Itchy&Scratchy

20 hours ago, djpeteski said:

The wife and I along with our four adult children sailed on the Getaway on 16 Dec - 23 Dec 2018.  

so did  we. Neither my husband, nor I saw any drunk, inebriated, under the influence, tipsy, etc., people. Must have gotten lucky not to see a single one during all 7 days.

no

mom had one in her cabin on the Getaway last week, and we didn't. Funny, because mom didn't even recognize it for what it was....

Regal is not very kid friendly. Our kid sailed on it twice so far, starting at 5 yo. There is nothing to do with a kid that young on Princess, besides hot tubs and pools, if they are potty trained. Ours was NOT at that age. Our kiddo doesn't do kid's club anyway, so he is always tagging along with us. A tablet (plus headphones) with cartoons and games has always been a life saver, especially during dinner in MDR.

That's the reason we just tried Norwegian Getaway and will be back on RCI's Allure of the Seas in 3 months.

Other than that we like Princess.

5 minutes ago, purpleally said:

I know they did not hand out money

the Cruise was refunded on their credit card

they also used a credit card for their extra days in Florida and are expecting a second reimbursement for the same vacation week

thus, double dipping

it is equitable because the bottom line is they are using vacation money that was earmarked for the cruise which they are getting back

why should they get double money?

perhaps, hotels in somewhere Michigan are cheaper than hotels in Miami during Thanksgiving week?

And the refund didn't arrive right away, so it took awhile to get that money back. Plus, using a credit card abroad usually costs extra money.

should be fine. 

This past Sunday we were on the Getaway. 8 am at Miami. By noon we were at FLL airport, and that's considering that we were in the light blue group, disembarking at about 9:30-10 am. And it took us another 20 minutes to get a suitable uber vehicle.

hmm, the menu you posted is quite a bit different from Jade's and Getaway's. Theirs were identical.

before I forget, here is a photo of cabin 12884. It was a mirror image of ours, and had the sofa by the balcony. Only sleeps 3, though.

I found the beds to be comfortable. I found them uncomfortable (hard as a rock) on Regal Princess and comfortable enough on Caribbean Princess.

Staff was always friendly and smiling.  Mom had a superb steward who anticipated my mom's every need (even though she couldn't even express her needs since her English is very limited), and we had an average one. While our cabin attendant kept our cabin very clean and spotless, we didn't always get the Freestyle paper for the next day, and we didn't get the disembarkation info. At all. Since this was our very first proper disembarkation on Norwegian, I had no idea what to do. We had to ask a different cabin attendant, because ours was never in sight. This other cabin attendant was almost always present in the hallway, cleaning the other cabins. He was always super smiley, friendly and helpful, so he explained to me that I had to go to the Guest Services and pick out a tag of my own. This is different from Princess, where you fill out a questionnaire on what time you want to depart and your steward brings you the tags. The tags on the Getaway were available to the left of the Guest Services desk.

We didn't try the Splash Academy at all, because DS refused to go at all. Didn't even want to register. So, no opinion on the quality of the kid's club.

However, this refusal was very nicely offset by all the great activities that Getaways had to offer families for FREE: we all loved the rock climbing wall and the ropes course. The Getaway Bounce (aka trampoline) was limited to a max of 80#, so most teens and adults were out of luck. Our kiddo LOVED it and did back flips galore. The Spider Net was limited to 120#, so more kids could enjoy that, and they did!

Oh, if you don't want to stand in line for an hour for the ropes course on the first sea day, then don't. For the rest of the days the line was less than 10 minutes, and sometimes there was no line at all. :)

DS was also in love with the water slides! And all these great activities are a huge plus and difference compared to Princess. Inasmuch as we love Princess food, there is nothing to do onboard for families. If it's a rainy day - forget about pools and hot tubs as well. The only thing we ever could do on Princess as a family is soaking in hot tubs. Pools are always too cold for us on all of the cruise ships anyway.

Now, onto a bit of negative. Smoke smell was almost everywhere on deck 7.... Even though the smokers in another thread are crying about how limited they are on the Getaway, you could walk through the middle of deck 7 without inhaling a whole bunch of smoke. We either avoided that area as much as we could, or held our breath if we had to walk through.  Like the disembarkation line on Deck 7 was partly in a smoky casino... Thankfully, the Theater and the Tropicana MDR and the areas right in front of them weren't smoky.

