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A Lengthy Review of a Fantastic Cruise on the Getaway [10/03 - 10/10)

PaulInPGH

By PaulInPGH,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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PaulInPGH

PaulInPGH

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Greetings! After my last cruise I wrote a lengthy review here on CC. It was a very fun way to relive my vacation, so I decided to do another one for my recent cruise on the Getaway. I will be posting it as I write it, so I beg your indulgence if updates take some time, especially as I am starting a new job this week.

 

Some preliminaries: This cruise was just my wife and I. We are both in our early 30s and this was our third cruise, though first on NCL. Our previous two cruises were with Royal Caribbean (Serenade and Independence), so we were excited to try something new. Not to say that we were unhappy with Royal, just excited for the variety. So this review will look at some of the differences in the two lines, at least as we've experienced them in our limited exposure to each. I hope this will help folks who are making future cruise decisions and deciding between these two lines.

 

I'll be taking a day-by-day approach, but here are a few general thoughts before I start the review. Getaway is a fantastic ship, probably my favorite of the three ships I've experienced. I was extremely pleased and impressed with almost every aspect, especially the food and entertainment. I'll be getting to specifics shortly, but for anyone thinking of booking a cruise on Getaway I would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a fantastic cruise vacation.

 

Alright, review coming shortly. I will do my best to answer any questions along the way. Hope you enjoy.

 

Cheers!

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PaulInPGH

PaulInPGH

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Pre-Cruise: A Blustery Day in D.C.

 

It seems to be our lot in life to encounter horrible weather before each of our trips. Last time we cruised, we flew through the start of an ice storm in Pittsburgh. The time before that? Snow. So of course, we were not surprised at all by the hurricane that was forecast to cause heavy rain and wind, not in the Caribbean, but in D.C.

 

I spent the week leading up to the cruise obsessively watching the weather channel and checking the weather app on my phone. But while it rained basically all week, and while it was definitely windy, the only consequences we suffered were getting soaking wet as we walked to our metro station and a very terrifying takeoff and climb out. And even though I hate flying, I was so happy to be leaving on our trip I didn’t even complain about the bone-chilling and knuckle-whitening flight I knew would be in store.

 

We landed in Miami around 9:00 and very quickly picked up our bags and grabbed the shuttle to our hotel. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites Miami Airport Blue Lagoon. The hotel was fantastic, offering a free airport shuttle, free breakfast, and a shuttle to the port for $10 per person. The shuttle to the port is not a walk-on, so make your reservations when you check in to your room.

 

After dropping off our luggage, we took a quick stroll across the street to grab a late dinner at a Cuban restaurant. As a displaced Miami native, I absolutely love Cuban food and have found it hard to get in most places I’ve lived. The dinner we had that night was enjoyable, but if you’re heading out on Getaway I would advise you to skip the Cuban restaurant by the hotel and save your money, because the Cuban food on board Getaway was better…and it was free!

 

After a quick dinner and one celebratory start of vacation mojito, we went straight to bed—eager to hit the high seas the next day.

 

Up Next: Day 1.

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PaulInPGH

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Day 1: Mojitos, Cheesebread, and My Favorite Shipboard Dining Ever!

 

I’d wanted to arrive at the port as early as we could, just to beat the lines and have as much time as possible on the ship. The shuttle to the port only left at 11:00 and 12:00, so we chose to leave at 11:00.

 

We made it to the port at about 11:15 and made our way toward terminal C. There was already quite the crowd ahead of us, but we still managed to get through security and check in in about 30 or so minutes. When we got to the holding area we were assigned to boarding group 12, and since they were only on group 6, we expected to wait a while. The wait turned out to be only about 20 minutes though and we were soon making our way on to the ship!

 

We entered on deck 7 and we had a quick look around. We walked through the quiet casino and had a look at an already busy O’Sheehan’s.

 

I could already hear cocktails being shaken and we were ready to kick off our vacation with a drink. We chose the UBP as our free promotion and we were excited to start using it. We walked up to the Mojito Bar on deck 8 and very quickly found what would become our favorite bar on the ship.

