My (Pretty Extensive) Thoughts on our Getaway Cruise!

[CTnewcruiser]

Just off the Getaway April 1, and while I don’t think Icould make it through a day-by-day review, I wanted to share some thoughts onour first NCL cruise! DH (41), myself(39) and our DS (15) traveled from Maryland to Miami and stayed in a Havenforward facing penthouse suite. I just finished writing this and I realize thatit’s very long…sorry!

 

Room 11706 This room is actually3 rooms, if you count the huge bathroom, which, since it’s larger than mybathroom at home, I do! The main room has a small dining table with fourchairs, a couch, a chair, two storage ottomans with a tabletop that sat on top,a desk and a tv on a stand with lots of drawers. The balcony access is behind the chair. It was a little tight getting out to it, andthe balcony wasn’t huge, but big enough for a small table and two chairs. Since the room is in the corner of the ship,the balcony ceiling is slanted on one side, but that didn’t bother us. The couch in the living area turns into a bedthat DS slept on and said was very comfortable. The second room is a master bedroom with a king bed, two nightstands, asmall vanity area with stool, two closets, and a kind of long bureau withdrawers. It’s actually the bedroomwindow that looks directly out over the front of the ship. The bathroom can only be accessed through thebedroom, which caused some issues, but we worked it out. There are double sinks, a soaking tub and separateshower with more nozzles than I’ve ever seen. Seriously, at least eight different ways for water to come out. The toilet is hidden behind a frosted glassdoor. There is plenty of storage – we evenhad some empty drawers. Not beingdirectly in the Haven was a little bit inconvenient, we trekked up there manytimes per day.

 

The Haven Absolutely wonderfulexperience. Our flight was late arriving(the pilot didn’t show up!), so my nerves were shot by the time we arrived atthe port, right around 11:15. The linewas ginormous, but we only had to stand in the very first part of it beforebeing ushered into the Haven area. Theyhad already taken the earlier arrivals up to the ship, so it was just us andanother family filling out our forms while snacking on salmon toasts and littleham and cheese sandwiches. After all ourforms were turned in and our passports scanned, someone escorted us past allthe line, onto the ship and up to the Haven, using a dedicated elevator. The whole process took maybe 20 minutes. This was definitely a relaxing way to startour trip!

 

The Haven area itself is beautiful. The whole thing feels very open, while stillmanaging to have lots of seating in the lobby, the restaurant, and the poolarea. In the corner of the pool deck,there is a self-serve station with a couple of non-alcoholic drinks and snacks,which I thought was very nice. None ofthe areas were ever crowded. Not oncedid we wait at the bar or the restaurant and we never had trouble finding alounge chair. There were severaloccasions, particularly in the evenings, when DH and I would go to the hot tuband have the entire pool deck to ourselves. It would have been nice to have a waiter taking drink orders from aroundthe pool/sun areas, but that seems like a very mild complaint when the bar isjust steps away, and really I only even thought of it because I’ve heard that’show it works in Vibe.

The concierges, Virginia and Lyster, were terrific. Virginia, in particular, remembered everyone’snames and was always cheerful. I knewgoing in that I had made my dining and entertainment reservations onlinewithout knowing the Entourage schedule, something I was really concernedabout. Once we had that, they were ableto help me switch everything around so that DS could attend all of the teenevents he wanted and still meet us for dinners in the specialtyrestaurants. The only thing we had anyissues with was Teppanyaki, but eventually we were able to get that switchedtoo! As far as the comedy shows, MillionDollar Quartet and Burn the Floor, we could ask for those reservations aslittle as an hour before. Our butler,Raymond, was great too. When we firstarrived, I was a little intimidated by the coffee maker, and he gave me a tutorial😊. He brought us breakfast on all of our portdays (we were able to order from the Haven’s main menu) and afternoon snacksevery day. It was always fun to returnto our room after coming in from a port trip and anticipating what might bewaiting for us.

 

Dining We ate at three specialtyrestaurants (Moderno, La Cucina, and Teppanyaki) as well as the Illusionarium, theHaven restaurant and Cagney’s. We alsodid the Ocean Blue lunch counter and ordered room service a few times. DS ran through the buffet with friends tograb snacks once or twice, but none of us ate a meal there. We didn’t dine at the three main dining roomsbut looked at the menus a couple of times and they looked tasty. We were always deterred by the crowds aroundthe door, although if we had come back later I think it’s likely it would havebeen less crowded.

