Getaway review with pictures May 22-29

[Brooklyn1977]

Hope you had a great cruise! Spice H20 really is an awesome area.

I do remember seeing land in the distance that day thanks for reminding me. Also, on the last sea day I remember seeing land and a skyline as well. Must of been Cuba again!

 

 

 

Thanks! At least you can look forward to it from now until then! I am sad that I don't have a cruise to look forward to at the moment lol.

 

Yeah, we unfortunately don't have another cruise to look forward to at the moment either right now. Guess that's why I'm on cruise critic looking at picture threads!

[tropical83]

Day 3 - Roatan Honduras

 

We were set to arrive in Roatan at 10:00am. When I woke up I went out to the balcony and were pulling in to Coxen Hole.

 

 

 

We had an excursion booked with NCL today. We went to Tabyana Beach. Originally we planned to book the Maya Key excursion. However it sold out pretty early, like more than 2 months before our cruise! I was disappointed that I didn't just book it sooner. So the 4 of us decided to just book Tabyana beach and have a nice beach day. We got off the ship as soon as we could and met our excursion just out on the dock. We boarded the bus and it took about 20-25 minutes to get to the beach.

[tropical83]

Yeah, we unfortunately don't have another cruise to look forward to at the moment either right now. Guess that's why I'm on cruise critic looking at picture threads!

 

Sucks doesn't it? Looking at pictures and reading reviews makes me want to go so much more though. I'm hoping I can go again next year. I'm addicted now!

[tropical83]

The area on the way to the beach

 

 

 

[tropical83]

Snorkeling was included and everyone did it except me. I have never snorkeled before. I was going to do it but I had a pretty bad sinus headache and my feet and ankles were starting to swell at this point so I just decided to lay on a lounger and relax. I would say they snorkeled for about 45 minutes. They said it was pretty awesome. They mentioned that it was somewhat hard though. They said they had some issues with the masks and water kept finding its way in. Also they mentioned that sometimes it was hard to make sure you didn't knock your legs on the coral. Overall though they enjoyed it and said it was beautiful.

 

People snorkeling

 

 

 

See the area at the end along the little hill? We saw a bunch of fish swimming around in that area pretty close to shore. So I didn't have to snorkel to see some fish lol.

 

 

[tropical83]

It was a beautiful sunny day but it was VERY HOT. We couldn't really sit on the loungers for long, we had to be in the water!

 

 

 

 

A Buffet style lunch was included. There was chicken, rice and beans, hamburgers, hotdogs, fruit. There may have been more but that is what I remember. It was pretty good.

 

Here is the lunch area

 

 

[tropical83]

I forget exactly what time we left, but they did have shuttles that went back and forth every half an hour. I think maybe we left around 2:30 or 3pm. I believe the last shuttle was 4 or 4:30 pm.

 

When we got back to the port we just walked around a little bit and looked at some of the shops.

 

Some pics of the ship

 

 

 

 

Once back on the ship, guess where we headed?

 

 

lol can you tell how much we loved that place?

[tropical83]

Roatan from Spice H20

 

 

There wasn't too many people up at Spice at this time.

 

 

 

We sat at the bar and ordered some daiquiri's. Earlier in the review I mentioned our favourite bartender Joao. Well since it wasn't too busy this was the time that we got to know him a bit more and had some nice conversations with him. He told us about his life and talked about what it was like to work for Norwegian etc. He was just so nice and friendly and he was part of the reason we liked going to Spice H20 so much.

 

After talking to him for a while we went and relaxed in the hot tub before we went to our rooms to get ready for dinner.

[tropical83]

Dinner tonight was at Taste. I had the cauliflower soup and the ricotta risotto. The risotto was so good!

 

I wasn't really feeling the best. Still had the sinus headache, my nose was stuffed up and my feet, ankles and legs were getting worse. We just walked around a bit and hung around the Sugarcane bar. There was usually live music in that area. There was someone who sang and played the piano. I didn't really take pictures this night and I'm guess it was because I wasn't feeling the best.

 

Looks like I managed to get one of the Chandelier. Loved these colours!

