Semi-Live Getaway 2.0 Jan 16 - Feb 1, 2023 NY - So. Caribbean ... 12 nights ( is it Live, Semi-Live or Limited ?? )

[The P]

18 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

Reseau, Dominicia (replaced St. Lucia) - local folks, including taxi & tour operators said NCL didn't want to tender 4,000 folks ashore (and, only 1 ship scheduled at SL)

Henry, this is the most honest reason I've heard for why we skipped St. Lucia.   

[mking8288]

6 minutes ago, The P said:

Henry, this is the most honest reason I've heard for why we skipped St. Lucia.   

Sharon ... unconfirmed news or rumors as it might, however ... apparently traveled quick or fast among islanders or else, local taxis & tours wouldn't be expecting nor prepared to welcome us, the only ship visiting their town on short notice.   Tendering is never easy for mega ships sailing "full" and near capacity.  Skipping St. Lucia, a tender stop and divert elsewhere for unforseen reasons - especially with the apparent short staffing we've seen personally ... not necessary a bad "call" made by the bridge with Miami's blessing.   

 

As I look back at these pictures and visualized, it was still ... an amazing 12 nights onboard, seeing the diversity and lives of the people and the islands, and consider ourselves bless & fortunate to be able to cruise & enjoy - and, I know you concur 110%.  

[mking8288]

Amber Cove (instead of Puerto Plata, DR) - finally, we're still unsure of whether we might be going here at all while onboard and already in the Caribbean, especially after skipping St. Lucia.  We're pushing hard and cruising near full speed for a 11 a.m. arrival - and were slightly behind schedule, crowds lined up on the stairs and areas near the gangway deck.  Not much time allocated for shore excursion and/or doing anything on your own / with private tours, etc.  Downtown or the city centre is 20 minutes each way with a pricy taxi ride.  There was a slim to no chance of possibly being able to dock at Pureto Plata

 

Photos - 

... almost there and we have a good cellular signal, again !! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just past all abroad time of 3:30 pm - plenty of passengers coming back toward the ship, blue towels ... from nearby beach ??  Apparently, not in a hurry - doing the slow walk.  

 

 

Hold it - there's a lot more of them, just coming in - not running at all.  

 

We got time, they are going to wait - we are here already ... 

 

There is another one on the way back ... 

 

Two more 

 

That's another dozen coming thru 

 

How about a quick ride ... nope, most of them just kept walking

 

 

 

 

I think, that's about it - ship's thruster on and we are going now 

 

 

 

That's a 20X digital zoom - pretty sharp, amazing clarity for a smartphone

 

 

 

Homeward bound for NY now 

 

Looks almost like a rainbow - just sunlight cutting thru the clouds

Edited February 13, 2023 by mking8288

[cruiseny4life]

15 hours ago, mking8288 said:

SM - a belated "welcome" back to you & others from Almost Cruise To Nowhere last week ... on the somehow better end of things, at least, avoided the angry North Atlantic crossing in the middle of winter & NCL did issued some OBC and usable FCC on another sailing.  I've been hoping to see at least some posts on the current 12 nights Getaway but nothing, nada ... thus far, unless I'm missing, just feedbacks and reports from other NCL ships & sailings - which I'm catching up on the weekend.   

