Norwegian Getaway Review with 107 photos & 9 videos!

[Spaniel Lover]

Thanks for the comments! Let's get back to the story. We're about half way through it...

[Spaniel Lover]

The Buffet

 

Over the course of our 20+ Carnival cruises, we found that it was a lot easier and more comfortable to eat most of our meals in their buffet restaurant rather than in their main dining rooms. We liked the fact that we could dress super casually in the buffet restaurant, and that we could have total control over what (and how much) food went on our plate. An added bonus was that we could get through a meal in the buffet in 20 minutes or so, rather than the 90-120 minutes that it might take in the main dining room... which left more time to get out and have fun.

 

On our two Princess cruises earlier this year, we were quite impressed by what we felt was an even better food selection at the buffet than we were used to on Carnival. So, we were very curious what the buffet experience would be like on the Norwegian Getaway.

 

The first thing that surprised us at the buffet was to see that they didn't just rely on hand sanitizer to ensure proper guest hygiene. They had installed sinks at the entrances to the buffet, so that people could fully wash their hands before eating.

 

Sinks for hand washing, at the buffet entrance

 

Another thing that surprised me was to notice that they had an ice cream station within the buffet... and it was stocked with about ten different flavors of ice cream. It was available at lunch and dinner, every day... at no extra charge. Also, in addition to regular hand-scooped ice cream, there were also self-service soft-serve ice cream dispensing machines that were open all day long.

 

Strawberry ice cream from the Garden Café buffet

 

While Kellyn and I always enjoyed our Carnival cruises and had many enjoyable meals in their buffet, we had a running joke about how lousy their cakes were. I always said that my favorite cake in the world was a white sheet cake, like they make in several good bakeries in our area... and why couldn't Carnival ever offer anything like that? Imagine my surprise, on the first day of the cruise, to see this beautiful white sheet cake in the Norwegian Getaway's buffet...

 

Not only was this cake delicious, but they let you slice off a piece yourself...

so you could take as large or as small of a slice as you wanted.

It was a BIG sheet cake, too... approximately two feet wide!

[Spaniel Lover]

This shot gives you an idea of the casual style of the seating within the Garden Café.

Large picture windows line the entire restaurant, offering excellent views of the ocean.

 

 

 



They offer a very good omelet for breakfast at the Garden Café buffet

[Spaniel Lover]

Pizza

 

 

Unfortunately, there's a lot of room for improvement regarding the pizza at the Garden Cafe. The good news is that you're never standing around waiting for one to come out of the oven... like you have to do on Carnival. It's there, under a warming lamp, ready for the taking. Also, as you can see in the picture above, they have several varieties for you to choose from. The bad news is that the pizza just doesn't taste very good!

 

I totally love good pizza... and there's no shortage of good pizza restaurants in my home town. I typically have pizza twice a week at home. It made me very happy, several years ago, when Carnival switched to a new style of pizza... which was a big improvement compared to what they used to serve. So, I was excited to try the NCL pizza.

 

 

Unfortunately, I just didn't like the pizza from the Garden Café buffet at all. I never had any more during the week after trying it one time. Honestly, I've had frozen pizza from the grocery store that tasted better than this.

 

There are actually three different sources for pizza on the Norwegian Getaway, and I understand that each makes their pizza differently from each other. You can get it by the slice from the Garden Café, like I did. Or you can order a whole pizza from room service, for $5... and have them deliver it to you anywhere within the ship. It doesn't have to be delivered to your cabin... you can have them deliver it to you by the pool, or wherever you want it. The third source for pizza is La Cucina, the Italian restaurant... but it will cost you $15 per person there.

 

I never tried anything but the Garden Café pizza... so I can't offer any personal experience on the other two options. However, I've seen a lot posted about it here on Cruise Critic... with several people saying that the room service pizza is even worse, but that the pizza at La Cucina is a lot better.

[Spaniel Lover]

A Few More Restaurant Pictures

 

I didn't eat at these three places, but I snapped these photos so you could see them...

