Getaway - Long time cruiser, first time NCL review Feb 11-18, 2018

Do you have excursion recommendations? Our daughter is excited to see the mayan ruins, but there are so many - and I can't find many reviews.

In Cozumel we've done Passion Island, Paradise Beach, and Mr. Sanchos, all with great success. We've done the public beach, as well. The cabs are a huge rip-off, but they are a consistent and fair rip-off because everyone is ripped off the exact same because the cab fares are fixed and posted. DO NOT take the tour that cab drivers are holding up signs for. They will lie to you about the price of the place you want to make their place sound better. Research here on the CC Ports of Call forum for reviews.

In Harvest Caye we just stayed there. You can take a ferry to the mainland, the step-SIL/BIL did that and came back with less than stellar reviews. We just pretended it was the private island it really isn't.

In Roatan we used a wonderful company called ROA (Roatan Ocean Adventures) and had a great time. The owner Herbert even came out with us on the snorkel portion of the tour. It is a family business and most of the staff are his cousins, nephews, and the like. We loved this tour and will use them again in a heartbeat. We split into 2 groups (snorkelers and non-snorkelers) and both had excellent driver/guides. The monkeys and sloths were amazing and the snorkel on the reef & the ocean shelf was breathtaking. This company gets tons of good reviews online and here in the CC PoC forums.

In Costa Maya we did the Chacchoben Ruins Tour with a company called The Native Choice. I'll warn you that it is about 5 blocks to walk to get there, but it was 100% worth it. We had a great time and our guide was SUPER knowledgeable. This was about as educational as you get. They do multiple ruin tours, so you can check them out. Like ROA, they get a lot of good reviews online and here in the CC PoC forums. I'd use them again as well.

Both of those tour companies are locally-owned and use their own equipment for everything. TO ME, that is a huge step above a vendor who just sells other people's tours. You should do your own research, but we're quite picky with our tours and these were both stunning trips.

I was on the Getaway in January and I think I have found my soul-mate! I could not agree with you more!!! The smoke, the weird atrium, the bizarre cabin steward - we had exactly the same experiences and impressions. I had a server in Savor ARGUE with me when I said the coffee was cold one breakfast. A Margaritaville bartender also ARGUED with me when I received the drink I did not order. We were, however, able to find pool loungers, miraculously, but the smoke permeating the deck from the open-air smokers lounge drove us away. And the only time drunk passengers annoyed us was when they took over the Howl at the Moon show.

That being said, we had a great time. It was a lot of fun! We did not expect a 5-star experience and we certainly did not receive it but we had a wonderful vacation, much of which exceeded our expectations: Most of the food, the buffet, the shows, and our studio cabins were fantastic!

We just booked this cruise for later this spring - and now I am terrified I made an awful mistake. You listed my top 3 annoyances - smoke, drunks, and poor customer service... not exactly how I want to spend a $7k vacation.

Please take these reviews with a grain of salt. If I believed everything I read I'd never leave the house. We sailed on the BA and thought it was the best cruise ship and yet if you read other reviews you'd think I sailed on a different ship. Two people could cruise on the same ship,same time and have totally different opinions on a trip. My advise is to stop reading reviews and have a great trip, don't look for things to annoy you.

On Getaway, the pools are on deck 15 and the Haven is on deck 16.

 

 

NCL gives 60 minutes.

 

 

The people who left them there for hours were wrong.

Removing items that are not yours is wrong.

Which is the greater wrong is a matter of opinion...

He didn't exactly remove them, he folded them up nicely and put them on a chair. They were gone 3 hours, his actions were well justified!

He didn't exactly remove them, he folded them up nicely and put them on a chair. They were gone 3 hours, his actions were well justified!

He removed them from where they were.

Wrongful actions don't justify wrongful actions. The fact that the person leaving the towel on the chair for hours was wrong doesn't justify a guest removing that item from where it was. NCL staff is authorized to move items after a specified time that the chair is unoccupied.

He removed them from where they were.

Wrongful actions don't justify wrongful actions. The fact that the person leaving the towel on the chair for hours was wrong doesn't justify a guest removing that item from where it was. NCL staff is authorized to move items after a specified time that the chair is unoccupied.

