Review of the Getaway 2/19-26

[coach jim]

Just wanted to give a short review of our trip on the Getaway. First we had a great time, experienced fantastic weather and met some really wonderful people. We are in our mid-fifties, like to escape the Northeast during the winter and like to have a few drinks and a good time. This was our 7th cruise on Norwegian, and we have been on Disney (2), RCCL (3), Carnival (2) and Celebrity (1) in the past. This was our second cruise without our kids who are now adults.

 

The layout is identical to the Breakaway and very similar to the Escape. Though identical to the Breakaway, I find it interesting the Getaway gets higher grades in reviews. The problems are the same, pool area is too crowded, pool too small, small standard balconies, and smoke smell from the casino. We found the smoke smell was only a problem if you were walking through the casino and my wife and I are both sensitive to smoke. We expected all of these things so they were not a problem for us. As stated we had a great time primarily because of the entertainment, food, ports, weather, and most importantly the great people we met. A special thanks to Cool70 (Nancy) for setting up the Meet & Greet, which drew over 80 people, and setting up a pub crawl which I was able to lead. This is a great way to get the layout of the ship (the bars anyway) and meet people. We continued to share drinks and stories with the people we met on the pub crawl the entire week.

 

Entertainment: We love Howl at the Moon and this cruise had the best trio of performers I have seen. They all were really talented piano players, had great energy and really got the crowd going. We went every night they performed. While I know the performers will change, make sure you go the last night. The entire cast from MDQ showed up and performed along with Allah Sheffield who regularly performed at the Sugarcane bar and the atrium. She has a beautiful voice and did fantastic renditions of Me and bobby McGee and Killing Me softly with HATM. In addition, both comedians, Mark Viera and Brad Mastrangelo, were very funny, Mark Viera might be headed to bigger gigs. We went to both the "family" show and the adult shows. This was our second time seeing MDQ and it was again outstanding. The actor who played Jerry Lee Lewis also showed up at HATM earlier in the week. Deck parties were fun, though the Caribbean and 80's parties were not heavily attended.

 

I will continue a little later.

 

Coach Jim

[RN Cruiser1]

Just wanted to give a short review of our trip on the Getaway. First we had a great time, experienced fantastic weather and met some really wonderful people. We are in our mid-fifties, like to escape the Northeast during the winter and like to have a few drinks and a good time. This was our 7th cruise on Norwegian, and we have been on Disney (2), RCCL (3), Carnival (2) and Celebrity (1) in the past. This was our second cruise without our kids who are now adults.

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to reading more.

[gbearman]

And for you youngsters, Jerry Lee Lewis is NOT Jerry Lewis!

[coach jim]

entertainment: One other show we went to was the Illusionarium. This was a bit uneven. We opted for floor seats, we ended up in the second row of seats, center. All seats face the stage. Haven guests get the first row. My wife and I love "magic" shows and go whenever we can. There was a bit of a silly story line to set up the four acts. Of the four acts we thought two were very good, the woman who did levitation of objects and the last act, which did some well done traditional acts, woman in a box, switchings places with assistant, very quick and polished. First act was not as polished as the last act and the mind reader/telepathy was a bit hokey. Meal was better than we had last year on the Escape Brat pack show, filet and shrimp, with three small desserts. All in all an enjoyable show and worth using one of our meal plans with an up charge. Get there early to be seated close to the stage, remember Haven gets first crack at the seats. We also saw Burn the Floor twice, once in the theater, once up close in the Tropicana room during dinner. Both times it was fantastic. This one has more of a latin theme than the breakaway and seeing them up close in the dinning room we could really see how quick and talented they were.

 

Food and Service: We all recognize food is subjective but we feel Norwegian has continued to improve in this area but service was a bit uneven. We ate dinner at O'Sheehan's the first night after the pub crawl. It was prime rib night which I had. It was good but a little fatty, my wife had the salad with grilled chicken, she said it was ok. A good meal to have after a pub crawl. Second night was the Illusianarium, good not great but better than the meal we had last year on the Escape. We ate in the Tropicana room twice, both times the meal was good and service efficient if not friendly. Other people we talked to complained of slow service but we did not experience that. I will concur with other reports, while quality has improved, choices are limited. Catch the Burn the Floor show in the Tropicana if you can. Our other three meals were in two specialty restaurants, Cagney's twice and Ocean Blue. We love Cagney's and both meals were outstanding. No issue with extra appetizers or sides. Lump crab cake was again outstanding as was the filet mignon, cooked to perfection. Service the first night was outstanding, not as attentive the second night. Ocean Blue was very good and the service was great. We were able to eat outside on a perfect weather night. We had king crab legs, my wife the grilled shrimp and I has surf and turf, lobster and filet. This was part of the dinning plan. While there is an up charge, only one meal is not included, their seafood supreme or something like that. We found the quality and variety of food at the buffet has continued to improve, in particular the omelette station and the "roast of the day" station, the chicken was outstanding. We also ate breakfast and lunch at taste/savor, great spot to get fresh french toast and burgers. Their vietnamese pho soup is particularly good.