 

DS loves both Brazilian steakhouses and teppanyakirestaurants, so we are very familiar with those experiences. Moderno was good, but in my opinion, Fogo deChao (chain Brazilian steakhouse) has a much larger salad bar and more variedselection in the meat. What we had was deliciousthough, particularly the bacon wrapped filet. They were very good about making the rounds with the meat and it waseasy to request a particular item. Teppanyakiwas kind of the opposite, in that I thought the food was much better than ourlocal restaurant of this kind. The chefswere also MUCH funnier. I don’t knowwhat we enjoyed more – the food or the entertainment! Quick word of warning though, their specialtycocktails are super strong. La Cucina isnot a restaurant we planned to dine at, until we walked by the outside tablesone evening. They looked so pretty thatwe decided to try it, and were really glad we did. We did request an outdoor table and had areally lovely evening. The food was verygood too😊.

 

DH and I actually dined at the Illusionarium twice. We did the wine tasting dinner, and then thethree of us did the evening show. I wasnot impressed with the food either time. The entrée was very similar, steak with fried shrimp for lunch and steakwith grilled shrimp for dinner. Thegrilled shrimp was better than the fried. Both times, we were told that the steak would be medium to medium rare,but instead was more medium well to well done. The best part of both meals was the appetizers – a salad with grilledduck for lunch and a tomato and mozzarella salad for dinner. They served a brownie cheesecake for lunchand a trio of desserts for dinner. I don’tlike cheesecake, but DH said it was fine. I thought all three of the evening trio were dry.

 

We loved the Haven dining room. We ate breakfast there three times, dinnertwice, and did the poolside lunch once. The salmon frittata on the breakfast menu is one of my favorite thingsever! DS really liked the pancakes. Besides the breakfast menu, there is also a continentalbreakfast buffet set up in the corner that we sometimes grabbed muffins oryogurt from to complement our menu selections. On the last sea day, there was a lavish exotic fruit spread out by thepool during breakfast that was really neat. We had dinner there twice, once just DH and I and again with all threeof us. Both times I had the shrimpcocktail, the butter lettuce salad, the surf and turf with scallops instead ofshrimp, and the chocolate cake. Althoughit doesn’t change, the menu is not small and there were more things I thoughtabout, but honestly, the first meal was so good I just wanted it again! DH and DS did branch out a bit more andabsolutely everything we ate there was delicious. We only did the poolside lunch, which is amuch more abbreviated menu than the regular lunch menu and I wish we had gottena chance to eat lunch inside. The hotdogand cheeseburger DS and I ordered were fine, but not amazing. DH’s swordfish burger was definitely thestandout.

 

Our room service breakfasts were also very good. We ordered room service a couple other times,mostly late at night, and basically ordered very basic things like the BLT,grilled cheese, PBandJ, and the cheese plate. They do cut the crusts off of all the sandwiches😊! We ate at Cagney’s once, the night theyserved ribs and shrimp for dinner. Itwas okay. My fish and chips were kind ofsoggy. I would have tried it again,though, if there had been time. On thelast sea day, DH and I ate lunch at the Ocean Blue outside counter. We had the calamari, the crab toast and thelobster rolls. It was all prettygood. I didn’t like the flavor of thetoast, and I wished the lobster rolls was just a little more flavorful.

 

Entourage My son really enjoyedthe teen club and actually made friends he is still talking to. I think it was really important that he wentthe first night and participated in the ice breaker activities, although thoseweren’t his favorite. He especiallyenjoyed the video game tournaments and the games like Manhunt and Zombie. Dodgeball After Dark was a favorite aswell. There was a party with a differenttheme each evening from 11-1am, but DS isn’t really a party kid, so he onlywent to the one on the last night. Somethingthat was different from the other two cruises we’ve done is that the counselorswere really strict about participating in the planned activity if you were inthe club. You couldn’t just hang out andplay video games or foosball if something else was going on.

 

Outdoor Activities I’vealready talked a little about the Haven pool area. The pool and the two hot tubs were never toocrowded and we spent some time every day somewhere on the deck. We only went to the regular pool area once,to use the waterslides. We had a reallydifficult time finding a place to put our stuff! DH and DS did the waterslide where the floordrops out on a Disney cruise, and neither were enthusiastic about doing itagain, so we just did the three others. All pretty tame, but fun. Weplayed mini golf once and enjoyed it. Wehad to wait a few minutes, because although the course wasn’t that crowded,they were out of balls. We discoveredlater that balls have a tendency to get stuck inside the last hole. It’s a really cute course and a little morechallenging than it looks. We also didthe ropes course once. DH and DS “walkedthe plank,” but I chickened out! Therewere some little kids moving very quickly through it and I felt old and slow😊. Still fun, though! We played shuffleboard a few times, which wasmore fun than I thought it would be, and DH and DS played oversized chesstwice. There was always a line for thechess, or they probably would have played more. I was really surprised it was so popular.

