Getaway NY's Winter 2023-24 mostly 10 Days - ports & food pix, who's who onboard, misc. etc. "Not semi or live report"

[mking8288]

17 hours ago, JIMESOPUS said:

Did someone say an inside pool for those folks in steerage? 

Happy, healthy & safe holidays, travel and cruising to all - woke up to another cloudy morning here in NY, almost no chance of a white Christmas or even New Year here in NYC ahead ... rather seasonally warm.  

 

Carnival Sunshine ship passengers probably never expected to return to Charleston, SC port to see a mini pool ... sadly, with their parked vehicles soaking in homeport saltwater, results from the storm last week.  https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-passengers-find-cars-flooded-after-stormy-cruise/119002 

 

Meanwhile, NCL posted a warning to guests sailing on the Norwegian Escape that their Christmas voyage may be extra crowded ... not a surprise ... https://www.cruisehive.com/norwegian-cruise-line-warns-guests-of-busy-holiday-sailing/118986

 

Getaway made it to Dockyard this morning - again, no semi or live trip report from any one currently onboard her ... yet.   Maybe, no news is good (sometimes) huh - wishing all those onboard a smooth cruise.  

 

 

@dexddd - just had lunch with friends that we first met onboard connected via CC several years ago, MSC seemed to be "the" buzz lately among NY folks that were once exclusively NCL ... wondering what & how things have changed.  Anyway happy holidays, time to look ahead to 2024. 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by mking8288

[Sugar Magnolia]

2 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

Meanwhile, NCL posted a warning to guests sailing on the Norwegian Escape that their Christmas voyage may be extra crowded ... not a surprise ... https://www.cruisehive.com/norwegian-cruise-line-warns-guests-of-busy-holiday-sailing/118986

 

I hate when NCL ruins the surprise.

 

[PistolPete13]

Happy Holidays to all!

I came across a tidbit from the facial site this morning that NCL may have finally locked down the Apple iMessage communications hole on the Getaway (not 100% sure of the ship, too many things happening today!)

I'm 22 days out from my first MSC cruise from NYC to FL and Mexico.  I will definitely start a semi-live and post a link here.  For whatever reason, as an IT guy, I seem to have to most issues with website bookings!

After the MSC checkin process, I had to call to get my boarding pass and luggage tags emailed because the website just wouldn't send without bouncing an error back at me.  Try to book an excursion?  Error.

To add insult to injury, I'm completely locked out of the MSC site right after completing check-in because it thinks I'm trying to login from a browser outside of the USA.  I've cleared all my caches, tried different browsers, laptops, home, office, Starbucks, no go.  Phone support has been no help.

I guess someone really wants me to be one and done with MSC!

The NCL website has given me plenty of grief over the years, but I've never been completely locked out!

I have all my paperwork and the mobile app still works.  We'll see if I can get on board in 22 days...

Edited December 23, 2023 by PistolPete13

[BirdTravels]

We were on the Viva two weeks ago and the iMessage leak was still leaky. 

[Sugar Magnolia]

3 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

I guess someone really wants me to be one and done with MSC!

 

The MSC website locked me out before I could even confirm my booking. I took that as a sign that I am not wanted. Sad.

 

Happy Holidays All!

 

[mking8288]

I can confirm also that 2 other CC'er / friends onboard the Getaway's recent TA were able to text each other onboard on their iPhones without logging into their free minutes (didn't upgrade theirs) - only to ship's inTRAnet.  If that changed, must be within the past few days since the nieces came off last Saturday (a week ago) while the GA was doing her 5 days CTN before coming back to NY, now en route to the Caribbean.  

 

Maybe they are upgrading to Starlink while at sea ??   We didn't have trouble with iMessage last month on the Prima TA to New York either, although we had upgraded to the unlimited plan ... was slower than expected, more reliable & consistent than EMC, not faster as I've hoped for.  Thanks @BirdTravels for the Viva "status"

 

@PistolPete 13 and @Sugar Magnolia - the grass aren't necessary greener on the other side, huh.  Guess we shouldn't laugh at NCL's I.T. competency. 

 

Look what I stumbled upon earlier this week at a local cafe.  Happy, health & safe holidays all, more cruising ahead ... after midnight, early dining opens up for us to book - fingers crossed that NCL's portal isn't off-line for upgrade, woohoo !!!  

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by mking8288

[Sugar Magnolia]

10 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Look what I stumbled upon earlier this week at a local cafe.  Happy, health & safe holidays all, more cruising ahead ... after midnight, early dining opens up for us to book - fingers crossed that NCL's portal isn't off-line for upgrade, woohoo !!!  

