Getaway Inaugural Sailing quickie review

[hammsz]

Cruise was perfection.

 

Embarkation: Record Speed

 

Disembarkation: Record Speed

 

Breakfast: Dining rooms a little slow service, food perfect (you have to ask for the muffins) Garden cafe is expansive and has plenty of hand washing stations

 

Lunch: Many great places to eat fast and great taste, hundreds of choices in the largest garden cafe

 

Dinner: Unlimited places to eat, make reservations for specialty restaurants early, last night all the boards were in the red, teppenyaki has about 8 tables and still sells out, the dining outside is incredibly cool yet windy when sailing at 20 knots

 

Sports: Rock climbing wall is really fun, ropes course is tough to accomplish but there are easier sections with a simple 2X4 to walk across, very windy yet safe, cameras take pics of the short ride on the zip line and the plank was the best thing ever. Basketball court has a high net so your 3 pt shots have room to arc

 

Water Park: 5 awesome slides, I rode them all 200+ times, weight limit on the drop slides is 99 pounds-300 pounds. Kid park is cool for toddlers up to 5, pools are large, plenty of hot tubs

 

Shows: Legally Blonde was awesome! Must see get reservations, Illusionarium was about the most incredible show ever at sea, get there an hour early! Great up front seats are a MUST. There are 5 incredible magicians that are Lance Burton quality. Didnt see burn the floor sorry.

 

Casino: Elegant and the largest Ive ever seen, texas hold em game vs other players is on a waitlist every night. All players i witnessed lost a ton of money in an overall perspective over the 7 days. Dont play the 1 dollar key game its a guaranteed loser. 20-30 table games busy, at most times. Very advanced and high tech games everywhere. Only games i saw people winning anything were craps and roulette. Smoking allowed, lots of penny slots

 

Stateroom: New, plush carpeting, nice TV, balcony a little small but plenty of room for 2 chairs and little table for standard balcony, Bathroom lots of shelving and toilet flush sound is a little more muffled

 

Parties: Glow was so much fun dont miss it, the 80s night party was in my opinion the greatest show hands down, its on the back of the ship outdoors, music loud and videos playing with the music of Poison, def leppard, springsteen, jackson, 100s of other tunes. the Bliss night club was a ghost town at all times, i think the avg age was a little high for people to dance until 2am

 

Cruise Director: Julie made the cruise what it was! Best CD in the entire fleet. Shes so much fun and danced 24/7, shes a great speaker and incredibly knowledgeable.

 

Things not to miss: Grammy experience, Illusionarium show includes dinner folks filet minion

 

Secrets/cool stuff: Flavored water/lemonades available everywhere, touch screens all over the ship complete with things to do, reservations, map it and tells you how to get anywhere, key card lights up the rooms

high tech TV in stateroom that you can watch movies, check balance, etc, book excursions, elevators confusing to some people cuz there was only 2 banks of 8 each and during first day it took a while to get one.

 

Please ask any questions i will answer as fast as possible. I didnt hit on everything.

[meatball_nyc]

Very cool! Thanks for the review!! What room did you stay in?

 

*edited to add: there are a ton of people on here who will be asking you a ton of questions!

 

Happy Cruising :)

 

 

Robin

Norwegian Breakaway July 2014

Carnival Miracle 2010

Carnival Legend 2006

Edited February 17, 2014 by meatball_nyc

[hammsz]

11738

[pwppaul]

Just trying to find out when they are serving lobster in the main dining room on the Getaway?

Also what is a pub crawl?

 

THANK YOU !

[LrgPizza]

Thanks for the info! Great review.

 

How much did Illusionarium cost? There is a discrepancy in some posts today.

 

Was the wait long for the water slides and rope course?

 

We plan to hang in O'Sheehan's quite a bit. Did you frequent there, and was it generally packed or easy to find seating?

 

Thanks!

[PACRUISINNANA]

Thank you for your review. Enjoyed reading it.

[hammsz]

Just trying to find out when they are serving lobster in the main dining room on the Getaway?

Also what is a pub crawl?

 

THANK YOU !

 

there wasnt lobster in the main dining room i was told it was up in the garden cafe on the second day. I was very confused here, there was an amazing abundance of outstanding dinner choices in the main dining room. dont remember ever seeing a pub crawl, but the ice bar was really cool, you had to pay 20/pp but included 2 martinis

Edited February 17, 2014 by hammsz
added info

[hammsz]

Thanks for the info! Great review.

 

How much did Illusionarium cost? There is a discrepancy in some posts today.

