REVIEW: NCL Getaway - April 1, 2018 Western Caribbean

Norwegian Getaway Review

April 1,2018 Sailing, Western Caribbean.

Approx. 4400passengers aboard. (according to the Cruise Director)

Who We Are:

I’ll start out by telling you we are in our early 50’s, have been sailing for over 12 years now. We love cruising primarily because it’s such an economical way to vacation. Our primary interests are trying new foods and meeting new friends on each trip. We have sailed Disney, Royal Caribbean,Holland America, Celebrity and Princess Cruise Lines, this was our first sail on Norwegian. We love trying out new ships and have heard a lot of great things about NCL from friends. While Norwegian was not our favorite cruise line of the six we’ve sailed, there is plenty to love about NCL if you’re planning to sail the Getaway anytime soon.

This reviewcovers everything about the ship first. Destinations and excursions are at the very end. I willalso add that in talking to our friends who love to sail NCL, we have learnedthat some of the things we found missing on Getawaycan actually be found on the Epic. When we decide to give NCL another shot,we’ll most likely sail on Epic.

Spring Break:

We did happen to sail on the tail end of Spring Break so there were lots of kids on board,primarily high school and younger. So things were a bit crowded, especially near the pool areas and the buffet but this is to be expected when you sail with a lot of kids. We also had a cabin right next to the Aft Lobby so we had a lot of kids running about, making noise out in the lobby area and had some noisy kids on either side of our cabin. But again, to be expected on a cruise with lots of kids on board. We sailed RC with 1000 kids aboard for Thanksgiving, this was much quieter than that. ��

Pre-Cruise Hotel:

This was the second time we stayed at the El Paseo Hotel on Espinola Way in South Beach. Great little hotel with literally dozens of restaurant options right outside your door. Short walk to the beach and just a few blocks from the Lincoln Road outdoor Mall. We love this little place, though be advised, you may need to wear ear plugs at night to sleep due to the late night restaurants below and right outside the door.

Embarkation:

I have to say the Embarkation was the most chaotic of any cruise line we have sailed. NCL is in the process of building a gorgeous new cruise terminal in Miami and that should help greatly. Getting into the cruise terminal is not that big a deal and once you get up into the ‘holding pen’you’re assigned a boarding number. It’s a really ugly ‘holding pen’ hence the new cruise terminal. It’s too small for the amount of people on ships the size of Getaway, so it’s a bit of a cramped and chaotic scene until the boarding process starts. People start queuing too early for the boarding gate because there’s not enough room to sit. Once the first two boarding groups moved through, the space was much less crowded and the process went pretty well after that.

We entered the ship via Deck 7 and came in right next to the Box Office. I highly recommend going directly to the Box Office as soon as you are on board if you have not booked any shows yet. There was literally nobody there when we walked on. During the first Sea Day there were lines up to 30 – 40 deep waiting at the Box Office.

The Cabin:

We booked Cabin 11847 which has a slightly larger, angled balcony looking forward. We love these ‘bump out’ cabins because the balcony is larger and you get an unobstructed view looking either forward or back. The room had all the amenities you would expect and the bathroom had a very generous shower for a standard balcony room.

Full sized sofa has two large storage drawers underneath and there are multiple shelving compartments under the mirror and TV. The closet space was a bit smaller than what we’re used to from the other cruise lines with one side for hanging clothes and the other side with deep shelving. There is a good sized safe in there as well. The top shelf oft he closet has plenty of room for 4 of those 12x12 collapsible cubes giving you even more storage space. We bring those on every cruise now. We also brought along our ‘over the door’ shoe hanger for the bathroom door so we did not have any issues with space for our 7-day cruise.

The one thing we HATED though, was the extremely narrow space between the bed and the closet. That’s the worst design of any cruise ship we’ve been on. Literally the width of two shoes, it was very annoying to get clothes and other items out of the closet. I would try not to book a cabin with this configuration if we ever sail NCL again. This cabin was rated as able to hold 3 passengers. We were told if you book a cabin that is rated for 4 passengers, oftentimes the bed is near the balcony and the sofa is near the closet, which would give you a lot more room to access the closet.

Bathroom is well laid out with a decent amount of shelf space. Celebrity still has the best and most efficient bathroom layout, but NCL has a good amount of space. As I mentioned, the shower is a generous size and has a solid glass door. Waterp ressure was good and it has the dual controls so you can leave the water set to a good temperature without having to reset it each shower. I will mention that the hot water was scalding hot, so be careful and test the water before getting in or putting your hands under the sink.

I’ll also mention that Cabin 11847 is right next to the aft elevator lobby and stairs, a high traffic area so you hear a lot of noise coming from that area. And on our cruise, a lot of kids running by at high speed well into the night and early in the morning.

Another thing about the room that was annoying was there is no way to leave a message for your room steward. When you call the “Housekeeping” button on the cabin phone, if your steward doesn’t answer,you’re given a message that says “he’s busy, call again in a few minutes.” I did this for a while on the first day and was never able to get through. So I left a hand-written note on the bed for him.

The Ship:

First impressions of the ship were just how tight and narrow all the walkways were. Immediately we noticed how the ceilings seemed very low in many of the public spaces. For a ship this size it seemed there were many places that didn’t have to create such choke points. That aside, the ship is quite lovely inside and the variety of options of places to go and things to do were numerous.