 

Daytime Entertainment Thedaytime offerings are very similar to the two other cruises we’ve done. We played trivia (superhero) and bingo onceeach. Bingo seemed to take forever – at leasttwo to three minutes between calls. Butstill fun. The unique thing was thelunchtime show in the Illusionarium, Wine Lovers, the Musical. I’ve already said that the food was unimpressive,but I actually enjoyed the entertainment aspect. The storyline revolved around a wine tasting classwith a male and female participant, and surprise😊, theyfall in love. The actors were good andthe storyline was both funny and touching (especially after 6 half-glasses ofwine!). I don’t know that I would do itagain, but it was definitely worth seeing.

 

Evening Entertainment DHand I went to the welcome show so we could see a little bit of the showsfeatured and decide what we were really interested in. We decided that we definitely wanted to seeMillion Dollar Quartet and didn’t really care about Burn the Floor. Just not our thing. All three of us really loved Quartet. The storyline was interesting and the musicwas great. It was really neat to imaginethese four famous people interacting. Weenjoyed it enough to read up on the actual event, and DS, who has a veryeclectic musical taste, has now added some Jerry Lee Lewis to hisplaylist. Be careful though…don’t sit inthe middle of the front row unless you want some personal attention fromElvis. I made that mistake…😊

 

The other really big hit for me and DH was the Howl at theMoon piano request show. We wanderedinto it almost by accident one night – and stayed for three hours. We went back twice more. It was just so much fun! The three musicians were great and theaudience really got into singing along. No matter what request the performers received, they managed to turn itinto a good time. They received requestsfor and performed everything from Snoop Dogg to Billy Joel to AC/DC and GarthBrooks. If you plan to attend the after11pm adults show, make sure you look up “Living Next Door to Alice” if you don’talready know it. You’ll enjoy it more ifyou understand what the heck is going on😊. All three of us also made it to one of thecomedy shows and really had a great time. We got picked on just a little, which made my son’s night. I wish we had gotten a chance to go to someof the other comedy shows, but time just got away from us.

 

Roatan We booked a private city tour here, throughWest Bay Tours. Coming off the ship is alittle like running a gauntlet, there are just so many people yelling at you totour with them. We finally found ourguide and took a short walk through Coxen Hole to reach his vehicle. I was a little surprised; the area around theport is dilapidated and there was a lot of litter. It’s obvious that there’s a lot of povertyhere. The difference between the areainside the port gates and right outside is shocking. Anyway, we first drove up a big hill/smallmountain to a lookout point from which we could see a lot of the island and ourship in port. We got some nice pictureshere. There were also locals sellingcrafts. We met a 11/12-year-old boy withthe most infectious smile who I am pretty sure could have sold ice to an Eskimo😊! Needless to say, we bought several things😊.

 

Afterward, we drove through more of the countryside andanother town before stopping at Daniel Johnson’s Monkey and Sloth Hangout. We really enjoyed interacting with theanimals. Everyone actually gets to hug asloth! We also go to go into anenclosure with three small monkeys, who seemed to enjoy jumping on all of ourheads. It’s not a large attractionspace-wise, but to my uneducated eye all of the animals looked healthy and wellcared for. We were told that most ofthem had started out as pets to individuals who were later unable to care forthem. We spent maybe an hour here. Funny thing – the owner is very obviously aSteelers fan. All of the signs and adsfeature Steeler’s colors and all of the guides wear Steelers shirts. My son just happened to wear a Patriotsjersey on that day, and was subjected to some good-natured teasing.

 

Our next stop was the canals near the mangrove tunnel. Our guide turned us over to the captain of a longboat with a motor and we toured the area and the tunnel. I’ve never seen anything like the mangrovetunnel. It was really amazing and I’m soglad we did it. Afterwards, we droveback the way we came and stopped at a restaurant overlooking a valley. I can’t remember the name of the place, butit was owned by an American who had moved to Roatan and the view from the backdeck was amazing. We had some reallygreat fish tacos, chips and salsa, and plantains. We were supposed to go to a beach next, but DHwas getting nervous about the time, so we just went back to the port and did alittle bit of shopping before boarding.

 

Harvest Caye Instead of using thisas a beach day, we decided to take the ferry to Placencia to get a small lookat mainland Belize. A lot of people whowanted to do this seemed confused by the process, but it’s not really thatdifferent from other excursions, except you have to buy your tickets on theboat instead of beforehand. You can evenbuy them from the digital screens in all the hallways. On our way to the ferry dock, we stopped tolook at a kiosk with paintings. I boughtone and the man selling them (who was also the artist) told me that his sonowned a restaurant in Placencia and gave us a business card (we ate there forlunch and there were artist supplies set up in the back).

