Getaway - Long time cruiser, first time NCL review Feb 11-18, 2018

[csopi]

Usually when there is no empty lounger, I compromise and look for an empty bar stool. After the second Mojito I forget about the lounge chair. I never leave my drink un attended so I don’t have to worry about someone moving it.

So much for chair hogs.They can reserve as many as they want.

[purpleally]

He removed them from where they were.

Wrongful actions don't justify wrongful actions. The fact that the person leaving the towel on the chair for hours was wrong doesn't justify a guest removing that item from where it was. NCL staff is authorized to move items after a specified time that the chair is unoccupied.

I respectfully disagree. He did nothing wrong. NCL towels were taken off two chairs, folded nicely and put on another chair that was being hogged. AND he put them back after THREE hours. Please stop saying it was a wrongful action. It was not.

[PTC DAWG]

Non smoker here, but I refuse to let a little smoke bother me...

 

Some real uptight folks here about chairs..wow..

 

South of The Mason Dixon Line...chill...

 

Meanwhile, tip your bartenders and pass the drinks..

[dreadpirate3]

Poncho, thanks for another great review. Glad to see it.

 

We won't be sailing NCL until we book Pride of America for Hawaii. See you on RCL.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Two Wheels Only]

I respectfully disagree. He did nothing wrong. NCL towels were taken off two chairs, folded nicely and put on another chair that was being hogged. AND he put them back after THREE hours. Please stop saying it was a wrongful action. It was not.

The person who moved the items only waited 20 minutes. At that point, the person moving the items was wrong. The person who left their items there for 20 minutes was not wrong.

 

Once the person did not return after 1 hour, that person was also wrong.

 

Let's try this....

 

John finds an empty chair.

He lays in the sun for a hour.

He decides to go for a 20 minute swim to cool down (leaves his towel on the chair).

He gets out of the pool and walks to a bar to get a drink (5 minutes)

He walks to the buffet to grab some fries (5 minutes)

He returns to his chair.

 

Should anyone move John's towel and take his chair?

Is John a chair hog even though NCL allows him to leave for up to 1 hour?

[trish4bruce]

We were on the same cruise! I can agree that staff in general did not appear overly happy. Of course we did get to meet some wonderful staff who went out of their way to provide a wonderful experience for us! Jack at the Prime Meridian bar was our cruise hero!!! We had Vibe passes and love that experience. Not having to fight for a lounger is easily worth the cost of the pass. We did meet our room steward but I will say we did not see him very often. We also had a interior room 10447. Space was very good. Weird thing though is that although we were sandwiched between two floors of only state rooms we could clearly and loudly hear the music from Million Dollar Quartet. At first we did not know where the music was coming from and called security as it was so loud. Of course when he arrived the music stopped. Two night later it happened again. Security came and this time could clearly hear it in our room. He investigated and told us where it was coming from. He said it was so strange how clear and loud it was in our room. They offered to move us but with only two nights left at this time we did not want to move all our stuff.

Overall we had a great cruise and even purchased two Cruise Next certificates which I just used to book the Epic out of SanJuan in Feb. 2020.

 

 

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[poncho1973]

Nice Review. I have been reading reviews of Norwegian for the last month now to see if I have been missing out on anything over the years. The drinks included ( drunks ) and all the smoke to stay away from is enough to keep me sailing on Royal.

It was definitely a new and interesting experience. My wife has suggested that we pick a different class of ship should be ever go again. I've shared info from this thread about that. Our only problem is that we're really into the cool new stuff part of cruising. We like the stuff the various cruise lines have like ropes courses, the FlowRiders, the rock climbing, the water slides, the dry slides, the ice skating, the neat visual elements, etc. This doesn't lend itself to 20+ year old ships. But if NCL only makes new, fancy ships with the sort of design flaws that we actively dislike in a ship like I stated in this review... we may be out of the NCL game?? I don't know.