The NCL staff specifically denied that they do that. You can find my actions wrong all you want. I'll do it 1000x more in the same spot.

If a single mother with 11 kids had come back 10 minutes later and said "I had no choices, but all these orphans I've adopted have special needs and need fed at exact times. We need these 12 chairs to live." We'd have gladly got up and moved.

The move likely option is that someone would have come back and assumed that one of the other 10 chairs with towels was their chair with a towel on it and sat down. SERIOUSLY, there were zero personal items there. The blue towels were 100% identical to each other. There was no possible way to identify which blue towel belonged to which person.

We'll just have to agree to disagree and maybe you'll be in line to accept sainthood from the Chair Hogs Putting Towels on Chairs Commission and I'll forever go down on their naughty list?

We just booked this cruise for later this spring - and now I am terrified I made an awful mistake. You listed my top 3 annoyances - smoke, drunks, and poor customer service... not exactly how I want to spend a $7k vacation.

I'm booked on Getaway in mid-March, and the only thing that really concerns me is Shanefm3's review where he found a cockroach in his salad.

I've sailed twice last year on Escape which has the same 6-7-8 layout that allows smoke to travel. If you decide on Le Bistro, just request a table inside noting your sensitivity to cigarette smoke. As a non-smoker, I hate smelling it, and I was able to find enough venues that were smoke-free. I do spend a great deal of time in the casino, and sadly it's unavoidable. NCL (at least on both cruises) attempts to enforce the rule that you may only smoke if you're actively playing.

With respect to excessive drinking and poor conduct, I'd tell you that's more common --though not exclusively limited to-- late evenings, bar areas.... and O'Sheehan's late night, which was full.

I will also venture that after the recent Carnival Legend incident, there might be a bit more diligence on all lines surrounding intoxication and passenger skirmishes.

As for customer service... NCL runs hot and cold. Again, my two experiences were on Escape last year, but hopefully NCL culture instilled from its parent remains the same.

On the plus, NCL managerial staff are VISIBLE. You will find them walking the guest service area (and line, if busy) as they interact with guests. You find them walking through dining rooms stopping at tables to check-in with guests. You may find them having a non-alcoholic drink with passengers in a lounge. They are there to REACT when an issue arises or comes to their attention.

Let me share an actual experience from my April 2017 cruise. The first sea day I went to see Wine Lovers, The Musical. Five millennials were sat at two tables across the aisle from each other, and they already -- I'm supposing-- had too much to drink because they didn't see there was anything wrong with talking very loudly/shouting from one table to be heard by their friends at the other table -- during the performance. The maitre 'd asked them once not to disrupt. But then she gave up and just stood by their table.

My style is to confront poor service. After the performance, I visited the Guest Service desk and asked to speak with the Food & Beverage Director. Now of course the GS agent wanted to know all the details. "No, I'm sorry, I'm not telling my story to you. I would like to speak with the F&B Director. Now if he's too busy or doesn't care to speak with me, then just have him leave that message in my stateroom."

The following evening I had reservations in Le Bistro. Half way through my meal, the two 4-top tables I faced were cleared when guests left, then pushed together for a party of 8: two place settings were at each end, with three place settings on each of the long sides. The problem was, that the tables when pushed together were not level, easily with an inch difference in height. So when the show plate was set exactly on that crack between tables, it rested at a 30 - 45 degree angle.

I called my server over and said this: "I know that may not be your table, but let me ask you to imagine something for a moment. Let's just pretend that YOU are a passenger on board who is very excited about having dinner tonight in Le Bistro, the ship's nicest and most expensive restaurant. How would you feel if THAT is where you were seated?" I pointed to the errant place setting. She looked at it, turned back to me, smile on her face, then walked over to the side station where there were other servers.

Nothing happened.

As I concluded my meal, the F&B Director walked into the restaurant and over to my table to introduce himself. I invited him to sit, and I related the Wine Lovers Musical experience. My point to him was that the Maitre 'd should be empowered to take command of their room and react to the situation. I emphasized that I was NOT complaining to get it comped or to receive any freebies [in the hospitality industry we call that "buying off the guest": we screwed up, so here's something free.]