The trip took about 25 minutes. The ferry docked near a small beach (later wesaw kids playing in the water here) and we took off on foot to find BarefootRentals, with whom we had pre-booked a golf cart. We probably would have been fine waitinguntil we got there, but I wanted to be prepared. We walked for about ten minutes down a dirtpath before finding the main road (only a little wider and still dirt) and therental office. Ten minutes later, wewere off exploring! Placencia is areally charming town. Lots of littleshops and restaurants, and further away some really great views. We drove for a couple of hours; in someplaces, the beach comes right up to the road. We stopped for a little while at a public beach next to a hotel. There was this amazing covered pier withchairs and loungers that I could have hung out at all day. Eventually, we headed back to town, returnedthe golf cart and had lunch at Omar’s. Iwas disappointed that lobster wasn’t in season, but had conch for the firsttime not in a fritter and loved it. Theydon’t serve alcohol, but you can buy beer across the street and bring itin. We opted instead for the very freshwatermelon and orange juice. After alittle more wandering, we headed back to the pier. DS wanted a smoothie at a little shop rightnext door, and we ended up missing the ferry we intended to take, but it was areally pleasant place to hang out anyway. We went back on the 3pm ferry and after a little shopping in HarvestCaye, headed back to the boat.

 

Costa Maya We had a private tourof Chacchoben scheduled for noon, but we still headed off the boat firstthing. This is a really busy port, withlots of shops and restaurants. There isa dolphin encounter right there, as well as a walk-through aviary. We did some shopping and decided to try theaviary. It was fun feeding the birds,but sometimes difficult to convince them to move on😊. There are suspended bridges leading from onehabitat to the next, and I saw a few people who seemed nervous about them, butwe were fine. We had lunch at Flavors ofMexico and enjoyed trying cactus for the first time. I thought it tasted a bit like green beans. Everything was very good and we headed off onour tour happy with our morning.

 

Our tour guide, Jacome, was amazing. He spent the ride out there telling us lotsof things about the Mayans and describing what we were going to see. Once we arrived, he gave us lots of infoabout the different ruins and really seemed to have a knack for helping usenvision what it would have been like when the Mayans lived there. On the ride back, we actually talked aboutcurrent events. It was so interesting tohear his take on what is going on in the world, and of course, the politics inthe U.S. We arrived back to the portaround 4, and already having done our shopping, headed directly back to theship.

 

Cozumel We had previously been to Cozumel and donethe city tour thing, so this time we opted to book a zipline and snorkelingexcursion through NCL. It started offgreat. We easily met our group and I waspleased to find out that we would be transported first to the zipline place,then to the resort for snorkeling, and then whenever we were ready to leave ourtaxi back to the port would be paid for. The zipline experience at Fly High was terrific. It was DS who had wanted to go – I wasactually pretty terrified and not at all sure I would go through with it. But the employees were super patient andencouraging and I did end up doing it and by the third or fourth time Iactually enjoyed it. The other guestswere very encouraging as well! I thinkif you were an expert zipliner this may have been a bit tame for you, but forour first time, it was great.

Afterward,we were given coupon booklets for free snorkel gear and towel rentals and takento the El Cid. This is where it was lessthan great. First of all, they didn’thave enough snorkel gear and towels for everyone. I ended up taking fins that were too small soI could finally go, and we only ended up with one towel for the three ofus. The steps into the snorkeling areawere VERY slippery and there were some sharp rocks along the edges. There wasn’t a lot to see, definitely not asmuch as I saw last time we went snorkeling in Cozumel, but there were some fishand I would have been happy with the experience if it hadn’t been for some ofthe other things. After our hour was up,DS really wanted to go across the street to the Hard Rock Café for lunch. He collects drum sticks and this the onlyplace they can definitely be found. Wehad a pretty good lunch, about typical for HRC. One interesting thing, the only inside part of the restaurant is a smallarea on the first floor. The secondfloor has a roof but is open on the sides. It actually really helps with the noise factor, and we enjoyed watchingsome iguanas in a nearby tree. Afterlunch, we walked back across the street to the El Cid and took our pre-paidtaxi back to the port to board the ship.

 

All in all, we had an amazing vacation. We really fell in love with the ship, and putdown a CruiseNext deposit for the future. I don’t know exactly when or where, but I know I would definitely loveit to be longer next time!

[gmbhardy]

Thanks for a great review. We are on the Getaway next week. First time in the Haven. Needless to say, we are really looking forward to it. It will also be nice to get away (no pun intended) from this awful spring weather.

