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

[mking8288]

8 hours ago, bellevuemountain said:

@mking8288, thanks for the info (even if it was for @PistolPete13, useful for myself).  Have you ever tried the New England cruise / mid September? From QC? I’m curious about the sailing conditions.  I would like to try out a B2B sailing that does not involve a plane trip.  Would you recommend a bigger ship (Joy) or a smaller ship (Pearl)?

Without taking up too much of Pete's "space" - yes, we've done a # of NE cruises over the last 30 years, except for sailing to/from QC/Canada - it's on our bucket list, maybe 2024 - Pearl is a mid-size ship and easy to get around onboard as long as the extra bells & whistles aren't important, and IMHO, balcony and even OV aren't a "must" unlike Alaska, Hawaii or the Caribbeans.  If you have the time, budget & never done it - take a good look at the current prices & deal, book it if you like or wait until final payment - risks being, it might sell out (probably not, there will be Insides GTY available)   We did NE/C last September on the Joy and it's different, the Observation Lounge on Deck 15 Fwd was great, and never really crowded - far more spacious than our balcony for sure, and light snacks/refreshment & mini sandwiches available, etc.  If you haven't check it out before, follow signature link below to find the Joy's Semi-Live reviews from 2022. 

 

Coming the Fall, cruiselines got multiple ships lined up to make their milky runs to Canada/NE out of the Northeast, with a few doing B2B from Quebec.  Baltimore is the new NCL addition, with the port and ship.  Last season, a month before sailing - Insides, Oceanviews were on fire sale and Balconies, mostly GTY only (no option to choose a specific cabin) were available - one can gamble and take chances by waiting ... we're set to switch to Plan B and just drive again to see foliage, as we did that in 2020 and 2021 before the Fall Covid-19 surge.  

 

@PistolPete13 - you nailed those shots perfectly sailing under the VZB coming home as well as the golden sunrise.  

[bellevuemountain]

10 hours ago, mking8288 said:

 

 

@PistolPete13 - you nailed those shots perfectly sailing under the VZB coming home as well as the golden sunrise.  

Every picture was amazing, thanks again @PistolPete13.  The sunsets / sunrises / flowers were some of my favourites, felt like time stopped and being part of the moment.  Thanks a million, looking forward to all of your reviews!

[PistolPete13]

1 hour ago, bellevuemountain said:

Every picture was amazing, thanks again @PistolPete13.  The sunsets / sunrises / flowers were some of my favourites, felt like time stopped and being part of the moment.  Thanks a million, looking forward to all of your reviews!

Thank you for the kind words!

 

The Bardados orchid garden had some really unique flowers that I'd never seen before so I just kept snapping away.  The ship excursion only gave us 45 minutes here unfortunately but you can easily spend double the time looking at everything.  It's not to the scale of a Longwood Gardens in PA or the NY Botanical Gardens but all of the unique plants made up for it.

Apparently it's not called the "orchid garden" anymore due to ash from a nearby volcano a few years ago causing a lot of damage.  Funny I never think of the eastern Caribbean as an active geological area but I guess it is!

[Laszlo]

Great photos Pete!!!

[GeriatricNurse]

On 2/22/2023 at 7:29 PM, PistolPete13 said:

If here is anyone else one this cruise, please feel free to jump in this thread and post your experiences!

Now I've spent the last few weeks reading about all the changes people have seen with NCL since the beginning of 2023.  I'm going into this with an open mind and will do my best to convey what is different now compared to my recent Prima cruise and my last long 14-day trip on the Bliss just before Covid hit.

I was on the dreadful cruise!  It was an oversold, crowded, noisy mess from start to finish!

The 'ATRIUM' was an absolute disaster; the onboard ?shopping was non existent; etc., etc.!

I will NEVER book a cruise with NCL again!

[cruiseny4life]

1 hour ago, GeriatricNurse said:

I was on the dreadful cruise!  It was an oversold, crowded, noisy mess from start to finish!

The 'ATRIUM' was an absolute disaster; the onboard ?shopping was non existent; etc., etc.!

I will NEVER book a cruise with NCL again!

I kind of felt this coming...but, I'm sorry you had a poor experience. I hope you find a cruise line that's better able to suit your desires for future travel!

[PistolPete13]

14 hours ago, GeriatricNurse said:

I was on the dreadful cruise!  It was an oversold, crowded, noisy mess from start to finish!

The 'ATRIUM' was an absolute disaster; the onboard ?shopping was non existent; etc., etc.!

I will NEVER book a cruise with NCL again!