Waterfront:

This is unique to any ship we have sailed so far and we were immediately drawn to this space. It’s a covered promenade deck all around and has a great variety of seating from couches and chairs to regular tables. So you can relax down near the waterline, read a book, play card games or enjoy the Sugarcane and Sunset Bars. There also multiple restaurants that offer outdoor seating along the Waterfront like Ocean Blue, Cagney’s and Moderno. This space ended up being our ‘go-to’ space generally parking somewhere near the Sugarcane Mojito bar with card games books and just relaxing. It’s also a great early morning walking path as an alternative to the small jogging track up top.

Atrium:

Big gathering spot and where you will find gourmet coffee to one side of the Atrium bar. They do all manner of demonstrations and events here like the Newlywed/Not So Newlywed Game, Trivia, carving demonstrations and port presentations. You’ll also find the Shore Excursion, Guest Services and other services around this spot. We enjoyed wandering by this space from time to time just to see what was going on. The visual trivia games were especially fun.

FitnessCenter:

WAY TOO SMALL FOR A SHIP THIS SIZE. Unbelievably small, I thought I was just seeing one part of it. If you’re not on a machine by 5am, you might be waiting until after noon. It’s crazy with nearly 4000 potential guests you have maybe 20 treadmills and a dozen ellipticals. We’ve never seen a fitness room so small and there were people waiting for machines every time we went by. My advice would be to alter your exercise routine by sleeping in or just having a leisurely morning. Then exercise sometime between noon and dinner. I started going around 2pm or so and found the place nearly deserted. Much better than trying to fight the crowds in the morning. My wife also noted it’s the least inspiring fitness room of any ship we’ve been on. It looks like an afterthought rather than something that was purposely designed with the ship.

OutdoorWalking:

If you like to walk for exercise I would highly recommend the Waterfront on Deck 8. It goes about 7/8 of the way around the ship and you can simply cut through the front of the ship at the large chess set to complete each lap. The Jogging Track on 16 is short and also goes through a high traffic area that includes Margaritaville and the kids pool / play area. The Waterfront is a great lap around the entire ship and it’s covered so if the sun is especially hot, you can duck under shade while you walk.

The BarberShop:

Have to givea shout out to the Barber Shop because this was a great experience. I was just not able to get a haircut prior tothe cruise and based on a friend’s recommendation decided to give The BarberShop a go. I ended up not only getting acut but a facial as well. Just afantastic experience to not only get a great cut, but to give myself a littlepampering. Located in the Spa, I woulddefinitely encourage you to take advantage of this great service. Yeah the haircut costs more than on land, butI was on vacation, it was worth it.

The Pools: (and shade)

This ishonestly the one reason we won’t be be coming back onto another NorwegianCruise soon or making NCL one of our ‘regular’ cruise vacation lines. Lack of a true ‘quiet adult pool’ that’sseparated from the ‘party pool.’

We like theparty pool and we enjoy hanging out there especially when they have some of thefun events going on. But we also like tojust relax near a quiet pool too. Everyother cruise line we’ve sailed has a true, separated adult pool that doesn’trequire any additional cost, ala The Haven. And keep in mind The Haven is not ‘adult only,’ it’s open to anyone,including families, who purchase that Haven experience.

We sailed Royal’sFreedom of the Seas one Thanksgivingwith 1000 children aboard but had a great time because we were able to enjoythe separate adult pool. Getawaydoesn’t have a true adult pool where you can just get away from the noise andrelax. Spice H20 is the adult area on Getaway,but it’s primarily a sun deck with a waterfall feature. Same with the Vibe Club, which is an additional fee. Spice H20 certainly has the space in front ofthe large screen to have installed a pool. For evening events, they could have used a solid covering like Disneydoes with their central pools. We have learned that the Epic does feature a pool in their Spice H20 area, but theseBreakaway class ships do not.

Kids Poolarea is fantastic and if you have young kids, they will love this space. The designated ‘adult pool’ is on the samedeck, midship. It’s what we would callthe “party pool” and it was jammed most afternoons as would be expected of theparty pool area. Good music, fun eventsand games.

We didn’ttry the water slides but the queues were constant and they looked fun. Anytimeyou sail, but especially when you sail a cruise with more kids than usual, likea Spring Break cruise, it’s nice to have a sanctuary pool that’s a littlequieter.

As forshade, the Getaway had sufficientshade around the adult pool in the center of the ship, it’s below the upperdeck and as such may not get that much of a breeze. The rest of the ship is basically open to thesun. In Spice H20 there are a fewumbrellas and if you park yourself right up against the back wall you cancreate some nice shade if you need it.

I have to mention, the screen at Spice H20is just awful. Can’t see it at allduring the day and at night, it’s missing so many pixels on the screens theimage is terrible. If NCL doesn’t wantto maintain the screen they should just remove it and open up the view aft. It will be a better view than a big uglyscreen.

Ultimate Beverage Package:

It’s notreally an ultimate (unlimited) “beverage” package like many other cruiselines. It’s purely alcoholic drinks upto $15/drink. If you go over that $15you pay the difference in price.

Specialtycoffees, bottled water and the like will cost you each time you buy. We’ve really gotten used to the specialtycoffees and bottled water being included in the drink packages on some of the othercruise lines like Celebrity, so this was a bit of a surprise. Not a deal breaker, but be aware, you will bepaying for coffee and bottled water.

Dining:

Overall,food was quite good on the ship. Themost bland and boring was the buffet, but overall really good food.

Buffet:

I’ll starthere because this was the most boring and bland buffet of any of the six cruiselines we’ve sailed. It was also thesmallest creating many choke points and very little seating availability evenlater in the seating times. It was unbelievably small and cramped for aship with almost 4000 guest capacity. The circular buffet line ‘corral’ was only good for about 3 peopledeep. Once there were three peopleacross, the aisle was essentially blocked. If there is a choke point, just keep walking around because the foodwill repeat and hopefully you’ll find a more clearer area to get the foodyou’re looking for.

The buffetrepeats itself 4 times in the longer direction and twice in the shorterdirection. The quality is equivalent toAmerican fast food. Salad bar is verysmall and depending on the day, it may have more or fewer items. There is a tossed salad section where theymake a ‘tossed salad of the day.” That’snice though I will say the lemon vinaigrette with the Greek tossed salad wasflavorless.

Hamburgers /hot dogs / French fries and other American fried food seems to dominate. There are carving stations with what appearedto be good portions of meat. A tokenIndian and Asian section are offered, but the choices were basically the sameeach day. I didn’t see a MexicanStation or Cheese Station or see any particular station that would rotate tosomething different each day. It lookedit was set up to do exactly the same thing each day in each station. They did offer a few changes when in portwith some ‘local flavor’ but often, these were pretty tasteless as well.

With so manybuffet stations I don’t understand why the offerings can’t be more varied likethey are on the other cruise lines. Theice cream was also especially bland. Vanilla literally didn’t have any flavor and the chocolate was so-so. Inshort, pretty bland and boring. If you are an early riser, the buffet is theonly option for you other than O’Sheehan’s for breakfast as the main diningdoesn’t generally open until 7:30am most mornings.

The 11:30pm“late night snacks” were just basically French fries, burgers and hot dogsalong with some token desserts. Notvery inspiring and honestly didn’t look that great either. If you want something quick or want to graba drink or need that late night deep fried fix, it’ll do, but for us, meh.

Atrium Café:

Where youcan get some great specialty coffees all day and well into the evening. Specialty coffee is NOT included in the drinkpackage, so you will be paying for all your Americanos, Cappuccinos and Lattes. The cupcakes are quite good, though the creamon top it a

Dolce Gelatoand Bake Shop:

For somereason, this space is only open in the afternoons. Most other ships we have sailed has a gelatoor ice cream stand open until at least 10pm so you can enjoy a frozen dessertafter dinner. The gelato tends to beVERY soft so sometimes you get really cold cream. Not sure if it’s because this faces theWaterfront or the freezers are too weak. Gelato is good and I will also note they have all the specialty coffeeshere too. When it’s open, generally theline for coffee is nonexistent so you can get your fix a little faster. The cupcakes are quite good.

Ocean Blue:(dinner)

We dinedhere our first night and enjoyed dinner out on the Waterfront. Our reservation was 7:00pm and we had abeautiful view of the sunset. It was ourfirst experience eating outdoors on a ship and we loved it. Food and the service was simplyoutstanding. We started with the crabcakes and the grilled prawns appetizers. Great ways to start the meal. Then my wife went with the grilled shrimp entree while I went with theSeven Seas which was lobster, snapper and shrimp. My entrée was one of the best I’ve ever hadon a ship. If you are a seafood fan, Ihighly recommend Ocean Blue. It has themost availability the first night of the cruise so it’s a good restaurant forthe first night if you have not made a reservation in advance.

Teppanyaki:(dinner)

We did thisdinner the final night of the trip and my only regret is we didn’t do itearlier. We would have changed Le Bistroor La Cucina to a second night at Teppanyaki. One of the most fun experiences we’ve had for dinner at sea. Food was outstanding, the best meal on theship next to Ocean Blue. Johnny was agreat hibachi chef as well as a fun entertainer. He brought together all of us around thegrill to where we all became good friends by the time the meal was over. The fried rice was awesome, my mixed seafooddinner was awesome and my wife’s mixed vegetables were amazing. The green tea cake was literally like eatinga tea bag, but the green tea ice cream was great. All in all, our favorite dinner experience onboard the Getaway.

Le Bistro:(dinner)

This was amixed bag some good, some not so good. First off let me say that if they seat you ‘outside’ in the concourse,you’re going to have streams of people passing through the art gallery and asthe time approaches 8pm, there will be people lining up to get intoHeadliners. I recommend sitting insidefor a better restaurant experience.

We startedout with two appetizers each because neither of us could decide betweenthem. My wife went with the Crab Saladand a puffed pastry seafood appetizer. The crab salad was awesome, really fresh flavor. The puffed pastry dish was good with thevegetables and all the seafood except the scallops. They had a weird flavor is the only way I candescribe them. Not fishy, just quitedifferent and weird. That gave me aconcern since I ordered the scallop main course. I went with the Escargot and the 4 mushroomsoup appetizers. The escargot wasawesome, it wasn’t drowning in garlic butter like I’ve had it on otherships. Just the right amount of butter,breading and garlic. The mushroom soup,however, was completely bland. I had afew spoonfuls and sent the rest back. Itwas surprising that it was so lacking in flavor.

For the maincourse my wife went with the Shrimp with butter garlic and it wasoutstanding. One of the better shrimpdishes either of us have ever had. As Imentioned, I went with the Scallop entrée and again, it had that weirdtaste. I can’t quite place it, butsomething was a just a bit off about it. The cauliflower puree was quite good so I just slathered the scallopswith that and I did go ahead and eat the dish because I really didn’t want towait for another entrée. But I wouldadvise against the scallops for your dinner.

For dessertwe went with the Crème Breule and the Profitteroles. Both excellent, though filling. And the coffee here appears to be true Frenchpress, though it is already pushed through when it comes to the table. I would say the Le Bistro is not a “must eat”destination, we’ve had much better French dining experiences on other cruiselines, but if it’s something you want to try, you can have a nice dinnerhere.

La Cucina:(dinner)

Not the bestItalian meal we’ve had at sea, though not the worst, but we again sat outsideon the Waterfront to watch the sunset. That was beautiful and we really loved having dinner outside. The bread was really good, some of the bestwe had on the ship.

Forappetizer my wife went with the mozzarella caprese which was decent. My fried calamari were below average, thoughthe sauce was good. There wasn’t muchflavor in the calamari itself. For thepasta course, I went with the tortellini and my wife went with the gnocchipesto. The gnocchi were overcooked andthe pesto was ok. Too much salt. The tortellini were not bad, in a lemony typeof sauce. For main course, my wife wentwith the while I went with the lamb chops. The lamb was cooked perfectly, really enjoyable cuts of meat. The potatoes were basically raw, but the lambwas so good I didn’t care.

For dessertI went with the espresso / vanilla ice cream while my wife went with the choppedtartlet. It’s not the best Italian foodat sea, but if you sit out on the Waterfront, it’s a nice date night on theship.

Moderno(Lunch):

On some seadays, Moderno is open for lunch as another complimentary option and we tookadvantage of that offering. Now this hadan AMAZING salad bar with so many Mediterranean options along with selectionsof meat and fish. It was an absolutelylovely lunch and did show that the buffet upstairs could have a really goodsalad bar if it wanted to. Thespanakopita was not that great though, it wasn’t crispy and the tiny omelettethings were a bit weird. Like they hadflour in them for some reason. But thefish was good and the meats looked good. We never got around to trying the meats because were full by thatpoint. My wife did enjoy the ricepudding though. We did notice that onthe second full day at sea, Moderno offered an Indian inspired lunch.

O’Sheehans:

We didO’Sheehans during Embarkation because the aforementioned really small buffetwas impenetrable. I went with the fishand chips, which had decent fish. Thechips were so-so French fries. My wifewent with the Caesar salad with salmon and said it was decent enough. As the ship’s only 24-hour food option,expect basic pub / American bar food. Nothing fantastic, but will do the job if you’re hungry. We didthink about breakfast here one morning, but the menu was extremely limited anddidn’t really have anything we wanted. It’s basically omelettes, French toast orpancakes.

Margaritaville:(breakfast)

Margaritavilleis a great alternative to the buffet for breakfast on the days its open. It’s a smaller version of the buffet and whenwe went on the morning of the Costa Maya stop, there were no lines and theplace was only about ¼ full. Eggs, madeto order omelets, sides, and such, just without all the lines from the buffet.Just walk in and seat yourself.

Savor /Taste: (breakfast)

These arethe same menus as the main Tropicana Dining Room, but offered as two smallerdining rooms. I will say this concept isone that confused us. You have two nicedining rooms, why not offer something unique in each space? We had breakfast here one day (honestly don’teven remember which one) and it was exactly the same food and quality as thebuffet. That was disappointing. I figured the food would be more cooked toorder, particularly since these restaurants are nearly as busy as thebuffet. But the eggs benedict was thesame bland version served on the buffet on a non-toasted English muffin. The ‘country potatoes’ were exactly same asthe buffet as were my wife’s ‘hash browns’ which could have been served at anyfast food restaurant. Generally when youeat in the main dining room for breakfast the food is a bit better because it’scooked fresh to order. At least the eggelements. Here it didn’t appear as theydid that so there’s really no reason to go into one of these restaurants forbreakfast….. except you don’t have to fight the ravenous hordes in thebuffet.

TropicanaDining Room:

This was apretty unique main dining room of the ships we’ve sailed, especially with thelive music feature. At 6pm the “Burnthe Floor” dancers are often out there putting on a short show of latin danceswith the live band. After that the bandplay regular sets throughout dinner and there is a pretty good sized dancefloor if you’re inspired to get up and dance.

As for thefood, it was pretty good. Wife had a friedmozzarella that was terrible, flavorless. She also had a tomato salad that was pretty good. Hermain entrée of linguine with ‘prawns’ was just ok. They were small shrimp, nowhere nearprawns. The sauce was a bit salty and itneeded a bit more flavor, but edible. Istarted with the Caesar salad and again, the dressing was devoid offlavor. Not sure how they do that, butthe grilled chicken in the salad was quite good. My grilled salmon was great as was the bed ofpureed asparagus it rested on. Again, alittle heavy on the salt, but a very good piece of salmon especially given howmany meals they have to prepare in the main dining room.

