Thoughts on the Getaway, 3/24-3/31

[dcipjr]

Hello CruiseCritic!

 

We just got off the Getaway's 7-day sailing from New York to Bermuda, so I figured I'd post a brief review with my thoughts.

 

We're a family of 3: my wife and I are both 39, and our daughter is 6.

 

Booking

We are from Philly, so we've done a ton of cruises out of New York to Bermuda. Our first was on the Star in August of 2012, celebrating our first anniversary. We had cruised aboard the Epic for our honeymoon and loved it, and wanted to do another cruise, so we booked a last-minute inside cabin to Bermuda and had an absolute blast. We've been cruising to Bermuda ever since -- and so far, only with NCL.

 

Even though we're seasoned Bermuda veterans, we've only ever been there between May and October. Late March was a solid month before our earliest trip there, and we knew going in that it wouldn't be as warm as our normal summer trips, especially the water temperature.

 

Our first inclination was to go to the Caribbean instead of Bermuda; we're already booked for a Bermuda cruise on the Joy later this year, and the Caribbean would be warmer. But there were no sailings to the Caribbean out of NYC in mid to late March, and prices out of Florida were sky-high. If we wanted to cruise NCL, Bermuda was our only viable option.

 

We initially booked an inside guarantee, and put in a $200 per-person bid to a balcony, which was accepted 6 days before the cruise -- yay!

 

Delayed Departure and Embarkation

Two sailings prior to our cruise, the Getaway had some "mechanical" issues, and was late getting into New York after coming up from the Caribbean. We watched the sailing just prior to ours with great interest, to see whether the mechanical issues would continue to plague the ship.

 

It didn't appear that they did, but the ship was late getting back into New York due to rough seas.

 

We got messages the night before the cruise telling us that the ship wouldn't arrive until noon on Sunday, and that we shouldn't arrive at the pier until 3 or 4 PM on embarkation day.

 

We were driving to New York anyway, so no biggie -- we simply delayed our departure for New York until 2:30 PM, and got to to the terminal at 4:30 PM, securing one of the last parking spots on the pier -- whew!

 

It turns out that many people showed up well before 3 PM, and the parking at the pier very nearly filled up.

 

The flip side of this is that we cruised right through embarkation. There was basically no line, and we were through embarkation and on the ship with no waiting -- it took a half-hour at most.

 

That was great, but we did miss a solid 5 hours of our embarkation day -- that was a disappointment, since that time onboard prior to sailing is always so full of excitement. I missed that. But hey, we're still on vacation,so let's go!

 

Delayed Arrival to Bermuda

Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided to continue to throw monkey wrenches our way.

 

We got the announcement on Monday that our arrival to Bermuda would be delayed 1 day, until Wednesday.

 

Our original itinerary had us in port from 8 AM on Tuesday until 7 AM on Friday, which is a lot of time in Bermuda -- and we were really looking forward to that.

 

We had two rough sea days. Many people were sea-sick. We were packing Bonine, ginger candies, and sea bands. They helped stave off nausea, but they don't do anything about the ship lurching about. It made it harder to sleep and walk around.

 

Then, when we got to Bermuda, we got word that we'd be leaving on Thursday evening instead of Friday morning -- a further reduction to our time on the island.

 

They gave us $200 OBC ($100 for the late arrival, $100 for the early departure). This is much-appreciated, but it's a real bummer that you can only use non-refundable OBC for items that are marked up. I would have loved to have used the OBC to buy a CruiseNext certificate, but that is no longer permitted.

 

Bermuda

Bermuda itself was absolutely lovely. The weather was a balmy 72°F, and the water temperature was a chilly 68°F, but we still visited the beaches and my daughter played in the wet sand.

 

The island is just a wonderful, wonderful place. We'd come back in March -- but honestly, I don't think we'd cruise there again in March. It's just too much of a gamble with the weather on the way down: the past couple sailings and the current sailing were also affected by weather.

 

It does raise the question why NCL isn't offering better itineraries out of NYC for Spring Break.

 

On the Cutbacks

OK, so everyone on CruiseCritic was talking about cutbacks, to the point where I started actively avoiding the boards so that I wouldn't poison my own opinion of the cruise before we even set sail.

 

What's the verdict?

 

Well, there have been cutbacks for sure, mostly around food and entertainment.

 

I'll go into both.

 

Food

We noticed a decline in MDR food quality, as well as the number of options available on the menu. The right side of the menu has been reduced from 6 or 7 entrees in 2023 to 5, and the left side lost an entree as well.

 

There's now a big section of the menu devoted to food you can order from Cagneys.

 

Want lobster in the MDR? Well good news for you -- you can get it! Bad news is that it's an upsell.

 

And that big section of food you can order from Cagneys conveniently means they don't have as much space to put regular entrees there.

 

As for the food itself, it was OK, but it wasn't great. We have always been fine with the MDR options, but this time I think I would have been really disappointed if I didn't have a couple Latitudes vouchers for specialty meals.

 

Hard to put my finger on exactly what was wrong. The ingredients seemed lower quality. The MDR food just was bland in general.

