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7/5 Getaway Review w/ Pictures

Terpsince74

By Terpsince74,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Megayesi

Megayesi

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My fiancé and I sail in a week. Being a Miami native I have been on many cruises but this is my first on NCL. I can't thank you enough for your detailed review! Excellent tips and I'm really looking forward to enjoying all the ship has to offer. Have fun on the Sky.

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hogie23

hogie23

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Great review. We were on the Getaway in June and had a great time. Loved the shrimp at Illusionarium steak was just ok. Did not know about 2 day spa pass. Will have to remember for next time. Also good to know about Melia as an option in Nassau.

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yegtraveler

yegtraveler

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Hi

 

My husband and I are going on this cruise in November. I am wondering how much you spent in taxis at St. Maarten - you went to both beaches I am considering going to and would like to get an idea if we should forgo booking a true excursion to see them because it would be cheaper.

 

It is also truly helpful to know that the port is organized in St. Maarten! We have excursions planned in Nassau (to atlantis) and St. Thomas (snorkeling) so our only port day without anything confirmed is St. Maarten.

 

Thanks!

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  • 2 months later...
susie2461

susie2461

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This is a fairly extensive/detailed review of our cruise on the Getaway to the Eastern Caribbean on July 5th-12th. We will try to share our experiences, suggestions, things to do again, things we would do differently with regard to the Getaway as well as the islands of St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Nassau, Bahamas. We will also try to share as many pictures from our trip as we surely enjoyed many of the picture reviews from previous posters that posted reviews in the past. Here we go!

 

Our Background

My first cruise was just over 12 months ago on the Breakaway. I did that trip solo in a balcony cabin and did a pretty detailed review which you can find below in my signature. I have been lucky to have travelled all over the world but I would rank that Breakaway cruise up there among my favorite vacations. As soon as I got off, I found myself looking forward to booking my next cruise. This Getaway cruise was my 3rd cruise (2nd on NCL).

I was super lucky to enjoy this Getaway cruise with my incredible girlfriend. We have been dating since December and this was our second cruise. We enjoyed a short 4-day cruise on the Ruby Princess in March to Grand Turk which was fun. By the end of the Princess cruise however, I kept telling my GF that I could not wait to show her how much better a Norwegian cruise was. In all fairness, it’s hard to compare a ship built in 2008 to a brand spanking new ship like the Getaway.

 

Planning

Soon after we got back from our 4-day cruise on Princess, we started discussing our summer vacation plans. We talked about a bunch of different ideas ranging from a trip to Italy, a week in Jamaica or Dominican Republic, as well as a cruise. Admittedly, I was already leaning towards the cruise option. I also had $250 credit on NCL for a future cruise that I had to use in the next 3 years so that money was burning a hole in my pocket, LOL! We did some cost comparisons and Italy was way over budget due to the pricey airfare. In my experience you really have to book airfare for Europe a good 6+ months out in order to avoid paying through the nose if you want to travel there during the prime summer travel months. We quickly ruled that out (although it is still a dream for both of us). High-end resorts in Jamaica and Dominican were still pretty pricey and did not seem to meet the fun factor that a cruise would.

 

Once we settled on a cruise we began looking at our options. We wanted to try to stick to NCL since we had a $250 cruise credit and I enjoyed my time on the Breakaway so much. We also contemplated trying Allure or Oasis of the Seas but those prices were a good $1K higher and just did not make economical sense. We quickly determined that the Getaway would be a perfect cruise. It had the perfect mix of 3 sea days (we love sea days) along with some cool ports of call. We also took advantage of the Free Cruise offer when booking the Getaway. It sealed the deal for us. The BOGO offer gives us a free 3 or 4 day cruise on the Norwegian Sky.

 

Once we settled on the Getaway Eastern Caribbean cruise, we quickly determined that the July 5th date would work great as we could take advantage of the July 4th holiday and turn this trip into a longer vacation. We decided to stay in Miami a few days before our trip to really extend the trip a bit. I also like to get into town at least the day before a cruise to limit the chance of missing the cruise due to unexpected travel issues. Why not get into town 2 days before the trip to enjoy even more beach time?