 

Hi Poncho, thank you for your informational and entertaining review of the Getaway. My husband and I sailed on this ship in October of 2014. We had been warned about the smoke and were very concerned, I’m extremely sensitive. We must have been lucky, we didn’t have too much issue, and we’re even able to eat outside at Le Bistro one evening. Did notice it a bit at Shanghi but not enough to leave. We mostly had drinks at the Raw Bar and never had an issue there, thank goodness, because we loved it there. We did get the Vibe and Spa pass which helped deal with the pool crowds, that was ridiculous, and we’ve cruised a lot. Didn’t venture to want to hang out there at all. Anyway, we leave on Sunday for our 2nd cruise, this time our teens are joining us and we’re going in with real expectations and certainly won’t look for things to be ruffled about. Having cruised way too many times to speak of, all these ships have pros and cons, but like you mentioned about vacations.... ��. Just hope not to find a roach in my salad!

I hope you don't either!!!! Roaches are bad!!! I'm sure the smoke varies per cruise, but this is a serious ship design flaw. It is a big deal for us, as we both have issues of the physical variety with smoke (the wife's is more about her breathing, while mine is more to my eyes burning like you splashed pepper in them) and smoke isn't considerate by its nature. You can't make smoke stay anywhere. It goes everywhere.

 

Non smoker here, but I refuse to let a little smoke bother me...

 

Some real uptight folks here about chairs..wow..

 

South of The Mason Dixon Line...chill...

 

Meanwhile, tip your bartenders and pass the drinks..

Amen on the chill and drinks.

 

Poncho, thanks for another great review. Glad to see it.

 

We won't be sailing NCL until we book Pride of America for Hawaii. See you on RCL.

Thanks! I'd like to eventually do that, as well.

 

Thanks for the review.

You're welcome. Appreciate the read.

 

The person who moved the items only waited 20 minutes. At that point, the person moving the items was wrong. The person who left their items there for 20 minutes was not wrong.

 

Once the person did not return after 1 hour, that person was also wrong.

 

Let's try this....

 

John finds an empty chair.

He lays in the sun for a hour.

He decides to go for a 20 minute swim to cool down (leaves his towel on the chair).

He gets out of the pool and walks to a bar to get a drink (5 minutes)

He walks to the buffet to grab some fries (5 minutes)

He returns to his chair.

 

Should anyone move John's towel and take his chair?

Is John a chair hog even though NCL allows him to leave for up to 1 hour?

The interesting thing there is that on Royal it is not 1 hour and I asked an attendant who just effectively told me there are no rules. Since I wasn't told the rules (Royal actually has signage) and we did really want to sit down, we sort of had to wing it. They had more than likely been there at least a few minutes. We didn't walk up as someone was walking away and start a stop watch. Knowing my wife she probably even asked the nearest person if she'd seen someone recently. HOWEVER, I don't know that for sure and she can't remember at this point. I know that's her general thing, but don't know it here. I know we stood there for at least 20 minutes having a drink and chatting with some other members of the family who had big plans that day for the water slides. The other thing is that we would've gladly stood up if anyone came back in a reasonable amount of time. Gladly. I would've apologized and went on my way.

 

A big thing is... it was a dozen (that's almost definitely an UNDERESTIMATE, but I'll keep saying dozen even it was 20 or more chairs) in a row. With just towels. Just clean, un-used, dry towels. If you've been cruising for a long time, you know the signs. You can tell when it is just a chair hog and when it's a family down in the water or someone who ran up to get something. You see a dozen chairs in a row, same look, same feel, NOTHING but towels... you know. You totally know. And if you're wrong and you're a decent person you'll make it right immediately.