 

 

Later on there was a Caribbean party at Spice H20. We went to check it out. There wasn't really that many people there but the bar was full. We sat there for a while. As I sat there, my legs started swelling more and it was getting pretty uncomfortable where I just couldn't sit there anymore. This point was probably when they were at their worst. I felt a bit cranky so I just went back to the room to put my feet up and went to bed.

 

Here is our towel animal from Day 3

 

[nessylee]

I'm loving your review. We were on the Getaway last year and are going back again in September. This time we will be kid free to celebrate our anniversary and I hope to spend a lot more time at Spice H2O.

Edited June 7, 2016 by nessylee

[tropical83]

I'm loving your review. We were on the Getaway last year and are going back again in September. This time we will be kid free to celebrate our anniversary and I hope to spend a lot more time at Spice H2O.

 

Thanks for reading. I'm sure you'll have a great cruise!

[Brooklyn1977]

Great pictures of Tabyana Beach in Roatan. On my very first cruise in 2011, my wife (then girlfriend) and I sailed the Norwegian Epic and visited that beach. Coming from New York City I had never experienced water that crystal clear. I was hooked!

[tropical83]

Great pictures of Tabyana Beach in Roatan. On my very first cruise in 2011, my wife (then girlfriend) and I sailed the Norwegian Epic and visited that beach. Coming from New York City I had never experienced water that crystal clear. I was hooked!

 

Yes it was very beautiful. Its up there in the nicest beaches I've been too!

[O2Cool]

Before I go on with a day by day report and pictures, I have to ask this.

 

Does anyone else get swollen legs/feet/ankles while on a cruise?

When I got home from my previous 2 cruises, I noticed my ankles and feet were swollen. Not too bad, but still swollen. It went away after a few days. During this cruise, by the 3rd day my ankles and feet were swollen. Later on that night, they were really bad and the swelling went all the way up to my knees. There was points where I felt like my upper legs were a bit swollen too. It was an awful feeling. It never went away throughout the cruise. Some days it would be a bit better, then get worse then a bit better again on and off. I tried not to let it get in the way of my fun, but it was uncomfortable, and I was disappointed it happened during the cruise this time! We got home on Sunday and I am just back to normal now and its Friday. Now that I'm back to normal, I'm realizing just how swollen I was. I feel like I lost 20 lbs on my legs alone since I've been home lol.

 

I now worry that this will happen to me every time I cruise. Any tips on what I can do next time to prevent this or at least help it not get so bad? Does anyone know what causes this? I thought it could of been too much salt in the food or something. Or does it actually have to do with being at sea?

 

 

This happens to me on every cruise. The last two cruises, I have worn compression stockings at night and it helped a lot. While I still had some swelling by the end of each day, I started off each morning with "normal" ankles and feet😄

[tropical83]

This happens to me on every cruise. The last two cruises, I have worn compression stockings at night and it helped a lot. While I still had some swelling by the end of each day, I started off each morning with "normal" ankles and feet😄

 

Seems like its more common than I thought! I will have to get some compression stockings next time and hope it helps me as well!

[tropical83]

Day 4 – Costa Maya Mexico

 

I slept in a bit this day, and when I woke up the first thing I did was check my legs. My legs themselves were not nearly as swollen as they were the night before, but my ankles and feet were still pretty bad.

 

Today was supposed to be Belize, but because of the change we were in Costa Maya instead. My husband and I did not have anything booked for this port. My friend booked an excursion to swim with the dolphins. I kind of wanted to do it, but it was almost $200 so I decided not to. For some reason I wasn't feeling hungry and didn't eat breakfast. My husband and I just decided to get off the ship and look around the port for a while and then come back on board early to enjoy the quiet ship.

 

The pier is pretty long. We walked it the whole way there. There was a trolley you could get on, so we did that on the way back to the ship.

 

 

 

 

[grandmarnnurse]

Great pictures of Tabyana Beach in Roatan. On my very first cruise in 2011, my wife (then girlfriend) and I sailed the Norwegian Epic and visited that beach. Coming from New York City I had never experienced water that crystal clear. I was hooked!

 

Since we are cruising this itinerary in January, I am taking notes for excursions to book, and this looks like a great place/beach to go to!

