ictcruiser

We did the Med at the end of May and loved it.  Jackets and and an umbrella or two; but still some beach and pool time as well.  Very comfortable outside.

We were just on the Seaview.  

Announcements were in about 3 languages:  on our cruise English, French, Italian.

Smoking was on certain decks, outside on the port side of the ship and on 1 aft outdoor deck.  There really wasn't that much smoking and you could avoid it if you wanted.

The buffett seamed open plenty; I believe they advertised 20 /24 hours a day!

I did the same thing and canceled a extra person after my final payment had been made. After some time I got the tax refunded to my CC.

Have a great cruise! You'll love the Haven! We sail in two weeks!

Virginia Brotherton is the concierge on the Gateway unless something changes since Jan 10, 2016.

Thanks!

Hello just wondering who is the concierge on the Getaway. And do you know who is performing in Fat Cats? We cruise in a couple weeks so just wondering.

We are sailing on our second Getaway cruise in about a month! We loved our last cruise so much we booked a year later right after our return. Thanks for being a breath of fresh air on here! We love NCL and will be platinum after completing this sailing. I usually have stayed active on the boards but had to step away from the continuous negativity. It's great to see some positive!!! Thanks

We have two boys 2 & 4 and we love Getaway and we did our research and knew what our kids could and could not do. It's called travel planning. It's what responsible parents do! None of your points are valid had you researched your vacation and pre planned! Ncl is great at accommodating families with small kids!!!

Just cancelled our Blue Lagoon excursion for Dec 4th on the Escape. We arrive in Nassau at noon. Next boat to the island at 1:30. 35 minute ride to the Lagoon, must be back on boat at 4:00pm as that is the last one of the day.

 

Only would have 2 hours there.

Anyone have an alternate place to go besides Atlantis?

 

Thanks

We went over to the Hilton and bought a beach pass that also includes a food and beverage credit plus towels... Just an idea for you

This kinda thing needs to stop pretty soon NCL

We are booked on the Getaway in Feb 2016 and with a 5 and a 3 year old this is kind of an issue with me not sure completely how I feel but right now I'm a little perturbed that they don't have a follow through plan to replace it with...

Loved the Getaway we sailed in Feb 2015 and are booked again Feb 2016! Yes the ship was busy in certain areas at certain times but never felt overcrowded except when they had muster drill and trying to make my way past the big sale...

Great video! We loved The Getaway and are rebooked next Feb!!!

We just cruised on the Getaway and NCL has been our preferred cruise line. We tried two other lines but we are hooked on freestyle cruising and NCL just fits us the best. The UDP will be a first for us on our next cruise. We like to cruise in the suite or haven area the most. The drink prices seem to be around 11$ if my memory is correct. The dinning in the buffets and free sit downs is good and if you want you can go specialty dinning route. It's nice to dress up for dinner if you want to or don't if you don't :-).

We've cruised with a 16mo old and a 2 1/2 year old. I would bring a couple of sippy cups.

Pajama Jam entertainment

Our "Tiger" checking out his face for the first time in one of the mirrors in the stairways on our way back to our suite.

Wine glasses at the ready for Wine Lovers: The Musical.

The Splash Academy Circus!

Thursday evening: sunset at sea and dinner in the Tropicana room--my favorite dining room on the ship.

This is picture of one of the aquariums and one of the viewing pools at Coral World.

This is Coki Beach - I think you can just get a cab to and from here. There is food, beverages, and chairs / umbrellas for sale.

This is our 4yo doing the trampoline / bungee bouncer.

Our Teppanyaki chef.

After the Pajama Jam, we dropped our oldest at Splash Academy and I took our 2yo to the Guppies play room. I had a glass of water with me and he and I were sharing it while we played. He accidentally knocked it over so I grabbed some paper towels (which were in the play room) to clean up the floor. What is remarkable about this is that the paper towels were white and came up just damp after I wiped up the spill. The floor was spotless--not a speck of dirt or anything on that towel! They do ask parents and kids to take off their shoes before playing, but I also saw the room being cleaned regularly. They also provide bins for toys if they need to be cleaned. I think this is a great feature for little cruisers and its obvious that its not an oversight.

