Getaway Review: 04/29/18 to 05/06/18

[DaisyGirl55]

I recently sailed on the Getaway with the Hubs and thought I would share some tips and observations. I had previously said with NCL on the SS Norway, so it has been a while since I tried NCL again. After the fantastic week we had I don't know why I waited so long! We had an absolutely fantastic week. I tried to just jot notes as the week went by, so I hope that some of my observations will help you.

 

NCL Getaway: Tips and Observations

• NCL has an online app called iConcierge. It is an absolute waste of money. The download is free, but it costs $14.99 toactivate it once on the ship. That isn’ttoo bad except it is virtually useless. You can send text messages, but unless the recipient has the app openand active the messages do not come through. It will show as SENT, but not DELIVERED. So many times it would log itself off, and then you had to log back into receive all of the missed messages. Yes, it has your on-board account totals, and you can see what is goingon around the ship – but then again, all of that is available in your FreestyleDaily without paying the $14.99. Thereis no Social Package like Carnival HUB has that includes Facebook and Facebookmessaging. Internet starts at $150.00for the week. Kind of pricey.
  
• We had a mini-suite on Deck 8. The room was 204 SqFt, with a couch. The bathroom has double sinks, and the showerhas a door rather than the clingy shower curtain. The best part of the room was thebalcony. It is far bigger than thebalconies on decks 9 and up. You willneed a key card to power the room for lights and outlets. I used an old movie card and kept it on alanyard by the door. We were able tokeep the room comfortably cool. There isa thermostat by the door that you can press and up or down button to regulatethe air. You will notice a snowflakebutton. Use that only to quickly coolthe room off. Once it is cool, it willgo back to middle setting. No need to packa hair dryer. There is one under thecounter by the mirror and it works great. Full size, with several settings – and you don’t have to hold the buttonfor the hair dryer to stay on. Not a lotof drawers but a nice size closet with shelves is by the bed. We had no problem finding space for all ofour stuff.
  
• NCL has this strange thing about Ship Time. Normally, a ship will stay on the time of theembarkation port, and not the actual time zones that we travel in. Be prepared to change the time on your watchseveral times during the week. On Mondayand then again on Tuesday, clocks are pushed back one hour each evening. Yay! Extra time to have fun 😊 Wednesday is no change,but then on Thursday and Friday clocks go forward an hour each evening. ☹ It is rather confusing and messes withyour sleep, but just be aware when you get off the ship to be sure your watchis set correctly.
  
• The pool area is set up nicely. There is a rather nice size adult pool with 4hot tubs. The depth of the water is about6’8”, so you can’t really stand. Thereis so much salt in the water that I had no trouble floating, although DH andmost of the guys did not. There are twobars, so no issues getting something to drink, and the buffet is close too ifyou get hungry. On the other side of thetowel stand is the kids area and the slides. One thing to note is that the towel stand is for exchange only. They do not give out towels so be sure to bringyour towel from your room. You canexchange it for a dry one at any time, or your cabin steward will bring youfresh pool towels. We never really hadany problems getting chairs as they have quite a few set up. The only time was if we went out to the poolon a sea day later in the day. A fewchairs had towels saving the chairs, but it really wasn’t too much of anissue.
  
• The Atrium is the hub of the ship with decks 6,7, and 8 being the focus. Deck 6 hasGuest Services, Excursions and Future Cruise consultants. You can also make reservations for any of thespecialty restaurants. There is a nicebar and lots of chairs. Trivia is oftenheld here as are other demonstrations. There is a large screen and movies are shown here daily. The CD will host different entertainmentshere, so it can get crowded and loud. Some of the Specialty restaurants are located on Deck 6 as well
  
• Deck 7 has the casino which wraps around theentire atrium. There is a smoking and anon-smoking section, both with lots of machines. Table games are set up on both sides, but Idon’t think any of the tables are non-smoking.
  