 

We were on the same cruise! I can agree that staff in general did not appear overly happy. Of course we did get to meet some wonderful staff who went out of their way to provide a wonderful experience for us! Jack at the Prime Meridian bar was our cruise hero!!! We had Vibe passes and love that experience. Not having to fight for a lounger is easily worth the cost of the pass. We did meet our room steward but I will say we did not see him very often. We also had a interior room 10447. Space was very good. Weird thing though is that although we were sandwiched between two floors of only state rooms we could clearly and loudly hear the music from Million Dollar Quartet. At first we did not know where the music was coming from and called security as it was so loud. Of course when he arrived the music stopped. Two night later it happened again. Security came and this time could clearly hear it in our room. He investigated and told us where it was coming from. He said it was so strange how clear and loud it was in our room. They offered to move us but with only two nights left at this time we did not want to move all our stuff.

Overall we had a great cruise and even purchased two Cruise Next certificates which I just used to book the Epic out of SanJuan in Feb. 2020.

 

 

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I have to confess... it was likely me yelling in the Million Dollar Quartet that pushed it over the sound limit. HAHAHAHA

 

I've been told you have to watch for the bathrooms on Epic because they are weird.

[Two Wheels Only]

The interesting thing there is that on Royal it is not 1 hour and I asked an attendant who just effectively told me there are no rules. Since I wasn't told the rules (Royal actually has signage) and we did really want to sit down, we sort of had to wing it.

The dailies state that items can be left for up to 1 hour. After an hour, they are to be removed by NCL staff and the items are taken to Guest Services.

 

The other thing is that we would've gladly stood up if anyone came back in a reasonable amount of time. Gladly. I would've apologized and went on my way.

That's good to know.

In the case of "John", most people wouldn't know (care?) about the 1 hour thing and wouldn't give up the lounger.

 

A big thing is... it was a dozen (that's almost definitely an UNDERESTIMATE, but I'll keep saying dozen even it was 20 or more chairs) in a row. With just towels. Just clean, un-used, dry towels. If you've been cruising for a long time, you know the signs. You can tell when it is just a chair hog and when it's a family down in the water or someone who ran up to get something. You see a dozen chairs in a row, same look, same feel, NOTHING but towels... you know. You totally know.

That would be an assumption. You couldn't exactly "know" how long John's towel has been there.

 

And if you're wrong and you're a decent person you'll make it right immediately.

That's commendable but my thing is, why be wrong in the first place?

 

There's no debate about the people who wake up at the crack of dawn to put towels/books/flip-flops, etc. on a chair that won't be used for hours. Those people are 100% wrong. I'm looking out for the people who aren't wrong (John) and I'm not defending those who are wrong (chair hogs AND those who move items based on some arbitrary time).

Edited April 9, 2018 by Two Wheels Only

[poncho1973]

This seems to needlessly be a much bigger deal than it really is at this point.

[graphicguy]

Pool...chair hogs. I DO move another’s stuff if I notice it’s been there for a long while unattended. Usually, I tell crew it looks like someone left and forgot their towels, and hand them over.

 

Not often, but every once in awhile someone will return to their chairs (usually confused about where they left their “stuff”) an hour, 90 minutes, two hours later from when I arrived.

 

I tell them I saw the crew with their “things” (truth). Then, the fake indignance begins.

 

-“I was only gone for 10 minutes?” Yeah, but that was 2 hours ago.

-“I only went to get a drink”. “ “ “ “ “ “ “

-“We were only gone to grab a bite”. “

 

 

 

If you’re going to get eats, drinks, bathroom breaks, etc, and you’re gone for a while, you no longer have “dibs” on pool chairs.

[Two Wheels Only]

Pool...chair hogs. I DO move another’s stuff if I notice it’s been there for a long while unattended.

How do you feel about "John" in the example that I gave? He isn't doing anything against NCL's policy. Should his items be moved?

 

Not often, but every once in awhile someone will return to their chairs (usually confused about where they left their “stuff”) an hour, 90 minutes, two hours later from when I arrived.

People who have been gone for that long have no sympathy from me.

The "John" example is one that is different.

 

If you’re going to get eats, drinks, bathroom breaks, etc, and you’re gone for a while, you no longer have “dibs” on pool chairs.

