Getaway Review April 16 2017

About us - We are Tyler and Molly from Orlando. This is our 4th NCL cruise together. Our first cruise was the Sky (4 night bahamas cruise), our 2nd was the Star which did Western Caribbean, and April 2016 we went on the Getaway for our honeymoon (I believe that was eastern Caribbean). We decided a couple months ago we needed to go on another cruise and we liked the Getaway so much we decided to sail on her again. We had been on this itinerary before (On the Star) but it had been several years and we hadn't been to NCL's private island in Belize yet. I hope you like our review! It is mostly written by me but Tyler did add a few things himself.

Sunday -

Embarkation was a breeze. Our "Arrival time" was 10. Security went by fast, then we waited in the waiting room where coffee and water was provided. We were probably on the ship by 12. We immediately signed up for the escape room for Saturday (first ones to sign up) then I got drinks from the atrium bar (lol) while Tyler re-arranged some of our dining reservations. Lunch in MDR. I got some shrimp pasta dish and Tyler got fish n chips. Appetizers were popcorn shrimp and crab stuffed potato skin. Food was good! Then we went to the thermal spa and signed up for spa passes. We LOVE the spa. We tried to upgrade to the spa haven suite but unfortunately were outbid. Dinner- went to tepanaki. I had filet and scallop and tyler had shrimp and scallops. Yummy but we definitely ate too much and were uncomfortably full. We then went to the spa (open til 10) and then to bed.

Our room was 13888. Great location. We often felt the boat "vibrating" which wasn't a big deal other than this rattling noise which seemed to be occurring in the wall. Seem to mostly happen while we were going at high speeds

Monday (sea day)

Margaritaville for breakfast. Kind of the same food as buffet but smaller selection and less crowded.

Lunch - buffet. We really like the Indian food there.

Dinner- ocean blue was LEGIT. On cruise critic we have heard you can get "unlimited appetizers and one entree." Our waiter told us we could only get one app. We told him we had been there before and were allowed to get multiple previously. He asked his manager and told us they would "make an exception" for us. We each got stone crab (one of our favs), tyler got oyster Rockefeller and I got mussels. All was great. Then for entrees I got Dover Sole and Tyler got a Lobster. We were extremely full after that and went to bed shortly after.

Tuesday

Woke up to the captain informing us they weren't able to maintain enough speed to get us to Roatan in time. Instead of 10 we would now be arriving at 10:30. To make up for it we departed at 7 rather than 6. We went to little French key which was cool! Kind of a rough, hot bus ride there but once we got there it was nice. The water was beautiful with a swim up bar with swings. There was a 18 year old kid from the Carnival Dream which was also in Honduras that day and he was WASTED. people were talking bets on how long it would take him to puke. It was pretty funny. The water was the perfect temperature and was clear. Drinks were good. The food was GREAT. lobster, shrimp and rice and beans. Seriously Delicious. We loved the two local Honduran beers we tried. There was also a place you could swing off into the ocean which was really fun. Tyler lost his Apple Watch in the water when using the swing (it's very high). He went to grab snorkel gear to look for it, but before he even put his flippers on an employee had found it. I guess my only reservation about going back to LFK is the animals in the "sanctuary". In general I am against zoos, and I didn't think the Pumas or young lions should be in such small enclosures. It made me very sad. But everyone has different ideas about that so make up your own minds. We both held little "johnny" the monkey who was in a fiesty mood and was biting us a little after trying to run away haha. After we got back we relaxed in the spa and I accidentally fell asleep for a while. Then we went to O'Sheehans and had wings and drinks/watched the bob Marley tribute while we waited for dinner in the noodle bar. Dinner was great. Then went to comedy which was hilarious and caught the tail end of battle of the sexes. Not much more going on so we went to bed.