For dessertmy wife went with the snickerdoodle cake which just tasted like a regularyellow cake.

ShanghaiNoodle Bar:

Fun concept,we were able to get in here after “Burn The Floor” on the first sea day. You’re seated family style at high topcounters. We went with Udon Noodles,Shrimp Fried Rice and Shanghai noodles (as my wife does not eat meat, they wereable to do it with just shrimp and leave out the pork). Food was pretty good. Not the best noodles we’ve had but we didenjoy the meal and especially the service. Great concept and a good quick dinner. This would be even better if they kept it open as a late nightoption. I would much prefer to come hereat midnight for a late-night snack vs. the buffet.

Wasabi:

We ate herefor lunch our final sea day and found it to be some of the best sushi we’ve hadat sea. We liked being able to watch thechefs prepare the rolls. My wife had aspider roll and rock n roll and both were great. I went with the Tuna roll and the Surf andTurf roll. Both were good, though thetuna roll was better. It had a lot moreheat in the spice than I was expecting, but it was so good. If you’re a fan of sushi, definitely worth ameal.

Entertainment:

Entertainmenton Getaway is some of the best atsea, at least of the six cruise lines we’ve been on. And the variety of venues and types of showseach evening is the best of any cruise line so far. I will note that my wife and I both noticedthat the audio mixes were always ‘muddy’ no matter the venue. That is, the vocals never stood out from themusic. They were always, what we call inthe industry, buried in the mix. Usuallyfor live performances the singer’s voice is pronounced from the music, but nomatter which venue we saw a show, the singer’s voices were buried in themusic. We work in the entertainmentindustry so it’s something we both noticed.

Burn theFloor:

A highenergy show that doesn’t try to be anything other than a great celebration ofLatin inspired dance. The use of livepercussion to augment that recorded music was a great touch and infused thetheater with more energy. The stagingand dancing were great though they did stack a few slow numbers in the lattersegment that could have been split a little more throughout the show. Easily the best-looking dance troupe at sea,both male and female. They genuinelylooked like they were enjoying themselves out there and it’s a one of the best‘original productions’ we’ve seen on any cruise line. Just a really enjoyable 1 hour ofentertainment.

CirqueDreams and Steam: (with Vegetarian option)

What a funshow. HIGHLY recommend spending theextra money for the floor seats so you can see everything, some of the acts areaerial and if you’re sitting back in the banquet seats you probably won’t beable to see all the aerial acts due to the design of the theater ceiling. We arrived at the theater about 8pm for the8:30 show and the line had about 25 people in it when we showed up. About 8:15 they opened the doors and startedseating everyone and we ended up sitting center of the floor right next to thestage. Dinner was actually better thanwe expected, considering they were making so many of the same meal for a largegroup. My wife went with the vegetarianoption which was a caprese salad and then spinach cannelloni for the maincourse. I had the caprese salad withprosciutto and the surf and turf meal. Iwas pleasantly surprised by the cook on the steak, it was flavorful and tender,perfect medium rare. My wife enjoyedthe vegetarian meal and we both enjoyed the desserts. During dinner a few of the performers willcome out with elaborate costumes to pose for photos. The show itself was a lot of fun, kind oflike a series of a circus side show acts, but much more high end. The closeness of the acts really added to thefun of the show. The show itself isabout an hour and the dinner is another hour, so it’s about a 2-hour event. We felt it was worth the cost and arrivingat 8pm was perfect in terms of getting a good seat.

MillionDollar Quartet:

So muchfun. Inspired by a real jam session thathappened at the legendary Sun Records in Memphis, you spend 90 minutes with JerryLee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Elvis. It’s a lot of fun with Jerry Lee providing many great comedicmoments. The cast we saw was very goodand as they say in the opening statement, ‘they’re not faking it,’ all theactors play instruments and sing live. Well worth the time to take in the show.

Howl at theMoon dueling pianos:

Really funshow and the show we saw also had a drum kit set up so they can switch off tothat and they also brought out one of those electric piano / guitar instrumentstoo. You don’t have to throw money atthe singers to get them to play your songs, but they will play the songs a bitsooner if you do offer them a tip. It’sreally loud for a small venue so if you have sensitive ears at all, wear earplugs. A really fun way to start or endan evening.

Karaoke: (atFat Cats)

This washighly amusing because we happened to catch a show with an extremely drunkwoman who almost managed to take out the screen on stage. She was trying to dance to New York, New Yorkwhen she went over backwards into the screen. But as a Karaoke bar, great space, great energy from the crowd andanother fun way to spend an evening. VERY crowded the night we were there and we literally had to squeeze ourway out the door.

HeadlinersComedy Club:

There’s nofee to attend, but they do recommend making reservations at the BoxOffice. If you don’t have a reservationthey make you wait till 10 or 15 minutes before showtime and then they’ll letyou in. 7 and 9pm are family friendlyshows with the 11pm show being adult only. We caught the 11pm show the first night and will say that when theyopened the door to ‘standby’ people, there was still over 50% of the seatingopen. Comedian was awesome, truly funnyand managed the uber drunk guy in the 4th row brilliantly withoutdegrading the show. It’s a great venueand at least based on the show we saw, seems like they book solid acts. I will note that as the week went on, it washarder and harder to get standby seats unless you were there when the doorsopened to standby.

