alexmom

Spa showers:

 

In the women's changing room, there are 3 shower stalls with frosted glass doors. Not totally private, but private enough, I guess. No real place to hang towels or robes up, though, so be prepared to toss those up over the door to keep them from getting too wet.

 

There is also a single changing room, if you want privacy getting dressed or undressed. There are also several bathroom stalls, if you are really pressed for a place to change.

 

In my experience, there were very few women in the locker room at any one time. I maybe saw one or two other women in there any time that I went.

 

As a note, there are several showers also in the thermal suite itself. While the expectation is that you wear your bathing suit when using these showers, they do have shampoo and body wash, if you wish to use one of these to wash off after working out or after using the sauna or steam room.

3 is good ! It looked like just 2 in blackwing's youtube video. And even one changing room is better than zero ! The showers in the Thermal Suite with body wash seem like they should be used before getting into the pool, although I'm at a real loss to explain shampoo. Who washes their hair in public ??

Thanks for the good, and reassuring, information.

Waving to alexmom! I googled and found a video of the spa tour on Breakway. Looks like he goes into the men's locker room. At around 2:20 of the video, you can see the showers. They seem to have what I called the "translucent door" on that other thread. I imagine it is probably identical for the women's locker room and the sister ship Getaway.

 

Great video and it told me a lot about the spa too. Those doors are definitely frosted, but more opaque than my experience on Caribbean Princess. I'm just amazed at all those tile loungers facing the front of the ship ! I definitely found my happy place.

Thanks again for the laughs on the other thread and the video on this one !

I am currently onboard the Getaway and the gym staff confirmed there are no shower facilities for the gym.

 

They told me only guests who purchase a spa pass have access to the showers.

 

There are small separate men's and ladies bathrooms with two sinks and two toilet stalls and about 10 lockers to store items in each for gym use. I am surprised they wouldn't include showers or changing areas for the gym.

Do the showers have a glass door so everybody can see you shower ? Is there a changing room, or a total lack of privacy ? How many shower stalls ?

I've asked these questions several times on different threads, but no one has answered. I plan on buying the Thermal Pass no matter what the answers are. I'm in a solo cabin, I'd really prefer not having to go back there to shower.

Thanks for any help you can give me !

It was important to me to read through several solo cruising reviews since I'm doing it in February 2017. I've got to say, I enjoyed yours most of all. I'll be sailing on Getaway but enough things are the same to give me a much clearer picture than I had before.

I'm kind of bummed about the clear shower doors in the Thermal Spa but I think I'm even more bummed that there are only 2 showers in the Ladies locker room !

Have a great life, kiddo, until your next cruise !

If you ever get divorced, Kristine, look me up. I'll move in with any woman who loves crème brulee as much as I do. ;)

 

(And if you ever go to Las Vegas, a lot of the premium buffets have crème brulee ... which means all-you-can-eat crème brulee!)

Brûlée kits are about $20 and they are so EASY to make ! I'm a self-taught cook who was a Home-Ec disaster in high school (my home-ec teacher used my experiences in her class as the basis for her thesis-for real!)

The only problem is that most recipes are formulated for dinner parties. That's a lot of brûlée ! I've never taken the time to experiment with reducing the recipes. It sounds like a case of simple math, but in cooking, 2+2 doesn't always =4 and 8-6 is even sketchier.

I do remember having brûlée in Vegas, but it was all such a blur of eating and activity ! All I really remember is Criss, Ka, and a bar called RiRa (-a really good Scotch egg and a lot of Guinness was consumed listening to an awesome Irish band out of Brooklyn !) Oh, I almost forgot the Bellagio ! That place was an unending source of beautiful, delicious and fascinating !

Friday - the roughest day but not even close to bad

 

Friday was a day at sea and they put the vomit bags around but I have been on WAY worse sailings.

 

Today I went to lunch in Taste. I was walking towards the 2 restaurants and there was a family in front of me with a small boy banging a drum - they turned into Savor so I went to Taste. :) They sat me by the window and I had a very nice lunch watching the rolling sea (short video from my view -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4luIJrDdvo

).

 

That night we were scheduled for Burn the Floor which was great! I'm a big dance fan and how can you go wrong with shirtless or vested guys that can move? The girls were great too!!

 

Tonight we had a large group dinner in Savor and at about 7:20 someone mentioned the Latitudes party. 3 of us were invited to that but we had just finished entrees. Solution - we can go get dessert later right? Oh I'm cruising with professionals...the 3 of us that had invites went up to the party while the others saved the table. Hilarious. So we had a few glasses of wine with the staff & then went back down to dessert.

 

Followed by more drinks & more dancing of course!

You have given me so many ideas on how to cruise solo successfully ! Thanks !

Burn the Floor is something I really want to see. I've heard they have dance lessons during the cruise too. My DH won't go near the dance floor, especially since it's Latin dances I want to learn, but I've never been afraid of looking ridiculous. Looks like a job for "Solo Cruiser" !

NCL quoted us $50 per person per direction for the shuttle (not round trip, one way) but they did say the toddler under three was free so it would have cost us $150 as a family each direction.