 

 



La Cucina, the Italian restaurant

 

 

 



The exterior of Le Bistro, the French gourmet restaurant

 

 

 



Carlo's bake shop

Created by Buddy Valastro, of the TV show "Cake Boss"

[Spaniel Lover]

678 Ocean Place

 

678 Ocean Place is a special focal point of the ship that is an open area from deck 6 all the way through deck 8... thus the name. It's topped off by a beautiful (and gigantic) chandelier.

 

To help you judge the size of this thing,

look in the lower left corner of the picture

where you can barely see two guys standing

 

 

 



The big chandelier changes color over time.

Compare this picture with the previous one,

and you'll see what I mean.

 

 

 

There are certain things that you just HAVE to do on a cruise on the Norwegian Getaway.

One of them is to pose for a picture with the colorful chandelier behind you...

 



Kellyn

 

 

 



Jim Zim

[Spaniel Lover]

Pools, Jacuzzis, Fun!

 

All the beautiful pools and Jacuzzis and outdoor areas that I've shown you previously were part of the limited-access Haven and Spa areas. Let's take a look at some of the fun stuff that all 4300 passengers have access to...

 

This is the main pool, also known as the adult pool.

Notice the bandstand. If there's not a live band playing,

there's recorded music playing.

A still picture makes it look more peaceful than it really is.

Sometimes we would walk by here on the way to The Haven courtyard.

The difference in energy/serenity levels between the two was huge!

If you're looking for a party, this is your place.

 

 

 



Notice how there's an inch or two of water in that area surrounding the pool.

It's a great place to sit (see the chairs around the edges?) and get your toes wet without going in all the way.

On a 90 degree day in the Caribbean, it's a great way to cool down.

 

 

 



This angle gives you a better view of the four Jacuzzis in this area

 

 

 



Be prepared to be friendly in these Jacuzzis, as you will almost certainly be sharing them at some point.

Don't be surprised if your fellow passengers do not speak English, though!

[debnjoe1438]

I've only gotten halfway thru the first page, great review. Just wondering, is NCL paying you to write such a wonderful review about the Haven:D Someday when I win the lotto.....

[Spaniel Lover]

The children's pool.

In the distance on the right, you can see the children's play area.

 

 

 



Since I didn't have any grandkids of my own with me on this cruise

I had to take pictures of other people's kids playing in the children's water play area.

I hope it didn't seem too creepy to their parents that some stranger with a big lens was shooting pictures of their kids.

 

 

 



At night, it's quite colorful out by the pool

 

 

 



They set up a little outdoor shop next to the kid's pool

in an area known as The Market Place.

It's a good place to find inexpensive little items.

The main gift shops within the ship lean more to the high end.

[Spaniel Lover]

Just wondering, is NCL paying you to write such a wonderful review about the Haven:D

 

Sadly, no. I literally had to pay them! Luckily, I stumbled in to a pretty good sale, so I got in to The Haven for less than I've ever seen it offered.

[Spaniel Lover]

The Waterfront

 

I've mentioned several times already about ways where NCL took a concept I had seen on other cruise ships and made it even better on the Norwegian Getaway. The Waterfront is a great example of that. Perhaps you are familiar with the Promenade deck on a Princess ship. That's an outdoor area the runs the length of the ship, giving you a place to walk or just to sit and relax... down close to the water. Here's a Promenade deck picture from a cruise ship I was on earlier this year...

 

Sapphire Princess

 

 

 

Now let's compare that to how it's done on the Norwegian Getaway...

 

 

What they've done with "the Waterfront" is to take an outdoor space that a lot of ships devote to deck chairs and turn it in to an outdoor seating area for several of the ship's bars and restaurants. I think it's a brilliant idea!

 

 

On a warm night in the Caribbean, wouldn't it be great to have your dinner out here?

[www3traveler]

I am loving your review and all the great pictures. I had the great joy to be on Her Crossing from Southampton to New York City in January and also be on Her in June. Did you find any of the staff to be outstanding?