 

For the only time during the entire cruise, other than port days, the bar was not crowded. We sat in some of the comfortable chairs and someone came to take our drink order right away. I was pleasantly surprised, as we’d received no table service at all on our last cruise on RCI’s Serenade of the Seas. However, as the bars became more crowded, it became much easier and faster to just go up to the bar ourselves. I decided to start with a classic mojito, while my wife was more adventurous and tried the Spicy Passion, which she loved and enjoyed often throughout the week. We savored that first drink and finally felt like vacation had truly begun.

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PaulInPGH

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We enjoyed a second round at the Mojito Bar while we waited for staterooms to be ready. Staterooms were opened at about 1:15 and we set off on what turned out to be a long journey to our cabin on deck 10. Not at all familiar with the layout of the ship yet (I failed to study the deck plans in advance, as is my habit), we took the aft elevators up to deck 10, even though our cabin was quite far forward.

 

We booked an inside guarantee cabin in an attempt to keep this trip as affordable as possible. This meant that NCL picked our cabin for us and as we’re not really picky about where we are on the ship it worked out rather well.

 

We were in cabin 10403, which is almost as far forward as you can go. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the cabin, especially the bathroom and shower. The bathroom and shower felt much roomier than what we had on either of our RCI cruises. There was a little outside noise near our cabin—I think we were near where the cabin attendants filled ice buckets—but this was never a problem in the evenings or early mornings, so no big deal. The bed was comfortable and there was plenty of storage, so we were pleased with our bargain cabin.

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PaulInPGH

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After we explored our cabin we decided to head back out and try another bar. We went back down to deck 8 and stopped at the Sunset bar. This bar was nice and typically less crowded than the Mojito Bar, but we didn’t enjoy their drink selection quite as much.

 

Having now consumed several drinks without the benefit of any food in our stomachs we were getting a bit buzzed—and hungry. Since I’d been looking forward to Cuban food since booking this cruise, we proceeded up to the Flamingo Grill on deck 16 for a delicious lunch.

 

Flamingo Grill is just outstanding. I think we sampled everything on the menu and loved it all. That first afternoon it was pulled pork and croquetas. I was blown away by how hot, fresh, and homemade the food tasted, especially as it was served buffet style. We ended up eating lunch there every day. I’m honestly not sure I’ll ever be able to cruise on another ship again, that’s how much I loved this food.

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Mandy412

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Pre-Cruise: A Blustery Day in D.C.

 

It seems to be our lot in life to encounter horrible weather before each of our trips. Last time we cruised, we flew through the start of an ice storm in Pittsburgh. The time before that? Snow. So of course, we were not surprised at all by the hurricane that was forecast to cause heavy rain and wind, not in the Caribbean, but in D.C.

 

I spent the week leading up to the cruise obsessively watching the weather channel and checking the weather app on my phone. But while it rained basically all week, and while it was definitely windy, the only consequences we suffered were getting soaking wet as we walked to our metro station and a very terrifying takeoff and climb out. And even though I hate flying, I was so happy to be leaving on our trip I didn’t even complain about the bone-chilling and knuckle-whitening flight I knew would be in store.

 

We landed in Miami around 9:00 and very quickly picked up our bags and grabbed the shuttle to our hotel. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites Miami Airport Blue Lagoon. The hotel was fantastic, offering a free airport shuttle, free breakfast, and a shuttle to the port for $10 per person. The shuttle to the port is not a walk-on, so make your reservations when you check in to your room.

 

After dropping off our luggage, we took a quick stroll across the street to grab a late dinner at a Cuban restaurant. As a displaced Miami native, I absolutely love Cuban food and have found it hard to get in most places I’ve lived. The dinner we had that night was enjoyable, but if you’re heading out on Getaway I would advise you to skip the Cuban restaurant by the hotel and save your money, because the Cuban food on board Getaway was better…and it was free!

 

After a quick dinner and one celebratory start of vacation mojito, we went straight to bed—eager to hit the high seas the next day.

 

Up Next: Day 1.