My DH spent the rest of the morning in the cigar lounge. He loved having a place to go and it seemed like he made some good friends during his time in there. We would constantly run into people who would say hi to him and introduce themselves to me. The only issue he had with the lounge was that he reported there would be several cigarette smokers (he only said women did this) who would come and hang out in there. I don't think the "cigar only" part is policed very well. Here was his complaint: that lounge is the ONLY place to enjoy a stick on the ship. Cigarette smokers can be in the casino or at several places on the Waterfront (outside on the promenade deck). Some may disagree...but there is a huge difference in aroma between cigar and cigarette smoke.

My mom took some time and went to a sale on the ship offering Getaway and NCL merchandise. This is not my thing...but she loves a good bargain. I think she got 4 shirts and some Christmas ornaments. She reported that the prices were great, but the crowds and sheer amount of items to buy were overwhelming. She described it as Black Friday on a cruise ship!

When I went to pick up our 4yo at Splash Academy, his face was painted (beautifully) like a tiger! We were given instructions to come back by 3pm that afternoon so that he could be in the Splash Academy Circus performed in the main theater. Oh...this made me nervous! After the debacle with the parade around the ship and missing his group, I did not want to get his hopes up, but he was obviously excited and really wanted to do it.

DH took the boys to eat lunch in the buffet and hustled them back for an early nap so we could try our best to be at Splash Academy for the circus.

For lunch, my mom and I had bought tickets for Wine Lovers: The Musical. This was a luncheon entertainment feature performed in the same theater that the Illusionarium is in. During the lunch, each guest is given 6 wines to taste. We loved this show!!! Seeing the menu, I opted to not request a gluten free lunch. I figured I could make due and I remembered that some of my dishes were a bit delayed during the Illusionarium. I did not want my food to get out of sequence from the wines we were to be tasting.

There were 3 performers in the musical--a sommelier who is teaching a class and a male and female student. As audience members, we were also "students". The musical is hilarious! Its a fun way to learn about wine in a very non-intimidating atmosphere, but also very entertaining. I love wine and know a little about it, but I think my mom actually picked up some new things, and for the first time, experienced nuances and subtleties between different wines and how they each tasted with food. Lets be honest: there were no reserve vintages being offered, but the wines were decent and I'm guessing there were 6, 4-oz pours, so it was worth it to go to the show, have a decent meal (filet with shrimp), and essentially 3 full glasses of wine. I wanna say we paid $25pp or something. Fun and a great value!

As we got out of the show, we headed to our suite to check and see if DH got the kids to nap or if he'd taken the oldest to Splash Academy yet. Turns out they made it well before 3pm, so we made plans to go watch him in the Circus being performed that afternoon. It was in the main theater and really really cute. All the age groups (non-teens) were involved and each group did specialized tricks they had been learning that week--juggling, yo-yoing, etc. Some of the kids were REALLY good! I liked getting to really see the counselors interacting with the kids--it really seemed like those staff members enjoy their job. When it was the Turtles / 3-5 yo group's turn to come out, we learned why we'd seen facepaint earlier in the day: the little kids were dresses as either lions or tigers and the were to do jumps through hula hoops on stage. Our son--although he face was painted with orange and black stripes--was wearing a huge furry main and he kept turning around to show us a tan tail that was tied around his waist. Yup...our kid chose to be dressed as a LIGER for the circus! We were cracking up and really enjoyed getting to watch him perform on stage.

Later that afternoon, we braved the adult pool scene--there was always music, people playing cornhole / bean bags, and even dancing up on the retaining wall around the pool. It looked like everyone was always having a great time...its just not my thing (I guess its probably just not my thing when I'm vacationing with my two young kids and my mom!).

