Getaway review Oct 17 - 24

[aamechs2]

We booked a cruise on the Getaway as an anniversary present to ourselves. We have 15 year old twins that normally travel with us so this was to be a relaxing vacation with lots of couples time. We flew into Miami the day before, rented a convertible and stayed at the Best Western Premier near the airport. Nice hotel, large rooms and surprisingly very quiet.

 

We drove down to the pier the next day, about 10:45 am and dropped off our bags so we wouldn't have to lug them onto the car rental shuttle. Also because we enjoy driving around however the crazy drivers in Miami make that impossible! We turned in our car and boarded the shuttle, arriving at the port of Miami about 11:15. We were given group #6 (our check in time was 9:30 am but we opted to not go that early) Check in was quick and painless and soon they were calling groups. We went with our group and were onboard about 11:40 am. I love the music and balloons as you walk on the ship, definitely helps with the vacation mood. We walked around the ship enjoying the beautiful decor, checking out the ropes course and golf area, both really cool! Then went to eat at the Garden Buffet. We weren't impressed with the food we had, my stand by is pizza and it wasn't very good. But there was plenty of ice cream choices for my hubby!

 

We changed into our bathing suits and hit the slides! WOW! Super fast super fun slides! The free fall was heart stopping! We took turns as they are very strict about the no jewelry. There was no line at all so we were able to go quite a few times. The announcement came that the rooms were ready so we went to our room and changed and strolled around the ship. Our room was in the very front, which made for a long walk to get to the elevators. Definitely missed having 3 sets of elevators. The room was very nicely decorated and the bed was super comfortable. The life boat drill was crazy, they constantly ask for quiet but then the crewmembers didn't really seem serious. Finally the last of the stragglers showed up and they got the drill done. We were in O'Sheehans and there was not alot of seating so we had to stand for quite awhile. We went back to our room and there was a cheese tray from our travel agent. It was fabulous and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We sat on our balcony for sail away. The balcony is very narrow, you really can't sit facing forward, you kind of have to sit at an angle to keep your knees from hitting the glass.

 

Dinner that night was at O'Sheehans for prime rib. We have not sailed NCL since 2008 and at that time, we thought the food was fantastic, especially loved the wings. This time however things have changed. The wings were just not hot and so that made them mushy and the prime rib that I ordered wasn't great either. It came with a brown gravy stuff that was gross and I couldn't get it off the meat. We went to the welcome aboard show and enjoyed it. My husband ordered a Bahama Mama though and it was awful. Usually I don't care if there's not alot of alcohol as long as the drink tastes good, but this one did not, plus it was $10.50. (we did not have any free dining or drinks perks)

 

The next day was a sea day along with our Meet and mingle. The M & M was very well organized (now I've forgotten the ladies name, awful on my part!) and we had a gift exchange, cabin crawl and slot pull. NCL had waiters with little smoothies and other snacks along with bringing in some of the crew to introduce. Very well done. The only bummer was the gift exchange, I guess some people decided to participate at the very last minute and the gift showed it, since I put alot of time and effort into my gift, it was a bummer to get a few pieces of chocolate in a little bag. But luckily the lady who hosted it gave away some very nice tote bags and other things, she really went ot of her way to make it fun. The cabin crawl was fun too, very cool to see the different types of cabins. We tried to go to the pool but there's just so little "pool" area so we gave up. I'm not sure why they put such a tiny pool on this ship, maybe because they have the cool water slides. We ate lunch at Savor and I had the roast chicken that again had that icky brown gravy. It was also a buummer to have to walk thru the casino and the smoky smell, to get to alot of different areas. Not crazy about that concept. Nor did we like that one side of the Waterfront was a smoking side, had they made it smoking towards the back, it would have left the front smoke free. But the smoking area is in the front and of course it drifts back. I know that they need smoking areas but Oceanblue and Sugarcanes are both in the smoking area.

 

Dinner was at Noodles and it was good! Very quick to eat there too so we were able to make the early showing of Burn the Floor. That show is phenomanal!!! Just so amazing. We also played goofy golf that night, really cool course.