And as we finished a good conversation, I did point out the place setting that still remained on an angle. He immediately reacted with staff on his way out, and it was fixed.

Fast forward to early dinner the first night of my October 2017 cruise on Escape. The server that brought over my glass of wine proactively told me that I looked familiar. I pointed out that I had previously sat at the other end of the Manhattan Room on previous cruises. No, she didn't work at the other end, but she wanted to know when I was last on board. When I said April, she stated she was working in Le Bistro. I smiled and said, "I'll tell you exactly how you know me. Remember the show-plate tilted like this," as I held my hands up? She smiled widely and nodded her head yes.

Here's the really good part of this.... while she didn't say it to me, she had just seen the F&B Director back of the house, nearby. She left my table, found him and let him know. He immediately came out and greeted me, checking in. Several days later I received an invitation from him to a small get-together, which was a nice touch.

What I've found in some situations is that being direct and firm is the only way to get results. Take the example of the host(ess) that doesn't APPEAR to want to make reservations.

"Is it that your laptop is NOT ABLE to take reservations, or do you just NOT WANT to do it?"

"They have announced that we can make reservations at any host stand. Is that not true?"

"You seem annoyed. Am I wrong? Are you angry with me?"

"Can we call a manager to help show you how to do it?"

Granted, a passenger shouldn't have to go through all that. And I would say that MOST OF THE TIME, the service is great. On rare occassions, any of the above should work.

Lastly, while most crew paint a smile on their face that usually can be heard in their voice (ie sincere) there's one final thing I've learned from hearing from other service industry professionals, flight attendants in particular. NOONE likes to hear a command: "Smile!"

Instead, approaching the frown or scowl faced individual with a voice of concern: "Is everything okay? You don't look like you're happy."

Maybe they are not. But when they hear that, it can be a self-check which will cause them to adjust.

I don't think I've ever met a cruise line staff member that is outright hostile and outwardly presents themself with hatred towards their work and passengers.

So, all this said, I look forward to my sailing next month. I hope upon my return that I don't have to say I was wrong.

I was on the Getaway in January and I think I have found my soul-mate! I could not agree with you more!!! The smoke, the weird atrium, the bizarre cabin steward - we had exactly the same experiences and impressions. I had a server in Savor ARGUE with me when I said the coffee was cold one breakfast. A Margaritaville bartender also ARGUED with me when I received the drink I did not order. We were, however, able to find pool loungers, miraculously, but the smoke permeating the deck from the open-air smokers lounge drove us away. And the only time drunk passengers annoyed us was when they took over the Howl at the Moon show.

 

That being said, we had a great time. It was a lot of fun! We did not expect a 5-star experience and we certainly did not receive it but we had a wonderful vacation, much of which exceeded our expectations: Most of the food, the buffet, the shows, and our studio cabins were fantastic!

I agree! We seem to have had very similar experiences. It wasn't an awful cruise. There were great things and not so great things. We still had a lot of fun. I'm not going to let things I can't control dictate whether I have fun or not. We made the most of everything we did and worked around the rest.

I didn't add it to my weird list, but that open-air smokers lounge was WEIRD. They took all the effort to isolate it, but it isn't actually closed off to anything????? That was super strange. I know we played ping pong over there and it got rough with the smoke.

Please take these reviews with a grain of salt. If I believed everything I read I'd never leave the house. We sailed on the BA and thought it was the best cruise ship and yet if you read other reviews you'd think I sailed on a different ship. Two people could cruise on the same ship,same time and have totally different opinions on a trip. My advise is to stop reading reviews and have a great trip, don't look for things to annoy you.

You do know this forum is created on the basis of reviewing cruises???????????????????????????????????

Cruise Critic is the actual name of the site. To give critique of cruises is why it exists.

Of course everyone has their own perspective and that's why we should all try to provide as many facts as we can. "The food was good" is an opinion. You can certainly say you enjoyed the food, but simple reviews that say things like that over and over aren't beneficial to others. I really tried my hardest to point out specific reasons why we liked things and didn't like other things and to give specific examples for them.

