NCL Getaway 1/31 - 2/14 B2B Week 1: Not so freestyle / Norwegians know how to queue

[cavok]

Short background: we are a somewhat experienced cruising couple from Switzerland. very easy-going and married in our 30's. all cruises so far were on Celebrity, albeit on different ships. Solstice and Eclipse being our favourites (and that certainly won't change after these cruises)

We are right now in the turnaround at Miami on a 2-week B2B on NCL Getaway, just returned from Week 1 with Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and GSC (Great Stirrup Cay, NCL's private island) as stops.

We wanted to try out a different line, looking for slightly younger demographics, a few more entertainment options, more contemporary music and a ship that doesn't roll up the boardwalk past 11p.m.

 

 

Here's our impressions after Week 1 so far:

 

in general we are rather underwhelmed unfortunately, the ship feels extremely crowded compared to the S-class and there is constant queueing with a lot of pushing and shoving. service and food are very hit and miss.

despite this, we are enjoying ourselves and are still having a good time. it's not a bad cruise by any means, just not on the level we've gotten used to.

but what we confirmed again in any case is that we love cruising as a vacation!

but we're very unlikely to "jump ship" towards NCL. deals at the time would have to be extremely favourable.

 

 

first to the highlights/upsides:

 

+ O'sheehan's 24h food/sports-bar/pub/beer joint is really nicely executed, good food, decent service, always open.

 

+ the coffee machine/maker in the stateroom is really nice and my wife is loving it! (Hamilton Beach brand with individual sachets/portions). Definitely something celebrity should have! daily replenished by the room steward. and - as somewhat of a suprise on NCL - no extra charge!

 

+ Howl at the Moon duelling piano show is awesome. Three musicians that entertain for 4 hours non-stop by playing requests, alone or together, mixed in with some funny jokes. Also, no extra charge!

 

+ Burn the floor production show really good (though a bit "more-of-the-same" after 20min or so)

 

+ the Great Stirrup Cay private island concept is awesome (walk a few yards further than most lazy people and you are almost by yourself ;-)

 

+ younger demographics and more families as expected, which we think is good and makes us feel less out of place ;-)

 

+ enough whirlpools between the pool deck and spice H2O

 

+ spice H2O adult/party area

 

+ plenty of activities like the ropes course, climbing wall and water slides. though they're kind of one-time things and their thrill factor wears off really fast.

 

+ ship doesn't go dead at 11pm

 

+ drink service at bars relatively quick despite a lot of bev. packages (freebie for many at time of booking). also proactive info about the tax having to be paid in port at miami. that does not mean happy service, see below...

 

+ we got really lucky when we booked around the time they released holds on handicapped cabins, so we got quite some extra space over a "regular" balcony cabin, and the balcony can be called that which is normally barely the case, as they are extremely narrow.

 

+ ship is in really good shape

 

+ a few single individual crew we found very friendly, motivated and providing excellent service (stateroom attendant, one MDR server, one bar server). this is one of the reasons why we prefer sailing for 2 weeks on the same ship. one needs to find the go-to crew first.

 

+ some of the food is quite good and absolutely comparable to celebrity.

generally red meats and desserts are really good. we will only go for specialty dining once next week. garden buffet, breakfast and the sides on the MDR items are more hit and miss. shanghai noodle bar has excellent food but terrible ambiance.

 

+ whole-ship "bingo"-type announcements less annyoing and less frequent than expected

 

 

now to the underperforming aspects:

 

- ship feels crowded, lots of queueing going on for lots of things, we joked whether we should record the time spent in queues this vacation :-(

 

- port/checkin agent wasn't on top of things and demotivated (first impression counts?!)

 

- cruise started with a really slow and chaotic boarding, barely any "productive" information/announcements at all.

 

- boarding group numbers were used multiple times in cycles without further explanation #22,24 and then #4,6 etc... creating anxiousness among some.

 

- we are sorry, but the average fellow passenger can only be described as "less classy", littering, pushing and shoving, smoking where not allowed etc... quite common :-( and no, not because of the younger demographics or the kids!

 

- the public areas of the ship have critical "orifices" that hinder easy flow, clearly to maximize revenue space like slot machines, more specialty restaurants etc... also, pax flow around the elevators or in the buffet area is way worse. very visible after the safety drill. we have been walking stairs all week, but not just for our fitness ;-)

 

- the iconcierge app, while really an excellent idea/concept, works somewhat on my wife's iphone but is a total failure on my android. on the iphone, the functionality is not even up to par with the stateroom tv, while on android the app constantly crashed with some obscure language code error (despite trying to switch the phone to U.S. english). the reply of the internet manager was only "we know, it's been reported a while ago". the idea is super, execution really weak.