Answer your questions, I pulled up La Cucina's Menu & attached below (date "stamped") for others to see - it's the latest - was on my other smartphone & merging them into a folder.  Aside from the Beef Tenderloin, which was quite good & up to my expectations ... and the Red Snapper was pretty enjoyable - we had 2 orders of each (among 4 of us) and shared them together.  Disclaimer here - food impressions & opinions are highly personal, subjective and varied from one to another.  Being limited to 1-1-1 under the new rules, which the waiter was very clear & serious about ...  Nope, we did not go there with the intention of up-sizing the pizza or pasta item into an entree, using our dining credits or voucher.   The "very" limited choices in starters were just not up to par, the Antipasti was okay, as least it was a good size - serving wise.  The Calamari Fritti was on the greasy side, there wasn't much to share - nothing special at all about the salad and the potato mini dumplings.  We haven't dine there in years and wanted to give it another try ... it's going to be a while, a long ... long time before we go back.  They got rid of their veal dish(es) entirely ??  IMHO and DW concurred, should've gone to Ocean Blue instead or even Moderno.  As a matter of fact, our neighborhood Ristorante - an easy 10 minutes slow walk in NE Queens, does it better with their weekdays lunch and early bird dinner specials at $20 p/p including coffee/dessert.   Nice deco and looks fancy ... that's about it - short in terms of quality and variety, not one bit of that "wow" factor, not at all.  Well, speed was good as we didn't spent more than 90 minutes and were done with our not-so-fancy dinner there ... went upstairs to the buffet for coffee & fresh fruits.  

 

 

 

 

Even if the food is amazing, the a la carte prices for that amount of food is just plain disgusting. I suppose, yay it's included thanks to Free at Sea and I can head somewhere else onboard if I'm still hangr....hungry. Thanks for sharing the menu and photos! 

 

It looks to be a huge difference between my September meal at La Cucina on Getaway. 

[The P]

Amber Cove was a great surprise. Beautiful new port. Huge free pool there. If you can do steps, a walk up to a bar/restaurant surrounded by vegetation and great views. It was my fave port. 

[PistolPete13]

Just learned two tidbits of info from the current 12 day Getaway cruise with the same itinerary.  

- Coffee pods/packets for the in room machines have run out.  Reports of various types of drinks are running low as well.

 

- The Dominican Republic port day scheduled for today was skipped.   Apparently passengers were told about this earlier, but how early I'm not sure.

The ship is now slowly heading back to NYC with three sea days (including today) ahead of her.
 

Edited February 15, 2023 by PistolPete13

[Sugar Magnolia]

2 minutes ago, PistolPete13 said:

Just learned two tidbits of info from the current 12 day Getaway cruise with the same itinerary.  

- Coffee pods/packets for the in room machines have run out.  Reports of various types of drinks are running low as well.

 

- The Dominican Republic port day scheduled for today was skipped.  A bit of a last minute surprise as it was still on the docket during sail away.

The ship is now slowly heading back to NYC with three sea days (including today) ahead of her.

A quick check of the Puerto Plata, DR weather doesn't show anything severe.  Just partly cloudy with 14 mph winds.  I don't believe this is a tender port.

They ran out of coffee pods on the Prima during the transatlantic and also on the Breakaway in late October. Sounds like a recurring issue. 
 

If you must have your first cup in the room and you don’t want to order room service, bring your own pods. 

[mking8288]

 

 

On 2/13/2023 at 9:57 AM, cruiseny4life said:

It looks to be a huge difference between my September meal at La Cucina on Getaway. 

Haha, just wasn't of much values-added dining on its own since we didn't dine at LC in recent past ... had stayed away but it was mainly to "sample" the beef tenderloin ... without an upgrade.   Nowadays, we'll just have to cruise with an open mind, patience and prepared for surprises.

On 2/13/2023 at 10:22 AM, The P said:

Amber Cove was a great surprise. Beautiful new port. Huge free pool there. If you can do steps, a walk up to a bar/restaurant surrounded by vegetation and great views. It was my fave port. 

It kind of reminded us of Harvest Caye, NCL's other private island (GSC) - we didn't go check out the pool area and someone else mentioned the cable car ride up the mountain, a short taxi ride away ... shops were okay with the usuals.  Duty-free shop prices beat those at St. Thomas, glad we didn't make any onboard gift-shop purchases ... no bargains at 2 for $25.   

17 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

Just learned two tidbits

- Coffee pods/packets for the in room machines have run out.  Reports of various types of drinks are running low as well.

- The Dominican Republic port day scheduled for today was skipped.   Apparently passengers were told about this earlier, but ... 

