NCL Getaway May 16th-23rd

[Gaprofitt]

Hi All,

 

Just off the Getaway yesterday. Had a great time. We had a large balcony room on Deck 9. I'll give a brief opinion of my overall experience to help those new to NCL. I'll try to be subjective but I truly believe all cruises are good cruises. This was our first cruise with NCL.

 

This cruise was with my parents, myself and my 3.5 year old son. My parents are more buffet style, quick eating kind of people so we didn't go all out on the restaurants onboard. We all did have the UBP (ultimate beverage package).

 

I'll start with the pros. The staff was excellent, the room steward we had was exceptional and would even make my son towel animals in the morning when he cleaned the room as well as at night. The food was very good and I was impressed with the buffet and osheehan's as well as other venues we tried. Everyone we encountered was beyond helpful.

 

My son loved the waterslides and pool area for kids, the mini golf was pretty cool but not great. I'm an avid golfer personally. The shows were good and well attended and we enjoyed them. We enjoyed the casino but the spread out nature of the casino felt odd to me for some reason. The outdoor areas especially the waterfront we really enjoyed. I was surprised they served hand dipped ice cream as well as had machines in the buffet area. My son obviously loved this. The room was great with the large balcony and we had plenty of room. I felt storage was lackluster compared to Carnival and princess however.

 

Now i'll discuss the cons. The biggest con by far was the amount of people on the ship. I felt more crowded on this ship than any other I had been on previously. I think the problem lies in the design. The majority of the ship is rooms and you have the haven area as well. Obviously this isn't true for higher decks, pool areas etc.

 

I barely saw any NCL or NCL getaway shirts available for sale. They had like one or two with limited quantities.

 

In regards to the casino they charge a withdrawal fee for playing slots, it's pretty steep as well. I don't know the exact percentage. I don't agree with them doing this at all. Either you bring a ton of cash or use the ATM with a high fee as well. I don't recall Carnival, Princess or RCCL doing this.

 

Overall we had a great cruise, I would cruise NCL again for sure. I wish they had some smaller ships that were not super old and outdated.

[mysandyfeet]

Glad you had a good time despite feeling a bit crowded.:( It's nice to have family time anyway you can get it sometimes!

 

Did you bring back any of the dallies, like for the day in St Thomas and Tortola?

Thanks!

[NLH Arizona]

In regards to the casino they charge a withdrawal fee for playing slots, it's pretty steep as well. I don't know the exact percentage. I don't agree with them doing this at all. Either you bring a ton of cash or use the ATM with a high fee as well. I don't recall Carnival, Princess or RCCL doing this.

 

I think it is 3% on NCL (but not positive), better than Celebrity where it is 5%. In the olden days, you could withdraw money from your shipboard account through the casino without a charge, but what happened is that some would go there and withdraw money and then not gamble, so they pretty much ruined it for all of us who truly gamble.

[GateGuardian]

Hi All,

 

 

I barely saw any NCL or NCL getaway shirts available for sale. They had like one or two with limited quantities.

 

In regards to the casino they charge a withdrawal fee for playing slots, it's pretty steep as well. I don't know the exact percentage. I don't agree with them doing this at all. Either you bring a ton of cash or use the ATM with a high fee as well. I don't recall Carnival, Princess or RCCL doing this.

 

 

Agreed that there are barely any NCL products on this ship compared to their other cruise ships. I found they did bring out many of their NCL products when they do their "mega" sale in La Cucina and the Grammy room on Day 7.

[brantley847]

Was present last week as well.

 

The design is certainly an issue. 2k chairs for 4k guests and two tiny pools (excluding Haven's).

 

Nothing discourages getting in a pool other than 75 people sitting on every inch around the pool. And it is no fault of their own.. there was no other pools to do so.

 

They sacrificed design for the appeal of the slides (which I did enjoy). However, that perk only appeases a very small fraction of the guests.

[PDIDDYwife]

We snagged a bunch of Getaway shirts, hats and adorable Miami Getawy totes for 1/2 off . The "sale" was the last sea day and was not announced-all the stuff was put out at those counters outside the shoppes . These were Getaway specific items as opposed to generic NCL branded stuff we found at the Grammy sale.

T shirts were 10, hats 12 or 14 and the sparkly big tote bags 19.99

 

Gotta say, the gift shoppes on Getaway are lame-oh.

As for the cash, royal charges 3% as well.