 

The buffet fared a little better, but certain things I enjoyed for breakfast were gone. Everyone will complain about the hashbrowns being gone, but the country potatoes were just not good this time around. They're soggy and disappointing. The old ones were crispier and just better.

 

The specialty restaurants, on the other hand, were still as good as ever. We dined in Ocean Blue, Moderno, and Le Bistro, and enjoyed them all.

 

I will point out, though, that the mascarpone & caramelized onion bread in Ocean Blue is gone...gone...which was cause for much sadness for both me and my wife, who absolutely loved that bread.

 

Food quality otherwise in the specialties was every bit up to par.

 

O'Sheehans has only ever been average food, but sometimes you just want a nonfancy burger, and it certainly still fits the bill. I don't think food quality has declined here, but there do appear to be somewhat fewer options than before.

 

The kids menu changed. They eliminated the chicken tenders, hot dog, chicken noodle soup. They added roasted tomato soup, a veggie taco, and a chicken stir fry. My daughter is still in the Only Wants Chicken Nuggets, Hot Dogs, and Kraft Mac 'n Cheese stage (though she's slowly getting better), so this was a bit of a blow. Though we were sort of happy to not let her eat hot dogs all week. At least the pizza is still there.

 

Entertainment

OK, so somehow I made it through almost 20 NCL cruises without having seen Howl at the Moon, and damn have I been missing out!!! They were so good. I saw the final show, came in at the start, and wound up staying the entire time until 1 AM. Absolutely brilliant. Not to be missed if you love music.

 

The comedians were fun; I don't think Levity overall is as good as Second City used to be, but still really solid, and I enjoyed seeing them for a couple shows.

 

Out of morbid curiosity, I went to see Wheel of Fortune, and it was absolutely dreadful. It's sort of a travesty that it's considered prime-time entertainment on a ship of this size. It was basically the cruise director shouting into the mic, and a virtual on-screen wheel. Come on, NCL, you couldn't even come up with a real wheel to spin?

 

The contestents had obviously never seen the show nor had they ever studied letter frequency in the English language. RLSTNE, anyone? One of them even solved the puzzle without spinning the wheel, which would have been impressive if she didn't just lock in a $0 winning. Thankfully it was over in about 30 minutes.

 

Woof.

 

Onboard Activities

Something I learned this cruise -- the Getaway is a much better warm-weather ship than cold weather. We are so, so lucky that we upgraded to a balcony, because at least we could watch the sea on the sea days, while we read books and popped Bonine. If we had stayed in our inside cabin, I don't know what we would have done.

 

When the weather's not good, there's not a whole lot to do on the ship during the day that doesn't involve purchasing spa treatments, art, or bingo cards.

 

My daughter went to the kids club once, and enjoyed it, but the lines to get in were so long that we didn't really bother trying to drop her off there. Spring Break, after all.

 

Service

Service was fine. Not as good as we had in the past, but honestly, it's Spring Break and I think the crew was sort of just trying to get through it all. I get it.

 

One MDR waiter had us cracking up laughing about all the stumbling around that the crew had been doing due to the rough seas. They were over it by the time we were onboard. Multiple crew members said to me that they couldn't wait to get back to the Caribbean, since the back and forth to Bermuda had been so brutal.

 

Our cabin attendant was great. I miss the days where there were more cabin attendants and staterooms were usually done by 11 AM or lunchtime at the latest. 4 PM cabin makeup is a bit of a drag -- and that's on NCL, not the attendants.

 

I said before and I'll say again that the cabin attendant is the most visible member of the crew for almost everyone onboard. If they're overworked, people will notice. I noticed.

 

Overall Thoughts

We had a good time. It wasn't the best cruise we ever took, being honest. The days in Bermuda were by far the best part -- it sort of reminded us "this is why we're here".

I think we'll skip winter / very early spring sailings to Bermuda from here on out, though. The weather out of NYC is too much of a gamble. Granted, even Florida had their issues that same week, but you have to go with the best possible option.

 

After nearly 20 cruises, I'm sort of feeling like I've been-there-done-that with NCL, and the prices have gone up significantly. In fact, the rate for the third person in the room was higher than the first and second person -- which was something I never saw before!

 

We've got an August cruise on the Joy coming up (to Bermuda...booked last summer). I could cancel it, but I think I'll keep it. We love Bermuda, and missed snorkeling and swimming while we were there, and it felt good as we sailed away from the island to know we'd be coming back in a few short months.

 

But I think after this, we'll take a break from NCL and try some other lines: perhaps Celebrity or HAL.

 

Let me know if you have any questions, etc. Happy to answer.

Edited April 4 by dcipjr

[FLAHAM]

Bring a Kindle.  Read a book.

[dcipjr]

Just now, FLAHAM said:

Bring a Kindle.  Read a book.

 

We did. Like I said, I was glad to have our balcony cabin to read in. We missed the Observation Lounge—that was always a great reading spot.

[dcipjr]

@mking8288, I unfortunately wasn't able to get the list of officers, but I can confirm for you that the Getaway is still using the ancient 1996-vintage navigation channel.

