Getaway May 13-20 Review

[natefish95]

History time!!

Just off the Atrium, by the card room and library (which do actually exist), are some really cool historical photos of early NCL ships. I'm a history nerd so I thought this was super cool.

 

 

 

 

RIP Norway

 

Outside the theater is the officer list

 

Here is what we were given at the Meet and Greet. Note: Irma, Tyson and Hernan I believe went on vacation on the 20th.

 

[natefish95]

Dinner Night 2 menu

 

 

I had the minestrone

 

Fried brie bites

 

and the skirt steak salad for my main

 

Remember when I said the night 1 menu was great? I think night 2 might be even better. The fried brie bites are definitely in the top 5 things I ate the entire cruise. The skirt steak salad picture doesn't look particularly great (I know, I need to step my game up with the picture taking), but it was also in the top 5 things I ate all week. The chimichurri was delicious!

 

I didn't see anything on the dessert menu I liked (which I didn't take a picture of all week...oops), but the chocolate ice cream was more than sufficient.

 

In case you forgot I was on a cruise, here's a picture of the ocean.

 

That night was our FB group pub crawl, which was so much fun!! We started in Sunset, worked our way to the mojito bar, and ended up in the Tropicana room where the night's party was going on because Spice H2O was too wet. Yeah, tonight was fun. No pictures because that's just no needed. Everyone complains about the UBP gratuities (please stop), but I think I drank that amount tonight alone. Don't worry, I felt it the next day. Super fun night though. I want to highlight one of the Assistant Cruise Directors, Sandra. She was at many events and parties and was a great host. I could definitely see her being a great Cruise Director one day.

 

I retired to my (clean) bed late dreaming of guacamole in Mexico.

 

Coming up-my day in Costa Maya

[natefish95]

Lovin' your review!

 

Glad you're enjoying it!

[FashionGirl12]

You are hilarious!

[natefish95]

You are hilarious!

 

Thanks! Life is too short to be boring :)

[natefish95]

Day 3-Costa Maya, Mexico (8:00am-5:00pm)

 

Day 3 Freestyle Daily

 

 

 

 

Time went back an hour and I woke up at 7:00am feeling amazing!

 

Just kidding. I woke up at 8:00am, went up to the Garden Cafe, ate a few bites, and ran back to my cabin and slept until noon.

 

According to timestamps, I was off the ship at 12:30pm

 

 

I had zero plans for Costa Maya, so I got off and walked around the port area. I was shocked that there was a mini Starbucks in the port area. I think there was even WiFi there. There was supposedly WiFi in the port area, but I couldn't connect to it. If you really want some knick knacks and souvenirs, Costa Maya is the place to do it! There were so many shops selling everything you can imagine. I eventually found my way to the shuttle. I decided last minute that I would actually take the shuttle into town. The night before I ran into someone from the group and they recommend the Tropicante beach restaurant.

 

For $3 you can take the 10 minute shuttle into the small town of Majahual (Ma-ha-wall). As I humble bragged about before, I'm conversational in Spanish, so it was really nice to actually use it. The ride wasn't too bumpy and it was nice being in an open-air tram. Pretty sure we passed by a "Museum of Tequila". Something I need to research and add to a list of things to do.

 

Random street

[PTC DAWG]

Nice review. THWGT. :)

 

The Bride and were on the Getaway a little over a year ago, this brings back memories...

 

You should try the Escape next...similar but different..,

[natefish95]

From what I've read on here, there are actually three stops in town, but they told everyone to just get off at the first stop. One of the guides directed me to where Tropicante was. From the first shuttle stop, walk along the little not-boardwalk-but-I-can't-think-of-a-better-name (Malecon maybe?). It's a bike path looking thing between the beach and the restaurants lined with vendors. I'm amazing at directions, I know. You'll figure it out.

 

Anyways, walk down that little thing for a few minutes and you'll find Tropicante. I saw Krazy Lobster, which I've read a lot about, but I was set on Tropicante. I found it, get a table in the shade, and connected to the WiFi to check emails and other stuff I can't access with the social media package.

 

Tropicante menu

 

 

I immediately ordered a margarita and guac. I took a picture of both, but Photobucket is being a PITA (no, not like the bread). It was good and that's all you need to know. My total meal of a margarita, guacamole, and a CocaCola Light was around $13, so very reasonable. The beach looked nice enough, but I could see that there was a lot of seaweed. I wasn't feeling the beach, so I took a taxi back to the port for $8.