GetawayTechnical Talk:

Wheneverthere is a presentation by the Captain of the vessel, I try to attend them asthey are often an enjoyable look behind the scenes on the operation of theship. For some reason on Getaway the Cruise Director gave thefirst 30 minutes of presentation covering many areas he even admitted he didn’tknow. He was just reading off the slidesand showing videos. But then the captainand chief engineer joined the conversation and they were quite amusing. Each putting down what the other does in afunny way while dispensing great insights on what they do and the operation of Getaway.

Medical Services:

After 10cruises we finally had a need to use the medical services on board. There was a wet spot on the floor of theGarden Café and unfortunately my wife stepped in that spot and went downhard. The staff immediately came to helpand soon a wheelchair was provided to get my wife down to the Medical Center. We were impressed with the quality of the medicalcenter and the staff. They wereextremely friendly, immediately took an X-Ray of her ankle which thankfully didnot show any fractures. She ended upwith a bad sprain which necessitated her keeping her ankle raised and we endedup cancelling all our excursions from Belize forward. Asecurity personnel came to interview both of us to do an investigation into thefall and had me escort her up to area where the fall happened. It’s an unfortunate situation that could havebeen prevented. But we are thankful tothe medical crew for being so quick and helpful with the situation. The injury did cause us to cancel ourexcursions at the next 3 ports, but we didn’t let it ruin our vacation. We just hung onboard and relaxed near thepools, H20 and Waterfront which were all quiet with folks on shore.

Disembarkation / End of Cruise:

As firsttime NCL cruisers, we were expecting some sort of notification with the Day 7Freestyle Daily on Miami Disembarkation information and our luggage tags fordisembarkation. It was later, aftercalling Guest Services, that we discovered disembarkation is essentially ‘do ityourself.’

You go downto Guest Services where to the right of the desk, is a TV monitor with thecolored luggage tags underneath. Themonitor displays the various exit times from the ship and you simply choose thecolored luggage tag that corresponds with the time you want to leave. As we had an afternoon flight, we chose thelatest time offered, 9:45am disembarkation. On our cruise, we had until 11pmon the final sea day to put our bags outside the room for pickup. Theluggage tags were available the 6th and 7th day of ourcruise.

Breakfastwas served in the Buffet till 9:00am so we hung out here until our group wascalled. I will say they were callingexit group colors earlier than scheduled. Up to 30 minutes earlier. We got called off the ship at 9:30 and foundanother long, double backed line waiting for us on Deck 7. Then one of the security computers broke aswe were one of the next to exit so we had to switch back to the other line. Not horrible, but disembarkation on the lastday is always a cluster.

Best pieceof advice I can give you is to always get a baggage porter when you get down tobaggage claim. Totally worth the tip tohave them take your baggage for you, you cut through the long line of peoplewaiting to get through customs and they deliver your bags directly to where youwant to go. Much better than trudgingyour own luggage through the lines, outside and wherever. We tip $5 per bag and are always happy to doso.

Comparing NCL to others.

As Imentioned at the top of this review, we have sailed Disney, Royal Caribbean,Princess, Holland-America and Celebrity cruise lines prior to sailing on the Getaway. In a nutshell, here’s how we feel NCL Getaway compares to those other lines.

Dining:Middle of the road. More dining options thanany other ship we’ve sailed but that doesn’t necessarily mean better. Seafood is a strong suit on this ship,except scallops, and the buffet is quite weak. Of the cruises we’ve taken Disney has the best food at sea followedclosely by Celebrity and Princess. Thesingle best meal we’ve ever had at sea was at Remy on the Disney Fantasy. The best buffet is a tossup between Princess,Disney and Celebrity.

Drinks:Drinks were consistently good on NCL. The bars by the pool make the fastest, weakest drinks, which is normalbecause they are just trying to get you back to the pool. But the rest of the bars were allconsistently good at making whatever drink we requested. Our favorite was the Sugercane MojitoBar. The single best bar we’ve visited atsea is the World Class Bar aboard the Celebrity ships.

Pools: I’vealready mentioned the lack of dedicated, separate adult pool on the Breakawayclass. There is really just one pool foradults to use, the main party pool. Theother pool is the kiddie section. Thereis also a waterfall feature in the Spice H20 that will get you wet. I don’t count The Haven because that’s acompletely separate category not open to everyone. The best pools for us have been the rear poolon the Caribbean Princess which islike an infinity pool when you are in it, a clear view straight out the back ofthe ship. The Celebrity Silhouette Class has the best overall adult pool sanctuary area.

Shade: Getaway had the least amount of outdoorshade of any ship we’ve sailed recently, it’s basically one big sun deck. Celebrity SilhouetteClass has the most outdoor shade with numerous overhead canopies even onthe upper sun decks. Holland-America Nieuw-Amsterdam has the best cabanasetup of any ship we’ve sailed, plenty of shade and private lounging area.

