Norwegian Getaway Review
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Additional details
I have never cruised before, and I took the 8-night cruise out of New York to the Bahamas and Florida with an experienced cruiser as my companion because the travel dates on this Norwegian trip worked for our schedules and we could avoid flying to the departure point in Manhattan. I had low expectations, but Norwegian still managed to be a complete disappointment. Embarkation was pretty orderly and our checked luggage did arrive unharmed to our stateroom on the first day of the cruise. This cruise was supposed to offer only three port days - Cape Canaveral (FL), Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas, and Nassau, Bahamas, but the 2nd port day was cancelled as we were getting ready to disembark.
I am a vegetarian and my travel companion is not. Buffet food was decent, but restaurants offered limited vegetarian meal options -- typically a pasta dish, and service was mostly poor. At one restaurant, our server disappeared after taking our order and didn't return for more than 30 minutes. My companion paid for the soda package and was repeatedly charged for his sodas at every restaurant we ate at. He then had to wait in line for an hour on several occasions with Guest Services and Onboard Credit in order to get the charges removed only to have the same experience the next day. There was evening entertainment - most productions offered two showings, but other than the 24-hour pub, there were limited late-night, post-show meal options because the buffet and most free restaurants closed by 9PM or 9:30 PM. Early dinner seatings were usually subject to a 30-minute wait as early bird seniors filled up the tables. I don't suffer from sea-sickness, but the ship rocked heavily for most of the trip even in good weather and in the Caribbean. You often swayed like a drunk even though you had not imbibed at all.
The ship had multiple venues, but opted to hold almost all games and interactive activities in the noisy and crowded two-level Atrium surrounded by bars with poor acoustics and oversized, uncomfortable, and insufficient seating. Since there were limited activities and one pool for more than 3500 people, guests tended to camp out in the Atrium all day even if they weren't participating in the activities, preventing other guests from getting a seat to hear and participate in the games, dance lessons, and trivia. Dance lessons were offered in that same crowded Atrium despite there being a limited area for dancing, no elevated platform to be able to see the instructor at all, and it being overwhelming hot and stuffy in there all of the time.
Cabin Review
Inside Stateroom
I shared an inside stateroom on Deck 5 with one other person. It consisted of two twin beds pushed together, a bathroom with sink, toilet, and shower, a small 'table' with mirror over the mini-fridge and a small storage cube which could potentially serve as a single seat if absolutely needed. There was no couch or additional seating for eating in the room and no hanging-out space apart from the bed. There was a small wall-mounted TV with limited channels, a built-in closet with hangers, a wall safe for small valuables storage, a few built-in wall shelves too small and with oddly-shaped wall access openings making them barely useful, and two 'bedside stands' with a single shelf in each for additional storage. There was nowhere to fully unload clothes, forcing us to live out of our suitcases the entire trip and to stow the suitcase under the bed to avoiding tripping over them on the way to the bathroom or the room door. The bed with the seam down the middle at the join point of the side-by-side twin mattresses was less than comfortable, as were the pillows. Norwegian no longer offers turn-down service.