Getaway Nov 26 Dec 3 B2B no photos

Our background. We are from MInnesota and been retired for over six years. We have cruised a fair amount although nothing compared to many on this board. This back to back is number 2 and 3 on Norwegian but we have done Royal Caribbean (1), Princess (2), Holland America (1), and Carnival (22) (number 23 Panama Canal in January) Our experience was that Princess was fine and we enjoyed them very much. Holland America was a little ritzy for folks from in the middle of no where Minnesota, the pizza questionable, smoked duck pizza, really? Also we felt we could fire a cannon from one end of the ship to the other after 9 PM and not worry about anyone getting hurt. We felt Royal Caribbean were the snootiest passengers we have ever encountered. The 15 day cruise we were on the made it clear in one lounge that with so many Diamond and Diamond Plus more lounges should be exclusive for them. They said it very loud and clear for us to hear. They also seemed the neediest and certainly treated the crew members as such. I was disappointed in that aspect. Beautiful ship and great crew but the passengers were awful. A fun story from Princess. Many folks say Carnival is a party ship full of drunks. One evening we were walking through the casino where the marble sidewalks merge together. One old guy on a scooter comes from the right, another on a scooter from the left and they collide. Both start hollering at each other, one backs up a bit and hits forward and rams the other scooter. The other guy backs up and rams the first one ll the while hollering at each other. After a bit someone separated them and sent them on their way. I am still tickled with that story. I should also add that I think I saw a lot more heavy drinking and inebriated people on the Dec 3rd cruise on Norwegian than any cruise we have taken.

Flight. We had a 7 AM Sun Country flight from Minneapolis terminal 2. The Saturday after Thanksgiving so the radio said be there two hours before flight time. We left around 3 and arrived by 5 AM. There was hardly anyone in the place and Sun Country had a ton of counter people there. We sailed right through check in and were so early the TSA greeters were still in a good mood. Sailed right on through them too. Now, this was a three hour direct flight to Miami. Some observations on the flight. The beverage service had managed to get one swallow glasses along with the flight attendants apparently spent a week of flight attendant school learning hot to get 8 or more servings from a 12 oz. an. If so ours were valedictorians of their class. One other little thing. If you think you may want so much a a pretzel, bring your own. So, after a mere 3 hours wedged into a seat that is 2 inches narrower than my seat, but made up for with leg space 2 inches shorter than my legs, we arrived in Miami.

Miami airport.We have flown in and out of Miami airport many times. It has to handle millions of travelers and they have the signage and layout nailed for arriving travelers. Part of it could be that after 3 hours on an airplane, a dungeon with no signs and guys with a whip would seem kind of nice. We found bag claim with no problem but that huge sip of cola had done its job, a mens room was needed. Now we were there just over a year ago and the mens room down there was out of order. Apparently they didn't get around to it yet. The only place open was the handicap stall and a line of guys waiting and trying to look brave. Some were probably fine, some probably concerned, ans some of us were showing some dance moves. Our bags arrived in good shape. It is always comforting to see the 3 bags with "Fire Line do Not Cross" yellow tape come down the chute. A phobia we got when we were in London and our bags were in Iceland. We had to go up one level to catch our hotel shuttle. The light did not come on at the elevator so we opted for the escalator. Thee bags. The wife said if I could do the big one, she could take the 2 little ones. I grabbed the big one, went up the escalator and set my bag to the side to grab hers when she got to the top. When I turned around I see the 2 bags coming up as the Wife goes over backward and I see her head bounce on the floor twice. I run down the up escalator, blocked by 2 bags, grab them and toss them up and turn to go back to her. I see the bottom of the shoes facing up, someone hollering "help, help" and the escalator stopped. Some gut appeared behind her and grabbed under her arms to help her up and some guy extended his hand over from the stairway and helped her up.Just as her got vertical I got there and we helped her up the steps One eye was spinning clockwise and one counter clockwise. Airport people were coming from every where. I have no idea where they all were but kudos to MIA for the response. It was incredible. She cleared he head a bit and refused any medical assistance. Now I have to tell you that as perfect as the airport people were, I can't say much for the officers in brown suits. Some guy in a suit with a radio from the airport saw two of them off to the side and asked them to check and see if she should do a report. The one in the cart said he was on his way to someplace else and the one leaning on the cart said he had something to do. Both declined to help.I went back to the Wife and she said she was fine so we gathered our stuff to go find a shuttle. They a smaller brown suit guy came over and aked if we were OK. She said yes, she was fine but the 2 original guys were still sitting there chatting. She had a goose egg on the back of her haed, a bunch of bruises and scrapes on her back but she came out of it.

