during the muster drill on day one. Once that was over, people spread out and crowds were never a problem.

In Nassau, we signed up for the Blue Lagoon Beach Break excursion. It was a small private island with lots to do...

Some shots of our ship as we prepared to board for the final time in Nassau.

St. Thomas and one of the many houses up in the hills.

The KLM arrives!

How the "one percent" lives... Looks like fun!

The tourist stores at the pier in St. Maarten.

A shot that shows the size of our ship.

Now for some pics of the places we visited...

Fist port was St. Maarten. I absolutely had to visit Maho Beach as I'm a huge aircraft fan and have watched countless videos about this beach. It was VERY crowded since there were a few cruise ships in town and it's a popular destination for tourists.

The flight schedule for the day. The main attraction is the daily KLM 747 arrival.

The crowds...

The pinnacle for me was visiting the bridge. I was able to talk with the first officer and we were shown the controls of the ship. I found it extremely interesting. Here is a shot of the bridge and the view from the port side wing.

We also took the behind the scenes tour which was excellent. This was a 2.5 hour tour of the crew areas of the ship. We visited the galleys, laundry, environmental and the bridge.

A typical hallway in the crew area.

The butcher shop.

The freezer.

This is one of those sea doors on the sides of the ship that they can open to allow access to the ship.

And this is a bulkhead door. These are always closed when the ship in underway and you must obtain permission from the bridge to open one. They are hydraulic and nothing stops them from opening or closing.

The laundry area. Lots of huge washer machines.

Some of the interior spaces of the ship...

Here is the uppermost decks of the ship.

Now for some photos of the ship...

Here is the main staircase at the center of the ship and the beautiful chandelier that changes colors at different times of the day. I was fascinated with the ever changing colors of this space.

Thanks for your replies everyone! I have quite a few more photos to share from our amazing cruise on the Getaway.

Here is our nice cabin. I'm really glad we went with the balcony since I ended up sitting out on it quite a bit on our days at sea. It was the perfect cabin for the 2 of us.

The wonderful balcony view. Couldn't get enough of this.

Maho beach.

Tied up in port.

A rainbow... make that 2 rainbows over St. Thomas.

St. Thomas harbor.

The lighthouse at the Port of Nassau.

The bridge! Here are the fine folks running the ship.

Moonrise over the ocean.

Independence of the Seas preparing to leave port.

Westward over the ocean.