But making a blanket statement that my comments should be ignored and taken with a grain of salt because they don't reflect your experiences is a tad rude, eh?

He removed them from where they were.

Wrongful actions don't justify wrongful actions. The fact that the person leaving the towel on the chair for hours was wrong doesn't justify a guest removing that item from where it was. NCL staff is authorized to move items after a specified time that the chair is unoccupied.

To me, this is one of the times that Two WRONGS do make a RIGHT!

I've seen at times four or five empty chairs in a row: sunglasses on one, hat on the next, bag on the third, etc.

After a period of time, what's wrong with consolidating the sunglasses with the hat, to free up a chair? And when the person on the last lounger --and probable owner of the wardrobe strewn about-- pipes up with "That's my friends...." then a simple reply of: "okay, but I'm gonna use this lounger until they return."

When they stoop to pettiness, there's always: "When did they put the glasses there? 8:30 am you say? Well they must not have noticed the thread from my towel that I placed here at 7 am to lay claim to the chair."

The NCL staff specifically denied that they do that. You can find my actions wrong all you want. I'll do it 1000x more in the same spot.

You post was that you waited 20 minutes..."I finally just got fed up and we stood talking/having a drink around loungers we wanted for about 20 minutes." At that point, you were wrong since the items can be left for up to 1 hour.

If someone went into the pool 30 seconds before you got there, what's wrong with immediately removing their towel and taking their chair? Why wait 20 minutes or even 20 seconds? NCL dailies state 1 hour but if guests decide that it should be 20 minutes, why not 20 seconds?

We'll just have to agree to disagree and maybe you'll be in line to accept sainthood from the Chair Hogs Putting Towels on Chairs Commission and I'll forever go down on their naughty list?

Once again, I am not defending the chair hogs. They are 100% wrong to leave items for more than 1 hour.

My point is that doing wrong just because someone else did wrong and using the justification of "...well, they were wrong first so I'm not wrong..." is also wrong.

To me, this is one of the times that Two WRONGS do make a RIGHT!

When the 3rd wrong is done, is that right?

After a period of time,...

NCL allows up to 1 hour

...what's wrong with consolidating the sunglasses with the hat, to free up a chair? And when the person on the last lounger --and probable owner of the wardrobe strewn about-- pipes up with "That's my friends...." then a simple reply of: "okay, but I'm gonna use this lounger until they return."

If the sunglasses are accidentally dropped and damaged, the person who moved them without the owner's permission is wrong.

When they stoop to pettiness, there's always: "When did they put the glasses there? 8:30 am you say? Well they must not have noticed the thread from my towel that I placed here at 7 am to lay claim to the chair."

You would be admitting guilt since items should not be left unattended for more than an hour and the reserving of chairs is not allowed. The people who do that are wrong. There is no need to ALSO be wrong in order to get a lounger.

I agree! We seem to have had very similar experiences. It wasn't an awful cruise. There were great things and not so great things. We still had a lot of fun. I'm not going to let things I can't control dictate whether I have fun or not. We made the most of everything we did and worked around the rest.

 

I didn't add it to my weird list, but that open-air smokers lounge was WEIRD. They took all the effort to isolate it, but it isn't actually closed off to anything????? That was super strange. I know we played ping pong over there and it got rough with the smoke.

 

 

 

You do know this forum is created on the basis of reviewing cruises???????????????????????????????????

 

Cruise Critic is the actual name of the site. To give critique of cruises is why it exists.

 

Of course everyone has their own perspective and that's why we should all try to provide as many facts as we can. "The food was good" is an opinion. You can certainly say you enjoyed the food, but simple reviews that say things like that over and over aren't beneficial to others. I really tried my hardest to point out specific reasons why we liked things and didn't like other things and to give specific examples for them.

 

But making a blanket statement that my comments should be ignored and taken with a grain of salt because they don't reflect your experiences is a tad rude, eh?

I don't believe I said your comments should be ignored but I have to say you lost me with your "Weird" part. If you read my reviews they praise the ship and the staff but does that mean that everyone does? No, of course not so I also believe that people have to judge for themselves. In my opinion your review is a little harsh but I wasn't on your cruise. Will be cruising the GA in July so I will judge for myself and take yours and future reviews with a grain of salt. As the saying goes "to each his own".