Hotel. We stayed ar a Radisson They say the shuttle come around every hour but we must have missed it so we sat outside just over an hour. We were fine, she was still reeling a but and it felt good to be out of the aiplane seat so we waited. When it got thereI gotta tell you if you are looking for personality and friendly you are going to be disappointed. This guy had nothing. Usually they are over the top friendly, better for tips I am sure. He got there safe and sound and the lady at the desk was his exact opposite. She was very outgoing and nice. The lobby looked nice and clean. There was a McDonalds on one side and a sports bar on the other so food was nearby.The lady got us processed in and gave directions to our room. The directions were like "go down that hallway several miles, turn left then right then right and you are there" Holy Buckets. Found the room and recalled reading someplace "spacious rooms". Horse feathers. It had a king bed with a very very naarrow little space along each side. A Very narrow space at the foot of the bed and a monster TV on a stand. There were two chairs designed by someone with a sadistic sense of humor. You could not possibly sit in eityher one very long without pain. Almost made the airplane chair seem comfy. I tried to watch football on TV but it was so big and you had to sit on the foot of the bed to avoid the chairs but it was tough. Too close and too bid. Reminded me of going to the movies as a kid and sitting in the front row and so you cannot see everything.The3 bathroom was small but clean and had a huge nice shower. All in all it all worked out fine, the bed was fine and we got a good nights sleep. Woke up a few times to see if she was still breathing and back asleep.The hotel offered a complimentary breakfast so I got up, walked the few short miles to the lobby for coffee and read the paper. No paper but had some coffee and learned how people take advantage of the food. It was unbelievable. Two ladies came in and each had 2 humoungous plates each, then each took another plated and stacked five doughnuts apiece and strolled out. My goodness, shortly back, another load a seemed fine with it. The hotel had a private firm offer a ship shuttle for $10. The people there were as friendly and efficiant and one could ever hope for.