[mking8288]

@dcipjr  welcome home from your Getaway, loved the short, concise & simple report on the Bermuda sailing.  Opinions on food, as I always believe & say, is largely personal, subjective & biased ... unless and until it isn't ... how can NCL mess with the kid's basic menu options, b/c they can - next, I foresee, for a nominal upcharge and 20% - for our convenience.  Usually, we find ways to spend down those non-refundable OBC - duty-free shop prices are up but the markup isn't too bad compared to airport duty-free zones abroad, we discovered last year.  At least, everyone has more than a day to come up with ways of spending it all.  

 

No worries about ship's officers currently onboard but good to know the GA's navigational status display hasn't change (yet ?) as the data displayed into the Prima's stateroom was horrible & much worst - nice & bigger Samsung Smart TV, however, is good.  Maybe, give the newer ships a try.  Instead of sailing the Joy or Breakaway with NCL, we decided to broaden & stretching our "Diamond" wings this year.  Loop out of Cape Liberty for 9 nights ... NE & Canada with Sydney, CAN a new port for us.  Booked 3 Promenade Inside - 2 of them connecting Price is Right, more than great.  After our 3 nights inside NY harbor last September, decided that we can live without a balcony this Fall - going to compare RC's Voom Starlink.  

 

Sailing later this month, did you noticed any new or different entrees in the MDR ... it seemed like NCL hasn't refreshed the menus since 2023, just wondering as coming up for us, got plenty of sea days and 5 nights of specialty dining is more than enough.  I believed items like prime rib, pork chops and even lamb dishes have disappeared almost completely from the MDR as routine rotations.  We didn't even see chicken wings in the buffet ... well, going to look for it as none of us like the ones in The Local / O'Sheehan's.  

 

Oh, if it make you feel any better, GA didn't fare any better this week, their stay in Bermuda cut short & they got into Nassau later than 10 AM this morning for a short visit ... then, 2 sea days on the return to NY.   Ship was doing 19, 20 to almost 21 kts en route at varies times, mechanical issues apparently no longer.  

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for sharing your review with us.

[mimi05052012]

We were on that sailing too. Agree with your comments. We had a great time but it was not a great cruise.  Could have used more activities on sea days especially family friendly ones since there were 1300 kids on board. Spring break!

 

the Atrium was way over used. So many of the things done there would be better suited for the theater. 

 

Our grandson is a very picky eater and was not happy with the changes to the kids menu. I filled out a Dear GM comment and got a call the next day saying that the items which had been removed are still available. He was able to order a hot dog in the MDR no problem. 

[dcipjr]

1 hour ago, mking8288 said:

Sailing later this month, did you noticed any new or different entrees in the MDR ... it seemed like NCL hasn't refreshed the menus since 2023, just wondering as coming up for us, got plenty of sea days and 5 nights of specialty dining is more than enough.  I believed items like prime rib, pork chops and even lamb dishes have disappeared almost completely from the MDR as routine rotations.

It was basically identical to the 2023 menus, just with fewer options. Kind of another reason why we want to try a different line: we’ve had about everything off the MDR menu. 

 

1 hour ago, mking8288 said:

how can NCL mess with the kid's basic menu options

 

They found a way! Luckily our daughter liked the pizza but for picky eaters, it’s not a great menu. 
 

1 hour ago, mking8288 said:

Oh, if it make you feel any better, GA didn't fare any better this week, their stay in Bermuda cut short & they got into Nassau later than 10 AM this morning for a short visit .

At least we got two days in Bermuda. I would have been really disappointed. 

 

That’s three Getaway sailings in a row that modified their calling times in Bermuda. 

[dcipjr]

3 minutes ago, mimi05052012 said:

We were on that sailing too. Agree with your comments. We had a great time but it was not a great cruise.  Could have used more activities on sea days especially family friendly ones since there were 1300 kids on board. Spring break!

 

the Atrium was way over used. So many of the things done there would be better suited for the theater. 

 

Our grandson is a very picky eater and was not happy with the changes to the kids menu. I filled out a Dear GM comment and got a call the next day saying that the items which had been removed are still available. He was able to order a hot dog in the MDR no problem. 

I completely agree! We had a great time, but most of the highlights were in Bermuda. 
 

The Atrium is really heavily used and it’s SO LOUD. It makes it hard to eat at O’Sheehans due to the noise. We asked to be seated towards the back and the hostess brought us to as quiet a spot as she could find, and we shared a few laughs about the noise (it was getting on her nerves too!).

 

I plan to fill out a Dear GM card on the next sailing and see if they’ll let her order the hot dog or chicken fingers. Great advice—thank you!

[zaylyn2590]

I was on this sailing and i agree 100% about everything you said. That Wheel of Fortune was brutal to watch 😫. I wish they had more karaoke. The atrium games were kinda fun to watch. 

[dexddd]

The new kids menu looks like ...ick...We don't have young Kids anymore, but really?

[njkate]

Thank you for taking the time to write a thought out well balanced review. Hope your next cruise to Bermuda is wonderful 

[brookie848]

1 hour ago, dexddd said:

The new kids menu looks like ...ick...We don't have young Kids anymore, but really?

My nephews is a pretty picky eater and he would not like this menu at all. Plus, add in the fact that he has a mild dairy allergy so he really shouldn't be eating cheese and he would be really out of luck. He is a hot dog and chicken finger kid. But he likes steak, so maybe he'd be okay with the steak on the classic side of the MDR menu.