• For a nice place to sit and watch the world goby, go outside on Deck 8. The deck hastables, chairs, and lots of quiet places to read a book, sip a drink, and justrelax. It was our go-to place all weekwhile on the ship. Several bars are onthis deck as well as outside tables for some of the specialty restaurants.
  

We thought the food was very good on this shipand the service good as well. Here is abreakdown of some of the restaurants:

 

• Buffet– For breakfast, the buffet was the place to go and is located on Deck 15. We ate in one of the restaurants one morningand the food was cold and not good. Itwas our only bad meal. The Buffet haslots of selections and the Omelet station moves quickly. Lunch at the buffet was okay, but then again– I am not a buffet person for lunch and dinner.
  
• Tropicana, Taste, and Savor are thecomplimentary main dining rooms. Allhave the same menu each night. Tropicanahas live music and dancing, so it gets a bit loud. Tropicana is located on Deck 7 and Taste andSavor are both on Deck 6. We waitedabout 10 to 15 minutes each time we ate there, but it wasn’t too bad. You get a pager and can go have a drink whileyou wait. We enjoyed the food in theMDRs and thought the service was very good. Some of the waiters spoke better English than others, but all in all weenjoyed our meals there.
  
• O’Sheehans is another complimentary venue toeat. It is open 24 hours, and hastypical pub food like wings, burgers, nachos, fajitas and such. We ate there a couple of times and lookforward to going back. It is located onDeck 7 with tables inside the restaurant area as well as chairs overlooking theatrium. On days when a movie is playing,it was nice to sit down with a drink and a snack. The opposite side of the restaurant hasSkee-Ball, Duckpin bowling and Basketball games on a machine. I believe there are a couple of pool tablesas well.
  
• We ate in 4 of the Specialty restaurants. Cagney’s Steak House on Deck 8 wasgood, but very slow. It was about thesame type of food as the steak restaurants on Carnival. LaCucina on Deck 8 was the Italianrestaurant on the ship, and probably the best meal I ate all week. Just be careful not to fill up on the breadbefore your meal! Teppanyaki onDeck 6 is a hibachi-style restaurant. The food was okay in my opinion but was certainly plentiful. Moderno on Deck 8 was my secondfavorite specialty restaurant. It is aBrazilian Steak house, and the food was delicious. The salad bar was fresh and the meats camenon-stop. Be sure to try the grilledpineapple!
  
  

We did order the water package, and thought itwas not a bad deal. I believe it wasabout $15 for 6-2 liter bottles of water.

We did not buy any photos but the price iscomparable to other lines. $25 for thelarger size, and $14 for the embarkation or port size pictures. Really do not understand why the prices areso high, but I suppose as long as folks keep shelling out the money there is noreason for the cruise line to lower them. While some pictures are on the walls for you to hunt and find, if theyscan your key card your pictures are all together in a book. Much easier to find and look at. Photographers are all around but not reallyin your face.

We did not get off the ship in Costa Mayabut hung around the pool and enjoyed a mostly empty ship. Harvest Caye (pronounced Harvest Key)was like Grand Turk on steroids! Clean,and very spacious. Lots and lots ofchairs, huge pool, swim up bars, beach, and even zip-lining. Roatan was okay as we just walkedaround the port a bit. We actuallystayed on the ship in Cozumel as well. It was a week of R and R for us, so we did not get off the ship alot.

One last thing to note that is different thanwhat I was used to, and that is regarding the luggage tags needed fordisembarkation. They are not deliveredto the room. You need to go to Deck 6 byGuest Services and pick them up.

Couple of other tips: You can make reservations for the Specialtyrestaurants 3 months before we sail, which we did. However, when we added another restaurant wehad no problem making an additional reservation while on the ship. We did not go to any of the shows this time,but I heard that they were all very good. It is recommended that making reservations ahead of time is the best wayto see the shows.

[zqvol]

I guess OP did not realize that iConcierge works for all functions without charge except for the text messaging. That was an interesting observation about ship time. Most lines handle the situation just like NCL does, but CCL always remains on embarkation port time unless they are doing a repositioning.

 

 

 

Thanks for the review.