Norwegian Getaway Review

Pros and Cons and Etc of the Getway- MidShip Mini-Suite Perspective.

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Getaway
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Laker2Sea
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Feb 2015
Cabin: Mid-Ship Mini-Suite with Balcony

We really had an excellent time on this cruise. That said, we are still divided regarding whether or not we sail on NCL again. (I bet we do- the Escape is pretty darn enticing). This was our 7th cruise, the most recent being one year ago on the Celebrity Reflection (very similar ports/sea day ratio) in an aqua-class mini-suite. Our children are in college, and we were sailing to celebrate Valentine's Day a week after the fact. We spent the night before sailing at the Intercontinental. We like this place and will continue to go there when we cruise out of Miami (fun bar, cool location, excellent gift shop, helpful front desk).

We thought seriously about re-booking on the Reflection again, but picked NCL to expand our horizons. I read reviews here extensively and believe that our trip was a success sheerly due to Cruise Critic posters- so THANK YOU to everyone who shares here. The Getaway has a lot going on, and we meet several people who had very different (and frankly negative experiences) because they didn't know how to get out of the crowd and tailor their cruise to their likes/dislikes. So here is what we really liked....

* THE VIBE BEACH CLUB (a must for us...and they have limited passes for the week. We knew from this forum to go straight to guest services once on the ship. It was $79.00 each- and best thing- for us. There were almost always two bar-tenders there and never more than 25 people in it at one time. The main pools, and their bars, are so packed. We would have been miserable there. The Vibe was wonderful. Loved it. We had a hot tub to ourselves for a couple of sail aways. It made our trip.

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Mini-Suite with Balcony

Cabin MB

This review is long because we rated the room a 3 (and thought about a 2), and I wanted to explain why. You should just skip the following and probably make sure you avoid any cabins above ANY entertainment floors. 9800 cabin is in very close proximity to the Grammy Experience on the deck below. Therefore, it is loud and can hear/feel music from about 5:00 pm to midnight daily. I was not discriminating enough when the travel agent presented us with the room selection. I will not make this mistake again. The carpet was more worn and the beds more bowed than one might expect after only a year in service. There are higher categories of mini-suites in better locations on the ship. I stuck my head in a several to confirm. Also, we are big spa-goers; once on board I learned from several other passengers that they had gotten upgrades which included spa cards (approx $198 per person each) by watching their cruise fares via an app. We tried something like this, but when we called NCL, they said since we booked through a travel agent, we needed to have the travel agent do any fare adjustments. Ours didn't have the info on the spa upgrade or any others that we later learned people on the ship had managed. Also, you simply cannot use your own hair-dryer. I did; it blew a fuse that took out all power on that wall (ie to the TV also). Our cabin steward immediately knew what I had done and got maintenance to flip the fuse fairly quickly, so it is not that big of deal. It would be helpful if NCL was more clear about NOT doing that- and no matter how much you love your own hair dryer, it isn't going to be of use on this trip. In other news, the room itself is powered by having a key card in the slot near the bathroom. I presume they mean for you to use your cabin card. We used the room key from the hotel we were in the night before instead of our cabin room key so that we could keep it in the slot all the time and just pull up and push down when in and out of the room. Just note, when it is not engaged, no power is engaged (meaning you can't charge anything). Our cabin steward did a good job, and the double-vanity in the bathroom was nice. The balcony is small- but there were multiple warnings about that- so we expected it. There are chairs and small table sturdy enough to support a morning breakfast tray. We compared this cabin to an aqua-class mini-suite on the Celebrity Reflection- which we would have rated a 5.

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