Wednesday- woke up to captain saying the Belize pier was damaged by a storm and that we couldn't dock until they inspected it. So he decided we would have another sea day. We had our balcony door open and one of our neighbors was IRATE because "he only came on this cruise to see Belize." Many f-bombs were dropped. We were going to explore the island but mostly we had been planning on enjoying a less crowded ship, so it wasn't a huge deal from us. We both got a $30 refund that day on our account. The pool crowd was WILD that day! DJ and band playing good music. Also spent time in the thermal spa (my fav place on the ship). Had dinner at Tropicana and watched the mini burn the floor performance which was really neat. We went to the "full length" burn the floor last year and we did like it, it was just too long for our taste, so we didn't think we'd need to go again. I think this is also the day we did the theater comedy show (hilarious, I highly recommend and different material than in Headliners).

Thursday - Costa Maya

We once again went to Maya Chan (we went there maybe 5 years ago and loved it). We were walking down the pier and the wind was so strong I thought that we were going to be blown off the pier. We finally made it to the maya Chan meeting area outside of the main gate and took the about 20-30 min ride to maya Chan. They warn you ahead of time that the ride is bumpy and that "at least it's not your car getting damaged" which is a good point. At maya chan every group is brought to their own little area with nice chairs, an umbrella and a comfy bed. We had a "welcome back" sign since it was our second time there. We LOVE the food there too. It's basically a taco buffet with different meats and toppings. Super delicious. All you can eat chips, salsa, guacamole all day. We did stand up paddle boarding here too. Drinks were great and kept coming. Back on the ship we saw million quarter which was great!!!

Friday - Cozumel

Went on a "bike tour" with beach bum Cozumel. Last time we were in Cozumel we were told that we should see the east side of the island, so we did the "east side" tour. There is like a bike path which goes almost all the way around the island separate from the car lane which is really cool. The bikes were "motorized" so pedaling was optional (lol). I didn't pedal at all the whole time but my husband did a decent amount. It was just us on the tour. Those bikes can go pretty fast. Our tour guide Gabriel was very friendly and the driver David was nice too. Gabriel explained to us a lot about the Island and pointed out different birds, structures, and plants. The east side of the island is much less "developed" and is very beautiful. The tour also included lunch and he brought us to a tequila tasting where we ended up buying some tequila. Only "negative" thing was it did take a decent amount of time to get to the east side of the island (about 30 minutes). Basically they drive you and the bikes (bikes attached on a trailer) to a starting point and then you bike while David follows you in the car (but he is in the street, we are biking with Gabriel on the bike path). You can leave your stuff in there with him. Fajitas and beer for lunch, then back to beach bums. Beach bums is actually near the port with the carnival ships so be aware you will need to walk or take a cab. We were concerned for time so we cabbed there ($8) and walked back. The walk was along the water and took maybe 40 minutes. We came back to the ship and did the ropes course. While we were up there the wind started to blow very hard so we had to get down. We ate at Le Bistro this day which was great. The Glow (formerly White Hot) party was this night at 10:30 in the rear of the ship at spice h2o. They advise you wear neon or white this night. This was very fun and our cruise director started things off with an interesting dance. We found the music to be pretty repetitive (similar sounding edm over and over) so we didn't stay too long.

Saturday-

Spent most of the day by the pool or thermal spa. That night we ate in noodle bar again. Then went to the farewell show which we enjoyed. We drank quite a few mojitos after the show. They are amazing. The mojito bar is the best bar on the ship in my opinion and never very busy. We then went to howl at the moon which was so good that we ran up to our room to put our bags outside at 11pm then went back down. It was really crazy - lots of talent we had seen previous nights showed up and sang or played instruments. One of the burn the floor dancers apparently plays every instrument so played drums, piano and guitar. Another sang a few songs. The bubble magician showed up and sang a song! Johnny cash from the million dollar even showed up and played for a while. We didn't get the impression that this was typical. We stayed until 1am!

Miscellaneous notes:

• we did the Haven last time and saw our two favorite bartenders from the haven now work as managers in the bars around the ship. They both apparently got promotions which isn't surprising since they were both great
  
• We got lured in at the beginning buy trying to guess the weight of the Giraffe. We ended up going to the auction just because we wanted to see who guessed her weight correctly. The auction ended up being super annoying and made us feel uneasy. At one point they were handing out applications for a "syncrony loan" in order to get a free piece of art or something (so weird). Anyway, I did see a piece of art I liked but I wasn't going anywhere near that auction again and I had already mentally decided I would only pay $50 and the minimum bid was like $800 (I'm definitely not an art connoisseur) .
  