Cruise.We had a 10:30 check in. When we got there we had almost no one ahead in line. We almost walked right through and up to the desk to get out cards etc. One of the best check ins we have ever had. There was quite a wait but what do you expect when you get there at 10:30 and they said boarding would start at noon. No problem here. I gotta tell you we did Norwegian 10 years or so ago and did not care for it. We prefer fixed time dining and the feel the entire trip just felt out of synch or something. Anyway, a month or so before the trip I was on the NCL website just goofing off over AM coffee and found a couple cruises that looked interesting, back to back. People have been telling us to try it again so we were comfortable with that part. Well, after looking a couple times the phone rang and it was a PVP from Norwegian asking if we were interested in any cruises. The pricing I had on line was pretty attarctive but I told the guy to see what he could do on the two of them. He shot me a number that was better than what I had so we went ahead and booked although we had not planned or budgeted to do so. We were excited to try NCL again. So much of each cruise is subjective to each individual so as I recite our Norwegian experience you should keep in mind most things can be critical, comment or condem so here is what we found our experience to be. Norwegian Getaway has good bone, it is a big big ship but laid out and set up to handle it well. I have been on smaller boats that have fewer people but felt much more crowded. They have coffee in a lot of areas in the morning. I found it outside on deck 8, in the library and atrium. I thgought all that was very nice. There are a lot of food venues. Besides the buffett and Taste and Savor at noon there was O'Sheehans and they had an offering in Moderno open for one and all.The Wife loved the chocolate croissants and every morningI would get her two while I had my coffee. They have the juices open all day with a couple offerings.We tried O'Sheehans a few times and were disappointed. The nacos had nothing on them. We are used to lots of toppings and these were tortilla chips like from CostCo which are just fine but only had a little gob of cheese whiz looking stuff, a dollop of sour cream and a few jalapinos. Tried a hot dog and the meat was good but the bun was so dry it literally fell apart on the plate and I tried wings with texas souce. I have been to Texas lots of times and this is not it. If I was Texas I would sue to get my name off it. Again little things to fix. We found it a little hard to find public areas to sit and visit with passing people. We like to sit on the Promonade deck on Carnival and we found it a little more difficult on the Getaway.The Wife thought she remembered lots of cold soups on NCL before and never really saw them. Gotta tell tou the entire staff in Taste or off the charts excellentWe enjoyed them day after day and were inpressed with Asst. Matre'D Edzel. They are just plain good. Actually we found nearly all the crew to go way out of their was to be nice and friendly. A few exceptions but that is to be expected.One thing we enjoyed is almost every morning a couple ladies came through the dining venues with a tray of pastry sample and singing little dittys. Really for fun little thing done well. After two weeks they recognized us and came over to say high. Thay called themselves "The Rooster of the Morning" Still not a big fan of anytime dining. We lioke to meet the same people every evening and we have made many friends we continue to keep in touch with. We worked through it but not the biggest fan.We did discover that there is no coin laundry.this could be kind of a deal breaker to do another back to back. We saw the laundry prices and said no way and I heard there was a sale for laundry but we never saw it either week. Our roon ran out of TP, she told our room guy and called guest services. Finallly we just took one off a service cart in the hallwa. I had emailed ahead for a cord and water for her C-pap. It was confirmed to be there but neither was. Our room guy got the cord but not the water, called guest services and they said they would get it there. Late the next day it showed up. On the seconf week it was in the room when we moved in.There is a nice albeit small library on board. We used that a lot as 2 weeks of books gets heavy and my reader fizzled out. The theater chairs are the worst ever. Who designs these and who buys them. I say sit in them for a while. NCL has no Vets program. I am proud to be a Vet and we have gotten spoiled by the programs we have seen on Carnival and Princess. This was a few words in the paper and unsupervised.Regarding shows. We attended four comedy acts and found them lacking. I want someone to get up and tell some jokes etc. The ones we saw mostly started a dialog with the kids in fromt and went with it. We did not even go any more and when asked I told others what I thought of it. Burn the Floor was high energy but not my cup of tea. Others raved but we never went back. Million Dollar Quartet was excellent. We went bth weeks. They guy that plays Johnny Cash would come into the library and read. After a while we struck up a conversation to the extent that if he saw me somewhere he would come over and visit. A very nice young man.All in all a hood trip, the biggest thing is the laundry and Vets program

Getting off. We were kind of casual about disembarkation as we went to the airport, rented a car and drove over to Marco Island for a few days. Norwegian got us off in good shape but there was a long backup at customs guys.

Flight home. Delta, the D stand for delayed. Tried the check in kiosk and it said delayed and did not want to help us any further. We opted to go to the desk where a lady was angry. She told us we have to use the check in machine, I said we tried but it did not want to help us. She said "I will help this time but no more" then she checked and said your flight is delayed and you may miss your connection in Detroit. After that she ran off the boarding passes for the Miami to Detroit leg, grumbled and waved for the next people. Got to our gate, aked the lady there and she said the first lady should have done both passes so she did them for us. They got us in the air late but got to Detroit as they were boarding and we made it home

Disclaimer. These are our observations and opinions. We would do Norwegian again, not a two weeker without a washing machine but would certainly look at them again if price etcall fell in line.

Thanks for the review.

Thank-you for the extensive and very enjoyable report.

Excellent writeup. Thank you for taking the time to write this.

Keith