 

When I got back on the ship, I spent a few hours relaxing up in Vibe. It was really hot, but it was comfortable in the shade under the umbrella.

 

Tonight (like every night) we went to the solo meetup at Sugarcane. We had our organized solo dinner tonight in the Tropicana Room. The reservation was made for 30, but way more showed up (where did all these people come from???). AJC, AC, B, L and myself where at one end of a table for 10. At the other end were 5 lovely older ladies. One of them did some sort of relaxation excursion. She had all kinds of massages and it sounded like fun. I think it was called the Mayan Wellness Retreat? I could be wrong about the name though.

 

Night 3 menu

 

 

I got the ceviche (no picture, sorry), spring roll (below) and vegetarian lasagna (no picture, deal with it).

 

 

The spring roll (which was more like an egg roll [yes, there is a difference]) and ceviche were both really good. I slowly started to not feel well and I don't know why. I didn't really feel hungover and the boat wasn't moving that much, but I felt a little nauseous. As soon as the mains arrived, I left. AJC ate my lasagna and said it was really good, so night 3 seemed to also be a hit. I spent the rest of the night napping on and off, drinking water, and listening to some podcasts. I think this was also the Glow Party night (refer to Dailies). It looked like fun, but I wasn't up for it. Around 1:30, I did manage to get up and had the nachos in O'Sheehan's. I thought they were really good! Tonight we also moved our clocks back another hour. For those keeping track, we were now 2 hours behind EST.

 

Day 3=done

 

Costa Maya is one of those ports where I'll probably stay on the boat next time I visit unless I suddenly get the urge to head into town for food and margs. I talked to someone who went to the water park and they really enjoyed it. They said it was very empty.

[amallison]

Thank you for being honest about your Vibe experience. Our group was going back & forth about whether to try for passes or not and we were leaning towards no, your honesty just cemented our decision.

[Big E Dawg]

I was on the same cruise and spent much of my time at the same bar you frequented. Were you the guy that overheard me explaining the Vibe to another passenger and said..”I won’t be doing Vibe again”...or something to that affect? I know I must have seen you as we were always outside the Vibe area lounging or sitting at the bar. My favorite bartenders were Tracilee and Desiree (spelling) and also Fernando. I noticed how the bartenders had to split their time between the Vibe side and non-Vibe side. I would tip them when I first got up their as soon as they opened to coax them to my side of the bar when they saw me coming (lol). Seemed to be fairly effective. I thoroughly enjoyed this cruise and am enjoying reliving it through your review. Can’t wait to see your comments about disembarkation day!

[bruadhin]

Thanks for the pictures of the history of NCL. We found that on our last cruise and thought it was pretty cool. I liked seeing the pictures of Miami from decades ago.

[beatbandit]

Loving the review and I’m looking forward to reading more! I’m considering the Getaway for my next cruise.

[natefish95]

Nice review. THWGT. :)

 

The Bride and were on the Getaway a little over a year ago, this brings back memories...

 

You should try the Escape next...similar but different..,

 

Can I get a Roll Tide? ;)

 

I did the Escape last year and loved it! I would do Escape again in a heartbeat.

 

Thank you for being honest about your Vibe experience. Our group was going back & forth about whether to try for passes or not and we were leaning towards no, your honesty just cemented our decision.

 

If you enjoy lounging in the sun and being close to a bar, the area outside of Vibe was rarely crowded. Plus, there were 4 port days, so the ship felt pretty empty most of the time on those day. If you really want a dedicated and covered hot tub, do Vibe.

[natefish95]

I was on the same cruise and spent much of my time at the same bar you frequented. Were you the guy that overheard me explaining the Vibe to another passenger and said..”I won’t be doing Vibe again”...or something to that affect? I know I must have seen you as we were always outside the Vibe area lounging or sitting at the bar. My favorite bartenders were Tracilee and Desiree (spelling) and also Fernando. I noticed how the bartenders had to split their time between the Vibe side and non-Vibe side. I would tip them when I first got up their as soon as they opened to coax them to my side of the bar when they saw me coming (lol). Seemed to be fairly effective. I thoroughly enjoyed this cruise and am enjoying reliving it through your review. Can’t wait to see your comments about disembarkation day!

 

I don't think I overheard that, but I could have just forgotten. I will definitely do Vibe again, but maybe not on the Getaway. I don't blame the bartenders because it seems like the bars are just poorly managed (no shot o'clock, Vibe bartenders having to do double duty with the outside bar, etc.). I had a really fun time this week too!