• We tried to upgrade to haven but our bids weren't high enough. We had so much fun on this cruise we actually decided that Haven isn't worth the extra money. I think it's worth upgrading if you can for a reasonable amount but we would never actually buy the Haven ticket at full price. We did a lot of random things throughout the ship that we didn't do before because of Haven. Don't get me wrong, it was nice, just not worth an extra 5 grand or whatever the cost is.
  

• Maya Chan:
  

• View of Roatan from Thermal Spa
  

Bike tour in Cozumel:

Stone crab claws.. DO NOT MISS THESE

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If anyone wants pictures of anything specific please feel free to ask. I got annoyed with photobucket :o

Thanks for the detailed review, and for bringing back memories of Maya Chan.:)

I've went on Getaway twice as well. I loved it just the same and would go on her again! Maya Chan is the best thing around! I will be going again for my 2nd time in October on Escape! I haven't been since 2013. Do you have anymore pictures from there? Like the sign? Lol. I hope we have a sign!!! =)

Thanks for taking the time to write this!

Great review! I was on the same sailing as you. Disappointed about Belize as well, but you're right, the DJ had the pool party bumping that afternoon!

Great review! Thanks for sharing!

We were on Getaway April 16-23rd. We were told early Wednesday morning that we couldn't go to private island in Belize because last nights storm made the pier unsafe. Obviously, they are lying to their guests. We heard it was due to issues with phone and power lines not working properly. We also had A LOT of upset guests on our cruise. At this point they really should have a "plan b". People probably wouldn't be happy but at least they wouldn't have another sea day. Could have went on the Escape if we only wanted 3 ports of call.

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Harvest Caye cancellation on April 19, 2017: We tried to get the "real" scoop from a bartender as to why we didn't go to Harvest Caye; he told us it was because Belize had a TYPHOON. I laughed out loud! Admittedly, many passengers saw lightning the evening before, but I have to think if we were anywhere CLOSE to Belize we would have known there was a typhoon! There was absolutely no mention of pier damage in the local Belize news, by the way. The other rumor is that Getaway was running on only two engines (she has five); I don't know what that would have to do with NOT stopping at Harvest Caye, but it might explain why it took so long to get to Roatan....just a shame we couldn't have diverted to Belize City.

I agree with the stop to Belize city but at the very least how about a stop on the last day in Bahamas, they do have their own Island there as well. I just feel not much thought was put into it. When we have cruised other cruise lines and a port was cancelled they did their very best to add a port along the way or give some extra time in a port. For example, Cozumel! I saw lightning the night before Harvest Caye and it was raining but if that is enough to make the pier unsafe they shouldn't have built the private Island because that is typical weather in the Caribbean . Good luck during hurricane season. May as well remove it from the itinerary!

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I recently read that the Getaway and the Dawn diverted to Belize City on 2/1/2017 and 2/2/2017, respectively. The story was that there was "obstruction in the channel leading to Harvest Caye." The Belize Port Authority, however, said there was no such obstruction. Many passengers I met on last week's cruise said they had heard of other Harvest Caye cancellations. It's crazy....a $50 million island.....and numerous cancellations. I'd probably be less irritated about the whole thing if NCL had been honest about why we didn't stop.

Cruisehoopla I totally agree! Be honest! They sound ridiculous making up all these excuses. A lady on our cruise had been on the Getaway 5 times and has not stopped at Harvest Caye once![emoji15] She was going crazy at excursion desk and causing a scene but rightfully so. There is more going on than we know about. I got a survey yesterday from NCL about our cruise and one of the questions asked if I knew what Cruise critic was. It then asked if I read posts before my cruise and do I read posts or would I post after our cruise. How weird is that?