I'm sorry for steering you wrong on transfer prices but I just can't understand why NCL would charge TWICE what Princess charges ! What is so special about NCL ? I'm doing a solo on the Getaway but I think I will go back to Princess. Apparently everything is more expensive on NCL, even transfers.

Pineapple comes to the table on a sword/spit. The plantains are a side dish next to the beans, rice, potatoes.

 

There is no need to insure the meat.

I'm going for the pineapple. Caramelizing pineapple over fire sounds heavenly. I've never let my husband do that on a grill because he doesn't know the difference between caramelized and charred. He was even worse with a gas grill.

I'm assuming the plantains receive some degree of grilling as well. Yum.

Thanks, luddite !

Why not drop into the restaurant at the beginning of the cruise while you are exploring the ship, tell them what you would like and ask them for their thoughts? Answers always vary, depending on who, when, and how you ask.

 

Also, it seems that things can change from day to day on NCL. What is allowed one day, may not be the next.

I should have thought about doing this myself ! I've been so involved in planning everything so I can literally have my cake and eat it too !

If all else fails, I will show them pictures of my cat and my grandkids. That usually greases some wheels !

My point was that they aren't real busy and it would seem that the a la carte pricing model is keeping diners without comps or a package away.

When is all said and done, I'll probably play it by ear. I haven't flown by the seat of my pants in years ! I hope I remember how, LOL !

LOVE your gif !

Sadly there's no simple solution... here's something I clipped from a response I gave to a similar post on an earlier thread...

 

We stayed at the IAH Marriott and assuming you are staying in a hotel near IAH (not Hobby) private transfers that we looked were the same as or more expensive than taxis. It was $120 for a taxi from IAH to the port for four of us (two adults / two kids) and would have been $150 one way for the NCL transfer ($50 pp but the youngest would have been free). So for two (if there's only two of you) it may be a bit cheaper to use the NCL transfer but then you are on their schedule and need to load and unload at the hotel and the airport just to catch the NCL transfer.

 

Some say UberX is the cheapest if you use Uber. I don't.

 

Another option is to do a one day rental with Budget at IAH with drop off in Webster (about a $40 cab ride to the port). Budget doesn't charge a drop fee like Enterprise does. We did the same in reverse on debark day and spent the day in and around Houston before going back to the IAH Marriott.

 

If you fly in to Hobby I'd just cab (or UberX it).

 

Hope this helps.

We über-ed to the airport to pick up the ship transfer because we missed the Homestead shuttle and didn't want to wait for it to get back for another run. The uber vehicle didn't have room in the trunk for all our luggage (3 people) so we rode to the airport, which was only 3 miles away, with 2 pcs of carry on baggage in our laps. That would have been pretty uncomfortable in the 1/2 hour drive from Hobby to the Port. And the 3 mile ride was over $10. That's not cheap, just convenient. My son and husband went to Humble Mall, which was just under 10 miles from the Homewood Suites we stayed at. He paid $18 for that ride.

It was good to see your info on Enterprise and Webster. I will remember it. Thanks.

Uber might be cheaper than a taxi, but I'm pretty sure the $50 per person NCL charge is for a ROUNDTRIP ticket. There is no way to get from IAH to the Port of Houston for $25 using a taxi, Limo or Uber! Our Princess transfer was $25 per person because we only used it TO the Port. My husband's parents picked us up after the cruise, so we didn't need roundtrip passage. Roundtrip transfer to the Port was $50 per person. I doubt you can find anything cheaper - I pulled my hair out trying several months ago.

The Galveston Express will take you to Galveston, not the Port of Houston.

best way to get to our ship with out a huge hassle or costing a ton of money? If there is such things.

 

We normally rent a car but I see thats not an economical solution this time. Not finding much on shuttles or car services. Hear taxi's are about $100 each way.

 

 

Looking for any help/advice.

We sailed out of Houston with Princess in December. We came in 2 days early because I'm an idiot. We stayed at the IAH Homewood Suites, because of the airport shuttle. When it was time to go to the Port, we had Homewood take us back to the airport and took a Princess transfer. If you are using another cruise line, use their airport transfer to the ship. Believe me, use the cruise line airport transfer.

The Port is SO FAR AWAY and in a remote area with a whole lot of nothing going on. You will bleed $$$ out of your eyeballs if you try to taxi it. It's so far away even Super Shuttle doesn't do it.

Now there are some really nice hotels in the port area that have shuttles to the Port-IF you are able to drive to them. Because they are in the same remote area as the Port and a MINIMUM 45 minute drive from IAH -like on a Sunday morning when there's no traffic at all.

I know no one likes to be herded on a bus at the airport for a long ride to the port, but it is the only sane decision if you aren't driving your personal car to the Port.

I hope this helps you. On the plus side, when we took the transfer, Princess took our luggage and we didn't have to mess with it until it showed up outside our stateroom. Slick !

They are from the complimentary restaurants... Taste, Savor and Tropicana. They all share the same menus. I missed a couple because we went to Illusionarium one evening and Shanghai noodle another. Those were also very good. O'Sheehans was also very good, we went for lunch a couple times and late night wings and nachos. I was impressed with all the food except for the scrambled eggs at the buffet breakfast:eek: Wait for the fresh omelet... Trust me!!

