Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Review of Getaway 10/2-10/9

Podie

By Podie,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

 Share

Recommended Posts

Podie

Podie

Posted
Posted

This was my second NCL cruise. I usually go on Royal Caribbean or Celebrity. That said, I feel NCL charges for a lot more extras than RC Celebrity. For example, my perks were the beverage package and specialty dining package. I had to pay 18% gratuities for these - all free perks on Celebrity are truly FREE perks. You don't pay $125 for gratuities. Also, the beverage packages on RC and Celebrity include ALL drinks including water, specialty coffees, sodas, and alcoholic beverages. On NCL, no water or specialty coffees were included except Irish Coffee with Irish whiskey. I asked if I could get a specialty coffee with a shot of Bailey's or Kahlua and they said I could get regular coffee with a shot, but no specialty coffees. OK, so my main peeve is out of the way...

 

Getaway is a beautiful ship and I do like the freestyle method of cruising. I don't like to dress up and I like not having to. I enjoyed muster in a comfortable chair in the atrium rather than standing in the sun on deck. When I got to the ship, I discovered none of the specialty restaurant reservations I'd made online were in effect so I had to make them again. Everyone had raved about the lobster at Le Bistro so we went there the first night. Guess what? Lobster was removed from the menu three weeks ago! I had mussels and shrimp and they were good, but I had expected excellent lobster.

 

My cabin attendant was absolutely the worst I've had in 20 cruises. Unlike every other cruise I've been on, she did not come and introduce herself. he TV remote control didn't work properly, the back had clearly been pried open by a frustrated previous cruiser, and when I called the front desk to ask for a new remote, they said the cabin attendant would come to check it. She never showed. It took two more calls before she showed up and said we simply had to hold the remote no more than a foot away from the TV to change channels. So forget changing the channels from the sofa or bed. I called downstairs a fourth time and was told they'd send a new remote. They never did. We also had trouble with one of our outlets. Once again, we were told she would check it out. First she said we must be doing something wrong, finally she said she would have an electrician come up. Never happened. We met many people on deck 10 who complained about her but nothing was done.

 

None of the crew appeared happy to me. On RC and Celebrity they're always smiling and saying hello, but this was not the case at all on Getaway.

 

We ate our second specialty meal at Cagney's, which was good because we had a spectacular server named Cadores who brought us three appetizers because we couldn't decide. Again no lobster. Surk and turf was shrimp and steak.

 

Because there were 4300 passengers aboard, it was pretty crowded everywhere but the specialty restaurants. We went to the welcome show in the theater - packed with people - and were so unimpressed that we cancelled our reservations for Million Dollar Quartet. And anything held in the atrium was impossible to see for all the crowds. I can't understand why they don't hold the popular games and shows in the theater - which is also WAY too small for the number of passengers.

 

The atrium was always loud, and trying to be heard at Guest Services or any of the desks there was next to impossible. Very poor planning there.

 

My friend and I bought the Thermal Suite package before the cruise and it worked out to $30 per day. I thought it was great and my friend didn't care for it. I used it every day and it was never crowded, unlike the pool deck which was jammed.

 

Now that Margaritaville has replace Flamingo Grill, and is only open for lunch, the Garden Cafe was always jammed. I met a Canadian solo cruiser when we shared a table at breakfast, and she said she's never been so disappointed in a ship because of the crowds everywhere. The only choices for breakfast and lunch were Garden Buffet, Taste and Savor, and O'Sheehan's, so everything was crowded. Taste and Savor were okay but the service was very slow.

 

On sea day, I checked out the famous lobster rolls for $11.51 including gratuity. Being accustomed to New England lobster rolls, I was shocked how small it was. The lobster was tasty but there was very little, just a few ounces. I had asked for no spicy mustard sauce but it was served with a very salty butter sauce poured over it.

 

I was shocked to see that room service was $7.95. That's also free on RC and Celebrity. However, the bag of laundry for $19.95 early in the cruise was a great deal and the laundry was done perfectly, delivered in a basket.

