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Semi-Live Getaway: Feb 26 - Mar 10, 2023 NY - So. Caribbean ... 12 nights

PistolPete13

By PistolPete13,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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JIMESOPUS Great Review Rare

JIMESOPUS

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2 hours ago, mking8288 said:

This !!! 

 

All of their job titles now changed from room steward to "room attendant" from what we understood last month, junior attendant sort of promoted but the ones with the seniority, not.  How and whether this is going to result in higher turnover among the crew, we won't know for a while until after those current 8 months contract are up for renewal.  

While on the BA last month our " stateroom attendant " who was in a higher position said she will not hurry back and will check out other options at home before coming back. 

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GSfromCT

GSfromCT

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I'm on my first sailing with NCL (and by extension, the Getaway) on March 10.  Thank you all for your comments.  I feel like I have a better idea on how my vacation will go.  Thank you especially to PistolPete13    and everyone on board.  I am getting a feel for what it is like before stepping foot onboard and starting my vacation.  Two comments so far have me a little troubled.  "A threatening manner with a roving group of punks (blocking stairs and probably elsewhere)", and the "Entitled passenger who expected his drink at his table when he came back from the island."  I think PistolPete13 needs to give this species a name. As for punks, Usually my size intimidates them.  But if they are stupid, they may pick the wrong person to mess with.  It's my vacation.  Leave me alone.  And if you don't leave me alone, bad things may happen (to you).  I am not looking for a fight, especially on vacation, but bad behavior is everywhere.  I'm not talking about a Carnival Magic, June 2022 riot, but man, I don't want to deal with roving bully-punks.

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LoungerOnBalcony55 "Live from...." Rare

LoungerOnBalcony55

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2 hours ago, GSfromCT said:

Leave me alone.  And if you don't leave me alone, bad things may happen (to you).  

Dude please drop the "tough guy act." Stop pretending you're going to beat someone up on a cruise. If you do, it's the end of YOUR CRUISE. You and your family will be off the ship faster than you can see "free at sea" - and you'll get your very special private behind-the-scenes tour of the security section of the ship. Leave the bravado at home. All you're going to do is complain to Guest Services. 

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Mlake09 "Live from...." Rare

Mlake09

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, GSfromCT said:

I'm on my first sailing with NCL (and by extension, the Getaway) on March 10.  Thank you all for your comments.  I feel like I have a better idea on how my vacation will go.  Thank you especially to PistolPete13    and everyone on board.  I am getting a feel for what it is like before stepping foot onboard and starting my vacation.  Two comments so far have me a little troubled.  "A threatening manner with a roving group of punks (blocking stairs and probably elsewhere)", and the "Entitled passenger who expected his drink at his table when he came back from the island."  I think PistolPete13 needs to give this species a name. As for punks, Usually my size intimidates them.  But if they are stupid, they may pick the wrong person to mess with.  It's my vacation.  Leave me alone.  And if you don't leave me alone, bad things may happen (to you).  I am not looking for a fight, especially on vacation, but bad behavior is everywhere.  I'm not talking about a Carnival Magic, June 2022 riot, but man, I don't want to deal with roving bully-punks.

I’m sorry to say, you are sailing during the spring break season and are very likely to have many young people on your ship. I hope that you’ll go in with a better outlook- it’s your vacation, and cruising is what you make it. If you let yourself react to the behavior of all the spring breakers, and “bad things” happen, you’ll find yourself off the ship with a ruined vacation pretty quick. 
 

I know it’s frustrating to have tons of kids/young people on your cruise. I always sail during winter break and two weeks ago we were on the Getaway, which was sailing well over double occupancy, and instead closer to life boat capacity. There were thousands of kids. Most were fine and behaved as expected, and it was only certain groups who were overtaking the stairs, throwing food, swearing, etc. If you find yourself encountering that behavior, just call guest services. Otherwise, go into your first cruise with a hefty dose of patience and understanding that you’re sailing during spring break. It will save your trip.

Edited by Mlake09
Fixed a typo
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PistolPete13 "Live from...." Rare

PistolPete13

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It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m sitting here in Antigua after an early morning excursion.  Ship is not leaving until 6PM local time today.  The last two days of St. Kitts and Barbados have been 7AM arrival times so I’ve had to get to sleep early for those 5:45AM wake ups.