 

- "freestyle" is merely an advertising slogan and doesn't work at all. another total failure. we've experienced so many inconsistencies. first, the ship is fully booked/reserved for just about everything! from shows to all the dining (including MDR's) and even tendering (in the entertainment section on the stateroom tv's by the way?!). then, because of that, there are always a ton of no shows (like 50% e.g. for late night comedy), so you eventually get in, but with second choice seats only, standing in yet another queue, late notice etc... we intentionally tried to be passive and see how things go in the first week, not wanting to run around with an agenda / schedule on vacation and really enjoying "freestyle". after this first week, we'll absolutely try to reserve everything and anything that we possibly can for the second week. also, we will try out vibe as we should be among the first back on the ship, last week was absolutely no chance for that with boarding group #20.

 

- where celebrity puts the most experienced Maitre'd's at the entrance of the dining rooms, here it seems like the most novice, inexperienced, language-challenged and shortsighted people get the job. this is probably our biggest gripe in terms of service/dropped balls so far. borderline to stupid. the night of embarkation was particularly messy but not only. the "freestyle" wait at 9:00p.m. was still 40min on either MDR?! that was bad enough, but the lady also could not assure us whether we would still be served, despite being on the waitlist! only comment was "this is the first night, so people don't know how things work yet". totally not helpful for us, and a sign of more to come. so we ended up eating at shanghai's with no wait but fast-food ambiance. the next night we intentionally showed up late/in an explicitly "green" period as is displayed on various screens around the MDRs, at around 9:15pm. another lady, barely able to speak english, mentioned that there was still a waitlist of appx 30min (how can the screen be green in that case?) and that they also closed at 10p.m., again unable to explain to us what this now meant for us (we later learned and confirmed that closing at 10 in fact means latest sitting down at 10) and couldn't tell us whether we would still be served at the expected 9:45p.m. or not. at the same time she also didn't think about checking whether one of the other MDRs had space. sure enough, one of them had no wait (and technically would have closed 9:30p.m. already). another night, we got in after yet another waitlist (starting to get the 'hang), yet there were plenty of empty tables and also waiters sitting idle (reservations but no-shows maybe?). the next night, another similar scenario, but this time after all that mess, we had made reservations for 9:30p.m. and we also mentioned not minding sharing a table. us 2 were seated at a table for six! yet we saw the "entrance lady" turn down 2 couples before we even had the menus/seen our waiters yet. we later chatted with one of those couples and they were never offered nor would have minded sharing a table with us and had ended up eating at the buffet. Long story short - seriously broken table management at the MDRs.

 

- crew in general seem overworked and not in the best mood, with very few exceptions unfortunately. staff a bit more cheery.

 

- officers much less visible and if, then in a quite unsympathetic "not getting the hands dirty - commanding the crew around" type fashion. maybe related to the unhappy crew?

 

- "cold" smoke from the casino and casino noise reaches almost everywhere on 678 ocean place. kills the ambiance for the shanghai noodle bar as well as the sushi and oyster bar. poor design.

 

- UBP drink package (which we opted for as one of the perks at time of booking, looked like the most value up front) is a really terrible value, which we would never book regularly. way too expensive considering what all is not included. water is not included (irrespective of basic water or premium water, unlike on celebrity). yet also, a regular 1l bottle of water at a bar is charged with $5.50 plus 18% gratuity, what a ripoff! We bought a 24pack of water in jamaica and hauled it onboard. similar story with premium coffees, somewhat offset by the in-room coffee machine. also, while all the "hard alcohol" is quite nice and good, the selection of beers and wines is really quite limited and e.g. no port wines for dessert available.

 

- service is very much so-so. sometimes really good, sometimes really bad. drinks at dinner are a good example. unless you order drinks upfront (without ever being handed a drink menu, and if, then incomplete), you can be sure to get to the main course without either wine or soft drinks, possibly not even being inquired about it! very similar situation at the buffet. no anticipation of anything by crew at all :-(

 

- ship feels extremely "anonymous", since everyone is on a totally different schedule/location/server every night. the only place where we "met" people really was in the hot tubs! and we hit it off with one waiter from south africa. but the "freestyle" system is unable to seat us with him every night.

