Getaway 12/4 - 12/11 Speed Picture Review

[1620rock]

Thank you for posting review and photos! We are counting down the days until we will be on the Getaway

[notoverthehillyet]

I don't even drink and yet the pics of the yummy looking drinks are awesome! Great commentary.

 

 

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[rayness]

Liking the review! I'm doing the TA next October leaving from Copenhagen and for now solo. I've only sailed on NCL Epic so it's nice to see the differences between the ships. I had a studio cabin on that ship so I'm excited about the balcony this time. The one thing I didn't like was not being able to see the water from my room. I didn't have the drink package on Epic but picked the drink and dining perk this time. I said if I'm going to be on a ship for 2 weeks I'm going to need a drink.

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

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Edited January 1, 2017 by rayness

[jimbri]

Great photos!

[cocod08]

Loving the review and the pictures I was on this sailing too and it's bringing it all back. It was such a great cruise. I too found the hours for Margaritaville odd. I think at least the Bar could have been opened later.

 

 

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[CoffeeGoddess]

Great review. Very nice photos too. Looking forward for more.

 

Loving your review.

Happy New Year!

 

Thank you, I shall be finishing it up here soon.

[CoffeeGoddess]

Glad to hear you had fun! Love reading the review :)

 

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Good, I'm glad you are enjoying it!

 

More

 

More is on the way

[CoffeeGoddess]

Enjoying your review. Love all the photos!

 

Thank you!

 

Thank you for posting review and photos! We are counting down the days until we will be on the Getaway

 

I envy you, it was a really good time.

[CoffeeGoddess]

I don't even drink and yet the pics of the yummy looking drinks are awesome! Great commentary.

 

Ha! I post on Instagram, FB, and Tumblr so I love to take a good cocktail shot.

 

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Great photos!

 

Even the blurry ones? :D Thanks!

[CoffeeGoddess]

Liking the review! I'm doing the TA next October leaving from Copenhagen and for now solo. I've only sailed on NCL Epic so it's nice to see the differences between the ships. I had a studio cabin on that ship so I'm excited about the balcony this time. The one thing I didn't like was not being able to see the water from my room. I didn't have the drink package on Epic but picked the drink and dining perk this time. I said if I'm going to be on a ship for 2 weeks I'm going to need a drink.

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Happy New Year to you as well! I have done the studios several times and I do like having a natural light source in the cabin. Even though the balcony was small, it was nice to sit out there a couple of times and have a coffee (there's a little coffee maker in the room, uses the paper pods like some hotel rooms). I really enjoy the drink package, as you can probably tell. :D

[CoffeeGoddess]

Loving the review and the pictures I was on this sailing too and it's bringing it all back. It was such a great cruise. I too found the hours for Margaritaville odd. I think at least the Bar could have been opened later.

 

 

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I know! When it was the Flamingo Grill the hours they had it open made sense since it was breakfast and lunch servings with no dinners. But you would think that some people might want to do Margaritaville for dinner.

[CoffeeGoddess]

Alright, laundry is in the washer, coffee is in my belly, and I'm ready to finish this up.

 

Before we move on to the next day I have a few more things about Roatan. Bananarama did have free wifi but the code you got from the employees was only good for a couple of hours then you needed to get another one. It was alright for posting to Instagram, checking email, but I wouldn't want to try uploading any huge pictures or videos.

 

Speaking of videos, I just went and grabbed a couple of snap shots from my videos of the reef so here are two of them:

 

This was once I swam through the kidney area and was out on the ocean side of the reef. Not the best picture but you can see the water was a little cloudy probably because it had rained the night before.

 

 

This one was when I was swimming back through the kidney area and you can see that it is shallower and reef is getting closer to the surface. It did get very close in a lot of places but it was pretty easy to see where you needed to go to get out and back.

 

 

On the ports of call board there were several people asking about a beach within walking distance of the port and there actually are a couple that were on the left of the port when on the ship. There wasn't anyone there when we headed out to West Bay but when we were coming back the locals were using both of them. No amenities but a small convenience store near one but they are there if you are looking to take a dip but not get a taxi. Just watch out for the cars going up on the sidewalks when you are walking there!