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Enjoyed the review. Thanks. I was especially interested in the latter post from the CC that has been on this particular itinerary 5 times and has not once made it to Belize!!! Not docking at Belize and all the reasons why strike me as odd. Just way too many times where NCL has not made it to Belize!! I will be on this ship and itinerary next March and already assume it will be a sea day. :o

About us - We are Tyler and Molly from Orlando. This is our 4th NCL cruise together. Our first cruise was the Sky (4 night bahamas cruise), our 2nd was the Star which did Western Caribbean, and April 2016 we went on the Getaway for our honeymoon (I believe that was eastern Caribbean). We decided a couple months ago we needed to go on another cruise and we liked the Getaway so much we decided to sail on her again. We had been on this itinerary before (On the Star) but it had been several years and we hadn't been to NCL's private island in Belize yet. I hope you like our review! It is mostly written by me but Tyler did add a few things himself.

 

Sunday -

Embarkation was a breeze. Our "Arrival time" was 10. Security went by fast, then we waited in the waiting room where coffee and water was provided. We were probably on the ship by 12. We immediately signed up for the escape room for Saturday (first ones to sign up) then I got drinks from the atrium bar (lol) while Tyler re-arranged some of our dining reservations. Lunch in MDR. I got some shrimp pasta dish and Tyler got fish n chips. Appetizers were popcorn shrimp and crab stuffed potato skin. Food was good! Then we went to the thermal spa and signed up for spa passes. We LOVE the spa. We tried to upgrade to the spa haven suite but unfortunately were outbid. Dinner- went to tepanaki. I had filet and scallop and tyler had shrimp and scallops. Yummy but we definitely ate too much and were uncomfortably full. We then went to the spa (open til 10) and then to bed.

Our room was 13888. Great location. We often felt the boat "vibrating" which wasn't a big deal other than this rattling noise which seemed to be occurring in the wall. Seem to mostly happen while we were going at high speeds

 

 

Monday (sea day)

Margaritaville for breakfast. Kind of the same food as buffet but smaller selection and less crowded.

Lunch - buffet. We really like the Indian food there.

Dinner- ocean blue was LEGIT. On cruise critic we have heard you can get "unlimited appetizers and one entree." Our waiter told us we could only get one app. We told him we had been there before and were allowed to get multiple previously. He asked his manager and told us they would "make an exception" for us. We each got stone crab (one of our favs), tyler got oyster Rockefeller and I got mussels. All was great. Then for entrees I got Dover Sole and Tyler got a Lobster. We were extremely full after that and went to bed shortly after.

 

Tuesday

Woke up to the captain informing us they weren't able to maintain enough speed to get us to Roatan in time. Instead of 10 we would now be arriving at 10:30. To make up for it we departed at 7 rather than 6. We went to little French key which was cool! Kind of a rough, hot bus ride there but once we got there it was nice. The water was beautiful with a swim up bar with swings. There was a 18 year old kid from the Carnival Dream which was also in Honduras that day and he was WASTED. people were talking bets on how long it would take him to puke. It was pretty funny. The water was the perfect temperature and was clear. Drinks were good. The food was GREAT. lobster, shrimp and rice and beans. Seriously Delicious. We loved the two local Honduran beers we tried. There was also a place you could swing off into the ocean which was really fun. Tyler lost his Apple Watch in the water when using the swing (it's very high). He went to grab snorkel gear to look for it, but before he even put his flippers on an employee had found it. I guess my only reservation about going back to LFK is the animals in the "sanctuary". In general I am against zoos, and I didn't think the Pumas or young lions should be in such small enclosures. It made me very sad. But everyone has different ideas about that so make up your own minds. We both held little "johnny" the monkey who was in a fiesty mood and was biting us a little after trying to run away haha. After we got back we relaxed in the spa and I accidentally fell asleep for a while. Then we went to O'Sheehans and had wings and drinks/watched the bob Marley tribute while we waited for dinner in the noodle bar. Dinner was great. Then went to comedy which was hilarious and caught the tail end of battle of the sexes. Not much more going on so we went to bed.