 

Was the wait long for the water slides and rope course?

 

We plan to hang in O'Sheehan's quite a bit. Did you frequent there, and was it generally packed or easy to find seating?

 

Thanks!

 

The illusionarium was 30/pp premium 25/pp in the waaay back. 20% discount on first night

there was never a line for ropes course (due to the older crowd on ship) lines for the slides were empty the first day, and short the rest of time. There were some problems with the drop slides malfuntioning thinking someone was still in the slide so the line was up to 5 mins for an 8 second ride

Osheehans was less than half full at all times, great menu selection, really cool spot to hang out by the atrium

[thedoc29ca]

Would you recall which night that they had the fireworks?

 

Thanks

[hammsz]

Would you recall which night that they had the fireworks?

 

Thanks

 

It was Wednesday night, they blasted 80s music during the 5 min show. Deck space was at a premium, everyone was outside at this moment. It was pretty cool set to music, wasnt 4th of july quality but decent to see em shot off the deck of a cruise ship

[notthatpaulyd]

It was Wednesday night, they blasted 80s music during the 5 min show. Deck space was at a premium, everyone was outside at this moment. It was pretty cool set to music, wasnt 4th of july quality but decent to see em shot off the deck of a cruise ship

 

I don't know if this is consistent, but are the fireworks visible from balconies on the side of the ship?

[hammsz]

I don't know if this is consistent, but are the fireworks visible from balconies on the side of the ship?

 

Our balcony was starboard so yes if you were in a port side balcony that night it would be very visable, its all about the winds and direction and how fast the ship is sailing, could be a different side. The captain doesnt like shooting fireworks at all, its one of the most scary things he has to supervise.

[jackjia199637]

How much passengers were aboard the ship?

[hammsz]

How much passengers were aboard the ship?

 

Everyone i spoke to said they were sailing at 95% capacity week 1

[staceyeileen]

How long did you wait to get a table at the restaurants for dinner? Specialty and MDR...

[hammsz]

How long did you wait to get a table at the restaurants for dinner? Specialty and MDR...

 

never a wait in MDR, teppenyaki was running behind so about 15 min, last night everything was in the red at 7pm so there was a wait for some people

[rockbock]

Thanks so much for this review! I'll be on the 3/29 sailing and I can't wait!

 

How long was the actual show in the Illusionarium? Not the total time you were seated in there, but the show itself.

 

Was the Spice H2O area overly crowded or were chairs/loungers available most of the time? Was it very loud in that area, or was it relaxing?

[lacrossemitch]

Thanks for the quick review! Are there any tips or tricks that you found for any of the ports?

[hammsz]

Thanks so much for this review! I'll be on the 3/29 sailing and I can't wait!

 

How long was the actual show in the Illusionarium? Not the total time you were seated in there, but the show itself.

 

Was the Spice H2O area overly crowded or were chairs/loungers available most of the time? Was it very loud in that area, or was it relaxing?

 

the show itself was a full 80 mintues and is a must do, sucks that it costs but it included dinner that filet minion was really good.

Spice H2O was quiet, plenty of chairs, there was a waterfall cool off area you will see.

[hammsz]

Thanks for the quick review! Are there any tips or tricks that you found for any of the ports?

,

 

Dont go to Orient Beach in St Maarten you will be asked 100 times to get a foot massage no joke, pissed me off.

 

take a tour if you have never been to the islands

[jdvmd]

Awesome!!!!! Oh, how I wish I were on the ship right now!

[hammsz]

Awesome!!!!! Oh, how I wish I were on the ship right now!

 

7 days flew by

[david_sobe]

WOW

Thanks for posting your review of Getaway. My sailing is one year away but you have jump started my excitement :)

[joeski27]

WOW

Thanks for posting your review of Getaway. My sailing is one year away but you have jump started my excitement :)

 

Ha! My sailing is 12 days away, so I'm REALLY pumped now! Can't imagine being a whole year out (unless of course I had another much earlier trip planned ;) )

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

Edited February 18, 2014 by joeski27

[joeski27]

Our balcony was starboard so yes if you were in a port side balcony that night it would be very visable, its all about the winds and direction and how fast the ship is sailing, could be a different side. The captain doesnt like shooting fireworks at all, its one of the most scary things he has to supervise.

 

Ours is a starboard side balcony, but we are almost entirely aft, and we have a rear facing slanted (angled) balcony, so I wonder what our visibility would be like? But then again, we would more than likely head up on deck after dinner to partake in the 80s tunes and for a better view..

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk