Great times on the Getaway - July 25 - August 1

[wndmom]

My review: I must warn you all in advance that I am not much of a picture taker. I hope you will enjoy reading regardless.

 

 

My husband and I decided in January to take a cruise for our 20th anniversary. We hated for our kids to miss out on the experience, so we also included our oldest son (15) plus our twin boys (11, but turned 12 during the week). A month later, my husband decided to treat his parents to a cruise as well. They had never cruised or really even had a vacation in many, many years.

 

So, we had 6 months to think and plan - something I love to do. We watched videos of the slides, perused menus, and looked at excursion possibilities. It's almost sad when it's time for the cruise, because the planning has been so enjoyable, and then the cruise will be over soon.

 

Pre-cruise: My in-laws came to our house and we left from Little Rock on July 24. The flight was delayed an hour in Atlanta, but other than that, we had no issues. I had booked the Miami Intercontinental on Hotwire for $110 per room. It is a beautiful hotel and we had great views of the port. We enjoyed watching the cruise ships come in to port. We also found a fantastic restaurant called Farfalle, on trip advisor, that was about a block from the hotel.

 

Almost forgot, we used John Steele for transportation. He picked us up from the airport. I could tell he was irritated that our flight was delayed. I had told him in advance that we had 7 people and 7 bags, but he still complained. The limo was nice, and he got us to the hotel, so I can't complain too much.

 

 

Thanks for reading so far. I will add more later. If anyone has questions, I will be happy to answer.

[wndmom]

 

One of my boys in the limo.

[Cruise-mom]

Great start, can't wait to read more :) I love the planning aspect of any vacation and I love to read about other peoples experiences. I will be interested to read how your kids enjoyed the ship and clubs.

[brookie848]

Almost forgot, we used John Steele for transportation. He picked us up from the airport. I could tell he was irritated that our flight was delayed. I had told him in advance that we had 7 people and 7 bags, but he still complained. The limo was nice, and he got us to the hotel, so I can't complain too much.

 

 

Was this John's Car Service? I'm in the process of gathering information for car service for next year and wondered if this is the same person I used this year. It sounds familiar (irritated and rude, but got us there). If it is not, I will add another service to the "avoid" list. :D

[Sand and Seas]

Happy Anniversary! What a great way to celebrate. Can't wait to hear how your week was:D

[2ManyCruises]

I think it's very nice your husband included his parents. I usually include my parents when we take vacations. Looking forward to the rest of your review. We enjoyed the Getaway as a family (18 of us) June 27 - July 4.

[wndmom]

Was this John's Car Service? I'm in the process of gathering information for car service for next year and wondered if this is the same person I used this year. It sounds familiar (irritated and rude, but got us there). If it is not, I will add another service to the "avoid" list. :D

 

 

Yes. John's Car Service. I could not believe how rude he was. Also, when we returned and went through customs quickly, he fussed that we were out early. I was not pleased.

[wndmom]

I think it's very nice your husband included his parents. I usually include my parents when we take vacations. Looking forward to the rest of your review. We enjoyed the Getaway as a family (18 of us) June 27 - July 4.

 

 

We really enjoyed having family onboard with us.

[luvtovaca]

Great start, can't wait to hear more about your week. We were also on this sailing and had a fantastic time! Did you catch the thunderstorm at sea our last night? Very cool to watch! I'm attempting to write a "review" as well...

[wndmom]

Great start, can't wait to hear more about your week. We were also on this sailing and had a fantastic time! Did you catch the thunderstorm at sea our last night? Very cool to watch! I'm attempting to write a "review" as well...

 

 

I loved watching the thunderstorm! I was afraid I would get queasy but the ship stayed pretty stable.

[wndmom]

Great start, can't wait to read more :) I love the planning aspect of any vacation and I love to read about other peoples experiences. I will be interested to read how your kids enjoyed the ship and clubs.

 

 

I enjoy reading everyone's reviews as well. My boys did not do the clubs this trip. I think they would have enjoyed them though.