I'm sorry your experience was so harsh.  When sailing from NYC in the winter I'm always cognizant that the first and last two days of the cruise would probably be too cold for any outdoor activities and everyone would be packed inside.

One hack that I discovered if you're looking for some sea views but peace and quiet during the day were the specialty restaurants.  Some don't office lunch service so they're empty.  I was parked with my iPad in a comfy window seat in Ocean Blue for example.  I made sure to:

1. Wave hello to any worker I may enounter in there and ask for permission to sit.  A few times I never even saw anyone in there so I just sat.

 

2. If they had the table set up for dinner service, I made sure NOT to move anything or disturb the setup.

Yes, it's not the Observation Lounge, but it did provide a nice calm space with ocean views without the chaos of the Atrium or other public areas.

Edited March 17, 2023 by PistolPete13

[Rubybadu]

This was my review on another website for info

 

Last day on the 12 day cruise currently on the getaway and thought I’d share my review 

 

Ports - Loved everyone one 

 

Route - it’s only good if you love 4/5 sea days. Personally I’d never do a route out of nyc again. The last 3 days in a middle of a storm have not been fun. 

 

Food - amazing. Didn’t have a bad meal all trip and they still offer you everything you want. The rumours they have cut down on what you can have with your meal is wrong. 

 

Bars - great and the bar staff can’t do enough for you

 

Room cleaning - the biggest thing I’ve seen in terms of cost cutting. Last getaway cruise it was cleaned twice a day. Now the cleaners are struggling to do it once a day. Got our room missed 3 times. 

 

Internet - utterly terrible. To pay $400 for something that can even load up a basic page is disgraceful

 

Guest services staff - utterly useless. Got charged for things I didnt use 3 times, they took $290 out of my credit card without permission and took 3 days to get it back. Went down one morning to book dinner reservations to be told that every restaurant was fully booked for the last 4 days, went back to my room and just booked it on the screen. They are utterly useless.

 

Room - nothing wrong with them. Tv is really outdated with its offering now compared to other. 

 

Overal ship - it can’t cope with the numbers. It’s not overbooked in the sense the ship is full(this cruise is only 80% full) but it can’t cope. Everything is overcrowded for the staff all of the time. You can’t get a sun longer unless you hog them at 7am, you can’t get a seat in most of the stuff unless you’re willing to come 30+ minutes early. Dinner places are full most nights. It just cannot cope with 3800 people. 

 

Costs - these are getting ridiculous. Example, Last year on this ship the shave and facial for a man was $69, it’s $149 now. I’ve never known an all inclusive cruise that you still end up spending $5-700 on board. 

 

People - obvious going out of nyc it’s going to be predominantly American but this cruise has a good mix of some really nice people with some of the rudest, entitled people I’ve met in my life. Treating the staff like dirt. Wanting to be first to anything. The amount of time I’ve bit my tounge over the last week…. 

 

Shows- million dollar quartet is great. Saw the magician and he was good enough. Biggest disappointment was howl at the moon, compared to last year they are very poor. Spent nearly every night in there on my last cruise, left after 20 minutes on this one. 

 

Overall the cruise has been good, the ports and food have been amazing but I won’t be using ncl for a long time and I won’t ever be cruising out of nyc again. 

 

If your going on the getaway coming up and want my opinion. Find out asap how many are on your cruise and if it’s over 75% find a new cruise.

[PistolPete13]

5 minutes ago, Rubybadu said:

This was my review on another website for info

 

 

 

Route - it’s only good if you love 4/5 sea days. Personally I’d never do a route out of nyc again. The last 3 days in a middle of a storm have not been fun. 

 

Room cleaning - the biggest thing I’ve seen in terms of cost cutting. Last getaway cruise it was cleaned twice a day. Now the cleaners are struggling to do it once a day. Got our room missed 3 times. 

 

Internet - utterly terrible. To pay $400 for something that can even load up a basic page is disgraceful

 

Guest services staff - utterly useless. Got charged for things I didnt use 3 times, they took $290 out of my credit card without permission and took 3 days to get it back. Went down one morning to book dinner reservations to be told that every restaurant was fully booked for the last 4 days, went back to my room and just booked it on the screen. They are utterly useless.

 

 

Thanks for adding your perspective.

Yeah, the last 3 sea days were a bit rough (see my pool video) and I was pleasantly surprised I didn't feel any of the effects fortunately.

Seems like the room service really is up to the person working your stateroom.  My guy was great but I could tell he was overworked.  The only way this can be improved is from corporate and we have to let them know via post-cruise surveys.