 

Ports/excursions: For this trip we did all our excursions through the ship, but we talked to many people who booked privately and had no problems. In Roatan my wife went zip lining, an excursion she highly recommends, I went to Maya Key, plenty of options and loungers both in the sun and shade, interesting collection of animals, most rescued. They have "mayan ruins" but they are not original. They have snorkeling, which I thought was included and people who did it thought it was very good. It is but it costs extra to rent equipment. Relaxing day other wise. Harvest Caye was beautiful, but be aware if you wait to go ashore, pool will be really crowded and you may have to walk a bit to find loungers near shade by the beach. Food and beverages are extra and some of the stores will only take cash or you ship card.

 

The other two stops were in Mexico, Costa Maya and Cozumel. In Costa Maya we went to the ruins at Chacchoben. One warning, the crowds getting lined up for excursions gets a bit chaotic and one member of our group got caught up with the crowd and ended up in the wrong area. Our young guide recognized a person was missing and eventually found him. He was an earnest but inexperienced guide. On the ride back we found out how knowledgeable he was, the guides tend to have a set scripts during the tour. The site was bigger than expected and much of it has not been uncovered which was interesting. We went early, which I recommend, as it was getting hot as we left, though there are plenty of areas with shade. The ride is a little less than an hour. The "village" they have created in port is nice, but be prepared for the "enthusiastic" sales people. If you can watch the Mayan ritual where they climb a tower then swing down with no safety harness, we thought it was really impressive. In Cozumel we went to the mainland and went to Xcaret, a manmade eco park which we thoroughly enjoyed. There are three new Mexican theme parks, this one is good for strolling around and seeing the wildlife and learning a little about Mexican history. One other is an adventure park, XPLOR, which sounds like it would have been ideal for our sons. One unique element of Xcaret was the "river" you can swim/float down, partially through carved out "caves". They give you vests to stay afloat and you can get fins if you want. At the end they have showers, though out door, and changing rooms. If you are interested, do the river first. The park is huge, study the map on the way there and pick you spots. The walkway is color coded, made it fairly easy to get around. You will not have time to see everything. It was a bit crazy getting out of Playa del carmen, apparently road work, but easy getting back.

 

Staff/fellow passengers: Our experience was the staff was always efficient and usually friendly. Of particular note was our room steward who was great. Most impressive was the bar staff who was besieged by thirsty passengers with the UBP. Of particular note was Alejandro at the outside area of the Sunset bar and Lilly at Headliners. Now what really made the trip was our fellow passengers. A large number of folks from the upper mid-west, upstate NY and Canada, and like us, escaping the cold weather for a week. Doing the pub-crawl was a great introduction to some wonderful folks, many of whom we regularly shared drinks and conversation with. The Sunset bar at sunset was a particularly good spot.

 

Random thoughts: Beer selection is poor with two exceptions, all the bars have Little Sumpin Ale from Lagunitas and at O'Sheehan's they have La Rubia from the Wynwood brewery in Miami on tap. Spa treatments still give the hard sell for products, the thermal spa is great and we feel worth the extra money, we always get a spa cabin. Gym is crowded at times but plenty of treadmills, weight room was never crowded and machines were in good working order. Silas was our cruise director and he did a great job, minimal announcements. Ship is really well maintained, but as stated earlier, pool area way to congested, and some seemingly wasted space at Margaritaville, the restaurant never seemed more than half filled and even the bar closes at 5!

 

Overall we had a great cruise and will be going on the Escape again next Feb. Looking forward to the District Brew House:D and the beaches of St. John's:cool:. I will be happy to answer any questions.

 

Be well and safe travels,

 

Coach Jim

[gbearman]

One other show we went to was the Illusionarium.

 

Thanks Coach,

 

FYI.. After VERY mixed reviews, Illusionarium will end its extended run on the NCL Getaway on or before April 29th and will be replaced with Cirque Dreams and Steam. Which will premier on May 16th. https://www.ncl.com/press-releases/norwegian-cruise-line-expands-cirque-dreams-and-dinner-entertainment-experience

[margie1221]

Awesome review - nice warm up for our Getaway in two weeks - I think we sailed with you before - seem to recognize your name - BA to Bermuda??

 

 

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[Gimmiethebeach]

Hi Coach Jim. Thanks for the review! If you have a minute I would love to hear what you did with the pub crawl. I'm leading ours in 2 weeks on the Getaway. Did you play any games, how many bars, etc. thanks so much!!

