How is the Getaway doing?

[RMS Olympic]

 

Ive been told that NCL is not filling ships to avoid a lower quality onboard experience. Yet I watched a YouTube video of an April cruise on the getaway....sold as 60% full but was actually sailing full without  crew for a full ship......

I understand the post pandemic challenge, but filling a ship without adequate staffing leaves me hesitant to book.

How is the Getaway doing and how is the onboard experience?

Im considering an October cruise on the Getaway.....would I find a lower quality experience on board due to cutbacks  (staffing, food, entertainment)?

Thank you.

 

 

 

[cruiseny4life]

16 hours ago, RMS Olympic said:

 

Ive been told that NCL is not filling ships to avoid a lower quality onboard experience. Yet I watched a YouTube video of an April cruise on the getaway....sold as 60% full but was actually sailing full without  crew for a full ship......

I understand the post pandemic challenge, but filling a ship without adequate staffing leaves me hesitant to book.

How is the Getaway doing and how is the onboard experience?

Im considering an October cruise on the Getaway.....would I find a lower quality experience on board due to cutbacks  (staffing, food, entertainment)?

Thank you.

 

 

 

I'm guessing I was on the cruise you mention. This was the April 17th Easter cruise? We were between 100 and 110% occupancy, depending on who you asked. The crew was missing about 300 or so members. This was also spring break week for NY/CT/NJ which is why I was there. I used to be a school leader - said the hell with that very recently and moved on to a new, much less stressful job! 

 

My experience will be different than most individuals on this sailing as I was comfortable in the Haven. It seems that most ships are not sailing at 100% capacity, even though the booking rates don't reflect much of a discount. I say this based on what I've read here on CruiseCritic and in the various VK style social media groups I'm in, so take the above statement with one grain of Himalayan pink salt. 

 

Here's my review of the Getaway cruise I was on. That is the long version. My tl:dr is I enjoyed the cruise immensely and would book it again in a heartbeat. I can almost guarantee you my answer would be "never again" if I had not been in the Haven. We also did not participate in any entertainment, except for trivia in the Atrium when we were playing cards. We did go to the casino which had plenty of open machines. The first sea day in the thermal suite was a royal cluster, but then the staff began managing who was actually in there and we found the right time to go.

 

I think you'll enjoy yourself, but if you're hesitant perhaps don't book now and wait a bit.

[RMS Olympic]

Thank you so much for your response.

I sailed on the Getaway 8 years ago and enjoyed it even though it was crowded. I paid for the Vibe which made the cruise for me.

I just completed a cruise on the Caribbean Princess...my 26 th with Princess...and it’s was substandard.

The ship was almost fully booked, missing 30% of her crew, food just plain sad.

I normally book the Crown Grill steak restaurant for at least 3 to for nights a cruise. One night was enough...although the food was good, the service was poor. The waiters were running their legs off but there wasn’t enough wait staff...20 minutes between courses.. As a result I cancelled the remainder of my reservation for the week.

If NCL is sailing full, reduced staff and cutting back on their food budget, then I’m not sure I want to chance it. I understand the need to recoup financial losses due to Covid, but dropping standards too much makes me question sailing in October.

If this trend is across all lines, then I don’t know what to do.....

Thank you for your comments as well as your review. 

[graphicguy]

I am sailing the Getaway in a couple of weeks.  I have been in contact with the pre-cruise concierge, who told me they expect the July 9 sailing to sail at 70% capacity.  She also said they expect to ramp up to 100% capacity by the end of Summer/beginning of Fall.

[RMS Olympic]

Thanks graphicguy.

I hope your cruise is staffed adequately.

Enjoy your cruise!

[Adian80]

5 hours ago, graphicguy said:

I am sailing the Getaway in a couple of weeks.  I have been in contact with the pre-cruise concierge, who told me they expect the July 9 sailing to sail at 70% capacity.  She also said they expect to ramp up to 100% capacity by the end of Summer/beginning of Fall.

 

Any chance you could ask about the June 27 to July 2 date?  

[graphicguy]

26 minutes ago, Adian80 said:

 

Any chance you could ask about the June 27 to July 2 date?  

She said all sailings through July were supposed to sail at 70%.  It's always a little dicey when someone tries to predict the amount of guests, at least until you board and can direct that question to upper level crew or Customer Service representatives.

 

My last NCL cruise was Fall of last year.  That sailing (to Alaska) only sailed at 40% capacity.  I'm sure it's more than that now.

 

Sailed Royal Ovation of the Seas this past Spring.  That sailing was at capacity.

[cruiseny4life]

Based on what was said previous to my April Getaway cruise, you won't receive the actual capacity numbers until you board the ship. Many people were told by NCL, their TA, and these boards that the ship would be capped at 60 - 70% capacity. Upon boarding we discovered we were over 100%. Perhaps 30% were booked at the last minute and NCL removed the cap, or there was never an actual cap with NCL just telling others what they wanted to hear.

 

Regardless, you're going to enjoy your cruise! We certainly did.

[insidecabin]

Baltics trips were running at around 25-30% we were on a May one.

 

Holiday cruises seem to go up, more 3/4 berths in use, can get a lot of people on still only using 70% of cabins

[gatorchinsky]

We will be on the Getaway at the end of September for a 9 night.  We assume that there will be very few children since it is longer and school is back but definitely wondering how full the ship will be.  I have noticed that the fare has not gone up or down since I booked this.  Not sure what that could mean.  We are looking forward to this cruise and no matter what, we will have a great time!