The smoke was also highly present on deck 15 by the pool - there was some kind of a smoker room there. Instead of opening on the ocean side to let all the smoke out, it opened right onto the pool side. When you passed by it, you got a lung full or two of smoke as well. I held my breath as much as I could. Same with the Ocean Blue side of the Waterfront - had to hold my breath while walking on that side, so we took the opposite side when we remembered.

to be continued.

and usually this type of question comes up all the time on this board: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/69-ask-a-cruise-question/

yes, nobody is checking any of your meds. Unless it's a narcotic type of a pain killer. Some countries, however, have a ban on bringing some types of medications.

If you want to put them in a weekly container - you can do it. I'd bring more meds than he needs, though. LIke 14 days worth for a 7 night trip, because you never know when you are going to get stranded.

We travel with a carry-on backpack full of meds. I am not kidding. I have a gallon-sized ziplock bag per person - my DH has a bunch of prescription meds he is on (and we bring them in original containers), and the meds for me and our kid are the "just in case something happens" + a thermometer. Like last time, DS got sick with a horrible cold - I had all the meds he needed for that. Or the time before that, when he sliced his foot on a rock at Princess Cays - I had a bag of various bandaids that came in very handy. On our cruise last week, I felt like I was coming down with something bad - I had a terribly sore throat. A ton of Echinacea pills later and a lot of lemon slices I was good as new and didn't get sick past that. DH got sick at the end of the cruise....

6 minutes ago, purpleally said:

They got their money back for the cruise. That is the money they should use to cover hotel and food until their scheduled flight home. To ask NCL to reimburse is double dipping

still doesn't sound fair. Finding a reasonably priced hotel in Miami during a Thanksgiving week on a very short notice until your flight home to another country is no easy task. I got ALL of our money back and a credit, and it's all because I live in Atlanta. This PP lives in another country on another continent altogether, and getting there is so much more expensive than to ATL... Why wouldn't he get ALL of his money back either? Doesn't seem fair. 

Our 7 yo son was thrilled to have a pullman bed - he LOVES those! We loved that it was not above our bed, and one could actually sit on the sofa without hitting their head on the pullman bed. That was another reason for us switching cabins with mom, because 12884 only had a sofa bed for person #3.

The cabin itself was spacious, and the bathroom layout and size were wonderful. Same with the shower size - great (I am x-large,  and DH is tall) and it had a door instead of a yucky curtain, like on Princess. Water pressure and temperature were perfect on Getaway. On Jade the temperature kept fluctuating from hot to room-temp all the time while you showered.

The safe size was very small. Very insufficient for what we had to store (2 wallets, 4 passports, 1 letter sized but folded birth certificate,  2 phones, 1 small camera and 1 12" tablet). The 12" tablet had a very hard time fitting in.... On Princess I was able to stuff my whole purse into a safe, in addition to all of this stuff.

Also, there was nowhere to put our suitcases. We don't store them under the bed and don't really unpack, except for some tops which we hang in the closet. On Princess we always had ample space to put 2 suitcases side by side in the closet - then we'd just open them, fish out what we need and we are done. We had to improvise on Norwegian, because we couldn't stuff even 1 suitcase into the closet on its side. So, one suitcase went under the desk, and the other one stayed on the sofa - that worked great for us.

Our balcony was very nice and had 2 chairs, 1 round table and 2 chaises. Here are the pics - view from the room, view of the balcony below us, view to the right, view to the left, view upwards:

This was a make up cruise for our failed Jade sailing on 2018 Thanksgiving. I booked it 2 weeks prior to sailing, and had to do lightening fast research of the destinations.... This review is a bit of a comparison between our previous cruises on Princess and RCI, and a bit of a comparison with our very short sailing on Jade. Even though my view is going to be very subjective, it will NOT be all negative. Not at all! We had a very good time on the Getaway, and most of the gripes will be rather small. I will not review the food in detail, like I did for our Jade cruise. Cause it was kind of boring to read. :)

