New to NCL - Getaway, what should I know?

The crepe station was in the buffet -- not in Tropicana, Taste or Savor.

 

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I'm glad they asked. I would've been looking in the wrong place.

We dislike like smoking. So that sounds a bit problematic.

We walked through the casino several times. It did smell like it was a place where people smoked, however it did not seem excessive to me. I did not notice the smell anywhere else in the ship or on other decks.

That being said, I do not have a real aversion to smoke nor a respiratory problem, so I am not that sensitive to it. I suppose it also depends on how many people are smoking that particular day.

The Getaway was our first cruise with Norwegian. We have since done the Star and are doing the Escape in December. The highlights of the Getaway for me were the Raspberry guava mojitos, the Illusinarium which I'm unsure is still there, wings at O'Sheehan's, crepes at the buffet after dinner and dinner at Cagney's. It's a great ship, you'll love it!

 

 

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Ooo Please tell me more about these Raspberry Guava mojitos and where I can find them!

Thanks for the thread resurrection. I'm sailing on Getaway in October and the only other NCL ship I've sailed on was Epic in a studio. This time I have a balcony so I'm glad someone posted about the storage. I'm going solo again so hopefully it won't be an issue. I enjoyed breakfast at Taste on Epic so I'm looking forward to it again on the Getaway. Plus I need to find the crepe station in the buffet at night. What time was is usually set up?

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Thanks for the thread resurrection. I'm sailing on Getaway in October and the only other NCL ship I've sailed on was Epic in a studio. This time I have a balcony so I'm glad someone posted about the storage. I'm going solo again so hopefully it won't be an issue. I enjoyed breakfast at Taste on Epic so I'm looking forward to it again on the Getaway. Plus I need to find the crepe station in the buffet at night. What time was is usually set up?

 

 

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We enjoyed breakfast at Taste only once and I wish we had eaten breakfast there more then once. It was very refined and lovely.

Thanks for the thread resurrection. I'm sailing on Getaway in October and the only other NCL ship I've sailed on was Epic in a studio. This time I have a balcony so I'm glad someone posted about the storage. I'm going solo again so hopefully it won't be an issue. I enjoyed breakfast at Taste on Epic so I'm looking forward to it again on the Getaway. Plus I need to find the crepe station in the buffet at night. What time was is usually set up?

 

 

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I know this isn't helpful, but I don't think it was on a set schedule (was on GA in April). I saw it pop up quite frequently though.

I'll make a confession here: I'm not a pool deck person, so on a cruise I'm either lounging indoors with a view of the ocean, hiding somewhere with my laptop writing, or just walking the ship. And I have a weird little thing that's really only become apparent since I started cruising: I like to window-shop for food. Meaning I'll just go and walk through the buffet a couple of times a day outside of mealtimes and see what's there without actually eating anything. (And yes, I'm very good at dodging kids, mobility scooters, and the people who stop suddenly right in the middle of the flow of buffet traffic and stand there holding a bunch of plates with a bewildered look on their faces.)

So when I say the crepe station popped up a lot, that's probably good news.

(Also, if you look carefully, especially at lunchtime, you can find some stuff that is similar to the old Flamingo Grill options: mojo or jerk chicken, black beans and rice, and fried plantains.)

That you will be nickled and dimed .

That you will be nickled and dimed .

Nice to see a Debbie Downer has joined the thread.

Everyone is welcome.

Don't miss Burn the Floor! Especially if you like dancing and Dancing With The Stars.

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My wife and I are experienced cruisers. We've been on a half-dozen Disney cruises, are regular Royal cruisers, and my wife has been on a Carnival (she wasn't a fan) cruise. Neither of us have sailed on NCL.

 

Having done some NCL research, I think the best option for us is the NCL Getaway. It has a lot of features that we think we'll enjoy. It is a new ship with a lot of bells & whistles. It's based out of Miami and that is reasonably close for us in Central Florida.

 

We have been reading here on things to do, but sometimes it's better just to start a thread and let the experts chime in.