DH and mom took the kids to swim and do waterslides. I had challenged myself all week to do the high ropes course, so I seized this opportunity. I got fitted with a harness and walked up to the course. The wind was not very bad, but the ship was moving. It is a little unnerving! There is a part of the course that juts out over the edge of the ship about 8-10 feet (aka "walking the plank") and I wanted to prove I could do it. Nearly shaking myself to death: I DID IT!!! You stand out at the end and pull a rope and its supposed to take your picture. Sadly, I could never find mine. That might have been one picture I really would have purchased!

After the ropes course, we all did hot tubs back in the Haven lounge. Our kids swore this was our families hot tub--we never had to share or wait to use one, and I only saw people in them a couple other times while walking though.

DH and I enjoyed dinner and watching people dance in the Tropicana Room that evening and then walked around the ship. It was a pretty quiet, relaxing evening.

(Apologies this is delayed. I typed a big huge entry which got lost to cyber space and then had a business trip and couldn't add more)

Thursday morning was our last Sea Day of the cruise. I hit up the treadmills while mom did her classes. Each day, the number of people in the gym got smaller and smaller. We were on our way back to the mainland, so by this time we were barely moving along. Running was much easier as the seas were calm and we were moving so slowly. A treat for me was to see seagulls diving and fishing right outside the window. It helped my run go by really fast.

On Thursday morning for breakfast we had reservations for the Nick Jr "Pajama Jam." This was a breakfast / entertainment program for kids and their families featuring the characters from Nick Jr. The event was held in the Tropicana Room. We had originally scheduled this for Monday (prior to leaving on the cruise) but we received a notification that the Pajama Jam was moved to Thursday. I *think* they would have had two had there been sufficient interest, but moving all the Monday pre-reservations to Thursday gave people an opportunity to sign up during the cruise.

The breakfast was a buffet of brightly colored (food dye) waffles, pancakes, cereal, jello parfaits, some odd little sausages (like hot dogs or vienna sausages) and small little egg casseroles. They also had cupcakes (?? it was breakfast) and juice / milk / coffee. I think there was also some fruit salad--heavy on the melon.

The entertainment was good. Both the kids got bubbles, plastic cups they could keep and wands with streamers coming out one end. The characters and the staff of the Nick Jr crew came out and danced and sang with everyone. They then broke up into three separate sections for pictures with the characters. There were 6 different characters or groups of characters and then all rotated out half-way through. So, to get all the pictures, you had to stand in 6 lines. They moved fairly quickly, but my kids only really wanted Sponge Bob and Dora and Diego. At the end, everyone danced and sang again.

My kids had a great time doing this...but I think it was $20pp. Foodwise, it was really the worse food we had on the cruise. The normal breakfast buffet food would have been better and I'm still wondering who thought up the jello and cupcake table. It was WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR and there wasn't really more appropriate offerings for adults. So, the same $20 could probably be better spent in a specialty restaurant and there are plenty of opportunities to see Dora, Diego and Sponge Bob on the cruise.

Thanks so much for your review! We're on the Getaway 5/16 with our 7- and 3.5-year old. I noticed you mentioned that many families utilized Splash Academy pretty regularly. I've picked that up in other reviews as well. I'm wondering if you noticed small children around the ship during the day or in the evenings? My kids prefer to be with us, so it's very unlikely that they will go to Splash Academy at all. We're just getting concerned that they'll be the only kids not there, lol!

There were kids out and about. The pool area always had kids in the waterslides and the sponge bob pool. The ropes course, trampoline and spider mountain thing were well utilized.

I don't think it would be a big deal to not use it at all...our 4yo did like it. We just didnt use the entire session (generally) every time it was open. 1-2 hours was usually enough for us.

Not sure if my hypothesis on this is correct but it seems FDR is trying to implement as many charges out the gate instead of making a soft feel good approach. Hopefully the smoke will clear soon on all these changes and charges and we can use this board to be positive about our favorite cruise line. I had a former military commander tell me "irritate them at first then love them like family. You will gain more respect and run a tighter group" Hope it works for him and I my guess is until sales drop off the changes might continue to be painful on the pockets....

On Wednesday morning I got up to hit the gym. Today was my upper body / free weights day. Although the weights area is fully outfitted, even a few people down there jockeying for the same equipment can make it feel crowded. Most people just went with the flow, and were very nice about switching off between sets, etc. Due to the late night of fireworks, my mom skipped her stretching and abs classes.

