The Getaway Tie Breaker Cruise Live Trip Report 4/26-5-1 2023

[Sand and Seas]

41 minutes ago, amygutman said:

 

 

Hope my neurotic clock-checking is helpful, Warmest, Amy 

 

Thanks Amy!  Your 'neurotic clock-checking' is exactly what I was looking for😊

 

We will have all of our luggage with us & have US passports, but I want to make sure the time works. I'll get in touch with my shuttle company and see what we can do.

[justhappy]

9 hours ago, laumicmah said:

Thanks for sharing. Very informative. Few questions...

1. Are bar drinks included with Haven or do you still need the drink package (which is currently included with current sale, I think)? 

 

2. Are the specialty restaurants included as well?

 

3. How was your butler the rest of trip, once you met them? Were they around some, not at all, too much? 

 

4. Do they really walk you into shows and have seats for you? So no going in 40 minutes early to get a good seat? How soon before the show must you get walked in? 

 

5. The Haven bar, do they have TVs? My hubs is a big sports watcher. 

 

6. Any ships with better Havens then others. Out of PC I am seeing 2 choices...Jade and Escape and the Escape seems better with an actual Haven restaurant. I need to see what ships are out of Tampa too as that's a do able port for us. EDIT TO ADD...Jade and Jewel out of Tampa. I don't see the Getaway for the dates I selected. Looking at Feb-June of 2024.

 

Safe travels home and thanks again for sharing. Also, we are DVC 17 years now, started with OKW points in 2006. Most of our points are BWV now. We love the Epcot festivals. 

If it were me I’d pick the Escape for the Haven as it has a bigger restaurant and an outdoor dining area. The sundeck area is nicer too. I’ve been on the Escape 5 times, both in and outside the Haven and will be on her in January 2024 hopefully.

 

We own DVC at BWV and Boulder Ridge. Like you we love the Epcot festivals.

We are actually back at Saratoga Springs for the night before driving home in the morning.

[justhappy]

My thoughts on this cruise..

 Staff were routinely hard working, friendly and respectful. Service outside of the Haven was as good as in the Haven.

  I get the feeling that crew are overworked, either due to cutbacks or understaffing due to visa issues as several I have talked to mentioned the US government is woefully slow to issue visas right now.

  After only meeting our Butler on day 2 after we mentioning to the Concierge that we hadn’t yet seen her, we only saw her another two times, once when she delivered a meal to our room and once when we were leaving the ship this morning and she heard us talking to our stateroom attendant in the hall. She popped her head out of a Haven room across the other side of the ship and said goodbye.

 No contact other than that. I assume she was the one who  delivered the daily afternoon snacks.

 I assume the limited contact is from having to deal with 11 other aft Haven cabins. No calls to see if she could be of any assistance as was our experience in the past.
Our friends staying in a Haven Courtyard 

stateroom had a butler who was downright unhelpful in that he never brought requested snacks or other items and was aggressive in pointing out he was not in the tipping pool.

Their stateroom attendant on the other hand was excellent and received most of the tip they had planned to give to the butler.

 The ship is in great condition in all areas I visited. We didn’t have an issue with soot on our aft balcony as I’ve heard some mention. Maybe the new scrubber the installed a few months back help with that.

  All the entertainment we saw was very well done. Although we didn’t see every thing available we enjoyed what we did see and thought the variety was good.

   Food overall was very good this cruise, after some not great meals  on other ships at Cagneys, we though our meal there was excellent.

  Embarkation was very well done and I greatly appreciated that the muster drill involved only checking in your room key at your muster station.

  Debarkation was a little backed up by the time we got off using the Haven escort.  Using a porter is well worth the tip as it gets you in a special line which moves soooo much faster.

 Out of 15 cruises on NCL ships, 5 have been in the Haven. I am not the type to only sail in a Haven. The value has to be there for me to justify the price. This cruise hit that price point and was worth the price paid. 
 Thanks again to all who followed along and  special thanks to Amy who added her perspective.

[laumicmah]

30 minutes ago, justhappy said:

If it were me I’d pick the Escape for the Haven as it has a bigger restaurant and an outdoor dining area. The sundeck area is nicer too. I’ve been on the Escape 5 times, both in and outside the Haven and will be on her in January 2024 hopefully.

 

We own DVC at BWV and Boulder Ridge. Like you we love the Epcot festivals.

We are actually back at Saratoga Springs for the night before driving home in the morning.

 

Thanks! Will likely go with the Escape but may not do Haven and may just get a balcony. 

 

We were at Epcot last night to see the concert (Kool and the Gang). It was really a good show. Hope you got to see or hear some of it tonight.

 

We also own at Copper Creek. We have 205 at BWV and 70 at CCV and 26 at AKV (yes, oddly 26, long story). We sold 200 OKW, 125 HHI and 50 BWV when we got our place in FL. Plan was to buy like 1500 DVC and use them to winter in FL but we decided to just go all in and move here instead. So no need for all those points. The 301 is plenty enough and actually kind of too many for now. But if our 20 something kids get married and then have kids, well we can do family trips. 

 

Thanks for the info. One other question...right now NCL has that sale where drink package, 2 specialty dinners, WiFi and 50 OBC for excursion is included. How often do they have that deal? 

 

 

[justhappy]

3 minutes ago, laumicmah said:

 

Thanks! Will likely go with the Escape but may not do Haven and may just get a balcony. 

 

We were at Epcot last night to see the concert (Kool and the Gang). It was really a good show. Hope you got to see or hear some of it tonight.

 

We also own at Copper Creek. We have 205 at BWV and 70 at CCV and 26 at AKV (yes, oddly 26, long story). We sold 200 OKW, 125 HHI and 50 BWV when we got our place in FL. Plan was to buy like 1500 DVC and use them to winter in FL but we decided to just go all in and move here instead. So no need for all those points. The 301 is plenty enough and actually kind of too many for now. But if our 20 something kids get married and then have kids, well we can do family trips. 

 

Thanks for the info. One other question...right now NCL has that sale where drink package, 2 specialty dinners, WiFi and 50 OBC for excursion is included. How often do they have that deal? 

 

 

If you’re talking about the free at sea package that sale is a standard sale that has been running for as long as I can remember. It’s ‘free’ but you do have to pay gratitudes on the value of the drink package and dining package.

 

[dolita22]

On 4/28/2023 at 2:55 PM, amygutman said:

Night-and-day for ship crowding and rudeness today. 75% of pax are off-ship, and everyone left on-board are smiling, happy and gracious. No wait for the slides and main pool deck chair-hoggers were absent. The only issue was the temporary closing of the kiddie pool-play area due to a "diaper incident". Apparently a kiddo removed his "fully-loaded" diaper into the pool in a "PPI" ("public poop incident"). Parents were mortified - I was on the jogging track and witnessed the "poop explosion". Impressive to say the least. 

 

 

 

(I didn't quote your entire post...sorry!) But that's why the kids' pool area was closed?! We were also on that cruise and came back from time in Cozumel and my 3-year old wanted to go to the "splash pad" so badly, so we went by to make sure it was opened and couldn't figure out why it wasn't. Makes so much sense!!

 

And also, my husband was laughing hysterically reading your description of the incident. 😂

[dolita22]

On 4/30/2023 at 2:14 PM, justhappy said:

   I’m not sure if someone from NCL is reading along on this live review, but so far in the past hour there have been a few crew up here checking the sundeck, 

 then sweeping the sundeck and then checking the sundeck again.

 Either way they are being very responsive to issues that come up.

I hadn’t said anything about the paint flakes to anyone on the ship.

  Sadly all too soon we have to do some packing up before tonight’s dinner at Le Bistro and our plan to the see the comedians in the theater tonight.

 

We noticed the paint chips, too! They were on our balcony, and when we were in the kids' pool area, a pretty good sized piece landed in there. I grabbed it and tossed it so no one would put in their mouth.

 

Thanks for your review! Was fun reading after we got home. We were bummed to not get to GSC; my hubs has not been there yet, but I am 2/3 for visits. Guess we'll have to plan another cruise!

[fastpitchdad]

19 hours ago, justhappy said:

If it were me I’d pick the Escape for the Haven as it has a bigger restaurant and an outdoor dining area. The sundeck area is nicer too. I’ve been on the Escape 5 times, both in and outside the Haven and will be on her in January 2024 hopefully.

 

We own DVC at BWV and Boulder Ridge. Like you we love the Epcot festivals.

We are actually back at Saratoga Springs for the night before driving home in the morning.

 

Doesn't the Getaway have an outdoor dining area? We did the Haven on her but it was a Baltic cruise in October. Are there Haven hot tubs on the sun deck or just the ones below?

[cruiseny4life]

1 hour ago, fastpitchdad said:

 

Doesn't the Getaway have an outdoor dining area? We did the Haven on her but it was a Baltic cruise in October. Are there Haven hot tubs on the sun deck or just the ones below?

No hot tubs on the sundeck. There's two in the Courtyard. The Courtyard may also be used for al fresco dining.

[amygutman]

3 hours ago, dolita22 said:

 

(I didn't quote your entire post...sorry!) But that's why the kids' pool area was closed?! We were also on that cruise and came back from time in Cozumel and my 3-year old wanted to go to the "splash pad" so badly, so we went by to make sure it was opened and couldn't figure out why it wasn't. Makes so much sense!!

 

And also, my husband was laughing hysterically reading your description of the incident. 😂

Yes, well...we are guilty of "sneaking" in a diapered child once into a Disney pool ourselves so I feel that mom's pain. 

And I am glad to make you smile...that's the fun of cruise critic. Once you get past those who seem to have no agenda other than to critique posts (and posters), and get to the really useful information like "PPIs" vs "PVIs" (yes...it does involve Vomiting, usually adults, and always explosive).

G-d bless those housekeeping crew - they do earn those gratuities!

Warmest, Amy