M&JfromSDL

We arrived at FLL around 11:30pm and were shocked at how jammed the airport was. Our bags arrived pretty quickly and soon enough we were curbside.

I did not prearrange a ride so we used Uber to get to our hotel in Downtown Miami. Our ride request was accepted in almost no time but it did take our driver a while to get through the arrivals traffic and grab us.

Once in the car it was a really quick hop down to the Hilton Miami Downtown. Our ride started at 11:41pm and ended at 12:10am; at a cost of $34.11.

Overall, the hotel was just okay. will say, for a pre-cruise say it is ultra convenient. There is a Publix directly across the street and it is very close to the port. It appears to be undergoing a much needed renovation. It was very clean but appears outdated. Since we arrived so late and wanted to be at the port early for Vibe passes; I didn't put too much stock in where we stayed. Hotels were expensive this weekend and as far as I am concerned this Hotwire.com deal fulfilled it's obligation.

We popped down to the bar for a night cap and to catch the end of the ASU (go Sun Devils!) vs. WVU game. Then... off to bed. We had a cabana to secure.

My wife and I just returned from a lovely cruise on the NCL Getaway.

This is our 5th cruise together; all of our previous trips have been on Royal Caribbean. We came close to booking a cruise on Getaway last year but stumbled on a last-minute deal on Independence of the Seas.

After coming back from Paris in August we knew we would have a busy 2016 ahead of us and wanted to try squeezing in a relaxing trip but on a smaller budget. When we saw a deal on the Norwegian Getaway through USAA including UDP and UBP we knew we had found our trip.

January 2, 2016

I had to work the Saturday before our cruise so we ended up flying out of DCA around 8:30pm Saturday night. I had an Admirals club to burn so we kicked off our vacation in the lounge.

Luckily our air travel went according to schedule and the flight left ontime. There’s a great wine and cheese shop in our neighborhood that prepares awesome to-go-boxes of cheese. My wife grabbed one since she knew I would need to eat dinner. Great inflight meal suggestion if you have a similar shop nearby.

With a glass of wine and a Bailey’s in my system I slept the rest of the way to Fort Lauderdale.

Last minute deal with NCL are a thing of the past. At least for now.

Balcony guarantees on our upcoming Getaway cruise are down about $250/pp since final payment.

Thanks for sharing. You've given us plenty to day dream about over the next couple of weeks.

As the others have said, a bathing suit is required in the mixed-sex areas.

Are all of the steam rooms, saunas, etc. co-ed or are there specific ones reserved for men/women in addition?

We just switched from a regular mini suite to a spa balcony. Any idea what the hours are for the thermal spa? Do they vary based on whether you are in port or at sea?

Glad to read you enjoyed yourselves. We are giving the Getaway a try after a series of RCCL cruises. Hopefully our experience will mirror yours.

M&J, do you mean the mini suite does not have full access to the spa? Why did you decide min suite? For the extra space in bathroom? This was not a difference I knew about. Well, I dont know any difference thus my post lol

 

Thanks.

I'm sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were comparing a spa balcony to a non-spa mini suite.

Just went through the same debate. I ended up with a mini suite wishing I booked the spa balcony. I'm sure we will enjoy the larger bathroom of the mini suite but I think we will wish we had access to the thermal spa.

I planned a trip to Paris for my wife this past summer. I can't even imagine if someone broke that surprise instead of me. Sorry you had that happen.

But IMHO smaller surprises planned for the cruise may create the most memorable experiences. We've been on a couple of cruises now, but my wife always remembers I surprised her by wearing a tux to formal night one time.

I booked a Mini-Suite on Getaway this past weekend. Less than 24 hours after I booked I called my travel agent (USAA/Explore) because I wanted to "upgrade" to a Spa Balcony. After a 45 minute hold I was told I could however it would cost me almost double what the difference in fare was advertised. So I skipped it.

But like others have said, give them a call and see what they say. Worse they can say is no.

We've done what triptolemus has in the past. We've also carried on a small container along with our 2 bottles of wine. Then we grab fruit and soda water from the buffet and make a simple sangria. Just an idea.

Strange. We were there in January with a Cabana on Nellie's and received access to the Barefoot buffet.

Oh! I forgot to add. After we left Johnny Rockets we took a peek at one of the interactive TV screens. Not that we were hungry but we wanted to see what tonight's dinner menu was.

We kicked around the idea of going back to Giovanni's Table but after seeing the Seafood 'Cerviche' and Hot 'Harira' Soup we knew we would want to eat in the dining room.

Luckily the items were spelt correctly on the printed menu in the dining room.

But we did find a gem of an afternoon activity. A couple's massage class in the spa for just $53.

I'm a cynic at heart. I'm skeptical of every single "awesome deal" the cruise line offers. But this one IMHO was in fact, awesome.