Entertainment:Getaway has the best and most variedoptions for entertainment, both in terms of types of shows and the amount ofvenues, of any ship we’ve sailed. Nomatter what you are into, you’ll find it every night aboard the Getaway. Princess has the best stage shows and performers of the other cruiselines we’ve sailed.

Cleanliness:I added this because it’s something that got progressively more noticeable asthe cruise went on. The public restroomswere dirtier than any other ship we’ve been on. The men’s room on 8 Aft had a very bad odor for the entire trip and wenoticed that toilet paper and paper towels were often strewn in the rooms. The bathrooms had a very unkempt look aboutthem often. They also had the worstpaper towel dispensers and paper towels. Super thin paper towels that required three or four to actually get yourhands dry.

All in allthought, a very enjoyable trip and if you have plans to sail the Getaway you will definitely have a goodtime. The quality of the entertainmentalone assures you’ll have a good time. Forus, we’ll continue with ships that have the dedicated adult ‘sanctuary’ areawith a pool.

Destinations / Excursions

Disembarkationat port was a bit nutty. I’ve never seena line stretch all the way through one deck and double back on itself just toget off the ship. At Roatan, Hondurasthat’s what we discovered as we prepared to leave the ship and were directedtowards the Atrium area. Getaway had everyone get off ‘generaladmission’ and only had one point of exit set up in the front of the ship. Apparently, the Getaway doesn’t queueshipboard excursions in the theater like most other cruise lines do. Usually there are two points of exit in thefront and rear of the ship. Front is setup for guests with shipboard excursions booked while the back is set up foreveryone else to just get off. Getawayjust had everyone get off in one large queue and you found your shipboardexcursion out on the pier. We arrivedat the queue about 15 minutes after the announcement was made to go ashore andfound that crazy, double-backed line. Iwill say that the line moved and we got off the ship in about 10 minutes.

Roatan,Honduras:

We booked aprivate tour through Victor Bodden tours. They are highly rated on multiple travel sites and we found them to beabsolutely fantastic. My wife booked aprivate driver who was literally at our beck and call for as long as we wanted,to take us anywhere on the island for a flat rate. She had also pre-booked a stop at the VictorBodden Canopy Tour which included ziplining. Our driver was a great local gentleman who gave us a leisurely drive tothe canopy tour while filling us in on some of the sights and history of theisland. We had a great chat aboutfamily, beaches and barbeque. Once atthe Canopy Tour we went straight to the ziplining. This was a great zipline experience, goodscenery, long zip runs and great guides who were encouraging folks to go upsidedown and do other tricks. The guideswere also great with assisting me with my helmet mounted GoPro camera, ensuringit was correctly attached to the helmet. After the ziplining we went through the monkey and wild animalexhibits. We actually got to go in andmeet Michael and Michele, two capuchin monkeys who enjoyed jumping all over usand trying to open my wife’s water bottle. That was quite fun. The rest ofthe exhibit was looking through the rest of the various animals you might findin Honduras. My wife also got to hold asloth, she loves those things. Afterthat we met our driver and as it was getting hot, we asked that he just workour way back to the ship. He took usanother leisurely way where we ended up in a great chat about baseball, as bothof us played in our younger years. All in all, HIGHLY recommend Victor Boddentours if you’re looking for something independent of the ship tours. I will note that you will be doing threeseparate tips for the driver, zipline guides and the monkey guide.

HarvestCaye:

We weresupposed to rent an electric boat here but then my wife sprained her ankle on awet spot in the Garden Café so we ended up just hanging on the Getaway.

Costa Maya:

This stopwas actually the entire reason we booked this ship, this itinerary. We had a booked a tour of the Dzibanche Ruinsindependently with The Native Choice tours, but again, my wife’s sprained anklecaused us to cancel that tour. NCL doesnot offer a tour to Dzibanche but it is one of the only Mayan ruins where youcan still walk up the temple steps. That’s why we were drawn to book this one. I will mention that The Native Choicerefunded our tour despite us notifying them the day before we were to arrive sowe will definitely choose to use that tour company again on our next visit toCosta Maya.

I’ll notethat Costa Maya was a big ‘stay on the ship’ day on our cruise with the onboardpools, buffet and other public areas being quite busy for a port day.

Cozumel:

We hadoriginally booked a beach day at Nachi Cocomen resort. While my wife’s ankle was feeling better whenwe reached this port, we decided to cancel anyway instead of taking a chance ofher twisting or injuring it again with walking. We did lose a non-refundabledeposit which we knew before cancelling, however they did not charge us forbalance of the resort fee.

great review, thank you!

Sorry all the words are running together. This was a copy and paste from an MS Word document. Cruise Critic won't allow me to fix the review after 30 minutes elapses.

Thank you for your review. We're sailing on this itinerary June 10th. We were supposed to go to Eastern Caribbean, but it was changed to this. We've sailed 3 times prior and ONLY on Celebrity and ONLY in Aqua Class. I have a feeling we'll be disappointed in the food on this ship. Aqua class food is awesome, but was too repetitive after 3 cruises. Our friends booked this cruise and we booked a few months later, so we probably would not have picked NCL as our first "other" cruise. We probably would have picked RCC. We don't drink alcohol, so I'm not concerned with that. I only wish NCL was a "coke" cruise, instead of pepsi. Sucks about having to pay for coffee/water. I did write to their "access" desk and I got permission to bring my sugar free lemonade and sugar free coffee syrup with me. We're pool people, so that part of your review was sad to hear. We have upgrade bids for Haven( our friends are booked in Haven, we're booked in an AFT balcony). If we get it, good, if not, Oh well. We might spring for a cabana for the cruise.

