lor74

When I had booked my cruise last month, the rate was 1.19. My rate for pre purchases and obc however was 1.11. I ended up buying $1100, and was more than happy to pay the 3% charge to cash it out!!!!

I was on last week and they did have the day game on in h2o but without sound

Have a wonderful cruise!!!

There is a GO desk inside the airport in the baggage claim area. They will give you a ticket with the rate and then you go outside to the dispatch booth

Yeah, you need to have booked through Canada

...also, to cash out while on the ship there will be a 3% fee. 14% is still a hell of a lot better than the bank rate!!!

A few weeks ago the rate to book a cruise was 19%. Once booked you can login to your NCL account and pre pay for obc at a rate of 11%. These rates can change at any time. If you do pre pay for anything online be sure to bring print outs of everything in case you are missing items once on the ship

Here it is again in case the other is giving you extra coding

Just copy and paste the link into your browser

Flight time was 12:10...not that early. But for an international flight we technically should have been at the airport 2 hours before. So when I saw 8am on the itinerary and the NCL fine print which says it could take up to 2 hrs to get off the ship...I was concerned.

The DW (Ro) and I have not been on an NCL cruise in almost a decade. Princess is our line of choice, but for this last minute/low budget vacation our options were very limited. I had expected to book an all inclusive resort, but the price for a guaranteed inside cabin was cheap, so we made an apprehensive decision to try NCL again. On our 2006 cruise on the Dawn, we were not happy with the cabin, the food, and the service. The savings grace was great weather and entertainment. I figured at a minimum for this cruise on the Getaway, I would literally get my money's worth. An added bonus was the choice of a perk, and we took the dining package which was good for 4 specialty restaurants.

Here is my review broken down by sections:

Embarkation:

It was our first time cruising from the port of Miami. We Arrived around 10:20am. It Took 5-10 minutes to clear security and check in. We discovered at 11:30am that we should have received a boarding group number when we first walked in to the waiting room. We walked right by the kid handing them out and I looked right at him but he gave us nothing. I didn't know what they were so I thought nothing of it. I was upset when I realized, Ro and I both said in unison "we're going in with the first group!" When boarding for our area started, we tagged along with another couple who had been sitting with us the entire time. They told the guy collecting the tickets that we were with them. The situation gave me some unnecessary stress to start the cruise, but we were happily on board at 11:55am.

The ship:

The Getaway is in great shape and is easy to navigate. It was very stable, even while in the outer ring of hurricane Joaquin. It is tastefully decorated and modern. They make good use of the space, and it feels like there is something to do everywhere you look.

Inside cabin 12437:

I booked a last minute lowest category inside guarantee. The cabin is in the centre of one of the small hallways the connects port to starboard. It has 2 upper births which required us to be careful while getting in/out of bed. Thankfully we managed to avoid hitting our heads. There was enough storage space and everything was in working order. I signed up for the casino players club, and used that card to keep in the slot so that we could control the lights. It took a couple of days before discovering that we needed to not push on the snowflake if we wanted the a/c to stay on all the time. There is one major problem with this cabin, and is the reason why I would NOT recommend it. It sounds as though there is a bathtub directly over the ceiling. There is basically the constant sound of swooshing water, and frequent very loud noises of water being cycled. I should have made a complaint to guest services after the first night, but after having spent an hour already dealing with a billing/obc/internet issue, I didn't have it in me to go back and waste more time. The only time we spent in the cabin was to shower and sleep. Ro could sleep through anything, so the noise didn't bother her at all. Thankfully I travel with ear plugs, and with them I was able to sleep. This could have been a much bigger problem. I hope all of the inside cabins don't have this issue!

The crew:

In a word, amazing! Everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful. Our cabin steward "Pearl" did a great job and worked within our schedule. The CD team had a lot of energy and were very active throughout the entire day. We had great service in all dining venues. The captain kept us well informed, and made the decision on Wednesday to skip Nassau and avoid the Bahamas area as best he could (hurricane Joaquin). This worked out great for us, as we only had some rain Friday morning, but had hot sunny weather otherwise.

Food:

While most people had the alcohol package, we choose the dining as I would not even drink enough to cover the 18% charge on the package. We brought a bottle of wine with us and were charged a $15 corkage fee. I had pre-reserved the Taste dinning room for the first night, 2 nights in Cucina, and 2 nights in Cagneys. The other 2 nights were in the buffet. Breakfast and lunch were always at the buffet or grill. The buffet is what you would expect, hit or miss but with enough selection to satisfy your hunger. I ate a few times at the grill. The selection doesn't change there. I particularly liked the meat stuffed potato balls. We only tried 2 items at O'Sheehans, the spinach dip and the cheese sticks. Neither of these items were good. All of our reserved meals were very good. We did not try the other dining venues. Overall, a MUCH better experience than our previous NCL cruise. I made the right decision in choosing the dining package.

Entertainment:

From live music, to game shows, comedy, production shows, trivia, pool games, etc, there is no shortage of things to do on this ship. We spent all of our mornings/afternoons by the main pool which is adults only. Throughout the day different music acts would perform and there was also a DJ. We saw both production shows. I liked legally blond better, as I prefer when the shows have a story. I didn't realize that it was 90 minutes long, so we did not see any of the comedy as we missed our reservation on the same night.

Miscellaneous:

I pre-paid for the 100 minute Internet package. The speed was good enough for email and basic browsing. It was consistent for the most part. I had pre-purchased $1100 in obc at the great exchange rate of 11% (Canadian). Once on-board, only $600 was on my account. It took about an hour with guest services going through my account and paperwork, but the missing funds showed up the next day. During this process I had used up 19 minutes of the Internet plan. The guy in the Internet cafe gave me back 15 minutes without any hassle. One week was not enough time to experience everything that the ship has to offer. I am sure this will not be my last NCL cruise....at least for the ships from the Breakaway onward.

Any questions?

Random pictures including all the dailies and menus can be found on my Flickr page:

FYI, the cost to take the GO share a ride from FLL to MIA is $28.75pp including tip.

We were staying in a south Miami hotel (Courtyard Marriott) so we took the Go to the airport then were picked up by the free hotel shuttle. I think I was quoted around $110 to take a private ride directly to the hotel, and the taxi driver took a guess not really knowing where I wanted to go and said at least $75 but I am sure it would have been more.

FYI, my NCL cruise also showed 8am on the itinerary which concerned me as we had never been to the POM and wanted to book an early flight. I had posted the same question and received responses that the ship would be in earlier than that. We were docked by 7am. Happy cruising!

If you are in port Everglades, it will not be a problem. If you are in the port of Miami, you will want to be among the first people walking off the ship with their bags in hand. I just went from the port of Miami to FLL today, and arrived at the airport at 9am via SAS transport

Hello all, just a little report on today's experience. We returned to Miami on the Norwegian Getaway. We cleared customs by 8am doing the express walk-off with our bags. I had booked transport with SAS, and we were at the airport at 9am. The cost was $15pp.

For an early flight, it was good that we were on the first shuttle out, as there were a couple of accidents/closures on our way, and the traffic going towards Miami was horrendous for the shuttles to get back to the port.

Lmtclub is legit. I have used them multiple times since someone on these forums introduced it to me

So I should have enough time then to do early walk off and make a noon flight out of FLL? Thanks

I actually have the same question. The schedule shows that the ship gets back to Miami at 8am. Is this accurate, and if so at what time does the debarkation process generally begin for the early walk-offs?

Thanks :)

The cheap pricing available includes the cabins in the forward section of deck 5/main (503, 504, 506, and maybe some of the cat L cabin right next to those) or cabin 698 in the aft. I would imagine that they would all be the same as far as motion, noise, etc., except for 698.

Anyone have any input for these cabins?

Thanks!

Room service is available 24 hours a day at no charge. In addition to the standard room service menu, during the main dining room dinner hours you can order whatever is on the menu for dinner that day.

Really, this applies to any cabin type at no charge? Wow!

Thank you for all the responses!

Hello,

I am thinking of booking the Maasdam sailing from Boston->Montreal. I have never sailed on this ship or HAL before and have some questions:

1 - I had read that the pool has a retractable roof. Would it be in use at the end of Sept for a CAN/NE cruise? Should I pack a bathing suit?

2 - Would I need a jacket and/or tie for formal nights?

3 - Does the ship have an area besides the buffet where you can get small eats such as pastries or sandwiches?

4 - Pinnacle Grill....how much does it cost? Can you order as much as you want or is it limited to one app, main, dessert?

5 - Is there a gym and if so how is the equipment?

6 - I read that there is no fridge in the rooms but that the steward will bring ice. Is there anything else that I would find missing compared to other lines?

7 - How is the salad selection at the dinner buffet?

8 - This would be a cheap, last minute cruise. There are 2 options for inside cabins: deck 5, or deck 5 & 6. Is one floor better than the other for the category L?

That is it for the moment. Thanks in advance!!!

While I have no interest in this ship, I am always happy to read another Gambee review....thanks for all the effort that you put into your posts!!!

In jan on the Regal, they had a Mongolian station at the buffet. I do not remember if it was there every night