 

Thanks for the pictures of the history of NCL. We found that on our last cruise and thought it was pretty cool. I liked seeing the pictures of Miami from decades ago.

 

Pretty interesting, huh? It's crazy to see how they can fit what looks like 8 ships along the side and now POM can hold a max of maybe 6 ships in the same space. Cruising has come a long way.

[natefish95]

Loving the review and I’m looking forward to reading more! I’m considering the Getaway for my next cruise.

 

The Getaway is a great ship! I would definitely sail on her again, but the Escape is still my favorite.

[natefish95]

Day 4-Harvest Caye Belize (8:00am-5:00pm)

Dailies

 

 

 

 

Since I wasn't feeling well the night before and spent most of the evening in my cabin, my cabin was never turned down meaning I never got the memo about going back another hour (2 hours behind EST).

 

I woke up and did my morning routine of the Garden Cafe and then an iced vanilla latte. Today was the unfortunate day where the atrium cafe ran out of normal straws. So sad. I had nothing planned for Harvest Caye (shocker), but I figured I would get off and walk around and see what this new port is all about.

 

Look how smooth this water is!

 

It's a pretty decent walk from the ship to the port area, but it's covered and there are golf carts to transfer people with walking difficulties. It was hot!

 

Here is the view once you reach the end of the dock and first walk into Harvest Caye. The main port area curves around the right.

[natefish95]

Harvest Caye continued

I just started aimlessly walking around seeing what's around. It somewhat felt like I was walking through a theme park because it was so well-maintained, there were lots of little kiosks around selling food/drink/souvenirs, and drinks were expensive. I can't recall any of the actual drink prices because I didn't take photos, but you cannot use your key card to pay and charge to your ship account. It's a small annoyance, but totally makes sense because Belize wants to the see the money and not have everyone charge everything back to the ship.

 

I walked over to the lighthouse but was told you can't go to the top and take pictures unless you're doing the zip line. A lot of people in our group did the zip line and they said it was a lot of fun (especially the superman one), so I made a note to try those next time I come to Harvest Caye.

 

The beach area looked nice as well, but I just wasn't feeling the beach, so I walked back to the ship. Harvest Caye is a great stop if you're looking to relax at the beach or the pool. You can take the ferry to Placencia (forgot how much exactly) and there are other tours being sold within the port area. Nothing really appealed to me and my pale white skin was turning red. I wish Harvest Caye had WiFi available. One of the tours being sold in the port area mentioned having WiFi on the tour, but the area of Harvest Caye itself does not have WiFi.

 

Now y'all don't give me any grief about needing WiFi on vacation. I'm in the middle of a move and really wanted to check my email and take care of other things. If you have a job where you need internet access on vacation, you won't find it in Harvest Caye. Nonetheless, Harvest Caye looked like a great area and I'll definitely do one of the excursions when I come here again.

 

 

Back on the ship, I bathed in sunscreen and headed up to relax in Vibe. I checked the time and it wasn't even 10am! That was a nice surprise, so I spent a few hours relaxing and reading up in Vibe. I decided to take advantage of the nearly empty ship and did the waterslides.

 

Y'all, if you haven't done the drop slides, you have to. They're so much fun! I did it about 3 times in a row with no line. I then tried to the orange and red spiral slides. They look tame, but looks are deceiving. They start out fine just spinning around, but 3/4 of the way down it kicks into gear and you build up some serious speed. They were a lot of fun and I did those several times as well. You're never too old for waterslides. I did the purple one as well, which is more tame, but still a lot of fun.

 

Dried off and went into the Garden Cafe for lunch. I might just be forgetting, but I don't think I ever went to the Garden Cafe for lunch on the Escape last year. I was really impressed by the choices and flavor. There was a large proportion of Asian items than you would expect, but I wasn't complaining! Everything I ate was delicious, especially the pretzel rolls. People say that MSC has the best bread, but NCL bread is amazing. I just really love carbs.

 

After a few more hours in Vibe, I went down to the Atrium Bar to see my favorite bartenders Anna, Signey, and Ellen. The Atrium Bar is such a fun place with great bartenders who make their drinks STRONG! I got a Moscow Mule from Ellen that almost had me speaking in Russian. Tri-Bond trivia was at 3:00. I'm a big nerd and I love trivia. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty good at it too. My dad calls me a cornucopia of useless information, which makes me great at trivia.

 

Tri-Bond trivia was so hard! You're given three words and you have to write down what they all have in common. Thankfully I was playing with someone much smarter than myself from the FB group and he got most of them correct. I think I contributed one answer (which stumped most people, so I have that going for me at least).