A note about Cleanliness: I was super impressed with the cleanliness on Celebrity. I never spotted one dirty or questionable area. The restrooms were always impeccably clean.

Excellent review! We have sailed on the Getaway before and are booked agin for this summer.

A note about Cleanliness: I was super impressed with the cleanliness on Celebrity. I never spotted one dirty or questionable area. The restrooms were always impeccably clean.

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Thanks for your review, enjoyed it.

Like you, I enjoy the Teppanyaki restaurant and eat there a number of times per cruise.

The first time I sailed on NCL, I kept waiting for my luggage tags and when they never arrived went to Guest Services and they told me what the MO was.

Thanks for your review, enjoyed it.

 

Like you, I enjoy the Teppanyaki restaurant and eat there a number of times per cruise.

 

The first time I sailed on NCL, I kept waiting for my luggage tags and when they never arrived went to Guest Services and they told me what the MO was.

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Thanks for your review!

Our last three cruises were Celebrity. Silhouette, Reflection and Equinox. Silhouette was our favorite. As for the food, you'll see what we liked and plan accordingly. The buffet is the most disappointing but you be able to find good.meals throughout. You will probably enjoy the entertainment more on Getaway, we did. We just don't see the value in Haven. We can take 2 or 3 cruises in balcony room for the cost of Haven. That's why we didn't book one and don't plant to if we sail NCL again.

 

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I thought the buffet on Celebrity was good. I did get sick of it after a few days. I've had weight loss surgery 4yrs ago, so food is not something I really look forward to anymore. I get really full after a small portion. Basically, I eat to live and not live to eat anymore. As long as I can find something halfway decent, I'm good. We are booked into the dinner show, I do eat fish/chicken but no meat. I might request the vegetarian option since I don't think I'd enjoy fried shrimp( I would want them grilled).

We have been on the Getaway twice. The last time my husband got a nasty sinus infection and had to use the medical center. I was very impressed how clean and how friendly they are.

I do like the waterfront features on the Getaway.

Loved your review.

I thought the buffet on Celebrity was good. I did get sick of it after a few days. I've had weight loss surgery 4yrs ago, so food is not something I really look forward to anymore. I get really full after a small portion. Basically, I eat to live and not live to eat anymore. As long as I can find something halfway decent, I'm good. We are booked into the dinner show, I do eat fish/chicken but no meat. I might request the vegetarian option since I don't think I'd enjoy fried shrimp( I would want them grilled).

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We have been on the Getaway twice. The last time my husband got a nasty sinus infection and had to use the medical center. I was very impressed how clean and how friendly they are.

 

I do like the waterfront features on the Getaway.

 

Loved your review.

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Thanks for your thorough review. We look forward to our time on board in October.

Maybe I missed the reason, but why did you post frowney faces in the dining headers since it seemed like you enjoyed the meals?

Thanks for your thorough review. We look forward to our time on board in October.

 

Maybe I missed the reason, but why did you post frowney faces in the dining headers since it seemed like you enjoyed the meals?

That's Cruise Critic making automatic emojis from the text. They're actually colon and parenthesis as in Restaurant name colon parenthesis. But Cruise Critic's forum tool apparently automatically made the colon / perenthesis into Emojis and I could not correct everything in the 30 minutes I was allowed to make edits. That's also why you see so many words running together. I typed it all in MS Word and then did a Copy / Paste. For some reason, this forum tool removed all the spacing and made emojis where I didn't have them.

That's Cruise Critic making automatic emojis from the text. They're actually colon and parenthesis as in Restaurant name colon parenthesis. But Cruise Critic's forum tool apparently automatically made the colon / perenthesis into Emojis and I could not correct everything in the 30 minutes I was allowed to make edits. That's also why you see so many words running together. I typed it all in MS Word and then did a Copy / Paste. For some reason, this forum tool removed all the spacing and made emojis where I didn't have them.

Good to know! I thought something was wrong with you. Lol! Didn't want to be rude and ask. Great review!

Good to know! I thought something was wrong with you. Lol! Didn't want to be rude and ask. Great review!

OP - I didn't think there was anything wrong with you! Thanks for the clarification.

OP - I didn't think there was anything wrong with you! Thanks for the clarification.

Oh my wife could list many things that are wrong with me. But that's another thread..... :)

Wow, wow, wow! Thanks for an exceptional review! Nominate you for review of the week.

OP - I didn't think there was anything wrong with you! Thanks for the clarification.

Suck up.

Wow, wow, wow! Thanks for an exceptional review! Nominate you for review of the week.

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Thank you for the very informative review. Could you tell me... Did your angled balcony have enough room for a lounger. I assume they come with the usual two chairs and small table?

Thank you for the very informative review. Could you tell me... Did your angled balcony have enough room for a lounger. I assume they come with the usual two chairs and small table?

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Outstanding, very detailed review, thanks much! Enjoyed the comparisons to other lines.