 

 

C'mon @mking8288 that looks more like a dan tat than a pastel de nata. 😅

 

Looking forward to your next live.

 

[graphicguy]

11 hours ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

 

The MSC website locked me out before I could even confirm my booking. I took that as a sign that I am not wanted. Sad.

 

Happy Holidays All!

 

OK...what did you do to MSC to PO them?  LOL!

[Sugar Magnolia]

1 minute ago, graphicguy said:

OK...what did you do to MSC to PO them?  LOL!

 

I told them we were CC friends 🤣

 

[graphicguy]

22 minutes ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

 

I told them we were CC friends 🤣

 

That would do it!!!!!  LOL!

[dexddd]

Looks like rationing is in effect.  Or they are headed for S.S. Noah Ark.

[cruiseny4life]

Y'all, of course things are going to get locked down if you share them publicly. There are two positive things that occurred on my cruise aboard Prima. I did not, and will not share them as I do not want NCL to get wind of what happened so they can stop it from happening. Let's just say I was very pleased. Some things should remain secret...or at least obfuscated. 

[dexddd]

13 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Y'all, of course things are going to get locked down if you share them publicly. There are two positive things that occurred on my cruise aboard Prima. I did not, and will not share them as I do not want NCL to get wind of what happened so they can stop it from happening. Let's just say I was very pleased. Some things should remain secret...or at least obfuscated. 

Hmmm, your room didn't creak all the time?

[cruiseny4life]

5 minutes ago, dexddd said:

Hmmm, your room didn't creak all the time?

Hahahahaha oh gosh, thanks for that! 

 

Oh, it did creak! Nowhere near as bad as @UKstages, but it definitely managed to wake me up a few times when we were in not bad seas of 8 - 10 foot waves. 

[zqvol]

21 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Y'all, of course things are going to get locked down if you share them publicly. There are two positive things that occurred on my cruise aboard Prima. I did not, and will not share them as I do not want NCL to get wind of what happened so they can stop it from happening. Let's just say I was very pleased. Some things should remain secret...or at least obfuscated. 

What a joke

[UKstages]

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

Oh, it did creak!    Nowhere near as bad as @UKstages...

 

just to clarify, you're talking about me creaking or my cabin?

 

i'm not that old!

 

through a curious turn of events, i will actually find myself on the getaway in a few weeks out of NYC and i will report on the apple text message "leak" as well as whatever creak i might hear.

[Sugar Magnolia]

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

Y'all, of course things are going to get locked down if you share them publicly. There are two positive things that occurred on my cruise aboard Prima. I did not, and will not share them as I do not want NCL to get wind of what happened so they can stop it from happening. Let's just say I was very pleased. Some things should remain secret...or at least obfuscated. 

 

You were mistaken for celebrities and were served contraband hash browns?

 

[cruiseny4life]

27 minutes ago, UKstages said:

 

just to clarify, you're talking about me creaking or my cabin?

 

i'm not that old!

 

through a curious turn of events, i will actually find myself on the getaway in a few weeks out of NYC and i will report on the apple text message "leak" as well as whatever creak i might hear.

Hehehe, well I was speaking about your cabin! This time haha

 

Oh, I'm definitely jealous you're heading back on Getaway. I looked at the winter Getaway cruises, but just can't swing the vacation time right now. 

 

25 minutes ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

 

You were mistaken for celebrities and were served contraband hash browns?

 

Wait?! Am I not a celebrity? Wow....everything I ever thought is crumbl....err creaking? And no, hash browns it was not. Haha

[mking8288]

On 12/24/2023 at 12:05 PM, dexddd said:

Looks like rationing is in effect.  Or they are headed for S.S. Noah Ark.

Look below ... not with our Mexico dinner last night ... plenty of food for 2, doubtful that NCL's comparable onboard restaurants can do better.  Next week's GA apparently fully booked, sold out and prices for the remaining January sailings had gone back up again - NCL has no problem filling up the one & only *Away ship doing donuts; and, promising a Dockyard stop for Bermuda en route, thru the winter & early Springs, before switching to the Joy (post drydock) once it's done with the Florida seasonal runs.   Unless I see the true and real deals with Wave season about to get underway, don't see us returning to the GA anytime soon.  