Our steward told us they're running low on facial tissues during NYC's turnaround day and had to wait until crates and cartons were opened to restore their service closets ... imagine rationing in fear of being out of TP.  I didn't want to make a big deal out earlier about tomato & apple juice being unavailable, bananas and wrapped butter ... and, they're out of regular Sprite (in a can) at the bar.  Flat pods of coffee being out of stock were mentioned here - learned to pack our own extras, just in case - only need to find hot water.   

 

As for skipping Amber Cove/Puerto Platta - per their roll call, those on current sailing notified via NCL email last month (after final payment, of course) of the changes, plus revised port times elsewhere on the 12 nights itinerary - should be interesting if they received any credits and/or OBC adjustments.  Thus far, it's been "radio silence" -  no news should be good news - mostly having a great time on the ship.  

 

Aren't you next on the GA after this week's shorter cruise - get ready & let's give us an updated onboard Report, as briefly as you can make it on highlights should get us to re-live ours again.  

17 hours ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

... Sounds like a recurring issue.  If you must have your first cup in the room and you don’t want to order room service, bring your own pods. 

Corp's VP for planning & logistics, provisioning and F&B owns these problem, annoying at a minimum - not exactly isolated and they think most of us will give them free passes on these recurring (isolated ??) shortage, nope.  It's somewhat difficult to accept that they can't fully restock the ship in New York for 12+ days with plenty of distributors nearby.  Instead, a tractor trailer pulled up at St. Thomas (USVI) when we docked there last month, obviously delivering urgent or important items needed, just in time, to the ship - perhaps locally sourced products.  Everything being more expensive on these islands, unless locally produced.  

 

These take up very little luggage space, I slip them into one of the side pockets of my cabin-sized backpack ... right along with spare charger, USB battery powerbank, personal meds & mini first aid kit, etc.  👇 👇  👇  

 

Food for overall thoughts - next week's 12 nights trip is the last one for the Getaway this winter season ... the rest are shorter ones to Florida & Bahamas, with the Dockyard, Bermuda day visit in question - interesting to continue to follow.   

 

Getaway slated to be upgraded (next or second in line) to Starlink satellite internet access, which should be a simple & straight forward upgrade - as the Cisco hardware/servers and NEC hotspots onboard, etc. do not need to changed or replaced, the network gears are in fine shape - unblock the upstream bottleneck ... more users, more paid upgrade, and hopefully, a win-win.  The rest that choose to stay disconnected, feel free to power off & lock them up in the mini-safe.  Directly dialed from land to ship is just $4.99 a minute + taxes/fees, credit/debit cards to the party making those calls, urgent/emergency/routine wellness ones - for your convenience, of course. 

Edited February 16, 2023 by mking8288

[The P]

You know, Henry, it's a damn shame when people who've paid for a cruise can't at least expect they'll have coffee and tea on board. I'm a tea drinker and don't try to fob off peppermint tea on me when I want caffeine in my tea. I'd rather not have to put tea in my suitcase; there's already too much stuff in there!

[PistolPete13]

Yes, I'll be on the final 12-day Eastern Caribbean voyage of the season on 2/26 and it'll be interesting to see what things look like onboard.  I was supposed to be on the current sailing but the website didn't allow me to book my cabin because it was sold out but didn't show that on the website.

It kept failing at the last payment step with some generic error.

After just having a short 5 day on the Prima back in October, I've very curious to see how the food and food choices will be compared to that trip.  My two speciality dining perks will be used for Moderno and Cagney's.  I've never been to either one of them.

300 minutes of Internet.  We'll see if I can get a semi-live going.  I'll have the PR and USVI to enable my Verizon LTE for larger updates.  My phone plan belongs to work and it's too convoluted a process to enable international service even if I'm will to pay for the days.

Well see if I can work myself back up to the level of snark I had on the Prima semi-live.  That person seems like a stranger to me right now.  LOL  

[Sugar Magnolia]

9 minutes ago, PistolPete13 said:

Yes, I'll be on the final 12-day Eastern Caribbean voyage of the season on 2/26 and it'll be interesting to see what things look like onboard.  I was supposed to be on the current sailing but the website didn't allow me to book my cabin because it was sold out but didn't show that on the website.