 

 

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[Clarea]

Excellent, detailed review, thanks!

[easyboy]

Great review. Thanks.

[coach jim]

Hi Coach Jim. Thanks for the review! If you have a minute I would love to hear what you did with the pub crawl. I'm leading ours in 2 weeks on the Getaway. Did you play any games, how many bars, etc. thanks so much!!

 

 

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First we identified everyone doing the crawl by wearing mardi gras beads at Spice H2O during sail away. We then moved to the Chill Bar in Margaritaville by 4:45 (they close at 5!) and handed out three cards. We used three decks of cards. I put together beer and cocktail trivia. Every right answer got a card. I asked 3 or 4 questions at each stop. Everyone gets a new card at each stop. We moved from Chill bar to Waves by the pool, then down to the 8th floor and went to Sugarcane. Next we moved outside to the sunset bar where we finished the trivia. Person with the best hand using 5 cards wins. I picked up mardi gras beads with beer mugs and Nancy who set up the M & G got a "boobie" prize for the lowest hand. We were supposed to finish at O'Sheehans on 7 but by the time we got to the sunset bar everyone was having too good a time and some people were headed to dinner. Tried to stick to about 20 minutes at each bar, that got longer as we moved.

 

Hope this helps,

 

coach Jim

[mcd2745]

We were on the same cruise. It was our first on NCL (after 4 DCL & 3 RCCL). Unfortunately, we found the service/staff to be very poor. We had the opposite of you as our room steward was awful, and our dinner service was anything but efficient. Our dinners at Taste/Savor/Tropicana and La Cucina were all close to 3 hour affairs. Basically killed our evenings. Only reasonable meal, time-wise, was at Moderno.

 

We were cruising with a large group of great people. Those people, along with the phenomenal weather made the cruise for us.

[margie1221]

mcd2745 - may I ask what time you typically went to dinner?? Did you eat breakfast or lunch in the MDRs? If so was it more efficient than your dinner experience? Thanks for the feedback.

 

 

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[CP Tech]

Lilith (Lilly) at Headliners is such a sweetheart. She got our "hero" card for our trip back in December.

 

"the restaurant never seemed more than half filled and even the bar closes at 5!"

 

Guess it's 5 o'clock somewhere else. :)

[mcd2745]

mcd2745 - may I ask what time you typically went to dinner?? Did you eat breakfast or lunch in the MDRs? If so was it more efficient than your dinner experience? Thanks for the feedback.

 

 

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We typically went to dinner 7-8pm.

 

We only ate breakfast at the buffet. As for lunch, we were off the ship 4 days and the 2 sea days, we ate at the buffet once and Margaritaville the other day (service was okay there).

[Gimmiethebeach]

First we identified everyone doing the crawl by wearing mardi gras beads at Spice H2O during sail away. We then moved to the Chill Bar in Margaritaville by 4:45 (they close at 5!) and handed out three cards. We used three decks of cards. I put together beer and cocktail trivia. Every right answer got a card. I asked 3 or 4 questions at each stop. Everyone gets a new card at each stop. We moved from Chill bar to Waves by the pool, then down to the 8th floor and went to Sugarcane. Next we moved outside to the sunset bar where we finished the trivia. Person with the best hand using 5 cards wins. I picked up mardi gras beads with beer mugs and Nancy who set up the M & G got a "boobie" prize for the lowest hand. We were supposed to finish at O'Sheehans on 7 but by the time we got to the sunset bar everyone was having too good a time and some people were headed to dinner. Tried to stick to about 20 minutes at each bar, that got longer as we moved.

 

Hope this helps,

 

coach Jim

 

 

That does help, thank you!! I was trying to decide between 5 and 6 bars but was leaning toward 5! I like the card idea, too. Thanks for taking the time to respond :).

[coach jim]

That does help, thank you!! I was trying to decide between 5 and 6 bars but was leaning toward 5! I like the card idea, too. Thanks for taking the time to respond :).

 

 

No problem. Simple google search for beer and cocktail trivia brings up great stuff. If you want I can send you mine. Sugarcane is a good stop to reorganize as the drinks are a little labor intensive and takes a little longer to get a drink.

 

Enjoy,

 

Coach Jim

[cruisestan2]

Thanks for great review Coach Jim. Helped us lock in same cruise on Getaway February 2018.

[coach jim]

Awesome review - nice warm up for our Getaway in two weeks - I think we sailed with you before - seem to recognize your name - BA to Bermuda??

 

 

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Yes I believe so! The GA is the exact same layout as the BA so it will seem very familiar. Evan some of the staff had moved over like Lilly in Headliners who is one of the best bartenders I have encountered on a cruise ship.

 

Safe travels,

 

Coach Jim