Live from Norwegian Getaway - September 27, 2014

[Ctrinh225]

[quote name='Daghis']Yes, we both got drink cards good for "house" drinks (house wines, basic cocktails, bottled water, etc.). The cards, along with our player's cards, were in our cabin waiting for us.

I must say that bar service in the casino has been excellent. There was no shortage of drinks available through their program in my experience (hic!).[/QUOTE]


Thank u! Can u find out another info? Is there a lobster nite? Where and when if they have it? Also what is the up charge (of lobster) in any of the specialtys?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Daghis]

From what I've heard here on Cruise Critic, lobster is available in Garden Café (buffet) on Sunday evening (the first sea day). We had dinner at Le Bistro, so I don't know what they offered then for certain.

I got the "Fruits de Mer" that includes lobster in Le Bistro. There was a $10 upcharge for that item, but that upcharge is waived for those with the Ultimate Dining Package. We're planning on Cagney's for dinner tonight, so I'll see what they have in terms of premium items.

[Sea3PO]

Hi Marc,

We were on the Getaway last week and had a great time. Just wanted to mention a few of the things we really enjoyed that you may want to do. Try to catch [I]Legally Blond[/I], it's a fun show. Be sure to make it to [I]Howl at the Moon[/I], the piano show (at least once). Dine in La Cucina (or any of the restaurants on the waterfront) in the outside section. We particularly enjoyed dining outdoors at La Cucina, Moderno, and Ocean Blue. Don't miss the fireworks!
Hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise!

--Steve & Mike

[kenoqueen]

I'm following along and look forward to checking in to see how your cruise is going. We are going to be on the Getaway on in 11 days, but who's counting. :)

If you get a chance will you check out the Mojito bar. I hear bartender "Bong" is back on the Getaway. We sure hope so; he's alot of fun.

Enjoy your cruise, looking forward to more review and also the comparison with the Allure. Royal is our preference but enjoy NCL when we can't catch one of their cruises. Freedom is our favorite ship!

[gaiamother]

Enjoying your review, only 11 days till we board:). Wondering what night is Formal or Not for attire? Thanks so much!
T

[Daghis]

[quote name='Sea3PO']Try to catch [I]Legally Blond[/I], it's a fun show. Be sure to make it to [I]Howl at the Moon[/I], the piano show (at least once). Dine in La Cucina (or any of the restaurants on the waterfront) in the outside section. We particularly enjoyed dining outdoors at La Cucina, Moderno, and Ocean Blue. Don't miss the fireworks!
Hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise! [/QUOTE]

Thank you very much for the tips! We're doing well on that checklist. We've got Legally Blonde reservations for tomorrow evening, and we enjoyed Howl at the Moon last night. That was a lot of fun.

The fireworks were last night and were really nice, too.

[quote name='kenoqueen']I'm following along and look forward to checking in to see how your cruise is going. We are going to be on the Getaway on in 11 days, but who's counting. :)

If you get a chance will you check out the Mojito bar. I hear bartender "Bong" is back on the Getaway. We sure hope so; he's alot of fun.

Enjoy your cruise, looking forward to more review and also the comparison with the Allure. Royal is our preference but enjoy NCL when we can't catch one of their cruises. Freedom is our favorite ship![/QUOTE]

We'll definitely have to keep an eye out for Bong. We've not yet hung out at the Sugarcane bar, so we'll do that!



[quote name='gaiamother']Enjoying your review, only 11 days till we board:). Wondering what night is Formal or Not for attire? Thanks so much! [/QUOTE]

They call it "Norwegians Night Out" and it was on Day 2 (the first "at sea" day).

[Daghis]

Welcome to St. Thomas! I'm enjoying some relatively free data thanks to my AT&T allotment. :)

Yesterday was another fun day onboard Norwegian Getaway.

We started our morning with a nice breakfast in the Garden Café. I had an omelet that was good. I LOVE the chocolate croissants. They are much better than I can get on Royal Caribbean. The bread is flaky, just like it's supposed to be.

We disembarked briefly to get a couple little things at the port (eyeglass retainers for our upcoming Atlantis Aquaventure excursion on Friday), and then reboarded to enjoy an uncrowded day on the ship.

It was a good idea to stay on the ship while others were enjoying St. Maarten. I got a chance to try the ropes course while it wasn't busy. That was quite an experience, something like which I've never done before! I'm really glad that I tried it and even got to do my very first zip line.