[aamechs2]

The next morning we decided to do the ropes course after breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, NCL uses some weird mix for their eggs, even the omelets. Its not good :( They have a huge selection of stuff, but most of it wasn't very good. The pastries were good but not what I wanted to eat. No blueberries, strawberries or any type of berry, even grapes were hard to find. The ropes course was SO much fun!! Of course the plank and zipline at the end were the highlights but the whole thing was just fun. After that we changed into our suits and went down the slides again. We love them! Again there was no space or chairs to be found near the pool. And way too many people in the pool so we hung out on our balcony.

 

For lunch we went and got the lobster roll at Oceanblue. It was excellent, but tiny. And they only give you about 10 chips with it, which seemed kind of stingy just for stingy's sake. Potatoes are cheap after all. After a mellow afternoon, we went to Tropicana for dinner. Loved having a band and watching people dance and our waiter was wonderful. But again, the food was all but inedible. The french onion soup was decent but I ordered a crab and fish cake that was awful. By now, we've decideed that NCL is trying to push people to the specialty restaurants but we really didn't want to spend our money on paying extra for dinners.

 

The next day we arrived at St Thomas. It was announced that we would be in port for an extra hour due to some software uograde on the propulsion system. YAY! We caught a cab to Red Hook and grabbed a ferry to St John's Cinnamon Bay. During the taxi ride, we talked to others from our ship about the food, out of 10 people exactly nobody thought the food was good in the non pay restaurants. That was a bummer to us, we were hoping that we were just missing the good places.

 

It was a perfect day, sunny but with some clouds to keep it from being too hot. I took an air mattress with me and enjoyed lazing the day away. My husband enjoyed snorkeling and dumping me off my raft! We caught the 4:00 ferry back, did a little shopping and reboarded the ship. At 7:30 the ships hrn blew, my hubby said "Ah oh, I can hear the call now, uuummm we updated the software and now when we hit the start button the horn blows..... any idea which button might start the engines..." hehe my hubby is funny. Soon we were underway. We went back to O'Sheehans for dinner, prime rib night but I was going to get the corned beef. Instead I ordered the prime rib with NO gravy. It was great! Very tender however the wings and mozzarella sticks were still lukewarm and not good.

 

The next day was Tortola. We were off the ship at 6:45 am, bleh! But we had a private excursion with Patouche charters to go to the Baths. Joe Standish was great about answering emails and assured us that even if no one else booked, that we would still go! Luckily 3 others booked with us. He met us outside of the pier area (keep walking across the gravel lot after you leave the pier until you get to the sidewalk) and we walked to his boat, short walk. We went straight to the Baths with Joe telling us stories along the way, but when we got there the waves were pretty big and breaking against the beach that we were to swim to. Joe kind of asked us but kind of told us that swimming in would not work. We understood, it was obvious that it would be dangerous to try it. Instead we went snorkeling. Some of the best coral I have seen and lots of fish and a eagle ray to go with it. Then we went to Coopers Island beach club for lunch. Excellent food and so nice to just lounge on the beach chairs and take in the beautiful view. The food and bushwhackers were fabulous!! We went to another snorkel spot on the way back, lots of turtles. Joe had us back to the pier by 1:40 pm feeling warm and fuzzy from the rum punch he provides (along with beer and sodas) Loved the excursion and the boat with only 5 of us on it. Plenty of room and great music!!

[aamechs2]

We lazed arond in our room until dinner time, we went to the Taste restaurant. We had chicken fried chicken and Steak Dianne, both were excellent. That night was the Headliners comedy. Great comedians and an enjoyable venue.

 

Woke the next morning to rain, and the seas got rougher. We could definitely feel alot of motion in the front. The rain cleared up about 1:00 pm but the seas stayed rough. We read alot and just hung out. Dinner at the Taste again, I'm not sure what we had but my journal said that it was good. Pots de creme for dessert that was excellent.

 

The next day we arrived in Nassau about 11:30. Beautiful views coming in. We had been here several times so we opted to get off, do a little shopping and get back on. Very crowded around the port area. We got back on and went once more to do the slides. As you can see, they were that much fun! We also went back to the Spice H2O area for awhile, not many people back there so it was nice to find chairs. We ate lunch at the Flamingo Grill and the chicken and chimichurri sauce was great. We packed our stuff up and decided to go eat at Wasabi. Easily the best meal of the cruise, lending credence to our theory that they are pushing people toward the specialty restaurants. Disembarkation was easy, we walked off and were in a cab by 8:00 am. Make sure that you get a private taxi, they try to put you in a van and wait for others but a taxi to the airport for 2 was only $25.

