Just off Getaway!

[hmk012]

Just got off the Getaway today and I have a few things to share.

First off, it's a beautiful ship! Doesn't feel as big as I thought it would....which was a good thing in my book. We had great seas and the movement of the ship was hardly noticed! I liked the activities offered and did the Carlos Bakery cupcake demo. It was worth the $40....you decorated 4 cupcakes, got a apron, and a free picture at the end. The food was a hit or miss. I'm not a picky eater and it was wonderful to not have to cook on vacation. There were nights I was highly disappointed in the food.....Cagneys was one of them (and it's always been my fav on NCL). My steak was Luke warm and the Macon cheese tasted like metal.....I wasn't the only one in my party of 11 that felt this way. Ocean Blue was good.....service was excellent. I personally don't think it was good enough to pay $50/per person. That's just my opinion, but I'm happy I tried it. The sushi and noodle bar where great!!! I couldn't get over the prices....so cheap compared to what we pay at home. Le bristro was our favorite meal.....wonderful!!! We had major issues with dining! This was a huge disappointment since that is the reason we fell in love with NCL. I've never had so many issues with reservations. Prior to cruising we reserved everything far in advance since we were a party of 11. 2 weeks prior to sailing I notice all reservations were done for all 5 cabins. We had to rebook and of course at thT point we could no longer all get the same times. They told us as soon as we board they will tAke care of it. It took us almost 2 days to get help to fix it....we kept getting passed off to someone else. Finally, we thought it was fixed. I went over everything with he dining desk, unfortunately almost every night we showed up to dinner with either no reservation or it was put in for the wrong restaurant. It was beyond frustrating. One night as we were trying to get it fixed, I said the the hostess "sorry for being so difficult" (even though the mistake wasn't our fault, I could tell she was frustrated with me) and her respond was, "yes, you kinda are being difficult". I was shocked!

Excursion: we did the Atlantis dolphin encounter. The encounter was AMAZING! We spent over 30 mins in the water and the staff never seemed to rush us....they were great! Getting there on the other hand was a mess! It took well over 2 hours from getting off the ship to arrive ( it's a 5-7 min taxi ride). If we do something like this again we will pay the extra to take a cab over. They have a free shuttle bus from the ship to the other side of the dock at port. I recommend it. We weren't able to see the aquarium at the Atlantis (which was included) because we didn't have time once we were done....which was disappointing as well since we paid over $1000 to do this excursion. Once we were done we paid to have a taxi drive us back to the ship because it was taking too long for the excursion transportation....it was $4/per person.

The staff overall was great.....we did run into a few rude ones, but we just let it roll off us. We had a few other issues I won't go into and bore you with, but it seems like some of the details are lost to NCL on customer service. Our family had a great time, but I think we will think twice before sailing on a large NCL ship again. We've never had issues with them before. After taking almost 2 hours to get off the ship today...I think that was it! I'm not sure why we had so many issues today getting off.....we talked to several people who have cruised many times before and they had never seen anything like it. For those who are about to go on the Getaway......you will love the ship! Like I said, we had a great time, but these are things I would want to know in going! PS room service takes forever to answer and forever to get....my husband waited 30 mins to order and another 1 and 15 to get food....be aware!

[GrabMyWrist]

Glad you enjoyed your trip. The Getaway is an awesome ship and we mostly enjoyed it too. I totally agree with you about the dolphin encounter. The encounter itself was awesome but getting there is pure hell. We also did not have time to do anything else. Oh well, still a fabulous experience.

[getupgo]

I'm beginning to think it's not such a bad thing only getting smaller ships in Tampa. This sounds like a hassle.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your review. Sounds like you had a good time in spite of the disembarking problems.

[www3traveler]

Disembarkation hassles can happen in any port. Most of the time the problems have to do with Customs people in terminal not anything to do with the ship its self. I have had disembarkation hassles with The Pearl and The Sun both times in Miami.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Keith1010]

Thanks for your report.

 

Keith

[JP4GA]

Part of the problem with disembarkation yesterday was with the passengers. We had "green" which was the first color called. When we got down to disembark there were people with ALL colors looking for bags. There were lots of green tickets left on the last night of the cruise so I am not sure why people felt the need to get off when they called green when they did not have green tags.

 

Additionally the other issue was with immigration. The were really looking at passports for some reason. They asked my 6 year old daughter several questions (bday, middle name, state etc). We have never had the agents question us or our children. It was a little strange.

[abisha]

Sorry you had dining reservation issues but glad you had a good time overall. I just booked Getaway. I am interested in the entertainment.

 

Were you able to see Illusionarium, Burn the Floor, Legally Blonde? Also, did you ever go to the Tropicanna Room?

 

How were crowds around the pools and do you know if there were long lines at the water slides?

[david_sobe]

Part of the problem with disembarkation yesterday was with the passengers. We had "green" which was the first color called. When we got down to disembark there were people with ALL colors looking for bags. There were lots of green tickets left on the last night of the cruise so I am not sure why people felt the need to get off when they called green when they did not have green tags.

 

Additionally the other issue was with immigration. The were really looking at passports for some reason. They asked my 6 year old daughter several questions (bday, middle name, state etc). We have never had the agents question us or our children. It was a little strange.

Yes sometimes they can ask odd questions. One time I was asked what kind of watch I had on. I thought it was a trick question or something. I had to look. Either it was just random extra questioning or something we don't know.

[hmk012]

Sorry you had dining reservation issues but glad you had a good time overall. I just booked Getaway. I am interested in the entertainment.

 

Were you able to see Illusionarium, Burn the Floor, Legally Blonde? Also, did you ever go to the Tropicanna Room?

 

How were crowds around the pools and do you know if there were long lines at the water slides?

 

We saw Burn the Floor and Legally Blonde. Both were great shows and I recommend booking them in advance! My mom saw the dueling pianos and loved it. We happened to be too tired on those nights.

[hmk012]

Sorry you had dining reservation issues but glad you had a good time overall. I just booked Getaway. I am interested in the entertainment.

 

Were you able to see Illusionarium, Burn the Floor, Legally Blonde? Also, did you ever go to the Tropicanna Room?

 

How were crowds around the pools and do you know if there were long lines at the water slides?

 

Water slides had lines but they were too bad....about 5-10 mins wait depending on. The kids pool area is poorly laid out and was insane! People were leaving towels on chairs as early as 6:30am and somedays we NEVER saw anyone use the chairs, which is a shame. I went to Spice H2O a few times and never had issues getting chairs, only downfall was I saw at least a dozen children there every time I went.

[debenson0723]

Part of the problem with disembarkation yesterday was with the passengers. We had "green" which was the first color called. When we got down to disembark there were people with ALL colors looking for bags. There were lots of green tickets left on the last night of the cruise so I am not sure why people felt the need to get off when they called green when they did not have green tags.

 

Additionally the other issue was with immigration. The were really looking at passports for some reason. They asked my 6 year old daughter several questions (bday, middle name, state etc). We have never had the agents question us or our children. It was a little strange.

 

I noticed this yesterday with immigration also. I was a solo cruiser and after speaking with other solo cruisers, they seemed to ask us a lot of questions (dob, where do you work, etc.). More than I have noticed coming off other cruises and into the country at other locations.

[debenson0723]

Sorry you had dining reservation issues but glad you had a good time overall. I just booked Getaway. I am interested in the entertainment.

 

Were you able to see Illusionarium, Burn the Floor, Legally Blonde? Also, did you ever go to the Tropicanna Room?

 

How were crowds around the pools and do you know if there were long lines at the water slides?

 

I saw Illusionarium, which I really enjoyed and was worth the price, but it also depends on where you sit. We got lucky and had 2nd row center so the view was excellent. Those on the side or in the back were not so lucky. Burn the Floor was really good also and we saw the BTF dancers in the Tropicana Room on Thursday night. Loved the dinner club atmosphere of the Tropicana Room but the music on Friday night was too loud to enjoy conversation.

 

Only did the water slides on Friday and the lines were small. Too many people/kids in the pool area and always went to Spice H2O, which had plenty of chairs, both in the sun and shade.