[tropical83]

Some pictures of the port area

 

 

 

 

 

We walked around for a while and ran into our friends. The dolphin excursion was right there so we decided to stick around and watch her swim with the dolphins.

 

[grandmarnnurse]

Some pictures of the port area

 

 

 

 

 

We walked around for a while and ran into our friends. The dolphin excursion was right there so we decided to stick around and watch her swim with the dolphins.

 

 

This area that you show in Costa Mya, is it near the pier? Is it free to get into that beach/pool area?

[tropical83]

After that we separated and my husband and I just headed back to the ship.

 

Some pics of the Getaway

 

 

 

 

I was hungry at this point so we had lunch at Garden Cafe. I know I had some mac and cheese. The mac and cheese was so good!

 

Our view at lunch time

 

 

[tropical83]

Since we are cruising this itinerary in January, I am taking notes for excursions to book, and this looks like a great place/beach to go to!

 

Yes it was very nice!

 

This area that you show in Costa Mya, is it near the pier? Is it free to get into that beach/pool area?

 

Yes that is all right at the pier. And yes it is free.

[tropical83]

After lunch hubby went back to the room and relaxed while I headed to my favourite spot Spice H20 to lounge and get some sun.

 

There was hardly anyone there as you can see in these pictures.

 

 

 

Again the weather was sunny and VERY HOT. I actually had a hard time just laying on the lounger for more than 10 minutes at a time. The waterfall feature was perfect on this day. I had to stay hydrated so I kept going to the bar for some water and a few banana daiquiri's. They were very good and refreshing. Not too sweet. I love Miami Vice's, but they are pretty sweet and I can never have more than 1.

 

I could go for a banana daiquiri right now

 

 

A while later my friends showed up and my girl friend lounged with me for a bit while her boyfriend went to go and get my husband out of the room. Us girls just couldn't stay out at Spice H20 any longer, it just kept getting hotter and hotter. So we decided we would try the pool to see how busy it was and if we could cool off by sitting in the shallow area of the pool. It was still pretty crowded even though we were still in port, but we found a spot to sit in the water. This was much better. There was some music playing and everyone was having a good time. The boys found us and joined us for a while. I'd say we stayed out there for about 1.5 hours.

[tropical83]

After the pool we went to visit Joao at the Spice H20 bar for a while.

 

Sorry if my adventures on the ship aren't that exciting lol. We had 4 ports in 7 days and that is more than we are use to. We also had 3 excursions booked and that was a lot for us as well. So since the port days were busy, we wanted our time on the ship to be relaxing and not really plan much. So I guess thats why we ended up at Spice H20 so often. On my first cruise, we had 3 ports on an 8 day cruise. Our second cruise was 4 ports on an 8 day cruise, but we only got off at 3 stops. (we skipped Nassau because we had been there on the first cruise) I do prefer itineraries that have more sea days so I will probably look for that next time I cruise! That way we will have more time to enjoy what the ship has to offer.

 

Anyways, after visiting with Joao, we went to our room to get ready for dinner and enjoy the balcony a bit.

 

I had my husband take these pictures of me looking out at the ocean lol

 

 

 

[tropical83]

Dinner tonight was at the Tropicana Room. It was our favourite out of the 3 main dining rooms. I ordered pepper soup and the Vegetable Lasagna. Both good! I skipped dessert today.

 

Howl at the Moon was back tonight and we were looking forward to it! They played 4 nights. Day 1, 4, 5 and 7. It was pretty packed again, seats would become available as the night would go on. It was fun again, but they repeated some of the same jokes and played quite a few of the same songs. As much as Howl at the moon was still fun, I had more fun at the piano bar on the Carnival Breeze last year.

 

Finally a picture of the 4 of us at Howl at the Moon. My friend has more pictures but she hasn't shared them with me. I wish I had them for this review but oh well.

 

[tropical83]

 

I found a picture of the "woo woo" shot I mentioned earlier

 

 

The girls

 

 

We stayed at Howl at the moon until the end. We were having so much fun that we didn't want to go to bed yet. We roamed around the ship and found ourselves in the arcade. There is a vending machine in the arcade and they had cool ranch chips so we just had to get some of those.

Edited June 8, 2016 by tropical83