 

- great stirrup cay tendering was quite annoying. whereas celebrity keeps things flowing with an almost hop on hop off method and many tenders including some of the larger lifeboats, here, there was again lots of waiting and queueing both ways to fill a total of two smaller boats and one 450pax tender ship coming from shoreside, no lifeboats in use.

 

- also, once on GSC, ginger ale was already out by noon (the time we got there after tendering without previous reservation) and the bar shut by 2p.m. (the one by the lagoon), so the drink package hardly could be used at all.

 

now we're looking forward to the second week :-) really glad not having to leave the ship yet... and let us know if you have any questions!

 

cavok

[drneal]

Thank you for the "head's up". It's always good to have realistic expectations before the cruise.

What would you do differently on the 2nd cruise?

Eat earlier? More reservations? Are most of the reservations made on the ship?

[cruise crazed]

I just got off the Getaway on January 31st. I definitely recommend reservations for everything. We made reservations and every thing was on time.

 

I agree with the posters observations. There were many rude people on the cruise. Many treated the staff disrespectfully. However that being said we enjoyed our cruise and would cruise NCL again.

[Sizzlechest]

I'll chime in to say that your pros and cons are mostly spot on. The Breakaway class ships are not "scaled up jewel class" designs. They're complete redesigns that are bigger, but contain more subdivided areas that end up being smaller considering the number of passengers the ships hold. Anytime a large number of people want to do the same thing at the same time, queues are going to form. Freestyle is mostly dead on the newer ships and I'd suggest planning your itinerary in advance of boarding. If you're looking for a more freestyle experience, try one of the Jewel class ships.

[3CanadianBears]

I wonder what is causing the delay in seating in the MDR's? We sailed at New Years (so, it was a full ship for sure), and only ate in the MDR's. Never waited. We usually ate around 8pm, group of 3. Maybe the timing is the difference?

 

Not sure how NCL interprets "closed at 10pm" for the MDR's - is that last seating or last meal served. Is it the same with the specialty restaurants? Can you reserve 45 mins prior to "closing"?

[helen haywood]

I sailed our first NCL cruise on Getaway last year. (I am Elite Plus with Celebrity and Diamond with Royal.) I guess I was lucky because those two lines (especially on Oasis Class) had already conditioned me to make reservations in advance. I do find it offputting to have to devote a lot of time finding the menus and developing a schedule of when to eat where in order to get to a show....but it seems to be the way it is. On Celebrity you don't need reservations to get into their shows...but they are vastly inferior to NCL and Royal!

 

I'm sure it would have been wonderful to have sailed on NCL in the beginning when it was totally "freestyle."

 

I don't know if the dining waits are generally for certain times or vary based on each sailing's demographic. At least since you've been on for one week you'll have a better idea of what to do the second week!

 

Our experience as a party of two on Escape was to go around 7-7:30 and if there was a wait it was only five minutes or so.

 

Enjoy your second week!

[retire2cruise55]

Thank you for your review. Going on the Getaway in May. This will be our 1st NCL cruise so it's good to have appropriate expectations.

[FranknBeans]

I sailed our first NCL cruise on Getaway last year. (I am Elite Plus with Celebrity and Diamond with Royal.) I guess I was lucky because those two lines (especially on Oasis Class) had already conditioned me to make reservations in advance. I do find it offputting to have to devote a lot of time finding the menus and developing a schedule of when to eat where in order to get to a show....but it seems to be the way it is. On Celebrity you don't need reservations to get into their shows...but they are vastly inferior to NCL and Royal!

 

I'm sure it would have been wonderful to have sailed on NCL in the beginning when it was totally "freestyle."

 

I don't know if the dining waits are generally for certain times or vary based on each sailing's demographic. At least since you've been on for one week you'll have a better idea of what to do the second week!

 

Our experience as a party of two on Escape was to go around 7-7:30 and if there was a wait it was only five minutes or so.

 

Enjoy your second week!

 

While we haven't and never will sail the Getaway or any other new NCL ships we have sailed Epic and recently the Breakaway in Jan.

We found lots of negatives but the main one was the congestion through out the ship including the foyer areas and also outside of the dining venues.

I think the main problem with these ships is they have crammed in too many venues thus they are all on the small side and extremely loud to the point we couldn't stay, many examples Headliners Club, Bliss Lounge and main theater is half the size of Jewel class ships and Le Bistro is very small and noisy so we chose to sit out front and watch all the drunken obnoxious people go by, some of it was actually entertaining and I was even better than Second City acts.