 

In St. Kitts I finally saw some colorful fish while snorkeling.  Also saw a baby octopus the size of my palm skittering along the coral.  It took a while for my brain to realize what I was looking at.  Others on the same excursion spotted a sea turtle in but it was in the deep side were no coral was visible so I didn’t spend any time there unfortunately.

 

I did manage to get a lot of underwater video.  Now let’s see how motivated I’ll be to edit it once I get home!

 

St. Kitts was a short stop and soon enough we were back on board and on our way to Barbados.

 

My choice for excursion in Barbados was a tour of the “best of” on the island and included a visit to a large tropical garden.  As strange as it will sound later to me, after two days of snorkeling I was ready for a break from the salt water!  First stop was an old British signaling station built in the days before the telephone.  The tour guide gave a very informative talk on the history of the island up to the current demographic challenges with an aging population.

 

The cruise port for Barbados is huge.  The Getaway was one of six ships in port.  Two mega ships, two huge five mast sailing ships, and two mid-sized cruise ships.  We were out in the furthest parking spot and it’s quite a walk to the terminal.  Shuttle buses were provided but you can imagine the logjam created.

 

The tour was on a min-bus with seats designed for people even smaller than me.  I sat in a double with another gentlemen and half of me was in the aisle while sitting on one cheek!

 

Got back to the ship around noon apparently with the majority of other excursions because when I made my way up to the buffet it was absolutely mobbed.  My room is on the 5th floor at the front of the ship and it’s a simple walk up one flight of stairs after returning from any excursion.  I then go up to the 6th floor to head for the aft elevators up to the buffet to avoid the packed rear elevators.  During my walk this time on 6, I noticed that both Taste and Savor were closed for lunch.  This definitely added to the buffet crowd!

 

Dinner was at Taste with an early 5:30PM sitting.  Turnaround time for dinner was the typical 90 minutes and I’ve graduated to the three appetizer, two entrees, and one dessert level.

 

Today is Antigua.  9AM arrival time and we are the only ship in port today.  The landscape is much more hilly than Barbados and you can see a lot of very expensive homes dotting the sides of the cliffs.

 

All excursions were gathered in the Gateway theater for what I thought was priority disembarkation but nope.  After the first group was called, the theater was divided into thirds and everyone just merged with the normal guests getting off the ship.  I barely made it to my excursion meet point in time and was the last person in the small group.  My helicopter tour had a set time so we all needed to be there on time.  Apparently some of the old pros know to ignore what is said on the ticket if it involved meeting on the ship first and they got off on their own as soon as it was allowed!

 

Today’s tour involved flying over to Montserrat and circling the volcano on that island.  I rigged up a one man band setup on my camera with a GoPro shooting continuous video and the still camera jumping between photos and video.  It’s not everyday I get to do something like this so I went all out.

 

Weight distribution is critical in a helicopter and everyone had to get on an industrial sized scale that looked like it was made for livestock.  Apparently 7 days at sea and a brick of a camera added 12 lbs to my pre-cruise weight!  They didn’t have a display or announce the weight of folks so I had to ask what I scored.  159 lbs!  First time in my life I’ve been past the 150 lb barrier and I basically destroyed the ceiling thanks to the NCL buffet.

 

Turns out they wanted the heavyweights along the centerline of the aircraft.  Guess who the featherweight was by a mile and got a window seat?  It was my first time in a helicopter and the interior of this one was outfitted like a luxury car.  After a brief safety lecture, you were provided with a compressed life jacket and shown how to bucket the 6 point harness.  Everyone got a noise cancelling Bose headset with a mic to communicate with the pilot and everyone else on board.  No whispering sweeting nothings to your significant other on this trip!

 

The entire trip took about 45 mins to an hour.  I’ll need to check on the timestamps on my video later but it was totally worth it to me.  Once the copter took off, it took me about a minute wrap my head around what was happening and then my mind went straight on to enjoying the scenery.  I was in the back row next to the window with an empty seat next to me.  This was great because my elbow swings taking while photos wouldn’t take anyone out.

 

The tour operator is called Calvin Air and I encourage you to look them up and watch the videos they have.  We also got lucky with the weather as it was pouring rain right before we took off.  We had clear skies for our trip and then the clouds rolled back in.  The ran two helicopters for the morning tour.  I didn’t realize that and I was very worried during the van ride over wondering how much we would exceed the rated weight limit with the amount of people.

 

Well, that’s all for today.  Late dinner to and US Virgin Island tomorrow where I will get LTE service back.  I hope to read many more comments from everyone on this thread!

 

Edited by PistolPete13
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sansroof

sansroof

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I am so enjoying your adventures, Pete!  You are a wonderfully funny writer.  I also read (after the fact) your "live" on the Prima from October.  When you have some downtime and aren't using precious ship minutes, I would love to hear your perspective on the pros and cons of each ship.  I am planning a fall Europe cruise and my two top contenders are on the Getaway and the Prima, and I'm having a hard time deciding.  You have a great open-eyed and detail-focused way of cruising and I am curious which ship has felt more appealing to you.

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GSfromCT

GSfromCT

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On 3/5/2023 at 9:01 AM, Mlake09 said:

I’m sorry to say, you are sailing during the spring break season and are very likely to have many young people on your ship. I hope that you’ll go in with a better outlook- it’s your vacation, and cruising is what you make it. If you let yourself react to the behavior of all the spring breakers, and “bad things” happen, you’ll find yourself off the ship with a ruined vacation pretty quick. 
 

I know it’s frustrating to have tons of kids/young people on your cruise. I always sail during winter break and two weeks ago we were on the Getaway, which was sailing well over double occupancy, and instead closer to life boat capacity. There were thousands of kids. Most were fine and behaved as expected, and it was only certain groups who were overtaking the stairs, throwing food, swearing, etc. If you find yourself encountering that behavior, just call guest services. Otherwise, go into your first cruise with a hefty dose of patience and understanding that you’re sailing during spring break. It will save your trip.

I appreciate your feedback and everyone else on the topic.    Does reporting bad or unsafe or unruly behavior require a 1 hour wait at guest services, or would any crew member be able to report a bad situation more efficiently?

I didn't mean to sound like "Mr. Bravado" in my last post.  I just have two special needs college aged kids, who by appearance, look normal.  I sometimes may be too overprotective, but I won't throw away the entire cruise because of it.  I can left a lot roll off my back as long as nobody is getting hurt.

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PistolPete13 "Live from...." Rare

PistolPete13

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Welp my brief access to an LTE signal will stop soon. Still have about 140 minutes remaining from my free at sea internet which should be good for continuing non photo posts. 
 

After 5 straight days of active excursions I’m looking forward to sleeping in and doing nothing in Amber Cove tomorrow. 
 

Thank you all for responding to my long winded posts.  Each reply and “like” is appreciated!

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PistolPete13 "Live from...." Rare

PistolPete13

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3 hours ago, sansroof said:

I am so enjoying your adventures, Pete!  You are a wonderfully funny writer.  I also read (after the fact) your "live" on the Prima from October.  When you have some downtime and aren't using precious ship minutes, I would love to hear your perspective on the pros and cons of each ship.  I am planning a fall Europe cruise and my two top contenders are on the Getaway and the Prima, and I'm having a hard time deciding.  You have a great open-eyed and detail-focused way of cruising and I am curious which ship has felt more appealing to you.


Thank you for the feedback. I’ll definitely post a comparison from my point of view after I get back. 

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amygutman "Live from...." Rare

amygutman

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Thank you so much for the lovely review. 

Your sense of humor comes across like a breath of fresh cruise air! Can't wait to see this ship live in July when we have a "quicky" out of Canaveral. You've provided a great list of things to try on-board. 

Appreciate you taking the time out from your vacation to entertain and inform. 

Warmest, Amy

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bedfordmom Great Review Rare

bedfordmom

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On 3/4/2023 at 4:42 PM, Mlake09 said:

I was also on last week, but one difference is last week Getaway was still doing twice a day cleanings, and this week is the first sailing that has swapped over to once a day cleaning. All of the room stewards are now responsible for more rooms, and service will take place all day up till dinner time.

Yes so that means some people end up with cleaning at supper time. The poor stewards are exhausted and overworked 

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