DisneyTwins

Thanks for those who spoke up defending me. I am definitely not placing all of the blame on NCL- if another child hurt my kids in the Splash Academy, I would have expected the staff to take appropriate action. My frustrations in the kids club were primarily because of inconsistency and communication- at no point were we ever told that we were on the published steps, and when we questioned them about the physicality/affectionate issues they had with my boys, we were told it was because they didn't want to separate and insisted on sitting together with arms around each older/holding hands. The bullying incident was not handled at all- but we did address the pushing with our children and they were disciplined once we were told. The boys were only in the club for a 2 to 2 1/2 hours at night, as this was definitely not intended to be a vacation away from them. We wanted to enjoy time with them and our friends, and had hoped to see the shows or participate in more adult activities some of the time. We were also looking forward to participating in some family activities with them, but the Getaway doesn't really offer programming for them. We had a great time on the kids ropes course, mini-golf, and the kids pool, and the boys loved the 3 ports we did- absolutely no issues there.

As far as the dining, let me share some more details to help make it more clear. Our total group was 25, but we only ate 1 meal together as a group- at Teppanyaki. And due to the nature of that restaurant, we were obviously divided between multiple grills. We ate at 3 specialty restaurants and in the MDR (for lunch and dinner) 3 times, and at O'Sheehans once. Every single one of those meals did last for 2-3 hours, and our average table size was probably about 6 for those. Many times it was just the 4 of us. We did bring activities to entertain the boys for each and every meal- sticker books, books, coloring books, Magnetab (magnetic coloring-type boards), markers, etc. The boys did very well for the beginning of each meal, but they were definitely ready to go by the end and we did remove them if necessary. We did ask for extra glasses, but they were filled to the top as well. And we did ask for plastic glasses and straws, and were always told no- at every single restaurant. The standard kids menu (as others have posted) doesn't contain fruit or veggies- fries or chips are the only sides. We did share ours with them, but then we didn't get a full meal either.

We have vacationed with them many times and haven't run into issues like this before, and since it was so consistent, I felt that it was more about Norwegian's policies/issues than a misbehaving child.

We sailed on the Getaway last week (9/4 sailing) and I did a ton of research on these forums, so I wanted to first say thank you to everyone. I also wanted to provide some feedback for other cruisers with young children, so that they are not surprised by what we experienced.

We did extensive research on both the cruise line and the ship, and were expecting to have a relaxing and enjoyable cruise with our family. Unfortunately, the week was mostly stressful and disappointing because of Norwegian’s issues and policies.

We were part of a 25-person group, and it honestly felt like some of us were on a completely different cruise line from some of our cruise-mates. This was due to both expectations about good customer service and a desire to have a quality experience for a family with young children.

The Getaway is not intended to be a family vacation for young children, even though Norwegian markets it for all families. We attempted multiple sit-down restaurants, and none of them were appropriate for our children. Each meal took between 2 - 3 hours, and many servers were visibly disappointed to be having to wait on a table with two four-year-olds. We encountered sighs and eye rolls from several of our servers when they realized they would be serving us. Other cruise lines cater to the children with magic tricks, napkin tricks, jokes, and attention. We never saw anything like this on the Getaway. The cruise line only has heavy glassware available and no straws, and servers didn’t honor our repeated requests to only fill the water/milk glasses up halfway. Since the boys are independent and are used to drinking and eating on their own, we had many dropped/spilled glasses, which upset both the boys and ourselves. In most cases, the servers and wait staff were also frustrated by this. The standard kids menu is very basic and doesn’t offer fruit or vegetables. When we requested alternate sides or anything not on the standard menu, we were either told it was impossible because they would have to go to another galley and find it, or that it just wasn’t offered. Only 2 servers were willing to bring a fruit plate or yogurt the entire week, and we were never able to get vegetables for them. We also had to skip dessert at most of our sit-down meals, as we couldn’t get our servers to take a dessert order for the boys until after we had been sitting there for 2-3 hours. A good example of how our table was treated differently was at Teppanyaki- an upcharge restaurant. Our chef didn’t even try to entertain our grill with throwing food, tricks, or songs- like the other chefs in the room. Our food was prepared and served, and that was it. To work around this, we ended up having to eat the majority of our meals in the buffet. This worked well, but was definitely not the experience were were hoping to get.

The programming onboard the ship mirrors our dining experiences- there were very few scheduled activities for families. Adults and teens did have scheduled activities, but families were left on their own. According to older freestyles online, the Getaway used to offer family karaoke, cupcake decorating, make your own pizza, crafts, and other similar things, but this was not offered on our cruise. There was a family cupcake activity offered on the last night, but it was during the dinner hour, which is not a good time for most families.