I don't believe I said your comments should be ignored but I have to say you lost me with your "Weird" part. If you read my reviews they praise the ship and the staff but does that mean that everyone does? No, of course not so I also believe that people have to judge for themselves. In my opinion your review is a little harsh but I wasn't on your cruise. Will be cruising the GA in July so I will judge for myself and take yours and future reviews with a grain of salt. As the saying goes "to each his own".

The weird stuff on top was a response to another poster. Multiple quotes.

I gave a lot of praise, as well.

Poncho 1973, I'm just curious.......which is ur favorite RCC ship? I've not been on either NCL or Royal and have only been on 1 cruise with Celebrity but I'm interested in ur opinion! I thought ur review was very good, (Not to mention funny) and I appreciated ur honesty! As far as the chair hogs......i guess I'm of the group that says rudeness doesn't get my respect and I will "gently" remove towels that have had no activity for hours!!!! We've all paid for our vacation........let us all enjoy it 😉😊

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Poncho 1973, I'm just curious.......which is ur favorite RCC ship? I've not been on either NCL or Royal and have only been on 1 cruise with Celebrity but I'm interested in ur opinion! I thought ur review was very good, (Not to mention funny) and I appreciated ur honesty! As far as the chair hogs......i guess I'm of the group that says rudeness doesn't get my respect and I will "gently" remove towels that have had no activity for hours!!!! We've all paid for our vacation........let us all enjoy it 😉😊

I agree on the hogs. We're ALL here to enjoy. Thank you for the compliments.

I answered your Royal question in the parallel Royal thread I made for this review. Just to keep it more-ish on topic.

My style is to confront poor service

I liked your suggestions and understand where you are coming from. I'm actually one of the most outspoken and unashamed to speak my mind people that I know, but even I am nowhere in your league for directness. Good for you and I'm glad it has paid dividends to improve your cruising. Solid work, but I'm probably still not going to be that direct.

Thanks for the stories and insight. I will be watching for your review.

When the 3rd wrong is done, is that right?

 

 

NCL allows up to 1 hour

 

 

If the sunglasses are accidentally dropped and damaged, the person who moved them without the owner's permission is wrong.

 

 

You would be admitting guilt since items should not be left unattended for more than an hour and the reserving of chairs is not allowed. The people who do that are wrong. There is no need to ALSO be wrong in order to get a lounger.

When the 3rd wrong is done, it just makes this whole thing ridiculous and not worth discussing. The same as the petty towel thread vs. other item. Guilt, smilt- pointless. Verbalizing the towel thread argument would be hyperbole and the last thing I said before turning back to my book and music as I continued to sit in the chair.

Considering moving the sunglasses most likely a foot from one chair to another, I'd have no fears of an accident. Despite the owner's apparent lack of respect by acting like a "chair hog," I would still treat their personal item a degree of respect by carefully handling it and gently placing it on the other chair-- as opposed to just tossing it.

I wouldn't intentionally break YOUR sunglasses.

I wouldn't intentionally break YOUR sunglasses.

You would never see them since I never leave any items unattended (NY'er).;p

I'm not a chair hog.

I never leave items unattended.

I never wake up to "reserve" a chair at 7am.

I'll never understand the fascination with having a chair that is "front and center", "near the action", "best to people watch", nor "best to be seen in".

Most importantly, I've never had a problem with getting a lounger....even back when I was sailing Carnival and I never moved anyone else's things...not even a towel.

I've read stories here on CC when someone would manage to get a chair away from the pool and during the course of the day as people started to leave, the person would inch forward to a different chair until the "victory" of being right next to the pool. When I asked the obvious question (Why?), the person couldn't give an answer other than "...it's the way to play the game..."

I don't get it. I'll never understand it. That's no way to spend a vacation.

When certain areas are overrun with "chair hogs", there are always (in my experience) chairs that can be found elsewhere. Why people ignore these chairs and "fight" for ones near the pool is a mystery to me.

Parents who need to watch their child?....shouldn't be lounging, IMO.