[Spaniel Lover]

The Fireworks Show

(and perhaps the funniest story from the whole cruise!)

 

Here's another example of NCL offering something just a step above what you find on the competition. I've been to plenty of deck parties on Carnival ships... but I've never been to one that featured fireworks! It was pretty cool.

 

 

Here's a tip for you about the fireworks show...

 

The deck party happens back at Spice H20, at the far aft end of the ship, on deck 16. If you want to be part of the party, that's where to go. What I mean by that is that if you want to take part in the dancing, be where the music is, get a drink from the bar... that kind of thing... go enjoy the fireworks and the deck party at Spice H20. But if all you want to do is watch the fireworks, and you'd rather stay away from the crowd a bit more, and you have no interest in the dancing and all that stuff... head on up to deck 18 aft, and watch the fireworks from there. It will be very un-crowded there.

 

Now I did want to be part of the party... so I made my way to Spice H20 about a half hour before they said the fireworks show would begin. At this point, one of the most mind-boggling incidents I had ever seen during a cruise happened right before my eyes! In 25 previous cruises, I had never seen a fellow passenger do something as inconsiderate as what I was about to witness!

 

Everyone wanted to see the fireworks show, so it was REALLY crowded up at Spice H20. As I said, I got there about a half hour early, but even at that point it was really crowded and there were more people pouring in every minute. But off in the distance, at one of the far corners, I could see what looked like two empty chairs... so we headed over there. When we got closer, I could see that someone had draped a clothing item over the chairs as if to save them for someone. So, chair hogs aren't just limited to the Lido deck! Little did I know that I was about to meet the King and Queen of the Chair Hogs!

 

As I got real close to the chairs, it must have appeared that I was considering sitting in them. A woman sitting in the next chair snapped at me in a very grumpy voice and let me know in no uncertain terms that the chairs were saved. Presumably she had some friends or relatives or something that would be showing up soon to sit in them. Perhaps it was for an elderly couple who would need them.

 

I was on vacation, in a very wonderful mood, and the last thing I wanted to do was have a confrontation of any kind. So, I didn't reply to the woman in any way... I just walked around behind the chairs and my wife and I stood there out of everybody's way. It seemed like a good place to watch the show. So, that was our spot for watching the show... off in the corner, behind two empty chairs being saved by a grumpy chair hog. As time went on, the chairs remained empty, and Spice H20 continued to fill up with more and more people. People were really excited about the fireworks, and the crowd got huge. It was just a sea of people. Oh yeah, and two empty chairs.

 

Finally, when they announced that the Fireworks would begin in just two minutes, it was starting to get obvious that no one was going to show up to sit in those two empty chairs. You would think that at this point the grumpy chair hog would say something like "sorry... it looks like my friends aren't going to show up... would anyone like these two chairs?" That would have been the nice thing to do, right? Especially considering the fact that there were several elderly people standing nearby. My wife and I are in good shape and we've got no problem with standing for a fireworks show. But there were other people in the area that were quite a bit older, and could have used those chairs.

 

So, there we were... two minutes away from the fireworks starting... and the grumpy chair hog finally figures out that her friends aren't going to show up. What she did next just completely boggled my mind!

 

Rather than give the chairs up to any of the elderly people standing nearby, grumpy chair hog lady and her husband proceeded to take the chairs that they were sitting on and stack them on top of the two unused chairs... and then sit on the stacked chairs so that no one else could have them! It was so unbelievable that I had to take a photo of it, just so you could see it...

 

 

I was so shocked and amazed by this behavior that I took the photo and posted it here to the NCL forum the very next day. It caused quite a stir! Everyone seemed to agree that these two were clearly the King & Queen of the Chair Hogs. Very quickly, the story caught on, and people had lots to say about it... including lots of interesting speculation about what they would have done if they had witnessed someone being so rude. Yes, I definitely considered having a few words with those two... especially after the show when we all walked out together and I was standing right next to them as they headed to the elevators. But like I said, I was on vacation and confrontation just isn't my vacation style.