[Adian80]

15 hours ago, graphicguy said:

She said all sailings through July were supposed to sail at 70%.  It's always a little dicey when someone tries to predict the amount of guests, at least until you board and can direct that question to upper level crew or Customer Service representatives.

 

My last NCL cruise was Fall of last year.  That sailing (to Alaska) only sailed at 40% capacity.  I'm sure it's more than that now.

 

Sailed Royal Ovation of the Seas this past Spring.  That sailing was at capacity.

 

Thank you so much for asking! I really appreciate it!  My last cruise was in October on Mariner and we were around 25%. You might say we were a bit spoiled that cruise.

[argyll1881]

I'm on the Getaway right now on the transatlantic. We're sailing with about 760 passengers out of a category sounds 4,000. I understand they have a full compliment of staff and they are taking the opportunity to run some extra training for them. 

 

The next cruise is supposed to be around 3,800 passengers and then it settles a little bit. 

 

I have found the crew to be fully staffed and excellent. 

[graphicguy]

Based on what I’m being told, the guest count of July sailings on the Getaway should be around 2,800-3,000.

[RMS Olympic]

Well I booked the cruise sailing on Oct 15th after speaking with my NCL cruise planner.

We discussed staffing, fill rates and pricing.....

Although there are exceptions, they are trying to keep the ships at 7O to 75% full.

Holidays being the exception or if another ship is pulled from service, passengers are moved to other ships.

Seems the Getaway is being brought back because of what’s happening with Russia...and since October is a slow month the price is being reduced without a cut back on quality.

So I’m booked and reserved the same cabin I had in 2014....overlooking the bow on deck 13.

Thank you for all the responses...it helped me decide to book.🤓

[thirym]

I just got off Getaway Saturday. I agree with a prior post that if you are in the Haven, you will not have a problem. Anywhere else on the ship is a disaster. There were 4200 people on my sailing and 1000 kids.

They did not have staff to handle. Also, the new staff they have are not trained. They are still learning.

Bad food and mostly cold food in main dining Savor, Taste and Tropicana.

By the way, they limited the number of kids in the kids club to 600. That left out 400 kids that may have wanted to go. I heard people complaining they had to line up and wait to see if they could get their kids in the club for that session.

Far too many lines and waiting.

This is Freestyle cruising?

Specialty restaurants were very good. Cagney's, Ocean Blue, Italian were good with hot food and much better service than main dining.

In my opinion, the Getaway is not designed to handle as many people as we had onboard. Pool areas were ridiculously crowded. If you didn't get to the pool area by 6:30am, good chance you were not getting a seat by the pool. Plenty of chairs in the sun on deck 16. The pool is too small for the number of people they can put onboard.

Tendering was not good. Had reservations and still waited 45 minutes to get on a tender.

All venues except the theater were impossibly crowded. You needed to line up 45 minutes before an event to be able to get a seat.

Captain and staff were not around except for a few planned 30 minute events. Couldn't tell you what the cruise director looks like and I was at multiple shows.

If I had to make a decision on whether to cruise the Getaway again when school is out, I would find another cruise line.

[cruiseny4life]

11 hours ago, thirym said:

I just got off Getaway Saturday. I agree with a prior post that if you are in the Haven, you will not have a problem. Anywhere else on the ship is a disaster. There were 4200 people on my sailing and 1000 kids.

They did not have staff to handle. Also, the new staff they have are not trained. They are still learning.

Bad food and mostly cold food in main dining Savor, Taste and Tropicana.

By the way, they limited the number of kids in the kids club to 600. That left out 400 kids that may have wanted to go. I heard people complaining they had to line up and wait to see if they could get their kids in the club for that session.

Far too many lines and waiting.

This is Freestyle cruising?

Specialty restaurants were very good. Cagney's, Ocean Blue, Italian were good with hot food and much better service than main dining.

In my opinion, the Getaway is not designed to handle as many people as we had onboard. Pool areas were ridiculously crowded. If you didn't get to the pool area by 6:30am, good chance you were not getting a seat by the pool. Plenty of chairs in the sun on deck 16. The pool is too small for the number of people they can put onboard.

Tendering was not good. Had reservations and still waited 45 minutes to get on a tender.

All venues except the theater were impossibly crowded. You needed to line up 45 minutes before an event to be able to get a seat.

Captain and staff were not around except for a few planned 30 minute events. Couldn't tell you what the cruise director looks like and I was at multiple shows.

If I had to make a decision on whether to cruise the Getaway again when school is out, I would find another cruise line.

Sounds like my sailing over Easter break in April on the Getaway....thank G-d for the Haven! I don't mind kids - it's the adults I mind. I suppose this is what cruising used to be like, pre-2020. 

 

Lots of lines - the line to get into the Getaway Theater stretched at least 50 yards throughout the ship one evening. Thankfully I was just walking about the boat and wasn't trying to get in (Haven concierge would have done wonders for me there). The Atrium was slammed, O'Sheehan's too. 

 

I think this is probably just what normal will look like for a long time to come. Our sailing was also under-staffed by nearly 300 staff members. We had anywhere between 4,2000 - 4,600 on the ship depending on who you asked and there was no kid's Splash Academy at all. There were about 1,400 kids based on crew reports.

 

We walked out to the pool deck one day, wandered around, and retreated quickly to the Haven. This was the exact moment we decided we'd never, ever not sail in the Haven. Thankfully we have another cruise booked in August (on the Getaway), staying in the Haven. 

 

I'll be curious to see how it looks given some schools will be back in session, though I believe NY schools go back after our cruise. 

 

[Langham1865]

you might want to check out this "live review" for up to date info... the poster seems pretty good at replying to questions too!!!