NCL has decided that "a while" is up to 1 hour. Anyone within that time frame should not have their items removed.

I have stated numerous times that those who are gone for more than 1 hour are wrong but when it comes to "John", nobody seems to want to admit that the person moving John's items is wrong and that John has done nothing wrong.

[Muggle1969]

The skinny:

Married couple with no kids with ~100 nights on Royal Caribbean and 20+ nights on Disney Cruise Lines.

 

We normally travel alone, but this was to be a family cruise for the MIL/Step-FIL's 20th anniversary. Still a relatively small group of 12, but a group cruise nonetheless. The step-SIL decided on NCL due to her kids sailing free with the promotion. She chose the NCL Dawn (I know... it says Getaway in the thread title) because of the route. I had been wanting to try one of the newer NCL ships for a long time and suggested the Getaway or the Escape instead. She insisted on the Western route for reasons unknown (I will almost always default to Eastern if given the choice) and that made the Escape OUT.

 

The group agreed that for the same price we'd prefer the much newer and larger ship. The Step-SIL agreed and we booked.

 

Thankfully, as a much more seasoned cruiser, I took the reins on the port excursions after some initial weirdness. She hadn't cruised in like 15 years. She's fully capable, but my info was a lot more current and I'm very involved here on CC.

 

Boarding:

I'm not sure if it is a product of PORT OF MIAMI or a product of NCL, but the boarding was really crappy. We drove from Orlando and arrived around 11:30-11:45. It was a mess. Even decks board on this side, odd decks board on that side. You have to stand outside in the sun until they let you in for scanning. THEN you have to wait in line twice on the inside.

 

We made our way to the desk the better part of an hour later. Holy crap. Maybe I'm just used to something different, but everyone along the way was 100% ticked off and grumpy. We got to the desk and there was no "Hey! I see this is your first NCL cruise, welcome aboard!" or even a "Hello." We got a "Papers and documentation?" and nothing friendly whatsoever. This would become a theme on our cruise. We started referring to it as Dismal Cruise Line's I Can't Getaway. Someone in our group started calling the ship an internment camp for crew members. Not a lot of smiles this week.

 

We boarded the ship to silence from the crew and spray bottles of sanitizer.

 

The kids wanted to swim and after our long drive we wanted to eat, so we all headed up to the Garden Café. The buffet was one of the most impressive things on the ship for us. It was the best one we've been to on any ship in our cruising history. It's not as pretty as the Disney ships, but the food was better. It was much easier and more comfortable than any Royal ship we've been on. The theme nights in the buffet and MULTIPLE stations for fresh made things (crepes, omelets, pizzas, ice cream scoops, etc.) made for some excellent choices.

 

As we were watching the kids swim, the announcement that the rooms were ready came. We headed down to our rooms to drop off our backpacks and see them.

 

MORE TO COME!

 

New to these boards - trying to make my way through - I'm a first time NCL cruiser in 12 days - previously cruised with RCCL. How is the FOOD - other than in the buffet? Like the main dining or the specialty dining? I was told the Illusionarium - people had left hungry that you couldn't order more than one entree or app. Any thoughts?

[graphicguy]

@Two Wheels Only.....to answer your questions, I believe if you leave to do something else (aside from hitting the bathroom, or getting a drink) you forego your pool chair/lounger. Someone who decides to go to lunch, run errands, or do any other activity that’s going to keep them out of their chair for a while (say 30-45 minutes) loses their spot.

 

We’re splitting hairs here. Those of us who have cruised for a while know the folks who are narcissistic and try to hold onto their pool spot regardless of what they are doing. You go to the pool and see the towels/books, etc sitting there for hours on end, with no one around them. That keeps someone else from enjoying them because of the perpetrator’s selfishness.