It kept failing at the last payment step with some generic error.

After just having a short 5 day on the Prima back in October, I've very curious to see how the food and food choices will be compared to that trip.  My two speciality dining perks will be used for Moderno and Cagney's.  I've never been to either one of them.

300 minutes of Internet.  We'll see if I can get a semi-live going.  I'll have the PR and USVI to enable my Verizon LTE for larger updates.  My phone plan belongs to work and it's too convoluted a process to enable international service even if I'm will to pay for the days.

Well see if I can work myself back up to the level of snark I had on the Prima semi-live.  That person seems like a stranger to me right now.  LOL  

 

@PistolPete13 I hope you do start a live on the 2/26 Getaway. I was looking to book that sailing but instead booked the 5-day Getaway to Nowhereland because I had never been there before. It was charming. Your snark will be much appreciated as a distraction should I become frustrated with the spring break crowds when I am back on the Prima on 3/5. I still think it's a lovely ship with great dining options. And I am going to pretend that the reported soot on Deck 8 is actually pixie dust.

 

[mking8288]

@PistolPete13  Sounds like a plan to me.  Yeah, 300 minutes doesn't go too far - without OBC, I don't feel it's necessary to upgrade & spent all that extra for unlimited ... wasn't sure if we're going to use our OBC to trade-up as we had 600 minutes.  Back in 2019, did Semi Live on the Escape 14 nights (W. Carib) with 350+ minutes - plus an extra 60 minutes toward the end.  It can be done

 

Compose off-line, connect & log-in, go to "your" active thread & upload to post quickly ... then, logoff & disconnect from inTERnet.  Then, read the rest of CC offline while remaining connected to ship's inTRAnet, thus keep your airtime usage to a minimum.  Set your device cloud updates & uploads to disabled or turned off (hate it with a major Android or iOS system update/security patches & most apps can "wait" for routine updates).   Do your major pictorial posting at San Juan and St. Thomas, 5G and 4G signals are excellent from cellular towers, and the rest of the pictures & video clips post-cruise, as the ship's network can be awfully slow (worst being full sea days & mid/late evenings.) 

 

Game plan suggestions would be to limit "on air" from 45 to 60 minutes on Day 2 and 3 (both full sea days) - local cell services Day 4 afternoon from PR land tower, then 45 minutes daily for other islands (3 of them have "free" WiFi at the terminal building & duty-free shopping area ... crew members were "online" so must be usable.  Don't short yourself of valuable time exploring & sightseeing taking pro quality pix & videos.  Day 1, Pier 88 now has good WiFi and VZW signal is stronger toward bow of ship & outdoors - spotty for few moments sailing down the Hudson & then gradually fade away once you're out past VZB & shorelines - that's plenty of time for quickie posts with embarkation.  

 

Look forward to following and should be very good with a refreshing look from your angle.  Have a great cruise, enjoy & best wishes for a wonderful bon voyage next week.  

 

P.S.  Someone else (CC'er) just posted that they are planning to do a little of semi or live reporting this weekend on the shorter 8 nights Getaway cruise, that's good for continuity.   There is always something different, new and interesting to share.

[Outta My Work Clothes]

Was on the 6 Feb cruise, will give a few updates/highlites/lowlites.... More to come but have limited time... YES everything you heard bout shortage in staff is true and there were additional newbies that boarded in NYC, the staff was super friendly... just as I remember them on other NCL cruises (am a NCL fan... being tax'd but this is my line!) they are expressing the problems they encounter in shortages... waiter in O'S mentioned that when they say something is not in stock.. get a bad reaction and they also feel bad.

This is all over place, feel free to ask questions and will respond tomorrow.