 

Anyway, someone here on Cruise Critic had some fun with my photo. They made a "meme" out of it and posted it in the original King and Queen Of The Chair Hogs thread. I laughed out loud when I saw it!

 

 

[Spaniel Lover]

Internet Access

 

Before the cruise, I had read about some new technology that MTN Communications had developed to improve the speed of Internet access from cruise ships. I was very excited to learn that the Norwegian Getaway was one of the first ships to get it.

 

MTN posted

. Basically, they developed a hybrid system. When the ship is at sea, the Internet connection is made by satellite. When the ship gets close to certain ports, a wireless connection is made to a tower on land for a much higher-speed connection. After watching the video, I had high hopes for a good Internet connection during my vacation on Norwegian Getaway!

 

You're probably getting tired of me mentioning that I've been on 25 previous cruises. On 24 of those, the Internet connection was horrible. If you've ever used the Internet from a cruise ship, I'm sure you know what I mean. Service is slow, and flaky. However, one time I got really lucky! I had the very good luck to cruise on the Carnival Magic during the summer of 2012 when they were doing a six-week trial of some new Internet equipment. I don't know how they did it, or why I've never seen it again since then, but during that cruise on the Carnival Magic they had a pretty darned good Internet connection even while we were at sea. So good, in fact, that they offered an unlimited Internet package! Instead of paying by the minute, they offered a package of unlimited access for just $99.99 It wasn't quite as fast as the connection you'd have at home, but it wasn't bad... and it was great that it was always on and you didn't have to constantly log in and out and pay attention to the minutes. I loved it, and that was the only time I can say that about Internet access at sea! So, when I heard about the new technology on the the Norwegian Getaway, I was hoping that this was the official rollout of the technology I had been lucky enough to experience during the six-week trial on the Carnival Magic two years earlier.

 

Unfortunately, it wasn't! At sea, the Internet connection wasn't really any better than any I had seen on my other cruises. They certainly didn't offer an unlimited access option. And even when we got to our first port of call, St Maarten, I don't recall noticing any improvement to the Internet access speed. I'm not sure if I thought about it that day, though. I was having a lot of fun in St Maarten, and by that point I had long forgotten about that YouTube video about MTN's hybrid network.

 

The next morning, though, as the ship approached St Thomas, I did connect to the Internet and I immediately noticed an improvement in speed. So, I went to SpeedTest.net and ran a quick test to see how fast my connection was. I was surprised, and delighted!

 

 

For those of you who are not techies, let me just say that those are very impressive numbers! That's way faster than you could get on a DSL connection at home, and along the lines of what you'd expect on a cable modem. Well, actually, I wish I got those kind of upload speeds at home with my cable modem! A 33 meg download speed is about what I get at home, but I only get upload speeds of about 5 megs. So, at 55 megs, I was getting upload speeds 11 times faster on a cruise ship than I would usually get at home. Very impressive!

 

Regarding the ping test... keeping those numbers down as low as possible is what it's all about. The shorter the ping time, the more responsive things are going to feel as you use your computer on the Internet. It's that feeling of things happening - WHAM! - the moment you click that button. The bigger the ping number, the more sluggish the connection is. At home, I get about a 20ms ping... and I have no hopes of ever seeing a number that low anytime during my lifetime from a cruise ship at sea. I doubt they could ever come up with technology that could provide a 20 ms ping time from a ship at sea... at least not during my lifetime. The fact that they got it down to 94ms is pretty darned impressive, actually. I think anything under about 150ms is probably pretty good.

 

So, anyway... apparently MTN Communications has one of their special towers in St Thomas so that the ship can make a high speed wireless Internet connection whenever it's within view of the tower. They must have one in Nassau, too... as the Internet connection was just as good when we were there. From their video, it appears that they have one in Miami, too... although I never did try accessing the Internet either of the days we were within sight of Miami. I'm not sure about St Maarten. Either I didn't use the Internet that day, or I just didn't notice the speed, or they don't have one of those special MTN towers there.