 

 

Dude you rock! I was wondering which Hampton had the shuttle to the port. Thank you from a lazy yinzer!

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PaulInPGH

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We love the Flamingo Grill too! Have been on this ship 3 times now and can't wait to book her again. Loving your review:D

 

I'd love to book this ship again, as well. My urge to try new ships will battle with my urge to eat amazing free Cuban food for a week, so we'll see.

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PaulInPGH

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Did you feel much movement in the front of the ship?

 

Most of the time it was pretty calm, so little movement. We did have a couple nights where things were definitely moving, but I kind of enjoyed it as I went to sleep. My wife, who suffers from motion sickness on occasion, wasn't bothered. She also took a Dramamine each morning though, just to be safe.

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PaulInPGH

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Still in awe of the food we just consumed, we headed over to the pool bar to grab a drink. Even on the first afternoon, the pool area was hopping. We snagged our drinks quickly though, and rather than hang out in the hot Miami sun, we walked down to O’Sheehan’s for the muster drill that was to start in about 30 minutes.

 

We finished our drinks just before the start of the drill, which was lucky, because the folks at NCL do not want people eating, drinking, or talking during the drill. They seem to take the drill a bit more seriously than RCI, which is good considering the importance of safety at sea. Unfortunately, people just do not understand the concept of “be quiet,” and it takes a while for people to get the hint. It was actually kind of funny: the crewmember in charge of our station would ask for quiet, people would kind of stop talking for about 20 seconds, and then they’d start up again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

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PaulInPGH

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Anyway, after about 20 minutes the drill was over and we were free to talk and drink to our heart’s content. We decided to check out the waterfront area on deck 8, as I’d been looking forward to enjoying some food and drink outside on the water.

 

The waterfront was one of my few disappointments on this trip. The available seating near each of the outside bars seemed far too small to handle the demand of such a large ship. We spent almost no time there the entire week because seating was at such a premium.

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After a quick walk around deck 8, we headed toward Moderno, where we had a reservation for dinner at 6:30. We decided to stop over a bit early to see if they could move our reservation up, because we were hungry. The restaurants didn’t open until 5:30, but we spent a nice 20 minutes chatting with Bengie, the bartender at the Prime Meridian Bar between Moderno and Cagney’s. He ended up being our favorite bartender on the ship and we made a point to enjoy a round or two with him each night.

 

Luckily, there was no problem moving our Moderno reservation up to 5:30 and we were seated right when the restaurant opened. We decided not to eat outside because of the brisk wind that was blowing, but we had a very nice spot at the window, where we enjoyed watching the sunset as we enjoyed our delicious dinner.

 

A word about Moderno: we eat at this style of restaurant quite often, so we knew what to expect. We certainly enjoyed our meal, especially at the very reasonable price, but the quality of the steak is definitely not equal to what you would get at most land-based churrascarias. My wife guessed that it might have something to do with the way the steaks are prepared, as they’re unlikely to be grilled over open flame on a ship.

 

In any case, even though the steaks weren’t outstanding, everything else was fantastic. We love the Brazilian cheese bread, Pao de Queijo. Side note: Pao de Queijo is insanely easy to make yourself at home; we make it all the time. I also ate about a pound of the most delicious shrimp they kept bringing to the table. They were poached in some kind of tomato broth and I just couldn’t get enough. All in all, even with the subpar steaks, I would eat at Moderno again on my next NCL cruise, for sure.

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E46M3

E46M3

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Anyway, after about 20 minutes the drill was over and we were free to talk and drink to our heart’s content. We decided to check out the waterfront area on deck 8, as I’d been looking forward to enjoying some food and drink outside on the water.

 

The waterfront was one of my few disappointments on this trip. The available seating near each of the outside bars seemed far too small to handle the demand of such a large ship. We spent almost no time there the entire week because seating was at such a premium.

We were on the same cruise and our experience with the waterfront is quite the opposite. Although we did not go there after the drill as we thought it might get crowded. But when we did go, seats were always plentiful and we enjoyed hanging out at the sugarcane bar.

 

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

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