I started out on the table. The therapist demonstrated 3 different techniques on me; massaging my back, arms and legs. Then she let my wife take a turn. About half way though I hopped off the table and my wife laid down. The therapist showed me the same techniques and then allowed me to try.

After the class we received a brand new bottle of massage oil that is sold on Amazon for $35/bottle. The whole class lasted roughly 50 minutes. It was relaxing and educational at the same time. The therapist was awesome too!

I will say, I was a bit disappointed in how the room was appointed. It looked a little bit more like a dentist office than a spa.

The various elevator banks.

As we walked past Boleros we noticed Lorenzo was working and we found ourselves immediately in the mood for a mojito.

It gave us a chance to log into our webcam at home and check in on the cats. As usual, there was one sleeping on the futon in my office.

Of course there are plenty of places to spend money. I didn't think the duty free liquor prices were all that good this time around.

The Michael Kors store was a little more interesting than the Britto store. Admittedly, I never got into the whole multi-colored suitcase stuff they were selling. Mrs. M&JfromSDL didn't think the prices at the Michael Kors store were all that much better than home.

Cupcake Cupboard. We never made it there for more than window shopping.

Guest Services located across from the Champagne Bar.

Sorrento's...our late night tradition.

By now they were setting up for the farewell parade.

One of our favorite places on Freedom-class ships. When we booked this cruise were were torn between doing Allure again or the Indy 8-day. One of the things my wife brought up was how much we enjoyed people watching from Vintages on our Freedom cruise.

That's our favorite seat in the house.

Actually the burger looks pretty good! What all is on it? I'm always on the lookout for a good burger!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

I believe it was a bacon cheddar single. It was very good.

Then it was onto the casino. Hopefully one of you has won back some of the hundreds of dollars we donated to the slot machines and blackjack tables here.

Back on the Promenade we stopped at the Dog and Badger pub. There are a ton of proper pubs near our home in Northern VA. So we really never connected with this bar. It feels like a place we can visit at home. And we weren't fans of the live musician that played there. The place was packed every night so different strokes for different folks I guess.

Someone asked for the beer list. And the easiest way I can show you is this picture of all of their bottles. They have a few of the regulars on draft, but the majority of the more adventurous beers are bottled.

Our personal favorite and something we drink at home is Grolsch. Gotta love the bottles.

We were stuffed after lunch and agreed we needed to walk around for a bit. We weren't really in the mood to sit by the pool so we walked around the ship and took pictures. Let's face it, vacation would be over the next day so we were getting a little sentimental. By this point we were ready to be home but enjoyed reminiscing about how great the week was.

So sit back and enjoy some of photos of the Independence of the Seas.

The Schooner Bar. Home of our favorite martini on the ship.

And the Holler and Swaller Piano sing-a-long.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Day at Sea

We slept in this morning. Well...my other half slept in. I went up to the gym and worked out for a bit so I wouldn't disturb her. After the gym I met her down on the promenade and we shopped for a bit.

We needed our token refrigerator magnet and a few odds and ends for the friends looking after our apartment/cats back at home.

After walking around we agreed it was time for grease. And what better place than Johnny Rockets? So up we went. We got there just as they opened.

I was craving onion rings.

I customized my own burger. It looks like slop but it was pretty good.

The Mrs. had a BLT.

Our waiter knew it was her birthday. In fact everyone who swiped her SeaPass card seemed to know it was bday. That means singing and dinned table embarrassment. We were pretty stuffed but quickly found room for her dessert!

We walked around the ship afterwards to burn off some dinner. Mrs. M&JfromSDL wanted a photo with the dog overlooking the promenade so we knocked that out.

Then it was up to the Viking Crown Lounge. The excellent jazz band was not playing tonight or at least they weren't when we popped in. We were both in the mood to dance so we headed down to Boleros to dance some salsa.

Quick video of the band at Boleros.

After getting cleaned up dinner we hit our usual spot, Vintages for a pre-dinner drink.

Then it was on to the main dining room for dinner. We ordered a round of Champagne to celebrate my wife's birthday. The birthday girl started with escargot.

I had a soup. I can't remember which one but it was good.

The Mrs. had a soup as well. Sorry it's blurry.

Tonight I had the prime rib again. It was cooked perfectly.

Friday, January 9, 2015 (Cont.)

Labadee

I remembered how great the light was during sailaway on our last visit to Labadee. This time proved to be the same! The sunset was magnificent!

Yours truly

We headed to aft section of the sports deck to play a little mini golf.

We had no issues being served the upgraded champagne on our January 3rd IoS cruise. We ran into the occasional bar that did not stock the bottle. We were unable to obtain our own bottle which was promised in the promotion. We asked 2 different people at guest services about it and they said the personal bottle was just for the holiday cruises.