For breakfast, we tried the Haven restaurant and went with some of the more unique items--crab cakes benedict, the fruit waffles, etc. Let me just say this again: Breakfast in the suite with kids is definitely the way to go for our family!!

For our excursion in St. Thomas, we elected to go with a ship tour to Coral World and Coki beach. We have been to tropical "zoo" type places before and thought our kids would like it. We planned to spend the morning at Coral World and then head next door to Coki Beach to play and swim.

We boarded a shared van over to the park. It was small and the paths were rock / uneven, but it was really educational. There were some neat aquarium tanks, and then a spiral staircase down into the ocean to see the ocean floor from inside one of the buildings. There were also a few live tanks where kids could touch different sea life. It was a neat little place, but it wasn't fabulous or full of things you can't see anywhere else.

After spending about 90 minutes at Coral World, we went next door to Coki Beach. Although it was pretty crowded, we were able to flag down a guy to rent loungers and an umbrella from. Once again, the kids just wanted to run and play right along the surf. They dug sand castles and raced waves! Just playing at the beach was the highlight of their day.

Our ship tour had us getting back on the shared van to come back at 11:30! This was too early, in my opinion...we would have stayed at the beach for at least another couple of hours if we could have. We weren't carrying very much cash, and we'd spent most of it renting the umbrella and chairs....had we known to bring money for a taxi (or realized that we'd use most of our beach time at Coral World), we would have just cabbed it back. Hindsight: 20/20.

We hopped on the van and headed back to the ship. My husband, the cigar lover, hopped off in a shopping area near the ship to browse, but I don't think he bought anything (St. Thomas is under the US laws, so anyone looking for real Cubans is out of luck and they really didn't have much of a different selection that he could have gotten at home).

My mom and I took our kiddos up through the Garden Cafe for lunch. I visited the buffet a few times and thought the selection was extensive and fresh. Now...I did only eat there about 4 times on a seven day cruise. I'm not sure if my impression is more based on my infrequency of eating there, but I did enjoy everything I ate from the buffet. My kids always found something they liked and they LOVED the soft serve ice cream cones!!

DH still was exploring St. Thomas on his own when I put the boys down for their afternoon naps. During this time, my mom decided to option one of the port day specials in the spa and had our concierge book her a massage appointment. After riding around in a speed boat for almost 8 hours in St. Maarten, she RAVED about her massage. She said it was one of the best she's ever had (she goes regularly 2x month). I'm glad she got some r&r after helping us so much with wrangling our two little ones.

After the boys woke up from their naps, I took our 4yo to climb spider mountain again and he did the bungee trampoline again as well. Mom and our 2yo started playing putt putt golf and we joined them after the trampoline. I've seen a few mini-golf courses on ships--this one was really neatly laid out with a pirate theme. I thought the "course" was in good repair and not at all shabby. My kids loved the skulls, pirate ship, treasure chest, and cannon.

Dora and Diego were having a Meet & Greet in the Atrium right before dinner, so we took the boys. It was really the first time they'd seen the characters on the ship (I take that back...Dora had made an appearance at Splash Academy). They loved giving hugs and high fives. Their pictures were taken in front of a green screen with both characters. There were only a few kids there, so we didn't have to wait in line at all.

For dinner, we had a reservation for all of us at the Tappanyaki restaurant. This was only the second time we'd braved a sit down restaurant for dinner with both of the boys together. We eat at a Japanese hibachi style grill fairly regularly in our home town, so I knew the kids would be entertained. Although they didn't do big tricks with fire, the chef (Mel) was very entertaining and engaging with our kids. Mel did a few tricks with our 4yo and got him in on the action behind the grill. He still talks about how much fun he had at this dinner. We were a party of 5 and we were sharing a table with another couple. The food was good, but I wish they would have had more of the stir fry vegetables because I generally don't eat rice. All of the meat we ordered was cooked perfectly.

