ANOTHER Getaway Review - 10/4-10/11

[Tggrtoes]

Can't believe our cruise is over... waaaaa! We had a fabulous time - would do it again in a heartbeat! Our group was me (39), Peter (DH 39), Jacob (DS 7), and in laws Russ & Kay. We stayed in Haven 2 bedroom suite 15104. This was me and DS’ first NCL cruise with Peter and in laws having sailed twice before on NCL, but that was over 20 years ago. This was my 6th cruise overall (11th for DH and in laws have gone on so many they have lost count!).

This cruise was very family oriented for us, and we agreed that it was very different than how we’ve cruised before, so this review may or may not be helpful for many of you as we didn’t participate in as many activities as we’ve done in the past. We did not do any specialty dining since we had the Haven restaurant. I know others on our cruise are posting reviews and hopefully they will have participated in stuff we did not do. J I will scan and post dailies unless someone else beats me to it. I’m not planning to post many (if any) pictures, but if there’s something you want, let me know. Although, I might have to post some food porn. So, now that the background stuff is out of the way – let’s get this (very long) review started!

Pre-Cruise Day: Being from AZ, we had to fly in the day before. We chose Fort Lauderdale given direct flights on USAir and pricing. We used www.ridesas.com for $13/pp for transport from airport to the Hyatt Downtown Miami hotel. SAS worked out well, although the air conditioning didn’t beat the humidity that much in our big van so we were all a bit warm. I’d still recommend them, though. We stayed at the Hyatt and given the heavy rain, we ate dinner there at the hotel. Friday night is an Italian buffet which was quite good and pretty reasonable price wise. We felt the service at this Hyatt was above the average (although Medtech stayed there as well and had a weird housekeeping interaction).

Saturday – Embarkation Day: So excited to start our cruise… time seemed to crawl in the morning while we waited to catch our cab to the port! We left the hotel via cab around 10:15 to head to the port. $10 cab ride. We caught a few peaks at our beautiful ship on the way – and oh, my, she is huge! Gorgeous! We arrived at Terminal B (my understanding is that NCL uses both B and C) and walked a short distance from where the cab dropped us off to the terminal entrance. We breezed through security (no line at all) and saw the Haven boarding area immediately to our left. They had 2 workers (again no line, although there were a few people waiting in the area that I think had already been checked in). DS immediately raced to the juice and cookies (i think there was fruit too?) while we adults checked in. Got our pictures taken for keycards and then waited a few minutes and then were walked upstairs to meet our butler, Gary, who brought us onboard to the Haven Lounge. We did get a group embarkation picture (I remember some folks saying they didn’t get that as part of the Haven, but they offered it to us). That first view of the Haven courtyard was pure bliss – even with it lightly raining. Ruth the concierge was at the desk at the front of the Lounge and gave a few instructions and then we were free to mingle. They had sliders and fries (we didn’t try them). The lounge did get a bit crowded since nobody was going outside due to the rain. Haven restaurant opened at 12:30 – everything very good… service was exceptional, especially considering it was first day! We headed to our room – had seen a video of a similar room, so knew what to expect, but was still amazed at everything. Storage galore…seriously, there’s no way we could use that much storage! (great problem to have on a cruise). Space was more limited in the 2nd bedroom, but still fine. I was pleasantly surprised at the balcony. Yes, it’s small, but not the postage stamp size that I was expecting after reading the reviews. 2 chairs and small table – we fit all 5 of us out there at once (tightly). No luggage yet, so decided to go explore a bit… DS and I went to the aqua park (I suggest wearing your swim suit to the cruise terminal… that way you can get in pools/slides before the crowds – especially for kids). Rain had stopped so went up to the slides. The orange and red slides are super fast (orange seemed a bit faster). I did the purple (smaller) slide once and wasn’t a fan (shorter/curvier, so I kept banging into the side), but DS enjoyed it. DH had no issues either, so probably just me! No real wait for any of the slides on this first day. Slides are fresh water, while the pools were salt water. There is a nice shower area near the kids pool and splash pads to rinse off the salt water. There is also a lot of shady areas near the kids pool (the wall separating the splash pad and kids pool was my favorite place to sit while DS was swimming/playing if I didn’t want to be in the water.) Kids pool area never felt too crowded, although definitely not the size for real swimming if there are a lot of people in there. The Nick Splash area is really fun… nice place to hang out and get a little wet. I did notice it was pretty packed on sea days though. We headed back to the room to see if our luggage arrived, unpack and get ready for muster drill and then dinner. While we were back, our room steward, Roberto, came by to introduce himself and showed us how to use the Lavazza coffee machine (way cool).

Muster drill was painless – nice to be seated in Osheehan’s and not outside. We headed up to Splash Academy to register Jacob after Muster. It was busy, but the wait wasn’t too long. We then headed to O’Sheehan’s for prime rib special. We ordered mozz sticks (yum and super cute baskets, although were a bit lukewarm). I had chicken pot pie (great although a bit different than I expected) and DS had chicken tenders, with everyone else having prime rib. All was good, but service was extremely slow. (If I had to do again, I’d wait for the prime rib special another night and do specialty dining or Haven that first night.) We did a couple of games of bowling (fun touch! $5/game – we just did one player as previous folks have suggested) and played some air hockey ($1.50/game). DS headed off to his first encounter at Splash Academy at 8 – we have used kids clubs on all our previous cruises, always leaving it up to DS about whether he wants to hang with us or go to club. He loved Splash and we were impressed with staff. Their check in/out process needs some work. We noticed that Carnival and RCI had a much quicker/smoother process than NCL. It was never an issue, but it did mean we tried to avoid those times when they opened or were getting ready to close before late night/hourly rates started. DH and I went to Grammy Experience (Sugar Blue – jazz) for 30 minutes or so. No reservations needed – tables were full 10 minutes or so before show time, although I think some opened up after a while. Very talented, although not our normal choice of music. We then headed to Howl at the Moon. No resos needed here either, although first night was very busy. We got the last table (whoohoo). We enjoyed this immensely our first night. Crowd was super into it and requesting songs that most folks knew or could get in to. We went 2 other times and noticed that it wasn’t as enjoyable (still fun) given song requests and crowd enthusiasm. I only mention this in case you try and don’t enjoy it – give it a try another night and see if it’s different. The two main guys Nate and Pete are extremely talented. Pete’s not as great of a singer, but their banter was good and he’s really great on the piano. There’s a 3rd person that joins –she was very talented too… funny cowardly lion impression, although it got a bit stale after a couple of times. Reminder if you go – bring some cash if you want to request a song (hard to remember given cashless system in rest of ship). You can still request without tip of course.

That’s the end of Day 1… sheesh, this review is long already. I hope you are staying awake reading it! I typically write reviews while on vacation, but didn’t this time, so let me know if there’s something you want to know or if you want more/less detail on anything – I’ll answer anything that I can! I'll provide some general stuff / overall impressions at the end.

~Stacey

[luv2cruise12124]

We were in #15126 in September. We also had Gary as our butler and Roberto as our room steward. I can't wait to read the rest of your review. We loved Roberto, Gary not so much. Everyone else in the Haven was also amazing. One morning in the Haven dining room, I asked if they had grape jelly, Charissa checked and apologized that they didn't have it. The next morning Charissa came up to me (she was not our waitress that morning) and said I have grape jelly for you & she brought me toast & grape jelly.:)

[Bunnynme]

Off to a great start, can't wait for the rest of your review

[sjnyc323]

Great review so far

[Freespir8]

Ready for more!

[Dklam]

We leave in 34 days on Getaway! Waiting for more!!