[MizDemeanor]

Thank you for your insightful share!!!

 

(Who's Alice?)

[Son of a son of a ...]

edit: looks like you had a great time!

[vacation44]

Thank you for for taking the time to post your review. I especially enjoyed reading about your day in Harvest Caye. We are leaning towards spending our time at this port the same way.

[DeltaOne]

The salmon frittata on the breakfast menu is one of my favorite things ever!

 

We had the salmon frittata last week on the Breakaway. It was fantastic!

 

The smoked salmon on the frittata was good...but don't forget the asparagus, onion and boursin cheese! We occasionally make a frittata for breakfast at home...this weekend we hope to duplicate the Haven's version.

[ljrfrm]

I'm so glad you made it into Miami ok- I know that was stressful. Which night did you see Million Dollar Quartet? I wonder if that was you that I saw Elvis having fun with?? :)

 

Glad you all had a great trip.......

[fsa1155]

Love your review. We are booked in the Haven in September and are counting the days. This trip will just be for my DH and myself. I'm enjoying the idea that we don't have to try to keep up with or join up with a bunch of friends or family this time. We can just do what we want, when we want. Also looking forward to trying all the food. I feel I'm going to gain 15 pounds on this trip. UGH.

 

One question for you. On other cruises, we always chose the 6:00 pm dinner and then went to see shows afterward. If we book our reservations for 6:00 pm, would we be able to catch most of the shows? I sure wish I had the schedules ahead of time.

 

Thanks and glad you had a great time.

Karen

[MandyMommyof2]

Great review!! Sounds like a great trip! You have me re-thinking my excursions now after reading about the fun times you and your family had.

[jdvmd]

Great review! Thanks!

[Tiggertastic]

Thanks for the information on the ship and ports, helps with our planning, although we’re not going to get to experience the haven. Sounds it was great

 

 

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[cleanandsober88]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. We sail January 2019 and plan to visit Placencia as well. Sorry to hear your Cozumel excursion wasn't great.

[Seminole1975]

Love your review. We are booked in the Haven in September and are counting the days. This trip will just be for my DH and myself. I'm enjoying the idea that we don't have to try to keep up with or join up with a bunch of friends or family this time. We can just do what we want, when we want. Also looking forward to trying all the food. I feel I'm going to gain 15 pounds on this trip. UGH.

 

One question for you. On other cruises, we always chose the 6:00 pm dinner and then went to see shows afterward. If we book our reservations for 6:00 pm, would we be able to catch most of the shows? I sure wish I had the schedules ahead of time.

 

Thanks and glad you had a great time.

Karen

 

I will chime in here. We ate in the Haven the night of the shows-got there around 6. We told them we had a show to go to (at 7:30 p) and they were prompt in bringing out the food. If going to a specialty restaurant, I would go on a night you do not have show reservations-don't want to feel rushed. Enjoy!

[CTnewcruiser]

Thanks so much for all the comments! I'm glad I was able to help with some of your planning! If anyone has any questions about our excursions or wants more info, just let me know! Everyone who has an upcoming trip - you're going to have a fabulous time! One note on the Placencia trip that I failed to mention....when you buy the ferry ticket, you will get a return time of three hours later. That's more of a suggestion. They just don't want everyone to try and take the very last ferry.

 

Paul from Maryland - I'd love to know how your frittata turns out!!!

 

ljrfrm - I can't remember exactly, but I think it was either Monday or Tuesday, at the 10:15 show. I really, really tried to stay in my seat!

 

fsa1155 - There are two showtimes for all the evening shows, 7:30 and 10:15. If you don't mind doing the later time, I can't imagine dinner interfering!

[ljrfrm]

Thanks so much for all the comments! I'm glad I was able to help with some of your planning! If anyone has any questions about our excursions or wants more info, just let me know! Everyone who has an upcoming trip - you're going to have a fabulous time! One note on the Placencia trip that I failed to mention....when you buy the ferry ticket, you will get a return time of three hours later. That's more of a suggestion. They just don't want everyone to try and take the very last ferry.

 

Paul from Maryland - I'd love to know how your frittata turns out!!!

 

ljrfrm - I can't remember exactly, but I think it was either Monday or Tuesday, at the 10:15 show. I really, really tried to stay in my seat!

 

fsa1155 - There are two showtimes for all the evening shows, 7:30 and 10:15. If you don't mind doing the later time, I can't imagine dinner interfering!

 

I was at the Monday at 10:15! So if it was you - I was cracking up!! :)

[DKane]

I really enjoyed reading your review.

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for your thoughts.