darwinsrule

Except for next year when the Legend is doing a Glacier Bay run on August 15th (2017). Booked it a couple of months ago. The price at that point was $2000 less than NCL Pearl (which also does GB) which was the next cheapest.

Alaska is lovely I hear. DW and I were just talking about this. Thanks to the surgical gods we are past the point of having more kids (two wonderful daughters who are finding new ways to turn my hair grey everyday), but since no one really knows the long term impact of the virus yet, it is scary enough. We are heading down to Orlando in a little over a week and are paying attention to the situation in Miami.

Yes. And it is hard to go back to a regular balcony afterward.

All the more reason to slow down, find a lounge chair and get a really good drink plan. Worst case, don't expect to do much.

Fantasy is great. Still our favourite cruise ever. It has been 2.5 years and youngest DD still talks about going back. We still want to do the Magic to complete the Grand Slam, but there isn't a DCL ship we would hesitate to go on.

That being said we can't wait for the Jewel in August. Your trip report has been a great preview so thank you. The Jewel trip will be our 4th NCL cruise. Mind you our last 2 have been on the Getaway. The new NCL ships are absolutely wonderful. I would not hesitate to go on her or the other AWAY class ships.

Sounds about the same as our experience on Getaway this past August. Best "meat" was the grilled pineapple. Still it was a good experience. Not sure if we would do it again however.

I booked my August 2016 Alaska cruise the end of March 2015, the day it first became available for booking. Cruise tours were not released for 2016 till around August 2015.

Which cruise? We have the Jewel booked for August 20th. Our invoice date was January 31st. Rebooked it a few days later under the 3rd/4th passengers sail free (saved approx 1k).

Assuming you get in to FLL early enough then definitely head in to Miami. We have stayed at both the Holiday Inn at POM and the Hampton on Brickell. In both cases there is a bunch of stuff right around the hotel in walking distance. Holiday Inn is across from Bayside Marketplace with a ton of restaurants, shops, etc. Gets very busy in the evening but the hotel is a 5 min cab from the port.

Highly doubt it is a maintenance is the issue. Last August (2014) we were talking to one of the guys who watched over the pools in the evening (actually got to know him pretty well as the week went on). He told us there had been repeated injuries in the Spongebob pool and play area. The slides in the pool, both on the side and the little island were both pretty steep, and both slide right into hard objects. Pretty much a design fail from the get go. It was off to the side were the bigger kids were sliding in to things (week before a kid a supposedly face planted in to the wall losing a couple of teeth). Didn't see a lot of parental supervision, but hey we are on vacation and that gives parents a free pass right? :D

Given what we saw over the course of the week we weren't surprised when we saw the slide and island roped off the year (got home yesterday). We weren't there every night this year, but still saw some of the larger kids doing some really stupid things. Would bet anything the liability issues were starting to pile up.

Is that good news? ;)

You need to ask that?

I am leaving from NY, I guess Miami and Tampa are the other ports that are waiting to find out what is going on.

Getaway leaving Saturday is really the big question. Current path for Erika is right along the route it takes to St. Thomas and Tortola. Wait and see what the plan is when we get to port on Saturday.

Stuff happens. You can't control everything. Flying in the day before isn't always a solution either (as mentioned stuff happens).

We did the Dawn from BUF in 2012. Drove from Toronto the day before. Had a 7 am flight. Everything went smoothly, had breakfast at the airport in BOS before going to the ship. It is a short flight and there were a bunch of alternatives that would have got us there if something went wrong.

This past March we did the Disney Wonder out of Miami for the school break. Ship left Sunday, we had an 11 am flight out of BUF connecting at JFK. Flight from JFK to FLL ended up being cancelled and we were initially rebooked the next day arriving around 4 pm. Rebooking was a major issue since it was spring break. Ended up with a 7+ hour layover at JFK and were on the last flight that day to FLL arriving at 1am. Basically not fun when traveling with young kids.

Do you think they will also be changing the stops on the August 29th departure?

On the 29th sailing as well. My concern with Danny is making sure it stays far enough away from MIA and FLL not to impact flights.

The issue (obviously) won't be Danny but the two other storms the NHC is looking at in the Eastern Atlantic. For those it will be still be a couple of days to get a better idea but it is not looking good so far. Both are on that Southern track so far that would take the over or near St. Thomas and Tortola. We are so far out with them at this point that anything can happen.

Love Boston. Proximity to Toronto makes it an easy flight for us. Before a new ship it needs a new terminal however. Worst debark we have had and I can't imagine trying to add more passengers. :eek:

That itinerary sounds like more fun than riding the roller coaster that will be Danny. Did that with Irene in 2011. As Kermit says 'it ain't easy being green'.

Return the ship in one piece. If I see any scratches on it next Saturday when we board you will hear about it. :)

We were on the Disney Wonder in March for the second time. Love walking in to the lobby and having the chandelier he did creating such a warm atmosphere. Going to miss it when they re-wonder the Wonder next year.

I am Canadian too. The airport you chose to arrive into FL is not that important. Either of the 2 work, Miami is 15 min closer to port. I live in the GTA and I always fly to Florida from Buffalo because it is so much less expensive. If you are driving distance fro the border, as 90% of Canadians are, you should look into US flights. They are generally 60% less.

