getaway 8/23! Awesome Cruise!

[willowvacay]

 

 

 

 

[willowvacay]

Thanks for the Review! We'll be on the Getaway in October. Getting very excited with each review.

 

What day was the Behind the Scenes Tour? That's something we really want to do, but the time doesn't appear in any of the dailies.

 

Thanks Again!

 

 

 

I just looked at my dailies to try and see if it were on there too...and I didn't see it either. I know when we made the reservation we were offered one of the two tours {10am and 1030am on Monday (2nd sea day)}. I also remember them advertising it after that so I think it is also offered on Thursday. The max number is 16 guests but we only had 9 in our group so it was easy to hear and see. And they provide a nice picture with a real frame thing-y as well! I felt like it was well done and worth it. In fact, I would likely do it again on another ship.

[willowvacay]

Lunch at Virgils. They had the names of some of the states where they thought bbq was well done and my home state was one of them (not where we live now).

 

Virgils has Kalik:

 

 

We headed back to the ship after this. We picked up some more kalik and got pretty sad as we headed back on the ship.

 

 

There was an amazing welcome back party at every port but the Nassau (last day) welcome back party was the best by far! The officers were handing out the cool towels and drinks. The hotel director handed me my towel, an executive sous chef handed my husband his. The cruise director was handing out popsicles. Many other staff and officers lined the gangway welcoming us back.

 

 

 

It was a great experience. Either the crew, staff, and officers of NCL Getaway REALLY do care that their passengers chose to spend their vacation dollars there or they pretend really well! It felt really special.

[willowvacay]

As I mentioned above I didn't quite make my goal of visiting every bar on the ship but I knew we HAD to go to ice bar. We wanted to do Ice bar on epic 3 years ago but didn't make it. So when it got to the last day we asked the concierge Ruth to get us in and she did (nothing like procrastinating!). We paid our $20 per person and got outfitted with our gear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried to pretend I wasn't cold.

 

In fact I was shivering. Teeth chattering and all. We were only there for 15 minutes (as long as it took to get our 2 drinks apiece). The drinks were actually delicious! We had a great time.

[willowvacay]

 

Our final towel animal collection:

[Sundiego]

We were in 16126. It was a great location inside the haven key-card access area and super close to the lounge/concierge/pool area.

YAY!! We are in 16126 also :) Thanks for the pics of our cabin!

 

~Denise

[Bunnynme]

Thanks for the review, our Getaway cruise is in December and can't wait!

[david_sobe]

I LOVE this review. Great pictures too.

Love the quick and to the point writing style. No 5 pages of pre-cruise hotel :eek:

Edited August 31, 2014 by david_sobe

[willowvacay]

YAY!! We are in 16126 also :) Thanks for the pics of our cabin!

 

 

 

~Denise

 

 

I will share all my 16126 pics for you when I get back to my computer! I was looking for pics of the room before we left and I was taking in as much info as we could!

 

 

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[willowvacay]

Thanks for the review, our Getaway cruise is in December and can't wait!

 

 

 

Thank you so much! You will love it!

 

 

 

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[willowvacay]

[QU OTE=david_sobe;43951023]I LOVE this review. Great pictures too.

 

Love the quick and to the point writing style. No 5 pages of pre-cruise hotel :eek:

 

 

Thank you so much! I literally laughed out loud at your comment! I don't get the pre cruise hotel thing either!!

 

 

 

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[cruisecritiquer]

I LOVE this review. Great pictures too.

Love the quick and to the point writing style. No 5 pages of pre-cruise hotel :eek:

 

haha....I love when people say what I've been thinking all along. :p

[happy cruzin]

Friends were on your sailing - also in the Haven on our recommendation, which always makes me nervous. :o We haven't gotten the details from them yet - but they say they had a GREAT time too! ;) :D

For us - we wait until February! :rolleyes: ;) :D

Edited September 1, 2014 by happy cruzin

[willowvacay]

16126 Getaway

 

tv console

 

looking toward bathroom

 

closet 1

 

closet 2 (the haven robes were very comfortable and there were slippers in this closet too!)

 

cabinet with wine glasses and espresso machine

 

welcome champagne and water

[willowvacay]

So I cannot remember what I wanted to include that I have forgotten. so ill do my best below...

 

shows:

as mentioned above we loved illusionarium. The food is meh but the show is amazing so everyone should go. Don't know why NCL thinks a show this interesting needs dinner but it would be good with or without.

 

Burn the Floor--this show is fascinating. It is not really our type of thing (just a lot of dancing with some singing) but the dancing is really impressive. it was not super long so we were both impressed and not bored. I am amazed that people can dance that well.

 

Legally Blonde--this show is my kind of thing. I loved the movie, I have seen the musical and loved it as well. This is a sort of shortened version but the talent is great and the musical is wonderful. We would see this again.