The bars that are out in the open you had to squeeze through crowds of loud obnoxious drinkers that obviously had the UDP because we've never seen these bars sooooooooo busy on other ships.

[KeithJenner]

Freestyle is mostly dead on the newer ships

 

 

I couldn't disagree more. The options that you have on the newer ships make them perfect for Freestyle.

 

Yes, you need to make reservations if you want to ensure that you can get into a venue at a certain time, but that has always been the case.

 

Freestyle has always been about being able to make your own decisions about what to do, where and with whom. The ability to do so without making reservations has never been part of it to my knowledge.

[Keith1010]

Very thorough review.

 

Keith

[Cruzinnana47]

Enjoyed reading your review and must say after sailing on the Breakaway, agree completely with your honest assessment of the Getaway, which has the same layout.

 

We still enjoy sailing with NCL, but not in any hurry to sail on one of the "megaships" again.

[Sizzlechest]

I couldn't disagree more. The options that you have on the newer ships make them perfect for Freestyle.

 

and then you say...

 

Yes, you need to make reservations if you want to ensure that you can get into a venue at a certain time, but that has always been the case.

 

Pick one. If you can't get into the venue you want, then your definition of freestyle isn't very free? Kinda like Henry Ford's famous quote, "You can have it any color you want as long as it's black."

[KeithJenner]

and then you say...

 

 

 

Pick one. If you can't get into the venue you want, then your definition of freestyle isn't very free? Kinda like Henry Ford's famous quote, "You can have it any color you want as long as it's black."

 

 

I never said that you can't get into the venue you want.

Edited February 7, 2016 by KeithJenner

[Sizzlechest]

I never said that you can't get into the venue you want.

 

See the original post by cavok:

 

the ship is fully booked/reserved for just about everything! from shows to all the dining (including MDR's) and even tendering (in the entertainment section on the stateroom tv's by the way?!). then, because of that, there are always a ton of no shows (like 50% e.g. for late night comedy), so you eventually get in, but with second choice seats only, standing in yet another queue, late notice etc...

 

I had s similar experience on the Breakaway a year and a half ago. Well, I would have had I not made reservations online prior to boarding.

 

An example, you may ask?

 

Splash academy is closed between 5-7 pm on "at sea" days. Let's say you want to see Rock of Ages at 7pm, but don't want to bring the kids to the "R" rated show. Show up to the Splash Academy at 6:45pm and witness the line of people waiting for it to open. Nobody will be done with check-in by 7pm. I hope you have someone who'll hold a seat for you. Down at the theater, there's a line of people who didn't make reservations on stand by like cavok said.

 

Moral of the story: If you have small children and don't want them to go to Rock of Ages with you, you had better reserve the 9pm show on the website before you even get near the ship. Of course, you wouldn't know that or even expect it since you've been told, "When you have thousands of choices, all of them right, that’s Freestyle Cruising."

[KeithJenner]

Yes, it's certainly not ideal although in my experience on the Epic and Getaway, the kids club has opened early in order for people to make the early show.

 

I'm not arguing with the fact that some of these things are an issue, and for many people the way it works is not for them.

 

My point though is simple. Freestyle, by the definition which NCL has used is about you making the choices as to what you want to do. In my opinion, the newer ships are the best for this as they have so many more choices.

 

What they aren't necessarily good for is allowing people to do these things without reservations (although I have generally only ever reserved one or two things and have never had a problem). That isn't something which I have ever seen NCL state as being part of freestyle though. In fact, if anything NCL have pushed the importance of making reservations.

 

I do, by the way, very much agree with you about the 7pm show problem. That's not just a problem on the big ships though. You could easily have made a dining reservation for 7pm on any of the ships and hit this problem.

Edited February 7, 2016 by KeithJenner

[punkincc]

and then you say...

 

 

 

Pick one. If you can't get into the venue you want, then your definition of freestyle isn't very free? Kinda like Henry Ford's famous quote, "You can have it any color you want as long as it's black."

 

Have you never gone to a restaurant at home sans reservation found there was a long wait? Would you dare show up at the extremely popular hot spot in your town without a reservation? When Million Dollar Quartet comes to your town, do you just show up at the box office or do you decide when you want to go and buy a ticket? It works the same way on the Away ships if you want to avoid aggravation and disappointment.

 

Freestyle does not mean instant gratification. It just means you get to choose where you would like to go and when and with whom. You are not being told to show up at 5:30 in the MDR for your dinner with 8 complete strangers. Because the venues are small, it does help a great deal to invest a little time precruise making a few reservations. If the OP had done a little research here precruise, he would have been strongly advised to do this and he would have eliminated most of the frustration he experienced on the ship.