 

Cabin Selection

In reading many reviews on Cruise Critic, members appeared to overwhelmingly enjoy their aft facing cabins so I was eager to try one for the first time. We started pricing out regular balcony cabins as well as aft facing cabins. After going back and forth we decided to spring for the aft facing balcony. Ultimately it ended up being about $800 more expensive but it surely was worth it. We knew that the largest balconies were on deck 12 so we looked for available cabins there. We were able to secure cabin 12908. I was desperately trying to find pictures of this cabin balcony on the internet but was unable. I looked for similar pictures for this cabin on the Breakaway as well since both ships are pretty much identical from a layout perspective. The closest we were able to spot were pictures from the neighboring room on the Breakaway. It looked like these balconies were pretty huge and I figured we could not do much better so we settled on this room and locked it down soon after.

 

Hotel Search

Keeping in mind that we would not have a ton of beach time on the cruise (we knew we wanted to do at least one water excursion on the cruise instead of a day at the beach), we wanted to find a hotel preferably on the beach in Miami. We considered a few different options, but fell in love with the Grand Beach Hotel. It was a resort located just a few blocks north of the Fountaine Bleu on Miami Beach. It offered huge rooms with balcony views of the beach, bay, or both. The resort also had beach access, a large pool, and an adult only pool on the 7th floor with nice views of the city. Like the aft facing cabin, the hotel was not cheap, but it was not bad considering it was a full-fledged resort.

 

Day 1 of Vacation (Thursday July 3rd)

After waiting a long 2 months for our trip to get here, the day had finally arrived. My parents dropped us off at the airport for a quick, uneventful flight down to Fort Lauderdale. We were going to try to get a shuttle from the Fort Lauderdale airport to the hotel but decided we would rather pay extra to get to the hotel as soon as possible to maximize beach/pool time. We arrived on time at 11am and were checked in at the hotel by 12:30pm. The taxi was not cheap, ($90), but we knew what we signed up for. We also saved a bunch of money flying to FLL so it is what it is.

 

Miami Hotel- Grand Beach Hotel

The hotel was amazing. It was only built a few years ago and you could tell. The room was massive with 2 full bathrooms. So not needed, but great when trying to get ready to go out! The balcony was amazing with views of both the beach and the bay/city. From the 7th floor adults only pool you could even see the large tails of the ships in port from there (especially the Carnival Smokestacks.)

 

DSC01156_zps6a74d8ba.jpg

 

IMG_1815_zps900289aa.jpg

 

IMG_1732_zpscbdcbe11.jpg

 

After a quick bite, we decided to head down to the beach. The weather was perfect. It was a hot one but being from DC, it was not much hotter than home in July. We decided to rent a few beach loungers through the hotel. Soon after the Coronas were flowing and vacation had truly begun!

 

After spending a few hours at the beach we decided to try out the main pool area. We spent a little bit of time in the hot tubs. It was still pretty crowded but the main pool area did offer quite a bit of shade which literally made the temperature a good 15-20 degrees cooler. We then checked out the adult only pool on the 7th floor. They had a nice bar which had the Brazil World Cup game playing. I went back and forth keeping tabs on the game while My GF layed out enjoying some frozen drinks at the pool.

 

We wanted to experience South Beach on our first night, so headed down to eat on Ocean Drive for dinner. We found a great place that looked really nice. I later realized it was Café Milano, which is a very nice restaurant we also have in DC. It was pricey but well worth it. They served their frozen drinks in gigantic fish bowl glasses. I had to finish most of My GF’s Mango Daiquiri which was awesome. I also enjoyed a few Mojitos. I don’t know what they do to their Mojitos in South Beach but they are clearly the best I have ever had. We enjoyed a nice dinner while doing some people watching.

 

After desert we went to a tourist trap called Mango’s that I used to frequent when visiting Miami in the past. It is a fun place that has good music and also has both women and men come out and do some dancing routines. We danced a bit and headed home around midnight. We were thinking about also checking out a night club but decided it would not be worth it. We really wanted to check out Liv at the Fountaine Bleu. If we could do it all over again, we probably would have gone there but we were a bit tired after waking up for the early flight.

 

hi, loving your report and the hotel looks lovely, we are looking to book a hotel for one night after our cruise, are there any places to eat nearby that we could walk to, thanks

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  • 3 weeks later...
MandyMommyof2

MandyMommyof2

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Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a great review! You have me and my family super excited for our cruise on the Getaway in July. Your pictures were wonderful!! It seems the itinerary now stops in Tortola instead of St. Marteen/St. Martin, which kind of bummed me out. I was looking forward to seeing the planes land and take off. I know you said you wished you and your GF would have made earlier plans for specialty restaurants. How soon would you book in advance? We know we want to hit up Cagneys. And I want to try and get us reservations as soon as we can. Did you guys do the free style dining? As far as I can tell you just show up between a certain time, but you can expect a wait like any normal restaurant. Sorry to bombard you with dining questions :)

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Terpsince74

Terpsince74

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hi, loving your report and the hotel looks lovely, we are looking to book a hotel for one night after our cruise, are there any places to eat nearby that we could walk to, thanks

 

Hi there- sorry for the delayed response but did not see this post until now for some reason. To be honest there was not a ton of places to walk to in this area but we did take a very short cab ride to a number of places during our stay at this hotel. We are doing another cruise in January and am looking to stay here again. Looks like the rates just came down so I am going to jump on that as soon as I can. Enjoy!

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Terpsince74

Terpsince74

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Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a great review! You have me and my family super excited for our cruise on the Getaway in July. Your pictures were wonderful!! It seems the itinerary now stops in Tortola instead of St. Marteen/St. Martin, which kind of bummed me out. I was looking forward to seeing the planes land and take off. I know you said you wished you and your GF would have made earlier plans for specialty restaurants. How soon would you book in advance? We know we want to hit up Cagneys. And I want to try and get us reservations as soon as we can. Did you guys do the free style dining? As far as I can tell you just show up between a certain time, but you can expect a wait like any normal restaurant. Sorry to bombard you with dining questions :)

 

Sorry to hear that they took St Maarten off of the itinerary. We really loved it there. I also hear good things about Tortola though so that I am sure will also be fun. I would book the specialty restaurants no later than the first night on the ship or even before you embark. I was surprised how quickly they filled up. We did partial specialty restaurants and partial freestyle. Yes you just show up whenever you feel like it. We never had to wait at any of the dining rooms but we also like to eat a bit later than other folks too. Enjoy your cruise!

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  • 3 weeks later...
kjquilts Holiday Sharing Rare

kjquilts

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Thank you for doing such a wonderful photo review. They are so time consuming to do and you did a great job. Doing our first ever last minute cruise - booked Getaway on Saturday night and we're sailing on Jan 17th. We also have an aft facing balcony - deck 9.

 

On one of our previous cruises we took the #10 bus to Melia (then Sheraton). Your pictures brought back good memories.

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vnyislesv

vnyislesv

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solid review, read all of it. ive been on carnival twice n royal once, my parents always go on NCL so im thinking of spending a little more $ this time and doing the getaway sometime in april/may for my birthday.

 

1 thing that hasnt been mentioned but very important to me is, are the pools/jacuzzis open 24/7?

 

example; on the carnival breeze which was an AMAZING vacation, they let you do whatever, whenever. but the glory which was an old dump, they not only closed them, they drained them. same with royal. closed early. thanks. and if anyone else wants to answer maybe they can tell me if the NCL Epic stays open/closes early or any info. thanks.

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  • 2 weeks later...
NYHartChapp

NYHartChapp

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Glad you enjoyed it! Enjoy your cruise! I am starting to get that fever again and have another short one scheduled for January myself!

 

Tough loss for my Boilermakers to your Terps the other night. Couple of quick questions:

Does the Getaway operate on EST continually, or do they change to AST when making port at St. Martin and St. Thomas; and

In the shower, is there a single generic soap/body gel dispenser, or are there bar soaps and shampoo bottles?

 

Thanks.

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Terpsince74

Terpsince74

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Hey there NYhart, yeah I really thought Purdue was gonna beat us. Talk about a grind it out kind of game. We have Mich St at home today and am real nervous as we have not been playing too well.

 

I am pretty sure the clocks continually stay on EST as I dont remember being alerted of any time changes but could be wrong. Make sure to check your dailies!

 

Regarding the shower, all they provide is liquid shampoo and body wash in the dispensers. I hate that so always bring a bar of soap, my own shampoo, and also conditioner.

 

Enjoy your next cruise! We leave in exactly a week for ours 😃

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

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