[JamieLogical]

If you usually sail of of NYC, I am curious why you didn't mention trying MSC. I made the switch from NCL to MSC and could not be happier about it. My next two cruises are on Princess because of casino offers, but I can't wait to get back on the Meraviglia in October. Many of the things you mention about cuts on NCL are not issues on MSC.

 

Edit: Holy cow. I just priced out a Balcony for 3 people on the MSC Meraviglia to Bermuda in August vs. the Joy to Bermuda in August and the Joy came out to $1100 more. The Joy sailing included all the Free at Sea offers and the Merviglia sailing included the Easy Plus drinks and unlimited Browse wifi. I assume you are a pretty high status level on NCL, so you could probably get matched to Gold or Diamond on MSC.

 

Edited April 5 by JamieLogical

[Chirphy6438]

23 hours ago, dcipjr said:

Hello CruiseCritic!

 

We just got off the Getaway's 7-day sailing from New York to Bermuda, so I figured I'd post a brief review with my thoughts.

 

We're a family of 3: my wife and I are both 39, and our daughter is 6.

 

Booking

We are from Philly, so we've done a ton of cruises out of New York to Bermuda. Our first was on the Star in August of 2012, celebrating our first anniversary. We had cruised aboard the Epic for our honeymoon and loved it, and wanted to do another cruise, so we booked a last-minute inside cabin to Bermuda and had an absolute blast. We've been cruising to Bermuda ever since -- and so far, only with NCL.

 

Even though we're seasoned Bermuda veterans, we've only ever been there between May and October. Late March was a solid month before our earliest trip there, and we knew going in that it wouldn't be as warm as our normal summer trips, especially the water temperature.

 

Our first inclination was to go to the Caribbean instead of Bermuda; we're already booked for a Bermuda cruise on the Joy later this year, and the Caribbean would be warmer. But there were no sailings to the Caribbean out of NYC in mid to late March, and prices out of Florida were sky-high. If we wanted to cruise NCL, Bermuda was our only viable option.

 

We initially booked an inside guarantee, and put in a $200 per-person bid to a balcony, which was accepted 6 days before the cruise -- yay!

 

Delayed Departure and Embarkation

Two sailings prior to our cruise, the Getaway had some "mechanical" issues, and was late getting into New York after coming up from the Caribbean. We watched the sailing just prior to ours with great interest, to see whether the mechanical issues would continue to plague the ship.

 

It didn't appear that they did, but the ship was late getting back into New York due to rough seas.

 

We got messages the night before the cruise telling us that the ship wouldn't arrive until noon on Sunday, and that we shouldn't arrive at the pier until 3 or 4 PM on embarkation day.

 

We were driving to New York anyway, so no biggie -- we simply delayed our departure for New York until 2:30 PM, and got to to the terminal at 4:30 PM, securing one of the last parking spots on the pier -- whew!

 

It turns out that many people showed up well before 3 PM, and the parking at the pier very nearly filled up.

 

The flip side of this is that we cruised right through embarkation. There was basically no line, and we were through embarkation and on the ship with no waiting -- it took a half-hour at most.

 

That was great, but we did miss a solid 5 hours of our embarkation day -- that was a disappointment, since that time onboard prior to sailing is always so full of excitement. I missed that. But hey, we're still on vacation,so let's go!

 

Delayed Arrival to Bermuda

Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided to continue to throw monkey wrenches our way.

 

We got the announcement on Monday that our arrival to Bermuda would be delayed 1 day, until Wednesday.

 

Our original itinerary had us in port from 8 AM on Tuesday until 7 AM on Friday, which is a lot of time in Bermuda -- and we were really looking forward to that.

 

We had two rough sea days. Many people were sea-sick. We were packing Bonine, ginger candies, and sea bands. They helped stave off nausea, but they don't do anything about the ship lurching about. It made it harder to sleep and walk around.

 

Then, when we got to Bermuda, we got word that we'd be leaving on Thursday evening instead of Friday morning -- a further reduction to our time on the island.

 

They gave us $200 OBC ($100 for the late arrival, $100 for the early departure). This is much-appreciated, but it's a real bummer that you can only use non-refundable OBC for items that are marked up. I would have loved to have used the OBC to buy a CruiseNext certificate, but that is no longer permitted.

 

Bermuda

Bermuda itself was absolutely lovely. The weather was a balmy 72°F, and the water temperature was a chilly 68°F, but we still visited the beaches and my daughter played in the wet sand.

 

The island is just a wonderful, wonderful place. We'd come back in March -- but honestly, I don't think we'd cruise there again in March. It's just too much of a gamble with the weather on the way down: the past couple sailings and the current sailing were also affected by weather.

 

It does raise the question why NCL isn't offering better itineraries out of NYC for Spring Break.

 

On the Cutbacks

OK, so everyone on CruiseCritic was talking about cutbacks, to the point where I started actively avoiding the boards so that I wouldn't poison my own opinion of the cruise before we even set sail.

 

What's the verdict?

 

Well, there have been cutbacks for sure, mostly around food and entertainment.

 

I'll go into both.