[sunsetme]

more more!!

[luvtovaca]

I loved watching the thunderstorm! I was afraid I would get queasy but the ship stayed pretty stable.

 

We realized this is the first cruise we got off of and never had that sea leg feeling! The ship felt very stable to us the entire week. Maybe because of it's size, but none of us ever get seasick. We've been on cruises during hurricane type storms where we are the only ones out and about because everyone else is sick in their rooms!

[wndmom]

We realized this is the first cruise we got off of and never had that sea leg feeling! The ship felt very stable to us the entire week. Maybe because of it's size, but none of us ever get seasick. We've been on cruises during hurricane type storms where we are the only ones out and about because everyone else is sick in their rooms!

 

I woke up queasy the first two mornings. I got some bread with butter and a icy pepsi and was fine in no time.

[wndmom]

We woke early to the beautiful Getaway coming back to port. It looked beautiful and sparkly in the lights of Miami. We got the kids up around 8:00 and were down in the lobby around 9:15. My in-laws were already there waiting. No one was hungry, so we decided to head on down to the port.

 

The five of us went to Terminal B and my in-laws went to terminal C. As we got out of the taxi, a port worker took our bags. We hadn’t printed out bag tags, but he took care of that for us. We walked inside and sat down in the few chairs around the room. Customs didn’t open until around 10:00. We walked through and were third in line to check in. It went quickly. We showed our passports and took our pictures for the key cards. They already had the UBP/SODA and UDP stamped on them. Next we went up the escalator to the next waiting room. A man was waiting at the top of the escalator and he gave us our boarding group number. Of course, it was 1. The boys were now hungry, so we shopped the vending machines for snacks as we waited. They began boarding around 11:45. We went through and walked onto the ship. We didn’t spend any time walking around but went straight to the buffet. Everyone found something they liked. I went to Flamingo Grill. It was five minutes before they opened. I waited and got hot yummy food. I liked the fried mashed potato things (can’t remember the correct name) and the beans and rice. So good.

 

I’m not much of a drinker at home, but I decided to try everything on this trip. I didn’t succeed, but I did try a lot of new drinks. My first was the Miami Vice. Drew, one of the twins, decided his drink would be a Shirley Temple, and he had lots on this trip. Will and Noah liked the frozen drinks. One thing to mention. The boys had the soda plan only. When I ordered our drinks, I always offered my card plus their card. The bartenders always charged to my card, so I didn’t ever pay for the frozen drinks.

 

Oh, my inlaws joined us or lunch as well. Their room was ready so they had already dropped off their bags. We tried going to the room after lunch, but it wasn’t quite ready. We decided to explore a little then try again. My husband took the twins to check out the sports deck. My oldest and I went to the 678 area to look around.

 

After this, our room was ready. We were in rooms 10196 and 10198. We had originally booked a Family Oceanview but were able to get a free upgrade to the minisuites. The location of these was perfect. We had plenty of room and enjoyed the balcony. It was also a great place to dry out our clothes.

 

It was raining so we went to Flamingo Grill for sailaway. I had my second drink – the Cherry Limeaid – also delicious. We didn’t stay long because we had early reservations to Cagneys for all 7 of us.

 

Cagneys was a hit with all of us. We all had the filet in varying sizes. My favorite side was the Au Gratin potatoes and also the cole slaw. I tried two desserts that night and liked both – raspberry crème brulee and oreo cheesecake. We were stuffed. My husband took the younger two to the arcade. Will and I decided to read for a while. We went to bed a little early that night due to all of the excitement of the day.

[Mama2girlz]

Can't wait to read more!

[moesyk4]

We leave in 6 weeks, can't wait! Keep listing your drinks and your thoughts on them, I'm going to make a list :). I'm not a huge drinker but with the UBP I am excited to try new things and explore.

[emilyreid09]

Love reading your review so far - I like how you lay it all out simply and tell it like it is. Will be looking forward to reading more!