First time cruisers review of Getaway 12/27/015-1/3/2016

[mom23krzkidz]

Currently on Getaway contemplating our first cruise ever and we all agree it has been amazing. This is our last night and we have had a ton of fun!

 

We had a large balcony room starboard side, for my dh and I, older teens shared an inside. We have decided that shoving ourselves in one room would not have been much fun. I am an early riser...up around 4 am...not good for teens[emoji1]

 

We did NCL excursions, had both spa and vibe passes, had UBP and SDP (3 meals), teen alcohol waiver, did a cash account verses credit card, and a colleague of dh used to work for NCL and talked to the beverage manager on board in advance who treated us nightly to treats and bottles of wine to our room, which was unexpected but tons of fun!

 

We ate at a variety of locations, only bad food was Flamingo Grill...consistently subpar, hot food was always lukewarm and cold food was always lukewarm...gross. Favorite dinner so far has been Le Bistro.

 

Having no comparisons, I am not sure of what a non-holiday cruise is like, but there are an incredible number of kids on this ship. I don't mind them...they are having a great time and have been generally well behaved except for the herd of elephants that jump around in the cabin upstairs for what seems to be hours on end. But we have vibe, a large balcony and spa passes, so we have never spent any time on the sun/pool decks ... Only passed through.

 

Honestly our only complaints are the smokers on the balcony below us that told NCL to just charge them for smoking and they continue to smoke on the balcony and the old fat guy in the room next to our upstairs neighbors that sits on his balcony naked smoking pot...which seems to come straight onto our balcony...lol.

 

Alright, rest time is over...heading off for some fun. I'll finish up when we return home!

[drneal]

I also booked my 2 kids in an inside cabin and was told that I would have to get the cruise documents for them e-mailed to me as I could not have the minor electronically sign the documents. This was fine, but now I am being told that I MUST put one adult in the kids room. I did not want to do this because of the UBP that was given to the balcony room.

Anyway was having the kids under 21 in their own room a problem when doing the on-line check-in?

Thanks

[mom23krzkidz]

Adding...we did self disembark this morning. Up early, in line on deck 7 at 7:30 or so, got off ship at 7:45...went right through customs, no line, walked outside terminal b, got to the taxi stand, got right into a taxi. Made it to the delta lounge after checking bags and going through security at 8:40:) now we sit!

[mom23krzkidz]

I also booked my 2 kids in an inside cabin and was told that I would have to get the cruise documents for them e-mailed to me as I could not have the minor electronically sign the documents. This was fine, but now I am being told that I MUST put one adult in the kids room. I did not want to do this because of the UBP that was given to the balcony room.

 

Anyway was having the kids under 21 in their own room a problem when doing the on-line check-in?

 

Thanks

 

 

We put me in the inside room with my daughter officially and I purchased the UBP for myself...still much cheaper than 2 rooms with package included. We didn't even try to book them alone after reading the difficulties. It was easy once on board to get extra keys.

[queenschick9b]

I just booked this cruise for next year, what were the New Year's Eve activities like?

[mom23krzkidz]

I just booked this cruise for next year, what were the New Year's Eve activities like?

 

 

Parties all over the ship starting around 10 pm. We went to dinner and then legally blonde until 11:30...came out of theater and weaved our way to spice which was packed solid with people ...lost one teen along the way who went to the pool deck. Here is a picture of count down in spice

 

And they gave out noise makers, hats and champagne:) it was loud and crazy and fun[emoji1]

Edited January 3, 2016 by mom23krzkidz

[queenschick9b]

Sounds great :) now I just need to hope I can afford the airfare on a holiday week.

[mom23krzkidz]

Some thoughts now that we have been back in the real world for a couple weeks...

 

The family agrees this was the best vacation we have ever had. We have travelled quite a bit, but hands down they all agree I planned an awesome trip this time[emoji1] and I cannot wait until our next cruise!

 

The details:

 

DH and I...early 40's, and ds(18) and dd(16).

 

We had two rooms...large balcony 9734 and inside 9435.

 

We had spa passes. I went three times, dh went twice. While we thought it was relaxing, it was just not our cup of tea. It was empty while we were there on sea days. We found our large balcony sufficient for relaxing.

 

We also had vibe passes, I went twice, dh went three or four times and ds(18) never even went at all. While I enjoyed the quiet spot for a couple hours on each of the sea days, clearly I did not use it much. If we happen upon them again like we did this time, I would get, but I wouldn't get caught up in the crazy race for them.

 

We did ship excursions and had a cabana in GSC:

 

We had a grand time in GSC. We took an early tender, no wait. Went right to the cabana (12) and got settled for the day. Ds (18) was recovering from a very long night with his new friend corona....so he had it rough on the tender and napped in the corner of the cabana for the entire day. Lesson learned...rest of cruise moderation reigned[emoji106]. Dd(16) took off with her snorkel gear and came back around lunch. We had drinks and food delivered off and on all day. It was marvelous!

 

In ocho rios, we did the horseback ride and swim through the ship. It was wonderful. The guides are a crazy bunch of young men who really work hard to make sure you have a great time...and bonus is they snagged our camera and took tons of really good pics of us on the horses on land and in the water. Never realized horses have such a bony spine...if you do this be prepared for a horse spine up your bum when you essentially go bareback in the water. That was really amazing.

 

In grand Cayman we did our least favorite thing...sting ray city via catamaran. The excursion itself was fun, but dd apparently HATES sting rays...Steve Irwin...and was quite unhappy about this day and when the darn things went past her in the water, she would literally try to climb on our heads. She is 16. She is thin and light, but she is grown and does not fit on my head...lol. Our only real complaint was that the buses back to port weren't big enough so we had to wait a bit for a third bus and then the bus took us to the wrong place and it took quite some time to get back to the boat and arguing with the driver about where we were supposed to be...like over an hour. But we made it in one piece.

 

Then in Cozumel, we had planned he salsa and salsa. Mutiny occurred and I was outvoted and we cancelled that and changed to snorkeling. We asked the shorex guy which snorkeling is best and he said palancar and playa Mia. So we did that...took a boat from the port to the reefs. We had our own gear, jumped in water and had an absolutely wonderful experience. We then get back on the boat where there are alcoholic beverages...and head to playa Mia for some down time. We then get back on the boat and head back to the ship withmore alcoholic beverages and have great party music playing...or as my kids called it great bar mitzvah party music[emoji1]. We had a ton of fun on this excursion and the guys on the boat were amazing!

 

We had no trouble getting drinks at the bars...longest wait was maybe 3 minutes. Casino treated my husband and son well[emoji1]

 

I did the ropes course and behaved like a four old who needed to get off a ride immediately...came right back down lol...but dd fished it and had tons of fun. Clearly my fear of plunging to my death from any height is still solidly settled in. No need to change that lol.

 

It really was a ton of fun! Bonine was perfect at keeping away the queasy feeling...especially the first few days which were really really rocky.

 

We are already talking about our next cruise. We are doing a land vacation this summer for ds's graduation, but dd has already asked for a cruise to Europe for hers in 2017...so the planning begins.

[helpmecruise16]

Do they sell Bonine on the ship?

[mom23krzkidz]

I'm not sure, we bought it on amazon for cheap and brought it with us.