Thank you so much for posting the menus. I would like to know what you ate at Shanghai Noodles and how you liked it. I think I saw Char Siu beef noodles on a menu somewhere. Do you remember seeing that at Shanghai, or am I confused.

Thanks for your help.

Kristine

I had a spa pass, and so I wasn't going to get a Vibe pass. I thought my husband might want one, since that's his thing, but he was perfectly happy in Spice H2O. We did hang out on the deck just outside of Vibe - the Vibe bar connects to a small bar up there - and it was nice, but very windy. We were in group 1, so we probably could've got a pass if we wanted one.

I've been trying to find out about the locker room showers for the Thermal Suites on Getaway !!!

I just got off the Caribbean Princess in December and the locker room shower doors were GLASS, not even frosted glass. There was no privacy. I always just went back to my cabin and showered. I'm in a solo on the Getaway with a tiny shower for my next cruise, so I'm not crazy about having to go back to my room to shower in private.

What can you tell me about this ? Can you also tell me about the swimming pools on Getaway ? I like to swim laps at the buttcrack of dawn so I can (usually) have the pool to myself. Is there a lap pool or even just a 'longish' pool that will work for this ? Photos and deck plans really don't tell the story.

Thanks for any information or tips you can offer !

That salad bar is well worth $20+. Throw in a few bites of filet, very tender, the fried bananas and that cinnamon roasted pineapple and I am in heaven.

I think I might have missed something about the salad bar that you, and several others, know. What fried bananas and pineapple ? I didn't see them in desserts. I really need to look at that menu again.

I wonder if going when it first opens will insure moist and tender meat ?

Go whatever time you want and order whatever you want. NCL moved to a la carte to attract more business like this.

Thanks, I feel a lot more comfortable going in and ordering what I know I like-and can finish.

Time to go find those new menus and start making a (yummy) plan.

And you would probably want to eat dessert at a later time anyway. Probably after you've had something somewhere else!

 

Carrie

No kidding, probably the salad bar after all those desserts !

Yes, we ate at Moderno earlier in the cruise that I mentioned above, and did have the meats. They were mostly dry and tough, a real disappointment. But the salad bar and the papaya ice cream dessert were wonderful, which is why we went back a second night (we had the UDP) and skipped the meats.

 

We love churrascarias, and have eaten at them many times on land, but Moderno just did not pull it off, at least not when we tried it.

Thanks for the information. I was excited by the prospect of garlicky leg of lamb and various beef preparations, but I can't imagine it could compare to a real Brazilian steakhouse.

I love Brazilian steakhouses, but I would hardly call the spices and flavors exotic. Lots of garlic and olive oil stand out. The salad bar can be very interesting, it does depend on the restaurant.

 

I'm not sure what meats Moderno serves, but the Parmesan chicken and pork loin are definitely a waste in my opinion. The Picanha is definitely one of the best, as well as anything garlic or lamb. And if it is garlic and lamb, heaven.

 

I don't think I would do one on a cruise ship, but if you have never done a Brazilian steakhouse, it is worth a visit.

My husband judges all Brazilian steakhouses by the one he ate at in the Gaylord Hotel in Nashville. It was a business trip so I wasn't with him. He said he thought of me with every bite.

I think I'll wait until we're in Nashville. We have a Fogo de Chao here in Minneapolis, which he says is VERY good, but not as good as the Nashville place-which he can even remember the name of. I just don't want to go into the city. It's a LONG drive for dinner ! I think I'll pass on Moderno too.

Thanks for the information.

That's amazing!!! You are going to have a ball! I promise to write more but if I keep slacking off at work I'm going to end up never cruising again. :)

I ran across the Pick 6 as I was researching the ship. Sounds like a good plan. I also plan on getting the Thermal Suite pass. Those - plus swimming, eating creme brûlée whenever possible and learning to salsa dance are all I've got planned so far.

I've been trying to find out about the ladies locker room showers on another thread, but no luck. Where you ever in there ?

Take your time with your review, we'll still be here !

Absolutely no reason why you can't go any time that you want to. Your money and cruise experience is just as important as a solo traveler as a family or a couple would be.

 

Have fun.

I just feel that as a solo traveller, who is pretty flexible, I should be mindful of others. It doesn't make me feel slighted or unimportant. I can promise you that I will in no way sabotage my own birthday present !

Thanks for your kindness. I'm blessed.

Kristine - I just had Moderno on the Star in September. Guys come around with meat on a long skewer and cut it off the skewer for you. They generally give you a small bit to start but you can ask for more.

 

Carrie

I think I might try this venue. I'm intensely curious about the spices and flavors of Brazilian food. It sounds exotic.

Our recent experience was that there was plenty of room in the specialty venues.

Plenty.

That is very good to hear but I still want to know what peak hours are so I can avoid them.

i'm hoping the answer to your question is yes because i'm totally doing this!

We have the go ahead from people who are in the know !

Let's do this thing !!

Enjoy every bit, and bite, of your cruise !