Peachypooh

We have always just taken a taxi from the hotel we are staying at. Usually the Marriott Biscayne Bay. Quick, easy and readily available. No waiting around and able to set our own schedule.

I had to email twice then call on the phone. There was little they could promise like type of coffee, type of pillows, choice of m and m's and gummy bears.For me no help with restaurant reservations, etc.

Wow I am shocked. I only saw mini busses.

We did this in a rental car. I thought I saw small vans taking people up there.There are so many hairpin turns that I would be shocked if they drove giant busses up there But it might be a possibility..Also remember the altitude is slightly over 10,000 feet. I was a little dizzy and out of breath.

Here is my experience. A Haven 2 bedroom, a regular balcony, and a studio suite. NCL was more than happy to let us all board together and disembark together. Plus disembark at ports together. Our grand children were in our 2 bedroom and they needed to be with their parents getting off at the ports. I asked and paid $30 to have our son that was in the studio eat lunch in the Haven restaurant once. Butler arranged a birthday party in our suite. Other than that the only time we "streatched the rules" was my daughter needed a glass of ice water for one of the kids and went into the pool area for less than a minute to get a glass of water. My grand daughter was having an allergic reaction to a food she ate and we didn't want to wait for the butler to bring ice water for obvious reasons. I stayed with my grand daughter as I have medical training.

Here is two cents. Always go outside to the taxi line and get a yellow cab. Don't engage with people who approach you especially at night. Basic common sense but just a reminder.

He should take a holiday cruise in a regular cabin (non-Haven) on the Getaway and see how proud he is of his product.....

Good to know! Thanks.

I understand. People work very hard to save up their money and use their vacation time and to have this happen is beyond disappointing for people. Is this the cruise that only went to the Bahamas for a few hours overnight and nothing was open? I would have felt very closed in and jumpy. So sorry this happened to you.

Now that I have been home a few days and posted an initial mini review I have had time to think a bit more. The past few years have been difficult for obvious reasons for the cruise line and for the parents and kids that were on this cruise. People were over the top excited to be going on a vacation and from what I have read some children have had emotional and behavioral issues due to the isolation and stress of not going to school. It lead to what I consider the worst behavior I have ever seen on a cruise ship from some parents and their children (not all of them and not a majority but enough to make some other cruisers miserable). Combine that with NCL trying to keep their head above water by jamming the ship full beyond the capacity of crew to handle and cutting corners here and there and it was a difficult situation.Especially the itinerary changes and cancelled shore excursions. We all have suffered during the shutdown and coming out of it hasn't been easy. My husband is in his 70's and he almost cried that he didn't get to go to Tank America to drive a tank due to late arrival......that is not his normal reaction to that sort of thing. All in all I think it is just a rocky restart and it will improve. I have a cruise planned in December on the Pearl and am really looking forward to it. For now concentrate on the good aspects. At least I wasn't sitting on the couch in my house like in 2020 and 2021 missing my family. It will get better...

We still had two cabin services on the Getaway and it got old fast. Since we also had a butler someone was ringing our doorbell all the time. Yes, I did put the do not disturb sign out but it didn't matter. Lots of times the bed was still a sofa when it was time for my grand daughter to go to bed. So we taught ourselves how to do it. My room steward almost had a heart attack. I think if my husband had hurt himself the steward would get in trouble. He was definitely over worked.

P.S. The still have at least one of the tenders with no lift in them. Ask to be put on one with a lift (there are two of them)

Thanks for the official number. I was told 2000 by my room steward probably because it seemed that many to him LOL.We tipped Lourdes (thanks for letting me know her name) but not Hubert. I agree Lourdes should be promoted.

You have a good memory David! Yes the Encore was a much better Haven experience. The Horizon lounge was sorely missed on the Getaway. Yes there were wild kids on the Encore but much less of them I was told 2000 kids on this sailing and it seemed like they were all in the Haven (exaggerating of course.) Someone did hold a kids's birthday in the Haven lounge right next to the bar!! A bunch of kids sitting in all the chairs and doing birthday party stuff. Never seen that before.