Agree about the Internet.  The pricing is way too much for what you get unfortunately.  I'm old enough to remember times before constant Internet access so I could still cope, barely.  Hopefully the StarLink rollout will improve this and not be an excuse for another price bump!

I was checking my account multiple times a day thanks to my excursion credits / changes and potential for phantom charges.  You're not the first to report phantom charges and I wonder what is going on behind the scenes that makes this so common.

[bluesea777]

15 hours ago, GeriatricNurse said:

I was on the dreadful cruise!  It was an oversold, crowded, noisy mess from start to finish!

The 'ATRIUM' was an absolute disaster; the onboard ?shopping was non existent; etc., etc.!

I will NEVER book a cruise with NCL again!

 

A bit harsh, and with larger and bold font it's shouting. 

 

There are 5 ships that do not have forward observation lounge: Getaway, Breakaway, Star, Dawn, Escape ... you can avoid these and try others. I think you'll enjoy the Spirit - it's small but has a lot of things including places to sit and relax.

 

Also, try to cruise off season: avoid holidays (like Christmas/New Year, Thanksgiving), times that the schools are out (summer) , "college weeks", etc.

 

 

[Rubybadu]

29 minutes ago, PistolPete13 said:

 

Thanks for adding your perspective.

Yeah, the last 3 sea days were a bit rough (see my pool video) and I was pleasantly surprised I didn't feel any of the effects fortunately.

Seems like the room service really is up to the person working your stateroom.  My guy was great but I could tell he was overworked.  The only way this can be improved is from corporate and we have to let them know via post-cruise surveys.

Agree about the Internet.  The pricing is way too much for what you get unfortunately.  I'm old enough to remember times before constant Internet access so I could still cope, barely.  Hopefully the StarLink rollout will improve this and not be an excuse for another price bump!

I was checking my account multiple times a day thanks to my excursion credits / changes and potential for phantom charges.  You're not the first to report phantom charges and I wonder what is going on behind the scenes that makes this so common.

our steward said he had 28 rooms and could only work 8-6 with most people in our area staying in their rooms till mid morning. Recipe for disaster 

[PistolPete13]

Just now, Rubybadu said:

our steward said he had 28 rooms and could only work 8-6 with most people in our area staying in their rooms till mid morning. Recipe for disaster 

That's one thing I didn't consider, people camping out in their rooms!  I was always out and about after breakfast.  Yeah, how do you plan around things like that with you need to do X amount of rooms per day...

[Laszlo]

45 minutes ago, PistolPete13 said:

That's one thing I didn't consider, people camping out in their rooms!  I was always out and about after breakfast.  Yeah, how do you plan around things like that with you need to do X amount of rooms per day...

Room stewards are very good about working around passengers schedule, but it gets to a point where they just have too many to deal with. Our room steward ask us about what time we would like our cabin cleaned and towels changed in the morning. We said we are gone by 9am so anytime after that. Everyday at 9:05 she was there. In the cabin next to us I swear the people never left, I've never seen anything like it. The woman had just had knee replacement done 12 days before the cruise. Something I still can't wrap my head around. The few times we saw her out she was in a wheel chair or using a walker. Our room steward had 8 Haven cabins and 12 regular cabins to do each day. In a few weeks after our cruise when the once a day was going to start for standard cabins she was still going to have 8 Haven cabins and 18 regular cabins.... she was not happy about the change

Edited March 17, 2023 by Laszlo

[Jordan61]

1 hour ago, PistolPete13 said:

Agree about the Internet.  The pricing is way too much for what you get unfortunately.  I'm old enough to remember times before constant Internet access so I could still cope, barely.  Hopefully the StarLink rollout will improve this and not be an excuse for another price bump!

 

I am hoping to do a couple of Zoom meetings on my upcoming cruise in May. A couple of one hour training sessions. Is that doable or should I just let the higher-ups at work know it won't happen?

[Laszlo]

6 minutes ago, Jordan61 said:

 

I am hoping to do a couple of Zoom meetings on my upcoming cruise in May. A couple of one hour training sessions. Is that doable or should I just let the higher-ups at work know it won't happen?

It's a crap shoot. Some people have great success others not so good. You need to pick and choose your times

[PistolPete13]

1 minute ago, Jordan61 said:

 

I am hoping to do a couple of Zoom meetings on my upcoming cruise in May. A couple of one hour training sessions. Is that doable or should I just let the higher-ups at work know it won't happen?

Zoom voice should be OK but don't count on video.  Also depends on the time of day.  A sea day with everyone trapped with nothing to do will also drag the bandwidth down.  Port day with everyone off the ship?  Different story. 

