GRR Cubfan

You can also bring an unlimited supply of those little Crystal Light packets.  Bring on your 12 sodas and then go to town with the packets.  You can also get your soda fix in port.  I'm as addicted as anyone and I find I can "survive" without the soda package.

We're a family of four too--the expense just gets ridiculous!

8 hours ago, HLR said:

 

How are you doing this? Hot Water from the coffee machine in the buffet?

 

HLR

Yes.  The water isn't boiling so it's not a perfect solution, but it's working ok.  If we had thought ahead and brought an Aeropress, that probably would have been better.  

There is a hot water dispenser by the Park Cafe and one outside on the pool deck just outside of the Windjammer.

We are also on this sailing of Grandeur and are traveling with 10 and 12 year olds.  They are both having a great time.  The pool has been a huge hit and we're also just enjoying having some time together as a family.  If your kids want a water park and ice skating--Grandeur ain't gonna be your boat, but my kids and I played shuffleboard and have walked on the top deck and we've had a blast doing it.

The service on this ship is top notch.  Our cabin steward (Kevin) has been great and the service we've had in the Anytime part of the MDR with Desmond has been amazing.  The only service issue was with lunch in the MDR on the first sea day.  Honestly it was a lack of staff more than bad service--we just helped ourselves to more water and coffee--wasn't a problem.

Internet speed has been garbage pretty much everywhere on the boat.  I've not noticed any real difference in speed between my room on deck 2 and the pool.  I'm on surf and stream--I'd hate to see what just surf is like.  

Food has been pretty good.  Buffet food is exactly what you'd expect it to be--quantity over quality.  The egg station in the morning has been good though.  The MDR food has been very good.  The only bad thing was a piece of swordfish on the second night--just lacking flavor more than anything.  If there's a gripe, it is that there are not a lot of vegetables with the entrees.  That's a quibble more than a serious problem.  The coffee onboard is terrible, but that was easily remedied with the purchase of a French press and some ground coffee in Charleston.

We only did one shore excursion and that was in Port Canaveral.  We did the Kennedy Space Center tour.  The exhibits at the space center are impressive, but guided tours are not my thing.  We did get to see some cool rockets and the shuttle Atlantis.  We also heard more "heroic" music than any of us could really stand.  No idea if there were violin, trumpet, and tympani-heavy tunes playing in the restrooms, but they were playing everywhere else.  

If there's a gripe about this cruise, it's that we're in Nassau for two days.  Nassau isn't really worth one day let alone two.  But, it's warm and sunny so we can just enjoy having the pool to ourselves and not have any competition for the premium lounge chair spots.

Other reviewers have mentioned that the Grandeur crowd is old.  That's true.  Whether that's good or bad depends on you.  

We're having a great vacation and are pleased that we picked the Grandeur.  It was a great choice for us.

We were on the Getaway at the end of August.

Didn't eat at any of the specialty restaurants but had respectable (not amazing) food in the main dining room (though we preferred our dinners in the Tropicana Room.) The buffet is predictably average to below-average. Fine for a couple of eggs and some toast in the morning but always an inferior choice to the main dining rooms.

If you're looking for a real high-end experience you're probably going to be disappointed. It's a mass-market cruise and the food is pretty standard. Our meals were tasty and nicely presented with really good service (particularly in the Tropicana Room,) but I wasn't wishing I had any of their recipes either.

The only gripe is with the desserts--they use a LOT of gelatin. Every time I got something that was supposedly a cream-based dessert, I got a mouthful of milky gelatin. Yuck.

The Norwegian Getaway is a really nice boat though and our family had a great time regardless of the average quality of the food.