I think the assistant concierge (don't remember her name) was great on priority embarkation and disembark. But Hubert (I think that's his name) was not good at all. We were under the Haven sundeck thinking it was adults only but we had kids running overhead. Someone on another thread said the concierge now lets kids up there? I agree GSC was gorgeous. My daughter took her kids to Disney and they waited in line for 3 hours to ride the Millenium Falcon? LOL Glad I didn't go. Glad you had a good time.

You're welcome. I sometimes need a cane and brought it on the tender thinking I would need it. They directed me to this glass box that would easily hold 2-3 people. A crew member got in the box with me and pushed a button. It very smoothly transferred me from one level to another. A real game changer. I think she will like it.

Our Haven 2 bedroom was under the Haven sundeck. I thought it was for adults only. Wrong! Kids running back and forth overhead.

There is a lot to like that happened on this cruise and a lot that could have been much better. First the good points. We were in a Haven 2 bedroom which consisted of my husband and myself and our two grand daughters. The service was really great. Our room steward and butler really made the cruise for us and kept the cabin tidy and lots of snacks to keep us full between meals.I was surprised to see that the Haven pool was open with no retractable roof but that was OK except for the first and last days when it was unusable due to the cold weather. I used the hanging door tags for room service breakfast and the butler came right on time and was accurate. Embarkation and disembark days went smoothly and also the priority disembark at port stops. Our cabin was spotless. Burn the floor was enjoyable. Great Stirrup Cay tender system is much improved. They even have a lift so people that need help with stairs inside the tender don't have to take them. We got a cabana which was totally worth it. The things that drove me crazy were the constant itinerary changes before and during the cruise, getting in late to Port Canaveral and them( unasked) moving our excursions from one day to another basically double booking us and thenboth cancelled all together. I really didn't mind going to Miami instead of Bermuda. We were familiar with Miami and just took a cab to the Bayside Marketplace. We walked around and had lunch at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Company. It was excellent. The ship was so crowded that we got to do almost nothing! Partly my choice because I couldn't stand the crowds and loud noise and partly due to venues filling up fast. Every time I went into the main part of the ship I just couldn't cope. The buffet and pool deck were especially chaotic. Bars were packed. I can add more later but am open to questions. We went on this particular cruise knowing it was President's week but I have to say that I don't think I will pick this week again.

This won't help you(I am sorry) but maybe someone else if reading this. I never walk with a cane but if I know that we are tendering to GSC or anywhere else for that matter I always bring one. Sometimes the tenders bob up and down so much when disembarking I need it to keep steady as there are very few places to hold on to to keep from falling.

Thank you so much!

Where is the best place to get my grand daughters hot chocolate on the Getaway? Thanks.

The Freestyle Daily will list the theme of the day at the buffet. I have never seen Vietnamese food but that doesn't mean it won't be there.

What is the procedure for adding an extra person to the cabana I rented on GSC? The one I rented holds 6 people but I need to add one more person and pay the fee. Do I do it on the ship? Thanks.

We were on the Jade one year for the superbowl.There were lots of chairs set up. I don't think the atrium was the only place they showed it but that's where we watched it. They lowered the lights in the atrium and had special lighting (I think it was red white and blue) and I think we sang the star spangled banner. No food set up per se but I did see people getting food from O'Sheehans and the buffet. It was very festive and nice.

Did you just take this cruise? We took a cruise in January before the pandemic and had the same type of issues. Brand new crew members some on their first contract. One bartender said it was his first day. We made the best of it although I can see your point. We had gotten to our room on embarkation and it was not really clean. This has never happened to us. The room steward (a woman) was on her first contract and had burst out crying midway through her shift that day and had to be put on lighter duties (aka less cabins) (I saw her in the hall crying)She was homesick I think and couldn't carry on. After that first day we had a different steward who cleaned things properly and told us what happened.