OCEAN for first time... special just as I thought it would be, fish of the day TUNA= YUMMY!!! La Bistro up charge for filet migon...  got my gander up and ordered porkchops which were recommended and were delicious. Cagney's had dinner with another couple and would not of noticed cuz we were having a good time but others from our group came in after us, bigger party and received entrees and were out before us. Otherwise NY strip delicious and sides are the sides. Chocolate Cake emence 

Ran our of almost every US can'd beer by last night, Miller Lite/Bud Coors...on and on. Someone came to bar and ordered Bacardi n Coke... no Bacardi... said "On a Caribbean ship you would expect Bacardi!"   MAIN BEEF... yes we knew DR beforehand was not on itinerary they threw bone and extended many ports a couple hrs, especially STT and planned accordingly: taking a personally scheduled trip to Lovato... quite pricy but it was a Valentine gift ... no mention, just on itinerary  letter put on bed 2 nights before, changed  back 2 hrs, if DW had not put it to my attention, forget pier runners.. we woulda been running to airport! VERY Low Blow. Received less than $14 ea for refund for not going to DR port charges refunded... 3 sea days in a row were not my favorite ... Late getting in San Juan, supposed to be 4pm... but due to weather (winds) did not arrive till 6:30p, which was after sundown, and since we were not going to travel around too much after dark (was doing a lil walking and heading to Roof Top Bar to watch sunset... stay'd on boat... did not have dinner scheduled walked around and stumbled on Noodles... got an immediate seat.. Great Luck Great Choice!

More to follow

[mking8288]

@Outta My Work Clothes  - Thanks for adding to, contributing and amending "bits and pieces" from your Feb. 6th Getaway.  $14 p/o or $28 refunded for missing/skipping DR in allocated port fees seemed typical - another time/ship ... NCL skipped GSC due to weather & with a "fun day at sea" - got about $28 in OBC auto-posted to onboard account within 24 hours.  

 

NCL's ships seemed to be late and not able to get ahead of its scheduled port arrival time, not necessary isolated incidents and/or from strong headwind ... I'm pretty sure they "padded" their schedules to allow for delays for both arrival, departure & while in transit - appeared that Getaway hasn't been able to go faster than 21 knots, regardless and no matter what.  It's just bad and aggravating when the vessel is 1 hour or more late getting to the pier to dock with some of the already shortened port times, with a fully sold out cruise edging on maximum lifeboat capacity.  

 

Well, at least they didn't run out of eggs in the gallery last week for ya ... I joked about this earlier, imagine rationing orders at breakfast ... or sharing butter & jam.  It's not easy to just go with the flow, not when the elevator door open & it's full, stopping at every floor on its way up and down.  

[kitkat343]

I was on the 1/8 Getaway.  As a note to the parents out there, they ran out of kids cereals by day 7, and skim milk containers on day 8.  The kids cereals are in boxed containers so either store a few in your room, or bring some from home.   One of the milk dispensers has skim milk (the one in the buffett all the way at the end of the ship).  We had no bananas the whole trip either, which seemed weird to me because the fruit they had was more expensive than bananas.  

 

The 1/8 sailing also lost the DR, and the morning of Antigua.  The more significant concern was the NCL continued to market and sell this cruise to passengers as having the original itinerary weeks after they announced the cancellations and never changed the itinerary on their website.  They didn't let people out of their contracts who purchased after the DR was dropped even though their website was wrong, and they didn't let me switch cruises (my kids wanted to see the monkeys in the DR, and the giant toirteses in Antigua, which are unfortunately only available in the morning) because we were all within final payment.

 

[Jlharvey913]

We very much enjoyed reading and viewing all of your posts! We are boarding on Sunday and have a great idea of what to expect, much thanks to you. I am wondering if you have you Freestyle Dailies and if you would be willing to post the "What's Happening" pages for us? Looking forward to your next cruise so that we can follow along again.

[Outta My Work Clothes]

No egg shortage at all... which is surprising with the amount of wings O'S pumps out!