After dinner, our oldest went to Splash Academy while my mom played with the younger one in the Guppies area. DH and I went to Levity Comedy Club to see the other headlining comedian. We thought that show was really entertaining--laugh out loud funny! Following the comedy club, we went to the Mojito bar to watch some live piano music. There were plenty of folks hanging around sipping cocktails and the piano player / singer did a great job of getting the audience involved.

This is the first beach stop on Captain Bob's tour--the water was a beautiful color, but note the distance for the "swim in."

Second stop with Captain Bob--this was a lagoon, and although anchored a decent distance out, the depth was entirely walk-able with little to no waves.

Watching planes land at St. Maarten airport with Captain Bob:

Entrees at the Haven restaurant for dinner: I had the duck breast and DH got crab cakes.

On Tuesday morning, I made it to the gym again for another round of fun on the treadmill. Mom also made it down to her stretching and abs class. We both noted a few less people in the morning crowd....more late nights on 6-7-8 I guess!!

After breakfast in our suite, we got priority disembarkation with our concierge. They escorted into the inner sanctum of the ship and we joined other Haven guests going down a crew elevator to the dock level.

We had pre-planned a private tour with Captain Bob and Soualiga Destinations. Our day was to have been a trip around St. Maarten on a private power boat, several stops for snorkeling and beach time, drinks on the boat, and lunch at a local beach bar.

We walked from the ship dock area to the marina where Captain Bob's team had their boats. Upon arrival, we met Bob who told us that due to some recent storms, the seas were a bit rough and the snorkeling was not that great. He was very sincere, and offered to refund our money and allow us to cancel if we wished. Feeling adventurous, we decided to go anyway.

We were assigned to a boat with 4 other guests and a captain that worked for Bob. We had not brought our kids lifejackets with us...so many of the reviews we'd read prior to booking the excursion were from families that also had small children and recommended the experience. When I asked about life jackets for our kids (although we didn't wear them and its not expected, I did want our children to wear life jackets while we were on the boat as neither of them can swim expertly, especially in the ocean), it seemed like both Bob and our captain were a bit confused and unfamiliar with what the boat was equipped with. After digging around a bit in one of the holds, we found two children's life jacket...one of which was a bit too large for our 2yo, but we made due.

The boat trip was very enjoyable, we drove around the island and the captain pointed out landmarks. We toured through a marina and under some bridges. Where the water was calm, we could go fast and our kids really had a great time.

It took more than 1 hour to reach our first stop for snorkeling. It was off a small island and across a bit of channel that *was* (as Bob had warned us) very rough waters. While crossing the channel we saw some dolphins and some sea turtles which was really neat.

When we go to our destination, I elected not to snorkel, but to swim into the pristine beach (seriously, there was no one there and no businesses of any kind) and play in the sand with our 4 yo while my DH wanted to snorkel. Mom was going to stay on the boat with our 2yo. The waves were fairly large and I'm a very good swimmer. With me wearing flippers and my son in his life jacket, the swim to shore took a good 10 minutes.

The sand at the beach was lovely. All our 4yo wanted to do was dig and build sand castles. He would run from the waves up the beach and play a game he called "Run Mama Run" where he would see if the waves could catch him. Seeing his brother playing on the beach from shore, our 2yo then decided he wanted to swim too. My mom ended up getting in the water with him (in his life jacket) and paddling around out by the boat. The beach stop ended all too soon (we were there maybe 45 mins) and we swam back out to make the trip to the next destination.

The second stop was a lagoon with very very calm water and more of a restaurant / beach shack area. The water was gorgeous! Both of our kids wanted out of the boat to build sand castles and play in the shallows. There was a little grove of trees behind that hid some iguanas so we also walked back to look at them. Looking back...because of the calm water and nearby bar/restaurant, I wish we would have just come here and let our kids play all day.

We walked back out to the boat and motored over to our next stop: lunch! This was in another beach shack / bar / restaurant area. The choices for lunch were ribs, chicken, or mahi mahi with rice and a salad. All of the lunch food was decent--each of us adults ordered one of each and we all shared. The kids both ordered chicken and ended up eating the rice and a chicken leg each. This was served at a restaurant by the beach so the kids ended up playing and digging in the sand here too.