 

After trivia, Ash (solo coordinator and member of the CD's staff) held a Filipino language class. If they listed it as a Tagalog class, I bet many people would come looking for Girl Scout cookies (because Tagalongs, haha get it? Moving on). I'm a language nerd, so this was really interesting to me. We were given cheat sheets with common phrases. I don't remember most of them, but I have good morning/afternoon/evening down. This was a unique activity that I really enjoyed.

 

Once I felt cultured, the guy I played trivia with and I decided to stick around for another game of trivia, but this time it was 80's movie trivia. I was also awful at this because I was born halfway through the 90's. I got the classics though, but so did everyone else, so I wasn't special.

 

Once that finished it was time to get ready for dinner.

[natefish95]

Night 4

Tonight the normal crew might up at Sugarcane like normal. We were joined tonight by two other solo travelers who were a lot of fun. Traveling solo is great because you can meet so many different people from all around the world.

 

Menu

 

 

I had the lime and dill shrimp, which was good. The shrimp were served over a bed of potato salad, which was strange, but the potato salad was actually really good. I'm from the south and know potato salad too.

 

My other app was probably the french onion soup of caesar salad. It was something I had already had earlier because I didn't take a picture of it.

 

My main was chicken parm, which was really good! AC had been waiting all week for it. We were all excited to finally try it after she talked it up so much. We were all pleased with it.

 

 

Looks like tonight was the 1 night I actually did take a picture of the dessert menu.

 

 

Pretty sure I got the ice cream or the lava cake. Both are delicious.

 

Deal or No Deal was tonight at 8:30, but you really need to get there much earlier to get a good seat. The atrium was packed! It was a lot of fun and you play along and try to get matches to win prizes. Two people are chosen to play in the real game. The first guy made a deal after like 2 rounds, which I think ended up being a smart decision. The second guy had a really strong start and was doing well. He made a deal for like $238 and at the end the two cases contained either $235 or $575 (or something like that). His case held $235, so he made the right choice, but it was so nerve-wracking!

 

 

After Deal or No Deal, was Battle of Sexes game show. This was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. The participants made the show great. I won't share pictures, but definitely encourage everyone to check this show out.

 

The rest of the evening was probably spent taking advantage of the UBP.

 

Day 4-done

Next up-Roatan

[Queen of Adventure]

Enjoying both your commentary and the pictures. Thanks SO much for bringing us along :D

[bluesea777]

Great review so far!!

 

We were on the Getaway TA last October - 14 days. We just did the activities when we felt like doing, and that was the first time we skipped all Bingo :eek:, and it was the first time we contributed more time at an Atrium Bar, and watched more movies there than any other TA cruises.

 

We have been on 20 NCL cruises, and sometimes we felt like doing something different, so what the hell, we ain't missing anything, there's always the next cruise. :D

[amallison]

Tagalog is so interesting to learn! I travel to the Philippines for work and the last time I was there for an extended period of time we would get the locals to teach us a little here and there. It’s tough to catch on to but one of my coworkers will randomly give me a Magandang Umaga in the morning or drop a kumusta ka and I’ll completely space on the response. They like to give me a hard time because I was so into it while the workers were teaching us and can’t remember much now.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Tank412]

Awesome review so far, I love all the pictures and thank you for posting the dailies and menus. Like others following I will be sailing on the Getaway 6/3.

I noticed you said you used the Iconierge app, on the 1st dailies where it described the app it said you could call home with it. Did you try that and does it work? I want to stay in touch with people at home and this would be cheaper than getting the WiFi(I am not planning on doing any work while on vacation) Thank you and keep posting.

[beatbandit]

The Getaway is a great ship! I would definitely sail on her again, but the Escape is still my favorite.

 

I haven’t been on the Escape either. What makes it your favourite?

Edited May 25, 2018 by beatbandit
spelling mistake

[MaryBethV]

Taking a break from my review and catching up on yours. You have such a great writing style - informative and so funny. Now, I know that it is hard to keep going at about the half way point... so please keep adding to this!!! Otherwise I'll yell at you in my best mom voice (my oldest is your age, so I've had lots of practice!). Speaking of my oldest - I'm going to send him a link to your review. Now that he has a cruise under his belt, maybe he will consider cruising solo.

[mysandyfeet]

Went on her the first year she came out..your review is refreshing my memory! Taking her for Thanksgiving and I had a question..Are they offering a discount for the Dinner Show if you do it the first night? They were doing it years ago.