The Kids Club was the source of our greatest frustration. Our boys have been in a daycare/preschool setting and are successful there. They are used to being in social situations. They are also twins and are high energy. They are typical four year olds and will sometimes misbehave and not want to always follow direction. The Kids Club staff was not prepared to deal with high energy preschoolers or twins that were affectionate and physical. The structured format of the programming means that if a child isn’t interested in the 1 offered activity, they have to sit in a time-out and the child is labeled as a troublemaker. The disciplinary steps were provided in writing at the beginning of the cruise, but the Getaway staff was inconsistent and had very poor communication skills. We were told early on that they had concerns about the boys being physical with each other and that they had to stay involved with the activity or else they would be in trouble. We asked several times if we had started the disciplinary process and were assured by multiple staff members that we had not- they wanted to be proactive to help the boys and the other children enjoy the experience. On our first port day, one of our boys had an issue with another child. Our son was wearing a Disney princess shirt, and the girl in the kids club told him that he was wearing a girl shirt and made fun of him. Our son tried to ask the staff for help and was ignored. When the girl continued to make fun of him, our son got angry and pushed the girl away from him. We were informed at pick-up that he had pushed the girl, but the staff ignored the incident and did not handle the bullying appropriately. A few days later, the same girl caused another issue and our son was forceful in trying to push her away. We were called to pick up both of our sons and were told that we couldn’t return to the kids club for 24 hours, which would have been for the end of the cruise. When we pointed out that we weren’t on the disciplinary steps, the kids club staff struggled to explain how they failed to follow their own policy and didn’t communicate these steps to us. We were able to have our children participate in the final circus show, but only after having multiple conversations with the kids club director and the cruise director. The lack of activities and non-child friendly meals combined with the inconsistent expectations and poor communication sets high-energy children up to fail.

The Getaway is a very large ship and is very crowded. Unfortunately, there is not enough staffing to handle the crowds and we experienced many issues with getting drinks or placing orders. The staff was working as hard they could, but they seemed overwhelmed and new. Providing exceptional customer service was just not something most crew were interested in.

Because of these issues, we were very disappointed in our cruise. Instead of a relaxing vacation, it ended up being stressful and disappointing.

OP, this might be something?

 

Thank you all! I will definitely look into those- that may save me a lot of stress with packing! It seems like no matter how early you start researching things, you always come up with more questions right before- at least I do. I do appreciate everyone's help!

Does NCL have kids lifejackets available by the pool either for rent or to use? DCL has this, and I've been searching through threads and trip reports about the Getaway, and I haven't seen it mentioned, so I wanted to ask. It would save on some room in our suitcases if we don't have to bring any with us! Thank you!

Thank you both!

Hi! I've tried searching these forums for specifics, but haven't found what I was looking for. My apologies in advance if I have overlooked this on an existing thread.

I am the group leader for a cruise in September on the Getaway. Most of us will be arriving at the port together on a hotel shuttle, but since we've all checked in separately online with NCL, we probably have different port arrival times. I know the eDocs I received said that they will turn away people showing up early, but I know from past experiences on other cruise lines that this isn't always enforced.

We definitely don't want to cause an issue at the port or cause delays for anyone else, so I'm trying to find a good way to manage this.

Boarding looks like it begins at noon- is this usually about the time that it actually begins? How strict is NCL with the port arrival time- is it more of a suggestion or is it super strict? I was hoping we could arrive at the port around 11 so that we minimize the waiting, but if NCL will not let all of us in until later, we will have to choose a later shuttle time. Thank you!

I would love a little more clarification on the group reservation process. I've tried to get help from NCL but seem to be going in circles. I am coordinating some specialty dining reservations for a group in September (minimum of 11 people). When our group booked, I was advised to send the reservation requests to the special events email address for the Getaway as soon as we had decided on them. I reached out to the special events address the other day just to make sure I understood the process and ask a few questions (how is payment handled since multiple reservations are involved, what information is needed for the group reservation, etc) and I was informed that I was in the wrong place- that every party would need to reserve their own dining times on the NCL website but that none of our reservations would be linked and there was no guarantee that we would be able to sit together either at 1 table or a few tables close by. Is this really how group dining requests are handled? If I need to book for everyone, can I book for more than 8 people on my account? Will I need to pay for everyone? I am sorry for so many questions, and know that they are probably silly. I have searched but haven't found the details on the boards. Thank you!!