 

If this whole subject of high-speed Internet access at sea is interesting to you, I think you might get a kick out of this video I made to demonstrate just how frustratingly slow it is at sea and how amazingly fast it can be when the ship gets within sight of one of those towers...

 

[YOUTUBE]gpAKjlvybyU[/YOUTUBE]

 

When I did finally get the speed test to work while we were at sea, the results were:

585ms ping, .82 Mbps download, 1.08 Mbps upload

 

The problem with this new hybrid system from MTN is that you get all the benefits of the technology when you least need it! At sea, when you'd really want a high-speed connection to the Internet, it's really no better than the technology of 10 years ago. It's only blazing-fast when the ship is in port, or within visual range of the port... and that's when most of the ship's passengers don't need to use the Internet at all, because they're off on shore excursions! So, for me, this new technology really wasn't worth much.

 

I'm much more excited about the new technology that Royal Caribbean's going to be using on their newest ships. There's a company called O3B Networks that has recently put 8 new satellites in orbit to provide high-speed Internet to parts of the world that have not previously been able to get it. (Such as cruise ships!) You can read a little bit about it here. It looks like it's going to be able to provide high speed Internet access during an entire cruise, and will allow the cruise line to offer an unlimited Internet package. I'll be cruising on Royal Caribbean's Allure Of The Seas later this year, and I understand the new system will be installed and operational by then... so I'm really looking forward to giving it a try.

 

 

 

Speaking of things that are technology-related...

They did have some pretty cool interactive touch-screens throughout the Norwegian Getaway.

Here's a demo...

 

[YOUTUBE]7YiATNV6PS0[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Spaniel Lover]

Odds & Ends

 

Here's a few other things that caught my eye during the cruise...

 



Now you see why I called this section of the review "odds & ENDS"

It's a picture of the aft end of the ship! I am quietly laughing to myself right now.

 

A few things to point out in that picture...

 

Let's start at the top... you can see the back side of the big video screen that's in the outdoor area known as Spice H20. Just below that, the row of black windows that runs the entire length of the ship... those are the windows in the Garden Café, which offer some really nice views while you enjoy a buffet meal. Below that, you can see six decks of aft-facing cabins. Notice how wide the balconies on the corner are. Those are the aft-facing Haven penthouse suites. Directly below those six decks of cabins you can see a row of windows and a walkway. The windows look in to the Cagney's, Moderno, and the upper portion of the Tropicana room. The walkway connects the port side of the Waterfront to the starboard side. Finally, that lowest row of windows is the lower level of the Tropicana room.

 

I really like pelicans, so I just wanted to throw in this picture of some of the hull art work

 

 

 



People standing outside the ice bar in big, warm coats.

 

I'm not sure if they had just come out from the ice bar, or were about to go in. I didn't actually go inside where I probably could have gotten a much more interesting picture. We did an Alaska cruise in June, so for this cruise I had no interest in getting cold!

 

Here's a little tip for you...

 

Sometimes on a cruise ship it's hard to know which way takes you to the front of the ship and which way takes you to the back. They make it really easy on NCL by putting a little visual clue in the carpet in the hallway outside your cabin. The little fish in the carpet are always swimming towards the front of the ship.

 

 

[scopewest]

Great review and love the photos and videos! Thanks for taking the time to post.

[Spaniel Lover]

Here's something else I liked about the Norwegian Getaway...

it had a 13th floor.

 

 

I like to think of myself as slightly more intelligent and evolved than men of 500 years ago. I will walk under a ladder if I want to. I don't keep garlic around the house to ward off vampires. Black cats don't bother me. And I see absolutely no reason that the deck above deck 12 should be deck 14. I like knowing that rational people are running NCL.

 

 

 

If I'm so intelligent and rational and highly evolved,

why would I post a picture of a wall of urinals here?

 

Two reasons: because I also have a sense of humor, and because I want to talk about how the restrooms on the Norwegian Getaway are so much larger and nicer than those on Carnival!

 

If you've ever been on a Carnival ship and used one of the public restrooms, you know what I mean. Those restrooms are TINY! I really like the way they made the public restrooms on the Norwegian Getaway so large and comfortable. And dare I say stylish? We do not have such fancy urinals back home!

 

 

This I really like! I've got better things to do with my own money than to spend it on this... but do I have any rich friends out there? Someone, please! Take some pictures off my web site and have a Jim Zim bobblehead made up for me. I need this! Preferably in a Caribbean shirt, flip flops, and a pair of shorts.

 

 

[Spaniel Lover]

I had the great joy to be on Her Crossing from Southampton to New York City in January and also be on Her in June. Did you find any of the staff to be outstanding?

 

I thought Ruth, the Haven Concierge, was outstanding. And that actually brings up one little observation about The Haven that I'd like to make. I really liked the way the Haven staff spoke to me. From the people at the desk to the people in the restaurant to the people keeping the courtyard clean... there was a certain tone and body language they used when speaking with me that I really liked. It was respectful, but not overly stiff or formal. It seemed like they appreciated me being there... they did not seem to resent having to take care of me. They struck just the right tone when dealing with me. I felt welcome.

 

The other crew member who really stood out for me was the actor/magician, Bruce Gold. Not only did he do an outstanding job with his part in the show in the Illusionarium, but he was super friendly with me when I ran in to him in the Garden Cafe, and again when I spoke to him at the Q&A. He gave me his card, and asked me to email him sometime when I could come see him perform in Southern California. Very nice guy.

 

One crew member I was just a tiny bit disappointed with was my cabin steward. He did his job and took care of what needed to be taken care of... and he was warm and friendly with me when we spoke. What he didn't do... that I have seen some other cabin stewards do much better... was pay attention to my schedule and try to get in to my cabin to do the work when I was away. It seemed to me that he worked from one end of the hall to the other, doing the cabins pretty much in order... and he got to mine when he got to it. The best cabin stewards, when they see you and your wife walk out the door at 7:30 AM, for example, will realize that you are going out to breakfast... and will have the cabin cleaned up before you get back.

 

Perhaps he just has too many cabins to take care of to do them out of sequence.

[Spaniel Lover]

I have to head out again for a few hours. So, this is another great opportunity for people to throw in any comments.

 

When I return, I will tell you all about the shore excursions we went on, and then wrap it up with a few final things. We're about 75% through it now.

[SteveH2508]

 

 

 

 



Since I didn't have any grandkids of my own with me on this cruise

I had to take pictures of other people's kids playing in the children's water play area.

I hope it didn't seem too creepy to their parents that some stranger with a big lens was shooting pictures of their kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture is competition quality. NCL ought to make you an offer for it.

 

Great review - superb pictures - takes me right back to the 1-nighter I did on her out of Southampton.

[meatball_nyc]

Excellent review so far. Photographs are amazing as well as your sense of humor.

Looks like you had a wonderful cruise.

I hope triptolemus can make you a Jim Zim bobble head. He is the CC member who photoshopped your King and Queen of the Chair Hogs photo.

Did you ever meet Tarzan and Jane?

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Happy Cruising!

 

 

~Robin

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

[snow bunny]

Thank you for your review, DD and I will be on her in less than two weeks!! Read the post to DH about he chair hogs and we are both scratching our heads over their behaviour. I am afraid that I probably would have said something to them and it would not have been polite!!

 

snow bunny

[Partyatsea]

Jim Zim I think you should book an Escape Caribbean cruise ;);)

 

Seriously awesome review, really liking it!!

[zanydoc]

Thanks for your awesome review! We set sail on October 4th in a 2 bedroom Haven and can't wait!

[mj]

Great review and pictures. Looking to try a NCL ship one day and see how it compares to the other lines.