 

By doing a little pre cruise reserving of dinner and shows, and then making some comedy show reservations on board, we were able to make our evenings as full as desired, with dinner and show and then Howl or comedy, or more relaxed with just dinner and maybe some entertainment in one of the bars.

 

One night, our show in the threatre on the Escape was cancelled last minute due to a technical problem. Since we were suddenly free, we decided to ask at the specialty we had reserved for after the show if our late reservation could be moved up. In the length of time it took for us to order and obtain a drink, our party of seven was seated. Another night late in the week, we decided another visit to Cagneys was in order. We were able to call and get the reservation, again for a party of seven. So flexibility is still there.

[crazy4cruzn]

When (and how) can you make tender reservations?

Can you make online before leaving? Or is this strictly once you are on board?

 

Thank you

[Vacationdreamer<><]

Great review. Thanks.

[wmwmarmstrong]

Can't wait until week 2 of your review.

 

I am trying to decide between a cruise on NCL or RCL. I have never been on RCL and when I sailed NCL, you didn't have to make reservations. You went to dinner when you wanted and went to the shows when you wanted.

 

I had no idea you now have to make reservations before even getting on the ship. IMHO I don't consider that Freestyle.

[Demonyte]

When (and how) can you make tender reservations?

 

Can you make online before leaving? Or is this strictly once you are on board?

 

 

Onboard, through the interactive TV system (if the ship has one - otherwise they have a point where they distribute tickets at specific time(s) listed on Freestyle Daily).

[elruth]

To the OP. You may enjoy the somewhat smaller ships in NCL. I too thought the Getaway was very congested and the ambience was more like a contemporary hotel than a cruise ship. We enjoy the Jewel, Pearl, Jade and Gem class much more. We thought the casino on the Getaway was very smoke filled and since it is rather an open location, smoke filters into other areas. Don't give up on NCL! Just don't go on the larger, newer ships as they all have similar configurations.

[karoo]

Great review and thoughts. Having done 25+ cruises with NCL you are so right in many of your observations. Freestyle doesn't really happen on the ships built since the Jewel class. You have to book for everything and if you don't get there super early your booking is given away. The UDP doesn't work either. I love freestyle- after all I'm on vacation. School teacher- so my working life is very regimented. I also come from a country too, where we're not used to lining for anything, so if I see a long line I don't bother. I've done nearly all the ships, but I much prefer the Jewel class without the UDP. My last cruise was on the Sun in January and I just loved the relaxed feel of doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. I found all the crew great too, remembering my preferences etc, both at bars and the MDR. I did attend specialty dining twice, but worried whether I'd picked the right time, night etc.

[European_CruiseGirl]

I agree with you Karoo. I started to Cruise NCL in 2009 and I remember very well Freestyle was then advertized by: "Hey you are on vacation, forget timetables and schedules and don't look at your watch at all". Back in those days I was a serious planner who wanted to plan everything so this was actually very difficult for me. :D :D :D "But I want to plan....". :D

 

Nowadays Freestyle is more of "do whatever you want, whenever you want with whom you want but make sure you know what you want to do around 3 months before your cruise and make reservations early". This does not appeal to me at all. I have changed during the years. :) So for me Jewel class ships are as large as I will ever cruise NCL. There is no way I will start to schedule all my dinners and shows months in advance when I am going on vacation. A couple of specialty restaurants I now booked for my next cruise but there is no way I would reserve main dining room or a show. :D

Edited February 8, 2016 by European_CruiseGirl

[majorjan]

and then you say...

 

 

 

Pick one. If you can't get into the venue you want, then your definition of freestyle isn't very free? Kinda like Henry Ford's famous quote, "You can have it any color you want as long as it's black."

 

Just got off the Getaway-long lines and need to plan and schedule in advance. If you are flexible, it helps. As for the tenders, i believe platinum does not need tickets.

[Sizzlechest]

Have you never gone to a restaurant at home sans reservation found there was a long wait? Would you dare show up at the extremely popular hot spot in your town without a reservation? When Million Dollar Quartet comes to your town, do you just show up at the box office or do you decide when you want to go and buy a ticket? It works the same way on the Away ships if you want to avoid aggravation and disappointment.

 

I'm pretty sure those venues don't advertise themselves as "freestyle." That's the difference you people keep missing.