 

I'm not sure who this review will help. I don't think that we will said NCL again. We want our main dining room food to be good and sometimes great and NCL just doesn't accomplish that. If I got a super cheap fare, I might be willing to go and pay for the better dinners but that doesn't help with breakfast and lunch. I was surprised that the pizza and burgers on the buffet were so bad, I don't know if I've ever had bad pizza on a cruise before now. We also didn't try room service because in our experience, it's never very good and I didn't want to pay $7.95 for bad food. I'm as surprised as anyone that we didn't enjoy the food, we're not real picky, my hubby isn't picky at all, and even he was disappointed.

[Mandy412]

I'm a foodie and me and my best friend were told that the food is really good but based on the reviews, I have a feeling that I'll be disappointed. Your trip sounded like it was fun though.

[Sadebud]

Your thoughts on the entire ship experience MIRROR ours! We had not sailed NCL since 2004, and recently went on the Getaway (09/12/15 - 09/19/15). While the ship was beautiful, food and service in MDRs was awful. We did do 3 specialty restaurants where food was indeed better, however, service not so much. Flamingo Grill we thought was pretty good, and only ate lunch in O'Sheehan's once. No dinners there. DH and I had fun...we always do try to make the best of it, but we will not be sailing NCL anytime soon either. Especially with their new "upcharges" in the MDR. The new "included" menus do look to be an improvement, but then again, it couldn't get much worse.

[aamechs2]

I reread my review and it's kind of boring. I really don't want to diss NCL but I was so bummed with the food. We had good service, some great service, our room steward, Bart, was awesome, but it couldn't make up for the food. Especially since we're not super picky. I wish I had paid more attention to what people liked in the dining rooms so that I would've ordered that food. Though I know people have different tastes, at least it might have helped. I have never had anything as bad as that crab and fish cake, honestly inedible.

 

The ports were great and we loved having 3 sea days.

[escentialssoycandles]

I'm a foodie and me and my best friend were told that the food is really good but based on the reviews, I have a feeling that I'll be disappointed. Your trip sounded like it was fun though.

 

I can only speak to my experience on the Epic a few years back. I did not enjoy the food in the least however I only ate in the Buffet and MDR.

 

I am told that the food in the specialties is much better, therefore I have booked 4 on my upcoming cruise. I will be writing a full review and posting all the Dailies, Menus etc when I return as we are on the first Western Caribbean 7 night sailing.

[escentialssoycandles]

I reread my review and it's kind of boring. I really don't want to diss NCL but I was so bummed with the food. We had good service, some great service, our room steward, Bart, was awesome, but it couldn't make up for the food. Especially since we're not super picky. I wish I had paid more attention to what people liked in the dining rooms so that I would've ordered that food. Though I know people have different tastes, at least it might have helped. I have never had anything as bad as that crab and fish cake, honestly inedible.

 

The ports were great and we loved having 3 sea days.

 

Can you confirm if the MDR was using the new menus with the A la Carte add ons?

[flyboy777]

I'm a foodie and me and my best friend were told that the food is really good but based on the reviews, I have a feeling that I'll be disappointed. Your trip sounded like it was fun though.

 

Hi Mandy,

 

We also were a bit concerned about the negitive reviews of service and food quality. I almost did not book on Getaway based on that.:confused:

 

Fear not!:) We sailed on 10/24/15 and loved the service and the food was just good at worst and wonderful at best. We liked it so much that we are also sailing next week on Getaway again only to the Western Caribbean.

 

That being said, we are also "foodies" and just ordered something else if we didn't like what came to the table. The food in the buffet is "buffet food. The service in the MDRs was 90% spot on. Some training going on here and there but I still think the service was excellent.

 

Heres a link to my whole review:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=521116

 

It's easy to get sucked in to others discontent. Getaway is not perfect, but I thought it was close to it for two mid 40's foodie / travel fiends:o.

[Mandy412]

I went over thanksgiving and thought the food was great and loved the ship and itinerary. I thought the MDR food was great and loved Flamingo's. The reviews were worth a grain. I'm dying to go back!

[flyboy777]

Glad you had a great trip, T minus 6 and counting!