[Bunnynme]

Thanks for the review. Love the pictures.

[CoffeeGoddess]

Harvest Caye - 12/7

 

Oh the speculation on Harvest Caye when we were all waiting for it to open! It was going to accept the UBP, no it's not going to accept it, no big-wig person told me yes it would, no it won't but you can use your key card, why would you be able to use your key card but not the UBP!?

 

Of course when it did open we finally found out that no, you could not use the UBP but yes, you could use your key card however some places were having issues with that. So I made sure to bring a credit card and some cash with me just to cover my bases but it turned out everywhere I went took the key card (although I did have a bit of an issue at one bar).

 

Now, I am normally one of the first people off the ship but not this cruise. It was probably because of the cold hibernating in my body but I slept in every day this cruise and we would get off about an hour or so after docking. We hit the buffet for breakfast and Opfor wanted to see if she could still sign up for the zip line on the island.

 

 

 

She had asked at the excursion desk this morning as I was dragging myself out of bed and they told her to try on the island since they couldn't sell any now on board. We headed on down to the pier and walked over to the information hut that's right inside the gate area. They pointed her to the lighthouse to see if there was anything available. Since we had to pass the pool we stopped there and I set myself up on one of the loungers in the shade and she went on to the lighthouse. They did have a spot for her as I found out later when I was walking around taking pictures but she had to wait until 11. I wasn't sure how long it would take so we said we'd meet for lunch.

 

The pool was just the right temperature and was not very crowded in the morning.

 

 

 

Found TheDougout's melons. Wait that doesn't sound right . . .

 

The swim up bar was busy but not too busy you couldn't get a drink and you take them with you anywhere in the pool or outside it.

 

 

The loungers back from the pool still had quite a few open spots but the ones closest to it had been taken already. After a couple more hours they were basically all claimed, event he empty one by me had a couple grab it to put their stuff on it. By the time I had had lunch and found Opfor again people were starting to move them around and group any single ones they could find in threes and fours, some of them trying to fit in the umbrella shade some of them looking for sun. I recommend going early if you want loungers by the pool.

[CoffeeGoddess]

Thanks for the review. Love the pictures.

 

Thanks for reading!

[CoffeeGoddess]

I thought the zero level pool entry was a nice touch but it appeared that a few people who had some mobility issues didn't know about it since I saw a couple struggling with getting up the stairs while I was in my lounger.

 

 

The drink prices weren't too bad and they had about the same things available at all the bars. While they had waiters coming around the pool you had to flag them down or ask the attendant for one, they wouldn't just come up and ask if you wanted anything.

 

 

The pool cabanas looked nice and I asked the attendant if they came with anything like water or a fruit plate but he said they did not, just an attendant who would come by for orders. I asked if they were selling any of the empty ones at a lower price then what was on the ship but he wasn't.

 

 

After swimming for a bit I decided to walk around and check out the island. The beach area started right past the pool and there were plenty of chairs with umbrellas.

 

 

 

Once you got past the Landshark Grill, the loungers on the beach didn't have umbrellas. Still there were plenty of them available throughout the day.

 

 

They had beer/soda carts on the beaches but I didn't stop at one so I can't confirm if they only take cash or not. I did stop at the bar right off the beach and got a beer. First they tried with my key card and the guy said it didn't go through so asked for cash. I hadn't brought that much so I asked if I could use a credit card. He said ok and tried that but said it wasn't going through. Then another guy tried my credit card and then brought it back to me saying it didn't go through but it was "ok". It was confusing and I thought they were just giving me the beer but what actually happened was that the key did go through. I found the charge on my account when I got back. This was the only issue I had using the key card or a credit card.

[CoffeeGoddess]

Some people were concerned about the sand being coarse in the beach area and I can say it is not the powdery white sand that was at Roatan. You can still see some shell pieces in it but it wasn't sharp or overly rough on the feet. I did go into the water a little but it did get deep fairly quickly and there was a bit of a "hump" at the area where the water met the beach, at least on the far side of the beach.