 

 

Wednesday- woke up to captain saying the Belize pier was damaged by a storm and that we couldn't dock until they inspected it. So he decided we would have another sea day. We had our balcony door open and one of our neighbors was IRATE because "he only came on this cruise to see Belize." Many f-bombs were dropped. We were going to explore the island but mostly we had been planning on enjoying a less crowded ship, so it wasn't a huge deal from us. We both got a $30 refund that day on our account. The pool crowd was WILD that day! DJ and band playing good music. Also spent time in the thermal spa (my fav place on the ship). Had dinner at Tropicana and watched the mini burn the floor performance which was really neat. We went to the "full length" burn the floor last year and we did like it, it was just too long for our taste, so we didn't think we'd need to go again. I think this is also the day we did the theater comedy show (hilarious, I highly recommend and different material than in Headliners).

 

 

Thursday - Costa Maya

We once again went to Maya Chan (we went there maybe 5 years ago and loved it). We were walking down the pier and the wind was so strong I thought that we were going to be blown off the pier. We finally made it to the maya Chan meeting area outside of the main gate and took the about 20-30 min ride to maya Chan. They warn you ahead of time that the ride is bumpy and that "at least it's not your car getting damaged" which is a good point. At maya chan every group is brought to their own little area with nice chairs, an umbrella and a comfy bed. We had a "welcome back" sign since it was our second time there. We LOVE the food there too. It's basically a taco buffet with different meats and toppings. Super delicious. All you can eat chips, salsa, guacamole all day. We did stand up paddle boarding here too. Drinks were great and kept coming. Back on the ship we saw million quarter which was great!!!

 

 

Friday - Cozumel

Went on a "bike tour" with beach bum Cozumel. Last time we were in Cozumel we were told that we should see the east side of the island, so we did the "east side" tour. There is like a bike path which goes almost all the way around the island separate from the car lane which is really cool. The bikes were "motorized" so pedaling was optional (lol). I didn't pedal at all the whole time but my husband did a decent amount. It was just us on the tour. Those bikes can go pretty fast. Our tour guide Gabriel was very friendly and the driver David was nice too. Gabriel explained to us a lot about the Island and pointed out different birds, structures, and plants. The east side of the island is much less "developed" and is very beautiful. The tour also included lunch and he brought us to a tequila tasting where we ended up buying some tequila. Only "negative" thing was it did take a decent amount of time to get to the east side of the island (about 30 minutes). Basically they drive you and the bikes (bikes attached on a trailer) to a starting point and then you bike while David follows you in the car (but he is in the street, we are biking with Gabriel on the bike path). You can leave your stuff in there with him. Fajitas and beer for lunch, then back to beach bums. Beach bums is actually near the port with the carnival ships so be aware you will need to walk or take a cab. We were concerned for time so we cabbed there ($8) and walked back. The walk was along the water and took maybe 40 minutes. We came back to the ship and did the ropes course. While we were up there the wind started to blow very hard so we had to get down. We ate at Le Bistro this day which was great. The Glow (formerly White Hot) party was this night at 10:30 in the rear of the ship at spice h2o. They advise you wear neon or white this night. This was very fun and our cruise director started things off with an interesting dance. We found the music to be pretty repetitive (similar sounding edm over and over) so we didn't stay too long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday-

Spent most of the day by the pool or thermal spa. That night we ate in noodle bar again. Then went to the farewell show which we enjoyed. We drank quite a few mojitos after the show. They are amazing. The mojito bar is the best bar on the ship in my opinion and never very busy. We then went to howl at the moon which was so good that we ran up to our room to put our bags outside at 11pm then went back down. It was really crazy - lots of talent we had seen previous nights showed up and sang or played instruments. One of the burn the floor dancers apparently plays every instrument so played drums, piano and guitar. Another sang a few songs. The bubble magician showed up and sang a song! Johnny cash from the million dollar even showed up and played for a while. We didn't get the impression that this was typical. We stayed until 1am!

 

 

 

 

Miscellaneous notes:

 

 

 

 

 

• we did the Haven last time and saw our two favorite bartenders from the haven now work as managers in the bars around the ship. They both apparently got promotions which isn't surprising since they were both great
  
• We got lured in at the beginning buy trying to guess the weight of the Giraffe. We ended up going to the auction just because we wanted to see who guessed her weight correctly. The auction ended up being super annoying and made us feel uneasy. At one point they were handing out applications for a "syncrony loan" in order to get a free piece of art or something (so weird). Anyway, I did see a piece of art I liked but I wasn't going anywhere near that auction again and I had already mentally decided I would only pay $50 and the minimum bid was like $800 (I'm definitely not an art connoisseur) .
  