So lots of variables unfortunately...

 

A training session?  Yeah, that would be painful and I wouldn't even try if I was in your shoes.  You'll just end up frustrated.

[Jordan61]

2 minutes ago, PistolPete13 said:

Zoom voice should be OK but don't count on video.  Also depends on the time of day.  A sea day with everyone trapped with nothing to do will also drag the bandwidth down.  Port day with everyone off the ship?  Different story. 

So lots of variables unfortunately...

 

A training session?  Yeah, that would be painful and I wouldn't even try if I was in your shoes.  You'll just end up frustrated.

 

It would be one of each. A sea day, then a port that we were planning on staying on the ship for. I'm just going to plan on doing them when I get back. 😁

[Rubybadu]

22 minutes ago, Jordan61 said:

 

I am hoping to do a couple of Zoom meetings on my upcoming cruise in May. A couple of one hour training sessions. Is that doable or should I just let the higher-ups at work know it won't happen?

I had a very important zoom meeting to take and I couldn’t get it to connect anywhere other than the main areas so ended up doing it on the seats next to the whiskey bar with sone noise cancelling headphones in. 
 

[PistolPete13]

I just realized I neglected to add my 2-cents to a very controversial topic, the O'Sheehans chicken wings!

I had missed out on them during my short Prima cruise last fall due to all the options in the Indulge Food hall so that last time I had these were in January of 2020 during my Bliss 14-day Western Caribbean.  I liked them a lot back then.
 

So the new ones?  Yikes, not sure what happened.  I got the BBQ versions and they came out covered with sauce.  Being an avowed NON-finger food person, I stuck a fork in one to reposition the wing for the grab and.... it fell apart on me.  Did I order chicken nuggets by mistake?

Not sure how else to explain it, but the wings were soft and flakey enough to be teased apart with just the use of a fork and occasional knife.  While my phobia about not touching greasy food (but nothing wrong with eating a ton of it) was satisfied, the consistency of the chicken left something to be desired.

 

It provided a perfect balance to all the tough as leather meats in the buffet that I broke my molars on for most the of cruise at least.  It was one step above puree wings in my opinion.  Maybe I got a bad batch, who knows.

So that's my one and only experience with the new wings at O'Sheehans.  Sorry to dump on them.  And on St. Patrick's Day no less!

[DaisyGoldberg]

We were actually pleasantly surprised by the wings on Getaway in January. Had heard they were now baked, not fried, etc. But it was late, everything else was closed, and we were starving, so we went to O'Sheehans and figured it was worth a try.  Not as good as the glory days, but better than the last time I had them years ago when I vowed never again. 

 

Maybe because it was not a dinner rush we got them hot out of the oven, made to order.

[vince_g]

20 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

I just realized I neglected to add my 2-cents to a very controversial topic, the O'Sheehans chicken wings!

I had missed out on them during my short Prima cruise last fall due to all the options in the Indulge Food hall so that last time I had these were in January of 2020 during my Bliss 14-day Western Caribbean.  I liked them a lot back then.
 

So the new ones?  Yikes, not sure what happened.  I got the BBQ versions and they came out covered with sauce.  Being an avowed NON-finger food person, I stuck a fork in one to reposition the wing for the grab and.... it fell apart on me.  Did I order chicken nuggets by mistake?

Not sure how else to explain it, but the wings were soft and flakey enough to be teased apart with just the use of a fork and occasional knife.  While my phobia about not touching greasy food (but nothing wrong with eating a ton of it) was satisfied, the consistency of the chicken left something to be desired.

 

It provided a perfect balance to all the tough as leather meats in the buffet that I broke my molars on for most the of cruise at least.  It was one step above puree wings in my opinion.  Maybe I got a bad batch, who knows.

So that's my one and only experience with the new wings at O'Sheehans.  Sorry to dump on them.  And on St. Patrick's Day no less!

Hi Pete, was on the same cruise, and I found the same thing with the wings. It was like they were cooked in a crockpot.  Totally drenched in sauce.

 

Never saw our cabin steward until about day 3. He never introduced himself when we finally did see him, and at that point, we didn't even care what his name was. He was like a ghost steward... LOL.

I had made a reservation for Ocean Blue on day 1, planning on using a one of the vouchers to treat friends of ours to dinner, but there were no latitudes coupons waiting in the cabin. First time this ever happened to us.

