getaway 8/23! Awesome Cruise!

[willowvacay]

I have been looking at member reviews on cruise critic for the last 3 cruises we had been on but this summer in planning our Getaway Cruise I stumbled upon the forums with the reviews with pictures and I was hooked! Looking through people's pictures and hearing about their experiences helped me get so excited for this vacation that I almost couldn't stand it! We just got back yesterday and the experience was so wonderful I wanted to try and share a little of my experience in case it helps someone get as excited for their vacation as much as I was!

 

My husband and I love vacationing and have been on four cruises and several more land based vacations in the past 4 years we have been married. We are in our early 30's and only have a fur-baby (a dog). We love both types of vacations and we usually tell people we like cruises better when we are on a cruise and we like land based vacations better when we are on those. Our previous cruises have been an eastern Caribbean on Carnival out of Puerto Rico, an NCL Epic Mediterranean cruise, and NCL sky Bahamas cruise. We have loved them all (taking the bad with the good). I have done a lot of reviews of our land based vacations on Trip Advisor but never a cruise reviewer...just a cruise review stalker! So here goes!

 

This summer we picked a Getaway cruise because we liked the excitement of the Epic when it was a newer ship so we decided to look for a newer cruise ship. The big Royal Caribbean ships were appealing but we have liked the "freestyle" of our last 2 cruises so decided to give Getaway a try. I booked the cruise in May and have been lurking on these boards ever since. Our countdown finally got into the single digits and we began packing. We had plans to fly to Miami on Friday night after work in case our flight plans got delayed (that happens a lot at small airports). Our plans for leaving became rather elaborate (with the possibility of both our cars at the airport) in case I did not get off work in time, but luckily I got to leave work early. I headed home and we packed the car. It felt like finally we would have a trip go off without a hitch!

 

As we pulled onto the highway near our house we had pre-vacation excitement and jitters and couldn't wait to get on the road! Suddenly, a bright light came into the car and I turned around to notice our bags tumbling down the highway!!!! I started screaming and my husband apparently did not notice the liftgate open and his backpack contents spilling down the road!!! I jumped out as he pulled to a stop and avoided the 70mph traffic to collect books, headphones, and our NEW CAMERA!!! Luckily everything survived and we were laughing hysterically as we continued on our route.

 

Approx 4 miles down the road we got the call from US airways that our flight was delayed. Of course we had a tight connection and we laughed about how we were gonna miss our connecting flight to Miami. Typical for our small airport so we just giggled the rest of the way to the airport! Anyway, long story short....for the first time ever the airport went ahead and made us another connecting flight!!!! Everything worked out and we were on our way!

 

We arrived in Miami late and got in the cab line. Here's a tip: apparently even though all Miami cabs advertise they take credit cards...they DONT. hahah luckily we asked before we got into the cab. We stayed at the Marriott Biscayne Bay. It was close to the port and we were able to get to the ship relatively easily the next morning.

 

We were so excited as we got on the trip because of all we had learned on the boards here and we had our whole vacation ahead of us. We have always stayed in an aft balcony. This started upon the recommendation of the TA who helped us plan our honeymoon on carnival 4 years ago. We were hooked on the view so we did an aft balcony on our epic med cruise and on the sky (aft penthouse on sky). On this cruise we wanted to try that haven thing and so it ended up the aft penthouses were taken. We had a courtyard penthouse. After reading people's reviews I was nervous that the balcony would be so small we could barely turn around (I think someone said that!).

 

When we got there we hung out in the haven (which seemed very crowded waiting for lunch to open) and the rooms weren't quite ready. Then the restaurant opened and we ate lunch. Afterward we made it to our room and we were very pleasantly surprised.

 

 

 

 

 

[willowvacay]

So we were worried about the balcony not being as large or as cool as our previous aft facing balconies but we both ended up liking it pretty well. There is definitely not enough room for an outward facing lounge chair but the chairs that were there were pretty nice and comfortable. I was a tiny bit disappointed in not having the full aft view but overall we loved this balcony and it was "in" the haven (as the aft suites would not have been). We liked being in this area because you could run back to the room from the pool/sundeck area easily and you could run to the bar easily.

 

pool area:

 

 

upstairs forward facing sun deck

 

 

bar area:

 

We decided to check out the ship prior to muster station. This ship is relatively easy to navigate because almost everything is on the top of the ship

or in the 678 Ocean place area.

 

Main pool: (this is the only time it was nearly empty...except one time it rained and we were the only people in the pool)

 

[willowvacay]

Oops my main pool pic didn't show:

 

The slides were super intense for me. My husband liked them pretty well but he thought the free fall slides were pretty terrifying as well!!

 

 

kids splash area:

 

ropes course/Plank: This is one of the many things I wish I would have done. don't get me wrong...we were way more "joiners' on this cruise than we normally are. We went to lots of shows, bingo, and game shows and participated a lot but there just didn't seem to be enough time to do everything with all of the relaxing I needed to also fit into the schedule!

 

[ruley3]

waiting for more :)

[willowvacay]

Continuing on our ship tour:

 

We went to the fitness center on all 3 sea days. The first two sea days that place was sooooo packed! It was as if every single person on the ship wanted to work out. I know that's not truly the case but it seemed so crowded. By the last sea day it wasn't too bad. The gym had some nice equipment and was very warm so it was easy to feel like you were getting a really good workout. I wish it were a little larger gym but I understand space is a premium on a ship and it would probably make more sense to make bigger pool spaces than bigger work out spaces!

 

 

One of my cruise goals was to try every bar and every drink of the day and every "specialty" drink at restaurants we went to. This goal was not quite realized. I made a very valiant effort but we did not make it to the sunset bar or mojito bar :( There was just too much to do and see!! Drinks I did not like included the "pear" drink at the haven restaurant and the blue drink of the day. Not a good reviewer here bc I cant remember the name of the blue drink. My favorite drinks of the day were the rebellious fish, pain killer, and tropical sunrise. We did not get Ultimate beverage package bc although we both drink there was no way we would get our money's worth. We were correct in our assumption because in spite of the fact I sampled many drinks and wines etc we did not get close to spending enough to make UBP worth it.

 

We did buy the UDP! Worth it for us totally!!! I am embarrassed to tell you how many times we ate at cagneys....but suffice it to say we ate there several times, Le bistro once, and teppanyaki once. We were very pleasantly surprised with both Le Bistro and teppanyaki. Wonderful dinners and wonderful service/experience. We loved everywhere we ate. If I can remember correctly we had buffet twice for lunch, O sheehans for prime rib night (delicious), haven for lunch twice and breakfast twice, and the other above mentioned restaurants. We had a good meal and a good experience at each place. Also, something I learned from reviews on here...Osheehans is a great place to sit and watch the shows in the atrium like newlywed game and deal or no deal etc.

 

 

osheehans overlooking the atrium

 

We went to illusionarium the first night (free with UDP I believe, but only the first night). As many people have said the food was just ok. It is a set menu and you don't get to pick. I had many other delicious steaks throughout the cruise and this was just ok. The drink special was delicious however :) And most importantly....this show was AMAZING. Like literally. I dont understand how they do their illusions! We loved it...mediocre food or not!

[david_sobe]

Welcome home

Really really enjoying this review

Cant wait to read and see more!

Don't be embarrassed by eating so many times at Cagneys. Its very good ;)

[willowvacay]

Ok so on all of our cruises we have found that desserts are something that are not done super well. Sometimes they look appetizing, but just aren't! Sometimes they are neither appetizing in appearance or taste. On this ship, crème brulee was pretty tasty at Cagneys and le bistro. By far my favorite dessert was from a land based company: Carlos!!!

 

 

We had this delivered to our room and it was wonderful! I usually do not like fondant type icing but this cake was so cute we couldn't resist! It ended up tasting wonderful and we used it as our dessert several nights :)

 

 

I have read a lot about how people feel about 678 ocean place. One thing people were right about that is slightly negative is a smokey smell. I didn't even encounter many people who were smoking when we would walk through or play at the casino but the smell was there.

 

The oft photographed chandelier:

 

 

A cute ship model in the rear of 678 ocean place

[willowvacay]

I have been fascinated on all our cruises with the workings of the ship and crew and so we decided to do the "behind the scenes tour". It was so worth it and so fun!!

 

It started in illusionarium on the stage and we got to go back stage there. We saw the main kitchen, the laundry area, the trash area, and the bridge as well as crew cafeteria and other areas. We loved it! Unfortunately they limit where photography can occur but here are a few pics:

 

inside illusionarium

 

main galley

 

laundry area. They let us use the towel folder and sheet folder. It was pretty crazy!

 

Bridge

 

if your room has a balcony below the bridge...they can see you. This is through a window in the floor of the bridge.

[willowvacay]

Sorry to jump around but im looking through my pics and they are reminding me of what I wanted to include in my review. I love sitting on the balcony and watching the world go by!

 

 

That pic with my cell phone in it reminds me of the internet. Im sure plenty of people have complained about the internet cost and service etc on the ship. So many times I tried to get online and it either wouldn't work or took so long it wasn't worth it. I know its satellite internet but its so frustrating that in this day and age theres not a way to have faster or better internet.

 

also, I forgot I took pics at teppanyaki. We are not really into hibachi type restaurants on land but we tried it because...well why not? It was wonderful as I mentioned before and I would absolutely do it again. A few people at our table had allergies to food prepared and they took plenty of precaution to prepare the allergens last after those guests had already been served. The specialty martini there was also very good! The green tea cake looked gross (sorry it did) but I tried it anyway because I had read on here that it was decent. It was actually pretty good in spite of its green color.

 

[willowvacay]

Casino

 

As mentioned above the casino does smell like smoke. I didn't even see many people smoking but somehow it smelled. We love vegas and we have a local casino we go to on some Friday nights. We are not high rollers but we do frequent penny slots. We rarely go home from a casino without making some money. However on this cruise we couldn't even make $20 last more than a few minutes. We couldn't win AT ALL. So then we got hooked on this game with cash hanging and you try to put some key into the slot to win. This game was so fun bc people would gather around and cheer each other on. You didn't need cash because you could just slide your ship card and play for $1. This made it easy and dangerous to play. Sadly we did not win but we had a lot of fun playing. In fact, as much time as we spent there we never saw anyone win! But it was fun nonetheless!

 

 

We played bingo three times and luckily won one round. That made it pretty exciting :) We also got some bingo t shirts and I love a souvenir!!

 

The ship looks pretty at night and I got a few nice pictures.

 

[willowvacay]

Land Ho!

This is the most sea days I have had on a cruise and I did worry a bit that we would get antsy. That did not end up being the case at all! We had a blast and really loved everything there was to do around the ship. But we did end up finally making it to a port: St Maarten!

 

Our first cruise we ever went on we did only cruise based excursions. This was probably a good way to do it for first timers but ever since then we have only done things either through a privately booked excursion or just gone around on USD and have cabs readily available at port.

 

On st marten I knew what we were going to do ever since I saw the "airplane beach" on travel channel. We left the ship and went to the cab stand. It is a little frustrating how they do cabs at the ports. There seems to be a company in charge and they are trying to get multiple couples and families into one cab. This is a little frustrating because then sometimes you are stuck waiting around til they recruit someone else who wants to go where you are going. Anyway it ended up taking like 20 or 30 minutes wait. Once we got into the cab it was short ride over to MAHO beach.

 

This time of year is not super great for the beach there. Storms and tides make the beach area very small. We got there early enough that we could easily get a seat (at Sunset bar). It was $20 for 2 chairs and an umbrella and we were on the front row.

 

 

 

 

[willowvacay]

A couple of small planes came in with long timing in between.

 

gotta enjoy my time here

 

Then Willy (who sold us the chairs and drinks) started shouting "KLM! KLM!" The moment we had all been waiting for!!! We jumped out of our chairs and got our cameras ready. I couldn't see the plane anywhere so I was shouting, "Where?!? Where?!?". haha It finally came into my view!

 

 

People started cheering and it was really pretty exciting!

 

 

They have the times written on a surfboard but KLM comes at about 11-1115 daily so you want to be there by then. Some other bigger planes came in too, but I wont bore you with all the pictures.

[willowvacay]

We took a taxi over to phillipsburg and ate lunch there. We rented a few beach chairs there and then I got stung by something so we got out and rode the ferry back to the ship. It was a great day in St marten!

 

 

 

 

[www3traveler]

I have been on the Getaway twice and would love to be able to sail on Her again. Did any of the staff members stand out to you?

[Sundiego]

Fun review, awesome pics! Thank you :) We sail Sept 13, also in the Haven. Don't think you mentioned it... what was your cabin # ??

Edited August 31, 2014 by Sundiego

[paulsurf]

Thanks for the review.....we are in the Haven with Courtyard Penthouse 16710 this Saturday 9/06/14. We have been to St Martin 5 times but never hit Maho. What time did you get there?

[dexddd]

Took some pics of the GA when we were in St. Thomas together. I'll post next week.

[willowvacay]

I have been on the Getaway twice and would love to be able to sail on Her again. Did any of the staff members stand out to you?

 

There are some easy answers to this question :) Positive staff members were Concierge Ruth...she got us into Cagneys (again) on the last day after they told us they were full, got us into ice bar (also full) on last day. Arni our butler was so wonderful and sweet, as was our steward Ahmed. They did an amazing job and brought us snacks and treats we loved. Arni brought me diet pepsi as we were rushing off the ship to get to MAHO (bc the bar was not open yet). He saw I was out looking for something and then went and got it for me.

 

There was one cruise director staff member who everytime she got to microphone she shouted. It was as if she didn't think the microphone was on. We almost left bingo she was so loud. She was equally as loud every other time she was in charge of an event. Sorry to be negative...but if she was hosting we would leave.

[willowvacay]

Thanks for the review.....we are in the Haven with Courtyard Penthouse 16710 this Saturday 9/06/14. We have been to St Martin 5 times but never hit Maho. What time did you get there?

 

You will LOVE the haven. It was wonderful.

 

We got to MAHO at around 9am or 915. It worked out well because we got to pick our seats :)

[willowvacay]

Fun review, awesome pics! Thank you :) We sail Sept 13, also in the Haven. Don't think you mentioned it... what was your cabin # ??

 

We were in 16126. It was a great location inside the haven key-card access area and super close to the lounge/concierge/pool area.

[willowvacay]

The following day we went to St Thomas. We have been there before on a previous cruise and did an island tour, spending time at Magan's bay, sight seeing, blackbeard castle etc. So this trip we decided to do something relaxing. On CC I found a company called resort for a day and saw they had a day pass to the Marriott Frenchman's Reef. I believe I paid $75 per person for an "all inclusive" drink pass. We cabbed it to the Marriott and it is very close to the pier. It overlooks charlotte amalie. When we first got there we could see our ship. As we hung out in the pool a RC ship came in and blocked the view of Getaway.

 

 

Ok so I was a little nervous reserving through resort for a day but numerous people on here told me it worked and they had no problem. You pay in advance and they send you some confirmation email and have you print it out and take it with you. Sounds simple and people on here told me they had done it. So I printed my pages (of course a few copies) and took them with. We showed up in the lobby there at about 830 and the first woman we talked to seemed to think we had to go to the beach area to check in. She told us to wait a few minutes and shuttle would take us there. Well we waited and waited and waited and she just ignored us. LOL. So far not so good. So then I got into the Marriott elite line (I happen to be a platinum Marriott rewards member) and the woman at that desk helped us immediately. She knew what was supposed to happen and also told me that there was supposed to be a confirmation number that I have and that Marriott should have. My paper had some order # and showed that I paid but not a Marriott confirmation number. She honored it anyway and also gave us a room to use for the day as compensation for our trouble. Not too shabby. So based on that experience alone I would totally do it again bc that woman gave excellent customer service. The pool area was awesome...they have 2 infinity pools and a swim up bar, and a restaurant outside. The drinks were wonderful, and there were plenty of chairs in and around the pool to use. It also came with towels so that was a nice bonus.

 

 

 

 

[willowvacay]

 

 

 

We were surrounded by other cruise ships and we had to leave first and the captain backed out the ship in an amazingly smooth fashion. It makes me a little embarrassed that I cannot parallel park a small vehicle with backup cameras....

 

[willowvacay]

This is the Marriott as we sailed away from St. Thomas.

 

 

Our collection of towel animals...yes we kept them all week.

 

The last sea day we must have hung out, read books, and walked around. I dont seem to have many pics from that day...just one of bingo. After I won a bingo the first day I seemed to think I was gonna win again. Not true. hahaha.

 

 

The last day is Nassau. We were supposed to get in at 10 but were running late. So we went to breakfast at the Haven. We really didn't eat there too often but service was amazing, and food was pretty great. Not a bad view either.

 

 

[Disney1992]

Thanks for the Review! We'll be on the Getaway in October. Getting very excited with each review.

 

What day was the Behind the Scenes Tour? That's something we really want to do, but the time doesn't appear in any of the dailies.

 

Thanks Again!

[willowvacay]

We were ready to head out to Nassau but with the delay we just hung out and I practiced using my camera timer.

 

 

Nassau finally came into view from the balcony

 

 

Making our way into the harbor!

 

So I know a lot of people tend to hate on Nassau saying things like "i never get off the boat" or whatever. To each his own. However, we live in a boring place and we like the beach and Caribbean weather so we always get off the ship! This trip we decided to go to Atlantis. We have never vacationed there so we decided to check it out. Like I already mentioned we do not go on cruise tours...even if they go to where we would like to go. I like to be on my own time table (yes I am impatient). So we chanced it and decided to cab-it to atlantis and try to buy a ticket there. I know this can be risky, but school is in session in a lot of states and there weren't many cruise ships scheduled to be in port when we were there. Luckily when we got there it was only the Disney ship already in port. Only the carnival splendor was scheduled to dock as the 3rd ship. Once we got off the ship we had the same cab problems as everywhere else (got into a cab and then had to wait in hot cab for guy to try to find other couples/families). He told us it would be $4pp to go to atlantis but when he couldn't find anyone else he charged us $12...c'est la vie I suppose. Had I known that I would have told him I didn't want to wait in the hot cab for anyone else and we would just pay the upcharge. Now we know...and knowing is half the battle (GI joe said that).

 

We wanted to try out Aquaventure but I knew if we couldn't get passes (if they were sold out or something) we would just beach it, eat, and go to casino.

 

When we got there someone directed us to the desk to purchase tickets easily. We paid $125pp for aquaventure wristbands. We rode the not-so-lazy lazy river. It was very exciting (like a river rapids) and we could ride escalator type things on the innertube to go on slides. It was super fun. We also went to the line to ride the slide that goes through the aquarium but it was a very long wait so we rode the challenger slides instead. They were still pretty intense and we had fun. Overall we rode several slides and then got into the pool. After we had enough sun-fun we went to a bbq restaurant called virgil's. It was pricey (as is everything at atlantis) but if you like bbq it was WONDERFUL. I highly recommend the "peach tea". If you have been reading the review you might be able to guess that there is waaaay more in that drink than tea and peach flavoring and it was delicious. My husband had a Kalik. If you like trying local beer this is made in the Bahamas and we like it really well. My personal favorite is the lime flavor kalik and we had some of that too!

 

Our next stop was the casino. We had to try and make up for what we had lost to NCL on their casino that wouldn't pay us! We doubled the money we spent in that casino and called it a day...we always end up losing if we get too greedy trying to triple or quadruple our money.