 

Food

We noticed a decline in MDR food quality, as well as the number of options available on the menu. The right side of the menu has been reduced from 6 or 7 entrees in 2023 to 5, and the left side lost an entree as well.

 

There's now a big section of the menu devoted to food you can order from Cagneys.

 

Want lobster in the MDR? Well good news for you -- you can get it! Bad news is that it's an upsell.

 

And that big section of food you can order from Cagneys conveniently means they don't have as much space to put regular entrees there.

 

As for the food itself, it was OK, but it wasn't great. We have always been fine with the MDR options, but this time I think I would have been really disappointed if I didn't have a couple Latitudes vouchers for specialty meals.

 

Hard to put my finger on exactly what was wrong. The ingredients seemed lower quality. The MDR food just was bland in general.

 

The buffet fared a little better, but certain things I enjoyed for breakfast were gone. Everyone will complain about the hashbrowns being gone, but the country potatoes were just not good this time around. They're soggy and disappointing. The old ones were crispier and just better.

 

The specialty restaurants, on the other hand, were still as good as ever. We dined in Ocean Blue, Moderno, and Le Bistro, and enjoyed them all.

 

I will point out, though, that the mascarpone & caramelized onion bread in Ocean Blue is gone...gone...which was cause for much sadness for both me and my wife, who absolutely loved that bread.

 

Food quality otherwise in the specialties was every bit up to par.

 

O'Sheehans has only ever been average food, but sometimes you just want a nonfancy burger, and it certainly still fits the bill. I don't think food quality has declined here, but there do appear to be somewhat fewer options than before.

 

The kids menu changed. They eliminated the chicken tenders, hot dog, chicken noodle soup. They added roasted tomato soup, a veggie taco, and a chicken stir fry. My daughter is still in the Only Wants Chicken Nuggets, Hot Dogs, and Kraft Mac 'n Cheese stage (though she's slowly getting better), so this was a bit of a blow. Though we were sort of happy to not let her eat hot dogs all week. At least the pizza is still there.

 

Entertainment

OK, so somehow I made it through almost 20 NCL cruises without having seen Howl at the Moon, and damn have I been missing out!!! They were so good. I saw the final show, came in at the start, and wound up staying the entire time until 1 AM. Absolutely brilliant. Not to be missed if you love music.

 

The comedians were fun; I don't think Levity overall is as good as Second City used to be, but still really solid, and I enjoyed seeing them for a couple shows.

 

Out of morbid curiosity, I went to see Wheel of Fortune, and it was absolutely dreadful. It's sort of a travesty that it's considered prime-time entertainment on a ship of this size. It was basically the cruise director shouting into the mic, and a virtual on-screen wheel. Come on, NCL, you couldn't even come up with a real wheel to spin?

 

The contestents had obviously never seen the show nor had they ever studied letter frequency in the English language. RLSTNE, anyone? One of them even solved the puzzle without spinning the wheel, which would have been impressive if she didn't just lock in a $0 winning. Thankfully it was over in about 30 minutes.

 

Woof.

 

Onboard Activities

Something I learned this cruise -- the Getaway is a much better warm-weather ship than cold weather. We are so, so lucky that we upgraded to a balcony, because at least we could watch the sea on the sea days, while we read books and popped Bonine. If we had stayed in our inside cabin, I don't know what we would have done.

 

When the weather's not good, there's not a whole lot to do on the ship during the day that doesn't involve purchasing spa treatments, art, or bingo cards.

 

My daughter went to the kids club once, and enjoyed it, but the lines to get in were so long that we didn't really bother trying to drop her off there. Spring Break, after all.

 

Service

Service was fine. Not as good as we had in the past, but honestly, it's Spring Break and I think the crew was sort of just trying to get through it all. I get it.

 

One MDR waiter had us cracking up laughing about all the stumbling around that the crew had been doing due to the rough seas. They were over it by the time we were onboard. Multiple crew members said to me that they couldn't wait to get back to the Caribbean, since the back and forth to Bermuda had been so brutal.

 

Our cabin attendant was great. I miss the days where there were more cabin attendants and staterooms were usually done by 11 AM or lunchtime at the latest. 4 PM cabin makeup is a bit of a drag -- and that's on NCL, not the attendants.

 

I said before and I'll say again that the cabin attendant is the most visible member of the crew for almost everyone onboard. If they're overworked, people will notice. I noticed.

 

Overall Thoughts

We had a good time. It wasn't the best cruise we ever took, being honest. The days in Bermuda were by far the best part -- it sort of reminded us "this is why we're here".

I think we'll skip winter / very early spring sailings to Bermuda from here on out, though. The weather out of NYC is too much of a gamble. Granted, even Florida had their issues that same week, but you have to go with the best possible option.

 

After nearly 20 cruises, I'm sort of feeling like I've been-there-done-that with NCL, and the prices have gone up significantly. In fact, the rate for the third person in the room was higher than the first and second person -- which was something I never saw before!

 

We've got an August cruise on the Joy coming up (to Bermuda...booked last summer). I could cancel it, but I think I'll keep it. We love Bermuda, and missed snorkeling and swimming while we were there, and it felt good as we sailed away from the island to know we'd be coming back in a few short months.

 

But I think after this, we'll take a break from NCL and try some other lines: perhaps Celebrity or HAL.

 

Let me know if you have any questions, etc. Happy to answer.

 

[Chirphy6438]

Thank you for the detailed trip report and look forward to sailing on NCL in a few weeks.  I do have a question,,, Is there any special requirements needed by Bermuda when we board NCL in New York?  

[billslowsky]

1 hour ago, Chirphy6438 said:

Thank you for the detailed trip report and look forward to sailing on NCL in a few weeks.  I do have a question,,, Is there any special requirements needed by Bermuda when we board NCL in New York?  

The old COVID form is gone.

[stellarose33]

thanks for your thoughts. 

[blackwing]

On 4/4/2024 at 12:13 PM, dcipjr said:

Hello CruiseCritic!

 

We just got off the Getaway's 7-day sailing from New York to Bermuda, so I figured I'd post a brief review with my thoughts.

 

We're a family of 3: my wife and I are both 39, and our daughter is 6.

 

Booking

We are from Philly, so we've done a ton of cruises out of New York to Bermuda. Our first was on the Star in August of 2012, celebrating our first anniversary. We had cruised aboard the Epic for our honeymoon and loved it, and wanted to do another cruise, so we booked a last-minute inside cabin to Bermuda and had an absolute blast. We've been cruising to Bermuda ever since -- and so far, only with NCL.

 

Even though we're seasoned Bermuda veterans, we've only ever been there between May and October. Late March was a solid month before our earliest trip there, and we knew going in that it wouldn't be as warm as our normal summer trips, especially the water temperature.

 

Our first inclination was to go to the Caribbean instead of Bermuda; we're already booked for a Bermuda cruise on the Joy later this year, and the Caribbean would be warmer. But there were no sailings to the Caribbean out of NYC in mid to late March, and prices out of Florida were sky-high. If we wanted to cruise NCL, Bermuda was our only viable option.

 

We initially booked an inside guarantee, and put in a $200 per-person bid to a balcony, which was accepted 6 days before the cruise -- yay!

 

Delayed Departure and Embarkation

Two sailings prior to our cruise, the Getaway had some "mechanical" issues, and was late getting into New York after coming up from the Caribbean. We watched the sailing just prior to ours with great interest, to see whether the mechanical issues would continue to plague the ship.

 

It didn't appear that they did, but the ship was late getting back into New York due to rough seas.

 

We got messages the night before the cruise telling us that the ship wouldn't arrive until noon on Sunday, and that we shouldn't arrive at the pier until 3 or 4 PM on embarkation day.

 

We were driving to New York anyway, so no biggie -- we simply delayed our departure for New York until 2:30 PM, and got to to the terminal at 4:30 PM, securing one of the last parking spots on the pier -- whew!

 

It turns out that many people showed up well before 3 PM, and the parking at the pier very nearly filled up.

 

The flip side of this is that we cruised right through embarkation. There was basically no line, and we were through embarkation and on the ship with no waiting -- it took a half-hour at most.

 

That was great, but we did miss a solid 5 hours of our embarkation day -- that was a disappointment, since that time onboard prior to sailing is always so full of excitement. I missed that. But hey, we're still on vacation,so let's go!

 

Delayed Arrival to Bermuda

Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided to continue to throw monkey wrenches our way.

 

We got the announcement on Monday that our arrival to Bermuda would be delayed 1 day, until Wednesday.

 

Our original itinerary had us in port from 8 AM on Tuesday until 7 AM on Friday, which is a lot of time in Bermuda -- and we were really looking forward to that.

 

We had two rough sea days. Many people were sea-sick. We were packing Bonine, ginger candies, and sea bands. They helped stave off nausea, but they don't do anything about the ship lurching about. It made it harder to sleep and walk around.

 

Then, when we got to Bermuda, we got word that we'd be leaving on Thursday evening instead of Friday morning -- a further reduction to our time on the island.

 

They gave us $200 OBC ($100 for the late arrival, $100 for the early departure). This is much-appreciated, but it's a real bummer that you can only use non-refundable OBC for items that are marked up. I would have loved to have used the OBC to buy a CruiseNext certificate, but that is no longer permitted.

 

Bermuda

Bermuda itself was absolutely lovely. The weather was a balmy 72°F, and the water temperature was a chilly 68°F, but we still visited the beaches and my daughter played in the wet sand.

 

The island is just a wonderful, wonderful place. We'd come back in March -- but honestly, I don't think we'd cruise there again in March. It's just too much of a gamble with the weather on the way down: the past couple sailings and the current sailing were also affected by weather.

 

It does raise the question why NCL isn't offering better itineraries out of NYC for Spring Break.

 

On the Cutbacks

OK, so everyone on CruiseCritic was talking about cutbacks, to the point where I started actively avoiding the boards so that I wouldn't poison my own opinion of the cruise before we even set sail.

 

What's the verdict?

 

Well, there have been cutbacks for sure, mostly around food and entertainment.

 

I'll go into both.

 

Food

We noticed a decline in MDR food quality, as well as the number of options available on the menu. The right side of the menu has been reduced from 6 or 7 entrees in 2023 to 5, and the left side lost an entree as well.