 

The library is very nice but the cabinets are kept locked and you can only check out a book one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. Very frustrating.

 

Our last specialty meal was at Moderno, which was just okay. The salad bar was very nice, as were the four sides, but the meat was very salty and the filet mignon was full of gristle.

 

I was curious why they had Portuguese beef stew on the buffet with Asian food, Plus I wondered why there was almost no variation in which foods were available each day. The food was just okay although I did enjoy dessert crepes, regular ice cream, and self serve.

 

In the end, my friend and I still basically enjoyed the cruise because we had a nice balcony cabin, the water was like glass throughout the cruise, we had excellent private excursions (Coral Breeze in Belize, Maya Chan in Costa Maya and Nachi Cocum in Cozumel), had a nice choice of liquor each day, and we didn't have to fight the jammed pool deck. Also, being non-smokers, we appreciated the limited smoking areas. Would we go on another NCL cruise? Probably not. I'm back on Celebrity next month.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
AdoraBelle

AdoraBelle

Posted
Posted

While I think you have valid complaints, you shouldn't have skipped the production shows. MDQ is straight from Vegas. Having sailed on Eclipse recently, I can say NCL has the edge on live entertainment.

 

The loss of Flamingo Grill is why I won't be bothering with GA again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Podie

Podie

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thank you for your comments. I love rock and roll, however I'm a little too young to be a fan of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, or Carl Perkins. They did a 10 minute segment during the welcome show and it just wasn't my thing.

 

I forgot to mention that I brought white clothes for the white hot party but it was never listed in the dailies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PRgymnast

PRgymnast

Posted
Posted
Thank you for your comments. I love rock and roll, however I'm a little too young to be a fan of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, or Carl Perkins. They did a 10 minute segment during the welcome show and it just wasn't my thing.

 

I forgot to mention that I brought white clothes for the white hot party but it was never listed in the dailies.

 

White Hot Party became the GLOW Party several months ago, maybe even over a year. I met many who expected a white party thought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
snow bunny

snow bunny

Posted
Posted
White Hot Party became the GLOW Party several months ago, maybe even over a year. I met many who expected a white party thought.

 

When DD and I sailed on the Getaway in 2014, it was the GLOW party then although many wore white to it.

 

snow bunny

Link to comment
Share on other sites
AdoraBelle

AdoraBelle

Posted
Posted
So, I made online reservations for Flamingo Grill last week. What will happen to those if it is no longer there? Hmm...

 

You didn't--Flamingo Grill never took reservations, it was buffet style.

 

Did you make reservations for the Tropicana Room, perhaps?

 

Otherwise--screenshot? Might be an interesting website glitch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Podie

Podie

Posted
  • Author
Posted
White Hot Party became the GLOW Party several months ago, maybe even over a year. I met many who expected a white party thought.

 

I was on Spirit in February and it was the white hot party then, so that's what I expected. But, it was so hot even at night up at H20 that I probably wouldn't have gone anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sjnyc323

sjnyc323

Posted
Posted
Thank you for your comments. I love rock and roll, however I'm a little too young to be a fan of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, or Carl Perkins. They did a 10 minute segment during the welcome show and it just wasn't my thing.

 

 

 

I forgot to mention that I brought white clothes for the white hot party but it was never listed in the dailies.

 

 

 

On the Getaway it's called Glow Party

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Phyllis Flipflop

Phyllis Flipflop

Posted
Posted (edited)

We were on the same sailing and both commented that we felt the service and friendliness had dropped considerably since we were on the Getaway in May 2015.

Many of the staff just looked tired and agitated and on many occasions we witnessed senior staff in the restaurants snipping at the servers.

 

MDQ was excellent, not our era but a great show.

 

We're booked on the Escape in January and final payment is due. We've decided to give it a miss.

Edited by Phyllis Flipflop
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail on Sun Princess®
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...