Lord Reaper of Pyke

I'd recommend the opposite. Despite things "costing" its a great cheap day to get off the boat. Beach with tons of chairs...a pool you can actually MOVE in...more chairs. It's not very difficult to find umbrellas either, even easier if you're early.

For lunch and a few drinks and a bucket of crappy Heinie we were out $70 to $80 on the day to hang out in the sun on a beach and poolside all day. If you ate on the boat and we'rent drinking it'd be free. It's a long enough day that you could even head back to the boat for lunch if you wanted to burn an hour or so.

There's some local Belize beers there as well, not terribly priced. Similar to a Corona or Pacifico, as well as all those types of beers.

See.

Even if it wasn't an April Fools joke...the apologist shame away any negative reviews anyway.

You need cash. If you can stomach Heineken, there's a decent deal on a bucket you can take with you from the Landshark place, otherwise it's pretty pricey. There's also a shack bar that makes solid Michelada's.

If you're into the pool life Getaways pool is like the size of two hot tubs.

Also, for those there recently, what was the beer selection under UBP?

Pretty abysmal unless you really enjoy Bud/Miller/Coors products. Embarkation day was the worst. Nothing was stocked yet but Heine's...I was in hell for the first three hours.

BEER 12 oz - NCL Price - NCL Corks & Caps - NCL UDP

Blue Moon - $6.95 - Yes - Yes

Bud Light - $6.95 - Yes - Yes

Corona - $6.95 - Yes - Yes

Corona Light - $6.95 - Yes - Yes

Dos Equis - $6.75 - Yes - Yes

Heineken - $6.75 - Yes - Yes

Heineken Light - $6.75 - Yes - Yes

Molson - $6.75 - Yes - Yes

Newcastle Brown - $6.75 - Yes - Yes

Peroni - $6.75 - Yes - Yes

Pislsner Urquell - $6.75 - Yes - Yes

Sam Adams Boston Lager - $6.75 - Yes - Yes

Sam Adams Seasonal - $6.95 - Yes - Yes

Stella Artois - $6.75 - Yes - Yes

Congrats of getting to the bottom of that one lol.

It's not the kids themselves. Kids will be kids. I have an 18 yr old step daughter and nieces and nephews ranging from 20 to 3.

Running down halls screaming. Farting in elevators. Running into you without apologizing. Stepping on your feet at the buffet. Screaming at their parents at dinner tables.

Kids will be kids. This was like Lord of the Flies though.

Food was all good to excellent depending on tastes and location with the exception of O'Dogfoodhans.

Drinks were all solid, although the beer selection is still locked hopelessly in the early 90's (I'm pretty sure a Red Dog or Zima bar is next when Margaritaville moves on).

Service all pretty stellar, though the deck bars and the bar near the cigar lounge (extra traffic from smokers outside) are WOEFULLY understaffed during busy hours. You can find windows to squeeze in but 10-15 minute waits were not abnormal the entire cruise. Tip a server well and they'll find you so you can avoid the bar line, especially at Spice H2O.

Packs of feral children. I'm glad they had a blast, but their parents need a spanking for being inconsiderate a-holes.

The gym sucks. It seemed MUCH smaller than Epic.

Just stop smoking. You smell terrible and you're infringing on my right to not smell like a vagrant.

No it isn't. Meat is blah - overcooked at Moderno, although salad bar is interesting. Food and ambiance much better at Cagney's.

Had zero overcooked meat. Cagneys steak was cooked correctly but barely seasoned...lobster bisque was straight broth, onion rings looked like they came from BK and the desserts seemed like they'd been on the buffet waiting for our server to pick them up dry and lifeless. Not to mention getting there right at open it took like 2 hrs the service was so slow.

Moderno's salad bar alone smokes any appetizers or sides at Cagneys.

Cagneys was not terrible, it's a beautiful room, but it's makeup on a Colorado Steakhouse.

Food is much better at Moderno...but it's not very romantic. Those servers are INTENSE...they do not care one bit if you flip your token to red to stop the meat onslaught.

They're not huge appetizers so they're not losing anything unless you make a complete spectacle of yourself. A shrimp cocktail will have 3 shrimp, things like that.

Bourbon. Neat.

Just back from the Getway three weeks ago. The $90 gratuities pp is most definitely worth it. We made that package BLEED, and that was with three excursion days we weren't even on the boat.

Wake up...

Grab some breakfast and a Bloody.