Bryan tried the water slides and had a good time with them. I may try them later on, but with the Aquaventure excursion coming up, I know I've got lots of waterslides in my future! :D

Dinner last night was at Cagney's. The meal started off great with fantastic service and the appetizers were very good, but then something happened and things went downhill. We were sitting such that I had a perfect view of the kitchen. I saw our steaks get prepared and were placed on the top shelf under the lamps. They then just sat there for 15-20 minutes during which time no one stopped by our table nor attended to the food.

By the time that they did fetch our main courses, my steak was already rather cool. They replaced the steak (a five ounce filet mignon), but forgot that I had requested it with cajun seasoning. Unfortunately, no one came back to check on our food after that, so I wasn't able to get that corrected. :(

Dessert was disappointing, too. I ordered the "decadent" chocolate brownie on the advice of the server. She said that she loved it because of how chocolatey it was. Although the brownie was good, despite having nuts which isn't my preference for brownies, it wasn't all that chocolatey in my opinion.

I'm sure tonight's dinner at Moderno will be better!

After dinner, we went to Headliners to see Howl at the Moon, the dueling piano bar. That was a lot of fun and there was some really good energy in the crowd. The room was full with people standing at the back. I thought it was good that there were three performers who'd cycle in and out to keep the music going while they got a chance to get a break.

Then it was time for the fireworks. We went up to deck 16 and got a spot at the railing near the waterslides. It turned out to be a good place to be and we had a great view of the fireworks. It was a very nice program.

After that, it was time for bed.

Oh, I did manage to get a T-shirt last night. There were limited supplies of T-shirts in the displays, but one of the women working in the shop was able to check the stock of shirts under the displays and found one in my size. I'm happy to have a Norwegian Getaway ("Inaugural Season") shirt to add to my collection!

[mitchizumi]

can wait to hear all about your cruise:)

[grovesteve]

My wife and I have been on both the Allure (sister ship of the Oasis) and the Getaway. We prefer the Getaway. the smaller venues like Headliners and the Grammy Experience made our cruise. I would have spoken to the Matradi at Carneys there was no excuse for what happened to you. Something happened to us once at a specialty restaraunt on a NCL cruise spoke to the Matradi and you would have thought for the rest of the cruise that he was my long lost brother. Enjoy the cruises. We will be back on the Getaway next month.
enjoy.
Steve R from Illinis

[Daghis]

We did speak with the Assistant Maître d' as we were leaving. She merely offered an explanation that my food must have cooked faster and needed to wait for Bryan's (nevermind the fact that he ordered the same thing that I did and his was also waiting on the shelf next to mine). She also explained that the assistant waiter must have been busy helping another server. Talking with her wasn't very enlightening as to what actually happened and ensuring that it wouldn't happen again.

[Daghis]

We just had lunch at O'Sheehan's. I think that O'Sheehan's is a fantastic venue. The menu is rather limited, but has very nice selections on it. Today after lunch, I got a banana split afterward and that was quite good.

I like having O'Sheehan's as a restaurant, especially since it's open 24 hours/day. I wish that Royal Caribbean ships could offer comparable food service in their pubs.

[www3traveler]

[quote name='Daghis']We did speak with the Assistant Maître d' as we were leaving. She merely offered an explanation that my food must have cooked faster and needed to wait for Bryan's (nevermind the fact that he ordered the same thing that I did and his was also waiting on the shelf next to mine). She also explained that the assistant waiter must have been busy helping another server. Talking with her wasn't very enlightening as to what actually happened and ensuring that it wouldn't happen again.[/QUOTE]
Go talk with either the Restaurant Manager Deepak Gonsalves or the Food and Beverage Director Martin Ivanov. I had a food issue on my last Getaway cruise and talked with them a couple of days later. Both are very nice gentlemen.

[lynnc99]

We were on the Getaway in August and you are right, Sunday at the buffet was seafood/lobster night. Kind if over rated IMHO....and made for the busiest might at the buffet as well.

[Sea3PO]

[quote name='Daghis']Thank you very much for the tips! We're doing well on that checklist. We've got Legally Blonde reservations for tomorrow evening, and we enjoyed Howl at the Moon last night. That was a lot of fun.