After lunch, the sky got a bit overcast. Our captain told us the plan for the remainder of the day was to make one more snorkel stop, hit up the airport (where the big planes land right over head / just off the beach) and then go back to the marina. Given the conditions (murkiness) of the water and the darkening skies, we elected as a group to skip the last snorkel and just go to the airport. We did get to see a few big planes land, however, by this time, both of our kids were asleep on our laps!

Driving in the boat back to the marina, the skies opened up and some brief rain came down. It was cold and the rain stung a bit when it hit while we were driving. Our captain took the boat over closer to land to shelter us from the rain until it passed.

What I can say about Captain Bob's: the man was lovely and nice. We opted to go on the trip even though he warned us the conditions weren't ideal. I think some of the experiences were lost on our children--they were just too young. Had we had more time at the beaches and less time in the boat it might have been better, and the fact that all of the beach stops were SWIM IN were not the best for kiddos. That said, our kids were well behaved, enjoyed riding on the boat, and still talk about the beach and the other people on our boat, so...

We got back to the docks and walked aboard the Getaway. There was music playing and the NCL staff out giving out eucalyptus-scented cold towels and flavored waters. There was also a place to trade out used beach / pool towels for fresh ones. NCL does a really great job of welcoming you back to the ship after a long day in port.

DH and I had a quiet dinner in the Haven together and ended up falling asleep at 9pm! All those swim-in beach stops really took it out of us.

Grandma and our 4yo stayed up pretty late--he closed down Splash Academy for the first time, and Grandma picked him up just in time to enjoy the fireworks from the boat at 10:45. Yes, my 4yo out-partied us! (And he was THRILLED to see fireworks and told us all about it on Wednesday morning).

On Monday night, DH volunteered to be a solo parent to give my mom and I a chance to do some things on our own.

We made reservations with our concierge for the Tropicana Room. This is one of the main dining rooms. Although you don't need reservations, we wanted a seat by the dance floor and we wanted to be able to eat with enough time to see Burn the Floor afterwards.

Our dinner was great--we got another bottle of wine from our Viva Vino package and had a nice relaxing meal. This dining room is fabulous! I love the live band and dance floor in the middle. Although NCL raves about Freestyle, this is a dining room, in my opinion, that echos of a more refined time. During our cruise, there were plenty of couples to watch on the dance floor. Not just swaying back and forth to the music, but doing actual *moves* and stuff. Way beyond my abilities, but a real treat to watch.

It really got us pumped up to see Burn the Floor! DH and I had watched one routine as part of the Welcome Aboard show, but my mom hadn't seen any of it yet. We had told our waiter that we were heading to the 9:30 show so they had us served accordingly in the dining room. We made it to the show with time to spare. Although there were seats in the reserved Haven section, we opted to sit more centrally in the theater to see everything.

Burn the Floor was AH-MAH-ZING!

It was high energy latin dancing with a few songs thrown in for good measure. I think there were maybe 8 couples and male and female lead singers as part of the cast along with two percussionists featured on stage. The costume changes and flow of the whole production were really fantastic. Seriously, after watching the show, I wasn't sure if I wanted to get drunk, have sex, or punch someone in the face. It was sexy, feisty, and high energy. The men were gorgeous and the women...I wanted to BE them. (Especially that girl with the Rihanna-esque haircut--she was enviable).

Having spend the week prior to the cruise in Las Vegas and taking in several shows...I can assure you, this is top notch entertainment. Looking back, I would have loved to see the show again.

After Burn the Floor, mom and I had a night cap in the Grammy Experience. I really did like that harmonica player...

Heading back up to our suite, mom offered to stay with the boys (they were already asleep) and allow DH and I to have a late night out. We decided to hit up some of the lounge entertainment on 6-7-8. We ended up at the sushi bar just before it closed. Breaking our Paleo diet again, we ordered two different rolls to share. He got a sake and I got a champagne. It was a great way to end the evening.