• We tried to upgrade to haven but our bids weren't high enough. We had so much fun on this cruise we actually decided that Haven isn't worth the extra money. I think it's worth upgrading if you can for a reasonable amount but we would never actually buy the Haven ticket at full price. We did a lot of random things throughout the ship that we didn't do before because of Haven. Don't get me wrong, it was nice, just not worth an extra 5 grand or whatever the cost is.
  

Did you find the spa to be crowded? We are headed for a 3rd time on the Getaway in 2018 and have a spa balcony booked! :)

Your pictures of Maya Chan look better than ours. We were there 2 weeks before you and the sea grass/weed was piled 3 feet high - so gross (this is not an exaggeration). We (any many others) didn't make it into the water that day; climb over the sea weed and wade through several feet of the stuff just to get to the water - yuck. We won't go back there. Too bad because they had the best key lime drink lol.

I was also on this sailing. I am glad embarkation was a breeze for you. I am not sure what terminal you were in but we were in terminal B and it was very unorganized. The security and sign in process was easy but the actually boarding was a mess. They were calling groups and then not looking at the cards for the group number and just letting a bunch of people through. They had to keep stopping and waiting for the gangway to clear some. There were multiple lines like I said unorganized and a mess. I was in room 13158 and there was in ice maker or dishwasher or something across the hall. Between that and the kids upstairs from us the early mornings were like water torture with the constant sound of flushing and running water. Other than those two things the cruise was great. I was one of the people that were disappointed with missing Harvest Caye but it is what it is. I agree with the comments about the comedy shows. We went to two in headliners as well as the one in the theater and they were all great. We went to the Illusionarium show. Dinner service at the show was slow but the show was good. We also did the Escape Room it was fun trying to figure it all out. This was our 4 cruise and 3rd time to Cozumel so we decided to take the ferry($5) across to Playa del Carmen. The beach and shopping were great over there. In fact, I think if we go to Cozumel again we will do it again but try to get over there earlier to have more time to enjoy the beach.

Did you find the spa to be crowded? We are headed for a 3rd time on the Getaway in 2018 and have a spa balcony booked! :)

Not at all! I LOVE that spa. Make sure you go at least once at night, the way they light it up is so pretty

Your pictures of Maya Chan look better than ours. We were there 2 weeks before you and the sea grass/weed was piled 3 feet high - so gross (this is not an exaggeration). We (any many others) didn't make it into the water that day; climb over the sea weed and wade through several feet of the stuff just to get to the water - yuck. We won't go back there. Too bad because they had the best key lime drink lol.

We love Maya Chan. They had warned us ahead of time it had been bad lately but we didn't care. We were told to "shuffle" once we got in the water. We didn't really swim though just did stand up paddle boarding

Hi. I was on this sailing, as well. I was in the studio cabins and for the most part thought it was great. The two downsides for me were the 45 min wait to get off in Honduras due to the late arrival and of course missing Belize.

I heard a different story about Belize, as one of the waiters told one of my party that they miss that port more than they stop there, and that it is all based on disputes between NCL and Belize gov't over port fees. That if the government pushes back about the port fees when they approach, NCL will bypass the stop, as they are refusing to pay them. I'm not sure how much stock to put into this information, but have heard numerous reports of NCL missing this port for 'weather' issues. So who knows. It didn't ruin my trip, but its fishy, for sure.

OP,

Thanks for the great review. We were on that sailing as well. We also visited Maya Chan. What a miraculous turn around in the weather! I thought we were going to be blown off the pier that morning.lol

Thought the food and service at Maya Chan was incredible but that sea grass! Oh my! The stench alone turned me off to the place. I don't think I will be visiting again.

Really bummed about Belize and agree that something out of the ordinary is going on. I am going to book Easter week 2018 (same itinerary) but am going to try a suite on the Dawn.

Also, I took some photos of a family doing the stand up boards but never got their email address. If you are reading this post, contact me!

Mary