The fireworks were last night and were really nice, too.
[/quote]

Hi Marc,

Glad you enjoyed! We'll second the (above) vote for Sugarcane--the Bacardi Mojitos there were great. Do try the outdoor restaurant seating on the Waterfront (if you like that sort of thing).

Our dinner at Cagney's was the only disappointment of the week--just okay. Ocean Blue was one of our favorite meals (ever) on a cruise ship, Moderno was excellent, and we thoroughly enjoyed Le Bistro and La Cucina.

Thanks for the review. It's reminding us of our great week on the Getaway. Hope you enjoy [I]Legally Blond[/I].

Steve & Mike Edited October 2, 2014 by Sea3PO

[Schasz]

Sorry to read about your bad experience at Cagney's. The friend who advised me to go on this cruise raved about the aged beef they serve there and thought the steaks at Cagney's were much better than what he had at the specialty restaurants on Allure or Oasis. Heck I booked Cagney's for 2 nights on our upcoming cruise because of his recommendation.

Glad you gave Howl at the moon a thumbs up. we have been to bars like it that have dueling pianos and have always had a good time.

Do you plan on doing a write up on your Allure cruise? While we will be on Getaway next week I would look for your write up on that cruise when we get back. We want to cruise one or both of Allure and Oasis. I am leaning to Oasis because I know they are changing the Broadway show to Cats soon and we really like that show.

Shari & John

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

Gg[quote name='Daghis']

Oh, I did manage to get a T-shirt last night. There were limited supplies of T-shirts in the displays, but one of the women working in the shop was able to check the stock of shirts under the displays and found one in my size. I'm happy to have a Norwegian Getaway ("Inaugural Season") shirt to add to my collection![/QUOTE]

Hi Neighbor! I am enjoying your live report and I look forward to reading your opinion on how NCL and RCI compare. I am finding that while I prefer the vibe on NCL overall, I miss the better food and pool decks on RCI. Such small things that it's safe to say I'd be happy on either in the future. I have 6 cruises booked over the next 2 years with 3 on each line.

I hope your tee shirt purchase means that you are deciding the same!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk Edited October 2, 2014 by Steeler Nation At Sea

[TrinaLC]

Don't forget to seek out Bong!! We're among his fans from his days on the Sun.

[Susie51]

Thank you for your "live" review.

[kenoqueen]

[quote name='TrinaLC']Don't forget to seek out Bong!! We're among his fans from his days on the Sun.[/quote]

We are on the Getaway in 9 days and hope Bong is still there. We are big fans of his too and we first met him on the Sun also.

[Daghis]

I haven't yet seen Bong at the Sugarcane Bar. I'll have to ask about him.

[Daghis]

I'm keeping things quick now because our remaining internet time is short.

Dinner at La Cucina was nice. We got to watch the sunset from the Waterfront dining area. I had the lobster pasta. It was pleasant. For dessert I tried the chocolate volcano, but it didn't impress me. (They offered it in the specialty restaurant because it was chocolate night.)

We just got back from Atlantis for the Aquaventure waterpark. Unfortunately, after we were there about an hour and a half, they shut down the lazy river and the slides due to lightning conditions in the distance. By the time we packed up and left, they started opening things up again. Oh, well. At least we made a couple trips around the river. :)

Tonight's dinner is Moderno again, this time sitting outside so that we can watch sail away from Nassau.

Then it's time to pack and prepare for the next cruise on Allure of the Seas starting on Sunday. For those who want to follow along there, I'll be doing a live thread for that cruise in the Royal Caribbean forum.

After both cruises are done, I'll be posting a summary/comparison with scoring between the two cruises and cruise lines. (I will try to provide comparisons that are appropriate for Getaway since Allure of the Seas has many things that Getaway doesn't. I'll likely compare Getaway to my experiences on Freedom of the Seas and Independence of the Seas.)

[Crusin-Suzan]

Deepak is a wonderful person. He would have make up to you your disappointment you had in Cagney's. Sorry to hear that happened as I love Cagney's.

Thanks it was a great review!

[Chesneygirl]

Thanks for taking the time to post your experiences during your week long cruise.
Have fun on your next cruise!! :)

[Daghis]

I'm now in my hotel room between cruises and can offer some additional thoughts about my cruise.

I'll start off with disembarkation. It went surprisingly smoothly. We had a leisurely breakfast in Savor, and just as we finished eating, they called our color. We had purple tags which were estimated to disembark at 9:00 AM, but we ended up being called around 8:30. That was fine and worked well with us.