 

I have moved others’ “stuff” before after cruising the pool areas for ½ hour or an hour, and not seeing anyone in those spots. If (big IF) those folks come back (usually HOURS LATER) asking where their towels are (I give them to the attendants), I point to the attendants and tell them s/he had them last. Or, I truthfully say, “I don’t know where your stuff is”. All true!

 

My rule of thumb....if you are willing to leave your wallet with cash and credit cards with your towels, books, etc....then you can stay gone as long as you feel comfortable leaving it sit there unattended.

 

Just do the right thing.

[Two Wheels Only]

@Two Wheels Only.....to answer your questions, I believe if you leave to do something else (aside from hitting the bathroom, or getting a drink) you forego your pool chair/lounger. Someone who decides to go to lunch, run errands, or do any other activity that’s going to keep them out of their chair for a while (say 30-45 minutes) loses their spot.

Not according to NCL...the ones who make the rules. If a passenger just arbitrarily decides "...30-45 minutes...", what's to stop the next passenger from deciding "...2 minutes..."?

 

 

You go to the pool and see the towels/books, etc sitting there for hours on end, with no one around them. That keeps someone else from enjoying them because of the perpetrator’s selfishness.

This is not about THEM. We ALL agree that those people are wrong.

I am focusing on the person who isn't wrong (John).

Someone who follows NCL's rules shouldn't have their items moved and shouldn't lose their chair.

 

My rule of thumb....if you are willing to leave your wallet with cash and credit cards with your towels, books, etc....then you can stay gone as long as you feel comfortable leaving it sit there unattended.

Your personal rule is not NCL policy. The person has up to 1 hour.

 

Just do the right thing.

The right thing is to follow NCL's policy which "John" has. The people who move John's items and take his chair are the ones doing the wrong thing. Yes, the people who leave items for more than an hour are wrong but John isn't one of those people.

[poncho1973]

You're like a pit bull holding on to this for life, eh?

[Two Wheels Only]

You're like a pit bull holding on to this for life, eh?

I think that the ones who refuse to admit when they are wrong are the stubborn ones.

 

There are simple "Yes or No" questions which still haven't been answered (from post #56).

 

Should anyone move John's towel and take his chair?

Is John a chair hog even though NCL allows him to leave for up to 1 hour?

[poncho1973]

Long live "John" for he is all-knowing!

[Two Wheels Only]

Long live "John" for he is all-knowing!

A sarcastic red herring doesn't answer the questions.....:rolleyes:

[TrinaLC]

Wow, two wheels, chill! So they moved the guys stuff, carefully, no damage. If the original chair denizens had come back, he would have happily given up the seat. No harm, no foul.

 

Anytime you leave a seat unattended you are risking that. Blame the true chair hogs.

 

 

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[Two Wheels Only]

If the original chair denizens had come back, he would have happily given up the seat. No harm, no foul.

Do you honestly believe that?

Do you honestly believe that if someone watched an empty chair for 20 minutes then sat in that chair for 20 minutes, that same person would get up if John returned?

The OP might and I have commended them for that but the vast majority of people would not....which is sad since John has done nothing wrong and doesn't deserve to lose his chair.

 

Anytime you leave a seat unattended you are risking that. Blame the true chair hogs.

You are using the wrongs of the chair hogs to justify the wrongs of the people who would move John's items and take his chair.

 

John has done nothing wrong.

John is not a chair hog.

John should not have his items moved and shouldn't lose his chair.

[csopi]

As long as the bar stools are free I am fine. There is always a nice free spot at the waterfront, not really that interested in chairs near the pool, way too crowded and noisy, I prefer my drinks in peace and quite.

 

Got better things to do than worry about chair hogs, they can have them all.

John can have my chair but not the bar stool

[rascalchu]

John is a loser who needs to get laid.

[poncho1973]

Can someone start John a go fund me? This poor guy is getting one dismal cruise!

 

 

Let's see if we can make his life better!!!

[L1211]

Is there going to be a test? I might need to read it again... I started drinking on page two!

 

 

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