 

 

Most of the shops were occupied and open and I did get some chocolate at the chocolate shop there. They were taking cash, card, or key card and had no difficulty using my credit card.

 

 

I did walk through the wildlife area but the only thing they had were toucans and a python and I did not go in the butterfly enclosure. I also didn't stop by the boat dock to see if there were any water taxis or anything like that so can't answer any questions on that, sorry!

 

By this time I was getting hungry so decided to pick up my stuff from the lounger and head to the Landshark Grill for something. It was pretty busy inside at 12:30 but I got a seat at the bar. The bartenders were really busy and it took a bit to get my order in but the beach chips were really good and worth the wait.

 

 

 

I found Opfor after lunch and she regaled me with the zip line tales. She had a lot of fun and, since all of them weren't working yet, they only charged her the $55 for doing one line but let her do all the ones that were open. I asked her if she wanted to eat on the island but she decided to eat on the ship. So we walked through the shops and then headed back to the ship. We did wait and take a gold cart with a bunch of other people since she was tired and had somehow cut her leg while doing the zip lines.

 

Back on ship she had the jerk wings and a shepherd's pie while I got the Ruben.

 

 

 

I headed to the spa then while she took a nap. Tonight we were going to have dinner at Le Bistro.

[CoffeeGoddess]

After our respective relaxations we got dressed for dinner and then went to the Sugarcane for a pre-dinner drink. As people have mentioned on here before the drink prices have gone up and now there were several drinks that had previously been covered under the $15 limit that were now $17. She had ordered a Dark and Stormy at the atrium earlier in the trip which was now $17 because it was made with a certain rum. We asked if it could be made with a different rum to bring it down to the $15 limit and they didn't have any problem accommodating that. This time she wanted to try the cucumber jalapeno mojito without the jalapeno which is the one mojito on the menu there that is $17.95. While the bartender didn't have any problem just making it a cucumber mojito he wouldn't change the rum to a less expensive one because "that's what the drink uses". She paid the extra $2.95 plus 18% but it was still a bit crappy since all the other ones used a different rum. I got a Pacific Ocean.

 

 

 

 

When you sit at a bar for a bit to drink, they'll give you some munchies which varies from bar to bar. At the Sugarcane it's spicy cornuts and a rice cracker mix at the Sunset Bar. The Prime Meridian has nuts which the bartender uses as innuendo as we were to find out the next night.

 

 

I finished mine and since we still had a little time ordered the Woahito. IT was really good and I probably would order this one instead of their regular one.

 

 

In case you're keeping track, yes, I did drink more than her. I told her at the very beginning of the trip that when she was with me on vacation that she needed to prepare her liver.

 

We headed on down to Le Bisto and I got a picture of her with the tree as we were waiting for our table since her dress was just as festive.

 

Edited January 1, 2017 by CoffeeGoddess

[CoffeeGoddess]

Had to go get the clothes out of the dryer and get the rest of the Champagne. Where were we, oh yeah, Le Bistro!

 

I tried out Le Bistro for my birthday this year on the Jewel when I brought my mum along (see link for review in my signature) and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. With the SDP this time it was a must do. They asked us if we wanted to sit inside or out on their little patio and we chose the patio. The table was pretty small and we had to hold our menus the entire time since there was no place to put them and they were posted on piece of wood.

 

 

 

We also had to wait a bit for someone to come and take our order. I was a little surprised at this since service had been perfect on the Jewel and hoped it did not portend bad service to come. Thankfully it did not as once our server appeared he was on the ball the entire dinner. My mother had the mushroom soup on the Jewel and I knew I needed that in my life for this dinner while the Opfor chose the seafood medley for her appetizer.

 

 

 

Oh, a short aside. If you click on the pictures you'll go to my Flickr album (I have more that I am not posting) and you'll probably see I use my friend's actual name in them. For this I decided to use one of her nicknames which the full version of it is "OpFor (aka Opposing Force), the cute little enemy soldier". No, she was not allowed to join the military because of her eyesight but she did do ROTC throughout high school and college.