 

There's now a big section of the menu devoted to food you can order from Cagneys.

 

Want lobster in the MDR? Well good news for you -- you can get it! Bad news is that it's an upsell.

 

And that big section of food you can order from Cagneys conveniently means they don't have as much space to put regular entrees there.

 

As for the food itself, it was OK, but it wasn't great. We have always been fine with the MDR options, but this time I think I would have been really disappointed if I didn't have a couple Latitudes vouchers for specialty meals.

 

Hard to put my finger on exactly what was wrong. The ingredients seemed lower quality. The MDR food just was bland in general.

 

The buffet fared a little better, but certain things I enjoyed for breakfast were gone. Everyone will complain about the hashbrowns being gone, but the country potatoes were just not good this time around. They're soggy and disappointing. The old ones were crispier and just better.

 

The specialty restaurants, on the other hand, were still as good as ever. We dined in Ocean Blue, Moderno, and Le Bistro, and enjoyed them all.

 

I will point out, though, that the mascarpone & caramelized onion bread in Ocean Blue is gone...gone...which was cause for much sadness for both me and my wife, who absolutely loved that bread.

 

Food quality otherwise in the specialties was every bit up to par.

 

O'Sheehans has only ever been average food, but sometimes you just want a nonfancy burger, and it certainly still fits the bill. I don't think food quality has declined here, but there do appear to be somewhat fewer options than before.

 

The kids menu changed. They eliminated the chicken tenders, hot dog, chicken noodle soup. They added roasted tomato soup, a veggie taco, and a chicken stir fry. My daughter is still in the Only Wants Chicken Nuggets, Hot Dogs, and Kraft Mac 'n Cheese stage (though she's slowly getting better), so this was a bit of a blow. Though we were sort of happy to not let her eat hot dogs all week. At least the pizza is still there.

 

Entertainment

OK, so somehow I made it through almost 20 NCL cruises without having seen Howl at the Moon, and damn have I been missing out!!! They were so good. I saw the final show, came in at the start, and wound up staying the entire time until 1 AM. Absolutely brilliant. Not to be missed if you love music.

 

The comedians were fun; I don't think Levity overall is as good as Second City used to be, but still really solid, and I enjoyed seeing them for a couple shows.

 

Out of morbid curiosity, I went to see Wheel of Fortune, and it was absolutely dreadful. It's sort of a travesty that it's considered prime-time entertainment on a ship of this size. It was basically the cruise director shouting into the mic, and a virtual on-screen wheel. Come on, NCL, you couldn't even come up with a real wheel to spin?

 

The contestents had obviously never seen the show nor had they ever studied letter frequency in the English language. RLSTNE, anyone? One of them even solved the puzzle without spinning the wheel, which would have been impressive if she didn't just lock in a $0 winning. Thankfully it was over in about 30 minutes.

 

Woof.

 

Onboard Activities

Something I learned this cruise -- the Getaway is a much better warm-weather ship than cold weather. We are so, so lucky that we upgraded to a balcony, because at least we could watch the sea on the sea days, while we read books and popped Bonine. If we had stayed in our inside cabin, I don't know what we would have done.

 

When the weather's not good, there's not a whole lot to do on the ship during the day that doesn't involve purchasing spa treatments, art, or bingo cards.

 

My daughter went to the kids club once, and enjoyed it, but the lines to get in were so long that we didn't really bother trying to drop her off there. Spring Break, after all.

 

Service

Service was fine. Not as good as we had in the past, but honestly, it's Spring Break and I think the crew was sort of just trying to get through it all. I get it.

 

One MDR waiter had us cracking up laughing about all the stumbling around that the crew had been doing due to the rough seas. They were over it by the time we were onboard. Multiple crew members said to me that they couldn't wait to get back to the Caribbean, since the back and forth to Bermuda had been so brutal.

 

Our cabin attendant was great. I miss the days where there were more cabin attendants and staterooms were usually done by 11 AM or lunchtime at the latest. 4 PM cabin makeup is a bit of a drag -- and that's on NCL, not the attendants.

 

I said before and I'll say again that the cabin attendant is the most visible member of the crew for almost everyone onboard. If they're overworked, people will notice. I noticed.

 

Overall Thoughts

We had a good time. It wasn't the best cruise we ever took, being honest. The days in Bermuda were by far the best part -- it sort of reminded us "this is why we're here".

I think we'll skip winter / very early spring sailings to Bermuda from here on out, though. The weather out of NYC is too much of a gamble. Granted, even Florida had their issues that same week, but you have to go with the best possible option.

 

After nearly 20 cruises, I'm sort of feeling like I've been-there-done-that with NCL, and the prices have gone up significantly. In fact, the rate for the third person in the room was higher than the first and second person -- which was something I never saw before!

 

We've got an August cruise on the Joy coming up (to Bermuda...booked last summer). I could cancel it, but I think I'll keep it. We love Bermuda, and missed snorkeling and swimming while we were there, and it felt good as we sailed away from the island to know we'd be coming back in a few short months.

 

But I think after this, we'll take a break from NCL and try some other lines: perhaps Celebrity or HAL.

 

Let me know if you have any questions, etc. Happy to answer.