We have been flying from BUF since 2002. Lot of cheap Vegas trips pre-kids. Lot of Orlando trips since 2009. About to do our 3rd trip in to FLL for a cruise out of Miami, including our 2nd time on Getaway. FLL is about the same distance from Miami as downtown Toronto is from Pearson. Frankly the traffic is better in Miami.

We had one of the B6 cabins with large balcony last August. We had liquid (pray it was someones drink) hit us when we were out on the balcony during sailaway in Miami. In St. Thomas we were hit with bread some of the idiots above us were tossing to the seagulls as we were pulling out. One morning we also had glass on the balcony. Obviously someone from above dropped a glass from above and we got the remains. As a general rule you can't stop people from being stupid.

Thankfully since then the smoking ban has gone into effect. The woman below us in one of the M6 minisuites was a chain smoker and the smoke would drift up to us when she was out puffing.

Honestly it didn't top us from grabbing a similar cabin for this August (in one of the BX cabins on deck 8 in a few weeks).

We are on the August 29th Getaway cruise. We had an 8:15 am excursion booked to the Baths. Logged jn over the weekend and the excursion now shows 7:30. Haven't had any kind of notification from NCL but communication isn't really a strength of theirs is it?

Last August we were in boarding group 6, were boarding around 11:45, went straight to Taste/Savor and had lunch. Were finished about 1 and went to check our room and it was ready. We always avoid buffets the first day, even on DCL.

There is a towel spot up on the pool deck between the kids pool and the adult pool if I recall. You could get towels there and will need to make sure you return them when done. You will need you key. Unlike DCL they do keep track and will charge you (after DCL the NCL policy seems rather stupid frankly).

There is lots of food around. There isn't the same sort of set up as DCL right near the pools but honestly the buffet is right there and Getaway has the best buffet we have ever seen (blows Cabana's away easily).

MDR are great. The flexibility of when and where to eat is something we love. Don't miss the Tropicana Room esp when the Burn the Floor dancers are there. If you hit the MDR by 6 you will never have a wait getting seated.

Honestly our kids prefer the kids clubs on DCL. They didn't spend a lot of time in them on Getaway. They spent a ton of time in them as recently as the Wonder back in March. We don't expect them to spend much time in them when we are back on Getaway in August. Older DD (now 11) loved the pool area, slides, ropes course and the Getaway Bounce. She can't wait to get back on the ship this summer.

You didn't say what you have booked. Inside and OV rooms are small compared to DCL cabins. If you have the opportunity get one of the extended balcony cabins. THEY ARE AWESOME (have another one booked for this summer). We never had a problem with noise or neighbours.

We do miss the movie theater. That is a definite DCL plus. They did show Frozen last summer in 3D in the main theater which is cool. They also showed movies in the lobby on a big screen and up on the pool deck in Spice H20.

Honestly great ship. Loved being back on Wonder in March, but when the opportunity came up to get go back on Getaway we weren't passing it up. After the Fantasy a couple of years ago, Getaway was probably our favourite cruise.

The larger balcony itself is probably worth more than you realize. We had a B6 on deck 9 last August and everyone loved it. Nothing like sitting out there on the lounge chair reading a book or just watching things go by. DD7 can't wait to get back on Getaway this summer but her big question is do we get an extended balcony again. The answer is yes. Like you booked a guarantee and was just happy to get back onboard at a fabulous rate. We booked in Feb under the extra sail free, not the 1/2 price they have now so we got 7 nights for $2,200 with a $200 obc, which for a week-long vacation for 4 is incredible. Scored however and have been assigned 8710 which has a bigger balcony than the B6 from last summer. Our biggest fear now is that they more us but there is really nothing we can do to control it.

Assuming you are flying in the day before Bayside also gives you shops and restaurants right across the street from the Holiday Inn POM. The Holiday isn't 5 star by any means, but the rooms are clean and large and it is quick getting to the port. We have also done the Hampton Inn a little over in Brickell. Really nice hotel. Again large rooms which are always a plus.

Best of luck. We have done one big extended family trip with my DW family. And it will stay at one. My FIL has tagged along on a lot of our trips, however we are travelling without him more. As he gets older it becomes more of a challenge since the kids are also getting older and want to do more.

As noted the entrance is on deck 12. The line up outside Splash Academy on was crazy. We have never seen anything that bad (especially when it opens at 7 pm) and we have done a couple of Disney cruises during spring break.

We had 9134 last August. Awesome room. Would happily do another B6. Only issue, and it happened multiple times, was stuff coming from above. Had drink (hope it was anyway) spilled during sailaway on us. Had glass on the balcony another morning. Pelted with breadcrumbs people were tossing to tge gulls leaving St. Thomas.

Hours are one of the issues. The 7 pm line on Getaway last August was huge (took 20 min to check the kids in). We have 5 DCL cruises completed (just got back from the Wonder a couple of weeks ago), have been on 2 NCL cruises to date (however 2 more booked including another trip on Getaway this summer).

The big difference for us is the format. NCL is a lot like daycare/school. There are set activities and that IS what they are doing. Our younger daughter is fine with it, our older daughter can't stand it. She is much more introverted and likes to do her own thing. On DCL there are set activities, however if the kids want to keep playing and doing whatever it is they are doing (on their own or with new friends) then they are free to keep at it. No pressure, no fuss, no worry. The result is we can't get older daughter in to the clubs on NCL, and on DCL she doesn't generally want to leave.

Does that make DCL freestyle??? :confused: