thehenningscruise

Currently booked on the Viva for February 2024. On the NCL, they have an offer for 7-day access (entire cruise) to the Thermal Suite for $339. I was wondering if there will be an ever better special once we board? Or alternatively, a different kind of pass - like a 2 or 3 day? I love the spa, but probably would not go every day.

What are the differences in the main restaurants? I’d thought I read they were all the same menu.

 

 

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As far as I could tell, all 3 had some items on all of the menus all the time, but there were also some rotating dishes. Since I went to each just one time, I can't say whether all 3 have the exact same menu for any given meal.

Hi Everyone - new to cruise critic - and new to Norwegian - have previously sailed with RCCL. Can someone tell me if the food on Getaway is good? I've heard from people and it runs the spectrum, food is great to food is terrible. Someone who's sailed in the last couple of months please. Thanks

I just was on the Getaway last week. The specialty restaurants are excellent and outstanding, and I think breakfast everywhere on the Getaway is excellent as well. As for lunch/dinner, the complimentary restaurants are good (Savor is the best in my opinion) and the Garden Cafe is a very typical buffet; nothing to write home about but perfectly fine - I made several delicious salads at the buffet for lunch.

Thanks for the great review. It was pretty much in line with our review. I am providing a link to my review for others who are considering the Getaway:

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=612876

Nice review, glad you guys had a good time too!

Thanks so much for the review. We are booked for a May cruise in a spa balcony. Did you have Bulgari products in your bathroom or have they stopped providing them for spa rooms?

Yes, they had them in the bathrooms, travel sized.

Just back from a week on the Getaway. This was our second NCL cruise, first being the Epic in 2015.

Ship/Cabin Condition: overall the Getaway was in great condition, I was constantly impressed by how hard the crew worked to keep everything clean and orderly and all staff was very nice. Many times I had barely put a glass/dish down before someone came to collect it. We stayed in a Spa Balcony cabin on the 14th floor, as my husband and I like to use the spa facilities. We made sure to book mid-ship to avoid any noise and foot traffic from the elevators, which worked perfectly as we could barely hear a pin drop the whole time.

Food: we had the Speciality Dining Package and picked Le Bistro, Teppenyaki and Cagneys. Le Bistro was particularly outstanding, Teppenyaki also excellent, we thought Cagneys was just "ok" but still good nonetheless. We also ate at Tropicana Room, Savor and Taste - all were good with Savor being the best. As far as the buffet, the Garden Cafe excels at breakfast at which there seemed to be almost nothing to want for. Lunch/dinner were as expected - basic buffet stuff you could get anywhere. The coffee at the Atrium Bake Shop was outstanding. Well worth paying for to us, we both had the coffee there every morning.

Entertainment: we didn't do any of the big shows or late night parties (we are not big drinkers, although the late night parties looked like lots of fun!!!), but did lots of the games/activities in the Atrium. We particularly enjoyed the Dance Competition which was absolutely hilarious and many of the trivia games. Also watched poolside things like karaoke, the reggae band (very good) and "Mr Sexy Legs" competition - all lots of fun. There is certainly not a lack of activities for anyone, that is for sure and one of the best things about the ship.

Spa: husband and I both went daily to just relax and also had a treatment each, we counted on them running specials throughout the cruise and they certainly did, so we both scored offerings of massages for 75 minutes for the price of 50. The spa pool and hot tub were both great, the salt cave is *not* a real salt cave, just looks like one - still pretty. I never had trouble getting a regular lounger or hot stone lounger.

Fitness Center: not large, but has everything you need and I never had trouble getting a machine. They offered spin classes and yoga classes for extra cost (I did not do those).

Pools/Slides/Ropes Course: The pools and slides were very crowded as I completely expected for spring break week, so I prepared myself for that. The ropes course is also a must do, the line was always about 20-25 minutes, but again during spring break week, I expected this.

Embark/Disembark: they allowed us on board about 11:30 and we got our luggage about 4pm that day (we made sure to pack swimsuits so we could enjoy the pool right away). Disembarking was extremely fast and easy, I am sure this is because we carried our own luggage off (if you opted to put on luggage tags and thus meet your luggage downstairs it seemed to be more of a process). No complaints there.

Issues: I only had 2 issues, one big and one small (in my opinion). The small issue was that because it was spring break week, dinner reservations were tough - thankfully because of Cruise Critic I knew to hustle right to reservations on boarding to book our speciality restaurants although one night we had to eat at 6 which is early for us. I felt like I should not have had to stress out over that, especially since we had the speciality package. However, again, I recognize it was spring break week and that is a consequence of cruising during a popular week. The bigger issue to me was the WiFi. In this day and age, I really resent that NCL not only charges you for WiFi - but charges an arm and a leg for it. Both my husband and I have jobs that require us to check into our emails at minimum once to twice a day, and the amount we had to spend to do so was - to me - outrageous. I don't know why this bothered me so much, but it really irked me.

Onto the ports:

Roatan - we booked a private car with Victor Bodden since he is always rated so highly on Trip Advisor and here. We loved the sloths/monkeys, that was the best part. Roatan isn't my favorite port otherwise. It is saddening to see the condition the island residents live in (poverty) even compared to many other places we've visited. We ended up buying lots of things from vendors just to throw them some business. We spend the rest of the day at Half Moon Bay beach (being advised that there aren't pushy vendors there) and that was fine, nothing special. On reflection I wish we would have done Little French Key instead.

Harvest Caye - we opted to stay on Harvest Caye and not go to Placencia. The pool and beach were very crowded, so we walked a bit farther down near the lighthouse where it was delightfully quiet and relaxing under the umbrellas. Water was beautiful. Ate at the on island restaurant which was good.

Costa Maya - we rented a golf cart and drove to Mahahual which was a fun little trip - once there we had no trouble getting a table and chairs, just hung out, drank margaritas and swam around for 3-4 hours.

Cozumel - this was our big excursion day. We booked a tour with Cozumel Tours and drove ATVs into the jungle and swam in the Jade Cenote (64 foot jump with life preserver!) It was extremely fun, definitely one of those things you do once in a lifetime. Driving the ATVs was quite an adventure as was the big jump. Highly recommend.

Overall, we had a great cruise. It was just what we were looking for - sun, relaxation, not much of an agenda beyond that. It is a great ship, very comparable to the Epic in many ways. I would definitely choose NCL again.

I have a question and pardon my ignorance in advance as I am a bit confused. Does NCL dock at a pier at which you just walk into Cozumel, or, does NCL tender to Cozumel? I guess I am confused about what ferries the news involves.

We were late bookers (having booked 40 days before cruise) and chose a specialty dining package, since on our last NCL cruise we enjoyed it. One the last cruise, being first timers, we did not make reservations, but luckily didn't really have a problem - we may not have dined at our perfect time but we always got a table at some point. This time I thought I would book ahead but there is little to no availability when I try to do so - so my question is, will spots open up as people change their reservations etc? or are we totally screwed?

Great review, thanks for taking the time!

Have seen several references to this in various threads, but not sure what it entails. Does anyone know if I can do this - or is this just referring to an activity where maybe you get to dance with NCL staff? Thanks in advance for any insight!

We cruised with a just-turned 6 year old. My #1 tip would be pack 2-3 outfits PER DAY for the 3 and 5 year old. I know this sounds like a lot, but between the excursions/beach/pool/sweating - we ran out of clothes very fast and laundry is expensive on the ship, you don't want to have to send out a load of clothes. Other than that, you will have a great time. Cruise is the best way to travel with kids IMO.

We are a young family of 3 (our daughter is seven) who cruised on the Epic last August - the one week European cruise out of Rome - and we absolutely LOVED the ship. This was our first cruise and not knowing what to expect, the things we thought were standouts were the speciality dining options and unlimited things to do (entertainment every night whether it was a show/dance off for guests hosted by NCL staff, gym, pool, rock climbing, basketball court, spa).

We want to do another European cruise and all the ones were are interested in are on the Star, which I understand is not a "mega" ship like the Epic. From what I can see, the Star does have the same speciality dining options, so no issues there. But does the Star have much less "to do" on board? Would love to hear your opinions on the Star, I am all ears :)

Related - our daughter's favorite thing on the Epic was the air hockey table game that was in O'Sheenans. Does anyone know off hand if they have that on the Star?

Kerri -

Yes, we did taxi right to PalmaNova (20 euros). And taxis lined up to go home just waiting as well. There are umbrellas and chairs to rent and there is plenty of food nearby. As many people had alerted me to, there is a small grocery store right across the street selling cold drinks/snack items. Since Palma is a half day (get off boat at 2pm) we had already eaten lunch so didn't need a regular meal, though again plenty of places right there.

In Cannes, the film festival red carpet is on Le Croissette, we went past it on the Petit Train ride, it seemed to be to be on the eastern end of Le Croissette. We opted to do one of the more low key beaches which was about half mile the other way on Le Croissette after we got off the train, though certainly all of the beaches are gorgeous. You cannot go wrong in picking a beach, the difference I perceived is that some of the beaches will have more expensive rental lounges than others. At Maema, we paid 32 euros for 2 lounges/1 umbrella which seemed very reasonable to us being that we were there a good part of the day.

One more thing I forgot to add (as I see people ask about this a lot) is about making reservations at the specialty restaurants. When we got on board, my husband called and made all of our reservations right then and there. This indicates to me that reservations don't "sell out" before the cruise, which is an upside, and the times we got were good ones, usually between 7-8pm. The exception was Teppenyaki, which has far less seats there than the other speciality places, that they only had 6pm and so we took it. But apart from that, you should not worry that you won't get a seat at any of these places if you don't book ahead

The downside is that once you make a reservation you cannot change it or cancel it without a fee. Some days I wish we could have changed the times (e.g., tired after coming from port so could have used an extra hour or so) but was not a big deal.

Just completed the 7-day Western Med on the Epic from Rome. We are a family of 3 who are first time cruisers and first time to Europe as well, and had a spectacular time on the Epic and were extremely impressed.

We stayed in Cabin 14153, which was a balcony mini-suite (large bed for the adults which seemed between a queen and king size-wise, couch that turned into a bed for our child). This worked out quite well because Floor 14 is where the kids club is, and is just one floor down from the main pool deck (Floor 15) where we spent a lot of time when not in port. Having a balcony was a HUGE plus - not only having the view and light, but also we dried bathing suits/towels out there and had coffee out there.

Service - excellent and we were very impressed overall. All of the staff is very nice and courteous. The staff works incredibly hard, that is plainly obvious, and I can only wonder and hope that they are paid adequately. I do not trust that NCL gives them the automatic 18% added on so we made sure to tip at every specialty restaurant and tipped our cabin steward.

Embarking/Disembarking - excellent and easy. The time we arrived at port to the time we were at our cabin was probably about 20-25 minutes, and the same for getting off the boat at the end. During port days, I would say about the same time, NCL really does make efforts to move the lines quickly.

Food/Drinks - we had the Unlimited Dining and did Le Bistro, The Modern, La Cucina, Teppenyaki and Cagneys. I wanted to write a bit here since my husband was trained as a chef in Manhattan and is extremely picky about food yet he was impressed with everything, especially Le Bistro and The Modern. He said he was shocked to see such high quality food on a cruise and I agreed. The only speciality dining we did not think was excellent was La Cucina, that was just OK, but again the other places all very very good. All other times we ate at the Garden Cafe and were very happy. Breakfast is amazing, there is nothing you could want that they did not have. Lunch/Dinner also offers many selections and we were pleased there as well. We also had the Unlimited Beverage - we are not big drinkers so perhaps not worth it for us, but it seemed worth it to many on the ship as people are drinking day and night! The lines were not long for drinks on the ship, most crowded at the pool bar but that is not surprising given it is the most crowded deck.

Entertainment - we saw Burn the Floor which was very entertaining, and also the NCL dance competition (hilarious! do NOT miss that!). Most nights we were quite tired from touring all day and so went to bed after dinner but there is plenty to do at night.

Spa - we had access and let me just say this place was SO gorgeous and relaxing and quiet even if you don't get treatments. The hot stone lounges were our favorite. There was a special halfway through the cruise where you could get 75 minutes of combined services for $139, which my husband did and enjoyed. Much cheaper than their regular prices, which are indeed very high.

Gym - the gym is very nice and I was impressed. I never had to wait for a machine or weights. Many people used the gym as far as I could tell.

Laundry - interestingly this was advertised nowhere and I only knew to ask for it through cruise critic! It is $19.95 for a bag of clothes, you can fit quite a lot in there! It is supposed to take 2 days to do - however we gave a little cash flow to make it come back one day, LOL, as we had run out of clothes!!!! On that note, you should pack 2/3 outfits a day if you are doing this cruise in hot weather. Any clothes you wear touring at port will be soaked with sweat by the time you are done and so don't plan on wearing that stuff twice.

Kids Club - our daughter is 6 and preferred to stay with us and do some of the ports, but she did spend about 2 of the port days here and enjoyed it. The staff seemed responsible and the kids stay there - they do not go outside/to the pool which to me is a bonus as I did not want the risk of my child being near the pool without me!

Cleanliness of Ship - excellent. NCL is always cleaning and there is hand sanitizer everywhere. This was important to me as I am a germ a phobe. The bathrooms near the pool did smell a bit, but I suppose that is not surprising given the foot traffic. But the ship was spotless!

Shore Excursions - I cannot speak to the NCL ones as we opted to "do our own thing" and incidentally found the NCL excursions expensive and as many advised on here it is cheaper to book your own or make your own agenda. We wanted to make our own schedule. This did mean we had to do a ton of research but that was fun and informative for me. See more details below.