Thanks for your review, I was on this sailing as well.  This was our first time travelling out of New York and it was definitely different experiencing the really rough seas.  I got seasick on Monday and my daughter got seasick on Friday.  Neither of us had ever gotten seasick on cruises before.  I agree with you that it kind of stinks when the weather is cold/windy and everything on 15 and 16 is closed.  I put on my fleece and sat on the deck chairs against the window, sort of protected against wind, and did some reading.  But it wasn't ideal.

 

We didn't go to anything in the theater besides Million Dollar Quartet and Burn the Floor, so I have no idea what it was like.  I had a feeling Wheel of Fortune was going to be a disaster, it's kind of embarrassing that NCL considers this to be worthy of occupying a prime nighttime slot in the theater.  This should have been something done during the day there.  I'm not a big comedy show fan so I skipped all the Levity Entertainment, curious if they are any good.  I really think that instead of Wheel of Fortune, they could have moved MDQ's "Broadway Unplugged" show to the theater instead.  There were so many people that couldn't get into the Illusionarium for their two shows there on one night only.

 

The buffet, I was looking for hash browns as well, came here after we got back and see that it's apparently something of a sore subject.  Agree with you that the country potatoes were not good.  The corned beef hash, I've never seen corned beef hash that looks like that.  It seemed like it was the country potatoes with some kind of mystery meat in it.  Whatever it was was really brown looking, not looking like corned beef at all.

 

We enjoyed the cruise a lot overall.  It was great to spend time together as a family.  I would sit on a cold pool deck reading rather than going to work and eating even "ok but not great" food every day if it means we don't have to cook it or wash the dishes.

[dcipjr]

On 4/5/2024 at 9:57 AM, JamieLogical said:

If you usually sail of of NYC, I am curious why you didn't mention trying MSC. I made the switch from NCL to MSC and could not be happier about it. My next two cruises are on Princess because of casino offers, but I can't wait to get back on the Meraviglia in October. Many of the things you mention about cuts on NCL are not issues on MSC.

 

I'm considering trying MSC, since they've expanded operations from NYC.

 

What's really holding me back on MSC Is the reports of the MDR food being decidedly not-great. Now, granted, NCL's MDR food this cruise was hit-and-miss.

 

How have you found non-specialty dining on MSC?

[JamieLogical]

55 minutes ago, dcipjr said:

 

I'm considering trying MSC, since they've expanded operations from NYC.

 

What's really holding me back on MSC Is the reports of the MDR food being decidedly not-great. Now, granted, NCL's MDR food this cruise was hit-and-miss.

 

How have you found non-specialty dining on MSC?

 

I have LOVED the MDR food on MSC. Lobster still on Gala night, which is pretty nice. All of the pasta dishes are, predictably, delicious. There is no steak on their classics menu (the entrees available every night), but the pasta bolognese is my go-to if nothing strikes my fancy on the rotating menu. I was just on an 11-night sailing though and had to pass on an entree I otherwise would have likely been happy with just to make sure I got the pasta bolognese in at least once.

 

I have lots of photos of food from my MSC sailings in my LiveBlogs if you want to take a look. I think you can find the links by clicking on my profile, but let me know if you want me to link them here.

[JamieLogical]

I went ahead and looked up some of the links. My mouse recent MSC sailing was on the Divina, and the few prior to that were all on the Meraviglia:

 

 

 

 

[dexddd]

20 hours ago, dcipjr said:

 

I'm considering trying MSC, since they've expanded operations from NYC.

 

What's really holding me back on MSC Is the reports of the MDR food being decidedly not-great. Now, granted, NCL's MDR food this cruise was hit-and-miss.

 

How have you found non-specialty dining on MSC?

We've sailed MSC like seven times.  All YC.  Last time on Mera food stunk in YC.  Both variety and quality and service.  MDR may have actually been better.  We ate dinner in buffet three of ten nights.

 

That being said, I'd at least try it and most fares decent.  Mera is a beautiful ship, not too congested, pizza good.

 

The Mexican place was $17 ayce and great, open for lunch and dinner.  Heard price may have gone up.  

[JamieLogical]

2 hours ago, dexddd said:

We've sailed MSC like seven times.  All YC.  Last time on Mera food stunk in YC.  Both variety and quality and service.  MDR may have actually been better.  We ate dinner in buffet three of ten nights.

 

That being said, I'd at least try it and most fares decent.  Mera is a beautiful ship, not too congested, pizza good.

 

The Mexican place was $17 ayce and great, open for lunch and dinner.  Heard price may have gone up.  

 

I made the mistake of doing the all-you-can-eat at Hola! the first time I went there and realized all I could eat was about $7 worth of food, because their a la carte prices are so reasonable. Since then, I have tried to go to Hola! 3-4 times per cruise and always just do a la carte. I love Hola! sooooo much!

[cruisebeachgirl703]

6 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I made the mistake of doing the all-you-can-eat at Hola! the first time I went there and realized all I could eat was about $7 worth of food, because their a la carte prices are so reasonable. Since then, I have tried to go to Hola! 3-4 times per cruise and always just do a la carte. I love Hola! sooooo much!

I am sure you have posted somewhere before, but what are your specific favorites again?