 

I thought about champagne but we both got the Emperor's Nectar for our drinks. Opfor surprised me by choosing the sole not the lamb while I got the scallops.

 

 

[CoffeeGoddess]

 

When it was time for dessert we both wound up choosing the creme brulee. While we were waiting for dessert we saw that the table next to us inside had ordered the huge 30-some ounce two person meat chunk and watched in awe as they presented it and then sliced it for the people. I tried to take a picture but the reflections made it almost impossible to see.

 

 

 

Oh, another thing happened about halfway through dinner. A group that had been inside came outside to the patio once there was room for them. They were saying how much quieter it was outside and that they had been surprised that people inside were so noisy. I guess it all depends on the people who are in attendance that night as to what will be noisier because we had another couple sit down next to us during dinner and they were upset to be sitting outside because it was "too noisy".

 

After dinner I headed to the spa and opfor did her wanderings. When I got back in the room we had a towel animal and our laundry that we had sent out the day before under the special. I did note while looking at my account that they gave me my gold discount even though it was a special which was alright of them.

 

 

 

While at the spa I made an appointment for their special the next morning. My right shoulder had been bothering me since Roatan so I figured a bamboo massage might be the thing to help.

[cruise47]

Thanks for sharing your review and pictures. Looks liked the cruises was awesome.

[kenlyn]

Loving your play by play review! 26 days til my second turn on the Getaway! Keep it up I'm enjoying every word!

[aimealamort]

Thank you for the review and pictures! We'll be on Getaway (first cruise too) on Jan 22nd, so excited.

 

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[CoffeeGoddess]

Costa Maya - 12/8

 

I love reading reviews here on the site and I do read other lines pages as well as the port of calls board so having read Mitsugirlie's review I knew we wanted to go to Blue Kay. First though, I had a massage at the spa.

 

I did one of their specials where you get either a hot stone or bamboo massage, a quick facial, and a foot massage. I chose the bamboo because I'm used to getting a great massage every month were my guy works out those knots. The therapist said I was "brave" when she heard I was getting bamboo but I had to ask her to up the pressure a bit when she was doing my back. The facial was a wash since I told her I had sensitive skin but two of the things she put on my face she had to wash off immediately because of the stinging and burning. The rest of it was good and worth the money.

 

 

 

Costa Maya looked absolutely beautiful from our balcony and the day was warm but not too hot or muggy.

 

 

I gathered up the Opfor and we headed down that long pier to the port shops and then on outside it to the taxis. Wait, how the hell do we get out of this place? It was seriously a trial to find your way out of the port area. I wound up cutting through a shop because I could see another aisle beyond because what looked like they would be exists were blocked off.

 

Finally we got to where the taxis were dropping people off but they, of course, wouldn't pick you up there. We walked out past the gate and it was apparent where to pick up a taxi because they were all congregated there. It did take a little to actually get a taxi because the first guy didn't know what Blue Kay was and then another person who looked like he was coordinating taxis told us to get into this minivan with some other people when we told him we wanted to go to Blue Kay. Finally we were full and we headed out for a not too long of a drive. They dropped us all off right at the office and we went in to tell them we wanted to get loungers. The front desk pointed us to the beach and said someone would help us there. We walked towards the beach and sure enough we were intercepted and placed at a covered seating area when we said we wanted shade.

 

It was $5 per person and he put a wrist band on us and we both got a margarita for that. They brought us menus and we both ordered lunch. I got the beef nachos and Opfor got the small shrimp ceviche which was pretty big for a small.

 

 

 

Edited January 1, 2017 by CoffeeGoddess

[CoffeeGoddess]

Thanks for sharing your review and pictures. Looks liked the cruises was awesome.

 

It really was! This was my first time at these ports but I do want to come back soon.

 

Loving your play by play review! 26 days til my second turn on the Getaway! Keep it up I'm enjoying every word!

 

Lucky! I'm sure you will also have a great time.