Go back to the cabin and get ready for the day. Find some chairs at Spice H2O where the packs of feral children are a little more limited.

Have a few Micheladas.

Grab a snack.

Have a few more Micheladas.

Have a few more more Micheladas.

Cool off with something frozen.

Switch to Modelos and shots of Bulleit.

Get cleaned up for dinner.

Go eat, have a Manhattan or two...or maybe some wine.

Roam around and maybe stop for a Mojito or something to nightcap.

Rinse, repeat.

We do not sow.

This is a great thread...was looking for something in depth to check out this line after a couple NCL cruises.

I have to ask though, what is with the people on this forum quoting photographs. It's horribly jarring to go through 22 pages and see pictures over and over again because people cant be bothered to edit them out of their replies. Most forums don't allow this.

The water was perfectly fine. It was typical western Carib cloudy water...the water at St Maarten isn't any clearer. You're probably not going to go snorkling in the beach area but there were acres of room to swim and get away from the crowds.

It's a nice beach and pool day, nothing more...nothing less. We were the only ship that day and there were tons of free chairs everywhere, even after rolling down there at like 10 something.

The sand is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be...there's crushed shells...it's a little coarse, but for someone that's NEVER barefoot I managed to not take issue with it.

The gift shops were crazy overpriced but the Landshark place, as much as I loathe the whole Jimmy Buffet/Landshark/Margaritaville culture was "affordable" for lunch. They also have buckets of 6 beers for $24.99 you can take down to the pool with you.

There was another bar about a 90 second walk past that where they had a whole selection of $10-12 drinks, including some excellent Micheladas.

It's not going to blow the doors off your vacation but it's better than dealing with the crowds on the ship deck. This coming from someone who was trying to maximize his UDP value.

Exactly everything on the breakfast menu can be found on the buffet. O'Sheehan's breakfasts are for those people who don't care about a large selection, but would rather have their food brought to them and served to them.

There were several other options at the buffet not available at O'Sheenans.

Eggs Bennedict

Bangers

Ethnic options

Pancakes

Waffles

Country Potatoes

Hard Boiled Eggs

Turkey Sausages

Probably half a dozen more that are blurred out from memory. So that's a pretty loose definition of exactly.

I'm a bit confused, because I live in a rural area, and we have to go to a city to find a Chili's or Applebees. Once you hit the city, there are plenty of better choices. I didn't know large chain restaurants exist in rural areas, other than an occasional fast food restaurant inside a truck stop.

I was exaggerating with the Applebees, but I know the areas you speak of. I'm in them often traveling for work and it's similar to my parents home. I'll drive an hour out of my way over a good Yelp review vs eat in most roadside places...though often there are some gems. I guess my basic point is, maybe people that have no other options close to home are wowed by it. That doesn't mean everyone rural is some hick with no taste.

Taste is extremely subjective, the quality and prep of anything I've had in O'Sheenans on Getaway or Epic is my issue. I don't expect something that's going to shock my palate like some 4 star fine dining establishment. But for sandwiches and wings the same quality as the buffet food why would anyone want to wait? The breakfast there is literally the same quality you'd get at a Holiday Inn Express from their microwave chefs.

Holy smokes...per the dictionary: condescension is "an attitude of patronizing superiority; disdain". Excellent demonstration of this in your post. Must be nice to have this feeling of superiority.

Oh brother. If someone live in a rural area with little to no choices, i.e. Applebees as "pub fare" or Big Boys, it would stand to reason that this food would seem above average. It's not a knock on anyone.

My parents retired to a rural area after living in Chicago and it's a prefect example. The dining selection there is abysmal at best, and while my father whose taste buds are perpetually trapped in 1956 would consider a night out at O'Sheehans a black tie affair...most people would not (including my poor mother saddled with his palate).

Sorry we're so sensitive.

Or rearrange your staff to alleviate hot spots. Its definitely a management issue on that ship. The rank n file staff are wonderful.

Corporations and stores staff seasonally all the time all across the world. Until there's actual proof they couldn't fit them in quarters on ship there's no reason to believe they couldn't do it.

Burgers dry and grey...chicken sandwich not much better. Wings are decent, though I think some might have been pigeon as I've never seen chicken wings that size. Breakfast pretty unimpressive but less sloppy than the buffet. Bloody Marys were terrible...I'm 90% sure the Bloody mix was Campbells Tomato Soup. It's basically like airport food on the boat. I think maybe people from more rural areas enjoy this as it's similar to a Chili's? I can't figure it out, people really seem to love it.