 

 

Alas, beans are plentiful from gallon cans whereas those elusive hash browns ... giving up.  Twin nieces said they can "ration" all they want, they did and plan to continue to order doubles & triples in places like Shanghai Noodles with the tiny portions being served.  Keep the dishwashing going ... to sail and sustain.  The big question is "where is the beef" in O'Sheehan's - first world problem, of course ... the open, hot roast beef sandwich w gravy & mash potatoes, is that gone fleetwide ?  Nieces reported that while size of the burger patty appeared smaller ... fine, order a "double" stack - problem fixed.  

 

Looking back, that was a decent hot roast beef sandwich ... 2 years ago onboard the Getaway.  Food opinions & impressions, of course, always subjective ... personal and highly biased, YMMV as always. 

 

2 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

Y'all, of course things are going to get locked down if you share them ... Some things should remain secret...or at least obfuscated. 

Nah, not worry about NCL shutting the loopholes that the average non-CC cruisers on most sailings.  The other big one, I only touched upon it briefly ... once, and not going into the technical details.  

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by mking8288

[UKstages]

7 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Next week's GA apparently fully booked,

 

i'm on the getaway a few weeks later in a club balcony. several good choices of cabins still remain.

 

and how i wound up on the getaway (and not the spirit or the bliss) is a comedy of errors, sorta kinda.

 

i'm thinking of writing up the story and sharing it, but it will be of most interest to CAS customers.

Edited December 28, 2023 by UKstages

[dexddd]

The Mexican looks good.  Luckily we have several good near us, not a major metroplex.  Did get guac, but not get table made guac, on Prima.  DD frequently will make it at home for just cost of avocados, very good with secret ingredients. For our convenience, of course, no tips required or expected but she does get free room and board.  No contract term in effect, able to leave whenever.

[mking8288]

Happy New Year 2024 ... new updates:

  Getaway skipping her scheduled (overnight stay) Dockyard, Bermuda port of call again this week due to adverse weather forecast, especially rough sea state, wind & waves, etc.  Guests were notified of the changes, resulting in a longer stay today (Sunday) at St. Thomas, USVI and then, visiting St. Maarten tomorrow ... before 3 days at sea to return to NY to end her 10 days itinerary.  

https://www.cruisehive.com/adverse-weather-forces-norwegian-cruise-ship-to-drop-overnight-visit/120239

 

Friends are going to be on these winter 10 days Caribbean itinerary next month with the planned stopover at Bermuda ... watching & keeping track of the success (somewhat like the GSC ***** days out of NY) as we are debating of doing a quick & short 7 days Bermuda only - round trip runs in mid/late March, docked at Bermuda for 3 nights ... arriving on Tuesday and departing on Fridays back to NY.   

 

This weekend is another quick 5 days only Bermuda sailing ... watching the marine weather forecast to see how that might play out.  

https://abc7ny.com/winter-storm-flooding-flood-threat-flash/14291061/

 

Getaway is doing 3 of the popular 7 days Bermuda only trips in March, arriving on Tuesday and departing on Friday (that's 3 overnight stay in Dockyard ... free to come & go and truly explore the islands).  Sure, it's not warm & sunny like going south to the Bahamas or Caribbean, but not bad for a winter getaway ... the "Price is Right" now on a last minute booking.  DW is getting restless with the winter blues and thinks our next long cruise is a bit too far away, LOL.  Let me check to see if the current "CruiseNext" DoubleUp deal ?? is valid for using 2 CND (Credits) is valid & applicable - Wave Season supposingly kicking in.  

 

Meanwhile, anyone flying in the near future might wish to check to see if your airline's flight is on a B737 MAX 9 ... not going to get into details, Google or Siri for the details.  The FAA EAD affect 171 aircrafts worldwide ... https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-statement-temporary-grounding-certain-boeing-737-max-9-aircraft

 

*****

GSC - news source reporting this morning that a pier might be forthcoming soon along with other private island enhancement - that's nice - https://www.cruisehive.com/is-norwegian-cruise-line-expanding-and-enhancing-private-island/120228

Go here - 

 

Edited January 7 by mking8288

[Sugar Magnolia]

7 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Meanwhile, anyone flying in the near future might wish to check to see if your airline's flight is on a B737 MAX 9 ...

 

My two upcoming flights on United are both on 737 Max 9...first one scheduled for next Tuesday. Will wait and see.

 

[dexddd]

13 hours ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

 

My two upcoming flights on United are both on 737 Max 9...first one scheduled for next Tuesday. Will wait and see.

 

Hopefully you are not flying to Bermuda.

[Sugar Magnolia]

2 hours ago, dexddd said:

Hopefully you are not flying to Bermuda.

 

No, not flying to Bermuda. Instead, I prefer to play cruise ship to Bermuda roulette. Round and round the island she goes...whether she ports...no one knows.