Pool Deck - this was the most crowded place as expected in the summer. You do need to put your stuff on lounges by about 9 am or so if you want a spot as lounges do fill up fast. The water slides are so much fun, although the pools are quite small and very crowded so do not expect to be swimming laps or have a lot of space to yourself.

Food Policy - I know so many are curious about this. I cannot tell you the number of times I took food to my room. Almost every morning I would go to the buffet, load up my plate, cover it with another plate a top, and take it to our room for my child. No one said a word. I saw others doing this too.....

As you can see, we were very happy with the Epic. Now I will go onto what we did each day in case anyone is interested in that:

ROME - we arrived one day early to that we could sleep off jet lag and have some time. Stayed at a B&B in Piazza Navona area which was fun and central. To be honest, we did not love Rome. The city is very hard to find your way around, hilly, hot, especially with a small child in tow. Perhaps different other times of year.

FLORENCE - LOVED this city! Most people on our roll call were doing Florence/Pisa so we could not find a group to share a van, and so we took a taxi to the train station and then took the 8:12 train into Florence. We made it in time for a 10-12:30 bike tour with Bike Florence, which was absolutely amazing!!! Highly recommend! After that we walked a bit and ate at Centralo Market which is like a huge gourmet marketplace we had read about, then were so tired that we went back to the ship around 3pm also by train.

CANNES - per many posts here, we did the one hour trolley ride which leaves right outside the port. Very fun way to see Cannes and perfect amount of time. Then we walked to Le Croissette and rented lounges at a beach club in Midi-Plage (Maema) for the rest of the day. I took off for a bit to shop on Rue d'Antibes and take pictures as Cannes is beautiful and very unique.

PALMA - this was the one day I did not plan for much. I thought we could go to Illetes Beach via taxi which is about 10 minutes out of Palma, however, be aware that getting BACK from some of these gorgeous/recommended beaches is an issue. Our taxi driver advised us he could take us there but be warned that us getting home might be hard. We were not the only ones to find this out the hard way. We therefore spent the day at the beach in PalmaNova (very very fun for kids!!!) where there are tons of taxis so we had no issue getting back.

SEA DAY - very crowded on the boat everywhere at all times. I know that is to be expected so there is no basis for me to complain truly just too many people for me. Was glad there was only one day like this.

BARCELONA - We walked La Rambla (main drag), through Parc de Citidella (gorgeous park), and basically just all over the city. We had no goal, just wandering, popping into shops and tapas places. Be warned lines for Picasso Museum and cable cars were very long, otherwise we probably would have attempted those. Also be warned that the walk from the ship to the center of the city is at least 1.5 miles, AND the taxi line is long. We opted to walk since we figured the taxi line was at least 45 mins.

NAPLES - this was the last day and we had wanted to do a NCL tour but we were so tired and did not want to get up early. So we got off the ship somewhat late (10:30). We did the HOHO bus which is about an hour or so and right outside the ship. We then shopped for a few hours (best shopping on the trip in my opinion, was Naples) and then somehow, we ended up in a strange alley way at a tiny trattoria where we had the best meal of my life!!! Funny how that happens.

OTHER - just wanted to leave a comment about getting off the boat in time for flights. We had a 10:30 am flight and were very worried about making it since a lot of people said it would be very, very tight. So, we did self-debarkation (which meant that we walked off with our own luggage not leaving it outside the cabin the night before) and arranged for a private car to meet us at 7:15am right at the ship gate. There was virtually no one getting off the boat at that time, zero traffic to Rome, and so we were at the airport by 8:10ish. So yes, it is true that if there were a traffic incident, things could be different, but do not let anyone tell you that a 10:30am flight is not do-able because it most certainly is if you do what we did.

DAILIES - I don't have a scanner sorry. The steward will leave the next day's daily on your bed (if you have do not disturb sign then he will put it outside your cabin so you can retrieve it) so there is plenty of time to plan for the next day. The day this was most valuable was Sea Day, as we picked 3 or so things we wanted to do (fruit carving, dance lesson, art and crafts with our daughter).

Overall, we loved the cruise and so did our daughter! Would do another cruise for sure in the future.

I have been researching the same question. Many people have looked for different less expensive options than the NCL transportation.

It seems that a lot of people take a taxi from port to Livorno, and then catch a train, so I am going to look into that option.

We are on the Epic set to arrive in port at 6am. We plan to do express disembarkation + private car, but our flight is at 10:30am and I wonder whether this is feasible. All research indicates the key is what time we get off the ship.

If its 7, looks like we will be fine. But if its more towards 8 (which NCL advised would be a likely worst case scenario) then I assume we would miss our flight.

Experienced cruisers - what time did you actually get off the ship?

Thanks in advance for all replies :)