Lori3015

The buffet on Getaways is not open late at night and I believe it closes around 10pm. O'Sheehans is the only option late at night and it is a limited menu with things like chicken wings, a burger, etc. This is one area I was a little disappointed in, the limited choices of food after ten pm. There is also room service but for a service fee of $7.95. If you go to O'Sheehans don't try to order food in the bar side, go over to the dining room side where they have much better service.

Everyone raves about the Mojito bar drinks, one I think particularly popular is a raspberry Mojito. I loved the drinks of the day. We enjoyed wine with dinners and on the pool deck or at spice H2O during the day we enjoyed lots of margaritas, dirty bananas, mud slides, etc. We loved hanging out at Spice H2O during the day as it wasn't as crowded as the main pool deck and the nice waterfall feature was refreshing when you get hot.

The pool deck has lots of chairs in the shade.

My experience on Getaway was that you do not have to book the main shows like Burn the Floor and Legally Blonde ahead of time. We did not. They do not assign seats.

The comedians, 3 of them, were stand up and were funny but the acts were short. We loved Howl at the Moon which is come and go as you please. Burn the Floor was awesome. The entertainment each night in the atrium was great, very funny but limited seating. We usually just stood around and watched unless we arrived early. There's so much to do on board and you will not be disappointed. Don't stress about it.

We didn't book dining ahead of time but booked a few specialties the first and second day on board for later in the week. We ate at MDR 5 nights and honestly the food there was better than La Cucina. I will say that the food in Cagneys was great but the service was super slow.

I like the idea of freestyle and if you are not too picky you will do fine just getting on board and then deciding when you want to do things. If you are dead set on eating at specialties all week and at 7pm you should book ahead. We never once waited to eat dinner at a MDR(3 of them) and each night it was a different time.

The internet on Getaway was really slow when I was on.

We were on getaway back in april and we just booked them through our TV when we got on the ship. We didn't have any shows prebooked and they were all available when we arrived. In fact, I don't think Burn the Floor was even full the night we went to it and my friend went to it the next night too and didn't have it pre booked. Some of the comedy shows did book up but not the bigger shows in the theater. Howl at the moon you can go in and out of anytime. Dont stress over it.

A couple more thoughts about Getaway in general:

1. You don't need reservations to the main shows like Legally Blonde and Burn the Floor but the comedy show venues are smaller and do tend to book up fast.

2. Make specialty dining reservations first day, the main dining rooms you do not need reservations which is way better and makes your vacation more freestyle which is what it's supposed to be.

3. We ate in MDR 5 nights and had very good meals. My favorite is Tropicana room the service was great and the music was good.

4. Cagneys is great food but really slow service, like snails.

5. The shows/entertainment in the atrium are really fun and they usually start around 8pm with limited seating but plenty of places to stand around and watch.

6. Flamingo Grill is a great place for lunch and breakfast if you want something different from main buffet.

7. If you want to eat at O'Sheehans don't try to do it on the bar side, go to the other side where they seat you, much better service.

8. Howl at the Moon is really fun and it's just come and go as you please.

9. Waterfront is a really cool area with bars and outside dining and comfy seats.

My thoughts on Vibe are this: it gets really hot in the caribbean sea and there is no way to cool off in Vibe. We preferred the Spice H2O because there is a cool waterfall feature that you can cool off in and then go back to sunning. Also in Spice, you don't have to get up early to get a chair, you can get one after breakfast. You can also utilize the kids pool to cool off in if you find a chair near one of the pools. The main pool does get very crowded.

We were on Getaway....They ferried us to the blue lagoon and it includes lunch with soft drink, beach chair with umbrellas, floats and water slides for the kids<inflatables>. You can walk around and see the dolphins in their lagoon areas. Ours was $59 offered through NCL.

If you have time then do it. We loved it there and we didn't dock until noon but we still went there and took the last ferry back at around 5:15pm. I think they will cater a time to your ship.

At Nassau, we spent the day at Blue Lagoon Island and loved it. At St. Thomas we loved the day at Coki Beach where there water is clear and beautiful. They have all the amenities there chair rentals, umbrella, snorkeling gear, bathrooms, wifi and refreshments.

In the main dining rooms you don't need reservations at all. On our sailing we never made any reservations and we ate in main dining rooms 5/7 nights and walked in each time with no wait. However if you know you want to eat at a specific time each night then go ahead. We love Tropicana room. I felt the service was better there than the other two. But the others are much more quite if you are looking for that type of experience. The menu is the same in all 3 so if one has a wait go to another?? It's really not that difficult as they are all a few minutes walk from each other. Enjoy! Don't forget to try the chocolate lava cake.