Sailing on Jade was our very first time on Norwegian, and the first time sailing out of Miami, so it was essentially a trial run for our Getaway cruise, and it was quite a bit more stressful. At that time we didn't know what we were doing and how long it would take to get from FLL to the port of Miami. The Getaway cruise was exactly 1 month after our Jade, and this time it was stress free, because we already knew where  and how to pick up an uber (without ordering it first) by picking a suitable car out of a line up at FLL, and that it doesn't take that long to get to POM. We had to get a larger car without overlapping belts, because there were 4 of us, including a child in a booster. I am into car safety, so I knew what vehicles were not suitable for us (subcompact cars like Kia Rio or cars with overlapping belts like Toyota Rav4). So, we picked a Nissan Altima and were at POM about 30 minutes later. :) We arrived right around noon.

It took about 10-15 minutes to get into the building, go through scanners, fill out the health questionnaire, and get to the agent for check-in. The agent was friendly and speedy. The check-in was supposed to be in 2 different terminals, since mom was on deck 9 and we were on deck 12, but they didn't seem to have a problem with us checking in together. About 5 minutes later we proceeded up the stairs and waited for another 10 minutes for our group to be called.

We first went to the Guest Services because we wanted to swap the rooms with mom.  However, everyone was getting hungry, and the line was very long, so we headed to the buffet instead. It was very crowded, so we shared a large round table with 2 people. Headed back to the Guest Services, and it took a good 45-60 minutes to finally get to a CS rep.  Some people must have been having some huge problems immediately upon arrival, because they were actively engaged with a rep the entire time we were standing in line. It took another 20  minutes for us to get situated, because the rep kept misunderstanding us and messing up the room numbers... But it was over, and we were finally in Cabin 9712 (a large balcony cabin, forward), and mom was in a regular balcony room 12884, aft. It worked out great for all of us, because she had a very short walk to the stairs/elevators that led directly to the buffet and MDR. Mom is geographically challenged and gets lost on ships. It's not that she is physically unfit and had to be next to the elevator - she is actually more fit than me and took the stairs on the ship all the time.

Here are the pics of our cabin, 9712.

On 12/16/2018 at 3:59 AM, caribill said:

 

Wow. That explains it all. If you can't get your first job at McDonalds, work here to check-in cruise passengers.

 

checking customers in is so much better than working in fast food. My first job was in fast food, so I know.

oh, and I was surprised - there was music playing in the hallways, but we couldn't hear it in the cabin.

By the way, people were definitely smoking on the balconies. We couldn't use our balcony most of the time, because the cigarette smoke was awful. At some point I got so fed up, I stepped out on the balcony and yelled "stop smoking on the balcony!" 5 minutes later we were able to use the balcony.

On 12/21/2018 at 9:50 AM, rwf1 said:

Do you mind sharing some of the inappropriate/drunken behavior you experienced?  I continue to debate whether or not we will cancel our Escape cruise next June due to reports like this.

we were on the Getaway last week, doing the same itinerary, and honestly - I personally didn't see a single drunk person.

I have found other rather unpleasant things about the ship (like smoke that seemed to be everywhere and inferior food), but no drunken people.

We did enjoy the cruise, and I'll be writing a review shortly. :)

if you just compare MDR and buffet food, Royal Princess will win hands down. 
We just got off the Getaway, and yeah... no. MDR food was so subpar. The buffet was pretty unremarkable as well. No guacamole ever. They had it once in the buffet on a Mexican night but ran out before 8 pm. What a shame. Regal Princess (just like Royal) had guacamole EVERY DAY.

But since you are going to have 3 night specialty dining on Star, you are probably not worried too much about MDR food quality.

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

On Deck12, you’ll get a little more kid traffic (I.e., misbehaved kids running in the halls) than other decks. 

 

wrt banging balcony dividers need to be addressed as soon as it happens. Not weeks later on CC. Constant thumping is probably something mechanical that can’t be fixed (just a bad choice of rooms). 

what do you mean - weeks later? We got off the Getaway yesterday. But I don't think it could have been addressed - what can anyone do about the strong wind hitting the poor metal door at full force? We were all the way in the front of the ship and there was nothing in front of that door, and the wind was horrendous. We didn't have this problem on the first 2 and the last 2 nights - it was quiet, and the wind was pretty much normal.

Here is the photo of said door.

