Glad to get away from the Getaway

[ryanpatricksmom]

12 hours ago, mertziek said:

“Lastly, I witnessed more rude behavior on this cruise than any other cruise that I've ever been on.  It was utterly insane. “

 

Boy I agree there.  It started with embarkation and people shoving to get in line.  Same with the reserved shows.  One person saving long blocks of seats in the theater, too, where seating was already very limited.  Disembarking at ports was wild, too.  There has to be a better system.  People were just rude, ornery and short tempered.  The debacle in Miami tipped everyone over the edge.  But the tendering at GSC did not help matters either.  No wonder everyone started acting out in Miami!  At least we were in the Haven and a bit isolated but venues outside the Haven were next to impossible.  Another reason we try to avoid the herded cattle mentality of NCL shore excursions.  Just not worth the effort.  The ship is too big and we were not even at capacity.  However, we made the best of it and had a great cruise.  We just avoided the really crowded areas whenever we were able to so we missed a lot of the smaller venues.  But we were ok with that.

On our past two cruises with NCL (one on the Breakaway, and this last one on the Getaway) we've elected to go Gen Pop, and I'm thinking that going forward I may bid higher for an upgrade to the Haven.  I had actually come to think that we were missing something in the Haven, but on the bigger ships, having the option to wait until 15 minutes before a show starts, and having the restaurant is such a huge perk.  I still don't think that I'll book outright anymore, but I definitely missed the advantages this past cruise.

[johnlcruise]

On 11/11/2019 at 8:34 PM, 2bc cruisers said:

Yea, I was on this cruise as well.  Thanks for this insight.  I didn’t know about the crew shift.  We Did think many crew were learning on the job.   Boy did I get tired of hearing about how this or that was not ncl or the ships fault.
This was our first mega ship and first TA.  Most likely our last TA.  I got home and cancelled the TA I had booked for next October.We are already booked on Joy for a Panama Canal trip in feb, so one more mega ncl ship.  Not sure about what we’ll do after that.  I won’t be buying any cruise next anytime soon, that I do know. FYI I turn Platinum plus on our next sailing, so it’s not like I’m a newb.    Even with the foul weather, food mediocrity, entertainment fails, missed port, immigration debacle, overall I still say I had a good time, just not willing to repeat it anytime soon.

 

I love transatlantic cruise's. Been on a few. But first and last time with NCL for Transatlantic. Prefer Celebrity, Princess, or HAL that know how do do a Transatlantic the right way. With guest speakers everyday. More activities around the ship. 

I''m also Platinum and will turn plus in January when we do a 20 day on the Gem (much small ship) from NYC to San Francisco. 

The Getaway was not designed for long cruise's... 7 to 10 days along the Caribbean or in Europe is just right for this type of ship.

But I can't complain for the price we paid for the 19 day cruise.  

Edited November 13, 2019 by johnlcruise
sp.

[SAS21]

On 11/11/2019 at 12:38 PM, david_sobe said:

I'm curious.  How did your cabin steward lock you out of your own cabin?  Don't you carry your room key with you outside the cabin?

We were in an ADA cabin, when you inserted your key card the door automatically opened for you, so that anyone with a wheelchair did not need someone to help hold the door open while they were entering. Apparently there is a switch at the top of the door that allows the door to remain open while the cabin stewart is in the cabin. The stewart kept switching it to the wrong position when he left the cabin, causing the door to not function with our keycard. Needless to say I was not happy. There were also some other small things that were not up to par.  

[david_sobe]

6 minutes ago, SAS21 said:

We were in an ADA cabin, when you inserted your key card the door automatically opened for you, so that anyone with a wheelchair did not need someone to help hold the door open while they were entering. Apparently there is a switch at the top of the door that allows the door to remain open while the cabin stewart is in the cabin. The stewart kept switching it to the wrong position when he left the cabin, causing the door to not function with our keycard. Needless to say I was not happy. There were also some other small things that were not up to par.  

Ok now it makes sense.  Thanks for clarifying

[VtMac]

"Gen Pop", "I'm Platinum, "I'll be Platinum Plus", "I only sail in the Haven"....  This thread reads like a script for Thurston Howell III.   Jeeves, do grab my slippers, the unwashed have walked on the pool deck before thee...  pfft

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 11/9/2019 at 11:30 AM, FredZiffle said:

The low point was probably the food.  I know food opinions are subjective, but I find it impossible to believe that anyone would have found the food served on this cruise to be even close to good.  We began rating individual dishes as barely passable, pretty bad, and inedible.  75% of the dishes fell into the latter two categories.  I did have a dessert soufflé and a wings appetizer that I thought were actually good, but every other dish fell into these three categories. 

we agree 10000%. My DH and I agreed that we'd only sail on NCL again if the cruise was nearly free. The food was bad (2018). Really bad, with few decent exceptions. Prior to our NCL cruises we were told by posters on CC that the food would be worse than Princess, but better than RCI. Nope. We were on the Allure 3 months later, and their MDR food was good.

 

The rest of OUR cruise was actually pretty good (except for the smoke smell everywhere), so I guess quality has tanked in a year.

 

P.S. We are not Platinum - this was our 2nd cruise on NCL because our first - on Jade - was interrupted when Jade broke down in PR.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Itchy&Scratchy

[ryanpatricksmom]

3 hours ago, VtMac said:

"Gen Pop", "I'm Platinum, "I'll be Platinum Plus", "I only sail in the Haven"....  This thread reads like a script for Thurston Howell III.   Jeeves, do grab my slippers, the unwashed have walked on the pool deck before thee...  pfft

 

At least as far as my Gen Pop comment goes, you clearly can't recognize tongue in cheek.  Do you think that maybe there was a reason that I thought that we were missing something the last few times that we stayed in the Haven? pfft

[VtMac]

13 minutes ago, ryanpatricksmom said:

 

At least as far as my Gen Pop comment goes, you clearly can't recognize tongue in cheek.  Do you think that maybe there was a reason that I thought that we were missing something the last few times that we stayed in the Haven? pfft

Nah, just a wee bit o trollin of the finer peeps.  

[GettotheSun]

So glad I booked the Getaway, LOL.

[blakeamy]

We’ve only ever cruised Carnival, but we are jumping ship to try the Norwegian Getaway in a few weeks. Hopefully things will be better on a shorter cruise!! 😬