The sunlight by the pool is the same as the sunlight one flight up.

I even theorized that the desire for certain chairs was a mimetic desire. People only want them because other people seem to want them. I believe that if all of the back row chairs were "reserved" and all of the middle row of chairs were empty, people would want the back row more.

That's a discussion for the next "chair hog" thread.....

Well I believe that your hugs are just unpleasant. And I believe that there is nothing wrong with moving a towel especially when the person doesn't even return after 3 hours. That's just selfish and narcissistic. I can't believe that you would expect your chair to remain empty for that. Of time when the ship has so many people on it.

The Weird:

OK... so I hope I didn't oversell this.

 

The weird stateroom attendant. First, he did a wonderful job. Our room was done incredibly well. Always spotless and very timely cleaned. However, he was a ghost. We met him on Sunday morning as we were leaving the room to go home. I thought he did such a good job that I wanted to slide him a few extra bucks. I had to hunt him down to give him money! We were in and out of our room a lot. We slept late some days, we woke up early some days. We came back for naps when we couldn't find a lounger. We forgot things and had to make pit stops in the room. We first arrived at our room about 10 minutes after they announced they were open. Nothing. I called him once and noted he took 1 beach towel, but didn't replace it.

 

****NCL puts 2 beach towels in your room, you throw them on the bathroom floor and get them replaced, unlike DCL or Royal****

 

He knocked on the door, but in the 10-20 seconds before I got off the bed and to the door he was LONG GONE. The towel was outside the door. We saw several attendants in the hall... none were ours. In an even weirder moment, I asked a guy in the hall if he knew if our guy was around. He responded that HE was him. This guy's nametag had another name and he definitely wasn't the guy we met on Sunday with the correct nametag on. It should also be noted that we had never seen this man in the hallway either!!! It was like some weird, foreign Candid Camera show or something where they switch people behind an object. The SIL/BIL also never met their stateroom host, but they had a different guy than us.

 

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The weird croutons. It's really hard to mess up croutons. Stale bread with some oil or butter and spices or herbs on it. This ship has no idea how to make croutons. They were both mushy and hard at the same time. It was like the VERY VERY VERY outside was mushy. Like the first 1/16th of an inch was soggy and then the entire rest of the crouton was as hard as a brick. Like your fork and knife couldn't break them kind of hard. You could line a bunker with these croutons. We had them with soup and salads all week. Awful. World's most bizarre and awful croutons. We also found them very odd smelling. Like instead of garlic, oil, butter, and/or herbs they were seasoned with rotten milk instead for kicks and giggles. All week.

 

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The weird use of the atrium. The atrium pretty much became the catch-all for anything on the ship. On one hand that makes sense because it is a central meeting place. On the other it makes no sense at all. They played tons of games there. They played movies on the giant screen there. They had live music there. They replayed events there. They had shows there. All those things SOUND awesome.

 

The weird part is the reality of it. The 8th floor opens down to all these events. However, the only people on the 8th floor that can watch, see, or participate are on the railing. (Sidebar... ladies in skirts... CLOSE YOUR LEGS at the 8th floor bar glass because it was quite the show) These people are sitting at higher bar stools, so they are too tall to see over and the action is all going on below. The bar stools are too close for anyone to mingle around between them and watch.

 

This means you have an entire floor of people that can HEAR nothing but the event at volume 11, but see only about the top 1/8 of the screen above all the people.

 

Imagine if you needed to speak to someone in the guest service department? Or if you needed to book an excursion? Or make a reservation? Or visit the next cruise agent? YES! All of those are located about 30' away from the heart of the ship's action. The GSR agents who had the pleasure of answering the phones were doing so with one ear plugged with a finger and shouting. Imagine the music for the game going at full blast and you're trying to tell the person at the desk "fkljf fjlfs; kensl kn eln ke ksl kelsle nensel sekj... (GAME GOES SILENT) AND THEN MY KID'S GIANT POOP CLOGGED THE TOILET!! That's what I was saying on the phone earlier. Sorry."