 

 

Some concluding thoughts;

We would do the same thing in all those ports again. We would still see the shows we saw and visit the ice bar. I would buy the UDP again...we definitely ate our moneys worth!!! I would definitely not buy UBP because in spite of all my daily specials and tastes of restaurant speciality drinks there is NO WAY we would have drank enough to make it worthwhile. Internet--dont know if I would buy this again. I have a hard time being "off the grid" because I like to be able to see my emails and social media but I feel like maybe not buying it next time might encourage cruise lines to get faster/better/cheaper internet. Maybe not.

 

Overall impressions: we felt like the food was better on this cruise than on others we have taken. The ship was easy to navigate and very fun. The shows appealed to us. The ports we have done before (as above) but we had fun and would find something to do if we returned. We will definitely do NCL again. We like the "freestyle" and all the specialty offerings. I know some people consider this an upcharge but I plan on eating at these restaurants in advance and UDP has made this even easier.

 

Would we do HAVEN again? Abso-freaking-lutely. We loved this!! The key card access, the concierge, our butler, the private pool, "ship within a ship", so amazing. Any ship with a HAVEN proper I would even forgo the beloved aft balcony and view because I loved being within this area so much. I loved the close proximity between our room, the bar/restaurant, the pool, etc. This was very nice. I loved the priority embarkation/disembarkation etc. We loved it and for us it was totally worth it.

 

I am very sad to be done with this vacation. Frequently I Love my vacation but am glad to be home but we had such a great trip I have been sad that it is over. I hope everyone has as an amazing of an experience that we had. Was it perfect? no. We have never had a perfect vacation...with lost luggage out the back of our own SUV, flight delays, rude cabbies etc but we make the best of it, enjoy our time together and try to live the dream as much as possible!!

[Sfdtiller]

How much was the behind the scenes tour? Excited for our first NCL cruise on the 20th!!

[willowvacay]

How much was the behind the scenes tour? Excited for our first NCL cruise on the 20th!!

 

We think it was $79 pp. We really enjoyed it.

[PathfinderEss]

Great review, glad you had a good cruise.

[rch3]

Thanks for your review. We've booked 16130 and are a little concerned about noise from the public sundeck above. You were just 2 cabins forward from ours and was it noticeable to you? We've not stayed in the Haven before and we're also wondering about where entry to the Haven is located on this deck and whether or not we are likely to hear all the coming and going. Small issues I know, but we have time to switch cabins if deck chair banging and door sliding noise is likely. Thanks (from a fellow Kentuckian.)

[willowvacay]

Thanks for your review. We've booked 16130 and are a little concerned about noise from the public sundeck above. You were just 2 cabins forward from ours and was it noticeable to you? We've not stayed in the Haven before and we're also wondering about where entry to the Haven is located on this deck and whether or not we are likely to hear all the coming and going. Small issues I know, but we have time to switch cabins if deck chair banging and door sliding noise is likely. Thanks (from a fellow Kentuckian.)

 

 

 

Hello fellow Kentuckian!! I did not know there was a public sun deck above until we were wandering around one night and found it. Once we found it we figured out that the sun deck chairs were where all the noise was coming from on the rough night at sea. Other than that one rough night we did not hear much noise from that sun deck.

 

As far as noise within the haven (ie near the entrance door and the lounge) there was hardly any at all. That was one of our favorite aspects of the haven. The pool area at Haven and lounge had quiet music playing and was a pleasant volume. We were shocked that we never heard our neighbors or others going in and out of the lounge or the main entrance.

 

 

 

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[Sundiego]

Thanks so much for pics of "our" cabin :) Was the champagne a gift from your travel agent? IOW, this category of Haven suite doesn't qualify for a free bottle of anything, does it?

 

Did you email or call ahead of time and submit any special requests like a lot of posters have suggested?

 

~Denise

[willowvacay]

The champagne was a gift from

NCL (we have had a bottle both times we have had a suite). We also had a free bottle of wine, spa gift certificate, and dinner certificates at 3 specialty restaurants. Those gift certificates were just applied to our onboard acct as credits.

 

 

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[willowvacay]

Oh and we did email the pre cruise concierge. We requested the getawaY themed cake, several types of pillows, and a bucket of miller lite. The only one that was fulfilled when we entered the room was the miller lite. We asked our butler for the pillows and he brought them right away. It took almost all day to get the cake but he took care of all our requests. Not sure how one request was fulfilled but he didn't seem to know about the other two until we asked. It worked out great!

 

 

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[countess5]

Willowvacay, Thank you for the review!

 

We will be sailing on the Getaway January 31st 2015 (Super Bowl Weekend), we have the Aft Penthouse Suite 12904. :D I know it is not in the Haven but we still have the perks. I have read so much about the Aft Suite and Haven we just had to do it. We will be first time NCL cruisers always RCL or X.

 

When you went to the Magic show the first night were you not escorted down since you were in HAVEN? That is one show I do not want to miss.

 

Also, I laughed out loud with your Abso-freaking- lutely statement! :p That just put the final endorsement on sailing in Haven. We always sail in suites but not Haven style.

 

Thanks again for the review, thoughts, comments and observations. :)

[cherry30]

Thanks for the review. I was on the same cruise also in the haven. It was fantastic.