 

Four of us attempted to get lunch at the dining rooms on embarkation day and were told at Taste that they already had handed out about 45 pagers, and that they were unable to accommodate us. Said that the situation at Savor was the same. Then of course there was nothing else to do but brave the buffet. Of course, there were zero tables up there. Started getting bad vibes about this cruise on day one.

 

Had a great dinner at LaCucina on San Juan evening. Used the latitudes dinner with the free bottle of wine that night. Even after four of us drained the bottle of wine, our waitress continued topping off our glasses, since she had a bottle of that opened anyway. Only item I felt was lacking was the fried calamar appetizer. I recall there were maybe about 8 rings of calamari, and felt that seemed kind of cheap. Not really an issue as we all left the table completely stuffed. The meat lasagna was very good... it was all meat and no cheese. First time I ever saw that, but it was absolutely delicious. The Filet (Fileto di Manzo) was delicious and cooked perfectly.

 

Another night four of us went to Cagney's and I had the Porterhouse. It had a great char on it, and was perfect medium rare. No complaints with Cagney's either. We all left happy, and it's still fresh in my memory how delicious the dinner was.

 

Loved our cabin (10896) an angled balcony, that offered more space that the standard balconies, and provided a nice wind break. Some angled balconies can actually result in more wind, depending on which way the angle runs.

 

As for missing Amber Cove, I did post on the roll call that I had noticed that Amber Cover already had 2 ships that day, and that we probably wouldn't be stopping there. So although it really was no surprise to me, I found the 3 sea days very long, without enough to do. Good thing for the beverage package!

 

Our experience on this cruise was negative enough that we canceled our November 4th 15 day Caribbean on Getaway. Too bad because the itinerary is SO good. My husband had only experienced the Breakaway class of ships in the Haven, so we were sheltered from the reality of how crowded and chaotic things were. We of course ventured outside the Haven, but usually returned there in short order to escape the crowds. I had been on Breakaway in non haven cabins a few times, and tried to prepare hubby for what it would be like. Eventually we gravitated to the Gem, and enjoyed that much more. We probably should have booked the Gem cruise that left the day after ours.

 

The stench of smoke in the casino was so bad, my eyes and lungs were burning. Could not spend any time there in the evening when it was really crowded. Even when the casino was closed, there was always that lingering stench of stale smoke. It made us appreciate the casino on Prima, where a non-smoker could actually sit and enjoy the casino. 

 

Never saw so much security at port in St. John's Antigua. I recall the taxi drivers were always VERY aggressive there and the increased number of security people seemed to have slowed that down. 

 

The day after returning home (Saturday) everything started off most normal at home, but by that evening I had developed a 101.5 fever. Took a Binax Covid test, which ended up being positive. The interpretation instructions said to look carefully for the bottom line, since it could appear very faint. I didn't have to look carefully, the bottom line was there plain as day. My doctor prescribed the oral medication Paxlovid, which I almost stopped taking after the first day. Every one of the 10 doses gave me a taste in my mouth like I was chewing grapefruit peels, and it's non-stop! Thank the lord for hard candies and gum.

 

Sorry to say, but the Getaway made us feel like staying away. I am totally at peace with our decision to cancel the November cruise. Possibly because catching Covid has made me fearful of cruising. We enjoyed many parts of the cruise, of course, but found enough issues with Getaway, where we just don't want to go back on her.

 

 

[PistolPete13]

615PM EST on 3/18 and I’ve run into my old friend the Getaway leaving NY Harbor. 
 

However it’s come to a dead stop right before the VZ bridge for some reason. 
 

Hope there’s nothing seriously wrong. 

[Elsammo46]

2 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

615PM EST on 3/18 and I’ve run into my old friend the Getaway leaving NY Harbor. 
 

However it’s come to a dead stop right before the VZ bridge for some reason. 
 

Hope there’s nothing seriously wrong. 

Checked their roll call to see if anyone had information, but no one has said anything or seems to know. Hope everything is okay as well!

[Rubybadu]

I will say because it’s been mentioned, I haven’t felt well since getting off the ship.

 

Felt dizzy and off for the first couple of days which turned into headaches and sinus problems and now I’m sat here with what’s probably covid .

 

 

[DaisyGoldberg]

5 hours ago, Rubybadu said:

I will say because it’s been mentioned, I haven’t felt well since getting off the ship.

 

Felt dizzy and off for the first couple of days which turned into headaches and sinus problems and now I’m sat here with what’s probably covid .

 

 

Get tested ASAP, because you need Paxlovid within 5 days of symptom onset. Yes, you may get the metallic taste and it's annoying, but it does make you feel better quickly.