 

A few pieces of info to start the conversation:

 

1. My sig is a joke. It refers to people who think that just because a person who has cruised a ton of times, they know everything. Usually this refers to themselves. I've found that I'd trust the advice of a wise person who has only sailed a few times over the fool that has sailed dozens of times. I know people that drive for a living who are horrible drivers. Just because you do something a lot, it doesn't make you smarter.

 

2. We have no kids. We don't smoke. We don't enjoy gambling.

 

3. We are up for almost anything else. We're active, fun, and out-going. We like physical activity and we also love to snooze by the pool & be lazy! We do a lot of everything.

 

4. We're not looking for "this line sucks" or "this line is the best" because we know that whatever cruise we're on, we're going to have a great vacation. Each line has strengths and weaknesses. We'd love to hear your experiences, but without the battle of who is best. We won't go on a cruise if we think we won't enjoy the line. We obviously know enough already that we think we'll have a great time on NCL.

 

 

So, specifically with the Getaway in mind, what are the must-do items? What will we love? What will be different than we've experienced on Disney or Royal? Do you have any tips or advice?

 

We're also going to continue searching the forums, but thanks in advance for whatever you might share here. We appreciate the help.

I'm not sure why i'm weighing in because I'm certainly no expert but you guys sound a bit like my alter ego, DH & I have done several each Disney and RCCL, plus one each NCL (Getaway), Carnival and Celebrity. We don't have kids and I think in all our cruising the only time we set foot in the casino (other than to pass thru) was when we cruised with my in laws and they entered us in a slot tournament unbeknownst to us. DCL is our favorite, hands down. That said given the limited itineraries with them and steep prices, I don't know that we'd ever do one again (unless it was a group thing). That breaks my heart to say, but they just aren't *that* much better when you factor in price and limited itineraries. We aren't married to any one line, and are currently considering another cruise on the Getaway; for us price and itinerary and probably key because I think we could have fun anywhere (we even managed to enjoy a very cheap Carnival booze cruise- but certainly that Carnival didn't stand up to the other lines so much). We find RCCL and NCL to be comparable but different. We thought the Getaway with the piano bar, ice bar, Grammy bar, Martini bar and other entertainment venues (not just drinking but also what was going on) was probably the most fun cruise we have been on; normally we crash early but on that cruise it was late nights. It had a younger vibe than RCCL (we are early 40s). But where I think we prefer RCCL was food quality, NCL wasn't bad, it was C+ to B whereas we find RCCL pretty consistently a B+ for food. I also hate the nickel and dining feel and NCL may have slightly lost in that dept over RCCL too but I cannot for the life of me tell you why. NCL officers were great, they were everywhere and really did want to help and get to know you, and I'm not sure it was because we were there on a special promo or if this is normal but we got chocolate strawberries to our room one day and a free specialty meal another night. Bar staff on NCL were great but overworked so you had to wait awhile for a cocktail. Room attendant was kind of non existent on NCL but did what needs to be done (I can't even tell you if it was a man or woman). But I think RCCL does a better job at activities and programing for stuff around the ship, although the ropes course was a lot of terrifying fun. We've learned that overall in cruising we tend to prefer smaller ships, and I did at times feel like the Getaway was just too big (it felt bigger than the Allure because of the layout). So in our experience pretty comparable with variances in different places. Book it and enjoy!

Thanks Kelly and KarimaJ!

I hate dancing shows, but my wife is a casual fan. She's a massive fan of dancing herself, but she's Cuban and that sort of goes with the territory.

Kelly, your info is really nice to hear. Sounds like we roll mostly the same way. We like the big ships a lot, though. Who am I kidding? We love all the ships. I'd do DCL cruises every single time if I could afford it, but it seems like I'm a free agent until I find that extremely wealthy and recently deceased uncle I never knew.

Can anyone explain Shanghai's to me?

It's complimentary, but there is an 18% service charge????? 18% of nothing is nothing, right?????

Can anyone explain Shanghai's to me?

 

It's complimentary, but there is an 18% service charge????? 18% of nothing is nothing, right?????

You don't pay anything extra for Shanghai.

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Thank you. It was confusing. The NCL website say complimentary, but still lists a charge of 18%. I looked in old threads and apparently it was once a la carte. At least that's how it reads.

Appreciate the clarification.