Go for it! We had aft on deck 9 of Getaway a few weeks ago and it was wonderful. I wouldn't say violent vibrations as I slept through one time docking and I am a light sleeper. The views are amazing and I don't know if the Epic does this but the Getaway usually backs into ports so leaving the ports is a great opportunity to sit on the balcony, take in the views and snap pictures. The sound isn't very loud and you could sleep with the door open.

I saw snacks in the Getaway casino a few weeks ago but I cannot remember the time of day. Honestly I would not eat in there with all the smoke hovering around.

I thought the Getaway buffet was really good considering the mass quantities of people they serve and the amount of choices. The mac and cheese was delicious. I also agree what someone else said about the asian station being very good. The vegetables were fresh and most of the food was hot/warm. The service in the buffet is awesome and they will even get you drinks if you ask them. Don't forget to pick up an ice cream cone on your way out! The ice cream is by far the best desert in the buffet.

Our biggest negative on the Getaway/Breakaway is the same as many others with one main pool for adults which is way over-crowded. I don't want to have to go up there at 7am to reserve a lounger by the pool area. I'm on vacation and I want to sleep in and go to the pool when I am ready.

I recently have done a lot of searching since our trip on Getaway and I have found the new ship coming out from Carnival called Vista is going to have two pools, a kids water area and a Havana pool area which is for Havana guests...but the nice thing about Carnival's Havana area is that it's totally affordable it even includes some inside cabins not just suites and penthouses. That could be a total of 3 adult pool areas to choose from, not just one. Like I said we totally enjoyed Spice H2O but basically on the first sea day we discounted ever being able to enjoy the main pool/area. That's pretty sad since we love being at the pool here at home.

We just stayed at Holiday Inn Express Doral Airport area with free parking and shuttle for two. It was decent. Free Breakfast. We paid around $209 but we really needed parking for the week.

We LOVED the Getaway but our main complaint was one pool. It was so crowded the only time we were able to get in it or near it was Thursday evening at 6pm. I just came across Carnival Vista set to sail out of Miami in January. WOW it looks amazing and there are three pools! Granted one is in the Havana area but the Havana rooms are affordable and there are interiors aft balconies and suites. Unfortunately on Norwegian I cannot afford the Haven area with only suites and penthouses. Who has cruised carnival and Norwegian? Can you give me comparisons?

The food and entertainment choices look amazing and it's similar as far as upcharge restaurants. The one downfall is no UBP/UDP free choice...but it's cheaper overall on Carnival.

Please give me thoughts. We did love Norwegian Getaway Aft balcony.

I too would like some advice on how to find a TA that gives a gift or OBC. We recently took a cruise on Getaway, two cabins booked by TA and nothing in return. Any advice appreciated.

Thinking of booking the Star next, does the aft facing balcony on the star have as much sq footage as the getaway/breakaway? Anyone have a spreadsheet on it?

We had 9918 last week on Getaway and we did have soot on our balcony. However, that would not deter me from having that cabin again. The balcony was awesome we had 3 loungers and two chairs.

We had aft on 9. You do hear noise from the ship but it's a soothing noise. You also hear the wake. Even on 9 we could hear the parties at spice H2O on occasion.

Coki Beach has the clearest water.

Diamonds International has wifi. Coki Beach had free wifi.

I wasn't talking about port excursions, I meant if you want to tour the ship.

I also knew iconcierge was free, so why can't the texting be free?

They have tons of arcade games for kids but each one is a pay feature. Why not a few free ones for the kids?

Like I said we had a great time but I just feel like you do get dinged here and there for things that I feel should be complimentary. We had perfect weather, the staff was wonderful, and I would go again in a heartbeat.

The water feature at Spice H2O is a little odd, you step down a few steps and it's about shin deep with cool water, there are seats you can sit on and the water comes down in front of you. There is also a feature where you can turn on the water and it comes down like a big rain shower.

There are also two hot tubs in spice.

I think my fiance drank about 15 mudslides this week! He had them for breakfast. Good thing for the UBP!

There are also several places you can sit at Spice where they can open up umbrellas for shade.

We had thought of getting Vibe beach club passes but were glad we didn't. It looked very empty every time we looked that way and I bet it was too hot with no pool or way to cool off.