The bags were slightly difficult to find among the mass of bags with purple tags, but we found them and then got into the somewhat long, snaking line for customs/immigration. Fortunately, the line moved relatively quickly and we were out of the terminal 10-15 minutes after disembarking the ship.

I asked about Bong. I was told that he was working in the GRAMMY bar which is why we didn't see him at the Sugarcane Bar, although he was expected to return to Sugarcane for this next cruise.

We had dinner at Moderno, eating outside during sail away from Nassau. That was awesome. We were on the shady side of the ship, so it was very comfortable and we didn't have the sun blinding us. Dinner was good and we enjoyed it very much. We both declined their desserts, instead opting to get desserts brought over from Cagney's, which they were happy to oblige.

All in all, it was an enjoyable cruise, although we both agreed that we think we prefer the way that Royal Caribbean does some things. The open concept of decks 6, 7, and 8 is very nice in terms of providing a central place for restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues, they have a problem with sound and smoke bleeding over from one place to another. People have commented about about the smoke from the casino and it was generally true in the evenings. The sound, especially from the atrium during loud, live performances, made conversations around Guest Services or in O'Sheehan's upstairs difficult.

We did find that the employees often had smiles on their faces and were happy to greet us and try to help us. Only once did a server do something poorly and that was relatively minor. (I had asked for a Diet Pepsi without ice. He brought it over with ice in it, remembered that I had asked for no ice, commented "Oh, there's only a few ice cubes in there" and gave me the drink anyway. That seemed odd for the kind of service I expect from a bar server.)

Howl at the Moon, Legally Blonde, and Burn the Floor were all very enjoyable shows/performances.

Anyway, it was a pretty good cruise and I'm really happy I had the chance to try someone other than Royal Caribbean after sailing with them exclusively for the past seven years.

Now I get to prepare for my next cruise on Allure of the Seas. I hope you'll following along with me there. :)

[Yorkvillain]

[quote name='Daghis']I'm now in my hotel room between cruises and can offer some additional thoughts about my cruise.

I'll start off with disembarkation. It went surprisingly smoothly. We had a leisurely breakfast in Savor, and just as we finished eating, they called our color. We had purple tags which were estimated to disembark at 9:00 AM, but we ended up being called around 8:30. That was fine and worked well with us.

The bags were slightly difficult to find among the mass of bags with purple tags, but we found them and then got into the somewhat long, snaking line for customs/immigration. Fortunately, the line moved relatively quickly and we were out of the terminal 10-15 minutes after disembarking the ship.

I asked about Bong. I was told that he was working in the GRAMMY bar which is why we didn't see him at the Sugarcane Bar, although he was expected to return to Sugarcane for this next cruise.

We had dinner at Moderno, eating outside during sail away from Nassau. That was awesome. We were on the shady side of the ship, so it was very comfortable and we didn't have the sun blinding us. Dinner was good and we enjoyed it very much. We both declined their desserts, instead opting to get desserts brought over from Cagney's, which they were happy to oblige.

All in all, it was an enjoyable cruise, although we both agreed that we think we prefer the way that Royal Caribbean does some things. The open concept of decks 6, 7, and 8 is very nice in terms of providing a central place for restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues, they have a problem with sound and smoke bleeding over from one place to another. People have commented about about the smoke from the casino and it was generally true in the evenings. The sound, especially from the atrium during loud, live performances, made conversations around Guest Services or in O'Sheehan's upstairs difficult.

We did find that the employees often had smiles on their faces and were happy to greet us and try to help us. Only once did a server do something poorly and that was relatively minor. (I had asked for a Diet Pepsi without ice. He brought it over with ice in it, remembered that I had asked for no ice, commented "Oh, there's only a few ice cubes in there" and gave me the drink anyway. That seemed odd for the kind of service I expect from a bar server.)

Howl at the Moon, Legally Blonde, and Burn the Floor were all very enjoyable shows/performances.

Anyway, it was a pretty good cruise and I'm really happy I had the chance to try someone other than Royal Caribbean after sailing with them exclusively for the past seven years.

Now I get to prepare for my next cruise on Allure of the Seas. I hope you'll following along with me there. :)[/QUOTE]

Great review Marc. I plan on trying one of NCL's bigger ships in the next few years.

Now on to the Allure!