 

It's also weird for bar service and that it is the home of the bakery. If there was an event going on, you couldn't possibly order from either of those two. This is supposed to be the main bar of the ship. This was the bar where everything unique was to be ordered. Completely off-limits during these events because there simply isn't enough seating anywhere else there. So everyone crowds the bar and bakery. Trust me. We tried. You had to come back when something wasn't going on.

 

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It's not that weird, but it was definitely odd that almost everyone we met seemed so completely miserable. I know it's not the greatest job in the world, but it's a living. I live in Orlando, the tourist capital of the world. I know the tourist industry. It's not all roses and smiles, but abject misery is bad. So many gloomy faces. I'd try to compliment someone or smile at them and get almost nothing back. The I Can't Getaway attitude was pervasive.

 

 

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I'll gladly attempt to answer any questions as best I can.

Try ordering a drink in the promenade area of RCL Oasis or Allure during the 80's night spectacular!!

Try ordering a drink in the promenade area of RCL Oasis or Allure during the 80's night spectacular!!

Of course. I do understand many events get loud and while the Guest Services and Next Cruise desks ARE on the Promenade of those classes of ships, they aren't RIGHT THERE like on this ship. They are down at the far end. There may be a couple of loud events on your cruise, but the area on Getaway I'm referring to was basically the main spot for events. Put it this way, when you turned on your TV in your stateroom and watched all the stuff you may have missed over your cruise most of those things took place several paces from the GS desk. The games, most of the contests, etc.

If you're going as close to apples-to-apples as you can, anything that takes place on those Royal ships in Studio B, Schooner's, Bolero's, On-Air, Dazzle's, the Promenade, or the main theater probably happened in the Atrium on this ship.

Nice Review. I have been reading reviews of Norwegian for the last month now to see if I have been missing out on anything over the years. The drinks included ( drunks ) and all the smoke to stay away from is enough to keep me sailing on Royal.

Hi Poncho, thank you for your informational and entertaining review of the Getaway. My husband and I sailed on this ship in October of 2014. We had been warned about the smoke and were very concerned, I’m extremely sensitive. We must have been lucky, we didn’t have too much issue, and we’re even able to eat outside at Le Bistro one evening. Did notice it a bit at Shanghi but not enough to leave. We mostly had drinks at the Raw Bar and never had an issue there, thank goodness, because we loved it there. We did get the Vibe and Spa pass which helped deal with the pool crowds, that was ridiculous, and we’ve cruised a lot. Didn’t venture to want to hang out there at all. Anyway, we leave on Sunday for our 2nd cruise, this time our teens are joining us and we’re going in with real expectations and certainly won’t look for things to be ruffled about. Having cruised way too many times to speak of, all these ships have pros and cons, but like you mentioned about vacations.... . Just hope not to find a roach in my salad!

Of course. I do understand many events get loud and while the Guest Services and Next Cruise desks ARE on the Promenade of those classes of ships, they aren't RIGHT THERE like on this ship. They are down at the far end. There may be a couple of loud events on your cruise, but the area on Getaway I'm referring to was basically the main spot for events. Put it this way, when you turned on your TV in your stateroom and watched all the stuff you may have missed over your cruise most of those things took place several paces from the GS desk. The games, most of the contests, etc.

 

If you're going as close to apples-to-apples as you can, anything that takes place on those Royal ships in Studio B, Schooner's, Bolero's, On-Air, Dazzle's, the Promenade, or the main theater probably happened in the Atrium on this ship.

I understand, I have been on Allure, Oasis and Getaway. I find the Promenade on the RCI ships to be much louder and hectic than the Atrium on the NCL ships. Just my opinion.

We just booked this cruise for later this spring - and now I am terrified I made an awful mistake. You listed my top 3 annoyances - smoke, drunks, and poor customer service... not exactly how I want to spend a $7k vacation.

Don't be afraid. I have been on the Getaway and am sailing on it again in May. It is a great ship and you have nothing to worry about. You will have a wonderful time. Probably one of our best cruises we have ever been on was on the Getaway. I have had "poor" customer service on every cruise line, I have encountered drunks on every cruise line, and there are areas that have smoke on every cruise line. Relax and enjoy your cruise, these things are only small snap shots of the whole movie!!