Just want to clear the air that despite with all the negative vibes ... really loved this trip. Unusual since went with a large group (50) although really only knew 12'ish. Having additional people takes away from the long wait at Tropicana and finally giving up and going to buffet. If just w/ DW the discussion woulda been bout long wait... instead of " Where did you get that slice of roast pork?'  The shows were good as usual, not a fan of 7:30 main show (Million $ quart) as rush for early dinner and off to show, have seen it 2x once being on GA, others had not seen it, excellent and still amazed that Jerry Lee Lewis steals show. Elvis stopped by O's bar, escorted of coarse, even took couple of pictures...Burn the Floor is Hot! and energic... was able to get into Poor House for an 80's show, entertaining rock n roll! Lucky to get seats (at bar) All excursions were personally arranged by OMWC's ... didn't leave ship at San Juan, came in too late , through there was a long line waiting to disembark, Next day was St Kitts, been to Marriott and wanted to try else where and found shipwreck, again with alot of people make it worth while... bathrooms Rough! drinks cheap... see reviews in St Kitts, next was Barbados, originally had a morning cat on Silver Moon, but needed to change since we arrived at noon, Great Trip, delicious dinner/ turtles/ ship wreck snorkel/ sunset! Scrambled to meet our crew at Tappanani.. great time as always, no filet but NY strip was very good and more rice than anyone could eat... St Lucia was spent at Naked Fisherman, crazy amount of stairs down... had DW take her time but well worth trip if you could make it... wonderful beach/ lunch if wanted and drink list that DW said was best she ever had. GA had superbowl party at H20 packed but we had seats, had row of wings/nachos/ stadium food...way too loud but good time. Antigua headed to BeachLimerz. Trip over was thru areas that had not rebuild since storms, and beach road was very potholed, but BeachLimerz was newly reconditioned and nice beach lil journey since parts were washed out... Definitely recommend! STT was shortened as mentioned above... Lovango is another world... beautiful layout/service exceptional/ beautiful setting (mentioned above pricey with a capitol $) but knew it coming in. Negative: taxi driver coming back tried to raise price and then complained no tip! Really Dude! Had 3 sea days back... day one quite windy but found shelter in front of ship/day 2 was best day of all ... calm seas/notta cloud in sky/ day 3 opposite/ cold/cloudy gave way to pouring rain which helped us get to 5:30 dinner early.

Room was a club balcony, forgot how tiny balcony on GA was.. didn't stop us from having coffee out there each morning, couldn't see xtra room in cabin but bathroom worth it to us to be able to turn around in shower! 

[mking8288]

@Jlharvey913  DW would've tossed out those Freestyle Dailies ... yes, got them in a box.  I'll scan the "What's Happening" pages only & upload the PDF (easier w/o taking up more CC server space) later on, for you & anyone else as needed. 

[mking8288]

6 hours ago, Jlharvey913 said:

... if you have you Freestyle Dailies and if you would be willing to post the "What's Happening" pages for us? 

Here they are in PDF format, I did not get or keep FSD for Day #8, otherwise nearly the full set.  Download & open to browse, others can just skip these pages, used Adobe Scan to prepare & safely uploaded via VPN server 

 

Getaway 12 days Caribbean Dailies out of NYC - What's Happening pages (11 of them in 2 parts) only.

NCL Getaway FSD What's Happening 1 of 2, 2023.pdf NCL Getaway Freestyle Dailies Jan 2023 part 2 of 2.pdf

 

Footnote: The grass isn't necessary greener and/or better on any other cruise lines.  I do many of the grocery & household "provisioning" and retail market prices on food staples are no joke these days.  

 

Our next adventure isn't quite around the corner yet, but we just booked and yes, soon.  Will try to give those "addicted" to CC onboard reports at least a few days of advance notice to tune in soon.  No promises, however 😊   I thank Laszlo (love those videos), Jim and others that cruised the Getaway ahead of ours for setting the pace and giving us the heads up - the current live one is good and I'm sitting back to lurk on the next semi-live, he's ready with his photo gears.  

Edited February 23, 2023 by mking8288

[Jlharvey913]

Looking forward to it and thanks again! Both files look great on our end, we appreciate the time & effort!