Hi! I'm glad I found this post. I just booked my husband and I for our first NCL cruise on this ship today. Our trip isn't until next August. We've been dying to try an NCL ship and the sailing we are on also happens to be going to Tortola so I had to jump on it!

We have sailed Royal twice which we loved! Carnival once and didn't like it. And I'll be on Disney for the first time with my niece in January.

I guess we want to see how NCL compares to Royal. All the tips here are really great and I've made a note of everything! I'm looking forward to learning more about the Getaway.

Yes. It's been a helpful thread to me during our planning.

We've taken 3 cruises in our life, all on Celebrity and all Aqua Class. We loved the Persian Gardens and spent a lot of time there. We're cruising Getaway next June to St Thomas, Tortola and Nassau. We're booked in an Aft Balcony room( next to our friends Haven Suite). Its a very large balcony( we spend a lot of time on the balcony). Of course, I'll try to "bid" when I can for a Haven. Frankly, after our 3rd cruise with Celebrity, I was totally bored with the food and entertainment. We also don't have kids, don't drink or smoke. The menus in aqua class were the same every single year. I'm excited to try NCL, although upset that I'll lose our priority boarding status.

We booked this last night. Wound up going with an inside cabin for $1900. The prices on this cruise were getting way out of hand. It was going to cost about $4k for 2 people in a spa mini-suite. I'm going to use your tip and just attempt to buy 2 thermal passes at 90 days out.

 

I can't see the upgraded bathroom/bvlgari products being worth $2100. That micro-balcony certainly wouldn't be anything to brag about. We do balconies when it makes sense financially, but this I couldn't justify in any way.

 

We've never stepped foot on a Celebrity ship, so the Solstice Persian gardens answer is no. We have been in the thermal spa on Disney's Dream and Fantasy. They were smaller than Getaway's appears to be, but they were really nice and relaxing. Very nice and worth every penny.

We are looking at booking the Getaway for January, we have sailed alot on RCI, Carnival and recently tried Celebrity, we were really disappointed on Celebrity with the lack of activities and nightly entertainment

We enjoy trivias and game activities and we love a good piano player that gets the lounge going ie Billy Joel, Elton etc we have been known to close down these bars, we also enjoy Karaoke

the shows on Getaway look great, what are the activities like and do they have a good piano player or guitar player (not jazz or just a band playing)

Is Howl at the Moon a show or bar atmosphere and is it on every night or most nights

Following along. We are booked for the first time on the Getaway February 2018. Interested in any information!! Excited to try something new!

Thanks for resurrecting this thread! We are booked on the Getaway for Oct. 2018, our first time on NCL. I can't wait to try a new line, we have done Celebrity, Carnival and Princess. We are empty nesters and looking for a nice relaxing cruise, not really the type to lay by the pool. Keep these tips coming, please!

We've taken 3 cruises in our life, all on Celebrity and all Aqua Class. We loved the Persian Gardens and spent a lot of time there. We're cruising Getaway next June to St Thomas, Tortola and Nassau. We're booked in an Aft Balcony room( next to our friends Haven Suite). Its a very large balcony( we spend a lot of time on the balcony). Of course, I'll try to "bid" when I can for a Haven. Frankly, after our 3rd cruise with Celebrity, I was totally bored with the food and entertainment. We also don't have kids, don't drink or smoke. The menus in aqua class were the same every single year. I'm excited to try NCL, although upset that I'll lose our priority boarding status.

Celebrity's persian gardens to me were one mega disappointment - they dont even touch the thermal suites on NCL. (How could Celebrity get this so wrong) . If you loved the persian gardens you will absolutely be over the moon with Getaway's thermal suites. In an aft balcony you can, at 90 days in, buy thermal passes online - worth every cent!

We did love BLU - it worked for us - (especialy breakfast!) but in 2015 - 2016 we did 2 x Celebrity, 3 x NCL, NCL wins hands down - Getaway especially - its probably our favourite ship ever so far :)

I think we'll be getting the thermal suite pass.

I just booked the Getaway for next July, so do appreciate this thread. We booked a mini suite with large balcony, so are looking forward to this cruise! Love all the advice so far, hope it continues!