We liked Tropicana (we got off the Getaway yesterday) for the live music. As it is, we never got to see any dancing in it.

We had one dinner in Taste - no music, kind of quiet and more formal than Tropicana. Service was much slower, even though it was half empty at 9 pm.

We are Princess food fans, so we were not at all impressed by Norwegian MDR dinners... A couple of times we actually just went to the buffet - 1) because the MDR menu was not impressive to say the least and 2) the slow service would have interfered with the 7:30 pm show time.

we came back from our make up cruise yesterday. Getaway was much better than Jade in terms of family activities. Our kiddo loved the water slides, the ropes course, the spider net and the getaway bounce. We joined in when we could, and it was a lot of fun.

The crepes were much worse on the Getaway, because she totally overcooked them, making them dry and brittle. Totally inedible. We had to ask her to cook them for half the time, and it worked like a charm. 

The rest of the food was about the same in MDR. The buffet was better in terms of food variety, but worse in terms of a layout. People kept crowding the hallways, bumping into each other, creating traffic jams where they didn't need to be. If you want eggs, hashbrowns and a bagel, you had to walk to different ends of the buffet to get them all. And no Nutella in small containers in the morning!

I'll write a short review on the main Norwegian board shortly.

cabin 12884 on Getaway

On 12/12/2018 at 3:52 PM, rustyroo said:

Please let me know when you return!

ok, so there was no noise coming from the inside of the ship (as in - from the Splash academy, which is far away), but mom reported very loud banging noise day and night outside, on somebody else's balcony. She said it didn't bother HER, but it would definitely bother me. This is for balcony cabin 12884 for 3 people total. She had a fantastic steward Nino, by the way.

We had two very windy nights (between Costa Maya and Roatan, and then between Roatan and Cozumel), plus the ship had to sail fast, so the door separating the balconies was very loudly banging all night long, and I couldn't sleep. Even with the ear plugs. Hubby couldn't sleep either. This was a large balcony cabin 9712, forward, a 4 person cabin.

On 12/19/2018 at 1:39 PM, Curvycruising said:

We received an email yesterday that NCL will forward a check in the amount of $167.84

We are from The Netherlands and if we wanted to fly home on Nov 20 or 21 or later the price of a ticket was appr $3.000 per person!

This was explained to Mary from the NCL corporate office on board the Jade and she understood when we told her that staying in Miami was cheaper then flying back home. Our original flight was on Nov 28. So we booked extra hotel nights until Nov 26 (end of cruise) and took our oringinal flight home on Nov 28. Total out of the pocket costs were appr $1620 (meals, transportation etc included). We are platinum plus members and so dissapointed how NCL takes care of their customers. 

I am very sorry about your expenses.... When I inquired about hotel reimbursement before we left the ship, the cruise hotel manager said that "the cruise ship was like the hotel. Since Norwegian is refunding your cruise fare completely, you just use that money to pay for a different hotel". At the time it made some sense, but Norwegian paid for 1 night at the hotel anyway, so I thought it was nice of them. 

Of course, traveling to other countries on such a short notice or staying in Miami for a week is a completely different cup of tea , and requires a LOT more money. I think they should reimburse people from other countries a lot more than a mere $650.

Our expenses were only $175 pp to get home (quite surprisingly, I must say). Norwegian should take the difference between that and $650 and use it reimburse people who had to travel abroad or stay in Miami waiting for their original flights home.

On 12/19/2018 at 7:48 AM, bravestwj said:

I waited to book flights until Tuesday afternoon waiting on an NCL charter that we were never called for.  By that time I was purchasing a very last minute flight on the day before Thanksgiving.  Flights were $700 each plus hotel, meals and transportation.  NCL is mailing a check for $1300 (650/person as stated) and I have filed with Travel Insurance for the balance.

still doesn't make any sense. We also bought last minute tickets (MIA-ATL), and Norwegian paid for our hotel. I actually bought tickets on Expedia for the Monday night flight, which we didn't make, but Expedia has a 24 hour free cancellation policy, so we cancelled it for free. So, I booked us on a Tuesday flight and that worked.

Lake Mary, FL is right next to Orlando. It's a 4 hour drive. Do you mean to say that MIA-MCO tickets were $700 one way? Or was it San Juan to Orlando tickets?